North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said a higher percentage of mail-in ballots is being rejected this year over technicalities — a trend he called “infuriating” while sharing a statistic that wasn’t supported by state data.
“The State Board of Elections’ last-minute changes to voting by mail are leading to thousands more absentee ballots being rejected this election — at a rejection rate twice as high as in 2022,” Stein said in an Oct. 20 social media post.
Data released by the state elections board the next day showed that Stein’s post was wrong to say “thousands more ballots (are) being rejected this election,” but it was right in that North Carolina’s mail-in ballots are being rejected at a higher rate.
The number of overall mail-in ballots has dropped in the state when compared to the 2022 midterm elections. More people voted by mail in the 2022 midterms likely due to lingering concerns about the Covid-19, Jason Tyson, a spokesperson for the state elections board, told PolitiFact. President Donald Trump has also taken steps to discourage mail-in voting.
Through Oct. 20, about 43,500 North Carolina mail-in ballots had been cast, down 38% from the same stage in the 2022 election, according to state data. As a result, the total number of rejected ballots is down about 26%.
Through Oct. 20, officials had rejected 1,349 of mail-in ballots — or 3.1% of those cast through that date, Tyson said. At the same stage in the 2022 election, election officials had rejected 1,829 mail-in ballots, or 2.6% of those cast, Tyson said. North Carolina’s final 2022 absentee ballot rejection rate was 2.2%, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
The mail-in ballot rejection rate can fluctuate during the early voting period as more voters cast ballots and as voters take steps to fix ballots that elections officials flag as having problems. County elections officials are instructed to contact voters who cast a problematic mail-in ballot to give the voter enough time to correct the ballot or vote in-person instead.
What changed?
Stein is among many Democrats who have expressed frustration with new rules for accepting and rejecting mail-in ballots. The rules will make it more likely that ballots will be thrown out over technicalities that previously were ignored, and were introduced and approved by the state’s Republican-controlled state elections board.
A federal judge recently shot down a lawsuit that attempted to stop those changes from going into effect, saying that since voting had already begun it was too late to change the rules. The state elections board, however, didn’t approve the new rules until the same day voting began.
State law allows registered North Carolina voters to cast their ballots by mail for any reason, but they must follow strict instructions for filling out the ballot and mailing it back. The state elections board refers to this practice as voting “absentee-by-mail,” though North Carolinians often describe it as “absentee” or “mail-in” voting.
The state elections board adopted rules in September that allow election officials to more easily disqualify voters over simple mistakes, such as signing their name in the wrong place or forgetting to seal the envelope for their ballot or the container for photocopy of their ID. Opponents have said the new rules would disenfranchise voters in a state where statewide elections are often decided by close margins. Democrats tend to vote by mail at higher rates than Republicans in North Carolina, state data shows.
“It’s infuriating,” Stein wrote in his Oct. 20 post. “North Carolinians, please make a plan to vote this year, in person if possible. And if you’re voting by mail, make sure you seal both envelopes on your ballot. Don’t let them take away your vote.”
Stein is currently suing over a law that took control over the elections board from him. The governor has controlled elections for over a century, but after Stein was elected governor in 2024 Republican state legislators passed a new law transferring control of elections to Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek instead. Stein has repeatedly accused Boliek of politicizing elections administration in the leadup to the 2026 midterms, which Boliek denies.
Where did the ‘double’ estimate come from?
When asked where Stein got his data about rejected ballots and the rejection rate, Stein’s office pointed PolitiFact to an article by Democracy Docket, a group created by longtime Democratic elections lawyer Marc Elias.
The article cited an analysis by Common Cause North Carolina and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice that documented a rise in rejected midterm mail-in ballots. The groups’ analysis was drawn from only a sample of data. It analyzed data from 27 of North Carolina’s 100 counties. Democracy Docket initially reported that North Carolina’s 3% total rejection rate was double the rate “the state saw” in its 2022 election, according to an archived version of the story.
The article has since been updated to say North Carolina’s 3% total rejection rate was double the rejection rate “the entire nation” saw in 2022. The national average in 2022 was 1.5%, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Democracy Docket declined to respond to a request for comment.
Common Cause North Carolina and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice found that mail-in ballot rejection rates were 7% to 8% in Mecklenburg and Forsyth counties. And there are nearly 1,000 ballots that haven’t been rejected but could be spoiled if not fixed by the voter, said Sailor Jones, Common Cause’s state director.
The state elections board expects the statewide mail-in ballot rejection rate to ultimately be slightly higher than the final 2.2% average from 2022, said Tyson, the state elections board spokesman.
Our ruling
Stein said that, in North Carolina, “thousands more absentee ballots (are) being rejected this election — at a rejection rate twice as high as in 2022.”
State data showed that, at the time of Stein’s claim, fewer total mail-in ballots had been rejected in North Carolina compared with the same period in 2022. That’s because fewer people are voting by mail.
The data showed that mail-in ballots were being rejected at a higher rate than in 2022 — but they hadn’t doubled. At the time of Stein’s post, the rejection rate was half a percent higher than in 2022.
Stein’s statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. That’s our definition of Mostly False.
Police body camera and security footage released on 21 October shows the police shooting of Kohen Wiley on 14 June in Senatobia, Mississippi. The released video comes after the Mississippi attorney general announced that the shooting 'was justified'. After the release of the video, the police officer who shot into the vehicle and killed Kohen Wiley resigned from the Senatobia police department.
Kaylub Giamanco recounts the day he confronted the Silver Rail elementary school shooter, who killed three boys and one teacher
The Oregon father hailed as a hero for stopping a school shooting last week spoke for the first time about the incident, describing his experience and how he told a 911 operator: “I have to go in. People are going to die.”
Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter, has received national attention and praise for stopping the bloodshed at Silver Rail elementary in Bend, Oregon, where his children attend school.
Vivek Ramaswamy campaign ad features Democrat Amy Acton’s estranged mother accusing her of lying about her childhood, but a copy of a 1978 arrest warrant suggests Acton told the truth
With less than two weeks until the midterms, my colleague Jonathan Freedland and Guardian US columnist Moira Donegan are answering your questions in this week’s episode of Politics Weekly America.
They break down the final stretch ahead of these hugely consequential elections, that will decide control of Congress in Donald Trump’s final two years of office.
BBC series deliberately uses ‘more organic’ shots to assure viewers animals are not AI-generated, producers say
The David Attenborough-narrated series Blue Planet III deliberately includes cloudier, less polished footage to counter AI fakery and assure viewers it is “authentic”, its producers have said.
Nearly a decade after Blue Planet II shone a light on plastic pollution, and 25 years since the first Blue Planet aired, the hit BBC series is returning with more animal behaviour and cutting-edge technology, including the world’s first underwater CCTV camera – dubbed “stonefish” cam.
Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed a machine-washable electronic fabric that can turn clothing into an interactive graphical user interface. The prototype reportedly survived 50 gentle machine washes and 1,000 bending cycles, though it still relies on external batteries and controllers. The Register reports: The development could lead - at some point - to a "future in which clothing functions as a pervasive, multimodal human-computer interface," according to the study published in peer-reviewed science journal Nature this week. The paper shows someone interacting with computing devices using the sleeve of a wool sweater (no jokes about the Windows ugly sweater please, this is serious). The researchers, led by Singapore National University research engineer Fu Heng, claim this is a big leap forward.
"This fiber-centric approach shifts wearable electronics from flexible panels toward truly textile-native architectures, laying the groundwork for fabrics that visualize, sense, communicate and compute as naturally as the garments they inhabit," the paper says. The researchers claim to have developed a scalable process to make millimeter-thick fibers. Using lasers to strip the insulation from specific spots on the thin copper wires, they attached light-emitting chips to the exposed sections, creating electrical connections to the chips. Thousands of chips were connected to the wires with extreme precision using this process.
The fibers were then fed into a transparent plastic tube, and made pressure-sensitive by adding two strips of a compressible, conductive polymer into a second longitudinal channel in the tube. The paper says they could make fibers 10 meters long using this method, and that they are thin and flexible enough to be woven into or attached to fabrics. The researchers were also able to add "peripherals" such as a microphone, a speaker, a temperature sensor and a light sensor.
With just 11 days until the US midterm elections, Democrats need a net gain of four seats to reclaim Congress
With just 11 days until the US midterm elections, early voting data is rolling in nationwide. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to reclaim the majority in each chamber of Congress. Here is where the numbers stand as of Friday:
Campaigners call lack of progress ‘staggering’ as online regulator issues review of first nine months of new regime
Landmark online safety measures have failed to limit the proportion of children suffering harm from social media, the UK’s online regulator has admitted, in an assessment branded “staggering” by campaigners.
The proportion of children being fed unsafe content that often left them frightened, confused and upset, was almost unchanged, according to an Ofcom review of the first nine months of supposedly strict requirements on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders have unionized, in a watershed labor victory that comes after years of fighting for fair pay.
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Association (DCCA) was voluntarily recognized by the Cowboys as the collective bargaining representative for the cheerleading squad, according to a Friday news release. The recognition came after “meaningful discussion” between the Cowboys organization and the DCCA, and the parties are set to begin collective bargaining.
Dozens of schools in Cornwall also affected as Storm Boelo heads for Scotland, Northern Ireland and north of England
Thousands of homes are without power and schools were closed as the first named storm of the year hit UK shores.
Storm Austen brought severe conditions to parts of the south-west, with a gust of 76mph recorded at St Mary’s airport on the Isles of Scilly on Friday morning. By 3pm, more than 31,000 homes in the south-west were without power, according to National Grid.
Mercedes youngster could become youngest title winner
Max Verstappen says bumpy track makes drivers ‘suffer’
The Formula One world championship is within reach for Kimi Antonelli at the US Grand Prix in Austin this weekend. But while the young Italian approaches the race intending simply to have fun, there is disquiet among other drivers about the potential long-term health dangers posed by the state of the Texas circuit.
The 20-year-old Antonelli will become Formula One’s youngest world champion if he claims the title at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, eclipsing Sebastian Vettel’s record from 2010, when the German driver was 23 and Antonelli was four. It is an outside chance, as the Italian has acknowledged. He must win while needing his rivals to endure a poor day. His Mercedes teammate George Russell would have to finish outside the top eight and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton outside the top four.
Rodney Hinton ran over Larry Henderson after he viewed body-cam footage of police shooting dead his son Ryan
An Ohio man who killed a deputy with his car just hours after seeing video of his son killed by Cincinnati police was found guilty of murder and other charges on Friday, according to authorities.
Rodney L Hinton, 40, faces between 15 years and life in prison after his convictions in the death of Hamilton county special deputy Larry Henderson. His sentencing is tentatively scheduled for 16 November.
Republican senator faces critical re-election battle in state where president’s trade war has outraged voters
Donald Trump dropped some of the US’s tariffs on Canada on Friday to “better serve the public interest” the White House said, handing a win to Susan Collins, the embattled Republican senator for Maine, as she faces a tight re-election campaign that will help determine whether Democrats can flip control of Congress.
Collins announced that the exemptions would apply to nine agricultural products, including blueberries, potatoes, apples and seaweed. She added that many of the state’s farmers rely on specialized equipment and materials from across the border that are “unavailable from American suppliers or cannot be replaced without incurring significant expense”.
Frustrated by intrusive ads, sluggish interfaces, and data tracking, smart TV owners are using AI coding tools and open-source projects to strip unwanted software from their televisions and build customized home screens. The Verge reports: Several vibe-coded TV-debloating projects exploded in popularity over the weekend. Cleanyourtv (known as tv-vibehack until the 19th), tv-detox, and dumbtv all claim to accomplish similar things -- remove sponsored ads, debloat the TV so it runs faster, and block unwanted data collection that tracks what you're watching -- without hacking, or rooting, the TV. By default, they all also replace the TV's built-in app launcher with simpler ones. Many users are going a step further and vibe-coding their own replacement launchers, like the Pokemon one below.
Most of the projects we've seen so far focus on TVs that run on Android and Google TV operating systems (such as TCL, Hisense, Sony, and older Amazon Fire products), using existing developer modes and the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) to tweak settings and apply (and remove) packages. According to the GitHub pages, they can also work with some Fire TV products that use a custom fork of Android (although likely not on the new Vega-based Fire TV Sticks). Because they use built-in developer tools, they don't require root access or firmware hacking, and they're reversible. Even projects that totally change the look of the interface just use Android's ability to install custom launchers -- in many cases with an assist from Claude Code or a similar tool to create the new launcher, too.
President Trump on Friday slashed tariffs on a handful of Canadian products that are used widely by Maine's agricultural industry, a move cheered by GOP Sen. Susan Collins, who is facing a tough reelection battle.
Laura Owens, who also received seven years’ probation, fabricated medical records to prolong relationships
A woman who admitted to faking pregnancies and fabricating medical records while aiming to prolong relationships with men – including a star of the reality show The Bachelor – has been sentenced to 30 days in jail in Arizona as well as seven years’ probation.
Laura Owens, 36, received her punishment on Friday in Maricopa county superior court nearly two months after pleading guilty to felony counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices, perjury and identity theft in a case that has been the subject of multiple true-crime podcasts.
Gunman opens fire from car in Trappes and Verrière, killing one and injuring five others, including a 12-year-old girl
Emmanuel Macron has condemned racism in French society after a gunman opened fire from a car west of Paris on Friday, killing one person, wounding a 12-year-old girl and injuring four others in what the president called a “racist terrorist attack”.
Macron arrived at the scene of the drive-by shooting in Trappes on Friday night, saying he was deeply saddened by what he called the “premeditated” attack. The 12-year-old girl, who was shot eight times, is being treated in hospital.
A Southern California realtor accused of being a Chinese foreign agent pleaded not guilty to the allegations in a Los Angeles federal courtroom Friday.
(The Center Square) - Despite the Los Angeles Unified School District's claims of improved campus safety and less violence, critics say a deeper look paints a different picture.
Federal agents encountered a large aircraft that zoomed across the sky from a standstill while making no noise or giving off any exhaust, according to new files.
Greece has passed a law banning children under 15 from social media platforms beginning January 1, 2027. The legislation requires platforms to implement reliable age verification and parents to use government-backed apps to restrict access, with penalties for noncompliance under the EU's Digital Services Act. Engadget reports: "It would have been very easy to do absolutely nothing today and wait for the perfect European law. But the challenge is here. Children are sinking into the internet every day, and I believe a responsible government must do what it is obliged to do," said Greece's digital governance and AI minister, Dimitris Papastergiou.
The legislation was opposed by Greece's minority parties, so Mitsotakis used his majority government to pass the bill. The nation previously barred mobile phones in schools in 2024, and opinion polls show that the new social media ban for children is widely supported by Greece's adult population. Mitsotakis previously said that his government's "goal is to push the European Union in this direction as well."
An ad from the campaign of Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska features a mother whose 22-year-old son died from fentanyl and who claims Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola took contributions from “liberals [who] opened our borders to the drug cartels” and then “voted with them against securing our border.”
But the ad leaves out several important points of context.
After saying that her son died from fentanyl, the mother, Sandy Snodgrass, says that “lower 48 liberals opened our borders to the drug cartels.” While the ad suggests a link between illegal immigration and her son’s death, experts — including government officials — say the vast majority of fentanyl coming into the U.S. is smuggled through legal ports of entry, mostly by American citizens.
As for Peltola voting with Democrats “against securing our border,” Peltola voted against a Republican bill in 2023 called the Secure the Border Act, which sought a return to many of the hardline border policies enacted by President Donald Trump during his first term. But the following year, Peltola was among a handful of Democrats who joined Republicans in support of a nearly identical bill. Setting aside the impact of either party’s border policies, Peltola often bucked her party when voting on immigration bills.
Peltola, a former U.S. House member, is attempting to unseat Sullivan, the Republican incumbent. The Cook Political Report lists the race as one of seven toss-ups that will decide control of the Senate.
The ad features a direct-to-camera message from Snodgrass, whose son, Bruce, died from fentanyl in 2021. Since her son’s death, Snodgrass has become a dogged advocate for legislative policies aimed at fentanyl prevention and raising awareness of the dangers of fentanyl.
Sullivan was a co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill Snodgrass fought for called “Bruce’s Law” — named in honor of her son — which seeks to enhance fentanyl education and prevention strategies, including an interagency work group to improve the federal response to the fentanyl epidemic. Peltola, who came to the House the year after Bruce Snodgrass’ death, was a co-sponsor of that same legislation in the House. The law was folded into a bill that ultimately passed into law in 2025.
“My only child Bruce was killed by fentanyl,” Snodgrass says in the Sullivan campaign ad. “Lower 48 liberals opened our borders to the drug cartels. Now the same people want Mary Peltola to be our senator. Peltola’s taken their money and voted with them against securing our border. That is disgraceful and dangerous. Mary Peltola is liberal and weak. We cannot leave our children’s safety in her hands.”
As we said, the ad is missing important context.
When we asked the Sullivan campaign for backup for the ad, a spokesperson pointed us to Peltola’s 2023 vote against the Secure the Border Act, a Republican bill that aimed to implement many of the same border policies from Trump’s first term, such as restarting construction of border wall, increasing the number of Border Patrol agents, enhancing technology at the border to slow illegal immigration and ending the so-called “catch-and-release” policy whereby some immigrants caught in the U.S. without proper documentation were released back into the U.S. while they awaited an immigration court hearing (often to determine whether they qualified for asylum).
To be clear, while the bill sought to crack down on illegal immigration, opposition was not a vote for “open borders,” as text in the ad states.
The Secure the Border Act passed the House almost entirely along party lines (of those who voted, all but two Republicans voted for it; every Democrat, including Peltola, voted against it). But victory in the Republican-majority House was largely symbolic, as the bill never came up in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
However, through the remainder of her term in the House, Peltola proved to be anything but a reliable Democratic vote on border security and immigration issues.
Indeed, the following year, on April 20, 2024, when Republican leadership again attempted a similar bill to the Secure the Border Act, Peltola was among five Democrats — and every Republican present — who voted in favor of it. The End the Border Catastrophe Act was proposed through a fast-track procedure that required a two-thirds majority to pass. It failed, 215-199.
“No one can deny we face an ongoing crisis at our Southern border,” Peltola said in a press release at the time. “Currently, fentanyl flows across it and all the way up to Alaska, where it continues to tear families and communities apart. We must take real action to address our ongoing border crisis – that’s why I voted to pass this measure and stop cartels in their tracks.”
That same day, Peltola voted along with majorities of both parties in support of the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act, which, among other things, declared the international trafficking of fentanyl a national emergency and took measures to prevent its transport into the U.S.
Peltola also broke ranks with a majority of Democrats on border/immigration issues when she:
Voted on Jan. 17, 2024, along with 13 other House Democrats and every Republican, in favor of a nonbinding resolution denouncing the Biden administration’s border enforcement efforts, and “urg[ing] President Biden to end his administration’s open-borders policies.”
Voted on March 7, 2024, in favor of the Laken Riley Act — which required the federal detention of immigrants in the country illegally who are accused of theft, burglary, larceny or shoplifting.
Voted on May 15, 2024, with 53 other Democrats in support of a bill that would mandate the Department of Homeland Security to take custody of and deport any immigrant in the country illegally charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer or other first responder.
Voted on May 15, 2024, along with just 14 other Democrats in favor of a nonbinding resolution condemning the Biden administration’s border policies.
Voted on Sept. 20, 2024, in support of the No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act, which sought to cut off some federal funds for so-called sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
“Time and time again, Mary was one of few members in her party to call out Joe Biden for his failures at the southern border,” a spokesperson for the Peltola campaign told us.
As we have written, illegal immigration surged to historic highs during Biden’s presidency. In June 2024, Biden announced a series of emergency policies designed to curb “substantial levels of migration” due to “global conditions.” Illegal immigration dropped dramatically for the remainder of Biden’s presidency.
At the time of Biden’s announced crackdown on illegal immigration, Peltola and three other Democrats in the House released a statement calling Biden’s orders “an overdue step,” and urging the president to do more.
“We’ve long demanded President Biden change course and empower the Border Patrol, and he’s finally acting and listening to the law enforcement agents in the field, like we’ve been telling him to do,” the statement reads.
The four Democrats implored Biden to return to the Trump policy of requiring immigrants to wait in another country while their immigration cases are pending in the U.S. And they called on Congress to pass legislation to reinstate the use of Title 42, a public health law invoked by Trump during the pandemic that allowed border officials to immediately return many of those caught trying to enter the country illegally, even those who sought asylum.
Fentanyl Smuggling
The ad ties Bruce Snodgrass’ death to the issue of migrants smuggling fentanyl across the border — it says “liberals … opened our borders to the drug cartels.” But experts say the vast majority of fentanyl coming into the U.S. is smuggled through legal ports of entry, mostly by American citizens.
In testimony presented to the Senate on Nov. 17, 2021, Diane Sabatino, deputy executive assistant commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations, said, “Most illicit fentanyl is synthesized in Mexico and like other illicit drugs, including cocaine and methamphetamine, large volumes are encountered and seized at our southwest border ports of entry. It is brought in by privately owned vehicles, concealed within commercial vehicles, and even on pedestrian travelers. Although much less frequently now, we also encounter fentanyl and other synthetic opioids in international mail and express consignment shipments.”
“Our investigations do tell us that the vast majority of fentanyl is coming in the ports of entry,” Anne Milgram, then administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said in Senate testimony on Feb. 15, 2023. (At the 1:25:35 mark.)
According to a Government Accountability Office report on Sept. 4, 2025, “[M]ost of the fentanyl, chemicals, and equipment used to make it are coming in from Mexico or China. About 80% of fentanyl was seized in the southwest border region. Most of the illicit drug is coming across U.S. borders in passenger vehicles. The chemicals used to make fentanyl are largely being transported via commercial vehicles like cargo trucks, ships, and planes. And nearly half of the equipment used to make fentanyl pills is being sent by mail. “
According to an analysis by the American Immigration Council, “There is little evidence to suggest migrants are bringing fentanyl across the border on foot—or that migration is linked to fentanyl at all. While some have speculated that high levels of irregular migration provide an opportunity for drug smuggling (on the logic that border agents are distracted), the data provides no support for this theory. Migration has risen and fallen with no correlation between drug seizures.”
Citing data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the report states that “the majority of fentanyl smuggled across the southern border enters not on the backs of migrants crossing the border on foot, but in the vehicles and on the bodies of U.S. citizens and other lawful entrants seeking admission at land ports of entry.”
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Justin Craig charged with official misconduct and fraud, after searching plates of wife and ‘previous acquaintance’
An Indiana police officer has been arrested on allegations that he misused Flock cameras hundreds of times in a case involving his wife and a previous acquaintance of hers.
Justin Craig of Georgetown police department, was charged with official misconduct and two counts of fraud. Documents show that he searched his wife’s license plate more than 80 times and that of a “previous acquaintance” of hers nearly 250 times, the news outlet WLKY reported.
American, 21, wins world all-around title in Rotterdam
Blakely ruptured achilles before 2024 Olympic trials
First US champion since Simone Biles three years ago
Skye Blakely completed a sensational comeback from a ruptured achilles tendon to win the women’s all-around title at the world gymnastics championships in Rotterdam on Friday, claiming the biggest individual prize in the sport outside the Olympics.
The 21-year-old American scored 55.733 points across four apparatus to finish ahead of Russia’s Liudmila Roshchina (55.199), with China’s Ke Qinqin taking bronze (55.032).
The Mississippi attorney general's office had determined that the use of force was justified in the deadly shooting that stemmed from an alleged shoplifting incident.
The Trump administration is suing to prevent the Alaska Senate election from being certified if GOP Sen. Daniel Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola because of the other Dan Sullivan who is on the ballot.
36-year-old Kaylub Giamanco shared his story with Oregon Public Broadcasting a week after the school shooting that killed three children and a teacher.
SpaceX is reportedly seeking access to at least 80,000 cellular tower sites across the U.S. as it prepares to launch Starlink Mobile as a fourth nationwide wireless carrier. "We will be building out our terrestrial networks so there's broad-based connectivity anywhere that SpaceX and Starlink are allowed to operate," Musk said during SpaceX's earnings call this week. Satellite launches plus spectrum acquisition "will pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile carrier in the US," he said. Bloomberg reports: One of the companies they're in talks with is Crown Castle, which, along with American Tower and Vertical Bridge Holdings, are among the largest owners of cellular towers. When asked on a Wednesday earnings conference call whether Crown Castle is discussing leases with SpaceX, Amazon.com or other satellite-based telecom providers, Chief Executive Officer Chris Hillabrant said, "You can assume that we're talking to all parties." He declined to discuss specific customer details.
Mobile networks rely on antennas placed on towers across the country to transmit wireless signals. Carriers such as AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. typically lease room for their equipment at the tower sites because it's more cost effective than owning and maintaining them, in part because the facilities can be shared. The value of the deals with SpaceX could reach into the billions.
Steelers, Saints still on for NFL’s Paris debut on Sunday
Violent protests prompt US security warning for fans
PSG cancel Sunday match amid escalating Paris unrest
The NFL would have cancelled its first regular-season game in Paris, scheduled for Sunday, if the situation were unsafe, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said on Friday, referring to the recent protests in the French capital.
France experienced some of its worst urban unrest in years last weekend, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to tighten restrictions on protests on Thursday amid fears that demonstrations planned for Saturday could turn violent.
Democrats have made Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson’s wealth a major focus of the competitive Iowa U.S. Senate race, zooming in on her finances during her time in Congress.
A recent ad from WinSenate, a super PAC affiliated with the Democratic Senate Majority PAC, said Hinson has enriched herself since 2021 as she represents Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. The ad includes other claims about Hinson’s votes on the Iran war and Iowa farm bankruptcies, but we’re focusing on the claim about her wealth while in Congress.
“After just five years in Washington, she’s $8 million richer,” the ad’s narrator said. “Ashley Hinson got rich. Iowa got left behind.”
The onscreen text says Hinson is “up to” eight times richer, but the narrator doesn’t say it that way.
Democratic candidate Josh Turek, an Iowa House representative, has made related claims, saying Hinson increased her wealth by up to 15 times since she entered office. One of his campaign ads repeats the claim that Hinson is up to $8 million richer.
Hinson and Turek are in the final stretch of a competitive election for the Senate seat held by outgoing Republican Sen. Joni Ernst. Ad spending in the race has surpassed $200 million, The Associated Press reported Oct. 22.
A super PAC can raise and spend unlimited amounts. The Senate Majority PAC, the super PAC that operates WinSenate, pointed PolitiFact to Hinson’s personal financial disclosures when we asked for evidence supporting its ad.
The attack is based on a skewed comparison of the data.
How much has Hinson’s wealth increased?
Every member of Congress is required to file a disclosure listing most of their assets, debts and payments over a certain dollar amount. Members must also report certain assets held by their spouses. The disclosures don’t include the lawmakers’ primary residence or vacation homes that don’t generate income. The assets are reported as estimated ranges, rather than exact values.
“The value of many investments tends to fluctuate, so disclosing an asset’s value in a range helps capture a particular snapshot in time,” said Michael Beckel, research director for Issue One, an advocacy group on campaign-finance issues. “At the same time, broad ranges can often leave people wanting more information.”
Here’s what we know about Hinson’s finances based on the most recent disclosures and her filings when she entered office in 2021 that covered the previous year:
2025: Assets, $2.3 million to $8.8 million, zero debt.
2020: Assets, $726,000 to $2.4 million, $65,000 to $150,000 debt.
To calculate that Hinson is $8 million richer now than in 2020, WinSenate said it subtracted the highest 2020 debt figure ($150,000) from that year’s lowest asset number ($726,000).
Then, it subtracted that amount ($576,000) from the $8.8 million maximum assets in 2025, to get about $8.2 million.
But that math is misleading, experts say.
“It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison to compare the low-end estimate from one year to the high-end estimate from another year,” Beckel said.
Comparing averages between 2020 and 2025 shows a wealth increase of about $4 million, or half the figure the WinSenate ad is citing.
Hinson’s wealth increase was driven largely by one asset: Her husband’s stake in Highstreet Insurance Partners, a private-equity backed firm that buys local insurance agencies. Matt Arenholz, Hinson’s spouse, sold his local insurance agency to Highstreet in 2021, receiving a stake in the parent company after the sale. Hinson’s 2025 disclosure valued that asset between $1 million and $5 million.
Arenholz’ stake in the local agency was valued between $250,000 and $500,000, according to Hinson’s 2020 disclosure. Hinson’s spokesperson Billy Fuerst said Arenholz was compensated through private stock options for that sale. That’s the $1 million to $5 million stake in Highstreet Insurance in the 2025 disclosure.
“It has no connection whatsoever to Ashley’s service in Congress, and the sale was in process before Ashley was elected to Congress,” Fuerst said.
The difference in the estimated value of Arenholz’ local insurance agency and his new stake in Highstreet is not surprising, said Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota corporate law professor.
“I don’t find that unusual at all, that you’re running a business and a big company wants to come in and buy you, and pays you twice what you may have thought it was worth,” he said.
David Schultz, a professor at Hamline University who studies election law, said the ad misleads by using wide ranges and attributing the gain personally to her and not her husband.
“Clearly the ad seems to imply she did something wrong or is using her official position for self gain,” he said.
Our ruling
A WinSenate ad said Hinson is “$8 million richer” after five years in Congress.
The ad is based on financial disclosures, but it cherry-picked figures to present the largest possible gain. It also ignores critical facts about the source of the gains — Hinson’s husband’s stake in a company — to give a misleading impression.
Residents in Oleshky have been enduring a worsening humanitarian crisis due to the lack of food, electricity and other resources
The French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu has just issued a statement on a shooting in a town west of Paris this morning where one person was killed and four others injured.
Police said a gunman had opened fire in Trappes, in the Yvelines, and neighbouring La Verriere. The gunman was later arrested in nearby Coignieres.
Trump justice department claims there could be ‘confusion’ about two Republicans on the ballot named Dan Sullivan
Donald Trump said he ordered the justice department to file a lawsuit to block the certification of Alaska’s US Senate results if the Republican incumbent loses, a move that voting rights experts called an“unprecedented intervention” by the federal government with control of Congress in the balance.
“I’m the one that said do it,” Trump told reporters as he landed in Florida for a campaign rally on Friday.
Beyond Halloween, Delaware’s Oct. 23-25 weekend features live music, comic books, fall festivals, history, cycling, charity races and family adventures across all three counties.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Halloween may dominate the calendar, but Delaware residents looking for something different this weekend have plenty of options.
From the streets of Rehoboth Beach to historic New Castle, the Delaware State Fairgrounds and the farms of Kent County, communities are celebrating the final full weekend of October with festivals, performances, outdoor activities and family entertainment.
Runners and walkers also have several opportunities to support local causes, including breast cancer awareness, education and community organizations.
Here are Delaware LIVE’s top picks for Oct. 23-25.
Sea Witch brings three days of fun to Rehoboth Beach
One of Delaware’s biggest fall traditions returns this weekend as the 36th annual Sea Witch Festival fills downtown Rehoboth Beach with parades, live entertainment, shopping and family activities.
Running Friday through Sunday, the festival draws visitors from across the Mid-Atlantic for a combination of Halloween celebrations and traditional beach-town festivities.
The centerpiece is Saturday’s costume parade, beginning at 11 a.m. along Rehoboth Avenue. Elaborate costumes, decorated floats, community organizations and families are expected to fill the downtown streets.
Beyond the costumes, visitors can enjoy artisan vendors, live entertainment, seasonal shopping and local restaurants.
The festival also includes Sunday’s Sea Witch 5K Classic and one-mile Fright Walk, giving visitors an opportunity to participate in the celebration.
Blue Hen Comic Con brings pop culture to Harrington
Comic books, anime, gaming, cosplay and pop culture take center stage Saturday and Sunday as Blue Hen Comic Con returns to the Delaware State Fairgrounds in Harrington.
The two-day convention brings together comic creators, artists, vendors, celebrity guests and fans for a celebration of entertainment and creativity.
Activities include cosplay competitions, Artist Alley, interactive gaming, panels and workshops.
Families with teenagers, comic enthusiasts and anyone interested in movies, superheroes or gaming will find an alternative to the traditional fall festival.
Admission: $15 Saturday, $13 Sunday or $21 for the weekend.
William Penn Day celebrates Delaware’s beginnings
History takes center stage Saturday in Old New Castle as the New Castle Court House Museum commemorates the arrival of William Penn in 1682.
William Penn Day offers a glimpse into Delaware’s colonial history through educational presentations, historical interpretation and live music.
The day begins with a presentation by the Iron Hill Science Center about the Indigenous people and natural environment encountered by early European settlers.
At 2 p.m., musicians from the Suzuki Academy of the Delaware Music School will perform Baroque music reflecting the colonial era.
Visitors also can explore the museum and historic streets of Old New Castle.
Music lovers can spend Saturday afternoon in Lewes as internationally acclaimed pianist Awadagin Pratt opens the Coastal Concerts 2026-27 season.
Pratt has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center and with major orchestras across the United States.
His program, “America 250,” features works by American composers Florence Price, George Walker, Nathaniel Dett and Julius Eastman.
The concert offers a cultural alternative to the weekend’s crowded festivals and an opportunity to experience internationally recognized musical talent in coastal Delaware.
When: Saturday, 2 p.m.
Where: Bethel Fellowship Hall, 129 W. Fourth St., Lewes
Families looking for a traditional fall outing can visit Fifer Orchards near Wyoming, where Fall Fest continues Saturday.
The farm offers pumpkin and apple picking, a five-acre corn maze, outdoor attractions and seasonal favorites such as apple cider, cider doughnuts, kettle corn and ice cream.
This year’s attractions include an interactive Minion Maze and expanded children’s play area.
Fall Fest runs from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with visitors asked to leave by 5 p.m. Admission is $18 online or $24 at the gate for ages 3 and older.
Cyclists will take to the roads of western Sussex County Saturday for the second annual Broad Creek Bash in Laurel.
Organized by the Western Sussex Chamber of Commerce, the event offers 25-, 50- and 65-mile routes through scenic countryside, historic communities, and waterways.
Riders will pass through a region known for its rural landscapes, historic sites and outdoor recreation opportunities.
An after-party at Janosik Park will feature live music and food trucks, giving friends and supporters a chance to join the celebration even if they are not cycling.
Online ride registration has closed, but visitors can still check with organizers about the community festivities.
When: Saturday, with cycling beginning at 7:30 a.m.
Runners and walkers take to Delaware streets for weekend 5Ks
Delaware runners and walkers have several opportunities to get active this weekend, with races supporting breast cancer awareness, education and other community causes.
On Saturday, Wilmington Friends School hosts the 30th annual Smith McMillan 5K, beginning at 8:30 a.m. The event benefits a financial aid endowment honoring two former students. A free children’s dash begins at 8:10 a.m.
Other Saturday events include the Boo & Brew 5K and Eternal Rest 5K Run/Walk in Wilmington and the Boo-K It! 5K in Odessa.
Sunday brings two notable races.
The 10th annual Deer Park Goes Pink 5K begins at 9 a.m. at Deer Park Tavern, 108 W. Main St. in Newark. The event supports the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition and includes a one-mile fun walk and post-race celebration. Organizers say all race proceeds benefit the coalition.
At the beaches, the Sea Witch 5K Classic begins at 9 a.m. Sunday at Grove Park in Rehoboth Beach. The event also includes a one-mile Fright Walk, providing another way to participate in the festival.
Whether running for a personal best, walking with family or supporting a cause, the weekend’s races offer an opportunity to combine fitness and community involvement.
When: Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 24-25
Where: Wilmington, Odessa, Newark and Rehoboth Beach
Learn more:RunSignup or individual race organizers’ websites.
Seaford celebrates the harvest season
Downtown Seaford will host its Fall Harvest Festival Saturday, offering an afternoon of food, shopping, vendors and community activities.
Organized by the Downtown Seaford Association, the festival brings residents and visitors to High Street to enjoy the autumn season while supporting local merchants and small businesses.
The family-friendly event is a good choice for people interested in a traditional small-town celebration rather than a Halloween attraction.
Explore the stars at Delaware Museum of Nature and Science
Families can travel through the universe without leaving Wilmington this weekend.
The Delaware Museum of Nature and Science will offer Star Lab programs Saturday and Sunday, allowing visitors to explore the night sky inside an inflatable, 360-degree planetarium.
This weekend’s presentations focus on myths, constellations and star lore from cultures around the world.
Programs are scheduled at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. An additional ticket is required beyond regular museum admission.
For adults seeking something more adventurous, the museum also hosts Museum of the Macabre Saturday evening from 6 to 9 p.m., combining science and natural history with a Halloween atmosphere.
When: Saturday and Sunday for Star Lab; Saturday, 6-9 p.m., for Museum of the Macabre
Where: Delaware Museum of Nature and Science, Wilmington
Not every weekend adventure requires tickets or a scheduled event.
Delaware’s state parks, nature preserves and public trails offer opportunities to enjoy the cooler weather and changing fall colors.
Brandywine Creek State Park in northern Delaware offers wooded trails and views along the creek. In Kent County, Killens Pond State Park provides lakeside walks and wooded paths.
Farther south, Trap Pond State Park near Laurel offers trails around one of Delaware’s best-known natural areas, with its distinctive bald cypress trees.
Visitors also can explore the Wilmington Riverfront, where walking paths follow the Christina River and connect to restaurants, parks and other attractions.
Delaware LIVE’s best bets for the weekend
Whether looking for a full-day festival, live music, a community race or a quiet afternoon, Delaware has something happening in every corner of the state.
Best for pop culture fans: Blue Hen Comic Con, Harrington
Best for history lovers: William Penn Day, New Castle
Best for music: Awadagin Pratt, Lewes
Best for families: Fifer Orchards Fall Fest, Wyoming
Best for community involvement: Deer Park Goes Pink 5K, Newark
Best for science lovers: Star Lab, Wilmington
Best for outdoor adventure: Broad Creek Bash, Laurel
Best small-town festival: Seaford Fall Harvest Festival
With Halloween celebrations sharing the calendar with concerts, community races, harvest festivals, history and outdoor recreation, this weekend offers a reminder that Delaware’s fall season has something for just about everyone.
TO GO: Delaware weekend roundup
When: Friday through Sunday, Oct. 23-25, 2026
Where: Locations throughout New Castle, Kent and Sussex counties
Highlights: Sea Witch Festival, Blue Hen Comic Con, William Penn Day, Coastal Concerts, Fifer Orchards Fall Fest, Broad Creek Bash, community 5Ks, Seaford Fall Harvest Festival and Delaware Museum of Nature and Science programs.
Admission: Varies by event. Some activities are free; others require tickets or advance registration.
Planning tip: Sea Witch visitors should expect traffic congestion and parking restrictions in downtown Rehoboth Beach. The Saturday costume parade begins at 11 a.m.
More information: Visit individual event websites for schedules, tickets, parking information and last-minute changes.
(The Center Square) – Rural and Hispanic voters are split on the direction of the state and country, according to a new poll conducted by the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston.
Donald Trump told rally-goers on Thursday evening that he had 'the right to run again' for president, invoking a claim he has repeatedly made that he may seek a third term despite it being unconstitutional
Any player will be eligible for High Impact Player status
Requirements had included top 100, marketability lists
Sides also resolve grievance on Rodman contract refusal
The NWSL and the NWSL Players Association have reached a settlement to drop the restrictive criteria around the controversial High Impact Player (HIP) rule, allowing any player to earn the league’s highest salaries.
The NWSL introduced the rule late last year, allowing teams to spend an additional $1m above the salary cap to sign star players. Players with the designation had to meet one of eight criteria, ranging from US national team minutes and Ballon d’Or recognition to NWSL Best XI honors to media lists, including the Guardian’s Top 100 and a ranking that ordered athletes by marketability.
This week's guests include Attorney General Todd Blanche, GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, Democratic Rep. Jason Crow and Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa.
(The Center Square) – A growing coalition of Jewish leaders are calling on Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to reaffirm Jewish rights and safety.
The New York Knicks reportedly sent employees a fake offer of complimentary NBA championship rings as part of an internal phishing test, requiring anyone who clicked the link to attend mandatory cybersecurity training. "Congratulations, your Employee Championship Ring is here," the email said. According to The New York Times, Madison Square Garden employees who clicked that link "were forced to attend a mandatory cybersecurity class to help satisfy some of [owner James] Dolan's growing cybersecurity concerns." Ars Technica reports: The offer wasn't implausible, either. "Typically, most employees for NBA teams receive rings, even if they are not as fancy and expensive as the ones the players receive," wrote Joe Vardon, senior NBA writer for The Athletic, which was bought by The New York Times in 2022 and then merged into the parent news organization. Vardon's article was primarily about how Knicks assistant coaches did not get rings on Tuesday when the team raised its first league championship banner since 1973. The assistant coaches were handed boxes without rings inside, though they are expected to receive rings later on.
"Ring orders, designs, and measurements can take time, and not every coaching staff for every defending champion gets its rings on ring night... The Knicks assistants were told they would receive championship rings eventually, but many longtime employees at Madison Square Garden, including some who work in the Knicks' business operations, will not receive rings at all, team sources told The Athletic," Vardon wrote. MSG employee hopes were raised "at the end of September when the Knicks sent an email to a long list of employees, which gave recipients a first glimpse at their would-be championship rings," Vardon wrote. The email included "a graphic of two differently styled rings" that the lucky employees could supposedly choose from, the article said.
"(Employee name), this one is on the house. MSG is issuing a complimentary employee championship ring. The same jeweler, the same craftsmanship, personalized with your name. No cost to you," the email said. "There are two designs to choose from: Championship Gold and Garden Classic. Reserve the one you want below." Vardon wrote that "multiple team sources" confirmed the email was a phishing test. It's not clear how many employees clicked the link or whether any of the employees who received the email will eventually get some type of championship ring. We contacted the Madison Square Garden Sports organization with these questions and will update this article if we get a response.
(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump has signed a bill into law to expand wireless emergency alerts and enhance emergency preparedness for disasters.
In late August, Democrat James Talarico said that he had told “every … wealthy person” that “if you are OK with getting taxed more, if you’re OK with me limiting your influence in politics, you are welcome to join this movement that we are building.” But an ad from his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, skips the part about wealthy people and influencing politics to brand Talarico as a proponent of raising all kinds of taxes.
Polling shows Talarico, a former Texas state representative, and Paxton, the state’s attorney general, locked in a tight battle for the open Texas Senate seat.
The Paxton ad, which has primarily aired on broadcast television over the past week, according to the ad tracking service AdImpact, takes other quotes from Talarico out of context and claims he “voted for an income tax” in the state and is “pushing higher property taxes.” It ends by saying, “Texans can’t afford Talarico’s radical agenda.”
An ad from Talarico counters that he “brought both parties together” in the statehouse “passing the largest property tax cut in Texas history,” among other legislative efforts. He voted for the tax cut, which passed with very little opposition. It’s unclear what role he played in shepherding the legislation through the statehouse.
We’ll go through the quotes the Paxton ad uses and the various claims about taxes.
‘Join This Movement’ Quote
The Paxton ad begins by showing Talarico saying, “If you are OK with getting taxed more, you are welcome to join this movement.” But that misrepresents Talarico’s remark.
On Aug. 29, during an interview alongside businessman Mark Cuban, Talarico said that he had told that to “every wealthy person I come across in this race.” He wasn’t talking about taxing everyone more.
Talarico began by referring to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Bobby Kennedy, saying they were “billionaires of their day” and “they used their wealth to help working people and not just through charity but by changing the systems that make charity necessary.” He then praised Cuban’s work in healthcare policy. Cuban founded Cost Plus Drugs to offer medicines at lower prices. Then, Talarico made his comment about wealthy people paying more in taxes.
“I’ve told every, you know, wealthy person I come across in this race, if you are OK with getting taxed more, if you’re OK with me limiting your influence in politics, you are welcome to join this movement that we are building,” Talarico said. “And we’re thankful to have Mark Cuban as part of this.”
Income Tax and Tips, Overtime, Social Security
The ad goes on to say that Talarico “voted for an income tax and supports taxing tips, overtime and Social Security.”
Talarico didn’t vote for an income tax. Rather, he opposed a 2019 joint resolution in the Texas Legislature calling for a constitutional amendment to prohibit an individual income tax. Texas doesn’t have such a tax.
Before 2019, the constitution prohibited an individual income tax without voter approval, and stipulated that if a tax were to be approved, the revenue would go to education and reducing schools’ local taxes. The 2019 proposal made implementing an income tax more difficult, and dropped the specification about where any potential revenue could be directed.
Voters approved the 2019 amendment, which now can only be changed with a two-thirds vote in the Legislature and approval by voters. Before, only a majority vote in the Legislature could have sent an income tax referendum to voters.
At the time of the votes in the Legislature, some Democrats expressed concern that the wording in the measure could lead to a legal challenge of existing business franchise taxes that fund public schools.
Asked about his vote against the joint resolution in a CBS News Texas interview that aired Sept. 5, Talarico said the state income tax was “already banned.” Reporter Jack Fink replied, “But this would have banned it permanently. It was, there’s already a high bar.”
“We need to bring bills to the floor that that are actually solving problems,” Talarico said. “Putting in a ban on an already existing ban is just duplicate government overreach at its worst, and it’s why we need legislators who are focused on solving real problems, not just trying to grandstand on an issue.”
He added that the measure “did nothing,” saying that “I’m against an income tax in Texas, always have been.”
As for the claim that Talarico “supports taxing tips, overtime and Social Security,” that’s a misleading reference to his opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law in July 2025. This has been a common Republican attack line in midterm campaigns.
As we’ve written before, Talarico’s campaign said that he supports the law’s tax cuts for the “middle class,” including changes to taxes on tips, overtime pay and for seniors. Talarico has called for repealing the law’s “tax breaks for the top 1%.”
In its support for the ad, the Paxton campaign also cited a September news interview that indicated Talarico opposed the cuts to Medicaid in the OBBBA.
More Context Needed
The Paxton ad uses two other quotes from Talarico that need context. The first is: “Well, I don’t care where you get the revenue. I don’t care what taxes you have to raise.” Talarico said that in 2020 about Republicans potentially wanting to cut education and health funding when facing a budget shortfall and Democrats taking a stand against that.
His comments were theoretical. On Aug. 2, 2020, Talarico spoke during the COVID-19 pandemic in a virtual townhall organized by Texas Rising, a liberal group supporting young voters. He mentioned cuts in Texas to education funding in 2011, after the Great Recession, and then said the state could be facing a budget shortfall in the coming year “unless there is overwhelming federal aid, which I don’t know if we can count on.”
He said budget cuts could be “a lot greater” than in 2011 and went on to talk about opposing funding cuts to education and healthcare.
Talarico, Aug. 2, 2020: In my experience in politics, the folks who win the argument are the ones who talk first and say their message the most consistently and the loudest. And so, I’ve been trying to talk to as many education advocates as I can about how do we start now by drawing a line in the sand and saying we’re not going to accept cuts to health or education in the next session, no matter what the budget shortfall looks like. And that’s sometimes you get the reaction in the Capitol and the 10 blocks around the Capitol that that’s an unreasonable position to take.
But the other side of the aisle has already taken revenue increases off the table. They’ve done a good job of making certain options taboo. So I think our coalition, not just Democrats but progressives and anybody with a functioning heart, should be able to make cuts to health and education taboo. Take them off the table. I don’t care where you get the revenue. I don’t care what taxes you have to raise, but you’re not going to make our students and our teachers, you’re not going to make the sick and the elderly pay for this pandemic. We are not going to balance our budget off of the most vulnerable people in this state. And that kind of line in the sand needs to be drawn now, not in January, not in February, not when the first drafts of the budget come out. We need to be pressuring lawmakers today to commit to pledging that they will not sacrifice our students and our teachers and our nurses in the next budget cycle.
Another Talarico quote in the ad is simply: “Raise local taxes.” He said those words in January 2019 when speaking about Julián Castro at Castro’s presidential campaign launch event. Castro, when he was mayor of San Antonio, had called for a tax increase to pay for a citywide prekindergarten program.
Talarico told the crowd that he used to teach middle school and he displayed photos in his classroom of “leaders who were never afraid to stand up and speak out,” one of whom was Castro.
“And I told my students that the mayor is an example, not because he’s successful or because he’s famous, but because he always has the courage to do what is right,” Talarico said. “In my first year of teaching, Mayor Castro staked his entire political career on a proposal to raise local taxes in order to fund full-day pre-K across the city of San Antonio. A proposal to raise local taxes — they teach you that that’s a no-no on your first day of politician school, but the mayor did it anyway. He did it anyway, and that’s why I told my students to be like the mayor and to let their own light shine, no matter the consequences.”
San Antonio voters approved the pre-K program, and the small sales tax increase to fund it, in 2012. The sales tax went up by 1/8th of a cent per dollar. Voters reauthorized the program in 2020 for another eight years.
Property Taxes
The Paxton ad says that Talarico is “even pushing higher property taxes,” while Talarico says in an ad of his own that he helped pass “the largest property tax cut in Texas history.” So which is it?
The Paxton campaign cited Talarico’s vote against a 2019 bill to limit any increase in local property taxes to 3.5% in a year. An increase higher than that by cities or counties would have to be approved by voters. The bill passed and became law that year.
The Texas Tribune reported that this was a “controversial provision,” saying that “[m]unicipal officials have repeatedly said the 3.5% election trigger will hamstring their budgets and hamper their ability to provide public safety and other local services.” Prior to this law, localities were limited to an 8% increase in property taxes, and if voters wanted to stop it, they had to petition to get the matter on the ballot.
In his ad, Talarico says he “brought both parties together to make life more affordable” by, among other things, “passing the largest property tax cut in Texas history.” He did vote for two bills in 2023, companionlegislation that was described in news reports as the largest property tax cut in the state’s history. In the final House vote, only four or five lawmakers opposed the bills, which were introduced in the Senate by a Republican. Talarico wasn’t a co-sponsor on the similarbills introduced in the House.
We asked the Talarico campaign how he “brought both parties together” to pass the tax cut, but we didn’t get a response to that question.
The campaign pointed to other tax cut measures Talarico supported. He sponsored a 2023 bill to create a property tax exemption for childcare facilities. The identical Senate version was signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. In 2025, he voted for three bills that provided more property tax relief, including for elderly and disabled homeowners, and Abbott also enacted those.
On his campaign website, Talarico calls for cutting taxes on the “middle class” and paying for that by raising taxes on billionaires and corporations. Paxton’s campaign website says he will “fight to cut taxes” and that he supports “Trump’s legislative priorities,” including on taxes.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
After discovery of severe bug in the PHP programming language, executives warn of ‘vulnerability tsunami’
Leaders in cybersecurity are sounding the alarm after the discovery of a major vulnerability this week. They are predicting that artificial intelligence tools will expose more fundamental weaknesses in global internet infrastructure in the months to come.
“I no longer think we’re going to be able to patch all bugs,” said Sam Altman on Thursday evening, joining the chorus of executives. In the midst of what’s being called “Black October”, for which researchers used AI to help identify critical flaws in a coding language that is used across millions of websites and may have been unpatched for years, tech executives are warning about the ways AI will be used both to identify and exploit security vulnerabilities at an unprecedented scale and pace.
Unidentified object vanished suddenly and silently, anonymous senior military observers claim
Two senior military observers say they watched a mysterious black triangular object flying at an extraordinarily high speed over a sensitive site in the western US earlier this year, in the latest tranche of reported UFO sightings released on Friday by the Trump administration.
The unidentified object showed none of the characteristics of a conventional military aircraft, their report to the defense department said, and it vanished suddenly and silently within seconds, leaving no exhaust trail or other evidence of its existence.
Republican challenger proposes sweeping debt relief and economic reforms, while Democratic incumbent Sarah McBride emphasizes targeted assistance for working families. No debates, forums, or town meetings between the candidates have been announced.
WILMINGTON — Delaware voters looking for answers to rising living costs will have an opportunity Wednesday, Oct. 28, to hear a different approach to economic growth as Republican congressional candidate Dr. Joe Arminio presents his proposals just days before the Nov. 3 general election. As of Friday afternoon, the McBride Campaign has no similar public event on her calendar.
Arminio, who is challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride for Delaware’s only seat in the House of Representatives, argues that reducing America’s enormous debt burden is essential to restoring economic growth and making life more affordable.
McBride, seeking a second term, has made affordability a central campaign priority, emphasizing lower housing, health care, child care and energy costs, along with tax relief for working families.
Both candidates recognize the financial pressures facing Delaware households. Their differences lie largely in how they believe Washington should respond.
Arminio proposes a different economic direction
Arminio, a Wilmington native and political scientist with a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has built his campaign around what he calls the American Prosperity Plan.
He argues that excessive personal, business and government debt has weakened the economy, leaving families with less money to spend and businesses with fewer opportunities to grow.
His proposals include:
Debt relief: A proposed “debt jubilee” providing $92,400 per adult to reduce private debt, with government-backed bonds compensating creditors.
Monetary reform: Changes to the federal monetary system, including government-created currency intended to reduce dependence on borrowing.
Infrastructure investment: Establishing a federal infrastructure bank to finance transportation improvements, public infrastructure and affordable housing.
Economic growth: Pursuing policies he believes could restore the stronger growth rates associated with the 1950s.
Arminio contends that reducing debt would free household income, encourage business investment and expand economic opportunities.
His campaign message, “Relieve Debts, Stop the Wars,” also connects economic prosperity to reduced American involvement in overseas conflicts, which he argues contribute to government borrowing, instability and inflation.
The proposals depart significantly from conventional economic policy. Important questions remain about how the debt relief would be financed, its effects on taxpayers and financial institutions, and whether the changes could produce the growth Arminio predicts without increasing inflation.
Some of Arminio’s economic assertions also differ substantially from official federal statistics. He contends that the United States has experienced little or no meaningful inflation-adjusted economic growth since 2008, although Bureau of Economic Analysis data show substantial real economic growth during that period.
McBride emphasizes targeted relief for families
McBride has approached affordability through legislation intended to reduce specific household expenses while expanding economic opportunities.
She has co-sponsored the American Affordability Act, which includes provisions intended to increase affordable housing, provide tax assistance for first-time homebuyers and renters, reduce health care and child care expenses, and lower energy costs.
McBride has also supported expanded paid family and medical leave, more affordable child care and greater access to home-based services for seniors and people with disabilities.
Her campaign argues that reducing these expenses would allow working families to keep more of their earnings while helping more people enter or remain in the workforce.
McBride has criticized federal tariffs, arguing that they increase prices for consumers and businesses.
Her approach relies primarily on targeted federal programs, tax incentives and investments rather than the broad restructuring of the financial system proposed by Arminio.
Those policies also raise questions about federal spending, financing and how quickly Delaware households might experience meaningful relief.
Two approaches to a shared concern
For Delaware residents facing high electricity bills, expensive housing, grocery costs and growing financial obligations, the candidates offer contrasting economic strategies.
McBride emphasizes reducing specific household expenses, expanding access to essential services and using federal legislation to provide relief.
Arminio argues that reducing debt and changing the nation’s financial structure would create stronger, sustained economic growth, ultimately benefiting families and businesses.
Neither approach guarantees immediate results, and both would require congressional support to become law.
The candidates also differ in their foreign-policy priorities. Arminio has made opposition to continued overseas military conflicts a central campaign theme. McBride has also called for ending prolonged conflicts and has criticized the Trump administration’s handling of foreign affairs, although the candidates differ on American policy toward Israel and Iran.
Few opportunities to compare the candidates directly
While both campaigns have published their priorities and participated in public campaign activities, opportunities for voters to hear the candidates directly compare and defend their proposals have been limited.
Arminio issued a public challenge Oct. 5 for a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate with McBride, proposing an extended discussion in which both candidates could explain their positions and respond to each other’s arguments.
The candidates previously appeared at a Sept. 17 forum hosted by the Jewish Federation of Delaware. Arminio was removed from that event after misgendering McBride.
McBride also participated in an extended candidate interview with Delaware Public Media, discussing her priorities and record in Congress.
As of Oct. 23, Delaware LIVE could not identify an additional publicly announced debate or comparable candidate forum involving McBride scheduled before the Nov. 3 election.
That does not mean voters have lacked opportunities to hear from the incumbent. McBride has campaigned throughout Delaware, participated in interviews and outlined her positions through public statements and her campaign website.
However, a forum allowing both candidates to respond directly to the same questions would offer voters an additional way to compare their economic proposals.
Oct. 28 offers a chance to hear another perspective
Arminio’s Oct. 28 campaign event comes during Delaware’s early voting period, less than a week before voters decide who will represent the state in Congress.
The event offers an opportunity to examine proposals that have received less attention than traditional debates over taxes, federal spending and government programs.
It also raises practical questions: Would broad debt relief help younger families purchase homes? Could changes in monetary policy strengthen small businesses? How would Arminio’s proposals affect inflation and federal finances? And how do those ideas compare with McBride’s plans to reduce household expenses?
For Delaware voters, the congressional race presents competing ideas about how government can help families afford everyday life while encouraging economic growth.
Although Arminio’s campaign event is not a substitute for a debate between both candidates, it offers voters another opportunity to hear an alternative perspective, examine its potential benefits and risks, and make a more informed choice before Election Day.
TO GO: Dr. Joe Arminio campaign event
What: Campaign event featuring Republican U.S. House candidate Dr. Joe Arminio and his proposals for debt relief, lower living costs and economic growth.
When: Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026
Time: Not confirmed
Location: Not confirmed
Public admission: Not confirmed
Why it matters: The event offers an opportunity to learn about Arminio’s economic proposals and consider how they compare with Democratic incumbent Sarah McBride’s priorities.
The board change is the latest development for Mount Sinai hospital which features prominently in the Epstein files
The hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, one of several Wall Street figures whose relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is facing scrutiny, has stepped down from the board of Mount Sinai hospital, according to sources close to the renowned New York institution.
The revelation follows news earlier this year that Mount Sinai, which has long ranked as a top medical provider in New York City, had reportedly formed a committee to review its longstanding ties to the late accused sex trafficker. The hospital features prominently in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice, including an incident in which a Mount Sinai doctor appears to have operated on a young Russian woman inside Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse after she got hurt during a stay on his Caribbean island.
Democrats may be ahead in the polls. But can they withstand billions in campaign spending by Elon Musk and other MAGA oligarchs? Will the election be safe from intimidation and interference? And even if they do prevail, what would a Democratic Congress actually do to obstruct Trump’s attacks on democracy?
For decades, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has been sounding the alarm about rising inequality and the concentration of power in America. Having served in three presidential administrations, he’s become one of the loudest and clearest voices challenging Democrats for their failures in the Trump era.
Reich joins Intercept Briefing host Akela Lacy for a live conversation about the most pressing issues this midterm season. He is the author of numerous books, including his memoir “Coming Up Short,” out in paperback now. His media company, Inequality Media, has also made a timely new documentary, called “The Work in Progress,” exploring how everyday Americans across the country are navigating our democracy in these times.
At least one injured after flooding in Four Corners region – which includes Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah
Severe flooding in the Four Corners region on Friday led to water rescues – some from rooftops – and impassable roads, with some residents being told to evacuate low-lying areas of Colorado and New Mexico and others advised to shelter in place until water levels go down.
It followed several busy days of flooding in the region that swamped dozens of homes in Utah. Earlier in the week, tornadoes blew off roofs, knocked trees on to houses and downed power lines in Arizona. At least one person was injured.
Senescent cancer cells stained for a Death Receptor protein that is highly upregulated in response to chemotherapeutic treatment. (Seamus Martin / TCD via SWNS)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: AI agents left to explore a virtual island without a specific task began inventing challenges of their own. MIT researchers say the behavior bears the hallmarks of play. The researchers put 13 AI agents called Eko, each running on Claude Opus 4.7, alone on a simulated desert island for 30 hours. They describe the experiment in a paper posted on arXiv, a site where researchers share studies before peer review. Afterward, they gave the agents specific challenges, like getting as many objects as possible onto the island's tallest rock spire. The Eko agents that had spent those 30 hours playing generally beat identical agents that had never set foot on the island.
Today, developers decide in advance what AI should practice and what counts as success. The researchers see this technique -- exploring without a goal -- as a different way for AI agents to learn skills, especially skills that could one day be used to control robots. "We normally develop artificial agents by deciding in advance what they should practice, what they should optimize, and what counts as progress," the researchers write in their report. "Play suggests another regime: give an agent a sufficiently rich and safe world, let it choose what is interesting, and allow useful knowledge to accumulate from the history that follows." UC Berkeley cognitive scientist Eunice Yiu told MIT Technology Review she was impressed with the findings but that more evidence is needed to determine whether AI models are genuinely playing. "It could be the case that the models are genuinely playing, but we don't know based on the paper," says Yiu. "If you only have the behavioral piece, it could be the case that they're just trying to abide by the prompt, trying to imitate humans."
MIT professor and coauthor of the paper, Phillip Isola, added: "It's not like this is a system that just suddenly magically decided to play. It's an artifact that learned from our culture, was trained by engineers at Anthropic, and was then placed on an island by us. It does things that surprise us and that are causally related to its future skillful behavior."
Debit and credit cards have long used microchips, which protect against skimming. Now the U.S. Department of Agriculture is mandating that all 50 states adopt the technology to prevent SNAP benefit theft. Ramon Dompor
The Trump administration this week announced an overhaul of the nation’s food stamp payment system, aimed at modernizing benefit cards to protect families from electronic theft. The move comes a week after ProPublica published an investigation showing how $470 million in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits were stolen from recipients last year alone, in large part because these cards are technologically outdated.
ProPublica’s story highlighted victims’ experiences and examined repeated failures by Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to upgrade Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT, cards nationally. ProPublica’s reporting was shared around the department, according to two USDA officials.
The new proposed rule, officially issued by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Administration on Friday, has been in the works since 2023 — but it was continually delayed until now. Reasons included understaffing at the USDA, especially in the wake of the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts last year, and a backlog of other regulations that the White House budget office had prioritized. White House and USDA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sudden shift.
The rule will mandate that all 50 states transition from EBT cards with just a magnetic stripe on the back — which are easy for criminals to skim data from — to ones with digital microchips, which credit and debit cards have had for more than a decade, and tap-to-pay technology. Other changes include creating new federal “SNAP EBT Operating Standards” to be revised on an ongoing basis, so that the feds and states together can do a better job of keeping up with best practices in the credit card industry and the changing tactics of fraudsters.
A handful of states have already transitioned to chip cards on their own, including California, where the theft of SNAP and other public benefits was reduced by 83% in two years after the technology was adopted. But more than 40 states haven’t added chips, and hundreds of thousands of lower-income Americans continue to show up at grocery store checkout lines only to find that their food assistance for the month has been drained by thieves. NPR and other news outlets have also recently reported on this crisis.
Members of the public, including state SNAP administrators and grocery store owners who may have logistical questions about how to overhaul their EBT systems, now have 60 days to submit comments on the new USDA regulation; these will be reviewed by agency officials before the rule is formally enacted. After that, states will have two years to switch to chip cards, although their ability to meet that deadline will depend on several factors. For one, many are budget-strapped right now, due in large part to the fact that President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act slashed states’ funding for administering their SNAP programs — dollars that they could have used to upgrade their EBT systems and print and mail out the new cards.
Multiple current and former FNA officials, as well as state program administrators, told ProPublica that they are worried the agency is mandating expensive changes for states but that Congress so far has shown little sign it will provide federal funding for the chip card transition. As ProPublica reported last week, the Senate’s version of this year’s Farm Bill includes money for this purpose, but the House version does not; Democrats and Republicans remain at loggerheads about overall SNAP spending, and it is unclear what will happen. The estimated total federal and state cost of the changes is $283 million, as compared with the more than $600 million in SNAP and other benefits that are stolen from existing cards every year.
Still, the mandate that all states implement chip EBT cards “is a big deal for low-income households,” said Justin King, a longtime safety net advocate who is now the policy director for Propel, a company that helps SNAP recipients access their benefit information. He added that he was “legit surprised” by the administration’s decision.
“Theft rings don’t care about state lines. You’re just squeezing a balloon if you update one state at a time,” King said of the prospect of individual states continuing to gradually adopt chip cards without a federal requirement. “A national standard means there’s nowhere left to go” for the criminals, he said.
For the moment, at least, there are signs that the Trump administration’s posture toward this issue has shifted more broadly. On Wednesday, while barnstorming in Ohio for Republican candidates, Vice President JD Vance (whose roles include serving as the administration’s “fraud czar”) called a press conference and made a point of emphasizing that low-income families are often the victims of SNAP fraud.
This was at odds with how Vance has portrayed the problem in the past. “There are people who have Lamborghinis who currently receive SNAP benefits,” he has previously said, in a typical comment. For ProPublica’s previous article, research reporter Gabriel Sandoval reviewed dozens of speeches, social media posts and press accounts of statements made by Vance and other Trump officials, and found that they have consistently portrayed SNAP recipients as the perpetrators of fraud.
Vance also took a startlingly different tone this week toward the food stamp program itself. In his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which first propelled him to fame, he wrote that SNAP recipients in Kentucky and Ohio “live off of government largesse”; he said that people in that part of the country are largely “hardworking, except of course for the many food stamp recipients who show little interest in honest work.”
But this week from the stage in southern Ohio, he said, “Step back for a minute and realize that the [SNAP] program is one of the most important social service programs that we have in the United States of America.” He went on at length: Food stamps ensure that “all of our fellow citizens, particularly children, are able to have a full belly at the end of every single night, that regardless of whether they can pay for a meal, we don’t let American children and American families go hungry. That is one of the most important and sacred things that our tax dollars go to.”
The White House and Vance’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his rhetorical about-face.
Vance then had Attorney General Todd Blanche and other top officials give more details on multiple recent SNAP theft prosecutions. These included several ongoing EBT card skimming cases in Oregon in which criminal groups had allegedly pilfered the SNAP account numbers and PINs of legitimate beneficiaries and then used that data to buy bulk quantities of goods like energy drinks and baby formula — which the scammers resold for over $3 million. This is exactly the type of case that ProPublica reported on last week.
“The simple reality is that it is actually a very tough thing to go through a [grocery store checkout] line with kids,” Vance said. “To present that card, to expect to be able to take that food home to your family, to be able to cook it and provide a meal for your kids, and to be told that because of the theft of a fraudster, that you are being rejected. And there are hundreds of thousands of families all across our country, all across the state of Ohio who have had that experience.”
Pictured L-R: from Dover Little League: Baseball Director Videll Slade, City Liaison Director Ed Coker, President Bill Kinsey, Concessions Director Mary Pritchett, Equipment Director Ralph Pann, & Del-One’s President & CEO Dan McCarthy
Credit union’s contribution will support repairs at Schutte Park after August storm damaged fields, fencing, lights and dugouts
DOVER, Del. — Dover Little League’s effort to recover from tornado damage received a boost from Del-One Federal Credit Union, which donated $3,300 to help restore the organization’s fields at Schutte Park.
The contribution, made in partnership with Visa as part of a community reinvestment initiative, comes after an EF-1 tornado swept through Dover in late August with winds exceeding 100 mph.
The storm caused significant damage to the Little League complex, including fencing, light poles, scoreboards and dugout roofs.
For Dover Little League, the damage affected more than a collection of baseball fields. The complex has served generations of area children, coaches, volunteers and families.
“The devastation caused by the tornado was felt across the entire community, and we know how much this Little League field means to local families,” Del-One President and CEO Dan McCarthy said. “We are proud to help restore a place where children can play, grow and make memories.”
McCarthy said the donation reflects the credit union’s emphasis on supporting the communities it serves.
“Community is built on neighbors helping neighbors, and we are honored to be part of that effort,” he said.
Dover Little League officials receiving the donation included President Bill Kinsey, Baseball Director Videll Slade, City Liaison Director Ed Coker, Concessions Director Mary Pritchett and Equipment Director Ralph Pann.
Del-One Federal Credit Union has more than $984 million in assets and more than 106,000 members, with full-service branches throughout Delaware.
To Go Box
What: Dover Little League tornado recovery effort
Where: Dover Little League fields at Schutte Park in Dover
Why: An EF-1 tornado in August damaged fencing, light poles, scoreboards, dugout roofs and other parts of the baseball complex.
Support: Del-One Federal Credit Union and Visa contributed $3,300 toward the recovery effort.
Learn more: Visit del-one.org for information about Del-One Federal Credit Union and its community programs.
(The Center Square) – The Trump administration sued to stop certification of election results in Alaska if a candidate with the same name of incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan remains on the ballot.
(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump is calling on U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar to resign amid the ongoing federal investigation into the Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota.
Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers promise demolitions and forced displacement after deadly gunfight
Israel has launched a campaign of collective punishment against Palestinians in Hebron after gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and injured three near a checkpoint outside the city.
Benjamin Netanyahu announced a siege on Hebron and neighbouring Halhul and said residents of the gunmen’s home neighbourhoods would all be forced out. He promised mass demolitions of homes.
Multinational ‘anti-war bloc’ uses Istanbul summit to call for a diplomatic solution to Middle East crisis
Foreign ministers at a summit of eight European and Middle Eastern countries have urged the US and Israel not to renews their attacks on Iran, warning a fresh outbreak of fighting would spread conflict and push oil prices even higher.
The development of a new multinational “anti-war bloc” represents a challenge to the increasingly open plans by the US and Israel to relaunch strikes on Iran while talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme remain deadlocked.
Prosecution says Robinson guilty of harassment of Daily Mail journalists because we do not live in a ‘vigilante world’
Tommy Robinson is guilty of harassing two journalists because we do not live in a “vigilante world”, jurors have been told, as the prosecution sought to use the far-right activist’s words against him.
Robinson had posted a video in which he told Daily Mail journalists he would find them after they wrote about his alleged role influencing England’s 2024 riots. He told them he had obtained details of where they and their families lived and warned them to abide by “men’s rules”.
An electoral supercycle over the next year may redefine the continent’s future. But what’s happening on the streets is shaping it, too
France sneezed, and Europe has again caught the cold. The wave of unrest which began with teenagers at a high school soon drew in hundreds of thousands of people nationwide and then spread across the continent. Protests have filled the streets in Lisbon and Madrid, and have ignited into violence in Milan, Brussels and Tirana as well as in French cities.
French authorities say they are deploying 70,000 officers on Saturday and are allowing only marches organised by unions. They blame hard-left militants as well as opportunistic young perpetrators for last weekend’s destruction and looting, when a minority hijacked largely peaceful protests. But with fuel prices set to rise further over the winter, the demands and participants broadening, and President Macron utterly failing to meet the moment, there is no sign of an end to the wider discontent and no speedy resolution in sight.
Elections too often get pigeonholed. The hot take, or simplistic analysis, would have it that just one issue – often the issue the source so happens to be most animated about – will decide the entire result.
Tens of millions of Americans will go to the polls next month. Will they be galvanized by affordability? Maybe it’s Iran. Or healthcare? Taxes, perhaps. Or crime.
Microsoft has revealed pay-as-you-go pricing for Xbox Cloud Gaming, with introductory packages costing $3.99 for 10 hours, $7.99 for 25 hours, or $11.99 for 50 hours. Starting in November, Game Pass subscribers will receive only 5 to 15 included cloud-gaming hours depending on their tier and will have to buy additional time -- even to stream games they've already purchased. Gizmodo reports: Back in September, before these changes were announced, you paid full purchase price for a game that isn't in the Game Pass library on the assumption that you'd be able to play it via cloud streaming. Maybe your hardware doesn't meet the specs for this fancy new game. Maybe your gaming PC exploded/got stuck on a ship/had a component fail. Maybe you just want to be able to play it in bed on your laptop. Whatever. Now you find that in addition to the cost of the game you bought, you're going to be paying by the hour to play it once your monthly allotment of hours is up. If this is you, I expect you're not particularly amused. Thankfully, Microsoft notes that the playtime you purchase "remains available until it's used," so you won't have to worry about losing any unused time between gaming sessions.
Three-time Vezina winner leaves Winnipeg after 11 years
Devils send four players and two draft picks to Jets
Olympic gold medalist joins US teammate Jack Hughes
Connor Hellebuyck finally has a new home after the Winnipeg Jets granted the three-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender’s trade request in a deal that sent him to the New Jersey Devils on Friday.
The Devils sent center Dawson Mercer, goalie Nico Daws, prospect Alexander Command, forward Nick Bjugstad, a 2029 second-round pick and a 2027 seventh-rounder to Winnipeg for Hellebuyck.
Party insiders say they expect initial verdict to be against leader and are preparing to appeal against adverse findings
Nigel Farage’s Reform is braced for a negative report from the standards commissioner over his failure to declare a £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne and plans to appeal against any adverse findings.
The party is on tenterhooks over the report, with multiple Reform insiders saying they are readying for a fightback through the appeals process and fully expect the initial verdict to find against their leader.
My combination of old eyes, sunglasses, & fall morning shadows came together to camouflage a large pothole this morning. My 15-18mph speed made it too late to hop off, no way I could run it out anyway. So I just held steady as she goes and one bonk later I was on the other side😁.
If you had asked me, I would have said that I could not survive that but my XRC was still a viable ride on the other side, not a falter nor bobble. Nobody more surprised than me.
Hunter Foster fired at vehicle during a shoplifting call at a Walmart, killing one-year-old Kohen Wiley
Hunter Foster, the Mississippi police officer who shot into a vehicle and killed one-year-old Kohen Wiley, has resigned from the Senatobia police department. Earlier this week, Mississippi’s attorney general, Lynn Fitch, announced that the shooting was “justified”.
The Senatobia board of aldermen accepted Foster’s resignation on 21 October and the resignation took effect immediately. Foster was placed on leave on 16 June, days after the 14 June shooting. Yesterday, the Mississippi department of public safety released body-camera and surveillance footage from the shooting, at a Walmart in Senatobia, during which the toddler died in his mother’s arms after being shot.
Video shows AI likenesses of people linked to Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party appearing to admit to wrongdoing
A political ad from Spain’s main opposition party that used a deepfake video of the prime minister’s wife has sparked outrage and set off a wider debate on AI, as the deeply polarised country gears up for general elections next month.
Launched this week across the social media channels of the conservative People’s party (PP), the video used artificial intelligence to manipulate the likenesses of various people linked to Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party and appeared to show them admitting to acts such as soliciting prostitutes and taking kickbacks.
Pete Buttigieg chose to endorse independent Seth Bodnar over the Democratic Senate nominee, Alani Bankhead. Bodnar says he will not caucus with Democrats if he wins.
“I don’t know who is going to be your next president and I think the law said, I’m not 100% sure, but I think the law says I’m not allowed to run again,” Trump said in Sioux City, Iowa.
Both projects remain under county review, and September emails identify an unresolved groundwater cleanup question at the car wash site.
HOCKESSIN, Del. — No new plans have been posted in more than a year for a proposed McDonald’s near Limestone and Paper Mill roads, while a proposed car wash at Yorklyn Road and Lancaster Pike has new filings this year. Both remain in the first stage of county review, and the county still lists both applications as “Active Plans,” according to county land-use records.
Both projects came up at the Oct. 7 League of Women Voters of New Castle County forum for the New Castle County Council District 3 seat. Delaware LIVE said in its coverage of the forum that it would report on their status.
Table 1 below lists the details for each project. Neither project has completed the county’s initial review. The McDonald’s proposal needs rezoning and a full traffic study, while the car wash still faces zoning, environmental and planning reviews.
TABLE 1: Proposed McDonald’s and Spotless Car Wash
Yes, from residential to neighborhood commercial; requires a public hearing and County Council vote (no date listed)
No rezoning proposed
Traffic study
Full study required by the Delaware Department of Transportation; none posted
Preliminary traffic analysis conditionally approved by the county; no full study listed
Current status
First stage of county review
Latest county review report:none posted
Still incomplete: 11 of 13 reviews, including traffic and zoning
First stage of county review
Latest county review report:Aug. 6, 2026
Still incomplete: zoning, environmental and planning reviews
(Source: New Castle County Department of Land Use project records and site plans for the McDonald’s and car wash, accessed Oct. 22, 2026. Table: Delaware LIVE.)
Requested exceptions to county rules
McDonald’s
Fewer parking spaces (32 vs. 50 required)
No landscaping in the required buffer along Limestone Road and the Route 72 connector
A narrower buffer by the trash enclosure (15 vs. 25 feet)
Spotless Car Wash
Fewer parking spaces (13 vs. 21 required)
Paving 2 to 7 feet from the roads instead of 25 feet
No landscaping in the required buffer along Yorklyn Road and Lancaster Pike
No street trees along West Lancaster Pike
Clearing or grading all of the wetland on the site
Clearing or grading all of the land in a county groundwater protection area
The car wash’s environmental review
In 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added about 32 acres of land along Lancaster Pike (Route 41) in Hockessin to its national cleanup list because of contaminated groundwater, according to its May 15, 2018, announcement. The same announcement said Artesian Water Company drew drinking water from wells in that area and treated it, and that the treated water met all drinking water standards.
The proposed Spotless Car Wash in Hockessin would sit in that same cleanup area. In a Sept. 16, 2026, email, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) passed along the EPA’s statement that it could not yet tell whether letting rain soak into the ground at the site would affect the cleanup of the contaminated groundwater. The EPA said it was still mapping how far the contamination goes.
The developer’s engineer had written in August that the plan did not then call for letting rain soak into the ground. That option would depend on testing and the EPA’s confirmation that it would not affect the cleanup.
On a separate issue, the car wash site is also in a county groundwater protection area, where county rules limit how much land can be cleared or graded. The developer is asking for an exception to clear or grade all of the protected land on the site, according to the site plan. That request, like the developer’s other requested exceptions, would be decided by the county’s Board of Adjustment at a public hearing.
Learn more
For residents following the proposals, future public hearings will be important milestones. Both developers are requesting exceptions to county rules.
The county’s guide to the land development process explains how a project moves through review, from the first plan to construction. To see other projects under review, visit the county’s Active Plans page.
People in Russian-occupied city facing severe shortages of food, water and electricity, with some reportedly surviving on weeds
The White House has said that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a ceasefire in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, where a deepening humanitarian crisis has left thousands of civilians struggling to survive.
In a statement on Friday, the White House said both sides had agreed to halt all military operations in the city from 27 October to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and preparations for the evacuation of civilians.
The Trump administration intends to push for new labels on seafood sold at grocery stores to give consumers a better idea of where products originated.
Records show California High-Speed Rail knew a winning contract bid relied on "artificially low" rates that the consulting firm never intended to charge.
Minneapolis, MN — Minnesota officials say the Trump administration has stopped sharing critical evidence in state investigations into the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers earlier this year.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the federal government is “obstructing our investigations” after cooperation that began in July was halted indefinitely.
State investigators are still seeking key evidence, including cellphones belonging to officers involved in the shootings, recorded interviews, firearms, bullets and shell casings, Good’s clothing and a gun taken from Pretti before he was shot.
Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was fatally shot by an ICE officer on Jan. 7 during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was killed by a Border Patrol agent weeks later.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Moriarty and state investigators have sued the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security seeking access to the remaining evidence.
Federal officials argue the Justice Department has discretion under federal regulations to decide what information it provides to state investigators. Minnesota officials counter that they need the material to independently determine whether criminal charges are warranted.
Some evidence, including body-camera footage and officer statements, was turned over in July before cooperation stopped.
No criminal charges have been filed in either shooting.
Washington, DC — The Supreme Court has cleared the way for New Hampshire to fully prohibit voters from using student identification cards to establish their identity in the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The justices granted an emergency request backed by Republican state officials and blocked a lower-court order that had allowed student IDs to remain available as a backup form of identification.
New Hampshire enacted a law this year removing student IDs from the list of expressly accepted identification documents. The secretary of state later issued guidance barring their use even as a secondary method of proving identity.
A lower-court judge allowed the law itself to stand but blocked that additional guidance earlier this month. The Supreme Court reversed that portion of the ruling, citing the principle that courts generally should avoid changing election procedures shortly before voting.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to publicly dissent.
Republican state Rep. Donald McFarlane, who sponsored the law, argues that college-issued identification lacks the verification safeguards used for government IDs and said the restriction strengthens confidence in elections.
Opponents contend the rule unnecessarily complicates voting for college students who are otherwise eligible New Hampshire voters.
The ruling comes less than two weeks before Election Day and amid a closely watched Senate contest in the state.
The decision does not determine whether student IDs are inherently unreliable; it allows New Hampshire’s existing restriction to remain in effect for this election.
Iconic music legend, Suzanne Vega, whose hits include “Luka,” “Tom’s Diner” and “Marlene on the Wall,” will perform at the Queen Theatre and is touring behind her 2025 album, “Flying With Angels,” blending new material with the thoughtful storytelling that helped define the contemporary folk revival of the 1980s.
Singer-songwriter behind “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” returns to the stage with a career-spanning Wilmington performance that proves her music remains relevant four decades after her breakthrough.
WILMINGTON — For music fans who came of age in the 1980s, Suzanne Vega’s songs were part of the soundtrack of a generation. But when the acclaimed singer-songwriter takes the stage at The Queen in downtown Wilmington on Sunday, Nov. 1, she will bring more than memories.
Vega, whose hits include “Luka,” “Tom’s Diner” and “Marlene on the Wall,” is touring behind her 2025 album, “Flying With Angels,” blending new material with the thoughtful storytelling that helped define the contemporary folk revival of the 1980s.
The 7:30 p.m. performance, presented by WXPN, will feature Vega alongside longtime guitarist Gerry Leonard, known for his work with David Bowie, and cellist Stephanie Winters. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
For Delaware music fans, the concert offers an opportunity to revisit some familiar favorites while discovering why Vega continues to attract audiences more than 40 years after releasing her debut album.
More than a voice from the 1980s
Vega emerged from New York City’s Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1980s, building a following with songs that favored observation, character and storytelling over conventional pop formulas.
Her self-titled debut album arrived in 1985, followed by her commercial breakthrough, “Solitude Standing,” in 1987.
“Luka,” one of her best-known songs, addressed child abuse through the perspective of a young boy. Its understated delivery contrasted with the seriousness of its subject, demonstrating how Vega could address difficult social issues without losing the accessibility of popular music.
“Tom’s Diner,” another signature recording, took an entirely different approach. Built around the ordinary observations of someone sitting in a New York diner, the song became internationally recognizable, particularly after a dance remix by British producers DNA.
The original a cappella recording also became part of music technology history when it was used in the development and testing of MP3 audio compression.
That unusual connection helped introduce Vega’s music to listeners who might never have experienced the folk revival that first made her famous.
New music, familiar storytelling
Rather than relying exclusively on her early hits, Vega continues to record new music.
Her latest studio album, “Flying With Angels,” released in May 2025, explores contemporary themes through the same restrained vocals and carefully constructed lyrics that have characterized her career
The album earned positive attention from music critics, including Rolling Stone and Stereogum, which praised Vega’s continued creativity.
The Wilmington concert is being promoted as a career-spanning performance, with the new album sharing the program with familiar songs including “Luka,” “Tom’s Diner” and “Marlene on the Wall.”
The accompanying musicians should add another dimension to the performance. Leonard has worked with Vega for years and brings experience from his collaborations with Bowie, while Winters’ cello adds texture to the singer’s understated arrangements.
Why Vega still connects with audiences
Part of Vega’s appeal is that her music has never depended entirely on the trends that shaped the pop charts.
Her songs tell stories about relationships, vulnerability, city life and ordinary experiences — themes that remain recognizable regardless of when listeners first encountered her work.
That approach also fits the strong singer-songwriter tradition supported by audiences throughout the Wilmington region, where intimate live performances and thoughtful musicianship remain important parts of the local arts scene.
Longtime fans can expect an evening of familiar songs, while younger listeners may recognize “Tom’s Diner” from its later remixes and reinterpretations.
The result is a concert that bridges generations without depending exclusively on nostalgia.
For downtown Wilmington, Vega’s appearance is another opportunity to see a nationally recognized recording artist in the more intimate setting of The Queen, where the focus can remain on the songs and the stories behind them.
To Go Box
Event: Suzanne Vega — Flying With Angels Tour
Date: Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026
Time: 7:30 p.m.; doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Location: The Queen, 500 N. Market St., Wilmington
Performers: Suzanne Vega, guitarist Gerry Leonard and cellist Stephanie Winters
What to expect: A career-spanning concert featuring “Luka,” “Tom’s Diner,” “Marlene on the Wall” and selections from Vega’s latest album, “Flying With Angels.”
Contents of laptop of Joe Biden’s son were part of a bizarre saga in the final weeks of 2020 presidential election
Two former FBI intelligence officials who specialized in foreign election interference were charged on Friday with making false statements about their roles in investigating the origins of Hunter Biden’s laptop in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.
Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides surrendered on Friday and made their first appearance in federal court in Washington DC. Floris’s legal team expressed outrage at the development coming from the US Department of Justice, the parent agency of the FBI.
Ukrainian drone strikes have damaged three major Yandex data centers as well as facilities serving Sberbank and VKontakte (the country's equivalent to Facebook), disrupting cloud services, banking, e-commerce, ride-hailing and other digital services across Russia. The attacks may deal a longer-lasting blow to Russia's AI ambitions: Yandex's affected facilities housed its three top-500 supercomputers, and experts say sanctions and shortages of high-end Nvidia chips could make repairs difficult or even take years. "This effectively sets Russia far behind in the AI race, "said Mikhail Klimarev, head of the Internet Protection Society activist group. Fortune reports: Data centers are the latest targets of aerial campaigns waged by both sides against each other's vital infrastructure. [...] Kyiv's attacks on Russian data centers closely followed Moscow's recent strikes on data centers in Ukraine, which disrupted the internet and TV broadcasts. On Oct. 8, Ukrainian drones hit a Yandex data center in Sasovo in the Ryazan region that houses two of the company's three supercomputers. A data center in Kaluga was hit a day later and the one in Vladimir was struck Oct. 11.
The data center and AI hub for Sberbank was hit Oct. 14 in Balakovo in the Saratov region, and four days later, Kyiv struck a data center in St. Petersburg serving VKontakte. While oil refineries and warehouses are easy prey, data centers are even softer targets -- massive buildings packed with servers and supporting power and cooling infrastructure. Lasting damage can result from a drone carrying a relatively light load of explosives.
[...] Ukraine has stored critical data on servers in allied European countries, helping limit the damage from Russian attacks. But Moscow's strict digital sovereignty policy requires all data storage at home, making it extremely vulnerable. "Because all the infrastructure and all the data is located inside Russia, it's relatively easier to take down," [said Nick Reiners, senior geotechnology analyst at Eurasia Group]. Klimarev predicted the data center attacks could encourage many top Russian companies to move data abroad, while the authorities could ease their efforts to tighten internet controls to minimize the damage.
Photo illustration by Emily Scherer for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Source images: The Texas Tribune, documents obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, and YouTube.
Four years after North Texas home builder Scott Sherman completed a federal prison sentence for mortgage fraud, his new construction materials business received a $600,000 cash infusion.
The financial boost came from a blind trust set up to prevent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, from any overlap in their personal investments and their actions as elected officials. But previously unreleased records from the attorney general’s 2023 impeachment investigation show the trust was far from blind and did not shield the Paxtons from its business dealings, including the investment in Sherman’s business.
Before long, Wildcatter Sand Services and Grayson County Sand and Gravel, which Sherman built with his father, grew into a vast enterprise with various locations and subsidiaries. And along the way, some of those businesses stopped paying taxes to local governments, including school districts.
But as their tax debts stacked up, Wildcatter companies wired the Paxtons tens of thousands of dollars in the months leading up to and during the attorney general’s impeachment on charges of corruption and bribery. Paxton was eventually acquitted by the Legislature and is now in an expensive and tight race for a U.S. Senate seat against Democrat James Talarico, a state lawmaker.
While Paxton has been in public office for more than two decades, the blind trust he established upon becoming attorney general has largely obscured his business dealings. The Paxtons’ investment in Wildcatter through that trust offers a new, previously unreported look at both the limits of that trust and the attorney general’s financial association with the very type of business executives whose prosecutions he typically celebrates.
“In Texas, we fight fraud head-on and will not rest until every last corrupt actor is brought to justice,” Paxton said in a news release last year. In a recent social media post linking to a newly released campaign ad, he wrote, “As Attorney General, I’ve made big pharma and fraudsters pay billions.”
Doing business with a recently convicted felon undermines that narrative and erodes public trust in his role as the state’s top anti-fraud watchdog, ethics experts told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.
Richard Painter, who served as the chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said he would have thought “the attorney general of Texas would have the good sense not to be dealing with a convicted felon.”
“They’ll pay out their friends while they’re not paying their taxes, run up debt,” said Painter, who has been critical of staunch Paxton ally President Donald Trump. “But the question is, why is the attorney general of Texas dealing with those kinds of people?”
Wildcatter Sand Services had a tax warrant issued against it for back taxes after facing a lawsuit by local governments.Obtained and highlighted by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune
Ken Paxton did not answer detailed questions from the news organizations about the Wildcatter investment or whether he knew of Sherman’s conviction. He has previously defended his business dealings, saying he follows ethics laws. A spokesperson for Angela Paxton, who filed for divorce last year, said that she was not aware of Sherman’s criminal history.
Sherman ran a homebuilding firm, Artisan Operating LP, when he pleaded guilty in 2014 for his role in a mortgage fraud conspiracy. The scheme involved artificially inflating home prices to obtain larger loans for more than two dozen properties in cities across the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Sherman did not respond to calls made to his cellphone and company or to emailed questions.
Paxton’s connection to Sherman is the second revelation in recent weeks of the attorney general engaging with people charged with federal crimes. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Paxton celebrated New Year’s Eve 2024 in Dubai with two Americans who failed to return to the U.S. after being indicted months before on federal healthcare-fraud charges. A spokesperson for Paxton didn’t address his association with the defendants but said in a statement to the Journal that the attorney general has been “politically persecuted for years.”
ProPublica and the Tribune found the Paxtons’ investment in Wildcatter by reviewing records collected by impeachment investigators.
The records show that Ken Paxton had at least some knowledge of the blind trust’s investments, which could violate terms the Paxtons set when establishing the trust.
It would also run afoul of U.S. Senate rules, which Paxton would be bound by if elected, said Donald Kettl, an ethics expert and former dean of the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. Those rules, Kettl said, require senators with a blind trust to have no knowledge of its investments.
“It’s reasonable to ask whether a candidate for the U.S. Senate has followed the ethics rules for financial reporting of blind trusts that would be required if the candidate became a senator,” he said.
In setting up the blind trust, the Paxtons agreed that their friend Chip Loper would manage the assets without consulting with them or taking “any instructions regarding investment matters,” according to incorporation documents. Loper did not respond to a request for an interview and did not answer questions about the Paxtons’ involvement in selecting investments.
Text messages that emerged during the impeachment probe, however, showed he and Ken Paxton discussed certain investments. Mortgage and deed records show that Paxton purchased eight properties between 2015 and 2026 and then transferred them into the trust.
The Wildcatter investment also appears to have slipped past the required firewall.
Angela Paxton served for years on a Wildcatter advisory board beginning in 2022. ProPublica and the Tribune could not find any documents describing her responsibilities in the role, which she described as “non-governing” on her personal financial disclosures. While on the board, she voted for legislation that shielded a subsidiary from certain environmental complaints.
The Paxtons also claimed more than $93,000 in itemized losses from Wildcatter Sand Services and Grayson County Sand and Gravel on their 2020 federal joint income tax return.
“That is proof positive that there’s nothing blind about this trust,” said Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in legal and government ethics. If Ken Paxton “can report on his tax return a transaction, then he is not blind to the transaction.”
A Board Seat and a Vote
After Wildcatter received the cash injection from the Paxtons’ blind trust, Sherman went on a shopping spree.
He purchased a sand mine in the North Texas town of Denison and a concrete plant 40 miles down the road in Gunter, a city of about 2,000 residents. Both are in Grayson County near the Oklahoma border.
Neighbors complained to Texas environmental regulators about clouds of dust from Wildcatter and other companies located at the Gunter site that they said coated their properties for up to 12 hours a day.
In 2021 and 2022, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued violation notices to Wildcatter Redi-Mix, the company that runs the Gunter plant. At least one dust-related violation was resolved when a road leading to the plant was paved in 2022, according to TCEQ documents. TCEQ did not respond to a request for comment.
Neighbors continued to raise concerns about the plant.
Angela Paxton joined the advisory board of Wildcatter Materials, which owns Wildcatter Redi-Mix, a year later. The IRS defines advisory boards as lacking legal and financial authority over companies. She was still serving on the board in 2025 as of her last financial disclosure.
Complaints against the company continued. At one point, Gunter resident Deirdre Diamond, a respiratory therapist and lead advocate for a local group created to fight pollution from concrete batch plants, reached out to her representative in the Legislature, then state Sen. Drew Springer.
Despite the TCEQ’s previous violation notices, Springer concluded that the neighbors’ complaints were “abusive” and filed a bill that he said at the time would prevent efforts to “weaponize the system.” He made similar comments in a recent interview with the news organizations. Springer’s bill allowed the TCEQ to ignore residents after more than five unsubstantiated complaints in seven years.
Diamond and other opponents believed the bill was an attempt to keep residents from exercising their rights and argued that the language was too vague. They said the legislation did not make clear what would constitute an unsubstantiated complaint and that some complaints may be repeated over the years because of TCEQ inaction.
When the bill reached the Senate floor, Angela Paxton voted for its passage.
Matt Welch, a spokesperson for Angela Paxton, pointed to the measure’s bipartisan support in the Senate, saying it was needed “to stop a small group of environmental activists from wasting taxpayer dollars by weaponizing the complaint process.”
He said that between 2019 and 2023, the group filed more than 100 complaints against Dallas-area industrial sites that did not result in findings by the state environmental agency. “These frivolous complaints divert state resources from legitimate violations.”
Angela Paxton did not recuse herself from voting on the bill because it did not relate to any specific company, Welch said. He added that Paxton’s role on the advisory board “carried no decision-making authority” and that she was unaware of any complaints or violations against Wildcatter.
Ethics experts said she should have disclosed her relationship with the company and recused herself. State law bars lawmakers from voting on bills that benefit them or their businesses. The prohibition does not, however, apply to legislation that regulates an entire industry, Senate Secretary Patsy Spaw said.
Because lawmakers write the laws governing what they must disclose and when they should recuse themselves, “a good amount of the time, the guardrails that they create for themselves are not enough,” according to Andrew Cates, a San Antonio ethics lawyer, who said this is one such instance.
Meanwhile, neighbors of Wildcatter’s Gunter plant said the new law left them demoralized and convinced that lawmakers were not interested in protecting them or their land. Diamond moved away after the bill passed. She said she feared the plants’ impact on her children’s health and believed the regulators were on the side of the company.
She was stunned to learn about the Paxtons’ investment in the company.
“You can’t pretend to be about protecting the people when you directly profit from it,” Diamond said in an interview.
A bank statement from the Paxtons’ blind trust checking account shows various deposits from Wildcatter in early 2023.Obtained, highlighted and redacted for privacy by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune
Wildcatter Helps Paxton in Difficult Times
In the months leading up to the bill passing the Legislature, four Wildcatter companies wired more than $73,000 to the Paxtons, according to bank statements reviewed by the news organizations that were part of the previously unreported impeachment documents.
About $10,000 arrived in the two weeks before Angela Paxton voted on the environmental bill. An additional $12,000 was wired the week after the legislation passed in the Senate.
Because the records ProPublica and the Tribune reviewed are limited, the news organizations cannot say with certainty why the payments were made and how they were accounted for on the companies’ books.
The payments came as some Wildcatter companies were failing to pay local property taxes.
At the time, Wildcatter Sand Services, the company the Paxtons’ trust had invested in, already owed more than $31,000 in back taxes, according to Grayson County public records.
Several Wildcatter companies also owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in local taxes in 2023 that soon became delinquent.
That year, Ken Paxton was facing his own troubles as allegations of bribery and corruption reached a fever pitch.
Early in 2023, the U.S. Justice Department’s public integrity unit, known for handling high-stakes political corruption cases, took over an investigation into allegations by Paxton’s senior advisers that he abused his office. (It was later dropped in 2025.)
Paxton also reached a tentative $3.3 million settlement with some of those employees. They had accused him of firing them after they went to authorities with allegations that he had used his office to go after the enemies of an Austin real estate investor and donor. The proposed payout required legislative approval, drawing the ire of lawmakers who questioned why taxpayers should be on the hook. After the Legislature took no action, a judge awarded the whistleblowers $6.6 million in 2025. Paxton called the ruling a “bogus judgment in support of baseless claims by rogue employees.”
Some of the Wildcatter payments came while a House committee was investigating the whistleblowers’ claims about the attorney general’s conduct.
On May 19, a week before Paxton was formally impeached, the blind trust wired $9,000 to attorney Mitch Little’s firm. Little later represented both the trust and Paxton in his impeachment trial. It’s unclear whether the money from Wildcatter was used to pay for the legal representation. The trust’s checking account would not have had enough money for that payment without deposits from the companies earlier in the month, records show. At the time, the trust also had an investment account with $9,300 in cash and just under $1 million in securities, but records do not show any distribution from that account to the checking account in that period.
Neither Loper nor Little, now a state representative, responded to questions about the transaction. Angela Paxton’s spokesperson said she has no knowledge of any payments for impeachment lawyers.
Craig Holman, ethics lobbyist for consumer-advocacy group Public Citizen in Washington, D.C., said it would be particularly problematic if any of the money was used as a “passthrough” for Paxton’s legal fees.
All told, Wildcatter companies wired the Paxtons’ trust 15 payments between January and June 2023 totaling more than $83,000. It is unclear whether payments continued after that date because the records collected by impeachment investigators ended in June.
The following year, two of those companies became delinquent on nearly $200,000 in 2023 property taxes to local schools, cities and counties.
The governments had to sue to recover what they were owed.
The United States will open its 2027 IIHF World Championship campaign against Canada on May 14 in Düsseldorf, Germany. The matchup renews one of hockey’s fiercest rivalries and gives American fans a compelling reason to plan a European vacation around…
Guardian Europe columnists Rokhaya Diallo and Alexander Hurst are taking questions from readers about the riots and protests in France. Join the discussion in the commentshere.
Michael Wolfcarius asks: I cannot understand why the Guardian is selecting dots instead of joining them. France may have developed into the big story for many reasons, many of which have yet to be discussed, but it is not the only place where seemingly small incidents grew into massive protests, some also quite violent; Spain, Italy, Serbia and Albania come to mind. The crystallising reason may be different but the conditions leading up to it are quite similar. Can you put all these events into perspective, context and relation? There are obviously underlying currents making it difficult for people to refrain from making themselves ‘heard’.
Rokhaya: I agree that these movements deserve to be considered together, while at the same time, recognising their different specific national contexts. Housing in Spain, living costs and public services in Italy and France, and corruption in Serbia and Albania are bringing people onto the streets. These concerns touch the foundations of a decent life and people’s ability to shape their future.
What connects them, in my view, is the widening gap between what people need and what political institutions seem willing to deliver. These incidents that have led to protests are not “small .” Serbia’s movement began after a deadly railway-station canopy collapse, which became a focus for anger over corruption and accountability. My reading is that these protests express a crisis of political responsiveness.
Alexander: I think people in all these places – Albania, Spain, France – feel that the political systems that exist aren’t capable of dealing with the sheer scale and nature of the crises facing us, and they’re responding to a sense of ‘loss of control’ (the Brexit campaign really did strike upon a brilliant slogan) over where their societies are headed. There is a general social sense that has flipped from “this is broken, but things can and will get better”, which gives people a stake in the institutions around them, to “this is broken and things can and will get worse”.
The impact of the arrival of AI has been understated. Not just on labour markets, or on the environment, but ontologically. The investment pitch of the most powerful companies in the world, the ones amassing trillion dollar valuations, isn’t just that X-subset of jobs are replaceable, it’s that human beings themselves are replaceable. That the things we do fundamentally don’t matter, and that their goal is to bring this into being. I think that feeling is there even if we don’t immediately put our finger on it in those terms.
The depiction of the Duchess of Sussex by certain sections of the media has often been one of a fame-hungry daughter casting off an elderly father in his declining years and keeping him from his grandchildren as she embraces the international celebrity stage.
Caption: A new report from commercial real estate firm Newmark shows the Wilmington area’s office vacancy rate fell to 15.9% during the third quarter of 2026, its lowest level in two decades. Image created on 10/23 using AI.
Newmark report shows stronger leasing, business expansion, and renewed investor confidence, signaling a potential turning point after years of uncertainty.
WILMINGTON — After six difficult years for Delaware’s office market, commercial real estate professionals are seeing something they have been waiting for: measurable signs of recovery.
A new report from commercial real estate firm Newmark shows the Wilmington area’s office vacancy rate fell to 15.9% during the third quarter of 2026, its lowest level in two decades.
The improvement reflects businesses occupying more office space, stronger leasing activity and growing demand from expanding companies. Investors are also beginning to return to a market that has struggled since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For six years, when someone asked, ‘How is the office market in Delaware?’ I said ‘challenging,'” said Wills Elliman, senior managing director at Newmark. “I meant terrible but didn’t want to say it out loud. That’s changing, and we saw it this quarter.”
Businesses are keeping and expanding their space
According to Newmark’s third-quarter Delaware Office Market Overview, businesses occupied a net additional 139,842 square feet during the quarter.
That brought net absorption for the first nine months of 2026 to 208,458 square feet, already exceeding the full-year totals recorded in every year since 2012.
Net absorption measures the change in occupied office space. Positive absorption means businesses are collectively occupying more space than they are vacating.
Wilmington’s overall vacancy rate declined from 16.8% in the second quarter to 15.9% in the third quarter, well below the market’s 20-year average of 18%.
Leasing activity also improved, with nearly 195,000 square feet leased during the quarter.
Elliman said the improvement reflects an important shift in how businesses are making decisions about their offices.
“Tenants took less space when they moved or renewed. Now, more are keeping their space or expanding. We’re seeing that especially with law firms.”
Among the largest transactions was Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell’s renewal of an 82,549-square-foot lease at 1201 N. Market St.
Financial technology company Fiserv also signed a lease at 800 Delaware Ave., while Gordon, Fournaris & Mammarella leased 9,540 square feet along Lancaster Pike.
Those transactions demonstrate the continuing importance of Delaware’s legal, financial and professional services industries to Wilmington’s commercial real estate market.
Growing businesses offer reason for optimism
Perhaps the most encouraging finding involves companies currently searching for office space.
Newmark identified approximately 603,000 square feet of active tenant demand in the Wilmington market.
Nearly 370,000 square feet of that demand comes from businesses seeking to expand or enter the market.
That distinction is important. Companies renewing existing leases help maintain occupancy, but expanding businesses and new employers can create opportunities for additional jobs and economic activity.
The broader regional economy is also supporting demand.
Unemployment across the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area stood at 3.8% in August, compared with the national rate of 4.1%.
Employment in office-oriented industries remains approximately 4% above pre-pandemic levels.
Investors are returning to the office market
Beyond improving occupancy, Elliman sees another encouraging development: Investors are purchasing office properties again.
“Investors are buying office buildings again. Good buildings in good locations are trading at prices that make sense,” Elliman said. “Add renewed confidence in Wilmington’s business climate, and there’s reason to feel better about the office market than we have in years.”
The return of buyers is significant because office buildings have faced uncertainty over tenant demand, operating expenses and property values since the pandemic.
Elliman said Newmark is involved in another transaction that could further demonstrate improving investor confidence.
“We just put a large office building under contract, and we’ll have more to say about it in our Q4 2026 review,” he said. “It’s the kind of building tenants will love, at a price that makes sense for the buyer. That deal is one more reason to have confidence in this market.”
The property and terms of the pending transaction have not been disclosed.
While Elliman’s observations suggest renewed investment activity, Newmark’s quarterly report focuses primarily on leasing, occupancy and asking rents rather than broader commercial property sales trends.
Downtown is improving, but challenges remain
The recovery is not occurring evenly across Wilmington’s office market.
Downtown Wilmington recorded particularly strong activity during the third quarter, with positive net absorption of 148,681 square feet.
However, downtown’s vacancy rate remains at 18.2%, higher than the overall market average.
Other Wilmington-area office markets present a mixed picture.
Office market
Vacancy rate
Wilmington North
11.3%
Wilmington West
13.5%
Wilmington South
16.2%
Downtown Wilmington
18.2%
Overall market
15.9%
Wilmington South experienced negative absorption during the quarter, meaning more space was vacated than occupied.
Older buildings also face competition from newer properties offering modern layouts, amenities and updated technology.
Office buildings constructed since 2000 have a vacancy rate of 14.4%, compared with 15.9% across the overall market.
Still, Newmark reports that the gap between newer buildings and older properties has narrowed, suggesting demand is improving beyond just the newest office towers.
Limited construction is helping the market
One significant factor behind Wilmington’s improving vacancy rate is the absence of new office construction.
Newmark reports that no office buildings are currently under construction in the Wilmington market.
The most recent major delivery was the 100,000-square-foot Avenue North office building completed in 2024, which is now 88% leased.
With few new buildings entering the market, businesses looking for office space are increasingly choosing from existing properties.
Another factor is the conversion of older commercial properties to residential or other uses.
Such conversions can reduce excess office inventory while bringing additional residents into business districts, potentially supporting restaurants, retail businesses and other downtown services.
However, declining vacancy does not automatically mean every building is becoming more financially successful. Removing vacant buildings from the office inventory can improve marketwide statistics even without equivalent growth in occupied space.
In Wilmington’s case, the report identifies both positive net absorption and constrained supply as contributors to the improvement.
Office rents remain relatively stable
Despite stronger demand, office rents have not increased dramatically.
Average asking rents reached $26.14 per square foot during the third quarter, up 1% from the previous quarter but down 3.3% compared with a year earlier.
Newmark attributes much of the annual decline to Wilmington University’s purchase of a large vacant building at 3 Beaver Valley Road in 2025, which removed higher-priced space from the available inventory.
That change affected the marketwide average rather than necessarily reflecting widespread rent reductions.
For businesses considering expansion or relocation, relatively stable rents and a substantial selection of available properties could present opportunities.
For property owners, the challenge remains attracting tenants while managing operating costs, property improvements and financing.
A potential turning point for Wilmington
The latest report offers reasons for optimism after several years in which remote work and changing workplace habits raised questions about the future of traditional office districts.
Vacancy is declining, office employment has stabilized and businesses are actively searching for additional space.
Perhaps more importantly, according to Elliman, tenants and investors appear increasingly willing to make longer-term commitments to Wilmington office properties.
Still, the market has nearly 3 million square feet listed as available, including space occupied by existing tenants but being marketed for lease.
That leaves significant room for improvement.
The long-term question is whether Wilmington can build on its advantages as a center for banking, law, financial services and other professional industries while continuing to attract new businesses.
The next phase of recovery may depend not only on filling traditional office buildings but also on creating an environment where employers, residents, restaurants and retail businesses can grow together.
For now, Newmark’s findings and Elliman’s observations point in the same direction: After years of difficult conditions, Wilmington’s office market is showing renewed momentum.
Whether that momentum becomes sustained growth will depend on continued tenant expansion, successful property investments and the strength of Delaware’s business climate
TO GO: Wilmington office market at a glance
Third quarter 2026
15.9%: Overall office vacancy, the lowest in 20 years.
208,458 square feet: Net office space absorbed during the first nine months of 2026.
603,000 square feet: Office space being sought by prospective tenants.
370,000 square feet: Demand from expanding businesses or companies new to the market.
$26.14: Average annual asking rent per square foot.
Zero: New office projects currently under construction.
18.2%: Downtown Wilmington office vacancy rate.
Source: Newmark, Delaware Office Market Overview, Third Quarter 2026.
France will deploy about 70,000 police around the country on Saturday as the government seeks to prevent more civil unrest after some of the worst street violence in years erupted on the fringes of cost-of-living protests last weekend.
The interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said on Friday the security forces would include elite units usually used for counter-terrorism operations and hostage rescues, adding that there had been social media calls for violence from “ultra-left” groups.
Exclusive: Key figure in campaign group accused of saying she would ‘never hire a black person’, and second figure discussed Sydney Sweeney’s ‘assets’
The Free Speech Union (FSU) is reeling from internal grievances involving allegations of racism, workplace discrimination and sexually inappropriate remarks by senior members of staff, the Guardian can reveal.
A key figure in the campaign group, the chief operating officer, Sigrun Olafsdottir, departed late last week after employees alleged that she told a junior member of staff she would “never hire a black person” as a part of a one-on-one meeting late last year.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast reportedly plans significant job cuts in its cable division as the firm continues to lose residential broadband and TV customers. Comcast lost 144,000 residential broadband customers in Q3 2026, up from a 91,000-customer loss in the same quarter a year ago, the company said in its earnings report today. Comcast historically capitalized on a lack of competition for high-speed wired broadband. But now it faces stronger competition from fixed wireless providers and from fiber providers in parts of its cable territory. "Fixed wireless remains aggressive and continues to take share, while fiber construction remains elevated, with pockets of irrational pricing and promotional activity," Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh said today in an earnings call.
Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong said "irrational pricing" from fiber operators includes $30 to $40 monthly broadband offers "in specific markets in the third quarter." He said $30 to $40 pricing is irrational because deploying fiber costs $1,500 or more per home, and is "getting more expensive with construction costs up as you get into more suburban and rural areas." "As we look at the return profile of that, to us, that is irrational competition," Armstrong said. While he didn't name any specific competitors, Verizon has been pitching FiOS fiber plans that start at $30 a month. Comcast's network is a mix of fiber and cable, and it offers fiber-to-the-home in only small portions of its cable territory.
Armstrong said more Comcast customers are leaving when they face "pricing transitions," apparently referring to the price hikes customers get when promotional offers expire. "We've been refining our offers and retention strategies to better manage these transitions and strengthen customer retention," he said. Cavanagh said that "satellite is not yet a material factor" in the competition Comcast faces, but that Comcast is focused on "anticipating emerging forms of competition and positioning our business to respond as the market evolves."
Cate Blanchett and Hannah Waddingham join William on sofa for special edition to celebrate prince’s Earthshot prize
The Prince of Wales has braved the chatshow sofa, making a surprise appearance on The Graham Norton Show.
In the pre-recorded show, to be aired on Friday on BBC One, William made a surprise appearance in a special Earthshot prize edition to promote his environmental initiative, which has an annual awards ceremony due to be staged in Mumbai, India, next month.
The US supreme court has cleared the way for New Hampshire to prohibit student IDs as a form of voter identification ahead of November’s midterm elections.
In a brief unsigned order, justices sided with a Republican National Committee (RNC)-backed appeal on the matter. They cited a longstanding rule that lower federal courts should not “alter election rules” too close to election day.
The prime minister said the government is having conversation about emergency preparedness
A DUP minister has said he is confident MP Carla Lockhart will stay in the party despite leaving its main decision-making body amid a row with party leadership over the future of Stormont.
Lockhart is at odds with DUP leader, fellow MP Gavin Robinson, over whether the party should withdraw deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly from the power-sharing executive.
The closure of the studio responsible for some of the best games of the 21st century leaves the world of RPGs feeling smaller without the hope of another instalment of the much-loved sci-fi series
Earlier this week, EA announced the closure of BioWare, a game studio with a 30-year history of compelling role-playing games, complex characters and bold, choice-driven narratives. Its forthcoming game in the Mass Effect sci-fi series has been cancelled, and more than 400 people are losing their jobs. As someone who has worked in the video games industry for 15 years and spent almost 20 as a BioWare fan, I am among millions of mourners today.
It’s not terribly hard to see why BioWare got the chop. Its parent company has been saddled with $20bn of debt thanks to a recent leveraged buyout involving Jared Kushner and the Saudi wealth fund. EA was looking for weight to cut loose, and despite its hardcore fanbase and reputation for genre-defining RPGs such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age, BioWare hadn’t put out a critical or commercial hit in over 10 years. Its forthcoming game, titled Mass Effect: Universe according to a leaked trailer, was announced back in 2020. Despite some flashy teases, it was still years away from release.
After Brody called out the ‘death and misery’ in Palestine, the Netflix hit’s Jewish creator said they don’t see eye to eye
The creator of the hit Netflix comedy Nobody Wants This has responded to star Adam Brody’s recent support of Palestine amid the Israel-Gaza war.
