It is ruled as not a catch so the Bengals punt it away. Cincy bring up a quick 3rd down on the Texans. CJ Stroud backpedals finds his receiver but the ball is juggled and the Texans have a punt of their own.
GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana urged the president to be "radically honest" when he's speaking about vaccines, as the U.S. this year has recorded the most measles cases in more than three decades.
Jane Adetoro, Christina Walters and Rebecca Walters from Uxbridge were found on 13 May
The deaths of three sisters found in the sea off Brighton beach did not involve any criminality or third-party involvement, police have concluded.
The bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, from Uxbridge, west London, were found on 13 May. A postmortem conducted that month confirmed all three women died by drowning.
Pierre, South Dakota — South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson, a Republican, has endorsed Democrat Terrence Davis to succeed her, an unusual cross-party move from the state’s top elections official.
Johnson announced Saturday that she was backing Davis over Republican nominee Heather Baxter, saying her experience running the office changed her views about what the job requires. “I understand that this decision will disappoint some people in my party and anger others,” she wrote.
Johnson first won office in 2022 with support from activists who questioned voting machines and pushed for hand-counting ballots after Donald Trump’s false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Once in office, however, Johnson oversaw statewide post-election audits and came to publicly support “secure, tested ballot tabulators.”
That shift contributed to her losing the Republican nomination in June to Baxter, who has advocated expanded hand-counting and other election-integrity measures. Johnson did not name Baxter in her endorsement statement but said South Dakota needs a secretary of state who will “strengthen confidence through performance rather than provocation.”
Davis, a former state trooper, supports policies including automatic voter registration at age 18. Baxter has emphasized voter identification, paper ballots and proof-of-citizenship requirements, although South Dakota already requires several of those safeguards. Libertarian Tamara Lesnar is also running.
Absentee voting began Sept. 18, and South Dakota’s general election is Nov. 3. The voter registration deadline is Oct. 19.
Tensions grow as Trump tells Fox News he is considering ‘wiping Iran out’ after attacks on Riyadh by Houthi rebels
Governments across the Middle East are bracing for an escalation of violence after Iran claimed it had received intelligence that the US was preparing for a renewed bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic.
In a potential sign of growing tensions before the UN general assembly in New York this week, Donald Trump cut short a weekend visit to the Camp David presidential retreat on Sunday with no official explanation, and a new security alert was issued by the state department to all US citizens in the Middle East.
The following is the transcript of the interview with IBM vice chair Gary Cohn, who served as an economic adviser in President Trump's first term, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sept. 20, 2026.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sept. 20, 2026.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, ahead of the planned summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping this week.
PM hopes to be firmer with US leader than his predecessor without provoking diplomatic warfare, as the Iran war weighs on the UK economy
No international relationship has more power to determine the success of Andy Burnham’s premiership. So you might imagine the stakes for the prime minister’s first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump on Tuesday would be high.
Yet Burnham may prove to be a lucky general. The balance of risk has shifted. Trump is unpopular at home, where inflation remains high, and is mired in an intractable conflict in Iran that has the potential to sink his midterm dreams.
Far-right AfD wins in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and leftwing Die Linke on course for victory in Berlin
Germany’s embattled chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has vowed to stay in office and fight for future-proofing economic changes despite heavy losses for his conservatives in two state elections, one to the far right and the other to a leftwing party.
Preliminary results indicated Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) tallied just over the 5% threshold to enter the state parliament in the coastal region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, its worst-ever state score, which he called a “disaster”.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged that the result was a "disaster" but said he would still move ahead with his government's reform agenda.
Self-described moderates say Ed Davey’s party offers them a home as Conservatives shift further right
Climbing the party-branded stairs of the Brighton Centre with a Liberal Britain tote bag over his shoulder, Cody Butler looks quite at home at the Liberal Democrats’ annual jamboree.
But asked how he is finding it, the 21-year-old replied: “Odd.” The former Tory activist resigned as chair of the One Nation Conservative Network and left his old party in July, arguing that centrists, remainers and members worried about the climate crisis and conservation were no longer welcome in the party. A week ago, he joined the Lib Dems.
(The Center Square) – U.S. farmers face record-high fuel expenses this year as the fall harvest kicks into gear while pressure grows on the Trump administration to impose a temporary ban on diesel exports that could bring down prices.
Marlen Reusser retained her world time-trial title in Montreal on Sunday as her expected main challenger, Demi Vollering, finished a disappointing eighth.
Time-trial queen Reusser secured an ultimately comfortable victory, winning her second world championship after triumphing last year in Kigali – but not before young British rider Zoe Backstedt gave her a scare.
Row at Athenian riviera resort turned violent after two elderly bathers reportedly argued over shortage of loungers
Greek police are investigating the death of an 82-year-old man after a brawl over a sunlounger at a beach on the Athenian riviera.
The man had arrived at the popular bathing spot of Vouliagmeni before 10am on Sunday hoping to secure a sunbed, but he soon began arguing with a fellow bather – described by authorities as a “76-year-old man unknown to him” – when it became clear loungers were in short supply.
Florida’s María Elvira Salazar warns Trump that advisers are ‘compromising his legacy’ and not showing ‘whole picture’
María Elvira Salazar, the Republican congresswoman who has accused the president of going too far on immigration enforcement, doubled down on her criticism of the administration on Sunday, warning Donald Trump that some of his advisers were “compromising his legacy”.
In an interview with CBS News’s Face the Nation, the Florida representative who is locked in a tight race for re-election pleaded with the US president not to “squander” his relationship with Hispanic voters. Though she couched her remarks as criticism of top administration advisers, it was clear that her focus was on Trump’s much-vaunted ambition to carry out the largest mass deportation of undocumented immigrants in US history.
Exclusive: Intelligence officers say Russian campaign could intensify ‘in months, not years’ – but that panic risks playing into Kremlin psy-ops
European intelligence officials have raised the possibility of an imminent Russian test of Nato, with one saying a potential attack could come in a matter of “months, not years”.
The warnings come after Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, told parliament that intelligence assessments suggested Russia might launch an attack with drones or missiles on Nato territory in the coming months, as part of efforts to prove that “article 5 is more theoretical than practical”.
Hellow together, i am searching for a BMS Modu for a OneWhell Pint. I thik i have destroyed this Module after a Battery Cells Replacement and touch the TX connector with the wrong pin. OneWheel doesnt start yet. Only one time whit led and two yellow let blinking. Thx Mirhannes from Austia.
The queer period drama wins Oscar-predicting award, being named the most popular audience film at the festival
Spanish queer drama La Bola Negra has won this year’s people’s choice award at the Toronto film festival.
The film, which takes place in 1932, 1937 and 2017, focuses on the lives of interconnected gay men. It premiered at this year’s Cannes film festival with the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw calling it “handsomely produced, lovingly detailed and confidently constructed” in a four-star review.
(The Center Square) – New home construction data from the month of August generally continues existing trends in the housing market, according to market analysts.
(The Center Square) - Democrats are looking to flip Nebraska’s second congressional district in November as candidates in the race offer similar and competing proposals to address the affordability crisis.
Ed Davey’s party made a series of proposals as concern grows among members that voters don’t know what its policies are or what it stands for
The Liberal Democrats have used their conference to unveil a £2bn plan to cut fuel duty, part of a series of policy proposals intended to tackle worries that not enough voters know what Ed Davey’s party stands for.
The proposal to cut fuel duty by 10p a litre for a fixed three-month period came as polling showed Lib Dem policies are less well known than those of Restore Britain, which only launched as a political party in February and has one MP – Rupert Lowe – to their 71.
David Sacks convinced Trump against any restrictions on AI – putting the White House out of step with its own party
As lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in the US have joined together calling for the regulation of powerful artificial intelligence models, one of the few vocal naysayers has been Donald Trump. He’s called the perceived dangers of the technology a “hoax” and a “scam”, arguing that the government already has “tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies”.
It’s a starkly different stance from those of his former adviser Steve Bannon, the Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz and even the heads of the world’s leading AI companies. But it’s directly in line with the opinion of David Sacks – a prominent billionaire venture capitalist and Trump’s onetime AI and crypto czar, who has pushed back publicly and forcefully against recent claims of an impending AI apocalypse.
President Trump said that he has agreed to convert plans for a massive triumphal arch into a "top grade Military Complex," equipped with snipers and drone storage.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, Republican of Florida, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sept. 20, 2026.
"New research led by Stanford Medicine reveals that what we call the brain is two distinct organs that evolved independently over hundreds of millions of years," Stanford Medicine announced this week:
The new research finding shows that the human brain consists of two ancient nervous systems cleverly packaged together — a more primitive part that regulates our hearts' beating, our breathing and other functions, and another that makes us distinctly human, capable of poetry, mathematics and wondering about our own origins. The discovery could help explain why scientists have struggled for decades to grow certain types of brain cells in the laboratory — and it opens new avenues for studying devastating diseases that affect the brain stem...
[S]cientists have struggled for decades to generate human hindbrain neurons in the laboratory. This gap has hampered research into devastating diseases affecting the brain stem, including spinal muscular atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis... The researchers' breakthrough came from studying the earliest moments of embryonic development... [Study co-authors Carolyn Dundes and Rayyan Jokhai] discovered that the hindbrain follows a separate developmental path, running in parallel to — rather than branching off from — the pathway that creates the forebrain and midbrain... This revelation explained decades of frustration in the field — scientists had been trying to turn one type of progenitor cell into another that it is fundamentally incapable of becoming... Armed with this knowledge, the researchers for the first time successfully coaxed human pluripotent stem cells (a kind of cell that can create any cell in the human body) to become functional hindbrain motor neurons in the laboratory...
Finally, the researchers looked back over 550 million years of evolutionary time. They found the same two-origin brain pattern in chickens; zebrafish; and, remarkably, in acorn worms, tiny creatures living on the ocean floor that share a distant common ancestor with humans. Jellyfish, which diverged from humans about 600 to 700 million years ago, have two nervous systems at different ends of their body. "Our research suggests that evolution took two existing neural systems and pushed them together spatially," Loh said. "Having the brain as one organ would probably be more efficient, but we rely on this primordial way to make the brain as two separate pieces."
Thanks to Slashdot reader Beeftopia for sharing the article.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sept. 20, 2026.
The launches came just days after Pyongyang reasserted its status as a nuclear-armed state and rejected a U.N. resolution demanding it halt its nuclear activities.
Wife of former PM takes part in designer Edeline Lee’s show inspired by the Greek myth of Sisyphus
Victoria Starmer has taken part in a London fashion week show, in one of her first public appearances since her husband, Keir Starmer, stepped down as prime minister.
Lady Starmer appeared at Sunday’s Edeline Lee show. The London-based, Canadian British designer’s clothes are a favourite of the Princess of Wales, and have also been worn by celebrities including singer Taylor Swift and actor and screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Union score four goals in nine minutes v Sporting KC
Caden Clark helps Sounders to late draw
Sam Surridge scored in the first half and Brian Schwake finished off his league-leading 12th clean sheet of the season as Nashville SC clinched a playoff spot and remained unbeaten at home with a 3-0 victory over the Chicago Fire on Saturday night.
Eastern Conference-leading Nashville lead the Supporters’ Shield race and are the only team in the league unbeaten at home with 12 wins in 13.
The president’s post about the 250-foot arch planned near Arlington National Cemetery comes as veterans groups, historic preservationists and others attempt to stop the project.
Exclusive: Stark health inequalities in terms of deaths before age of 75, NHS data reveals
Adults with severe mental illness are nearly five times more likely than their peers to die from serious physical diseases before the age of 75, according to research.
The analysis of NHS data by the Rethink Mental Illness charity reveals that people with severe mental health problems die 15-20 years earlier than the wider adult population, largely due to preventable physical conditions.