“Everyone is entitled to a different opinion,” Erin Foster said in an interview with the Not Skinny Not Fat podcast when asked about Brody calling for a free Palestine.
An excerpt from an upcoming book claims Kushner had access to alleged Middle Eastern "slush" funds when he served as a senior White House adviser during the first Trump administration. Kushner and his legal team deny the accusations.
The New York mayor’s passion for the Gunners and human rights presents an opportunity to push back on the club’s lucrative UAE sponsorship
Like him or not, there is no doubt that New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s passion for certain issues is electric, and that passion played a large part in him getting elected. But today, two of his biggest passions are on a collision course.
On one hand, Mamdani is now arguably the US’s most high-profile supporter of English Premier League champions Arsenal. A superfan since he was a child, he has put the Gunners into the American spotlight more than anyone since becoming mayor. The Empire State Building gleamed in Arsenal’s red and white when they won the Premier League title. He wrote an essay about what Arsenal’s championship means to him, talks about Arsenal at press conferences and interviews and inaugurated Thierry Henry Way near Times Square in honor of the Arsenal legend.
Since June, however, the only candidates Fellowship PAC has spent on have been Democrats, including those who have criticized the president’s meme coin, and it is getting help from a former Trump administration official’s company.
Since June, the only candidates Fellowship PAC has spent on have been Democrats.
Fellowship PAC funneled $600,000 since this summer through a firm co-founded by former Trump crypto adviser Bo Hines to help reelect Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York; Rep. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire; and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia. The Democrats are considered crypto allies, and none of them are facing competitive elections this fall.
All those advertising dollars have been spent through a vendor called Nxum Group, which was co-founded by Hines, a former Republican congressional candidate and Trump administration official.
Hines did not return a request for comment, and it is not known whether he has personally been involved in the Nxum Group’s work on behalf of Fellowship PAC. In congressional races in 2022 and 2024, he presented himself as a Trump-loving MAGA acolyte.
There is a thick web of ties between Hines, Fellowship PAC, and one of the biggest players in the crypto industry, a stablecoin company called Tether.
Before Trump’s election, Hines was involved in promoting a Trump-themed meme coin that made a handful of investors millions before plummeting in value. After Trump’s election, the president tapped Hines to serve as the head of the White House Council of Advisers on Digital Assets. In that role, Hines helped pass a law that created stablecoin regulations that benefited Tether.
As Hines served in the Trump administration, Tether was paying money to the firm that Hines co-owned, Nxum Group, according to a report last week in the Wall Street Journal. Nxum Group told the news outlet that Hines had no involvement in the company’s business dealings with Tether during that time. Hines said in a June 2025 ethics disclosure that he had only a “passive investment interest” in the company.
Hines left the Trump administration in August 2025 and, a month later, Tether announced that he would serve as the CEO of its U.S. branch.
Tether also has ties to Fellowship PAC. The newly created Fellowship PAC received a $10 million donation in January from Tether’s U.S. banking firm, Cantor Fitzgerald. In April, Fellowship PAC announced that Tether’s vice president of regulatory affairs would serve as its chair.
Although it launched with a splash last year by claiming that it had a $100 million war chest, the PAC has never reported as much as that in official campaign finance disclosures. The PAC’s last receipt was in January, and its cash on hand dwindled to $250,000 as of October 14.
Throughout the midterm elections, Fellowship PAC has leaned heavily on Nxum Group to spend advertising dollars on various congressional races.
Fellowship PAC spent exclusively on Republicans until its first expenditure on behalf of a Democrat, Torres, in June. That spending coincided with public polls showing increasingly dismal fortunes for Republicans in the midterm elections. Since then, the PAC has spent exclusively on Democratic candidates.
Torres’s and Warner’s campaigns did not respond to requests for comment. Goodlander’s campaign said she had nothing to do with the $150,000 that Fellowship PAC spent on digital advertising in her race. The money, the PAC disclosed in filings, had been routed through Nxum Group on August 31.
“Congresswoman Goodlander has been one of the strongest advocates in Congress for cracking down on Big Tech and crypto profiteering and getting dark money out of politics,” her campaign said in a statement. “Like all campaigns, we’re legally barred from coordinating with outside groups like these, so you’d need to ask them why they’re spending in this race.”
Goodlander, Torres, and Warner are all rated as strong supporters of the crypto industry on an industry scorecard. Still, all three have been critical of Trump’s personal dealings in the industry though his $TRUMP meme coin, which has helped make him $1.4 billion from crypto ventures.
Warner recently ran an ad of his own attacking Trump over the meme coin.
“That’s not governing. It’s grifting,” the Democratic senator said. “The corruption needs to stop.”
The holiday used to be all about trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. No more – and it could something to do with the fact that traditional markers of adulthood have changed.
Engineers sprang into action amid concern that an 82-year-old WWII shipwreck's crumbling masts could topple and set off its 1,500-ton sunken explosives payload.
Conservative media personalities who have long benefited from boosting the president will be forced to wrestle with the likely fallout of Republican losses in next month’s US midterm elections
Nothing lasts forever. Jesse Kelly knows his meteoric rise through conservative radio will end one day – just like Donald Trump’s power over the Republican party.
Every day, the 6ft 8in Kelly walks a tightrope between sycophancy and criticism of the US president: the same fine line many rightwing hosts have attempted to tread throughout Trump’s rise, fall, and then resurrection from the political graveyard after his 2020 presidential election defeat.
Anthropic claims AI will shift how work gets done and labor demand – but some experts are skeptical of the vision
Last year, the Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, warned that artificial intelligence could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs and that in six months it would be writing 90% of code. Neither of those predictions came to pass.
Now, in a report Anthropic published on Thursday, the company said it was hiring fewer junior technical workers and that human attention has become the new “bottleneck” as it increasingly relies on its Claude AI agents.
Switzerland says patient is wife of Swiss diplomat and believed to have contracted virus while travelling in Uganda
Health officials across Africa are racing to determine how Nigeria’s first Ebola patient in more than a decade became infected, amid fears the outbreak could spread further after reaching a fourth African country.
The Swiss foreign ministry said on Friday the patient in Nigeria, the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, had not travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the outbreak was first detected in mid-May before spreading to Uganda, Kenya and now Nigeria. The woman was believed to have contracted Ebola while travelling with her husband in Uganda, the ministry added.
The Supreme Court already has weighed in on aspects of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, rejecting limits on birthright citizenship, putting the brakes on attempts to deport people using the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act and allowing the administration to revoke protections for immigrants from countries plagued by war, unrest or natural disasters.
Now a new immigration case centered on college campuses is headed the justices’ way. With both the Justice Department and civil rights lawyers representing affected immigrants calling for review and a clear split in appellate rulings, the issue could be ripe for the Court to hear argument and render its judgment by early next summer.
Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, arrested in New York City last year because of his activism at Columbia University, and the Trump administration have suggested in court filings that the justices should take up Khalil’s case as well as that of a Georgetown University scholar.
The appeals follow circuit rulings in favor of the government in Khalil’s case and in favor of the Indian scholar, Badar Khan Suri.
“This represents a clear circuit split that will not get resolved absent this Court’s intervention,” Khalil’s lawyers wrote in their petition in Khalil v. Trump, 26-530. The other case is Trump v. Suri, 26-380.
At its root, the dispute concerns the administration’s authority to detain and deport scholars and students over their support for Palestinian rights.
In both cases, Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the U.S. whose wife is an American citizen, and Suri, who holds a visa to do post-doctoral work in this country and also is married to an American, allege they were detained for speaking out in favor of Palestinian rights, in violation of the First Amendment.
Lawyers for Khalil say they have learned that at least a dozen legal permanent residents in the U.S. have been subjected to deportation proceedings based on the same foreign policy ground that Rubio first applied to Khalil.
The issue before the court is somewhat more technical, whether the immigrants can have their constitutional challenges to their detention heard now by federal courts or whether federal law instead directs them first to immigration courts that are part of the Justice Department.
Trump had promised to target students who joined protests against the war in Gaza in 2024. Arrests during the first few months of his second presidential term drew extensive press coverage, perhaps none more than Khalil’s.
He was arrested in March 2025 after Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that his presence in the United States was contrary to American foreign policy interests, invoking a rarely used broad power to expel foreign students.
At the time, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said the arrest was in support of Trump’s “executive orders prohibiting antisemitism” and that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
Less than two weeks later, federal agents detained Suri outside his suburban Washington apartment complex. Suri did not take part in protests, but the administration said he had undisputed family ties to Hamas and wrote social media posts in favor of the group. His wife’s father once served as an adviser to a Hamas leader.
Federal judges eventually ordered the men released. Khalil spent more than three months in detention, mostly in a facility in Louisiana, where he missed the birth of his first child. Suri was held for two months, mainly in Texas.
The Justice Department appealed both rulings in favor of the men, and federal courts of appeals in Philadelphia and Richmond, Virginia, reached different decisions.
A three-judge panel of the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia decided in a 2-1 vote that Khalil’s case belongs in immigration courts, reversing a district court ruling in favor of Khalil.
In an opinion joined by Judges Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas, the court wrote that the Immigration and Nationality Act stripped federal courts jurisdiction, even as it acknowledged that “some petitioners, like Khalil, will have to wait to seek relief for allegedly unlawful government conduct.”
A three-judge panel of the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, also voting 2-1, came out the other way. It ruled that Suri’s case was properly in the federal court system, affirming a district court judgment that Suri should be released while the government continues its efforts to deport him.
Describing Suri’s and similar cases, Judge DeAndrea Benjamin wrote that “in each case, the Government insists that judicial review of the allegedly unconstitutional detention can come only after removal proceedings that can last for months or years. Until then, according to the Government, a detained noncitizen has no judicial recourse. We disagree.”
In Khalil’s case, the Justice Department opposed a typically routine request for an extension to file his Supreme Court appeal. Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees matters from the Third Circuit, granted the extension.
Responses in both cases are due in November, and the Supreme Court could consider the petitions shortly before or after its Christmas recess.
Mark Sherman is a regular contributor to Constitution Daily. Sherman covered the Supreme Court for the Associated Press for 20 years, and he has previously written about the Justice Department, health care, and national politics.
Editor’s Note: Blog posts written by contributors reflect the analysis and opinions of the authors, and do not represent the opinions or positions of the National Constitution Center.
Ministers will make an unprecedented intervention in water bills and how companies prioritise investment, directing bosses to bring down costs and stop leaks and sewage overflows.
Angela Eagle, the environment secretary, has told suppliers in England and Wales she plans to intervene in the next price review – conducted by the water regulator, Ofwat.
Israel's Netanyahu says he ordered the military to cordon off a major city in the occupied West Bank after an attack by Palestinian gunmen that killed two Israeli soldiers.
State authorities investigating killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti said federal officials paused transfer of evidence
The federal government has stopped sharing evidence with Minnesota authorities who are investigating the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers during a violent anti-immigration, anti-protest crackdown in the state earlier this year, state officials said in recent court filings.
Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration in March for access to materials they said they needed to independently investigate the shootings.
Tatiana Mitrova, a fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and former energy scholar at Moscow’s Russian Academy of Sciences, and Sergey Vakulenko, an oil and gas expert at Carnegie’s Russia Eurasia Center, argue that Russia and Ukraine are locked in an energy war that has become an adaptation spiral, despite growing human and economic costs and despite current US pressure on Ukraine. They observe Ukraine’s remarkable ability to withstand Russian strikes, while questioning claims that long-range Ukrainian strikes will be able to achieve game-changing damage on Russia. Ukraine and Russia have transformed the role of energy warfare in modern conflict, drawing on low costs drones but also new forms of technological resilience that are likely to make wars longer and more dangerous.
CBP commissioner Rodney Scott says $46bn Texas project is justified amid court-ordered pause on wall’s construction
The Trump administration’s top border official defended plans to build a wall and other infrastructure in the Big Bend of Texas despite mounting opposition against the project and a court-ordered pause on construction, saying his goal of fortifying the country’s borders was “non-negotiable”.
Rodney Scott, the commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), said the $46bn wall project was justified despite a bipartisan coalition of landowners, local businesses and environmentalists who view it as a waste of taxpayer money that could be destructive to a region with historically low migrant crossings, in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press.
Meghan reveals she was made aware of ‘disturbing allegations’ against him in 2018 by Met police
The Duchess of Sussex has said she is “deeply distressed” over accusations involving child sexual abuse images against her estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr, and revealed she was made aware of “disturbing allegations” against him in 2018 by the Metropolitan police.
Meghan issued a statement after the Sun newspaper published claims that her half-brother Thomas Markle Jr alleged he had found a stash of images belonging to their father at his former home in the Philippines.
Thomas Markle, the estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is facing a probe in the Philippines over alleged possession of child sexual abuse materials.
Republicans are resorting to childish taunts to defend an uncommonly dishonorable state attorney general
It’s a bit like Lucy with the football. Every few years, Democrats convince themselves that a Texas Senate seat might finally switch from red to blue. On paper, it makes sense. Texas is a large and urbanizing state with an increasingly educated – and increasingly non-white – population.
Other one-time Republican strongholds that have undergone similar demographic shifts have turned purple or even blueish – think Georgia, for example. The border counties along the Rio Grande valley, with their deep poverty and big Latino populations, were long thought to be fertile ground to nurture a kind of anti-Trump populism that could be converted into pro-Democratic sentiment. The state Democratic party is anemic there, but a few talented candidates have emerged.
As riot police encircled Place de la République last week, lobbing teargas canisters to disperse demonstrators, the conductor Étienne Jarrier and his orchestra played on. They kept playing even after everyone else had disappeared and teargas was being fired into the central Paris square.
It was only when Jarrier noticed his musicians were being directly targeted that he ordered them to stop. “There were teargas canisters landing in the double bass and music stand cases, and starting fires the musicians had to stamp out,” he told the Guardian.
Show features live chat sessions with breeders, a podcast and updates on dogs’ progress from birth to weigh-ins
A 24-hour Finnish TV show dedicated entirely to the live progress of a dog and her six newborn puppies is drawing millions of viewers.
As well as a 24-hour webcam, Pentulive (Puppy Live) includes live evening chat sessions with the dogs’ breeder, a podcast and an instant notification service that updates followers on the puppies’ progress – from their birth to weigh-ins and first nail trims – for eight weeks.
People under 35 are hunting for no-frills rides they can pay for in cash and fix themselves – defying expectations to take on steep loans
Jack Price joined the marines in fall 2021 knowing he would need a car to get around base and that he couldn’t afford a new one. A joyless, month-long search through dealer classifieds and Facebook Marketplace listings ended when his mother spotted a 2010 Volkswagen Jetta posted on her office listserv by a co-worker moving abroad. With just 60,000 miles (96,560km) on the meter, the car (a manual!) was mechanically sound, and the air conditioning, sunroof and Bluetooth radio worked too. At $6,000, it was a steal. Price paid in cash.
Five years on, the Jetta, which he called the Pewter Pebble, is still carting him from A to B in unassuming style. “I’ve completely driven it into the ground,” says the 30-year-old, who lives in Los Angeles. “All over bases, cross-country a couple times, not really lovingly. I get so much crap from people, but not people my age.”
Byron Donalds removed mentions of the president from his website and has barely uttered his name – will his ploy prove successful in a tight governor’s race?
It took Byron Donalds, addressing a wildly supportive crowd at a rally in Florida’s bluest county, some time to list those he blamed for any “affordability” issues they might be experiencing.
Joe Biden, and the radical policies of the Democrats, were at fault, the Republican nominee for Florida governor insisted in his stump speech at Broward county’s Green Glades West ranch, even though neither has wielded power in Washington for almost two years.
Exclusive: Documents show German party’s scramble to request support after president’s 2016 election win and co-leader’s pursuit of Steve Bannon
A data leak from Germany’s far-right German Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has revealed the extent of efforts by the party to court Donald Trump and other leading figures in the Maga movement, stretching back more than a decade.
The trove reveals the pains the AfD took in wooing the president, whom they saw from the beginning as a potential ally, with senior party officials agonising over the wording of an obsequious congratulatory telegram when he was elected in 2016, which included the wish that his “hopes as a person be fulfilled”.
Omar Muñoz, one of 28 people charged in California, speaks out about being dragged from his home in front of cameras as DoJ accused of ‘disgusting’ PR campaign
Omar Muñoz was getting ready to have his morning coffee just after 5am on Monday when he heard a loud bang at the front door of his Los Angeles home.
“Open up or else we’ll break down the door, and it’ll be bad for you,” the man on the other side yelled, Muñoz, 72, recalled.
Physicists at Northwestern University have successfully trapped a single positron for an entire month, allowing researchers to study its quantum properties with unprecedented precision. "Further investigations using the trap might reveal the secret of why the world around us is made of matter and not antimatter, when things could have presumably gone either way," reports Scientific American. From the report: Every normal particle of matter has an antimatter counterpart with equal mass but opposite charge. To build their trap, physicists started with atoms of sodium 22, a radioactive isotope with a half-life of about two and a half years. When one of these atoms decays, it emits a positron -- the antimatter counterpart of the electron. "The big challenge is to persuade these positrons to slow down and then capture them," says Gerald Gabrielse, a physicist at Northwestern University, who oversaw the project. The team reported its achievement on Wednesday in Physical Review Letters (PDF).
The first step is to send the positrons through the crystal lattice of a sliver of cold tungsten. As the particles go pinballing through the material, they slow down and lose energy. "Every time they bang into something, there's a chance of annihilation, but it doesn't always happen," Gabrielse says. "If they make it to the end, they get popped out." Next, the physicists steer the positrons along a channel using electromagnetic fields. Eventually the particles end up in a vacuum, just three tenths of a degree Celsius above absolute zero, trapped by an electric field on top and bottom and a magnetic field on the sides. "If you want to hold on to antimatter, you have to hold it in a container without walls," Gabrielse says. This method allowed the researchers to isolate and study a solitary, lone positron for a monthâ"and could let them do so indefinitely.
The researchers intend to use their trap to make precise measurements of the positron's magnetic moment -- basically the strength and orientation of its magnetic field. To do this, they must determine two things: the energy needed to flip the direction of the positron's spin and the energy needed to make it jump from its ground state to its first excited state. Using a similar trap setup, Gabrielse and his team have already measured the magnetic moment of an electron to a precision of one part in 10 trillion. Taking the equivalent measurement for a positron will allow them to make a crucial comparison. "We're looking to see if they have an exactly opposite magnetic moment," Gabrielse says. That's the prediction of the Standard Model of particle physics. If the two have different values, however, this could help explain why our universe is made of matter instead of antimatter.
Trump’s latest tactic to champion Republicans at midterm rallies? Assessing men’s bodies in meticulous detail
Speaking at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, earlier this month, to support the Republican senator Jon Husted, Donald Trump broke from his prepared remarks.
Trump said he had recently learned that Husted played football at university. The president, 80, said this had prompted him to conduct a physical assessment of Husted.
Investigation marks a rare move by the DoJ against an ally of the US president. Plus, why the world’s coral reefs are facing a dire future
Good morning. Corey Lewandowski, a former political adviser to Donald Trump and top aide at the Department of Homeland Security, is under criminal investigation over allegations he profited off his role in the US government. The Department of Justice has not yet issued subpoenas or other legal demands in the criminal investigation, and a lawyer for Lewandowski did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The justice department under Trump has investigated several prominent critics of the president, but investigations of people close to Trump have been rare.
Lewandowski served as a top aide to Kristi Noem during her tenure as homeland security secretary. Lewandowski allegedly signed some DHS contracts despite having questionable legal authority as a special government employee, according to one DHS official. Certain grants and contracts, including those involving the Federal Emergency Management Agency, were put on hold at Lewandowski’s direction, according to two other sources.
Where else has Trump suffered a legal setback? Donald Trump has been ordered by a US judge to cooperate with the discovery process mandated for his lawsuit against the BBC and to sit for a deposition by 11 December – or else he could be subject to sanctions, including possible dismissal of the $10bn lawsuit.
What request has Trump claimed he made of Google? Trump has said Google rejected his request to rename the Atlantic Ocean after himself or America. Google has previously acceded to Trump’s demands, with locations labelled “Gulf of America” and “Lake America” for US users at the president’s request.
Retail sales in Great Britain fell more steeply than expected last month, the latest negative economic update before the chancellor, John Healey, announces his budget next week.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the volume of goods sold fell 0.4% month on month in September, much steeper than economists’ consensus expectations of a 0.1% fall.
Heineken has warned British bars and pubs that the boom in popularity of weight-loss drugs could lead to a fall in sales of beer and cider.
The world’s second-largest brewer sent a presentation to British hospitality customers earlier this month that said the use of GLP-1 medication – such as Ozempic and Wegovy – could reduce the desire to drink alcohol. This in turn could result in “fullness and fewer serves” of pints in pubs and bars, it added.
Kareem’s Quote of the Day: What would Langston Hughes make of the America we’ve built—and what are we doing to bring it closer to the country he imagined?
Mud Wrestling with Ramaswamy and Vance: Republicans are trying to exploit Dr. Amy Acton’s childhood trauma, but their immoral strategy is backfiring.
Vladimir Putin, Humanitarian: Steve Witkoff’s praise of Putin shows what happens when flattering power requires giving the dictionary a rewrite.
The Price of Diesel: Trump’s demands over Russian refineries and Musk’s Starlink restrictions make Ukrainian lives subordinate to their priorities.
Origin of the Dream (PBS): This documentary follows the development of Dr. King’s greatest speech and how it was influenced by Langston Hughes’s poetry.
Langston Hughes, “The Weary Blues” (1958): The poet performs with a jazz band, and I’m still wondering whether it offers rest or surrender.
Kareem’s Quote of the Day
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed— Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.
—Langston Hughes (1901-1967), American poet and activist
(Photo: Carl Van Vechten)
I often wonder what great Americans of past generations would make of the country today. Would General George Washington be more amazed at our incredible modern weapons or appalled at the ways in which they’ve been used? Would Harriet Tubman be more surprised by Barack Obama’s election as president or by the persistence of racism 160-plus years after the end of the Civil War?
I think Langston Hughes would look out at the country and say something along the lines of, “Yes, indeed, the more things change, the more they stay the same.” This week’s quote comes from his poem, “Let America Be America Again,” which is both a clear-eyed look at the nation’s shortcomings and a hopeful prayer for its possibilities. At the end of each of the first few verses, he adds a parenthetical thought: “America was never America to me,” or some variation of that theme. Then he asks, “who are you that mumbles in the dark,” and answers like this: “I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,/I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars./I am the red man driven from the land,/I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—And finding only the same old stupid plan/Of dog-eat-dog, of mighty crush the weak.” Lines that were written in 1935 and published in full in 1938, but that could have been written yesterday, or tomorrow.
Hughes was born in 1901, in Joplin, Missouri. Both his paternal great-grandmothers were enslaved Africans, and both his paternal great-grandfathers were white Kentucky slaveowners. On his mother’s side, he was of African-American, French, English, and Native American descent. Hughes’s family was relatively well-off, though he was largely raised by his maternal grandmother, who steeped him in stories of Black resistance, dignity, and perseverance, shaping his understanding of racial responsibility and his identification with the oppressed. He attended Columbia University in New York and eventually became a central voice of the Harlem Renaissance, that flowering of Black artistic and intellectual life in the 1920s.
Hughes helped redefine who and what American poetry could be. While contemporaries like T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound pushed American poetry toward complex, Eurocentric modernism, Hughes looked inward to his American roots. He embraced the voices, rhythms, and experiences of the African Americans he’d known in both New York and the South of his childhood. He drew directly from jazz and blues, weaving their cadences, improvisation, and emotional honesty into his verse. This was a radical artistic choice, treating vernacular culture as worthy of serious literature rather than something to be polished away. His work captured both the pain of racism and segregation and the joy, humor, resilience, and beauty of Black communities. His 1926 essay, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” became a manifesto, arguing that Black artists should express themselves freely without worrying about the approval of the white establishment.
Never married, Hughes spent much of his adult life traveling in Europe, Africa, and the Soviet Union, and connected the oppression of Blacks in America to global struggles for equality and the working class. Besides poetry, he also wrote plays, novels, short stories, essays, children’s literature, opera libretti, and a long-running newspaper column.
“Let America Be America Again” is one of his signal works, a social critique that captures the reality of working-class experiences shared across our multiracial country. As Harry Belafonte once remarked, “When Hughes writes, in the first two lines of his poem, ‘Let America be America again/ Let it be the dream it used to be,’ he acknowledges that America is primarily a dream, a hope, an aspiration, that may never be fully attainable, but that spurs us to be better, to be larger.” For better or worse, that’s a message that’s still relevant today.
An old idea springs anew as a chorus of influential voices predicts that AI may trigger crises of vast magnitude
In a preface to his book Capitalism and Freedom, the American economist Milton Friedman famously observed that a crisis can propel once-fringe ideas into the political mainstream.
“Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around,” he wrote. The job of intellectuals, thinktanks and economists, he argued, is to refine the quality of these ambient ideas, so that good ones are ready when disaster strikes.
To reclaim control of the Senate, Democrats need to retain all the Senate seats they have and flip four more in the 2026 midterm elections. Shrai Popat, the Guardian's US politics reporter, explains which are the key races to watch in November.
The US president is portraying Zelenskyy as the villain as he strives for Russia’s approval
If Donald Trump could, he would fly to Munich to sign away Ukraine to Vladimir Putin, and return to wave the document as “peace in our time”, hoping to claim at least the second Fifa peace prize.
Whatever the complicated motives of Neville Chamberlain, his well-grounded fear after the carnage of a world war of another apocalypse and his wishful thinking that Hitler would be satiated after carving up Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain had not sent his son-in-law and former golf partner and real estate partner in advance to cut back-end deals with the Nazis to profit for his family and cronies.
Voters in 39 states will face an array of referendum issues – including Alabama’s on the national anthem in schools
Americans heading to the polls for next month’s midterm elections are not just choosing whom to send to Washington, or their state capitols. There are also 145 statewide measures on ballots across 39 states, polling voters on actions from a novel wealth tax on California’s billionaires to requiring Alabama’s public schools to broadcast or perform the first stanza of the national anthem each week.
Voters in Idaho, Nevada and Virginia are asked to protect abortion rights; voters in Missouri are asked to give those rights back. Property tax issues appear on dozens of state ballots. Several state referendums ask voters to bar trans athletes from competing in women’s sports, or bar gender-affirming medical care for minors.
The Onyx RCR 80V can hit motorcycle speeds, but after hundreds of miles in the saddle, I found there’s a lot more to this compact electric machine than going fast.
Brazilians will head to the polls on Sunday in one of the most consequential presidential elections of the last decade. The run-off election will determine the future of the largest democracy in Latin America and the fate of the Amazon rainforest.
Incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is facing off against Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. The elder Bolsonaro is currently on house arrest for his role in a failed 2023 military coup that intended to assassinate Lula, his vice president, and a Supreme Court justice. Despite his father’s attempted coup, Flavio Bolsonaro is currently the frontrunner, after coming out slightly ahead in the first round of voting.
“If they don’t win this election, then not only is Jair going to stay in jail, most likely, but Eduardo, Flávio’s brother and Jair’s son, who is in self-exile in the U.S., he has a multiyear prison sentence for his actions in the U.S. lobbying against Brazil’s foreign interests. He’s not going to be able to go home if they lose this election,” says Andrew Fishman, a Rio de Janeiro-based investigative journalist. “So they’re really just willing to do whatever they can to make sure that they win because this is their only get-out-of-jail-free card.”
Sound familiar? This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Jessica Washington speaks with Fishman, president and co-founder of The Intercept Brasil, about what’s at stake for Brazil and the planet in Sunday’s election.
“It’s a global election. The voters in Brazil will be deciding the future of humanity,” Fishman tells The Intercept. Jair Bolsonaro oversaw significant deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, leaving the ecological and climate linchpin in danger of becoming a “savanna.” Now, he argues, his son can finish the job. “You’re going to have an international migration crisis,” says Fishman. “It’s really self-defeating because the cattle ranchers are his base. They are the ones that are wanting to do the things that will end their future profitability — the future existence of their business.”
President Donald Trump has taken a particular interest in the race, as he seeks to expand U.S. influence and control across the Western Hemisphere. “Brazil — as the biggest economy, the biggest country, the most powerful entity in the hemisphere besides the United States — if Brazil falls, then the rest falls in line,” says Fishman. “But if Brazil remains as this big island of resistance in the middle of the continent, it really messes up [the Trump administration’s] plans, doesn’t it?”
Big Tech is also looming large over the race. “There’s all these pieces of circumstantial evidence that suggest that Meta is interfering in this election, and they have every incentive to do so. They will have a much better regulatory environment if Flávio wins because of Flávio’s submissiveness to U.S. interests and his willingness to play ball with whatever Trump tells him to,” adds Fishman.
In a request for comment, Meta said, “Meta applies the same rules to every candidate, every party and every political viewpoint in Brazil, as we do in elections around the world. We do not suppress content to disadvantage one side, and we do not give preferential treatment to any side. Each of the incidents cited by Lula’s campaign has a straightforward, documented explanation. … Brazilian voters deserve facts, not a political narrative built by combining unrelated technical issues. Meta will continue to enforce its rules, comply with Brazilian electoral law, fix mistakes when they occur and provide a level playing field for everyone who uses our services.”
As U.S. leaders attempt to mold Brazil into a satellite state, Fishman argues the United States is slowly becoming more and more like its southern neighbor.
“It’s not that Brazil is becoming more like the United States, it’s that the United States is becoming more like Brazil,” says Fishman. “You have just shrinking spheres of democracy while oligarchs have increasing power and control and are able to do what they want and insist on decisions for the country that are bad for all of the society and the people, but good for their individual interests.”
For more, listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Transcript
Jessica Washington: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing, I’m Jessica Washington, politics reporter at The Intercept.
Akela Lacy: I’m Akela Lacy, senior politics reporter at The Intercept. Jessie, what do our listeners need to know about this week?
JW: I’ve been following a pretty disturbing story that’s actually centered on a campaign ad. Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy released what I would argue is the ugliest campaign ad of a dark season. That is, of course, a season of campaign ads filled with Islamophobic, transphobic, sexist rhetoric, and racist rhetoric as well. But in the ad, the mother of Democratic candidate Amy Acton accuses her daughter of being a liar, claiming “she’s lied her whole life.”
Now, what makes this really dark is that Acton was removed from her mother’s care at 12 years old, after she alleges she was raped by her mother’s then-40-year-old husband.
AL: That’s horrible. Has Acton responded?
JW: Acton responded to the attack ad saying, “My brother Phil and I endured abuse, hunger, and neglect. We were often kept in a dark basement, were frequent-fliers with child protective services, and lived in fear of our birth mother’s violent and erratic temper. I’ve always known that she was deeply sick and unwell, and it’s sad to see Vivek Ramaswamy exploit her all for his own political gain.”
This is one, as I’ve said, of the darkest campaign ads in a really horrifying season of campaign ads.
Akela, I know you’ve been tracking another big election story this week on a beat you’ve covered for a really long time, and that’s [American Israel Public Affairs Committee].
AL: So we have been covering extensively the way that AIPAC’s strategy has changed over the last few election cycles since they started spending directly on campaigns.
If you’ve been following our reporting, you know that we’ve written a lot about both their super PAC, United Democracy Project, and this shell PAC strategy where there were a number of different groups that popped up throughout the midterm season, took money from AIPAC, spent against candidates that AIPAC didn’t like, and then — per filings that came out this week — shut down and gave all their money back to AIPAC.
So the idea being that, they had been trying to shield what was an increasingly toxic reputation amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza from creating backlash against their activity in these races.
Jewish Insider scooped on Wednesday that AIPAC announced that it will no longer endorse candidates or give PAC contributions through its AIPAC PAC. Now, this doesn’t mean that they will stop spending on elections. Their super PAC, United Democracy Project, will continue to spend, as it has been pouring record amounts of money into various races. But this is getting a lot of attention, both from the left and I would say from the center.
The left, Justice Democrats in particular, and candidates who are no longer in Congress, but I saw Jamaal Bowman talking about this, saying that this is the culmination of the fight that the left has been putting up against AIPAC in elections. I don’t know that I would categorize this as a win necessarily, considering that the super PAC seems like it’s going to continue to spend a lot of money. But that was the big news in my campaign finance world this week.
JW: You’ve done a lot of really interesting coverage of how AIPAC is moving their money around through these different PACs and trying to get around the fact that people really dislike AIPAC, and that it has really tarnished the reputation of candidates who take this money. Obviously, this is a maneuver to get rid of the reputational harm of AIPAC money while still giving people AIPAC money.
I’ve actually been tracking a story completely off our election cycle, and that’s what’s going on in France. I know we touched on that a couple weeks ago but, really, these protests have taken on another life.
For those who don’t know, in France, there were these protests that were initially launched by students primarily in the suburbs concerned about educational inequality. This meant staffing shortages and poor facilities. But it has exploded into a nationwide uprising about the cost of living and broader economic inequality.
Now, perhaps unsurprisingly, and not to bring it too quickly back to the U.S., but President Donald Trump has used this as an opportunity to rail against immigrants. So despite the fact that there is zero indication any of the violence has been spurred on by immigrants. At a campaign rally on Monday, he told the crowd, “If Europe doesn’t close its borders and bring the criminals out, like the people that are protesting, Europe is finished.”
So yeah, that’s just one other example of how Donald Trump has inserted himself into international politics.
AL: Trump has also inserted himself into politics in a different region in the world. We have the Brazilian elections for president heading to a runoff this week. I know you spoke, Jessie, to Andrew Fishman, an investigative reporter and president and co-founder of The Intercept Brasil, about those elections.
JW: It’s a really interesting election with a ton of parallels to the political situation in the United States, as well as, as you’ve pointed out, a ton of influence from the United States. On Sunday, Brazil will have a run-off presidential election that will determine the future of not only Latin America’s largest democracy, but also — and this is really important — the fate of the Amazon rainforest, and one could argue, the planet.
This is the first presidential election since former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was imprisoned on house arrest in an attempted military coup, a sentence that his son, the current frontrunner, Flávio Bolsonaro has promised to overturn.
I talked to Andrew about the media landscape, the history of military leadership, and the outside influences that have made this a tight race, despite the fact that the perceived frontrunner is running on freeing the man who attempted a coup years prior.
President Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva is running for reelection. He’s accused both President Donald Trump and Meta of attempting to sway the election in favor of Flávio Bolsonaro.
The Intercept reached out to Meta for comment, and Meta denied interfering in the election process, saying they do not suppress content to disadvantage one side or give preferential treatment to the other.
But this is a really interesting conversation with Andrew, and I’m excited for people to get to hear it.
AL: As am I. Let’s hear it.
JW: Andrew, welcome to The Intercept Briefing.
Andrew Fishman: Hi, thanks for having me.
JW: On Sunday, Brazilians will head to the polls in a runoff presidential election between right-wing senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, and incumbent left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to determine the leadership of Latin America’s largest democracy and biggest economy.
Now, this is the first presidential election since former President Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed the Capitol in 2023 and attempted to overturn the election results. Now, Flávio Bolsonaro, his son and ally, is widely considered to be the frontrunner after coming out slightly ahead in the first round of voting.
But as of Tuesday, his lead in the polls has been narrowing. Andrew, big picture, what are the major issues at play in this election on Sunday?
AF: If you want to be really direct about it, it’s the future of humanity.
You have one candidate who’s been responsible for record reductions of deforestation in the Amazon; and you have another one who’s saying, let’s chop it all down, and farmers should be able to do whatever they want on their land.
And under his father’s leadership, deforestation in the Amazon soared, as in the other regions in the area. Scientists think that there’s a major tipping point that we could be on the cusp of, that if we were to reach that, the Amazon will turn into a savanna. There would be no going back from that.
If that were to happen, all of the rain in South America comes from the Amazon, basically. [That would affect] the cattle ranching that’s doing the deforestation, no more of the soy that’s doing the deforestation — people would have trouble feeding themselves. São Paulo would probably run out of water, which it has done in the past.
It’s very precarious. So you would be having mass refugee influxes, migrations. I really do think that this election is on that scale; it’s a global election. The voters in Brazil will be deciding the future of humanity, very possibly.
JW: To your point, his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration oversaw significant deforestation of the rainforest, which houses 10 percent of all [known] species on Earth, and his son appears to be moving in that same direction.
Flávio told reporters in August that he did not believe in climate change and that “the best way to address environmental issues is what we did during the Bolsonaro administration,” referring, of course, to the senior Bolsonaro’s administration.
What is at stake for climate change when we’re talking about this massive deforestation that could potentially be happening if Flávio wins?
AF: Every ecosystem in South America is interconnected and in the world. If the Amazon collapses and turns into savanna and the rainfall stops, and you have this massive drying out of the continent — which is one of the major exporters of food in the world — you’re going to have all of those issues locally, and that’s going to impact local markets and everything. You’re going to have an international migration crisis.
But on top of that, we have no idea what the ecological knock-on effects of that could be. With that, we could be having a more rapid increase in polar ice cap melting. With the temperatures increasing, it could be exacerbating the death of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current, which is the thing that would put Europe back into an ice age. It’s very possible that’s already happening right now.
We’re at this really tenuous moment for the climate, for the Earth, for humanity. And you have a candidate that says very proudly [he] doesn’t believe in any of that and wants to slash all mechanisms that are used to have more responsible management of land and prevent this massive catastrophe in just this proudly Luddite sort of way.
It’s really self-defeating because the cattle ranchers are his base. They are the ones that are wanting to do the things that will end their future profitability — the future existence of their business. It’s really self-defeating in this way for the Brazilians, and these very short-term benefits for massive long-term costs.
There’s estimates that the impact that the Amazon has for the global economy is in the hundreds of billions of dollars a year, and that benefit is far larger than the profits that they get out of these extractive industries that they do with farming and mining. It’s really hard to overstate the potential impacts that this could have.
JW: Is that urgency resonating with voters?
AF: Absolutely not. That is not what people are voting about, unfortunately. It’s what the people living in the heavy agricultural regions — where their local economy depends on that — they’re voting for Flávio for that reason. But the people who are voting against him, yes, there’s many people that care about the Amazon and want to preserve it, but it’s not the issue that’s being discussed day to day on TV, in the news, on the streets.
People are talking more about more human issues of corruption and who has better communication, security, economics. They’re not talking about the Amazon, unfortunately.
JW: That’s hardly surprising in the U.S. context, which I’m a little bit more acquainted with. Certainly climate, the environment, have never been top issues for voters, even if they’ve resonated more so with young people.
I did want to talk about another issue in the election, and that is the fate of Jair Bolsonaro. His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, has promised to free him. Jair Bolsonaro has been imprisoned on house arrest since 2025 for plotting a military coup. How is that particular campaign promise landing with the electorate in Brazil, and are you at all surprised by the public’s response?
AF: It’s very clear that for the Bolsonaros, this is an all-or-nothing for them. If they don’t win this election, then not only is Jair going to stay in jail, most likely, but Eduardo, Flávio’s brother and Jair’s son, who is in self-exile in the U.S., he has a multiyear prison sentence for his actions in the U.S. lobbying against Brazil’s foreign interests. He’s not going to be able to go home if they lose this election.
For them, it’s been very clear, and they’ve even said it in moments, that’s what this is about for them: their ability to get their father out of prison and to get themselves off the hook. Also, if you’re elected president, the investigations on things you did before you got elected, they go away.
“They’re really just willing to do whatever they can to make sure that they win, because this is their only get-out-of-jail-free card.”
So then Flávio’s off the hook, and he’s so wrapped up in so many different schemes and accusations and active investigations, some of which that we have revealed, including U.S. and abroad and offshore bank accounts and money laundering and potential connections to organized crime and militias. So they’re really just willing to do whatever they can to make sure that they win because this is their only get-out-of-jail-free card. To do that, they’re going to completely change the structure of the Supreme Court, and they’ll be able to put in a majority even without impeachment. They already have the Senate and the lower house of Congress.
They would control all of the executive branch. They have the majority of governorships that are in their coalition, and they run the local police. And the executive has control over the federal police and all the investigative and regulatory agencies. So they would have just absolute lockstep control over every branch of government federally and most of local government as well.
It would be a democratically elected coup.
JW: And voters, do they care about that? Do they care about the preservation of democracy? Is this ranking as a top election issue?
AF: It’s always double speak, right? Both sides say that they’re preserving democracy. The Bolsonaristas say that Lula and the Supreme Court are running a judicial dictatorship right now because they were getting censored and put in jail for actively plotting a coup, which included active planning to assassinate Lula after he was elected, his vice president after he was elected, and a member of the Supreme Court. So that’s what they’re [Jair Bolsonaro and military officials] in jail for. That’s why they were getting pushback, and they’re saying that having the pushback against that is a dictatorship.
In the meantime, you have the Lulistas who are saying that what the Bolsonaros want to do is a coup because they actively have said year after year, over and over again, “We want a coup. We love the military dictatorship. The military dictatorship was great! When we were torturing everybody, that was good.” Jair said, “When I’m elected, we’re going to take a machine gun and shoot down all of the leftists, the petistas, the Workers’ Party [Partido dos Trabalhadores] supporters.”
Remember that the military government was going alive and strong into the ’80s. It happened in ’64, and it went through the ’80s. So it’s very recent.
The people that are in his orbit, they were actually part of the military coup government until very recently. And I think that Lula supporters are very, very concerned about this. They really do care.
The Bolsonarista supporters, which are about 30 percent lockstep — same as it is in the U.S. with Trump — they’re just in their own information ecosystem, and they want Bolsonaro to win. It doesn’t matter, and anything that he does is good because it’s him.
“They’re just in their own information ecosystem, and they want Bolsonaro to win.”
It’s not, there are people that support the Workers’ Party, and there are people that support Bolsonaro. The Bolsonaro movement is essentially anti Workers’ Party, anti-petismo. The Bolsonaros have been seen as the greatest vehicle for getting rid of the Workers’ Party, which has been so hard to do because they’ve been so popular because of all the policies they’ve put into place over the years.
But you’ve had the media saying for 30 years now, just drilling it in, that the PT [Partido dos Trabalhadores] equals corruption, the PT invented corruption. The PT is everything that is bad in Brazil, and anything that is not the PT is everything that is good in Brazil. You’ve had a generation of this narrative being repeated over and over in all these different instances that it’s really hard to shake.
JW: Could you talk more about that legacy of military leadership in Brazil, and for Brazilians, how they feel about it on the day to day? I recognize that it’s a very large country, as we’ve mentioned multiple times. I assume not everyone feels the same way, but I am curious about that legacy and how people respond to it.
AF: Brazil has been a country of negotiated solutions. So when they were the last in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery in 1888, it was not some sort of civil war or uprising. It was a negotiation: “OK, I think it’s time that we do this, but let’s just make sure that everyone that did own slaves is in the best possible situation, and let’s make sure that we have some sort of semi-slavery going on afterwards.”
It was really the same thing with the dictatorship. It was a moment where the economy was going into the can. It was very unpopular. It wasn’t having the economic glory years of before, and so they said, “All right, we’ll step back. We’ll let you run some elections, but we’re going to make sure that we’re never held accountable, that we’re able to continue exercising power in the way we want.”
As part of that, they were able to help control the narrative. So during the military dictatorship, there was an impression — and it continues today — that there wasn’t corruption. The reason why they had that impression, it was actually very corrupt, very corrupt. But the impression exists because there was censorship of the media, so the corruption that existed just wasn’t exposed.
When the Lula government came into power the first time in the early 2000s, they started making the federal police stronger. They made the judiciary stronger and more independent. They increased the ability of the federal government to investigate and uphold the rule of law. As a result of that, many corruption schemes started coming out of the woodwork that were legacy of the military leadership.
“It was the business elite together with the military that did the coup and ran everything.”
It was called a civil military dictatorship, technically, in Brazil, because it was the business elite together with the military that did the coup and ran everything.
So that business elite didn’t change. It’s still the same families. They were running the same corruption schemes back then. They were running it through re-democratization. Whether it’s a right-wing government or a left-wing government in power, they’re making sure that their interests are being served. That corruption is just this constant throughline. People don’t really see that because that’s not how it’s presented in the media and in the day-to-day in communications.
I know for a fact that there’s lots of people that really want us to go back to the dictatorship. There are people that really want us to go back to the monarchy because they see it as a better, simpler time when things were the way that they should be. Everyone was in the right place and things were safer and everything was just better, this idealized past, “Make Brazil Great Again” sort of thing. How far back do you want to go?
Then there are the people that, like Dilma Rousseff, who was the successor to Lula after a second term — who fought against the dictatorship — that are currently active in politics, that are still around, and they were tortured. Their friends were murdered. They know exactly what a dictatorship means and what it means for people like them, anyone that stands against those entrenched powers of the old elites that go back for centuries.
That’s why you have a lot of older voters tend to vote PT [Workers’ Party] because they came up with the workers’ struggle with re-democratization. They understand what that means. It’s this interesting dynamic now where you have more younger people that are starting to tip more to the right because they don’t have this memory.
They don’t remember what it was like in the ’80s in the northeast when there was water shortages and food shortages, and the standard of living was so much lower. You have this new narrative being rewritten in real time online.
“You have more younger people that are starting to tip more to the right because they don’t have this memory.”
JW: The parallels to the United States and Brazil are just incredibly striking in what you’re saying. This kind of the “Make America Great Again” movement and the Make Brazil Great Again, even if they’re not using those exact same phrases. There are just so many points of similarity, especially with what we’ve seen with youth even in the United States, some of whom have taken a rightward tilt.
I want to get into the relationship between Brazil and the U.S. because that’s obviously been such a big issue in this election. In a Lula ad earlier this month, his campaign called Flávio Bolsonaro Trump’s candidate, arguing that, “What Trump wants is to colonize Brazil, take our riches, steal our future, and leave us in the dust.”
Now, this comes after President Lula confirmed that Brazil denied visas to two U.S. officials over election interference concerns. The State Department has denied any claims of election meddling, telling reporters, “Any insinuation of a ‘ploy’ to undermine a democratic nation’s election is a baseless lie.”
Andrew, is there any evidence that the Trump administration is attempting to sway this election? Does it veer into election interference as we generally understand it?
AF: The answer is oh God, yes. So much so it’s overwhelming. Overwhelming evidence, and it’s the same thing they’ve been doing across the region, which is why there’s been this rightward swing in elections across Latin America.
That’s why they’re so interested in Brazil right now because Brazil — as the biggest economy, the biggest country, the most powerful entity in the hemisphere besides the United States — if Brazil falls, then the rest falls in line.
But if Brazil remains as this big island of resistance in the middle of the continent, it really messes up their plans, doesn’t it? The interference has been done on many levels. The reality is that we don’t know the full extent of it, and we won’t know the full extent of it for years. We’re still learning about things that happened in 1964 with the U.S. role in the coup.
There’s dirty tricks happening that’s being run through intelligence agencies. That’s absolutely positive. There’s very, very strong signs that they’re using U.S. companies, Big Techs like Meta, who’s been getting a lot of attention — a lot of flak — lately because of clear signs that its algorithm is favoring Bolsonaro and suppressing Lula.
Multiple instances that they even admit happens, “Oh, but no, but it was just a mistake. It was just a mistake.” Meta and the Big Techs in the U.S., they’re really concerned about what a Lula government could do for their profits. Maybe Lula wants to have more sovereignty and control over what they’re doing.
The Brazilian government doesn’t even know how much money they make in Brazil, the Big Techs. They just know how much money they send out through the tax bills that they pay and the money they send out of the country. The Big Techs in the U.S. are really concerned about getting their access on rare earths and on lithium reserves, which Brazil has the largest deposits of rare earths after China. This whole trade war with China, Brazil becomes much more important. It’s a huge market.
So you have one candidate that is just completely submissive — like painfully, embarrassingly submissive — to U.S. interests. So much so that one of his former closest allies, a general, Santos Cruz, who’s a very famous well-known general, he came out recently and said, “I’m a conservative. I’m right-wing. This is not conservatism. This is not right wing. This is just ‘voluntary submissiveness.’”
“You have one candidate that is just completely submissive — like painfully, embarrassingly submissive — to U.S. interests.”
They’re just absolutely scamming Brazilians with this level of supplicancy that we’ve never seen before, that the military dictatorship even didn’t do, which was hand in glove with the U.S. interests. This is completely next level, and it’s something that obviously the left is very concerned about.
But people like Santos Cruz, Brazilians that actually believe in Brazilian sovereignty, and that it’s important for Brazil to be able to pursue its own interests rather than the interests of foreign powers — they’re very concerned about that, which is, some segments of the elite.
Whenever you have a submissive local government in an imperialist relationship, there are people that benefit. There are local people that will get special contracts, that will get special treatment. They’ll be able to crush their enemies through these relationships. And that’s what they’re doing in Bolivia and in Peru and in Ecuador right now.
“Whenever you have a submissive local government in an imperialist relationship, there are people that benefit.”
What they did in Venezuela, where they just came in and took all of the oil and said, “All right. We’re going to take 90 percent of the oil profits, and we’ll give you a couple billion a year.” People are seeing this in Brazil. They see what Trump has done. And they’re still saying, “Well, we like Bolsonaro, so we’re going with Bolsonaro. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
It’s a massive issue, and I really, I don’t think we know how bad it will be and how submissive they’ll be this time around. Because it always is the case that, with right-wing authoritarian governments, it’s the second term where they really take off whatever mask was left and decide, “We have a mandate and we can do whatever we want.”
You saw it in the U.S. with Trump. They saw it in Turkey with Erdoğan. They saw it in Hungary with Orbán. They saw it in India with Modi. This is what always happens. It’s the second term where they say, “OK. We showed them who we are, and everyone said it’s fine.” They’re able to smoke out all of their rivals in the first term. They map them out, and so when the second time comes around, it’s just bang, bang, bang. Let’s get rid of them. Let’s maximize our power and do whatever we want.
“With right-wing authoritarian governments, it’s the second term where they really take off whatever mask was left. … It’s the second term where they say, ‘OK. We showed them who we are, and everyone said it’s fine.’”
The result’s not going to be positive for Brazil. That’s the thing: If I were a Brazilian billionaire — which I am not — it would be in my personal interest for Brazil to follow the economic path that the Lula government is following, much more than what Bolsonaro is proposing.
Lula’s not some left-wing radical. He’s center-right. He was left, then he became center-left, and he’s moving ever more to the right. This last election, his vice presidential candidate was his former presidential rival, the center-right guy. They’re very much doing what the big banks want. They’re helping the big agro get what they want. They give tons of subsidies to major industries. But the thing that they do, they take a little bit of that money, and they spread it around to the poorest people with public services with access to education, with some cash transfers. We’re talking about 60 bucks or 80 bucks a month to families, and that is what is making the economy grow. Because if you don’t have consumers in your economy, and you have domestic industries you’re trying to build, then no one’s going to buy the things. Your employees can’t buy the things.
That’s intolerable to some people in Brazil, and they can’t see that it benefits their own economic interests.
You’re in this kind of crazy situation where it doesn’t really make sense what they’re doing. And they saw it happen with Bolsonaro, with Jair! They all supported him, and then he crashed the economy. Then they all went back to Lula begrudgingly and said, “OK, we’re going to support you in ’22 because things aren’t going very well.”
Then Lula turned it around immediately, and now they’re forgetting again and going back to Bolsonaro. Logically, it doesn’t make sense. It’s more psychological. Freud has to explain what’s going on.
“Lula’s not some left-wing radical. He’s center-right. He was left, then he became center-left, and he’s moving ever more to the right.”
JW: Again, the parallels between the United States and Brazil are very apparent in terms of some of those economic choices. You’ve already gone over what the U.S. wants to gain from involvement in this election. But there’s another foreign power that’s also interested in the election. Flávio Bolsonaro has been cozying up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, obviously in stark contrast to President Lula, who’s been an ardent supporter of the Palestinians. What would a Flávio Bolsonaro presidency look like for Brazil’s stance towards Israel?
AF: You can’t say that Lula has been the heroic savior, but he has made statements saying, “This is a genocide. This is very bad. This shouldn’t happen.”
At the same time, he’s allowed Petrobras to ship petroleum products to the Israeli government that are being used in the genocide. He’s allowed one of the major steel manufacturers to ship steel and ore to the Israeli weapons companies that are using it to build rifles and bombs to use in Gaza.
It’s not like you’re dealing with the leader of BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement] versus Netanyahu’s best friend. It’s a run-of-the-mill European-style center-left social democrat leader that’s kinda disappointing on this issue, versus someone that just wants to be absolutely submissive to everything that Israel wants and does and just completely supports it.
Again, you said, there’s so many parallels to the U.S. The parallels in Brazil, why does this make sense? Why would they care about supporting Israel? Why would this be something that they would want to put their name on, like these horrible scenes that people have been seeing for years online?
Everyone’s seeing it. Why would they want to support it? They kind of want to do the same thing in Brazil. One of the things that Jair always complains about is that he’s jealous of the U.S. because their cavalry was more effective at exterminating the Indigenous population than the Brazilian cavalry was. They’re upset that they have these relatively small numbers of Indigenous people that have claims to these massive swaths of land, much of which in the Amazon, that they want to get their hands on so they can cut down the trees and throw cows in and do mining. So a colonial–settler project that involves extermination of the Indigenous population to benefit their economy.
“They’re upset that they have these relatively small numbers of Indigenous people that have claims to these massive swaths of land, much of which in the Amazon, that they want to get their hands on.”
That’s what Israel’s doing, and that’s what they want to do in Brazil: “Why don’t you give me all the fun, fancy tools of espionage and surveillance and war and suppression that you guys have developed and honed in Israel for the last decades, and let me get my hands on them too so I can do the same thing back here.”
I think that’s one of the main reasons ideologically. Plus the whole political, evangelical right-wing movement, which was a concerted project by the CIA to implant in Latin America, bringing in prosperity gospel to get rid of the Catholic Church and all their support of left and workers movements.
This is all very well documented, that they brought it in because it’s more individualist ideology, and that individualist ideology also includes the idea that all the Jews need to go to Israel for the reckoning.
There are a ton of parallels between Brazil and the U.S., and that’s because almost all of the worst ideas in the United States have been intentionally exported to Brazil as a way to make Brazil a worse country that’s more in line with U.S. interests.
That includes healthcare companies. The U.S. model of healthcare. They have free, independent public healthcare in Brazil called SUS [Sistema Único de Saúde]. It’s an incredible system that’s very popular. They want to privatize it. They want to get rid of it to create more profit. Prosperity gospel with all this right-wing ideological movements, they love it.
“Almost all of the worst ideas in the United States have been intentionally exported to Brazil as a way to make Brazil a worse country that’s more in line with U.S. interests.”
The NRA sent lobbyists down in 2002 to Brazil to work with the right-wing movements to say, “This is the game plan for how you create a gun movement in Brazil.” And what happened? It manifests itself in the Jair Bolsonaro administration, where they just opened up the floodgates for access to guns, increasing the number of guns you have, the type of guns that you could have, the number of bullets you could have, and getting rid of anything that could help prevent organized crime from getting massive amounts of assault rifles and unmarked bullets they can use in crimes. Under Bolsonaro, that’s one of the things that spread more than ever.
There’s all these little levers that they’re really just doing copy and paste, and we’ve seen these alliances with JD Vance and the Rockbridge [Network], which is a group that he created before he was vice president with a bunch of Peter Thiel and other billionaires in the U.S. They’ve created a subsidiary in Korea and now one in Brazil that they were using to do the same sort of alignment with the local elites that they did before, in the lead-up to the ’64 coup. I can go on for hours about all the different connections and ties.
JW: To your point, you’ve talked about how this is much bigger than just Brazil.
To me, the “Donroe Doctrine” is hanging over all of this. Last November, President Donald Trump released what he described as a corollary to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, the “Donroe Doctrine,” which effectively calls for the U.S. to take an aggressive interventionist stance in Latin America under the guise of protecting the United States’ national security and economic interests in the region.
Andrew, from your perspective, what more should we understand about what the United States is doing in Brazil and kind of the wider context of the Trump administration’s actions in Latin America over the last two years?
AF: It’s pretty simple. They are fighting the Cold War against China in Latin America, just like they used to do against the Soviets. As part of that war, they are aligning with far-right upstart leaders that are seen as anti-establishment, even though they’re usually tied to billionaires or even billionaires themselves, like in Ecuador.
There’s this weird coincidence with all of them that they almost all have connections to organized drug trafficking. They’re almost all known drug smugglers or connected to them or have some sort of financial relations. While they’re doing that, they’re arguing that “We are working together with these local governments in South and Latin America to fight drug trafficking,” which is obviously a farce.
That’s what they did in Ecuador. The president of Ecuador, Noboa, he’s the son of a banana dynasty that does a lot of exporting bananas, and in those crates of bananas, they’ve also been known to export a lot of kilos of cocaine. Their allies in Colombia have always been this way, and the things that they’re doing in Bolivia, it’s the exact same thing. The [Bolivian] attorney general who was trying to push back against the corruption of this right-wing government that has allied with Trump, well Trump and Rubio came in and said listen, you need to go after this attorney general and get rid of him. So he was arrested because he was going after their allies.
They don’t care about drug trafficking, obviously. The U.S. government never cared about drugs. It’s always been a weapon or a tool for them. So they’re aligning with these people to create this lockstep union that they’re calling the “Shield of the Americas.” It’s this new alliance that they’re using instead of the existing, the U.N. or other mechanisms. They’re creating all their own, just like they did with the “Board of Peace.” They’re working to make sure that those economies just stay in their sphere of influence just a little bit longer.
They know that China’s winning. China is the main trade partner with all of these countries now. They’re Brazil’s biggest trade partner. The United States cannot absorb all of the exports that Brazil produces that goes to China. They’re not going to get Brazil to stop trading with China or stop having relations with China. They compete on corn and ethanol and soy exports. They can’t absorb what China’s buying.
“They’re really just trying to buy a little bit more time as their empire is slowly waning, but at the cost of what?”
They’re really just trying to buy a little bit more time as their empire is slowly waning, but at the cost of what? At the cost of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of lives? It’s not clear what the indirect results of this will be. At the cost of destroying the democratic institutions in these countries that are already, many of them struggling and teetering, and potentially at the cost of massive ecological devastation, as would be the case in the collapse of the Amazon under a Bolsonaro government?
It’s uplifting, right?
JW: Very uplifting. That is my first word that comes to mind. You’ve pointed out everything that Donald Trump is doing, but we also know that tech oligarchs are involved as well. Tech tycoons like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel have taken a massive interest in Latin American politics.
What impact do you think that is having on the rightward shift we’re seeing throughout the Americas?
AF: Oh, big time. Big time. I think the biggest tycoon that’s most in the news lately is Mark Zuckerberg. He’s the guy who runs Meta. Something like 99 percent of people in Brazil use WhatsApp as their primary form of communication.
The idea of sending a text message in Brazil is like, “What are you, some sort of barbarian? What decade is this?” People only use WhatsApp. And for a lot of people, you get a cheap phone, and you get a prepaid phone plan because they didn’t have net neutrality like it was passed in the U.S. It’ll come with free credits for WhatsApp and Facebook, and it’ll come preinstalled on the phone even, and it’s part of the plan.
So for a lot of people, Facebook for many years and WhatsApp were the internet. Now Instagram as well. Instagram is really the main tool of political communication at this point. As we know, [it is] highly censored. You guys saw recently at the No Kings protests what Meta can do if it just decides to suddenly have a technical error that they fail to fix for eight hours.
That’s what they’ve been doing in Brazil for months now. So you have a young right-wing member of Congress named Nikolas Ferreira. He comes from a right-wing evangelical church, and he’s very charismatic, and he’s really good on social media, and he’s got something like 22 million followers or something. Brazil has 214 million people.
When Lula was having this dispute a year or two ago with foreign tech interests, including Meta’s interests, Nikolas Ferreira planted this fake news that Lula was trying to tax the main financial instrument that people use called Pix. It’s this free instant cash transfers that you can do that’s created by the central bank, and everyone loves it. Trump hates it because it competes against Mastercard and Visa.
So [Ferreira] created this fake news that what Lula was trying to do was tax all transactions and so therefore you were just going to get taxed even more, and you, the poor working man, was going to get screwed. In reality, there was no tax involved, and it was an anti-money laundering initiative that any transactions over 1,000 reais [Editor’s note: 5,000 Brazilian reais] would be immediately reported so they can trace questions of money laundering, which is a huge problem in Brazil.
That video was seen, the last time I checked, over 300 million times in a country that has 214 million people, and not all of them are on Instagram. That’s just Instagram — not including the other social networks. And in the last few weeks of the election, Nikolas Ferreira’s account has had greater engagement and views than every global celebrity you can name. I don’t know the exact numbers off the top of my head, but three times more than Beyoncé. Just think of the most famous person that you can think of in the world and their account, and Nikolas Ferreira — who you hadn’t heard of until I said his name just now — is crushing them.
“Just think of the most famous person that you can think of in the world and their account, and Nikolas Ferreira — who you hadn’t heard of until I said his name just now — is crushing them.”
That’s being seen as probable algorithmic manipulation by Meta in favor of the right-wing movement. OK, that’s one example, we don’t have access to the algorithm, we can’t be sure about that. Well. if you go onto the Meta’s AI in WhatsApp, and you say, “Create me a political poster for Flávio, vote Flávio,” it’ll do vote Flávio, and they’ll use his election number, 22.
And you say, “Vote for a capybara, vote for a flamingo,” They’ll say, “Vote 22.” They’ll use Flávio’s number. And then if you say, “Do another poster, but say vote Lula,” it’ll say, “We can’t do that. That’s an election interference, and we’re not allowed to do that.” And say you just did it for Flávio,” and then the AI will be like, “Oh, you’re right. That’s a mistake.” But then it keeps happening, and it’s been happening for weeks now. People have been pointing it out for weeks.
They blocked Lula’s Meta account from being able to run paid ads like 10 days before the first round of the elections. They said, oh, that was a mistake. It was my bad. Lots of left-wing accounts have seen these weird number shifts.
So they’ll have, let’s say, 20,000 comments, but it’ll say zero shares, or the views will go down to zero, or people have been talking about, “My engagement just has been completely in the tank since this election has started.” Not everybody, but some people.
There’s all these pieces of circumstantial evidence that suggest that Meta is interfering in this election, and they have every incentive to do so. They will have a much better regulatory environment if Flávio wins because of Flávio’s submissiveness to U.S. interests and his willingness to play ball with whatever Trump tells him to.
So that’s just one case. That’s just Mark Zuckerberg.
JW: Cutting in here, from the future. After our conversation with Andrew. We requested comment from Meta who sent a lengthy response, but in summary, they said, “Each of the incidents cited by Lula’s campaign has a straightforward, documented explanation. … None reflects political targeting. None reflects manipulated distribution. None reflects an effort to influence the election.”
Meta said Lula’s campaign ad account was disabled for one hour by mistake, not for political reasons. The company also claimed that issues with ad creation and video view count were global errors, and not politically motivated.
On Monday, a Brazilian court gave Meta 24 hours to prove that it was not favoring Flávio Bolsonaro over President Lula in its feeds, or it would face an escalating fine. This comes after that same judge ruled that while he could not find evidence of deliberate interference, the company had 24 hours to prove that the issues affecting the Lula campaign were solved and would not reoccur.
OK, now back to Andrew.
AF:Elon’s coming down here. Peter Thiel was just down in Argentina to hang out with Javier Milei, who’s the president who’s been destroying the economy and businesses are shuttering, unemployment’s up, costs of living have gone through the roof, but he’s this anarcho-capitalist, hyper-libertarian that’s just been cutting everything with a literal chainsaw. He came on stage with a chainsaw saying, just like Elon Musk did, I’m going to cut through all the regulations and the red tape.
That’s what they want, and Flávio Bolsonaro said, I’m going to do that. I want to follow the Milei model. In the last debate that they had, the first debate, which was just the other night, Lula asked Flávio about this: Are you going to be Milei?
He was just sort of refusing to answer the question. Eventually OK, what model are you going to follow? [Lula] said, I’m going to follow the Lula model, the one that I’ve been doing that’s been working. What are you going to do? Answer the question. But, outside of that debate, [Flávio] had been saying that he loves Milei.
Milei gave him an official endorsement, just like Benjamin Netanyahu did an official endorsement for Flávio, which is something that doesn’t happen in international relations. Foreign leaders just as a matter of course don’t endorse a candidate in a foreign election. So they’re being very overt in this, and they’re all working together with their billionaire buddies who have controls over huge levers of power in Brazil because of how Big Techs work in the world.
That’s one of the main issues for leftist voters in Brazil right now. They want sovereignty for their country. They want Brazil to be able to govern Brazil under Brazilian law and have control over Brazil to serve Brazilian interests.
Flávio Bolsonaro does not care about that. Trump and Musk and Zuckerberg do not want that because it would be a limitation on their ability to exert power in Brazil and in the world. They don’t want it to be a model for the rest of the world.
“That’s one of the main issues for leftist voters in Brazil right now. They want sovereignty for their country.”
JW: Listening to everything you’re saying, obviously, we’re not going to fix the issue of tech oligarchs meddling in foreign elections by Sunday. But are there any final thoughts that you have just about this election?
AF: I would say that this election is so important and relevant for the United States and for the world. For many years, there’s been this concept called the Brazilification of the United States.
Brazil wants to become, or, people that vote for Flávio at least, they want Brazil to become the United States. They see the U.S. as the country where everything works, where everything is perfect and goes well, and they don’t see all the bad stuff that listeners and readers of The Intercept know all about far too well.
But in reality, it’s not that Brazil is becoming more like the United States, it’s that the United States is becoming more like Brazil.
The middle class is getting squeezed and disappearing. In Brazil, 90 percent of the country makes $1,200 or less a month. The middle class would be considered extremely poor by U.S. standards, and what it does exist of a U.S.-style middle class is just teeny-tiny. You have just shrinking spheres of democracy, while oligarchs have increasing power and control and are able to do what they want and insist on decisions for the country that are bad for the society, bad for all of the society and the people, but good for their individual interests.
It’s just this more polarized, divided, K-shape economies, what you guys call it in the U.S. That’s where things are going. So you should really pay attention to this Brazilian election because the things that are happening here and the things that are going to happen in the next few days are very likely to be happening in the United States in the near future, if they’re not already happening.
JW: The Brazilification of the United States is a really good way to put it. I think so often people in the U.S., and, I can include myself, we think about the impact that the United States has on other countries, but we rarely think about the mutual shared relationships and larger shared ideas that people have between countries, between continents. So I think that’s a really good point.
We’re going to have to leave it there, but Andrew, thank you so much for joining me on The Intercept Briefing. You can find more of Andrew Fishman’s reporting at The Intercept Brasil.
AF: Thank you. Keep up the good work.
JW: That does it for this episode.
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Why Should Delaware Care? Delaware’s U.S. senators cast votes on federal laws that shape state budgets, healthcare, Social Security and the country’s military actions. Candidate forums are one of the few places voters can compare the visions of candidates, while in the same room and answering the same questions.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Coons and Republican challenger Dr. Mike Katz laid out differing approaches to health care, Social Security and U.S. support for Israel during a candidate forum in Wilmington Thursday — the first day of early voting in Delaware.
Seeking a fourth term in office, Coons described the race as a “job interview” and urged voters not to “take a risk on an untested candidate.” Katz, a pediatric critical care anesthesiologist and former Democratic state senator, argued that 16 years of Coons in office had left Delaware “unaffordable” and “dying.”
The hourlong forum was hosted by the Rotary Club of Wilmington at the Hotel du Pont, and moderated by Spotlight Delaware Editor-in-Chief Jacob Owens.
The forum occurred 12 days before the Nov. 3 general election when Delaware voters will choose their senator to serve for the next six years.
Katz faces a steep climb against Coons, who has won three Senate elections. Additionally, Katz’ former-Republican rival in the primary election, John Shulli, is running a write-in campaign that could peel votes away from Republican standard bearer.
Katz beat Shulli, a retired Army colonel, in the primary with about 77% of the vote.
Two years earlier, Katz also ran for U.S. Senate with the Independent Party. Prior to that, he served in the Delaware Senate as a Democrat from 2009 to 2013.
Delaware has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since William “Bill” Roth, who left office in 2001.
Coons, Katz debate domestic, foreign affairs
During the debate, a question asking how to bring down healthcare costs drew some of the sharpest contrasts.
Dr. Mike Katz | PHOTO COURTESY OF KATZ CAMPAIGN
Katz called the health care system “broken” and “bloated.” He said the Affordable Care Act has “a lot of really good things in it,” including protections for pre-existing conditions, but called it “a failed policy” overall. The comments echoed his public stance calling for a repeal of the act, also known as Obamacare.
He also said the healthcare system needs to be restructured, using “a clean slate” approach.
Coons, on the other hand, defended the Affordable Care Act, and argued that the increasing numbers of uninsured Americans have been driven by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, which allowed ACA tax credits and subsidies to expire.
It will remove millions of people from Medicaid starting in January, he said.
On Social Security, Coons said he is a current co-sponsor of a bill to lift the cap on wages subject to the payroll tax, which now sits at $184,500. He also committed to joining a bipartisan commission to consider various option to add more dollars to the Social Security Trust Fund.
If elected, Katz said he would first “do the diagnosis” of the Social Security program’s problems before proposing a fix. He further said that he did not necessarily support raising the retirement age for program eligibility.
Throughout much of the debate, however, Katz refrained from stating precise policies actions he would take to address a range of issues, including a Social Security shortfall, rising healthcare costs and immigration.
He also repeatedly touted his independence as a candidate, and said he is not “bought and paid for by any special interests or corporate interests.” While the statement did not explicitly mention Coons, the notion echoed the fact that much of the senator’s personal campaign and accessory leadership PAC’s fundraising has come from corporate or lobbying interests.
Advocates have raised concerns this cycle about the incumbent senator after data company Palantir donated $27,500 to his campaign. The company came under fire from advocates in recent years for its work with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, U.S. military and the Israeli Defense Forces.
Pro-Palestinian advocates have also raised concerns that Israeli-linked lobbyists, like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and J Street PAC, have donated more than $500,000 to his current campaign.
U.S. Sen. Chris Coons has pledged to stop accepting donations from controversial data company Palantir after previously bringing in thousands from it. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JEA STREET JR.
On foreign policy, the candidates parted ways over U.S. military aid to Israel. Asked whether he would continue military aid to Israel, Coons said he has long supported the country, but would reconsider such support if President Benjamin Netanyahu moves to annex the West Bank or ignores humanitarian needs in Gaza.
Coons said he recently introduced legislation to sanction those who would build settlements meant to block a two-state solution.
“I recognize that a traumatized Israeli population is not in the mood today to embrace the path of peace, but it has to remain open,” Coons said.
Katz said Israel has a right to exist and Hamas must be disarmed, but he asserted that U.S. taxpayers should not pay for arms for wealthy, technologically advanced allies, such as Israel.
Both candidates said the U.S. war with Iran should end. Coons blamed rising gas prices on the war and said Trump launched it without planning or consulting allies.
Katz said Iran cannot be allowed a nuclear weapon, and blamed decades of “failed leadership” for the current situation. He also criticized Coons for supporting the 2015 Iran nuclear deal under then-President Barack Obama.
Asked how to end the war in Ukraine, Katz gave a brief answer and then quickly pivoted to what he characterized as the corruption of Delaware’s political process. He said he wanted to speak about it “because I may not get another opportunity.”
“Our campaign’s communications have been hacked. Staff members have been threatened. Fear and intimidation have been directed against campaign staff and supporters,” Katz said.
The remarks drew murmurs from the roughly 100 people in the room.
Katz did not name anyone responsible, but tied the allegations to the absence of a traditional televised debate in the race, saying there had been “no sustained scrutiny of the incumbent’s record.”
Coons, who answered the Ukraine question next, did not address the allegations. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin alone was responsible for the war and criticized President Donald Trump for “abandoning Ukraine.”
Why Should Delaware Care? Each year, Delaware’s school districts vote to approve a school tax rate and typically collect revenues in the fall. But the fallout from Delaware’s first property reassessment in 40 years delayed school districts’ ability to set a tax rate in July, causing New Castle County districts to vote on their tax rates this month.
All five New Castle County school districts announced in recent weeks that they will raise local taxes later this year.
During October board meetings, the Appoquinimink, Brandywine, Christina, and Colonial school districts all said tax hikes are necessary because of an increasing number of special education students in their schools, and the higher costs associated with meeting their needs.
Red Clay said its increase results from the final phase of a tax referendum passed in 2024.
For property owners, it can mean more than a hundred dollars more in annual tax payments.
At the Brandywine School District, the average property owner will pay $150 more. And at Christina, it will be a nearly $270 bump for the average property owner.
The tax rate announcements come three months after several districts publicly stated they would need to increase school taxes. At the time they did not announce the exact amounts because of delays caused by the county’s recent property reassessment controversy.
Members of the Christina school board meet in October 2025. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JULIA MEROLA
Before calculating new tax bills, the districts had to wait for New Castle County to complete a quality control review of commercial property assessments in northern Delaware. On Thursday, the county announced that the review was complete and published a report that found numerous errors in the assessment of a sample of commercial properties.
In recent weeks, the county sent school districts updated information about their tax bases, allowing school boards to vote on new rates during October meetings.
New property tax bills will be issued in November, and residents will have until Dec. 31 to pay. In typical years, school districts collect taxes in September.
Increased student needs, inflation driving costs
During a school board meeting earlier this month, Brandywine Chief Financial Officer Daniel McCoy told members that the district struggled to find staff for special education classrooms.
McCoy said the district has used contractors to fill vacancies in special education classrooms at a cost of upward of $100,000 per student, each year.
At the same time, McCoy said the district this year gained 93 special education students, more than half of which had transferred from other states. Those students will need 10 additional classrooms, and each classroom will need — at minimum — a special education teacher and paraprofessional.
The component of property taxes that pay for special education — called the tuition tax — is set by local school boards, and does not require approval by residents, like a broader tax referendum would. That has been a longstanding reality in Delaware, but fluctuations in the tuition tax have been so small in typical years that residents never noticed them.
The three other categories that make up a district’s property tax are operating costs that are not covered by the state, debt services that pay for building construction and renovations, and local funding to match state-funded programs such as technology or extracurriculars.
How much will school taxes go up?
The Appoquinimink School District announced during its October meeting that an average homeowner can expect to see an increase of $109 in the school district portion of their property tax bill this year.
Appoquinimink Superintendent Matthew Burrows told board members that the bulk of the new money is needed for internal program costs for special education students, such as teachers, paraprofessionals, and other related service professionals.
The Colonial School District cited similar costs for its increase, amounting to roughly 5.8 cents per $100 of assessed value. District officials did not disclose the amount the average homeowner would pay — but a home worth $400,000 would pay roughly $232 more under that framework.
And the Red Clay Consolidated district officials announced that its previously passed tax referendum would boost school property taxes by 1.31%
Residents in Christina will likely see the highest average annual increase at $268.95.
During the district’s recent board meeting, Christina Chief Financial Officer Bob Vacca said many residents do not realize the district’s taxes are higher because of the amount it pays to charter and choice schools.
Christina School District CFO Bob Vacca sits next to Brandywine Superintendent Lisa Lawson during a meeting of the state’s Redding Consortium. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JULIA MEROLA
Delaware’s public education funding currently follows what officials call a unit-count system, which distributes money to districts based on the number of students enrolled.
When students attend charter schools rather than their local district school, school district leaders are obligated to pass tax revenues on to the charter school to cover their costs. That allocation is based on the number of students enrolled in the charter school.
Vacca also said the Christina School District has more students using school choice to go to other schools than it takes students in.
“We are using a methodology where we raise taxes for 7,000 students in nine other schools,” he said.
The Onyx RCR 80V can hit motorcycle speeds, but after hundreds of miles in the saddle, I found there’s a lot more to this compact e-bike than going fast.
Linda Williams, who was attacked in 2004, says force’s handling of her case was ‘like being raped all over again’
A detective who was raped by the former Scotland Yard officer David Carrick has called for the head of the Metropolitan police to resign, saying the handling of her case was “like being raped all over again”.
Linda Williams, 60, who has waived her right to anonymity, was attacked by Carrick in 2004. She launched a legal case against the Met for failing to protect her against the serial rapist, and has now settled for an undisclosed six-figure sum without the force admitting liability.
Sioux City, IA — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he believes he has the right to seek a third term in office, despite the Constitution explicitly prohibiting anyone from being elected president more than twice.
Speaking at a Republican campaign rally in Sioux City, Trump acknowledged that the law restricts him but argued that his continued false claim that the 2020 election was stolen should effectively entitle him to another run.
“I think I have the right to run again,” Trump said, adding, “They cheated us on the second one, because we won it three times.”
Trump did not win the 2020 election. Joe Biden defeated him in both the Electoral College and popular vote, and Trump’s campaign and allies failed to produce evidence of fraud sufficient to overturn the result despite dozens of lawsuits, recounts and audits.
The 22nd Amendment is unusually direct: no person may be elected president more than twice. It contains no exception for a president who believes an earlier election was stolen.
Trump’s latest comments continue months of public flirtation with remaining in power beyond January 2029. Supporters have promoted “Trump 2028” merchandise, while some allies have publicly discussed hypothetical ways he might attempt to remain president.
Changing the two-term limit would require a constitutional amendment, not a declaration that a previous election was unfair.
Trump made the remarks while campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson and other GOP candidates ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
The president shows a unique disregard for the opinions, norms and ideals of the nation – and, for that matter, humanity
The Democrats’ focus on affordability seems to be a winning strategy (we’ll know for sure in a little over two weeks). But we mustn’t lose sight of the moral squalor at the core of the Trump regime and the necessity of ending it.
It’s that moral squalor – the utter disregard for the opinions, norms and ideals of the nation and, for that matter, of humanity – that uniquely marks Trump and the reprobates he has attracted to Washington. It has also poisoned much of the Republican party, including the billionaires and tech bros who finance it.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK
A rescued mink from a Utah fur farm Julie Leopo for ProPublica
The strain of bird flu that’s ripped through American barns for the last four years has killed two people who caught it from sick animals. But as far as anyone can tell, humans can’t spread it. The virus has remained a true “bird” flu, tailored to attach to avian cells, not invade human throats and noses, where coughing and sneezing reliably spew droplets.
Under the right conditions, however, that could change. A single mutation could give the bird flu a foothold in people and spark a pandemic that experts fear could be deadlier than COVID-19.
For that to happen, this bird flu would likely need to find an intermediate host — an animal vulnerable to viruses that infect both birds and humans. These animals would be crowded together, each infection raising the odds that a new strain could arise through mutation. Then, for that strain to jump across species, it would have to have access to humans and time to spread among them undetected.
That perfect petri dish exists right now, a ProPublica investigation found. For over two months, an outbreak of bird flu has raged uncontrolled on a Utah farm that raises thousands of mink for fur. Mink have lungs and airways that on a cellular level are remarkably similar to those of people; they have caught and spread other flus and infected some humans with COVID-19.
Instead of trying to stop the outbreak and prevent it from spilling into humans, state and federal officials have done little except try to keep its existence quiet, our investigation shows. The failure to act amounts to a cascade of missteps flu experts called “irresponsible” and “puzzling.” One called it “playing with fire.”
C&T Fenn Farms, a mink fur farm west of Provo, Utah, on Sept. 25Julie Leopo for ProPublica
Utah agriculture officials learned in mid-August that mink were dying of bird flu on C&T Fenn Farms, about an hour’s drive south from Salt Lake City, according to communications released under the state’s public records law.
Had poultry been infected, the playbook would have been clear: The strain is so virulent that if a single chicken tests positive, the U.S. government requires farmers to kill the whole flock to protect other farms as well as public health. Poultry farmers are reimbursed for the loss.
But there are no federal rules for how to deal with sick mink.
Handling Utah’s response was state veterinarian Amanda Price, who sought help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which takes the lead on bird flu outbreaks involving poultry and cows.
USDA officials said they didn’t regulate mink or have a vaccine that was approved to give them. And though officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spoke with Price’s health department counterparts who were less involved with the outbreak, they never talked to her, and she never reached out.
The threat of spillover has been far from the minds of Utah officials, records and interviews show. Instead, front and center have been the interests of a business raising animals to skin for luxury pelts to ship overseas.
“It has been devastating,” Price told ProPublica of the outbreak and its impact on the farm’s owner. “This is his life’s work that he’s seeing be destroyed. I really hope that you understand the humanity behind this situation.”
Flu experts were unequivocal that the government should have ordered the farm to cull its mink, as other countrieshave done.
But Utah never seriously considered it. A fur trade representative warned Price that doing so would kill the business and, ultimately, the industry. Farms spend decades breeding mink to develop unique genetic lineages.
“There’s just not a lot of options out there other than kind of sitting and waiting and seeing what happens,” Price said, noting that USDA officials did not urge her to kill the mink or make her feel like bird flu in mink was any riskier than infections in other animals that have caught it, like ducks and cows.
Flu experts found that response surprising.
“Every other country that I’m aware of that has had H5N1 in fur farms, depopulation has happened pretty quickly,” said Tom Peacock, an avian influenza researcher at the Pirbright Institute. “The fact that the first instinct wasn’t just to depopulate and figure stuff out later is very concerning to me.”
And all the while, officials didn’t monitor the mink workers for symptoms, as guidance from the CDC urges.
Their exposure is significant: Mink sneeze. They escape. They attack. “The mink are fierce,” said a Spanish-speaking “minkero” who works on a nearby farm, showing the scars he got from the aggressive, solitary creatures. “You get scared because the fucking thing bites, and it claws at you.”
A mink farmworker, sometimes referred to as a “minkero” among the Spanish-speaking community, shows scars from mink bites and scratches in Payson, Utah. Workers typically wear long gloves to protect themselves but can still be bitten or scratched.Julie Leopo for ProPublica
Right now in Washington state, officials are working to track down the contacts of a symptomatic person exposed to dairy cattle infected with bird flu. The patient is isolating at home. Utah public health officials used to do similar, proactive monitoring. But they stopped after complaints from their colleagues in the agriculture department that farmers were annoyed by it.
“Us doing active monitoring was making it so that farms didn’t want to work with them,” said Pamela Gomez Pinedo, a respiratory disease epidemiologist for Utah’s health department. As a result, public health workers had a “pretty difficult time” getting details from agriculture officials, she said.
As part of a 2025 agreement, the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food agreed to share information about bird flu outbreaks on farms — so long as the health officials didn’t do anything to track workers’ health.
“We will only do active monitoring in the case of evidence of human-to-human transmission,” Pinedo said in emails with a CDC epidemiologist. As the outbreak stretched to a month, CDC officials expressed concerns, asking how anyone would know if a worker had been infected if they weren’t getting tested.
Price said the state’s policy not to monitor workers is meant to allow farmers to decide whether to contact the health department, rather than “forcing it on them.” “If we started seeing people actively dying from this, obviously that would change how we respond to this,” she said.
A telltale sign of bird flu infection in humans is eye redness. It is present in over 90% of cases and is often the sole symptom a person displays.
Last Saturday, a ProPublica reporter tracked down two people who worked at the Utah mink farm. One had a visibly red eye.
After ProPublica reached out to the farm, its owner, Chad Fenn, contacted the Utah County Health Department about the red eye, which had cleared up by Monday, he told ProPublica. He said the worker got dust in his eye; the department didn’t recommend testing.
“They’re not going to do anything,” Fenn said. “They said they don’t see that there’s a need.” He said the department recommended testing only if other symptoms, like a cough or sore throat, developed.
A half dozen flu experts had no shortage of adjectives to describe their disbelief at the government decisions not to cull the mink or monitor and test the workers.
“It’s amazing to me,” said Gail Hansen, a former Kansas state public health veterinarian and epidemiologist. “Utah doesn’t want to be the epicenter of the next human flu outbreak, right?”
Most of the new viruses that have shaken humanity in the past century have spilled over from animals. Ebolas likely came from fruit bats; HIV, from chimpanzees. The leading theory for COVID-19 is that it jumped from bats to humans via an intermediate host mammal such as a raccoon dog. And all the modern flu pandemics have been bird flu viruses that mutated to spread in humans.
That’s not happening in Utah, experts said after reviewing ProPublica’s findings. Both the state and federal government are to blame.
“There’s no leader of this ‘one health’ team to take charge,” said Erin Sorrell, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “That is going to allow the virus to continue to circulate, potentially adapt and potentially spill over into another host, whether it’s avian, mammalian or human.”
This strain of bird flu, which began ripping through American poultry farms in early 2022, has proved adept at jumping to other species. It took hold in cows in 2024 and since then has run rampant through dairies.
Yet federal guidance to prevent the spread into mink farms hasn’t considered cows a threat. Farmers are encouraged to keep wild birds from infiltrating their barns and avoid feeding them raw poultry. It has said nothing about feeding beef parts to mink, which farmers commonly do in summer months to encourage the animals to put on weight and grow.
The genomic data from the samples of mink lungs and brains sent from Utah to a USDA lab shows that the mink were stricken with the same strain of the virus that has spread in dairy herds. Officials said they didn’t know whether contaminated beef was the way the mink got infected.
Cows graze in a field in Utah Valley, Utah.Julie Leopo for ProPublica
In mink, the dairy strain of bird flu may have found a much better host for mutating into a human flu, because mink airways have an abundance of the type of cell receptors in people’s throats and noses that are a common pathway for infection.
A 2024 study of the dairy strain of the bird flu found that a single mutation could switch the virus from preferring the bird-type receptors to human-type receptors. And in studies using ferrets, a close relative of mink, the virus acquired mutations that let it attack human-type cell receptors.
It’s not clear to scientists just how much of an evolutionary leap would be needed for this strain of bird flu to spread among humans, or whether mink are the host that would allow that leap to happen.
How this ultimately plays out “really depends on what happens with the virus,” said Meghan Davis, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University.
“We might get lucky, and a response that is not robust may not have dire consequences,” she said. “But we may get unlucky.”
There’s also a risk of something called “reassortment,” where another flu virus could infect the same cell as a bird flu virus and swap wide swaths of genetic code already adapted to humans.
When the outbreak in the mink farm started, there was very little seasonal flu it could mix with, but September saw one of the earliest starts to flu season on record, compared with November, when flu normally takes off.
“The most likely scenario for a pandemic is that we have a virus that reassorts with another virus,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health. “Obviously, having this circulate amid human flu season is not great.”
Utah officials were far more responsive to the threat of spillover in 2020, when outbreaks of COVID-19 spread explosively on mink farms – including this very farm. They invited federal officials to the state to research how the virus adapted and moved.
There are no similar efforts now in Utah with bird flu.
A USDA spokesperson told ProPublica that it was more involved in 2020 because the virus that causes COVID-19 had “significant” potential to transmit between humans and animals and vice versa.
Scientists with the USDA sequenced and published bird flu genomic data from the first samples of dead mink. Those sequences didn’t show any particularly concerning mutations, experts and the CDC told ProPublica.
But in the past two months, experts said, the virus is sure to have continued mutating as it spread – it’s only a question of whether those mutations could confer some advantage in infecting humans as well.
“As long as it continues to go mink to mink, then it becomes more and more likely that it could jump to a human,” Hansen said.
Fenn said new samples were taken two weeks ago. Price said she is still waiting for the results.
John Korslund, a retired USDA official who helped coordinate the response to COVID-19 on mink farms several years prior, was one of several experts who said officials need to look closely at newer genetic samples to see how the virus is evolving.
“I really want to know what the virus has done, from when it started to today,” he said. “Are we getting accumulated mutations making the virus more dangerous?”
Mink have the type of cell receptors that a seasonal flu will target in human throats and noses.Julie Leopo for ProPublica
ProPublica began reporting on the outbreak late this summer after the USDA updated a bird flu dashboard that showed seven captive mink had tested positive in Utah. But neither the USDA nor state officials had said anything publicly, and, when asked, they wouldn’t discuss what was actually happening on the farm.
Willy Lanier, a public health veterinarian with the state health department, told colleagues to keep the outbreak under “closer hold” than outbreaks of bird flu on poultry and dairy farms. Keeping the information confidential was consistent with state protocol, a spokesperson in his department said, adding that it was still shared with local health officials. But when ProPublica reached out to the spokesperson for the Utah County Health Department about a possible bird flu outbreak, she said, “That would be news to me.”
Price is so deferential to the family that owns the farm that she has not set foot on the property.
“We might get lucky, and a response that is not robust may not have dire consequences. But we may get unlucky.”
Meghan Davis, Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist
“I’m really the only one here at this facility that’s been dealing with the producer. They’re a very private bunch,” Price said. “A lot of what I’m going off of is what I’ve seen from Google Maps, what I’ve talked to the producer about, what I’ve talked to the vet about. I haven’t felt the need to go out there based on those conversations.”
She said she “became very comfortable” in conversations with the owner that the virus wouldn’t spread off the farm. It doesn’t have animals moving on and off over the course of the year like on a dairy or poultry farm; mink leave only when they’re slaughtered and skinned for pelts at the end of the year. She also said that she was confident the owner would recapture any escaped mink.
Short of a formal quarantine, Price gave the farm a “verbal hold” to not move any mink, or manure or carcasses, off the farm. “We haven’t seen spread off of this farm. We have not had additional cases in Utah that are linked to this, so thus far the verbal hold orders and the measures that have been taken look to be successful: There is not spread happening from this farm from this case.”
Price’s assertion didn’t allay the concerns of experts that ProPublica spoke with. When poultry test positive for this strain of bird flu, all nearby farms are quarantined and tested for the virus. But the approach in Utah relies on farms reporting cases or the public calling in reports of dead birds in the area.
“If you’re not looking for something, you won’t find it,” Sorrell said. “Unless you’re doing active surveillance, you can’t claim that you haven’t had cases.”
Fenn told ProPublica his conversations with state officials made him less worried about any kind of spread. When the outbreak started, Fenn said, he asked whether the bird flu could infect people.
“Right off the bat, the state people we reported to, they said you don’t need to worry too much,” Fenn said. “My guys wear masks every day. They have glasses they can wear,” Fenn said. “ Me? I don’t wear it at all. Never have, never will, because I’ve been doing it for 40 years.”
Fenn said he wished he could vaccinate the mink for bird flu to keep the rest of his animals from catching it and dying; Price asked the USDA about a vaccine that had been used to save endangered wild species but said she got nowhere with that request. The USDA told ProPublica its division responsible for protecting animal health has no “species-specific regulatory authority or dedicated programs” for vaccinating mink, depopulating them or paying owners back for such a culling.
Fenn told ProPublica he thinks concerns about mink as a particularly risky bird flu host are trumped up by anti-fur activists, the same forces that he believed were behind the reactions in Spain and Finland, which depopulated mink farms hit with bird flu. “Europeans are a little scared of everything,” he said. “They’re going to do what they’re going to do, and here in the United States, we’re going to do what we’re going to do.”
Price said she was aware that Finland and Spain had depopulated their fur farms when the same strain infected them. “I didn’t really look much further into it,” she said, explaining that she was interested in those cases only for lessons about how to handle the outbreak, but not the particular reasons those countries chose to depopulate the farms.
A USDA spokesperson said Congress would have to specifically fund a program to depopulate mink. (The program to cull poultry to stop the spread of bird flu has cost well over $1 billion since 2022.)
The events in Utah are a “clear warning sign” about the dangers of mink farms, said Neil Vora, executive director for the Preventing Pandemics at the Source Coalition.
“Fur farms are to produce pelts purely for luxury goods, to make fancy coats,” he said. “It’s absurd that we’re willing to gamble with the lives of millions of people just to keep an industry alive.”
The industry has struggled as American consumers increasingly reject fur. Though domestic farms peaked about a decade ago, selling luxury pelts that often ended up in China, foreign farms have sprung up, threatening the business.
It’s Milwaukee and Tampa Bay in the 122nd Fall Classic. Our writers predict how it will be decided, who will shine brightest and who will break their World Series maiden
Yes - and in fact, evidence that money actively undermines baseball happiness. For the big-market teams, anything less than a World Series is disappointing. Whereas for the Rays (who in April were given a 1.1% chance of winning the World Series by FanGraphs) or Brewers (2.1%), the season is already a success, and winning it all would give their fans more pleasure than a Yankees or Dodgers fan could ever experience. Alan Evans
Search and rescue efforts under way after quake strikes region’s north, with at least seven aftershocks recorded
A magnitude-7 earthquake has hit Tibet, killing at least 16 people, injuring 54 and destroying hundreds of homes in the northern regional city of Nagqu, official media have said.
Search and rescue efforts continued after at least 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds collapsed, the Nagqu media office said, citing city government officials. It was the biggest quake in the region in the past five years, according to China’s national broadcaster CCTV.
Economic fallout from war in Middle East adds to pressures on consumers and on chancellor before budget
Consumer confidence in the UK has fallen at the fastest rate outside the Covid pandemic since the 2016 Brexit vote as the escalating economic damage from the war in the Middle East hits Britain.
With less than a week before John Healey’s first budget, the latest barometer from the data company GfK indicated confidence plunged by 11 percentage points in October to -24 amid pressure on consumers from the rising cost of living.
Washington, DC — Sen. Ted Cruz escalated Republican attacks on Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed this week, claiming without evidence that El-Sayed could share classified intelligence with Muslim Brotherhood terrorists if elected.
Appearing on Fox News, Cruz said he believes El-Sayed is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and argued that placing him on the Senate Intelligence Committee would create an “unacceptably high risk” to U.S. service members and intelligence assets.
No evidence has established that El-Sayed belongs to or supports the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed has repeatedly denied any affiliation and explicitly disavowed the organization when asked at an October town hall.
PolitiFact recently rated Republican Mike Rogers’s claim that El-Sayed refused to disavow the Brotherhood False, noting that video shows El-Sayed answering, “Sure, yeah, absolutely.” The Associated Press has likewise described allegations of El-Sayed’s Brotherhood ties as unsubstantiated.
Republicans have cited old social media posts from El-Sayed’s half-sister about their biological mother’s alleged activism and a 2012 statement El-Sayed signed supporting Egypt’s democratically elected government. Neither establishes membership in the Brotherhood.
Cruz has also accused El-Sayed of hating Jews, another serious allegation for which he has not presented evidence.
El-Sayed has compared the recurring loyalty accusations to questions once directed at John F. Kennedy over whether his Catholic faith would make him beholden to the Vatican.
For the first time, the UN has declared that exceeding the Paris Agreement's 1.5C warming limit is "imminent and unavoidable." "We are now saying this window has closed, but we can open it again by making the overshoot as brief as possible," UN Environment Program Executive Director Inger Andersen said on a call with reporters. "This is about how to find a way back as shortly and as quickly as possible with as limited an overshoot as possible." CNN reports: Past reports have examined the distance between countries' emissions reduction commitments and what it would take to limit global warming to 1.5 C above preindustrial levels. However, this year's report redefines the gap. Instead, it examines new emissions overshoot scenarios, and what it would take to limit peak warming to just 1.7 to 1.8 degrees C before bringing temperatures back down to 1.5 C through emissions cuts and the use of carbon removal technologies.
The report makes clear that every additional fraction of a degree of warming above 1.5 C "raises the risk of irreversible changes including in ice sheets, permafrost carbon, ocean circulation, and coral systems, along with devastating human impacts." Each added fraction of a degree of warming can have an "immense" impact "as measured in terms of damage, cost and loss of lives," said climate scientist Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania. Mann was not involved in producing the UNEP report.
According to the UNEP, which is based in Nairobi, the lowest overshoot scenario would keep peak warming to between 1.7 and 1.8 degrees C and return global average temperatures to at or below 1.5 C by 2100. However, to follow such a pathway, global greenhouse gas emissions would need to be slashed by far more than anything currently on the table at the upcoming COP31 talks. This would require an 18% cut by 2030, 45% by 2035, and 69% by 2040, relative to 2025 levels.
Meeting this lowest-possible overshoot scenario would require a tripling of renewable electricity capacity by 2035, and dramatic cuts to fossil fuels, including the phaseout of coal by 2040, the report states. In addition, there would need to be a major scaling up of carbon removal technologies, which so far have not been proven to work at such a large scale. In stark contrast to these figures, the fulfillment of existing emissions reduction pledges would only yield a 5-to-8% emissions cut by 2030 and an 11-to-15% reduction by 2035, the report found. This would be associated with a peak warming of about 2.6 degrees C.
If countries simply follow their current policies, then warming could reach a peak of about 2.8 C. That estimate has increased since last year, in part because of the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement and retraction of its emissions reduction commitments, the report states. Even the scenario that assumes countries meet their existing reduction commitments, and nations with net-zero pledges succeed in fulfilling them, still brings warming to a peak of 2.1 C.
Case filed in 2022 by patient unable to afford medicine leads to cap on drug prices for millions who face ruin if diagnosed
The Indian government has moved to reduce the price of cancer drugs after a retired bank clerk took her case to the supreme court.
From next month, 137 cancer drugs in India will be cheaper as the government tries to tackle the tragedy of poorer patients either forgoing treatment, selling land or falling into debt to meet the high cost of some medicines, which are making large profits for hospitals and pharmacists.
Biggest Apple smartwatch gets better health tracking and new readiness tools with a battery and chip boost in preparation for controversial audio AI
As the Ultra enters its fourth year as Apple’s biggest and beefiest smartwatch it gets the best kind of spec upgrade – longer battery life – while waiting for something potentially more transformative.
Jim Chalmers in a speech last week offered the scant encouragement that the economy would be “a bit better” in a year’s time.
Fast forward to Friday morning, and the treasurer revealed that his officials were busy downgrading their forecasts ahead of December’s mid-year budget update to show slower growth and higher unemployment.
James helps Sixers erase 29-point deficit against Cavs
Donald Trump lashed out at NBA superstar LeBron James on Thursday for what he called disrespectful behavior during the playing of the national anthem.
Trump posted a video of the basketball legend making apparent warm-up movements while lined up with his Philadelphia 76ers teammates before their season opener against the New York Knicks on Tuesday.
Activision; PC, PS5, Switch 2, Xbox From parkour over Manhattan rooftops and car chases in Paris to the climactic battle at a North Korean air base, the developers have thrown absolutely everything at the game
And so we return perhaps one final time to Call of Duty’s Modern Warfare strand, with stories, “ripped from the newspaper headlines”, featuring shady terror organisations, nefarious rogue states and the brutally capable, monosyllabic war fighters who stand between us and Armageddon. Last year’s Black Ops 7 instalment was a sales disappointment for Activision, and that has no doubt put extra pressure on Infinity Ward, the studio leading Modern Warfare 4 development. Fortunately, this developer – like series heroes Price, Gaz and Ghost – seems to thrive on pressure.
As you may have read, this year’s campaign is based around a fictitious North Korean ruling family that has seized an opportunity to invade its southern neighbour. Amid the chaos, a small group of Korean and American marines must help lead the fightback, while in the shadows, SAS hard man John Price makes an unlikely new comrade in his own morally ambiguous quest to put the world to rights. Mads Mikkelsen pops up as evil mastermind The Archer, but like Kiernan Shipka in Black Ops 7 he’s rather wasted, with very little screen time.
Caleb Williams threw for 308 yards and two touchdowns, and the Chicago Bears cooled off Drake Maye and the New England Patriots with a 30-24 win on Thursday night.
Williams was 22 of 33 passing in his second game back after being sidelined by a hamstring injury. He became the first Bears quarterback to throw for more than 300 yards in consecutive games since Mitch Trubisky had a three-game run in 2018.
The last month, it’s felt as though I’ve cradled the world in open hands, almost dropping it from time to time, but spinning it as though I were from another galaxy, picking up this weird ball and wondering what all these people were doing, stuck to it… like gummy bears on a wall… defying gravity. I’m not sure this other galaxy would have gummy bears, but ok, why not.
The cacophony that is social media is mostly useless. Lady Gaga called it the toilet of the internet, which endeared me to her even more. But once in a while, you land on information that is like that last piece of the puzzle dropping into place. You smooth over the puzzle and go, Oh, so that’s what that was. And in the moment, you’re grateful for the over-sharing.
I wrote a long missive recently that I’m sure I wrote hoping my ex-partner would stumble upon it. In it, I wrote all the things I wished he would say to me. Ways he would promise to fight for us. Apologies and epiphanies. But like a lot of mysterious moves, he stopped paying attention to my music, my writing, anything creative, about midway through our separation.
Yet this pining persisted, for him to say the words to me. To finally say: I will work with you. You matter to me. We matter.
Yet those words never came in the way I needed them to. I kept noticing that I’d wrap myself in the promise of his words, just like I did from day one. A birthday email… long and poetic, perfectly spaced with punctuation that felt like kisses. His use of the colon is magical. He no doubt will magnetize so many more to him through his writing, as perhaps he should.
But as the days went on, my autonomy took centre stage, and who I was before this relationship of intense highs and lows started to re-emerge.
There had been a painful conflict involving my family that I couldn’t reconcile. Months later, I was still struggling with the absence of the kind of accountability and repair I needed to feel safe moving forward.
At some point, you start to take this information as data, instead of a knife to the heart.
Oh, I see.
My skin became thicker.
My heart, still rife with sadness, was becoming accustomed to the reality of what I could and couldn’t change.
The painful conflict was a horrible night earlier this year when I left the family home to go visit my dad. I’ve done this many times. I know I don’t have many more days with my 90-something dad. What I thought would be a simple evening became something else entirely.
It wasn’t long before I was getting phone calls. I was hearing about arguments. Desperation. The panic in my heart went off. I had to pack up from my parents’ house and head home to see what was going on.
Fuck.
I remember the feeling of losing the future I had imagined, right there in that moment.
But this time felt different.
When I arrived home, I knew that something fundamental had shifted for me.
But you see, the details of who said what are not really the point of this essay. The point is that I no longer felt the security I had believed was at the centre of my marriage.
I understand that families are complicated, but when you feel caught between your marriage and your responsibility to your children, it’s a strange kind of sour death.
That night came the realization that this was over. It was the last straw for me.
But then, what I didn’t plan for moved into my body like a peculiar, new visitor. An unimaginable confusion and grief.
No, none of it was right, but I still love him. Fully.
No, I couldn’t accept the relationship as it had become, but he is my person.
Yes, things had happened that I couldn’t reconcile. But we are married.
Yes, it’s over. But he is my home.
On and on and on, for months, this gruelling and unimaginable tug of war. How to reconcile the wonderful person I remembered with the experience of the relationship I was now trying to understand?
I began reading about control, attachment, trauma-bonds and reactive responses to emotionally unsafe behaviour. I was especially interested in the ways people can become so overwhelmed in relationships that they begin behaving in ways they barely recognize themselves. Diminishing themselves. Pleading with partners. Angered and lost and breathless.
It made me think about my own reactions, my desperation to be understood, and how much energy I had spent trying to find a way through. So much time, every day, decoding. Hoping. Balancing precariously.
February to mid-October of this year, I spent most of my days trying to understand this relationship. Why I kept being drawn back. Where did Emm go, who was once so magnetic and powerful?
Was our dynamic unsafe?
Was there ever any love?
Where was the magic of the early days? Because oh my god, there was so much magic. There were pop songs and yacht rock songs and dancing on stage and romantic trips and holding each other through everything and being a family.
There was a tug of fear early on that I didn’t listen to. Why didn’t I listen to it? Why did I go headlong into this relationship?
It must have been the magic, overshadowing all of those little mini red flags, flapping in the bubbled pandemic wind.
I know now that when it came to this relationship, I, like so many of us, tried to fill the void left by my caretakers in childhood. He listened like no one else I had ever met, he framed my words perfectly, he swiftly understood what mattered to me, he knew my vulnerabilities, he became my everything and my home… and what an exciting person to have in my life.
The best writer in Canada. Beyond handsome. Knows every Iron Maiden album. Would take my son to the rink. Would hold my daughter when she was afraid of butterflies at the butterfly conservatory. (She hated the butterfly abdomen, and I kind of get it.)
So, if it was so perfect, with red flags that could be seemingly managed, why, after taking space, wouldn’t he want to find our way back? I was beyond befuddled. Why couldn’t we get into the weeds about our relationship? Surely, if two people love each other, it can be done. It wouldn’t be that hard.
I kept offering and offering and offering. Offering a plan for repair. A structure. I begged. I offered some more.
Let’s listen to Marshall Rosenberg. Here’s the audio. Let’s forgive. Let’s start from today.
So many approaches. So much disconnection.
And then it hit me.
What if control, not love, had become the central theme of this relationship?
Not necessarily the absence of love. I know what I felt. I know the extraordinary beauty of the early days.
But what if I had mistaken the intensity of being wanted, the feeling of being someone’s everything, for the safety of creating comfort?
And what if, somewhere along the way, I had become so invested in preserving that feeling that I had stopped noticing what was happening to my own autonomy?
That was the puzzle piece.
I had been trying to understand the relationship through the lens of love. Why couldn’t love fix it? Why couldn’t love bring us back together? Why wasn’t love enough?
But when I began to examine my experience through the lens of control, so much more made sense to me.
The ways I had learned to anticipate moods.
The ways I had begun to manage my own words and reactions.
The ways I had put my own needs aside to preserve peace and uphold a perceived loyalty.
The amount of time I spent trying to understand someone else instead of understanding myself.
And those of us who look to fill the void, and make our partner our healing magic in life… the one who has come to close that childhood loop, the loop that left us in so much unconscious pain… can become extraordinarily willing to surrender pieces of ourselves.
We will do anything for love.
We give the benefit of the doubt.
And then we give it again.
And again.
And when relationships go the way mine did, where wonderful, blissful connection flowed like a river prior to marriage, and then slowly started to erode once the relationship was sealed by wedding rings and marriage documents… it is a slow drive through the countryside for the bereaved funeral party.
My big mistake: I thought compromise, commitment, leaning into couplehood was just part of being together.
In actual fact, I had surrendered too much of my autonomy, my identity, and my needs.
I was so open and ready for love that I thought it was just par for the course.
And gradually, what I had once understood as the natural evolution of a marriage began to feel, to me, like something else entirely.
I felt increasingly responsible for maintaining the emotional equilibrium of the relationship.
I tried to turn a blind eye to that feeling.
Over and over.
But this month, October 2026, living on my own, I began to see it as clear as day, thanks to doctors sharing their wisdom online and in books, and other people being strong enough to speak about their experiences.
Control had become the organizing force of my experience of the relationship. Not love.
That is how I understand it now.
And suddenly, I could stop asking the same questions.
Why couldn’t we fix it?
Why couldn’t I find the right words?
Why couldn’t I make myself be understood?
I had spent months believing that if I could just find the right approach, I might be able to restore the relationship I remembered.
But I was beginning to understand that I had no control over that outcome.
Only over myself.
I never wanted to move out from the home we created. It takes balls, and the mama bear in me — then still not aware of the epiphanies I’ve had this month — possessed a felt sense that could take no more.
As horrible as that final chapter was, it was a big-gigantic-life-changing gift.
A gift that gave me the light. That led me here. No contact. A clean break from the emotional cycle I had been living in.
Of course, because I’m me, I want to help everyone else who’s gone through this. I want to write about this. I want to understand control, narcissism, reactive responses, trauma-bonding and more.
But today I just said: STOP.
No training. No certificates. No helping others.
Write about it once. (That’s this.) And then put the grief, the sadness, the bewilderment into something positive.
…
Photo by Sanjeevan SatheesKumar
The healing starts right now. I choose me.
I give myself the year, or whatever it’s going to be, to return to who I am.
I’m not living my life cradling an unpredictable nervous system.
I’m not looking to navigate surprises.
I’m not making excuses for behaviour that didn’t feel right to me.
I’m not abandoning my own instincts in the hope that love will eventually make everything okay.
I’m not going to couples therapy wondering why a high point in my career has become another source of emotional distress.
I’m not waiting to be loved by someone else.
No. That all stops now.
Black ink over handwritten tattoos.
Reminders gone.
My heart unlocked.
My breath fuller, and freer.
My mornings quieter.
My smile wider.
All of this with the help of Catherine. Lisa. Catherine. Cindy. Tanya. Karin. Amber. Liese. Sarah. Darlene. Mary. Kelly. Maureen. Davis. Kara. Mom. Renee. Svetlana. Natalie. Kim.
This army of women has held my heart so carefully this year. There’s no way I’d be above water if it weren’t for them. I thank them with everything I have.
And my children, who should never have had to prop up a single mom, have done so.
By laughing at me buying the Home Sweet Home decor for my new place when I knew it was finally hopeless.
By giving me unsolicited motivational entrepreneurial advice on car drives.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: Major U.S. banks are detecting unauthorized third-party AI agents operating inside customer accounts, with some agents attempting to take actions that appear to be independent of user instructions, sources tell Axios. The difficulty in distinguishing between a human and an unauthorized bot is forcing banks to block the technology and rapidly rewrite their terms of service. [...] This presents significant security risks: banking executives fear the steps agents with login access might take, especially if a user has granted purchase authority or the ability to shift funds. In other instances, some banks have tracked activity when agents -- programmed to fulfill requests or complete tasks on a user's behalf -- contact call centers or appear to take actions independent of user instructions, the people said.
Bank executives described the situation as horrifying, with one official saying the industry has grave concerns about agents gaining access to customer accounts and taking steps that could impact user finances. The concerns are at the root of the decision by several banks to restrict third-party AI agent access, the people said. Morgan Stanley has begun blocking third-party agents from accessing its platforms, sources familiar with the decision said. JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citi are also restricting agents. [...] Many banks are broadly not able to parse whether agent account activity is user-directed, sources said.
[...] On one hand, banks are best positioned to respond to the threats and opportunities of AI given their cash on hand and experience as critical infrastructure. But money isn't necessarily enough to solve this problem, one source said, because of how quickly the technology is developing and revealing new weaknesses in real time. Banks are investing in preventing worst-case scenarios, but they are also preparing for when those could happen, including with "day after" scenario planning that would allow them to quickly secure or restore customer access, sources said.
Speaking from a crowded airplane hangar in ruby-red western Iowa, President Trump delivered a pitch to farmers — a key group as Republicans fight to hold on to a Senate seat.
Got my GT delivered today and after a quick charge, started riding in the hallway of my building. Progressed about 30 minutes later outside, into an empty parking lot for a solid 15 minutes and then made 8-10 laps around the fairly large block going at the lowest setting I could find in the app, 5mph. Although I minorly regret being on a bike path after, near a modest amount of traffic, I went a mile and a half up to a large park where I could try accelerating and braking. It was fun, but I couldn’t wait to get home. 🤣
I went farther than I thought I would but managed to log 7 total miles and only fall, once. I was very happy I have my motorcycle gear on as it would have hurt big time when I finally fell over! I am learning that the wobbles and overall control are pretty prevalent when just riding straight after a while, slowing down is a severe challenge for me, but I am confident that they will even out- after a while, it’s only day 1 I keep saying. I definitely used muscles today I haven’t used in a LONG time at the age of 43!
Any thoughts or suggestions to help the wobbles slowly disappear over the next few days? I’m eventually looking forward to going faster, but have kept it on a very low speed (and will continue to do so) so I don’t crash. Looking at the board, it looks already scraped to hell- which is awesome as it rides amazing.
Anyway, thanks for any help in advance- tomorrows another day for practice! Included an obligatory photo in front of my growing collection of Segway scooters- I really am excited to have purchased a OneWheel!
A blaze that killed four soldiers and injured several dozen more on a military base in the Canadian province of Alberta last week broke out on a grenade launcher range during training exercises, officials said.
Washington, DC — Rep. Ilhan Omar says she plans to move out of her Washington home after federal agents searched it last week, saying the attention generated by the raid has left her feeling unsafe.
Federal authorities are investigating possible fraud involving immigration paperwork connected to Omar’s family. Grand jury subpoenas have also been issued to some relatives, according to a person briefed on the investigation.
Omar, a naturalized U.S. citizen who arrived in the United States with her family at age 12, said she is confident she did nothing wrong. She became a citizen in 2000.
The Minnesota Democrat said Homeland Security investigators arrived around 6 a.m. and spent four to five hours searching the residence. Agents seized 17 items, including phones, notebooks, a Somali-language children’s book and a vintage camera.
The Justice Department has released few details beyond describing the matter as an ongoing criminal investigation.
The timing has drawn criticism from Democrats because the search occurred only weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms. Omar has frequently been targeted by President Donald Trump, while administration officials had publicly raised allegations about her immigration history before the search.
Omar described the agents themselves as “intrusive but polite” and said they documented what they removed and returned other items to their places.
Our Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, heads to Roraima to hear what’s at stake for the rainforest and the communities that live there in the Brazilian presidential runoff on Sunday. Send your comments and questions to tif.questions@theguardian.com
For the Amazon and the communities who live there, the stakes in Sunday’s Brazilian presidential election runoff could scarcely be higher.
Our Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips heads to Roraima, the country’s most northern state, to hear from voters, preachers and politicians in a region that heavily backed Flávio Bolsonaro in the first round.
Mary Peltola’s campaign to represent Alaska in the US Senate has taken her to parts of the massive state’s interior that are inaccessible by road and on the frontlines of the cost-of-living crisis she hopes will make her the first Democrat to win the seat in nearly two decades.
California flu test rate at 9.65%, higher than normal 1% rate for early October, amid mutation of H1N1 influenza A strain
Flu cases on the west coast are on the rise months earlier than normal, prompting US health experts to stress the importance of the annual vaccine.
Flu activity typically ramps up in December, hitting its peak in February. But this season has kicked into action earlier this year, with higher positive cases than normal recorded.
Ex-Trump adviser and former top aide for homeland security alleged to have profited off government role
Corey Lewandowski, a former political adviser to Donald Trump and top aide at the Department of Homeland Security, is under criminal investigation over allegations he profited off his role in the US government, three US officials and a fourth person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
The investigation began with a criminal referral to the justice department from the internal watchdog at the DHS, according to the four people. The DHS inspector general’s office has been investigating Lewandowski’s involvement in the handling of certain government contracts, according to one of the people, a DHS official.
The City of Newark held its annual Halloween party at the George Wilson Center on Thursday. Dozens of kids enjoyed a costume contest, games, crafts, snacks and a scary room. The Halloween fun continues at 3 p.m. Sunday with the…
Among those charged were the mother and father of 13-year-old Benson Nguyen, who died after crashing his e-moto into a light pole in Southern California.
So I definitely suck at online ordering when it comes to the particulars sometimes. I saw purple and pulled the trigger and this fender does not fit my XRV. I no longer own a GT and was looking for a fender that fits my WTF rails on my XRV and this was ordered this during their warehouse move so I don't feel like it's fair trying to get a refund from them. I'm a dummy.
So...instead of hassling TFL trying to get a refund I thought this would be fun.
The contest: Tell me your funniest Onewheel story, dumbest riding mistake, or most ridiculous thing that's happened while riding. Videos are a major plus.
I'll pick my favorite story. No upvote contest, no random gimmicks. Just make me laugh and help me with shipping. Deadline for entries is 1900 GMT 10/24 so no stories after that.
The details:
Fender is FREE. Winner just covers actual shipping. (I think we can use USPS Priority Mail as it is typically cheaper)
Please don't make the same mistake as me and make sure it'll fit your rig before entering! . I'll announce the winner here and arrange shipping by DM.
Figured I'd pass along a little good karma to the Onewheel community bc y'all are the best! And I can always use some riding the OW. 😎
Let's hear those stories. Bonus points for stories that start with "So I thought I could make it..." 😂
Good luck, everyone! 🤙
And yeah, I did have AI help me with this post because I'm lazy, but hey, free fender...
NSW supreme court judge otherwise dismisses case brought by film’s co-producers and awards Wilson almost $400,000 after star countersued
Australian A-lister Rebel Wilson has secured a major court victory after co-producers of her debut film accused her of sabotage, lying and breaching contracts.
The Pitch Perfect star directed, co-produced and starred in The Deb, a musical comedy that became the battleground for multiple legal battles in Australia and the US.
Earlier this year, I needed to learn PowerShell scripting for one Windows-related project, and I have tried it out a few more times on Mac. It has quickly become one of my favorite tools for automation and scripting—taking on jobs that I would have otherwise tried to do with Node.js, Shortcuts, macOS Automator, or heaven forbid, Bash scripts.
I get it now. PowerShell is great, even if you don’t use it as your shell, and even if you’re on Mac or Linux.
I don’t use the shell often enough on any of my main machines to have much of an idea about the strenghths and weaknesses of PowerShell compared to more traditional shells, but this is definitely not the first time I’ve heard a lot of praise for it from people otherwise knee-deep in the UNIX and traditional shell world.
There really must be something to this, and since PowerShell is also available on Linux and macOS, it’s pretty straightforward to give it a go without having to deal with Windows.
Violent storms overnight knocked over utility poles and trees and carried thunder and heavy winds through state
Yet more severe weather struck Thursday in the US south-west as the Four Corners region surveyed blown-away roofs, trees knocked on to homes and power lines downed from overnight tornadoes that injured one person.
The injuries weren’t life-threatening but rare for an area better known for scalding heat. But this fall has been unusually soggy in the south-west with El Niño conditions that have sent one tropical system after another in from the Pacific, causing the Grand Canyon and surrounding deserts to rage with floods.
Caricom commission chair Hilary Beckles wants king to ensure Commonwealth becomes a ‘moral institution committed to human justice’
The head of the Caribbean’s reparations commission has appealed to King Charles III as a “human brother” whose family he said had benefited from slavery to support reparations talks at next month’s Commonwealth leaders meeting in the Caribbean.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Antigua and Barbuda next month, professor Hilary Beckles urged the king to use his influence to advance slavery reparations talks between Britain and the Caribbean.
CQC research finds long delays are making conditions harder to treat and highlights regional disparities in care
Thousands of children in England are experiencing some of the sharpest rises in waiting times for healthcare in the history of the NHS, a report has revealed.
While some adult waiting times have improved, children and young people are being “hit hardest” amid soaring demand and falling numbers of staff, according to the annual state of care report by the Care Quality Commission.
(The Center Square) – The long-awaited opening of the so-called people mover system at Los Angeles International Airport has been pushed back once again, adding to a trail of budget overruns, legal disputes and growing frustration over taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects…
Google is funding one of the nation's largest "virtual power plants," paying homes and businesses indirectly to reduce electricity consumption during periods of peak demand so more grid capacity can be available for data centers. Under its expanded deal with Voltus, the program could provide up to 1,070 megawatts in the Mid-Atlantic PJM grid -- roughly the output of a large nuclear reactor. The New York Times reports: That electricity won't come from new power plants. Instead, Voltus will sign up homes and businesses and give them financial incentives to curb their usage when local power demand is high or the grid is strained. Many of these reductions could occur automatically, such as through smart thermostats that dial back air-conditioning during peak summer hours or batteries that can provide temporary on-site power.
Each of these tweaks frees up only a small amount of power on its own. But by aggregating them across thousands of businesses and homes, Voltus says it can reliably provide lots of extra capacity when it's most needed, and do so within a few years. While tech companies will likely ultimately need to build traditional power plants if they want to keep building large data centers, this approach could be a faster, cheaper and less-polluting option in the interim. "We really see virtual power plants as a critical short-term solution," said Ellen Zuckerman, head of energy market development for North and South America at Google. "It's a way to invest in our communities, really double down on our clean energy ambition, but also meet capacity at speed and scale."
Earlier this year, Garmin closed its Connect API developer program because it was being flooded with “AI”-generated applications to the point it couldn’t handle them anymore. What made it worse was that half of the applications were never actually used, not even once. It also didn’t help that Garmin treated every single application to the program the same way, whether it was from a hobbyist just wanting access to their own data, to a massive corporation developing a popular service used by god knows how many people.
Today, the company has relaunched the program, and it’s been considerably overhauled. While hobbyist use of the API is going to be free – which is way better than it was before – once you hit a thousand users, you’re going to have to start paying.
Still, Garmin’s shift here towards charging for API access will set a dangerous precedent for the industry. Especially for a company that bills itself as a (or the?) premium sports hardware provider. On the flip side, there’s simply no ignoring the flood of mostly AI apps that take up resources at Garmin and elsewhere to support. Heck, my inbox is flooded with these apps daily requesting reviews. It sounds like when Garmin shut off access to the API last spring, they were seeing inbound API requests at a daily scale that they’d previously only seen over a period of weeks. Simply put, there’s no good answer.
The excesses of the easy availability of “AI” code generation impacts the entire industry. At least one good thing has come out of this: hobbyists can now access the Connect API developer program much easier than before.
joshuark shares a report from BleepingComputer: Microsoft says it mistakenly flagged a bug causing Always On VPN connection issues as fixed in the October 2026 Windows 11 cumulative updates. Always On VPN replaced the legacy DirectAccess technology and supports domain-joined, non-domain-joined, and Microsoft Entra ID-joined devices running Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server. It runs in the background and establishes secure tunnels back to the user's corporate network whenever their device connects to the internet.
Microsoft first acknowledged the issue in a service alert sent to IT administrators in late September, saying it was triggered on systems running Windows 11 24H2 and later after installing the September 2026 security updates when the initial Always On VPN connection failed (e.g., when using automatic protocol selection with IKEv2 and SSTP). "When automatic protocol selection or protocol fallback was configured, affected VPN connections could remain stuck in a Connecting state or fail to connect after an initial connection attempt failed," it said. "In some cases, subsequent connection attempts could display the error, 'The specified port is already in use.'"
After releasing the October 2026 Patch Tuesday Windows 11 cumulative updates, Microsoft marked the bug as resolved, but in a Tuesday update it said the issues weren't actually addressed and that a fix would ship later. "This disclosure was mistakenly updated to Resolved status on October 13, 2026. We have returned its status to Mitigated," it said in a service alert sent to IT admins. "A resolution for this issue is planned to be included in an update to be released in the coming weeks. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion." While Microsoft continues working on a permanent solution, it shared a temporary fix that requires affected customers to choose one of two VPN tunneling protocols to work around the issue.
If you’ve ever written C (or c++) on a mac, you’ll know that the so-called gcc is just clang in disguise. Most people (fairly) assume that this is just an alias, but this is not true! It’s a binary! Now, what is this binary? I naively assumed that it would just be shelling out to clang but it turns out the answer is more interesting than that.
41-year-old set on ‘dream to be able to race in Africa’
Rwanda to host despite criticism of human rights record
Lewis Hamilton has said he hopes to remain racing in Formula One until he can take part in the African Grand Prix which is set to take place in Rwanda in the 2030s. The seven-time world champion believes it is right that F1 is to hold a race there despite criticism of the country’s human rights record.
Last week F1 confirmed Rwanda was to host the African Grand Prix having concluded a 10-year agreement for the meeting on a purpose-built circuit, with the first race set for the early 2030s. It is lined up to be held on a circuit in Bugesera, 25 miles south of the capital, Kigali, which has yet to be constructed and marks a return to the African continent for the first time since it last held a race at Kyalami, South Africa in 1993.
Unlike traditional OSs that separate user applications from the kernel, a unikernel bundles everything into a single, isolated image that runs directly on a hypervisor (like KVM, BHyve, or OpenVMM). Because it removes unnecessary drivers and background services, a unikernel is extremely small, fast to boot, and efficient with resources.
Here, we will learn how to develop and deploy unikernels built using the OCaml language and the Solo5 unikernel. These are the two fundamental components that will then enable us to develop our own applications in the form of unikernels, which we can subsequently deploy using Albatross.
Why Should Delaware Care? Assessed property values are the foundational piece of how property taxes are assessed for homeowners and commercial property owners. After values were reset for the first time in 40 years, many New Castle County property owners decried the impact that the new values had on their property.
New Castle County intends to reassess every property in northern Delaware a year earlier than previously planned after a recent audit of a sampling of commercial properties found an abundance of errors.
County Executive Marcus Henry made the announcement Thursday in a statement sent out alongside the audit report.
Completed by real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, the report examined 50 commercial properties whose valuations increased less than the median following the 2024 reassessment — or were lower than a recent sale.
The report highlighted a variety of what investigators called discrepancies, including misstated building sizes, inaccurate property classifications, and even erroneous room counts for hotels and apartment buildings.
One shopping center was found to have been classified as an office building.
The findings are likely to fuel concerns raised early this year when the county separately corrected assessment errors on several large properties, including an Amazon fulfillment center near Newport, and apartments and a parking garage in downtown Wilmington.
David Del Grande, the county’s chief finance officer, attributed the errors in the latest report, in part, to New Castle County’s failure for decades to reassess properties. He also pointed to missing permitting data from municipalities, including the city of Wilmington.
Assessors from Tyler Technologies — the contractor hired to complete the reassessment — also conducted only exterior examinations of properties, and relied upon county data for information about the interiors.
The assessed value of an Amazon warehouse near Newport increased by hundreds of millions of dollars following a review by county officials. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Further, only about 1% of commercial property owners responded to surveys asking for updated information about their properties prior to the reassessment. Del Grande said the surveys could have provided information about income that commercial properties produce, among other details.
Finally, Del Grande noted that the reassessment took place at the same time that New Castle County was switching out its appraisal software.
“It could have been data that was in the wrong field coming from the old system to the new system. It could have been data overridden by Tyler in the new system. It could be a variety of things,” he told Spotlight Delaware.
Despite these issues, both the report and Del Grande denied that it was indicative of broader issues with the integrity of the overall reassessment in New Castle County, but rather an expected growing pain with resetting decades of inaction.
The discovered issues have convinced county leaders to move ahead more quickly with the next reassessment though. Under the new state law, reassessment must occur every five years, but this expedited review would occur after just four.
“We want to make sure that the public is confident with the numbers that we have as their assessed values as being as being fully accurate to the best that they can be,” Del Grande said.
A tortured reassessment process
The recent findings, as well as the county’s decision to push forward the next reassessment, mark the latest in two years of acrimony that followed New Castle County’s first-in-a-generation property reassessment.
The results of the reassessment initially sparked outrage from many homeowners whose property tax bills spiked, while the tax liabilities for some business properties dropped. Lawmakers responded in 2025 by enacting several pieces of legislation, including one bill that allowed New Castle County and its area school districts to charge a different tax rate for business and residential properties.
Still, concerns around the accuracy of business property valuations continued this year prompting lawmakers to authorize the inquiry of New Castle County business properties.
The inquiry ended with Thursday’s report.
“From the beginning, we wanted an independent review because we needed to know where improvements were necessary,” Henry said in a statement.
What’s next?
Next, county officials will develop and then advertise a new request for contractors to submit bids to conduct the next property reassessment.
County officials are targeting July 2028 as their date for completing the base property assessments – one year earlier than previously planned.
New Castle County Executive Marcus Henry. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY MAGGIE REYNOLDS
Those assessments would then appear on 2029 tax bills, according to the county.
If completed on time, the earlier reassessment would be completed ahead of the 2028 elections, when Henry could be on the ballot.
Del Grande said the next reassessment will again be completed by a third-party vendor, and that nothing in the latest audit findings would preclude Tyler Technologies from bidding and being considered by the county.
New Castle County has hired 10 employees in its assessment office and has funding to hire 10 more, but they are tasked with reviewing the more than 1,000 property appeals now expected to be filed on an annual basis.
Thousands of property owners filed appeals of their assessments in 2025, of which about 200 commercial properties have yet to be resolved, Del Grande said. This year, another 1,600 appeals were filed, including a mix of residential and commercial property.
The county has no plans to conduct the reassessments in-house, as many other jurisdictions across the country do, because of the cost of such an undertaking, Del Grande said. That could require hiring up to 50 more seasonal workers.
Editor-In-Chief Jacob Owens contributed to this story.
Datacenter and chip costs fueled sharp decrease in AI sector although non-AI stocks still had a strong showing
The latest shudder for stocks in the AI industry pulled markets lower worldwide on Thursday, while oil prices hit their highest levels since May on worries about the war with Iran.
The S&P 500 fell 1.2% for its worst day since July, while the Nasdaq composite tumbled 2.6%. The weakness for tech stocks was so overwhelming that it masked strength for the rest of the US market, in which the majority of stocks actually rose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 11 points, or less than 0.1%.
A social media video purporting to show a former student accusing Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico of sexual misconduct is the latest example of how Russian groups are generating false information to influence U.S. elections, researchers say.
As of Oct. 22, X had suspended the account that originally posted the baseless claim, but other accounts have since shared it. NewsGuard, a company that tracks online misinformation, reported that X said the account was created in September with Romania as the signup country.
Talarico spokesperson JT Ennis issued an emailed statement to PolitiFact about the video.
“The most powerful people in the world know they can’t beat James Talarico with the truth, so they’re slandering him with AI deepfakes, foreign bots, and conspiracy theories to protect their broken, corrupt political system,” Ennis said.
What we know about the video’s origin
Darren Linvill, a Clemson University professor and head of its Media Forensic Hub, said the video is the work of Storm-1516, a Russian propaganda campaign he said made a similar baseless attack on Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz in 2024 when Walz ran for vice president. In 2024, the group used a paid actor from West Africa to attack Walz, Linvill said.
Linvill said this video was generated to look like a real man who has an account on another platform. The video shows a man claiming to have been a former student of Talarico at Rhodes Middle School in San Antonio, Texas, where Talarico taught Language Arts before his political career as a state representative.
Graphika, a social media analytics company, said in a blog post that the X account that originally shared the video “very likely” impersonated a Facebook user by the same name. That person lives in Texas and was a former student of Talarico. The man has praised Talarico on his Facebook page on several occasions, as recently as February, Graphika noted.
Fact-checkers at Lead Stories spoke with that man and he said the video is not of him, and denied accusing Talarico of misconduct. PolitiFact reached out to him via Facebook, but he didn’t immediately respond. PolitiFact’s review of the man’s Facebook page found no video of him accusing Talarico.
NewsGuard reported that the videos had many signs of AI generation, such as unnatural eye movements and stagnant facial expressions, and that an AI detection tool showed a 98% likelihood of being a deepfake. A deepfake is a machine generated image or video that changes faces, bodies or voices, making people appear to do and say things that they never did or said.
Graphika said social media accounts known to amplify Storm-1516 content and several accounts from U.S. conservatives shared the video. It said a prominent Storm-1516 amplifier, SGAnon, originally shared the video, then deleted it, writing on X that an analysis showed it was “artificially generated.”
The Russian disinformation playbook
Linvill said Storm-1516 typically uses the same influencers to spread false narratives into political conversations.
“If you examine the recent content of the influencers who first shared this narrative you can easily identify other Storm-1516 lies,” Linvill said. “We believe they are paid to do this. In the same way marketing companies pay influencers to share products, the Russians pay influencers to share lies.”
The New York Times recently reported that Russia and other foreign governments have stepped up efforts to influence U.S. elections, mostly targeting Democrats.
Linvill co-wrote a recent report about Storm-1516 and its work targeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and found such campaigns often are not aimed at changing people’s behavior or opinions, but seek to shape public discourse.
He said the study’s findings apply to this baseless Talarico narrative.
“By entrenching people in this view of Talarico, the Russians likely hope to exacerbate extreme partisanship and also encourage people to get off the couch and vote for Ken Paxton,” Linvill said. “People who already like Talarico are going to dismiss this claim as the obvious fake it is, but they aren’t the audience.”
We rate the claim that this video shows Talarico’s former student accusing him of misconduct Pants on Fire!
(The Center Square) – A plurality of Americans don’t want to see their community move in the direction of the Democratic Socialist agenda, according to a new poll from The Center Square.
(The Center Square) – A new bill introduced by one of California’s congressional representatives aims to make the wealthiest Americans pay taxes on loans they take out against their assets.
Andy Burnham has said he will not “abandon the responsibility” of fighting the climate crisis after the government approved the Jackdaw gasfield, pledging to block new North Sea licences and keep Britain on track for net zero by 2050.
The comments are the prime minister’s most forthright yet on net zero, after many MPs have privately cast doubt on the authenticity of his commitment to tackling the climate crisis.
Aisha Zaman, 27, charged with two firearms offences after incident in city centre on Sunday
A 27-year-old woman has been charged after a police officer was shot while attending an incident in Nottingham.
Aisha Zaman, from the Hyson Green area of the city, has been charged with possession of a prohibited firearm and possession of that firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence.
i’ve washed my Onewheel every 3 to 4 months for years now. When it gets muddy, I just washed it with a hose and it’s worked perfectly fine. In recent months, I’ve taken it apart to change the wheel and what not and on the battery I’ve seen light corrosion on the surface nothing to be concerned about just yet, but it makes me wonder if I have water damage. I sprayed it down today because I’m in a bind and I have to get somewhere. I’m worried if my board will malfunction soon or stop working. Anyone else experience anything similar? And if so, is it that big of a risk or is my board facing impending doom?
EDIT: i opened up the back footplate and there’s a small damp patch of water that is was underneath the footplate and on the battery. i hope this isn’t that bad. is there any way i can check that it went inside the battery?
The controller module and all the wires are still fine, it’s the battery i’m worried about
PM will also announce funding for specialised protective gear and the deployment of military aircraft
The UK government is to create an AI Cobra unit to spot wildfires after this year’s record-breaking summer saw devastating blazes across the country.
The country experienced its hottest-ever summer this year, with prolonged dry periods and extreme heat fuelling wildfires that triggered an emergency alert to mobile phones in England and Wales. Figures released on 8 October showed a clear upward trend in the number of fires recorded each year.
Hey guys. I bought a new Pint in May 2023 and got badly injured at work right after I bought it. My recovery was really long, and I forgot all about the board so the battery got bricked.
It is literally brand new with zero miles on it but it needs a new battery.
Because of my injury, I’ll never be able to ride it.
I’ve been trying to sell it for months now on Craigslist, FB Marketplace and NextDoor, but I’ve had no legit replies, only scammers.
I’ve been asking $300 for everything, including an extra bumper and rail kit, all brand new. That seems super cheap to me, since I paid over 1k for everything.
Is there a better place to list it? Maybe a bay area OneWheel forum of some sort? Or a local shop that could post a flyer?
Conservative super PAC TV ads are telling some Florida voters that U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., repeatedly violated a law aimed at curbing insider trading in Congress.
“Over 20 years in Congress, Kathy Castor worked the system, repeatedly violating a law aimed at stopping members of Congress from insider trading,” said one ad from Club for Growth Action, a super PAC that supports Republican candidates. The ad said she made over 200 stock trades worth up to $2.6 million, and she’s now worth up to $31 million “thanks to two decades of shady trading.”
Castor, who entered Congress in 2007, is running for reelection against Republican former state Rep. Mike Beltran in the 14th Congressional District, which Republicans redrew in 2026 to capture more right-leaning voters. As a super PAC, Club for Growth Action can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to campaign for federal candidates.
With Americans widely opposed to members of Congress trading stocks, the topic has become a major talking point leading up to the midterms. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC seeking to elect Republicans to the U.S. House, also releasedads saying Castor “broke the law” that aims to stop insider trading.
The misleading claim hinges on a 2021 filing appearing to show that Castor disclosed stock purchases after a required 45-day period. But the ad neglected a subsequent filing that corrected that record, reflecting that she made timely disclosures of those stocks.
We also found that Castor filed two reports in 2017 that reflected late disclosures. A late disclosure is not evidence of insider trading.
Castor corrected date errors
Club for Growth Action’s ad cited August 2021 articlesfrom Business Insider and the nonprofit Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, or FACT, which said Castor failed to disclose stock purchases worth up to $45,000 on time. The foundation asked the Office of Congressional Ethics for an investigation into Castor and two other lawmakers. We did not find public information on whether it acted on the complaint.
The 2012 Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or the STOCK Act, requires members of Congress to report certain stock transactions within 45 days of making them or 30 days after being notified of the trades.
For a couple of days in 2021, it appeared that Castor delayed reporting on stock transactions from the year before, which would violate the law. But this was corrected.
According to the original filing, Castor disclosed three purchases of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. stock in 2020 — on June 18, June 25 and July 15 — about a year later, on June 27, 2021.
Transactions are reported in ranges, and each of Castor’s three purchases were worth $1,001 to $15,000, putting the total at $3,003 to $45,000.
But the Business Insider and FACT stories didn’t mention that Castor submitted another filing two days later, amending the dates of those purchases from 2020 to 2021. That means she disclosed them within the 45-day window.
R. Blake Chisam, former staff director and chief counsel of the House Committee on Ethics, said the filings showed a typo, not a failure to disclose a transaction. He said the filings don’t support the “much more serious insinuation that the underlying trades were improper.”
The incident doesn’t show “evidence of misuse of confidential information,” he said.
Dan Schwager, who also previously served as the committee’s chief counsel and staff director, said such mistakes aren’t typically considered violations so much as human error. “Many, many, many people on both sides of the aisle have to file amendments to their financial disclosures every year to fix mistakes or things they missed in their paperwork,” Schwager said.
PolitiFact evaluated the 36 periodic transaction reports — disclosing 78 transactions — Castor filed since the STOCK Act passed. We found that Castor filed tworeports in 2017 that showed late disclosures of three stock trades she made in 2016; the rest were filed on time, or amended.
A Castor campaign spokesperson attributed late filings to administrative oversight, and said the House Ethics Committee did not fine or penalize Castor.
In a statement to PolitiFact, Castor spokesperson Jay Rhoden highlighted Castor’s efforts to restrict congressional trading, voting in favor of the Stop Insider Trading Act in July, which the House passed 232-198. Castor was one of around a dozen Democrats who voted for the bill, which prohibits congressional members, their spouses and dependent children from buying stocks, and requires them to file public notice before selling stocks.
Castor’s stock trades are not proof of wrongdoing
Castor purchased Berkshire Hathaway stock multipleothertimesduring 2021. According to OpenSecrets data from 2018, she’s among dozens of Congressional members from both parties who have invested in Berkshire Hathaway. The holding company, previously led by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, has dozens of subsidiaries across various sectors, including insurance, utilities and transportation. It owns the car insurance company Geico and the freight railroad company BNSF Railway.
“Berkshire is a diversified, widely held company associated with long-term investing,” Chisam said. “Buying Berkshire is the height of conventional.”
Club for Growth Action’s ad gives no other examples of Castor violating the STOCK Act. A National Republican Congressional Committee post cited an Oct. 8 Townhall article that said Castor sold stock before the World Health Organization named COVID-19 a global pandemic. We contacted the House Ethics Committee and the Office of Congressional Conduct (formerly the Office of Congressional Ethics) to ask about any past or present violations but did not hear back. Castor has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Club for Growth Action did not respond to PolitiFact’s questions about how it determined that Castor made “over 200 stock trades worth up to $2.6 million.” Although it cited personal financial disclosures from 2014 to 2025, it’s difficult to identify which trades the ad referred to during that time period.
The ad does appear to accurately say her net worth is now up to $31 million. Castor’s 2025 financial disclosure showed her and her spouse’s assets totaling $7.9 million to $31.9 million, and no liabilities. But there’s a caveat.
“The net-worth estimate should also be treated cautiously,” Chisam said. “Adding the maximum value in every range may produce an eye-catching number, but it does not establish actual net worth. The actual figure could be — and, in my experience, likely is — substantially lower.”
Our ruling
Club for Growth Action said Castor “repeatedly” violated “a law aimed at stopping members of Congress from insider trading.”
The ad cited as evidence a financial disclosure that had a typo in the year, making the disclosure seem delayed. Castor amended the report days later to correct the year, showing that she disclosed the stock purchases in time.
Castor also filed two reports in 2017 that showed she did not make timely disclosures of three stock trades from 2016. Based on her periodic transaction reports, the rest of her stock trades were disclosed on time, or were amended.
The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression about Castor and accusations of insider trading. We rate this claim Mostly False.
Musk’s investment into the new media empire comes after Paramount’s $111bn merger with Warner Bros Discovery
Elon Musk has reportedly invested approximately $1bn in Skydance, the new media empire led by David Ellison.
The deal comes alongside fresh equity infusions from existing investors, including board member Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs’s widow. Semafor first reported the news.
Actors in the mix to play 007 in Denis Villeneuve’s installment include Callum Turner and Jack Lowden
The search for the next James Bond may finally be nearing its end: according to reports, a very select group of actors will screen-test to become the next British agent 007 this weekend.
According to the Hollywood Reporter and Variety, citing several sources, a group of actors reportedly including Callum Turner and Slow Horses’ Jack Lowden, will appear in front of cameras as the secret agent this weekend in London.
(The Center Square) – Voters in Iowa will decide on a constitutional amendment that could make it harder for the state legislature to raise the income tax rate.
The Browser Company is shutting down its Arc browser on December 22 and encouraging users to migrate to Dia, its newer AI-powered browser for Apple Silicon Macs and Windows 11 PCs. Thurrott reports: In the message explaining why it was sunsetting Arc, The Browser Company explained that maintaining two separate browsers was difficult to justify, especially from a security perspective. "Dia was built from the ground up to meet today's security standards, so that's where our engineering and security teams will focus moving forward," the company wrote.
The retirement of Arc will be gradual: While nothing changes for existing Arc users, it's no longer possible to create new Arc accounts as of today. On November 23, tab sync, Browse for Me, and other AI features will be disabled on the iOS and Android versions of Arc. Lastly, the desktop version of Arc will stop working on December 22, and Arc accounts will be deactivated.
(The Center Square) – Nine of the ten “most free” states in the United States are led by Republicans, according to a new report released by the Cato Institute. By contrast, seven of the ten least free states are run…
New Hampshire Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte and her supporters have blasted a message about her opponent using billboards, an airplane-towed banner and even an inflatable rat stationed at the state capitol.
“Cinde Warmington was a Purdue Pharma lobbyist,” one of Ayotte’s ads says, sharing a clip of Warmington’s 2024 Democratic primary rival, Joyce Craig, speaking in a debate. “She said that OxyContin was a miracle drug.”
Warmington’s history with the company that created OxyContin, a pain drug that became linked to addiction and overdoses, is well documented.
Warmington has said she was a junior lawyer assigned to take Purdue Pharma as a client more than 20 years ago. She did not have a full understanding of the company’s actions in promoting the use of OxyContin, she said, until they were revealed in subsequent litigation. She said in a recent interview that she has “regret” for that work.
But a transcript of her 2002 testimony against state legislation to tighten rules for prescribing opioids such as OxyContin shows that, even at that early juncture, Warmington faced questions about the drug’s addictiveness.
The rise and fall of OxyContin
In the mid 1990s, Purdue Pharma began selling OxyContin, a slow-release pill based on the pain reliever oxycodone. Purdue Pharma funded more than 20,000 educational programs on managing pain and gave money to professional associations to increase the medication’s use.
From 1991 to 2011, OxyContin prescriptions tripled. At the same time, opioid-related deaths nearly tripled, too. Distribution peaked in 2012 with over 255 million prescriptions.
Drugmakers, including Purdue Pharma, faced a barrage of lawsuits for creating and fueling the first wave of the opioid epidemic. In 2020, Purdue Pharma agreed to plead guilty to three federal criminal charges and said it would pay more than $8 billion for treatment programs and shutter the company. The Sackler family, which controlled Purdue Pharma when it was making OxyContin, was also made to pay under a settlement announced in 2025.
Warmington’s role with Purdue Pharma
During the period when Purdue was making and promoting OxyContin, Warmington worked as an attorney for the law firm Shaheen & Gordon. State records show she was a registered lobbyist for Purdue Pharma as of Dec. 4, 2001, about two years after her law school graduation. She also held a master’s in business administration.
On April 9, 2002, Warmington testified before the New Hampshire state Senate on behalf of Purdue Pharma. The company was opposing a bill that would require doctors to try at least three other medications before prescribing OxyContin or an equivalent.
During the hearing, Democratic state Sen. Sylvia Larsen asked Warmington, “Would you not consider OxyContin, a well-known drug, to have a high potential for misuse or abuse? … Wouldn’t you agree that it should be monitored for its adherence to clinical protocol?”
Warmington said she would defer to a physician on the details of potential addiction, but she acknowledged, “To say that Oxycontin has been abused — it certainly has been in the press — I think that we can all say that it is a drug of abuse, as are all narcotics. It is not the most abused narcotic in the state of New Hampshire, but it is a drug of abuse. It is attractive to abusers, and it is an issue that is of great concern to Purdue Pharmaceuticals.”
Warmington went on to refer to “a drug that has truly been a medical breakthrough for patients who need it. Restricting access to all of those patients as a means of preventing abuse is inappropriate.”
Later in the hearing, Warmington used the words cited in Ayotte’s ad. She said the proposed legislation “fundamentally changes the available options for physicians. OxyContin is a miracle drug for many patients, and that’s why it has been so popular, that’s why it is used so much because it has very few side effects and it is able to address patient’s pain.”
What has Warmington said about her work for Purdue Pharma?
When Warmington was running for the Democratic Party’s 2024 gubernatorial nomination, the eventual winner — former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig — criticized Warmington’s past work for the company.
In response to the accusationsresurfacing in her latest campaign, Warmington released a direct-to-camera video, in which she said her father “struggled with addiction most of his adult life, and a lot of people in my family have struggled with addiction over the years. … I went into healthcare because I wanted to help people.”
In 2001, she said, “I was assigned a case by a partner to represent Purdue Pharma” and saw her role as “fighting for patients to get access to the healthcare that their doctors thought that they needed. What I did not know at the time was that Purdue Pharma was engaged in this massive criminal fraud, something that would be exposed only over years of litigation. … To be clear, if I had known in 2001 what we all later learned, I would never, ever have done this work.” She said her work for Purdue Pharma ended in 2002.
Although the full story of Purdue Pharma’s actions in marketing OxyContin would only come to light years later after litigation, journalists and federal officials had been raising alarms about the drug’s widespread abuse and the company’s skyrocketing sales for at least two years by the time Warmington faced that question at the April 2002 hearing.
In August 2001, a U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee held a hearing during which lawmakers questioned Purdue Pharma executives about the drug’s potential for abuse. That same year, The New York Times ran an article headlined, “Sales of Painkiller Grew Rapidly, But Success Brought a High Cost.” Two other articles detailed how the federal government was asking Purdue Pharma to limit its marketing and distribution of the drug and how Purdue Pharma chose not to use safeguards to prevent OxyContin abuse.
In an Oct. 19 interview with New Hampshire Public Radio, Warmington said, “I certainly regret having anything to do with this work, knowing what we all know now.”
Warmington’s campaign has also highlighted her work for the state’s executive council, an elected branch of government, to secure funding for addiction treatment. She has criticized Ayotte’s decision as then-New Hampshire attorney general not to join a 2007 lawsuit by 26 state attorneys general against Purdue Pharma. She also has noted that an Ayotte-led political action committee received campaign donations from members of the Sackler family — which owned Purdue Pharma when it was promoting OxyContin — as late as 2016.
Our ruling
Ayotte’s ad said, “Cinde Warmington was a Purdue Pharma lobbyist. She said that OxyContin was a miracle drug.”
A state document from 2001 confirms that Warmington was an outside lobbyist for Purdue Pharma. The company settled a lawsuit in 2020 over allegations that the drugmaker’s practices made addiction and overdose deaths more likely.
As a lobbyist for the company, Warmington testified in New Hampshire’s legislature against a prescription-regulation bill that Purdue Pharma opposed. During a 2002 hearing about the legislation, Warmington defended the drug’s use, saying, “OxyContin is a miracle drug for many patients.”
Warmington has said she would not have represented Purdue Pharma had she known about company actions on OxyContin that came to light in subsequent litigation. But by the time of her testimony, lawmakers in a congressional hearing and journalists in New York Times investigations had raised questions about the role the company was playing in a growing number of overdose deaths linked to OxyContin.
With four Democrats and four Republicans receiving support, Delaware’s leading business organization offers a reminder that a candidate’s record and willingness to work across party lines can matter more than political affiliation.
WILMINGTON, Del. —At a time when national politics increasingly encourages voters to choose sides, the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce is offering a reminder of an older First State tradition: Judge the person, not just the party.
The Chamber announced endorsements Thursday, Oct. 22, of eight candidates in the Nov. 3 general election — four Democrats and four Republicans.
The selections reflect a longstanding Delaware political culture in which personal relationships, individual records and a willingness to work together have often mattered more than party loyalty.
Known as the Delaware Way, that tradition has come under increasing pressure as national political divisions influence state and local elections.
But the Chamber’s endorsements suggest that, at least within Delaware’s business community, there remains value in evaluating candidates individually.
Eight candidates, two parties
The Chamber endorsed the following candidates:
Office
Candidate
Party
Attorney general
Kathleen Jennings
Democrat
Senate District 7
Spiros Mantzavinos
Democrat
Senate District 14
Kyra Hoffner
Democrat
House District 8
Gary Taylor
Republican
House District 11
Jeffery Spiegelman
Republican
House District 20
Alonna Berry
Democrat
House District 34
Lyndon Yearick
Republican
House District 38
Carlie Carey
Republican
In its announcement, the Chamber said the candidates have demonstrated a willingness to engage with employers and consider how government decisions affect jobs, economic growth and Delaware’s competitiveness.
The organization said its endorsement process considers voting records, past engagement with the business community and positions on issues affecting employers and employees.
That approach does not require candidates to agree on every issue. It places greater emphasis on their records and willingness to consider different perspectives.
A reminder of the Delaware Way
Delaware’s small size has historically encouraged a political culture different from the increasingly partisan environment in Washington.
Republicans and Democrats frequently worked together, and voters were often familiar with candidates as neighbors, business owners, community volunteers or local officials.
Former Republican Gov. Mike Castle defended that tradition in 2012, arguing that Delaware’s size made cooperation essential to competing with larger states for jobs and economic opportunities. Castle described bipartisan cooperation as central to Delaware’s past success.
But that tradition has become more complicated.
Critics argue that the Delaware Way can also protect established political relationships and discourage challenges to those in power. Gov. Matt Meyer campaigned in 2024 as an outsider willing to challenge that political culture.
The Chamber’s endorsements suggest another way of looking at the tradition: Cooperation across party lines does not necessarily mean protecting the political establishment. It can also mean evaluating individual candidates on their willingness to listen, compromise and be accountable for their decisions.
Business interests cross party lines
For Delaware employers, many of the issues facing state government are not easily divided into Republican and Democratic priorities.
Energy costs, taxes, workforce development, education, regulations and government spending affect businesses regardless of their owners’ political affiliations.
The Chamber has consistently advocated policies intended to improve Delaware’s economic competitiveness while working with lawmakers from both parties.
Its bipartisan approach is not new. In 2024, the organization endorsed 14 General Assembly candidates in the general election, including Democrats and Republicans.
This year’s smaller list of eight endorsements suggests a selective approach, although the Chamber has not publicly explained why it endorsed fewer candidates.
The choices also raise questions about what constitutes a business-friendly candidate in a state where Democrats control the governor’s office and both legislative chambers.
For the Chamber, maintaining relationships with members of both parties may be as important as supporting candidates who agree with every position on its legislative agenda.
A different question for voters
The Chamber’s announcement comes as voters begin early voting ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.
Its endorsements are not evidence that Delaware voters are abandoning party loyalty. Nor do they establish that the Delaware Way is returning.
But they provide a timely example of an organization evaluating candidates through a different lens.
Rather than asking only whether a candidate is a Republican or Democrat, the Chamber’s approach focuses attention on other questions: Has the candidate listened to constituents and employers? What does the candidate’s record demonstrate? And is the candidate willing to consider solutions that cross party lines?
In an election season dominated by national political divisions, the endorsements offer a reminder of a tradition that has long shaped Delaware politics.
In a state small enough for voters to know many of their elected officials personally, party labels may tell only part of the story.
Whether more Delaware voters embrace that approach in 2026 remains to be seen.
TO GO: Chamber endorsements and the Nov. 3 election
What’s new:The Delaware State Chamber of Commerce endorsed eight candidates Oct. 22 — four Democrats and four Republicans.
How candidates were selected:The Chamber cites voting records, engagement with the business community and positions affecting employers and employees.
Historical context:The Chamber has supported candidates from both parties in previous election cycles.
Becky Drury says she was hit by gunfire before she could intervene in attack that killed four, including three children
A teacher wounded in last week’s shooting at a Bend, Oregon, elementary school shared her account of the incident, and how she was shot before she could intervene and “[pretended] to be dead”.
Becky Drury was seriously wounded at Silver Rail elementary when Griffin J John II, a 16-year-old former student at the school armed with a shotgun, broke in and headed toward a special education classroom. He shot six people, killing Megan Lambert, a 25-year-old teacher, and three children, including five-year-old Rhoam Summer.
Republican Mike DeWine said ad featuring estranged mother of Democrat Amy Acton was ‘wrong’
Donald Trump issued a swift rebuke against Mike DeWine, Ohio’s Republican governor, who on Thursday said gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was “wrong” to release an ad critical of his Democratic rival Amy Acton that featured her estranged mother.
DeWine had implored Ramaswamy to take the ad down, but hours later, Trump urged Ramaswamy to keep airing it and accused the Republican governor of disloyalty.
President Trump said Iran was trying to drive up oil prices before the midterms by lying about ships hitting mines or being struck by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz.
In at least 18 cases, the Justice Department supported dismissals without first asking the federal court overseeing the case to determine if the school had ended discriminatory practices.
Moderna shares plunged as much as 25% after partial clinical trial data leaked for its personalized cancer vaccine developed with Merck, despite the full results showing promising outcomes for melanoma patients. Analysts attribute the selloff largely to inflated investor expectations rather than disappointing clinical results. CNBC reports: The personalized vaccine, known as intismeran autogene, paired with Merck's immunotherapy Keytruda reduced the risk of recurrence or death in certain melanoma patients by 42% compared with Keytruda alone. The data also showed the shot along with Keytruda reduced the risk of cancer spreading to distant parts of the body or death by 38%, compared with just the immunotherapy. The companies say about 82% of patients who received the personalized cancer vaccine alongside Keytruda were alive without their melanoma returning at two years, compared with 70% of those who received Keytruda alone.
[...] Investors see the targeted vaccine as a possible breakthrough treatment, with the potential to be used in other forms of cancer in the future. It could also offer Moderna a critical additional commercial product in its pipeline, following vaccines for Covid-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus. "We assert this relative reduction in recurrence/death is clinically meaningful," said BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman. "Such a reaction likely reflects inflated expectations into the full data release, rather than a true indictment on the efficacy of the combo therapy."
UBS analysts said "this is overall a strong data set" and gives more confidence in upcoming studies of the vaccine in kidney and bladder cancers. They added the stock reaction may be due more to massive expectations than disappointing data.
‘Political candidates’ once reflexive support for Israel has increasingly become a liability’
When the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most prominent pro-Israel lobby group in the US, announced on Wednesday that it would stop endorsing candidates or make direct contributions to them, its many critics were quick to hail the development as Aipac’s admission of howtoxic its brand had become.
The announcement marked a significant reversal that underscored just how profoundly US public opinion of Israel has shifted over the latest war in Gaza, and how political candidates’ once reflexive support for Israel has increasingly become a liability.
Mortgage rates eased downward a little this week, but they're still firmly north of 7%.The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage slid eight basis points to 7.26% APR in the week ending Oct. 22, according to rates provided to…
Photo taken by Delaware LIVE. Graphics added by on 10/22 using AI.
Federal spending, health care costs and foreign policy highlight differences as Delaware voters begin casting ballots.
By George D. Rotsch, Delaware LIVE News
WILMINGTON, Del. — Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Coons and Republican challenger Dr. Mike Katz presented different approaches to controlling federal spending, reducing health care costs and addressing America’s foreign policy challenges Thursday during a U.S. Senate candidate forum at the Hotel du Pont.
The hour-long discussion, hosted by the Rotary Club of Wilmington and moderated by Jake Owens of Spotlight Delaware, gave voters an opportunity to compare the candidates as early voting began for the Nov. 3 general election.
Coons emphasized his 16 years in the Senate, bipartisan legislative experience and willingness to challenge President Donald Trump’s policies. He said his campaign is focused on three priorities, in this order: opportunity, security and justice. Coons described opportunity as helping Americans build better lives, security as protecting families and their futures, and justice as addressing political divisions and abuses of power.
Katz, a physician, former state senator and business executive, argued that after 16 years of Coons representing Delaware in Washington, it is time for a change. He characterized the election as a performance review of the incumbent and a job interview for the challenger, calling for new leadership focused on financial responsibility, government efficiency and solutions to longstanding problems.
While both candidates promised to work across party lines, their differences were evident in how they would address some of the nation’s most pressing challenges.
Photo: The Gold Ballroom at the Hotel duPont, the stie of the Candidate Forum on Thursday October 22,2026.
Federal spending and debt
With the national debt approaching $40 trillion, both candidates acknowledged that federal spending and borrowing have become serious problems.
Coons said Republicans and Democrats share responsibility for growing deficits. He advocated increasing taxes on wealthy Americans and highly profitable corporations while providing relief to working families.
Katz argued that Washington cannot continue increasing taxes without addressing the underlying cost of government.
He called for restructuring federal operations, eliminating waste, establishing balanced budgets and developing a plan to reduce the national debt.
Moderator Owens challenged both candidates to identify specific budget decisions they would make, including which constituencies they would be willing to disappoint.
Neither presented a comprehensive deficit-reduction plan identifying specific spending cuts and revenue increases.
Social Security and health care
The candidates also offered different approaches to preserving Social Security and controlling health care costs.
Coons supported raising the income cap subject to Social Security payroll taxes and working through a bipartisan process to consider additional changes necessary to strengthen the program.
Katz said Social Security represents a commitment to Americans who have contributed throughout their working lives. He advocated reviewing how the program operates before considering changes to benefits or retirement requirements.
On health care, Coons defended the Affordable Care Act as a means of expanding access to insurance and preventive treatment.
He argued that improving access to primary care could reduce expensive emergency treatment and improve long-term outcomes.
Katz, drawing on four decades in medicine and health care management, said the system requires more fundamental reform.
He argued that government subsidies and insurance changes primarily determine who pays rising medical bills without adequately addressing why care costs so much.
Katz acknowledged beneficial provisions of the Affordable Care Act, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions, but described the overall law as a failed approach to controlling health care costs.
Neither candidate provided a detailed legislative plan showing how his proposals would reduce costs for Delaware patients and employers.
Tariffs, energy and family expenses
The cost of living was another area of disagreement.
Coons criticized the Trump administration’s broad tariffs, arguing they increase prices for consumers and businesses, particularly those importing construction materials or exporting products to Canada.
He pointed to Delaware industries, including chemicals, agriculture and port operations, as examples of businesses affected by international trade policies.
Katz described tariffs as a legitimate economic tool when used selectively to protect American workers and businesses from unfair foreign competition.
He said tariffs should have clearly defined objectives, measurable results and congressional oversight.
Both recognized the importance of maintaining American competitiveness, but Coons placed greater emphasis on removing trade barriers while Katz focused on targeting unfair trade practices.
Iran war divides candidates
Foreign policy produced some of the forum’s clearest differences.
Coons strongly criticized the administration’s war with Iran, arguing that inadequate planning and insufficient consultation with Congress and American allies contributed to higher gasoline prices and instability in the Middle East.
He called for ending the conflict and restoring shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Katz said preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons remains essential to American and international security.
He criticized decades of foreign policy decisions, including the 2015 nuclear agreement supported by Coons, which Katz argued failed to resolve Iran’s long-term nuclear threat.
Both expressed concern about presidential military actions without sufficient congressional involvement, although they emphasized different responsibilities and policy failures.
On Ukraine, Coons strongly defended continued support for the country against Russia’s invasion. Katz criticized failures of American and international leadership but did not outline a detailed alternative strategy for ending the conflict.
Katz questions political process
One of the forum’s more pointed moments came when Katz departed from a question about Ukraine to raise concerns about the conduct of Delaware’s Senate campaign.
He alleged that campaign communications had been hacked, staff members had been threatened and supporters had experienced intimidation.
Katz also criticized the absence of a traditional public debate and what he described as insufficient scrutiny of the incumbent.
The allegations were not substantiated during the forum, and no evidence was presented establishing who might have been responsible.
The campaign has previously criticized Coons for declining other proposed debates, including a student-organized event at the University of Delaware. Thursday’s forum brought both candidates together, although the format did not allow direct exchanges or audience questions.
Bipartisanship and congressional accountability
Despite their disagreements, both candidates supported maintaining the Senate filibuster, which generally requires 60 votes to advance major legislation.
Katz said the rule protects minority-party interests and discourages either party from imposing sweeping changes without broader support.
Coons also defended the filibuster while expressing openness to certain reforms, particularly involving voting rights.
Asked when they would oppose their own parties, Katz pledged to evaluate legislation based on Delaware’s interests rather than party loyalty.
Coons cited examples of bipartisan legislation he had worked on with Republican colleagues, arguing that his record demonstrates an ability to deliver results even when party leaders disagree.
The discussion also touched on artificial intelligence, immigration and U.S. military assistance to Israel.
Both candidates supported responsible AI development, although Katz emphasized innovation and competitiveness while Coons stressed safeguards and the potential impacts of data centers on communities.
On immigration, Katz emphasized stronger border enforcement and legal immigration reform. Coons called for border security combined with greater accountability for federal immigration enforcement and legal pathways for qualifying immigrants.
Different approaches, shared challenges
Throughout the forum, Katz returned to his central argument that longstanding federal problems require changes in management, priorities and accountability.
Coons pointed to his relationships in Congress and legislative experience as reasons he could continue delivering results for Delaware.
Both identified rising costs, federal debt and political division as major concerns. Their disagreement centered largely on whether those problems are better addressed through changes to existing federal policies or more extensive restructuring of government programs.
The forum also left questions about specific spending reductions, long-term Social Security financing and measurable health care savings.
With early voting underway, Delaware voters now have a clearer comparison of the candidates’ priorities — and the decisions each would face in Washington.
TO GO: Delaware U.S. Senate election
Candidates: U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (D) and Dr. Mike Katz (R)
Forum: Thursday, Oct. 22, Hotel du Pont, Wilmington
Host: Rotary Club of Wilmington
Moderator: Jake Owens, Spotlight Delaware
Early voting: Oct. 22-Nov. 1, on designated voting days
A police officer shoved a woman to the ground and arrested her after a protest against datacenters at a Utah county commission meeting. A statement from the Utah county sheriff's office said that the woman refused to leave the meeting and struck the officer in the groin before being arrested
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the ban applies to classified and unclassified information and includes prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Longtime audio giant Bose announced on Wednesday that it's acquiring Skullcandy, the lifestyle brand known for its bass-heavy headphones. Skullcandy will remain a separate company within Bose's Premium Consumer Audio business and will still be based in Park City, Utah.
The acquisition isn't out of left field. Bose has lent its audio expertise to Skullcandy over the past year under its Sound by Bose licensing program. Skullcandy designs the headphones and then works with Bose on the audio front. The relationship began with the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC earbuds in 2025 and more recently, with the Crusher 1080 ANC headphones in July.
[...] This is hardly Bose's first audio acquisition (though it may be the most mainstream). Bose acquired McIntosh Group, owners of luxury audio brands McIntosh Laboratory and Sonus Faber, back in 2024. But Bose seems to be after Skullcandy's connection to its community. "What does the brand stand for? Does it have meaning for consumers? Is it relevant to a group of consumers that, frankly, we otherwise aren't reaching?" Bose CEO Lila Snyder tells WIRED. "If you think about McIntosh, Sonus Faber, and Skullcandy, they all fit into that realm. Skullcandy gives us access to a customer base that we think we're largely missing with the Bose brand."
That's why Bose has no plans to relocate Skullcandy from Park City, Utah, which Snyder says is the epicenter of board sports culture. "We want to make sure we're right at the heart of it, as they always have been," she says. Skullcandy products are also affordable, especially compared to other Bose products and Bose-owned brands, which lets Bose compete at both ends of the market.
New account from Pike’s lawyer suggests team was racked by doubts even before pentobarbital began to flow
The Tennessee execution team tasked with setting an intravenous line in the arms of the death row prisoner Christa Pike through which she could be injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital repeatedly warned that her vein might be “blowing”, before they went ahead with the procedure, her lawyer has revealed.
Members of the intravenous (IV) team used up to 10 needles as they sought to establish a line through which Pike could be killed with a massive dose of the sedative. About 20 minutes into the attempt, they began discussing among themselves whether the prisoner’s vein “might be blowing”.
California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii health officials ask CDC ‘prioritizing emerging technologies’ to reconsider
California and Washington asked the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in May to validate a new way to test for measles – but after waiting two months, the CDC denied the request, citing “other competing priorities”, according to a letter from the West Coast Health Alliance to the CDC director, Erica Schwartz.
The letter, signed by health officials in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, asks Schwartz to reconsider and validate a rapid, high-volume measles test in preparation for major outbreaks. The alliance also asked the CDC to create protocols to test for other high-priority pathogens to prepare for future outbreaks.
‘The word ‘justified’ has haunted me since Monday,’’ the child’s maternal grandmother says
Since the Mississippi attorney general, Lynn Fitch, announced on Monday that the police shooting of Kohen Wiley, a one-year-old baby, “was justified”, footage of the shooting has been made public. It was first reported by Darkhorse Press, a Mississippi outlet.
On Thursday, attorneys Ben Crump and Van Turner, who are representing the Wiley family, held a press conference at the Senatobia Church of Christ, in Senatobia, Mississippi. The press conference came shortly after members of the family were able to view footage of the shooting.
I rode my board to the bank today and while I was waiting for the teller my board was on and I was pushing it around with my foot out of boredom. Suddenly the light started flashing red so I restarted it and the error was gone. Should I be concerned about a sudden cut out while riding?
I didn't connect the app until after the restart and I didn't count the flashes so I have no idea what the error was. It was cold out today so I checked the temps and everything was around 60°F.
Be Ready campaign aims to prepare UK for impact of climate crisis, technological dependency and threats by hostile state
Every Briton is being urged to stock up to nine litres of bottled water and three days’ worth of food in new government guidance designed to ensure that households can survive a weather, cyber or other serious emergency.
The Be Ready campaign is aimed at persuading people to stock up with supplies to last 72 hours, amid growing official concern about the impact of the climate crisis, technological dependency and hostile state threats.
Customers on T-Mobile One accounts from 2017 through 2019 could get a free 5G phone, credit toward a more expensive 5G phone or their last month’s payment and $25 gift card.
Miatta Fahnbulleh says reference to ‘awkward’ interview was meant to be lighthearted and self-deprecating
The energy secretary has been forced to clarify that she backs Shabana Mahmood’s migration policy, after earlier joking that she had not been able to “lie” about supporting a key element of the changes.
Miatta Fahnbulleh made the original remarks to a journalists’ event in Westminster, referring to an “awkward” Sky News interview in which she repeatedly refused to say she was in favour of plans to make foreign workers wait 15 years to get permanent residency.
Washington, DC — Several people pardoned by President Donald Trump for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol are now seeking financial compensation from the federal government, including individuals convicted of assaulting police officers.
The claims argue that the prosecutions, convictions and imprisonment stemming from the Capitol attack caused financial and personal harm. Some of the plaintiffs are seeking millions of dollars in damages.
Trump issued sweeping clemency after returning to office, pardoning or commuting the sentences of nearly all Jan. 6 defendants, including people convicted of violent offenses against law enforcement.
The new compensation claims go beyond asking for criminal records to be cleared. They seek taxpayer-funded damages for actions taken by federal prosecutors, investigators and prison officials during cases that had previously resulted in guilty pleas or convictions.
Critics argue the demands effectively seek to turn presidential pardons into financial rewards for people who participated in an attack that injured police officers and disrupted the certification of the 2020 election.
A presidential pardon eliminates or reduces criminal consequences, but it does not establish that the prosecution was unlawful or that the person was wrongfully convicted.
Whether the claims succeed will depend on courts determining whether the plaintiffs can overcome legal protections that generally shield the federal government and its officials from damages arising from lawful prosecutions.
Salt Lake City, UT — The Justice Department will deploy federal election monitors to Utah for the Nov. 3 midterms, part of a nationwide Trump administration effort expected to place roughly 1,000 monitors across all 50 states. Washington Examiner
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said Utah officials were notified of the deployment and emphasized that federal monitors will be required to follow state laws governing poll watchers.
According to Henderson, monitors must identify themselves to election workers, remain separate from voters, avoid conversations with people casting ballots and refrain from interfering with election operations. They also will not carry weapons or wear badges or other insignia visible to voters.
The Justice Department says the monitors are intended to observe compliance with federal voting laws rather than intervene in the process. DOJ has long deployed attorneys and other personnel to monitor elections, including during Democratic and Republican administrations. Department of Justice
What is unusual this year is the planned scale. The Trump administration has said it intends to send about 1,000 monitors nationwide, describing it as potentially historic for a Republican administration. Washington Examiner
The expanded federal presence comes amid heightened tensions over election administration, including recent disputes involving voter rolls, alleged noncitizen voting and federal agents appearing near polling locations.
Utah officials said the monitors will be subject to the same restrictions designed to protect ballot secrecy and prevent interference with voters.
Stage show based on late singer reportedly set to feature her best-loved songs with involvement from her father Mitch
A musical based on Amy Winehouse is in development for London’s West End.
The project is still in early stages with Catherine Schreiber, a Tony award-winning producer (Cabaret, Rent), attached to the project, according to Variety. Casting is reported to currently be under way.
(The Center Square) – Republican Tom Tiffany said that he plans to both cut taxes and return the state’s more than $3 billion surplus to taxpayers through tax cuts and also increase funding for transportation in a way that will…
Harrisburg, Pa. — Legislation sponsored by Sens. Devlin Robinson (R-37), Vincent Hughes (D-7) and Steve Santarsiero (D-10) addressing student cellphone use during school is almost law.
BBC technology editor Zoe Kleinman likens the recently discovered PHP security vulnerabilities to an unexploded bomb, writing, "The PHP story feels like the cyber equivalent of an unexploded bomb -- I have never seen such a dramatic, public and global response to a cyber event that hasn't happened yet." Although no successful attacks have been confirmed, the AI-assisted discovery of long-hidden flaws has triggered a worldwide security scramble, with websites taken offline as a precaution and administrators racing to deploy patches before attackers can exploit the vulnerabilities. From the report: The weaknesses found in the PHP programming language, which is used by millions of websites, had been quietly resting there for years and are not easy to exploit. One cyber security researcher told me he'd been up all night trying to do it as an experiment, but it was proving very difficult. [...] It was supposed to be kept quiet until everyone had a chance to fix their sites -- but the news was leaked. From that point the clock started ticking.
As I write this, there are no reports that anyone or anything has succeeded in using the flaws to attack a site. "There's a real dilemma," said Prof Alan Woodward from Surrey University. "How do you alert people they need to be ready, and then that a patch is urgently required, whilst not alerting attackers? Basically you're telling everyone about the problem at the same time and hoping the defenders aren't awake enough to act as soon as the patch is out."
But we do know from large web companies like Cloudflare and Palo Alto Networks that millions of attempts have been made. We probably won't know for a while whether it has worked for any criminals, because the companies affected might not be aware yet either. As far as we know the unexploded bomb remains intact for now, and for some experts this is a success. "We've seen how a team of people supported by the large AI company have used AI to find the problem, work for months together to solve it and get everybody ready to be safe and secure," Gina Neff, Professor of Responsible AI at Queen Mary University, told the Today Program on BBC Radio 4. "We have enormous capability to handle these risks."
People near south Wales river were told to keep windows and doors shut after thousands of litres of kerosene from a GE Aerospace site got into the water
Oily slicks of kerosene still appeared to be leaking into the River Taff this week, several days after a breachof thousands of litres was spotted by members of the public.
The breach into the Welsh river was identified last Friday, after people reported strong chemical odours emanating from it. Natural Resources Wales (NRW) officers arrived on site soon afterwards to identify the source of the pollution and were assisted by the south Wales fire and rescue service, which placed absorbent mats and booms to contain as much kerosene as possible.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mayor Zohran Mamdani attend an unveiling ceremony for a new 9/11 Memorial Wall on Sept. 9, 2026, in New York City.Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
The October 8 shooting of Oscar Belgal by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in front of his 5-year-old son in Manhattan forced into the open a question that had been on many New Yorkers’ minds: What would the New York Police Department do when ICE broke the “rule of law” in the city, and how would Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the person who has the power to hire and fire the NYPD commissioner, respond?
Shortly after the shooting, Mamdani addressed the incident with an appropriate amount of outrage, declaring ICE “rotten to its core,” and calling for the department to be abolished. His frustration was visible, but he was much less expressive when it came to his appraisal of the city’s response to the situation. He had nothing substantive to discuss with respect to his police department’s involvement, despite NYPD officers arriving on the scene only to find unidentified ICE agents holding guns, wearing plain clothes and disguises and masks, in apparent violation of federal laws requiring identification. (A recently passed New York state law prohibiting federal agents from wearing masks and other face coverings was temporarily blocked by a judge.) NYPD officers applied first aid and transported Belgal to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen hospital.
According to many eyewitness accounts and widely circulated video, members of the NYPD appeared to assist ICE agents by forcefully helping with crowd control — at one point, an NYPD officer shoved congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, whom Mamdani personally stumped for, to the ground. Later, NYPD cleared a path for federal agents to whisk Belgal away from the hospital to a federal detention facility downtown.
After the shooting, the Democratic Socialists of America, several legislators, and Avila Chevalier all called on Mamdani to fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and demanded the mayor uphold his campaign pledge to disband the NYPD’s infamous Strategic Response Group. Mamdani repeatedly refused to fire Tisch but said he was reviewing the 24-hour period around the shooting. When asked directly about Avila Chevalier being thrown to the ground, the mayor called it unacceptable, saying, “That is not something I will look to justify.” He reminded New Yorkers to be patient with efforts to reform the NYPD, ordered a review of the department’s use-of-force policies, and added funding for the inspector general’s office. But once again, he stood by his commissioner, citing “her record of uprooting corruption from the upper echelons of the NYPD while lowering crime across our city.”
Noticeably absent from any of Mamdani’s public remarks about the NYPD or Tisch was any public acknowledgment of the NYPD officers in relation to ICE agents during the Belgal incident.
Federal and city law enforcement occupy similar spaces but never really interact with each other. Mamdani made no mention of the ways in which the actions of federal agents put pressure on the NYPD as mediators — the primary function of police — to liaise in moments of conflict.
The NYPD typically relishes this role, which is why the department consumes so much of New York’s budget and shuns any attempts to redirect funds to other services that might reduce the need for police mediation to begin with. ICE forces local police to make choices in policy and in practice about how to deal with violent (often illegal) immigration operations.
If the NYPD believes itself to be the thin blue line, on which side of order and chaos do New York’s force and Mamdani believe these federal outside agitators to be?
When it comes to ICE, Mamdani’s rhetoric and policies haven’t always aligned, which has opened him up to questions about the kind of mayor he really is.
This omission — or evasion, depending on how you look at it — of this predicament is strange considering Mamdani’s willingness to speak with moral clarity about even the most contentious issues and confront them head-on. It’s also bizarre considering his penchant for weaving shared experiences together and for putting the lived experiences of New Yorkers front and center.
On the campaign trail, one of Mamdani’s most alluring traits was his ability to speak to the actual problems of everyday residents. It wasn’t just because he possessed once-in-a-generation oratory skills; candidate Zohran achieved this because, as a proud democratic socialist, there was an analysis — an explanation of the material conditions of life — baked into his politics. His rhetoric seemed in line with, or at least not alienated from (see: establishment Democrats), how fast reality was moving and how it was impacting the lives of everyday New Yorkers.
When it comes to ICE, however, Mayor Mamdani’s rhetoric and policies haven’t always aligned, which has opened him up to questions about the kind of mayor he really is. On one hand, he has shown that he will speak out against Trump’s fascist and inhumane immigration efforts. On the other hand, Mamdani hasn’t moved with the same level of force as his words. Many have pointed out that Mamdani seems to be engaging in realpolitik in an effort to get his extensive progressive agenda passed. It’s certainly not easy to bring the machine of the New York government up to speed while also being transparent about the ways in which he is moving the needle. But that’s exactly what he was elected to do.
Had Mamdani got into office and done nothing different than previous mayors — or even been exceptionally corrupt, pro-cop, and willing to help the Trump administration like predecessor Eric Adams — he might have been able to avoid his current moment of reckoning. But his administration’s genuine efforts on immigration set into motion a future where the NYPD and ICE would come into conflict.
One of Mamdani’s first moves as mayor was to take stock of how the city’s many agencies were upholding existing sanctuary city laws. In February 2026, he signed Executive Order 13, his first major order pertaining to immigration, to create the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and establish baseline guidance, such as explicitly prohibiting ICE and other non-local law enforcement agencies from using city-owned garages and vacant lots. Crucially, EO 13 also required an audit of several agencies, including NYPD, to review their immigration-related policies.
NYPD already has a problematic history dealing with immigration enforcement. During the Adams administration, there were documented cases where the NYPD assisted or collaborated with immigration enforcement, sometimes in accordance with NYPD policies. A December 2025 report by Jocelyn Strauber, then-commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation, found at least one incident in which “an officer violated local law by providing assistance to federal authorities in connection with enforcement of the federal civil immigration law,” as well as evidence that NYPD did “not fully comply with documentation and reporting requirements concerning requests for assistance with federal civil immigration enforcement.” The report also found that there were numerous examples of NYPD policies and practices that elevated the “risk of improper information sharing or assistance to federal authorities for purposes of civil immigration enforcement.”
The resulting audit, which was released on May 22 by Mamdani’s deputy mayor, built on those findings and recommended NYPD (and other city agencies) update its reporting requirements. But the audit also left a lot of open questions, which numerous legal advocates attested to, about areas in which NYPD protocols and policies keep avenues open to potentially collaborate with ICE. The NYPD was “not being held to a high standard of accountability or scrutiny for collusion,” the audit found, and there were significant “gaps” in documenting potential violations of department policies. The question of what the city and its mayor could do to ensure compliance also remained unanswered.
Sanctuary laws prohibit using city resources for immigration enforcement, and a January 2025 NYPD internal memo specifically barring officers from facilitating street closures to enable immigration enforcement seemed to solidify that directive. But several high-profile incidents involving the NYPD have tested the department’s compliance with sanctuary laws. In October 2025, before Mamdani was elected, during an immigration raid in Chinatown, eyewitnesses and viral videos showed NYPD officers establishing perimeters to create a path for federal law enforcement agents. In another instance in May 2026, ICE reportedly “dragged” a Nigerian immigrant out of a Brooklyn hospital after agents used force in his arrest; NYPD officers brutalized and arrested numerous protesters and cleared debris from the road to enable ICE to escape the crowds and abscond with their target.
When the NYPD arrives at an ICE raid or at a protest against an immigration abduction, what are officers supposed to do?
Both of these incidents happened under the watch of Tisch, who has insisted again and again that the department follows all sanctuary laws. When asked about the Brooklyn incident, Mamdani insisted NYPD was responding to 911 calls about the protest, not helping ICE. “Our laws leave nothing, no room for interpretation about the fact that our NYPD will not participate in civil immigration enforcement,” he said. NYPD told the Guardian US: “Upon arrival, officers observed numerous individuals acting in a disorderly manner, obstructing vehicular traffic, and blocking emergency entrances and exits at Wyckoff Heights medical center.”
When the NYPD arrives at an ICE raid or at a protest against an immigration abduction, what are officers supposed to do? On this point, NYPD and Mamdani have offered little clarity. But October 8 doesn’t pass the smell test for anyone who lives in overpoliced neighborhoods or closely observes the activity of police and their behavior.
NYPD officers were responding to an unrelated call nearby when they heard the report of shots fired. When they arrived, they encountered several men in various forms of attire, including some in construction-style vests, face masks, and at least one carrying a long gun, which officer body camera footage released by the Department confirms. The official account of the NYPD’s interaction offers no mention of ICE. There are no additional insights or explanations of department protocol that might shed light on how officers are supposed to act given the circumstances. Curiously, what those officers thought when they encountered several masked men with guns, and the conversations that took place between the ICE agents and the police, is a mystery, too. All we know is that officers agreed at some point that the NYPD would place Belgal in a vehicle, apply aid, and take him to the hospital.
Since that evening, Mayor Mamdani has stood firm in his condemnation of ICE and their operations. “We will not normalize ICE’s viciousness,” he said, calling for the agency to be abolished. That’s the least he could say to reassure New Yorkers he understands the stakes they feel in their bones already. The shooting of Oscar Belgal and his subsequent inhumane treatment — his lawyers say Belgal is still in solitary confinement with a bullet in his neck — is a reminder of how normalizing ICE operations in New York City is already well underway.
There have been more lower-profile ICE sightings and kidnappings, which echoes what has been the case in other parts of the country. What Mamdani will do to bring the city’s response into alignment with the needs of New Yorkers in this moment still remains an open question, including clarifying the NYPD’s role in the city’s ongoing fight against the Trump administration’s gestapo tactics.
If this month’s incident offered a lesson for Mamdani, it is that clearly articulating what is right is a full-time job that requires an unwavering willingness to confront reality. It’s not enough to say the thing on one issue — calling a genocide by its name, publicly dragging FIFA for pandering to wealthy elites, or deriding the inhumane practices of slumlords — but not stand on business when it comes to the reality that New Yorkers are seeing on their own streets.
Sometimes, an actual seismic event can reveal what needs to be done and that there are alternatives that may not have been fully realized before. Hope isn’t lost. There is still time for Mamdani to update his analysis. But in this moment, the mayor must make a choice: renew his commitment to the truth, or be defined by its absence.
Federal judge says government’s investigation into alleged noncitizen voting in nine states is relying on flawed data
A federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to halt investigations in nine states into whether noncitizens are registered to vote.
US district court judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín in Oakland found the government’s effort was relying on data that is full of errors and that it was leading to intimidation of groups performing voter assistance efforts. She said it should be halted until polls close on election day on 3 November.
Players given better flights and individual hotel rooms
Teams in the 2027’s Women’s World Cup in Brazil will receive the same preparation money from Fifa as those that played at the 2026 men’s tournament, the world’s governing body has announced.
The preparation money for the 32 teams has been more than doubled to $2.5m (£1.86m) each. In 2023, the total preparation money for the tournament was $31m; it will now be $80m.
(The Center Square) - The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on a case to determine Congress’ tax authority inside a home, with a particular focus on home distilling.
Tech company previously complied with president’s demand to rename Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America
Donald Trump said Google rejected his request to rename the Atlantic Ocean after himself or America.
Speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday, the president said he had called Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, to ask whether the company could “handle” his proposal.
Government inspections showed overcharges as high as 39% on some items. The discount store giant was the subject of a 2025 investigation by the Guardian
Dollar General, the nation’s largest dollar-store chain, has agreed to a $1.875m deal to settle allegations that it “repeatedly and persistently” overcharged customers across New York state.
The New York attorney general’s office found that Dollar General often charged customers higher prices at checkout than the prices it promised on shelf labels, signs, advertising circulars and its mobile app. The state agency said one check of 114 items across multiple stores revealed overcharges on individual items as high as 26%, 38% and 39%.
Judge threatens to dismiss Trump’s BBC lawsuit unless he cooperates with discovery process and sits for deposition
Donald Trump has been ordered by a US judge to cooperate with the discovery process mandated for his lawsuit against the BBC and to sit for a deposition by 11 December – or else he could be subject to sanctions, including the possible dismissal of the $10bn lawsuit.
The lawsuit stems from a Panorama documentary aired by the BBC that spliced together two comments made nearly an hour apart by Trump during a rally on 6 January 2021, before the US Capitol riot. The BBC has acknowledged that this specific edit was misleading, but Trump has gone on to claim, falsely, that the BBC did not just edit his speech but used AI to insert words into his speech.
Cheryl Bath, Wisconsin asks in a callout question: During covid I was surprised to learn how many foreign workers, especially from Mexico, worked in the Wisconsin farm fields. And now, I was more surprised to learn that these workers would also be deported and not allowed to work any longer at these fields even though it was all legal with paperwork. These foreign workers paid into the federal government taxes and social security system which was a plus for U.S. social security. I’ve been wondering how these Wisconsin farms are dealing with the absence of these workers seeing how it is harvesting time right now. Propublica had a article a year or so ago about the effects of this immigration sweep on the workers and the farms but that was still when the workers were still here. I can’t find any follow up or information on this anywhere. I think the farmers really feel left out to deal with this on their own and no one is asking questions. Maybe you can?
Maanvi: Cattle ranchers and dairy farmers have indeed been pushing for immigration reform, not only recently, but for years – because the industry relies so heavily on immigrant labor. In September, the the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Kansas Livestock Association, and Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association issued a joint warning that ICE operations were threatening their industy, and would have “a massive chilling effect on the legal, documented, skilled workers that put beef on the table and keep the supply chain moving”. I recently spoke with Matt Teagarden, CEO of the Kansas Livestock Association, who said that the US cattle herd has shrunk to its lowest numbers in 75 years – and ranchers are struggling to keep up with consumer demand. Farms aren’t able to expand operations without immigrant labor – and Teagarden said that this could mean that US consumers will increasingly be eating imported beef. He also noticed that ICE crackdowns are having a systemic impact on agriculture – it’s not only dairy or cattle industry workers who are impacted, but also farmworkers who grow the feed for cows, and immigrant workers who process the dairy and meat before it gets to grocery stores. Two-thirds of farm workers are non-citizen immigrants. As the administration targets these workers, food producers could struggle to keep up operations, and prices are expected to increase steeply, according to a study by the thinktank Fwd.us.
José: Many people caught up in the Trump administration’s dragnet are workers in the US — they pay taxes and contribute to Social Security, while receiving almost none of the benefits. The process to gain asylum or remain in the US can be long and arduous — oftentimes, as undocumented people go through the process, they will receive work permits, Social Security numbers and, in certain states, driver’s licenses. Now, many people with those legal work permits have been arrested by federal immigration officials and sit in detention centers, waiting for their immigration cases to proceed.
(The Center Square) – Another ISIS-inspired attack has been thwarted in Texas, this time an alleged attempted assassination of a U.S. congressman in north Texas: U.S. Rep. Keith Self.
Concacaf on Thursday announced it has approved Haiti’s request to relocate their Nations League quarter-final first leg against the United States on 14 November from Kingston, Jamaica, to Miami in an “exceptional hosting arrangement”. Haiti have been unable to play nominal “home” games within their borders since July 2021, with the United Nations estimating that 90% of the capital of Port-au-Prince – including the national stadium – is controlled by violent gangs.
Haiti’s match, the first leg of a home-and-away series against the US, had been booked for Kingston. The Grenadiers played their 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Curaçao, Aruba and Barbados. However, the Nations League format slated Curaçao and Jamaica to host their matches on the same night as Haiti’s, shunting Haiti to Sabina Park, the home of the Jamaica national team until their current venue opened in 1962. Now a cricket ground, Sabina Park hosted two of Haiti’s Nations League qualifiers.
Anthropic has launched Claude Duet, an AI agent aimed at professionals and small businesses that competes with Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots. Here's Anthropic's description of what it can do: Each morning, it sends you a short brief on the most important items across your connected apps. Throughout the day, it keeps tabs on those apps and messages you only when something needs your attention. You can also hand it tasks of all shapes -- from simple administrative tasks of scheduling meetings to more complex ones, such as building dashboards with dozens of tools, creating financial or sales forecasts, prototyping, and building web apps. The Verge reports: Claude Duet pulls in memory, skills, and connected apps from Claude, and it has a virtual machine with a browser that it can use for completing work. Before any big step, like sending a payment or deleting something, Claude Duet messages you for approval. Given that Duet may be taking action on sensitive information, it has a new "new dedicated classifier and safety system prompt" that are "designed to reject requests to share the strictest tier of information," such as credit card numbers.
Anthropic says Claude Duet is currently an "early version" and that it "still might misread a thread or miscalibrate what's urgent." It's also not "as strong" at personal errands like booking tickets.
Russia launched the strikes on Ukraine less than a day after negotiations to end the war, which also involved the United States, ended in St. Petersburg.
Websites around the world have been hit by millions of attempts to exploit a recently discovered vulnerability in their code, cybersecurity companies have said, as the US warned the flaw could allow attackers to take control of web servers, steal data and disrupt services.
The problem in the PHP programming language, which underpins about 70% of the world’s websites, emerged on Wednesday causing governments and companies to pull their websites off the internet before they could be attacked and so they could patch the fault.
The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to lift a lower court injunction that temporarily blocked the Trump administration from building a border wall and related infrastructure in the Big Bend Sector.
Exclusive: Sasan Ghandehari’s partnership with religious foundation raises questions about past dealings with republic criticised by Nigel Farage
Nigel Farage’s newest billionaire donor was in business with a powerful Iranian religious foundation under the authority of the country’s supreme leader, raising questions about his past dealings with the hardline republic.
Hossein Ghandehari, also called Sasan, was little known in the UK until he pledged to give millions to Reform UK this summer and donated £50,000 to Farage to cover the cost of two passes for the Davos World Economic Forum.
Golden State Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg had an extraordinary NBA debut as he jawed with Luka Dončić and admitted he had largely been exposed to the league through highlights before turning professional.
Lendeborg was given the task of guarding the Los Angeles Lakers star for large parts of Wednesday’s game, which Dončić’s team won 127-105.
Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative appears to have accidentally disclosed several unpatched Linux kernel vulnerabilities on the public LKML instead of the private security list, including two CVSS 9.0 flaws that could enable remote code execution through SMB Direct and KSMBD. "This seemingly was a mistake with Linux's second-in-command Greg Kroah-Hartman responding to each report asking about their submission to the public mailing list," adds Phoronix. The newly-disclosed vulnerabilities include: ZDI-CAN-33549 as a CVSS 9.0 scored vulnerability for SMB Direct remote code execution vulnerability due to integer underflow. For this one there is a patch in a Git branch of code intended for Linux v7.5 but now presumably will be expedited for getting to mainline.
ZDI-CAN-33774 as a KSMBD race condition that can lead to remote code execution. Another CVSS 9.0 rated vulnerability.
ZDI-CAN-33367 is a vulneravbility for skbuff skb_zerocopy in the network code that can lead to local privilege escalation. For this one Linux kernel developers received a security report from another source last week over the same issue and a patch is expected to be posted soon.
ZDI-CAN-34068 as a VMWGFX VMware graphics driver bug with an out-of-bounds write leading to local privilege escalation.
ZDI-CAN-34076 an uninitialized resource in the NVMET code leading to information disclosure.
ZDI-CAN-32005 was also posted to the mailing list a day prior for a search-domain TCP query stack buffer overflow leading to local privilege escalation.
Tallahassee, FL — Federal immigration agents have been spotted near early voting locations in two Florida counties, prompting complaints from election officials who say the presence risks intimidating voters during an already tense midterm election.
In Leon County, Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley said two Customs and Border Protection vehicles parked outside the county’s busiest early voting location Monday morning for about 10 minutes. Earley filed a formal complaint with the FBI, saying voters should never feel intimidated by law enforcement or other government officials while casting ballots.
A separate incident occurred in Monroe County, where video showed masked federal agents conducting an arrest near an early voting location in Key Largo. Election Supervisor Sherri Hodies said frightened voters contacted her office afterward.
“I’m not happy about it. Frankly, I was stunned,” Hodies said. She contacted CBP and provided the locations of polling sites while asking agents to conduct enforcement activities elsewhere.
Federal law sharply restricts the use of military or federal authority to interfere with elections or intimidate voters.
The incidents come amid heightened concerns about the Trump administration’s use of immigration enforcement around election-related activities. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin previously declined to categorically rule out federal agents appearing near polling places, saying officers could respond to specific threats.
Neither incident has been shown to involve an attempt to interfere with voting, but local election officials say even the appearance of armed immigration agents near polling locations can discourage eligible voters from participating.
Emmanuel Macron has said “illegitimate” demonstrations will be banned over the coming days as France seeks to get a grip on civil unrest after some of its worst street violence in years erupted on the fringes of cost of living protests at the weekend.
Speaking after a meeting with intelligence officials and senior ministers, the French president said on Thursday that demonstrations organised by recognised groups would be allowed to go ahead, although their routes could be changed.
Inquiry follows report by Guardian and partners that aides of Russian oligarch appeared to have falsified paperwork mapping his businesses
Police in Cyprus have opened an investigation into the financial and tax affairs of the former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich following a report by the Guardian and media partners.
In a committee hearing in the Cypriot parliament, a senior official in the island’s police said they were looking into events between 2003 and 2006, with the investigation likely to last several months.
The gender pay gap for full-time employees has continued to decline in the UK. It was 6.8% in April 2026, down from 7.2% in April 2025. This compares with 9.4% a decade ago and 16.4% 25 years ago.
Secondly, I asked Healey whether he sees the banks as making excessive profits, which would be the coherent justification for him to increase the surcharge on bank profits – as he is expected to do in the Budget next week.
He said: “You know the banks are the engine of investment in this country. The banks are doing well at the moment and that is good to see.
Experts say Russia is trying to destroy energy infrastructure before winter and US ‘appeasement and flattery’ will not achieve peace
Russia has carried out a massive “demonstrative” attack on Ukraine, bombarding Kyiv with ballistic missiles just hours after Vladimir Putin said he had agreed to resume trilateral negotiations after talks with the US envoy Steve Witkoff.
Overnight, Moscow pounded the Ukrainian capital, killing at least two people and wounding 22, including four children. Targets included the southern bridge over the Dnipro River, civilian houses, energy infrastructure, an ambulance station, office buildings and a clinic.
Meeting Arctic security threats: Do Europe’s new strategies make sense?Expert commentjon.wallace
Responding to security threats from Russian military capabilities and increasing Chinese activity are largely sensible. But a lack of alignment on climate policy risk undermining the security they seek to strengthen.
September’s security agreement between the United States, Greenland and Denmark has, for the time being, lowered the political temperature in the High North following months of tension over US ambitions towards Greenland. But the Arctic is being reshaped by multiple converging factors.
Accelerating climate change and ecosystem degradation are intersecting with geopolitical tensions, military activity, and competition for resources to make the region increasingly important. Arctic sea lanes, long considered unviable, are drawing interest following disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea – though they are still not reliably ice-free.
In response, the UK published its updated Arctic Policy Framework on 15 October, swiftly followed by the EU’s own updated strategy for the Arctic ‘Europe’s Northern Neighbourhood’ on 20 October.
Both documents make important moves on enhancing military preparedness in the region. But alongside strategies for securing an Arctic that is melting, greater efforts are needed to keep it frozen.
From ‘low tensions’ to hard security
There are differences between the UK and EU strategies: The UK’s framework declares that the ‘High North, Low Tension’ policy followed by Arctic countries for 30 years is effectively over and adopts a NATO-first approach, based on deterrence and warfighting readiness. The EU’s strategy prioritizes maritime surveillance, military mobility and protection of subsea infrastructure, creating ‘dual-use and multi-purpose capabilities’ – placing the Arctic into the broader agenda of EU ‘Strategic Autonomy’.
But both strategies recognize the importance of the Arctic for security, and the need to respond to a greater Russian and Chinese presence in the region.
The threat is real. Over the last decade, Russia has established a new Arctic command and new Arctic military bases. Russia also has a long history of conducting military and intelligence operations under the cover of its Arctic and maritime research outfits. And communication lines between NATO and Russian forces in the region have effectively collapsed since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
China, meanwhile, claims to be a near Arctic state, and has shared plans for a new class of container ships, developed with Russia, to navigate the Northern Sea Route, which skirts Russia’s coast. Fears that this route may become a new trade chokepoint are probably overblown, while volumes are so low. But Moscow and Beijing are increasing military cooperation in the Arctic, for instance through joint air and sea patrols.
NATO activities have intensified in return. Sweden and Finland have joined the alliance, increasing the number of member-states with Arctic territory. And over the last decade, the UK has expanded its cooperation with Nordic NATO members, through the Joint Expeditionary Force established in 2014, increased training alongside Norwegian armed forces, and a joint frigate procurement programme with Oslo announced in 2025. In January, the Royal Marines deployment to Norway was expanded to a year-round commitment.
The new UK Arctic Strategy focuses on further strengthening deterrence and interoperability with NATO partners and commits to doubling the number of British troops training in Norway to 2,000 by 2029.
That signals a significant shift in the UK’s attention to Northern Europe. And it places the UK’s Arctic military activities in the context of its greater presence in the ‘Wider North’, building on long-standing commitments to air policing over Iceland, maritime patrols and under-ice submarine deployments, and recent NATO initiatives like Arctic and Baltic Sentry. It also emphasizes the UK’s reorientation to Europe in the 2025 Strategic Defence Review.
Both strategies also highlight the need for good governance. But this will likely be a struggle. The Arctic Council, a post-Cold War governance initiative that convenes all states and indigenous communities in Arctic territory, worked reasonably well for most of the post-1991 period. But Russia was excluded from the Council following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, creating another international forum undermined by the war.
Climate change remains central challenge for Arctic security
Both the UK and EU strategies recognize climate change as a central challenge in the Arctic. They link the urgency of tackling the climate crisis to achieving net zero and emphasize the need to better understand climate tipping points.
However, the strategies could be more explicit about what crossing these tipping points could mean for the UK and Europe – particularly the increasing likelihood of Greenland ice sheet collapse and further weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). That would pose a severe threat and cascading pressures to Europe’s food security, infrastructure, public finances and resilience. This threat makes protecting the Arctic from climate change a core European security interest.
The UK and EU strategies also need to draw stronger connections between Arctic climate research, domestic preparedness and international leadership on climate mitigation to help advance solutions and practical protection against these risks.
Halting global warming and preserving Arctic ice should be recognized as essential parts of a security strategy. Stronger climate action today could reduce, or even prevent, some of the geopolitical tensions and security risks associated with a warming Arctic. A rapidly melting Arctic increases the risk of new maritime disputes, conflicts over critical minerals, more pollution from shipping, environmental damage from new infrastructure development and uncontrolled extractive industrial activity.
Both updated strategies face unresolved policy tensions between protecting the region from climate impacts, pursuing new economic opportunities and expanding the European security presence.
For instance, increasing exploration for resources – as both strategies advocate – could mean creating significant new infrastructure to extract and export. That risks increasing emissions and heaping further pressure on the Arctic’s fragile ecosystems.
The UK and EU need to remain sensitive to growing apprehension in the region about the motivations of non-Arctic actors.
Meanwhile, constructing new dual-use infrastructure, as proposed by the EU strategy, may support civilian services, scientific research and emergency preparedness. But its military functions could fuel securitization of the Arctic.
On critical minerals, the UK’s strategy makes clear it will not sponsor or support the issuance of deep-sea mining exploitation contracts that conflict with the International Seabed Authority’s Mining Code, which regulates prospecting, exploration and exploitation of marine minerals. This is an important message, because it affirms that competition for critical minerals must remain subject to multilateral governance and international rules.
Success depends on strong Arctic partnerships
For their strategies to succeed, the UK and EU will need to deepen cooperation with Arctic states and communities, building on their generally welcomed security roles and the significant contribution of UK science to Arctic climate research. At the same time, the UK and EU need to remain sensitive to growing apprehension in the region about the motivations of non-Arctic actors.
Despite geopolitical tensions, there have been positive developments in Arctic governance. Greenland’s prominent role in negotiating the recent US security agreement signals a shift towards greater agency in decisions historically dominated by external powers.
The UK and EU should support this shift by strengthening indigenous participation in decisions affecting Arctic security and economic development, through institutions such as the Inuit Circumpolar Council and Saami Council. That will advance an approach to Arctic security that encompasses climate, food, health, livelihoods and cultural continuity alongside military concerns.
More comprehensive Arctic strategies are clearly needed. And the updated strategies largely make sense. Yet, managing the trade-offs between defence, economic development, climate protection and indigenous rights requires careful policy design, clearer priorities and meaningful engagement with Arctic communities.
Finally, the US will remain central to Arctic security. That makes sustained transatlantic engagement essential. Europe has demonstrated that, when united and working in cooperation with Canada, they can influence US policy towards the Arctic. Building on that collective strength can help ensure that future cooperation strengthens security across all dimensions.
Chief executive agrees to remain in California for eight years even if state brings in one-off 5% wealth tax
Meta has struck a deal with Mark Zuckerberg to help him foot a possible California wealth tax targeting billionaires.
The social media company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp revealed on Wednesday night that the arrangement would keep its chief executive living in California, where Meta’s headquarters are located.
The Pentagon’s Active Denial System shoots energy beam that causes ‘sensation of intense heat on surface of skin’
Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defense, reportedly signed a memo last month permitting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to test a non-lethal “heat ray” for potential use at the US southern border.
The Minnesota Democrat told MS NOW's Chris Hayes that her address is now public and she is facing death threats. She said her children visit on and off, and she doesn't want people tracking them.
Charities say ‘tip of iceberg’ figures show government is not fulfilling pledge to halve violence against women and girls
Almost one in 10 adults in England and Wales have experienced domestic abuse in the last year, a survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) found that 9.6% of people aged 16 and over had experienced domestic abuse in the last year – which equates to about 4.7 million people.
The Climate Briefing: The road to Antalya – looking ahead to COP31 AudioLToremark
With conflict, economic headwinds and climate impacts reshaping the international agenda, COP31 arrives at a critical moment. Bhargabi, Pelin and their guests discuss what’s at stake in Antalya, and the prospects for progress on climate action.
In November, global climate negotiators will gather in Antalya, Turkey, for the latest round of the UN climate talks at the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31). This episode explores how, amid the Strait of Hormuz crisis, global conflicts or emerging El Niño conditions, the negotiations may shape progress on implementation. We unpack the key issues to look out for at this conference: the role of Turkey and Australia’s shared leadership, growing adaptation and finance needs, and the leadership vacuum in climate diplomacy.
To discuss this, Bhargabi is joined by Pelin Zorlu, senior research fellow and lead on climate and energy at Chatham House, to speak with Jennifer L. Morgan, former state secretary and special envoy for international climate action at the German Federal Foreign Office, and Ümit Şahin, head of the Climate Change Program at the Istanbul Policy Centre.
For more on these issues, watch the recording of Making the case for COP in a fractured geopolitical environment, with the COP30 and COP31 presidents, alongside the COP32 president-designate. The discussion explored the continuing value of multilateral climate diplomacy amid geopolitical tensions.
About The Climate Briefing
The Climate Briefing explores key themes in the UN climate negotiations and international climate politics. The podcast is hosted by Bhargabi Bharadwaj from Chatham House and features interviewees from governments, international organizations, academia and civil society organizations from across the world.
Poor Fifa peace prize. Unloved, unliked, mocked, tainted by association with its first winner. And now demoted, too, after Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, dumped the thing on the global governing body’s “social responsibility committee” to look after. To redeem it, rather than to ditch it, to spare Infantino the embarrassment of acknowledging that his fake prize was really just a fake prize all along.
Here is where we should probably acknowledge that, as fake prizes go, and in the context of what it was intended to accomplish, the first awarding of the Fifa peace prize was an unqualified success. It achieved exactly what it was meant to, made by Infantino to flatter Donald Trump, the man he needed to keep on his side to safeguard the riches to be extracted from the North American market in order to consolidate his power base within Fifa. Trump, the gullible buffoon, was pleased as punch – handed a big, golden bauble and a medal he placed around his own neck – and briefly forgot about the Nobel peace prize he desperately covets.
Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: US Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now. He teaches at Marist University.
The PM is heard having a long discussion about crisps in the trailer to the show, which is in aid of Stand Up To Cancer
From ranking his favourite crisps in the pub to complaining about people watching TikToks out loud on the train, Andy Burnham has made efforts to show he has the common touch.
Now he will become the first prime minister to appear on the popular TV show Gogglebox, in a special charity episode on Friday.
The social media personality denies allegations he gave a girl alcohol until she was drunk and sexually assaulted her
The “looksmaxxing” livestreamer Braden Peters, better known by his stage name Clavicular, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he raped a 17-year-old girl at his family’s Massachusetts home.
A social media personality known for promoting extreme devotion to male beauty, Peters, 20, is accused of giving the girl alcohol until she was drunk and then sexually assaulting her when she visited him in Chatham, on Cape Cod, in May 2025.
Federal authorities allege L Louise Lucas, a state senator and vocal Trump critic, led a ‘criminal marijuana enterprise’
Virginia state senator L Louise Lucas, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, was charged on Thursday in connection with what federal authorities alleged was a role leading a criminal enterprise that acquired and distributed large quantities of marijuana and laundered the proceeds.
An indictment unsealed on Thursday charged Lucas and six other defendants, including several of her relatives, the Department of Justice said in a statement. Lucas surrendered on Thursday, a justice department spokesperson said.
Other prizes at Freedom from Torture event include rare Mary Wollstonecraft book illustrated by William Blake
Margaret Atwood, Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan are among a number of literary stars auctioning off the chance for readers to name characters in their next novels to raise money for survivors of torture.
The auction is part of Freedom from Torture’s 10th anniversary literary festival, which brings together leading authors and survivors for a celebration of storytelling, featuring a poetry competition and live readings at the London Library on 11 November.
Exclusive: Michael Aboud, whose actions in what he believed to be a documentary are likely to come under considerable scrutiny, has expressed anger at the film-maker
• This article contains spoilers for Ali G: Who Iz I?
The chair of the El Paso County Republican Party has said he intends to sue Sacha Baron Cohen over footage of the local politician used in new satircal comedy Ali G: Who Iz I?
In the film, Michael Aboud is shown taking part in a training programme with another Cohen character, ex-Mossad terrorist expert Col Erran Morad, who instructs Aboud and fellow Maga sympathisers in self-defence techniques including the wearing, over clothes, of protective plastic buttocks. He also schools them in how to fire bullets from the middle of these buttocks by the repeated up and down manipulation of a rubber penis.
Who is responsible for the increases? There is no single cause behind Delaware’s rising electric bills. Several organizations, market conditions and government policies influence what customers ultimately pay. Image created on 10/22 using AI.
Delmarva Power seeks $67.8 million more in annual revenue as regulators weigh grid investments, rising energy costs and what Delaware can do to protect consumers.
By George D. Rotsch, Delaware LIVE
WILMINGTON, Del. — Delaware families already paying substantially more for electricity face another potential increase as state regulators consider Delmarva Power’s request for $67.8 million in additional annual revenue.
The proposal would increase the utility’s distribution base rates by 21.7%, although that does not mean customers’ total electric bills would rise by that percentage.
The request comes after a separate increase in electricity supply costs took effect June 1, adding an estimated $14.64 per month, or about $176 annually, to the average residential customer’s bill.
For households struggling with higher prices for food, insurance, housing and other necessities, the latest rate case raises a broader question: Why does electricity keep getting more expensive, and what can Delaware officials do about it?
Electric bills keep climbing
The cost of electricity has increased substantially in recent years, adding pressure to household budgets.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Delaware’s average residential electricity price reached 17.15 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2025. Preliminary monthly data show prices climbing further in 2026.
Unlike groceries or gasoline, electricity is difficult for consumers to avoid. Families can reduce consumption, but heating, cooling, refrigeration and other essential household needs place limits on how much they can cut.
The June increase was particularly significant.
Delmarva’s standard electricity supply rate increased approximately 19%, largely because of higher regional power costs. Changes in renewable-energy compliance charges slightly offset the impact, resulting in an estimated 9% increase in the overall bill for a typical residential customer using 811 kilowatt-hours per month.
The pending distribution-rate case represents a separate cost pressure.
Delmarva implemented temporary higher distribution rates July 9 while the Delaware Public Service Commission reviews its request for a permanent increase. The final decision will determine how much additional revenue the utility can collect, with the interim rates subject to adjustment.
Who is responsible for the increases?
There is no single cause behind Delaware’s rising electric bills. Several organizations, market conditions and government policies influence what customers ultimately pay.
The major cost drivers include:
PJM Interconnection — Regional electricity costs: PJM manages the wholesale electricity market serving Delaware, 12 other states and Washington, D.C. Rising demand, limited generation capacity and higher prices for ensuring adequate electricity supplies have contributed significantly to recent increases.
Delmarva Power — Local delivery costs: Delmarva maintains the poles, wires, substations and other equipment delivering electricity to homes and businesses. Its pending rate request would increase revenue collected from customers for distribution services and infrastructure investments.
Delaware Public Service Commission — Rate oversight: The PSC reviews Delmarva’s proposed distribution rates and determines which expenses are reasonable for customers to pay. The commission does not directly control regional wholesale electricity prices.
Delaware lawmakers — Renewable-energy requirements: State law requires utilities to obtain 40% of electricity from renewable sources by 2035, including a 10% solar requirement. Renewable-energy credits and other compliance expenses can add costs, although supporters argue the requirements deliver environmental benefits and reduce long-term exposure to fossil-fuel price volatility.
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative — Carbon compliance costs: Delaware participates in this regional emissions-reduction program. Power generators must purchase allowances for certain carbon emissions. Some expenses can be reflected in wholesale electricity prices, while program revenues support energy-efficiency and environmental initiatives.
Growing electricity demand — Pressure on the regional grid: Data centers, economic development and increasing electrification are expected to place additional demands on the power system. Meeting that demand could require more generation, transmission capacity and local infrastructure.
The distinction matters.
Regional wholesale electricity costs have been a major driver of recent increases, but Delaware regulators and lawmakers have greater control over utility distribution spending, renewable-energy requirements and other state policies.
That leaves Delaware officials with an important responsibility: ensuring the costs they can control are necessary, transparent and affordable for the families and businesses paying the bills.
Delaware’s energy policies also carry costs
The debate over electricity affordability increasingly includes questions about the state’s environmental and renewable-energy policies.
Delaware’s Renewable Portfolio Standard requires utilities to obtain an increasing share of electricity from renewable sources, reaching 40% by 2035.
Supporters say the requirements encourage cleaner energy, diversify supplies and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Critics question whether the mandates are achieving those goals at the lowest possible cost, particularly as regional electricity prices rise.
The state also participates in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which requires participating power generators to purchase carbon-emission allowances.
Revenue from those allowances supports energy and environmental programs, but the compliance costs can also influence electricity prices.
Neither program accounts for the entire increase in household bills, and renewable-energy compliance charges actually decreased slightly during Delmarva’s June supply-rate adjustment.
Still, the programs raise a legitimate policy question: Should Delaware review the cost and timing of its energy mandates as consumers face higher electricity bills?
Does Delaware really need more grid investment?
Delmarva’s distribution-rate request centers on the cost of maintaining and upgrading the electrical system.
The company must maintain infrastructure, respond to outages, replace aging equipment and prepare for future electricity demand.
Additional investments can improve reliability, reduce outages and strengthen the system against severe weather.
But those benefits come at a price.
The question for regulators is not simply whether improvements are needed, but whether the proposed spending is justified, appropriately timed and fairly allocated among customers.
The Public Service Commission has authority to examine the utility’s expenses, investment plans and requested financial returns before approving permanent distribution rates.
That oversight becomes increasingly important when customers are already absorbing higher supply and transmission costs that state regulators have less power to control.
What can Delaware do to lower electric bills?
Although Delaware cannot independently control the regional electricity market, policymakers have several opportunities to address affordability.
Push for PJM reforms. Regional leaders, including Gov. Matt Meyer, have called for changes intended to address rising electricity costs. Increasing available generation, reducing delays for new energy projects and improving market rules could help stabilize prices.
Review renewable-energy compliance costs. Lawmakers could examine whether current requirements are delivering their intended benefits at reasonable costs and whether adjustments to compliance mechanisms or timelines are warranted.
Expand energy-efficiency programs. Weatherization, insulation, efficient appliances and other improvements can help consumers reduce electricity consumption without sacrificing reliability.
Scrutinize utility investments. Regulators can require Delmarva to demonstrate that proposed projects are necessary, cost-effective and beneficial to customers before authorizing additional rate revenue.
Improve transparency. Consumers could benefit from clearer information showing exactly how much they pay for electricity supply, capacity, transmission, distribution and state energy-policy requirements.
Target financial assistance. Existing assistance programs and payment arrangements can provide relief to households with limited incomes, including seniors and residents living on fixed incomes.
Some of those actions could reduce long-term costs. Others would provide more immediate relief without necessarily changing the underlying price of electricity.
The question is affordability
The growing cost of electricity is not the result of one utility decision or one government policy.
It reflects multiple pressures, including regional electricity markets, rising demand, infrastructure investments and state energy requirements.
Some expenses are necessary to maintain a reliable electrical system. Others reflect policy choices that can be examined and adjusted.
The challenge for Delaware’s elected officials and regulators is determining whether the benefits justify the costs and whether enough attention is being paid to the financial impact on consumers.
For families watching their electric bills rise, that question is becoming harder to ignore.
The Public Service Commission is accepting written public comments on Delmarva’s pending rate case through Nov. 4.
TO GO BOX
What: Delmarva Power electric distribution rate case
Proposed increase: $67.8 million in additional annual revenue, representing 21.7% of existing distribution base rates
Status: Temporary higher rates took effect July 9. The permanent rate request remains under review.
Consumer assistance: Residents struggling with electric bills can contact Delmarva Power about payment arrangements or the Delaware Division of the Public Advocate for assistance.
England and Wales judges to be able to keep inmates in cells for longer or stop visits if they refuse to face victims’ families in court
Offenders who refuse to face their victims’ families in court for sentencing could be stripped of privileges or kept in cells for weeks under government changes granting wider powers to judges in England and Wales.
The imposition of new prison sanctions, coming into effect next year, builds on existing laws that order offenders to attend sentencing or face a fine or be jailed for a further two years for contempt of court.
Investigations under way to determine whether virus normally found in livestock contributed to man’s death
A man in France has become the first human known to have contracted Shamonda virus, with investigations under way to explore whether it contributed to his death.
Shamonda virus is a type of bunyavirus and is spread by bites from infected midges. According to the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, in animals such as cattle, sheep and goats it can cause diarrhoea, lack of appetite and a decline in milk yield, “as well as abortions and congenital abnormalities in newborn calves, lambs and kids”.
Hegseth’s aides, who attempted to move Eisenhower globe themselves, dropped it during relocation, army officials say
A priceless pre-second world war globe coveted by the US defence secretary Pete Hegseth for his office in the Pentagon was damaged by his staff in a botched attempt to relocate it, army officials have admitted.
Photographs published by the Washington Post on Thursday show the shattered 30-inch Eisenhower globe, said to have been used by Dwight D Eisenhower, the 34th US president, as he plotted the D-day landings as allied supreme commander.
I’m considering building a stand on golf scooter that is powered by my Onewheel.
I’m envisioning, locking the Onewheel into a cradle and controlling it via a throttle. Does anyone know if this is possible with VESC? If so, how cumbersome is it to switch back-and-forth between throttle and balance mode?
It’s the last day of the electoral campaign in Serbia today ahead of this Sunday’s closely contested parliamentary election
As we are waiting for Macron, first details of the planned police response to this weekend’s protests are emerging.
Junior interior minister, Jean-Didier Berger, said that the police presence will be “20% higher” than last weekend, with reinforcements from the army, elite police forces and gendarmerie.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Google is facing a backlash from some staff members over the company's deployment of its AI technology for military use. The BBC has spoken to several tech workers who have either recently resigned from Google's AI company, Google DeepMind, or are in the process of leaving, over concerns with the tech firm's military contracts. Sofia Liguori, a London-based research engineer, is one of them. She resigned from Google DeepMind this week and spoke about her concerns exclusively with the BBC, despite her contract restricting her from doing so.
"Realizing my company is pushing more and more for AI systems in military operations makes me feel ashamed to work at Google," Liguori said, speaking in a personal capacity. [...] After working for the company for three years, Liguori said she decided to resign over Google's increasing work with the US and Israeli militaries. "I don't agree with this direction and this has led me to lose faith in my company being true to its stated ethical values," she said. Those values, according to Google's AI Principles, include implementing AI with "human oversight" and aligning the technology with "international law and human rights." But former and current staff at the company, and experts the BBC spoke to, said they were concerned about the level of human oversight at critical moments.
The tech workers said they are particularly worried about the AI military deals signed this year, because they greatly increase the scope of what the Pentagon can use the technology for. Andreas Kirsch, an AI researcher, also resigned from Google DeepMind earlier this month over his concerns. Kirsch told the BBC that he believes "Google's governance and oversight are not sufficient or meaningful enough to deploy AI safely and responsibly in military and classified settings" or "to develop artificial superintelligence safely in the future." "Google seems to have no right to control or veto how the Pentagon uses its AI and also seems to have limited visibility into how it's being deployed," he added.
[...] Employees at Google have told the BBC that staff are scared to speak out about AI safety and its uses in warfare because their employment contracts prohibit them from publicly criticizing the company. "In principle I'm not allowed to criticize Google for the duration of my life," Sofia Liguori told the BBC. But she decided to do so "because I believe it's important for these things to be known and I also think that talking about facts is not criticizing." Liguori added that at Google "people are scared of retaliation and putting their career at risk. You feel you are being watched, you can't speak."
A current employee at Google DeepMind, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, told the BBC that "a lot of motivated employees who signed up for [the company's] original mission could leave -- but there's also a pipeline of people at the start of the careers who could fill those positions. It could be a changing of the guard." Another Google DeepMind staff member, who also wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC: "A lot of people have left the company that feel strongly about this [how Google DeepMind has changed its ethics position]." "Some people are putting up a fight, others are thinking: 'it's a big company. What do you expect to change?'", the employee said. In response, a Google spokesperson told the BBC: "We work with public sector organisations worldwide and follow a consistent process for reviewing and entering these contracts, including compliance with our acceptable use policies and AI principles."
"We also have dedicated channels for employees to safely raise any concerns -- ranging from business ethics to misconduct -- and have strict workplace policies in place to prevent retaliation of any kind."
Equating to the loss of 5% of its 93,000 global staff, job cuts come as bank announces jump in quarterly profits
Barclays is cutting 5,000 jobs as part of wider cost-saving plans that its bosses say are being driven by advances in AI.
The job cuts will mean losing about 5% of the bank’s 93,000 global staff, with executives confirming they had already cut 1,000 workers since the start of the year.
Russia has carried out a massive 'demonstrative' attack on Ukraine, bombarding Kyiv with ballistic missiles just hours after Vladimir Putin said he had agreed to resume trilateral negotiations after talks with the US envoy Steve Witkoff. Strikes on Kyiv killed at least two people and wounded 22, including four children. Twelve regions across the country were bombed. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the strikes proved Russia was not serious about peace
Can Africa maximize its global influence?Audiosseth.drupal@c…
In this week’s episode of Independent Thinking, our experts discuss how African states are increasing their leverage on the global stage.
As the world becomes more unstable and the demands for critical minerals from China and big tech increases, can greater international attention on Africa translate into greater power and prosperity for African nations?
Can African states leverage their huge deposits of natural resources and the youngest population in the world into more infrastructure, better engagement with international partners and greater representation for Africa on international bodies, including the UN Security Council?
Our experts explore the new global opportunities for African nations, the increasingly transactional approach of the US, trade deals with the EU, the Accra Reset, creating regional value chains, Russia’s involvement in conflicts in Africa and why international organizations need to open up their decision-making bodies.
In a special edition for Black History Month, Bronwen Maddox is joined by Tighisti Amare, director of our Africa Programme, and Lisa Musumba, host of our sister podcast, ‘Africa Aware’.
About Independent Thinking
Independent Thinking is a weekly international affairs podcast hosted by our director Bronwen Maddox, in conversation with leading policymakers, journalists and Chatham House experts providing insight on the latest international issues.
Zuckerberg has agreed to remain in California for eight years as part of a board-approved plan to create new shares he can sell to pay a proposed wealth tax.
Becky Drury, the 54-year-old teacher wounded in the shooting at an Oregon elementary school last week, says she was shot before she had "any chance to act."
This animated map shows the insect’s population exploding in Australia’s eastern states, with the endangered species coming back from the brink
If you live anywhere on the eastern side of Australia, you’ve probably noticed that bogong moths are back in a big way.
While we don’t yet have figures from ecologist-led surveys to compare with previous years, there is a wealth of data on the great moth revival being generated by citizen scientists across the eastern states.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reverse cuts to the food-stamp program as consumers shoulder $22 billion in additional food costs.
Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar said she plans to move out of her Washington DC apartment after federal agents raided her residence last week as part of a larger immigration investigation.
“I mean obviously, I can’t continue to live there,” Omar told MS Now in an interview that aired on Wednesday. “So we have to figure out where to move to, because our address has been public and with the death threats that I deal with, it’s no longer going to be feasible to be in that house and have my kids, like, visiting off and on, having people track them.”
The reigning champions must deal with the absence of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia for some time, while fans at Anfield were thrilled by Rio Ngumoha
Paris Saint-Germain beat Barcelona 4-2 on Tuesday, but the reigning champions lost the best player in last season’s tournament, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. This autumn has seen much lobbying for the Ballon d’Or, with the Georgian a popular choice, despite his absence from the World Cup. He is expected to be out for six months, although Rodri’s comeback from serious injury – he was rested by Barcelona on Tuesday until coming off the bench in the 60th minute – shows it can take far longer than that for players to rediscover their highest level.
POLICE LOG – October 22, 2026Dover Police Charge Two Men In September Armed Home Invasion
DOVER, Del. — Dover Police have charged two 30-year-old Dover men in connection with an armed home invasion that occurred September 16 in the 100 block of Cherry Street.
Police said detectives identified both suspects during the investigation and obtained warrants for their arrests. One suspect was already being held at Sussex Community Corrections Center on unrelated charges dating back to September 17.
The second suspect was taken into custody October 21 with assistance from Probation and Parole. He was arraigned and committed to Sussex Correctional Institution on a $154,000 cash-only bond.
Both men were charged with second-degree conspiracy, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and theft involving a victim age 62 or older.
The original investigation began after police responded to the Cherry Street residence shortly before midnight September 16. Police said a 15-year-old girl was sitting on a downstairs couch when a masked man entered through an unsecured rear door or window, pointed a handgun at her and demanded money.
The suspect allegedly took an iPad, iPhone, four bottles of medication and a Nintendo Switch charging dock before fleeing. Four family members were asleep upstairs at the time.
The suspects’ names were not released. Dover Police said Delaware House Bill 59, which took effect October 21, limits the release of names and photographs of adults charged with crimes under certain circumstances.
Fighter jets intercepted a plane that entered restricted airspace over Clemson, South Carolina, on Wednesday, as President Trump spoke at a rally there, military officials said.
The officer says he took possession of the property and renovated it ‘to prevent criminal activity’ and ‘squatting’
A Florida police officer who discovered a man dead during a welfare check stole his house and identity and spent years renovating the property for himself, authorities said.
Brian Louis Sguros, 35, an officer with the Lauderhill police department near Miami, appeared in court Wednesday on charges including criminal use of a deceased person’s identification.
Similar withdrawals from UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain reported as concerns grow about restart of war on Iran after US midterm elections
The US state department has ordered some diplomats and the families of US government employees to leave Saudi Arabia as the gulf kingdom faces a barrage of near-daily attacks, with at least three people killed at an airport and oilfield.
Attacks on “civilian airports and other critical infrastructure” by the Iranian-supported Houthis in Yemen were highlighted as the reason for the drawdown. The state department spokesperson, Tommy Pigott, said: “The safety and security of department personnel and their families remain our highest priority.”
The Audacity is a fearless satire taking on Silicon Valley’s ‘egomaniac weirdos’. Its creator and stars talk ayahuasca ceremonies, mining kids for data – and punching CEOs
Showrunner Jonathan Glatzer wanted the tagline of his latest TV creation to be: “We’re so fucked.” He laughs. “Sadly it got rejected by the network. Hey, maybe I can use it for season two!” The show in question is The Audacity, his darkly comic drama about AI tech titans. Instead, it went with the more PG tagline “Move fast and break people” – a twist on “Move fast and break things”, the Facebook motto coined by Mark Zuckerberg. The Audacity promises to do for tech bros what Succession did for legacy media. Considering Glatzer is a former writer on Succession, that is no empty threat.
This acerbic and all-too-timely Silicon Valley satire follows CEO Duncan Park (played by Billy Magnussen), the obscenely wealthy founder of a data analytics company. He’s a self-proclaimed “inventor of the future” who also happens to be a morally bankrupt man-baby. “Duncan is worth about half a billion,” says Glatzer. “Naturally, that’s not enough. He desperately wants to be a billionaire and ascend to what we call ‘God Mountain’. But he’s no God.”
Critical minerals: The UK’s role in securing resilient supply chains
5
November 2026 — 12:00 TO 13:30 GMT
Anonymous (not verified)
Chatham House and Online
Hear from the Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee as it launches its report on how the UK can build resilient critical minerals supply chains, alongside like-minded partners.