At least three people killed and oil refinery damaged as doubts cast over initial reports of ballistic missile use
Ukraine has targeted Moscow and the surrounding region in a large-scale attack that involved hundreds of drones.
The attack killed at least three people and damaged what Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said was one of Russia’s “key oil industry facilities” on the final day of the country’s parliamentary elections, authorities said on Sunday.
The two-term Kentucky Governor advises his fellow Democrats to speak like "normal people" and not shy away from progressive politics or religious faith. He discusses his book, "Go and Do Likewise," which teaches how to change minds by winning hearts.
Action against Ofcom comes as social media companies are being accused of using courts to slow down implementation
Meta has launched a fresh legal challenge against Britain’s media regulator in the latest of a slew of actions by social media companies who are accused of using the courts to slow down implementation of the Online Safety Act.
Lawyers for the parent company of Facebook served notice during the week in an appeal against placing WhatsApp and Instagram, which are also owned by Meta, in a category that subjects them to additional duties.
The Hollywood dealmaker is telling his life story in a raw, raunchy and rollicking new memoir, "Roll the Calls." He talks about growing up a bullied, dyslexic kid in the suburbs of Chicago, and explains why he is never afraid of confrontation.
In his first interview about his new book, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," Charles Spencer talks about his attempt to set down what he calls the definitive story of Princess Diana.
The senator proposed a federal overtime rule mandate, but incentives can better spur employers to reshape the workweek
Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator, recently proposed new legislation that would change federal overtime rules. The new law, if passed, would require employers to pay a minimum 1.5 hours of overtime for each hour worked past 32 hours in a week. Currently, overtime kicks in at 40 hours per week. The requirement would phase in over a few years.
Sounds great. Who wouldn’t want that? There’s just one problem: somebody has to pay for it. For business owners, this isn’t an ideological argument. It’s math.
People are increasingly crossing paths with the wild animals as homes ring the outskirts of forests, sparking a new era of coexistence
Every year, as summer draws to a close and fall begins, California’s bears get hungry.
Black bears have long roamed the state, hunting for acorns, ants and pine nuts by the bucketload to pack on calories before hibernation. But increasingly, for every berry and root, there’s an even greater temptation: our trash and the detritus of human existence.
In 2019, Bunch became both the first historian and the first African American to serve as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. As he prepares to retire, he talks about the museums' mission to protect history, and give America a full picture of itself.
As the organisation meets this week, it remains the best hope for restoring order. But it relies on goodwill from the US president – and that is lacking
If all goes to plan, at some stage in the coming weeks 15 diplomats will emerge from a small sound-proofed room deep in the bowels of the United Nations headquarters in New York and announce the organisation’s next secretary-general.
The person they choose will face a combination of challenges unlike any that their predecessors have had to deal with. Two of the security council’s permanent members, the US and Russia, are engaged in wars of choice that have no end in sight. A UN commission of inquiry has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, but the UN has effectively been reduced to the role of bystander, pushed out by Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. The climate crisis is creating a cascade of new humanitarian disasters, while every day now seems to bring a new security threat caused by the unregulated rise of AI.
Steve Bloomfield is the former international editor of the Observer and a previous winner of the Orwell prize
The art of illustrators is at the core of a new L.A. institution founded by filmmaker George Lucas and businesswoman Mellody Hobson. They talk about the emotional pull of storytelling art and mythic narratives that shape our world.
US president on Truth Social claims his new plan for the 250ft arch comes at the ‘strong request’ of the US military
Donald Trump is proffering a new argument for building his triumphal arch in Washington DC: it will be converted into a “top grade military complex” replete with drone and ammunition storage space and customised sniper facilities on the roof and plaza.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday morning, Trump claimed that his new plan came at the “strong request” of the US military. He said the 250ft structure would be able to “house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage”.
Unit1 hopes to offer lower cost version of shows such as Abba Voyage, showcasing living and dead artists in any venue
The former chief executive of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s entertainment group has obtained a near-£15m investment for his UK music tech startup that hopes to recreate classic concerts by manifesting musicians as digital avatars.
Unit1 was set up last year by Barney Wragg, an entertainment executive who ran Lord Lloyd-Webber’s Cats-to-Evita empire for five years from late 2011. It has secured the $20m in funding from a group of investors, including tech backer Balderton Capital through its partner Daniel Waterhouse, who made early investments in Spotify.
(The Center Square) — The Trump administration has dropped its appeal of a federal court ruling blocking an attempt to cut funding for the Gateway tunnel and other infrastructure projects in the New York and New Jersey region.
Data raid comes amid targeting of lifeboat charity by far-right agitators who object to migrant boat rescues
Supporters of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution have been warned that their personal information may have been stolen by hackers amid targeting of the charity by far-right agitators.
In a letter accompanying the autumn copy of its Lifeboat magazine, the charity warned members that their “name, contact details and records of interactions with the RNLI” could have been breached in the raid on a company it uses for customer relationship management.
When dinner feels like one task too many, these 13 recipes keep the effort manageable. Choose from quick cheesy plates, saucy mains, easy bowls, pasta, ramen, and slow cooker dinners.The post 13 comfort recipes for the day you don’t want…
Bridget Phillipson says Burnham’s past criticisms of US president not an issue as PM prepares to meet Trump at UN
Next month’s budget will be made more difficult by Donald Trump’s war with Iran, one of Andy Burnham’s cabinet ministers has said, while adding she did not expect the prime minister’s previous disparaging comments about the US president to be an issue.
Burnham is expected to meet Trump early next week at the UN general assembly summit in New York, the pair having previously spoken twice by phone since Burnham entered No 10.
Former president of Chile drops out after support collapsed in security council straw poll, leaving seven candidates in contest
Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile, has withdrawn her candidacy to become the next secretary general of the UN, ending an attempt that had struggled to gain traction among security council members.
Bachelet, 74, announced her decision in a video posted on Instagram on Saturday, saying: “I will now continue, with the same determination as always, my international work.”
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Sunday that his planned 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery will also serve as a military facility capable of storing drones, sniper ammunition and other equipment.
Trump said on Truth Social that the change came at the “strong request” of the U.S. military and was necessary for national security. He did not identify which military officials or branches made the request, and no formal Pentagon documentation supporting the claim had been released publicly as of Sunday morning.
The arch was originally presented as a monumental gateway and visitor attraction near the Arlington Memorial Bridge, with galleries and an observation area. Trump now says the structure would also include space for drones and sniper teams, significantly expanding its stated purpose.
The project was already controversial before the military proposal. The Federal Aviation Administration determined Friday that the 250-foot structure would not pose a hazard to aircraft near Reagan National Airport if it includes an “eternal flame” and additional lighting to make it visible to pilots.
The National Park Service has also acknowledged that the arch could have “adverse effects” on nearby historic properties, including the visual alignment between the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Memorial Bridge and Arlington National Cemetery.
The project has not yet received final approval. Trump administration officials have said they expect to submit the final design to the National Capital Planning Commission in November, while a federal judge has required the government to provide advance notice before beginning most work at the site.
Charles lands at Heathrow with just two bags and nowhere to go as a result of Brexit and Stockholm’s hardline immigration position
Doubled over a Heathrow baggage trolley, the former British business director is sobbing uncontrollably, exhausted emotionally and physically after being deported from Sweden.
Hours earlier the 65-year-old had been marched on to a plane in Stockholm, separated from his home and his Swedish wife after a five-year battle to stay in the country after Brexit came to an end.
Environmental Protection Agency asked firm to choose rules it wanted for dicamba, then put the choices in a proposed federal rule
The EPA allowed pesticide giant Bayer to pick from a menu of regulation options for the controversial and destructive weedkiller dicamba, newly released internal agency documents show.
The documents provide an unusually clear look into the process of developing pesticide regulations, which is typically done out of public view. It shows in detail how the EPA asked Bayer which regulations it wanted, received a response from Bayer, then put Bayer’s choices into a proposed federal rule.
Rabid goats at a North Carolina petting zoo and a diseased beaver attacking a Maryland boy have set the public on edge
Recent unusual incidents involving humans and rabid animals and a subsequent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory have prompted concerns about rabies, but it’s not clear if there has actually been an increase in cases of the deadly disease in the United States, experts say.
In recent months, rabid beavers have attacked three people in Maryland, and hundreds of people were exposed to goats with rabies at a petting zoo in North Carolina, according to news reports. The CDC issued a health advisory on 10 September “in response to recent reports of increases in human exposures to rabid or possibly rabid animals”.
Pumpkin keeps finding its way back onto the menu once fall settles in. These 15 recipes cover breakfast, dinner, and dessert with scones, waffles, soup, salmon, cakes, bars, muffins, and cookies.The post 15 pumpkin recipes that end up on the…
The European Commission "proposed on Thursday banning children under 13 from social media, with parent-supervised accounts until 15," reports Reuters.
"Enforcement would rely on a tool Brussels built itself" — a free, open-source age verification smartphone app "that tells a platform whether a user meets an age threshold without revealing their identity..."
If passed, the proposed Kids Act would create the world's largest social media access restriction, covering 450 million people across 27 countries... [The EU-built age-verification app] is being rolled out through member states, with seven pilot countries: Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain. The Commission expects EU-wide availability by the end of 2026.
It will also be used to prove users are over 18 when accessing adult sites, a restriction already implemented under the Digital Services Act...
[T]he system itself is decentralised. Member states run it through issuers they designate, and the proofs live on the user's phone. There is no central EU database of ages or of who verified whom... A user proves their age once to a nationally designated issuer — a body vetted by the member state, which can be a digital ID provider, a bank or a post office. At a restricted site, the app certifies that the user is above the required age threshold. The platform receives only a yes-or-no response. Issuance and verification are handled by separate entities. The proof provider is not told which service the proof was used for. Each proof works only once, preventing cross-service tracking. No identity documents or biometric data are retained. The code is open-source, allowing independent scrutiny.
The significance of the EU approach is that it provides a common age-verification mechanism rather than leaving individual platforms to develop and enforce their own systems.
"Online platforms can easily rely on our age verification app. So there are no more excuses," [EU Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen said...
The proposal must be approved by EU member states and the European Parliament before becoming law.
Non-compliance would risk fines of up to 6% of a tech company's global annual sales, plus supervisory fees, Reuters reported earlier.
The EU's plan follows similar initiatives in Australia, Britain, China, India, Turkey and several European Union countries.
Rafael Moreno, whose company has opened demo plant in Brazil, says market is ‘nervous’ as Trump-Xi summit looms
The head of a mining company hoping to supply the EU with rare earths in two years’ time has said it is “paramount” to end China’s stranglehold on the supply of the raw materials used in everything from cars to wind turbines and military jets.
As Donald Trump and China’s president, Xi Jinping, prepare to meet on Thursday in their second summit of the year, Rafael Moreno said it was also “imperative” that they do a deal for Beijing to ease up, once again, on its threat to ban exports of rare earths.
Exclusive: Five gardening teams shortlisted for Royal Horticultural Society’s new Railway Stations in Bloom award
Every year since 1964, towns across the UK have bloomed with hanging baskets and brightly coloured flowerbeds planted by residents.
They wield their trowels in aid of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom competition, a coveted accolade for the 1,600 communities that enter each year.
The US’s deployment of weaponry in space marks the latest backward step from the show’s optimistic conception of the future
Who among us doesn’t dream of space in their youth?
OK, maybe some of us. Like the ones with lives. While you were out playing hopscotch with little Jimmy and Susie, I was locked in my room mainlining episodes of Star Trek or the weird, sanitized version of Aliens that aired on broadcast TV. Fantastical science-fiction adventure seemed to offer more than playground games and actual human connection. Spaceships over relationships.
Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist
The maverick senator has isolated himself from supporters as he has become a strident supporter of Israel
Two eras, two videos, shot against the same physical backdrop, convey political messages that seem a world removed from each other.