Hear from the Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee as it launches its report on how the UK can build resilient critical minerals supply chains, alongside like-minded partners.
Critical minerals have moved from the margins of industrial policy to the centre of economic and national security strategy. As demand accelerates and geopolitical competition intensifies, governments face a shared challenge: how to build supply chains that are resilient, responsible and commercially viable. For the UK, the question is not only how to secure access, but also how to draw on its strengths in finance, markets and international partnerships to help shape the next generation of global supply chains.
This event brings together members of the Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee, practitioners and policymakers to launch the Committee’s report on critical minerals, unpack their findings, and explore the dilemmas and opportunities facing the UK.
This event discusses:
Why have critical minerals become central to economic and national security strategy?
What will be required to meet the needs of both the energy transition and future defence capabilities?
How can governments build supply chains that are resilient, responsible and commercially viable?
How can the UK draw on its strengths in finance, markets and international partnerships to shape the next generation of global supply chains?
What role can like-minded nations play in creating durable mineral ecosystems?
Where should UK policymakers and industry focus as demand accelerates and competition intensifies?
The discussion will be followed by half an hour of coffee and networking.
You Can See Everything, a documentary about the disgraced biotech company founder Elizabeth Holmes, has enjoyed a record-breaking opening in the US. It is a testament to how fascinated we remain by the convicted fraudster, but what is behind the enduring appeal? US technology editor Blake Montgomery tells Madeleine Finlay why Holmes continues to fascinate us, and reflects on whether the Theranos scandal has had a permanent impact on Silicon Valley
A federal judge ruled DHS's practice of knocking on doors and asking people about their immigration status — and whether they have voted in recent elections — likely violates the Voting Rights Act.
(The Center Square) – Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers faced off in their final debate Wednesday night, making closing arguments to Michigan voters just 12 days before Election Day.
Lonnie Rouse was diagnosed with a neurological disorder that medical experts attributed to exposure to chemicals during his work cleaning up the Hanford nuclear site in Washington. Margaret Albaugh for ProPublica
Lonnie Rouse shuffled into a wood-paneled conference room at the Washington state Capitol in March 2018. It had been nearly a decade since medical experts diagnosed him with a neurological disease they attributed to his exposure to chemicals at work. In the time since, he had acquired a stutter, begun limping and lost several teeth biting into a banana.
For nearly 20 years, Rouse had packaged plutonium and monitored radioactive waste at the Hanford Site, a now-decommissioned Department of Energy nuclear weapons production plant in south-central Washington and one of the most contaminated nuclear sites in the country. Tanks full of radioactive sludge exposed him to at least 48 potentially hazardous chemicals. The worksite was so toxic, he said, that the floor once melted the rubber off his boots.
Rouse was among the thousands of workers responsible for the ongoing environmental cleanup at Hanford, which has been underway since the DOE shut down the last reactor in the late 1980s. Congress has acknowledged, based on voluminous studies, that radiation at DOE sites poses health risks to workers.
Over time, some people at Hanford became so sick they could no longer work. Like Rouse, they filed for workers’ compensation. The DOE consistently challenged their claims and tried to shift the blame onto the workers themselves.
By the time Rouse took his place behind then-Gov. Jay Inslee, he was desperate. His 2009 workers’ compensation claim had been denied. He had burned through his retirement savings and declared bankruptcy.
As he watched, the governor signed a bill that was supposed to change his life.
Rouse hung onto an old photo of himself cleaning rodent feces while working at the Hanford Site. Rouse packaged plutonium and monitored radioactive waste at the site for almost 20 years.Image photographed by Margaret Albaugh for ProPublica
For years, Hanford employees filing workers’ compensation claims had to prove the chemicals they were exposed to on the job made them sick. The new law Inslee signed flipped that burden of proof. Under the law, agencies were instructed to presume that working at Hanford had caused certain cancers, neurological diseases and respiratory illnesses. Now the Department of Energy would have to prove to the state that something other than the job had made the workers sick if it wanted to deny their claims.
Rouse thought the presumption law would speed up his claim for benefits. State lawmakers and the former governor thought it would force the DOE to take responsibility for the harm Hanford workers were experiencing.
But despite the law, the DOE continues to fight new and existing claims, Cascade PBS and ProPublica found. We asked the state for claims records going back to the presumption law’s passage in 2018, but the state only provided records going back three and a half years, to 2023. In that period, workers filed 102 new claims for benefits, state data shows. The DOE did not recommend approving a single one.
The state, which has final say, overruled the DOE and approved 75% of those claims. The DOE appealed all but seven of those approvals.
Cascade PBS and ProPublica spoke to workers, surviving family members, lawyers representing workers and state officials. They all pointed to a pattern: The DOE systematically challenges and then drags out workers’ compensation claims for years with recommended denials and subsequent legal appeals. Along the way, it has spent millions on outside lawyers and expert testimony, including doctor evaluations that point to other causes for workers’ illnesses.
The DOE has paid out benefits to Hanford workers in some cases, lawyers and families said, but it has done so while still actively appealing the claims. It warns workers that they may have to pay the money back.
Our reporting found that not even death ends the cycle of appeals. About 152 workers’ claims remain stranded in this legal limbo — approved by the state but still under appeal by the DOE. Half of those workers are dead. The DOE continues to fight to deny their families survivors’ benefits.
“It seems pretty coldhearted, calculated, that they’re trying to save money on the back of sick workers who they made sick,” said Gerry Pollet, one of the Washington state representatives who sponsored the 2018 presumption law, who is also a co-founder of the Hanford cleanup watchdog group Heart of America Northwest. “That’s why we needed a state law.”
After Cascade PBS and ProPublica raised questions about the DOE’s pattern of litigating claims, regulators at the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries met twice with DOE staff, state agency spokesperson Carrie McCausland said. But she could not point to any other actions the agency has taken beyond the two meetings.
“Agency staff are concerned and are right now assessing the severity of patterns we’ve seen,” McCausland wrote in an email.
The DOE did not answer detailed questions or respond to the newsrooms’ findings. In a statement, a spokesperson wrote that the DOE is following “all applicable local, state, and federal laws” and “has a long and successful record of accomplishment of protecting human health and the environment.”
The DOE has the right to file multiple appeals against a claim. According to court records, its appeals have sought to overturn claims approved by the state, narrow the period of back wages, or block survivors’ benefits, among other things. In appeals filings, the DOE’s lawyers have argued that factors other than work at Hanford played a role in the workers’ illnesses, including smoking, drinking, obesity or genetics.
In Rouse’s case, the energy department blamed alcoholism and family conflicts. The state agency that handles appeals did not find those arguments persuasive. DOE awarded Rouse most of his back pay in 2024, his lawyer said. Rouse declined to say how much that was, but said he is not touching the money until the legal process concludes.
Rouse’s wife, Melinda, takes his vital signs.Margaret Albaugh for ProPublica
In the nearly eight years it has been fighting his claim, the DOE has filed more than 20 appeals contesting different aspects of his claim.
“We were always told that nothing is out here that’s going to harm you — you do what you are supposed to do, and you do what you are trained to do, and you’re going to be fine,” said Rouse, who now receives 24-hour care.
“But that’s not what happens.”
“Depleted and Disgusted”
The smell of ammonia serves as a warning, workers say, that the underground tanks holding a mix of radioactive sludge have burped chemical vapors into the air above. From 1998 to 2008, it was Rouse’s job to monitor the toxic waste held in the “tank farms.” The containers together hold more than 50 million gallons of liquid waste. Rouse says he lost count of how many times tanks released toxic vapor that took his breath away, sometimes knocking him to the ground and making him vomit and bleed from his nose. According to a 2014 report funded by the federal government, tank farm workers exposed to chemical vapors commonly reported nausea, headaches and nosebleeds.
The liquid sloshing around in those tanks represented the radioactive byproducts of the Cold War. Hanford produced two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear arsenal and fueled the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945.
The Columbia River flows by nuclear reactors at the Hanford Site in Washington state in 1960.Department of Energy
The end of production in the late 1980s launched a cleanup effort that is expected to continue until at least 2086. As of January 2025, more than 13,000 people were working at Hanford, nearly all of them for private companies contracted by the DOE. It is one of the largest and most expensive efforts to remediate toxic waste in the nation’s history.
In 2000, Congress passed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, which provides medical care and one-time payouts to workers at DOE sites across the country. It was an acknowledgement that the nation’s nuclear weapons workers had been exposed to radioactive substances known to cause cancer. In it, lawmakers referred to a DOE policy “to litigate occupational illness claims, which has deterred workers from filing workers’ compensation claims and has imposed major financial burdens for such employees who have sought compensation.”
But the benefits of the federal program were limited: It capped payouts at $400,000.
Washington’s workers’ compensation system, by contrast, can provide steady wage replacement or a pension benefit, in some cases, for the rest of an injured employee’s life. It’s a program that can easily surpass the maximum federal benefit.
The state went further with its 2018 presumption law. Such laws generally protect firefighters who are regularly exposed to smoke, burned plastics and extreme heat. The National Council on Compensation Insurance, the Washington state attorney general and Pollet all said they were unaware of any other state that has extended that protection for radiological workers.
The federal government challenged Washington’s state law later that year in court, arguing it was discriminatory because it only applied to Hanford and the DOE.
Anticipating a Supreme Court decision that ultimately agreed, lawmakers passed an expanded version that covered all workers at “radiological hazardous waste facilities” in the state, including the state’s only functioning nuclear power plant and a French-owned facility that manufactures nuclear fuel rods. Nonetheless, roughly 75% of the 428 claims filed since 2018 have come from the DOE’s Hanford workers, according to the state Department of Labor and Industries.
Kathleen Kersey spent 10 years at Hanford, during both the production and cleanup stages. Much of her work involved measuring radiation around the site and making sure levels were safe. She says her safety training covered radiation, but not other hazards like chemical vapors burping from the waste tanks.
Kersey struggles to walk, has short-term memory problems and at one point lost vision in her right eye for three months. A doctor diagnosed her with multiple sclerosis, which is a neurological disorder, one of the categories of illnesses the state’s presumption law recognizes as related to chemical exposure at Hanford. In 2019 she filed a claim, which the state approved.
The DOE has appealed, arguing that something other than her time at Hanford caused her multiple sclerosis.
Kersey is one of the 152 workers still awaiting a resolution on her workers’ compensation claim. The DOE has not paid her any back wages, she said. The DOE declined to comment on her case.
“I feel depleted and disgusted,” Kersey said of the appeals process. “It makes me feel like I’m worthless. I have no value.”
“When Does This End?”
State records show that the DOE has filed more than 500 appeals since the presumption law passed in 2018. In 20 cases, as it did with Rouse, the DOE has appealed a single worker’s claim half a dozen times or more.
“We have seen tremendous pushback from DOE on essentially almost every single case that’s been brought,” said Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown.
Rouse’s wife, Melinda, said she knew something was wrong when he could not remember how to cut an orange. His vision started to blur, he stumbled often, and suddenly he felt irritable all the time. His primary care physician first thought he might have had a brain tumor. The physician referred him to a neurologist who noted cognitive impairment, possibly due to exposure to multiple toxins at the Hanford Site. The neurologist then referred him to a neuropsychologist, who diagnosed him with “toxic encephalopathy” in 2009, saying it was “more likely than not” that chemical exposure damaged his brain, according to court records.
Rouse at home with his wife, Melinda, and their dogs. After working at Hanford, he developed a neurological disorder that medical experts attributed to exposure to chemicals on the job.Lizz Giordano/Cascade PBS
The U.S. Department of Labor agreed too, approving him in 2010 for benefits under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, saying it was “at least as likely as not” that Hanford contributed to his illness. A federal medical consultant even praised the neuropsychologist who assessed Rouse for his “unusually thorough analysis of causation.”
Rouse refiled his 2009 state workers’ compensation claim under the new law in 2018. Washington state approved it later that year.
The DOE appealed. It hired a medical toxicologist, who reviewed Rouse’s medical records and testified that he did not have the disease he claimed, and brought in an industrial hygienist, who downplayed the exposure risks at Hanford. The DOE’s toxicologist testified that Rouse’s drinking was “the most significant, what we might term, ‘toxic exposure’ that’s described in the medical record.”
A group of three physicians and an industrial hygienist have collectively earned over $1.7 million testifying against Hanford workers since the presumption law’s passage, according to DOE invoices the newsrooms obtained by a federal records request. One of the DOE’s go-to expert witness doctors earned more than $200,000 from the DOE last year alone. He did not respond to multiple emails seeking comment.
A single law firm, Wallace, Mann, Capener, Bishop & Debney, handles all of the DOE’s appeals. In addition to the fees paid to expert witnesses, the department paid the firm nearly $10 million between 2018 and 2025. The law firm did not reply to multiple requests for comment.
In cases where the DOE has appealed the state’s approval of a claim since 2018, the agency that handles appeals has sided with workers nearly 9 times out of 10, according to state data.
Pollet, the state representative who sponsored the 2018 presumption bill, acknowledged that the law has fallen short of his expectation.
“This was supposed to have ended a decade ago,” he said about sick Hanford workers still awaiting back wages and medical care. “It’s even worse than it was 10 years ago.”
“I think their actions are not only despicable, but they are criminal,” he said of the DOE.
The state Department of Labor and Industries said it expected “to engage further with the DOE,” which could include putting the department on an improvement plan and monitoring its progress.
Another option state regulators have is to revoke the DOE’s ability to accept and pay out claims directly. According to the state Department of Labor and Industries, the contractors that employ Hanford workers on behalf of the DOE would then decide whether to join the state-managed fund or seek state approval to manage claims themselves. Doing so could limit the DOE’s power to appeal, but contractors would still have that right.
Brown, the state attorney general, said he wants to wait and see how the DOE’s appeals of claims play out in higher courts. He hopes that once the DOE’s losses start stacking up, it will slow the volume of its litigation.
Attorney Charlynn Hull said she thought the DOE’s approach might soften during the Biden administration. But Hull said she observed no change in the DOE’s behavior. Her firm, Smart Law, represents the majority of Hanford workers’ compensation claimants, including Rouse and Kersey.
One of the hardest things about the DOE’s appeals, Hull said, is the testifying that the children and spouses of dead workers must do.
“I think that it’s just, it’s tormenting to them, in many ways, to relive how awful that experience was, especially with the cancer-related death,” Hull said. “When does this end?”
A view of the Hanford Site, which is undergoing one of the largest and most expensive toxic waste remediation efforts in the nation’s history.Margaret Albaugh for ProPublica
Dying While Under Appeal
For Isidoro Mata Jr., it ended with his children draining fluid from his lungs through a tube doctors had surgically inserted into his chest.
Mata demolished buildings at Hanford for nearly 30 years. Court records show he was diagnosed in 2015 with thyroid cancer, one of the illnesses that Washington’s law ties to work at Hanford. Sara Chilcoat, his daughter, said he kept working as long as he could.
State claims managers approved Mata’s claim in 2019. The DOE appealed, arguing that “medical opinion supports denial of this claim as not related to the distinctive conditions of employment.” The appeal did not elaborate further. The state forced the DOE to pay his wages and the cost of his medications, Chilcoat said. But the DOE filed a separate motion to stop his benefits while the appeal was adjudicated.
In its motion, the DOE argued that it was likely to prevail in its appeal because a doctor who examined Mata in 2019 believed his cancer was unrelated to his work at Hanford, according to court records. The state found the doctor’s examination “lacking in objective findings.”
“He was fighting for his life while they were trying to do that,” Chilcoat said. “That makes me mad.”
Mata’s case file notes that he missed three meetings with DOE lawyers in 2020. The state attorney general’s office sent the appeals judge a letter in July explaining that Mata was unable to participate because of his chemotherapy treatments. The DOE, which did not respond to questions about Mata’s case, dropped its appeal in December.
The campaign ad begins with a clear, idyllic stream that suddenly turns sludge-brown as two concrete datacenters slam on to its banks. Another facility thuds down on a peaceful suburban park, and two more crush-green pastures as an ominous soundtrack to a disaster movie blares.
“They’re coming for our rivers. Our neighborhoods. Our farmland,” a deep-voiced narrator says. “Because Brent Taylor wrote the law allowing datacenters to take over Tennessee.”
New study reveals dramatic population drops in fish, cephalopods and more after Deepwater Horizon disaster
Marine life in the Gulf of Mexico plummeted by about 60% after BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and has still not fully recovered, according to a new study.
The April 2010 explosion of an offshore drilling unit 50 miles off the Louisiana coast triggered the largest marine oil spill in history, releasing 134m gallons of oil into the ocean. According to the study published on Monday in PNAS, the disaster – which also killed 11 people and injured 17 others – led to the “sudden, severe and persistent declines in the abundance” of marine life for more than a decade.
Andy Burnham has been urged by one of his most senior former advisers to tax internet sales at a higher rate than those in physical shops to help “level the playing field” for struggling high streets.
As the prime minister and his chancellor, John Healey, prepare for their first budget next week, Andy Haldane joined calls for them to take action to stop the shutters coming down on growing numbers of shops across the UK.
Alpha Schools says its AI-based instruction and focus on developing "life skills" set students up for success. Some experts say it's too good to be true.
Jim Chalmers has revealed December’s midyear budget update will project weaker growth and higher unemployment, as economists warn of a difficult six months ahead for the Australian economy.
Two days after a senior Reserve Bank official foreshadowed the potential for another interest rate rise in under two weeks’ time, the treasurer in a speech on Friday morning will say “higher inflation is putting people under pressure, tighter monetary policy is weighing on domestic activity, and we can see that in the softening of the labour market”.
Oil prices jumped to a five-month high on Thursday after attacks in Saudi Arabia and hits to tankers in the strait of Hormuz threatened further disruptions to the world’s crude supply.
Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose by 3% to hit $112 a barrel for first time since 18 May.
US voters are angry. But on tariffs and war, the midterms won’t bring quick changeExpert commentLToremark
Despite their anger, American voters are unlikely to see much immediate change to the international policies that are driving up costs at home: tariffs and the Iran war.
As the US midterms approach, American voters are angry. They are angry about the economy, about prices and about insecurity. And they have connected their plight at home with the Trump administration’s international policies.
Public opinion directly connects tariffs to high prices. An August survey found that 75 per cent of Americans worry about being able to afford groceries and goods, while 83 per cent of those worried say tariffs have increased the prices of those goods. And as many as three in four voters say tariffs will influence their vote.
Voters are also angry about the Iran war, which they directly connect to the cost of living. Majorities say that even if Trump ended the war before the midterms, they would not view his party more favourably.
The last time midterm voters were this angry about international issues was in 2006, as the Iraq war turned sour. But after that election, then-president George W Bush adopted even more aggressive policies in Iraq, the so-called ‘surge’ of 2007. Trump’s public statements suggest that he, too, is likely to be more aggressive on both war and tariffs. His political style explains some of this, but so does the extent to which the executive branch holds power over international policies.
Democrats have said if they win one or both houses of Congress they will initiate investigations into corruption and the rule of law. But efforts to claw back power will be slow – and even slower to yield results in voters’ wallets.
Changing course on Iran?
On the war with Iran, all the factors that have prevented a deal before the midterm elections will still be in place after 3 November. Voices from the region and the US alike are speculating whether there will be renewed conflict after the midterms and forecasting different ways in which the war could be expanded, from an assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities to a more aggressive proxy war waged from Iraq. Meanwhile, Trump has announced that 9,000 additional troops are being sent to the region.
Some members of Congress are already looking at the tools they have to force an end to the war. One such tool is the War Powers Act of 1973, which requires congressional approval for any hostilities lasting longer than 60 days. Such a resolution has already passed the House of Representatives three times, with the support of a few Republicans. Trump has thus far managed to prevent it from being passed by the Senate, most recently only by one vote. It is not much of a stretch to imagine the resolution passing both houses in the next Congress.
However, previous congressional attempts to use it have been vetoed and ignored by presidents of both parties – including Trump in 2019 (Yemen) and again in 2020 (Iran). Courts have also declined hearing cases brought by members of Congress seeking to enforce the Act, saying they lacked jurisdiction while legislative remedies were available. Passage of a joint resolution will up the political pressure on Trump but nothing more.
That leaves Congress with its other tool – the power of the purse. When the current Congress returns shortly after the elections for a so-called ‘lame duck’ session before the newly elected Congress is seated in January, it will be asked to vote on the Pentagon’s request for extra money to fund the Iran war. Democrats and a few Republicans have already blocked such funding from being passed once, and a lively public battle is sure to follow. However, while this would not be the first time a Congress has threatened to cut off funding for wars it disapproves of, it has never actually followed through on such threats.
Sometimes though, the threat and public debate can be enough to have an impact. Congress – even in its current configuration – is unlikely to approve the $1.5 trillion military budget Trump requested before the war with Iran, a 44 per cent increase. As the US military struggles to replace expensive missiles and meet its deterrence commitments elsewhere in the world, pressure will grow to end the war – or at least to dial it back to reduce costs. But that won’t be quick and it won’t be decisive enough to help lower prices, which is what American consumers say they are voting for.
On tariffs, the prospects appear more straightforward. The US Constitution reserves tariff power to Congress. Congressional majorities opposing the Trump tariffs could, if they wished, repeal them and set tariff levels in law, or explicitly bar the Trump administration from raising tariffs without congressional consent.
But that is easier said than done. For the last decade, congresses of various partisan compositions have opposed both free trade agreements and tariffs proposed by presidents but have been unable to find trade policy that cross-partisan majorities can support. This is likely to continue. Congressional Democrats have previewed plans for ambitious investigations of corruption allegations in how Trump’s trade deals were negotiated, and how exemptions to tariffs are granted. But they disagree deeply about what ideal tariff levels should be and are sceptical of gaining enough Republican cooperation for broader tariff relief beyond specific sectors, such as school supplies or construction materials.
Meanwhile, far from bending to popular opinion and reducing tariffs, the Trump administration is doubling down.
It has initiated another round of ‘section 301’ investigations into the EU and 15 other economies, alleging that they systematically overproduce in order to export at unfairly low prices. It has also left the door open to tariff action on semiconductors, critical minerals and commercial aircraft (and parts) under so-called ‘section 232’ allegations that trade conditions are harming US national security.
Finally, it has launched a request for comment on how the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) impacts US businesses, including ‘whether and what enforcement action may be appropriate to remedy any negative effects’. Those comments are due the week after the midterms and open up a range of options, including a public hearing or a formal investigation. The Trump administration will therefore be able to use the threat or reality of CBAM tariffs next year; either as a negotiating tool or as a next round of tariffs should any of the current measures be overturned in court.
With the midterm results likely to put Trump under pressure to change unpopular policies, explicit voter anger will also put pressure on a new Congress to be more aggressive than in recent years, to use the power it does have over budgets and tariffs. Absent that, voters are likely to find that their vote was like pushing a lever that is not connected to anything. And that is likely to increase frustration even more – upping the chances for surprising results in the 2028 presidential election.
Each place, selected from longlist of nine, will be given £125,000 to develop bids before winner is announced in new year
Blackpool, Sheffield, Milton Keynes and Wrexham have been shortlisted to be the UK city of culture 2029, an award viewed as a way to boost local economies, foster civic pride and, above all, have some fun.
The four places were chosen from a longlist of nine and each will be given £125,000 to develop their bids before the winner is announced in the new year.
The former England footballer Paul Scholes and the actor Steve Coogan stare out from beside a fish and chip shop in Middleton, near Manchester. Looming over a mural of the pair – and the whole town – is an enormous former cotton mill that powered its economy a century ago.
The deafening looms and spindles of Warwick Mill fell silent decades ago, replaced in recent years by TikTok “urban explorers” who share videos of themselves crawling through its abandoned shell.
Company ordered to stop work at two sites in country, which has found itself at forefront of tech firms’ latest push
Behind a wire fence lies a vast gaping wound of earth. Before Google’s arrival a few months ago, an estimated quarter of a million trees occupied the 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest near the town of Muhos in rural northern Finland. Now they are all gone.
After the tech company illegally stripped the entire area to build a datacentre – taking even the top soil with it – all that remains is a vast expanse of mud indented with the trail marks of machinery, puddles and mounds of earth, roots and branches. Residents say that brown water flowing off the site is going into a stream that feeds the Oulujoki River.
Why has Egypt’s President Sisi said he will step down in 2030?Expert commentthilton.drupal
Egyptian president’s surprise announcement comes amid deep economic difficulties and includes a plan for a military-approved succession.
Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi has declared he will step down at the end of his third term in 2030. Speaking during the Egyptian Military Academy graduation on 17 October, he also outlined a military-centric succession process to select the next president and senior officials beyond 2030.
The statement surprised many observers, and perhaps even state officials. If Sisi follows through on his pledge and leaves peacefully, he’d be the first Egyptian president to leave office without dying, being imprisoned or facing a popular uprising.
The unprecedented decision will have significant implications for Egypt’s political landscape, the balance of power within the regime and the military’s influence over politics and governance.
Why is Sisi leaving?
Sisi became president in 2014, after the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi’s short-lived Muslim Brotherhood government. He is currently serving his third term, after winning elections seen as predetermined in 2018 and 2023. A constitutional referendum in 2019, also seen as predetermined, increased the president’s term from four to six years, extending Sisi’s current term to 2030.
Sisi, who is 71, did not give an exact reason for why he would step down in his speech at the military academy. He said that there would be no further amendments to Egypt’s constitution to prolong his rule and declared it ‘a matter that has been completely settled and will not be discussed,’ suggesting a transition of power is inevitable.
Economic troubles
Two factors likely lie behind this surprise decision.
First, the debt-financed economic model pursued under Sisi is unsustainable. This system has sustained military dominance and stalled urgent economic reform. The government’s vast borrowing to fund mega projects has created a structural economic crisis.
In this year’s budget, debt servicing accounts for 63.9 per cent of planned expenditure, a significant increase from 43 per cent in 2014. Interest payments alone, as a share of GDP, exceed the combined allocations for education, healthcare, wages and subsidies combined. Egypt’s external debt rose from $46.1 billion in 2014 (16.4 per cent of GDP) to $164.8 billion (38.9 per cent of GDP) by the end of Q1 2026.
The Egyptian pound exchange rate has plummeted from 7.14 per dollar in mid-2014 to about 53.8 per dollar in October 2026. Urban inflation has risen from 8.3 per cent in May 2014 to 13.9 per cent in September 2026 and is expected to rise further.
This increased pressure on ordinary Egyptians has made the last decade one of plummeting living standards. Official data shows the national poverty rate has reached 35.7 per cent in 2023.
The long-lasting economic crisis is an existential threat to the regime’s stability.
Public anger over rising living costs, combined with structural imbalances and rising debt, have made Sisi’s economic policies untenable – even among his allies.
The long-lasting economic crisis is an existential threat to the regime’s stability. Sisi himself may have calculated that Egypt urgently needs a new social contract to avoid economic-driven social unrest that could push him out or plunge the country into perpetual chaos.
He will likely want to avoid the fate of President Hosni Mubarak, who was forced to leave office amid the January 25 Revolution in 2011. It is also likely that there will be an arrangement to protect Sisi and his family members from potential future prosecutions as a condition of him stepping down.
Protecting the state
The second factor relates to Sisi’s vision for his presidency and the state. This is fundamentally shaped by the 2011 uprising, which he has described as ‘the death certificate of the Egyptian state.’
Since he was sworn in in 2014, Sisi has repeatedly warned that another popular uprising would threaten the state’s existence. He has portrayed national prosperity as depending on excluding from Egypt’s politics what he frequently calls ‘ahl elshar’ (people of evil), often understood as referring to Islamists. He has also warned of threats to ‘national memory’ on social media.
Sisi may feel that departing in 2030 is in line with his aims.
Sisi has portrayed it as his – and the military’s – national duty to spare Egypt the chaos engulfing other Arab Spring countries by removing the Muslim Brotherhood from power amid a popular uprising. He has indicated that he considers it his duty to reshape Egypt’s politics to guarantee long-term stability as he sees it.
In his speech at the military academy, Sisi revealed that he had insisted on incorporating Article 200 into the 2019 constitutional amendments. This article effectively designates the military as the guardian of Egypt’s national, secular identity and the regime.
Given this, Sisi may therefore feel that departing in 2030 is in line with his aims. The military-trained officials he has designated as his successors would serve as the practical implementers of this vision.
Military-shaped succession
Alongside his plans to step down, Sisi also announced that the armed forces will fund a 30-month military academy course to train potential future leaders. Egyptians will then be able to ‘elect and choose’ from among the graduates.
The course will train select candidates, who must have a PhD and be 40-50 years old, for positions including minister, member of parliament, governor, and potentially even president. Those who have served in government for at least six years will be exempted.
The military will likely retain decisive influence over leadership selection.
Sisi’s choice of the military academy is not surprising, since it has long been tasked with promoting a military-centric nationalism and overseeing appointments and promotions in state institutions. This has sometimes sparked resistance, for example from judges in January.
In effect, the system will replace the electoral process with competence criteria, narrowing the pool of trusted candidates and excluding anyone who is ‘tendentious, a traitor, or a criminal’ from becoming president.
Future implications
Although this process finally paves the way for civilians to become president, the military will likely retain decisive influence over leadership selection and the state’s strategic direction. The military’s constitutional mandate means its commanders’ views and preferences would continue to shape key state decisions.
In this setup, Sisi will likely retain entrenched loyalties and broader political influence. The changes could establish an informal military guardianship model that sits above the president and government beyond 2030. This might resemble Turkey in the 1990s.
The new government training system might also invite challenges. It seems designed to side-line dissidents, the Muslim Brotherhood and rival generals. But by effectively excluding individuals without a postgraduate degree or those who fail to secure academy approval, it might be deemed unconstitutional and face legal challenges. It could also spark fierce competition among key security branches.
Will Sisi reconsider?
Sisi’s decision to step down might face resistance from key institutions and influential figures in his patronage system, who may try to convince him to reconsider to protect their interests.
These attempts may intensify if Egypt’s military becomes involved in escalating regional conflicts. Sisi recently sought authorization from parliament to deploy troops to defend Saudi Arabia against Houthi attacks.
If living conditions worsen and social unrest breaks out, Sisi may conclude that staying in power best guarantees stability for Egypt.
Potential for civilian rule?
Despite its risks, Sisi’s decision may facilitate a transition towards a less authoritarian government in the long term. It took Egyptians 15 years after the 2011 uprising to hear an Egyptian president pledge an ordinary, peaceful transition of power.
By declaring he will step down, Sisi could end up kickstarting a tradition in which no single ruler stays in power until death. Civilians might finally be seen as capable rulers.
This will not happen overnight, of course. It would depend on Sisi keeping his word and social stability holding until 2030. But if this is the case, the military guardianship Sisi is establishing may, in the long term, be seen as a transitional period toward a more stable, more open and freer society.
Awa, 18, stood in the dock in the tribunal de Paris, a small, mute and bewildered figure seeming unable to understand, let alone answer, the simplest of questions.
The court was told she had joined young people who looted an Yves Saint Laurent store on Boulevard Saint Germain in Paris’s Left Bank late on Sunday and stripped it bare within minutes.
Fox News and others have toed president’s line – seemingly hoping unrest abroad will make people vote Republican
Donald Trump sought to capitalize on the scenes of unrest in France, telling a crowd in Kansas on Monday that “migrants” and “communists” were responsible, and that the scenes were “what the radical ‘Dumocrats’ want to do to America”.
As Republicans struggle to convince voters across the country ahead of November’s midterm elections, Trump’s allies in the conservative media have followed suit, seemingly hoping that the scenes in France can scare people to the polls.
Airbnb is banning hosts from requiring guests to perform time-consuming checkout chores, including washing dishes, stripping beds, doing laundry, and taking trash off-site. The updated policy applies to reservations booked on or after November 20. The Verge reports: Airbnb is displaying hosts' requests more prominently now in a new "rules and requests" section on listings. You might see an "includes cleaning requests" warning if a host leaves chore requests in their listing after the new policy goes into effect. Hosts aren't allowed to sneak in extra rules in messages to guests or on signs around their property, either.
Some hosts pushed back on the house rules restrictions on Airbnb's forums, saying they pose health risks and arguing that guests can simply choose not to stay at listings with overly-strict rules. Airbnb says there can be exceptions to the limits on checkout chores, like asking guests to "dispose of trash in an animal-proof container in bear country."
With fewer than two weeks until the midterms, US voters are unlikely to see relief on one of this election cycle’s main issues: gas prices.
Airing up her car’s tires at a Speedway in Perrysburg, Ohio, Toledo resident Sharie Smith, 41, says soaring costs are having a direct impact on her life.
Europe’s leaders can no longer trust a word that comes out of Washington. No more slaps on the wrist – we need concrete steps to punish Trump
Historical comparisons are always inexact. No one conflict precisely mirrors another. Yet Donald Trump’s shameless appeasement of Vladimir Putin carries more than a noxious whiff of Neville Chamberlain’s failed attempt in Munich in 1938 to head off war with Nazi Germany. To be fair to the former UK prime minister – and history largely hasn’t been – his peacemaking efforts had the enthusiastic backing of most people in Britain and France who, like him, were desperate to avoid a repeat of the horrors of the first world war. Trump enjoys no equivalent public support for his treachery. Nor does he face the prospect of a US war with Russia. His betrayal of Ukraine is cynically self-interested, globally dangerous and utterly contemptible.
US-Russian talks on agreeing the shoddy terms of a precedent-setting American sell-out of Ukraine are at an advanced stage, after meetings in St Petersburg this week. Trump has zigzagged over the war ever since returning to office. Now, panicked by record-low poll ratings, he seems determined to scapegoat Ukraine and force its de facto capitulation. Recent steps – his shocking decision to fund Putin’s war machine by buying Russian diesel, his waiving of tougher sanctions, his mysterious, lethal interruptions in US satellite and intelligence sharing with Kyiv, and his renewed attempt to oust Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy – mark Trump out as the skulking Judas, the craven Brutus of the modern age. He makes Chamberlain look like a man of iron principle. All that’s lacking is an umbrella.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
An American company is still supplying Taser weapons linked to prisoner abuse by Israeli forces. Plus, 12 valuable lessons about life and death by hospice workers
Good morning. An investigation has revealed that Israel is using US-made electroshock weapons on Palestinian detainees. The American company Axon is still supplying the Taser weapons despite evidence they have been used to torture prisoners. The news comes as US volunteers including a lawmaker helping Palestinians harvest olives were detained, and Heidi Levine revealed more details of her violent assault by Israeli settlers.
Human rights groups have condemned allegations of the repeated torture and ill-treatment of detainees held in Israeli detention centres and prisons using electric shock devices, with Amnesty calling for restrictions on exports of such devices. A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said the abuse of detainees was strictly prohibited.
Who was detained by Israel near Nahalin in the occupied West Bank? The Israeli military detained about 80 US, Israeli and British volunteers helping Palestinians harvest olives near Bethlehem, including the New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander, several rabbis and Israel’s former deputy attorney general. Soldiers said the area had been declared a closed military zone.
What more has Levine said about the Israeli settler attack on her? The Washington Post photojournalist who was attacked and seriously injured by Israeli settlers on Friday has described how she was saved with the help of local Palestinians. Witnesses said thee attack on her ceased only when young men used slingshots to aim stones at the settlers, forcing them back.
What is the latest development with US diplomats in the Middle East? The US state department has ordered some diplomats and the families of US government employees to leave Saudi Arabia, as it faces a barrage of near-daily attacks from Yemen’s Houthis. Reports have emerged of similar US withdrawals in UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain amid concerns of a return to conflict with Iran after the midterm elections.
Where has Elon Musk been spending his election campaign money? Elon Musk’s Super Pac has spent more than $500,000 in New York’s highly competitive 17th congressional district race to help Mike Lawler, the Republican incumbent, hold his seat. Lawler, a moderate Republican, is fending off a challenge from the Democrat Cait Conley in one of the most-watched races that could determine who controls Congress.
What has happened with letters containing white powder being sent to Congress? Nancy Pelosi’s office received “a suspicious letter” on Wednesday in what appears to be the latest incident of ill-intentioned mailings targeted at US Congress members. The offices of more than three dozen members of Congress across the political spectrum have received envelopes containing white powder in recent days.
What is Trump’s polling as the election looms? Donald Trump’s approval rating has sunk to 36%, the lowest recorded, with most respondents expressing frustration over his handling of the US economy, cost of living and Iran war. The president was heckled at least nine times during a campaign event yesterday, and reacted to a supporter punching a demonstrator by saying: “Man, I loved that.”
Kim Aris says ‘hearing her voice again means more than words can express’ amid loosening of detention restrictions
The son of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi has been allowed to speak to the detained former democratic leader for the first time in more than five years.
“Today, I was finally able to speak with my mother, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, after more than five years. Hearing her voice again means more than words can express,” Kim Aris said in a post on Facebook on Thursday.
Supermarket urges government not to ‘further aggravate’ pressure on costs for businesses in next week’s budget
Sainsbury’s has warned of a “pretty challenging” market in the run-up to Christmas as households are “finding it tough” and food producers face rising costs.
Simon Roberts, the chief executive of the UK’s second biggest supermarket, called on the government not to “further aggravate” pressure on costs for business in this month’s budget. He said it was “important this government does not repeat what we have seen in previous budgets” in raising business rates and employers’ national insurance contributions. “That’s been really hard,” he said.
Thousands of people are training to be poll observers to look out for any interference or ICE presence on election day
Stevie Lyn is angry at what she’s seen in her Phoenix, Arizona, neighborhood over the past year. Since US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began conducting raids all across the city, her Latino neighbors on the west side have had to hide in their homes, too scared to grocery shop, work and vote. That’s why she volunteered to become a poll observer.
“I had to take the anger, because it was eating me alive, and direct it towards a constructive activity,” she said.
The CNN star’s wise advice to ‘be truthful, not neutral’ should be tattooed on our souls
After decades as a renowned international journalist, the CNN star Christiane Amanpour is calling it a career, saying she’ll soon leave the cable network which she joined in 1983.
She will be missed for the courage in war zones and forthright presentation that have made her one of the most famous names in media.
Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture
Agency declines to reveal in which state latest measles death occurred as it delays reporting other measles deaths
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added a third measles death to its dashboard on Wednesday, but the agency would not reveal whether the death occurred in Pennsylvania or another state – which is “notable” as the agency delays reporting other measles deaths, experts say.
The CDC cited privacy laws in not sharing the name of the state, but experts say there are no privacy concerns in doing so – and this information is important for the public to have as the outbreak continues accelerating, growing by 8% in one week to 4,410 confirmed cases so far this year, nearly double last year’s count.
Frustration with a sprawling fraud scandal has cut Peggy Flanagan’s poll lead – could ex-NFL reporter Michele Tafoya win a first statewide election for Republicans in 20 years?
As Democrats fight to regain control of the US Senate, hopes are rising in states – from Kansas to Texas – where they have not prevailed in decades. But in Minnesota, where Republicans have not won statewide election since 2006, the contest for an open Senate seat is closer than expected.
Should Peggy Flanagan – the state’s Democratic lieutenant governor – win the election, she will be the first Native American woman to serve in the US Senate. But history has not yet been made. The closely watched Cook Political Report shifted its rating on the race this week from “likely Democrat” to “lean Democrat”.
Democrats believe circumstances have aligned for them to win a slew of competitive elections in the state
Mary Peltola’s campaign to represent Alaska in the US Senate has taken her to parts of the massive state’s interior that are inaccessible by road and on the frontlines of the cost-of-living crisis she hopes will make her the first Democrat to win the seat in nearly two decades.
She has been to towns where paper towels retail for $40, a half gallon of oat milk goes for $21 and the cost of a new freezer can be quadruple what it is in the state’s largest city, Anchorage, simply because it’s so complicated to get there. Along the Arctic Ocean, she’s heard of communities where power bills have climbed to $1,500 a month because they rely on generators for power and the Iran war has pushed the cost of diesel to new heights.
President Trump is set to rally with Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa as he seeks to boost GOP candidates in a political environment that has dimmed for the party — prompting pushback from some candidates, including Hinson.
Why Should Delaware Care? The race to represent Wilmington’s 3rd House District has been unusually turbulent, with the incumbent facing misdemeanor assault charges, and one challenger calling the police on another. A residency dispute involving Branden Fletcher-Dominguez now adds to the acrimony.
The Delaware Republican Party has challenged a progressive Wilmington Democrat’s eligibility to run for the state legislature — a month and a half after a Democratic operative did the same.
In response, the candidate, Branden Fletcher-Dominguez, has retained an attorney, who called doubts about his client’s residency “petty,” and said there is clear evidence that Fletcher-Dominguez lives, and has lived, in the district he seeks to represent.
The issue orginated early last month when Molly Magarik, a former state health secretary and longtime aide to now-Mayor John Carney, filed a complaint with state elections officials, suggesting that Fletcher-Dominguez had not lived for a full year at an address listed in election filings — a Hilltop-area house owned by his mother.
State law requires eligible candidates to live for one year in their district “prior to seeking elective office.”
The accusation echoed similar ones made two years earlier that led Fletcher-Dominguez’s to withdrawal from the 2024 primary election race.
To support the latest claims, Magarik’s complaint cited recent renovations to the Hilltop home, as well as its listing on a vacant property database, and water meter records that show no usage until June. It also cited the home’s purchase date.
Property records show that Fletcher-Dominguez’s mother, Carla Dominguez, signed the deed for the home on Aug. 27, 2025.
Now, a month after Fletcher Dominguez won the Sept. 15 Democratic Party nomination, the Delaware Republican Party has taken up the issue by pressing the Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Elections to investigate and determine whether Fletcher-Dominguez met the statehouse residency requirements.
Fletcher-Dominguez is set to face Republican Shawn Dottery and independent Dexter “Dizzy” Bland in the Nov. 3 General Election to determine the next representative of the 3rd House District, which extends from West Center City to beyond Greenhill Avenue. Fletcher-Dominguez defeated incumbent Rep. Josue Ortega in the September primary.
On Friday, Delaware GOP Chair Gene Truono sent a letter to Attorney General Kathy Jennings and Department of Elections Commissioner Anthony Albence, urging them to investigate the matter. Truono claimed that credible evidence exists that Fletcher-Dominguez did not live in the district. He also asserted that elections officials had “failed to resolve this question.”
When reached for comment, Fletcher-Dominguez referred questions to his attorneys, John Malik and Darrell Baker.
In an interview, Baker dismissed the claims as “petty,” and said Fletcher-Dominguez had lived at a friend’s house around the corner from his listed address while his mother’s home was under renovation. The friend’s house also sits within the 3rd Representative District.
Baker further said he does not plan to file a lawsuit on Fletcher-Dominguez’s behalf, saying there’s no reason to escalate the situation. Instead, the next step is to submit an affidavit to Delaware elections officials, signed by Fletcher-Dominguez’s friend, to say he lived at his home during the renovations.
On Tuesday, officials from the Department of Elections told Spotlight Delaware that their office handed over the original Sept. 11 complaint to the Attorney General’s office, but could not comment further.
“The Department of Elections has submitted the allegations of fraud concerning his residency to the Attorney General for further investigation and potential prosecution,” spokeswoman Cathleen Carter said.
Carter also confirmed that as of Oct. 20, Fletcher-Dominguez remains a qualified candidate on the 2026 General Election ballot.
Mat Marshall, spokesman for the Attorney General, told Spotlight Delaware that his office could not comment on whether an investigation exists into the matter.
Déjà vu for districtrace
The residency complaint comes two years after state investigators probed whether Fletcher-Dominguez truly lived at difference residence within the Third District as he sought a seat in the state legislature,
The probe ultimately led him to withdraw from the 2024 race.
Hilltop, named for its place among the steep hills of Wilmington’s West Side, sits within Wilmington 3rd House District. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JOSE IGNACIO CASTANEDA PEREZ
Two years later, Magarik said in the written complaint that she came across information about Fletcher-Dominguez “in the course of [her] professional work for a client.” She did not identify the client, but noted she had shared her findings with the Wilmington Democratic Committee.
Cassandra Marshall, head of the Wilmington Democratic Committee, did not respond to requests for comment.
Magarik also said in the complaint that she was filing it in her individual capacity, though she noted that she is a former director of the Delaware Democratic Party and a registered Democratic voter. The contact information she listed in the complaint included her email at her public affairs consulting firm, North Node.
The phone number she listed went to her North Node business partner, who declined to comment. Magarik did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Then on Friday, Truono sent his letter to Jennings and Albence, urging them to investigate the matter.
“Residency is a state constitutional requirement. It goes to the heart of our representative democracy. The facts here are not difficult to investigate,” Truono’s letter stated.
Like Truono, Baker also indicates that the facts in the case are clear. But he asserts that they show his client followed the law and that Magarik’s investigation was “sloppy.”
“Anybody standing on the corner would have known that Branden camped out around the corner at a friend’s house while the house [was] being renovated, and that fits within in the code,” he said.
Fletcher-Dominguez has recently received support from a prominent Delaware Democrat. In a statement Wednesday, New Castle County Democratic Party Chair Kat Caudle asserted that state law does not require candidates to own property or live in the same residence throughout a specific period.
She also said election officials should apply the law consistently, arguing that residency challenges should be based on evidence rather than political motivations.
“We ask that the Commissioner distinguish legitimate, evidence-based challenges from frivolous or bad-faith attempts to target young, progressive candidates,” Caudle wrote.
For his part, Baker speculated that Carney could have played a role in the complaint, citing his previous connection to Magarik, and Fletcher-Dominguez’s past questioning of his mayoral administration at public meetings.
Fletcher-Dominguez, who has been endorsed by the progressive Working Families Party and worked with the HOMES Campaign, has been a vocal opponent to some of Carney’s policies on homelessness and affordable housing.
Asked about the claim, officials from Carney’s office denied any involvement by the mayor.
“The mayor did not encourage nor was he involved in the filing of this complaint,” Caroline Klinger, Carney’s spokesperson, said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware.
Democrat files residency violation complaint against progressive
In her complaint, Magarik noted that Fletcher-Dominguez’s residence is currently on the city’s vacant property list, with a status date of Feb. 19 of this year. City officials said the list was last updated in March of this year.
Molly Magarik served as secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services during the COVID pandemic under then-Gov. John Carney. | PHOTO COURTESY OF STATE OF DELAWARE
The complaint also cites a March Facebook post in which Fletcher-Dominguez shared a photo of a house under renovation, where he tagged the Hilltop area. In the post, he wrote: “Excited to see things coming together on the house.”
The post has since been deleted.
Magarik also pointed to Delaware’s election law on residency, which says a location can count as a person’s residence only if they physically live there and intend to stay, either indefinitely or for a set period. The law also says a person cannot establish residency at a place they have not actually lived, even if they own the property.
Magarik further alleges that the water meter registered zero usage from August 2025 to May of this year. Spotlight was not able to confirm that claim with public records.
Fletcher-Dominguez wins amid contentious race
Four days after the complaint was filed, Fletcher-Dominguez won in the Sept. 15 primary election against his three opponents, including incumbent Ortega, Wilmington City Councilwoman Yolanda McCoy and newcomer LaDonna Graham.
In response then, Fletcher-Dominguez, said the property owner had asked him to place a yard sign there. And he claimed he did not know that his political opponent lived at the Hilltop townhouse.
Jacque Laird, elections administrator for Adams County, Washington, prepares ballot envelopes for delivery to voters at a third-party processing center that sorts mail, Direct Mail Enterprises, in Spokane. Adams County was one of the eastern Washington counties that saw a spike in the number of mailed ballots being rejected for arriving too late after U.S. Postal Service changes. Rajah Bose for ProPublica
In early August, election workers north of Spokane, Washington, went across the street to the post office to check for late mail-in ballots. It was three days after the primary and they were expecting no more than a few dozen.
Instead, their mailbox was brimming with envelopes — more than 500 of them, each a vote that wouldn’t count. The sight was “jarring,” said Auditor Lori Larsen, a Republican who oversees voting in Stevens County.
Across the region, other election officials were getting similar jolts. In the 11 predominately rural counties in eastern Washington, nearly 2,000 ballots came in late, compared to about 600 in 2022, the previous midterm primary.
But a ProPublica data analysis shows that delays resulting from the U.S. Postal Service’s cost-cutting measures have endangered the validity of ballots cast in rural areas, not only in Washington, but across the country.
Over the past three years, as mail volume continued to plummet and annual deficits ballooned, the Postal Service started consolidating the processing of first-class mail at larger regional plants instead of at smaller hubs closer to local post offices. Then, in a little-noted switch that mostly took effect after the 2024 election, the agency cut the frequency of mail pickups in half at many post offices 50 miles or more from these processing plants, from twice daily to once.
The changes often added a day or more to delivery time and, most importantly for ballots, pushed back postmarking, which doesn’t happen until mail reaches the regional centers.
In this year’s primary, the effects of the cuts were clearest in five states that make detailed data on mail-in ballots available: Washington, California, Ohio, North Carolina and Oregon. All have or recently had grace periods allowing ballots to count if they come in after Election Day as long as they’re postmarked by the deadline.
In these states, the number of ballots rejected for arriving late soared in counties affected by the service changes compared to 2022, ProPublica’s analysis showed.
Rejection rates in counties where services were cut doubled or tripled from what they were four years ago, dwarfing any increases in counties where postal pickups remained as they were, our analysis showed. In urban Spokane, for example, the number of ballots rejected for being late actually dropped this year.
Across the five states, the delays have had the most substantial effect in areas that voted for Trump in 2024, ProPublica’s analysis shows. In Washington, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, said he sees the service changes directed by Republican appointees leading the Postal Service as a way to undermine mail-in voting.
“I don’t think they realized how much it was going to affect their voter base,” he said, adding that Washington has “a lot of rural Republican voters.”
Rates of Rejection Due to Late Ballots Were Higher in Counties with Reduced Mail Service
Note: The chart shows the four states where data on all returned absentee ballots was available. Data from North Carolina and Washington tracked absentee ballots returned by mail. Data from California and Ohio tracked absentee ballots returned by any method, including drop boxes. Sources: California secretary of state, North Carolina State Board of Elections, Ohio secretary of state, Washington secretary of state.Ken B. Morales/ProPublica
Postal Service leaders say such delays are less likely in the Nov. 3 general election because of “extraordinary measures” the agency puts into place for these votes, when there’s typically far more turnout. They have circulated a memo to the nation’s more than 30,000 post offices saying that for the 10 days before the election, managers should separate completed ballots from other first-class mail and deliver those intended for local election offices the day they come in.
At an Oct. 15 news conference, Postal Service leaders emphasized the agency’s longstanding recommendation that voters mail ballots back at least a week before their states’ deadlines, while defending the agency’s ability to fast-track ballots through the system.
“We work to identify and address issues quickly,” said Amber McReynolds, chair of the Postal Service board of governors, “so ballots can continue to move swiftly from election offices to voters and from voters back to election offices.”
Election consultants, researchers and former Postal Service officials told ProPublica that the guidance for the upcoming vote gave more detailed directions on how to expedite ballots. They said they hoped the agency’s special measures would limit delays, but some said mistakes were likely.
“I don’t think we can say with any kind of conviction that there will be no ballots rejected,” said Tammy Patrick, chief programs officer of the National Association of Election Officials. “It isn’t a question of ‘if,’ but a question of ‘how many.'”
A pilot program instituting the delivery changes in 18 regions before the 2024 election ran into problems. An audit by the Postal Service’s inspector general found that agency staff in these areas sometimes didn’t handle ballots correctly, mainly because instructions weren’t clearly communicated. (A Postal Service spokesperson said “learnings from the pilot” have been applied as the program has expanded.)
After this year’s primary, reports by media outlets noted that mail-in ballot rejection rates were higher than in the past, but ProPublica’s analysis shows these increases were directly connected to Postal Service changes. Research published in September by the Brookings Institution also found this connection, projecting that if the pattern held in the general election, tens of thousands of mail-in ballots could be rejected.
At least seven closely contested congressional districts — including Washington’s 3rd, California’s 22nd and North Carolina’s 11th — are in areas that were affected by service changes in the primary, ProPublica found.
Elena Patel, who conducted the Brookings analysis, said service changes may still imperil mail-in votes in the general election.
“I think there remain risks to ballots,” she said, adding that the Postal Service’s plan for the general election “depends on flawless execution.”
Mail-in voting has become more popular over the last decade, with many states broadening access to it during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Louis DeJoy was appointed postmaster general in spring 2020, he inherited an $81 billion operating deficit and rapidly took steps such as eliminating overtime to reduce costs, under pressure from Trump and others in his administration. (DeJoy did not respond to questions from ProPublica.)
The NAACP sued that August, alleging the measures could affect mail-in votes in that year’s general election. Courts ordered DeJoy to reverse some of the cuts and the Postal Service agreed to implement special procedures to ensure ballots weren’t delayed. The Postal Service has continued following those procedures since.
Still, DeJoy went forward with a 10-year restructuring plan designed to save the agency billions. It ended evening pickups from some post offices, often in rural areas. Trucks serving these places travel long distances and at times were mostly empty. This part of the plan — called regional transportation optimization, or RTO — was projected to eventually save the Postal Service $4 billion a year.
The agency announced the national rollout of the RTO plan in 2024, but DeJoy agreed to pause it leading up to that year’s November election, leaving only about 4,000 ZIP codes in the pilot project affected by the service changes.
Mail Services Have Been Cut in 16,000 More ZIP Codes Since the 2024 Election
A pilot program that reduced mail pickups to save money was paused in the lead-up to the 2024 election. The rollout has since resumed, and the changes have been made in five times as many ZIP codes for the 2026 midterms.
Source: ProPublica analysis of Postal Regulatory Commission filingsKen B. Morales/ProPublica
In January 2025, the Postal Regulatory Commission, which oversees the Postal Service, warned that moving forward with the plan would be disruptive to rural communities and might not save as much money as expected. The Postal Service rolled out the reductions anyway, extending the changes to almost 20,000 ZIP codes to date. Officials said they expect the system to be fully implemented within two years.
This January, the agency put out a statement saying the transportation cuts would mean it took longer for mail, including ballots, to be postmarked and delivered. But the Postal Service didn’t specify which voters would be affected by the slowdowns and which wouldn’t.
Mail Service Has Been Cut in Large Swaths of Rural America
A plan to reduce mail pickup frequency is being rolled out in ZIP codes that are more than 50 miles from a sorting facility. Areas not subject to the plan are mostly in or near large cities.
Source: ProPublica analysis of Postal Regulatory Commission filingsChris Alcantara/ProPublica
Though the delay from RTO is often only a day, mail can be delayed longer if it’s deposited in a mailbox after the daily pickup time, or just before Sunday or a holiday.
A Postal Service spokesperson said the agency told election officials that RTO would change schedules and reemphasized the need for voters to get their ballots in the mail at least a week ahead of time. Election officials in Washington said the Postal Service wasn’t direct enough about the fact that the changes would lead to delays in delivering and postmarking ballots.
“What they said was, ‘We are going to change the way we do postmarks,'” said Hobbs, Washington’s secretary of state. “That was it.”
Patel, the Brookings analyst and a former Postal Regulatory Commission employee, said that more direct communication to voters could have helped change their behavior. “That’s the part that I think has not been super transparent about the whole process,” she said.
Many of the areas that saw a spike in late ballots were in Western states, which were the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters of expanded mail-in voting.
In 2004, Washington became the second state to start conducting all-mail elections, in which every eligible voter automatically receives a mail-in ballot. Most residents vote by putting their ballots in drop boxes. Still, in 2024, about 33% put them in the mail.
In the 30 mostly rural Washington counties most affected by RTO, the percentage of ballots postmarked late more than tripled compared to the 2022 primary, ProPublica found.
Is your ZIP code subject to reduced mail service? Use our lookup tool to find out.
In Garfield County, in southeastern Washington, 19 ballots — nearly 1 in 10 cast — had late postmarks this year. In 2022, only a single ballot was postmarked late. In Pend Oreille County, in northeast Washington along the Idaho panhandle, 6% of ballots were rejected for arriving late, compared to 1% in the 2022 primary.
“It was pretty awful telling people we couldn’t count their votes,” said Marianne Nichols, Pend Oreille’s longtime auditor. “They were quite upset because they felt like, ‘Why? This was in the mailbox on election day, the post office picked it up and had it.’ They felt like it should have counted.”
In Stevens County, the percentage of ballots rejected for having a late postmark jumped to 8%, from 1% in 2022.
Steve Hutkins, a retired professor who analyzes the effect of Postal Service changes on Savethepostoffice.com, also found that places in Washington with RTO had more ballot rejections during local elections earlier this year for school board and other measures. The patterns “set off the alarm bells,” he said.
Stuart Holmes, the state’s director of elections, said he reached out to Postal Service officials to find out what had happened, but got few answers and no specifics on delays related to RTO, which were a “total surprise,” he said.
Election officials in California and Oregon also reported thousands more ballots rejected for arriving late during their primaries. Counties affected by RTO, including Kern County, California, had substantially higher rates of ballots rejected for mail-related reasons, ProPublica found.
Kern County’s assistant registrar of voters, Laura Cantu, said election officials are urging rural voters to use drop boxes to cast their ballots in the general election.
The expansion of RTO had a similar effect in North Carolina and Ohio, where the rates of late ballots were about twice as high in counties affected by the restructuring as rates in counties that weren’t. Since 2022, these states have also eliminated grace periods in which ballots postmarked by Election Day could count even if they arrived later. Voters unused to the tighter deadlines also could have contributed to an increase in late ballots.
ProPublica didn’t find any association between RTO and higher rates of late ballots in Wisconsin, even though clerks reported delays involving mail-in ballots cast in its state election, held this spring. (Other Postal Service changes may have contributed to the delays.)
Wisconsin’s data does not distinguish ballots sent by mail from those cast in drop boxes or in person, making it impossible to definitively measure rejection rates just for ballots returned by mail. Election researchers said Wisconsin’s deadline for mail ballots, which must come into election offices by 8 p.m. on Election Day, also probably had an effect.
“If you know that you don’t have a grace period, it probably affects voter behavior,” said Patel, the Brookings researcher.
Mail ballot envelopes are prepared for Adams County, Washington, midterm voters at a third-party processing center for mail, Direct Mail Enterprises, in Spokane.Rajah Bose for ProPublica
Recent Postal Service audits have found that RTO-related changes had saved the agency about $2.8 billion by the end of fiscal year 2025 — less money than expected — and are slowing down all first-class mail, not just ballots. Residents of rural areas are waiting longer for everything from prescriptions to bills, a report published in September by the Postal Service’s inspector general said.
A Postal Service spokesperson still defended the plan, both for financial reasons and to adjust to the changing marketplace. “These savings are both significant and necessary,” he said.
In the lead-up to Nov. 3, the agency’s plan is to route ballots meant for local election offices to a nearby postal facility or directly to their destination. They shouldn’t go to regional plants, which the Postal Service says should minimize delays.
Larsen, the Stevens County auditor, is encouraging Washington voters to deposit their ballots in drop boxes rather than relying on the mail. Since the primary, she’s increased the number of red, white and blue drop boxes that sit outside government buildings from seven to 12. Near each box, there’s a large sign encouraging people to take selfies when they vote and send the photos to Larsen.
In prior years, Larsen said, she avoided telling voters how or when to vote, concerned they might regret choices they made if critical information later emerged about the candidates. That’s no longer uppermost in her mind.
“Now we are more concerned that we get your ballot,” she said.
Weekend Spotlight is a round-up of the five best events to check out in Delaware over the coming weekend, curated by Arts + Culture Editor Cannon Taylor. This edition covers Oct. 23-25, 2026. What should be on our radar for future editions? Let us know!
Hilda’s Homecoming
Sea Witch Festival casts a spell on Rehoboth Beach
Friday, Oct. 23 through Sunday, Oct. 25. Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach. All day. General admission: Free. Some events ticketed.
Hilda the Sea Witch is currently riding her broom to Rehoboth Beach, where she — more specifically, a parade balloon of her wart-ridden, green head — will hover over costumed tourists and locals during her annual festival.
Despite being named after an 1840s ship that sailed the area, not an actual sorceress, the Sea Witch Festival nonetheless casts a Halloween spell on Rehoboth Beach.
Hilda brings with her a cauldron’s worth of activities: scarecrow and costume contests, mermaid meet and greets, trick or treating, zombie graveyard and haunted house tours, a broom-tossing contest and more. View the full schedule to plan out your weekend.
Saturday, Oct. 24 and Sunday, Oct. 25. Delaware State Fairgrounds. 18500 S. Dupont Highway, Harrington. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tickets: $15 Saturday, $13 Sunday, $21 weekend pass.
Blue Hen Comic Con returns to Harrington Oct. 25-25. | PHOTO COURTESY OF BLUE HEN COMIC CON
Represented by the mascot “Cluck Kent,” a buff, blue chicken in a biker’s leather vest, the Blue Hen Comic Con brings anime voice actors, comic book artists, Power Rangers and cosplayers to the Delaware State Fairgrounds this weekend.
While Blue Hen Comic Con’s guests certainly aren’t on the same caliber as a major con, true fans know that the true appeal of such an event is found elsewhere.
Dress up as your favorite characters a week before Halloween and browse fanart by artists who, like Vincent Van Gogh, are utterly unappreciated in their time. Best of all, strike up a conversation with a stranger about their cosplay and make friends through fandom.
Theatre N will host an All-Nite Horrorthon Oct. 23. | PHOTO COURTESY OF THEATRE N
Friday, Oct. 23. Theatre N. 221 W. Tenth St., Wilmington. 8 p.m. Tickets: $25.
Fuel up on Monster Energy and dress up as a monster before the All-Nite Horrorthon, a movie marathon at Theatre N starting at 8 p.m. and, presumably, ending sometime around sunrise.
The five films being screened are a secret. You won’t know what you’re watching until you’re sitting in the theater, munching on popcorn, and the title card is revealed. It’s bound to be a horror junkie’s wildest dream and a novice’s worst nightmare.
The true horror of the event, however, won’t be onscreen. It’ll probably hit at 2 p.m. the following day, when you transform into a sleep-deprived zombie.
“300 Paintings” documents a comedian’s manic episode
Delaware Theatre Company stages “300 Paintings” through Nov. 8. | PHOTO COURTESY OF DELAWARE THEATRE COMPANY
Through Nov. 8. 200 Water St., Wilmington. Times vary. Tickets start at $39.
What do you get when a comedian quits his job, rents an abandoned cake factory and paints over 300 paintings over the course of six months? Apparently, a manic episode, as the comedian, Sam Kissajukian, realized after the fact.
Kissajukian has documented his 2021 experience in the cake factory through “300 Paintings,” an autobiographical play he performs himself.
The Australian comedian has landed in Delaware through Nov. 8 to perform the play for Delaware Theatre Company, sharing his story about living with bipolar disorder with humor and heart.
Saturday, Oct. 24 and Sunday, Oct. 25. The Grand Opera House. 818 N. Market St., Wilmington. Friday 7 p.m., Saturday 2 p.m. Tickets start at $30.
First State Ballet Theatre stages “Don Quixote” Oct. 24-25. | PHOTO BY TISA DELLA-VOLPE, COURTESY OF FIRST STATE BALLET THEATRE
Character Don Quixote’s hare-brained schemes as a chivalrous knight have been so well-read over the past four centuries that his surname has inspired an adjective describing all things idealistic and impractical — “quixotic.”
From mistaking windmills for giants to ingesting a healing potion that actually gives him food poisoning, Quixote offers a 17th century equivalent to the half-witted hilarity of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
First State Ballet Theatre will depict one of the knight’s stupid side quests — his meddling in a wedding — through Spanish-inspired dance this weekend.
Why Should Delaware Care? Sussex County residents continue to debate how to lower housing costs, particularly near Delaware’s popular beaches. A new law meant to speed up homebuilding and encourage more low-cost housing is causing backlash, and now, one city is considering pausing large housing developments in response.
The small beachside city of Lewes is considering a temporary ban on new large housing developments.
The proposal – the latest response to a new law that limits public hearings for certain building plans – has sparked support from city residents. But a prominent builders association has threatened to sue.
If implemented and upheld, the moratorium also could serve as a model for other municipalities.
Earlier this month, the Lewes City Council held a public hearing to gather feedback on the proposed moratorium, which the city’s planning commission said was its response to Senate Bill 23.
Passed in June as a way to speed up home building and encourage more low-cost housing, SB 23 prohibits public hearings for building plans that do not need a zoning change, known as “by-right developments.”
Supporters argue it is a logical measure to shorten the approval process and lower building costs, because local governments cannot deny by-right developments. But the law has also sparked outrage across rapidly growing Sussex County from preservationists who say it removes a necessary layer of transparency.
At the Lewes public hearing on Oct. 7, Planning Commission Vice Chair Kevin Keane linked the proposed housing moratorium to Senate Bill 23. He argued that the city’s comprehensive plan does not have enough statutory standards to ensure that developers build in a way that residents want.
Public hearings fill that gap, he said.
The moratorium would give the town time to adopt new concrete rules with resident feedback as part of its guiding comprehensive plan, he said.
“We just haven’t had an opportunity to allow for that public input yet,” Keane said.
If passed, the moratorium would ban developments with more than five homes until Lewes adopts a new comprehensive plan, or until Dec. 31, 2027, whichever comes first. The city council will potentially vote on the proposal at its meeting on Nov. 9.
Jon Horner (center), a homebuilder with Schell Brothers and member of the Sussex County Land Use Working Group. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY OLIVIA MARBLE
Lawsuit in response?
If Lewes passes the moratorium, Home Builders Association of Delaware President Jon Horner said his organization would sue the city.
At the October hearing, Horner argued that municipalities need to have a valid reason to pass a moratorium, and there are not any large tracts of land left in Lewes that could host a large housing development.
He said the moratorium is also not necessary because the new law only changes the process for reviewing by-right developments, not the outcome.
Get Involved The Sussex County council will discuss updates for its implementation of Senate Bill 23 at its next council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 10 a.m. at the Sussex County Administrative Office Building, located at 2 The Circle in Georgetown. For additional details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
“If I come in right now with a major subdivision that is code-compliant, you have to approve it. All Senate Bill 23 does is say you can’t have a public hearing when you do that,” Horner said.
Similar moratoriums could be adopted more widely if Lewes’ is shown to be legally defensible. Millsboro Town Council earlier this month discussed implementing a moratorium as well.
Sussex County has also paused reviews of by-right developments, but not with a formal moratorium.
What do Lewes residents think?
Joe Pika, a Lewes resident and president of the Sussex Preservation Coalition, an advocacy group for smart growth practices in the county, said he supports the moratorium because Senate Bill 23 has left municipalities with many questions.
“I think every jurisdiction needs to have a delay to figure out how do we measure up against this new process that has been mandated by the state?” Pika said.
He also said Senate Bill 23 does change the outcome for by-right developments, not just the process.
Sen. Russ Huxtable (D-Lewes) sponsored Senate Bill 23, which would require most localities to increase housing density. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY OLIVIA MARBLE
Some lawyers interpret the law as barring local governments from imposing conditions on projects, such as requiring developers to build a fence. Prime sponsor of the bill, Sen. Russ Huxtable (D-Lewes), said he disagrees with that interpretation.
Lewes resident Jim Colbert said he doesn’t mind new development in town, but is worried about protecting farmland and green spaces. He said he doesn’t want to stop all growth, but “there needs to be more long term planning.”
Another Lewes resident, Lee Dunham, said she is totally for the proposed moratorium, calling development in the area “out of hand.” She said she favors affordable housing, but that’s not what’s being built.
Proponents of Senate Bill 23 argue that any increase in housing supply, even building high-cost homes, leads to lower home prices overall because of supply-and-demand dynamics.
Another Lewes resident told Spotlight Delaware that he sees two sides of the debate. Local artist Abraxas Hudson said he wants to protect nature, as he paints mostly landscapes, but he also understands and respects property owners’ rights. Plus, new residents help his business.
“Every new home is an opportunity to sell art,” he said.
Why Should Delaware Care? Delaware’s hospitals are powerful and often consolidated entities. For decades, each of the state’s three main hospital systems have remained within their bounds by county line. But as more retirees flock to the state, those boundaries are being disregarded.
Downstate hospital systems lambasted two proposed ChristianaCare campuses in Georgetown and Camden on Tuesday, following what has been months of controversy that could derail the projects.
At a public hearing of the Delaware Health Resources Board, a government body responsible for approving large healthcare expansions, leaders from the state’s downstate hospital systems asked regulators to halt the project. The hospital leaders questioned both the merits and legality of the proposed expansions.
The lower counties have long been considered outside of ChristianaCare’s regional grip, but ChristianaCare said it believes the new campuses would bring more emergency care to Kent and Sussex counties, as the state continues to age and faces access shortages.
Delaware’s downstate hospitals — which included Bayhealth in Dover, TidalHealth in Seaford and Beebe Healthcare in Lewes — challenged ChristianaCare’s reasoning saying the new facilities could make emergency care more expensive for patients.
In their presentations, hospital leaders also said the projects, dubbed “microhospitals,” lack a regulatory definition under Delaware law and may run afoul of another law signed this summer meant to curb the involvement of for-profit enterprise in nonprofit healthcare.
Delaware’s Health Resources Board did not take any kind of vote on the projects on Tuesday, but will likely consider the projects at another meeting next month.
What happened during the meeting?
Tuesday’s meeting was an opportunity for ChristianaCare to defend its proposals from what has been a sustained effort by the other hospitals to shut them down. All the downstate hospitals made it clear they support investment and competition in Kent and Sussex counties, but they did not believe ChristianaCare’s proposals would benefit the healthcare ecosystem at large.
ChristianaCare opened the public hearing with a presentation, which said its two proposed “microhospitals” would support a healthcare ecosystem in need of more emergency room beds.
The upstate hospital’s proposals would bring eight emergency room beds and eight inpatient beds for each of its locations, but opponents questioned how transfers would work for patients in need of higher levels of care than the microhospitals could offer.
Vinay Maheshwari, who is ChristianaCare’s physician executive of growth and strategic partnerships, said the hospital hopes to partner with the other regional systems so patients do not have to transfer from a Sussex County microhospital back up to ChristianaCare’s main campuses in Newark or Wilmington.
“It will take partnership,” Maheshwari said. “We are committed to working through that partnership with all of you, and we hope that you will as well.”
Bayhealth’s chief operating officer, Kyle Benoit, opposed the proposals, saying the new emergency services would add “exceptionally high costs for a low-volume benefit for the community.”
Benoit also pointed to another attempt by Beebe Healthcare to build a freestanding emergency room similar to ChristianaCare’s proposal, which the board denied in 2019.
“This is not about protecting our turf,” Benoit said. “It’s about what is the right investment to address the excess and cost challenges that are plaguing our residents of Delaware and really healthcare across the country.”
Delaware’s southern hospital systems also took aim at a lack of regulatory guidance on how ChristianaCare is defining its Camden and Georgetown proposals.
When ChristianaCare announced the proposals earlier this year, it said it aimed to build two “microhospitals” in Kent and Sussex, a term the other hospitals believe makes them invalid for consideration.
Steve Leonard, the CEO of TidalHealth, requested the board deny the proposal on the grounds that no definition exists in Delaware code to classify the microhospitals. Without clearer guidance, he said, there may not be adequate protections in place for patients.
Leonard also said the microhospitals would bring an “increased cost” to services in Sussex County. He pointed to recent legislative efforts to bring down the cost of care, and said ChristianaCare has some of the highest rates in the state.
Maheshwari denied ChristianaCare’s costs are among the highest in the state, instead saying they are comparable to other systems. But Leonard requested the board require ChristianaCare demonstrate how its proposals would bring down costs in the area.
“General statements about neighborhood hospital ER wait times, visit times, they’re just not enough,” Leonard said.
Downstate arms race
For decades, Delaware’s three major health care systems largely fit into geographic monopolies: ChristianaCare serving New Castle County, Bayhealth serving Kent County and Beebe Healthcare in Sussex County.
But over the last five years, a health care arms race heated up between Bayhealth, Beebe and now TidalHealth, coming up from Salisbury, Maryland. They have all built or broken ground on major projects in locations, such as Lewes, Milton or Millsboro in recent years.
It follows a post-COVID population boom in Sussex County. The region is now designated as a “Medically Underserved Area” by the federal government, with projections showing that the population will increase from 237,000 in 2022 to over 361,000 by 2050. The county is also rapidly graying, as the population growth is largely driven by retirees who will demand more health care needs.
The arrival of ChristianaCare, which to date only had primary care offices in Milford and Rehoboth Beach, will bring needed resources, but also new competition to the crowded market.
In 2019, the board was central in a debate over whether to allow Beebe to build a freestanding emergency room in Georgetown. It ultimately denied that project, saying it was too close to Bayhealth’s Milford campus and Nanticoke Hospital in Seaford.
The board was also expected to be critical of plans by Bayhealth to build its own freestanding emergency room in Milton, which led the Dover-based health system to pull its plans.
Both of those projects, however, predated the population surge that has particularly struck Sussex County after the COVID housing market boom.
The Health Resources Board did not make any final decision on the fate of ChristianCare’s proposals. The board will meet again next month, where it will likely continue discussions.
The inaugural Ladybug Dark Bloom Music Festival brings live music, local art, and Halloween-inspired creativity to Wilmington’s Trolley Square on Saturday, October 31, from noon to 6 p.m. The free, all-ages celebration features women-led musical performances, local vendors, and seasonal festivities.
Free Trolley Square Celebration Combines Women-Led Music, Local Art, and Autumn-Inspired Experiences
WILMINGTON, Del. – Wilmington’s Trolley Square neighborhood will take on a new look this Halloween as the inaugural Ladybug Dark Bloom Music Festival brings an afternoon of live music, local art, and seasonal creativity to the community.
Scheduled for Saturday, October 31, from noon to 6 p.m., the free, all-ages festival offers a fresh approach to Halloween, blending the beauty of autumn with the spirit of Día de los Muertos and the imaginative atmosphere of The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Rather than focusing on traditional Halloween scares, Dark Bloom celebrates artistic expression, community connections, and the changing seasons.
At the heart of the festival will be performances by women-led musical acts across multiple stages throughout Trolley Square. A DJ will keep the music going between live performances, creating a continuous soundtrack for the afternoon’s festivities.
The festival also will feature a curated marketplace showcasing local artists, makers, and creative vendors. Visitors can browse handmade goods, discover unique creations, and support small businesses while exploring the neighborhood.
Autumn-inspired decorations, seasonal installations, and interactive experiences will transform the area into a festive setting, offering opportunities for guests to participate in the celebration rather than simply observe.
Organizers envision Dark Bloom as more than a traditional music festival. Built around the idea that “Beauty is something we create together,” the event encourages visitors to connect through shared experiences, whether discovering a new musician, supporting a local artist, or spending time with family and friends.
The celebration also highlights Trolley Square’s neighborhood businesses, bringing together music, shopping, and community in one of Wilmington’s most recognizable districts.
Guests are encouraged to embrace the festival’s creative spirit through their attire. Autumn-inspired outfits, vintage gothic fashion, and Día de los Muertos-inspired clothing are welcome, although costumes are not required.
With free admission and activities designed for guests of all ages, Dark Bloom aims to create an inclusive Halloween experience that appeals to families, music enthusiasts, art lovers, and anyone looking for a different way to celebrate the holiday.
Additional details about participating musicians, vendors, activities, and special experiences are expected to be announced as the event approaches.
As the first installment of what organizers hope will become an annual tradition, Ladybug Dark Bloom Music Festival offers Wilmington residents and visitors an opportunity to experience Halloween through music, imagination, and community.
Event Information
What: Ladybug Dark Bloom Music Festival When: Saturday, October 31, 2026 Where: Trolley Square, Wilmington, Delaware Time: Noon to 6 p.m. Admission: Free, all ages
Will the US midterms change Washington’s policy on Israel and Palestine?Expert commentjon.wallace
Not immediately. But a Democratic victory could set the terms for a new approach by the next president.
Whatever the results, November’s midterm elections will not immediately transform US policy toward Israel and Palestine. In any outcome, the separation of powers means that President Donald Trump will still control American foreign policy. Even a Democrat-controlled Congress could not compel his administration to pursue a fundamentally different approach.
But the midterms may accelerate a transformation that is already underway in the Democratic Party and among the US electorate, where the political centre of gravity on Israel and Palestine is shifting rapidly.
If Democrats win a majority in either or both houses, they will gain new congressional tools to act on Israel–Palestine issues. Most importantly, the legislation they put forward would establish the policy baseline from which a future Democratic administration would govern.
The shift
Among dozens of others, Democrats like Abdul El-Sayed, running for the US Senate in Michigan, and Angela Gonzales-Torres, running in the general against another Democrat in California, have drawn considerable attention for their criticism of Israeli government actions – and US support for them. The race in Michigan, which could be decisive for Democratic hopes to retake the senate, looks tight.
But even if progressive candidates don’t do as well as expected in these elections, a shift is underway. Developments in Washington over just the past month illustrate how much has already changed.
On 29 September, 46 of 47 Senate Democrats voted for a resolution led by Senators Chris Van Hollen, Tim Kaine and Bernie Sanders. This would ‘require the Department of State to provide information and assessments related to investigations of the killing of United States citizens by violent Israeli settlers or Israeli security forces in the West Bank’. The resolution did not pass the Republican majority. But the vote was remarkable for its unanimity. Such Democratic unity on a resolution critical of Israel would have been almost unimaginable only a few years ago.
The vote follows a distinct trajectory in Democratic politics. When Senator Bernie Sanders forced the Senate to vote on blocking weapon sales to Israel in November 2024, only 18 Democrat senators supported him. This April, 40 of 47 Senate Democrats voted against a sale of bulldozers to Israel. And 36 opposed the sale of 1,000-pound bombs. Now, with the September resolution, virtually the entire Senate Democratic caucus has voted to demand accountability from Israel.
Then came the House of Representatives. On 1 October, Rep. Joaquin Castro and other members introduced the Stop the Settlements Act. This builds on the Biden administration’s 2024 sanctions on violent Israeli extremists in the West Bank, which saw a major power set up a process to sanction those undermining peace and threatening violence in the West Bank.
It also builds on the subsequent 2026 sanctions by European countries and Canada against products originating in Israeli settlements. The Act would impose sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for building or expanding Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank or Gaza and prohibit settlement goods from entering the US market.
These developments point toward an emerging Democratic Party position: one that more actively defends the rights of the Palestinian people and is more willing to seek to compel Israel and the White House to move in that direction. Notably, Barack Obama’s planned 24 October event with El-Sayed on the campaign trail shows a greater willingness by the party’s elite to accommodate criticism of Israeli policies.
That shift matters. Israel and Palestine remain secondary issues for most US voters, compared to the economy, healthcare, education and other domestic concerns. But firm convictions on Israel–Palestine have become important attributes for some candidates in Democratic party politics. And the midterms will, in some ways, be a referendum on how criticism of Israeli policies affects voter intentions – with candidates like El-Sayed calling Israeli actions in Gaza a genocide, a claim the Netanyahu government strenuously denies.
But one thing looks certain: US views on the Israeli government have become less favourable across age groups and political parties. Even among American Jews, 61 per cent believe Israel is guilty of war crimes and 39 per cent call it genocide, according to a 2025 Washington Post poll. The tide may already have decisively shifted, regardless of whether or not candidates like El-Sayed win their races.
A Democratic Congress
Democratic takeover of the House and the Senate would make the shift more consequential immediately. Much of Congress’s influence over foreign policy occurs not through dramatic floor votes, but through the accumulation of hearings, letters, reporting requirements, funding restrictions and private pressure on administrations.
Democratic-controlled committees could hold hearings on settlement expansion in the West Bank and settler violence, scrutinize US arms sales to Israel, demand administration briefings, investigate the treatment of American citizens, mark-up legislation and use appropriations and oversight to press the executive branch.
House and Senate Democrats should begin laying the groundwork to create an affirmative American Palestine policy. That is, a policy not only defined by a move to restrict Israeli settlement-building and the sale of weapons to Israel, but one that advocates for Palestinian self-determination and an architecture for advancing it.
Congress…needs far greater exposure to Palestinian political, economic and civil-society leaders.
Over the decades, Congress has constructed a dense web of laws that restrict American relations with the PLO and the Palestinian Authority. A Democratic Congress could therefore begin to map those restrictions and decide how to address them. Which can be addressed administratively? Which need Congressional amendment or repeal? What policy changes will the US seek from the Palestinian leadership?
This will not be straightforward: Democrats are still debating these policies, and unanimity will not always be possible: there remains a diversity of views and priorities within the party.
Congress also needs far greater exposure to Palestinian political, economic and civil-society leaders. While many US politicians routinely engage with every dimension of Israeli politics, few have sustained relationships with Palestinians who can explain Palestinian institutions, aspirations and internal debates.
Two time horizons
Were candidates like El-Sayed to lose their races, and were midterms results to be disappointing for the Democrats, it is possible that some in the party might hesitate about the trajectory on Israel and Palestine policy.
But, assuming Democrats gain control of Congress, they could use 2027 and 2028 to constrain, oversee and prepare. A Democratic Congress could press Israel for accountability for violence against Palestinians and Americans, challenge settlement expansion, scrutinize US military assistance, support viable elements of Gaza reconstruction, strengthen Palestinian institutions and begin removing legal obstacles to normal US-Palestinian relations.
These preparations will be significant if a Democrat returns to the White House in 2029. A new administration will be best able to move forward a markedly different policy if significant progress is made in the previous two years.
In this respect, though the midterms will not be the moment US policy toward Israel and Palestine changes, they can set the context for any Democrat running in the presidential primaries – which essentially begin as soon as the new Congress is seated.
Those who have been advocating for Palestinian rights for decades now see that not only their elected representatives, but the next US president may align with them as well.
That will not fix anything today for the relatives of the more than 70,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, the millions that continue to suffer in the occupied territories, or Israelis dealing with the aftermath of the Hamas cross-border attacks of 7 October 2023. But it does provide a modicum of hope that there is a pathway to freedom and liberty for all. What we’ll learn from the US midterms is how quickly that change is likely to come.
Washington, DC — Congressional Democrats are demanding an investigation into Elon Musk after reports that he personally ordered restrictions on satellite service used by Ukraine’s military, a decision with potentially life-or-death consequences on the battlefield.
Sen. Adam Schiff called for Musk to testify before Congress under oath, saying either President Donald Trump or Musk has given a misleading account of who was responsible for slowing Ukraine’s access to the Starlink-linked Starshield network.
The restrictions reportedly affected Ukrainian drones, aircraft and helicopters traveling above certain speeds, disrupting military operations during Russia’s continuing invasion.
Musk initially said Starshield is owned and controlled by the U.S. government and that any restrictions ultimately come from the military and president. The Wall Street Journal later reported that Musk personally directed the slowdown after consulting administration officials, creating conflicting accounts about who authorized it.
Sen. Ruben Gallego publicly invited Musk to testify voluntarily, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Congress needs to determine whether a private billionaire was effectively “dictating our foreign policy.”
The scrutiny has become bipartisan. Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick also called for witnesses to be brought before Congress under oath, describing the matter as “very, very serious.”
The controversy raises broader questions about allowing a private company and its owner to wield extraordinary influence over military communications used by a U.S. ally during wartime.
The Cali Fund, set up to raise $1bn a year for biodiversity from drug companies, remains near empty
Big pharmaceutical companies have been accused of “free-riding on nature”, after a landmark biodiversity fund that invites businesses to put some of their profits back into conservation was left virtually empty.
The Cali Fund set out to raise $1bn (£750m) annually, by asking companies that profit from nature’s genetics to contribute towards conservation in low-income countries. But more than 18 months after the fund was launched, it remains far below this target.
It’s likely that most audiences going into the surprise documentary smash You Can See Everything are familiar with either its nominal subject (and literal poster gal with an intense stare) Elizabeth Holmes, the tech founder serving a prison sentence for defrauding investors; or the film’s on-camera co-director Nathan Fielder. Holmes, as the movie points out, was all over the media as her company Theranos was hyped to the moon and then spectacularly imploded; she was also played by Amanda Seyfried in the well-regarded Hulu miniseries The Dropout. Fielder, meanwhile, may not have graced as many magazine covers, but is similarly familiar to prestige-TV acolytes from his comedy-reality series Nathan for You and its successor, the more reality-bending series The Rehearsal. A third figure not included in the film’s ad campaign becomes a key part of the film in the second half, and will also be familiar to many viewers.
This should leave Billy Evans as the odd man out. Evans, Elizabeth Holmes’s partner (she has said they’re not legally married, though they did get engaged in 2018, have two children and seem to treat each other as spouses), is a not-particularly-famous guy whose screen time competes with the other three well-known faces in what is essentially a four-character drama. But while Evans isn’t boxed out in terms of screen time or memorability, he does remain the odd man out in the sense that in all the discussion You Can See Everything has prompted about manipulation, shifting sympathies and who can or cannot be trusted, everyone seems to agree on one crucial point: Billy Evans sucks.
Nintendo Switch 2; Nintendo/Nintendo Bringing a holiday vibe and a generous selection of sport-themed games, this is exactly what you want from a family video game
When the first Nintendo Switch Sports brought the effortless fun of Wii Sports back into my living room in 2022, I was frankly delighted. My small children discovered the pleasure of waving a controller around in enthusiastic imitation of a tennis player, and the surprising subtlety of virtual bowling, working out how to twist the wrist just right to guarantee a strike. I did not expect this game to become a family fixture for the next several years as my kids got older and climbed up the online ranks in all six of its sports (plus the two that were added as free updates). Switch Sports is so beloved in my household that the release of Switch Sports Resort this week is the most anticipated gaming event of the year. To be fair, my children are a bit young for Grand Theft Auto.
Nintendo Switch Sports Resort brings three of the six sports back – tennis, bowling, and volleyball – alongside golf and basketball. Then there are seven entirely new sports: boxing, table tennis, archery, thumb wrestling, skateboarding, jetski, and piloting a little prop plane. They are all intuitive, easy to get the hang of on the first or second attempt – some have more legs than others, in the long run – and all of them, crucially, are a little bit silly. Thumb wrestling in particular is cheerfully absurd, giving your characters gigantic thumbs on hands the size of their heads.
Last year, South Korea took responsibility for enabling the ‘mass export’ of children for sale abroad. Now those uprooted are grappling with false promises of a better life
As international, transracial adoptees in their 30s in the US, Jacquelyn Wells and Lauren White-Gydas have things in common.
They were both born in South Korea to unwed mothers in the 1980s. Both were shipped to the US as newborns to join white families who eagerly welcomed adorable, new daughters. And neither knew many other Asians in the towns where they grew up – Wells in Westford, Massachusetts, and White-Gydas in Salem, Oregon.
The civil rights arm of the U.S. Department of Education has dramatically scaled back investigations involving schools and colleges since the second Trump administration began, even as complaints continue to pour in, a ProPublica analysis of newly obtained records found.
The analysis shows how severely the department’s Office for Civil Rights has retracted from its mission, launching an average of about 100 new investigations a month — 1,839 total from Inauguration Day in 2025 through July 2026. The OCR launched an average of 310 new investigations each month in 2024 during the Biden administration, according to data previously obtained by ProPublica.
See where the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights under the Trump administration has launched investigations into alleged discrimination in schools and colleges or dismissed complaints without investigating. The table also includes complaints filed with the OCR during the Trump administration that the office has not yet decided to investigate.
The OCR uses “case opened” to record when complaints were received by the agency. “Investigation start date” indicates the date the agency initiated an investigation.
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Investigation Start Date
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Source: U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, as of July 2026. Note: The data includes complaints closed and investigations opened from Jan. 20, 2025, through July 2026, as well as open complaints received from Jan. 20, 2025, through May 26, 2026. This data was derived from two files covering complaints received by the OCR and investigation notices it sent to institutions. If a case was present in both, the table displays the case information from the complaint file. Some cases do not stem from a complaint but are initiated by the agency. In those cases, “case open” indicates when the case was launched internally. For more on our methodology, see here.ken schwencke/propublica
The decline in investigations is especially dramatic for cases involving sex discrimination. More than 200 new complaints were filed with the office related to schools’ handling of sexual violence — rape, assault and abuse. But the Trump administration launched investigations in only 29 of them, finding fault with a school district only once, according to the newly obtained data. It’s typical for there to be at least 60 sexual violence investigations opened each year.
The department addressed fewer of these cases despite continued concerns about the persistence of the problem — as demonstrated by the intense public scrutiny over how Cornell University addressed a student’s report of a 2024 gang rape.
Beyond that, the OCR launched only two investigations into discrimination based on sexual orientation.
“They’re barely doing anything to protect women and girls, including survivors of sexual violence,” said Shiwali Patel, an attorney who previously worked at the OCR and is now with the National Women’s Law Center. “They just don’t care about women and girls.”
The organization and more than 120 other advocacy, civil rights and education groups sent a letter on Tuesday to Congress’ ranking education committee leaders urging them to hold the OCR accountable for “its failure to enforce civil rights law and protect students from sexual violence.”
With OCR’s online database idle since Trump took office, the only way to know where the agency has launched investigations has been through selective department press releases, when OCR employees provided internal data to reporters or from schools and colleges that acknowledged that their institutions had become targets of the investigations.
The data ProPublica received as a result of our lawsuit can now fill that gap on the more than 1,800 civil rights investigations that the department initiated from Jan. 20, 2025, to July 29 of this year. The database also reflects the 24,000 new complaints logged through May and the nearly 17,000 new and old cases the department closed — almost always by dismissing them.
The agency is dismissing complaints more frequently than in prior years, the records show. And fewer than 700 cases opened by the administration were resolved with a finding of wrongdoing.
The data does not include investigations that had been opened before Trump retook power but that are pending decisions by OCR — a backlog of more than 10,000 cases.
In response to questions from ProPublica, an Education Department spokesperson blamed the Biden administration for leaving office with 19,000 unresolved cases, which the Trump administration has worked to address.
“Spare us the crocodile tears as the Trump Administration is working to restore OCR to its original purpose: enforcing the law to ensure all students can receive an education free from discrimination,” spokesperson Sabin Sidney wrote.
He added that the administration “treats any form of discrimination on the basis of race or sex as illegal.” And he criticized the prior administration for endorsing policies that allowed transgender girls and women to compete in women’s athletics and use women's restrooms.
The data disclosure comes as the administration is moving forward with efforts to shut down the department and move the OCR under the Department of Justice. Disability rights advocates and others have been critical of the move, while the administration says it will lead to more efficiency and do a better job protecting students’ rights. The majority of cases before the OCR involve students with disabilities, as has been the case historically.
In the early months of Trump’s second term, Education Secretary Linda McMahon fired hundreds of employees and closed seven regional OCR offices, leaving the department severely diminished. Its remaining civil rights workers have described untenable case loads and pressure to dismiss complaints.
The remaining attorneys “are navigating pure chaos,” said Rachel Gittleman, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, the union that represents OCR staff. “They are being asked to use the tools they have used for their entire careers not for good, not to protect students, but to harm students. You see it in the case dismissals, the cases that target trans students or people of color.”
In examining the new records, ProPublica found the extent to which the agency has shifted its focus, as the OCR places a new emphasis on complaints that men faced discrimination. The agency launched 172 investigations into alleged “discrimination against males,” compared with 104 cases of alleged “discrimination against females” in the period examined.
It also has investigated allegations that campus programs or scholarships excluded men. For example, it investigated a complaint against Skyline College in California that had been filed in 2023 but that President Joe Biden’s administration had not acted on, according to records from the university. The complaint alleged that Skyline discriminated against men by listing scholarships on its website that are exclusively for women and for promoting a program for women.
The civil rights office opened the investigation in mid-April, and two weeks later the community college agreed that it would remove the scholarships from its website and add language that the program was open to all students. A Skyline College spokesperson did not respond to questions from ProPublica.
At the same time, the agency chose to open fewer than 370 new investigations involving racial discrimination, even though about 5,000 complaints were filed.
Of those new investigations, about 11% involved allegations of discrimination against white students. Over the summer, the department announced investigations into five medical schools’ admissions policies.
“They are not allocating their resources to racial discrimination complaints, to sexual assault complaints, to the types of complaints that really often speak to systematic discrimination and problems,” said Johnathan Smith, managing director of education at the nonprofit National Center for Youth Law.
That organization also has sued the Education Department for similar information obtained by ProPublica; the lawsuit is pending.
Have you recently filed a civil rights complaint or do you have a pending case? We need your help to get a full picture of how the dismantling of the Office for Civil Rights is affecting students, parents, school employees and their communities.
France’s bond market hit by another bout of selling as country recovers from weekend protests
French borrowing costs continued to rise on Thursday, as investors fret that France’s government is struggling to pass a federal budget after public protests gripped the country.
France’s bond market was hit with another bout of selling, with the difference between French and German 10-year borrowing costs – a metric for the risk premium attached to French debt – rising to its highest level in almost 15 years.
The Road to 2028: What will be America’s global role?
27
January 2027 — 18:00 TO 19:00 GMT
Anonymous (not verified)
Chatham House and Online
As the US looks ahead to the 2028 presidential election, join Chatham House for The Road to 2028 series exploring the future of American foreign policy, its global role, and the competing visions shaping what comes next.
As the US looks ahead to the 2028 presidential election, join Chatham House for a new The Road to 2028 series exploring the future of American foreign policy, its global role, and the competing visions shaping what comes next
The 2028 presidential election will mark a pivotal moment for America’s role in the world as President Trump’s second term comes to an end. As debate grows over the future of US global leadership, competing visions are emerging over how Washington should approach its alliances, security commitments, and how it defines itself in the international order.
The Road to 2028 series examines the ideas and political forces shaping the next era of American foreign policy. Bringing together leading policymakers, practitioners and experts, it will explore what might change after the current administration and what those choices could mean for allies, adversaries and the wider international order.
This first session discusses:
What will define US foreign policy beyond the current administration?
What competing visions of America’s global role are emerging ahead of 2028?
How could the election reshape US alliances and security commitments?
What role should the US play in Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific?
How will Washington navigate strategic competition with China and Russia?
What should allies prepare for as America approaches its next political transition?
The early standouts have emerged. But even the best teams have flaws that can be exposed by their opponents
Who would have thought the 49ers would be here after a rough old offseason? Head coach Kyle Shanahan’s participation in training camp was limited due to a serious car crash, team owner Jed York’s visit to an Ohio trailer park did not end well, and one player after another endured serious injuries. Despite all this, San Francisco are full of positive vibes. They are top of a tough division and their immense defense, led by the intensity of players such as safety Malik Mustapha and Fred Warner, is complemented by an equally impressive offense.
Hey there! I’m planning an upgrade for my GT—I also own a Pint X and an X7 LR, and I’d like to improve the GT a bit and increase comfort for trail riding. I’m planning to install Dub Tails rails, a 5" MTE hub, a Pioneer tire, and TFL ColdBlocks. I’m not looking to go fast; I just want to enjoy the ride. I’ll get the GTV kit sometime next year. Do you think the temperatures will be manageable with the stock GT stator?
Barry Posen, a professor at MIT, is one of America's leading experts on international security. He argues that the United States military is breaking down because it has been overused and overextended over the last 30 years, and that the only way to repair it is for Washington to exercise much more restraint.
Monica de Bolle, an expert in Brazilian economic policy, makes an authoritative argument that Brazil’s economic problems will persist no matter the outcome of the country’s presidential election. A Flávio Bolsonaro administration would fare no better than Lula when it comes to reducing debt and delivering growth—and Bolsonaro’s illiberal policies could make the economic picture even worse.
Longtime Slashdot reader destinyland shares a report from CNN: The Pentagon has given the Department of Homeland Security permission to test a military-grade heat ray and develop tactics to potentially use it in operations at the southern US border, according to a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month and obtained by CNN. The heat ray, officially known as the Active Denial System, is a nonlethal weapon that shoots an invisible beam of electromagnetic waves that can reach a little more than half a mile away, according to the US military. The energy beam causes a burning sensation when it comes into contact with the human skin -- which Pentagon officials have previously compared to feeling a blast of heat when opening a hot oven. Military officials have said the resulting "tingling effect" lasts between 10 and 15 minutes but also generates "an instinctive and irresistible urge to run from the effect."
Graybeards like me remember trying to painstakingly type source code from a magazine. This is a very accurate account of what a young computer user in 1986 needed to do to get a new game for the Commodore 64, complete with an immersive emulation.
It’s time to install an app! But here in 1986, we still call them “programs,” not apps. So, you’ll want to set aside some time to get started installing a program.
Exclusive: Nvidia, Microsoft and Cisco taskforce urges ministers to offer areas greater benefits from tech infrastructure amid fears of US-style opposition
AI companies have told ministers they have 12 months to head off public opposition to datacentres in the UK or risk US-style protests that could threaten their construction.
Successive dry summers and rising energy bills are increasing public scrutiny of plans for the huge computer warehouses that are used to train and run AI models, says a submission to the Labour government from a group including the AI infrastructure companies Nvidia, Microsoft and Cisco.
If Flávio Bolsonaro is elected, Brazil’s ecosystems will face collapse. The ruling class would rather burn the world than share it with the poor
However grim the trajectory might seem, I’ve always believed that sense will ultimately prevail. As the great perils of dismantling the living world become increasingly obvious, even the most rapacious exploiters must come round. Nobody wants to live on a dead planet, do they?
There are – or were – signs that this wasn’t just wishful thinking. Since 2015, mostly thanks to China, the area of the planet being reforested has increased, while thanks in large part to Brazil, the global rate of forest destruction has declined. The area of the Brazilian Amazon forest cleared each year is one-sixth of what it was when records began in 1988. In the past four years, as a result of Brazilian government policy, the deforestation rate has fallen by 71%. If Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is re-elected president on Sunday, the country could reach zero deforestation by 2030. The arc of the moral universe seems to have bent towards justice.
At 25, Jody Ginter Mihok was looking ahead to dating, a career and the possibility of starting a family. Then four words changed everything: “you have breast cancer.”
City of Newark customers who receive a printed utility bill have until Dec. 1 to switch to digital billing or pay a $2 monthly fee to continue receiving a paper bill by mail.
GOP Sen. Roger Marshall and Pastor Adam Hamilton debated tariffs, war and high fuel prices, and also addressed the most controversial issues in each of their campaigns.
San Francisco, CA — A federal judge has blocked the Department of Homeland Security from conducting door-to-door and other field operations targeting suspected noncitizen voters in nine states, finding the administration’s effort relies on unreliable data that could intimidate lawful voters.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued a preliminary injunction covering California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin through Election Day.
The Trump administration’s “surge initiative” sent armed federal agents to homes to question residents about immigration status and voting history. CBS News reported that hundreds of Homeland Security investigators were reassigned from traditional criminal cases to the voter operation.
Martínez-Olguín found DHS’s lists of suspected illegal voters were “widely known” to contain U.S. citizens and said the operation could create a reasonable fear that lawful voters might be wrongly investigated.
Agents were reportedly expected to complete at least 40 reviews per day, leaving roughly 12 minutes for each case.
The ruling is another setback for the administration’s aggressive campaign around alleged noncitizen voting. Earlier court decisions have also criticized federal voter databases for relying on inaccurate citizenship information and potentially placing eligible Americans at risk.
Documented noncitizen voting remains rare, despite repeated claims from Trump that it is widespread.
The injunction was temporarily stayed until Friday evening to give the administration time to appeal.
You Can See Everything, a documentary about the disgraced health tech company founder Elizabeth Holmes, has enjoyed a record-breaking opening in the US. It is a testament to how fascinated we remain by the convicted fraudster, but what is behind the enduring appeal? US technology editor Blake Montgomery tells Madeleine Finlay why Holmes continues to fascinate us, and reflects on whether the Theranos scandal has had a permanent impact on Silicon Valley
Kim Yo-jong, sister of Kim Jong-un, issues warning after inspecting border fortifications against backdrop of rising tensions
Propaganda loudspeakers aimed at South Korea will be ready to restart within days along the entire border, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has said amid a worsening of ties between the two countries.
The statement, carried by the state news agency KCNA on Thursday, came a day after she said the loudspeakers would be in operation along the whole border from some time in October.
Daniel Edelman nets winner in 5-4 win on penalties
For much of the 20th century, winning the US Open Cup required a team to beat someone from St Louis. The Gateway City was home to many of the nation’s best teams during some ramshackle eras of soccer in the United States, with six different clubs combining for 10 trophy lifts. The most recent came in 1988, when St Louis Busch Seniors beat San Francisco-based Greek-American AC in the last throes of a tournament history dominated by amateur and semi-pro teams. MLS has won every Open Cup but one since starting play in 1996, and St Louis didn’t have an MLS club until 2023.
From the beginning, club figures spoke of their aim to restore the city to soccer prominence. Well, mission accomplished. St Louis City are US Open Cup champions, outlasting the Columbus Crew 5-4 on penalties to end the city’s 38-year wait for a major US soccer title and earn a place in the field for the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup.
Ante el descontento de los votantes por los altos precios de la gasolina, el vicepresidente JD Vance ha intentado culpar al expresidente Joe Biden.
“La razón principal por la que los precios de la gasolina están tan altos es porque cuando Joe Biden era presidente, alrededor del 20% de la capacidad de refinación estadounidense dejó de operar”, dijo Vance durante un foro con votantes organizado por CBS News el 17 de octubre. “Estamos recuperando esa capacidad poco a poco, pero el proceso toma un poco de tiempo. Al haber eliminado tanta capacidad de refinación, nos volvimos más vulnerables a los shocks que hemos visto en la crisis energética en el Oriente Medio”.
La oficina de Vance no respondió a nuestras consultas para este artículo. California ha perdido el 20% de su capacidad de refinación de gasolina, pero a nivel nacional dicha capacidad se ha mantenido relativamente estable.
El 20% “no es una estadística correcta en lo que respecta a la capacidad nacional de refinado”, dijo Patrick De Haan, director de análisis petrolero de GasBuddy, una plataforma que da un seguimiento a los precios de la gasolina en EE.UU.
Además, según explicaron a PolitiFact varios expertos de la industria petrolera, las políticas presidenciales son solo uno de los muchos factores que determinan la capacidad de refinado en el país. De hecho, la causa más evidente de los precios altos actuales de la gasolina es la guerra con Irán, un conflicto iniciado por el presidente Donald Trump, no por Biden.
Los precios se dispararon inmediatamente después del comienzo de la guerra, el 28 de febrero, y se han mantenido altos.
“El factor más grande influenciando los altos precios de la gasolina es el elevado costo del petróleo crudo, provocado por la reducción del tráfico marítimo a través del estrecho de Ormuz y los daños sufridos por las instalaciones de exportación y los oleoductos en Arabia Saudita y otros países del Golfo”, dijo Hugh Daigle, profesor del departamento de ingeniería petrolera y de geosistemas de la Universidad de Texas en Austin.
¿Cómo podrían haber influido las políticas de Biden?
Los expertos en mercados energéticos dijeron que algunas de las políticas de Biden — notablemente los esfuerzos para combatir el cambio climático, que implican una transición de los combustibles fósiles hacia energías más limpias y renovables — probablemente influyeron en la decisión de algunas refinerías de no aprobar la construcción de nuevas plantas ni ampliar las existentes.
En particular, las estrictas políticas medioambientales de California ayudan a explicar por qué dos refinerías cerraron en ese estado.
La cronología no es tan clara como Vance dio a entender: el cierre de una refinería de Phillips 66 en Los Ángeles se anunció dos semanas antes de que Trump ganará en 2024. Valero anunció el cierre de su refinería en Benicia, California, en abril de 2025, cuando Trump ya era presidente. Ambas instalaciones cerraron durante el segundo mandato de Trump.
¿Cómo funciona la economía del sector de refinación?
Los factores más importantes que determinan la capacidad de refinación en EE.UU. están impulsados por el mercado. Entre ellos se incluyen la demanda actual y prevista de combustible, los acontecimientos tanto en Estados Unidos como a nivel mundial, y la capacidad de refinación en el extranjero.
Cuanta mayor capacidad de refinación exista en el extranjero, menor será la presión para que las compañías petroleras dependan exclusivamente de las refinerías estadounidenses.
Actualmente, las refinerías de EE.UU. están operando a plena capacidad debido a que 3 millones de barriles diarios han dejado de procesarse en Rusia y Oriente Medio a causa de ataques ucranianos e iraníes.
Gran parte de la capacidad de refinación en Rusia y Oriente Medio se enfoca en la producción de diésel. Como resultado, las refinerías estadounidenses han desviado parte de su producción de gasolina hacia el diésel, lo que ha provocado un aumento adicional en los precios de la gasolina para los conductores en EE.UU., dijo Skip York, investigador del Centro de Estudios Energéticos en la Rice University.
¿Cómo se compara la actual capacidad de refinación de EE.UU. con la de la era Biden?
A pesar de las disrupciones causadas por la pandemia de COVID-19, las guerras y diversos factores de mercado, el nivel de utilización de las refinerías en EE.UU. se ha mantenido relativamente estable tanto durante el mandato de Biden como durante el de Trump, segúndatos de la Administración de Información sobre Energía de Estados Unidos.
Clark Williams-Derry, analista de finanzas energéticas en el Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, calculó cuántas refinerías cesaron sus operaciones durante los dos mandatos de Trump y lo comparó con la cantidad de cierres ocurridos durante el mandato de Biden.
Él descubrió que la capacidad de refinación pérdida debido a los cierres durante el periodo de Trump fue cuatro veces mayor que la pérdida durante el mandato de Biden.
Nuestro veredicto
Vance dijo, “La razón principal por la que los precios de la gasolina están tan altos es porque cuando Joe Biden era presidente, alrededor del 20% de la capacidad de refinación estadounidense dejó de operar”.
Esa declaración es inexacta en varios aspectos.
California, no Estados Unidos, perdió el 20% de su capacidad de refinación. El panorama nacional se ha mantenido, en gran medida, estable. Las fuerzas del mercado y las realidades globales influyen en la producción de las refinerías más que la política presidencial, y la causa más evidente de los altos precios actuales de la gasolina es la guerra con Irán, la cual Trump inició, no Biden.
Nota del editor: PolitiFact tradujo esta historia del inglés al español usando un servicio de traducción automática. Los periodistas de PolitiFact con fluidez en ambos idiomas editaron la traducción para mayor claridad y precisión.
Anthony Edwards scored 45 points as he and the Minnesota Timberwolves spoiled Giannis Antetokounmpo’s debut with the Miami Heat in an emphatic 131-106 season-opening win on Wednesday night.
Edwards became just the third player in NBA history to record multiple 40-point games in season openers, joining Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: For the first time, scientists say they have used viruses designed by artificial intelligence to treat a human patient. Researchers announced on Tuesday that they had administered the virus, known as a phage, to a patient suffering from a deadly bacterial infection. Phages attack bacteria, and the hope is that this one will kill the microbes causing the infection.
Radical Numerics, the start-up that created the viruses, posted a technical report about them on its website. But the company declined to provide information about the patient or the doctors running the trial, citing confidentiality requirements.
[...] In 2025, researchers at the Arc Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., created an A.I. model called Evo 2, which they trained on millions of DNA sequences, including phage genes. They prompted Evo 2 to make new genomes similar to those in a group of phage species. The A.I. generated 700,000 virus genomes. The team synthesized DNA molecules from 285 genomes and inserted them into bacteria. The researchers found that 16 of the genomes gave rise to viable viruses. Three members of the Evo team, including Dr. Nguyen, left to found Radical Numerics. In June, the company unveiled a new A.I. model, called Omnii, based on some of the same principles as Evo.
Omnii can be trained not just on DNA but also on other aspects of biology, such as the structures of proteins and molecules that keep genes turned on or off. The company is now using Omnii to tackle a range of challenges, including designing cancer vaccines and recognizing the risk that a virus may cause a pandemic. Among these efforts is the first trial of A.I.-designed phage therapy. The researchers created variations of a phage called T7. The virus, which only infects E. coli, looks like a microscopic Apollo lunar lander: a ball-shaped protein shell that holds its DNA atop six leglike protrusions. To infect a bacterium, T7 lands on its surface, using its legs to anchor in place. It then injects its DNA into the cell.
Omnii generated new viral genes altering the shapes of T7's legs, according to Dr. Nguyen and his colleagues. While some of the new legs were significantly different from natural ones, Omnii's phages could still infect bacteria. Once the researchers were confident their strategy had worked, they partnered with doctors treating a patient with a stubborn E. coli infection. The bacteria had resisted not just antibiotics but all the available phages. The researchers said they had trained Omnii with information about the resistant strain and told it to design T7 phages with legs that could grab onto the bacteria. Once the A.I. generated genomes for new viruses, the scientists said they produced the corresponding DNA molecules and inserted them in bacteria. The bacteria became infected and produced T7 phages that could successfully infect, and kill, other microbes. After running tests to make sure the phages were safe, Radical Numerics presented them to the doctors. The F.D.A. authorized a trial. While the trial was authorized by the FDA, it's worth noting that the research has not yet been peer-reviewed in a scientific journal and there's no guarantee the AI-designed phages will work.
However, if it does prove successful, it could help speed phage therapy by cutting down the time it takes to create a new virus tailored to each patient's infection. "We think we can get it done in days," said Dr. Eric Nguyen, the chief executive officer of Radical Numerics.
President was reportedly heckled at least nine times during campaign event for Darline Graham
Multiple protesters were removed from Donald Trump’s rally at South Carolina’s Clemson University on Wednesday, including one who was apparently punched by a rally attender – to the US president’s delight.
“That was great, man. Wow. Man, I loved that. I watched that,” Trump said. “That was incredible. Wow. That was unbelievable. Is everybody OK?
Dover Police Arrest Two in Fatal Shopping Center Shooting
DOVER, Del. — Dover Police have arrested two men in connection with an October 10 shooting at the Dover Commons shopping center that killed a 22-year-old Philadelphia man and injured another man.
Police said detectives identified a 22-year-old Dover man as one of the suspected shooters. He was arrested October 16 at a residence in the 500 block of Crawford Avenue after police obtained arrest and search warrants. Investigators said they recovered a 9mm handgun, ammunition and clothing and accessories believed to match items worn during the shooting.
A second suspect, an 18-year-old male, was located October 21 at a residence in Snow Hill, Maryland, by members of the U.S. Marshals Service Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force–Salisbury. He was taken into custody without incident and was being held in Maryland pending extradition to Delaware.
Both suspects are charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, three counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, four counts of first-degree reckless endangering and carrying a concealed deadly weapon.
The shooting occurred at about 9:19 p.m. October 10 in the Dover Commons parking lot in the 1200 block of North DuPont Highway. Police found two gunshot victims, including Nasir Cox, 22, of Philadelphia. Officers transported both victims to Bayhealth Kent Campus in police vehicles because heavy traffic in the area was expected to delay emergency medical response.
Cox later died from his injuries. The second victim, a 21-year-old man, was reported in stable condition.
The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information, photographs or video from the area is asked to contact the Dover Police Department Criminal Investigations Unit at 302-736-7111.
All defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Russia frees Stephen Hubbard after US request while Steve Witkoff praises Putin, wanted by ICC as war criminal, as a ‘humanitarian’
Vladimir Putin ordered the release of an American man from a Russian jail as he met Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg on Wednesday for fresh talks on ending the war in Ukraine, amid increasingly close relations between Moscow and Washington.
Trump had previously asked Putin to free Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old former teacher who had spent more than four years in Russian jails on charges of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine.
Author withdrawn from France’s Prix Goncourt last month has repeatedly denied using artificial intelligence to write novel
The publisher of top-selling Haitian Canadian writer Thélyson Orélien, who was removed from France’s most prestigious literary prize list last month, has confirmed the author used artificial intelligence to help write his novel C’était ça ou mourir (It Was Either That or Die).
Orélien has denied allegations that he used AI on his breakthrough novel and, last week, Canadian publisher Les Éditions du Boréal said it was standing by the 38-year-old writer.
In an interview with CBS News after Stephen Hubbard was released from Russian custody, his son, Fr. Joseph Coleman, said his father might have made a mistake in staying in Ukraine when the war began.