The contrasting films, produced eight years apart, neatly distill the evolution of John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s maverick senator in his journey from progressive icon to a man seemingly more at ease with his nominal Republican opponents than his fellow Democrats.
Trump says he digs coal – but pneumoconiosis cases are at a 50-year high, and sick miners are mired in benefit delays
For 38 years, Josh Armes worked as a coal miner in West Virginia and Virginia.
After retirement, Armes, 74, of Grundy, Virginia, was diagnosed with black lung disease, medically known as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), caused by breathing in coal dust over long periods, which irreversibly damages the lungs.
Scale of debt issuance being used to fund the hectic pace of the datacentre rollout by tech firms is a worry
Warnings about powerful and uncontrolled AI have dominated the headlines this past week. But even amid the omens of apocalypse, it is still worth asking if the entire AI-industrial complex is sailing towards a financial iceberg.
It will hardly be our most pressing concern if the bots are poised to take over the world, but a collapse of the AI bubble would have repercussions far beyond the US.
Coming midterm elections are starting to be framed not as right versus left but instead the ‘well-fed versus the fed-up’
Brian Leeland, a 79-year-old Democratic voter in Detroit, had enough. Frustrated by the way the US media covers this febrile political era, from Donald Trump’s Washington to political campaigns across the country, he contacted the Guardian.
“Your decision to frame the race here as a simple progressive versus establishment choice is overly simplistic verging on lazy,” he wrote to this reporter, after our coverage of progressive Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign in the Democratic US Senate primary in Michigan. “As an electorate, we are not binary for the convenience of the media.”
It’s not clear that financial interests are driving White House policy, but they run parallel even as resistance mounts
Donald Trump’s sons, through a series of AI-linked defense and technology ventures, have picked up a $620m Pentagon loan, a Marine Corps robotics contract and an undisclosed air force drone deal in the past year. His longtime friend Michael Dell won a Pentagon contract worth nearly $9bn. And this week, as public support for artificial intelligence sinks to some of the lowest levels ever recorded, the president went to bat for the industry. .
“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades,” he posted on Truth Social Monday. “There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers.” It was the first of many aggressively pro-AI posts he would make this week.
A local political feud over a high school protest became a brief national fixation when police charged a woman with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Candidates have been selected for November’s midterms – have Republicans and Democrats made the right choices?
Primary season has officially concluded in the United States, with Democrats leading the polls among voters amid widespread economic anxieties, a war with Iran and Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda continuing into the end of the year.
Democratic and Republican voters have selected contenders for key races in the 3 November midterms that will decide the balance of power in Congress, and the future of both parties. Democrats have been rocked by the primary victories of leftwing candidates. Republicans have doubled down on backing the president’s policies, despite his low approval ratings. And both parties are navigating the fallout from a series of scandals that have forced some candidates from the race, while others decided to press on.
Shabana Mahmood is concerned about length and £144m cost of inquiry into intrusive police surveillance
Victims of intrusive police surveillance have accused the government of seeking to cut short the spycops public inquiry that has been examining widespread misconduct committed by undercover officers.
Comments come after he accused King Charles of gaslighting him in response to claims made in new memoir
Earl Spencer has said the relationship between the press and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “echoes” the way the media treated his sister Diana, Princess of Wales.
In an interview with the BBC to be aired on Sunday evening, Spencer described the press’s coverage of Harry and Meghan as having a “cancerous influence”, adding it would be “beholden on people to learn from Diana’s example”.
Saturday morning President Trump announced he's creating an AI task force and appointing an AI czar, reports Politico.
"I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS," Trump wrote Saturday in what Politico earlier described as "a lengthy Truth Social post on Saturday morning."
TRUMP: Over the years, there have been many Hoaxes, all generated by the Radical Left Dumocrats, for purposes of destroying our Country. RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, Global Warming, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2 [...] and now, the decimation, or destruction, of AI, commonly known as Artificial Intelligence — And I, as President of the United States, will not stand by and let this happen.
It all began with an attack on our Data Centers, until people realized how wealthy and prestigious they were for the Communities in which they were built. Higher Salaries, Lower Taxes, and Safer Streets, was the result, and the crazed Data Center attack has largely failed, so now [...] they are going straight at AI. We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!
However, we will also be looking for BAD, and we can do that, very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System. For this purpose, I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS, in my First Term. To that end, I will be announcing, in the near future, the AI "Czar" — Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!
Trump concluded by saying AI "is the next Industrial Revolution, or Internet, but will be even larger and more impactful... We are leading China, and the rest of the World, and I intend to keep it that way!"
But what exactly is AI Force? "The White House did not immediately respond to a request to clarify whether the agency would be military or civilian," notes the Washington Post. So now "The tech industry is struggling to make sense of President Donald Trump's surprise announcement," Politico reported Saturday afternoon:
Four representatives for the sector, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told POLITICO that the industry was not widely informed of Trump's decision prior to the Truth Social post. "Nobody knows what the idea even is," one of the people said. Another said that feedback on the idea was not widely solicited within the industry. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment...
"I think that he clearly feels pressure to say something, but he's torn because he's just spent the last few days saying that the whole thing is a hoax," Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the progressive tech industry coalition Chamber of Progress, said of Trump and his prior dismissal of AI doomsday scenarios. Since the departure of David Sacks, who stepped down as the Trump administration's previous AI czar earlier this year, the White House has been "making up AI policy as it goes," Kovacevich added. "I think it's clear they've really missed the presence of an organized leader like David Sacks was."
One of the tech industry representatives said they were confused about whether the task force would be charged with formulating more AI regulations or recommending policies that would further stimulate the tech's development. Taylor Barkley, director of federal government affairs at the industry-aligned Abundance Institute, is eyeing it as a way to solidify a light-touch government approach to the technology he says will foster innovation. "Any AI Force or AI Czar should have one job: keep the field open so entrepreneurs at every scale can compete, free from onerous regulation," he told POLITICO. "Existing criminal and civil law can handle bad actors. New permission regimes will stifle the very activity America needs most."
It's worth noting that the day before, California's governor made an announcement. "With Donald Trump and Congress asleep at the wheel, Governor Gavin Newsom is once again taking the lead to strengthen AI safety for all Americans," the governor's office announced Friday. Newsom issued a strong executive order convening experts to help California create new AI safety laws and reporting rules, possibly even requiring safety auditors embedded in labs and emergency "kill switches" in frontier models.
Exclusive: Analysis ‘lays bare’ something midwives already know from their day-to-day work
About 20,000 disclosures of domestic abuse are estimated to be made to maternity services in England every year, analysis has found.
The figures are likely to be an underestimate of the true scale of disclosures, according to experts, highlighting the role maternity professionals play in identifying abuse.
About two years ago, education entrepreneur Boris But had what he calls a “penny-drop moment” – that, like countless others in China, his company needed to embrace AI before it was made obsolete by it.
His clients, well-off parents looking to send their children to study overseas, had begun arriving in his office reeling off information and opinions gleaned not from rival firms, but from chatbots.
Scam emails are increasingly using psychological tricks, such as using near-identical URLs like miсrosoft.com
You’ve read the email carefully and it looks legitimate. The link it asks you to click on has none of the usual red flags: there are no weird numbers or extra parts to the URL. You feel safe to proceed.
But if you had looked slightly closer you may have noticed something slightly wrong with one of the characters. Just as in the headline of this piece where instead of “a” we used the Cyrillic “α”.
It just goes to show that the split-second decision you make when clicking a link is often the most vulnerable part of the whole security chain.”
Economies thrown into renewed turmoil as AI debt, Iran war and soaring government bond yields fuel alarm
At the height of the summer, the mood was optimistic in the world’s financial capitals. Powered by the AI revolution, the US stock market had rallied to a fresh all-time high, as investors bet the multitrillion-dollar investment spree would overshadow the hit from the Iran war.
Now the warning lights are flashing red. As the fighting in the Middle East intensifies without clear sign of a resolution, financial markets have been thrown into renewed turmoil. A slowdown looms in the AI arms race, and tinderbox conditions in the market for government debt are fuelling alarm.
The latest attack brings the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military in Latin America to at least 231 in 69 strikes since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls "narcoterrorists" about one year ago.
Mashable writes:
Flock Safety offered employees voluntary buyouts on Friday, WIRED reported... Without the buyouts, those familiar with the situation suspect the company would have to lay off some of its 1,500 employees.
WIRED writes that people familiar with the program "say they believe that a significant number of the startup's roughly 1,500 employees may try to depart."
Flock is making the severance offers as it continues to lose customers... The company has had many of its contracts either not extended or dropped this year, which could leave it short of revenue goals, according to two of the people. A wave of vandalism targeting its cameras has unexpectedly increased expenses. Without buyouts, Flock almost certainly would have to lay off some staff, one of the people believes... People familiar with Flock's severance plan tell WIRED that some employees may take the offer amid speculation that the company, which has raised about $1.2 billion in venture capital, might resort to selling off parts or all of its business to stay afloat... One advocacy group identified 93 city and county governments that cut ties with Flock in August alone. Overall in 2026, roughly three times as many local governments have dropped Flock compared to the previous five years.
Flock has recently been building products that extend the company beyond its core license plate reader offering. WIRED reported last month that the company has developed AI-powered investigative software to identify drivers, find potential associates based on patterns of movement, and search across police records and other data. A separate WIRED analysis of Flock's software found tools designed to continuously search camera feeds for people matching written descriptions. WIRED's analysis of Flock's code also found potential integrations with drones and other surveillance systems.
Flock's financial scrambles might explain an incident in Syracuse, New York. The nonprofit news site
Central Current discovered the city's contract said its license plate data wouldn't be shared outside the police department, reports Mashable:
But the department had granted access to other agencies, which police said was an accident. Over roughly a year, searches by officers around the country reached Syracuse's data nearly 4.4 million times. And that wasn't the only surprise in the paperwork. Central Current also found that Flock could keep using Syracuse data after the contract ended. When the city approved cameras from Axon to replace Flock's, Flock said Syracuse couldn't simply end its agreement early. It warned that the city might have to pay for both systems; so even as officials moved to replace the cameras, they faced questions about what Flock could do with the data and what the city might still owe.
Meanwhile, the Texas Department of Transportation "has stopped issuing permits allowing Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers to be installed along state roads..." reports the Texas Tribune. "There were an estimated 13,000 Flock cameras across Texas in August, but hundreds of the devices have been shut down after [governor] Abbott's funding freeze."
And in August Florida's Republican Governor "ordered his state's transportation department to remove the cameras from state roads, saying he didn't want 'a surveillance state.'"
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump returned to the White House Saturday evening, cutting his weekend stay at Camp David short by one day as the State Department warned Americans about rapidly escalating security risks in the Middle East.
Trump landed near the White House shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday. The administration did not publicly explain why his schedule changed, and there is no confirmed evidence that the early return was directly connected to the deteriorating security situation.
The State Department has advised Americans in the Middle East to remain highly vigilant and prepare for flight cancellations, airspace closures and other travel disruptions. Americans outside the region have also been urged to reconsider travel through the Middle East because of the possibility of further escalation.
The warnings followed another escalation involving Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement. Saudi Arabia said Saturday that it intercepted a ballistic missile aimed at Riyadh, the first such attack on the capital since renewed fighting intensified. No casualties were reported from the missile strike.
The Houthis separately claimed they launched ballistic and cruise missiles and drones at targets including Saudi oil facilities in Yanbu. Saudi officials confirmed the attempted attack on Riyadh, but several of the Houthis’ additional claims had not been independently verified.
Regional tensions have increased in recent days as Houthi attacks threaten Saudi infrastructure and major shipping routes. Saudi Arabia has also sought additional air-defense support from allies as its interceptor supplies have come under strain.