Just went to ride my PintX today after not using it for the past 2 months. I have the “Personal space” error code showing up… 15 yellow blinking lights. Not sure how this happens? Only 360 ish miles on the board over the past 2 years. Never in the rain, always kept under my bed, really has never been crashed. Do I just order new foot pads? Just trying to see the best course of action. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Also any advice on getting the foot pad cord off? Have trouble and don’t want to break anything.
In this episode of Guardian Australia’s US politics podcast, co-hosts Jonathan Yerushalmy and Reged Ahmad look at how Katie Zacharia broke the record for shortest tenure as White House press secretary. They then look at the pattern of how women in the Trump administration are treated when they’re perceived to have made mistakes – versus how men seem to survive their missteps.
They also look at how the US might be changing course on Russia’s war on Ukraine. Are relations between the US president, Donald Trump, and the Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at their lowest point ever – and what happens if the US decides to take Russian president Vladimir Putin’s side in this war?
Precautionary takedowns come as experts say bad actors could exploit vulnerability in language used by 70% of sites
Websites around the globe have gone dark after a serious vulnerability was found in a computer language used to build much of the world wide web.
Belgian, Dutch, Finnish, French and German sites were among those that governments took down temporarily as they scrambled to patch the critical weakness in PHP, a language used by almost 70% of websites.
A quarter of Meta Muse’s 10 million users are shopping online via the AI agent with an average spend of $200 per purchase, according to Mark Zuckerberg.
Austin, TX — Texas schools have referred children ages 10 to 13 for prosecution more than 47,000 times since 2014, often for misconduct that previously might have been handled by teachers or principals.
A joint investigation by The New York Times and San Antonio Express-News found the referrals increasingly involved relatively minor behavior, including classroom disruptions, threats, vaping and confrontations with school staff. Few cases involved serious physical harm.
A referral does not necessarily result in criminal charges, but it can mean a child is handcuffed, taken into police custody and processed through the juvenile justice system.
In one case, a 12-year-old girl who refused to go to the principal’s office was arrested and taken to school police headquarters. Body-camera footage reportedly showed officers twisting her arm behind her back until she complied with fingerprinting.
The rise coincides with Texas dramatically expanding police presence in schools following the 2022 Uvalde massacre. The state now has nearly 400 school district police departments and about 11,000 officers trained to work in schools. A separate investigation found officers using Tasers, pepper spray and physical force against students, including young children.
Texas law says school police should not handle routine student discipline, but critics argue the expanding law-enforcement presence has increasingly criminalized behavior better addressed through school discipline or mental-health services.
The Israeli military has detained about 80 US, Israeli and British volunteers helping Palestinians harvest olives near Bethlehem, including the New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander, several rabbis and Israel’s former deputy attorney general.
USDA says screwworm found in elk in Texas, and warns hunters and ranchers to be vigilant to help stop spread
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Wednesday it had confirmed the first detection of flesh-eating parasite the New World screwworm in US wildlife in an elk in Pecos county, Texas.
The elk was located on a game ranch and was reported after being harvested by a hunter, the USDA said in a statement.
Jury had found Meta misled consumers after Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign obtained user data without consent
A judge in New Mexico ordered Meta Platforms to pay $25bn on Wednesday after a jury found the company had misled consumers in a case arising from allegations that a political consulting firm involved in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign obtained data from millions of Facebook users without their consent.
“Facebook’s wrongdoing – over the course of years and systematically broadcast to the public – goes to the heart of Facebook’s core business practices,” Judge Francis Mathew wrote in his order after the verdict.
The U.S. military has also been quietly reducing its footprint at posts in the Middle East due to regional threats from the Houthis and direct threats from Iran, CBS News has learned.
Musk says ‘there’s a lot of merit’ to potential merger that would require approval of 50% of all Tesla shareholders, but declined to elaborate
Investors were paying close attention to Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday afternoon, after chief executive Elon Musk floated the idea of merging the car company with his rocket and AI company, SpaceX. But they didn’t glean further information after the company announced there would be no questions on the matter.
“With regard to a potential merger with SpaceX, I think I said everything that should be said yesterday,” Musk, the CEO of both companies, said on Tesla’s earnings call. He repeated a phrase he said on Tuesday: “I feel like I’m tap dancing through a minefield.”
Washington, DC — Republican Rep. Nancy Mace delivered one of the harshest conservative condemnations yet of Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad featuring the estranged mother of Democratic Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton.
“This ad is going to go down as the most shameful, disgusting, offensive ad this election season,” Mace told CNN. She said Ramaswamy had managed to “limbo under the lowest bar of decency” by attacking a woman who has publicly described being sexually abused by her stepfather as a child.
Acton and her brother have said their mother failed to protect her from the abuse and remained married to the man after he was charged. Acton was removed from her mother’s custody at age 12 and has been estranged from her since.
Ramaswamy’s campaign produced the ad and is spending $4 million to air it despite bipartisan criticism. The spot features Acton’s mother calling her daughter a “liar” and disputing portions of her childhood story.
Mace, who has publicly discussed surviving sexual assault herself, said she previously considered herself a major Ramaswamy supporter but was “stunned” by the campaign’s decision.
She also criticized Vice President JD Vance for defending the ad and warned that the controversy could further damage Republicans with women voters.
Ohio Republican Sen. Jon Husted and several conservative commentators have also distanced themselves from the advertisement.
Committee cites shortfalls of submarines and warships and says ‘dramatic progress’ needed by end of decade
Britain risks failing to deter future Russian aggression in the high north beyond the UK because of shortfalls in the number and availability of Royal Navy submarines and warships, MPs on the defence select committee have said.
The committee focused on the slow deployment of HMS Dragon to Cyprus this spring, declining numbers of frigates, and reports that all five Astute-class attack submarines were in dock this summer as evidence of a navy under-resourced for the threat.
Some in UK’s security services questioned why Welsh Labour firebrand was of interest
Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, the Welsh Labour firebrand who spearheaded the creation of the NHS, was monitored by security services for more than two decades, though his personal file was “remarkably tame”, according to official files released to the public.
Bevan came to MI5’s attention in the 1930s over concerns about his links with known communists, papers released to the National Archives show. Monitoring continued even after he became a minister in the postwar Labour government that created the NHS.
eBay plans to cut about 1,000 jobs, or 9% of its workforce, as CEO Jamie Iannone moves to redirect resources toward the company's fastest-growing businesses. Reuters reports: The company had 12,300 employees at the end of last year. It also let go about 6% of its workforce, or 800 employees, in February as part of efforts to streamline operations. EBay has set itself apart from rivals by pushing into authenticated luxury goods, collectibles and refurbished products, which draw enthusiasts willing to pay more for valuable items. That has helped its shares rise nearly 40% this year, outperforming the benchmark S&P 500's around 12% gain.
"Our strategy is working," Iannone said in the memo, adding that "continuing to capture the significant opportunity ahead requires us to make thoughtful choices about where we focus and invest." He said affected staff would be informed in the coming days.
Former speaker is latest target of mailings sent to various Congress members in the lead-up to the midterm elections
California representative Nancy Pelosi’s office received “a suspicious letter” on Wednesday in what appears to be the latest incident of ill-intentioned mailings targeted at US Congress members before the midterm elections.
The offices of more than three dozen members of Congress across the political spectrum have received envelopes containing white powder in recent days. One lawmaker’s office said preliminary tests indicated the powder was not hazardous.
The campaign of Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican running for governor in Ohio, sparked controversy this week with an ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton. In the ad, Acton’s mother calls her a “liar” who is being dishonest about her past.
But court documents — as well as contemporaneous news articles and statements by Acton’s brother — corroborate key elements of Acton’s account of her difficult childhood. Acton has said she was removed from her mother’s custody at age 12 after her stepfather was charged with raping her. She says she hasn’t seen or spoken to her mother since.
The 60-second ad has drawn widespread backlash since it first surfaced on social media Oct. 19, including from some Republicans. It was initially unclear who was behind the ad, but Ramaswamy told reporters the next day that his campaign had produced it and plans to spend $4 million airing it. (So far, the ad tracking service AdImpact showed only $2,116 had been spent to air the ad on Oct. 20.)
The race is considered a toss-up, according to the Cook Political Report.
Acton, who previously served as director of the Ohio Department of Health, has spoken before about the hardships she endured as a child.
In a 2019 profile by the Youngstown Vindicator, she said her biological parents divorced when she was 3, leaving her and her brother in the custody of her mother. She described cycling through a series of different homes in the following years, including a tent at a campground outside Youngstown one winter.
By that point, her mother had remarried, according to the profile. Acton told the Vindicator that her stepfather sexually abused her. Acton, who was 12, went to live with her biological father. She said she hasn’t seen or spoken to her mother since a court appearance after her stepfather’s 1978 arrest.
In the ad, Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, accuses her daughter of lying about her childhood, including the extent of their housing insecurity.
“Amy has a serious problem,” Arthur says in the ad. “She is a liar. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She’s lied her entire life. My daughter needs help. And she can’t help you if she needs help herself.”
Though the ad does not refer specifically to the sexual abuse allegations, Arthur has done so in the past. In 2020, she gave an interview to the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue in which she claimed her daughter had “lied” when she accused Donna’s second husband, Cledith Arthur, of rape.
Court records provided by the Acton campaign show that Cledith Arthur was charged with rape in July 1978 after Acton’s biological father reported that Arthur had sexually abused her. He pleaded not guilty. He was indicted by a grand jury that September.
The Youngstown Vindicator reported on the arrest at the time.
The case never went to trial, however, because the Arthurs left town without notifying the authorities, the records show.
After Cledith Arthur failed to appear for a court date in October 1978, a Mahoning County judge issued a warrant for his arrest, writing that “it appears that the Defendant has willfully vacated his last known address and has failed to provide any forwarding address and his present whereabouts are unknown.”
Another arrest warrant was issued in 1981, and records show the authorities were looking for him as late as 1983.
In the 2020 Operation Rescue interview, Donna Arthur indicates that she and her husband skipped town in order to avoid a trial. “Donna borrowed $10,000 from her father and hired an attorney who recommended that she and [Cledith] move away for awhile until things could calm down and charges could be dropped,” the article said.
The Mahoning County court system’s online records search only goes back to 1989. We reached out to the court clerk’s office for more information on the case, including its ultimate resolution, and haven’t heard back.
Cledith Arthur died in 2004. He and Donna Arthur had been living in Pennsylvania.
As for Acton’s description of living in a tent at one point, her campaign pointed to a 1982 police report documenting an interview with an Ohio campground manager who said Cledith Arthur had lived there some years earlier. Arrest paperwork from 1978 also lists that campground as Arthur’s address.
The Acton campaign has also releasedstatements by her younger brother, Philip Stearns, in which he backs her account of their childhood.
“It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point,” Stearns said in a statement the campaign released Oct. 20. “After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died.”
In a response ad the campaign released the same day, Stearns also describes repeated childhood abuse.
“I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it,” he says. “She continued to receive that abuse because she knew she had to protect me from that, and that if she hadn’t done that, who knows where I would have ended up.”
We reached out to the Ramaswamy campaign with questions about the ad and haven’t received a response. Ramaswamy defended the ad when speaking to reporters on Oct. 20.
“This is part of a pattern,” he said. “Someone else who appears to know her well who says the same thing, and I do think that is important for voters to take all of that into account.”
The ad has been criticized by some Republicans, including Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, who’s in a close race of his own. Vice President JD Vance defended the ad this week, saying it “calls it out like it is, and calls Amy Acton a liar.”
The Acton campaign has condemned the ad as a “disgusting smear using Dr. Acton’s estranged, abusive mother, who stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died.”
“I won’t normalize somebody who has said my childhood is just something I’m complaining about, who today just released an ad using my birth mother, who I was removed from at the age of 12 for severe abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse,” Acton told Spectrum News, a local TV outlet.
Update, Oct. 22: President Donald Trump endorsed the ad in an Oct. 22 Truth Social post and urged Ramaswamy to keep running it. “Who wouldn’t use such an Ad?” Trump wrote. “I would, it’s called, ‘hitting pay dirt.’” Trump also criticized the Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, for calling on Ramaswamy to take the ad down.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
(The Center Square) – Coast Guard crew are monitoring Chinese-flagged vessels in the Arctic as border security efforts remain a Trump administration priority.
AMD has published Linux kernel patches for an official Ryzen overclocking driver that allows users to adjust CPU power and current limits through a firmware interface exposed via sysfs. Phoronix reports: AMD engineer Shyam Sundar S K posted the patches for the AMD Overclocking "AOD" WMI driver as an interface to the platform firmware for managing overclocking and power/current limits of modern Ryzen CPUs.
The driver in its initial form allows setting via sysfs a number of CPU tunables including the Package Power Tracking (PPT), Thermal Design Current (TDC), and Electrical Design Current (EDC) limits along with reading their supported range. SMT toggling can also be done via the interface as an alternative to the likes of Linux's "nosmt" option in disabling SMT at the platform level rather than kernel disabling. The current memory clocks can also be read via this AOD driver.
The power tunables aren't applied in real-time but go into effect at next reboot. The firmware does support many more commands compared to the few initially wired up and hopefully in time more of these controls will be enabled with this driver.
(The Center Square) – U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and others joined the president at a roundtable Wednesday promoting the administration’s work on preventing and responding to cybercrime by transnational criminal organizations preying on Americans.
Más de la mitad de los estadounidenses han sentido una "pérdida de identidad", según un estudio reciente. La encuesta de 2.000 estadounidenses preocupados por su apariencia encontró que el 56% ha vivido una "pérdida de identidad" en algún momento de…
Nueve de cada 10 estadounidenses consumen alimentos ultraprocesados sin darse cuenta, según un nuevo estudio. El estudio de 2.000 estadounidenses estima que solo el 16% de su dieta es ultraprocesada, pero los datos del CDC muestran que estos alimentos representan…
Uno de cada tres estadounidenses podría sufrir la "deriva de la jubilación": cuando los ahorros para el retiro se fragmentan y se vuelven más complicados de manejar con cada cambio de empleo. Una encuesta realizada por Empower y Talker Research…
Apes in study more likely to choose treats linked to sound of peers having fun, suggesting emotions influence learning
Orangutans base their food choices on whether others appear to be having a good time, research suggests.
Scientists studying captive orangutans have found that when the great apes heard the sound of their peers laughing before they searched a bowl for a tasty treat, they valued the reward more highly.
(The Center Square) - Federal regulators authorized initial construction Tuesday on a southwest Louisiana gas storage project and related infrastructure that developer Black Bayou Energy Hub LLC says represents a planned $1.6 billion investment.The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Oct. 20…
A CBC investigation found that more than 1.5 million Canadian Crime Stoppers tips spanning 25 years were exposed in a breach of the P3 Global Intel tip-management platform. About 850,000 records contained personally identifiable information, including addresses, phone numbers, emails, license plates and some banking details. Longtime Slashdot reader doconnor shares the report: The data was stolen last March by hacktivist collective Internet Yiff Machine. In a manifesto, the group said it wanted to disprove the claim by P3 Global Intel -- the company hired by Crime Stoppers to manage its tips -- that the platform was "anonymous" and "secure." A copy of the hacked data was made available to researchers and journalists, including CBC, by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a U.S. non-profit that archives and publishes hacked and leaked documents it deems to be in the public interest. The report found that more than 4,300 Crime Stoppers tipsters identified themselves by their full name, with hundreds of records containing staff warnings that individuals had "self-identified" or been "exposed," yet their information remained unredacted.
The leaked data included sensitive allegations involving murder, terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime, with nearly 49,000 tips linked to cases cleared through arrests or criminal charges. Cybersecurity experts criticized the retention of decades-old records... "If a tip is closed, does that need to stay online?" asked cybersecurity expert Ben Coon. "The answer to that, to me, is no."
The RCMP was initially told Canadian data was unaffected, then assured that exposed Canadian records contained no personally identifiable information. This appears to contradict the CBC's findings. Furthermore, affected individuals have not been systematically notified because contacting them could further jeopardize their anonymity.
"For a system that has been designed to promise anonymity to the users, that has failed categorically," said Prof. Ali Dehghantanha, the Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity and Threat Intelligence at the University of Guelph.
(The Center Square) – Two U.S. House committees are jointly subpoenaing the New Jersey State Department, accusing the state of not fully cooperating with an investigation into what it says are the more than 6,000 noncitizens recently found on the…
The species has been extinct since 1936 and only a handful of specimens, mostly skins made into rugs, have previously been sold over the years for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit Wednesday against two of Jeffrey Epstein's closest confidants, attorney Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn.
Steve Witkoff lauded Vladimir Putin as "a humanitarian" as Russia freed Stephen Hubbard, an American deemed wrongfully detained by the U.S., after more than 4 years in prison.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: We haven't heard many details about Microsoft's upcoming "Project Helix" gaming hardware since the company announced it in March as a device that will "play your Xbox and PC games." In a new wide-ranging profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, though, Fortune alludes to a dual release strategy for upcoming Microsoft gaming hardware, with "a next-generation handheld device" planned by the end of next year and a 2028 holiday season console release that could cost between $1,200 and $1,800.
That future console price range is based on what has "internally been projected" at the company, according to Fortune. But the price for consumers could come down if "Microsoft decides to subsidize the cost," the outlet says, as many console makers have done in the past. While a $1,200 starting price would be historically high for the game console market, even accounting for inflation, it also reflects a new normal: The slowdown in Moore's Law and AI-driven component shortages mean cutting-edge gaming hardware just isn't as cheap as it used to be. This year, the Steam Machine broke the $1,000 starting price, while the 2-year-old technology in the PlayStation 5 Pro is now going for $900, and the 6-year-old Xbox Series X now starts at $750.
JD Vance, the vice-president, criticized Republicans who have spoken out against a controversial campaign ad from Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. The ad features the mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, calling her daughter a liar. In a Tuesday statement, Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, said his sister is estranged from her mother, who had married a man that sexually abused Acton when she was 12. He said his mother, Donna Arthur, remained in the marriage after her husband was arrested and her children were taken away from her
Player fetched firearm after altercation with JC Latham
Tennessee released defensive tackle on Tuesday
Robert Saleh calls situation ‘lapse in judgement’
Tennessee Titans coach Robert Saleh confirmed on Wednesday that defensive tackle Jordan Elliott was released after pulling a gun in the parking lot of the team facility but said it was a “terrible lapse in judgment that I recognize as a call for help more than a criminal act”.
The Titans had announced Tuesday that Elliott was released, but said only that it came after his involvement in an unspecified incident at the team’s facility five days earlier.
A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found Facebook liable for deceiving users about privacy during the Cambridge Analytica scandal. State Attorney General Raul Torrez called it "one of the largest, if not the single largest state verdict against a company in American history." While Meta plans to appeal the ruling, the funds that are to be collected will go toward state education spending. The Associated Press reports: Jurors in September found Meta liable for over 43 million violations of New Mexico consumer protection laws when a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, harvested Facebook user data to generate targeted political ads for the 2016 election. Forty-eight other states settled with Facebook in a nationwide case, but New Mexico chose to take the social media company to court on its own. [...] During the trial, jurors assessed whether Facebook misled users about privacy and content moderation 34 separate times. State prosecutors, though, argued Facebook's statements deceived the entire population of New Mexico and extended beyond social media users.
In the end, jurors agreed with this premise and found Facebook liable for 2.1 million violations on certain counts, bringing the total number of violations to over 43 million. Facebook's attorneys have argued in subsequent court filings that the state's consumer protection laws don't apply to people in New Mexico who weren't using the platform at the time. [...] In one of the few wins for the defense, jurors found the state didn't prove that Facebook made false claims about removing harmful content, including misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.
The state said the company favored certain accounts and allowed for violent or inaccurate content to proliferate. Attorney Randi McGinn said in her closing argument for the state that Facebook profited off harmful content, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg denied during his video deposition. Zuckerberg said the company has to carefully balance freedom of speech with content moderation. Attorneys for Facebook said the company has adapted its policies since the state's lawsuit was filed in 2021 and that it removes 99% of content that violates standards.
Lawler, a moderate Republican, is fending off a challenge from Democrat Cait Conley in the Hudson valley. It is among the most-watched races that could determine whether Republicans hold on to their majority in Congress.
New Mexico lawsuit claims ‘in exchange for furthering Epstein’s criminal project, his associates received generous salaries’
The attorney general of New Mexico on Wednesday filed a civil lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime attorney, Darren Indyke, and Epstein’s longtime accountant, Richard Kahn, accusing them of having “facilitated and concealed” Epstein’s crimes, and is seeking to stop them from being paid by Epstein’s estate while the litigation plays out.
The lawsuit, filed in the US district court for the district of New Mexico, names Kahn and Indyke as defendants both in their individual capacity, and in their capacity as co-executors of Epstein’s estate. The complaint also names Epstein’s estate, and the 1953 Trust, which holds the estate’s assets.
SEIU Local 1000, representing nurses and teachers, pushing for higher wages, telework and affordable healthcare
Thousands of California state workers walked off the job Wednesday in a sweeping one-day strike as tensions boiled over lapsed contract negotiations with Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration.
SEIU Local 1000, a union that represents roughly 100,000 public employees, has been at an impasse with the state since its contract expired on 30 June.
At 25, Jody Ginter Mihok had a lump in her breast but plenty of reasons to believe it wasn’t cancer. Her age was one of them. image created from photo courtesy of the DBCC and DeerPark Goes Pink using AI on 10/23.
Delaware survivor Jody Ginter Mihok’s experience highlights why younger women shouldn’t dismiss breast changes — and how a Newark fundraising event this Sunday brings survivors and families together.
NEWARK, Del. — At 25, Jody Ginter Mihok had a lump in her breast but plenty of reasons to believe it wasn’t cancer. Her age was one of them.
Before undergoing a biopsy, she had been repeatedly reassured that cancer was unlikely in someone so young.
But in 2006, the diagnosis came: breast cancer.
Twenty years later, after two separate breast cancer diagnoses and becoming a mother, Mihok is sharing her experience as she prepares to participate in the 10th annual Deer Park Goes Pink 5K this Sunday, Oct. 25, in Newark.
The event begins at 9 a.m. at Deer Park Tavern, 108 W. Main St., and includes a 5K run/walk and an untimed 1-mile walk. Registration remains open, and organizers say 100% of proceeds benefit the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition, which supports women and families affected by breast cancer.
Mihok hopes her story will encourage other women to pay attention to changes in their health and motivate Delawareans to join Sunday’s event in support of survivors and their families.
Breast cancer is rising among younger women
Although breast cancer remains far more common in older women, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that incidence among women younger than 45 increased an average of 0.7% annually between 2001 and 2022.
More than 27,000 women under 45 were diagnosed with breast cancer nationwide in 2022, according to the CDC.
For Mihok, the statistics reflect something she experienced firsthand: Being young can make breast cancer seem unlikely, even when symptoms are present.
“Being young can sometimes make people assume cancer isn’t a possibility, and that was certainly part of my experience,” she told the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition.
Her diagnosis changed the direction of her life almost immediately.
“I went from being a 25-year-old young adult living her life to having what seemed like daily appointments, testing, surgery, and then six months of chemotherapy,” Mihok said.
Instead of concentrating on her career, relationships and plans for a family, she faced difficult questions about whether she would ever have children.
Cancer threatens plans for motherhood
For younger breast cancer patients, treatment may involve decisions extending well beyond fighting the disease.
Mihok had to consider how surgery would change her body, how cancer might affect relationships and whether chemotherapy would eliminate her chances of having children.
She consulted a fertility specialist but learned that preserving her eggs would involve out-of-pocket expenses and hormone treatments that raised concerns because of her aggressive, hormone-positive breast cancer.
“There were also things I had to think about at 25 that I never expected to face, including my fertility,” she said.
The experience illustrates another challenge facing younger patients: Cancer treatment can affect reproductive options at an age when many women have not yet decided whether to start a family.
Women facing treatment that could affect fertility are encouraged to discuss preservation options with their medical team before treatment begins.
For Mihok, motherhood eventually became a reality.
At 35, she became pregnant without fertility treatment and gave birth to her daughter, Jacey.
But two years later, cancer returned to her life.
A second diagnosis brings a different fear
Mihok was diagnosed with breast cancer again when her daughter was just 2 years old.
According to her account, the second diagnosis was not a recurrence of her original cancer but a new breast cancer.
This time, her greatest concern had changed.
At 25, she had worried that cancer might prevent her from becoming a mother. Now she feared her daughter might grow up without one.
The two diagnoses, occurring at dramatically different stages of her life, gave Mihok a personal understanding of how cancer affects patients and their families long after the initial diagnosis.
Today, her daughter is 10, and Mihok credits her husband, family and friends for providing the support she needed throughout her treatment and recovery.
Support for Delaware’s younger survivors
Mihok participates in the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition’s Young Survivors in Action program, which addresses the concerns of women diagnosed with breast cancer at younger ages.
The program offers education, wellness activities and opportunities to connect with other survivors. Activities focus on physical recovery, emotional well-being and adjusting to life during and after treatment.
Mihok’s experience also reinforces an important distinction between routine cancer screening and evaluating an actual symptom.
The American Cancer Society recommends that women at average risk have the option of beginning annual mammograms at age 40, with annual screening recommended beginning at 45. Women at higher risk may need screening earlier.
But a new breast lump or other concerning change should be evaluated regardless of age. Being too young for routine mammograms does not mean being too young to develop breast cancer.
Turning survival into support for others
For Mihok, Sunday’s Deer Park Goes Pink event represents far more than a race.
It brings together survivors, caregivers, families and supporters while raising money for breast cancer education and survivor services in Delaware.
“I come back every year because this event means something very personal to me,” she said.
“Being surrounded by this community reminds me how many people are willing to stand beside you, whether you are currently going through treatment, a survivor, a caregiver, or someone who has lost a loved one.”
Her message to other women is rooted in the uncertainty she experienced at 25: Pay attention to changes in your health, ask questions and advocate for yourself when something does not seem right.
And while breast cancer changed her life twice, she refuses to let it become the only thing that defines her.
“Cancer became part of my story, but it did not get to define my whole story.”
TO-GO BOX | Join Deer Park Goes Pink this Sunday
10th annual Deer Park Goes Pink 5K
When: Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, at 9 a.m.
Where: Deer Park Tavern, 108 W. Main St., Newark.
What: A 5K run/walk, untimed 1-mile walk and post-race celebration benefiting the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition.
Registration: $35 plus fees through Saturday, Oct. 24. Registration increases to $40 plus fees on race day.
Not running? A post-race celebration pass is available for $20 plus fees. Organizers also accept donations.
Beneficiary: Organizers say 100% of event proceeds benefit the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition.
Bru the six month old capybara inspects a pumpkin as he gets into the spooky spirit for his first Halloween at Edinburgh Zoo. (Katielee Arrowsmith via SWNS)
I want to upgrade to a better board and trying to figure out the current resale value of my Onewheel Pint X and would appreciate some honest opinions from the community.
It has 1,215 lifetime miles and has definitely been ridden, so there are cosmetic scratches, scuffs, and normal wear, all visible in the photos.
Board & installed accessories:
Onewheel Pint X Carbon Fiber Fender Pint X Rail Guards (Dijon) Charger Plug
Additional accessories included:
Original standard charger (never used) Pint Ultracharger (used) Maghandle Pro (black, purchased but never installed) Pint X Bumpers (dark grey, purchased but never installed) Onewheel stand Original Onewheel box
I’m curious what you guys think would be a fair resale value for the entire package in today’s market. Would it make more sense to sell everything together, or would I get better value selling some accessories separately?
Not looking to overprice it, just trying to understand what a realistic asking price would be. Appreciate any input!
"According to a recent report by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier (paywalled), EA has reportedly decided to shut down BioWare," the studio behind the Dragon Age and Mass Effect games, writes longtime Slashdot reader atari_kid. Quartz reports: Chief Studios Officer Cam Weber and Chief Operating Officer David Tinson wrote that "over the past several months, we've taken a hard look at our business." They said a small BioWare team had been doing early groundwork on a Mass Effect game, but EA chose to drop the effort. That decision means closing the studio and its Edmonton workspace, they wrote. "We do not take this decision lightly," Weber and Tinson said of the BioWare closure, according to Variety.
EA will keep investing in Apex Legends and is continuing work on two upcoming launches, Marvel's Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi game, the executives said. They added that EA's Respawn and DICE studios will join forces on an upcoming project, in addition to new Battlefield titles. Bloomberg said the project is probably a new installment of the Star Wars: Battlefront franchise.
Jack Ross was filmed allegedly discussing with an undercover reporter violent options to deal with enemies
A former Conservative election candidate has been suspended from the party after he was seemingly filmed discussing the cost of hiring contract killers and offering to “broker” the services of a far-right activist with alleged paramilitary links.
Jack Ross was filmed apparently asking an undercover reporter “What do you want done?” before listing the type of violent options that could be bought.
Relatives recount distress and loneliness their loved ones went through in pandemic as a result of isolation policy
“At the time it felt like a devil’s bargain – it was horrible, but it was what [we thought] we had to do to keep people safe,” says Amy of the “devastating” and “terrifying” restrictions that led to her maternal grandparents being locked down in separate care homes during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Eva and Eric had been married for more than 60 years when her dementia and his increased frailty meant they needed separate residential support. When the first lockdown was announced in March 2020, however, it in effect cut them off from each other and their granddaughter, to whom they had been especially close after the early death of Amy’s mother.
Vladimir Putin ordered the release of former teacher Stephen Hubbard, who had spent more than four years in Russian jails on charges of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine. This came as Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff met with the Russian president in St Petersburg for fresh talks on ending the war in Ukraine, amid increasingly close relations between Moscow and Washington.
OpenAI is bringing its models to Google Cloud's model garden and Antigravity coding tool, putting its technology on all three major U.S. cloud platforms after Microsoft's exclusive license ended earlier this year. "Google Cloud's longstanding investment in machine learning and AI has made it a destination for AI workloads and the developers and data scientists building them," OpenAI said in a blog post. It continues: [...] The integration will pair OpenAI's frontier models with Google Cloud's built-in access controls, centralized data governance, and high-performance infrastructure to support demanding enterprise workloads.
Google Cloud customers will be able to purchase OpenAI frontier models via model garden, transacted through the Google Cloud Marketplace. Enterprises with Google Cloud spend commitments will be able to draw down their GCP commitments for these purchases.
Additionally, OpenAI models will soon be available in Google Antigravity and the Gemini Agent, providing enterprise customers with model choice flexibility and the best model for each task. [...] For context, Microsoft previously held exclusive licensing rights to OpenAI's intellectual property, but that arrangement ended less than six months ago as OpenAI began expanding its partnerships with other cloud providers.
Just one day after Microsoft's exclusivity ended, Amazon announced plans to host OpenAI's models on its cloud platform in April.
US photojournalist describes ‘protective shield’, vows to return to work in West Bank and criticises Netanyahu comments on incident
The Washington Post photojournalist who was attacked and seriously injured by Israeli settlers in the West Bank on Friday has described how she was saved with the help of local Palestinians.
Heidi Levine sustained four fractured vertebrae, two broken ribs and four puncture wounds when she was knocked to the ground and repeatedly beaten by a crowd of masked settlers while she and other journalists were covering the olive harvest in the Palestinian village of Abu Falah, north of Ramallah.
Steve Witkoff’s flattery of the Russian leader could be just the start of a mendacious stratagem from a US president who says Moscow ‘has been fine on Ukraine’
They say the first casualty of war is truth. For the Trump administration, the road to peace with Russia now encompasses some extraordinary lies.
Steve Witkoff delivered one as he sat down with Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Wednesday, aiming to close the deal on Russia’s land grab in Ukraine with the White House’s strategy of maximum pressure on Kyiv and saccharine flattery of the Kremlin.
As prices keep rising, more of the president’s supporters are asking what happened to the economic good times he promised
It is no great revelation that Donald Trump is enriching himself as president. He raked in $2.2bn in 2025, with his position and his personal interests frequently overlapping. Yet this week’s poll finding that 34% of Republicans (and 66% of all American voters) think that he is using his position to make himself rich merits attention. Separately, voters in a Fox News poll last week put government corruption at the top of their list of concerns – just ahead of inflation and high prices.
Mr Trump pledged that people would be better off if they voted for him. Billionaires are; not the rest. He promised to lower grocery costs (they have risen) and to cut the price of gasoline to below $2 a gallon. It’s more than double that, thanks to his illegal war on Iran. Tariffs haven’t helped. Incumbents struggle when life feels unaffordable, and polling for the Guardian has shown the disenchantment of key voting groups. The gulf between his own prosperity and the lives of his base now looks less like an inspiration and more like an insult. Cash offers seem unlikely to help much.
Officials say the explosion released an airborne irritant that can cause burning of the eyes, nose, mouth and skin
Officials are investigating a tank explosion in Toledo, Ohio, that released a chemical into the air, causing a mass evacuation in the area.
One person, a first responder, was injured and taken to the hospital, but officials believe the injuries are non-life-threatening. They are also unsure about the cause of the explosion.
Experts tell CBS News geography, interceptor shortages and evolving Houthi tactics are helping the Iranian proxy menace Saudi Arabia, and global energy supplies.
No 10 declines to rule out watering down plans to extend waiting period for indefinite leave to remain as cabinet split widens
Shabana Mahmood has been urged to “read the room” on Labour opposition to her immigration policy, as No 10 declined to rule out watering down her plans to make foreign workers wait 15 years to get permanent residency.
Mahmood, the home secretary, is consulting on plans to increase the period before foreign workers can claim indefinite leave to remain from five to 15 years, backdated to apply to anyone arriving from 2021 onwards.
Decision stands in contrast to recent trans rights actions from court that often sides with Trump administration
The US supreme court went against Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday, refusing to allow the immediate enforcement of sweeping restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender individuals held in prisons and federal facilities.
The decision marks an unusual victory for transgender rights before the nation’s highest court, which has largely sided with the administration and other opponents of transgender rights in several major cases.
Hepatitis B study in Guinea-Bissau that was to be funded by CDC and that drew global backlash ‘will not move forward’
The US-backed hepatitis B vaccine trial in African newborns that drew global backlash was halted, the lead researcher said on Wednesday.
It was “now clear” that the study “will not move forward in Guinea-Bissau”, Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer, a Danish researcher, wrote on LinkedIn, adding, “we were not given the necessary governmental approval.”
Exclusive: Officials say Miatta Fahnbulleh minded not to give approval in victory for climate campaigners
Miatta Fahnbulleh is minded to reject the giant Rosebank oilfield, sources have told the Guardian, in what would be a blow for the North Sea energy industry and a major victory for climate campaigners.
After approving the smaller Jackdaw gasfield on Wednesday, officials say the energy secretary is leaning towards refusing approval for what would be one of the biggest oilfields in the North Sea.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, meeting with Vladimir Putin in Russia, voiced hope for new trilateral talks involving Ukraine, and Moscow indicated the talks could resume in November.
Andy Burnham hit the nail on the (well)head in his first fortnight as prime minister when he said: “The question isn’t whether Britain will still be using oil and gas, the question is, where does it come from?”
It was a nod towards several awkward energy facts. First, oil and gas provided 75% of the UK’s energy in 2025, government data shows. Second, even with the rollout of domestic renewables for generating electricity, about 43% of overall energy was imported last year.
Wedgewood Polls said project was designed to highlight lack of scrutiny over polling sector by mainstream media
A polling firm has admitted to using fabricated data in surveys that were picked up by national media outlets in the US, claiming the project was a “social experiment” designed to expose the lack of scrutiny over the sector.
Wedgewood Polls released a statement on Tuesday on social media, after the polling and election analysis site FiftyPlusOne reached out for comment on an investigation it had conducted into their surveys and data.
Is this bad? I started riding switch and doing high turns i started to scrape rear-left bottom to the point of metal, screw seems to be intact for now.
I want to see pics of others onewheel that are beaten up cause when i see people riding trails and skateparks it makes me wonder how long do they last?
Cameras reportedly set up near site for Trump’s proposed arch, Arlington Memorial Bridge and reflecting pool
The US Park Police are spending $343,000 to lease mobile surveillance cameras from a company that also supplies Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), federal contract records show. The deal comes as Donald Trump has insisted that vandals damaged the reflecting pool, one of Washington’s best-known landmarks – charges that have since been dismissed.
The Department of the Interior, which oversees the Park Police, awarded the lease to the Utah-based company LiveView Technologies (LVT) on 14 September, on a fully obligated government contract that runs through the end of February. The records do not say how many camera trailers are covered.
"PHP disclosed two critical vulnerabilities in their programming language and urged web site operators to immediately apply the fix," writes longtime Slashdot reader smooth wombat. "As a result, government web sites in Europe and elsewhere temporarily went dark on Wednesday as operators worked to protect their systems." The Independent reports: Dane Knecht, the chief technology officer of Web and cloud security firm Cloudflare, said that attacks were emerging and Cloudflare was updating its firewall rules as a stopgap measure. "We are seeing early attacks emerging and are updating mitigations as new vectors show up. This is a STOPGAP only. Patch as soon as PHP releases the update," he said on X.
Officials have said that all PHP versions from PHP 5 onward could be affected, although PHP has not yet disclosed which versions are vulnerable. Special thanks to Slashdot readers Alain Williams and mrspoonsi for sharing this critical PHP security release.
For more details, read the official PHP announcement and guidance on what to do next.
Jaden J Read was arrested after federal authorities say he posted threats online before president’s Wichita rally
A 24-year-old Kansas man has been arrested for allegedly threatening to shoot Donald Trump.
Authorities arrested Jaden J Read, of Clearwater, Kansas, last Saturday after he allegedly posted threats to kill the US president at his rally in the Wichita area on Monday, according to the justice department.
State lawmaker helped establish program later directed by her husband, highlighting the importance of public disclosure, accountability and financial transparency
By George D. Rotsch, Delaware LIVE
DOVER, Del. — A Delaware lawmaker’s role in helping establish a state-sponsored retirement savings program that later employed her husband raises questions about transparency in government hiring, financial oversight and the safeguards intended to maintain public confidence in state decisions.
State Rep. Krista Griffith, D-, was among the co-sponsors of House Bill 205, the legislation that created Delaware EARNS, a retirement savings program designed to help private-sector workers who lack access to employer-sponsored retirement plans.
The legislation, primarily sponsored by Rep. Larry Lambert, D-Claymont, passed with bipartisan support and was signed into law by Gov. John Carney in August 2022.
The law authorized the creation of the program, including a paid leadership position responsible for overseeing its implementation.
Griffith’s husband, Ted Griffith, subsequently became the first director of Delaware EARNS, a position within the Office of the State Treasurer.
There is no evidence presented in the research reviewed by Delaware LIVE that Rep. Griffith improperly influenced her husband’s hiring or that either violated state ethics requirements.
However, the relationship presents a legitimate public-interest question: What hiring, disclosure and oversight procedures were followed, and how can Delawareans independently verify that decisions involving public employment and taxpayer funding were handled appropriately?
A program intended to help Delaware workers
Delaware EARNS was established to address a significant gap in retirement savings opportunities.
State officials estimated that nearly 150,000 Delaware workers lacked access to retirement plans through their employers when the program was authorized.
EARNS allows eligible workers to contribute to individual retirement accounts through payroll deductions, even when their employers do not offer a traditional retirement plan.
Employers facilitate participation, while workers control their own contributions and may opt out.
State Treasurer Colleen Davis championed the legislation as a way to expand retirement security while reducing the administrative burden on small businesses.
The program has reported measurable progress. In April 2026, the Treasurer’s Office announced that EARNS participants had accumulated $10 million in retirement assets.
Those savings belong to participating workers and should not be confused with taxpayer appropriations used to establish and administer the program.
A qualified director, but questions about the process
Ted Griffith came to Delaware EARNS with significant experience in financial services.
According to his official Treasury biography, he is a certified financial planner who spent 16 years at Vanguard, including work as a financial adviser overseeing approximately $100 million in client assets.
He also held responsibilities in marketing and financial communications.
Those credentials are relevant to evaluating his qualifications for leading a retirement savings program.
The separate question is how Delaware selected him for the position.
Publicly available information reviewed for this story identifies Griffith as program director but does not establish the complete recruitment and selection process, including how widely the position was advertised, how many applicants were considered or who made the final hiring decision.
Those details would help determine whether the hiring followed a competitive, documented process consistent with state requirements.
Transparency would also help protect the reputation of a qualified public employee by allowing the process to be judged on facts rather than assumptions about family relationships.
Taxpayer funding adds another accountability issue
The original fiscal analysis for Delaware EARNS projected approximately $1.1 million in government implementation expenses over three fiscal years.
Those estimated costs included funding for a full-time program director as well as other administrative expenses.
Actual spending and appropriations must be distinguished from those initial projections.
The question of public funding is particularly relevant because Rep. Griffith subsequently served on the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee, which plays a central role in developing Delaware’s annual operating budget.
A review of legislative and budget records could establish whether Griffith participated in decisions that specifically affected EARNS staffing, compensation or administrative funding after her husband became director.
Such participation would not automatically establish an ethics violation. Legislative budget votes frequently involve departments employing relatives of lawmakers.
The more relevant questions are whether any decisions directly affected a household financial interest, whether state ethics requirements applied and whether appropriate disclosures or other safeguards were observed.
These are questions that can be resolved through legislative records, personnel documentation and applicable ethics guidance.
Outside consultants and financial oversight
The transparency questions extend beyond the hiring of the program director.
During implementation, the Treasurer’s Office selected AKF Consulting Group to help develop and administer EARNS.
According to Treasury records cited in the research report, AKF was the only qualified consultant to submit a proposal in response to the state’s request for proposals.
An evaluation committee reviewed the submission and unanimously recommended the firm.
A procurement process that attracts only one qualified bidder is not necessarily improper. However, it makes documentation of the selection process, contract costs and performance particularly important.
AKF subsequently assisted Delaware in evaluating opportunities to cooperate with other state-sponsored retirement programs.
In December 2023, Delaware joined the Partnership for a Dignified Retirement, an interstate arrangement involving Colorado and Maine.
State officials said the partnership would reduce startup costs, accelerate implementation and provide economies of scale.
The arrangement uses Vestwell, working with BNY Mellon, to provide retirement program administration and related services.
The public-interest questions are whether those projected savings have materialized, what fees Delaware and participating workers are paying, and how the state evaluates the performance of its vendors.
These questions concern the management of public programs and retirement services rather than any demonstrated wrongdoing by the program’s employees or contractors.
Who is responsible for oversight?
Delaware EARNS was initially overseen by a seven-member board responsible for implementation, vendor relationships, investment oversight and administration.
On Jan. 1, 2026, those responsibilities transferred to the Delaware Plans Management Board, which oversees other state-sponsored savings and investment programs.
The board’s publicly posted meeting materials include EARNS business reports, creating opportunities for public review of the program’s activities.
Still, important questions remain about how easily taxpayers can obtain information concerning hiring decisions, administrative expenses, consulting contracts, vendor performance and potential conflicts of interest.
The distinction matters.
Public disclosure requirements are intended not simply to identify wrongdoing after it occurs but also to help prevent conflicts, promote accountability and give residents confidence that government decisions serve the public interest.
Transparency should not require allegations of misconduct
Family relationships involving elected officials and government employees are not inherently improper.
Delaware’s relatively small political and professional community makes such relationships particularly relevant to public confidence.
The challenge for government is to ensure that hiring, contracting and funding decisions are made through established procedures, with appropriate safeguards when personal or family interests may be involved.
In the case of Delaware EARNS, records documenting the director’s selection, applicable ethics guidance and subsequent legislative funding decisions could help resolve questions without relying on speculation.
The same standards should apply regardless of political party, elected office or the perceived merits of a particular government program.
Delaware EARNS was created to provide retirement opportunities for workers who lacked them. Its reported growth offers evidence that the program is serving that purpose.
Public confidence in those accomplishments would be strengthened by clear documentation showing how the program was staffed, funded and managed.
The broader issue is not whether a legislator’s spouse should be disqualified from public employment.
It is whether Delaware’s government provides enough transparency for citizens to know that employment decisions, taxpayer expenditures and public contracts are handled fairly, independently and in the public interest.
TO GO: Delaware EARNS and government transparency
What is Delaware EARNS? A state-facilitated retirement savings program for workers whose employers do not offer qualifying retirement plans.
Who created it? House Bill 205, primarily sponsored by Rep. Larry Lambert with bipartisan support, became law in August 2022. Rep. Krista Griffith was a co-sponsor.
What raises questions? Griffith’s husband, Ted Griffith, subsequently became the program’s first director. His hiring process and any relevant legislative funding decisions warrant examination.
Has wrongdoing been established? No. The research reviewed does not establish improper hiring, unlawful conduct or an ethics violation.
What deserves greater transparency? Hiring procedures, compensation, state funding, potential conflicts of interest, vendor contracts and program performance.
World Rugby has appointed Megan Rose, an American tennis pro turned United States Tennis Association (USTA) executive, as managing director of the 2031 men’s Rugby World Cup, a key appointment as the governing body prepares to host what is by some measures the third-biggest global sporting event on American soil for the first time.
Rose said: “Rugby World Cup is one of the iconic events in global sport, defined by unforgettable moments on the pitch and the passion of fans around the world. To be entrusted with bringing Men’s Rugby World Cup to the United States for the first time is an extraordinary honour, and I’m thrilled to join this team.”
Sofia Liguori, a research engineer working at DeepMind, resigned in protest this week from Google’s pioneering artificial intelligence laboratory. Unlike a wave of other AI researchers who have quit over fears AI might someday turn against humanity, Liguori stepped down over concern about her employer’s current practices.
Disenchanted and disturbed by Google’s military contracts with the U.S. and Israel, Liguori says she could no longer stand working at a company that was going to help kill people or help build technology that “automatically makes it easier to escalate the brutality of war.”
Liguori joined DeepMind in 2023 and began working on AI systems aimed at more efficiently routing power through the electrical grid, a peacetime engineering problem. But as she learned of Google’s Project Nimbus contract, which furnishes Israel’s military and top weapons manufacturers with a suite of advanced artificial intelligence tools, she began to question her role in the company, and the company’s role in the world. The day after Google announced its classified military AI contract with the Pentagon in April, Liguori staged a personal sick-out, using a combination of sick leave and holiday time off to cease her work.
In a letter she sent internally informing DeepMind and her colleagues of her resignation, Liguori urged them to “stay human” in the face of military work. “I no longer believe that our technology will have a net positive impact on society. I think there’s a fantasy world where AI can help decarbonize grids, cut waste, protect ecosystems, and benefit humanity,” she wrote. “But it’s not this world, and it’s not this type of general purpose AI we are racing to develop. Racing to deploy agentic AI in this society and historical moment is a terrible idea, and will definitely be a net evil.”
The Intercept spoke to Liguori, an Italian national living in London, where DeepMind is headquartered, about how she came to view her employer as dangerously powerful. During a series of interviews by phone and via text, which have been edited and condensed for length and clarity, she explained her moral opposition to military work, the role of unionization in dissent, and what hope engineers and scientists might have for influencing their companies.
What was it about DeepMind that made you want to work there?
I had a high opinion of DeepMind; it was a dream company. It had this aura of being a research-oriented place where you could sit close not just to computer scientists, but real scientists and researchers and people with backgrounds in biology, in physics, in mathematics, in ecology, in anthropology.
You joined in 2023, by which point the company had already been involved in Project Nimbus. Were you aware of that project at the time?
Not really. The first year when I joined, I was very new and very isolated in my team. Google DeepMind is a huge company and if you’re not in the right channels, you end up being very siloed. I didn’t know about Project Nimbus, but when the Gaza war escalated, I discovered it. I immediately looked for some internal resistance movement to join, but I didn’t find anything.
I discovered [Google employee advocacy group] No Tech for Apartheid, but I thought it was mainly a U.S. organization. I didn’t know how to connect with colleagues that share concerns, so the only thing that I did was buy a Palestine hoodie and go to the office with that.
In the summer of 2024, I went on maternity leave because my daughter was born, and during maternity leave I was watching news from Gaza every day. I was really suffering experiencing maternity and watching a livestreamed genocide, and every time I was thinking of my company’s complicity in that. I thought about not coming back to work at all.
When I was due to come back, I met a colleague that had basically taken my role in my team before maternity leave, and they were actually leaving for ethical reasons. They put me in contact with the union movement and No Tech for Apartheid. And so I found other colleagues fighting against this.
How and when did you learn of the company’s contracts with the U.S. military?
By the time they started engaging with the U.S. Department of War, [Editor’s note: July 2025] I was already involved in activism. By this winter we saw the GenAI.mil contract materializing, and for me, this was a very clear indication of the company’s intentions. At the same time Google ramped up the security level authorization for Cloud: IL6, which is the level required to handle classified workloads.
The combination of the two — signing this non-classified deal with the Department of War, and ramping up security level — really meant that we wanted to use AI for war, on the battlefield. Even if the internal narrative was, “No, don’t worry, it’s just for administrative purposes, just to process documents.”
What was happening internally?
Internally there was a lot of conversation in specific channels where people were complaining, but leadership never really answered anything. I had some of my posts deleted.
What had you written, and did you ever get any sort of answer as to why this stuff was deleted?
I had several posts deleted because they contained the word “genocide,” and I was told that genocide is an intrinsically violent word, and so I was violating internal policies. Even when my posts weren’t deleted, I often had conversations with my manager and HR telling me that my tone was not appropriate because I was too aggressive and that I should raise my concerns in different ways.
“I was told that genocide is an intrinsically violent word.”
They basically wanted us to send [internal HR] tickets to raise our concerns. The problem is that when you do that, you receive semi-automated answers with absolutely no content, nobody is engaged on the concern you have raised. There’s no discussion at all, you don’t even interact with a human. It’s a lot of administrative and bureaucratic steps you have to follow to raise concerns. What I wanted was discussion and what I wanted was very clear answers from leadership.
They tell you this is not the place to raise concerns, try to go through this other channel. This is the common technique. They always tell you to do something else, try to make you tired, and you will never get an answer.
[Editor’s note: The Intercept asked Google about Liguori’s criticism of both the contract and how discussion is handled internally. Spokesperson Tom Hewett responded: “We work with public sector organisations worldwide and follow a consistent process for reviewing and entering these contracts, including compliance with our acceptable use policies and AI principles. We also have dedicated channels for employees to safely raise any concerns – ranging from business ethics to misconduct – and have strict workplace policies in place to prevent retaliation of any kind.”]
I think the reason why you would be opposed to Project Nimbus is pretty straightforward: genocide. What were your specific concerns about or opposition to the Department of War contract?
I’m against the use of AI for targeting and in warfare in general, not only for autonomous weapons. I’m against AI for war, and I don’t think a commercial company like Google should have anything to do with that.
“AI for targeting is very dangerous; it creates a system where it’s easier to escalate the brutality of war.”
AI for targeting is very dangerous; it creates a system where it’s easier to escalate the brutality of war. The first problem is the opacity introduced in the definition of targets and the dehumanization that follows. In principle, if you have to define targets, if you want to define Hamas combatants, you have to think what it actually means and come up with a definition.
But with these systems, you can bypass the definition. The system itself comes out with a definition. You don’t even question it, you just blindly rely on the definition as the ultimate truth. The person just becomes a set of aggregated data points. All individuality is lost, all humanity is lost in in this process.
It becomes a system that dehumanizes people. It becomes a rubber stamp because the human brain cannot process all this information. You keep a person that formally approves it, but they don’t, they cannot, meaningfully evaluate the output. This links to the accountability gap: Everyone in the kill chain can plausibly say that they didn’t decide.
What did you do to protest the Department of War contract internally?
Mainly messaging on corporate channels to inform colleagues, and speaking with them in person. I tried to channel the widespread dissatisfaction and indignation over the contract into the collective movement we are building, into our union effort. [Editor’s note: DeepMind employees voted to unionize in May.] Many people still don’t know there are other colleagues organizing against these contracts and for a more ethical Google DeepMind.
When you are alone and you lose faith in your company, and you stop believing your work makes a positive difference, you can only become disillusioned and frustrated, and you ultimately end in acceptance and cynicism, or you leave. Finding you are not alone, and joining a collective movement, gives a much better option. It gave me the strength to stay, at least for a year.
I also co-organized a demonstration in February in front of the office. The scope was broader than just the Department of War, but the December GenAI.mil launch had given me a deep sense of urgency, and that’s why I organized the demonstration. I knew something like the classified deal was coming, and I knew this meant legitimizing Nimbus-style collaborations to become the standard. The demonstration was for Gaza and for any use of AI in war. We had banners with “No AI in the kill chain” and “No Gemini for Genocide.”
Has your work as a research engineer contributed to your concerns about this technology being used to kill? How has your technical knowledge informed your opposition?
Understanding how these systems work makes it easier to see where the problem is. Understanding statistical aggregation, and how easy it is to just delegate responsibility, delegate decision-making, makes a difference. But I think it’s more important to do some philosophical reasoning here.
Do you have concerns about the reliability of the technology?
I am concerned about unreliability. But I don’t think you should ever look at unreliability separate from a discussion of why AI in warfare is wrong by itself.
A lot of the time what I hear is a focus on error, for example, the Minab school attack. If we focus only on the error, we are basically saying that if there was no error, these systems for automated targeting are OK.
Were there people within Deep Mind who were supportive of this contract or military work generally?
Yes, it was actually a very debated topic. I think there is broad consensus on the Anthropic red lines, which are fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.
But on whether to use AI for military purposes, this is a much more debated topic, and a lot of people buy the narrative of us-versus-them: That we need to defend ourselves against Russia, against China, and so on.
What was your thought process on deciding to leave the company over this?
It was a very challenging year. I came back as a new mom with a full-time job, a baby to handle, I had some health issues, and I was committing to activism basically on the side. Many people told me, you can slow down, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t stay in the company and just go on with business as usual. I really felt we needed to stop the Department of War contract because I perceive that contract as normalizing what happened in Gaza — the kind of tech-powered, AI-powered, brutal war that was tested in Gaza was getting approved to become the standard of war.
“The kind of tech-powered, AI-powered, brutal war that was tested in Gaza was getting approved to become the standard of war.”
I don’t think petitions have a great effect in general. The [DeepMind] petition summarized my disillusionment from us not having done more during the year to prevent this from happening. For me, really, we should have gone on strike this year. We should have stopped working.
In the U.S., there is a lot of defense of these contracts on the basis that it’s important for national security. That might be persuasive if you’re American. But Americans are a pretty small minority on the planet. I’m curious what your perspective is on that kind of rationale as someone who lives in another country, who is a citizen of another country.
There’s been discussion about that as well. A lot of Europeans were actually scared of that, because the current Trump administration is not very friendly even to Europeans. What feels like national security for U.S., people feels like a threat for Europeans.
Are you aware of other colleagues at DeepMind who are going to follow what you’re doing and quit?
Some have quit already, some publicly and some silently. There have been many people leaving because of ethical reasons. Not all of them publicized it.
Do you think it’s possible for workers to change something like the Pentagon contract? What is the worker movement inside Google/DeepMind missing that would allow for that kind of change?
I think it’s possible, but it requires a real commitment and readiness to take some risk. Ultimately, I think we need a workforce ready to strike to oppose these contracts. Currently, many people are too scared to even express an opinion publicly. The company was very effective at creating a pervasive sense of fear, which induces self-censorship.
“The company was very effective at creating a pervasive sense of fear, which induces self-censorship.”
What I tried to show my colleagues this year was exactly that the boundaries we perceive and we retreat behind are not the real boundaries — that we can speak out and keep our jobs. Most of the times the reaction is intimidation in meetings, mentions of policy violations, but nothing else follows. Obviously, there are some boundaries, but they are much farther then the perceived ones.
I also took a day off and demonstrated in front of the office in February, together with University College London BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement] staff and a few other colleagues. I faced literally no consequences for that because it’s a trade union activity in my spare time, and in the U.K., we are protected for such an action. This can be a form of soft strike.
As I write in my letter, if we fail to challenge these restrictions, we internalize them and become diminished versions of ourselves. And I think that in an era of increasing surveillance and authoritarianism, that’s something to reflect on. I have felt much freer since I found the courage to speak out and take some risks. It’s empowering. Fighting this fear is a big part of our task in the union movement we are trying to create in Google DeepMind.
The next step would be a real strike. I always tell my union friends that if I see any Google workers strike, I can die happy.
Person named ‘K’ from China paid five defendants to injure Huang Yi-hao, New Taipei prosecutors say
Taiwanese prosecutors have charged five men over a plot to ram a car into a comedian who made fun of the Chinese Communist party and Xi Jinping.
Taiwan has repeatedly accused China of transnational repression to silence critics on the self-governed island, which Beijing claims as its territory and has vowed to take by force if necessary.
Alyssa Wilson, 17, was driving to a party at city zoo when prosecutors say Willie Herndon fired a gun at her car
A Texas husband and wife are facing criminal charges following the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old girl who was driving to a Halloween celebration at the St Louis zoo when gunfire struck her vehicle on a Missouri highway.
St Louis county prosecutor Melissa Price Smith announced on Monday that Willie Herndon, 43, has been charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with the death of Alyssa Wilson. His wife, 45-year-old Taiya Herndon, is also facing a charge of hindering prosecution.
Leaders criticised for spreading misleading information as France prepares for further protests this weekend
Emmanuel Macron has accused Donald Trump and other foreign leaders of making “stupid comments” about France’s street unrest for political gain, as the country prepared for more protests this weekend.
Speaking during a visit to Qatar, the French president did not name names but said “manipulation of information” after Saturday’s riots had led to “comments that are as unacceptable as they are stupid, from many people, including foreign leaders”.
After special envoy Steve Witkoff told Putin he was a "humanitarian" for releasing a U.S. citizen deemed to have been wrongfully detained, GOP Sen. John Cornyn responded, "No. Putin is a stone cold killer."
In an unsigned order, the Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal seeking to revive a policy ending certain medical treatments for transgender inmates.
Washington, DC — The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s emergency request to immediately enforce restrictions on medical care for transgender people in federal prisons, leaving a lower-court injunction in place while litigation continues.
The policy, issued by the Bureau of Prisons in February, would halt hormone therapy, surgeries and certain accommodations intended to align an inmate’s appearance with their gender identity. Federal prisons have provided hormone treatment for gender dysphoria since at least 1992.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth blocked the restrictions in June, finding the Bureau of Prisons likely acted unlawfully by disregarding its own prior evidence and experience. He wrote that officials appeared to have “reverse engineered” the policy to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting federal recognition of transgender identity.
The Supreme Court gave no explanation for denying the administration’s request, which is common in emergency cases. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito publicly dissented.
The lawsuit was brought by three transgender prisoners and is proceeding as a class action. Reuters reported that the ruling affects roughly 1,000 inmates covered by the litigation.
The decision is a notable setback for Trump’s broader effort to restrict transgender rights. The court has previously allowed his transgender military ban to take effect and upheld several state-level restrictions affecting transgender people.
Exclusive: Supernatural is relaunching in early access and could expand beyond Meta Quest headsets. Meanwhile, Meta VR Glasses could shape what comes next for fitness.
Democrat Amy Acton's estranged mother calls her a liar in a new Ramaswamy campaign ad. Acton's brother says the ad marks a "despicable low" and says their stepfather sexually abused Acton when she was a child.
Jason Arasheben has designed championship rings for plenty of teams. When he was tapped to create one for the Knicks, he knew it needed to represent New York in a special way.
Zia Yusuf claims undercover investigation broke the law as broadcaster stands by its journalism
Here is an explainer by Jill Ambrose about the Jackdaw decision.
But environmental groups have condemned the decision. Ami McCarthy, head of politics for Greenpeace UK, said:
Approving Jackdaw shows the toxic grip fossil fuel lobbyists still hold over our energy policy. Andy Burnham promised pragmatism [see 8.40am], but there is nothing pragmatic about rubber-stamping a project that won’t lower energy bills, won’t boost energy security and will create just 27 full-time jobs …
True pragmatism means severing our reliance on expensive oil and gas that leaves British households broke, supercharges extreme weather, and leaves our energy security at the mercy of petrostates.
Is the prime minister living in a parallel universe? One where we haven’t just endured our hottest summer on record, with droughts, wildfires and, in all likelihood, the most heat-related deaths on record? And where the UN hasn’t warned that we’re on the brink of breaching the all-important 1.5 degree warming limit?
Shell will be cheering this decision but it won’t knock a penny off our energy bills, which is what’s keeping people up at night, or make a meaningful difference to our gas supply.
Jackdaw will provide around just 2% of our gas demand for roughly ten years. It has been oversold and won’t stop the decline in North Sea jobs, as it will be largely unmanned and operated remotely.
Cannabis samples in the process of testing at Kaycha Labs in Denver Stephen Swofford/The Denver Gazette
The agency charged with regulating Colorado’s first-in-the-nation legal recreational marijuana market potentially put consumers at risk of using contaminated products, a new state audit found.
The report pointed to inconsistent oversight by the Marijuana Enforcement Division and loose state rules around testing marijuana products or contaminants. As a result, it found, nearly 75% of marijuana processed for eventual sale from 2023 through 2025 evaded testing for pesticides.
The audit, released Monday, identified a host of issues, including regulators’ failure to meet regular inspection schedules or to conduct sufficient random checks at dispensaries for contaminated products. It also found that delayed agency warnings to the public allowed potentially contaminated products to remain on shelves for months, sometimes years.
In one case highlighted by the newsrooms, it took 15 months for a manufacturer to discontinue production of a marijuana sleep aid pill despite consumers warning regulators that the product was harming their livers. The pills had herbal extracts that researchers say can cause liver damage.
Auditors said they did not identify evidence of “widespread health and safety issues” but did find that deficient regulations still left consumers vulnerable.
The audit found that unsafe products had remained on the market for as long as three years before the Marijuana Enforcement Division issued a public warning. The auditor’s review of the agency’s health and safety advisories found that, on average, from 2023 through 2025, contaminated products that were the subject of an advisory remained on shelves for more than seven months. That’s the same number of months the news organizations found contaminated products stayed on shelves before warnings were issued.
The audit also found that it took the agency three and a half months, on average, in 2025 to issue an advisory once it launched an investigation into potential contamination. Even after investigators determined an advisory was needed, it still took the agency a month on average to issue one.
“These issues limit MED’s ability to meet its core objective to identify product safety risks and to help ensure that licensed marijuana businesses meet product safety requirements,” the audit stated. “As a result, there is an increased risk that marijuana products sold in Colorado may have contaminants or that the potency listed on the labels is inaccurate.”
Colorado allows marijuana businesses to test far less frequently than required by state guidelines if they can show consistent compliance with testing rules. The reduced testing program results “in a significant portion of the marijuana product being sold in Colorado not undergoing testing to ensure it is safe,” the audit stated. Manufacturers also can rely on other testing exemptions, such as for certain marijuana-derived skin and body products, but there is “limited MED oversight” of how manufacturers determine they qualify for an exemption.
Auditors reported that a survey of MED investigators found that more than half said there are or may be widespread marijuana product safety issues in Colorado’s regulated market.
In a statement released Monday night, the Marijuana Enforcement Division emphasized that state auditors found no evidence “to support claims of widespread health and safety issues” with marijuana products for sale in Colorado, but the agency agreed the audit identified areas for improvement. It said that among other things, it would be assessing exemptions to tests currently allowed under state laws and regulations.
The state auditor’s review “allows us to take a critical look at how we can continue to carry out our work, consistent with our commitment to integrity, safety, and continuous operational improvement,” Dominique Mendiola, senior director of the MED, said in a statement.
The auditor’s report highlighted a criticism her agency has repeatedly sidestepped: the absence of independent collection of samples for safety testing. The Denver Gazette and ProPublica found that more than half of states with regulated marijuana markets rely on private labs or an independent third party to collect samples. Colorado marijuana businesses are free to collect their own samples submitted for testing.
The enforcement division’s own investigators told auditors that, as a result, Colorado relies largely on an honor code to ensure the safety of marijuana sold in the state’s dispensaries.
Auditors said that allowing businesses to select their own samples “increases the risk that businesses do not pick samples that are representative of the overall quality of their marijuana product.”
MED regulators at the start of the year said they planned to pursue an overhaul that would have required private lab personnel to collect samples, but they abandoned that effort after manufacturers said it would increase their costs. On Monday, Kyle Lambert, the enforcement division’s deputy senior director, told legislators that the agency opted against an overhaul this year, chiefly because he said it would be a geographic challenge to do away with self-sampling for rural businesses.
“It was decided now wasn’t the right time to propose that as a policy change,” Lambert said, adding that the agency still might revisit the issue.
State Sen. Byron Pelton, a Republican from Sterling, pushed back, saying it was a loophole he thinks the agency should consider closing.
“If I’m a shady character, I know which products I’m going to go sampling and which ones I’m not,” he said. “That’s a pretty gray area to me.”
The audit also questioned the agency’s reliance on businesses voluntarily recalling contaminated marijuana products, saying that “some of these recalls did not succeed at stopping the businesses from selling potentially unsafe product.”
Just last month, The Denver Gazette and ProPublica reported that a Colorado manufacturer voluntarily flagged 49 of its popular marijuana vapes for recall, nearly six weeks after a third-party lab notified the company and regulators that it detected methylene chloride, a chemical the Environmental Protection Agency has sought to ban for most uses because it can cause cancer. The MED issued a health and safety advisory a day after the publications first reported the manufacturer had warned dispensaries to stop selling the vapes, which consumers had been purchasing for over a year.
A cake has been Massachusetts’ official pie for almost 30 years, ever since lawmakers made Boston cream pie the commonwealth’s dessert emblem. The dessert is ... Read moreThe post A Massachusetts cake has been a legal pie for 30 years,…
Neil Bush, a son of former president George HW Bush and a lifelong Republican, announced on Tuesday that he crossed party lines to vote for James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas.
In a Facebook post, Neil Bush said he chose to vote early for Talarico over Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate and current Texas attorney general, because he was “deeply troubled” by Paxton’s conduct and was “enormously impressed” by Talarico’s principles.
Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka spent a week in jail after defying restrictions on protests in Delhi amid government crackdown
An Indian court has ordered the release of two leaders of India’s Cockroach movement who were jailed last week amid a mounting state crackdown on youth-led protests.
The two leaders of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) movement, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, had spent a week in Delhi’s Tihar jail after being arrested by Delhi police last week.
Students, teachers and civil servants have shown up in Athens, with demonstrations also in Thessaloniki and other cities
Meanwhile, back to Witkoff’s meeting with Putin in St Petersburg, the US president, Donald Trump, has just welcomed the release of Stephen Hubbard, a US citizen held by Moscow on allegations of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine (11:24).
“Stephen Hubbard, taken four years ago by Russia during the Biden Administration, was just released from prison, at the request of President Donald J. Trump, made directly to President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation last week.
Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family. The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return - an unprecedented situation for Russia. There was no “swap” necessary for this release.
Lake water holds its warmth long after the land around it gives up on summer, and that leftover warmth is the reason so many Great ... Read moreThe post Warm lake water is keeping these Great Lakes harbor towns colorful…
Department drops efforts to return Tony Hall to Barbados, a country he left at 12 and where he has no living relatives
The Home Office has lifted a deportation order handed to a 62-year-old man who has lived in Britain for 50 years after criticism of the department’s attempts to remove him to Barbados, a country he left as a child.
The Home Office wrote to Tony Hall on Tuesday to inform him that his deportation order had been revoked. His case had been highlighted in the Guardian a day earlier.
With You Can See Everything, Holmes joins other such high-profile subjects as Lance Armstrong, Imelda Marcos and Anthony Weiner to allow film-makers to document their lives. But do they ever come out well?
In You Can See Everything, convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes invites film-makers Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim into her home in a supposed act of “radical transparency”. Holmes is filmed, along with her partner, Billy Evans, and their two young children, in the weeks before starting a prison sentence for defrauding Theranos investors. “The best way for people to see who she is,” Evans says, “is to give as much access as possible into our daily lives”. It may also be the best way to market “Theranos 2.0”, which the couple are working on during filming. But the documentary questions whether Holmes is presenting her authentic self or a manufactured persona. Fielder speaks for the audience when he asks Holmes in a tense exchange whether she’s “being real” with him. “I’m always being real,” she says.
That question of authenticity is at the heart of documentary film-making. You Can See Everything is as much about the ambiguous relationship between film-maker and subject as it is about Holmes herself. There is often a power struggle over narrative control in documentaries, with both sides of the dynamic wanting different outcomes from the final film. Watching You Can See Everything inevitably prompts the question: why would Holmes, days before she heads to jail, invite the scrutiny of a film crew?
"My vote was motivated by two things: deep concern about Ken Paxton's record and genuine admiration for the character and principles I see in James Talarico," Neil Bush posted on Facebook.
Measures would remove some penalties for those helping women access abortion but are ‘small-scale step’, say campaigners
Poland’s lower house of parliament has approved two bills aimed at loosening a near-total ban on abortions, in what campaigners have described as a “small-scale step” ahead of protests calling on the government to fulfil its promises to overhaul the country’s laws.
The new measures, which are likely to be vetoed by Poland’s nationalist president, would remove some of the criminal penalties for those who help women to access abortion care and allow terminations in cases of foetal abnormalities.
European Commission calls accommodation website’s approach to fraudulent listings and phishing scams as ‘absolutely substandard’
EU regulators have opened an investigation into Booking.com, alleging that the accommodation website has not done enough to protect consumers from fake listings and scams.
The European Commission, which regulates the world’s biggest tech companies operating in the EU, said Booking.com may have breached the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) with its “absolutely substandard” approach to tackling fraudulent listings and phishing scams, where criminals impersonate a third party to trick people to hand over money.
(The Center Square) – With Election Day now less than two weeks away, some voters in certain parts of Wisconsin got a chance to see their candidates for Congress.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Website admins, brace yourselves. Fixes for what are believed to be uncommonly severe vulnerabilities are scheduled to drop in a little more than 12 hours for PHP, a programming language that powers websites and Web applications everywhere. PHP maintainers said Monday that they planned to release patches for two vulnerabilities, both with severity ratings of 9.2 out of a possible 10.
"All PHP users are encouraged to prepare now so they can upgrade as soon as the release is available," the advisory stated. "We reserve the right to release earlier should details of either vulnerability become public, or should evidence of active exploitation appear in the wild." The maintainers published the advisory following the leaking of purported details, which have yet to be confirmed. The report showed a video of an exploit tool dubbed PHP2Shell executing code on webservers running WordPress 7.1.3, MediaWiki 1.46.2, phpBB 3.3.17, Magento 2.4.9, Joomla 6.2.0, Laravel 13.36.0, Laravel 8.83.29, Symphony 8.1.9, Drupal 11.4.10, and WHMCS 9.0.9, all of which use PHP. A video depicting the tool has been reposted here.
Attempts to locate the unconfirmed report were unsuccessful, but security firm watchTowr said it claimed to affect every PHP version from PHP 5, released in 2004, onward. The security firm went on to say it has confirmed that the vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, are real. Researchers from separate security firm Sansec said they "expect mass attacks to start within 15 minutes of the release." A third security firm, Webfence, also urged admins to prepare now. Huntress has also issued an advisory.
After months of controversy over the possible use of AI by winners of prestigious awards, the Prix Pascal de Littérature IA is rewarding fiction written with the help of LLMs
A prize for AI-written books has launched this week.
The Prix Pascal de Littérature IA invites submissions of manuscripts co-written with AI tools, with the winner promised publication.
Former art teacher, who cared for her disabled son, ‘received almost no support’, said her local MP Manuela Perteghella
Andy Burnham has backed mandatory suicide prevention training for social workers after the “devastating” death of Matilda Davis, a parent-carer who killed herself minutes after meeting professionals.
The Guardian revealed in August how the “absolutely inspirational” 36-year-old had taken her life after feeling “completely exhausted” and failed by England’s social care system.
So far, under President Donald Trump’s second term:
Job growth became sluggish, with only 776,000 jobs created. The unemployment rate edged up to 4.2%, still historically low.
Inflation worsened. Consumer prices are up 5.4%. Gasoline is up 38%.
Wages just barely rose faster than inflation, as measured since Trump was sworn in. But they’ve decreased this year.
The economy grew 2.2% in the second quarter, continuing a steady rate of growth.
Consumer sentiment remains low.
Home prices increased 6.2%.
The trade deficit for the most recent 12 months is down 10.4% compared with 2024, but it has risen substantially in the last two months on record.
The number of apprehensions at the U.S. border with Mexico decreased about 91%. The number of refugee admissions dropped by nearly the same percentage.
The percentage of the population lacking health insurance was statistically unchanged in 2025, according to two government reports.
The number of people receiving federal food assistance decreased by 6 million.
Median household income rose in 2025, while the official poverty rate declined. An alternative measure of poverty that factors in government assistance showed no meaningful change.
Corporate profits continued to rise; 2025 was the 10th consecutive year that profits increased.
The S&P 500 went up 28.6%.
The violent crime and murder rates in 2025 continued to decline, dropping by the largest percentages since the FBI began collecting nationwide data in 1936.
The publicly held debt is up about 12.8%.
Analysis
Ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, Trump hasimplored his supporters in rallies across the country to “pretend I’m on the ballot.” In our latest quarterly update for this series, we provide the best available data on how the U.S. has fared under Trump’s second term as voters head to the polls.
This report includes new information on household income and poverty, statistics released by the Census Bureau last month. And our section on crime focuses on the FBI’s annual report for 2025, published in August.
We’ll continue to post quarterly updates for the remainder of Trump’s presidency, as we’ve done for past presidents since we launched this series in 2012. (All of our articles on Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, as well as Trump’s first and second terms are available on our website.)
We make no judgment on how much credit or blame the president should receive for these metrics. And we leave it to readers to form their own opinions on whether the indicators are positive, negative or neither.
Jobs and Unemployment
Job growth slowed markedly and unemployment crept up during Trump’s second term. Manufacturing jobs declined at first but bounced back a bit this year.
Employment — Employment growth became sluggish during Trump’s first 20 months in office.
The most recent figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show an increase of only 776,000 in total nonfarm employment between January 2025 and September 2026.
The total went up nearly three times faster before, rising by 2,613,000 during the final 20 months of President Joe Biden’s administration, even after the BLS revised Biden’s figures downward in February as a result of its annual “benchmarking” study.
Some of the sluggishness under Trump is due to the president’s deliberate slashing of the federal workforce. Federal government employment has fallen by 328,000, or 10.9%, since he took office.
Looking only at the private sector — excluding federal, state and local government workers — 1,006,000 jobs were added during Trump’s term so far. But even that is far less than the 1,778,000 private-sector jobs added in the preceding 20 months.
In August 2025, after the BLS reported only 73,000 jobs had been gained the prior month, Trump called the figures “rigged” and “phony” and fired the BLS commissioner. But the numbers, on average, have been even worse since then. The average monthly gain in jobs during Trump’s second term so far has been only 39,000.
Manufacturing Jobs — Last year, Trump said that “jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country,” as he announced sweeping new tariffs on what he called “Liberation Day,” April 2, 2025.
But that hasn’t happened, at least not yet. The economy continued to shed manufacturing jobs for months after Trump’s tariff announcement, losing another 82,000 by December 2025, when the drain ended.
This year the economy has added 72,000 manufacturing jobs — up 0.6% from the bottom. That brings the tally during Trump’s first 20 months to a net loss of 21,000. If the current upward trend continues, we may be reporting a small net gain in our next quarterly report.
Labor Force Participation — The labor force participation rate declined in Trump’s second term, dropping from 62.6% in January 2025 to 61.8% as of September.
That’s well below the rate when Trump attacked the Biden administration in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference. “The labor force participation is the worst in many, many decades,” he said then. “That’s the number that you have to look at.” That was August 2022, when the rate was 62.3%.
The rate is the portion of the population over age 16 that is working or seeking work. It generally has been in a long decline as the population ages and workers retire.
Unemployment — The unemployment rate has ticked up slightly under Trump but remains historically low.
It was 4.0% in January 2025 and most recently was 4.2% in September. Both figures are well below the median rate for all months since 1948, which is 5.5%.
Job Openings — The number of unfilled job openings has declined by 352,000, or 4.7% under Trump, as of the last day of August.
Meanwhile, the number of people officially listed as unemployed and seeking work rose by 244,000, or 3.6%, as of September.
So there are now 7.11 million unemployed job-seekers and 7.08 million job openings.
Wages and Inflation
Inflation worsened during Trump’s tenure. Lately prices have been rising faster than weekly paychecks.
CPI — Trump hasn’t yet delivered on his campaign promise to reduce inflation.
In the 12 months before Trump took office, the Consumer Price Index, the most commonly cited measure of inflation, rose 3.0%. And in the most recent BLS report, the 12-month increase was 3.7%.
Over Trump’s entire first 20 months in office, the CPI went up 5.4%, pushed up most recently by his war on Iran, which sent fuel prices soaring.
Before the war the price of gasoline had been a bright spot for the president. In January the national average price for regular gasoline at the pump was down to $2.78 a gallon, from $3.11 the week he was sworn in for his second term.
The average has remained over $4 nearly every week since. It was $4.28 the week ending Oct. 19. That’s 38% higher than it was when Trump took office.
Highway diesel prices hit a record high of $6.53 per gallon the week ending Sept. 21. More recently they edged down to $6.28 the week ending Oct. 19, but that was still 69% higher than the week Trump took office.
Overall inflation is much higher than the Federal Reserve would like, prompting the central bank to raise interest rates Sept. 16 rather than lowering them as the president had been demanding.
Wages — During Trump’s second term workers’ pay rose even faster than prices, but just barely. And lately the opposite has been true.
The average weekly earnings of all private-sector workers, adjusted for inflation, rose 0.94% during Trump’s first 20 months. That’s not much better than in the preceding 20 months, when inflation-adjusted paychecks rose 0.86%.
However, all the gains under Trump happened in 2025, and nearly half have slipped away this year. During Trump’s first 12 months inflation-adjusted wages rose 1.83%, but since then real weekly earnings have gone down 0.87%.
Economic Growth
The U.S. economy continues to grow at a steady rate – despite a negative public perception of Trump’s economic policies.
The nation’s real gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 2.2% in the second quarter of 2026, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported last month. At the same time, the BEA announced it had revised its first quarter estimate upward to 2.5%.
In an Oct. 2 commentary after the release of the latest GDP estimates, U.S. Bank described the economy as exhibiting “solid momentum” this year. “Consumer spending and business investment remain the main sources of growth,” U.S. Bank said.
As of Oct. 20, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow model was projecting growth of 3.5% for the third quarter. The BEA’s first estimate for the third quarter, known as the Advance Estimate, will be released Oct. 29.
The growth comes despite what Philip N. Jefferson, a vice chair of the Federal Reserve, called “a cascade of shocks” buffeting the economy, “including an energy shock, a massive AI infrastructure buildout, and significant changes in trade policy.”
The U.S. war with Iran has increased the cost of energy, most visibly in the gasoline prices paid by Americans at the pump.
In an Oct. 1 speech, Jefferson said he expects the economy will show “continued resilience,” but he warned that “inflation is too high” and poses a risk to economic growth. (See more about inflation rates in our “Wages and Inflation” section above.)
On the same day that it raised its benchmark interest rate to help tame inflation, the Federal Open Market Committee – the Federal Reserve’s policymaking arm – released its latest economic projections. The Fed said it expects real GDP to remain steady over the next four years, including a 2.3% increase for the full year in 2026 and 2.4% in 2027.
Consumer Sentiment
Consumer sentiment — as measured by the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers — remains stubbornly low.
After reaching a record low in May at 44.8, the university’s Index of Consumer Sentiment for October was largely unchanged at 46.3, according to the preliminary figure.
“Frustration over cost-of-living continues to mount, as consumers across the political spectrum believe that the trajectory of the economy has weakened since the beginning of the year,” Joanne W. Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers, said when releasing the preliminary October data on Oct. 9.
As of Oct. 9, consumer sentiment is 25.4 points lower than it was in January 2025, when it was 71.7 as Trump took office for a second time.
Consumer sentiment in October is also far below its lowest point during Trump’s first term – which occurred in April 2020, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, it was 71.8.
The university will release the final October data on Oct. 23.
In its most recent Consumer Confidence Survey, the Conference Board — a research organization with more than 2,000 member companies — reported that consumer confidence “deteriorated notably in September, following two prior months of softening.”
The Conference Board will issue its October report on Oct. 27.
Home Prices
Home prices have slightly increased under Trump.
But lately home sales have slowed and mortgage rates have gone up, “giving buyers improved negotiating power,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said when releasing September’s home sales and prices.
“It is a great time to be a buyer,” Yun said.
The preliminary national median price of an existing, single-family home sold in September was $422,700, according to the National Association of Realtors.
That’s 6.2% higher than it was in January 2025, when Biden left office, and just 1.2% higher than a year ago.
Yun said August and September “marked the two slowest months for home sales this year” and higher mortgage rates are “making things tougher” for sellers.
The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate on Sept. 16, and it may do so again. That has resulted in higher mortgage rates.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.40% as of Oct. 15, according to Freddie Mac. That’s up nearly 1% from our last report, when the mortgage rate was 6.55% as of July 16.
“Naturally, there will be fewer buyers who can qualify for a mortgage at a higher interest rate,” Yun said.
Mortgage rates are now higher than they were when Trump took office. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 7.04% as of Jan. 16, 2025 — days before Trump returned to the White House for a second term.
“Home sellers need to be realistic about local market conditions, which could require price discounts and other incentives to attract buyers,” Yun said.
Existing home sales and prices for October are scheduled to be released Nov. 12.
Trade Deficit
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services in 2026 is on track for a decrease from last year. But it’s still unclear if the annual figure will end up being lower than the trade deficit the year before Trump took office.
During the most recent 12 months ending in August, the trade deficit was $793.8 billion, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s 10.4% lower than the annual trade deficit of $885.5 billion in 2024. But the deficit has been rising in recent months.
Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in an Oct. 6 X post that “the deficit is on a train ride straight up right now,” referring to the trade figures for July and August. For the first time since early 2025, the trade deficit topped $100 billion in August. The BEA noted an increase that month in imported oil, gold and semiconductors/computers.
Setser said that “the US needs the world’s imports to meet its firms desire to invest in AI while its consumers consume a high level of current income.”
&&
In the first year of Trump’s second term, the trade deficit went up, despite his policy of imposing tariffs in an effort to reduce the deficit. The annual deficit in 2025 was nearly $932 billion, partly because of historically large monthly deficits in the first three months of that year, as importers bought more goods to avoid Trump’s planned tariffs on imported products. The deficit exceeded $100 billion in each of those three months.
The number of immigrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border has dramatically decreased since Trump took office. The number of immigrants apprehended crossing the border over the last 12 months ending in August was down nearly 91% compared with the last 12 months under President Joe Biden.
“We inherited the worst border in American history by far, and we turned it into the strongest and most secure border in the history of our country,” Trump said at a political rally in Kentucky on Oct. 17. “And in the past, a number just came out a couple of days ago, in the past 17 months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted into the United States through our southern [border].”
The U.S. experienced historically high illegal immigration in the first three years under Biden, before he initiated some emergency policies to curb illegal border crossings. Over the entirety of the Biden administration, Border Patrol agents encountered more than 7 million people (7,383,107) attempting to cross the border illegally (though about a quarter of them in FY 2020 and 2021 were repeat offenders). That’s nearly 265% higher than during the four previous years under Trump (2,025,350).
And while the monthly numbers of migrant encounters at the border is not the lowest in history, they are lower in Trump’s second term than at any time over the last 50 years, according to the Pew Research Center.
In an Oct. 16 press release, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported — as Trump claimed — that there have been no releases at the border in 17 consecutive months, meaning no one caught crossing the border illegally was temporarily released into the U.S., for example, to apply for asylum. On his first day in office, Trump enacted a policy effectively barring asylum applications.
In the past, Trump and Vice President JD Vance have sometimestwisted that statistic to claim that no one at all has come illegally into the country. Because it’s hard to know exactly how many people successfully sneak into the country illegally, we have used apprehension figures as a proxy to measure illegal border crossings. In August, CBP reported that 8,870 migrants were apprehended at the border. Those are the ones apprehended. As we wrote in September, CBP keeps, but does not often publicly release, figures on so-called gotaways, immigrants who are detected via electronic surveillance crossing the border but evade apprehension.
Rosario “Pete” Vasquez, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, reported on social media that there were 2,123 gotaways in May 2025 and 986 in June 2025. Data obtained by the Cato Institute via a Freedom of Information Act request indicated another 6,815 gotaways in the following three months. So the numbers are relatively low, but they are not zero.
The Trump administration has also increased interior enforcement and deportations. According to publicly available Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, the average daily population of those detained by ICE during the last three months ending in July is up 272% compared with the last three months under Biden.
Although Trump continues to say that “we’re still getting rid of the worst of the worst,” as he did at the Oct. 17 rally, ICE is arresting a greater percentage of people who have neither criminal convictions nor pending criminal charges. In the last three months of the Biden administration, 6% of those arrested had neither criminal convictions nor pending charges. By contrast, over the three months ending in July, the latest data available, that figure climbed to 34%.
Refugees
Refugees who flee their countries because of conflict, violence or persecution have found little or no refuge in the United States under Trump.
In fiscal year 2026, which ended Sept. 30, the U.S. admitted only 16,292 refugees, according to the State Department’s monthly refugee admissions reports. That’s the lowest number since fiscal year 2021, which started under Trump and ended after Biden won the November 2020 election.
&&
Overall, the U.S. admitted only 16,798 refugees in Trump’s first full 20 months in office, beginning Feb. 1, 2025, and ending Sept. 30, 2026, according to the State Department data. That’s just 840 refugees per month under Trump.
By contrast, in its last full 20 months in office, from May 1, 2023, through Dec. 31, 2024, the Biden administration admitted 162,536 refugees — a monthly average of 8,127, State Department data show. That’s a decline of nearly 90% under Trump.
The steep dropoff stems from Trump’s Day One executive order that indefinitely suspended all refugee admissions. The Trump administration also changed its mission statement for the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.
Under Biden and even in Trump’s first term, the bureau’s mission was to promote “U.S. interests by providing protection, easing suffering, and resolving the plight of persecuted and forcibly displaced people around the world.” The bureau’s mission now is to conduct “diplomacy aimed at ending mass and illegal migration.”
South Africa’s white minority Afrikaners are a notable exception to Trump’s stringent refugee policy.
Less than two weeks after suspending refugee admissions, Trump carved out an exemption for Afrikaners — who, he wrongly claimed, have been victims of “a genocide” in their homeland.
Nearly 99% of all refugees admitted in Trump’s first full 20 months in office were from South Africa, State Department data show.
For fiscal year 2027, which began Oct. 1, Trump capped refugee admissions at 17,500. The Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2027, which Trump issued on Sept. 25, states: “The admissions shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa.”
Health Insurance
The share of people without health insurance in 2025 was statistically unchanged from 2024, according to the latest government estimates.
As we wrote in our last “Trump’s Numbers” update, in 2025, 28 million people were uninsured, representing 8.3% of the U.S. population, according to early release estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, which measures insurance status at the time people are interviewed. That was up just 0.1 percentage points from 2024, which was not a statistically significant difference.
The NHIS is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In September, the Census Bureau published its annual report on health insurance coverage, which measures people who were uninsured for the entire calendar year. It similarly found that the percentage of people without insurance in 2025 was “not statistically different from 2024.” The report estimated that 26.7 million people, or 7.9% of the U.S. population, lacked insurance in 2025, down from 8% in 2024.
The 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act is expected to increase the number of people who are uninsured by 10 million over 10 years, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. But CBO anticipated those effects wouldn’t begin until after 2025. CBO projected the law would lead to an additional 1.3 million people being uninsured in 2026 and an additional 5.2 million in 2027.
Enrollment in Affordable Care Act marketplace plans fell from 22.1 million in 2025 to 19.2 million in February 2026, according to federal data released in June, though it’s unclear how many of those people have gained other coverage. Experts attribute the drop largely to the expiration of more generous subsidies at the end of 2025.
Food Stamps
The number of people receiving benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, continues to fall.
According to preliminary data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 36.4 million people were participating in SNAP as of June. That’s down by more than 6 million, or 14.3%, from the 42.4 million who were enrolled in January 2025. (USDA notes the data may include people receiving disaster assistance.)
While SNAP enrollment has been trending downward since late 2024, the decrease has accelerated since Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025. The law’s changes to SNAP eligibility, which include extending work requirements to adults aged 55 to 64, are expected to lower enrollment and reduce federal spending on the program.
Income and Poverty
Household income — Median household income rose 2.6% from 2024 to 2025, according to the most recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The median household income was $87,460 in 2025, up $2,250 from the median income of $85,210 in 2024. (Those figures are in 2025 dollars, so they take inflation into account.) The Census Bureau says median household income in 2025 was the highest on record going back to 1967.
The median is the midpoint of the income distribution, meaning half of households earned more and half earned less.
Poverty — The share of people under the federal poverty line declined during Trump’s first year of his second term. The official poverty rate was 10.2% in 2025, down from 10.7% in 2024, according to estimates the Census Bureau released in September.
In raw numbers, 34.5 million people were living in poverty in 2025, compared with 36 million in 2024.
The official poverty rate for children, meanwhile, dropped to a “historic low” of 13.4% in 2025, the Census Bureau said. The child poverty rate was 14.4% in 2024.
The official poverty rate is based on pretax income and family size. A different measure of poverty, called the supplemental poverty measure, showed no real change in 2025.
The SPM factors in government assistance programs that help low-income households, such as food and housing assistance. It also accounts for a wider range of necessary expenses and geographic variation in the cost of living. By that measure, 13.1% of the U.S. population was living in poverty in 2025, which the Census Bureau said was “not statistically different from 2024.”
Corporate Profits
Corporate profits continue to climb to new heights under Trump.
After-tax corporate profits were $4.28 trillion at an annualized rate in the second quarter of this year – up $331.6 billion, or 8.4%, from the previous quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. (See line 45.)
The second quarter figure is nearly 25% higher than the full year in 2024, the year before Trump took office, and about 27% higher from a year ago.
A Wall Street Journal article in August on “booming” corporate profits chalked up “the good times” this year “to a confluence of fortunate events: red-hot artificial-intelligence spending, federal spending and the windfall companies are getting in the form of refunds of some of their past tariff payments.”
The Supreme Court in February ruled Trump’s tariffs that he imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act exceeded his constitutional authority. As of Oct. 2, $126 billion has been refunded to U.S. companies, according to a U.S. Court of International Trade filing this month. That’s “more than 75% of the $166 billion of unlawfully collected IEEPA duties,” the court filing said.
But after-tax corporate profits have been trending upward for years. Last year marked the 10th consecutive year that profits increased year over year, dating to 2016 under President Barack Obama.
The BEA estimate for this year’s third quarter profits is scheduled to be released Nov. 25.
Stock Market
Although polling shows Americans are unhappy with the direction of the overall economy, all three major U.S. stock indexes have made significant gains under Trump and set new records.
The S&P closed on Oct. 20 at 7,712.57 — 28.6% higher than it was on Jan. 17, 2025, three days before Trump took office. The Nasdaq was up 34.6% during that time.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average – which tracks 30 of the nation’s largest companies – has seen smaller gains than the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. As of the Oct. 20 close, the Dow had increased 20.7% under Trump. The Dow last set a record on Aug. 5, when the market closed at 54,349.12.
Crime
The FBI released its annual report on nationwide crime for 2025 in August, showing historic one-year drops in the violent crime and murder rates. Those declines come after both rates have been trending down since 2023, after increasing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FBI found that the violent crime rate declined by 9.7% and the murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate dropped by 18.5% from 2024 to 2025, the largest one-year declines since the FBI began releasing the nationwide crime estimates in 1936.
The data are estimates based on figures submitted by more than 17,000 local law enforcement agencies covering about 96% of the U.S. population. The violent crime rate went from 362.9 offenses per 100,000 population in 2024 to 327.6 per 100,000 population last year. The murder rate dropped from 5.1 per 100,000 to 4.1.
That 4.1 murder rate is at a historic low. The FBI said it’s tied with the bureau’s 1955 and 1956 figures, while a report by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonprofit think tank, determined it was the lowest since 1900 (that report used public health data for the years before 1960).
For the 2006 to 2025 FBI data, see Table 1 after downloading the FBI’s 2025 estimations for crime in the U.S.
“Overall, it was the largest percentage point drop in murder, violent crime and property crime ever recorded,” Jeff Asher, a co-founder of AH Datalytics, a consulting firm that compiles crime data, wrote on Substack of the one-year crime decline. He noted that this followed historic drops in the two years prior. “With murder you have to go all the way back to 2024 to find the previous largest one-year drop in murder and before that the previous largest one-year drop was in 2023.”
AH Datalytics, CCJ and the Major Cities Chiefs Association, an organization representing police executives in large cities, publish more current data than the FBI from a subset of law enforcement agencies, and those statistics all show that violent crime and murder have continued to drop in 2026. AH Datalytics found a 5.9% decline in the number of violent crimes and a 16.6% decrease in the number of murders when comparing January to August with the same period in 2025. That’s based on figures from law enforcement agencies that cover about a third of the U.S. population.
Trump has taken credit for the drop in crime in 2025, saying in August that this happened “because of what the federal government’s doing.” But criminology experts said there are many plausible factors, as we’ve written.
In September, CCJ convened 48 experts to explore why homicide has experienced a historic decrease from 2022 to 2026. “No single factor was viewed as the dominant explanation for the decline,” the group said in a summary of its report on the summit. “Easing pandemic-related social and economic disruption was the only factor rated as a major contributor by a majority of respondents, at 57%.”
Several other factors were viewed as “leading contributors” to the decline, “including expanded community violence intervention (CVI), … increased use of focused deterrence, increased local government capacity, an increase in public safety and support resources relative to demand, and an increase in proactive policing enforcement.”
There was little support among the experts for more than half of the possible factors, including actions taken by the Trump administration, such as deploying the National Guard to some U.S. cities and increasing enforcement of immigration laws.
Adam Gelb, the president and CEO of CCJ, told us in August that many factors were potentially affecting changes in crime. “You know the movie ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’?” he asked. “That’s what we’ve got here. And when you have so many, so many things happening at once, it can be extremely hard to disentangle.”
Oil Production and Imports
Crude oil production in the U.S. averaged more than 13.8 million barrels per day during Trump’s most recent 12 months in office through July, according to the most recent Energy Information Administration data. That was about 4.1% higher than the daily average of nearly 13.3 million barrels in 2024.
Average production over the last 12 months is also above the output of close to 13.7 million barrels per day in 2025, the current annual record, based on EIA data going back to the 1860s. Production of crude has increased each year since 2022, after declining during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
The EIA said more production in the Permian region in Texas, New Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico — as result of higher oil prices — has contributed to the increase in 2026.
However, crude oil imports from other countries, which averaged more than 6.2 million barrels per day over the last 12 months, are down about 5.5% from the daily average of nearly 6.6 million barrels daily in 2024.
Carbon Emissions
After declining in Biden’s last two years in office, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions have increased.
In the most recent 12 months ending in June, there were nearly 4.9 billion metric tons of emissions from the use of coal, natural gas and petroleum-based products. Emissions in that period were up 1.5% from 2024, according to EIA data.
But in its Short-Term Energy Outlook for October, the EIA forecast that CO2 emissions at the end of 2026 will still be lower than the 4.9 billion metric tons emitted in 2025. “In 2026, decreases in CO2 emissions primarily reflect expected declines in coal consumption and, to a lesser extent, declines in consumption of various petroleum products,most notably motor gasoline and distillate fuel oil,” the EIA said.
Federal Debt and Deficits
Debt — Since our last update, the federal debt held by the public increased by more than $610 billion, according to Treasury Department data as of Oct. 19. The publicly held debt, which excludes money the government owes itself, is now more than $32.5 trillion. That’s up nearly 12.8% from when Trump began his second term.
Deficit — The debt continues to increase because of constant annual budget deficits. The latest Treasury data show the deficit increased to nearly $2 trillion in fiscal year 2026, as the government spent a record of almost $7.4 trillion but only received about $5.4 trillion in revenue.
The FY 2026 deficit was the largest since FY 2021 — which was exacerbated by emergency pandemic spending — and it was about $217 billion more than the FY 2025 deficit, which had decreased slightly from the deficit for FY 2024. (The last budget surplus was in FY 2001.)
Federal revenue in FY 2026 was lower than it would have been because the Trump administration had to issue $145 billion in tariff refunds, according to Treasury figures. Corporate income tax revenue was also down by more than $43 billion compared with the prior year.
Judiciary Appointments
Supreme Court — There still have been no vacancies on the high court during Trump’s second term. At this point of his presidency, Biden had won confirmation for one justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Court of Appeals — Ten of Trump’s nominees for U.S. circuit courts have been approved. At the same point in Biden’s term, 25 had been confirmed.
District Court — As for District Court judges, 46 of Trump’s nominees have been confirmed, while 58 judges had been confirmed at this point under Biden.
One judge for the Court of International Trade has been confirmed under Trump; none were confirmed at this point under Biden.
No judges have been confirmed under Trump for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, while two judgeswere confirmed at the same point in Biden’s presidency.
As of Oct. 20, there were no vacancies for Court of Appeals judges and 28 for District Court judges with 11 nominees pending.
Sources
We provide links to the sources for these statistics throughout the article.
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Voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of economy and cost of living, says poll in new low recorded by NY Times/Siena
Donald Trump’s approval rating sank to 36% just two weeks before the midterm elections, the lowest recorded in a poll by the New York Times/Siena College, with most respondents expressing frustration over his handling of the US economy, cost of living and Iran war.
In an October survey of approximately 3,494 likely voters, 59% said they disapproved of Trump’s handling of his job, and 52% said they planned to vote for the Democratic candidate in the upcoming election.
Water and fresh food running out in Taiz as fighting intensifies and Houthi advance cuts off most supply routes
The humanitarian crisis in the besieged Yemeni city of Taiz is becoming unmanageable as the city runs out of water, fuel and fresh food, Oxfam aid workers in the country have warned.
Iran-allied Houthi forces have largely encircled the city of more than 900,000 people, cutting it off from most supply routes. This week, heavy fighting has raged around the city’s old airport, causing extensive damage in a densely populated residential area.
France’s riots and mounting debt reveal a country in disarray ahead of pivotal presidential electionExpert commentLToremark
France’s violent protests put further pressure on Macron’s already weak government, give Marine Le Pen fresh political ammunition – and offer a stark warning for Europe.
Only three weeks after the peaceful celebration of Pope Leo XIV’s visit, France offered an altogether different spectacle over the weekend: burning cars, looted shops, violent clashes with police and the historic town hall of Limoges engulfed in flames.
The contrast between the two events is stark. But they may both point to something deeper: a profoundly divided society, facing a crisis of self-confidence, hoping to recover a sense of direction and purpose. Beneath France’s political anger lies an anxiety about the future, in a world increasingly shaped by algorithms and faceless technology.
Although this anxiety is not unique to the country, the timing is particularly bad for France.
A hijacked social protest
It all started with high-school students protesting deteriorating teaching conditions and staff shortages. University students soon joined them, followed by trade unions and veterans of the ‘yellow vests’ movement, as grievances expanded to encompass living costs and declining public services.
By 17 October, some 550,000 people had demonstrated, according to the ministry of the interior; organizers claimed 800,000. In any case, it was one of the largest mobilizations since protests against the government’s pension reform bill in 2023, which has since been dropped.
Most participants protested peacefully, although some young demonstrators were severely injured in clashes with police. Their demands were also quickly overshadowed by rioters who looted shops, attacked police officers and set public buildings alight. The French government imposed a curfew in the most sensitive districts of Paris and other major cities, bracing for further escalation this coming weekend.
Such violence is hardly unique to France. Milan also suffered protests and looting last weekend, and the Italian government has just passed new anti-riot laws. Britain too experienced widespread rioting as recently as the summer of 2024. But the timing is exceptionally damaging for France. Its public debt is approaching 119 per cent of GDP, while weak growth, a persistently high deficit (the fourth highest in the eurozone) and soaring borrowing costs have placed France’s public finances under mounting pressure (it has been subject of an excessive deficit procedure by the European Commission since 2024). Meanwhile, the parliamentary stalemate that followed President Emmanuel Macron’s ill-fated decision to dissolve the National Assembly in 2024 has made it almost impossible to restore financial discipline and has pushed France to the brink.
With the public purse under such strain and the destruction caused by the riots projected to exceed €1.2 billion, the question of who will eventually foot the bill is politically extremely sensitive. A new riot insurance scheme, planned for 2027, could push up premiums for small shopkeepers. For those whose premises have been vandalized or looted, being made to shoulder the cost of public disorder (and criminal behaviour) risks deepening the sense of injustice and resentment that has helped fuel social unrest.
The images of disorder reinforce the impression of anarchy and a country without a clear political direction – if not a failing state. They spurred a bond sell-off, heightening pressure on the French debt even further. This could be seen by malign foreign powers as an opportunity for destabilization, although there is no clear established evidence at this stage that external actors interfered and fuelled the unrest. But former prime minister and presidential candidate Gabriel Attal’s proposal to allow temporary restrictions on social media platforms during riots illustrates the growing concern over their capacity to amplify violence and threaten public order. The Italian defence minister went a step further, openly declaring that the Milan riots were the result of a ‘hybrid war against the West’ waged via ‘TikTok, social media and YouTube’.
France’s political centre no longer holds
With the 2027 presidential election only six months away, the political stakes couldn’t be higher. Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally, has already used the violence to strengthen her discourse on law and order, while hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon has sought to capitalize on the social anger to denounce institutionalized police violence and rally the left-leaning electorate. Their political projects differ profoundly, but both are taking advantage of the dissatisfaction with a political centre that has struggled to demonstrate that it can still deliver – or hold at all. In polls, the two leaders are still the favourites to reach the second round of the presidential election.
It is difficult to address France’s current predicament without drawing a parallel with Europe’s other major economy, Germany. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which won 20.8 per cent in the 2025 federal election, now polls at roughly 28–30 per cent. Germany, of course, has seen nothing comparable to France’s weekend of rioting, and the sources of discontent are not identical. Anger mostly stems from a deterioration of Germany’s industrial model in the face of rising energy costs, more restricted expert markets and growing competition from China, alongside disputes over immigration and the feeling of a loss of identity. But the French and the Germans are asking the same question: can established political parties still protect living standards and offer a credible future? The success of the National Rally and the AfD suggest they don’t think so.
These are signs of a broader European socio-political crisis, further highlighted by recent protests in several European countries. For decades, the continent’s social bargain rested on the expectation of growing prosperity, economic security and a better life for one’s children. That expectation has clearly weakened just as Europe faces intensified global competition and the prospect of AI transforming entire professions for which young people have spent years preparing. The sense of social demotion and purposelessness is becoming personal. France offers a graphic warning of the political risks when such anxiety isn’t properly addressed by governments, constrained by an ever-shrinking fiscal space.
But the risks are high for the European Union (EU) too. As political anger directed at national governments grows, pressure on EU institutions and the compromises on which European cooperation depends will likely mount as well. Le Pen has confirmed that she wouldn’t fear a confrontation with Brussels over the EU budget if elected president. And the AfD has repeatedly called for an end to the support for Ukraine, a reset of Germany’s relations with Russia and the normalization of economic relations with Moscow, especially on gas imports. At a moment when Europe needs to show a united front to bolster its defence, deter Russia and revive its competitiveness, further political fragmentation in Paris and Berlin would severely undermine the continent’s resilience.
During the May 1968 riots in France, Prime Minister Georges Pompidou was asked by journalists to summarize the mindset of President Charles de Gaulle. His reply: ‘reform yes, chaos no’. With only six months to go before his decade in power comes to an end, President Macron has little time left to ensure that his legacy won’t be summed up by the opposite: reform no, chaos yes.
Outside allies of President Trump have recently pushed the idea of moving the White House press corps to another building, including former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, one source said.
About 80 US, Israeli and British volunteers held near Nahalin in West Bank and taken to police station
The Israeli military has detained about 80 US, Israeli and British volunteers helping Palestinians harvest olives near Bethlehem, including the New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander, several rabbis and Israel’s former deputy attorney general.
“I’ve been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis and volunteers,” Lander posted from a bus taking him to a police station. “We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nahalin in the West Bank. The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know.”
Miami, FL — Families and immigration advocates say severely ill detainees held at two Florida ICE facilities are being prepared for deportation to African countries where they have no ties, despite serious medical conditions that have already complicated efforts to remove them elsewhere.
Among them is 41-year-old Cuban national Noslén Sendra, who suffers from uncontrolled diabetes and acute pancreatitis and has reportedly lost more than 50 pounds while detained. His wife says Mexico refused to accept him because of his medical needs, after which immigration officials told him he could instead be sent to Africa.
Advocates say deportation flights to the Central African Republic and Burundi could leave as early as this week. They warn that detainees with diabetes, heart conditions and other illnesses face heightened risks during flights lasting up to 24 hours, particularly if access to medication, food or medical treatment is limited.
Conditions at Miami’s Krome North Processing Center have already drawn federal scrutiny. An unannounced government inspection found 1,102 detainees packed into a facility designed for 882, along with insufficient toilets, showers and sinks.
The Trump administration has increasingly deported migrants to third countries when their home nations will not accept them. Human Rights Watch recently documented cases in which people transferred to African nations subsequently faced arbitrary detention, persecution or abuse.
DHS did not provide a substantive response about Sendra’s case.
In these strange, subdued weeks before the much-anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI, there have still been some welcome surprises. Onimusha: Way of the Sword revived a half-forgotten samurai action series with much aplomb, while Silent Hill: Townfall transported all of the franchise’s bloody, dread-filled psychological horror to … the picturesque Scottish coast. Even more shocking to games writers, though, is the fact that the forthcoming Modern Warfare 4 has one of the best Call of Duty campaign modes for at least six years – and might even be up there with the original Modern Warfare trilogy.
The setting is an invasion of South Korea by its northern neighbour – a setup that could have fuelled a hundred instantly forgettable Netflix films, but has proved controversial in a video game. The authoritarian regime has a new (fictitious) ruler and a powerful experimental weapon, which it’s not afraid to use as the opening gambit in an explosive attack. You take on the role of Park Hyun Jun, a conscripted South Korean soldier who, along with his small unit of similarly inexperienced grunts, gets caught in the firestorm as cities burn and enemy paratroopers fill the skies.
From that fresh paperback smell to the wrinkles in the spine, nothing beats a real book. But if you’re sick of the space they take up in your home, or the weight they steal from your holiday luggage allowance, it might be worth considering an Amazon Kindle. It can fit thousands of weighty reads into as little as 158g, and as tech goes, it’s almost immune to the sort of pathological time-wasting features that come with modern phones and tablets.
Amazon Kindles have been available in the UK for more than 15 years, so they’re an old-school gadget at this point. But in 2024, the biggest update yet arrived: colour, which added an important extra option to the existing Kindle lineup, alongside readers for children, for note-taking and for tighter budgets.
PHP versions prior to 8.5.12 and 8.3.36 are affected by CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, which allow for remote code execution.
For any system publicly exposing a PHP application with the help of a prior version of PHP, we urge users to upgrade those systems to the latest available version of PHP (php ≥ 8.5.12 and php-legacy ≥ 8.3.36) immediately.
Edit: For further details and instructions, please refer to the Arch Linux Security Advisories ASA-202610-1 and ASA-202610-2.
Elena Kagan criticized rulings made by the US supreme court’s conservative majority this week, arguing that its recent decisions on redistricting and campaign finance had undermined America’s democracy.
“The court has kind of blinded itself to the very deleterious effects of their rulings on how the political system works,” said Kagan, one of the court’s three liberal justices, during a discussion at Catholic University’s law school in Washington DC on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.
The compromised certificates have been removed/invalidated with ca-certificates-mozilla ≥ 3.131.1-1.
Without an update to this central certificate bundle, systems are susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks.
As such, we urge everyone to upgrade their systems immediately.
Hearn's lawyers complain the inspector general has referred the case to the Office of Professional Responsibility, a unit that was largely gutted and lacks independence.
Delaware quarterback Nick Minicucci dives into the endzone for his lone rushing touchdown against Missouri State. Photo credit: Dave Reeder
Senior quarterback, Nick Minicucci, returned from a two game absence to lead the Fightin’ Blue Hens (3-4, 1-2 CUSA) to a 61-38 win over the Missouri State Bears (2-5, 1-2 CUSA) at home on October 20.
NEWARK, DE — Senior quarterback Nick Minicucci stood behind center Steven Demboski along the numbers near the Blue Hen sideline. Minicucci practiced receiving the snap from the Blue Hens’ starting center while the offense waited for the media timeout to end. A typical pre-drive exercise for a quarterback getting ready to take the field. Minicucci was set to return.
Minicucci led the offense out to the field for their first drive and officially returned after a two game absence. The Blue Hens’ explosive offense returned with him.
The University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens defeated the Missouri State Bears, 61-38, Tuesday night, earning their first Conference USA (CUSA) win of the season in dominant fashion against their fellow sophomore CUSA member.
“Personally, I was not going to let anyone tell me I couldn’t play, so I was going to do anything possible to get back,” Minicucci said. “I mean I was waking up at 3:30 in the morning to go head over to Star Campus for an hour every morning … I lived in the training room.”
UD’s signal caller had a slow start in his first on-field reps since leaving Delaware’s final non-conference game against Virginia in the second quarter.
Minicucci attempted only two passes on the Blue Hens’ first drive and threw a pick-six on the Blue Hens’ second that resulted in a touchdown for Bears safety J.J. O’Neal. Missouri State led 14-7 after the interception late in the first quarter, but Minicucci was spectacular from then on.
Minicucci and the Delaware offense bounced back from the turnover to score on their next drive via a six-yard touchdown pass to Bryson Graves. UD’s defense forced a three and out on Missouri State’s ensuing possession — the only three and out of the half — and returned possession back to the Delaware offense. Minicucci connected with sophomore tight end Scott Moore for a 26-yard score over the middle of the field putting UD ahead in the middle of the second quarter.
“After the first drive, I think Nick really settled in and it was, you know, one of his better games to be honest,” head coach Ryan Carty said postgame.
Minicucci rolls out to his right looking for a receiver downfield. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder
The Bears tied the score on a 11-yard pitch and catch between starting quarterback Henry Belin IV and CUSA’s leading receiver, Isaiah Myers, but lost the lead on UD’s next offensive possession which ended in a 33-yard field goal by Tucker Smack.
Missouri State regained possession with a little over two minutes left in the first half and drove 78 yards down the field in eight plays to score before halftime. Belin and Myers connected once more for the go-ahead score, this time on a six-yard throw and catch.
The Bears led, 28-24, at halftime and Myers finished the first half with 148 receiving yards on nine catches. Myers finished the game with 11 catches and an FBS season high 242 receiving yards.
The game seemed poised to continue its back-and-forth nature after both teams scored on their opening possession of the second half. Minicucci found tight end Elijah Sessoms in the back of the endzone for a go-ahead score on UD’s second offensive drive and it seemed as though Missouri State would answer after driving into Delaware territory on the following possession.
Belin took the snap on second down and dropped back to pass. The fifth-year quarterback had little time to survey the field before he realized Delaware linebacker Jawarren Corbin was bearing down on him and, while trying to escape the sack, Belin fumbled the football. Sophomore defensive end Brandon Gorham scooped the ball up and returned it to the Bears’ four yard line before being tackled.
“[Defensive Coordinator Manny Rojas] knew they [were] gonna cut, and the A-gap would be wide open so we called an A-gap blitz and my luck, it came wide open,” Corbin said about the game changing play.
Minicucci ran the ball in for the score and UD earned its first double-digit lead of the night, 45-35, in the final five minutes of the third quarter.
Corbin’s play swung the momentum to the Blue Hen sideline and broke the shootout game flow both teams settled into. George Mullins continued the momentum shift with an interception on the Bears’ next drive which led to a Jo Silver three-yard touchdown run.
Sophomore safety George Mullins celebrates after earning his third interception of the season. Photo credit: Dave Reeder
Corbin earned an interception of his own on the Bears next drive wrapping up a career best day. Corbin finished the game with his first career interception, first career sack, first career forced fumble and a career high six tackles. Corbin started in place of the injured Colin Gallagher.
“It felt great,” Corbin said about his performance. “You never know when your name’s gonna get called and when my name got called, I just prayed that I’ll make the best of the opportunity.”