Embattled Friedrich Merz faces nervous wait while far-right Alternative für Deutschland party targets further gains
Voters in two German states are going to the polls with the political future of the embattled chancellor, Friedrich Merz, hanging in the balance and an emboldened far right targeting further gains.
Coming two weeks after a seismic election in Saxony-Anhalt in which the anti-immigration, pro-Kremlin Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) scored its highest ever result in a regional poll, the nativist party is expected to drain support again from Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
Ed Sheeran opened his solo concert in Philadelphia on Saturday with comments about Gaza, saying what is happening there is "catastrophic and unjustifiable."
Bills signed by California governor safeguard vote by mail and make seizing ballots or election records a felony
California governor Gavin Newsom has signed off on a package of bills aimed at bolstering election security, including measures to thwart federal political interference, his office announced on Sunday.
The pieces of legislation appear to address hot button national and state electoral issues, including an extension to the hours for mail-in voting drop off locations.
Authorities issued warnings for city in first such alerts for Riyadh since fighting with Iran-backed Houthis escalated in July
Yemen’s Houthis said they attacked “sensitive” sites in the Saudi capital with missiles and drones, hours after flames and a large plume of black smoke were seen rising above Riyadh airport on Saturday.
The Saudi government sent air raid alerts to citizens by phone overnight warning of aerial attacks, marking the first time the government has issued such alerts for Riyadh since fighting with the Iran-backed Houthis escalated in July.
Tory leader claims prime minister is avoiding difficult decisions as she urges him to increase defence spending
Kemi Badenoch has accused Andy Burnham of “fiddling while Europe is at risk of burning”, as she repeated her call for the prime minister to cut the welfare budget to fund increase spending on defence.
Speaking to the Telegraph, the Tory leader said that “Burnham may be a people pleaser but difficult choices cannot be avoided through dither and delay”.
Amarillo, Texas — A federal judge has paused a lawsuit by the Republican Party of Texas seeking to restrict participation in GOP primaries to registered party members, leaving the state’s current primary system unchanged for now.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said Friday that the case should wait because the Texas Legislature may address the issue during its 2027 session. “Prominent Texas politicians support similar legislative action,” he wrote, adding that lawmakers could amend the law currently being challenged.
The Texas Republican Party sued last year, arguing that the state’s primary system violates its First Amendment right of association by allowing voters who may oppose the party’s candidates or principles to help choose Republican nominees. Under current Texas law, voters do not formally register by party before an election, although participating in a party primary creates a temporary affiliation for that election cycle.
Republican leaders have pushed for closed primaries for years. The issue gained additional attention after former House Speaker Dade Phelan and Rep. Gary VanDeaver narrowly survived 2024 primary challenges, with some Republicans alleging that Democratic-leaning and independent voters helped them win. Those claims remain disputed.
Gov. Greg Abbott has publicly supported changing the law so that “only Republicans vote in Republican primaries.” But Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden has said he intends to defend the state’s existing system in court.
Kacsmaryk did not rule on whether the GOP’s constitutional argument is valid. Instead, he put the case on hold until after the Legislature completes its next regular session. The state’s next primary election is scheduled for 2028.
Wolfpack fumble with six seconds left proves decisive
Vanderbilt recover in end zone for stunning 35-31 win
Commodores complete comeback from 17 points down
Call this one the Music City Miscue.
NC State quarterback CJ Bailey fumbled in the end zone while trying to take an intentional safety in the final seconds and essentially handed Vanderbilt a 35-31 victory no one saw coming in Nashville.
Los Angeles, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 13-bill election package Saturday that expands criminal penalties, cybersecurity protections and notification requirements ahead of California’s November elections.
Among the most significant provisions, AB 282 makes it a felony to seize ballots, election records or certified voting technology before results are certified, including when a supervisor directs someone else to do so. SB 259 similarly creates felony penalties for supervisors who order interference with the delivery or return of mail ballots.
Another measure, AB 1664, requires local election officials to notify the California secretary of state and attorney general within one day of learning about a warrant, subpoena or law-enforcement investigation involving election records or voting technology. AB 2281 directs the state to assess whether it needs additional cybersecurity resources to replace federal support.
The package also extends restrictions on deceptive AI-generated election content, requires disclaimers for certain paid online political content and expands language-access requirements for voters. Other bills modify vote-by-mail procedures and polling-place protections.
Newsom framed the legislation as protection against possible federal interference, specifically citing President Donald Trump. That characterization reflects the governor’s stated rationale; the laws themselves apply more broadly to unauthorized interference by federal officials or others.
The measures build on SB 73, signed earlier this year, which restricts unauthorized law-enforcement access to voter rolls, election technology and voting areas without a court order or an investigation tied to state election law.
The legislation comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court left in place an injunction blocking new federal mail-ballot requirements from taking effect before the midterms.
Ruling latest step in legal fight over medically fragile child born after surrogate rejected couple’s request for abortion
The Texas supreme court has decided that the month-old infant that surrogate McKenna West gave birth to can be relocated to Los Angeles, a Thursday ruling that came weeks after a California court had recognized the biological parents’ custody rights.
“Sustaining the life of the medically fragile child is the paramount concern in this time-sensitive matter,” the court wrote in a Thursday order, referring to the baby’s rare severe heart defect. West had attempted to block the biological parents from removing the child from Texas and taking him to a hospital in Los Angeles where the couple live.
Arizona State cantered to victory against Kansas in the first US college football game to be staged in the UK
You sensed that Britain’s first US college football game in nearly 40 years was going to be a very different experience when Wembley Way began to reverberate to the sound of steel, muscle and a few whoops long before kick-off.
The noise came from the Arizona State Sun Devils’ marching band, who were so energetic their horns and trombones swished from left to right like air raid lights hunting a target as they played. Soon there came a riposte from the Kansas Jayhawks’ marching band, along with more cheers from the large crowd outside the stadium.
Players in Everton v Ipswich Town match wear black armbands as supporters join in minute’s applause
Players wore black armbands during Everton’s home match against Ipswich Town on Saturday, as part of a tribute to three-year-old Noah Woods, whose body was found after he went missing in Suffolk this week.
A photograph of the boy was shown on the big screen before the Premier League game in Liverpool, and three minutes after kick-off both sets of supporters stood to applaud in memory of Noah.
"In April this year, we saw Andy Nguyen turning the PS5 into a Linux-powered gaming PC,"
writes the blog It's FOSS.
It ran Steam games and emulators using the PS5's on-board hardware. But this week Andy announced he's "stopping all my work on PS5 Linux" and "stepping away from the PS5 scene."
stopping work on porting the project to the PS5 Pro, which would've shipped sometime in 2027.
Andy Nguyen: After pouring my heart and months of my life into it, including plans to finish PS5 Pro support and release in 2027, it's all down the sink.
The scene used to be a group of highly talented researchers, but now it is just a bunch of noobs using LLMs and writing hacks they don't even understand. Slop kiddies found the only hypervisor bug left, which I had also found a while ago, and decided to report to Sony. I asked them to at least wait for GTA 6 to come out so that people would have the opportunity to legally purchase the game and also enjoy Linux. They agreed to wait, but not a day passed and they decided to waste it instead.
Or, as It's FOSS tells it:
Running Linux on a PlayStation console is possible because the PS5 Linux project was able to find a way past the hypervisor using exploits Sony had already patched, covering firmware 3.00 through 7.61. ..
[The bug's discoverer writes it was] found with what he calls his "trusty ai clanker machine" and no help from anyone else. He had even agreed to Andy's request to not disclose the findings. Unexpectedly, a third person, still unnamed, found the same bug using AI a few hours later. Anticipating that there would be more people finding the same bug, [he] decided to post the flaw on HackerOne.
The project's GitHub page and all the related repositories are still there. Nothing has been archived as of today, and if you wanted to, you could start contributing to the PS5 Linux project by taking over any pending work or cooking up new improvements... The PS5 Pro support Andy was building never reached the repository, so you would have to start from scratch... While Andy's departure is a blow to the plan for supporting newer PS5 firmware and the PS5 Pro, other contributors have shown that they can deliver work on the loader without him, and I am hopeful more will follow.
Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi regime orchestrated the largest art theft in world history, seizing over 600,000 works of art across Europe from Jewish families, collectors and museums.
Leader says party ‘won’t give up the fight’ to defeat ‘nasty populism’ in first-day speech to delegates in Brighton
The Liberal Democrats’ leader, Sir Ed Davey, took aim at Nigel Farage and Elon Musk on the first day of his party’s annual conference, saying Lib Dems would not give up the fight to defeat “nasty populism” and Reform UK’s “£72m arsenal of hate and lies”.
On stage at Brighton Centre, Davey called on the assembled delegates not to be deterred in the face of Reform’s hope “that the anger and the hatred and the lies will grind us down until eventually we just give up”.
Joe Arminio, right, the Republican U.S. House candidate, was tossed out of a candidate forum Thursday for repeatedly misgendering Rep. Sarah McBride. Republican Senate candidate Dr, Mike Katz has asked him to leave the race. | SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF SIEGEL…
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he will create a new “AI Force” and appoint an artificial intelligence czar, while reiterating his opposition to regulations that he says could slow the industry’s growth.
Trump announced the plan on social media but offered few details about how the new organization would operate, what authority it would have or when it would be established. He said a new AI czar would be named soon and wrote that “only High I.Q. individuals need apply.”
The announcement comes days after Trump dismissed warnings about potentially dangerous artificial intelligence systems as a “hoax” and argued that the industry should not be slowed by new government restrictions. He has said existing criminal and civil laws should generally be sufficient to address harmful uses of AI.
Trump predicted that artificial intelligence could eventually account for as much as 25% of U.S. gross domestic product and compared its potential economic impact to the Industrial Revolution. He also framed AI development as a strategic competition with China, saying the United States currently leads and must maintain that advantage.
The administration has already taken steps to accelerate AI adoption in national security, including a June directive calling for advanced commercial and open-source systems to be deployed across the military and intelligence community while maintaining human accountability.
The announcement comes amid increasingly public warnings from AI researchers and industry leaders about autonomous systems, cybersecurity threats and models behaving in unexpected ways. Major technology companies remain divided over how much government oversight is appropriate and whether development should be slowed while stronger safeguards are created.
Elor Azaria’s conviction in 2017 for manslaughter of man who stabbed soldier continues to divide country
Israel’s president has pardoned a combat medic who shot dead a badly wounded Palestinian attacker who had stabbed a soldier in the occupied West Bank, in a case that divided the country a decade ago.
Elor Azaria’s conviction in 2017 for manslaughter and his release after serving two-thirds of his 18-month sentence drew enormous attention in Israel, where military service is compulsory for most Jewish men.
In his memoir, the Hollywood superagent and mogul writes of coming to blows in the competitive entertainment universe – and, in one instance, being sidelined by the business end of a truck.
President had brushed away suggestions to slow down AI technology, even as his own party counseled caution
Donald Trump on Saturday said he would appoint an artificial intelligence czar and create an “AI Force” to help monitor the technology, though he gave almost no details about either plan.
As global fears over AI have grown, especially in the past week in the face of multiple industry figures sounding the alarm about its dangers, the president has been critical of calls to slow down development of the fast-moving industry.
Authorities ban anti-immigration march after fireworks and other projectiles thrown at officers in city centre park
Dutch riot police dispersed several hundred far-right protesters in The Hague on Saturday after violence erupted and local authorities banned a planned march in the city against immigration and asylum policies.
The Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported that 24 people had been arrested, after some protesters threw fireworks and other projectiles at police.
Cedrick Frazier’s blunt message for Minneapolis voters practically jumps off his yard signs: “PROSECUTE ICE. VOTE FRAZIER.”
The slogan reflects the city’s deep anger over the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal officers in January. It also reflects Frazier’s belief that the backlash gives him the edge in the race to serve as Minneapolis’s top prosecutor.