Corbin’s interception led to Minicucci’s fifth passing touchdown — a three-yard pass to senior Donovan Lewis — and completed Minicucci’s return to play. Freshman Tyler Bell relieved Minicucci with nine minutes remaining in the game and Delaware ahead, 58-35.
Minicucci finished the game with 225 passing yards, five passing touchdowns and a 69 percent completion percentage. Minicucci’s five passing touchdowns tied the program’s single game high — the last to throw five passing touchdowns in a game was Nolan Henderson in 2022 — and tied his personal career high with six total scores.
Minicucci also etched his name in the Blue Hen history books passing Rich Gannon on the program’s career passing yards list for sixth place all-time and moved into third place all-time in career passing touchdowns.
In addition to Minicucci’s prowess through the air, Delaware finished with a season high 232 rushing yards. Fifth year runner Jo Silver led the team with 101 rushing yards followed by 58 from fellow fifth year, Kaderris Roberts. Both players scored a touchdown in the game and helped take some of the pressure off Minicucci in his return.
“We have to be able to run the ball when we need to,” Carty said. “We’ve got to be able to set up those plays that we can get big ones on later on, and then we got to take some heat off of Nick, in particular when, you know, he’s coming back from injury. … And so it was really great to lean on those guys, and you know coach Rogers does a great job with those guys. The O-line, you know, blocked their butts off today and really worked together in unison.”
Fifth year running back Kaderris Roberts runs into the endzone scoring Delaware’s first touchdown of the game. Photo credit: Dave Reeder
UD finished the game with 482 total yards of offense and generated 13 explosive plays (passes of more than 15 yards and runs of more than ten) in CUSA’s highest scoring game since 2017.
“Really proud of the execution that we had today. We were so much more disciplined, so much more detail oriented. We were intent. Our sideline was better. Our passion was better. We played more connected. We believed in each other so much better than we did in the past couple weeks, and I think that’s hopefully the start of something that can give us some confidence going into next week,” Carty said.
The Blue Hens’ will play their next two conference games on the road starting with a game against Western Kentucky on Tuesday, October 27. They’ll follow that with a trip to Kennesaw, Georgia, to take on Kennesaw State before returning home on November 14, to play the FIU Panthers.
UD is two games behind Liberty for first place in the CUSA standings and have five conference games remaining. Delaware needs three more wins to be eligible for a bowl game.
This story was updated on October 22 to include the second picture of Nick Minicucci.
Relatives of gravely ill detainees at two Floridaimmigration jails say authorities are about to deport their loved ones to unknown countries in Africa despite worsening medical conditions.
Flights are scheduled as early as Wednesday, according to the families and the immigration advocacy group the Workers Circle, which has been monitoring conditions and speaking with detainees inside two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in south Florida.
The all-male, traveling activist group gathered at the corners of South College and Delaware Avenue as crowds of students attempted to pass through the intersection to get to class. They came out with towering signs, posters, bagpipe players and each member donned a red sash on top of their suits to catch the attention of passersby.
Although the gathering took place on campus, TFP is not exclusive to Delaware. While based in Pennsylvania, TFP travels across the entire country, with this particular trip focusing on nearby universities, including the University of Notre Dame, Loyola University, the George Washington University and Johns Hopkins University.
With each protest, supporters kept their message consistent.
“Today we are here at the University of Delaware, defending the truth, standing up for the right to life and opposing the sin of abortion,” John Ritchie, a member of TFP, said.
This stance stems from the organization’s primary motivation for this protest: Catholicism. Many aspects of the group’s presentation that afternoon were designed to represent their commitment to their religious beliefs.
“We have a large red banner with a rampant lion,” Ritchie said. “And the lion symbolizes the line of the tribe of Judah, our Lord Jesus Christ. With the words, with the motto, tradition, family and property. Those are the basic pillars of Christian civilization.”
The rampant lion also held a place on the left side of each member’s chest in the form of a pin.
With these distinct looks and expansive signs reading, “Pray and act to end the sin of abortion,” they quickly attracted students to engage in conversation and debate.
Yelling over the skirl of bagpipes, students questioned the legitimacy of TFP’s arguments as outlined in the pamphlets they were handing out. The short pamphlet listed the 10 reasons that they fight “In Defense of the Unborn.” They used these arguments to defend opposition to their agenda.
Not only were these arguments used by the TFP, but they were also employed as talking points for those who wished to debate. Manav Patel, a sophomore chemical engineering major, engaged in conversation with TFP regarding their 10 arguments.
“They kind of look like they don’t have life behind their eyes, especially when they’re talking about like abortion,” Patel said.
Clara Robinson, a freshman majoring in art, who also approached the group to discuss her perspective, reported a similar rigidity in their responses.
“I told him that it’s my body, my choice and that women deserve to have the right to their autonomy,” Robinson said. “And he looked at me and said, it’s not your body.”
The member of TFP who spoke to her, Rafael Ramos, provided his perspective in an interview with The Review.
“But they say that the value of the life of the mother should be given precedence over the value of the life of the baby, which is wrong, because we all have, you know, the same dignity, right?” Ramos said. “The same right to like, right and value to life.”
It was these arguments that pushed students like Robinson to form a counter-protest in response. Quickly creating posters, students rallied one another to object to the anti-abortion messaging on campus.
Posters with phrases like, “Men off women’s bodies,” “Our bodies, our choice” and “No hate like Christian love,” countered those of the TFP members.
As tensions escalated between the two groups, officers from the Newark Police Department arrived at the intersection. Officers stood in front of the main group of TFP attendees to keep them separated.
As a result, both groups dispersed, and members of TFP packed up their red garb to commute to the next university on their tour.
Inflation surged to 3.5% last month while the government deficit was a worse-than-forecast £24.5bn, in a double dose of bad news for John Healey before next week’s budget.
The Office for National Statistics said annual inflation rose from 3.1% in August, overshooting City forecasts of a rise in the consumer prices index (CPI) to 3.4%, as a result of the surging cost of fuel.
Yield on 10-year government bonds passes 5% amid failure to pass budget and fallout from violent street protests
France’s borrowing costs have climbed above 5% for the first time in 24 years as political concerns and the government’s failure to agree a much-delayed budget spook the financial markets.
With some civic buildings still smouldering from recent riots, a fresh bout of selling pushed up the yield – or interest rate – on bonds issued by the second largest economy in the eurozone.
On Monday, the Supreme Court granted a petition to settle a dispute over the federal government’s power to ban the production of home-produced distilled spirits.
The question before the Court in McNutt is “whether the prohibition on the production of distilled spirits in particular locations, including ‘in any dwelling house’ or ‘in any shed, yard, or inclosure connected with any dwelling house’ … is necessary and proper for carrying into execution Congress’s enumerated power to lay and collect taxes.”
The petition to the Court in Ream also asked the justices to settle the taxing question and to reconsider its precedent in Gonzales v. Raich (2005). In Raich, a divided Court said Congress had broad power to prohibit marijuana use in the states, including those states that had legalized its use for medical purposes.
The justices did not add the challenge to Raich as a question to be considered by the Court in the McNutt case when it accepted the challenge for argument.
Two petitions sought to settle a dispute over the ability of Congress to ban the home production of distilled spirits, while allowing people to make their own beer, wine, cider, and lower alcohol-content drinks and beverages for their own consumption.
The home-distilling ban is based on federal tax laws from 1866 and 1868 that amended an existing excise tax on distilled spirits to prohibit their production “in any dwelling-house” or areas located on the same home property like sheds. Since then, Congress has enacted other laws to regulate the location of all distillate plants, including large operations.
The Two Petitions to the Court
The McNutt case comes from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Four members of the Hobby Distillers Association, including Scott McNutt, sued in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas over the ban. The Fifth Circuit held that Congress’s power under the Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause didn’t extend to the home distillers such as McNutt.
The Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause in Article 1, Section 8, empowers Congress “[t]o make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers [in Article I, Section 8], and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”
The Justice Department in McNutt asked the Supreme Court to limit the question before it to just the Necessary and Proper Clause. The department cited the landmark case, McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), and other precedents as supporting its argument. The Supreme Court accepted the question presented from the department, without comment or additional questions.
In the Ream appeal, petitioner John Ream of Ohio wished to make whiskey at home to sample, and he agreed to pay any federal taxes on it. A federal district court initially ruled against Ream. On April 21, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit also ruled in favor of the government.
In his appeal to the Court, Ream’s attorneys disagreed with the Justice Department’s interpretation of the Necessary and Proper Clause as permitting the home distilling ban. But they also wanted the justices to reconsider Gonzales v. Raich.
In its most-recent petition to the Court, Ream argued the Justice Department’s true goal was “to keep this Court away from Gonzales v. Raich, the precedent the government invoked at every stage below and now declines even to mention in its own defense.”
“The importance of reconsidering Raich can hardly be overstated. The decision deforms federalism, invading powers reserved to the states and the people,” the petitioned claimed. “Ultimately, it countenances no limiting principle on the reach of federal power.”
In a reply brief in the Ream case, the Justice Department dismissed the impact of Raich in this instance. “That question was not addressed by either lower court in this case, and it does not warrant this Court’s consideration.”
And in its reply brief in McNutt, the Justice Department also argued that “resolving the taxing-power question presented in this case will thus resolve the merits of all arguments the government is advancing in defense of the statute at issue in both cases.”
“Of course, that in no way forestalls this Court’s ability to reconsider Gonzales v. Raich if it wishes in an appropriate case—namely, in a Controlled Substances Act case where the government is actually defending the statute’s constitutionality based on the commerce power.”
At private conference on October 16, at least four justices voted to limit the appeal to the Necessary and Proper Clause. Arguments will be held in 2027 with a decision likely by late June.
Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.
Las Vegas, NV — A new analysis of Nevada elections offers a stark reality check to years of claims from President Donald Trump and other Republicans that widespread voter fraud threatens American elections.
Researchers at UNLV’s Brookings Mountain West and Lincy Institute found just 11 documented election-fraud cases in Nevada between 2012 and 2021, a period covering 14 elections and approximately 8.5 million votes.
That works out to roughly one documented case for every 773,000 votes cast.
Ten of the 11 cases resulted in criminal convictions, demonstrating that isolated fraud does occur and can be prosecuted. But the numbers bear little resemblance to claims of systemic or election-changing fraud.
The findings are especially notable because researchers relied on data compiled by the conservative Heritage Foundation, which has spent years documenting election-fraud cases nationwide.
Only two Nevada cases over nearly three decades involved noncitizens. Four involved duplicate voting and five involved false registrations.
One of the most striking cases involved Donald Kirk Hartle, whose claim that someone had voted in his deceased wife’s name was promoted by Nevada Republicans after the 2020 election. Investigators ultimately determined Hartle himself had cast the ballot using his wife’s identity. He later pleaded guilty.
A separate Brookings analysis of Heritage’s nationwide database similarly found only tiny numbers of fraudulent votes across hundreds of millions of ballots, with none changing an election outcome.
Lebanese officials were furious, claiming the city erased Gibran’s identity. Yet there was a time when Arab immigrants in the US thought ‘we were all Syrians’
On the morning of 30 April, in the shadow of the financial district’s skyscrapers, a gold cloth slid off a bright yellow sculpture of painted stainless steel, 7ft (2 metres) tall, that spells an Arabic word: “al Qalam”, the pen.
The monument, Al Qalam: Poets in the Park, stands in Elizabeth H Berger Plaza and honors the writers of the vanished neighborhood that New Yorkers once called Little Syria: an Arabic-speaking immigrant community that ran along Washington Street, blocks from where the World Trade Center would later rise. The monument was the first commemorative artwork unveiled under Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Little Syria produced one of the most famous poets ever to live in New York: Kahlil Gibran, author of The Prophet, a book of poetic prose that has never gone out of print. The monument honors the Pen League, the circle of writers Gibran led in Little Syria in the early 20th century.
A Washington referendum has drawn broad opposition from adults who work with queer and trans teens
For Kelsey Gellner, a Seattle-based pediatric nurse, a statewide proposal to bar trans girls from sports participation feels like a violation of her duty as a medical professional. The ballot initiative includes a requirement she calls “invasive and extreme”: all students who wish to compete on girls’ teams would have to undergo genital exams.
“I tell my kids and patients that my No 1 job is to keep them safe,” said Gellner, who is also a board member of the Washington State Nurses Association. “I can say with confidence that girls do not want to have an unnecessary exam that creates an unsafe barrier.”
A decision by Elon Musk led to restrictions on Ukraine's use of SpaceX's satellite communications network, people familiar with the matter told CBS News.
Armed and in uniform, agents from the Department of Homeland Security have been knocking on doors to ask residents about their immigration status whether they're registered to vote.
Bukang-i successfully guided out after month in which it drew 1.6m visitors and was watched over by YouTubers
In South Korea, they call them jagyeongdan, a word whose meaning sits somewhere between vigilante group and neighbourhood watch. Each night they put on hi-vis vests, picked up their selfie sticks and gathered around the harbour in Busan to keep watch over an unlikely charge: a stranded shark affectionately known as Bukang-i.
On Wednesday, after more than a month in the canal and at the third attempt, the shark was successfully guided out, South Korea’s oceans ministry said. Officials expect her to move into open water in time.
Customers are randomly awarded an in-game code for either a Domino’s skin, cape or cheesy cube pet. The pizza will come in one of six Minecraft-themed boxes.
Elon Musk says a merger between Tesla and SpaceX is under active consideration, with special committees at both companies evaluating a deal that could combine businesses valued at roughly $3.5 trillion. "Do I think it would be a good idea? Yes," Musk said during a call with financial analysts over the quarterly business results of SpaceX on Tuesday. The BBC reports: While Musk noted the certainty of such a merger should not be assumed, and it would need shareholders' support, he said special committees within both companies have been formed to examine the move. "The special committees have not reached agreement on terms of any transaction and there's no guarantee that they will," Musk added. "But I do think there is a lot of merit to merging and a lot to be gained."
[...] The company, which builds space rockets and Starlink internet satellites, is now expanding into offering cloud compute capacity for other tech companies, like Anthropic and Google. That line of business has become the most profitable part of SpaceX, bringing in $7.5bn according to the latest quarterly results (PDF). Starlink also tallied revenue of $5.2bn. SpaceX as a whole, however, is not profitable and has lost $1.1bn so far this year.
[...] Musk said on Tuesday a full merger between the two companies would make sense for the work each is doing around chips, artificial intelligence, software and more. He described himself as a "conflicted party" as the chief executive of Tesla and of SpaceX. Even commenting on the possibility of a merger between the two companies, Musk compared to "tap dancing through a minefield." He added a merger would ultimately be decided by shareholders. At least 50% of Tesla's shareholders would need to approve the merger, which Musk described as "quite a high hurdle to achieve."
Stratford International train station in east London will receive funding in next week’s budget, according to reports, putting it on track to live up to its name and become a hub for cross-Channel services.
London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has been making a case to ministers for funding to upgrade the station to allow it to start running international rail services.
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is spending $80m to help Democratic candidates, while Trump has promised Republicans $400m. Plus a vital investigation into justice in Louisiana
Good morning. Vast sums of money are being ploughed into November’s midterms, with the billionaire Michael Bloomberg spending $80m to help Democratic candidates, and Donald Trump announcing he intends to spend $400m to aid Republican candidates, with $300m already disbursed.
Bloomberg made the contributions in September and October, particularly focused on Democrats running to flip the US House of Representatives. Democrats believe they are favored to take back the House, though they’ve acknowledged trailing Republicans in fundraising. Republicans are also being aided by the president’s ally Elon Musk, who has spent $366m so far.
What are the main issues for voters in the midterms? In this explainer, Robert Tait looks at six key issues swaying how people might vote – the economy, Iran, immigration, Trump’s use of power, AI and datacenters and the state of democracy and voter rights in the US.
What is happening between the DoJ and California over voter rolls? The justice department’s list of suspected noncitizens in California includes a “high percentage” of people born in the US, Los Angeles election officials said. The statement, made in court papers, raises further questions about the reliability of the list of 20,000 people the DoJ is demanding be investigated.
What was strange about how the ADL reminded people about an antisemitic slur? The Anti-Defamation League ADL has denounced the use of the term “shylock” as antisemitic, without explaining that the slur had been used a day earlier by Trump in a speech in Kansas.
United Utilities, Environment Agency and local campaigners say 12-mile tunnel could take sewage away from England’s largest lake
Plans are under way for a new giant tunnel to transport sewage away from Windermere, England’s largest lake.
Windermere, in the Lake District, has suffered from widespread raw sewage and bacterial pollution driven by discharges from United Utilities. Campaigners say this pollution has caused more frequent toxic blue-green algal blooms, with the public advised to avoid swimming in the lake.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that companies building massive data centers should provide financial “dividends” to surrounding communities as opposition grows over the projects’ electricity use, water consumption and potential impact on utility bills.
Trump said on Truth Social that companies have discovered financial payments can turn unpopular projects into locally supported developments. His administration has aggressively promoted new data center construction as part of its effort to expand U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure and compete with China.
The president also said new facilities should generate their own electricity and either sell or provide excess power to local grids, an effort aimed at preventing households from absorbing the massive new energy demand created by AI computing.
Data centers have increasingly encountered bipartisan resistance in communities concerned that taxpayers and utility customers could subsidize infrastructure benefiting some of the world’s wealthiest technology companies.
Congress has responded as well. The House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act 417-3 in September, which would require regulators to consider whether large electricity users should bear the costs of new generation and transmission infrastructure. A subsequent Senate vote received 57 votes but failed to reach the 60 needed to advance.
The debate is likely to intensify as Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and other companies spend billions expanding AI-related infrastructure nationwide.
From Roman-era political potboilers to stories of Catholic priests struggling to impose their authority, what could the reading list of vice-president JD Vance’s wife be trying to tell us?
Usha Vance, a very clever woman with dubious taste in men, likes to keep herself busy. While lesser mortals (me) waste their one wild and precious life watching Love Is Blind, the second lady has various self-improvement projects on the go. She’s brushing up on her German! She’s hosting a literacy podcast! She’s rereading the classics! And, of course, she’s juggling four young children and the demands of being the vice-president’s spouse.
How does she do it all? With the help of taxpayer dollars, I suspect. Easier to get some reading done when you’re being helicoptered everywhere and, as JD Vance has boasted: “People go to the grocery store for me.”
At a gathering in Texas, near where floods killed 136 people last year, survivors are united on the need for urgent action
It may be a club none of its members actually want to be in, but the growing number of people in the US affected by extreme weather disasters are starting to organize into a political force.
Severe wildfires, floods storms and other calamities now touch the lives of huge numbers of Americans – about half of all people in the US by one estimate – as the climate crisis supercharges extreme events. Some survivors are now coalescing to push for improved disaster response and even action on the politically contentious issue of global heating.
Against a backdrop of rising Islamophobia, Michigan Senate hopeful has challenged premise of repeated questions on Muslim Brotherhood, Israel and faith
As a candidate positioned at the center of what researchers say are the worst Islamophobic attacks seen since the aftermath of 9/11, many would expect Abdul El-Sayed to simply defend himself and move on.
Instead, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Michigan has repeatedly demanded those who question his positions on Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood and his faith, explain the premise of their inquiry. Rather than let others put his loyalties on trial, he has tried to put their assumptions on trial.
The Trump administration is waging a multi-pronged war on Somali people, painting them as criminals, murderers, and terrorists and using multiple federal agencies to target them at home and abroad. The campaign includes military attacks in Somalia, as well as arrests, deportations, and the weaponization of federal law enforcement agencies against immigrants and the Somali American community in the United States, including the recent use of Homeland Security agents as a goon squad to target Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
In his second term, President Donald Trump has routinely cast Somalia as lawless and Somalis as violent. Meanwhile, his administration has, largely without public knowledge, killed hundreds of people in Somalia, claiming they belong to terror groups. Trump personally ordered the death of a Somali man within days of regaining the White House, according to his counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka. The administration claimed, without offering any evidence, that the man was connected with the Islamic State terror group. Trump has sought to do the same with Omar.
Homeland Security agents raided Omar’s Washington, D.C., home last Monday, three weeks before the midterms, in which she is seeking reelection. The Trump administration reportedly launched the investigation to build a case to strip Omar of her U.S. citizenship and ultimately deport her. (Omar fled war in Somalia with her family when she was 8 years old, later immigrated to the U.S. as a refugee, and became a citizen in 2000.) The administration has also issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including to some of Omar’s relatives. On Monday, conservative media outlets reported that federal prosecutors obtained Omar’s DNA as part of their investigation.
“This is what happens in a dictatorship. The leader identifies his political, ethnic and religious enemies, and his agents scramble to do his bidding and make him happy,” Zaynab Mohamed, a Somali immigrant who represents Minneapolis in Minnesota’s state Senate, told The Intercept. “Representative Omar is the latest subject where Trump identifies the target and his minions go looking for a crime. The cases always fall apart, and this one will, too.”
Trump claimed not to have ordered the raid, but throughout his second term, his Justice Department has repeatedly targeted his political enemies — from New York’s attorney general, to the former head of the FBI, to members of the Federal Reserve. “I think she’s a terrible person, but that’s really up to the DOJ,” Trump said to reporters. “I have nothing to do with it.”
Omar called it “an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.” She added: “For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.” Omar’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Intercept.
With the Somali community, Trump found a target that he could attack with Islamophobic, racist, and xenophobic rhetoric, without incurring much mainstream backlash, said Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“As immigrants, Muslims, and — most importantly — Black people, it’s the trifecta,” he told The Intercept. “None of us expected the scale and level of the vitriol. But despite this, it’s at the point that the traditional media almost ignore the attacks on the Somali-American community because it’s not a large constituency. Trump says these things, and people just move on.”
Trump’s War on Somalia
Over the last decade, Trump has overseen the killing of as many as 1,500 Somalis in more than 400 attacks, according to a count by New America, a D.C.-based think tank. During his second term alone, the Trump administration has conducted more than 200 airstrikes in Somalia, including close to 90 this year, claiming to target terrorists.
The U.S. military has been at war in Somalia for almost a quarter-century, conducting air attacks and commando raids aimed at the terrorist group al-Shabab as well as the Islamic State group, while the CIA and special operators created local proxy forces to conduct low-profile operations on behalf of America. At the same time, the U.S. has provided Somalia with billions of dollars in counterterrorism assistance.
U.S. attacks in Somalia have skyrocketed during Trump’s terms in office. From 2007 to 2017, under the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the U.S. military carried out 59 declared airstrikes in Somalia. The Biden administration conducted 51 declared strikes over four years. During Trump’s six years in office, the U.S. has launched more than 400 attacks against purported militants.
The U.S. rarely offers any evidence that those killed are members of terrorist groups, much less leaders. A New America analysis found militant leaders comprised just 1.7 percent of those killed. Africa Command refused to provide requested evidence that any of those killed in airstrikes in Somalia this year were militants. “All U.S. strikes in Somalia are conducted in close coordination partners [sic] against designated terror groups,” an AFRICOM spokesperson told The Intercept by email.
“Trump has conducted more drone strikes in Somalia than Bush, Obama, and Biden combined. And so many civilians have died,” historian Elizabeth Schmidt, the author of “Foreign Intervention in Africa After the Cold War: Sovereignty, Responsibility, and the War on Terror,” told The Intercept. “They were often just young men living in an area where it was easy to label them jihadis. And it turns out they had nothing to do with terrorism.”
The U.S. claims that it has only killed six civilians over almost two decades of war in Somalia. A count by the airstrike monitoring group Airwars put the number at as much as 2,600 percent higher. A 2023 investigation by The Intercept determined, for example, that a drone attack in Somalia during Trump’s first term killed at least three, and possibly five, civilians, including 22-year-old Luul Dahir Mohamed and her 4-year-old daughter Mariam Shilow Muse. At the time of the attack, the U.S. announced it had killed “five terrorists”and that “no civilians were killed in this airstrike.”
Trump calls Somalia a “third-world” or “fourth-world nation,” says that it “stinks,” and disparaged Somalis who come to the U.S., saying “we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”
His most xenophobic consigliere also claims Somalia is responsible for violence that has caused people to flee the country. “The entire Somali refugee program is predicated on a lie,” wrote Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, Stephen Miller, late last year. “Destroying your own country does not give you the right to become a citizen in ours.” But this faux history disregards America’s decadeslong role in fomenting violence in Somalia and destabilizing the country.
“The presence of Somalis in the U.S. has a lot to do with U.S. wars in Somalia.”
A casualty of the Cold War geopolitics that led to widespread conflict, political repression, and millions of deaths across the developing world, Somalia has experienced persistent political instability and strife since the late 1960s. In recent decades, the country has suffered civil war, famine, droughts, a longtime al-Shabab insurgency, and persistent humanitarian crises.
Over the last quarter century, the U.S. has intensified conflict in Somalia through direct attacks; training, funding, and running proxy forces; and funneling in weapons and other military assistance to one side of a civil war. As early as 2007, the Pentagon was aware that there were fundamental flaws with U.S. military operations in the Horn of Africa, and Somalia devolved into another forever war stalemate. This has continued, despite the record number of airstrikes in Somalia under Trump.
Before Trump took office, in 2016, Islamist militants in Somalia killed 4,281 people, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon research institution. By August, this year’s total hit 6,731 deaths, a 57 percent increase. An analysis by the Costs of War project at Brown University found that instead of eliminating militant groups, the U.S. counterterrorism campaign in Somalia was “ensuring that the conflict continues in perpetuity.” An AFRICOM spokesperson said the command’s “operational focus remains on working with partners to degrade terrorist organizations to create the space required for Somali-led governance and stability.” But Trump claims Somalia has no government, no military, and is “not even a country.”
“ They weren’t coming because they wanted a better job. It’s because they feared for their lives and their children’s lives.”
The Intercept interviewed people displaced by the forever war in a camp on the outskirts of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, in 2023. “We had to leave because of the drought and the conflict,” a mother of seven told this reporter. She was one of more than a dozen women from the Lower Shabelle region of southwest Somalia who spoke to The Intercept after fleeing the front lines of an offensive by the U.S.-backed Somali government against al-Shabab. Since Trump first took office, the number of Somalis forced from their homes has almost doubled from 2.4 million to 4.4 million.
“I don’t think most Americans realize that the presence of Somalis in the U.S. has a lot to do with U.S. wars in Somalia. U.S. military intervention made a bad situation worse. This led to a surge of refugees and asylum-seekers to the U.S.,” said Schmidt. “They weren’t coming because they wanted a better job. It’s because they feared for their lives and their children’s lives.”
During Trump’s first term, his administration acknowledged “the ongoing armed conflict” as a reason to extend temporary protected status — which grants legal status, work authorization, and protection from deportation — to Somalis in the U.S., noting the security situation was “fragile and volatile, with ongoing armed conflict among government forces, clan militias, African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) troops, and al-Shabaab.”
Bringing the War Home
Despite the increase in violence, according to Pentagon statistics, the administration terminated Somalia’s TPS designation earlier this year. More than 1,000 Somali asylum-seekers have been ordered deported since February; more than half the deportation orders involve Somalis living in Minnesota, a nearly tenfold increase from 2025, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune investigation.
About 84,000 of the 260,000 people of Somali descent in the U.S. live in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, according to the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. The overwhelming majority are American citizens. Almost 58 percent were born in the U.S. and 87 percent of foreign-born Somalis are naturalized citizens.
During Metro Surge, federal agents shot and killed protesters Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. They, like Omar and hundreds of drone strike victims in Somalia, were labeled as terrorists by the administration without providing evidence.
“If the president can threaten to denaturalize and deport a member of Congress, no one is safe.”
During Trump’s second term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have also arrested hundreds of Somali people, with reports of assault and mistreatment at the hands of federal agents.
Trump recently seemed to call for vigilante violence and threatened to back it with federal force. “The once Great State of Minnesota is being taken over by Somali Immigrants,” Trump posted on Truth Social earlier this month. “The Somalians should not be allowed to get away with what they are doing. They view you as weak and stupid people. Fight back Minnesota, fight back! If you need, the Federal Government will come to your rescue.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Hussein, of CAIR-MN, said Trump’s rhetoric was endangering the Somali community. “Every few weeks, he’s literally going on a tirade. And I don’t think he’s ever spoken about other people the same way. He literally put out the message saying, ‘go fight them. I’ll come and help’ on social media,” he told The Intercept. “We’ve seen bullying. We’ve dealt with harassment. We’ve have some assaults.”
Trump has routinely demonized Somalis by tying the broader community to a high-profile fraud case: the alleged theft of $250 million from a pandemic-era program that provided food for children. The former leader of Feeding Our Future, the nonprofit at the center of the case, is white, although most of the defendants in the related cases are of Somali descent. “The Somalians, they’re crooked as hell,” Trump ranted at a Cabinet meeting in May, with the administration offering escalating and unverified claims, including reference to a “$19 billion Somali fraud scandal.”
The Trump administration’s effort to denaturalize and deport Omar is part of a broader push to strip naturalized Americans of their citizenship, with those of Somali descent specifically singled out. “I would do it in a heartbeat if they were dishonest,” Trump said in an Oval Office interview earlier this year. “I think that many of the people that came in from Somalia, they hate our country.”
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said on Saturday that he had been “told they have a strong case” against Omar. “Of course, if you lie during the naturalization process, there is a process to denaturalize somebody. We’ve done it before,” he told Fox News. The rarely used denaturalization statute has been most famously employed to strip citizenship from Nazi war criminals, like John Demjanjuk, a former death camp guard and retired U.S. autoworker convicted on 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder.
Mohamed, who in 2022 became the first Somali woman elected to the Minnesota Senate, called out Trump’s push to expel Omar as a grave threat to the country. “If the president can threaten to denaturalize and deport a member of Congress, no one is safe,” she told The Intercept. “This is a test of our democracy, and even Republicans should be speaking out about it. If we don’t defend the rights of Ilhan Omar, Somali-Americans, immigrants, and Trump’s political targets, we lose everything.”
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was a house framer before he was killed by ICE agents. Countless other Latino builders in Texas live in fear of a similar fate
Every morning long before dawn, while America sleeps, legions of Texas construction workers grab their fluorescent vests and hard hats, sling ladders and tools into their trucks, and head down the highway for another day of grueling labour under the blistering sun.
Elsewhere, before the first flush of daylight settles over Texas’s concrete sprawl, a separate army gets on the move in a fleet of shiny unmarked SUVs. They hover at gas stations, prowl around bodegas, pounce on the highways.
The Vibe Check: Rare Steak & Seafood Concept: Classic steaks and seafood in an intimate setting with a neighborhood feel. Average entrée price: $49, ranging from $23 to $78 Kids’ Menu? No, but servers will offer options, including chicken tenders and burgers. Alcohol? Yes Vegetarian-Friendly: One entrée (rigatoni) and some starters, soups and salads Gluten-Friendly? Yes Live music? No Hours: Sun.-Thurs. 4-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 4-10 p.m. Address: 17252 North Village Main Blvd., Lewes, DE, 19958 Website:https://raredining.com/
When you think of a restaurant where “everybody knows your name,” you probably picture a neighborhood bar or longtime family eatery. A steakhouse likely wouldn’t top the list.
But at Rare Steak & Seafood in Lewes, the welcome is as much a part of dinner as the beef.
On a recent Friday evening, at least five tables had six or more customers, including one table with two small children, their parents and a grandparent.
Owners Tamara Tattersall and Alex Piatrou often greeted customers by name, and Tattersall, who is originally from Chile, chatted with the grandmother in Spanish.
Similarly, servers seemed to know many guests. They stopped to chat even with guests seated outside their sections.
The welcoming atmosphere extends to the pineapple — a traditional symbol of hospitality in American décor — in the logo, on the wine glasses and artwork on the walls. There’s even a large, wooden pineapple on the host stand. The carved piece is a relic from 1776 Steakhouse, where Tattersall and Piatrou worked before starting their own business.
Tattersall spent nearly 20 years at 1776; Piatrou put in more than 10 years. But when longtime owner Tom Holmes decided to sell the Midway Shopping Center restaurant to Regan Derrickson, founder of Nalu Hospitality Group, the co-workers decided to go it alone.
Tamara Tattersall and Alex Pitatrou, center, pose in their restaurant, Rare Steak & Seafood. They’re pictured here with investors Jeff Gosnear, president of Grotto Pizza, and Lily Gosnear, who handled the décor. | PHOTO COURTESY OF RARE STEAK & SEAFOOD
Rare is in a strip mall in the Villages of Five Points, close to downtown Lewes and Coastal Highway. Given the business partners’ combined years in the industry, along with Rare’s proximity to 1776, it’s not surprising that there are familiar faces in the dining room.
“During our first month, we could call 90% of our guests by name. They were part of our original 1776 family, and their support gave us the courage to make this dream a reality,” Tattersall said.
While tourists also make up the customer base, the majority are year-round residents, she added.
“One couple has dined with us over 30 times; several couples over 20 times; and more than a dozen parties have visited over 10 times,” she said.
The décor by Lily Gosnear of Bee and Butterfly Design adds to the sense of ease. Gosnear worked closely with Tattersall and Piatrou before turning the old Ocean Grill Diner into Rare. Deep green walls, wood trim and groupings of artwork give the dining room an approachable yet elegant feel.
“We wanted to create a space that felt sophisticated yet approachable — comfortable and welcoming to everyone, but still elevated,” Gosnear said.
In addition to barstools, Rare’s bar area features high-top tables. | PHOTO COURTESY OF RARE STEAK & SEAFOOD
To the right of the entrance is an intimate lounge with a 10-seat L-shaped bar and high-top tables. To the left is the narrow dining room, which splits toward the back to accommodate a private room for overflow or events.
“We designed intimate private dining spaces where you feel as though you’re at home with your favorite people,” said Gosnear.
She and her husband, Jeff, the president of Grotto Pizza, are investors. The Gosnears knew Tattersall and Piatrou from years of dining at 1776.
Tattersall calls the couple “a secret weapon.” Lily provided the design; Jeff offers business guidance.
For Piatrou and Tattersall, ownership follows years of working their way up the hospitality ladder.
Piatrou came from Belarus on a J-1 exchange visitor visa. When his first job with a cleaning service offered too few hours, he went door to door looking for work and landed at a pizza restaurant.
Other restaurant jobs followed, including serving breakfast at Crystal Restaurant. Eventually, he joined 1776.
Rare Steak & Seafood’s shrimp cocktail comes with or without crabmeat. | PHOTO COURTESY OF RARE STEAK & SEAFOOD
Tattersall arrived from Chile with her mother, a traveling nurse. At Victoria’s Restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, she cleared tables, ran food and learned kitchen work.
She later met Tom Holmes at Rehoboth Beach Country Club. When Holmes and Bob Mitchell took over 1776 in 2007, Holmes recruited her to help assemble the kitchen staff. She worked in the kitchen before moving into dining room service.
At Rare, Tattersall again helps oversee what leaves the kitchen.
That includes meat, of course, which is supplied by George L. Wells Meat Co., the Philadelphia company that once delivered to 1776.
Rare has some creative takes on the menu.
For instance, the Rare Velvet is an 8-ounce, center-cut filet mignon stuffed with brie, wrapped in bacon and finished with raspberry demi-glace, served over mashed potatoes with asparagus. The inclusion of a starch and vegetable is a welcome change from many steakhouses, which serve sides à la carte.
The Founder Trio, a bestseller, features three 3-ounce filets, each with a different finish: crab-and-cream reduction, a blue cheese crust, and raspberry demi-glace.
Crab cakes, a beach town staple, receive high praise, Piatrou said.
The seafood offerings go beyond the expected crab cakes and lobster tail. A new dish, Chef’s Scallops, features three blackened scallops served over a creamy sweet corn sauce with sautéed red bell peppers and onions.
The oyster appetizer includes three Rockefeller-style and three casino-style. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY PAM GEORGE
The pineapple, a symbol of hospitality, appears in the logo at Rare Steak & Seafood in Lewes. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY PAM GEORGE
Rare Steak & Seafood serves steaks from George L. Wells Meat Co. in Philadelphia. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY PAM GEORGE
Starters and salads include escargot and an iceberg wedge with blue cheese, both steakhouse stalwarts. However, you’ll also find the Rare Oyster Duo — three baked oysters Rockefeller and three oysters casino — and ceviche.
Comparisons to 1776 are inevitable. Since Derrickson bought that restaurant, he changed the décor and enhanced the menu. Although steak is the star at both establishments, they take different approaches.
“What distinguishes Rare Steak and Seafood is that we took the foundation and wisdom built with Tom Holmes and paired it with our own vision and personal touches,” Tattersall said.
In fact, you may spot Holmes sitting at Rare’s bar.
For years, Tattersall and Piatrou helped make someone else’s restaurant a place where people felt at home. Now, when familiar customers walk through the door, they’re welcoming them into their own.
Reese Drive, crossing the Rio Ruidoso in New Mexico, lies near where the body of a child, Sebastian Trotter, was found. He and his sister, Charlotte, were swept away by a July 2025 flood.
Peak tourist season had arrived in Ruidoso, New Mexico, and Mayor Lynn Crawford was campaigning to convince the public that the village was safe. A Republican with white hair and a Texas drawl, Crawford said he was frustrated with residents who were sharing warnings of flooding on social media. “They spout stuff off,” he said in a radio address on June 30, 2025. “And I don’t know why they’re so afraid. I do not understand it.”
The community had experienced severe flooding the previous summer, after two wildfires burned 25,000 acres above town, in the Sacramento Mountains. The fires and floods had destroyed about 1,000 homes. Together, the Village of Ruidoso and its smaller neighbor, Ruidoso Downs, are home to some 10,000 residents, but that number more than doubles during the summer.
Since then, residents had been on edge. A new monsoon season had arrived, bringing sporadic flooding that jeopardized the town’s economic engine of horse racing. At stake were big crowds to celebrate the Fourth of July, watch quarter horse racing and enjoy cool weather that’d lured Texans here for generations.
“We have flooding temporarily,” Crawford had told a Texas news anchor in an interview. “And just almost as fast as it came to town, and went through town, it’s gone.” Crawford, who is 64, managed an exclusive club at the Ruidoso Downs Race Track & Casino and once called that his “real job.” He made less than $26,000 as mayor.
But if the town’s economy was precarious, so was its geography. The South Fork and Salt fires charred the landscape, leaving soils that didn’t easily absorb water. Imagine spilling hot wax on a carpet, letting it cool and repeatedly pouring water over it. Now place the wax on steep hills above a river lined with log homes, tourist shops selling wooden bears and an iconic racetrack.
Officials were aware of the threat but clung to Ruidoso’s animating idea: that nature could be subdued for the enjoyment of tourists and profit of the community. Nowhere was this more apparent than at the track, where the Rio Ruidoso, channeled through culverts, crossed the infield. After the 2024 flooding damaged the track, the culverts had been rebuilt with a $16 million public investment authorized by New Mexico’s Democratic governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham.
The track had only recently reopened, and flooding was again threatening to derail the racing season. On June 26, internal records show, Ruidoso’s emergency management department was at a heightened threat awareness level. Flooding had destroyed a bridge upstream of the town, and the forecast called for more rain.
But publicly, the village maintained it was prepared and the community was safe. The next day, the emergency manager reduced the threat level a notch, and the communications department chided residents for sharing warnings of catastrophic flooding on social media, noting that some posts featured old videos. “Protect our community from fear-based falsehoods,” the village implored in a public service announcement.
Village of Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford, shown in his office, was presiding at a council meeting when the flood hit.
On July 4, and one state over, violent flooding killed more than 130 people in central Texas. But multiple tourists who were arriving in Ruidoso said they had no idea the town was in danger. At the racetrack, the horses ran, and Crawford hosted members at the Ruidoso Jockey Club, where private tables cost as much as six figures.
That weekend, Sebastian Trotter and his family traveled to Ruidoso from El Paso, Texas. Trotter was an Army helicopter pilot stationed at Fort Bliss; his wife, Stephanie, was a nursing student. They thought the place looked family friendly; they saw no warnings online. They brought their two children and three dogs. On Sunday, July 6, they parked their trailer in a desirable spot on the water’s edge at the Riverview RV Park. In online photos, the river appeared gentle. “You could go put your toes in,” said Sebastian.
That day, the Rio Ruidoso — “noisy river,” in Spanish — briefly flooded and firefighters rescued at least four people. The Trotters saw the water rise, but the campground host said it was a regular occurrence. Then the river receded.
In the park, the Trotters’ children, Sebastian Rowan, 7, and Charlotte, 4, biked under the tall pines. The boy was a soccer player who was enchanted by the idea of camping in the woods; Charlotte was bright and cheery, sometimes applying glitter to her father’s mustache. Later, the family walked through the village, where elk and wild horses occasionally graze near tourists.
On Tuesday, July 8, the Trotters were visiting a lake when they saw clouds form. They decided to head into town, ordering pizza before allowing the children to pick out souvenirs. The younger Sebastian selected a rainbow gemstone, Charlotte a bracelet and a ring. Then they returned to the RV park, where they relaxed by the river.
At 1 p.m., Crawford presided over a council meeting at Village Hall. He began by recognizing the Texas flood victims and nodding to Ruidoso’s relative success. “We want to keep all of central Texas in our thoughts and prayers and see how bad it was and how fortunate we’ve been,” he said. “The goal of the village is to protect the village.” That meant balancing public safety with tourism, he said.
At almost the same moment, storm clouds gathered in the mountains. Even short periods of moderate rain on severe burn scars can unleash post-fire floods. By 1:30 p.m., radar indicated storms might douse both scars simultaneously. A little before 2 p.m., firefighters texted images of the radar to one another. “It could be interesting,” wrote one. Only about a third of the department was on duty at the time and the chief, Cade Hall, had for weeks declined to preposition additional flood specialists near low-lying areas.
Hall disputed ProPublica’s reporting about the emergency response but declined to comment with specifics.
Less than an hour later, another flood arrived, carrying debris that backed up behind bridges. The water kept coming, fanning onto roads until the normal course of the river disappeared. What the wall of brown water carried told residents it was time to panic.
Jason Fulcher, an owner of the Riverview RV Park, saw a tree-size log in the waterway. Two miles downstream, a maintenance worker at a mobile home park saw a car float past and lodge against a bridge.
Farther downstream, the track’s executives did not need physical signs of danger; they knew what was coming because they’d been alerted.
But the Trotters were caught unprepared. Around 3 p.m., they retreated to their trailer to escape the rain. Then the flood tore through a wall and took their children.
The July 2025 flood left Riverview RV Park, where the Trotter family and others were staying, littered with debris.
The wildfire crisis engulfing the West presents a secondary threat that has received less attention: Entire neighborhoods could wash away in debris flows and floods that often follow.
Scientists say there’s a direct correlation between fire intensity and flood risk. Research shows that if more than 20% of the ground burns at moderate to high severity, especially on steep slopes, there’s an increased danger of debris flows and post-fire flooding during storms. The fires that burned above the Rio Ruidoso watershed far exceeded that threshold.
Before the 2025 tourist season, local and state officials had an opportunity to safeguard Ruidoso and adapt to the realities of a warming climate that is exacerbating wildfires and flooding. The state and village each commissioned experts to model flooding scenarios. The engineers’ reports predicted serious flooding. “They told us exactly where it was going to come and what it was going to do,” said Hall, the fire chief. Federal emergency officials suggested that significant parts of the town should relocate away from the river.
Instead, leaders from the mayor to the governor recommitted to tourism and the racetrack.
Ruidoso Is Surrounded on Three Sides by Thousands of Acres of Burn Scars
The South Fork and Salt fires burned in 2024. The McBride Fire was in 2022.Lucas Waldron/ProPublica
Since the July 8, 2025, flood, officials have insisted they performed admirably against a historic disaster. Michael Martinez, the village’s former deputy manager, who helped direct the response, said, “We’re lucky we didn’t have a Texas.”
But according to five first responders, the tragedy could have been avoided. All of the first responders spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Their accounts are supported by public records, including emails, internal reports and hydrologic assessments. Before July 8, Crawford, Hall and others made decisions that left residents and tourists vulnerable, even though they knew a damaging flood was likely, first responders and officials say.
Some of those choices, such as the village’s promotion of tourism to visitors largely unaware of the threat, appeared to be financially motivated, according to current and former officials who worked on flood response. “Money was the driver,” said Thora Walsh Padilla, the former president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, which is based south and west of town. “You’re taking a chance with people who aren’t even from this area and don’t know how to get around enough.” She added, “You’re putting them in jeopardy.”
Other missteps were caused by inaction: the failure to relocate vulnerable residents and to replace infrastructure damaged during previous flooding, even as the governor drove the state’s $16 million investment in the track. And just before the flood arrived, at least one of the RV park’s owners received emergency alerts but did not evacuate campers.
Village officials including Crawford did not respond to more than 70 questions from ProPublica, including about whether they had emphasized tourism at the track over public safety. But in an interview last year, Crawford said: “Who’s to blame? I didn’t start the fire.”
Reached by phone, Kerry Gladden, the village’s public information officer, referred questions to an attorney, who did not answer them. Village officials have said that their emergency department sent text-message warnings before the flood through a system that the public had to sign up for.
A spokesperson for Lujan Grisham said the state’s investments in the track were necessary to protect life and safety. The track’s general manager, Rick Baugh, did not respond to multiple inquiries about ProPublica’s reporting, and one of the racing operation’s owners didn’t answer questions sent by email.
The lapses and missed opportunities in Ruidoso offer challenging lessons about the harsh reality facing communities throughout the American West. This summer, post-fire flooding and debris flows killed one person and prompted more than a dozen rescues in Colorado. In August, flash floods in the Grand Canyon killed three; some of those floodwaters had coursed over burned areas. And in Utah, Gov. Spencer Cox declared a state of emergency following post-fire flooding in three counties.
The West is not yet prepared for the spreading threat. While federal scientists have created a national model to assess the likelihood of post-fire debris flows, communities don’t have an easily accessible tool to gauge their risk of post-fire flooding.
Ruidoso still looks like a tourist hub, but it survives on disaster aid from the state and federal governments. Since 2024, the state and federal governments have spent over half a billion dollars on disasters in Ruidoso — nine times the village’s annual budget.
Even as funding pours in, first responders say the village remains inadequately prepared to protect residents and tourists.
Ruidoso’s bustling downtown on a Friday afternoon this past summer. The village and its smaller neighbor, Ruidoso Downs, are home to some 10,000 residents, but that number more than doubles during the summer.
Ruidoso is not a glitzy escape of vast alpine vistas. Homes are close together, built into riverbanks and overhung with trees. Cabins abut RV parks. Located in Lincoln County, it has long been an escape for working families from Texas and soldiers stationed at Fort Bliss, 130 miles to the south. “Our kids deserved this small trip,” Stephanie Trotter wrote on social media after the July 8 flood.
The place they booked sat across from a 19th-century mill that’s recognized as the village’s birthplace. One of the RV park’s owners, Fulcher, said that if you looked hard enough, you might find bullet holes in the trees from old Western battles.
The village’s colonial founders were unwise to set their community on the river. The Mescalero Apache traditionally lived on hills above the creeks and wetlands to avoid rising water and mosquitoes, Walsh Padilla said. Over and over, the river flooded, including in 2008 and 2022. Randall Camp, the former Lincoln County manager and public works director for Ruidoso, said, “The river can’t be trusted.”
Many new residents did not understand the danger. Fulcher and his wife, Lindsey, moved to Ruidoso from the Houston area in 2022, seeking a quiet life near family. Jason was leaving a high-income, high-stress career in gas sales. The 1.5 acre property they purchased sat just below confluences of the Rio Ruidoso and two tributaries. Lindsey’s sister and brother-in-law had their own RV park upriver.
The Fulchers arrived as the threat reached a new extreme. A decade ago, researchers from Northern Arizona University studied tree rings on the Mescalero Apache reservation, finding that fires had occurred regularly — every six to 18 years, in many cases — until the turn of the 20th century. Then they declined in frequency as the government started suppressing fires. With fewer fires, the forests grew thick. The shade drew tourists. But, Walsh Padilla said: “This isn’t natural. It’s not natural anymore.”
The Forest Service’s policy of quickly extinguishing fires was symbolically tied to Lincoln County, where in 1950, firefighters found a singed bear cub in the mountains northeast of Ruidoso. The injured cub was named Smokey and flown to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where it became the living icon for the agency’s ongoing messaging campaign.
As the climate warmed, the government’s policy of putting out fires fundamentally altered the landscape. Between 1950 and 2010, wildfires in the Rio Ruidoso watershed burned just under 11,000 acres, according to a ProPublica analysis of data from the National Interagency Fire Center. Since then, nearly 54,000 acres have burned — an area nearly five times larger than in the previous 60 years. And scientists say those fires are hotter than ever, as heavy fuels like Douglas firs and ponderosa pines lose moisture in the warming climate.
In June 2024, two major fires ignited, and monsoon rains soon followed. A 16-foot flood tore through town on July 20, 2024.
Three massive wildfires have charred the mountains above Ruidoso since 2022.
The Fulchers’ house, which was located in their park, sustained minor damage, but their relatives’ property, a couple hundred yards upstream, was destroyed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency deemed Chelsey Jarvis and Darrel McKay’s house uninhabitable and prohibited them from building even temporary housing on the land. The couple closed the park for the season. “I wasn’t going to put people in harm’s way because I wanted their money,” Jarvis said during an October 2024 village meeting, as she begged the council to buy their property. “It’s just going to be Groundhog Day. Next year it’s going to wash away.”
Jarvis proposed they turn the park into a retention pond to slow floodwaters and protect downstream businesses. Officials were considering such drastic measures. The Natural Resources Conservation Service, a subagency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, had raised the idea of a large-scale buyout. It had recently committed $106 million to move more than 600 homes following 2022 flooding in Kentucky.
The project in Ruidoso would be even more costly. Martinez, the village’s former deputy manager, and Camp, who was then the county manager, estimated they needed $650 million to move about 1,000 properties. But the NRCS would only pay if a local partner provided a 25% match, meaning the county, village or state would have to raise vast sums. While Jarvis and McKay immediately said they wanted a buyout, Jason Fulcher was torn. He loved his property. But he and his wife worried that the village’s infrastructure didn’t adequately protect their home. In December 2024, they submitted a form saying they wanted to be relocated.
During New Mexico’s 2025 legislative session, no lawmaker proposed funding a buyout for Ruidoso. By spring, with the opportunity fading for a mass relocation of homes and businesses, optimism crept back into public discourse.
According to Jarvis and McKay, Crawford encouraged them to reopen their park, saying the village needed affordable rentals. (Neither Crawford nor the village answered a question about the interaction.) As tourist season approached, the families adopted different strategies. Jarvis said she was never comfortable with reopening, but McKay felt the family had little choice given how much they’d invested. They resolved to keep their property open but only to book half the camp sites.
Fulcher, on the other hand, wanted a full park from June to September, when the most tourists arrived and so did the monsoons. He said he’d withdrawn all his retirement savings to cover the down payment and improvements on the $645,000 property, and he was so attached to the place that he’d rebuffed multiple potential buyers. The park needed to be fully operational, he said, “because at 50% operational, we’re losing money every month.”
On March 31, 2025, the village released a new map of the floodplain online, which allowed viewers to zoom in on their properties. The map was based on flood models created by a company called Cobb, Fendley & Associates, which had months earlier outlined a dire scenario to village officials.
The Trotter Family’s Campsite Sat on the Edge of the River
The Village of Ruidoso’s floodplain and floodway maps show that most of the RV park was at risk prior to the July 2025 flood.
The floodway is the river channel where fast-moving water flows during a flood. A floodplain is the area expected to flood during a 100-year storm. Sources: Satellite image via NAIP. 2025 floodplain and floodway data were obtained from the Village of Ruidoso.Lucas Waldron/ProPublica
The company had been hired to model what might happen in a 100-year storm — a term that reflects the anticipated depth and intensity of rainfall. In January 2025, a Cobb Fendley engineer sent an email to the village saying that the company thought a 100-year storm would bring six times the volume of the July 2024 flood that destroyed Jarvis and McKay’s home. In a separate report, Cobb Fendley identified more than 200 at-risk addresses. The list included their property, as well as the Fulchers’ RV park.
But the village didn’t make clear the threat to existing properties. When officials discussed the map, they often focused on its impact on development and building permits. “There was never a time where we specifically said, ‘Someone can die,’” Martinez, the village’s former deputy manager, said in an interview. “Never have I ever stated those words. Everything I’ve ever shared with somebody has been: ‘This is the floodplain. This is what was adopted. These are the new high-water marks. If we ever get a flood that is a 100-year flood, the waters will get this high.’”
Both RV parks were in the floodplain. But both Fulcher and McKay said they’d internalized the government’s optimism. “The leadership dang sure makes you feel like it’s gonna be OK,” said McKay. “All they kept saying was build back better. We’re stronger.”
Members of the New Mexico National Guard provided sandbags in order to help local residents protect against flooding last summer.The destroyed Ruidoso Downs racetrack on July 31, 2025. Continued flooding left it caked in mud and debris.
On May 25, 2025, Lujan Grisham celebrated the reopening of the track, aided by the funds she secured. “Ruidoso Downs has reopened for its first races since those disasters in record time,” read a post on the governor’s official Instagram page. “Ruidoso Strong!”
New Mexico’s constitution prohibits the use of public funds on private businesses in most cases, but there are exceptions for certain public and economic development projects. Records show that starting in September 2024, New Mexico’s then-transportation secretary, Ricky Serna, directed a team of engineers to prioritize work at the track, even as his subordinates raised concerns that FEMA might not reimburse the costs because the project hadn’t yet met the agency’s standards.
Crews excavated an 8-acre basin in the infield to serve as a holding pond, while contractors rebuilt the culverts under the track and reinforced the road leading into it. These efforts were designed to slow floodwater, but the project also allowed the track to reopen.
The track was best known for hosting the world’s richest quarter horse race, the All American Futurity, which awarded $3 million annually, with half going to the contest’s winner.
Horses at the track were cared for by grooms, many of whom were immigrants. The grooms worked for horse trainers rather than the track itself. But the track provided space for them to sleep in barns and storage rooms, in what one executive called industry-standard conditions. Baugh, the general manager, did not answer questions about living conditions at the track. Izzy Trejo, executive director of the New Mexico Racing Commission, said in an email that the commission had no authority over the matter. “The living conditions for the grooms is the responsibility of each individual trainer,” said Trejo.
But there was little scrutiny of such issues at “our beloved racetrack,” as Crawford has called it. In addition to the mayor, the village’s public information officer previously handled publicity for the track and the mayor of Ruidoso Downs previously oversaw its security.
The racetrack’s various businesses and their owners, Jana and Johnny Trotter — they are not related to Sebastian and Stephanie — contributed more than $35,000 to Lujan Grisham’s gubernatorial campaigns. Michael Coleman, a spokesperson for the governor, said in an email, “The infrastructure improvement projects at Ruidoso Downs and the surrounding area were undertaken because of the life-safety risk the site posed to the surrounding community.” Coleman said the project was “not solely for economic development reasons.”
But the track framed the project differently. “The clock’s ticking,” said Tim Keithley, the track’s former marketing director, in a February report by KRQE, a New Mexico outlet. “We need to race so that the community can have tourism and bring those Texans over to spend some money with us.”
As work at the track progressed, one urgent mitigation project upriver lagged. Officials were concerned about old and damaged bridges and culverts on the Rio Ruidoso. During floods they could act like dams, forcing rising water onto roads and increasing the threat downstream. “If you have a bunch of debris that comes in and clogs bridges, at some point that’s going to release,” said Eric Queller, Ruidoso’s emergency manager.
In the year leading up to the 2025 tourist season, bridge repairs and replacements once again fell by the wayside as village and state officials argued over who was responsible for them. The work at the track, meanwhile, was completed by Memorial Day.
On Sunday, July 6, when firefighters made at least four flooding rescues, the Ruidoso News posted a video about the track repair on its Facebook page. In the video, which was produced by the newspaper’s general manager, Eugene Heathman, Crawford said the infrastructure was holding.
The next day, an executive at the paper’s parent company, El Rito Media, told Heathman his journalism, which had included footage of severe flood damage, was bad for business. The executive has since left the company and told ProPublica he was acting on the orders of El Rito’s publisher, Richard Connor. In a statement, Connor denied attempting to influence coverage. “We have dug, investigated, and sought out all angles in our flood and racetrack coverage,” he said.
Heathman soon resigned. The video of Crawford at the track has disappeared from the internet, and Heathman’s footage showing flood damage has been removed from the Ruidoso News’ Facebook account.
The Rio Ruidoso near downtown Ruidoso rose quickly during a flash flood on July 30, 2025, after rain hit burn scar on the surrounding mountains.
Just before 2 p.m. on July 8, a fierce rain began to fall near the headwaters of one of the Rio Ruidoso’s upper forks. Within 10 minutes, nearly three-quarters of an inch of rain pelted the charred ground. At 2:12 p.m., the National Weather Service sent out a flash flood warning, which it upgraded to an emergency 35 minutes later, after debris slid down steep slopes and into the river.
At Village Hall, Crawford adjourned the council meeting just before 3:10 p.m., saying: “We’ve had a wall of water come over. It’s predicted this is the big one.” Shortly after, he called the track’s general manager, Rick Baugh.
Josh Gibson, a track executive, was with Baugh when the call arrived. He said Crawford “told him he had 45 minutes or so before the water got there.” (Baugh did not respond to repeated inquiries, and Crawford and Gladden, the public information officer, did not answer a question about the call.)
The advance notice allowed Baugh and his colleagues to alert dozens of grooms living in the barns to evacuate before the flood reached them.
Three miles upstream, at the Riverview RV Park, Jason Fulcher, the Trotters and other campers stood by the river. They talked about the weather. They talked about which trailers they preferred. They talked about whether there were any reports of ghosts in the area. The Trotters’ children played in the shade.
Multiple people who were in the park received text alerts warning of flooding. But all of them, including one of the park’s owners, said the alerts seemed routine. “We received watch and warning alerts daily, sometimes multiple times in the same day,” Fulcher said in an email. He also told ProPublica in an interview that he’d followed the village’s advice: “Just be vigilant. Watch the skies, stay out of low-lying areas, watch the river.” But he didn’t stay out of low-lying areas, because his property sat in one.
The Trotters said that although their phones were on, they didn’t receive any alerts from the National Weather Service. They did not know about the village’s alerts. “There was nothing,” Sebastian said.
Residents had “alert fatigue.” So officials wanted first responders to drive into threatened areas on dangerous flood days to ensure that people evacuated. In parts of the community, including much of Ruidoso Downs, first responders showed up with loudspeakers, telling people to seek high ground just before the flood arrived.
But at the Riverview RV Park, no one came, even though the park sat just about a third of a mile from the fire department’s headquarters.
After receiving the alerts, Fulcher began his monsoon season routine: He went to the riverbank to ask guests to move back. Fulcher said the Trotters were among those he asked to step slightly away from the river; the Trotters dispute this.
When it started to rain, the children retreated to their trailer, which had an extending compartment known as a slide-out. The river rose, carrying branches and rocks. The Trotters joined the kids, preparing to drive to higher ground. Then they heard a noise that Sebastian likened to television static through noise canceling headphones.
According to the Trotters, the trailer door was open and blocked by debris. Sebastian stuck his leg out and was temporarily caught, but he managed to get back inside. He was reaching for a mattress when the flood ripped off the slide-out. Stephanie, holding both children, was sucked into the water. “Once I was in the water, I only had Charlotte in my arms,” she said. Sebastian dove in after his son.
Fulcher had steered out of the park in a truck. At the road he was met by brown, sediment-laden floodwaters carrying vehicles and a dumpster. The flood was remarkable for both its scale — a river gauge showed twice the volume of the July 2024 flood — and its bulk. One survivor said it felt like liquid cement. Fulcher left his truck and sprinted to a high point from which he could see his house. His two children were trapped inside. He stepped onto a building, planning to swim to them, but the structure collapsed. Fulcher climbed a wall and tried to swim but was pushed back. In the house, his children clung to a ceiling fan as rising water pushed their mattress toward the ceiling.
Muddy handprints were left on the ceiling in the house of Jason and Lindsey Fulcher, owners of the Riverview RV Park.Obtained by ProPublica
The campground host, Jere Stark, had made his way to a pavilion, where he used a post to shield his body from the water. Stark, who is 71, was trying to help another camper, Benjamin Timothy Feagin, from the bed of a truck. The flood pulled them in.
Near their camp site, the younger Sebastian held onto a tree. His father repeatedly tried to reach him but struggled to move in the water. He was hit by a boulder and a floating truck, he said. The boy could not hold on any longer and lost his grip.
By about 3:30 p.m., there were at least eight firefighters at Riverview, including two swiftwater technicians in a vehicle capable of navigating floodwaters. Across the waterway, they saw a man 20 feet up a tree. The elder Sebastian Trotter was in the water below him, grabbing a tree trunk, wounded and barely able to speak.
The two swiftwater technicians waded to the Fulchers’ house and retrieved the Fulcher children, who were huddled together on the mattress.
There were still more children to rescue, but not all the first responders knew that.
The Trotters had been separated. Firefighters found the older Sebastian alone. A few hundred yards downstream, first responders helped rescue Stephanie Trotter and Stark. Stephanie said she’d been with her daughter, but the girl was now gone.
Later, when the water receded, Fulcher and McKay pried open the Trotters’ crumpled trailer. Inside, they found the Trotters’ surviving dog.
The first body was found under a bridge around 5:20 p.m. It was Feagin, who had been in the pavilion with Stark.
Firefighters split up to scour the riverside for the children. One group walked downstream. It passed Paradise Canyon, where Stephanie Trotter had been rescued, searching the corners of the floodplain where waters had receded.
Another group moved upriver. The light faded, trees casting long shadows. “Couldn’t see much,” said a firefighter. “Everything’s different and washed out, and all you could see was really the little spotlight on your flashlight.” He came to a softball field full of scattered furniture. He passed a bridge and paused. “I looked back. Something told me, ‘Look back.’”
He saw the shape of a child’s body. It was Sebastian Rowan Trotter. Charlotte’s body had been found not far away.
The body of Benjamin Timothy Feagin was found under a bridge on Friedenbloom Drive.
In their private correspondence on July 8 and 9, state officials said they were worried about the racetrack. While firefighters were searching for the Trotters’ children, a senior disaster recovery official named Jeremy Klass sent a message asking if horses needed evacuation. They didn’t.
The next morning, an official notified Klass and other colleagues about the racetrack. “Village is concerned,” he wrote.
“This should be a priority,” responded Heath Dobrovolny, the state floodplain coordinator.
Dobrovolny said he didn’t recall the text exchange, but he was likely focused on preventing casualties downstream from the track. He also disputed that, as state floodplain coordinator, he had favored the track over the village. Regina Chacon, the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management’s deputy cabinet secretary, said in an email that the agency was concerned that debris buildup “would apply pressure on the dam between the infield” and a downstream community.
At a news conference on the morning of July 9, Crawford repeatedly noted how high the water had crested: “This is historic.” Since then, officials have said they did everything in their power to protect the village.
“We pretty much did everything we possibly could and everything worked out, I guess, as best it could for the situation that we had,” Hall, Ruidoso’s fire chief, said. “I don’t know that I would have done anything differently.”
“Will I tell you it’s successful when we lost three lives? No,” said Ali Rye, the state homeland security director. But, she said, “We put out every bit of messaging we possibly could. I don’t know, from the state’s perspective, what more we could have done.”
Heath Dobrovolny, the state floodplain coordinator at the time of the flood last year, now serves as Ruidoso’s deputy village manager.
And a month after the flood, in a video interview published by a horse racing website, Lujan Grisham said, “No governor, no state, no president, no one at the federal level can sort of predict what happens with the weather and emergencies.”
In truth, the disaster had been all but predicted in the reports created for the state and village. “Unfortunately, it’s stuff that was modeled,” said Joseph Loverich, a civil engineer with the firm JE Fuller, which in 2024 created multiple flood models for the state. And Cobb Fendley’s model had told the village that even worse flooding could be coming. The July 8 flood carried a third of the volume the company anticipated for a 100-year flood. (Cobb Fendley did not respond to detailed questions about how it arrived at its conclusions.)
On Oct. 8, three months after the flood, Lincoln County held another meeting about a potential buyout for property owners at risk. Martinez, Ruidoso’s deputy village manager, said: “That wasn’t even a big one. I mean, that was half of what we expected, of the max.” July 8 had been a 50-year flood, he said. “It could be twice as much. That’s the honest-to-God truth.”
“So you guys knew?” interjected Fulcher.
“We had campers,” said Jarvis.
Lincoln County’s new manager, Jason Burns, cut her off: “Hold on. Listen to us. That’s not what he’s saying.”
Within weeks, Martinez adjusted his language. In an interview on Oct. 21, he said: “Did I do enough? I ask myself that question every day, and I come to the same realization every day: I don’t know what more I could have done. I honestly don’t.”
Months later, he left Ruidoso for a job in El Paso. He was soon replaced by Dobrovolny, the former state floodplain coordinator who had helped direct work at the track. In July, Dobrovolny emailed village employees, emphasizing a policy prohibiting them from talking to journalists. A video of the contentious October meeting originally posted by the county has been removed from the internet. In an email, Burns said the video’s disappearance was “not intentional.”
Stephanie and Sebastian Trotter live in El Paso, Texas, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Ruidoso, near a park the city named after their children.
The Trotters held a celebration of life for their children on Aug. 15. Sebastian was still recovering from a broken bone in a foot, nerve damage in his legs, and wounds on his legs and arms. Tattoos on his forearms had been partially removed due to the injuries.
A few weeks later, the All American Futurity was held in Albuquerque for a second consecutive season. In Ruidoso, Crawford arranged a viewing party at the Jockey Club. When a bank of televisions showed horses bursting through the starting gate, feet stomped on the club’s carpet. The track outside was empty and quiet. Still, multiple people in the club said they anticipated racing would return. A woman from Texas named Dusty Milanes said the dangers in Ruidoso were being overblown. “There’s parts of the community that are totally normal,” said Milanes, who wore pink cowboy boots. Asked where that was, she said, “High ground.”
The Jockey Club was surviving on restaurant sales and catering contracts, and Crawford had to lay off most of his employees. In private, state officials discussed distancing themselves from their $16 million rehabilitation effort at the track. “We have to keep in mind and project to the public NMDOT had minimal involvement in this,” a district engineer for the Department of Transportation wrote in an email in August 2025.
New growth covers sections of burn scar above Ruidoso this summer.
By spring, green shoots sprouted on the hills above the Rio Ruidoso. New growth on burn scars can slow the worst effects of flooding, but scientists say it’s important to not become complacent. “This is not a one-and-done kind of thing,” said Belize Lane, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Utah State University. “There is still an opportunity for many, many more events that may not look like that, but may still be hugely destructive.”
But in Ruidoso, people started to say that the worst had passed. “Everybody always goes back to sleep,” said Camp, the former county manager.
In July, the Ruidoso News published a story about the village government’s performance during the flooding, which largely relied on the mayor’s analysis. “The legacy is one of resilience, not giving up, fortitude, rugged individualism, the ability for you to be all you can be and not give up,” said Crawford.
The track was closed, and weeds soon grew 6 feet high in the holding pond. The All American Futurity was moved to Texas. Still, the Jockey Club continued to collect dues from members and Crawford promised that hooves would again thunder in Ruidoso. “The track deal isn’t over yet,” he said during a council meeting.
The Fulchers mostly avoided their old RV park. The state had finally secured $249 million for a buyout program, with more than three-quarters of the funds coming from the federal government. But the Fulchers, who now run a mountain-man themed store, selling antlers and rifles, hadn’t yet received an appraisal for their property.
They had settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the Trotters and Feagin’s family, with an insurance company paying an undisclosed amount. “Accountability is at the forefront of my mind,” Sebastian said during a March television interview. He said he would not “just let us be forgotten — let our kids be forgotten.” An attorney for the Trotters also sent the village a letter notifying officials that they intended to sue.
Crawford said that he anticipated the Trotters would sue but declined to discuss potential litigation.
A small memorial for the three lives lost in the flood now hangs at the Riverview RV Park.
The park now sat empty and taped off. The roof of the Fulchers’ house sagged, and a child’s handprints were still visible on the ceiling.
Out front, on a towering tree, there was a white cross and, beneath it, a plaque.
In loving memory of Benjamin “Tim” Feagin, Sebastian Rowan Trotter, Charlotte Emery Trotter, And their two dogs Zeus & Ellie.
The Fulchers put the memorial up on the anniversary of the flood. A firefighter who had helped find one of the Trotters’ children attended. “We carry a lot of guilt for things that we weren’t able to do,” he said. “We feel like we could have done more.”
The village continued to advertise tourism in West Texas. During the summer, a digital billboard near the Trotters’ house flashed a Ruidoso promotion. Sebastian saw it when he filled up on gas.
Just upstream of the closed race track, a mobile home park was mostly full. Children played in the street, and occupied trailers sat above the river. The park’s managers said they were following local rules. “I don’t think it’ll ever flood again like that,” said one. The Rio Ruidoso babbled. It looked welcoming. On a summer day, you could go put your toes in.
Why Should Delaware Care? Hospitals outspend other sectors of the healthcare industry by wide margins. In recent years, Delaware lawmakers have passed legislation meant to lower the impacts of those costs on the state and on patients. One of those new laws targets how hospitals administer what is called “charity care,” and who is eligible.
A state oversight board responsible for guiding how nonprofit hospitals will dole out free and discounted care met on Tuesday to review how Delaware will hold providers accountable in the coming years.
Delaware’s pursuit of these regulations comes months after lawmakers passed Senate Bill 13, a bill that greatly expanded the pool of patients able to receive that free or discounted care, sometimes called “charity care.”
Tuesday’s meeting of the Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board was another step in what has been a monthslong process to draft and implement regulations guiding how hospitals give away charity care.
The embattled board, which was formed in recent years to bring down hospital spending that has long burdened the state budget, will also hear a more detailed presentation from the state’s six hospital systems next month where they will likely discuss the pending regulations.
What happened during the meeting?
Tuesday’s meeting was more of a recap of the work the board, alongside an outside consulting group, have already done since it was tasked with forming the charity care regulations. Still, leaders discussed how the rules may impact not only Delaware’s hospitals, but also the patients they aim to protect.
One board member and former state Secretary of Finance, Rick Geisenberger, pointed to one of the proposed rules which would guide how hospitals screen patients for eligibility.
He homed in on a section that says hospitals would have to screen both insured and uninsured patients with balances over $500.
This, Geisenberger said, could encompass a majority of patients receiving care in a hospital. And depending on how a hospital screens its patients, whether internally or through an outside vendor, that per-patient cost could add further administrative costs to hospitals.
“I think our goal is not to increase healthcare costs,” Geisenberger said.
Hospital leaders had also expressed their concerns earlier this month about what and how much information they would be able to request from patients to determine their eligibility to receive charity care.
Additionally, the board discussed its role in enforcing the new regulations and how it would handle complaints of hospital noncompliance.
The board agreed it would be the first to receive any complaints, passing off credible complaints of charity care violations to the Delaware Division of Health Care Quality (DHCQ), which is responsible for examining any licensure violations.
Separately, the board would also have the power to do a “periodic outside audit” to see if hospital trends suggest it has unusually high denial rates or determination times for eligibility.
What is Senate Bill 13?
The impending charity care regulations were spurred by Senate Bill 13, which was signed into law earlier this summer. The new state law greatly expands the pool of Delaware patients eligible to seek financial relief on their medical bills.
It also followed a separate effort last summer in which the state paid off medical debts for thousands of Delawareans, despite existing hospital charity care policies that could have made that treatment free.
The legislation was also introduced months after a Spotlight Delaware investigation called into question the charity care practices at the state’s largest healthcare system, ChristianaCare.
Under the new law, all of the state’s nonprofit hospitals would be required to provide free care to patients living below 300% of the federal poverty line, with large discounts for patients in higher percentage brackets.
Below 300% of the FPL (currently $47,880 a year) – Full discount
300-350% of the FPL (currently $47,880 to $55,860 a year) – 75% discount
350-400% of the FPL (currently $55,860 to $63,840 a year) – 50% discount
Separately, the legislation allows people living at 500% of the Federal Poverty Line — currently $79,800 a year — to seek out a 50% discount if the billed expenses are greater than 10% of their income.
The legislation also charged the Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board to implement and hold hospitals accountable to the new regulations. The law said regulators were required to draft regulations “with input” from the state’s hospital lobby.
At a meeting in early October, the hospital lobby’s CEO, Brian Frazee, said hospitals have had to contend with a rapid series of regulatory changes in recent years. He pointed to the formation of the board, which was established to rein in the growing cost of hospital spending on the state’s budget.
He also said changes at the federal level like reductions to Medicaid and Medicare would add strain on hospitals. Still, he said his group and the state’s hospitals were glad to be a part of attempts to bring down the cost of care in the state.
“I think it’s important to understand just how much change is happening at one time,” Frazee said. “That being said, we are more than happy, and we’re proud, frankly, to be leaders in terms of that.”
Get Involved The Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board is set to next meet at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at the Herman M. Holloway Sr. Campus Main Administrative Building, located at 1901 N. Dupont Highway in New Castle. More information, including about virtual attendance, can be found here.
Why Should Delaware Care? A federal agent was seen at a Delaware middle school campus Tuesday before apprehending a man in front of the school. The action followed a surge of immigration arrests nationally over the summer that highlighted the political divide between President Donald Trump and his supporters and many leaders in Delaware.
A federal immigration agent entered the campus at Stanton Middle School on Tuesday morning, then left after school security approached, according to school officials. An agent or agents then arrested a person just off the school grounds.
The incident appears to be the first time an agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement entered a Delaware school campus — a “sensitive place” where state officials have sought to restrict their actions.
It also comes just weeks after the Trump administration announced increased immigration enforcement efforts ahead of the November midterm election.
A video circulating on social media shows agents placing a man into a vehicle near the school, as school buses and other vehicles drove past.
A spokesperson for the Red Clay Consolidated School District said the apparent enforcement activity took place off of school grounds after the school’s administration and security personnel approached the agent on campus.
The spokesperson said no students were taken into custody and none were removed from the school.
“We recognize that situations like this can create concern and uncertainty for our school community, and we remain committed to providing a safe, supportive, and compassionate learning environment for all students,” the spokesperson said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, initially did not comment on the incident. Instead, it requested the name of the detainee in question, the location the incident took place, and photos and videos from the arrest.
After publication the department emailed a statement saying, “ICE does NOT target children or schools. Every day, DHS is conducting law enforcement activities across the country to keep Americans safe.”
What happened?
Stanton Middle School parent Sade Garnica told Spotlight Delaware she received a call Tuesday morning from her sister, who said she witnessed an ICE agent detaining a father who had previously dropped off his daughter at school.
The sister had also just finished dropping off Garnica’s own daughter at the school.
Fearing ICE could return, Garnica picked up her daughter from school later that morning. She said school officials reassured her that federal agents would not enter the school. Still, she was fearful and pushed administrators to tell her the school’s protocol for suspicious cars.
“They were on school grounds,” Garnica said.
Garnica’s sister told her that the agent’s car was in the drop-off line with other parents before the arrest occurred across the street.
Images shared with Spotlight Delaware of the suspected-ICE vehicle show no visible identifiers. The license plate on the car was also tinted to obscure it from plain view.
Garnica said Tuesday she still plans to drop her child off at school the next morning. But she remains scared, noting her husband is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient — the immigration program for people brought into the country as children.
“These are just parents. They are trying to just get to work,” Garnica said. “Listen, they don’t know if it’s their turn or not. Or you know, like how do I know I’m not gonna get picked up?”
Can ICE agents go onto school grounds?
Last month, Gov. Matt Meyer signed House Bill 94 into law, which prohibits state and local law enforcement from directly participating in ICE arrests at sensitive locations such as schools, medical facilities, and places of worship unless there is a valid court order.
But because ICE agents are federal police, the new law does not restrict their actions.
Still, Meyer expressed defiance when asked about the incident Tuesday. In an emailed statement he said, “ICE, leave Delaware alone. Our schools are not hunting grounds.”
“Parents of every ethnicity and any nationality must be able to drop their kids off at school without worrying that federal agents are watching, waiting, and tearing families apart,” Meyer said in the statement.
As of Tuesday evening, seven school districts told Spotlight Delaware that there have not been federal agents on their schools’ campuses before the Stanton incident.
A Ruidoso Fire Department station less than a half mile from the Riverview RV Park. The fire chief had for weeks declined requests from off-duty swiftwater technicians who wanted to be stationed in flood-prone areas, including one close to the RV park, before the waters hit.
The man was nearly to his waist in a flooded river and couldn’t get out. A firefighter and a police officer didn’t have enough rope or manpower to lift him onto the temporary flood barrier that separated them from the debris-strewn water. The man, Jere Stark, had just been carried a quarter mile by a torrential flood and was covered in mud and extremely cold.
It was around 3:30 p.m. on July 8, 2025, and a flood in Ruidoso, New Mexico, had unleashed chaos at Paradise Canyon Drive, just a couple hundred yards from the headquarters of the village fire department.
Not far from Stark, a woman huddled on the ground, shielded from the floodwaters by the temporary barrier. It was Stephanie Trotter, a tourist from El Paso, Texas, who had been washed away with her young daughter. A civilian tended to her while a second firefighter hauled in a rope he had used to rescue her. “Is somebody coming for her?” asked the civilian.
By that time, at least eight other firefighters were trying to save people upstream at the Riverview RV Park, where Trotter and Stark had been staying. But at the barrier where Stark was waiting for help, the two firefighters and one police officer were the only first responders. One of the firefighters wasn’t even wearing a personal flotation device — a basic safety measure for flood rescues.
They soon got help from civilians, including a property owner in shorts and flip-flops and a second passerby who both helped one of the firefighters haul Stark from the water with another rope.
Body-camera footage from a Ruidoso Police Department officer shows the moment that a civilian, Corey Sexton, and others pulled Jere Stark from the flood.Obtained by ProPublica
Trotter and two civilians told the police officer, Jimmy Hernandez, that her family was missing. Lost in the flood were her 4-year-old daughter, her 7-year-old son and her husband.
Hearing this, Hernandez radioed, “We need swiftwater rescue here.” But no additional swiftwater teams arrived for at least 25 minutes. Both children died, along with an adult man. Trotter’s husband, Sebastian, survived.
The shortage of firefighters at Paradise Canyon Drive illustrates larger problems with Ruidoso’s emergency response that day. Five rescuers involved in the effort said the village’s leadership had not given them enough training or dispatched enough of them in advance of the flooding to protect the community. Because of the flood’s strength, rescuers said, the best chance to save the Trotters’ children was before the water arrived, when they could have evacuated the area where the family was camping.
But they said the fire chief, Cade Hall, had for weeks resisted calls to station additional flood experts in low-lying areas when there was a threat of storms. Doing so would have required paying firefighters overtime. “The village’s mentality is, ‘We’ll have to pay for that, and what if nothing happens?’” said one rescuer in an interview earlier this year.
ProPublica reported that village leaders knew dangerous floods were likely because two intense 2024 wildfires had scarred the hillsides above town. Even moderate rain on severe burn scars can trigger post-fire floods and debris flows. But leaders seeking to encourage tourism scolded residents who warned of the danger on social media. We also examined what went wrong with the rescue itself, consulting with seven experts outside Ruidoso who have experience in emergency response including floods.
The Village of Ruidoso did not respond to detailed written questions about its emergency response, and it has not publicly released a report on rescue efforts during the flood. Reached by phone, Hall disputed ProPublica’s reporting but declined to provide specifics. Mayor Lynn Crawford has said protecting the village includes balancing public safety with tourism, the lifeblood of its economy.
The fire department employed nine swiftwater technicians trained to perform rescues in floodwater. But when forecasters issued a flash flood warning due to heavy rain, only a handful were working, along with four New Mexico National Guard technicians in vehicles capable of navigating floods. According to a spokesperson for the Guard, its members helped rescue nine people from the flood.
Two additional swiftwater teams had recently been in Ruidoso. But when the weather forecast for the area showed a slightly decreased chance of flash flooding in late June, the state’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management issued an order to send home the team from Las Cruces. One member of that team, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their employment, said, “We didn’t understand why we were being sent home.” The other swiftwater team, which was from Texas, left after deadly flooding hit Kerr County and surrounding regions in its home state.
A former incident commander for Cal Fire, California’s fire agency, said that the state shared responsibility for the inadequate emergency response on July 8 because of its decision to send home the Las Cruces team. “This should be a clarion call as to reevaluating their resource availability.”
Asked about the decision, a DHSEM spokesperson said in an email, “New Mexico was experiencing multiple flooding threats,” adding that the team needed to be available to respond elsewhere. According to the spokesperson, there are only about eight swiftwater teams in the state.
But the Las Cruces team was not deployed to another flood. Rather, it went home. “I could understand if we were sent somewhere else,” said the frustrated swiftwater technician.
This left Ruidoso’s firefighters to lead rescue operations in the village. But Hall had for weeks declined requests from off-duty swiftwater technicians who wanted to be stationed in flood-prone areas before the waters hit. One of those areas was close to the Riverview RV Park, where Stark and the Trotter family were staying.
Stephanie and Sebastian Trotter’s trailer was destroyed during the flooding at the Riverview RV Park.
Forty-five minutes before the downpour started, Crawford had stated in a council meeting that whenever the village was alerted to flooding, firefighters and public works employees would be at the ready: “Everybody is in position.”
Over the coming two hours, these words would prove false.
At 2:12 p.m. the National Weather Service sent out a flash flood warning. About 20 minutes later, Hall summoned all off-duty swiftwater technicians. At 2:38 p.m., a weather service hydrologist wrote in a message to emergency managers, “Water is Out of the Banks in the Rio Ruidoso at the County Line.” At 2:47 p.m., the warning was upgraded to a flash flood emergency. Still, internal fire department records show that Hall didn’t call in his full department until 3:10 p.m., 45 minutes after Ruidoso dispatchers recorded the first call for rescue related to the flood. It was too late for some: Before any firefighters could access the Riverview RV Park, Stephanie Trotter and her daughter were swept downstream.
Trotter and her husband, Sebastian, said they had no idea the town was in danger and didn’t receive the automated alerts sent by the National Weather Service. (They said they had not known about, or signed up for, text-message alerts created by the village.) During the hour before the flood reached them, first responders with loudspeakers drove through other parts of the community, telling people to seek high ground. But no officials with loudspeakers went to the Riverview RV Park, even though the area was known to flood and even though it sat just down the road from the primary fire station.
The village had another warning tool it did not use that day: sirens. During the 2024 fires, Ruidoso’s emergency manager, Eric Queller, had overseen the evacuation of thousands using the siren system. Since the flood, the village has claimed that using it could have put people in harm’s way by sending them onto roads covered with water.
The village had long planned to install additional sirens, including three that could instruct people to seek high ground during flooding, allowing a more orderly evacuation. But the new sirens were not yet operational by July 8. In an interview last year, Queller said that the disasters the community faced since 2024 had delayed the project.
Eric Queller, Ruidoso’s emergency manager, helped coordinate the area’s fire and flood response.
According to firefighters, the department’s flood response was also limited by an antiquated dispatch system. Fire departments typically use computer-aided dispatch systems. Ruidoso’s department didn’t have one. Firefighters say this shortfall preceded Hall, and that he had been in favor of acquiring a computer-aided dispatch system.
Experts say that without computer-aided dispatch, chiefs often rely on memory or notes. Radio channels can become clogged, adding to confusion. According to Ruidoso firefighters, the effect was acutely felt during chaotic situations.
Following Stark’s rescue, the first responders at Paradise Canyon Drive were overwhelmed, according to two civilians who were present and Hernandez’s body-camera footage. Trotter told Hernandez that her daughter was in the water, and that they had been in an RV. According to the property owner, Corey Sexton, he saw a child float past and alerted first responders. Hernandez told crews downstream to look for a child, but he also radioed that he thought the children were in an upstream trailer. (Hernandez and the police department did not respond to emailed questions. Reached by phone, the department’s deputy chief did not answer questions about the response.)
The two firefighters, listening to their radios, hustled to the upstream bridge, prepared rope and watched the water. Minutes later, a call came on the radio: two children were trapped in a house at the upstream RV park. Swiftwater technicians at the park waded in and saved them.
Swiftwater technicians at the Riverview RV Park saved two children trapped in this house.
During the crucial minutes immediately after the Trotters’ children were swept downstream, no one had clear information. According to multiple firefighters, the department briefly thought it had found all the missing children. Experts told ProPublica that such chaos and misinformation is common during disaster response. But the experts also said it can be mitigated by having good dispatch systems and adequate staffing.
Records show that Ruidoso firefighters fielded 34 emergency calls on July 8 once flooding started, and the department has stated it made more than 60 rescues.
Despite the deaths, first responders say the village’s leadership has not learned needed lessons and has continued to prioritize tourism at the expense of public safety.
By this summer the village had finally installed its voice-activated sirens and reversed its position on the standard ones: The village would now use them during floods.
Hall had planned for all firefighters to be trained as swiftwater technicians. But in February, the firefighters, many of whom worked second jobs to make ends meet, unionized. The department’s plans changed, with Hall sending firefighters to get a lower-level certification that limited their ability to perform rescues in rushing water.
In April, senior Ruidoso Fire Department officers held a meeting during which they discussed Hall’s leadership. ProPublica reviewed a recording of the gathering. An officer said Hall, who did not attend the meeting, still wouldn’t pre-position extra firefighters. “How many people are going to die?” the officer wondered aloud during the meeting.
Hall declined to respond to questions about the meeting and the allegation that he hadn’t pre-positioned enough firefighters to avoid paying overtime.
Once monsoons arrived this year, multiple rescuers say, Hall rarely stationed off-duty firefighters in vulnerable areas. Sometimes in the afternoons, when it was most likely to rain, multiple firefighters weren’t in town. To promote tourism, Ruidoso had signed a contract with Contour Airlines to provide flights between Denver and the village. During takeoffs and landings emergency medical workers had to be present at the airport, 17 miles from where Trotter and Stark were rescued.
Stephanie Trotter holds a bracelet on her husband’s wrist displaying their children’s initials. Their 4-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son died in the flooding.
Why Should Delaware Care? Early voting locations will be open 10 days before Election Day, giving Delawareans a chance to make their voice heard in the 2026 midterm election. The early voting period gives voters a chance to skip potential lines on Election Day and eases the process.
While Delaware still is 13 days out from the 2026 midterm election on Nov. 3, voters can cast their ballot as early as Thursday.
Up for grabs in the consequential election are seats up and down the Delaware ballot, including for U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, Delaware attorney general and treasurer, and dozens of statehouse positions.
All registered Delaware voters can vote early in their county of residence. To do so, they must present at the polling station one of the following: a state-issued photo ID, a utility bill, or a government document with the voter’s name and address
To be eligible, voters must be a U.S. citizen, a Delaware resident and 18 years old or older by Election Day.
Early voting locations will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Oct. 22 through Oct. 27 – except on Sunday, Oct. 25, when they will close.
From Oct. 28 through Nov. 1, they will be open between 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Where can I vote early?
Not all polling locations in the state will be open for early voting. Instead, there will be six designated locations in New Castle County, four in Kent County, and nine in Sussex County.
Delawareans can vote at any early voting location within their county.
The polling locations are as follows:
New Castle County
Appoquinimink State Service Center, 122 Silver Lake Road, Middletown, DE 19709
Claymont Community Center, 3301 Green St., Claymont, DE 19703
The Delaware Contemporary, 200 S. Madison St., Wilmington, DE 19801
Department of Elections Warehouse – New Castle, 220 Lisa Drive, New Castle, DE 19720
Hudson State Service Center, 501 Ogletown Road, Newark, DE 19711
Police Athletic League (PAL), 3707 N. Market St., Wilmington, DE 19802
Kent County
BPOE #1903 Elks Lodge, 200 S Saulsbury Road, Dover, DE 19904
Frederica Senior Center, 216 Market St., Frederica, DE 19946
Harrington Parks & Recreation, 114 E. Liberty St., Harrington, DE 19952
Wyoming United Methodist Church, 216 Wyoming Mill Rd., Dover, DE 19904
Sussex County
Department of Elections Warehouse – Georgetown, 542 S. Bedford St., Georgetown DE 19947
Department of Elections Warehouse – Seaford, 200 Allen St., Seaford, DE 19973
Ellendale Fire Hall, 302 Main St., Ellendale, DE 19941
Indian River Fire Company, 25375 Banks Rd., Millsboro, DE 19966
Laurel Fire Hall, 205 W. 10th St., Laurel, DE 19956
Margaret H. Rollins Community Center, 101 Adams Ave., Lewes, DE 19958
Millville Community Center, 32517 Dukes Drive, Millville, DE 19967
Nassau Valley Vineyard, 32130 Winery Rd., Lewes, DE 19958
Roxana Fire Hall, 35943 Zion Church Rd., Frankford, DE 19945
Can I request an absentee ballot?
If you can’t vote at a polling location – whether early or on Election Day – you can vote by absentee ballot if you have a reason permitted by the state. Those include being sick or disabled, being a caregiver who can’t leave their home, or being stationed abroad in the armed services. More information on whether you qualify can be found here.
To request an absentee ballot, visit Delaware iVote portal, then download and return the absentee ballot request form, found here.
Absentee ballots must be received by the Department of Elections at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, in order to count.
What if I have a question or an issue at the poll?
If you need help or need to speak with an elections official about your registration or voting options, contact the Delaware Department of Elections in your relevant county. Click here to find phone numbers and emails for those offices.
If you notice an issue at the polls and want to bring it to Spotlight Delaware’s attention, email tips@spotlightdelaware.org. Include as much detail as you can, including where, when, and what you observed. Please include contact info, even if you wish to remain anonymous in our reporting, so that we can follow up and learn more about the situation.
Columbus, OH — Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is doubling down on a deeply personal attack against Democrat Amy Acton, spending $4 million to air an advertisement featuring her estranged mother despite widespread criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.
The ad features Donna Arthur calling her daughter a “liar” and disputing Acton’s longstanding account of a childhood marked by instability, homelessness and sexual abuse.
Acton has said she was sexually abused by her stepfather when she was around 12 and that her mother failed to protect her. Her brother, Philip Stearns, said their mother remained married to the man accused of abusing Acton even after the children were removed from the home.
Ramaswamy initially did not identify his campaign as the source of the viral video, but later acknowledged producing it. His campaign told Axios that internal testing showed the ad performing well with “persuadable” voters and is moving ahead with the multimillion-dollar buy despite the backlash.
Even conservative commentators have condemned the tactic. Mary Katharine Ham questioned how the campaign could expect the ad not to backfire, while Meghan McCain and other Republicans criticized the use of an estranged parent against a candidate.
A mid-October Marist poll showed Acton leading Ramaswamy 50% to 43% among likely Ohio voters.
In France, it was the piles of wheelie bins stacked up against school entrances that first hinted at the scale of student anger over crumbling classrooms and teacher shortages. In Spain, it was a tent camp that steadily grew in the heart of the capital as residents railed against soaring housing costs.
Similar scenes have since sprung up in Belgium, Italy and Portugal, and clashes have convulsed Albania’s capital of Tirana, hinting at an autumn of protests across Europe.
The start of the tween years, nine years old, is a sweet spot between curiosity and growing independence, making it a fun, though sometimes tricky, age to buy for.
Kids at this age are up for a challenge, whether that means trying a trickier craft set, playing a more complex game or stepping up their sporting interests. Pitch a gift right and you’ll not only get the whoop of joy when they first receive it, but something that will hold their interest and help them develop their skills, interests and hobbies over time.
As women’s sprinting enters a golden era in the run-up to LA 2028, controversy surrounding a top coach threatens to overshadow the sport’s biggest stars
When Olympic 200m champion Gabby Thomas came second at the recent track and field World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, she tried her best to be diplomatic: “I am an equal-opportunity doping hater,” she said. “If you are actively doping in sport, I do take issue with that. I’m not saying any names, no names are mentioned. But if you look at yourself and you think that’s what you’re doing, then so be it.”
Thomas then went out of her way to congratulate her compatriot Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who finished ahead of her that day, aware of the territory into which she was straying.
The duo have carved out lucrative and successful careers as TV audiences elsewhere are falling. It seems they won’t be together for much longer
Troy Aikman knew when it was time to go. His aching body made the decision for him when he ended his NFL career in 2001. A quarter of a century later, with one of the top quarterbacks of the 1990s established as half of the pre-eminent broadcasting duo in American sports, his potential exit from the booth is not so clearcut.
Aikman clearly feels his voice remains in fine working order, but his bosses at ESPN may not agree. The color commentator’s Monday Night Football play-by-play partner, Joe Buck, is reported to have agreed a new deal with the network worth $108m over six seasons (his previous deal was for five years at $15m a season), yet Aikman has claimed ESPN does not want to renew his contract.
Philip Sullivan, who sought to rebuild his life after gambling addiction, convicted of stealing from real-estate employer
A Florida man who stole more than $1m from his employer to bankroll a gambling problem – before becoming the director of his state’s gambling addiction helpline in trying to make amends – was recently sentenced to nearly a decade in prison.
Bay county, Florida, authorities charged Philip Sullivan in March 2024 with stealing $1.4m from the Panama City Beach real-estate company for which he was the chief financial officer, Royal American, as local news outlets WMBB and WJHG had previously reported.
Unorthodox campaign is challenging the ruling party’s 14-year reign with a bold democratic experiment
On a cool autumn evening, a team of Serbian student volunteers went canvassing in the housing estates of Krnjača, a Belgrade suburb. They were equipped with lanyards emblazoned with the word “victory”, a stock list of questions and a mobile app that mapped visited homes and the level of support in each.
The volunteers were part of a mass student movement, Student List, that has rocked Serbia with two years of constant protests. On Sunday, the group will represent the most serious challenge Aleksandar Vučić has faced in his 12 increasingly authoritarian years in power, by putting forward their own candidates in parliamentary elections.
Dmitry Adamsky, an expert on Russian security and Russian nuclear deterrence strategy at Harvard and Reichman Universities, examines a large-scale shift in Russia’s strategic thinking over the past year, centered around the view that Europe, rather than the United States, is now Russia’s primary geopolitical rival and adversary, and looking at the consequences of this shift for US efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from TWZ: A Russian satellite, Kosmos 2612, may have passed within approximately 85 feet (26 meters) of a U.S.-registered satellite belonging to commercial imagery provider ICEYE. This would be an extraordinarily close and potentially dangerous pass-by for two objects in space traveling at thousands of miles per hour. For weeks beforehand, ICEYE-X36, which would be of special interest to Russia, had already found itself in increasingly close orbital alignment with its pursuer. The two satellites now look to be drifting further and further apart, but the episode has been a clear sign of what is to come as the potential for conflict in space only continues to grow.
Publicly available space tracking data from the satellitemap.space and orbitalradar.com websites show that Kosmos 2612 (also written sometimes Cosmos 2612 and abbreviated K2612) and ICEYE X36 had their especially close encounter at approximately 16:07 UTC today. Private space services company LeoLabs also told TWZ today that it could not "confirm or contradict what other data sources have stated publicly," but that it has "high-confidence that the objects came within approximately [emphasis in the original] 500 meters [1,640 feet] of each other." Kosmos 2612 had been making progressively closer passes by ICEYE X36 in recent days. "This is the most advanced and potentially dangerous uncooperative RPO we've observed," Adam Marsh, LeoLabs vice president for technical solutions, separately told Breaking Defense.
"It's important to note that 'red' on 'blue' engagements, such as this, are relatively uncommon in Low Earth Orbit (LEO)," LeoLabs' report points out. At the same time, "this was not a routine conjunction or 'fly by.' The sequence included a controlled approach, changes in relative position, close-proximity loitering, additional small maneuvers, and a controlled departure. The behavior is consistent with sophisticated rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO)."
"We can only speculate about the operation's goal, but it could have been anything from simply intimidation to outright destruction or sabotage of a U.S.-registered satellite," CSIS' Clayton Swope told TWZ. "Perhaps the operation is on hold. There are, however, several other satellites that shadowed ICEYE X36 back in May that could be brought in[to] action too."
In this episode of Guardian Australia’s US politics podcast, co-hosts Jonathan Yerushalmy and Reged Ahmad look at how Katie Zacharia broke the record for shortest tenure as White House press secretary. They then examine the pattern of how women in the Trump administration are treated when they’re perceived to have made mistakes – versus how men seem to survive their missteps.
They also look at how the US might be changing course on Russia’s war on Ukraine. Are relations between Donald Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at their lowest point ever? And what happens if the US decides to take Vladimir Putin’s side in the war?
Despite US-Israeli airstrikes and Tehran’s attacks on shipping, the waterway still has to provide a lifeline for those that live and work there
Capt Farouq turns the wheel as he watches the ferry terminal of Bandar Abbas grow smaller, its bright lights flickering in the distance.
In front of him, the navigation radar beeps periodically, its green and pink lights glowing in the darkness. The ferry, today at about half capacity with roughly 100 passengers, turns and heads into the darkness of the strait of Hormuz.
Volunteers and new recruits come together for ‘wikithon’ to put more detail about industry into public domain
“Anyone can edit Wikipedia,” the adage goes. But, it turns out, a relatively small number actually do.
What is worthy of a digital page in the world’s largest and most-read encyclopedia is decided by roughly 270,000 active volunteers, enthusiasts who populate the online resource with information on anything from 19th-century medicine to TikTok trends. Inevitably, some subjects are sidelined – the global south, notable women – but a new batch of Wikipedian recruits are waging war on one neglected topic: the arms industry.
Last week, in a classroom in central London, two dozen volunteers huddled around laptops and free servings of vegan Ethiopian food for what is known as a “wikithon”, an event of collective and in-person Wikipedia editing. Some were veteran editors in their 70s, others young students who had never registered an account before. But their targets include subjects such as Palantir, Project Maven and Nitro-Chem.
Adriana Retyte took her own life after viewing ‘high-risk’ material on the video-sharing platform TikTok
A 14-year-old schoolgirl’s death after TikTok served her suicide content has prompted renewed calls for UK watchdogs to crack down on “toxic” social media feeds.
Adriana Retyte, a pupil at Langley school in Norfolk, took her own life after she viewed videos and images related to suicide on the video-sharing platform, according to a coroner who last week found her access to the material on TikTok “may have played a significant part in her decision to take her life”.
Mayor Travis McDermott on Monday declared this week as Friends of Libraries Week in Newark and encouraged residents to join the Friends of the Newark Free Library and to express their appreciation for the organization’s dedication to enriching the library…
Rights groups say the planned 1.4km route, which ends at compound run by far-right settler group Elad, will displace Palestinians and reshape the cultural landscape
A fifth foreign company has pulled out of a plan to build a cable car from West to East Jerusalem that threatens to involve the seizure of land and property rights from dozens of Palestinian families along its route, but local authorities insist the scheme is proceeding as planned.
The project appeared to have stalled for four years until late September, just weeks before Israel’s 27 October elections, when the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA) issued a notice of intent to award a contract without a public tender to ROPES, a cable car engineering consultancy based in South Tyrol, Italy.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Last month, Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson ordered Meta to hand over the command histories of the servers it used to torrent pirated books. These logs would presumably reveal how Meta's torrent clients were set up, including any changes to their upload settings. [...] The server logs could reveal what happened on Meta's machines. However, publisher Entrepreneur Media also wants to know who approved the torrenting activity.
Entrepreneur Media, which publishes Entrepreneur magazine, filed one of the related lawsuits where it accuses Meta of contributing to piracy by uploading (seeding) works to third parties, similar to the authors' contributory infringement claim. To find out more, the publisher asked Meta to identify everyone who "made, authorized, or approved" the decisions to obtain the shadow library datasets, and to do so via BitTorrent.
Meta's answers named several people who are believed to have been involved in data-related decisions. However, Meta said it couldn't identify anyone who "formally" made or approved decisions to acquire or use books for its first two Llama models. Those decisions were often the result of team consensus, Meta argued. When it came to the torrenting itself, Meta pointed to the employees who ran the downloads, describing their choices as technical decisions.
Meta added that the acquisition of data from Anna's Archive went through an internal legal review in early 2024, which involved its in-house lawyers. In other words, the company didn't name anyone higher up who approved the use of BitTorrent. "On that construction no one at Meta decided to torrent anything, yet Meta torrented shadow libraries repeatedly from 2022-2024," Entrepreneur Media countered. An internal Meta logbook warned that using torrents would involve sharing copyrighted material with others. "Using torrents would entail seeding the file such as sharing content outside. This would be legally not okay," the logbook stated.
Although Meta admits downloading data from LibGen and Anna's Archive via BitTorrent, it claims no one "made, authorized, or approved" a decision to distribute the material and that measures were taken to limit seeding. Meta's own expert previously estimated that uploads from its AWS servers amounted to no more than roughly 30% of the data downloaded during a period in 2024.
Judge Thomas Hixson is not convinced and ordered (PDF) the company to identify everyone involved in approving the downloads, including those who decided "whether or how to seed, or to mitigate seeding."
Hello I have 20 miles under my belt. Mostly in the last week. I try to ride every day but sometimes I just can’t due to muscle fatigue.
Today after riding just two miles I could feel my tibialis muscle shaking as I was trying to get off the onewheel. It made me almost fall off completely.
Should I just continue riding every day to get over it or should I actually train and work on the muscles that are responsible for balancing and getting off the board safely?
Student told the university’s police department that assault by two men occurred in August during a night of drinking
A sorority member at the University of Arizona has alleged she was sexually assaulted by two men at a fraternity house during a night of drinking in late August.
The student told the university’s police department that she consensually kissed one of the men at one point while at the Sigma Phi Epsilon house on 26 August but doesn’t remember agreeing to sex, according to search warrant records posted Monday night by KOLD-TV in Tucson.
A new survey reveals a widening “empathy gap” between Republicans and white evangelicals and the rest of the American public.
On Tuesday, the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute released its annual American Values Survey. The survey found that white evangelical Protestants are the only religious group in which a majority does not agree that empathy is foundational moral value (42%). Instead, a majority (54%) say empathy can be dangerous when it leads people away from a society guided by God’s truth, PRRI said.
Alejandro Betancourt, a 46-year-old Venezuelan energy baron, is the key figure in a historic oil deal with the Trump administration. Venezuelan opposition leaders and U.S. congressional Democrats have criticized the agreement because Betancourt has been the target of investigations of alleged corruption. Antonio Heredia/El Mundo
In late August, President Donald Trump announced what he called the “biggest oil deal in world history.” Since then, the full text of the accord — which grants the U.S. sweeping access to Venezuela’s oil reserves — has been one of the most sought-after secrets in Washington, D.C.
ProPublica has reviewed a copy of the 18-page strategic partnership agreement signed for the United States by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The document reveals carefully constructed terms that favor U.S. interests at every turn and cements the power of a small group of people handpicked by the Trump administration to govern and profit from the deal. The role of the Venezuelan government and the potential benefits to its people are largely absent from the text.
One of the most criticized aspects of Trump’s announcement has been his choice of a partner: Alejandro Betancourt, a globe-trotting Venezuelan oligarch who has faced money-laundering investigations in three countries.
The Trump administration is taking a 35% stake in Betancourt’s firm, North American Blue Energy Partners, by acquiring shares in a Barbados-registered parent company. The deal document provides little information about the owners and investors behind the parent company, who could receive enormous wealth from the arrangement.
The agreement also safeguards Betancourt’s position as chief executive of NABEP and says the U.S. government will work with the parent company to appoint a powerful seven-member board to govern the venture for an initial 15-year term. Those aspects of the deal, according to people with knowledge of how it came together, were designed to prevent future U.S. and Venezuelan leaders from dismantling the enterprise.
Orlando Alvarado, a name not disclosed by the Trump administration as a party to the accord, signed the agreement on behalf of the parent company, alongside Betancourt, Hegseth and Rubio. Alvarado has held senior roles in multiple Betancourt businesses, including as chief financial officer of an energy firm that became embroiled in scandals a decade ago. According to the Miami Herald, federal prosecutors identified Alvarado as an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to embezzle money from Venezuela’s national oil company.
NABEP spokesperson Terry Wade said that “neither Mr. Betancourt nor Mr. Alvarado has ever been charged with any crime in any country, and any claims against them are baseless.”
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I’m interested in talking to people who understand how members of the Trump administration, or their family members, are doing business, at home or abroad.
Key aspects of the plan differ from the Trump administration’s public pronouncements. Trump has said the deal will secure America’s energy dominance for the next century. But the text indicates that U.S. purchasing rights expire in half that time and that the underlying operating rights appear to run afoul of Venezuelan laws limiting oil concessions to 25 years.
The agreement does ensure the United States a deep discount from fair-market value on 20% of NABEP’s oil, as Trump has said. It does not, however, explicitly guarantee that Betancourt’s company is obligated to pay the estimated $200 billion in royalties and tax payments to Venezuela that the White House has said would benefit the country.
There are also significant caveats related to Trump’s central selling point to Americans — that the deal will bring a gusher of low-cost oil imports.
The agreement gives the U.S. the right to purchase 20% of NABEP’s oil at a discounted rate of $30 a barrel, or less than a third of what oil has sold for in recent months, according to one of three supporting documents reviewed by ProPublica.
But this fee does not account for the cost of getting Venezuela’s oil out of the country. Much of Venezuela’s raw crude is so thick that it won’t flow through pipelines unless it is first blended with 20% or more of oil thinner products. Under the deal, the potentially significant cost of importing millions of barrels of those blending materials is not included in the price.
The White House, the State Department, the Pentagon and the energy company NABEP all defended the agreement, saying in statements that their new public-private venture will provide meaningful and lasting economic benefits to both countries that cannot be captured in a legal document.
“This historic deal marks a major step toward stabilizing Venezuela’s economy after years of hyperinflation and almost no new investment, while more than doubling the United States’ oil reserves,” said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers.
Wade emphasized that NABEP was chosen because of its track record of expanding oil production in Venezuela in recent years and that the agreement was between the company and the U.S. government, not Venezuela.
“Thanks in large part to the agreement,” Wade said, “there is a surge in confidence about the future of Venezuela’s oil industry and, as a direct result, substantial new investments are flowing into the country.”
He added that much of NABEP’s oil comes from fields that require little or no blending materials and that blending costs would not meaningfully impact the price of production. “Our barrel economics are strong.”
The newly revealed details of the agreement are nonetheless likely to raise more questions about whether the unorthodox marriage of the United States and a foreign energy baron can bring lasting benefits to either country — and which private parties might benefit along the way. Trump’s oil deal is likely to face scrutiny in both the United States and Venezuela, especially if Democrats win one or both chambers in the midterm elections, according to former U.S. diplomats and congressional staff.
“Question number one in a new U.S. Congress will be: Why Betancourt?” said former Ambassador James Story, who served as the top U.S. diplomat in Caracas from 2018 to 2023, in an interview. “Why did he get this deal? And was he involved in criminality? It seems reasonable to have a congressional hearing about those questions.”
“Question number one in a new U.S. Congress will be: Why Betancourt?”
James Story, former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela
In public comments, Delcy Rodríguez, who won the backing of the Trump administration to serve as Venezuela’s interim president, praised the accord as “historic.” She has asserted that Venezuela will retain sovereignty over its natural resources and defended the choice of Betancourt.
People with knowledge of the Trump administration’s behind-the-scenes decision-making and negotiations with Betancourt spoke to ProPublica on condition of anonymity because they were either not authorized to do so or were fearful of retribution.
One reason that the precise terms of the deal have remained hidden until now is that the signed agreement is marked as a “sensitive” government document. That classification is commonly used to shield a variety of federal records from public release, including those containing personnel information, details about ongoing law enforcement operations and matters protected by attorney-client privilege. The document also contains a confidentiality clause barring Betancourt’s company from disclosing the “existence and terms” of the U.S. government agreement.
One person familiar with the deliberations said that people close to the Trump administration seemed keen to partner with Betancourt’s company because of the privacy and flexibility it offered. That appeared to give NABEP an advantage over publicly traded oil companies, which would be obligated to shareholder reporting requirements.
“For example,” the person said, “Chevron couldn’t give 35% of their shares to the Pentagon.”
Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, center, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, left, and Venezuela’s minister of petroleum and hydrocarbons, Paula Henao, right, attend the signing of an oil agreement at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas in September.Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images
The Deal
The oil deal is sensitive partly because of likely resistance in Venezuela, where critics have already described it as a U.S. takeover of the country’s precious natural resources.
A ProPublica analysis shows that its terms favor American interests at nearly every turn and try to enshrinethe Trump administration’s imprint indefinitely.
The document states that a majority of the seven-member board must be U.S. citizens at all times, and the U.S. government can appoint one “non-voting observer” to join the group. Betancourt, who will serve as the chief executive, is the only board member named by the agreement. The initial board will establish the process for choosing new members.
“Throughout the evolution of the deal, it was clear that the governing structure was intended to ensure maximum control by the people making the deal and to insulate them from future administrations seeking to reverse the agreement or call it into question,” a person familiar with the negotiations said.
There is no requirement for any Venezuelan government participation in the board.
The agreement also offers long-lasting protections for Betancourt and unnamed investors. It requires a supermajority vote of five to oust Betancourt as CEO, change the board composition or execute any transactions with a shareholder that isn’t the U.S. government, an indirect equity holder, director, affiliate or “immediate family members.”
The board will determine compensation for Betancourt in his role as chief executive, the document says. As structured, the deal does not appear to require any public disclosures about pay or distribution of shares to executives.
The agreement does not say which shareholders, affiliates or family members have been approved to transact with Betancourt’s company. Under Barbados corporate law, there is almost nothing that can force those interests to be revealed publicly.
The agreement does, however, require the company to maintain “anti-money laundering controls,” submit to external audits and inspections of its records by the U.S. government, and provide the U.S. government with an annual budget and quarterly unaudited financial statements. It is unclear if these reports will ever be made public.
It could be some time before the company produces enough oil to fulfill a significant share of U.S. demand. Betancourt’s company currently produces about 200,000 barrels per day — or about as much over the course of a year as the United States uses in three days.
NABEP aims to increase its production to 500,000 barrels per day by the end of 2028, according to recent reports.
In addition to securing a discount on 20% of NABEP’s oil, Washington also has “first priority” to purchase all of the company’s remaining oil production for the next 50 years, including an irrevocable right to buy its entire oil supply in the event the U.S. declares a national emergency.
The U.S. also receives a “most favored nation” status that requires Betancourt’s firm to disclose any other business agreements it signs, and, if they are favorable, to grant Washington matching terms.
One person who reviewed parts of the contract was surprised at the tangible benefits for the U.S. compared with the lack of binding commitments to Venezuela: “I gave you 20% of my production at ‘cost plus,’ fine. I gave you all of my production if there’s a national emergency, OK. … So what do I get in exchange?”
A U.S. official said Rodriguez had granted NABEP 100-year oil concessions to operate there, although this figure is not referenced in the accord and appears to contradict Venezuelan law.
In the event of a dispute, Venezuela can’t challenge the deal in its own courts. The agreement dictates that any conflict between the company and the United States must be settled under U.S. law, not Venezuela’s. The two sides even spelled out that any civil case or arbitration must be argued before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, where Trump’s Justice Department has turned, time and again, for favorable rulings.
Where U.S. law does not apply, Texas state law governs, the agreement states.
A Pentagon office has been tasked with someday executing the financial transaction to capitalize on the U.S. government’s 35% share in the venture. The document shows that the U.S. will pay nothing upfront but plans to acquire its stake in Betancourt’s company by paying $0.01 per warrant share. Those terms are set to expire on the 75th anniversary of the closing date.
In a White House statement last month, Trump touted those shares as potentially worth “hundreds of billions,” plus dividends. But Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee said they believe the Pentagon office does not have the legal authority to execute an agreement with a foreign entity operating in a country under U.S. sanctions.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said that the Defense Department conducts “extensive due diligence” before extending capital assistance. Wilson declined to comment on any of the legal considerations or further technical aspects of the deal “to protect the integrity of the process.”
Several other detailed aspects of how the company will operate are currently under negotiation among the Trump administration, Betancourt and the parent company, the partnership documents show. The agreement repeatedly cites a set of “Implementation Documents” that will finalize the U.S. ownership stake and the rights of unnamed investors.