Frazier, a public defender turned state representative, is vying with former federal prosecutor Anders Folk in the race to become Hennepin County Attorney. The county, which includes Minneapolis, was beset by violence and chaos this winter amid a Trump administration immigration crackdown known as “Operation Metro Surge.”
Before the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, the contest was shaping up as a referendum on so-called progressive prosecutions — fallout from a debate that began six years ago after George Floyd was murdered by former police officer Derek Chauvin.
Now it has morphed into something more. Either Frazier or his opponent will likely decide whether to prosecute the federal immigration agents who killed Good and Pretti. Those stakes give the race national implications, Hamline University political science professor David Schultz said.
“People are going to be looking at this race and asking: What does it tell us about holding law enforcement accountable?” he said. “If you hadn’t had Metro Surge, if you hadn’t had George Floyd, Derek Chauvin, it would be: Minneapolis is holding an election for county attorney — no big deal.”
Walking the Block
A county attorney in Minnesota has broad responsibilities that range from general counsel for local government to prosecuting crimes to pursuing child support cases.
Voters, however, only wanted to talk about one thing as Frazier canvassed the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis earlier this month: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s winter invasion. Without prompting, two voters in two blocks thanked him for his campaign promise to go after ICE.
The reminders of Minneapolis’s turbulent decade are everywhere in the city. A couple blocks away from a campaign field office, one building is still tagged with “#JUSTICE4GEORGE” graffiti. Within a short drive, the memorials for Good and Pretti are overflowing with flowers and handwritten tributes.
In an interview with The Intercept, Frazier was careful to say that he has not made any decisions about cases involving federal agents. Any explicit statement to that effect could be used to throw him off the case.
“But I don’t see it any different than saying we’re going to go after crime,” Frazier said. “We’re just making it very clear and very explicit that if you come here, regardless of what your title is, and if you violate the law here, there will be accountability for that.”
A native of the South Side of Chicago, Frazier moved to rural Minnesota for college and never left the state. He has three daughters and went from serving as a Hennepin County public defender to state representative for New Hope, a suburb of Minneapolis.
The 47-year-old built strong connections with the state affiliate of the Democratic Party and Minnesota’s powerful labor movement. His day job outside of his part-time legislative position is as an attorney for the state’s main teacher union.
If he is elected, Frazier will likely face crucial decisions about whether to file or continue pursuing charges in the Good and Pretti killers. The sitting county attorney, Mary Moriarty, began the investigation into those killings with the aid of state Attorney General Keith Ellison, but she could leave the ultimate charging decision up to her successor. Frazier says he has no confidence in parallel federal investigations.
“I have no trust whatsoever in a Donald Trump-led Department of Justice actually getting us any justice or accountability for what happened here,” he said.
“Tagged With Trump”
His opponent, Folk, brings a strikingly different resume and support base to the race.
A Minnesota native and 49-year-old first-time candidate who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, he worked his way up through the ranks at the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis, where some of his most notable early cases focused on Somali American men accused of traveling to the Horn of Africa to fight for the designated terror group al-Shabaab.
After a stint at a national law firm, he returned to the U.S. attorney’s office in 2018 to serve as first assistant. He was briefly the interim top prosecutor after the resignation of the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in 2021. During that stint, he signed Chauvin’s indictment on federal civil rights charges connected to the murder of George Floyd.
In 2022, he left public service and became a partner at the white-shoe law firm Jones Day, which has helped corporations fight union campaigns.
His blue-chip resume attracted support from wealthy campaign donors and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who endorsed him early on.
Folk, whose campaign declined a request for an interview, leans on his prosecutorial experience to make the case that he is best suited to prosecute federal officers.
“These are cases we’ve never done here in Minnesota,” he said in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio last month. “These are going to be cases we’re doing for the first time in the history of this state. And I think it just really speaks to how critical it is to have that deep experience doing federal criminal prosecution work because that’s where these cases are all going to end up.”
While campaigning on his experience at the U.S. attorney’s office, however, his job as a federal prosecutor also presents a liability. Frazier routinely notes that Folk rejoined the office when Trump was president. That association has hurt Folk as much as anything else, said Schultz, the Hamline law and politics professor.
“He is tagged with Trump, he is tagged with the federal prosecutor’s office,” Schultz said.
“It’s guilt by association.”
Mary Moriarty’s Shadow
Frazier took 36 percent of the vote in the nonpartisan primary last month to Folk’s 23 percent. That lead makes him the “heavy” favorite but not the inevitable winner, Schultz said.
Folk’s supporters have bristled at the claims that he was a Trump lackey. In the run-off, Folk played up his connections to the Biden administration.
Yet Folk has played the guilt-by-association game, too, by tying Frazier to the current county attorney, Mary Moriarty.
Moriarty ran as an outspoken progressive when voters were outraged over her predecessor’s handling of Floyd’s murder. She promised to transform the office with a restorative approach and fresh reviews of past incidents of police brutality.
She followed through on those pledges but drew political flak for the way in which she went about it.
Former Democratic allies, including state Attorney General Keith Ellison, castigated her over her handling of a case where two teen boys were accused in the killing a young mother and she sought to prosecute them as juveniles. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz eventually took her off the case and handed it to Ellison, a move she called undemocratic.
With her political fortunes sinking, Moriarty decided not to run again last year, well before Operation Metro Surge began. During the election, Frazier’s critics have sought to cast him as her second coming.
Folk quickly name-checked Moriarty when he was asked about his differences with Frazier in a recent radio interview.
“Not unlike my differences with Mary Moriarty, I’m somebody who has stood up in court and prosecuted for the people of the state of Minnesota,” Folk said. “And Cedrick Frazier has never done that. He has never been a prosecutor and has no experience there.”
Frazier chooses his words carefully when he talks about Moriarty’s legacy. He has positioned himself as more progressive than Folk and promised to continue some priorities, such as the police accountability project. Yet he has sought to distance herself from Moriarty on other issues. Though Moriarty changed the office’s policies to avoid charging juveniles as adults, Frazier says he is open to the possibility of such charges.
“I don’t know why it’s fair for him to say I’m going to be Mary Moriarty 2.0, but we can’t truthfully, truthfully say and talk about the fact that you worked under Donald Trump and you’re a partner at Jones Day,” Frazier said.
The family of the woman slain by the two teens said they felt betrayed by Moriarty’s decision to charge them as juveniles instead of adults. Frazier said that he will be more skillful in talking to community members than Moriarty. He will bring the same approach to killings perpetrated by law enforcement officers, he said.
“I’m going to have use-of-force experts right there with me, helping to inform me when I make those decisions,” he said. “And I’ll be very clear: If the case can’t be charged, I will go out and I will have that tough conversation with the community.”
In a Truth Social post, Mr. Trump called fears around artificial intelligence possibly becoming a superintelligence that could pose a threat to human existence a hoax.
Health authorities work to notify people who were exposed to person who traveled through at least six counties
California public health officials are warning of a possible measles exposure spanning multiple counties after an infected and unvaccinated passenger traveled through the state via Amtrak trains and thruway buses.
The warning comes as the US faces its largest measles resurgence in more than three decades, fueled largely by growing vaccine hesitancy.
Supporters’ club says billionaire should stand down after ‘completely unacceptable’ comments on the UK and empire
Manchester United’s Muslim supporters’ Club (MUMSC) has called for the Premier League side’s co-owner to step down after he made “completely unacceptable” comments during a BBC interview.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe described the UK as being a country “on the slide” from the days when it had “the greatest empire in the world”.
U.S. military intelligence received an inaccurate report this spring that a Chinese ship in the Middle East was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program, reports CNN.
"The US military swung into action with plans to intercept the vessel, according to four sources familiar with the episode."
Armed members of the US military were preparing to board the ship [according to two of the sources]. Military planes were in the air, one of those sources and another source familiar with the incident said. It was only just before the planned operation that officials dug deeper into the report put together by a special operations command analyst and found it had been generated with the help of AI — and that a chatbot the analyst had used inaccurately identified the material the ship was carrying.
The report, according to one of the sources, was "entirely false." But it also "almost started a war," the source said. Any US operation against a Chinese vessel could have risked spiraling into an armed conflict between the two nations.
Across the US military and the intelligence community, officials are pushing to weave AI into nearly every facet of their work, from analyzing the huge volumes of raw intelligence the US collects and selecting targets for strikes, to more mundane applications like managing budgeting, logistics and supply chains. But the episode underscores the profound risks of using this powerful, new and relatively poorly understood technology for targeting in the middle of a war...
Officials say the US can't afford to fall behind in integrating AI in case it must one day fight China or another adversary who would potentially be able to stay one step ahead of the US. In January, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released his agency's "Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Strategy" in a bid to speed up the military's use of AI. "We will unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, focus our investments and demonstrate the execution approach needed to ensure we lead in military AI," Hegseth said in a speech announcing the strategy.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader stabiesoft for sharing the news.
No injuries reported after about 280 people taken to safety from the Grand Burstin in Folkestone after blaze
A large fire that broke out overnight at a seaside hotel and forced hundreds of people to evacuate is being treated by police as suspicious.
Emergency services were called just after 1am on Saturday to the Grand Burstin hotel in Folkestone, where a fire is believed to have started in the basement, Kent fire and rescue service said.
Patrick Clancy and wife Rachel Danis to speak publicly on 60 Minutes on Sunday about Massachusetts murder trial
Patrick Clancy and his wife Rachel Danis are set to describe their experiences of the Massachusetts triple-murder trial of his former wife Lindsay Clancy, with Clancy telling 60 Minutes: “I live with it every day, but I think I did the best I could.”
The couple will on Sunday night make their first public comments on the case. CBS has been trailing excerpts of the broadcast.
Bert Atienza and teen worker reportedly exchanged words before parents showed up and allegedly attacked shopper
A 77-year-old Walmart shopper died after he was allegedly attacked inside a Virginia store by the parents of a teenage employee he had confronted over a shopping cart incident involving his wife, according to US media reports.
Bert Atienza died from blunt head trauma on 8 June, one day after the attack at the Walmart in Norfolk, Virginia, WTKR reported on Monday. The shocking incident was captured on surveillance video.
British Museum chair tells Big Brue festival he thought no one would find out about the private viewing
George Osborne has said he thought no one would find out about a private viewing of the Bayeux tapestry he organised for the tech billionaire Peter Thiel at the British Museum.
The former chancellor, who is chair of the museum, told the Big Brue festival in Somerset that he had been on holiday when Thiel was shown the medieval artwork.
President said he was banning journalists from those organizations, saying of their coverage: ‘You get sick of it.’
Journalists from three US outlets were denied access to the White House grounds on Saturday morning a day after Donald Trump said he would ban them from the executive branch complex in a move that has prompted outrage and shock from free-speech advocates.
The outlets were television broadcasters MS Now and CNN as well as the political news website Politico.
President Trump announced he struck a deal to give the U.S. "permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns."
Archmere football lines up on offense at the start of its game against the St. Mark’s Spartans, September 18. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti
The Archmere Auks (2-0) defeated the St. Mark’s Spartans (0-3), 8-0, on September 18, earning their first Class 2A win of the season and second shutout in as many games.
WILMINGTON, DE — Archmere’s junior quarterback, Shane Harding, stood in the shotgun formation with fellow junior, Wyatt Beekley, standing beside him for the third straight play. Beekly ran the ball out of the same formation the past two plays, helping the Auks earn a first and goal opportunity from the St. Mark’s three-yard line with a little less than 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
On first and goal, Archmere turned to its trusted running back one more time.
Beekly ran from the right hip of Harding and took the handoff to the left of the center. Beekly looked for a running lane inside, but quickly bounced the run wide of the guard and between the tackle, finding enough room to barrel into the endzone for the first touchdown of the game.
Beekly’s touchdown was the only score in Archmere’s 8-0 win over the St. Mark’s Spartans, Friday night, in the first Class 2A game of the season for either squad.
Beekly finished the game with 58 rushing yards and the one touchdown as part of an Archmere rushing attack that gained over 200 yards throughout the game. Harding led all rushers with 126 yards on the ground and fellow junior, Nathan Blessington, ran for just under 70.
“We just have so many plays that work off each other, like, our plays are all built to like confuse the defense,” Beekly said about what makes Archmere’s running attack so effective. “We have so many weapons outside, inside. Shane’s willing to run anyone over so, I mean, we just have so many weapons that I believe in our offense and we can go as far as we want.”
The Archmere running game played well throughout the night, but it was the two defenses that made big plays to keep the game close throughout.
The Auks started the game by receiving the kick-off and drove the ball into Spartan territory on the game’s opening possession. Archmere got as far as the Spartan 22-yard line before the St. Mark’s defense earned a sack and forced the Auks into a turnover on downs. Archmere’s next offensive possession was thwarted deep in Spartan territory as were a couple others in the first half.
Archmere’s defense held the Spartans to their side of the field through the first half. St. Mark’s crossed midfield for the first time on their opening possession of the third quarter — driving to the Archmere 23-yard-line — before the Auks defense halted the drive. A couple possessions later Archmere scored the game’s only touchdown on a six play drive, all of which were runs.
“The word of the week we had in practice was finish and at halftime coach was not happy with how we had been finishing the drives, but we finished it at the end so that’s all that matters,” Harding said.
The Spartans followed Archmere’s scoring drive with a strong drive of their own working their way to Archmere’s 36-yard line. The Auks defense held firm there, stopping St. Mark’s on fourth down and returning the ball to their offense. The Spartans defense did the same on the Auks’ next offensive possession and the Spartans’ offense took over at their own 35-yard line with a little over two and half minutes to play and a chance to tie the game.
St. Mark’s senior quarterback, Kyle Iudica, connected with fellow senior Ta’Son Wallace for 23 yards on the drive’s first play, but the Archmere defense stopped the Spartan offense on the next set of downs. The Auks defense allowed the offense to gain just two more yards during the drive, successfully keeping the Spartans out of the endzone each time they encroached into Archmere territory.
“I think we got a lot of dogs on the other side of the ball, a lot of guys stepping up, a lot of young guys,” Archmere senior Francis Morda said postgame describing the Auks’ defensive unit. “We have a lot of grit and you can’t teach that, that’s all heart. That’s all it is.”
The Auks defense finished the game with two sacks and their first shutout against the Spartans since the DIAA quarterfinals in 2021.
“We look forward to this game every year, we circle it on the calendar, but we got to build off this,” Morda said. “We’re 2-0, but we have a lot of things to fix. We just gotta move forward to DMA and just focus one game at a time.”
Archmere’s next game will be on September 25, against another Class 2A opponent, Delaware Military Academy. The game will start at 7:00 p.m. and take place at Delaware Military Academy.
The Spartans will play the second game of their two-game home stand against William Penn on September 25. That game will start at 7:00 p.m.
Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum holds 16th-century paintings stolen by the Nazis during the second world war
Jewish heirs of Holocaust victims and their representatives have filed two lawsuits in California staking their claims to Nazi-looted paintings that still hang on the walls of prominent museums in Los Angeles and Auschwitz.
This pair of lawsuits are the first to be filed after the recent passage of laws by California and the US Congress, which strengthen US-based claims to artwork that were forcibly taken from Jewish families during the second world war.
An on-air helicopter crash killed journalist Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw, shaking LA’s news tradition
The whir of news helicopters flying overhead has long been a familiar soundtrack to life in Los Angeles – and the footage they gather of high-speed chases, wildfires and celebrity sightings a fixture of local television.
For nearly 70 years, Angelenos have gotten their news from “the eye in the sky” – from scenes of OJ Simpson’s fleeing white Bronco, the 1992 LA riots and even Madonna’s wedding to Sean Penn.
Russians are voting in parliamentary elections this weekend but, in contrast to the many uncertainties of life in today’s Russia, the outcome — in favoring the governing party, United Russia — is assured.
The president has threatened to block renovations and suggested the landmark could be demolished after courts ruled against his bid to rename it
It was born with the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. “Young people will come here and they will see this cultural centre,” Rose Kennedy, the mother of slain US president John F Kennedy, said at that opening night gala. “They will carry some of these ideas back to their different communities.”
More than half a century later, the potential death knell came just after 4.30pm on Tuesday with a perfunctory announcement on the public address system: “The centre is now closed to the public. Please exit the centre by way of the Hall of States.” Soon barricades had been erected and security guards were blocking access.
The F-16 "experienced an incident," the Texas Military Department said in a statement, adding that "The pilot successfully ejected the aircraft and is receiving care at a nearby hospital."
ABC News reports:
A Texas Air National Guard F-16 crashed in Michigan during a training mission on Thursday afternoon, sparking an hourslong evacuation near the crash site, according to officials.
The incident prompted the evacuation of homes and businesses within 1 mile of the crash site due to a "hazardous chemical spill related to the plane crash," Michigan State Police said... All of the Texas Air National Guard aircraft that were in Michigan for the training were immediately grounded, and will likely remain so for the next 24 hours, according to a U.S. official.
America's War Department has said it wanted to see more military flyovers writes The Daily Beast, adding that the F-16 "was due to perform a flyover at a high-school football game on Friday night, the Alpena News reported."
The military said it was still investigating the cause of the crash, but one pilot told air traffic controllers that he believes his wingman hit a bird before the crash....
The accident followed a Pentagon X post on Thursday after widespread criticism of low-altitude flyovers and maneuvers. "The flyovers will continue until morale improves," it said.
The data brief comes as Republican cuts to food assistance programs, colloquially called “food stamps”, have led enrollment to “plummet”. Changes to US dietary guidelines, led by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, have also made a government-recommended diet more expensive. A new “food pyramid” released in January emphasized animal protein, fresh fruit and vegetables, all of which cost more, according to studies.
Michael Marra supports development of the North Sea sites, calling for a ‘more rational’ approach to energy policy
Scottish Labour’s new leader Michael Marra has backed the development of the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gasfields in the North Sea in one of his first acts after being elected, calling for a “more rational” approach to energy policy.
On Saturday, the MSP for North East Scotland won a near two-thirds majority to lead the party in Holyrood, becoming Scottish Labour’s 11th leader. He replaces Anas Sarwar after his shock decision to resign in July to join Andy Burnham’s new government as a trade minister.
Parents of Eleanor, 3, both died within a year. Her dad’s killer was just convicted. Now a man faces trial in her mother’s car crash death
Brian Hinck followed from a distance the suburban New Orleans trial resulting in the convictions on Thursday of three people charged in the drugging death of his son-in-law, Telemundo sports reporter Adan Manzano.
That was because he and his family had simultaneously been girding themselves for another trial scheduled to start four days later: that of the motorist charged in the car crash that killed his daughter, Ashleigh Boyd, in Topeka, Kansas.
Passkeys are a fantastic technology. Since they are bound to the site they are created for, they cannot be phished by a hacker’s fake login screen. If a site suffers a data breach, passkeys are asymmetric and cannot be recovered from the server-side details.
This leads to passkeys being the perfect fit for a corporate environment, but a poor fit for personal security. To an individual, the greatest risks are instead permanent account lockout, automated account bans, and device loss. By using passkeys, you gain better security against man-in-the-middle attacks but face the higher probability scenario of losing access to your accounts.
Phishing through the standard login flow is eliminated by passkeys, but it creates a false sense of security. An account’s security is still dictated by the weakest recovery method: SMS, email links, security questions, and so on. If these recovery methods aren’t enabled, then the risk of permanent lockout remains for the user.
I’ve always felt something was off about passkeys, and have never used them. They’ve become – or were always intended to be – tools for further lock-in by especially Google and Apple, tying their entire usage flow to their respective operating systems. They also don’t seem to work well if you often work on devices not your own, which is a major hassle. None of these shortcomings come into play when using a traditional password manager, even if they require more manual work.
Just let me use a password manager with random password generation, instead of trying to force passkeys down my throat.
Officials lack data on miscarriages after October 2025. Detained women aren’t getting the prenatal healthcare they need
Maga men have babies on the brain. They may not all be interested in changing diapers or hands-on parenting, but they’re very keen on population growth. “[W]e want more babies, to put it very nicely,” Donald Trump said last year.
Trump, who has called himself the “father of IVF” and joked that he will be known as the “fertilization president”, surrounds himself with people who profess a similar fondness for children. Only a few days after being sworn in as vice-president, JD Vance declared he wanted “more babies in the United States of America” and went on to make pronatalist policies a theme of his time in office.
Polls show voters who helped elect president unhappy – and may be willing to vote Democrat in midterms
Hispanic voters who helped re-elect Donald Trump in 2024 are discontent with his second-term economic and immigration policies, according to recent polling – indicating they may not be willing to support the president’s party in the midterm elections.
Despite a record number of Hispanic voters casting their ballots for the Republican president, more than 65% said they are displeased with Trump’s handling of his job and 78% said they would prefer to see the Democratic party in control of Congress, according to a September poll from the New York Times/Siena University.
Meet the candidates with labor ties vying for Senate and House seats in midterm races. Most of the nominees are Democrats as the party looks to rebuild support among working-class voters
The US labor movement is having a banner election year.
More than three dozen nominees for open House and Senate races across the US have backgrounds as labor union representatives or members.
Acts of ‘familicide’ have increased dramatically this year – in the US, the killer is more likely to have easy access to a gun
The US is often known globally for its shocking levels of violence, but acts of “family annihilation” or “familicide” rank among the most disturbing of crimes.
They occur when an assailant kills four or more of their own family members and often see the killer also kill themselves. These types of crime have increased dramatically this year, according to data from Northeastern University.
Wildfires have burned more than 8.5 million acres of land in the U.S. this year, and at the peak of the season, there weren't enough people or equipment to fight them.
Steven Kolb of the Council of Fashion Designers of America was filmed during an altercation at New York fashion week
The chief executive of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Steven Kolb, has resigned after he was filmed physically restraining two animal rights activists during an altercation at New York fashion week.
“After 20 years leading the CFDA, I have made the difficult decision to step down as CEO and president,” Kolb said in a statement. “I am enormously proud of what we have built together and believe this is the right moment for both me and the organisation to begin a new chapter.”
Tailgate food has to survive the drive before anyone takes a bite. These 15 appetizers cover chilled dips, sliders, wings, skewers, pinwheels, and other easy-to-pack options for game day.The post 15 tailgate appetizers that travel as well as they taste…
Frozen dinners can stay in the freezer when these 17 casserole recipes are on the table. Cheesy pasta bakes, chicken casseroles, beefy classics, and Tex-Mex dishes give dinner more range without extra fuss.The post 17 casserole recipes that made my…
The revelation ‘left experts scratching their heads at exactly what Donald Trump has in his cosmic arsenal’
In Hollywood at least, space weapons are a relatively simple concept. The good guys, from Captain Kirk and his crew in Star Trek, to Luke Skywalker’s rebel alliance in Star Wars, battle intergalactic villains with an array of colorful lasers and particle-beam cannons, then the bad guys get dispatched in a spectacular, explosive finale.
The messaging coming out of the White House on the subject, by contrast, could not be more vague.
Nearly 70 students in Dundee have been left scrambling to find accommodation for this academic year after the latest in a string of university housing schemes went bust amid severe financial strain on the sector.
Students in the city have been forced to find alternative housing and rapidly move their possessions as term begins this month after the collapse of the owner of Marketgait Apartments, a city centre block.