The full force of the deal will not take effect until both parties have complied with its closing conditions, which the agreement indicates could happen within months.
Last month, Senate Democrats blasted what was known of the oil accord and demanded details in a letter to Rubio, Hegseth and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
“It is unclear why the American public should support this attempt to entangle the United States with a relatively unknown foreign oil company that lacks the capacity or credibility to develop oil fields of the magnitude described and whose leadership has faced international criminal investigations,” four ranking senators said in the letter.
They asserted that most of the “oil fields are nowhere near ready for production” and that it could “take up to a decade before global oil markets are meaningfully impacted and the American people see any tangible benefit.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, left, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio speak to members of the media about Venezuela days after the U.S. captured President Nicolás Maduro in January.Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A Willing Partner
Almost immediately after U.S. special operations forces seized President Nicolás Maduro in January and airlifted him out of Venezuela, Trump left little doubt that his larger goal was to restore American access to Venezuela’s oil reserves two decades after most U.S. firms had been ejected from the country.
By early spring, an obscure cast of energy officials, lawyers and lobbyists had started to craft plans to deliver on Trump’s America First energy agenda. One person familiar with the deliberations said that U.S. officials had considered backing an idea for publicly held American oil companies like Chevron, Exxon and Conoco to carve up and rehabilitate Venezuela’s aging oil sector. Another potential route went through Betancourt’s company, which is the second largest private oil firm operating in Venezuela. Working with the Venezuelan state company, Petróleos de Venezuela, SA, was never really an option due to its underlying debt and history of corruption, the person said.
The option of turning to large multinational oil companies quickly stalled. In some cases, oil executives balked at jumping back into the complexity of the Venezuelan market; in others, firms struggled to get more than “lip service” meetings in Washington and Caracas, according to media reports and people familiar with the deal.
“NABEP was given priority,” one person said. “Exxon, Conoco and the others were treated as second class.”
Betancourt’s star was rising in the Trump administration. He had served as an interlocutor for Washington with the Maduro government and had ties to some leaders of the Venezuelan opposition, according to current and former U.S. officials. He had also provided information that helped the U.S. forces seize Venezuelan oil tankers and that aided strategy and planning before the capture of Maduro, Reuters reported.
In addition, Betancourt had developed a good relationship with Rodríguez, whom Trump had backed as the country’s interim president. And Betancourt had done so despite the fact that her influential brother, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, had accused him of corruption in a televised speech in 2020, according to former U.S. officials and press reports.
U.S. officials also saw practical reasons to partner with Betancourt, several people said. He and his then-business partner in the U.S., Harry Sargeant, a Trump supporter, appeared to be a rare success story in a battered industry, operating some of the only active oil fields in the country.
“The main thing I found promising is that the fields are producing in Venezuela,” said a former State Department official who analyzed the company’s activities. “I think it’s particularly important that you buy into fields that are producing. … If your policy goal is to raise production quickly, this makes sense.”
But partnering with Betancourt posed major challenges.
For starters, the 46-year-old billionaire was confined to house arrest on his 300-acre Oxfordshire estate in England, fighting off a Swiss extradition request tied to an international money-laundering probe. Betancourt could fly to his $46 million London residence by private helicopter — but his Venezuelan and Italian passports were locked down, and British authorities had barred him from driving on public roads, according to media reports about the special bail arrangement.
Betancourt’s legal problems stemmed from his role in troubled Venezuelan energy projects during the corrupt rule of former President Hugo Chávez. Several of Betancourt’s known or alleged associates were charged or convicted in a major U.S. money-laundering investigation known as Operation Money Flight. Betancourt surfaced as a suspect in the U.S. case and is still under investigation for suspected money laundering by authorities in Spain, according to former U.S. and European officials and press reports.
The most popular leader of the Venezuelan opposition in exile, María Corina Machado, recently described Betancourt as having been involved in “obscene corruption” that caused great suffering for the Venezuelan people, according to a recent New York Times interview.
Betancourt has not been charged in any country. His lawyer has maintained his client’s innocence, saying Betancourt has been unfairly maligned because people associate him with a group of wealthy young Venezuelans, some of whom have been accused of wrongdoing, according to press reports.
Many Venezuelans see Betancourt as a “totemic, emblematic, corrupt figure,” said Brian Naranjo, a former senior U.S. diplomat in Venezuela, in an interview.
“He is not really an oil man,” Naranjo said. “The talent he brings is that he’s a new person in a long line of Venezuelan businesspeople who deal in influence. Their big lever is connections and influence. It is know-who, not know-how.”
In a recent interview with Spanish language media, Rubio defended Betancourt, praising his oil company’s work in Venezuela and his support for factions of the Venezuelan opposition in exile.
Rubio downplayed the legal scrutiny Betancourt has faced, saying a review conducted with U.S. law enforcement agencies indicated “there were no investigations of him in our system.”
“The talent he brings is that he’s a new person in a long line of Venezuelan businesspeople who deal in influence. … It is know-who, not know-how.”
Brian Naranjo, former U.S. diplomat
It remains unclear exactly how Betancourt shed the travel restrictions imposed by European authorities. But The Washington Post reported that senior Trump administration officials, including Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, former Attorney General Pam Bondi and then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, petitioned their foreign counterparts to allow Betancourt to travel freely and to close their investigations into him and his business ventures.
The Trump administration’s next hurdle to working with Betancourt was figuring out how to legally invest. The government’s $200 billion investment agency, the International Development Finance Corporation, was created to do just that but is currently barred by U.S. law from operating in Venezuela.
At different points through the summer, aides to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought stepped in, pressing Defense and State department officials to consider alternate financing paths, according to one person familiar with the deal’s progression.
By July, the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital, headed by David Lorch, emerged as a potential solution.
Lorch, who had moved to the Pentagon from Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg’s private equity firm, Cerberus Capital, quickly embraced the idea, according to people familiar with the deal. Lorch and other Pentagon and State Department officials flew to Caracas in the final days of that month and agreed in principle to a deal. The details would be hammered out back in Washington, the people said.
A Pentagon spokesperson said Lorch declined to comment.
On Aug. 5, Betancourt strode into a conference room behind the art deco facade of the old Greyhound Bus Terminal in downtown Washington that houses an auxiliary Pentagon office. The assembled Defense Department officials gave the Venezuelan billionaire the red carpet treatment, lining up to shake his hand, according to people familiar with the meeting. But some in the room were stunned to discover that the U.S. government was preparing to do business with Betancourt, the people familiar with the meeting said.
Betancourt was accompanied by Jacob Hirshman, the chief executive and co-founder of Erebor Bank, the first new bank chartered after Trump returned to office, according to people familiar with the meeting. The bank, backed by Trump supporters and investors Peter Thiel and Palmer Luckey, has vowed to reconnect Venezuela to the world economy.
Hirshman did not respond to a request for comment.
Lorch told the group, which included dozens of former Wall Street associates he’d hired into the office, that the alliance with Betancourt was a major “opportunity” to fulfill one of the Trump administration’s top goals, securing benefits to the United States and Venezuela for decades to come.
The meeting touched off a month of around-the-clock calls and video conferences.
People familiar with the deal’s progression said Lorch soon became involved in structuring key aspects of the deal beyond its financing, including how the board would sit for 15 years and choose its successors. One said he put an explicit premium on setting up the venture in a way that it could not be undone by Trump’s successor.
The months of work on the deal burst into public view on Aug. 28 with a Trump announcement on Truth Social.
“The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on, THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!” Trump posted on a Friday night.
Two days later, Hegseth, Rubio, Betancourt and Alvarado signed the deal.
Billionaire, on SpaceX earnings call, says ‘special committees’ exploring idea but no agreement reached yet
As SpaceX released its second-ever public earnings report on Tuesday, Elon Musk declared his support for combining the aerospace and AI company with his electric vehicle company, Tesla. He said both companies had created special committees to explore a potential merger, but have not reached any agreement on terms of a transaction.
“Both SpaceX and Tesla have formed special committees to discuss this idea at the request of shareholders and these special committees are, uh, consist of independent directors,” Musk said on the call. “Because I’m a conflicted party, I can’t actually be in the discussions of the special committees.”
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump’s clemency operation is facing renewed ethics scrutiny after a Venezuelan billionaire received a full pardon weeks after his family provided former Trump attorney Alina Habba with a contract guaranteeing her more than $50 million.
Julio Herrera Velutini had faced felony bribery charges before reaching an unusually lenient 2025 plea agreement for a misdemeanor campaign-finance violation. His family then pursued a pardon through Christopher Kise, another former Trump attorney.
Meanwhile, Herrera’s daughter, Isabela Herrera, donated $3.5 million to a Trump-aligned super PAC and pledged another $2.5 million toward Trump’s White House ballroom project.
Then came the Habba deal. The Herrera family offered Habba $10 million annually for four years plus bonuses through Concord Partners, a newly created company whose business activities remain unclear. Habba began working there Jan. 1 while also serving as an adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Trump pardoned Herrera weeks later.
Habba denies participating in the pardon effort and says her employment arrangement was disclosed and vetted by the Justice Department. The White House has also denied that political donations influenced the clemency decision.
The sequence nevertheless adds to broader scrutiny of Trump pardons involving wealthy defendants, political donors and individuals represented by lawyers or lobbyists with close ties to the president.
Case in Africa’s most populous country was detected in a woman who had travelled from Uganda
Nigeria has confirmed an Ebola case in its capital, Abuja, after a woman who arrived from Uganda tested positive for the virus, the health ministry said.
The woman began showing symptoms on 7 October and was admitted to a hospital in Abuja four days later, where she was later diagnosed with Ebola. It is unclear when she arrived in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.
Park City, KS — President Donald Trump used the antisemitic term “Shylock” during a Kansas campaign rally Monday while defending Republican Sen. Roger Marshall against criticism over his past practice of suing patients for unpaid medical bills.
Trump complained that Democratic ads had portrayed Marshall as “some kind of a Shylock-type guy,” invoking the Jewish moneylender from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. The term has long been used as an antisemitic stereotype associating Jewish people with greed and predatory lending.
The Anti-Defamation League responded Tuesday by saying the term is “rooted in a longstanding antisemitic stereotype” and can reinforce harmful tropes. Notably, its statement did not identify Trump by name.
Critics accused the organization of applying a softer standard to Trump than it has to other politicians. When Joe Biden used the same term in 2014, the ADL publicly addressed him by name and welcomed his apology.
Trump also falsely claimed Marshall had been legally required to pursue patients over unpaid bills. Kansas reporting found Marshall’s former medical practice sued more than 700 patients, with some ultimately arrested after failing to appear in court.
Trump used the same slur at an Iowa rally in 2025. At the time, he said he was unaware of its antisemitic meaning.
The Kansas appearance came as Marshall faces an unexpectedly competitive reelection challenge from Democrat Adam Hamilton.
Some Cornell faculty members say a letter from Jane Doe in which she said she "felt unsupported and disbelieved" by university president Michael Kotlikoff was not shared with them.
Anti-Defamation League post decries ‘shylock’ slur but does not explain that president used it at Kansas rally on Monday
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) denounced the use of the term “shylock” as antisemitic on Tuesday, without explaining that the slur had been used a day earlier by Donald Trump in a speech in Kansas.
Trump used the slur during a Monday night rally in support of the Republican senator Roger Marshall, who is locked in a closer-than-expected re-election fight against Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton. Marshall, a doctor, as been criticized for filing lawsuits against more than 700 patients with outstanding bills, leading to 18 of them being arrested.
Washington, DC — Elon Musk personally ordered restrictions on a military-grade satellite network used by Ukraine, disrupting battlefield operations and setting off confusion inside the Trump administration over who authorized the move, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The slowdown capped connection speeds for Ukrainian equipment using SpaceX satellite technology, leaving numerous reconnaissance and combat drones unable to operate normally. Ukrainian officials said the restrictions endangered troops and weakened their ability to intercept Russian drones and conduct other battlefield missions.
The restrictions came amid escalating pressure from both Musk and President Donald Trump on Ukraine to stop striking Russian oil and diesel facilities. Trump has simultaneously eased economic pressure on Moscow, including waiving recently enacted sanctions and supporting increased Russian diesel sales.
Questions remain over who ultimately authorized the satellite restrictions. Musk publicly said the military-grade Starshield system is controlled by the U.S. government and that limitations are decided by the military and ultimately the president. Trump, however, later told reporters that neither he nor his administration ordered the disruption.
The Journal reported that SpaceX subsequently contacted White House officials seeking a coordinated explanation for the decision.
Ukraine continues to report restrictions on the system, underscoring its vulnerability to decisions made thousands of miles from the battlefield.
Gilgeous-Alexander scores 32 as Thunder beat Spurs
Pistons erase 22-point deficit to stun Celtics
The Philadelphia 76ers sent an opening-night message that they intend to challenge the New York Knicks for the NBA title after adding LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, rallying for a 106-100 victory.
Tyrese Maxey scored 28 points and Brown had 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists in his first game since being acquired from Boston. James began his NBA-record 24th season with 14 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
For months, the residents of Senatobia, Mississippi, have waited with a mix of dread and anticipation for state authorities to decide what, if anything, they plan to do about the killing of Kohen Wiley. Ever since the 1-year-old child was shot by a white police officer outside a local Walmart in June, organizers have held protests and press conferences outside the town’s city hall to call for accountability — or even a simple acknowledgment — for the loss of the Black toddler.
On Monday, Senatobia residents got their answer: Officials plan to do nothing. “In this incident, the Attorney General’s Office found the use of force was justified,” Republican Mississippi AG Lynn Fitch announced in a three-sentence news release posted on her official website.
The announcement was met with anguish and outrage from people inside and outside the state. The Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus demanded more information. “Kohen Wiley was a baby,” said state Rep. Kabir Karriem, who chairs the MLBC. “He posed no threat. He deserved protection, and he deserved a future. His family is owed more than a conclusion. … Announcing that a review is complete does not fulfill the responsibility to explain how a police encounter ended with a baby dead.”
The attorney general’s decision followed a probe into the case by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which was “responsible for conducting a thorough and impartial investigation,” as Mississippi Department of Public Safety Press Secretary Alex Gibert wrote to The Intercept on Tuesday. The email said that the probe “remains open and active.” But in a subsequent phone call, Gibert said that the investigation “involving the officer is closed.”
Gibert reiterated what the agency has previously said: that body camera footage and other investigative materials will be made available through public records requests. But she added that nothing will be released until after officials meet with Kohen’s family. “We are meeting with the family later this week,” she said.
As recently as Monday, however, the family maintained they had received no communication from the state. Kohen’s grandmother, Veronica Roberson, told Mississippi Today that she found out about the attorney general’s decision on Facebook and that no one had reached out. The outlet also reported last month that, although the investigation was complete and on the attorney general’s desk as of mid-September, no one had interviewed Kohen’s mother, Vel’lesiya Wiley, who was holding her child in her lap when he was shot dead by police. This called into question whether the investigation is as “thorough” as authorities have claimed. Asked by The Intercept whether the MBI investigation sought to interview Wiley, Gibert said she could not comment.
The man who killed Baby Kohen, as the child is now known, was identified by the press as Senatobia Police Sgt. Hunter Foster, who fired his gun into the car where Wiley was riding in the passenger’s seat on June 14. The exact circumstances that led to the shooting remain murky. Police said that officers responded to a shoplifting call at the Walmart; a two-page incident log released to The Intercept via a public records request contained no information about the shooting but noted that the items allegedly stolen were baby clothes and a pack of Pampers.
In a video posted on social media shortly after her child was killed, Wiley said she got into the passenger’s seat of the Ford Fusion after the driver, Latoya Ferrell, was stopped on her way out of the store. Police accused the women of trying to flee; according to Wiley, when she saw officers approach with guns drawn, she said, “I raised my baby up” to warn that he was in the car. Then the police shot him. Ferrell was also struck and was hospitalized, but survived.
The Senatobia Police Department immediately claimed that the car drove toward police, almost hitting them — an account swiftly echoed by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. But to date, officials have released no evidence to support this account. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who took the family’s case, hired an outside pathologist to do an external examination of the child and to review visual evidence. The medical examiner concluded, based on the appearance of the injuries and path of the fatal bullet, that the officer shot the baby from the side of the car, undermining the police’s version of events.
The announcement by the attorney general has renewed long-standing calls for video to be released. In a press conference held earlier this month, local activist Patrick Lumumba of the Senatobia Committee for Accountability and Transparency accused the state of tailoring its investigation to support a lie — that Wiley and Ferrell deliberately sought to strike Foster with the car.
“If video footage would prove that, they would have released it the next day,” he said.
Mississippi racial justice activist Patrick Lumumba, founder of the Senatobia Committee for Accountability and Transparency, addresses the police killing of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley at a board of aldermen meeting in Senatobia, Miss., on July 7, 2026.Photo: Liliana Segura/The Intercept
The killing of Kohen Wiley drew national attention to Senatobia, a small city just south of Memphis, Tennessee. City leaders mostly refused to address the killing, save for a brief, scripted video released by Senatobia Mayor Greg Graves a few days after the shooting. By the time Kohen’s family laid him to rest in late June, the police narrative had prompted many inside and outside Senatobia to blame Kohen’s mother for his death, with rumors suggesting that, rather than charge the police officer, authorities would charge the mother and driver.
The child’s death followed years of warnings by Black residents over the police’s treatment of adults and children alike. Among the string of high-profile incidents was the jailing of a 10-year-old boy for public urination, as well as the violent arrest of two sisters, 13 and 14, outside a public housing complex. According to the girls and their mother, then-police chief Richard Chandler personally ordered one of the girls to “get your Black ass out of the road” before forcing her to the ground. And on Mother’s Day 2025 — in the same Walmart parking lot where Kohen Wiley would be shot dead — a female officer forced a woman out of her car in front of her young children for sitting in a handicapped parking space.
In the summer of 2025, the Senatobia Board of Aldermen dismissed Chandler, replacing him with interim police chief Harold Vanderford, a move aimed at restoring trust, as one alderman put it. But the killing of Kohen Wiley revealed that, in reality, nothing had changed.
Residents of Senatobia, including one former law enforcement officer, told The Intercept that the institutional culture brought by Chandler remained entrenched, with Senatobia officers showing disdain and disregard for the community. City records also showed that the chief had pushed the city to adopt new ordinances that would bring in revenue for the police department, while expanding punishment for misdemeanors like loitering.
At several board of alderman meetings over the summer, Lumumba and other activists reminded city leaders that they’d warned officials about the danger posed to Black residents by Senatobia police. At the same time, Mississippi Today revealed evidence that Foster had a history of racist remarks. Just days before he shot Kohen Wiley, Foster was accused of making racist comments to a Black colleague, who later left the police department. Foster is still on the force, on paid leave.
Then, in late August, Mississippi Today exposed racist text messages sent by Vanderford himself. The text messages dated back to the summer of 2025 and contained more than a dozen uses of the N-word. City leadership initially tried to sweep the scandal under the rug: Vanderford claimed that the messages were created by AI and, after a closed-door meeting, the mayor and members of Senatobia’s board of aldermen announced that Vanderford would stay on. But individual aldermen pushed back publicly. On September 1, Vanderford tried to resign, only for the board to announce that they had voted to fire him. Vanderford was replaced by a Black woman, Senatobia Police Lieutenant Angelica Maze.
In a statement accepting the appointment as interim chief on September 5, Maze did what the police department had previously failed to do: express “heartfelt condolences to Kohen Wiley’s family and to everyone in the community who has been affected by this tragic loss.”
In another statement on Monday, after the attorney general announced the use of force was justified, Maze acknowledged that the community “may have questions, concerns, and strong emotions, and we respect everyone’s right to express their views peacefully.”
With the body camera footage likely to be released within the next several days, a new round of waiting begins in Senatobia. In the meantime, the Senatobia Committee for Accountability and Transparency released a statement on social media.
“This was never just a news story for us. It was personal – many of us are residents of Senatobia and parents of vulnerable children. … We are also human beings who need time to grieve, reflect, and process everything that has transpired.”
Billionaire ex-mayor of New York City is focusing funds on House races to help Democrats retake majority in midterms
The billionaire Michael Bloomberg will spend $80m to help Democratic candidates in the midterm elections, US media reported on Tuesday, a significant infusion of cash for a party that has recently struggled with fundraising as it seeks to win control of Congress.
The reported donations came as Donald Trump announced on Tuesday he intended to spend a total of $400m to aid Republican candidates, with $300m already disbursed.
Italy’s government is sending 500 soldiers to Milan and vowed a “firm response from the state” after protests against the cost of living descended into clashes with police, vandalism and looting. Further demonstrations are planned on Saturday.
The government of the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, also announced new security measures, including an offence of violent participation in a demonstration, tougher penalties for rioters, and financial liability for parents whose children take part in vandalism and looting.
WILMINGTON, Del. — The YMCA of Delaware has received a $25,000 grant from the NBA Foundation to expand a workforce development program that has helped hundreds of Delaware teens and young adults prepare for jobs and careers.
The YMCA’s Workforce Development program serves people ages 16 to 24 through career training, paid internships, mentoring, financial literacy education and industry-recognized credentials.
Since the program began, the YMCA says it has trained 651 young people and helped place 562 participants in paid internships. The program reports an 86% internship placement rate.
“Young people across Delaware have the talent and determination to succeed. What they need are opportunities, practical skills, and caring adults who show up for them,” YMCA of Delaware President and CEO Jarrett Royster said.
“Through this investment in our Workforce Development program, the NBA Foundation is helping more young people build confidence, gain experience, and take the next step toward a brighter future.”
Participants receive training in communication, professionalism, workplace expectations, résumé development and interviewing before many move into paid internships.
The internships are intended to give participants hands-on experience while allowing them to develop relationships with professional mentors and potential employers.
YMCA officials said every graduate from the first year of the organization’s EVOLVE program secured either a new job or a raise.
EVOLVE serves as the YMCA’s credentialing and career advancement track. Through Delaware Technical Community College and other training partners, participants can pursue credentials in areas including certified nursing, early childhood education, forklift operation, fitness training and artificial intelligence.
The YMCA also cited an independent evaluation of its 2025 participants that found 94% demonstrated growth in self-management and 94% reported increased confidence in their schoolwork. Every participant showed growth in at least one core social and emotional skill area, according to the organization.
Blue Coats partnership expands beyond basketball
The grant also builds on an existing relationship between the YMCA and the Delaware Blue Coats, the Philadelphia 76ers’ NBA G League affiliate.
The organizations previously developed the YMCA Junior Blue Coats Developmental Basketball League, which serves more than 525 young athletes in five YMCA communities across New Castle County.
“The Delaware Blue Coats and the YMCA of Delaware share a deep commitment to youth opportunity across Delaware,” said Alex Yoh, vice president of business operations for the Delaware Blue Coats.
Yoh said the basketball league gives young people an opportunity to develop as athletes and leaders, while the YMCA’s workforce programs extend that work into career preparation.
“The Y’s Workforce Development and EVOLVE programs extend that same commitment into career readiness, equipping teens and young adults with the skills and resources they need to succeed,” Yoh said.
The NBA Foundation supports nonprofit organizations in NBA markets that focus on education, employment, career advancement and economic opportunity for young people from underserved communities.
The YMCA said the new funding will help it continue providing training, mentorship, work experience and career support to young Delawareans moving from school into the workforce.
To Go
What: YMCA of Delaware Workforce Development program
Who: Delaware teens and young adults ages 16 to 24
What it offers: Career training, paid internships, mentorship, financial literacy education and industry-recognized credentials
Career pathways: Programs include certified nursing, early childhood education, forklift operation, fitness training and artificial intelligence
Learn more: Visit the YMCA of Delaware website for information about Workforce Development and EVOLVE programs.
In the Maine Senate race, ads from pro-Republican groups give Democratic candidate Troy Jackson the nickname “Taxin’ Jackson,” but they make misleading claims about his proposal for Social Security taxes and his votes on some other issues.
The ads say that Jackson “wants to raise Social Security taxes,” with one adding, “hurting our seniors.” But Jackson’s proposal would affect high-income earners who are still working. He wants to remove the cap on the maximum amount of income subject to Social Security payroll taxes.
The ads also claim that Jackson voted in the state Legislature to increase Mainers’ taxes on such items as gasoline and groceries, but cite votes in favor of taxes or fees that did not directly pertain to those items.
One of the ads, from Defending Main Street PAC, says “it’s tough to make a living when you pay so much in taxes” and blames Jackson before making several claims about alleged tax increases that he backed.
The other ad, from Pine Tree Results PAC, makes a number of the same tax assertions and says Jackson “claims to be for working Mainers” but is “definitely not on our side.”
We reached out to both groups about the claims in the ads. Only Pine Tree Results PAC responded with information beyond the sources listed on screen as footnotes.
Jackson is running for the seat held by his opponent, Republican Sen. Susan Collins. The Cook Political Report rates the race as a toss-up.
Social Security Taxes
The language used in the ads could give viewers the false impression that Jackson wants to increase the Social Security payroll tax, or that he wants to raise taxes on Social Security benefits. Neither is Jackson’s plan.
The ad from Defending Main Street PAC says, “Jackson wants to raise Social Security taxes, hurting our seniors.” The ad from Pine Tree Results PAC says, “He wants to raise our Social Security taxes.” Both ads show older people while those claims are being made.
What Jackson has proposed is changing the amount of annual earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax, which is 12.4%, split between employers and employees, who each pay a 6.2% tax on wages earned. He wants to eliminate the cap on taxable earnings that is set at $184,500 for 2026.
People who make more than that amount do not have to pay the tax on the additional income, and neither do their employers. Jackson has said the change would extend the life of the Social Security program and potentially boost retirement benefits.
“Here’s my plan for Social Security, to make sure it’s there for current and future retirees,” Jackson wrote in a Sept. 11 opinion piece published in the Bangor Daily News. “First, we put Social Security on firmer financial ground by scrapping the cap. If you make more than $184,500 a year, you don’t pay Social Security taxes on income over that amount. Meanwhile, if you make less than that, you pay on your full income.
“It’s not fair, and I’ll fight to change it,” he said. “And second, I support increasing the benefits that retirees receive rather than cutting them.”
Jackson said the same thing at a July Democratic candidates’ debate that was cited in small print in the two ads. And he reiterated his plan at an Oct. 8 debate against Collins. At that October debate, Collins said that she, too, supports increasing the earnings cap — although she didn’t say by how much.
As for the claim that eliminating the earnings cap would end up “hurting our seniors,” Jonathan Schwabish, a senior fellow in the tax and income supports division at the Urban Institute, told us that current Social Security beneficiaries are unlikely to be affected. He said in an interview that the policy change would increase the amount of taxes paid by high earners with pay above the current capped amount.
The Social Security Administration says about 6% of workers each year earn more than the taxable maximum.
However, removing the earnings cap could have some broader economic implications, Schwabish said.
“There is the possibility, of course, that increasing the tax max could have an impact on economic growth,” which “could affect the economy as a whole,” he said.
Because some individuals and employers would have to pay more in taxes, “you could imagine overall economic growth changing, maybe slowing down,” he said. But he said that’s an economy-wide issue, not one that just affects seniors.
Rather than hurting seniors, there are potential direct benefits to seniors. Without any changes to current law, the Social Security trust funds used to pay benefits will be depleted by 2032, according to the most recent Social Security Trustees’ report. At that time, the revenue coming in from the payroll tax would only be enough to cover 78% of scheduled benefits.
The trustees’ report estimated that eliminating the earnings cap could close 58% of Social Security’s long-term budget deficit — if scheduled benefits are not increased for those high-income earners who would be paying more in taxes. If benefits are increased for those paying above the current-law taxable maximum, the long-term funding gap would be reduced by 45%.
Other Tax Claims
The anti-Jackson ads also make three identical, or similar claims, about him supporting various tax increases as a member of Maine’s Legislature from 2002 to 2014 and again from 2016 to 2024. But some of those claims are misleading or unsupported.
Gasoline: The claims that Jackson “voted to tax our gas” or “increase the gas tax” are based on his vote for L.D. 1509 in June 2013. As part of that appropriations bill, Maine’s general sales tax increased from 5% to 5.5%, and the tax on lodging, alcohol and prepared meals went from 7% to 8%. (So, Jackson did vote to increase the sales tax, as one of the ads says.)
But those sales tax increases did not apply to gasoline. Maine’s fuel tax of 30 cents per gallon of gas has been the same since 2011.
Groceries: One ad says “Jackson taxed our groceries,” and the other says “Jackson voted to raise the sales tax, increasing the cost of groceries.” But both ads cite the samethreevotes on bills that were not a direct tax on groceries.
L.D. 1541, which was signed into law in 2021, created Maine’s Stewardship Program for Packaging. It requires large companies to pay fees for the recycling of consumer packaging, taking some of the financial burden off of local municipalities and taxpayers.
At the time the bill was being considered, the Maine Chamber of Commerce, which opposed it, said studies of similar proposals found that companies paying the packaging fees could pass their costs onto consumers by raising prices, causing grocery bills to go up by 4% to 6%, on average. But the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a nonprofit that supported the bill, said other studies found no correlation between packaging programs and higher grocery prices.
Meanwhile, L.D. 1532, which became law in 2019, banned single-use plastic carry-out bags to reduce plastic waste. Certain retailers were then required to provide customers with reusable bags or recycled paper bags, and charge a fee of at least 5 cents per bag.
Of the three bills, L.D. 1495, enacted in 2009, was the only one pertaining to a direct tax on food – but only certain “prepared food” items. The bill defined those as “meals served on or off the premises of the retailer,” “drinks that are prepared by the retailer and ready for consumption without further preparation,” “food and drinks sold from an establishment whose sales of food and drinks that are prepared by the retailer account for more than 75% of the establishment’s gross receipts,” and candy.
Importantly, the legislation said prepared food “does not include bulk sales of grocery staples.”
Income taxes: The claims that Jackson “raised taxes on our paychecks” or “supported higher … income taxes” are based on his vote for L.D. 258 in July 2023. To be clear, the legislation did not increase income tax rates. Instead, the appropriations bill, in part, established Maine’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program, which provides eligible workers up to 12 weeks of paid time off for certain reasons.
The program is financed by a payroll tax, split between employers and employees, depending on the size of the company. Employees cannot be charged more than 0.5% of their pay.
And if you were curious about the “tax” on Max the dog, as the Pine Tree Results PAC ad says, that is a reference to Jackson’s vote in May 2003 for L.D. 1545, a bill that, among other things, increased state licensing fees for dogs. Dog owners and keepers pay the fees and the money supports the state’s Animal Welfare Fund. It’s worth noting that Jackson voted for a successful amendment to the bill that lowered the amounts by which the fees increased.
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Washington, DC — The Trump administration is giving pro-Trump YouTuber Nick Shirley a $10,000 government payment for his fraud-related videos, further blurring the line between independent journalism and political advocacy.
Shirley will become the first recipient of a new Justice Department Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, which promises rewards of up to $30,000 for tips producing convictions or significant enforcement actions.
The White House credits Shirley’s viral Minnesota daycare video with helping expose fraud. But major fraud investigations in Minnesota were already underway before his video, including the $250 million Feeding Our Future case.
Shirley’s reporting methods have also repeatedly drawn scrutiny. His videos rely heavily on confrontational encounters, selective footage and dramatic editing, while presenting suspicions as evidence of broader wrongdoing. Minnesota inspectors later found the daycare centers highlighted in his viral video generally operating normally, undermining the sweeping impression that they were simply fake businesses collecting government money.
Shirley also has a documented record of spreading inaccurate claims. AFP previously debunked his assertion that more than 30 people were illegally registered to vote at a San Diego UPS store. The address actually included a 34-unit apartment complex, and election officials found nobody registered to the store itself.
The payment comes after the Trump White House repeatedly promoted Shirley, invited him to administration events and used his videos to support its political messaging and policy actions.
That relationship raises an obvious question about how meaningfully Shirley can continue presenting himself as an independent journalist while receiving money and extraordinary access from the administration he overwhelmingly supports.
Columbus, OH — A pro-Vivek Ramaswamy attack ad featuring Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton’s estranged mother has triggered rare bipartisan outrage, with critics accusing Ramaswamy’s allies of exploiting Acton’s childhood abuse for political gain.
The video features Donna Arthur calling her daughter a “liar” and disputing Acton’s longtime account that her family lived in a tent during part of her childhood. But the ad omits key context: Acton has said she was sexually abused as a child by Arthur’s husband, who was criminally charged, and that she became estranged from her mother after being removed from the home.
Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, said Arthur remained married to the man accused of abusing his sister until his death. He accused Ramaswamy of turning that trauma into a campaign weapon and called the attack a “despicable low.”
Even prominent conservatives recoiled. Republican strategist Liz Mair called the ad “terrible,” commentator Mary Katharine Ham said it appeared likely to backfire, and Reason’s Robby Soave described it as “sick stuff.”
It remains unclear who produced or paid for the video, and there is no verified evidence that Ramaswamy’s campaign directly commissioned it. His campaign had not publicly addressed the controversy when the reports were published.
Acton’s account of her childhood, including living in a tent, was publicly documented years before she ran for governor.
Ann Altman, the Open AI CEO’s sister, accused her brother of repeatedly sexually abusing her over two decades ago
A judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Sam Altman’s sister against him on Tuesday. Ann Altman accused the OpenAI CEO of repeatedly sexually abusing her more than two decades ago, which he has denied.
In dismissing Ann Altman’s lawsuit, the US district judge Zachary Bluestone wrote that she had refused to appear for an independent medical examination despite warnings that failure to do so would result in the case’s dismissal.
Can the UK drive middle power coordination on AI?Expert commentthilton.drupal
Other middle powers are increasingly realizing the need for cooperation. The UK should help advance it.
Last week, UK AI Minister Kanishka Narayan announced the government would take steps to boost Britain’s resilience to AI-driven risks. New measures will include advancing the government’s cyber defence and considering how to use legislation to mandate serious AI incident reporting.
In the face of US and Chinese dominance and growing global concerns about an AI crisis, the UK is one of many countries seeking to build agency and security over AI. Last week at Chatham House, Canada’s AI Minister Evan Solomon outlined his country’s vision for secure, democratic technology and called for coalitions among likeminded countries to build and govern it.
Solomon’s speech came after a group of 20 countries and the EU also issued a joint statement calling for measures to control frontier AI models. Led by Norway and Finland, the signatories are all, arguably, ‘middle powers.’ They include democracies like Australia and Canada and non-democracies like Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
The UK was noticeably absent from this joint statement. But UK prime minister Andy Burnham did use his UN General Assembly address to commit UK leadership to a global agreement on AI. And AI will be front-and-centre of the UK G20 presidency next year.
The joint statement is just a call to action. Yet it may be a promising indication that middle powers are creating the tools and networks they need to coordinate on safe, secure AI. The UK can strengthen its middle power status on AI through driving coordination while also carving out a leading role on AI security.
Welcome to the club
Coordination between middle powers first requires defining them. The challenge is that who counts as a middle power is contested.
One argument would be that ‘AI middle powers’ is simply a term for everyone except Washington and Beijing. The state of play is sobering. The US and China dominate up to 90 per cent of compute. Middle powers cannot compete with their capital expenditure on AI. Most countries are dependent on US and Chinese technology.
But middle powers like the UK are not constrained. To build agency over the AI stack, they have options. Some choose to align with a superpower or hedge between them. Others specialize, dominating a strategic foothold in the supply chain.
However, there is another option: coordination. For most countries, the secure, safe buildout and maintenance of the AI stack is already an exercise in inescapable interdependence. This cooperation extends far beyond flashy frontier models. There is a case to be made that middle power status itself is forged through coordination.
Recent months have seen a shift in the discourse on sovereignty: to build agency and shape technology markets, middle powers realize they cannot go it alone. Many EU states reiterated their commitment to European AI sovereignty at last week’s Dublin AI summit.
But the competitiveness, security and prosperity that sovereignty might deliver are endangered if countries can’t work together to mitigate AI-driven risks. Agency and readiness demand coordination extending beyond dialogue and declarations.
Countries in the Global South like India and Brazil have known for years that agency requires coordination, and have created open digital infrastructure like payment systems and digital IDs.
This imperative is now felt by others: last month, Canada’s Cohere and Germany’s Aleph Alpha joined forces to become ‘the first transatlantic sovereign AI solution’, while the two countries committed £300 million to a non-profit AI safety start-up.
Agency and readiness demand coordination that extends beyond dialogue.
Some middle powers are concerned about their readiness after a summer of hype (some warranted, some inflated) over AI’s potential to cause a global crisis.
Many realize their access to mostly American proprietary models such as Claude or GPT-5 is not guaranteed, while some are concerned about dependence on Chinese open-weight models. Accurate information about security risks and impacts is hard to come by: whether in the AI system or its applications. In the face of this uncertainty, Canada has led calls for a Technology Stability Board modelled on the post-crash Financial Stability Board (FSB).
Team GB
The UK is playing a balancing act. It is working bilaterally with middle powers, announcing partnerships with Canada on AI security and Germany on technology investment this month. It has diplomatic capital: it brought the US and China together for the world’s first AI Safety Summit in 2023, while King Charles convened AI executives at Dumfries last month.
But the UK has arguably been wary of wider middle power coordination on AI. At the same time, Burnham’s government has pursued a close relationship with the US, announcing an AI and defence deal last month. The US and UK signed a Technology Prosperity Deal for the UK’s AI infrastructural buildout last year, which has since been criticized for its lack of transparency and appears to have not been widely implemented.
The UK should sign the middle powers’ statement on AI security.
The UK has an advanced AI ecosystem. Yet, alone, this buys Britain little. Granted, the US is a powerful partner on technology, but it is a volatile one: UK resilience and sovereignty are not guaranteed by alignment with the US.
A high-profile case in point: the UK’s AI Security Institute (AISI) is world-leading for evaluating models and their risks. But having previously been granted access to US frontier models, concerning reports have circulated that US companies might be under pressure from the White House to not send their models to AISI for testing immediately.
This summer featured multiple U-turns over whether anyone outside of the US would have immediate access to Anthropic’s latest models. The question is whether the UK, EU and other middle powers could have negotiated for access as a bloc – and whether the UK’s alignment with the US is at odds with coordinating with its counterparts.
Coordination of the willing
Optimism about a middle power alliance on AI is often misplaced. This is because coordination does not happen organically. Diplomatic infrastructure – information, institutions, and networks – is needed. This helps countries coordinate, especially in a crisis: like a future supply chain shock or revoked access to a widely used model.
Building diplomatic capacity on AI is gathering momentum. G7 finance ministers recently committed to using simulation exercises to build resilience. For a year, Chatham House has worked with AI Safety Asia to test diplomatic infrastructure through simulated crises to stress-test solutions, like risk monitoring and technical interventions. Findings can be scaled up to multilateral institutions.
The UK is well-placed to advance this diplomatic infrastructure. Its G20 presidency offers an opportunity for middle power coordination on AI. The UK government should use the various summits in 2027 – including the G20 Geneva AI Summit and UN Global Dialogue – to build consensus among different middle powers that can underpin a global agreement.
Specifically, the UK should use its diplomatic capital and technical authority to broker agreement on issues underpinning stability and trust. These could include risk monitoring, independent evaluations, incident reporting and notification, with trusted standards building reliability.
In the short term, the UK should sign the middle powers’ statement on AI security. Using the G20 to design an FSB-style arrangement could even pave the way for some mandatory testing and serious incident information-sharing.
US-China challenges
This does not come without challenges. US-China competition has prevented internationally binding rules on AI, although November’s planned bilateral talks on AI may move the needle on issues like an incident hotline.
Washington could impose retaliatory measures if middle powers come together on safety regulation that it perceives as unfriendly or to set conditions on market access. Meanwhile, other middle powers may be tempted by China’s AI offer, which is backed up with new multilateral initiatives such as the World AI Cooperation Organization, launched in Shanghai.
Despite these obstacles, coordination between middle powers – in regional or issue-based groupings, and on bargaining, building or securing AI – is flourishing. The UK can be a leader on AI security and advance an ambitious multilateral agenda on AI. But first, it needs a middle power strategy.
From savory soups and pumpkin French toast to handmade ice cream and seasonal coffee drinks, Delaware restaurants and bakeries offer plenty of ways to taste autumn.
Oct. 20, 2026
HOCKESSIN, Del. — Pumpkin season in Delaware is about more than carving jack-o’-lanterns and decorating front porches. Across the First State, restaurants, bakeries and ice cream shops are finding creative ways to bring one of fall’s favorite flavors to the table.
Some have made pumpkin a signature dish, while others introduce seasonal treats that disappear when autumn ends.
From a longstanding Hockessin soup to pumpkin-flavored ice cream at the beaches, here are 10 Delaware destinations worth considering this fall. Several offerings are listed on current menus, while others are documented seasonal favorites whose return should be confirmed before visiting.
1. Pumpkin mushroom soup at the Back Burner Restaurant & Tavern — Hockessin
Few pumpkin dishes in Delaware have the staying power of Back Burner’s signature pumpkin mushroom soup. Unlike most seasonal offerings, this Hockessin favorite remains on the menu throughout the year.
The creamy soup combines pumpkin and mushrooms, finished with crème fraîche, croutons and chives. Its popularity has made it a defining dish at the restaurant, attracting customers who return specifically for the soup.
The restaurant’s published menu lists the soup at $10 for a cup and $12 for a bowl. It also is available for takeout, making it an easy fall meal to enjoy at home.
2. Pumpkin crab bisque at Big Fish Grill — Rehoboth Beach
Big Fish Grill has developed a following for its seasonal pumpkin crab bisque, combining the flavor of fall squash with one of Delaware’s best-known seafood ingredients.
The bisque has appeared on past restaurant menus and holiday catering offerings, including a Thanksgiving menu that offered larger quantities for customers to take home.
Its combination of pumpkin and crab has attracted enough attention that regional dining guides have highlighted the soup as a seasonal favorite.
The restaurant’s current website does not establish whether the bisque has returned for October 2026, so diners should call to confirm its availability.
3. Pumpkin pie cold brew at the Station on Kings — Lewes
The Station on Kings offers a fall twist on coffee with a pumpkin pie cold brew listed on its online ordering menu.
The drink combines cold brew coffee, house-made pumpkin syrup, cinnamon cold foam and Biscoff cookie crumbles. The online menu lists it at $8.
The café has previously offered a pumpkin pecan torte with layers of pecan cake, caramel crémeux and pumpkin Bavarian cream, although that pastry could not be confirmed on the current menu.
With its café, pastry offerings and garden-center atmosphere, The Station provides a pleasant stop for visitors exploring Lewes during the fall.
4. Pumpkin pie praline French toast at Egg — Rehoboth Beach
For breakfast lovers, Egg offers one of the more creative ways to enjoy pumpkin without waiting for dessert.
Its pumpkin pie praline French toast combines pumpkin custard-soaked French toast with a pecan topping, bringing together traditional breakfast ingredients and the flavors of pumpkin pie.
The dish appears on the restaurant’s published menu at $17, making it one of the more clearly documented pumpkin offerings at the beaches.
Egg has also featured fall-inspired cocktails in previous seasons, although those selections may change.
5. Pumpkin pie and pumpkin roll at Bing’s Bakery — Newark
Delaware’s oldest continuously operating bakery keeps pumpkin season traditional.
Bing’s Bakery in Newark offers a classic 9-inch pumpkin pie and a pumpkin roll filled with cream cheese icing. The bakery’s website currently lists the pie at $17.95 and the pumpkin roll at $20.
Both products are advertised as available through Thanksgiving, giving customers an opportunity to bring familiar seasonal desserts to family gatherings.
For those who prefer traditional baked goods over pumpkin-flavored drinks, Bing’s provides a dependable choice.
6. Pumpkin bars and seasonal pastries at Dolcé Bakery and Coffee Shop — Milford
In downtown Milford, Dolcé Bakery and Coffee Shop has a history of preparing pumpkin bars and pumpkin rolls alongside its selection of fresh pastries.
Older published menus identify both pumpkin specialties, although the bakery’s current online menu does not specifically confirm that they are available this fall.
The downtown café offers coffee, pastries and a casual atmosphere for visitors exploring Milford’s shops and businesses.
Customers looking for the pumpkin bars should contact the bakery before visiting.
Spark’d Creative Pastry + Coffee brings pumpkin season to downtown Wilmington through its fall beverage menu.
At its I.M. Pei Building location on Market Street, the shop lists a pumpkin spice latte available hot or iced. Customers can also add pumpkin cold foam to customize their beverages.
The current online ordering menu lists the seasonal latte starting at $5.50.
While Spark’d is known for its creative pastry selection, specific pumpkin pies and cheesecakes mentioned in earlier descriptions could not be confirmed on its current online menu.
8. Pumpkin pie ice cream at Hopkins Farm Creamery — Lewes
Hopkins Farm Creamery offers a distinctly Delaware approach to pumpkin season by combining locally produced dairy products with traditional fall flavors.
The creamery has offered pumpkin pie ice cream as part of its seasonal selection, a flavor documented in regional tourism and restaurant coverage.
Located on Dairy Farm Road, the family dairy operation makes its own ice cream and offers visitors a chance to enjoy a frozen dessert in a farm setting.
The pumpkin pie flavor is historically documented, but its availability for October 2026 has not been confirmed on the creamery’s current website. Its telephone number provides recorded information rather than live customer service.
9. Small-batch pumpkin ice cream at Marigold Creamery — Lewes
One of the clearest current pumpkin finds at the beaches comes from Marigold Creamery, a small-batch ice cream business operating from a truck in the parking lot at The Station on Kings.
Its published flavor list includes pumpkin ice cream, offering another way to experience fall without ordering a traditional pie or pastry.
Marigold’s website lists Oct. 23-25 as its final operating weekend of the 2026 season, giving pumpkin lovers a limited opportunity to visit before the business closes for the year.
Customers interested in purchasing pints can preorder by email, subject to availability and confirmation from the creamery.
10. Fall treats, cider doughnuts and pumpkin picking af Fifer Orchards — Camden-Wyoming
For families who want to experience pumpkin season beyond the restaurant table, Fifer Orchards offers a combination of farm activities and seasonal foods.
The farm’s 2026 Fall Festival runs from Sept. 19 through Nov. 7, with pumpkin picking, a corn maze and seasonal attractions.
Visitors can also enjoy the farm’s apple cider doughnuts, kettle corn, cider and other treats.
Although Fifer’s has been associated with pumpkin desserts, its current website does not specifically confirm pumpkin pies or pumpkin rolls. The cider doughnuts and fall activities, however, are advertised as part of the seasonal experience.
It’s an option for visitors who want to make a day of autumn rather than simply stop for a meal.
Delaware’s autumn food scene offers something for almost every preference, from savory soups and seafood bisques to traditional bakery desserts and small-batch ice cream.
The advantage of living in a small state is that many of these destinations can become part of a fall day trip, whether that means breakfast at the beach, dessert in Newark or a stop at a Kent County farm.
The 10 spots were selected from restaurant reviews on respected apps, local visitor guides (including Visit Delaware and Visit Rehoboth), Delaware Today and Delaware Online coverage, and restaurant write-ups that specifically praised particular pumpkin dishes. Priority went to items with the strongest reputations—such as cult-following soups, year-round staples, and standout pastries—while also aiming for geographic variety across the state and a mix of savory, breakfast, and dessert options rather than only basic lattes or generic pies. The ranking reflects the depth of that local praise, not a formal tasting or poll.
Editos’s note: Because seasonal menus and supplies change, customers should confirm that a particular pumpkin item is available before making a special trip.
To Go: Delaware’s pumpkin favorites
What: Ten Delaware restaurants, bakeries, creameries and farm destinations offering or historically known for pumpkin-inspired fall favorites.
Selection: Items were selected based on an analysis of reviews, customer comments and travel posts on several respected websites… the process identifies strength reputation over a poll or taste test.
When: October and early November, depending on the business and seasonal availability.
Where: Hockessin, Wilmington, Newark, Milford, Camden-Wyoming, Lewes and Rehoboth Beach.
Cost: Varies by location and menu item.
Learn more: Visit the business websites listed above for menus, ordering information, hours and seasonal updates.
Charlotte, NC — Five Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers have resigned and a sixth remains suspended after an internal investigation uncovered alleged racist text messages, prompting the police chief to request an FBI civil rights investigation.
Chief Estella Patterson said the messages surfaced during a separate inquiry into misuse of the department’s Flock camera system. She described the communications as “deeply troubling” and said the discovery triggered reviews of the officers’ body-camera footage and arrest records.
Local reporting indicates the messages included racist slurs, including alleged use of the N-word, and one exchange reportedly compared the group to a “clan rally,” an apparent reference to the Ku Klux Klan.
The five officers who resigned were Mateo Juarez, Joseph Kelly, Tredan Maronic, Matthew Osborn and Alexander Larsen. Patterson had already recommended their termination. Officer Jeremiah Todman remains suspended while his case proceeds through a civil service review.
Patterson said she also intends to seek revocation of the officers’ state law-enforcement certifications.
The chief acknowledged concerns about whether the conduct reflects a broader problem within the department and said CMPD will continue auditing officers’ interactions with the public.
No officers have been criminally charged in connection with the text messages.
Ten conflicts to watch in 2027
14
January 2027 — 18:00 TO 19:00 GMT
Anonymous (not verified)
Chatham House and Online
Join us at Chatham House for the yearly event as we examine the most dangerous wars and crises through the lens of the International Crisis Group’s flagship annual report, Ten Conflicts to Watch.
Join us at Chatham House for the yearly event as we examine the most dangerous wars and crises through the lens of the International Crisis Group’s flagship annual report, Ten Conflicts to Watch.
Each year, International Crisis Group compiles a list of the ten conflicts to watch that examines key conflict situations across the globe.
Please join us for this event, at which Dr Comfort Ero, International Crisis Group president and CEO, discusses today’s and tomorrow’s most pressing wars and crises afflicting international affairs over the year ahead.
The Vibe Check: Delaware Symphony Orchestra’s 121st Season Concept: Centuries-old masterworks alongside contemporary compositions When: Oct. 25-April 25 Where: The Grand Opera House (818 N. Market St., Wilmington); Cape Henlopen High School (1250 Kings Highway, Lewes); Westminster Presbyterian Church (1502 W. 13th St., Wilmington) Tickets: Begin at $35 for all shows at The Grand. General admission $50 for the two performances at Cape Henlopen High School. Affordable Options: $2 tickets for Delawarean and Pennsylvanian EBT cardholders and up to three guests. Free admission for local university students studying music. Website: delawaresymphonyorchestra.org
The hush that fell over The Grand Opera House lasted only a few seconds. Then, lightning struck, producing the thunderclap of the timpani and bass drum. Next came the rain of the snare, overlaid by rising, hopeful trumpets. Those optimistic tones then met their combatant: the insistent anxiety of the French horns.
Delaware Symphony Orchestra had created the soundtrack of a bird flying through a thunderstorm, battered by the wind before emerging from the tempest with a triumphant note.
At the eye of the storm was conductor and music director Michelle Di Russo, who had chosen the piece, “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman,” to kick off her second season with the orchestra. She joined the 120-year-old institution last year after an extensive, two-year hiring process.
Oct. 2 marked the first concert of Delaware Symphony Orchestra’s current season, and Di Russo’s first choosing all the music herself. She knew that “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” had to come first.
Michelle Di Russo’s physicality onstage reflects her upbringing as a dancer. | PHOTO BY MOONLOOP PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY OF DELAWARE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Composer Joan Tower wrote the piece in 1987 in response to Aaron Copland’s stately “Fanfare for the Common Man,” using the same instrumentation to produce an entirely different feeling. Tower dedicated it to conductor Marin Alsop, who broke gender barriers by being the first woman music director of a major American orchestra.
Alsop was Di Russo’s hero when she began studying conducting in her homeland of Argentina in 2009.
“(My sister) told me, ‘Why don’t you look up other women who are doing what you want to do?’” Di Russo said. “I found Marin (Alsop), and I was like, ‘Wow, she’s amazing!’ It was such a huge inspiration for me.”
Di Russo then discovered the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship for women conductors and connected with one of the fellows, who gave her advice about applying for schools in the United States.
Di Russo has since crossed paths with Alsop several times, and in January received a two-year Taki Alsop associate fellowship, which includes coaching by Alsop.
Now that Di Russo is in a position to pass on her own wisdom, she’s working to create a Delaware Symphony Orchestra conducting mentorship pilot program that will launch this year. Many of the details are still under wraps, but Di Russo believes it will help eliminate barriers in the same way Alsop’s fellowship helped her.
“Having that support from her and from the community she’s created is really encouraging, and it makes the profession a bit less lonely,” Di Russo said. “She calls it a sisterhood, because we’re all very connected and really help each other.”
Cenotes and suffragettes
Delaware Symphony Orchestra performs most of its concerts in The Grand Opera House in Wilmington. | PHOTO BY MOONLOOP PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY OF DELAWARE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Di Russo’s introduction to music was through dance. At 3 years old, she began participating in ballet, jazz dance and tap dance, which quickly snowballed into piano and vocal lessons and musical theater.
Di Russo’s roots as a professional dancer can be seen in her physicality on the conductor’s podium. During rehearsals, she keeps a cloth nearby to wipe the sweat off her forehead and sometimes gets so into the music that she accidentally throws her baton. Thankfully, that’s never happened in front of an audience, she said with a laugh.
Di Russo became hooked on conducting while studying at Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina. During a second-year exam, she realized directing an orchestra allowed her to express herself in an entirely different way than dancing did.
“It encompasses an even bigger world (than dancing), and that’s what I was looking for. I was looking for this direct, human connection of making music together. I was looking for a place where I could have my voice and express it,” she said.
Di Russo’s musical voice can be heard in her selections for Delaware Symphony Orchestra this season. The centuries-old masterworks have their place, but more recent compositions are given just as much recognition.
For example, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra in April will play Gabriela Ortiz’s cello concerto “Dzonot,” which won a Grammy Award earlier this year.
Named for the Spanish word for “cenote,” Ortiz’s concerto is an ode to the underground pools and caverns found in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. These cenotes supply drinking water in southeastern Mexico and are home to wildlife like jaguars and Toh birds, but they have faced biodegradation from sewage disposal, agricultural runoff and other human interference. Ortiz wrote “Dzonot” as a form of protest.
One reason Di Russo is passionate about playing recent work is because she can collaborate with the composers. She can’t exactly do that with Beethoven, at least without some necromancy involved.
For example, Sarah Kirkland Snider will guide the orchestra as they rehearse “Forward Into Light,” her 2020 composition inspired by the women’s suffrage movement. Delaware Symphony Orchestra will play the piece as part of the “Hidden Voices” concert on Jan. 22.
While the masterworks have remained beloved for a reason, Di Russo believes sprinkling in recent works by a more diverse group of composers will draw in new audiences.
“This music is being composed while living the things we’re living — while going through a pandemic, while going through hardships together, challenges, exciting things,” Di Russo said. “It should be easy to connect, because they are being inspired by the world you are living in.”
‘You can connect on any level’
A violinist with Delaware Symphony Orchestra plays onstage. | PHOTO BY MOONLOOP PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY OF DELAWARE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Many of Delaware Symphony Orchestra’s six music directors, including Di Russo’s predecessor, David Amado, have stayed in the role for more than 20 years. However long Di Russo’s tenure lasts, she wants to leave a legacy of making the orchestra a welcoming space for everyone.
Her commitment to that goal can be seen during concerts, where she often holds the door open for guests, thanking them for coming.
And it isn’t only out-of-towners in tuxedos and cocktail dresses who are welcome within the walls of The Grand.
Any elitist stigma associated with the orchestra is quickly dashed by Di Russo’s forthright sense of humor on the podium. Last season, she described the sound of a piece as the music “vomiting,” which got a laugh out of the audience.
Michelle Di Russo hopes Delawareans can see their symphony orchestra as a community resource. | PHOTO BY MOONLOOP PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY OF DELAWARE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
“It sounds very rude, but they really connected with that, actually. At the end, a lot of people told me, ‘You know what? It actually did sound like that,’” she said. “You can connect on any level, and it doesn’t have to be an inspired, high-level way of connecting.”
On a financial level, Delaware Symphony Orchestra lowers the barrier to entry by offering $2 admission for Delawarean and Pennsylvanian EBT cardholders and up to three guests. Local university students studying music can also get in for free.
Delaware Symphony Orchestra also offers occasional free concerts, like on Independence Day.
“That opened up the orchestra to a new audience that had never seen the orchestra, didn’t even know it existed,” Di Russo said. “We need to try to do more. Of course, they’re expensive, so we need to find the right support, either from the city or grants.”
Educational musician visits to schools and libraries are equally important to Di Russo.
“When you’re trying to bring them in in their 20s, sometimes, it’s too late. They’re already not interested,” she said. “If you hear an orchestra when you’re in fourth grade … it’s mind-blowing, and then it becomes a part of your life because you’re so enthralled by it.”
Di Russo hopes all Delawareans realize the Delaware Symphony Orchestra is a resource for everyone, not only those who can afford a season pass. After all, music is a language that anyone can understand.
“The community can find the concert hall as a place of solace, a place of reflection, a place of connection, a place to be happy … whatever it is that they need to come feel,” Di Russo said. “(I want them to) come for those reasons, not, ‘It’s just another concert.’ I want them to come and feel the music and connect with us in this unspoken language.”
Why Should Delaware Care? Delaware is home to around 120,000 immigrants, and about half have been able to obtain U.S. citizenship. The process usually takes years, and experts say obtaining the permanent legal status in the U.S. is getting harder and harder.
When the first Dutch colonists settled in Lewes, there were no immigration laws governing their arrival — America itself would not even declare independence and become a country for another 145 years.
But in the centuries since, federal immigration policies built over generations have come to define what it means to become an American citizen for those not born in the U.S. The process is not straightforward or easy, experts said, and it often involves many years, fees and hurdles.
“I will say that generally under this administration, we are seeing less naturalization applications being processed, or at least they’re taking longer as well,” said Adriel Orozco, senior policy counsel with the American Immigration Council.
Spotlight Delaware spoke with several attorneys and experts to better understand the various pathways to citizenship, and why only about half of Delaware’s 120,000 immigrants have been able to obtain it.
In the U.S., states have no authority to make immigration laws. Congress establishes the country’s policies, and those policies are then enforced by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a federal agency.
The most difficult step in the citizenship process, experts said, is becoming a lawful permanent resident, most commonly known as obtaining a “green card.” This allows immigrants to lawfully live and work in the country without the risk of deportation.
Green card holders must then usually wait three to five years before filing their citizenship applications.
Because citizenship pathways are reserved for those who enter the country legally, there is no direct pathway for undocumented immigrants — many who have been here for decades.
What does it take to obtain a green card?
The first step toward becoming a U.S. citizen is determining green card eligibility.
Over the past decade, nearly half the green cards given to immigrants were for those petitioning to reunite with a close family member. Employment-based sponsorships along with asylum and refugee petitions made up the majority of the remaining green card designations.
A less common pathway is entering the “diversity lottery,” which was recently restored by the courts after the Trump administration delayed the program. These green cards are capped at 55,000 people annually and targeted at countries with low immigration rates to the U.S., like Algeria and Afghanistan.
Family-based green card petitions
If a person’s family member, such as a spouse or a child older than 21 years old, is a U.S. citizen, they typically qualify for a family-based green card application.
The 12-page application asks for an immigrant’s personal information, such as job history. The filing also must include evidence of a familial relationship, such as a birth or marriage certificate, depending on the case.
Applicants pay a little more than $600, not including attorney fees or the cost of obtaining biometric scans like fingerprints and facial recognition. Total costs with an attorney can reach thousands of dollars.
Decision times to obtain a green card vary widely depending on a person’s relationship to the U.S. citizen who is petitioning for their legal status.
The longest wait time is for sibling relationships, which is currently 25 years, said Kaley Miller-Schaeffer, an immigration attorney who specializes in humanitarian and family-based petitions. This is because green cards for siblings are capped annually at around 65,000.
The shortest wait time tends to be for spouses or parents, which can take up to five years, according to current USCIS processing times.
Employment-based petitions
Those attempting to enter the U.S. under the sponsorship from an employer must have a job offer lined up from a company willing to file the necessary paperwork and pay the legal fees.
Many times, a temporary work visa is much more common than the permanent employment-based citizenship petition.
The U.S. gives out at least 140,000 visas a year to these immigrants and their family dependents.
These visas can turn into green cards if an employer is willing to commit to permanently hiring the employee. But the employee must show “extraordinary” or “outstanding” ability, usually referencing top-tier researchers or company executives and those with advanced degrees who hold multiple years of experience.
Filing an employment-based green card application costs a bit more than family-based petitions — around $700. Similar to family-based applications, this does not include attorney or biometric scanning fees, which could cost more than a couple thousand dollars.
Employers must also prove no other U.S. citizen can fill the job the immigrant petitioner is seeking.
Immigrants seeking permanent stay in the U.S. due to fears of persecution relating to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, and/or membership in a particular social group, are usually categorized as an asylum-seeker or refugee.
But there is a difference between the two.
Refugees must have applied outside the U.S. and have been vetted by resettlement agencies such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. They are required to apply for a green card one year after being in the country.
Asylum-seekers can file once they have already entered the U.S., and it is the most common pathway for undocumented people to seek legal residency. There is no cap on how many immigrants can seek asylum, and individuals have one year to compile evidence and file their application once they arrive in the country. Adjudicating the asylum cases takes years, because there are more than 1 million cases backlogged in the system already.
But if approved, applicants can apply for citizenship through the green card program one year after being granted asylee status. The wait period for a green card decision for asylees is a little less than two years.
There is no filing fee for either refugees or asylees.
This pathway for asylum-seekers is the hardest case to win, said Miller-Schaeffer, because the burden of proof lies solely on the applicant, and the criteria does not account for those escaping gang violence.
“Even if you prove all but one [requirement], it’s not going to cut it,” she said.
After a green card, what comes next?
After a couple of years, depending on the type of petition made, green card holders can apply for citizenship, which Miller-Schaeffer said is the most straightforward part of becoming a citizen.
It’s usually a five-year wait, but those who received a green card through their spouse only have to wait for three years.
The citizenship application process involves the collection of personal data, multiple tests, interviews, hefty costs and waiting periods.
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While individuals can self-apply, Miller-Schaeffer recommended applicants obtain an immigration attorney, especially if the case is complicated. These lawyers help conduct mock interviews, compile any necessary documents and become an advocate when obstacles arise.
The process begins with the submission of a 14-page application requesting a historical record of addresses, jobs held and schools attended.
Then, applicants study for the citizenship tests: 20 questions pulled from a list of nearly 130. Those who correctly answer at least 12 of the 20 questions asked orally will pass.
A decision is made much quicker than for green card determinations, and the average processing time is around seven months.
What makes the process lengthy and challenging?
Orozco, with the American Immigration Council, said the main obstacle to obtaining citizenship is that no pathways exist for certain groups of people, like those with no family connection, or those who cannot receive employment sponsorship.
Today’s paths to citizenship are also based on laws enacted decades ago, in 1965 and 1990, hence why some lawmakers are trying to advocate for a reform to the country’s immigration system.
Gov. Matt Meyer sits as the co-chair of a bipartisan task force with the goal of proposing more modern immigration policies to congress. The governor has not yet officially announced what these proposals would look like but said there is a big focus on protecting the immigrant workforce.
Both Orozco and Miller-Schaefer said stricter immigration enforcement has also affected the process.
“Before, I used to be able to confidently tell clients, ‘Unless you are doing something wrong, you’re probably not going to get picked up,’” Miller-Schaefer said. “And now I can’t say that anymore.”
Why Should Delaware Care? Delaware has been controlled by Democrats at all levels of state government for more than a decade now, and Republicans have framed the November’s election as a chance to ensure they do not win a supermajority in the General Assembly. In recent weeks, however, discord within the party has made the party’s electoral prospects and future direction more cloudy.
For a Delaware Republican Party that has long struggled to win statewide office, the lead up to this year’s November election has been far from smooth sailing.
From infighting over a candidate’s misgendering of U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride to primary election losers subsequently launching write-in campaigns, the events of this fall have likely made Republicans’ uphill challenge of winning federal races next month even tougher.
Beyond the immediate electoral implications, fractures with the Delaware GOP have only raised more questions about the party’s identity — with leaders appearing divided over whether to lean into a more moderate- or MAGA-focused agenda to gain traction in the state.
“Leadership in the Delaware GOP needs to reflect hard on what happened, and this coming year, we need to reboot what is the Delaware GOP, what it stands for,” said John Shulli, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate who lost his primary and is now running as a write-in.
For some Delaware Republicans, questions about strategy first emerged when only one of the two party-endorsed candidates won their primary, suggesting a disconnect between the state party leaders and voters.
Those tensions then played out publicly when U.S. House candidate Joe Arminio was kicked out of a September forum for repeatedly misgendering incumbent U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride.
The incident generated opposing responses from Dr. Mike Katz, the Republican Senate primary winner, who called on Arminio to drop out of the race for “disrespectful” behavior, and the state Republican Party, which wrote on Facebook that forcing Arminio to leave the event was a violation of his First Amendment rights to free speech.
It also prompted two losing primary candidates to throw in their names as write-ins for the general election and a flurry of local political influencers questioning the party’s identity.
In sum, the incident and its lasting fallout represents the most tangible example of the Delaware GOP’s fractured strategy that seems unlikely to resolve before the upcoming general election.
Some experts said the tension between different factions of the Delaware GOP is particularly pronounced this election cycle, though a similar friction is taking place in many places between the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and more moderate Democrats.
“We often see this happening at times where the party is at a point of transition, where they’re trying to figure out what the future looks like,” said David Miller, a political science professor at American University.
Delaware Republican Party Chair Gene Truono did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s multiple requests for comment in time for publication.
Forum fallout
Reactions to the September candidate forum clarified tensions brewing in the Delaware Republican Party since before the primary election.
When Arminio was forced to leave the stage for repeatedly referring to Rep. McBride – the first transgender woman elected to Congress – as a “gentleman,” Katz criticized his counterpart’s behavior as inappropriate and advised the forum’s organizers to remove him. Later that same evening, Katz posted on Facebook calling on Arminio to withdraw from the race.
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 JCC
Katz’s statement opened the floodgates of Facebook commenters questioning his party allegiance. His background as a former Democratic state senator and independent candidate for U.S. Senate had been a point of contention among some Republicans when the state GOP endorsed him last spring.
However, in the lead up to the September primary, party leaders and Katz himself described his ability to appeal to Democrats and independent voters as a strength in his candidacy.
Katz’s response to the forum, however, led to his more conservative primary opponent, Shulli, who garnered just 23% of the primary vote, to file as a write-in candidate for the general election.
Shulli said he made that decision because Katz’s behavior “showed everyone he is a Democrat,” and the “Benedict Arnold of the Republican Party.”
Earl Cooper, who the state GOP endorsed at its spring convention for the U.S. House of Representatives but finished a distant third in the primary, also decided to throw in his name as a write-in candidate, but for the opposite reason as Shulli.
Cooper, who is also a former Democrat and has been vocal about his opposition to transgender girls’ participation in girls’ sports, said in an interview with Spotlight Delaware he did not find Arminio’s debate behavior “professional,” so he felt obliged to reenter the race against Arminio.
Adding to the slew of varied reactions, the state GOP posted on Facebook calling Arminio’s removal from the forum a First Amendment violation.
“Candidates should be able to speak, voters should be able to hear them, and no forum should substitute enforced language for open political argument,” the party wrote on Sept. 22.
Some Republican voters have framed the forum as a representation of candidates’ views on transgender issues, and thus as a litmus test for their conservative bonafides.
However, Matt Dickinson, a political science professor at Middlebury College, said he interprets the split as less about gender politics and more about a defense of free speech that has long been a priority for the Republican Party.
Some party leaders, too, said they viewed Katz’s reaction to the situation not as an indication that he supports transgender people, but rather that he would have handled the forum differently than Arminio did.
Katz told Spotlight Delaware the issue was about “decorum,” rather than him taking a position on free speech or gender identity politics.
Support for write-ins?
With both Shulli and Cooper participating in the general election as write-in candidates — a rather unique situation, according to experts — Republican party leaders are divided as to whether to embrace the write-ins or throw their full support behind the party’s primary winners.
Gene Truono, the state GOP chair, wrote a letter on Oct. 1, saying the party encourages “every Republican candidate to run an aggressive campaign,” and that voters should “support the candidates of their choice.”
The letter did not explicitly endorse the primary winners nor the write-in challengers.
Truono did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s multiple requests for comment about his letter. Brandon Brice, the state GOP secretary, said “anybody can run for office,” but he is supporting the two primary winners in November.
But a week after Truono’s letter, the five Republican Party regional committee chairs – who represent the smaller organizations that report up to the state committee – wrote their own letter urging voters to cast their ballots for Katz and Arminio, the two candidates who will be listed by name on the November ballot.
Voting for write-in candidates “splits the conservative vote and risks handing easy victories to Democrat incumbents,” they wrote in a cosigned letter.
Tom Molnar, chair of the Sussex County Republican Committee, said he “really disagreed” with Truono’s statement. He felt the need to make sure voters rally around the chosen party candidates.
Brent Burdge, the Northern New Castle County Republican Committee Chair who is also running for a State Senate seat in November, similarly said he understands that some voters don’t agree with choosing candidates who are less conservative and aim to appeal to a broader coalition, like Katz. But voting for the primary winners is the only way to “make the progress in the state that we’d like to see,” he said.
Miller, the American University professor, described the split between Truono and the county party chairs as logical. Miller said the county chairs are focused on winning as many votes for the party as possible, while state leadership doesn’t want to “be on the losing side of the battle,” and ruin future relationships with one candidate or another.
In a follow up letter to Spotlight Delaware after publication of this story, Truono wrote that his Oct. 1 letter was intended to recognize all “candidate’s right to run,” but was not meant to be an endorsement of any write-in campaign.
“To be clear, the Delaware Republican Party supports all nominated candidates who were successful in the primary, as those candidates represent the will of Delaware Republican voters,” Truono wrote on Oct. 20.
Katz and Arminio both told Spotlight Delaware they are focused on running their own campaigns, rather than the distraction of their primary opponents who decided to write-in.
Mike Katz was able to rally Republican support around his campaign in the primary election, but state GOP fractures could hurt his candidacy. | PHOTO COURTESY OF KATZ CAMPAIGN
Meanwhile, Cooper and Shulli both acknowledged that it’s a long shot for them to win in November, but they view their write-in campaigns as making a statement about the direction the party should go in the future.
“I’m under no illusion that a miracle will happen, and I will win,” Shulli said. “But a write-in candidate keeps the conversation going, and we are going to have a definite conversation after Nov. 3.”
At the state level, voters largely seem to have fallen in line behind primary winners for Delaware’s General Assembly. Though one post-primary disagreement has broken out over controversial former state lawmaker John Atkins, who won a close primary against Army veteran Doug Conaway for a Millsboro-area state representative seat.
Since the primary, some voters have urged others to opt for the Democratic candidate, Ryan Stuckey, despite the Millsboro district leaning heavily Republican.
Finding a party identity
While it’s not unprecedented for Delaware Republican Party primary voters to choose a different candidate than who the party endorsed at its convention, or for candidates to run write-in campaigns, the complicated dynamics of this election cycle are likely to spur some internal reflection for the party, experts said.
Many Delaware GOP leaders rejected the idea that the often nationally used labels of moderate versus MAGA Republicans apply to Delaware politics.
Jane Brady, who served as the most recent Republican Attorney General in Delaware from 1995-2005 and a former chair of the state party, said Delaware Republicans’ ideology has been consistent since she became involved in the 1970s.
“They all try to say, ‘Oh, well you’re just MAGA,’” she said. “We’ve always been patriots. We’ve always been pro-Second Amendment.”
Brice, the state GOP secretary, said he, too, views the future of the Delaware Republican Party as being less about choosing a far-right or moderate bent, and more about encouraging candidates of diverse backgrounds to run.
This election cycle, Brice said, the party has five Black candidates and a handful of women running, which is more diversity than the party has had in past election cycles. The current Republican caucus in the General Assembly is all white and includes just one female state representative.
“We’re the real party of diversity,” Brice said. “It’s important that our state party looks like our state.”
Nationally, much of the Republican strategy this election cycle has focused on the candidates President Donald Trump endorsed, and the candidates who have subtly tried to distance themselves from some of the president’s less popular policies.
Marc Meredith, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said the election dynamics in Delaware are unique because President Trump has not weighed in on any of the Republican candidates, like he has in other states.
Meredith argued the Delaware GOP’s relative independence from Trump’s influence lends itself to more turmoil, as state party members must decide amongst themselves whether to opt for the more moderate or MAGA-leaning candidates.
“Parties are inevitably fighting these battles, where on the one hand there are people who are largely focused on electability,” he said. “But you often hear people pushing back, saying, ‘No, we should run on our principles, and we’ll be able to motivate the base to show up to vote.”
Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Oct. 21 to include comments from Delaware GOP Chair Gene Truono following publication.
Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.
Beatrice Caciotti for ProPublica. Source images: Getty Images, Hawaii News Now, South Carolina Department of Transportation.
On March 3, 2020, Sen. Lindsey Graham walked into a private dining room at Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington, D.C. Graham’s time was expensive. He was meeting with two executives and a lobbyist from a Hawaiian naval defense contractor called Navatek. And he had required them to commit to $40,000 in campaign contributions for a 45-minute meeting.
Navatek’s CEO, Martin Kao, was confident that was all the time he needed.
“Shoot all he has to really do is stop by and say ‘yes,’” Kao wrote to a Navatek lobbyist and a fellow executive the day before, in an email seen by ProPublica. “That should only take a minute and he’s on his way. We don’t need to pretend we give a shit about each other.”
At the dinner, Graham ate little and talked a lot. But Kao got the “yes” he was hoping for: Graham agreed to steer a $10 million government contract Navatek’s way in his native South Carolina, Kao later recounted to the FBI. In exchange, he said, Graham asked Kao to pledge a total of $100,000 to his reelection campaign.
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In early 2025, the FBI opened a sweeping investigation into bribery on Capitol Hill with Graham’s steakhouse dinner at the center. Kao confessed to federal agents that his business model consisted of bribing public officials in exchange for government contracts, and that the research Navatek was providing to the government was often worthless.
The scheme involved some of the most powerful figures in Congress, he said — in both parties. In South Carolina, Kao told agents, Navatek made a campaign cash-for-contracts deal not only with Graham, but also with the state’s top Democrat, Rep. James Clyburn, and another influential Republican, Rep. Joe Wilson.
Kao told agents that Graham in particular left little room for ambiguity: “This is how much I want, and how much I am going to give you,” Kao remembered Graham saying, according to notes one agent took during their debrief in late 2024.
Kao’s admissions would constitute a vast criminal bribery scheme if they could be proved in court — a challenge, given recent Supreme Court rulings that have made it more difficult to win corruption cases. Kao himself posed another hurdle. He was facing prison for fraud and campaign finance violations and was speaking to the FBI in the hopes of reducing his sentence.
But the FBI agents who took Kao’s confession — two experienced anti-corruption investigators — could see that much of it lined up with a trove of records they had seized from Navatek. They forged ahead. The FBI took the formal step of naming two former Navatek executives who had worked with Kao as subjects of a bribery investigation. The agency did not designate Graham, Clyburn and Wilson that way, but the agents were actively investigating their interactions with Kao. The agents indicated to their superiors that the lawmakers could become subjects in the future, according to records viewed by ProPublica.
The details of this investigation have not previously been reported.
President Donald Trump returned to the White House and almost immediately gutted the specialized FBI and Department of Justice teams dedicated to taking on public corruption — an act of revenge for having previously investigated him. The two experienced agents on the case were swept up in the purge, and the career prosecutor assisting them quit after Trump appointees forbade the DOJ’s anti-corruption section from filing any new cases. Today, there is no one left to look into Kao’s explosive allegations, as the Trump administration has abandoned any pretense of prosecuting public corruption. The case is dead.
ProPublica has unearthed the investigation by reviewing thousands of pages of legal documents, internal company emails, evidence the FBI used to vet Kao’s claims and dozens of interviews with people who saw how Navatek operated, including an eyewitness to Graham and Kao’s secret steakhouse dinner.
This story is part of a series based on our reporting. Last month, ProPublica reported that the FBI had probed the conduct of Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who steered millions in government funding toward Navatek while Kao gave her illegal campaign donations. Collins denied wrongdoing and dismissed Kao as a “convicted liar.”
Kao is indeed the only person involved to serve prison time. He pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign donations and a loan fraud scheme in 2022. In 2025, he was sentenced to 87 months in prison.
Graham died at 71 earlier this year. His sister, Darline Graham, who was appointed to fill his seat, retained most of his senior staff, including those who dealt with Navatek. She even took up some of his committee assignments, including appropriations. Darline Graham is running for a full term in office this November.
Clyburn, 86, is one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington. He is widely credited with tipping the scales for Joe Biden during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Wilson remains influential on national defense spending from his senior perch on the Armed Services Committee.
James Clyburn, left, and Lindsey Graham speak during an event at the White House to celebrate the 2023-24 University of South Carolina Gamecocks NCAA women’s basketball championship team.Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
“Whatever a donor may think or say, a donation would never cause Congressman Clyburn to increase his support for the donor’s request,” Jami LaRue, Clyburn’s communications director, wrote in response to detailed questions. “The Congressman has always striven to assist the University of South Carolina and all of the colleges and universities in his district when called upon to further their important missions. The crimes and lies of an imprisoned fraudster will not cause the Congressman to waver in his support for these fine institutions.”
David Snider, Wilson’s communications director, did not address a detailed list of questions sent by ProPublica. “Congressman Wilson does and has always abided by campaign donation regulations set forth by the Federal Election Commission,” Snider said in an email.
In an emailed statement, Taylor Reidy, who was Lindsey Graham’s communications director and now holds the same post for his sister, wrote that “any allegations of quid-pro-quo behavior or wrongdoing by the late Senator Lindsey Graham or his staff are simply false.” She said the accusations were the “ravings of a convicted felon” and that her office was never contacted by the FBI about the matter. After Kao’s arrest, they disgorged his donations, she added.
The two executives who were subjects of the FBI investigation, Duke Hartman and Joshua Knight, were never charged. Hartman, the other executive at the dinner meeting with Graham, is now the CEO of a new naval research company called Integer Technologies that he co-founded with Knight after Kao’s arrest. Integer was recently recognized as one of the fastest-growing government contractors in the country. It also became the ultimate beneficiary of the Graham dinner meeting, picking up the contract Graham allegedly agreed to facilitate that night.
Hartman and Knight did not respond to detailed requests for comment.
“[It’s] corruption at its best,” Kao wrote to ProPublica from federal detention in South Dakota, before cutting off contact. “But I am the only one rotting in prison.”
Small Company, Big Ambitions
Kao’s dinner with Graham was part of his grandiose plan to make Navatek a major defense contractor.
He had become the CEO at an uncertain moment in the company’s history. Founded in Hawaii in the 1970s, the company originally thrived on a close relationship with the state’s powerful senior senator, Daniel Inouye. When Kao assumed ownership in 2019, it had been several years since Inouye had died, and Navatek was in need of a new patron in Washington.
At times, Kao hardly seemed the person to pull this off. He had started out as the company’s CFO and was openly uninterested in its technology. He told bombastic lies about his personal life. Former employees said he regaled them with tales of selling newspapers for members of the Bloods and Crips street gangs as a youth. In a deposition, Kao later admitted that wasn’t true.
But what he lacked in engineering chops he made up with ambition. Once, Kao held a company town hall using a map of the U.S. dotted with future Navatek offices as his backdrop, a former employee recalled. “He would talk about how we’re a $10 million company, and in the next three years, we’re going to be a billion-dollar company,” said a former engineer. “He was an absolute megalomaniac.”
Kao hatched a plan to expand Navatek’s presence across the country, making new friends in Congress along the way. He courted politicians using something he called “the method,” as ProPublica detailed in September.
Navatek would open an office in the state or district of a powerful member of Congress and partner with a local university to concoct a proposal for federally funded research. Then, aided by a well-connected lobbyist and the sheen of credibility from its association with the university, Navatek would approach the member for federal research funding.
Kao told the FBI he would strike deals in small, face-to-face meetings with the members or their trusted staff. Navatek — through executives, family members and lobbyists — would make generous campaign donations. In exchange, the member would add detailed language to the defense budget to fund the company’s work.
That legislative language would not name the company. But it would describe specific work that Navatek was already planning to do behind the scenes, making it the only logical choice for the eventual government contract. The lawmakers’ staff would also backchannel with the Navy after the bill was passed to make sure contracting offices knew to direct the money to Navatek, emails seen by ProPublica show — even though the contracts were in theory competitive.
Kao “wanted to build a company as big as he could as fast as he could,” a former executive later testified in court. For a while, he succeeded. Under Kao, Navatek went from having to “rebuild,” as the executive put it, to winning $40.7 million in new government contracts in 2020.
Hartman, the other Navatek executive who went to dinner with Graham, was in charge of maintaining friendly ties in Congress while tracking the millions of dollars the company had requested in research funds. He kept careful tabs on the company’s progress using dozens of color-coded spreadsheets. “If anyone knows the impropriety of the business model, it’s him,” Kao told the FBI, referring to Hartman.
Later, these spreadsheets provided the FBI a detailed picture of which congressional offices worked closest with Navatek. In the tables devoted to South Carolina, Navatek denoted Graham as a “key supporter.”
The company primarily targeted lawmakers from smaller states who sat on appropriations committees, like Collins, Kao explained to the FBI, because they wielded huge power over the budget while having fewer “constituents to ‘feed.’”
The senior senator from South Carolina was another prime target. “You can get access to Lindsey Graham,” Eric Schiff, a former Navatek executive, said in an interview.
Kao, Hartman and other Navatek executives approached the offices of Graham, Clyburn and Wilson — all powerful members of the South Carolina delegation — in the beginning of 2019. The company had recruited the University of South Carolina for a joint research project, and together they asked the lawmakers to find $9.5 million to fund the work. If it succeeded, Navatek planned to ask Congress to re-up the funding for two more years as well as green-light two more projects, internal company records show, for a total of up to $90 million in South Carolina alone.
Yet Navatek had “zero people” capable of doing the research it was pitching, said a former executive with direct knowledge of the work.
Its $9.5 million “power and energy” proposal promised cutting-edge research on how to distribute the limited power on board a ship between multiple energy-intense systems, like radars, lasers and rail guns. Graham’s office later boasted that the work would lead to new technology that would “ensure that our fleet is ready for the fights of the future.”
In reality, Navatek’s initial research “looked like a college senior’s graduation project,” the executive said. “Something you go get from RadioShack.” Graham’s office referred questions about the quality of the work to the Navy and the university. The Office of Naval Research, which awarded the contract, did not respond to questions.
A Navatek amphibious vehicle prototype heads to shore during a Marine Corps experiment in Hawaii in 2014.Lance Cpl. Aaron S. Patterson/U.S. Marine Corps
But for Congress, that lack of expertise wasn’t a problem. Throughout 2019, the FBI noted, as the ensuing year’s budget came together, both Graham’s and Clyburn’s offices took steps to make sure it included Navatek’s funding.
In May 2019, Willie Lyles III, Clyburn’s legislative director, alerted Navatek that the House Appropriations Committee would endorse new funding for a “modular and scalable integrated power and thermal system capable of powering a directed energy weapon system of 100 or more kilowatts,” according to an email flagged by the FBI. Three days later, that exact language appeared in the House Appropriations Committee report. Lyles did not reply to a request for comment.
In September, the Senate Appropriations Committee — Graham’s committee — released a budget report that set aside $9.5 million in funding for “Talent and Technology for Navy Power and Energy Systems.” Agents noted that Navatek may have ghostwritten the technical description that accompanied this line item because “an almost identical paragraph” appeared in Hartman’s internal spreadsheets two months before the Senate report became public.
After the Senate advanced its version of the budget in the fall, Navatek dropped $4,799 to send bourbon to a handful of lawmakers, including Graham and Collins, the FBI found in company records — a likely violation of Senate gift rules. Both Collins’ and Graham’s offices denied receiving bourbon. Navatek later sent Clyburn a fruit basket from Edible Arrangements for $102.60.
Congress passed the final spending bill containing $9.5 million for Navatek’s pet project on Dec. 19, 2019.
At that point, Kao and other Navatek executives had not made any donations to Clyburn, Wilson or even Graham.
That would change within days of Congress passing the budget, when an executive pledged $750 to Wilson’s campaign at a fundraiser held at Bullfeathers, a Capitol Hill watering hole for lobbyists and Hill staffers, emails show. In the following weeks, Kao and his lobbyist gave Wilson’s campaign $3,500.
And bigger checks were imminent. Kao kicked off 2020 by making plans to spend $300,000 at a slew of political fundraisers, according to text messages filed in court and a recent deposition. Navatek’s lobbyists at that time were seeking private meetings with Graham, Wilson and Clyburn, where Kao planned to ask for significantly more federal funding. Kao eventually met with all three, and each asked for $100,000, he told the FBI.
During that same period, Kao and Hartman met a top fundraiser for Collins at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C. As ProPublica reported, that meeting led Kao to donate $150,000 to the pro-Collins super PAC. Kao told the FBI that the money was a bribe in exchange for the senator’s support for more Navatek funding. The head of the super PAC and Collins have denied Kao’s version of events.
Kao told the FBI it was not unusual for donations to come after the favor: “We became clever in our own right and figured out how to dangle the carrot,” he wrote in a memo seen by ProPublica, “until we saw some assurance that the Ask was in the budget.”
To secure a meeting with Graham, Kao hired Michael Tongour, a veteran South Carolina lobbyist who was old law school friends with the senator and family friends with Clyburn and Wilson. Graham was up for reelection against a well-funded challenger, Jaime Harrison, and had a crowded fundraising schedule, said Tongour, but they eventually found a time.
“The Graham fundraiser says that it [sic] you want to reserve a date for Senator Graham to attend a private dinner, the campaign wants to get $40,000 in contributions,” Tongour wrote to Kao, Hartman and lobbyist Andy Winer, in an undated email seen by ProPublica. Winer, whom Kao described as Navatek’s chief lobbyist, chimed in to say that Graham could stay only 45 minutes, and Kao replied that all they needed to hear was “yes.”
“These discussions are very frank and oddly not at all awkward,” Kao told the FBI. “I suppose once we got that far, everyone knows the deal.”
A Dinner With Graham
Graham showed up late to his March 3, 2020, dinner with Kao, Hartman and Tongour. A fundraiser working for Graham appeared first and accepted an envelope from Kao containing checks made out to Graham’s campaign, Kao said. Kao did not know the fundraiser’s name; in an FBI debrief, he simply referred to the person as the “money man.” After that person departed, Graham entered.
Graham, Kao recalled to the FBI, was “very abrupt” and “straight to the point”: He asked how much Navatek wanted, to which they said $10 million a year for three years. Graham asked Kao to pledge $100,000 in donations in exchange for his support, Kao told the FBI.
Navatek was juggling multiple proposals in South Carolina worth around $10 million, and it’s not clear which one Kao was describing.
Congress had just approved the $9.5 million for the power and energy project, but Navatek still needed the Navy to award the money in the form of a contract. The company was also about to ask Congress to fund the same project for a second year at $10.5 million. On top of that, Navatek was planning to pitch a new research proposal, at $10 million, to study the transport of supplies inland from ships using autonomous vehicles. It was another area where Navatek had “zero past performance,” the former executive said.
The same week of the steakhouse dinner, Graham’s office was working behind the scenes with Navatek and the University of South Carolina to make sure the Navy sent the first $9.5 million to the right company.
A day before the dinner, an official with the Office of Naval Research emailed Graham’s office to ask about the money, which “the Senator may have an interest in.” Craig Abele, Graham’s national security adviser, called her a few days later to confirm that Graham’s office had intended the money to be awarded to the Navatek partnership, emails show. “Spoke to ONR this morning,” Abele wrote March 6. “Should be set.”
The company received the contract, which it split with the university, in July 2020.
Abele became Graham’s deputy chief of staff and still holds the position for Darline. He did not reply to an email requesting comment. A Graham spokesperson confirmed to ProPublica that their office had indeed added the $9.5 million to the budget at the request of the university and Navatek. The spokesperson said the research was supported by the Navy and rejected the notion that Graham was motivated by campaign cash.
Graham’s spokesperson said requiring a fundraising minimum for a dinner was normal practice.
“[It’s] corruption at its best. But I am the only one rotting in prison.”
Former Navatek CEO Martin Kao
The checks Kao handed over at the dinner added up to about half of the $40,000 he had agreed to raise for the dinner, according to Tongour. The rest came in May, campaign records show.
“My understanding at the time was that the contributions associated with the event were lawful political contributions,” Winer said. “I never advised Kao to make a political contribution in exchange for official action. I never participated in, witnessed or had knowledge of any illegal political contribution.”
After Kao’s 2020 indictment, the University of South Carolina broke off the partnership. “University officials were not aware of any political contributions from Navatek,” Jeff Stensland, a university spokesperson, wrote in an email. “Our sole objective in partnering with them was to expand our research enterprise.”
One week after the dinner, on March 10, a University of South Carolina lobbyist sent written requests to Graham’s office for $20.5 million in appropriations: $10.5 million to continue Navatek’s power and energy research and $10 million for its new autonomous vehicle research.
Tongour confirmed many elements of Kao’s story. In a recent interview with ProPublica and subsequent emails, he remembered Kao giving the envelope full of checks to Graham’s fundraiser and even agreed that Graham kept the meeting short. “I don’t recall that he stayed more than 30 minutes,” Tongour said in an email. “Certainly not for appetizers, entrée, and dessert.”
But he denied Kao’s most significant claim: that Graham and Navatek struck an explicit, potentially illegal deal for contracts.
“I would remember that forever,” Tongour said. Graham supported Navatek’s requests, he said, because they were good for the state. “If I had seen that kind of quid pro quo, I would have quit earlier.” Tongour fired Navatek as a client later that year, immediately after Kao’s arrest.
Navatek considered Graham its chief patron in South Carolina, internal records show, just as it viewed Collins in Maine. But the company also wanted support in the House.
For that, Navatek turned to Clyburn, a member of Democratic party leadership and one of the most powerful figures in Congress. Agents found Navatek emails setting a meeting with Clyburn for early March. The goal, Kao said, was to make sure that the House draft of the budget “mirrored” whatever Graham inserted in the Senate version.
Over a meal, Clyburn asked Kao how much he was donating to Graham and then asked for the same amount, $100,000, Kao told the FBI.
The FBI tallied $20,000 in contributions that Kao and his family members made to Clyburn a few days after their scheduled meeting. A month later, Hartman arranged for a $10,000 gift to Clyburn’s alma mater, South Carolina State University, according to an email seen by ProPublica. Hartman noted it was “Congressman Clyburn’s favorite school.”
The spokesperson for Clyburn confirmed the dinner occurred but did not respond to questions about what was discussed.
Kao and Hartman struck a similar bargain with Wilson, Kao told the FBI, at a private lunch he secured by donating to his campaign. The FBI pulled records of $3,500 in donations Kao and Tongour made in late 2019 and early 2020.
Wilson has an influential role on the House Armed Services Committee, which authorizes defense spending. Wilson was “very clear and knew what the ask was,” Kao told the FBI. He wanted however much Clyburn was getting in campaign contributions in exchange for his support, Kao said.
Tongour denied this. “There was no ‘pay to play’ with Joe Wilson or his staff either,” he wrote in an email, adding that he donated because Wilson “is a friend and I want to see him re-elected.”
Kao claimed to the FBI that he paid for meals with all three politicians, but campaign finance records appear to show the lawmakers’ campaigns picked up the check.
By August 2020, Hartman had gotten word that Graham’s and Wilson’s committees would each support part of the company’s requests, internal company records show. Clyburn was not on key committees while he was a party leader. In one of his myriad spreadsheets, Hartman projected that the final budget could include up to $15.5 million of the $20.5 million the company had lobbied for.
Kao told agents he was gearing up to make more significant donations to Graham, Clyburn and Wilson by the end of the year. Instead, on Sept. 30, 2020, he was arrested.
Kao reflected on his time at Navatek in a deposition taken last month inside a federal prison. The company’s founder has sued Kao, saying his stewardship defrauded Navatek of millions.
“It’s nothing more than government contracting done through placating senior appropriation members for contracts,” Kao said. “The whole thing is a grand lie.”
An Arrest, a Lifeboat
Kao’s arrest plunged Navatek into disarray. Federal prosecutors charged him with defrauding a federal loan program; not long after, he was also charged with making illegal donations to the Collins campaign and super PAC. Lobbyists, universities and congressional offices abruptly cut off contact. “Don’t call us,” one congressional office told an executive, he later testified.
The Collins campaign said it disgorged Kao’s contribution. Yet the senator, facing a tight reelection bid, has had to field questions following the ProPublica report about her support for Navatek and why the super PAC supporting her accepted the $150,000 donation from the shell company in the first place.
As Navatek sank, Hartman began building himself a lifeboat. In 2021, he and Knight started a new military research company headquartered in South Carolina called Integer Technologies. Integer’s first project was one that Navatek had brokered with Graham.
Hartman didn’t face any criminal charges at the time and left Navatek largely unscathed. He would later settle a civil lawsuit brought by his former employer, which contended he played a role in Kao’s campaign finance and loan fraud schemes, for $425,000. He admitted no wrongdoing.
In September 2024, FBI agents flew to Hawaii for what would be their final interview with Kao. They pressed him for details about what happened in South Carolina, quizzing him on his dinner with Graham and a second in-person meeting he said he had with Clyburn. Agents wanted Kao to help them find more records that would back up his account and asked him to point them toward lobbyists in D.C. who he said facilitated the pay-for-play scheme.
As the year came to a close, FBI agent Michelle Ball felt she had enough material to move forward. The FBI had “uncovered a lengthy history” of a government contractor making donations “in exchange for government contracts,” she wrote in a Dec. 9, 2024, memo viewed by ProPublica.
In federal corruption probes, agents often begin by focusing on lower-level targets with a goal of working their way up to more prominent figures. Ball named Hartman; his business partner, Knight; and their company, Integer, as the formal subjects of the probe, as they prepared to potentially issue subpoenas and gather more evidence. They had Graham, Clyburn and Wilson in their sights. Ball devoted entire sections of the memo to detailing the lawmakers’ conduct. And she flagged the case as a sensitive matter that might implicate politicians in the future.
In the summer of 2024, Kate Fifield, a prosecutor in the Justice Department’s anti-corruption section, had been assigned to join the case. Fifield was wrapping up a high-profile prosecution of a retired Navy admiral who traded a government contract for a future job. Turning her attention to Kao, she and the FBI agents weighed their options. They considered getting high-level approval to deploy undercover agents. Proving an exchange of cash for favors often requires the kind of inconvertible evidence that undercover recordings can provide.
But before the investigation took flight, the new Trump administration began to demolish the Justice Department. The president’s handpicked leaders ordered prosecutors to drop a corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, triggering a wave of resignations in the Public Integrity Section where Fifield worked, and revoked the section’s authority to bring new cases.
Then Trump’s FBI director, Kash Patel, began to purge the anti-corruption unit in the Washington D.C., field office, where many agents had investigated Trump.
Ball was fired in October 2025. Kevin Gounaud, another agent who had been working with her on the investigation, was pushed out in early 2026. Through their lawyer, the agents declined to comment.
The corruption investigation, just launched, suddenly went dark.
The White House referred ProPublica’s questions to the FBI and DOJ.
The Department of Justice didn’t respond to detailed questions about the investigation.
“Under President Trump, the Justice Department is rooting out the weaponization, corruption, and institutional rot that ran rampant under Joe Biden’s two-tiered system of justice,” DOJ spokesperson Audrey Cook said.
Kao’s claims are “half baked” and “misleading,” FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson said. “Additionally, as we have said repeatedly, personnel are only removed at this FBI if they have been found to have acted unethically, undermined the mission, or engaged in weaponization of law enforcement.”
Meanwhile, Integer has rapidly expanded. Last year, it reported $81 million in contracts and announced that number would climb to $375 million by 2030. The company inked partnership deals with universities in New Hampshire, Louisiana and Mississippi. The University of South Carolina called its partnership with the firm a “model for public-private success.”
The company continues to forge ties with powerful politicians. In late 2024, Hartman posted a photo of himself with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on his LinkedIn. “It was great to visit with the Speaker of the House today,” he wrote. “It’s good to know there are people in positions of power who seem to really care for the people they serve.” Johnson’s office did not reply to an email requesting comment.
The occasion was a new research partnership in Louisiana. Hartman thanked his lobbyist for making it happen.
Washington, DC — A former Trump White House official is warning about the possibility of Stephen Miller becoming President Donald Trump’s next chief of staff amid renewed speculation about Susie Wiles’ future in the administration.
Sarah Matthews, who served as deputy White House press secretary during Trump’s first term, described the prospect of Miller taking over as “terrifying,” pointing to his outsized influence over the administration’s immigration and domestic policies.
Miller currently serves as deputy chief of staff for policy and has been one of Trump’s closest advisers since his first presidency. He has played a central role in developing the administration’s hard-line immigration agenda, including mass deportation efforts.
Reports last week said Trump had privately discussed possible replacements for Wiles, with Miller among several names being floated. Other reported possibilities included Bill Pulte, Lee Zeldin and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Trump has publicly rejected the reports, saying there is “zero chance” he will replace Wiles and insisting she will remain chief of staff “for a long time.”
The speculation comes amid increased turmoil inside the White House ahead of the midterms, including the abrupt five-day tenure of press secretary Katie Zacharia and reports of growing internal competition for influence within Trump’s shrinking senior circle.
A new initiative seeks to replace the faded, often-criticized mural on the Library Avenue railroad underpass, as well as paint a new mural at Hillside Park.
The City of Newark is entering the home stretch of its 16-month process to rewrite the city’s comprehensive development plan, which will guide the growth of the city over the next decade.
In this essay, Niall Ferguson, one of the world’s foremost experts on imperial history, teams up the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, and the researcher Lisa Klaassen to make the provocative argument that AI is an inherently “imperial technology”—and to reveal what the fate of past empires might say about the future of U.S.-Chinese competition in a world shaped by AI.
Mara Karlin, a defense policy expert who served as senior national-security official in multiple American administrations, makes an authoritative case that war planners tend to be overconfident about their ability to predict how new tools will shape the battlefield—blinding them to the unchanging realities of war. Using examples from Gaza, Ukraine, and Iran, Karlin shows how this "technology trap" leads to false assumptions about the future of war.
Niall Ferguson, the leading historian of empire, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and AI scholar Lisa Klassen offer a novel reframing of the US-China AI race in the history of world empires. The authors argue that AI is inherently imperial in it ambitions and structure, and that, like previous technological empires, China and US have amassed extraordinary global but that it's happening at a much faster pace. Rise and fall cycle will be faster. It will either lead to catastrophe or slow decline.
Wichita, KS — A 24-year-old Kansas man has been arrested and charged with threatening President Donald Trump after authorities say he posted multiple social media messages about shooting the president ahead of Trump’s visit to the Wichita area.
Federal prosecutors identified the suspect as Jaden J. Read of Clearwater, Kansas. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a Crime Stoppers tip alerted investigators to comments Read allegedly posted Oct. 15 beneath a KAKE News story about Trump’s planned Oct. 19 visit.
Prosecutors say one post stated, “Let’s shoot Trump honestly,” while another allegedly referenced recently obtaining a .308 firearm and ammunition.
Investigators later found additional comments beneath a KWCH report about Trump’s visit. One allegedly said, “Can we shoot him in Kansas please I will myself.” Another claimed to know where Trump’s speech would occur and referenced having “mapped out roofs around” the location.
Authorities arrested Read in Clearwater on Oct. 17, and he remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing.
U.S. Attorney Ryan Kriegshauser said political violence and threats of violence will not be tolerated, while emphasizing that the First Amendment protects robust political disagreement but not criminal threats.
The Secret Service, U.S. Marshals Service, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Kansas Highway Patrol and Wichita Police Department participated in the investigation.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 31%, the lowest level recorded for him during either of his presidential terms in Reuters/Ipsos polling, as Republicans head into the Nov. 3 midterms facing growing voter dissatisfaction over the economy.
The four-day poll found 31% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance, down one point from two weeks earlier.
The numbers are even more troubling for Republicans on the congressional ballot. Among registered voters, Democrats lead Republicans 47% to 35%, a 12-point advantage and the widest Democratic margin recorded by Reuters/Ipsos during the current election cycle. Two weeks earlier, Democrats led by seven points.
Women favored Democratic congressional candidates by an especially wide 50% to 32% margin. Men also favored Democrats, though by a smaller amount.
Economic dissatisfaction appears to be a major factor. Sixty-eight percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, including 37% of self-identified Republicans. Voters also preferred Democrats over Republicans on managing the economy, 40% to 33%.
Reuters noted that gasoline prices rose sharply following U.S. military strikes on Iran earlier this year, adding pressure to household budgets.
Generic congressional polling measures national sentiment and does not account for individual House and Senate races, where geography and district boundaries can significantly affect the final results.
Laredo, TX — A 56-year-old Dallas man who died Saturday after nearly four months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody was a lawful permanent resident of the United States, ICE confirmed Monday.
Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias, a Mexican citizen who had lived in Dallas for decades and raised three U.S.-born children, was found unconscious in his bed at the Rio Grande Processing Center. He was pronounced dead about 20 minutes later. His cause of death remains under investigation.
ICE detained Andrade-Covarrubias while he was returning from Mexico in June. The agency alleges he obtained his green card fraudulently by failing to disclose a 2004 theft arrest and had placed him in removal proceedings.
His daughter disputes that account, saying her father disclosed his criminal history during the application process and immigration officials nevertheless approved his permanent residency.
She also said her father suffered from heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure and repeatedly complained of breathing problems and chest tightness while detained. According to his family, facility staff did not consistently provide his medications or adequately respond to his medical concerns. ICE says he received appropriate medical care.
Andrade-Covarrubias is the seventh person to die in ICE custody in Texas this year. Rep. Henry Cuellar has requested additional information from the agency about his treatment and death.
President Trump announced a new farm aid package that will provide $8 billion in one-time payments through the USDA to help farmers offset rising fuel costs.
Many Delawareans vote early. About 4 in 10 Delaware voters cast their ballots early in the 2024 general election (209,516 early voters out of 518,330 people who voted), and Sussex County led the state.
How the counties compared: 2024 vs. 2026
Sussex stood out. It had about the same number of early voters as New Castle County, roughly 90,000 to 83,000, even though New Castle had more than twice as many registered voters. In Sussex, 43% of all registered voters voted early, compared with 19% in New Castle – see Table 1.
Sussex is also growing. Every county had more registered voters on Oct. 1, 2026, than on Nov. 1, 2024, and Sussex added the most, about 12,000 – see Table 2.
Table 1: 2024 Delaware registered and early voters, by county
Table 2: 2026 Delaware registered voters, by county
County
Registered voters (Oct. 1, 2026)
New Castle
440,754
Kent
148,538
Sussex
220,594
Statewide
809,886
(Table 2 Source: Delaware Department of Elections, Voter Registration Totals by Political Party, Oct. 1, 2026.)
Delaware early voting sites, by county
(Sussex notes: Nassau Valley Vineyard in Lewes replaces the Fairfield Inn in Rehoboth Beach, which was used for the primary. In Seaford, Allen Street is closed; turn from Stein Highway onto Dulaney Street to reach the site. See the detour map.)
Early voting site
Address
New Castle County
Appoquinimink State Service Center
122 Silver Lake Road, Middletown
Claymont Community Center
3301 Green St., Claymont
Department of Elections Warehouse, New Castle
220 Lisa Drive, New Castle
Hudson State Service Center
501 Ogletown Road, Newark
The Delaware Contemporary
200 S. Madison St., Wilmington
Wilmington PAL
3707 N. Market St., Wilmington
Kent County
BPOE #1903 Elks Lodge
200 S. Saulsbury Road, Dover
Frederica Senior Center
216 Market St., Frederica
Harrington Parks and Recreation
114 E. Liberty St., Harrington
Wyoming United Methodist Church
216 Wyoming Mill Road, Dover
Sussex County
Department of Elections Warehouse, Georgetown
542 S. Bedford St., Georgetown
Department of Elections Warehouse, Seaford
200 Allen St., Seaford (see road closure note above)
Ellendale Fire Hall
302 Main St., Ellendale
Indian River Fire Company, Station #2
25375 Banks Road, Millsboro
Laurel Fire Hall
205 W. 10th St., Laurel
Margaret Rollins Community Center
101 Adams Ave., Lewes
Millville Community Center
32517 Dukes Drive, Millville
Nassau Valley Vineyard
32130 Winery Road, Lewes
Roxana Fire Hall
35943 Zion Church Road, Frankford
(Source: Delaware Department of Elections, Voting Locations page, accessed Oct. 19, 2026)
How to vote early
Hours:
Thursday, Oct. 22, through Tuesday, Oct. 27: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Closed Sunday, Oct. 25
Wednesday, Oct. 28, through Sunday, Nov. 1: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
What to bring: ID, but it does not need a photo. A Delaware driver’s license, state ID card, or a current utility bill, bank statement, paycheck or government document with your name and address all work. Forgot it? You can still vote once poll workers check that you’re registered and you sign a form swearing to who you are.
Program aims to give entrepreneurs one pathway for permits, licenses and pre-opening inspections across multiple state agencies
DOVER — Delaware has launched a pilot program designed to make it easier for new small-business owners to navigate state permits, licenses and inspections before opening their doors.
The Small Business Joint Inspection Pilot creates a coordinated process intended to replace what can be a confusing series of applications, agency websites and separately scheduled inspections.
The initiative was ordered by Gov. Matt Meyer under Executive Order 21, signed in May as part of a broader effort to reduce regulatory barriers facing small businesses. The order created the Office of Small Business Access and directed state agencies with inspection authority to develop common checklists and coordinated inspection scheduling.
“Opening a small business takes courage and hard work. Navigating state government should not add to the challenge,” Meyer said. “This pilot means fewer websites, fewer delays, and one clear path from an idea to an ‘open for business’ sign.”
The program does not eliminate permits, licenses, inspections or health and safety requirements. Instead, it seeks to coordinate the process and give business owners a clearer understanding of what they need before opening.
One point of coordination
The Office of Small Business Access, led by Director Anastasia Jackson, will manage the pilot with participating state agencies.
Business owners entering the process through Delaware One Stop will be told about the voluntary program and can choose whether to participate.
Those who opt in will use the state’s ServiceNow system, which identifies the permits, licenses and applications that apply to their type of business and provides links to the appropriate applications.
Agency liaisons also are notified when a participating business enters the system, allowing agencies to identify potential requirements and begin coordinating reviews.
The Office of Small Business Access was established earlier this year to serve as a central point of contact for entrepreneurs dealing with state government, including licensing, permitting and regulatory issues.
Business owners also will be able to arrange meetings with agency representatives and receive contacts for local planning, zoning and business licensing officials based on where the business will operate.
Coordinating inspections
One of the most significant changes involves inspections.
Rather than requiring entrepreneurs to independently schedule inspections with several agencies, the pilot allows the Office of Small Business Access to help coordinate those visits.
Executive Order 21 specifically directs agencies to offer coordinated scheduling so required inspectors can visit during the same general window when requested by the applicant. It also says agencies generally should not require another agency’s approval before scheduling an inspection unless health or safety considerations require it.
The participating agencies are the Delaware Department of Transportation; Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control; Delaware State Fire Marshal; Delaware Department of Health and Social Services’ Division of Public Health; and Office of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commissioner.
Which businesses qualify?
The pilot covers a variety of relatively small new businesses, including retail stores and markets; art galleries; hair salons, barbershops and spas; independently owned restaurants, bars and taprooms; coffee shops and cafes; childcare facilities; fitness centers; furniture stores; ice cream shops; laundromats; and certain small manufacturing, packaging and distribution operations.
Only businesses that have not yet opened and still need applications or approvals from participating state agencies are eligible.
Participants also must create a my.delaware.gov account.
Not every business will need approval from every participating agency, and applications remain subject to the normal agency review process before inspections are scheduled.
The joint inspection effort is one part of a larger small-business initiative established by Executive Order 21. The order also directs the state to develop plain-language requirements for common business types, examine regulations that may unnecessarily impede small businesses and improve coordination among state agencies.
TO GO
What: Delaware Small Business Joint Inspection Pilot
Who qualifies: New businesses that have not yet opened and require permits, licenses or inspections from participating state agencies
How it works: Eligible owners may opt into a coordinated process through Delaware One Stop and ServiceNow
Participating agencies: DelDOT, DNREC, State Fire Marshal, Division of Public Health and Office of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commissioner
Requirements: Participants must create a my.delaware.gov account. Existing permit, licensing, health and safety requirements still apply.
Photo illustration by ProPublica. Source images: Congress and videos obtained by ProPublica.
What Happened: A New Mexico Democrat in the House introduced a bill last week that would make it easier for U.S. citizens to sue immigration agents and the federal government over wrongful detentions and arrests.
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández credited ProPublica’s reporting as the catalyst for the bill, the Justice for Citizens Wrongfully Detained by ICE Act. Earlier this month, we revealed that more than 500 U.S. citizens have been detained in warrantless arrests during the second Trump administration.
Leger Fernández said the legislation would roll back the protections from lawsuits that agents and the federal government currently have. It would also establish a minimum level of compensation for people who win their suits, and extend the statute of limitations for such cases.
The legislation would also take back any unspent Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding from President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Leger Fernández’s bill was introduced with co-sponsor Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a New Jersey Democrat.
Why It Matters: It can be difficult to sue federal officers for wrongful arrests or excessive force, or for local prosecutors to bring charges. Federal agents can claim immunity in response to civil lawsuits or to state charges and can move their cases to federal court.
What They Said: In an interview with ProPublica, Leger Fernández emphasized that accountability could not only address past wrongs, it may also help head them off in the future. “We know that when there are consequences, bad actors start behaving better because they don’t want to face those consequences,” she said.
Without legislation, Leger Fernández said, agents “will continue to violate the law, to violate their own policy, and to violate the Constitution without any consequences.”
Asked about the legislation, the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, repeated claims that it is not arresting U.S. citizens and defended its immigration operations as “highly targeted.”
Background: The federal government denies that there is any pattern of immigration agents detaining U.S. citizens, but according to ProPublica’s count, more than 100 citizens were held after agents questioned their citizenship. At least 70 children and teens were also detained.
Supporters call it modernization. But new authority to reject records requests raises questions about government transparency and accountability.
By George D. Rotsch, Delaware LIVE News
DOVER, Del. — A sweeping proposal from State Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend to rewrite Delaware’s Freedom of Information Act could expand access to some government records while giving public agencies new authority to reject requests they consider overly broad, burdensome or abusive.
For advocates of open government, the proposal raises a fundamental question: Should government agencies have greater discretion to decide when citizens have asked for too much information?
The legislation, Senate Bill 355, was introduced Oct. 5 by Townsend, D-Newark, with State Rep. Cyndie Romer, D-Newark, as a co-sponsor. It is intended to generate public feedback rather than win immediate legislative approval. Its sponsors anticipate considering revised legislation during the General Assembly’s 2027 session.
The proposal could represent one of the most significant overhauls of Delaware’s public records law in decades.
While the bill includes substantial transparency improvements, provisions allowing agencies to reject certain requests have raised concerns about whether the changes could weaken an important tool for holding government accountable.
Who decides when a request goes too far?
Freedom of information laws exist because citizens cannot effectively oversee government without access to records documenting how public officials conduct business.
Delaware’s existing law generally focuses on whether requested records are public or exempt from disclosure.
The proposed legislation would also establish specific grounds for denying requests based on their scope, the burden they impose or the requester’s conduct.
Under SB 355, public bodies could deny requests determined to be unreasonably broad, unduly burdensome, disruptive to essential government functions or abusive.
The legislation defines an unreasonably broad request as one using sweeping terms without connections to specific records, dates, individuals or subject matter.
An unduly burdensome request would involve an unreasonable volume of records or require an unreasonable commitment of government resources.