As villagers take stock following symbolic vote, some fear far-right weaponisation of asylum dispute and influx of ‘masked people like in Dover’
The first significant event in the newly independent principality of Piddington was a decision to select the newt as the national animal, reflecting optimism that the amphibian’s endangered status might help block plans to open a centre for 1,250 asylum seekers on neighbouring land.
The choice was announced on Thursday morning, the day after Piddington announced that villagers had voted overwhelmingly to leave the UK. Parish councillors were also thinking about asking local children to design a flag and considering whether the new principality’s national sport should be cricket or football.
Sensors that monitor vehicle volume are said to be ‘electronic assault weapons’ by the ‘Blade Runners’ group
At the top of an extendable ladder on a quiet street of Ilfracombe, in Devon, an older woman dressed smartly in cropped trousers, a red rain jacket and matching red socks is chopping at some wires at the top of a set of traffic lights with a small pair of pliers.
A grey-haired man holding a takeaway coffee supports the ladder, while others, filming their activities, give encouragement from behind the camera. “Yeah, that’s how you do it,” says one man. “Just cut the wires.”
With growing support networks online and in person, these moms say they’re changing the narrative around Black single motherhood
When Chamise Alston was ready to have a child, she connected her computer to her TV and scrolled through profiles with her best friend, dismissing people who seemed like the wrong fit. Unlike the average millennial on a dating app, Alston was scanning a sperm bank catalogue for potential donors. The Maryland-based therapist hoped to conceive a child through the assisted reproductive technology in vitro-fertilization (IVF).
That winter day in 2023, Alston and her friend chose a donor who would help her become pregnant with her now 16-month-old daughter. As a Black woman, she felt empowered taking control of her reproductive destiny.
Fed chair presided over unanimous decision to raise interest rates despite intense campaign from White House
In the end, Kevin Warsh’s Federal Reserve acquitted itself well. For all the uncertainty he had sparked at the previous meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, when he refused to provide any indication of what he was prepared to do to tame stubborn inflation, the chair on Wednesday presided over a unanimous decision to raise interest rates for the first time in three years.
“Today’s action starts to show that we’re serious about this,” he said at the press conference after the meeting, with “this” meaning inflation in excess of the Fed’s 2% target for over five years. Welcome though it was, his embrace of economic orthodoxy nonetheless did little to dispel the Keystone Cops quality of governance in Donald Trump’s US.
Exclusive: key White House loyalist orchestrating multi-agency effort condemned by critics as cruel and racist
Stephen Miller is leading an unprecedented and intense White House drive across a host of government departments to accelerate the removal of undocumented immigrant children from the US, using tactics that critics say are cruel and racist and, in some cases, flout federal law, the Guardian has learned.
As deputy chief of staff at the White House, focused on immigration policy, Miller is seen as the mastermind and enforcer behind Donald Trump’s hardline anti-immigration agenda.
Leaders of Florida International University signed an agreement to deputize its school police as immigration agents. Some wish they had put up more of a fight.
Canadian boxer George Chuvalo, who has died at 89, lost his wife and three sons to suicide and heroin. He channeled his grief into an anti-drug campaign.
In a six-week trip, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hopes to convince midterm voters that free markets still offer the best hope for solving the nation’s economic woes.
Energy bills are scheduled to rise next month but there are innovative ways to heat your home and save money
When Giles Gibson turns on the hot tap in his home, the water that comes out of it is not heated by gas but by the tiny datacentre strapped to the tank.
Attached to the hot water cylinder in his London home is a compact computer server that generates heat and then transfers it as it operates.
Silicon Valley China hawks, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei among them, fear the country surpassing US’s AI lead as much as superintelligence destroying humanity
When reporters asked Donald Trump this week if he supported calls to slow down the development of artificial intelligence out of growing fears for cybersecurity, public safety andthe fate of humanity, he said no. His argument: China.
“We’re leading China in AI,” Trump said. “We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI, wins.”
Photo collage by ProPublica. Source images: Laura Gordon Photography, Telegram.
My colleagues and I had been digging for days. We’d heard a rumor that a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin named Umar Kremlev had attended Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding this past May in the Bahamas. But to confirm that, we needed visual proof.
First, we scoured everything the Trumps had released from the event, held on a pair of private islands. On social media and in the pages of tabloids such as Page Six and Hello! magazine, official photos from the weekend showed an intimate chapel ceremony alongside lavish beach parties. Several photos depicted guests, including Jared Kushner and Eric Trump, and we scanned them all for signs of Kremlev. Still, nothing had turned up yet.
We then turned to Kremlev’s social media profiles on the off chance that he’d posted about the wedding. Incredibly, on Telegram, Kremlev had posted videos over the same weekend as Trump Jr.’s wedding that appeared to be from someplace tropical. In one, a single detail caught our attention: As Kremlev speaks in Russian to the camera, the frame gives a partial view of an outdoor patio setting. It wasn’t palm trees or crystal water we noticed, but the wicker furniture.
The wicker patio furniture in the background of a video posted by Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev the same weekend as Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding provided a clue as to his whereabouts.Via Umar Kremlev’s Telegram account
The chair and its affixed cushion in Kremlev’s post matched what we’d seen in photos of the private islands elsewhere online, such as the promotional image below:
A promotional photo taken at one of the islands that was the site of Trump Jr.’s wedding events depicted the same wicker patio furniture as seen in Kremlev’s video background.
But of course, we couldn’t hang such a big claim — that this Russian oligarch had attended the president’s son’s intimate wedding weekend — on a wicker chair analysis. The Trump family appeared to be curating the wedding’s visual footprint, and not much seemed to exist outside of its control.
So when my colleagues Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Joshua Kaplan and I finally found a photo that confirmed what we’d been looking for, we were floored. The proof had been hiding in an Instagram gallery posted months earlier by a swimsuit model and friend of the bride, nestled among glamour shots and lifestyle photos.
The sunset group shot on a white sand beach shows wedding guests, barefoot and smiling against a backdrop of palms. One guest throws up a shaka. Front and center is the president’s eldest son and his bride, Bettina Trump, surrounded by close friends and family.
A group photo posted on Instagram by a swimsuit model and friend of the bride shows wedding guests.Instagram
But in the back row, just behind the newlyweds, the top half of a man’s shaved head is visible.
We recognized him instantly: Kremlev.
That photo was at the center of our story this week, in which we revealed that Kremlev secretly bankrolled much of Trump Jr.’s wedding weekend, paying to rent out a private island, among other big-ticket items, according to records reviewed by ProPublica and interviews with three people familiar with the events. The photo also showed two others associated with Kremlev, part of a larger group of Russians whose presence puzzled some attendees. That made their absence from all other official wedding photos all the more noteworthy — especially for a gathering of only 50 or so guests.
Kremlev is visible in the back of a group photo from the wedding weekend.Laura Gordon Photography via Instagram
The story spread quickly. Within hours of publication, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee opened an investigation into Trump Jr.’s relationship with Kremlev, asking for communications between the two and records of “all purchases made for your wedding by foreign nationals.” (Trump Jr. did not respond to a request for comment on the investigation.) It also prompted Bettina Trump to post a joint statement with Trump Jr. on her Instagram, which included even more photos from the wedding weekend.
In response to detailed questions, a spokesperson for Trump Jr. did not dispute the wedding payments from Kremlev. “Umar is a personal friend of Don,” he said. The spokesperson said that Kremlev is “not someone he has a business relationship with.” In a statement, Kremlev’s press office said, “Mr. Kremlev and Mr. Trump Jr have a friendly relationship,” and they first met “a couple of years ago.”
Other than the photo we’ve shared, the images from that weekend remain tightly curated and don’t seem to tell the full story. So we thought we’d share a few examples with the added context from our findings. Sometimes, what — or, in this case, who — isn’t pictured is just as important as what is.
The Setting
The island where the reception party was held can rent for about $100,000 per night. Kremlev paid for multiple nights.Little Pipe Cay/Lux Hospitality Bahamas
The weekend festivities were spread across two ultra-exclusive private islands in the Exumas, a chain of storybook Caribbean destinations with white sand beaches and brilliant turquoise water. Islands there have been owned by the likes of Johnny Depp, David Copperfield and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault. People arrived by helicopter and seaplanes to infinity pools and oceanfront villas.
The island where Trump Jr. and his bride exchanged vows on Friday was featured in “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Casino Royale.” (Kremlev was not present for the Friday ceremony, which involved an even smaller group.)
On a second nearby island, about 10 minutes by boat from where the ceremony took place, a reception party was held. This island can rent for around $100,000 per night, and Kremlev paid for multiple nights.
The Caribbean-Themed Party
The magazine Hello! shared an image of Trump Jr. wearing a Junkanoo headpiece while dancing with his new bride.Laura Gordon Photography via Hello!
On the second night, more guests arrived for a party on the same island where the ceremony took place. The evening was Caribbean themed, with a beachside DJ and a performance by a Junkanoo band. On Instagram, Bettina Trump described the night as “an unforgettable night of pure joy, music, sunset, and dancing barefoot in the sand, surrounded by nothing but love in paradise…It was everything we dreamed of and more… pure magic.”
“Paper Trail” Podcast
Learn more about this story on ProPublica’s podcast “Paper Trail.”
Among the guests was Kremlev, arriving just days after accompanying Putin in China as part of a Russian delegation, according to Chinese state media. (Kremlev’s press office said that he was not part of Putin’s “official delegation” in China.) Kremlev’s ties to Putin and the Russian security services prompted the Ukrainian government to impose sanctions on him personally.
In their joint statement on Instagram, the couple said that Kremlev paid for the parties on both the second and third night of their wedding weekend, but they drew a distinction between the ceremony itself and the rest of the events.
“Our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding. It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful,” the couple wrote.
The First Dance
Kremlev paid for the Sunday night wedding party during which the couple shared their first dance. Kremlev paid for the Saturday night party, too.Laura Gordon Photography via Hello!
On Sunday, the newlyweds shared their first dance to Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”Photos published in Hello! magazine showed the couple on the dance floor underneath disco balls strung up among palm trees. They embraced as guests watched. Bettina Trump wore her wedding dress. The night was nautical themed, complete with a seafood boat buffet, an illusionist and scantily clad dancers in stilettos and sailor outfits.
The Sunday night party that Kremlev paid for featured a seafood boat buffet.Laura Gordon Photography via Hello!Scantily clad dancers in stilettos and sailor outfits perform for guests at the Sunday night party, which Kremlev paid for.Laura Gordon Photography via Instagram
The wedding payments came from a Dubai entity affiliated with the International Boxing Association, a scandal-plagued sports group that Kremlev heads. The IBA has been financed by the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom. Kremlev picked up the tab for the festivities on Saturday and Sunday.
Kremlev’s press office described him as a businessman and philanthropist, adding, “Mr. Kremlev has never discussed political matters with any of his American friends and acquaintances,” including Trump Jr. It said the boxing organization itself did not incur expenses for the wedding but did not comment on the payments from the Dubai entity.
The Fireworks
Trump Jr. and his wife, Bettina Trump, watch fireworks paid for by Kremlev.Laura Gordon Photography via Lewis Miller Design
At the Sunday reception, Trump Jr. and his new wife stood on the beach, gazing out as a barge launched a spectacular fireworks display over the ocean. It was an extravagant cap off the wedding weekend.
Kremlev picked up the tab for the fireworks display. The company that put it on typically charges around $70,000 for such shows.
There are still lingering questions we didn’t get to the bottom of. Among the most pressing: Why did a Russian oligarch who is close to Putin pay for much of the president’s son’s wedding? What is the nature of Trump Jr.’s relationship with Kremlev, and, importantly, how might it change over time? Frank Montoya Jr., a retired career FBI official who held senior counterintelligence roles, put it this way:
“If I’m paying for your wedding, at some point, you’re going to owe me something.”
Do You Have Information We Should Know About Donald Trump Jr.?