Supporters of such restrictions argue that processing extensive or repetitive requests can consume taxpayer-funded staff time and divert resources from essential government services.
The public-accountability concern is that complicated, time-consuming requests are sometimes necessary to uncover waste, misconduct, conflicts of interest or policy failures.
Giving agencies additional grounds to reject such requests could make it more difficult for citizens to obtain information about controversial government decisions.
The legislation includes safeguards. Agencies would have to provide factual explanations for denials, and requesters could challenge those decisions through the Delaware attorney general’s office or the courts.
However, those protections also raise a practical question: How many citizens have the time or resources to challenge a government agency’s refusal to release records?
Why journalists are paying attention
For news organizations, extensive public records requests are often necessary when investigating government spending, personnel decisions, contracting practices, law enforcement activity or public health issues.
A routine request might seek a single document. Investigative reporting can require hundreds or thousands of pages of emails, invoices, reports or other government communications.
Those requests can be burdensome, but they can also reveal information that would otherwise remain outside public view.
One provision deserving particular scrutiny is the proposed definition of an abusive request, which considers patterns of conduct, including previous interactions between the requester and a public body.
That raises concerns about whether frequent requests from journalists, advocacy organizations or citizen watchdogs could eventually become grounds for denying access.
The concern is not necessarily that agencies would reject ordinary requests. Rather, the new authority could make obtaining sensitive or politically uncomfortable information more difficult.
The proposal’s safeguards against arbitrary denials will be particularly important as lawmakers evaluate the legislation.
Transparency gains could be significant
The proposal also contains several reforms intended to improve public access to information.
Among the most significant is the removal of broad public records exemptions covering the University of Delaware and Delaware State University.
The universities would become subject to expanded disclosure requirements, although exemptions would remain for certain confidential educational, research, fundraising and donor records.
The legislation would also narrow the broad exemption covering investigatory files compiled for civil or law enforcement purposes. Agencies would have to identify specific harms that could result from disclosure rather than automatically withholding records under the existing exemption.
Other changes include reducing the deadline for an initial agency response from 15 business days to 10 and extending FOIA eligibility to people who do not live in Delaware.
The proposal also addresses fees associated with processing records requests, including exemptions for certain news media, scholarly and scientific research requests.
Those changes could significantly improve transparency in areas where Delaware’s public records law has historically limited disclosure.
Balancing government efficiency with public oversight
The debate ultimately centers on how to balance the legitimate cost of complying with public records requests against the public’s right to scrutinize government.
Townsend’s proposal recognizes that processing large volumes of records can create substantial administrative burdens. The legislation attempts to establish standards for identifying requests that go beyond reasonable public oversight.
But those same standards could create opportunities for disagreement over what constitutes an unreasonable request.
From a limited-government perspective, the question is whether agencies responsible for producing public records should also have expanded authority to determine when requests for those records become excessive.
The bill’s provisions for written explanations and independent review are important protections, but their effectiveness would depend on how agencies apply the new standards.
Why it matters to Delawareans
Public records laws are often discussed as legal and administrative issues, but they affect anyone seeking answers about government decisions.
FOIA requests can help citizens examine school district spending, local government contracts, police department policies, public employee conduct and the use of taxpayer dollars.
When access becomes more difficult, residents may lose opportunities to identify problems or challenge decisions affecting their communities.
Conversely, clearer disclosure requirements and broader access to previously exempt records could strengthen public oversight.
As lawmakers consider the future of Delaware’s FOIA law, the central issue will be whether the proposed changes expand meaningful public access without giving government agencies excessive discretion to deny requests.
For citizens and journalists alike, the ultimate measure of reform will not simply be how quickly agencies respond, but whether the public can obtain the information necessary to hold government accountable.
TO GO
What: Senate Bill 355 proposes a major rewrite of Delaware’s Freedom of Information Act.
Sponsors: State Sen. Bryan Townsend and state Rep. Cyndie Romer, both Newark Democrats.
Status: Introduced Oct. 5, 2026, to solicit public feedback ahead of potential revised legislation in 2027.
Supporters’ argument: The proposal modernizes FOIA, expands access to previously exempt records, shortens response deadlines and establishes safeguards against abusive or excessively burdensome requests.
Accountability concern: New authority to deny broad, burdensome or abusive requests could make it harder for journalists and citizens to investigate government operations.
Why it matters: FOIA is a primary tool Delawareans use to examine government spending, decisions and accountability.
More information: Delaware General Assembly, Senate Bill 355.
New Law passed by the Democrats in the General Assembly limits information on what the police can release about adults charges with a crime. Image was created on 10/19 using AI.
New Delaware law restricts release of arrest information, raising public safety concerns
Taking effect Oct. 21, HB 59 aims to protect the presumption of innocence, but questions remain about police transparency, community awareness and the public’s right to know.
DOVER, Del. — A new Delaware law taking effect Wednesday will significantly restrict the information police departments can release about people charged with crimes, creating a new balance between protecting the rights of the accused and keeping communities informed about criminal activity.
House Bill 59, signed by Gov. Matt Meyer on July 23, prohibits law enforcement agencies from releasing the names or photographs of adults charged with crimes unless they face felony charges and police determine that releasing the information is necessary to protect public safety.
The legislation, sponsored by state Rep. Sean Lynn, D-Dover, expands privacy protections previously reserved primarily for juveniles to adults charged with criminal offenses.
Supporters say the law reinforces a fundamental principle of American justice: People are presumed innocent until proven guilty and should not suffer unnecessary damage to their reputations simply because they have been arrested.
But the new restrictions also raise questions about government transparency, the ability of residents and businesses to monitor criminal activity in their communities, and the role of law enforcement in providing information to the public.
Protecting the accused before conviction
Lynn, a practicing criminal defense attorney, has argued that publishing arrest photographs and identifying information can create a presumption of guilt long before a criminal case reaches court.
Even when charges are dismissed or defendants are acquitted, photographs and arrest announcements can remain accessible online indefinitely, potentially affecting employment, housing opportunities and personal relationships.
The new law seeks to reduce that damage by limiting when police can identify people charged with criminal offenses.
Under HB 59, police generally will no longer be permitted to release the name or photograph of an adult charged only with a misdemeanor.
For felony offenses, police must determine that disclosure is necessary for public safety before releasing identifying information. Both conditions must be satisfied.
The law applies to law enforcement agencies, including their public websites and social media accounts. It does not directly prohibit independent news organizations from publishing legally obtained information or eliminate public access to criminal court proceedings.
Existing protections for juveniles remain in place. Police generally may identify juveniles only when they are charged with violent felonies and disclosure is necessary to protect public safety.
Public safety and the right to know
While the law addresses legitimate concerns about protecting innocent people from unnecessary public exposure, it also changes how Delaware residents may learn about criminal activity in their communities.
Police announcements traditionally have provided details about arrests involving theft, assault, fraud, drug offenses and other crimes. In addition to informing the public, those announcements can help residents and businesses recognize patterns of criminal activity.
Under the new law, police will generally be prohibited from identifying adults charged with misdemeanors, even when the incidents involve offenses of particular concern to local communities.
For example, residents may learn that police arrested someone for a series of misdemeanor thefts but may no longer receive the person’s name or photograph from the investigating agency.
Similarly, a business owner concerned about repeated thefts or fraudulent activity may have fewer opportunities to learn the identities of those charged through routine police announcements.
The restrictions do not prevent police from sharing appropriate information directly with victims during an investigation or pursuing criminal charges. However, the law does not expressly establish detailed procedures for informing affected businesses or community members when disclosure may serve a legitimate safety interest.
Another question involves the discretion police departments will have in determining when identifying someone charged with a felony is necessary to protect public safety.
HB 59 does not establish detailed criteria for making that determination, potentially leaving different agencies to adopt different standards.
That could create inconsistencies between Delaware State Police, county police departments and municipal law enforcement agencies.
Republican concerns led to significant changes
The legislation encountered substantial opposition when it first reached the House floor earlier this year.
The original proposal would have also restricted police from releasing photographs and identifying information about adults suspected of crimes but not yet charged.
Republican legislators argued that provision could interfere with criminal investigations by preventing police from asking the public to help identify suspects.
State Reps. Shannon Morris, R-Harrington, and Valerie Jones Giltner, R-Georgetown, were among those who raised concerns about the potential effect on police investigations.
The original version passed the House in May by a 23-11 vote without Republican support.
Following those objections, Lynn agreed to remove the provision restricting publication of information about adults merely suspected of crimes.
The revised legislation subsequently passed the House 31-8 in June, gaining bipartisan support.
House Republican Leader Tim Dukes, R-Laurel, welcomed the change.
“I appreciate Rep. Lynn taking this action,” Dukes said in a statement issued by House Republicans following the amendment. “With the amendment, I was comfortable voting in favor of the bill.”
House Republican Whip Jeff Spiegelman, R-Townsend, also praised the compromise.
“Rep. Lynn has given me some hope that there are still some instances where we can overcome party tribalism and reach consensus on good policy,” Spiegelman said.
The compromise preserved an important investigative tool: Police can still release images of uncharged suspects when seeking the public’s assistance in identifying them.
However, once an adult is charged with a misdemeanor, the new restrictions on publishing that individual’s identity apply.
That distinction could create an unusual situation in which police publicly circulate a suspect’s photograph during an investigation but cannot identify that person in a subsequent misdemeanor arrest announcement.
Transparency and police accountability
Beyond individual criminal cases, the legislation raises broader questions about government transparency and public oversight.
Public access to arrest information allows journalists and community members to examine how police departments enforce laws, whether criminal activity is increasing in particular neighborhoods and how the justice system responds to repeat offenses.
Routine identification of defendants can also help connect arrests to subsequent court proceedings, allowing the public to follow cases from the initial police investigation through prosecution and resolution.
Restricting police disclosure does not eliminate those opportunities, but it may make obtaining and connecting information more difficult.
The distinction is particularly important because information about crime serves purposes beyond identifying individual defendants.
Residents use police reports to understand neighborhood safety. Businesses monitor theft and fraud. Victims and community organizations look for patterns of criminal behavior. Journalists evaluate police performance and prosecutorial decisions.
The challenge for policymakers is determining how to preserve those public interests without unnecessarily damaging the reputations of people who have not been convicted.
How will police implement the new law?
With the law taking effect Wednesday, one of the immediate questions is how Delaware’s law enforcement agencies will change their public information practices.
Police departments routinely distribute news releases announcing arrests, identifying suspects and describing criminal charges. Many agencies also publish photographs on social media.
Those practices will now require closer consideration of whether the charges and circumstances satisfy the law’s disclosure requirements.
Among the questions facing law enforcement are how public safety will be defined, who will authorize the release of identifying information and whether departments will establish written policies to ensure consistent decisions.
Another issue involves how agencies will communicate information about misdemeanor arrests to victims, businesses and residents who have legitimate reasons to be concerned about possible ongoing criminal activity.
The legislation also leaves questions about how existing public records laws and court information systems will interact with the restrictions on police announcements.
The law directly governs law enforcement agencies, rather than making all arrest or court records confidential. However, its practical effect on access to police records and routine public information will depend in part on how agencies interpret and implement the new requirements.
Finding the balance between privacy and public safety
HB 59 reflects two principles that are not necessarily in conflict.
The justice system should protect individuals against unwarranted damage to their reputations before guilt has been established. At the same time, government agencies have a responsibility to provide the public with meaningful information about crime, law enforcement and potential threats to community safety.
The bipartisan amendment demonstrates that lawmakers recognized the importance of preserving police access to the public during criminal investigations.
Whether the final law achieves an appropriate balance between personal privacy and public safety will become clearer as departments begin operating under its restrictions.
There is no established evidence that HB 59 will lead to increased crime or prevent police from solving cases. But the law does introduce new limits on the information police can make available, creating practical questions about transparency and community awareness.
For residents, businesses and news organizations, the issue is not simply whether the names of arrested individuals should appear in police reports.
It is whether Delaware can protect the presumption of innocence while continuing to provide the public with the information necessary to understand crime and evaluate the performance of its criminal justice system.
To-Go Box: What Delaware’s new arrest information law means
Law: House Bill 59, signed July 23, 2026.
Effective date: Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026.
What changes: Police generally cannot release the names or photographs of adults charged with misdemeanors. Information about adults charged with felonies can be released when necessary to protect public safety.
What remains permitted: Police may continue releasing images and identifying information about uncharged adult suspects to seek public assistance in investigations.
Who is affected: Delaware law enforcement agencies and the public that relies on police announcements for information about criminal activity.
Why supporters favor it: To protect the presumption of innocence and prevent unnecessary reputational damage before a criminal conviction.
Primary concerns: Public safety, government transparency, consistent police disclosure standards and access to information about crime in local communities.
Washington, DC — Artificial intelligence is playing an unprecedented role in the 2026 midterms, with campaigns and political groups spending more than $137 million on advertisements created or enhanced using AI.
The Wesleyan Media Project has identified 220 AI-assisted political ads this cycle, compared with less than $50,000 in spending on such advertising during 2024. Researchers say the current total is almost certainly an undercount.
Republican candidates and aligned organizations produced 81% of the identified AI ads and accounted for 88% of the spending. Democratic sponsors produced about 12%.
Many advertisements create fictional scenes involving opposing candidates. One Republican ad depicts New York Gov. Kathy Hochul walking with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and saying, “don’t say affordable,” although Hochul never made the statement and the scene never occurred.
Only 27% of the AI-generated ads tracked by Wesleyan included a disclaimer alerting viewers to the technology’s use.
Democratic congressional candidate Rebecca Cooke has also demanded that Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden stop distributing AI videos depicting her making fabricated statements about corruption.
The rapid spread of synthetic political advertising comes as federal regulation remains limited, leaving disclosure requirements largely dependent on state laws and individual platforms.
Recent polling indicates broad bipartisan concern about AI oversight, particularly when synthetic material can make politicians appear to say or do things that never happened.
Lots to do even for those with no the Trick-or-Treaters in their home! image created with AI on 10/19
From haunted theaters and Civil War ghost hunts to lantern-lit tours, Halloween dance parties and an overnight horror movie marathon, Delaware offers adults plenty of alternatives to the traditional haunted house.
WILMINGTON, Del. — For Delawareans who have outgrown trick-or-treating — and aren’t particularly interested in being chased through a cornfield by someone with a chainsaw — Halloween offers some decidedly different ways to celebrate.
From Wilmington’s historic theaters and underground speakeasies to the colonial streets of Dover, the beaches of Sussex County and an isolated Civil War fortress, the First State has plenty of unusual Halloween experiences.
Some lean heavily into Delaware’s history and mysterious past. Others offer theatrical entertainment, cocktails, dancing, live music and opportunities to socialize.
And for anyone who has had enough of ghosts, there’s even a Halloween party where the goal is to meet someone who is actually alive.
Here are 10 Halloween experiences across Delaware and what makes each one stand apart.
1. The Queen: Investigating the ghosts of a historic theater
The Queen Theatre in downtown Wilmington is opening its doors after hours for its first Paranormal Tour, offering guests an opportunity to explore parts of the historic entertainment venue normally closed to the public.
The tours, scheduled for Oct. 28 and 29, will be led by the Cecil Paranormal Group, whose investigators will introduce participants to equipment used to explore reported sightings, unusual noises and other unexplained activity.
The Queen’s history stretches back to the early 1900s, with the building serving different purposes before its restoration as a live entertainment venue.
Participants will have an opportunity to investigate the building’s reported paranormal activity and draw their own conclusions about whether the historic theater has any unseen residents.
What makes it different: There are no staged monsters or haunted-house actors. Guests explore a familiar Wilmington landmark from an entirely different perspective, combining local history with a paranormal investigation.
2. Simmer Down at The Quoin: Halloween cocktails in a hidden speakeasy
For those who prefer their Halloween spirits served in a glass, Simmer Down is hosting a Halloween Haunt Party on Saturday, Oct. 31, beginning at 6 p.m.
Located beneath The Quoin Hotel on North Market Street in Wilmington, the intimate speakeasy already offers a setting that seems made for Halloween.
With its dim lighting, sophisticated atmosphere and craft cocktails, the underground lounge provides a fitting backdrop for costumes, conversation and Halloween-themed drinks.
The celebration is free to attend, and guests who arrive in costume will receive a complimentary cocktail or mocktail.
What makes it different: This is Halloween as nightlife rather than a haunted attraction. Guests can enjoy the mystery of a hidden downtown bar without having to investigate strange noises or worry about what might be lurking around the next corner.
3. Theatre N: Horror movies until sunrise
For serious horror movie fans, Theatre N in downtown Wilmington is offering something of an endurance test.
The All-Nite Horrorthon begins Friday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m., inviting moviegoers to spend the night watching five mystery horror films.
Rather than announcing every title in advance, organizers are keeping the lineup a surprise, adding another layer of suspense to the experience.
The marathon continues into Saturday morning, giving audiences an opportunity to experience horror movies in a dark theater surrounded by other fans.
What makes it different: The mystery isn’t just what’s happening on the screen. Guests won’t necessarily know which frightening film is coming next. And unlike most Halloween attractions, this one challenges participants to stay awake until morning.
4. Rockwood: A Victorian ghost story comes to life
At Rockwood Park & Museum near Wilmington, Halloween becomes an immersive theatrical experience.
The Revisionists: A Haunted Victorian Walk returns Oct. 23 and 24, combining storytelling, costumed performers and the atmosphere of one of Delaware’s most distinctive historic estates.
During the approximately 90-minute experience, visitors follow lamplit paths through the property, encountering five professionally acted scenes that gradually reveal an original Gothic ghost story.
This year’s production draws on a mystery set in 1930s Hollywood, blending supernatural storytelling with historical fiction and classic film noir.
Rather than relying on sudden scares, the experience uses the historic mansion, grounds and performers to immerse visitors in a developing mystery.
What makes it different: Rockwood transforms the historic estate into a theatrical setting, allowing visitors to become part of a ghost story rather than simply watch one unfold.
5. Boo Ball: Halloween takes a turn on the dance floor
For Delawareans who would rather dance with a partner than encounter a ghost, BlueBallRoom Dance Studio in Wilmington is offering a different kind of Halloween celebration.
The studio’s Boo Ball, scheduled for Friday, Oct. 30, from 7 to 9 p.m., combines ballroom and social dancing with costumes, refreshments and an evening of music.
Guests can enjoy a complimentary mini-group dance lesson, making the event accessible to people who might be new to ballroom dancing.
Costumes are encouraged, adding a Halloween twist to the festivities, while refreshments and a cash bar provide opportunities to socialize between dances.
The evening emphasizes having fun, learning new moves and connecting with other people in a relaxed atmosphere.
Unlike haunted attractions built around fear and suspense, Boo Ball focuses on entertainment that doesn’t require anyone to be frightened.
What makes it different: Instead of running from monsters or searching for ghosts, guests can spend Halloween learning a few dance steps, meeting new people and enjoying a night on the dance floor.
6. Historic New Castle: Ghosts of Delaware’s colonial past
Few Delaware towns offer a more authentic setting for ghost stories than Historic New Castle, where centuries-old buildings and narrow streets create a natural backdrop for Halloween.
The New Castle Historical Society’s Hauntings in History tours return Oct. 23, 24, 29 and 30, with evening departures at 7, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m.
Guides lead visitors through the historic district, sharing local legends, unexplained encounters and stories from the town’s darker past.
The experience draws on the history of New Castle, including its historic homes, colonial-era streets and stories passed down through generations.
Among the best-known local legends is the Lady in Blue, a mysterious apparition associated with the historic Amstel House.
What makes it different: Unlike attractions that construct a fictional haunted environment, New Castle already has centuries of history. Its streets, houses and stories provide the atmosphere, with local folklore adding a supernatural dimension.
7. Haunted Dover: Ghost stories by lanternlight on The Green
Delaware’s capital city offers its own ghostly encounter, with a setting that connects Halloween to some of the state’s earliest history.
First State Heritage Park will host Haunted Dover Lantern Tours on Friday, Oct. 23, and Friday, Oct. 30, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
During the hourlong experience, park interpreters lead visitors around historic Dover Green, sharing tales of supernatural encounters, hauntings and unexplained events associated with the capital city’s past.
The tours use lanternlight to recreate the atmosphere of an earlier era, when the streets surrounding The Green were at the center of Delaware’s political and community life.
Rather than relying on special effects, the experience combines local folklore, history and the natural atmosphere of Dover’s historic district.
Reservations are required, and space is limited. Tickets cost $15 per person.
What makes it different: This is a traditional ghost walk in one of Delaware’s most historically significant locations. The lantern-lit setting and stories of Dover’s past offer an atmospheric alternative to commercial haunted attractions.
8. Fort Delaware: Ghost hunting inside a Civil War prison
For visitors seeking a potentially unsettling experience, few Delaware locations can compete with Fort Delaware State Park.
The adventure begins with an evening ferry ride across the Delaware River to Pea Patch Island, where the 19th-century military fortress stands isolated from the mainland.
The park’s Paranormal Adventure Tours have offered visitors an opportunity to accompany experienced paranormal investigators into areas of the fort where unexplained activity has reportedly occurred.
Participants may use electromagnetic field detectors, temperature sensors and recording equipment while exploring portions of the fortress.
Fort Delaware served as a Civil War prison camp, where thousands of Confederate prisoners were held. More than 2,000 prisoners died there during the war, contributing to the site’s somber history and longstanding reputation for paranormal activity.
Stories associated with the fort include unexplained footsteps, mysterious shadows, doors opening and closing and sightings of an apparition sometimes described as the Blue Man.
For more dedicated ghost hunters, extended investigations have provided additional time to explore areas normally closed to visitors.
What makes it different: There are no actors waiting to jump out from behind a wall. Much of the suspense comes from the history, darkness and isolation of a Civil War fortress surrounded by the Delaware River.
Visitors should check with Delaware State Parks for remaining October tour dates and reservations.
9. Monster Mash: A Halloween party that gives back at the beach
Not every Halloween experience needs a ghost to make the evening memorable.
In Rehoboth Beach, Price Premier will host its inaugural Monster Mash fundraiser Thursday, Oct. 29, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., combining live music, costumes, food and entertainment with support for a Delaware nonprofit.
The celebration will benefit Children’s Beach House, an organization that helps children and young people with communication challenges develop confidence, resilience and meaningful connections.
The local band DECADE80 will provide live entertainment, bringing a collection of 1980s favorites to the Halloween celebration.
Guests are encouraged to dress for the occasion and participate in a costume contest featuring prizes for Best Overall, Best Duo, Most Creative and Scariest costumes.
The evening also includes food stations and a cash bar.
Tickets are $20 in advance through Oct. 28 and $25 at the door. The first 100 ticket purchasers will receive a complimentary Monster Mash T-shirt.
What makes it different: The evening trades paranormal investigations for live music, creative costumes and a good cause. Guests can enjoy a Halloween party while supporting an organization that serves children and families throughout Delaware.
10. Single & Spellbound: After all those ghosts, how about meeting someone who’s actually alive?
After exploring haunted theaters, historic mansions and Civil War prisons, Halloween offers another possibility: meeting someone who might actually call you back.
Single & Spellbound, scheduled for Friday, Oct. 30, from 8 to 11 p.m. at Grain Exchange in Newark, offers a refreshingly down-to-earth alternative to the season’s supernatural activities.
Organized by BeVisionary, the event is designed for singles ages 30 to 50 who would rather make a real connection than encounter another ghost.
The evening features music from a DJ, hosted introductions and social activities designed to make meeting new people easier.
Costumes add to the Halloween atmosphere, but the emphasis is on conversation, laughter and getting to know someone face-to-face.
Individual tickets are listed at $25, with a $40 option for two single friends, plus fees.
What makes it different: After a week of searching for spirits, this might be the most practical Halloween adventure of all — meeting someone with a pulse, a personality and perhaps the potential for a second date.
A different kind of Halloween across Delaware
What connects these experiences isn’t necessarily the promise of being frightened. It’s the opportunity to do something memorable in a setting that gives Halloween a different twist.
In New Castle County, historic theaters, colonial streets and Victorian estates provide plenty of mysterious encounters. Kent County adds ghost stories around Dover Green and paranormal investigations at Fort Delaware, while Sussex County offers a Halloween celebration that supports a worthy cause.
Movie fans can spend the night at Theatre N, while adults interested in a more social experience can enjoy cocktails beneath Market Street, dance the night away at Boo Ball or meet other singles in Newark.
From Wilmington to Dover to the Delaware beaches, the First State offers a Halloween season with more variety than the traditional haunted house.
And if nothing else, it’s a good excuse to get out of the house — haunted or otherwise.
TO GO: 10 Delaware Halloween experiences
1. The Queen Paranormal Tour
Oct. 28-29, 8 p.m. The Queen, Wilmington. After-hours paranormal investigations. Information: The Queen’s event listings.
2. Simmer Down Halloween Haunt Party
Saturday, Oct. 31, beginning at 6 p.m. Simmer Down at The Quoin Hotel, 519 N. Market St., Wilmington. Free admission. Complimentary cocktail or mocktail for guests in costume. Information: thequoinhotel.com.
3. Theatre N All-Nite Horrorthon
Friday, Oct. 23, beginning at 8 p.m. Theatre N, Wilmington. Overnight mystery horror movie marathon. Information: theatren.com.
4. Rockwood’s The Revisionists
Oct. 23-24, 6:30-9 p.m. Rockwood Park & Museum, 4651 Washington Street Extension, Wilmington. Approximately 90-minute theatrical ghost experience. Tickets: $30. Information: poplarhall.life.
5. Boo Ball Halloween Dance Party
Friday, Oct. 30, 7-9 p.m. BlueBallRoom Dance Studio, Wilmington. Ballroom and social dancing, complimentary mini-group lesson, refreshments and cash bar. Costumes encouraged. Contact the studio for admission and reservations.
6. Historic New Castle Hauntings in History
Oct. 23, 24, 29 and 30. Tours depart at 7, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. Historic New Castle. Guided ghost walks exploring colonial history and local legends. Information: newcastlehistory.org.
7. Haunted Dover Lantern Tour
Friday, Oct. 23, and Friday, Oct. 30, 7:30-8:30 p.m. First State Heritage Park, 43 The Green, Dover. Tickets: $15. Preregistration required. Information: 302-739-9194 or visitcentraldelaware.com.
8. Fort Delaware Paranormal Adventure Tours
Selected October evenings, subject to availability. Fort Delaware State Park, Pea Patch Island. Nighttime paranormal investigations with ferry transportation. Information: destateparks.com.
9. Monster Mash Fundraiser
Thursday, Oct. 29, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Price Premier, 17233 Hood Road, Rehoboth Beach. Live music by DECADE80, costumes and food. Tickets: $20 through Oct. 28; $25 at the door. Benefits Children’s Beach House. Information: cbhinc.org.
Kissimmee, FL — Scammers reportedly used artificial intelligence to clone the voice of a Florida sheriff as part of a fake arrest-warrant scheme, highlighting how increasingly accessible AI tools are making traditional impersonation scams harder to recognize.
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said scammers cloned Sheriff Steve Moser’s voice and used his photograph while contacting a resident. Sheriff Chris Blackmon said the call was fraudulent despite appearing and sounding as though it came from Moser.
The incident follows similar reports across several states involving scammers impersonating law enforcement officers and claiming victims missed jury duty or face outstanding warrants. The schemes frequently pressure targets to make immediate payments to avoid arrest.
Authorities warn that legitimate law enforcement agencies do not demand payment over the phone to resolve warrants or missed jury service.
AI-generated voice cloning adds another layer of credibility because scammers can reproduce a recognizable person’s tone and speech using relatively small samples of recorded audio.
The technology has already been used in fraud targeting families, older adults and businesses. In some cases, criminals have impersonated executives to persuade employees or financial institutions to transfer large sums of money.
Florida law makes impersonating a law enforcement officer a felony.
Officials advise anyone receiving a threatening call claiming to be from police to hang up and independently contact the agency through a verified phone number.
Annual Friends of Delaware Hayride at Milburn Orchards invites supporters of its healing mission to enjoy family time while strengthening connections centered on recovery.
By John Riddle, Contributing Journalist, Delaware LIVE
A hayride and a bonfire might seem like simple ingredients for an autumn outing. For Firm Foundation Recovery, they are also opportunities to bring families together around a mission that reaches far beyond a fall evening.
The nonprofit hosts its annual Friends of Delaware Hayride at Milburn Orchards each October, inviting supporters of its healing mission to enjoy family time while strengthening connections centered on recovery.
The gathering is one example of how the organization combines community activities, peer support and service to address substance addiction in Delaware.
Firm Foundation Recovery grew out of what its website describes as an enormous need for a long-term, God-centered recovery resource in the state. Its approach brings people and fellowships together around shared principles for healing, with an emphasis on addressing needs that can leave individuals and families struggling to find support.
“Together we can help to heal our communities one recovery at a time,” the organization states on its website.
That mission includes an ambitious undertaking: building a long-term, God-centered recovery facility with transitional living and a work program. The planned facility reflects the organization’s focus on sustained support and helping people establish a foundation for their lives in recovery.
Its broader vision extends throughout Delaware. Firm Foundation Recovery seeks to develop a recovery culture rooted in principles, service and community involvement, with people in recovery taking active roles in strengthening the communities around them.
Family events are one way it works toward that goal.
The organization reports hosting seven annual statewide family and community events focused on awareness, education, prevention and resources. Community donations help secure venues and allow those gatherings to grow.
In May, its Skating For Change events bring the mission to the rink. The owners of Christiana Skating Center and Dover Skating Center partner with the nonprofit to offer Delaware youth and families opportunities to skate while supporting its work.
October brings a different setting, with hayrides and bonfires at Milburn Orchards. The Friends of Delaware Hayride combines a familiar fall tradition with the organization’s efforts to unite people around healing and recovery.
Together, the activities reflect an approach that makes room for families and community members to participate through shared experiences.
Service is another central part of the organization’s work.
Firm Foundation Recovery reports carrying out three service projects annually in and around Delaware. Its service activities include improving housing, providing food and clothing to people experiencing homelessness, hosting speaker jams and creating supportive recovery environments.
These efforts connect recovery with practical ways to help others. They also give participants opportunities to contribute their experience and energy to needs within the wider community.
The nonprofit’s peer-driven initiatives reach children, families and people new to recovery. According to its website, lived experience helps those involved connect with others and respond to gaps in support.
“This ‘we’ concept of serving with our lived experience is life changing,” the website states.
Community partnerships help sustain the effort. Firm Foundation Recovery offers sponsorship and advertising opportunities for businesses and other supporters interested in contributing to its mission while building relationships within their communities.
For the organization, the larger goal is a Delaware where helping people affected by addiction becomes a shared commitment, and where those building lives in recovery have opportunities to serve others.
A skating rink, a service project or an evening beside a bonfire offers a different doorway into that work. Each creates space for people to gather, participate and support a mission built around healing.
Through those connections, Firm Foundation Recovery is working toward a future in which recovery has a place in everyday community life, one helping hand and one changed life at a time.
By John Riddle
A hayride and a bonfire might seem like simple ingredients for an autumn outing. For Firm Foundation Recovery, they are also opportunities to bring families together around a mission that reaches far beyond a fall evening.
The nonprofit hosts its annual Friends of Delaware Hayride at Milburn Orchards each October, inviting supporters of its healing mission to enjoy family time while strengthening connections centered on recovery.
The gathering is one example of how the organization combines community activities, peer support and service to address substance addiction in Delaware.
Firm Foundation Recovery grew out of what its website describes as an enormous need for a long-term, God-centered recovery resource in the state. Its approach brings people and fellowships together around shared principles for healing, with an emphasis on addressing needs that can leave individuals and families struggling to find support.
“Together we can help to heal our communities one recovery at a time,” the organization states on its website.
That mission includes an ambitious undertaking: building a long-term, God-centered recovery facility with transitional living and a work program. The planned facility reflects the organization’s focus on sustained support and helping people establish a foundation for their lives in recovery.
Its broader vision extends throughout Delaware. Firm Foundation Recovery seeks to develop a recovery culture rooted in principles, service and community involvement, with people in recovery taking active roles in strengthening the communities around them.
Family events are one way it works toward that goal.
The organization reports hosting seven annual statewide family and community events focused on awareness, education, prevention and resources. Community donations help secure venues and allow those gatherings to grow.
In May, its Skating For Change events bring the mission to the rink. The owners of Christiana Skating Center and Dover Skating Center partner with the nonprofit to offer Delaware youth and families opportunities to skate while supporting its work.
October brings a different setting, with hayrides and bonfires at Milburn Orchards. The Friends of Delaware Hayride combines a familiar fall tradition with the organization’s efforts to unite people around healing and recovery.
Together, the activities reflect an approach that makes room for families and community members to participate through shared experiences.
Service is another central part of the organization’s work.
Firm Foundation Recovery reports carrying out three service projects annually in and around Delaware. Its service activities include improving housing, providing food and clothing to people experiencing homelessness, hosting speaker jams and creating supportive recovery environments.
These efforts connect recovery with practical ways to help others. They also give participants opportunities to contribute their experience and energy to needs within the wider community.
The nonprofit’s peer-driven initiatives reach children, families and people new to recovery. According to its website, lived experience helps those involved connect with others and respond to gaps in support.
“This ‘we’ concept of serving with our lived experience is life changing,” the website states.
Community partnerships help sustain the effort. Firm Foundation Recovery offers sponsorship and advertising opportunities for businesses and other supporters interested in contributing to its mission while building relationships within their communities.
For the organization, the larger goal is a Delaware where helping people affected by addiction becomes a shared commitment, and where those building lives in recovery have opportunities to serve others.
A skating rink, a service project or an evening beside a bonfire offers a different doorway into that work. Each creates space for people to gather, participate and support a mission built around healing.
Through those connections, Firm Foundation Recovery is working toward a future in which recovery has a place in everyday community life, one helping hand and one changed life at a time.
Miami, FL — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Monday that the state has obtained an arrest warrant for former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, accusing him of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue.
The Miami-based exile group flew humanitarian missions over the Florida Straits searching for Cuban migrants in distress. On Feb. 24, 1996, Cuban military jets shot down two unarmed U.S.-registered Cessna aircraft over international waters, killing Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.
Uthmeier said Florida investigators concluded the attack was intentional and part of a coordinated conspiracy involving Cuban intelligence and military officials. He said Castro, then Cuba’s defense minister, was involved in the chain of command that authorized the operation.
Castro, 94, already faces separate federal charges stemming from the same attack. The Justice Department unsealed an indictment in May charging him and five other former Cuban officials with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft and murder. All defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Uthmeier acknowledged that Castro is unlikely to be taken into Florida custody immediately but said the warrant could have consequences if he travels to a country willing to extradite him.
Washington, DC — The White House is investigating allegations that senior Trump adviser Ric Grenell offered a Turkish billionaire access to President Donald Trump and administration officials in connection with a multimillion-dollar Kennedy Center donation.
Axios reported that a May 2025 text allegedly sent by Grenell to businessman Turhan Mildon promised VIP events and proximity to Trump after money was transferred through a private company. Grenell has strongly denied sending the message or participating in any improper arrangement.
The dispute centers on a $17.6 million payment transferred from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s finance ministry to Houston-based defense company Texas Armament & Technology. Mildon alleges roughly $5.6 million was supposed to become a Kennedy Center donation, but officials found no record that the center received it.
Mildon, who recently married former Trump attorney Alina Habba, provided the disputed text, financial records and other correspondence to White House counsel Will Scharf. Trump ordered the internal investigation after Habba personally raised the allegations with him.
The circumstances surrounding the transaction remain unclear, including whose money was involved and how the Congo business arrangement related to the proposed donation.
Grenell called the accusations “absurd” and denied receiving money or directing funds away from the Kennedy Center.
White House officials say investigators are now attempting to authenticate the text and determine what happened to the money.
Manchester, NH — California Gov. Gavin Newsom used a weekend swing through New Hampshire to sharpen his anti-Trump message and position his record as a possible model for Democrats looking toward 2028.
Newsom repeatedly highlighted his clashes with President Donald Trump while campaigning for Democratic candidates ahead of the midterms. At one stop, he argued that Democrats need to become “a little more ruthless,” saying Republicans and Trump have shown a willingness to fight aggressively over issues such as redistricting.
The trip was officially focused on boosting Democratic turnout, but it also gave Newsom valuable exposure in a state that remains important in presidential politics.
Newsom portrayed California as a testing ground for resistance to Trump, citing disputes over National Guard deployments, voting rules and federal investigations involving his family. He said Democrats need to respond more forcefully to what he described as Trump’s attacks on democratic institutions.
He also leaned into economic populism, calling for Democrats to address concentrated wealth and power while pointing to California policies on paid family leave, wages and other social programs.
Newsom has not formally launched a presidential campaign. He remains one of several nationally prominent Democrats being discussed as possible 2028 contenders, alongside figures such as Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Delaware State Police are investigating a strong-arm robbery that left two employees injured early Sunday morning in Wilmington.
Troopers responded at approximately 3:20 a.m. on October 18 to a business in the 3300 block of Old Capitol Trail.
Police said two employees were walking to their vehicles after work when they were approached by two male suspects wearing pink masks. The suspects allegedly assaulted both employees, stole personal property and fled in a vehicle.
Both victims were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The Delaware State Police Criminal Investigations Unit is investigating. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective M. Kerrigan at 302-365-8487 or Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-847-3333.
Washington, DC — Republican senators are increasingly pushing back against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his sweeping changes to Pentagon leadership, warning that repeated firings and forced departures could weaken military readiness and leave experienced officers sidelined.
The tensions have intensified since Hegseth announced plans to reduce the number of generals and admirals by 20%, part of a broader effort he says will streamline the military and eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy.
Several senior Republicans have complained that Congress was given little warning about the cuts. Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker and other GOP members have also questioned whether some personnel decisions are being driven by political or ideological considerations rather than performance.
Sen. Thom Tillis has gone further, repeatedly calling on President Donald Trump to replace Hegseth. Tillis has described the Pentagon’s management as “inept” and accused Hegseth of driving out capable military leaders while focusing heavily on culture-war issues.
The Pentagon maintains that its personnel decisions are merit-based and necessary to reshape the military for future threats.
Hegseth has already forced out or sidelined numerous senior officers, while the Army has experienced particularly significant turnover, including the resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll after months of reported clashes with Hegseth.
Trump has continued to publicly support his defense secretary despite the growing criticism from within his own party.
PACs targeted former West Virginia Delegate Vernon Criss following his proposal to rein in state spending on school vouchers. Will Price/West Virginia Legislature
On a cold February morning at West Virginia’s Capitol, children in winter jackets, holding signs and their homework, clogged the hallways outside the House Finance Committee room. Delegate Vernon Criss, the committee’s chairperson, popped outside his office, then promptly walked back in.
Five days earlier, the Republican lawmaker had proposed to limit payouts from a voucher program that diverts public tax dollars to private education. Since then, families had shown up each morning, and with them lobbyists and organizers posting inflammatory assertions that the proposal would kill the program.
Criss didn’t want that. Five years earlier, he voted to create the Hope Scholarship program, the nation’s first educational savings account program to have no income requirements. Since then, 11 other states have passed similar legislation.
In the first year of the Hope program in West Virginia, it cost the state $9 million. Now, as 2026 was beginning, it was set to expand, with estimates that it could cost $200 million or more a year. And Criss was concerned that unchecked growth of the program, coupled with a spree of tax cuts, could put the state budget into a tailspin. The state and its lawmakers needed “to face the music,” as Criss would later say.
On that February day in Charleston, a staffer unlocked the committee door. Parents and media filed in, taking seats along the narrow benches lining the committee room’s walls. Kids lay on the floor. A delegate asked if the Hope Scholarship bill would be discussed. When Criss said no, the parents and their kids stood up and filed out.
Within the next few days, lawmakers would stop the effort to curtail spending on vouchers. And Criss would soon be fighting for his political life.
Criss greets constituents supporting the Hope Scholarship.Perry Bennett/West Virginia Legislature
The money and organizing behind the demise of the bill, as well as the targeting of Criss, can be traced to “school choice” advocates at the local and national levels and their ability to spend huge sums to have their way.
When Republicans assumed control of the West Virginia Legislature in 2015, school choice — their preferred terminology for voucher-style programs — became a rallying point for an array of political nonprofits. Through lobbying and supporting sympathetic lawmakers, they helped establish the Hope Scholarship six years later.
In West Virginia, Arkansas and Texas, proponents have been eager to challenge anyone who got in the way, including fellow Republicans who voiced concerns. Basic guardrails or efforts to cap spending have been met with intense resistance.
During the 2026 West Virginia primary, three political action committees spent heavily on independent advertisements, targeting 10 incumbent Republicans. They succeeded in ousting four, all of whom had disagreements with the governor; most expressed reservations about the Hope Scholarship.
Their biggest victory was unseating Criss, the long-serving incumbent and high-ranking Republican.
One of the three PACs working to defeat Criss is affiliated with the Koch family. Yass has contributed to the two others: School Freedom Fund and the Sugar Maple PAC. David McIntosh, president of School Freedom Fund and the affiliated Club for Growth, was jubilant afterward.
“These elections are a warning to Republican leaders like Vernon Criss — if you oppose school freedom, expect to be held accountable,” he wrote in a press announcement at the time.
Have you had trouble finding a school or using a voucher-style program? Do you have concerns about schools — public or private — in your area? Help us understand how families across the country are navigating their school options.
Criss had been unopposed in his 2024 primary. In 2026, the three PACs spent more than $145,000 to help a 23-year-old defeat him.
Criss’ proposal to put financial limits on the Hope Scholarship program came as West Virginia public schools arrived at a dangerous crossroads. The program directs dollars away from public schools, adding to funding shortfalls created by enrollment drops.
Since 2019, 70 public schools have closed throughout the state, with the system losing more than 30,000 students. By the end of this school year, up to 20 more schools could close.
During the same legislative session this year, when lawmakers passed emergency legislation to help one school district stay open, there was little drama — no crowds in the hallways or the galleries.
The Rise of Hope
In 2021, as West Virginia lawmakers worked on the bill that would create the Hope Scholarship, they got some help from the outside: a lobbyist and political operative named Jason Huffman.
Huffman has been the director of Americans for Prosperity-West Virginia since the mid-2010s. The group is part of the larger Americans for Prosperity, which was set up by the billionaire industrialist David Koch and supported by his brother Charles, longtime donors to conservative causes. Americans for Prosperity advocates for low taxes, school choice and loosened environmental regulations throughout the country.
In shaping the West Virginia legislation, Huffman said, one goal was to create a school voucher program that other states could model. While other states had already passed voucher-style programs, they hadn’t made them open to all residents regardless of income.
Jason Huffman is the director of Americans for Prosperity-West Virginia.Courtesy of Jason Huffman
Among those advocating in West Virginia were members of Cardinal Institute, a homegrown conservative think tank. Founded in 2015, the group made public funding for private schooling one of its first policy planks. Over the last decade, Cardinal has received significant donations from organizations that also have received funding from Koch entities and Yass.
To support the Hope legislation, Cardinal’s leaders distributed research, published columns in newspapers and linked up with other groups, like Americans for Prosperity and the Institute for Justice, which litigates libertarian causes, to push the issue. They also found allies in parents who wanted the financial flexibility to send their children to private schools or teach them at home or in small clusters of like-minded families.
Katie Switzer, a mother of six, became one of Cardinal’s most reliable advocates. She had started looking into schooling options after her second child was diagnosed with a learning disability.
“I just felt like this doesn’t feel good to send my nonverbal child to a school that you know isn’t really collaborative, and I don’t know what’s going on when she’s there because she can’t tell me when she gets home,” she said. The experience made her a proponent of alternatives to public school.
Her story appeared in some of Cardinal’s promotional copy for the bill. She sat in on a video call presentation featuring state Sen. Patrcia Rucker, a Hope Scholarship proponent. She took to Facebook to tout the program.
And she stepped up when the Hope Scholarship was challenged in court by other parents who argued the program would undermine funding for public schools.
Hope’s opponents in the case gained support from the state Board of Education, which argued the program siphoned money away from public schools. On the other side was the West Virginia attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, defending the law and the state.
The Institute for Justice was looking to get involved, but it needed to find somebody with standing in the case. Switzer and another parent signed up, giving the firm the ability to file motions and argue in court. The Institute for Justice has received $8.5 million from charities controlled by Yass over nearly a decade.
The case went to the West Virginia Supreme Court, where the justices ruled 4-1 in favor of the program.
The ruling meant the Hope program had survived. It was good timing for Morrisey. He was about to make a run for governor. When Morrisey waded into a tough four-way primary battle, the Club for Growth Action, a super PAC Yass has donated heavily to over the years, was ready to help.
“Our goal in all of this is to elect people who will be champions for school freedom, lower taxes, less regulation, so businesses can thrive,” McIntosh, the group’s president, said in an interview.
The Club for Growth Action pumped $10.8 million into that race. Morrisey won the plurality in the Republican primary and went on to trounce his Democratic opponent in the general election.
On a cold morning in January 2025, Morrisey stood bundled up in a black wool coat on the stairs of Capitol, its gold dome towering above him. He took the oath of office and gave his address.
“We will expand the Hope Scholarship, putting more control in the hands of parents to choose the best educational path for their children,” he said.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey at his inauguration ceremony in January 2025. Club for Growth, which supports voucher-style programs, spent $10.8 million through a super PAC to support Morrisey during the tough Republican primary.Perry Bennett/West Virginia Legislature
Runaway Train
Hours before Morrisey gave his State of the State address earlier this year, the House Education Committee called a meeting to hear about a report from the Rand Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank.
Rand called on the state to fix what was becoming abundantly clear: Education in West Virginia wasn’t just in transition; it was in crisis.
Initially the Hope Scholarship was limited to students attending public school or children who would enter kindergarten. Participation grew over time. And as the 2026-27 school year began, the program opened to any student in West Virginia, including those who had spent their entire academic careers in private school or in homeschooling.
That translated into tens of millions of additional state dollars to private schools and homeschooling. Estimates for the 2026-27 school year ranged from $230 million to more than $300 million in the months leading up to the legislative session. The program costs for the year are still being tallied but are currently projected at an unprecedented $150 million.
The Rand report suggested placing an income cap on the Hope Scholarship and increasing funding for public schools.
While the Education Committee would work on public school funding, Criss’ Finance Committee would tackle the ballooning costs of the Hope Scholarship. He was not interested in Rand’s solutions but found his own. By capping the scholarship amount and limiting certain expenses, Criss was hoping he could help prolong the program for families well into the future. But families would soon be rallying against him.
In the time since the Hope Scholarship had withstood the court challenge, Switzer’s reach had only grown. On Facebook, she administered a group that offers practical advice to hundreds of parents, or “Hope Schoolers” as she called them, on questions like what items counted as qualifying expenses and how to properly file for the program.
Before Criss’ plan rolled out, Switzer said she received word from a member of the Finance Committee — though she did not disclose who — that the Hope Scholarship would be discussed.
Writing a lengthy Facebook post, she warned that the move would severely damage the program. “The bill takes away 19,000 children’s access to online education, tutoring, private schools across state borders, and many other beneficial academic programs,” she wrote.
Huffman, the Americans for Prosperity state director, took to radio and social media to decry what he described as an existential threat to the program. Parents with kids in tow echoed those fears.
Criss’ proposal would’ve capped the award amount for the Hope Scholarship at a little more than $5,000 a year. He said his intent was to prolong the program for the long run, not kill it.
Huffman countered that by capping the award amount, inflation would eventually erode families’ abilities to use the program for private education or homeschooling.
Looking back, Criss said he anticipated some pushback, because the Hope Scholarship is a “giveaway program.” He blamed political forces for riling people up.
At a caucus meeting with the Republican supermajority — which holds 91 of the 100 seats in the lower chamber — Criss said he couldn’t muster the votes. A bill to fix public schools that came out of the Education Committee died entirely.
Election season was right around the corner, and Americans for Prosperity-West Virginia and other groups hadn’t forgotten the Hope Scholarship battle. Criss had failed what Huffman called “a litmus test” in trying to restrict public money for parents looking for an alternative to public school.
Meanwhile, McIntosh, the president for Club for Growth, said he received word from his allies in the Morrisey administration. Morrisey was concerned about lawmakers who had opposed him on budget issues and school choice. The governor was looking to replace those he saw as not aligned.
While the legislative backlash had been about one issue, the campaign against Morrisey’s foes went well beyond education issues.
Ads depicted Criss as a liberal who wanted to open borders for illegal immigration. That was based on a no vote Criss had cast against a piece of legislation that would’ve mandated employers run a citizenship check on every employee.
Fliers mailed by the School Freedom Fund, a PAC affiliated with Club for Growth, depicted candidates as supporters of drag queens. Americans for Prosperity-West Virginia sent volunteers door to door to rally for their candidates, including in Criss’ district.
The newly created Sugar Maple PAC — headed by a former state delegate and Morrisey ally — ran ads accusing opponents of being Republicans in Name Only.
One mailer, depicting Criss driving a garbage truck, accused him of taking “West Virginia’s values to the dump.” On the back, it reiterated his vote against the citizenship check for employees and his vote against West Virginia’s abortion ban.
“Vernon Criss’ liberal trash,” the flier read, with an image of black trash bags.
Some of the mailers attacking Criss. PACs targeted him following his efforts to rein in spending on the Hope Scholarship.Obtained by Mountain State Spotlight
“I think that the fact that they called me a liberal, it just stuck out,” Criss said. “You know, as the chairman of finance, I know that it’s a targeted job, obviously, that’s part of the deal. Those types of things happen, that’s just part of the politics involved here.”
The School Freedom Fund poured nearly $1 million into statehouse races across West Virginia to both retain Morrissey’s supporters and oust detractors, like Criss. Americans for Prosperity did the same, again targeting Criss, and spending around $700,000 across the state.
A spokesperson for Morrisey said in an email that the governor is a supporter of both public schools and the Hope Scholarship and “is also grateful that organizations that share his worldview of helping West Virginia children having the best educational opportunities in the country weigh in.”
Sugar Maple PAC and Yass did not respond to requests for comment. Yass contributed $450,000 to Sugar Maple in the lead-up to the 2026 primary. Among the three PACs, Sugar Maple spent the most on the Criss race: $86,000 to attack Criss and $15,000 to back his opponent, Charles Hartzog, a 23-year-old gas station cashier.
Criss didn’t just lose the primary; Hartzog beat him with 61% of the vote. Criss is now running a long-shot campaign as a write-in for his district in the general election.
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker/ProPublica. Source images: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images, skaman306/Getty Images, Mike Klein/Getty Images.
Early in his tenure as Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton issued a statement commemorating what he believed was a national tragedy.
“It’s impossible to fill the void of more than 50 million missing human beings,” he said in 2016. He was marking the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that protected abortion rights — and had long stood in the way of efforts to ban terminations in early pregnancy, when most abortions occur.
Paxton spent the years that followed testing Roe’s limits and ultimately prevailed where others had failed: In 2021, he defended a near-total abortion ban that Texas legislators had designed to evade conventional legal challenges. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed it to take effect while Roe remained in force.
After the justices overturned Roe the following year, Paxton kept pushing, pursuing new ways to extend the reach of Texas’ restrictions. He prevailed against the Biden administration, picked fights with states that protect abortion access and pioneered strategies that his peers later adopted or expanded.
While Paxton’s tenure as attorney general has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum for his personal scandals and alleged misuse of the office, detractors and allies alike agree that his signal achievement as the state’s top legal official has been advancing restrictions on abortion.
A close look at his record shows a clear pattern in his successes: He relentlessly tests the limits of the law and employs novel legal strategies to advance his goals.
Paxton’s national role as an anti-abortion warrior would change if he wins his U.S. Senate race. As Texas attorney general, he has been able to act largely on his own authority. If he prevails in November, he would become one of 100 senators in a chamber where most legislation needs 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.
But allies who have witnessed his victories see an opening.
“He’ll have the ability to use some of the laws that he’s defended in Texas as influence to draft legislation in the U.S. Senate,” said Mary Elizabeth Castle, director of government relations at Texas Values, a Christian advocacy group that supports a national abortion ban.
Legal experts and advocates on both sides expect he could join colleagues who are pressuring the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval of the abortion drug mifepristone.
Anti-abortion activists at the state and federal level are also trying to secure legal rights for fetuses, which could have implications for reproductive care like birth control and in vitro fertilization. Paxton, who has called himself a strong supporter of IVF, recently said he was open to restrictions intended to prevent the loss of fertilized eggs.
His litigation has also raised questions that experts expect the Supreme Court to confront, including whether a federal law, which mandates hospitals provide stabilizing care to patients having an emergency, overrides state abortion bans; whether to treat a fetus as a separate patient that has its own emergency care rights; and how far states can go in pursuing out-of-state doctors who prescribe abortion medication to patients in states where it’s banned.
During the current race, abortion has played a far smaller role than questions about Paxton’s ethics. His Democratic opponent, James Talarico, has said that he supports restoring a federal right to abortion and that his Christian faith calls for an end to “extreme” laws that Paxton has defended and that have forced women to flee the state for emergency abortion care.
But those who have watched Paxton extend the reach of Texas law beyond its borders are paying close attention to his Senate bid.
Dr. Jennifer Villavicencio, an abortion provider, said she has felt compelled to move her family twice to states with strong laws shielding doctors from out-of-state litigation, partly out of concern that Paxton is creating a blueprint for targeting providers like her.
“It’s very disheartening and scary to think that it’s maybe coming to the U.S. Senate,” she said.
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker/ProPublica. Source images: Drew Angerer/Getty Images, Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images.
Paxton successfully defended a near-total abortion ban before Roe v. Wade was struck down.
When Paxton became Texas attorney general in 2015, there was no ambiguity about where he stood on abortion.
Raised by an anti-abortion activist, he married his sweetheart from a Christian college, who spoke proudly about the fact that she was adopted, saying her birth mother “chose life.” She campaigned for Paxton, but he had his own bona fides. A law he’d co-sponsored as a state senator banned almost all abortions after 20 weeks.
Similar 20-week bans had taken root across the country as decades of court rulings chipped away at Roe, but no state had managed to enforce a ban as early as six weeks. More than a dozen tried, passing laws that prohibited abortion when cardiac activity could be detected. One after another, they were blocked by judges.
Then, in 2021, a Texas lawyer named Jonathan Mitchell worked with legislators to craft a law that would withstand similar challenges. Instead of having state officials enforce their “heartbeat law,” the new act, referred to as Senate Bill 8, allowed citizens to sue physicians they suspected were providing abortions. The law offered up to $10,000 if they won.
When abortion providers and President Joe Biden’s administration separately challenged the law in federal court, Paxton’s office argued that state officials couldn’t be ordered to stop enforcing it because they had no power to do so in the first place. Only private citizens could.
“Because the executive officials are expressly prohibited from enforcing SB 8,” his office wrote to the Supreme Court, “there is nothing for a federal court to enjoin.”
The Supreme Court agreed that Paxton couldn’t be sued because “the petitioners have not identified any enforcement authority the attorney general possesses in connection with S. B. 8 that a federal court might enjoin him from exercising.”
The law remained in effect, becoming the first enforceable six-week ban under Roe.
Legislators in Idaho and Oklahoma subsequently passed similar laws.
For Dr. Sam Dickman, who worked at a San Antonio Planned Parenthood, the implications were clear: “I was going to need to either entirely change the type of medicine I was providing or leave the state,” he said. He opted for the latter, moving to Montana, where abortion is legal until viability, or roughly 24 weeks.
Days after the Texas ban took effect, Josseli Barnica arrived at a Houston hospital in the midst of a miscarriage. She was 17 weeks pregnant and her fetus’s head was pressed up against her dilated cervix. Because the situation put her at high risk of developing an infection, medical experts said doctors should have offered to speed up delivery or empty her uterus; the fetus was not viable, and losing the pregnancy was inevitable.
But the fetus’s heart was still beating.
Barnica relayed to her husband what she said her medical providers had told her: “They had to wait until there was no heartbeat,” he told ProPublica in Spanish. “It would be a crime to give her an abortion.”
For 40 hours, Barnica waited, her uterus exposed to bacteria.
She died days later of sepsis. Medical experts told ProPublica her doctors did not follow the proper standard of care and that Barnica’s death was preventable.
In a statement, HCA Healthcare, the hospital chain that treated her, said “our responsibility is to be in compliance with applicable state and federal laws and regulations” and said that physicians exercise their independent judgment.
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker/ProPublica. Source images: Drew Angerer/Getty Images, Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images.
Paxton blocked federal guidance for emergency abortion care, with consequences far beyond Texas.
When the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion on June 24, 2022, Paxton dismissed his staff at noon to celebrate. He would later designate the date as a paid office holiday, Sanctity of Life Day.
The Texas Legislature had prepared for the occasion, passing a law that went into effect shortly after the overturning of Roe. The ban threatened doctors with up to 99 years in prison if they performed an abortion. But soon came what Paxton framed as a federal attempt to thwart the state law.
The Biden administration issued a memo to doctors in states with abortion bans saying that a federal emergency care law protected their medical judgment, “regardless of the restrictions in the state.”
The federal Health and Human Services secretary at the time said doctors had an obligation to follow the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, better known as EMTALA. The law requires hospitals that accept federal funding to screen and stabilize every patient who arrives.
For those with complications such as severe preeclampsia, a potentially fatal, pregnancy-related blood pressure disorder, stabilizing a patient might require performing an abortion, even if the state forbids it, the guidance said. “The physician must provide that treatment,” it said, bolding the word “must.”
Paxton sued, accusing the administration of an attempt to use federal law “to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic.”
He argued EMTALA was created to make sure hospitals didn’t dump uninsured patients back on the street without treatment, not to override state laws. He took the argument a step further, suggesting that under EMTALA, doctors might need to consider “the life of the unborn child.”
The argument was novel, six legal experts told ProPublica.
“He’s basically suing the federal government to protect Texas’ right to force pregnant women to not get abortions, even when their health is threatened,” said Greer Donley, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s radical.’”
Medical groups warned patients would die.
But a federal judge sided with Paxton that August, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision in January 2024.
The ruling did more than keep the administration from enforcing its EMTALA interpretation in Texas.
It barred the federal government from pursuing cases against members of two anti-abortion medical organizations that had joined Paxton’s suit as plaintiffs, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. This effectively exempted them from having to follow the federal guidance, regardless of where they worked.
It also served as immediate litigation fodder for another state fighting to enforce its own abortion ban.
Idaho had not had the same success in court as Texas. After the Biden administration sued, arguing the state’s ban conflicted with EMTALA, Idaho lost in lower and appellate courts, leaving its ban effectively frozen in emergency cases, with doctors instructed to follow the federal guidance.
But Paxton’s 5th Circuit win on Jan. 2, 2024, gave Idaho’s ban a lifeline. The ruling conflicted with the 9th Circuit’s decision in Idaho, creating the kind of disagreement between federal appeals courts that the Supreme Court often steps in to resolve.
The following day, attorneys representing Idaho asked the high court to do just that, saying Paxton’s success showed they were “likely to prevail.” In the meantime, they asked the court to unfreeze the ban.
On Jan. 5, the Supreme Court allowed Idaho to fully enforce its ban while the case proceeded.
Emergency doctors began hesitating over when they could legally provide abortions, Dr. Jim Souza, chief physician at St. Luke’s Health System, said on a press call at the time, according to NPR. “Is she septic enough for me to do this abortion and not risk going to jail and losing my license?”
In the three months that followed, St. Luke’s, the state’s largest hospital system, said it had to airlift six patients out of the state for abortions.
In Texas, ProPublica has documented the consequences for women experiencing pregnancy emergencies.
When Tierra Walker sought care later that year in San Antonio, she developed preeclampsia and ultimately died from it, ProPublica previously reported. None of the 90 physicians involved in her care offered her the option of terminating her pregnancy, even after she asked if doing so might keep her safe.
Her family sued Paxton in September, along with state medical officials and several healthcare providers, alleging that Texas’ abortion restrictions and the care Walker received led to her death. Paxton has not responded to the suit and did not respond to a request seeking comment.
ProPublica has identified at least two other pregnant Texas women who died without what experts said was appropriate emergency care. Paxton has not publicly commented on any of their deaths and did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about them. Our analysis also found worsening outcomes across the state for patients experiencing pregnancy complications.
The reach of Paxton’s legal victory may not end there.
The Supreme Court still hasn’t resolved the conflict between the circuit rulings. It declined to do so in the Idaho case, and after President Donald Trump took office, his administration dropped the suit and rescinded the EMTALA guidance.
But legal experts told ProPublica the Supreme Court has yet to resolve core questions that Paxton’s litigation raised: whether EMTALA preempts state abortion laws and whether a fetus also has a right to emergency treatment that could conflict with the mother’s interests in cases where her health is at risk.
To guard against future rulings, a reproductive rights advocacy group called All* Above All is pushing state-level legislation to safeguard emergency care. “We’re seeing the chaos right now and the confusion,” said its president, Nourbese Flint.
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker/ProPublica. Source image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
Paxton tested expansive new ways to pursue abortion providers. Other states are following his lead.
On Dec. 7, 2023, a state judge in Austin issued a ruling that Paxton immediately moved to stop.
A 31-year-old mother named Kate Cox wanted permission to get an abortion. She was 20 weeks pregnant and carrying a fetus diagnosed with trisomy 18, a genetic condition that kills the vast majority of babies born with it.
Texas doesn’t allow abortions for fatal fetal anomalies, but Cox’s doctor argued that if she was forced to give birth, it could imperil her ability to get pregnant again. It was also medically risky: Cox had already had two children by cesarean section, and the chances of complications increase with each procedure.
The day a Travis County district court judge granted her request, Paxton took a step legal experts told ProPublica they had not seen another state attorney general take:
He sent letters to three hospitals where Cox’s doctor had admitting privileges, threatening legal action if the doctor performed the abortion a judge said she could have. The court order, he wrote, did not insulate hospitals, doctors or anyone else from civil and criminal liability for violating Texas’ abortion laws.
At the same time, he appealed the case to the Texas Supreme Court, saying that Cox did not face the kind of threat to her life that fell under the law’s exception. If legislators had wanted to write an exception for fatal fetal anomalies, he said, they would have done so.
“The Texas Legislature did not intend for courts to become revolving doors of permission slips to obtain abortions,” he said.
The Texas Supreme Court agreed with Paxton and reversed the lower court’s ruling. By that time, Cox had sought an abortion out of state.
“It was incredibly scary,” Cox told ProPublica. “We saw in my case that Texas will go after doctors.”
Paxton was also the first — and, so far, the only — attorney general to criminally prosecute a provider in his state for violating an abortion ban.
According to court documents, investigators got an anonymous tip alleging that abortions were being performed at a medical clinic that catered to low-income, Spanish-speaking patients, managed by Maria Rojas, a licensed midwife.
Rojas was arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license and violating the state’s abortion ban. Paxton also moved to temporarily shut down the clinic and others she ran while the case progressed through court. Months after her arrest, Paxton announced he had arrested and indicted eight other clinic staffers for practicing medicine without a license.
Rojas has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her attorneys have accused Paxton’s office of a shoddy investigation and argued that at least one case prosecutors were treating as an abortion was actually the management of a patient’s miscarriage.
A trial has not yet been scheduled, but an appeals court this summer overturned the order shuttering the clinics, finding the state had not presented sufficient admissible evidence to justify a temporary injunction. Paxton said he is appealing the ruling. The court did not rule on whether Rojas had actually performed illegal abortions.
Paxton has not stopped at the state border in his pursuit of doctors.
In December 2024, he sued Dr. Margaret Carpenter, a New York-based physician, accusing her of violating multiple Texas laws when she treated a patient via telehealth who lived in Plano, a suburb north of Dallas, and prescribed her abortion medication.
Because the patient was based in Texas, he argued, Carpenter was subject to laws there that banned abortion and required a license to practice in the state.
Carpenter didn’t respond to the suit, so Paxton won by default. But Texas was unable to collect on more than $100,000 in civil fines and court fees that resulted; a New York county clerk refused to register the judgment, invoking a “shield law” that protects providers of abortion care that is legal in New York from certain out-of-state investigations, prosecutions and judgments. At least 22 states have passed shield laws since Roe was overturned, and New York’s is among the strongest. Carpenter did not respond to a request seeking comment and has not publicly responded to the case.
A New York judge dismissed Paxton’s case seeking to enforce the judgment, but Paxton didn’t give up, filing two more civil suits this year against practitioners and organizations in Delaware and California that mail abortion medication to Texas.
Three other state attorneys general have now expanded on the strategy. Last month, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill — who brought criminal charges against Carpenter after Paxton sued her (and has faced similar obstacles in New York) — joined the attorneys general of Arkansas and Alabama in filing a sweeping federal civil suit against out-of-state providers of abortion pills. The case names some of the same providers Paxton pursued; they have challenged the suits. The three attorneys general filed a separate action directly with the Supreme Court asking it to strike down shield laws in New York, Massachusetts and California.
Paxton has moved beyond doctors to target other entities that help patients obtain abortions. Mary Ziegler, an abortion historian and professor of law at University of California, Davis, called him “an innovator in terms of broadening the network of people who were seen as culprits or aiders or abettors.”
He sent cease-and-desist letters to organizations that ship abortion medication into Texas; the attorney general of Alabama subsequently used similar tactics. And Paxton sued cities in his state to stop them from disbursing funds to help women travel for abortions — a move the Legislature followed with a law banning such funding.
Following his legal victory against the city of San Antonio early this year, in which it was forced to end the $100,000 program, Paxton made a vow:
“I will always do everything in my power to prevent radicals from manipulating the system to murder innocent babies.”
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump defended his decision to waive newly approved sanctions and tariffs on Russia, arguing the move is intended to keep Moscow engaged in negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
Trump said imposing the measures immediately could drive Russia away from talks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration wants up to 60 days to evaluate the economic effects of the sanctions before deciding whether to restore them.
The decision has drawn unusually sharp criticism from Republicans. Sen. Thom Tillis called the waiver “beyond irresponsible,” while Rep. Michael McCaul urged Trump to reverse course and return to stronger economic pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The sanctions were included in legislation Trump signed in September and were designed to punish Russia and countries that continue purchasing Russian energy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also criticized the waiver, warning that easing economic pressure provides Moscow additional resources while Russian forces continue attacking Ukraine. He said the decision “definitely helps only the Russians.”
Trump has separately struck a deal allowing increased Russian diesel exports, another move criticized by Republican lawmakers who argue that energy revenue could help finance Russia’s war effort.
The administration maintains that temporary economic concessions could provide incentives for Moscow to remain at the negotiating table.
Photo illustration by Shoshana Gordon/ProPublica. Source images: Christopher Mark Juhn/Anadolu via Getty Images, Erlon Silva - TRI Digital via Getty Images, Mironov Konstantin via Getty Images.
A few months into President Donald Trump’s second term, political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security made an unusual request of its agency focused on cybersecurity: Secretly acquire a voting machine and hack it.
The appointees wanted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to procure the machine, examine it and report back the findings so they could be given to the White House, according to two former administration officials with knowledge of the request.
The proposition was shocking to CISA’s career staffers, according to one of the former officials. CISA typically worked to thwart hackers. Moreover, the agency had been directed not to alert the voting machine company if it uncovered flaws, contrary to its standard practices. The request made the CISA employees fear they were being asked to take part in political interference.
“My thought was they could keep it in their back pocket to invalidate any [election] results they don’t like,” one of the former officials said. “This goes against everything CISA represents.”
The CISA employees repeatedly told the political appointees that their request was impossible, in part because the agents capable of pulling off such an operation had just been laid off by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative. The appointees eventually stopped pressing CISA.
Though not acted on, the request shows how the Trump administration has tried to use the agency for its own ends while draining it of resources for one of its critical missions: protecting the nation’s voting systems.
In Trump’s second term, his administration has laid off or pushed out more than 1,000 CISA employees, shrinking the agency by about one-third. The president’s 2027 budget proposal would reduce funding for the agency by another $700 million, which could necessitate 900 additional layoffs.
In response, Democratic lawmakers have called for an investigation into CISA’s ability to do its job and demanded answers as to why federal funds are not being used to support election security as directed by Congress.
Since Trump signed the CISA Act in 2018, the agency has worked with state authorities and voting machine vendors to help protect election infrastructure from cyberattacks. During Trump’s second term, though, CISA has abandoned much of this work. Several state election authorities said the agency provided them no assistance — and no explanation for its absence — during the most critical planning stages for the upcoming midterms.
“There is a difference between deprioritizing and being nonexistent,” said Ryan Macias, an election technology and cybersecurity expert who has worked as a consultant for CISA. In 2025 and through mid-September 2026 — when the bulk of preparations for the election typically would have been completed — “they were nonexistent. Literally nonexistent.”
While Trump has repeatedly warned that America’s elections are vulnerable to hacking, in some cases repeating disproven claims, experts said his administration is undermining the federal government’s role in helping secure them.
Though CISA re-emerged in September with a last-minute security plan for the election, some state officials told ProPublica they fear that what is left of the agency has been compromised by a conspiracy-obsessed presidential administration. In recent months, in reviving debunked theories about the 2020 election, the Trump administration has declassified troves of records, including sensitive material that state officials provided to CISA. Some state authorities said they no longer trusted the administration enough to share information with CISA, a key to the agency’s success in past elections.
“They’ve violated the entire premise of that information-sharing relationship,” said one former high-ranking federal cybersecurity official who now advises state governments on national security. “There’s no fucking way they’re ever going to give any information to CISA. And it’s unclear if they ever will in the future.”
A spokesperson for the White House declined an interview request but defended Trump’s handling of election security in an emailed statement. “President Trump has done more than any other President to ensure we have free and fair elections,” said Lauren Bis.
Bis referred specific questions about CISA’s handling of elections to DHS. DHS and CISA did not respond to interview requests or to a detailed list of questions.
“There’s no fucking way [state governments are] ever going to give any information to CISA. And it’s unclear if they ever will in the future.”
A former federal cybersecurity official who advises state governments
Current and former CISA employees and state election officials describe an agency that has become significantly less equipped to help states fight legitimate cyber threats. State leaders say they have used their own resources to shore up gaps left by CISA, such as paying for sensor technology that can detect unusual activity in election networks. But some services, like intel on foreign actors, can’t be replicated. Some people interviewed said they were worried that Trump and his allies continue to ratchet up rhetoric about voting security, particularly about threats to voting machines. Officials in one large voting jurisdiction said they have met privately with machine vendors to come up with a contingency plan if the federal government seizes their machines or declares them unusable.
“I don’t pay attention to what the president says. I pay attention to what his administration does,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said. “And what they’ve done is basically cut us off and left us on our own.”
Defending elections from hackers wasn’t always part of DHS’s remit.
Throughout the mid-1990s and 2000s, a series of cyberattacks rocked the federal government, demonstrating the emerging threat. In 2007, hackers broke into the Pentagon and stole terabytes of sensitive data. The digital heist, by an unknown foreign adversary, was so damaging that one intelligence leader later described it as an “espionage Pearl Harbor.”
Under George W. Bush, DHS underwent a reorganization to more effectively combat terrorism and respond to disasters like Hurricane Katrina. The department dedicated resources under an office called the National Protection and Programs Directorate to help fortify advanced cyber defense systems and important infrastructure. The office’s work ranged from helping secure events like the Super Bowl to protecting chemical plants to issuing cybersecurity warnings to the private sector and the public. In 2018, Trump signed a bill making the office a stand-alone agency, allowing for more federal funding and transforming it into, essentially, the ultimate tech support desk for anything DHS designated “critical infrastructure.” The bill renamed the agency CISA.
Though Trump helped create CISA, he didn’t much appreciate the work the agency did under its old name to expose the extent of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Russian agents had unleashed a massive disinformation campaign, with a Kremlin-backed troll farm creating thousands of social media accounts posing as Americans and promoting Trump, according to bipartisan reports from the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released before the 2020 election. A dozen Russian military agents were indicted for what the Justice Department described as “a sustained effort to hack into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.”
Trump publicly downplayed this interference, but DHS leadership saw the Russia attack as an escalation. In January 2017, before Trump took office, DHS upgraded America’s elections to the status of critical infrastructure. This placed the polls and all voting technology used in federal elections under the watch of what would soon become CISA.
To carry out this function, CISA needed help. But states and voting machine vendors were wary about sharing data on weaknesses in voting systems, fearing it could be exploited if certain details were to become public. State officials were also reluctant to cede any role in election preparation to the federal government.
Gradually, though, CISA and state election officials negotiated a fragile trust. At its center was a commitment: The sensitive information states and vendors shared with CISA would be kept confidential.
“It took years and years of building trust, of talking to election officials, of hiring people with elections experience who could be validators for the work that CISA wanted to do, before they finally built strong working relationships,” said Derek Tisler, who specializes in election security as counsel for the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan institute based out of New York University School of Law.
Under Director Chris Krebs, CISA hosted penetration testing in which its agents would try to hack into a state’s system to locate weaknesses that could then be patched, along with tabletop exercises simulating a series of potential catastrophes around elections. CISA also offered regular secret-level briefings to secretaries of state to share federal intelligence. And CISA paid for sensor technology that looked for potential malicious online activity on election networks, notifying officials about emerging threats.
“The staffing was there, the expertise was there, the visibility was there, the funding was there,” Macias said.
The consortium shared data as run of the mill as spambots as well as more serious threats. If Virginia caught unusual activity in its system, it could let other states know to be vigilant.
While CISA had prepared for attacks from the Chinese and Russian governments, or lone wolf hackers, few there had expected the threat to elections would come from inside the White House. But when Trump refused to concede to Joe Biden in 2020, claiming the vote had been rigged, CISA became a key component of the guardrails that ultimately led to the election results being certified.
The agency, in a statement co-signed by secretaries of state and voting machine vendors, vouched for the election’s integrity, calling it “the most secure in American history.” When Krebs publicly rebutted claims amplified by the White House as “unsubstantiated” or “technically incoherent,” Trump fired him over Twitter.
As Congress prepared to vote on certifying the election results, it was members of CISA, along with the FBI, who convinced then-Attorney General Bill Barr that the conspiracy theories embraced by the president could be explained by human error, not systemic fraud or hacking.
When Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, his administration immediately started to dismantle CISA. The administrative notices were sent out just a couple of weeks after the inauguration and included the team in charge of dispelling disinformation.
For the employees under the DOGE microscope, work became impossible, said one former senior CISA employee. “Those groups couldn’t even order a pizza.”
DOGE laid off people critical to the agency’s election work, including those who’d worked closely with states. The Trump administration cut funding for the technology that monitored web and election servers, blinding the federal government to breaches it had detected.
When it came time for states to prepare for the 2026 midterms, CISA had disappeared.
On the evening of July 16, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, dozens of election officials and their staffs gathered for a reception near Mount Rushmore. It was the third night of an annual conference for secretaries of state, drawing participants from red and blue states. They’d spent the week discussing state voter roll maintenance and voter ID — issues that at times made for disagreements.
At about 8 p.m., a wave of discomfort swept through the crowd, visible on attendees’ faces as they glanced frequently at their phones, according to people at the event. Any minute now, Trump was going to address the nation on election security. Some at the reception worried he would declare a national emergency, as his allies had urged him to do months earlier, and use it as a pretext to direct the government to seize voting machines.
President Donald Trump addresses the nation on national security issues on July 16.Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Then reports on the speech began rolling in, and the mood shifted. The claims Trump was making were unsubstantiated and outlandish. Many had been examined ad nauseam, including by those at the reception, and roundly debunked. The collective anxiety that was palpable moments earlier melted away, as many saw the speech as another attempt to revive disproved theories unlikely to be taken seriously by most voters.
“Everyone just sort of guffawed and put their phones away and went to the bar,” recalled Quinn Raymond, co-founder of VoteShield, a nonprofit that works with states to help monitor voter registration data, who was at the event.
Still, if the speech made little impact, records published by the Trump administration to support the president’s claims damaged the already eroding relationship between CISA and state election officials. The material included raw information states had shared with the agency that was supposed to remain private, such as a log of communications from Election Day 2020 detailing activity being monitored in several states.
“It betrayed the trust of all partners who were willing to share information at the time,” said Geoff Hale, who worked on CISA’s elections team from the agency’s inception until last year. Now he specializes in election security at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a nonprofit that advocates for digital and civil rights.
Bis, the White House spokesperson, denied that the Trump administration broke any agreements in releasing the information. “The release of such information is exactly the sort of transparency news organizations should applaud,” she said. Bis also defended Trump’s speech, saying it had been fact-checked “by the agencies whose evidence was released and did not mischaracterize any information.”
Hale and others said the speech was one of several instances demonstrating the Trump administration’s reckless attitude toward sensitive data collected by CISA. Earlier this year, Politico reported that acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala had uploaded records to ChatGPT, even though DHS had barred its employees from using the unsecure program. A CISA spokesperson told Politico that Gottumukkala had been permitted to use the technology for a “short-term and limited” basis.
Last May, an independent journalist named Brian Krebs exposed that CISA published private data, including passwords, cloud keys and other information, on its public GitHub page, in a folder labeled “Private-CISA.” A CISA spokesperson told the journalist there was no indication that sensitive data was compromised.
Some state election authorities were also alarmed to see the lengths to which the Trump administration went to legitimize the president’s fixation on the 2020 race.
In fall 2025, Missouri election officials produced a memo stating Andrew McCoy Warner, a Department of Justice official and prominent 2020 election conspiracy theorist, had called several clerks asking for access to voting machines. Tulsi Gabbard, then the director of national intelligence, had also led an operation in Puerto Rico to seize election machines. When the private cybersecurity contractor hired to examine the machines, Mojave Research Inc., failed to find evidence supporting claims about 2020, the federal government became “dissastified” with its services and stopped renewing its contract, its CEO later told reporters.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told reporters in August that Mojave’s work ceased because it had completed its contract. Testifying before Congress in March, Gabbard said the seizing of voting machines came at the request of an assistant U.S. attorney in Puerto Rico.
“What happened in the second Trump administration is from almost day one — I mean, literally the first two months — they took all that was built up by Trump 1 and just decimated it,” said David Becker, founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonprofit that works with state election authorities. “Election officials lost trust in the federal government.”
It didn’t help that, in his speech, the president mocked CISA’s defense of the 2020 election, calling the statement about it being the most secure in history a “very pat line” concocted as part of a deep-state cover-up. One former career CISA employee described being crestfallen at the Trump administration’s erosion of all they’d accomplished.
“We worked so hard to build that trusted relationship,” said Caitlin Durkovich, former DHS assistant secretary for infrastructure protection and co-founder of the cybersecurity firm Civira Partners. “I don’t know how you put it back together.”
A few weeks after Trump’s speech, the state election officials gathered once more, this time for a video call with Nick Andersen, who had replaced Gottumukkala as CISA’s acting director.
Nick Andersen, acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in MarchAndrew Harnik/Getty Images
Though the primaries were already under way, this was the first time many had met Andersen, a former cybersecurity adviser to Trump’s White House who had joined CISA a year earlier. Andersen is also a district representative for the Republican Party in Virginia, according to the party’s website. In March, he gave a speech to the Fairfax GOP chapter titled “Fighting Democrat Redistricting.”
Speaking over video in August, the boyish-faced former Marine Corps engineer announced that DHS was preparing to release a plan on how it would work together with state officials to secure the election, according to five people who were present at the video meeting, some of whom shared notes with ProPublica.
Many on the call were stunned at what they perceived as a lack of understanding of election planning. Early voting for the general election was just around the corner. They had spent over a year preparing for the midterms, and there was no more time for ambitious work.
Some peppered Andersen with questions: Where had CISA been when there was still time to make improvements?
Andersen blamed any lapses or perceived breaches in trust on the federal government shutdown in fall 2025, twirling his pen uncomfortably and sipping from a Monster energy drink.
Fontes, Arizona’s secretary of state, was blunt about his feelings regarding working with Andersen and CISA, according to several of the people on the call.
“I told him I didn’t trust him,” Fontes recalled in an interview. “I did raise my voice a little bit, because I’m frustrated — very frustrated — that they would have the temerity to come in, clear the entire deck of competent professionals, stop supporting the states, eviscerate the coordination efforts that they had and then suddenly come in and say: ‘Oh, we’re from the federal government. We’re here to help.’”
Indeed, one recently departed CISA official said attempting to do the agency’s typical election work now would be futile. In previous years, CISA had finished almost all its preparations with the states by Labor Day.
“That ship has sailed,” the official said.
CISA published its security plan for the 2026 election on Sept. 24. The 13-page document describes how, over the past two years, CISA has “recommitted to its statutory mission and remains resolute in strengthening the security of elections.”
State officials said their planning will ensure a secure election, even without help from CISA. Yet they and cybersecurity experts worry that Trump will say the election was hacked if Republicans don’t win in November.
The security plan calls for “leveraging collaborative partnerships” with states the agency has abandoned since Trump took office. Shenna Bellows, Maine’s secretary of state, said she’d welcome that but was skeptical of the agency’s motivations.
“For CISA to promise election officials now, at this point in time, that they are going to be a resource for the 2026 election is too little, too late,” she said.
Washington, DC — Former President Barack Obama sharply condemned the Trump administration’s investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar on Sunday, arguing that the federal government is being used to punish a prominent political critic.
Obama called the Oct. 12 search of Omar’s Washington home “appalling” and said Americans should be alarmed regardless of their opinions about the Minnesota Democrat. Federal agents executed a court-authorized warrant as part of an investigation examining decades-old immigration and citizenship records involving Omar and her late father.
Obama said the investigation rests on an “unsubstantiated theory” that Omar improperly obtained citizenship because of a discrepancy involving her recorded birth year. Omar has denied wrongdoing, and a previous federal review during Trump’s first administration reportedly found insufficient evidence of citizenship fraud.
“The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president,” Obama said.
He compared the case with previous prosecutions and investigations involving Trump critics and warned that normalizing politically motivated law enforcement could create a precedent future presidents of either party could exploit.
Trump has denied directing the Omar investigation while continuing to publicly attack her. No criminal charges have been filed against Omar, and the government has not publicly produced evidence proving she committed immigration fraud.
Washington, DC — Republican lawmakers are threatening to withhold support for major Pentagon funding and other pieces of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda as anger grows inside the GOP over his recent moves benefiting Russia.
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a retired Air Force brigadier general, said Republicans who support Ukraine may refuse to fund Trump’s priorities after the president eased sanctions on Moscow, opened the door to Russian diesel imports and pressured Ukraine to halt attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.
“Many of us won’t fund these things knowing he is propping up a dictator’s invasion and throwing an ally under the bus,” Bacon wrote.
The warning is significant because Trump is seeking hundreds of billions of dollars in additional Pentagon funding through budget reconciliation, along with other priorities lawmakers are expected to consider after the midterm elections.
Republican criticism has expanded beyond Bacon. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina has accused the administration of capitulating to Russian President Vladimir Putin, while other GOP lawmakers have raised concerns about restrictions placed on Ukraine’s access to intelligence and the Starshield satellite network.
Trump has defended his approach as serving U.S. interests and lowering energy costs.
The dispute gives congressional Republicans considerable leverage: Trump cannot secure the additional defense spending he wants without lawmakers approving the money.
DOVER, Del. — Dover Police are investigating a shooting that damaged two homes on Mitscher Road Friday evening.
Officers responded to the 100 block of Mitscher Road at approximately 6:39 p.m. on October 16, 2026, after receiving a report of shots fired.
Police said two residences were struck by gunfire. One of the homes was occupied by two adults, but no injuries were reported. The second residence was unoccupied at the time.
Officers also located multiple spent shell casings in a nearby alley.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Dover Police Department at 302-736-7111. Tips may also be submitted through Delaware Crime Stoppers or the Dover Police Department’s online contact form. Tipsters may remain anonymous.
Washington, DC — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz used transgender people and Muslims as political punchlines Saturday while discussing Republicans’ struggle to hold competitive Senate seats ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
During a Fox News interview with Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, Cruz acknowledged that Republicans could lose between five and eight Senate seats if conservative voters fail to turn out. Fox News currently rates Sullivan’s unexpectedly competitive race against Democrat Mary Peltola as a toss-up.
Asked why Republicans are facing so many close contests, Cruz said anger among the opposition party often drives midterm turnout. He then caricatured Democratic voters as “left-wing transgender witches” who hate President Donald Trump.
Cruz went further, contrasting those voters with what he called “regular, ordinary Americans” who are “not lunatics” and “don’t think Communism and Islamism are a good idea.”
The remarks combined attacks on transgender people with rhetoric invoking Islam as part of a broader depiction of Democratic voters as dangerous or abnormal. Cruz offered no evidence connecting Democratic voters generally with either communism or Islamism.
His comments come as Republican candidates increasingly deploy transgender issues and attacks involving Muslim political figures during the closing weeks of the campaign.
Despite Cruz’s confidence that Republican turnout could rescue vulnerable candidates, he conceded the Senate battlefield remains close enough that Democrats could emerge with a substantial majority.
Delaware State Police are investigating a strong-arm robbery that occurred Friday afternoon at the 7-Eleven at 1700 Pulaski Highway in Bear.
Troopers responded at about 5:30 p.m. Police said a male victim was walking toward the store’s front doors when a female suspect grabbed his arm and demanded his property.
A male suspect then got out of a vehicle, approached the victim, struck him and took his property, according to police. Both suspects fled in a white sedan.
The victim suffered minor injuries and declined medical treatment.
The Delaware State Police Criminal Investigations Unit is investigating. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective J. Dempsey at (302) 365-8472 or Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-847-3333.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump threatened California election officials with prison Friday as his administration escalated a dispute over more than 20,000 people the Justice Department claims may be noncitizens who received mail ballots.
“They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the Justice Department warned state and local officials that knowingly processing ballots cast by ineligible voters could expose them to criminal investigation.
The administration has not publicly produced evidence showing that the roughly 20,000 people it flagged are actually noncitizens or that they intend to vote illegally. California officials say voter eligibility cannot legally be revoked based on unverified data matching.
The Justice Department sued California Thursday seeking to block ballots from the flagged voters from being counted until their citizenship can be confirmed.
Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan have challenged the reliability of the federal data. Logan said officials cannot withhold ballots “based solely on unverified allegations.”
The confrontation comes less than three weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms and follows a broader administration campaign to obtain voter records nationwide.
Noncitizen voting in federal elections is already illegal, and documented cases remain exceptionally rare. A federal judge recently blocked a separate Justice Department voter-roll program after finding it violated federal privacy and procedural laws.
The Delaware State Police Sex Offender Apprehension and Registration Unit (SOAR) is issuing the following public notifications of homeless and wanted sex offenders.
Wanted Sex Offenders
SOAR is currently looking for the following wanted sex offenders after they either failed to register or re-register at their current address. If anyone knows the location of these individuals, please call (302) 739-5882. Information may also be provided by contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) 847-3333. The individuals shown represents only a portion of the current wanted sex offenders. Please see the Delaware Sex Offender Registry website for the complete list.
Click on the image to see the complete profile
Homeless Sex Offenders
The following individuals are not wanted for failing to register or re-register at their current address. This is a public notification of homeless sex offenders. If you have information that the listed individuals are occupying a residence, please call (302) 739-5882. Information may also be provided by contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) 847-3333. The individuals shown are those recently reported homeless and represent only a portion of the current homeless sex offenders. Please see the Delaware Sex Offender Registry website for the complete list.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump reportedly wanted former Fox News host Maria Bartiromo to become White House press secretary before Katie Zacharia took the job for a brief and turbulent five-day tenure.
Axios reported, citing two administration sources, that Trump was interested in Bartiromo after Karoline Leavitt stepped down. Bartiromo reportedly signaled she was not interested in taking the position. CNN commentator Scott Jennings was also said to have been under consideration but was never formally offered the job.
Bartiromo left Fox News in September after more than 12 years with the network. Her departure came amid reports that she had shared confidential internal guidance about Fox’s Trump coverage with the White House. Bartiromo has long been an outspoken supporter of Trump.
Zacharia ultimately began as press secretary on Oct. 12 but was out of the role by Oct. 16. Her sole formal briefing lasted about 14 minutes and drew criticism, while questions about her legal background intensified after she acknowledged failing the California bar exam.
Trump said Friday that he had encouraged Zacharia to “reconsider” the position and later suggested she could remain in the administration in another capacity.
The White House has not announced a permanent replacement, and Trump said he is in “no rush” to make another appointment.
Photo Gallery contributed by Photojournalist Dave Reeder on Friday 10/16. Image developed on 10/17 with AI.
Riders win fifth straight as second-quarter surge and strong defense deliver victory over St. Georges Tech
CAMDEN, Del. — Caesar Rodney celebrated homecoming Friday night with a hard-fought 17-10 victory over St. Georges Tech at Rider Stadium, extending its winning streak to five games in a matchup between two of Delaware’s top high school football programs.
The victory improved the Riders to 5-1, while St. Georges Tech fell to 4-2.
Quarterback Gavin Johnson led a second-quarter surge that gave Caesar Rodney a 14-2 halftime advantage. The Riders then held off a second-half comeback by the Hawks to preserve the victory.
The win marked a successful opening to Caesar Rodney’s Class 3A District II schedule and continued one of the program’s strongest starts in recent seasons.
Dave Reeder captures the action
Delaware LIVE photojournalist Dave Reeder was on the sidelines at Rider Stadium, capturing the intensity, key plays, and homecoming atmosphere surrounding one of the weekend’s most anticipated games.
The following photo gallery offers a closer look at Caesar Rodney’s 17-10 victory over St. Georges Tech.
The first photo shows the ball clearly out of the St. George’s running back’s control before it crossed the goal line or was downed by contact, yet the on-field referees called it a touchdown for St. George’s Tech, the only touchdown of the game.
Event: Caesar Rodney vs. St. Georges Tech football
Date: Friday, Oct. 16, 2026
Location: Rider Stadium, Caesar Rodney High School, Camden
Final score: Caesar Rodney 17, St. Georges Tech 10
Photo gallery: Dave Reeder photojournalist for Delaware LIVE
Photos by Dave Reeder, Delaware LIVE on 10/17/20206
Caption: This was called a touch down for St. Georges. Photo by Dave Reeder
Dalton, GA — President Donald Trump mocked the popularity of the name Mohammad during a campaign rally in Georgia on Friday, drawing renewed criticism over rhetoric targeting Muslims and Middle Eastern communities.
Speaking at Dalton Municipal Airport, Trump was discussing Iran when he joked that if someone did not know a Middle Eastern person’s name, calling them “Mohammad” would supposedly give them a 65% chance of being correct.
Trump then extended the joke while mocking Iran’s political leadership. Reuters reported that the crowd response was muted.
Mohammad, along with spelling variants such as Muhammad and Mohammed, is widely used among Muslims around the world because of its association with the Prophet Muhammad.
The remarks came amid a broader series of attacks by Trump on Muslim and immigrant political figures during the 2026 midterm campaign. He has repeatedly targeted Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar and Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, both of whom are Muslim.
Muslim civil-rights organizations have criticized Trump’s rhetoric, arguing that repeated attacks involving religion, ethnicity and immigration contribute to hostility toward Muslim Americans.
Trump made the comments as he campaigned for Republican candidates ahead of the Nov. 3 elections while continuing to discuss the ongoing U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump has waived key Russia-related sanctions and tariffs passed by Congress just weeks ago, delaying measures designed to cut into Moscow’s energy revenue as its war in Ukraine continues.
Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act on Sept. 18. The law authorized tariffs of up to 100% on major purchasers of Russian oil and gas and targeted countries helping Moscow evade sanctions. Many of those provisions were scheduled to take effect this weekend.
In Friday’s executive order, Trump waived multiple sections of the law, saying the move was in the national interest. The administration also directed the U.S. trade representative to continue monitoring purchases of Russian energy and left open the possibility that the penalties could be restored later.
The move follows Trump’s recent agreement to allow Russian diesel into U.S. and global markets, a decision criticized by a bipartisan group of senators who warned that additional energy revenue could help finance Russia’s war effort.
Russia welcomed the latest decision. Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev has said Moscow and Washington are discussing broader economic cooperation, including energy and technology projects.
The waiver leaves Congress’ sanctions framework intact, but delays some of its most significant immediate penalties.
Washington, DC — Conservative activist Laura Loomer is publicly lobbying to become President Donald Trump’s next White House press secretary after Katie Zacharia’s abrupt departure from the job less than a week after taking over.
“Hear me out: Press Secretary Laura Loomer,” Loomer wrote on X shortly after Zacharia’s exit became public. Loomer later said she believed she would be “amazing” in the role and suggested she would bring documentation to briefings to support administration claims.
Her pitch came after a turbulent several days for the White House communications operation. Zacharia’s first formal briefing lasted roughly 14 minutes and included questions from only three reporters. She subsequently faced scrutiny over her legal credentials and acknowledged that she had failed the California bar exam and never retook it. Reuters reported that Zacharia’s tenure was the shortest for a White House press secretary on record.
Despite seeking the job herself, Loomer defended Zacharia from what she described as excessive criticism, saying Zacharia appeared nervous but had wanted to serve Trump.
The White House had not announced a replacement when Loomer made her proposal. Trump indicated Friday that he was in no rush to fill the vacancy.
Washington, DC — Allies of President Donald Trump are openly discussing martial law and other extraordinary federal actions if they conclude that the Nov. 3 midterm elections are “rigged,” despite no evidence that widespread fraud is occurring and significant legal barriers to presidential intervention.
Peter Ticktin, an attorney for election activist Tina Peters and a longtime Trump acquaintance, said during a Sept. 30 call that “there would have to be martial law” in the event of what he characterized as another rigged election. Other activists have discussed seizing ballots or voting equipment, delaying election activity or invoking emergency powers.
Those proposals would face major constitutional and statutory obstacles. The Constitution gives the president no general authority to postpone federal elections, seize ballots or take over state election systems. The Posse Comitatus Act also generally bars federal troops from civilian law enforcement unless Congress specifically authorizes their involvement.
The Brennan Center for Justice concluded this week that neither martial law, the Insurrection Act nor a national emergency gives a president authority to seize voting machines or station troops at polling places to control an election.
The White House declined to tell Newsweek whether Trump would rule out martial law or emergency powers if allies challenge the midterm results, instead pointing to the administration’s election-security efforts.
The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall, a smaller-scale replica of the memorial in Washington, D.C., is on display this weekend on the grounds of Delaware Park Casino.
Jazz in Rehoboth, Crafts at Hagley, Children at the Zoo and fun in Middletown. Image created with AI on 10/16
From Hagley’s popular craft fair and the Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival to Halloween celebrations, live opera and community events, Delaware offers something for nearly everyone Oct. 16-18.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Fall is in full swing, and Delaware is serving up a weekend packed with entertainment, family adventures, cultural experiences and opportunities to enjoy the outdoors.
Whether you’re looking for a scenic afternoon shopping for handmade crafts, a night of live music, a family trip to a pumpkin patch or something a little spooky, this weekend offers plenty of reasons to get out and explore the First State.
Delaware LIVE has selected 10 events worth considering for your weekend plans, with activities stretching from the Brandywine Valley to the beaches of Sussex County.
1. Hagley Craft Fair brings artisans to the Brandywine Valley
One of Delaware’s favorite fall traditions returns to the scenic grounds of Hagley Museum and Library this weekend.
The annual Hagley Craft Fair brings together artisans from across the Mid-Atlantic region, offering handmade jewelry, pottery, woodworking, leather goods, textiles, fine art and specialty foods.
The event transforms Hagley’s upper property and Soda House into a marketplace where visitors can meet craftspeople, discover one-of-a-kind gifts and enjoy the natural beauty of the Brandywine Valley.
It’s an ideal outing for those looking to get an early start on holiday shopping while enjoying a Delaware autumn tradition.
To Go: Saturday, Oct. 17, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington. Advance admission is $10 for adults and $8 for children ages 6-14. Children younger than 6 and Hagley members are admitted free. Tickets are valid both days. Information: hagley.org.
2. ConCon Expo offers an unusual look at conspiracy theories and pop culture
For something completely different, ConCon Expo arrives in Wilmington on Sunday with a convention exploring conspiracy theories, curiosity and the stories people believe.
Inspired by the mockumentary The Conspiracists, the event features an expo and an evening movie presentation followed by a discussion with cast and crew.
Organizers describe the gathering as an inclusive event that focuses less on whether conspiracy theories are true and more on why people find them fascinating.
Hosted by King Creative and Uncultured Swine, ConCon promises one of the weekend’s more unconventional entertainment experiences.
To Go: Sunday, Oct. 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the expo, followed by a film presentation and discussion from 5 to 7 p.m. Siegel Jewish Community Center, 101 Garden of Eden Road, Wilmington. Tickets and details: theconspiracists.com/concon.
3. Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival fills the coast with music
The beach isn’t just for summer. This weekend, Rehoboth Beach and neighboring coastal communities become destinations for music lovers as the 37th Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival continues through Sunday.
The annual celebration attracts nationally recognized performers and jazz enthusiasts for several days of concerts, intimate performances and special events.
This year’s featured artists include Boney James, Brian Culbertson, Najee, Gerald Albright and other leading performers.
From smooth jazz to high-energy contemporary performances, the festival offers an opportunity to enjoy world-class music while exploring coastal Delaware during one of its most pleasant seasons.
To Go: Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 15-18, at venues throughout the Rehoboth Beach area. Performance times and ticket prices vary. Information and tickets: rehobothjazz.com.
4. Fifer Orchards Fall Fest celebrates the harvest
For families looking to make the most of fall, Fifer Orchards in the Camden-Wyoming area continues its annual Fall Fest.
Visitors can explore a sprawling corn maze, pick pumpkins and apples, enjoy outdoor attractions and sample seasonal favorites, including apple cider, kettle corn and fresh cider doughnuts.
The farm’s harvest celebration combines traditional agricultural experiences with activities designed to entertain children and adults.
With fall colors, pumpkins and plenty of opportunities for family photographs, Fifer’s remains a popular destination for autumn outings.
To Go: Saturday, Oct. 17, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with final entry at 4:30 p.m. Fifer Orchards, Camden-Wyoming. Admission is $18 online or $24 at the gate for ages 3 and older. Additional charges apply to some activities. Closed Sundays. Information: Fifer’s Fall Fest details.
5. Emo Night Brooklyn brings Halloween energy to The Queen
Wilmington’s nightlife gets an early Halloween celebration Friday when Emo Night Brooklyn arrives at The Queen.
The Halloween Edition transforms the venue’s Crown room into a dance party featuring emo, pop-punk and alternative favorites.
Guests are encouraged to dress in costume and enjoy a high-energy evening filled with the songs that defined a generation of alternative music fans.
The event offers a change of pace from traditional Halloween parties, combining nostalgia with a spirited dance-floor atmosphere.
To Go: Friday, Oct. 16, at 8:30 p.m. Doors open at 8 p.m. The Crown at The Queen, Wilmington. Event listed as 18-plus. Tickets: thequeenwilmington.com.
6. OperaDelaware brings Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’ to The Grand
Opera lovers and newcomers alike have an opportunity to experience one of Mozart’s most celebrated works as OperaDelaware presents Don Giovanni at The Grand Opera House.
The production blends drama, romance, dark comedy and supernatural themes in the story of a charming but reckless nobleman whose actions eventually catch up with him.
Featuring music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the opera offers audiences a chance to experience a major classical production without traveling to Philadelphia or New York.
The performances are sung in Italian with English supertitles.
To Go: Friday, Oct. 16, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 18, at 2 p.m. The Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St., Wilmington. Tickets listed from $15 to $109. Information: operade.org.
7. Wilmington Rugby hosts Brandywine in regional showdown
For sports fans looking for something beyond football and soccer, Wilmington Rugby Club takes the field Saturday against regional rival Brandywine Rugby Football Club.
Delaware’s oldest men’s rugby club has developed a dedicated following, with its home matches providing an opportunity to experience the fast-paced and physical sport up close.
Rugby combines the movement and endurance of soccer with the contact and strategy of football, creating an exciting atmosphere for spectators.
The fall matchup is a chance to support local athletes and discover a sport that continues to build a following in Delaware.
To Go: Saturday, Oct. 17. The club’s home-match schedule lists Brandywine as the opponent, with a 1 p.m. kickoff indicated in event information supplied to Delaware LIVE. Alapocas Run State Park, 4351 Weldin Road, Wilmington. Confirm kickoff details at wilmingtonrugby.com.
8. Boo at the Zoo offers Halloween fun for families
Halloween arrives early at the Brandywine Zoo, where families can combine a visit with the animals and seasonal activities.
Boo at the Zoo encourages children and adults to wear costumes while enjoying the zoo’s exhibits and Halloween atmosphere.
Unlike some evening Halloween attractions, the zoo’s daytime celebration is designed to be welcoming to younger children.
Families can also take advantage of the opportunity to learn about the animals and participate in educational experiences offered throughout the day.
To Go: Friday through Sunday, Oct. 16-18, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Brandywine Zoo, 1001 N. Park Drive, Wilmington. Activities are included with regular zoo admission unless otherwise noted. Information: brandywinezoo.org.
9. NAMIWalks Delaware brings community together for mental health
One of the weekend’s most meaningful community events takes place Saturday along Wilmington’s Riverfront.
NAMIWalks Delaware brings families, volunteers, mental health advocates and supporters together to raise awareness and funds for programs serving people affected by mental illness.
Organized by the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Delaware, the event emphasizes inclusion, understanding and the importance of community support.
Participants will walk a 3-kilometer route along the Riverwalk, with live entertainment, food trucks and family-friendly activities adding to the experience.
The gathering also offers an opportunity for individuals and families to connect with an organization that provides education, advocacy and support throughout the state.
To Go: Saturday, Oct. 17, with registration beginning at 7:30 a.m. and the 3K walk starting at 9 a.m. Tubman-Garrett Riverfront Park, 80 Rosa Parks Drive, Wilmington. Information, registration and donations: namiwalks.org/delaware.
10. Dark Dover Lantern Tours explore the capital’s mysterious past
History takes a spooky turn in Dover as First State Heritage Park offers its Dark Dover Lantern Tour.
The guided evening experience takes participants through the historic heart of Delaware’s capital, sharing stories of murders, mysterious events and characters whose legends remain part of the city’s past.
Against the backdrop of historic buildings and lantern-lit streets, visitors discover a different side of Dover’s long history.
The walking tour offers an alternative to traditional haunted attractions, combining historical storytelling with the atmosphere of an October evening.
To Go: Friday, Oct. 16. First State Heritage Park, Dover. Tickets are listed at $15 per person. Advance registration is required, and space is limited. Confirm tour times and availability through Delaware State Parks reservations or call 302-739-9194.
More weekend fun: Middletown Family Fun Fest
Families in southern New Castle County have another option Saturday when downtown Middletown hosts its Family Fun Fest.
The free community celebration features games, crafts, live music and face painting, offering an affordable outing for families with children.
To Go: Saturday, Oct. 17, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Downtown Middletown, with visitor entrance at 19 W. Green St. Free admission. Information: Middletown Main Street.
Make the most of a Delaware fall weekend
With festivals, live entertainment, outdoor recreation and community gatherings scheduled across all three counties, the Oct. 16-18 weekend offers something for almost every interest and budget.
For families, Fifer Orchards, the Brandywine Zoo and Middletown Family Fun Fest offer opportunities to spend time together. Music lovers can choose between the Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival, OperaDelaware and a lively night at The Queen.
Those looking for something different can explore ConCon Expo, experience Wilmington Rugby or discover the darker side of Dover’s history.
And for Delawareans seeking to support an important cause, NAMIWalks provides an opportunity to make a difference while enjoying the Wilmington Riverfront.
Whatever your plans, it’s a good weekend to get out, explore and enjoy Delaware.
Washington, DC — Katie Zacharia is leaving her job as White House press secretary after just five days, following a rocky debut and growing scrutiny over claims surrounding her legal background.
President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that he had given Zacharia an opportunity to “reconsider” the position. A White House official later confirmed she had been “let go,” while the administration publicly described her as “transitioning out” of the role.
Zacharia held only one formal White House briefing. Tuesday’s appearance lasted roughly 14 minutes, during which she took questions from just three reporters before abruptly ending the session. Trump initially defended the performance, saying she had done “very good.”
Her brief tenure became increasingly consumed by questions about her legal credentials. Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine University’s law school in 2011 and had previously described herself as having practiced law, but Reuters found no evidence she had ever been licensed in a U.S. jurisdiction. On Thursday, she acknowledged on Fox News that she failed the California bar exam and never retook it.
Zacharia had previously worked for Trump Media & Technology Group before replacing Karoline Leavitt.
Her five-day stint ranks among the shortest tenures for a senior White House communications official in modern presidential history.
Brownsville, TX — Republican congressional candidate Eric Flores is demanding the removal of a Democratic-funded billboard that prominently highlights President Donald Trump’s endorsement and Flores’ support for ICE, positions he openly embraced earlier in the campaign.
Flores’ attorney sent Lamar Advertising a cease-and-desist letter arguing that the Brownsville billboard deliberately mimics his campaign materials and could mislead voters into believing it was authorized by his campaign.
The billboard, however, identifies Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s campaign as its sponsor, and the letter does not dispute its central claims: Trump endorsed Flores in December, and Flores has supported ICE.
The dispute comes as Flores appears to be deemphasizing his association with Trump. The Texas Observer reported that campaign signs prominently advertising Trump’s endorsement during the Republican primary have largely disappeared, with newer materials emphasizing Flores’ biography and professional background instead.
Democrats argue the change reflects the political environment in South Texas, where Trump’s approval has declined and aggressive immigration enforcement has become an increasingly contentious issue.
Flores’ campaign denies it is attempting to hide his Trump ties, maintaining that its objection is solely about the billboard’s design and potential voter confusion.
The billboard remained standing as of Friday despite the legal demand.
Seoul, South Korea — Former Vice President Kamala Harris delivered some of her strongest criticism yet of President Donald Trump’s second administration during a speech in Seoul, warning that democratic institutions in the United States are being placed under increasing strain.
Speaking at a lecture in South Korea, Harris criticized the administration’s attacks on judges, journalists, universities and other institutions that have challenged the president. She argued that democracy depends not only on elections but also on independent courts, a free press and limits on executive power.
Harris also addressed Trump’s repeated efforts to discredit political opponents and government institutions, saying democratic systems become vulnerable when leaders portray disagreement as disloyalty or treat checks on presidential authority as illegitimate.
Her comments represented a more direct political intervention than many of her public appearances since leaving office in January 2025. Harris has generally kept a lower profile while delivering speeches, promoting her memoir and weighing her future role in Democratic politics.
The former vice president also emphasized the importance of U.S. alliances in Asia and argued that American leadership abroad depends partly on maintaining democratic credibility at home.
Trump and his allies have dismissed similar criticism from Democrats as partisan attacks and maintain that his administration is restoring executive authority improperly constrained by political opponents and federal bureaucrats.
Since September 2025, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has sued30 states and the District of Columbia to demand their unredacted voter rolls.
The rolls contain confidential information on millions of Americans and have historically been managed by states. Now these lists are a major focus of President Donald Trump’s push to take federal control over elections and prosecute alleged noncitizen voters.
To date, there have been final rulings in 26 of the DOJ lawsuits.
Four cases are yet to be decided, and one state settled.
Of the judges randomly assigned to the 26 cases, eight were Trump appointees, four were appointed by another Republican — George W. Bush — and 14 were appointed by Democrats.
Tactic No. 1
The first seven lawsuits used the same opening, citing Trump’s March 2025 executive order on election integrity to claim the Justice Department needed states’ voter rolls to check that they were following federal election laws.
The judges ruled that there was no legal or factual basis for the government’s demand. They noted that the laws require states to keep accurate, up-to-date computerized voter lists that include confidential information. But the statutes give the federal government limited power to enforce those mandates.
Several judges accused the administration of using the election laws as a pretext to suppress voting.
In an extraordinary rebuke (echoed by other courts around the country), the judge hearing the Oregon case wrote that the federal government’s actions undermined the judiciary’s longstanding trust in the Justice Department. He called them “chilling.”
All seven lawsuits using the first tactic were dismissed.
Tactic No. 2
The next 19 lawsuits used a different strategy.
They made no mention of Trump’s executive order and didn’t depend on federal voting laws. Instead, they cited a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 called Title III, which requires the preservation of state and local election records.
The government lawyers claimed that Title III gave the attorney general “sweeping power” to obtain these records to curb noncitizen voting. In reality, the law allowed the federal government to access such records to protect the right to vote, for example, by enabling investigations into practices that disenfranchised Black voters in the South.
Judges rejected the government’s arguments, ruling that Title III applies only to voter registration documents, not records that states generate themselves, like voter rolls. They noted the government had also failed to give an explanation of why it needed the records, as the statute requires.
Several judges marveled at the audacity of the administration’s attempt to use an anti-discrimination law to keep people from voting and condemned the administration’s logic.
Judges also noted that there was a conflict between the DOJ’s claim to be enforcing election laws, which require voter lists to be continuously updated, and Title III, which bans any alteration of voter records.
The administration’s interpretation of Title III, wrote Bissoon, the Pennsylvania judge, “does violence” to the law’s meaning.
To date, judges have dismissed 19 DOJ complaints that relied on the Civil Rights Act claim.
In written opinions, every one of the 26 judges has rejected the Justice Department’s arguments and thrown out its lawsuits. Four cases are still ongoing.
The Trump administration has appealed most of its losses to federal appeals courts and has said it will consider taking its fight to the Supreme Court.
A Justice Department spokesperson issued a statement in response to ProPublica’s questions: “Our attorneys are skilled, principled advocates who argue every case honestly and in good faith. Disagreement with the government’s position is not evidence of bad faith. We look forward to making our case on appeal.”
The only appeal decided so far backed the district judge who threw out the Michigan case.
On Oct. 9, a U.S. district judge ruled that the Justice Department’s national effort to acquire and share state voter rolls was an illegal abuse of its authority. A Justice Department spokesperson said the department is “reviewing the ruling.”
Washington, DC — Republican Rep. Thomas Massie is urging President Donald Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth before the House considers articles of impeachment accusing him of abusing his office and waging war without congressional authorization.
“Trump should fire Hegseth to avoid Hegseth’s impeachment. It’s the honorable thing to do,” Massie wrote Thursday.
Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment in September alleging that Hegseth violated congressional war powers in the Iran conflict, authorized or enabled extrajudicial killings, failed to adequately protect civilians and suppressed speech. Hegseth and the administration deny wrongdoing.
House Republican leaders delayed consideration of the impeachment measure until after the Nov. 3 midterms. Massie has accused leadership of trying to spare vulnerable Republicans from taking a politically damaging vote and says he will reintroduce the articles during the lame-duck session regardless of the election results.
Pressure on Hegseth has grown even inside his own party. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has also said Hegseth should be replaced, citing what he called serious management failures at the Pentagon.
The latest criticism comes after Trump publicly overruled Hegseth’s plan to livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan following bipartisan backlash.
Austin, TX — Elon Musk and his political action committee have agreed to settle two lawsuits accusing them of misleading voters with promises of $1 million payments tied to election-related petitions and turnout efforts.
The proposed settlements cover class-action cases brought by Arizona residents Jacqueline McAferty and Joy Harvick. The plaintiffs alleged that Musk and America PAC promoted the 2024 giveaway as a random chance to win $1 million after signing a petition supporting free speech and gun rights, while in reality potential recipients were vetted and selected.
The giveaway was part of Musk’s broader effort to help elect Donald Trump in 2024.
Musk later used a similar tactic during Wisconsin’s 2025 Supreme Court race, promising two $1 million checks to voters who participated in an event supporting Republican-backed candidate Brad Schimel.
A Wisconsin prosecutor declined to bring election-bribery charges against Musk, despite an earlier finding by the state elections commission that his conduct may have violated state law.
The settlement terms remain confidential and still require approval from a federal judge.
The cases are ending as Musk continues to play an outsized role in Republican politics. He has contributed more than $275 million toward GOP efforts ahead of the 2026 midterms, making him the largest known individual donor in the current cycle.
Now a new immigration case centered on college campuses is headed the justices’ way. With both the Justice Department and civil rights lawyers representing affected immigrants calling for review and a clear split in appellate rulings, the issue could be ripe for the Court to hear argument and render its judgment by early next summer.
The Court agreed to hear arguments in 
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