We’re still reporting. If you know anything about Trump Jr., his businesses or his relationship with Umar Kremlev, please get in touch.
"Software security researchers used Anthropic's Claude AI platform to hack OpenAI's ChatGPT tool," reports CBS News.
Using Claude, "On July 25, 2026, we chained two critical vulnerabilities to compromise multiple OpenAI employees' ChatGPT accounts," write researchers at security platform Hacktron AI. "With these accounts, we could then access internal OpenAI repositories, and potentially many other connectors... Until two months ago, any user or OpenAI employee logging into OpenAI's own help forum could have had their ChatGPT and Codex accounts taken over. Since people can connect various services to Codex and ChatGPT, the scope of what we could theoretically access was huge, including GitHub, Slack and emails."
The exploit chain included Debian 12, which (with Debian 13) had not received a security-relevant backport for its image-processing pipeline, and Discourse's Docker image was based on Debian 12. Their announcement comes with an additional warning. "If you self-host Discourse, rebuild your installation now. Older Docker images may contain a vulnerable libheif dependency that permits code execution through an image upload."
And "To prove we had in fact gained the access we believed without allowing ourselves to learn any sensitive information, we used the employee's Codex to open a PR #1186742 in OpenAI's internal monorepo openai/openai."
Meanwhile, Friday Google disclosed the first known instance of its AI software Gemini breaking out of a testing environment and breaching three other companies, reports CNBC:
The incident happened as part of a "capture-the-flag" security test run by Israeli startup Irregular, and Google's agents were never supposed to access the broader internet, but a bug in the testing environment made internet access available. The agents stopped their intrusion when they determined they had accessed real company systems, not just part of the testing environment, Google said.
More from NBC News:
Google said it did not consider the unauthorized logins to rise to the level of misalignment, the AI industry term for software going rogue or not following instructions. Instead, the company said the intrusions resulted from mistaken identity, where Gemini thought it was operating within a test but was actually connected to the real internet. Google said the model corrected itself and the company believed the intrusions did not cause any damage....
Sydney Von Arx, CEO of Nightingale Collective, an organization focused on AI safety, questioned why Google did not disclose the intrusions sooner. "At this point I think it's clear we cannot expect companies to voluntarily come forward and publicly disclose when their agents go rogue, escape, and hack companies," she said. She also said she believed Google was too hasty to say that the incidents don't rise to the level of misalignment. "That's exactly what Anthropic said after their incidents," she said. Anthropic later said its "preliminary analysis was constrained due to our desire to disclose incidents in a timely manner."
Google said it investigated when they learned of the attacks from AI-focused cybersecurity company Irregular, then informed the affected organizations and told federal authorities, according to the article.
As Gaza documentary wins cinematic acclaim, its directors face vitriol in Israel amid a febrile election campaign
First there was a moment of stunned silence. Then, in the Sala Grande, the main screening hall of the Venice film festival within the Palazzo del Cinema, the audience stood almost as one and turned to applaud the film-makers for 25 minutes.
The film the audience had watched for 80 harrowing minutes was the Gaza documentary NAZA, which has been produced by the Guardian.
BEIJING, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As this year marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), a national conference on Party building was held in Beijing on June 15, making arrangements for studying…
BEIJING, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ahead of the opening of the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance, Chinese AI start-up Moonshot AI released its Kimi K3 large language model. As the world's largest open-source…
The James Webb Space Telescope has been picking up little red dots in almost every image,
writes Quanta magazine. And now two teams of astronomers propose they're looking at a new astronomical object: a black hole star. It shines with the light of billions of suns — and hides a black hole in its core.
But Quanta adds that "not everyone agrees with this bold interpretation."
[Two Webb telescope surveys of distant objects included little red dots] for hours at a time. They tabulated precisely what shades of light were coming from each dot, and how bright the shades were... The bombshell discovery in the little red dot spectra was that the colors of hydrogen were smeared out across multiple shades. Usually, seeing such an effect means you're looking straight at an exposed black hole. Black holes whip hydrogen clouds around them at furious rates, with the clouds emitting slightly different colors depending on their speed...
Then, in the spring of 2025, [two of the paper's astronomers] de Graaff and Naidu's teams unveiled the two strangest dots yet... The new little red dots couldn't literally be stars — they were way too bright. And they didn't look much like black holes either. Black holes have an assortment of ringlike structures of different temperatures... Naidu and de Graaff concluded that they were[ looking at the first examples of something combining the vigor of a black hole with the outward appearance of a star: a black hole star... This black hole would pull gas around it, dramatically heating it and pushing light and energy outward, which would keep the outer layers of hydrogen from collapsing inward. In this way, the black hole would form the "engine" of the star, analogous to the fusion-powered core of our sun... "We are seeing the seed," Naidu said. "This is the birth of potentially every massive black hole in the universe."
"Astronomers have spent the last year in a lively debate about what's really going on," Quanta adds. And this week simulations using the Japanese Supercomputer ATERUI III "have explained the nature of the Little Red Dots without requiring any exotic assumptions," writes Phys.org — by conducting the most detailed cosmological simulations yet of conditions in the early universe:
The simulations show that the Little Red Dots are black holes growing at a rate that would be impossible today because of conditions in the early universe. The simulations show that in the early universe, intense far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation from nearby galaxies suppresses star formation in gas clouds, so rather than forming many small stars, the gas can form a single supermassive star, which then collapses into a black hole seed.
The simulations show that, once formed, these black hole seeds are surrounded by dense gas disks. This environment traps radiation, enabling the black holes to grow at rates dozens of times faster than would be possible in the modern universe. The simulated properties of these rapidly growing black holes provide a good match to the Little Red Dots (LRDs) observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Exclusive: In her first media interview since fleeing Russia, Rita Flores describes her three years of being run by the FSB
First came the blackmail and death threats to secure cooperation, then came a series of tasks, each more sinister than the last: to inform on fellow activists, to elicit personal information from protest-minded artists and – eventually – to help with a plot to kidnap and murder a Kremlin enemy.
That is how Rita Flores, a 29-year-old Russian artist, activist and former member of the Pussy Riot collective, described her recruitment and three-year handling by officers from Russia’s FSB security service, a cooperation she only broke when she fled the country last month.
The U.S. Department of Energy is launching a competition with up to $215 million in planned funding to push quantum computers toward useful scientific work, offering early awards and shared incentive pools for companies that demonstrate fault-tolerant systems with at least 100 logical qubits.
Announced Sept. 17, the Quantum Genesis Q Competition is part of DOE’s push toward scientifically relevant quantum computing by 2028. The department is seeking fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of demonstrating scientific workflows in areas including chemistry, materials, physics and applied mathematics.
The competition allows for multiple awardees. Its largest payments would come from pools shared by companies meeting specified capability targets, while a separate national laboratory effort would develop tools to verify the systems’ performance.
It’s worth noting that both efforts depend heavily on future funding. The competition includes $2.5 million in fiscal 2026 dollars, with funding in later years contingent on congressional appropriations. A companion validation and verification testbed has $45 million in planned funding, including $14 million in fiscal 2026 dollars.
Under the competition’s two-phase structure, Phase I will offer fixed awards of up to $1.5 million per awardee for meeting early milestones. Phase II will distribute a $100 million general incentive pool among awardees that demonstrate a first-generation scientifically relevant quantum computer with at least 100 logical qubits. Two additional $50 million pools would reward demonstrations at 150 and 200 logical qubits, respectively.
DOE’s solicitation provides for each incentive pool to be divided equally among qualifying awardees following a planned September 2028 evaluation. A company meeting the 200-logical-qubit threshold and other requirements could receive shares of all three pools.
“Through the Quantum Genesis Q Competition, we are building a new era of computational power for the nation through innovative public-private partnerships,” Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil said in the announcement.
An accompanying report from the Office of Science Advisory Committee’s quantum subcommittee provides the broader rationale. Chaired by Fermilab’s Anna Grassellino, the panel recommends scientific grand challenges that bring hardware developers together with national laboratory and university researchers to develop systems around specific scientific problems.
Darío Gil, Under Secretary for Science at U.S. Department of Energy
The report’s proposed progression runs from those challenges to a potential DOE Quantum Computing User Facility and eventually to broader integration of quantum technologies across the department’s scientific enterprise. It envisions quantum computing working alongside HPC, AI and experimental facilities, with future investments guided by demonstrated scientific value and technical readiness.
That is a broader undertaking than the Quantum Genesis Q Competition. The panel calls for coordinated work on applications, algorithms, software and enabling technologies, as well as quantum hardware. It also recommends giving researchers enough access to system architecture, controls and diagnostics to help improve scientific performance while protecting intellectual property.
The report cautions against choosing a single hardware approach prematurely. A future user facility could include complementary instruments at multiple national laboratories, although the committee leaves the eventual configuration open.
It also makes clear that the 2028 ambition is not a settled forecast. Participants consulted by the committee differed significantly over the pace of progress, with some anticipating scientifically useful fault-tolerant systems by 2028 and others expecting large-scale fault tolerance to take substantially longer.
“Achieving the aggressive 2028 goal articulated in the charge will require acceleration beyond current investment and development trajectories,” the report states. It calls for additional resources and coordination across government, industry, academia and the national laboratories.
Verifying scientific usefulness is another central part of the effort. The report argues that progress should be measured by the ability to solve compelling scientific problems, with hardware metrics forming only part of the assessment. Its roadmap calls for validation against classical calculations or experiments and increasingly demanding demonstrations of predictive scientific value.
DOE’s separate Quantum High-Performance Computing Validation and Verification Testbed Lab Call would utilize national laboratory expertise to characterize and validate hardware, quantum gates, logical architectures, algorithms, applications and classical control systems. The Department says those capabilities will support the competition.
The solicitation calls for a scientific workflow demonstration using a problem and algorithm identified at the program’s outset. The demonstration need not tackle a problem beyond classical computing’s reach. Specific evaluation methods will be developed with selected participants.
In a briefing ahead of yesterday’s announcement, Gil described the DOE effort as complementary to DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, saying the agencies are working closely together. DARPA’s program evaluates whether quantum computing approaches can achieve industrially useful operation by 2033, with computational value exceeding cost. DARPA explicitly describes QBI as an evaluation of viable approaches rather than a competition among participants.
The distinction matters when comparing the programs: DOE is pursuing earlier scientific demonstrations, while DARPA’s stated test concerns economic utility. Their target dates should not be read as deadlines for identical capabilities.
The Q Competition is open to private sector companies, with final applications due Oct. 19. DOE plans a virtual informational webinar Sept. 25 at 1 p.m. Eastern. The separate testbed call is open to DOE national laboratories. Both are sponsored by the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research within DOE’s Office of Science.
Demonstrators gather after president spotted holding placard that read: ‘Kennedy Center DEMOLIS ...’
On Friday evening thousands of protesters gathered outside the Kennedy Center in view of the marble facade that remained concealed by scaffolding and tarpaulins, to protest Donald Trump’s plans for the facility and express alarm that he might make good on his threat to tear down the institution.
Crowding streets in the Foggy Bottom area of Washington and locking down traffic as they walked, many carried signs, as they joined in the “Hands Around the Kennedy Center” protest. Some wore costumes and booed when the president was mentioned during the program.
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that U.S. immigration officials must offer detainees "a meaningful opportunity to contest" any deportation to countries where they have no ties.
Why Should Delaware Care? Joe Arminio and Sarah McBride are the candidates that will be running for Delaware’s only seat in the U.S. House in November. Arminio’s misgendering of McBride, a prominent transgender lawmaker, has sparked new Republican Party divisions as it aims to become more competitive in statewide races.
Just days after the primary election, the state Republican Party is in revolt over its two most prominent candidates following one’s dismissal from a forum after repeatedly misgendering U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride.
During a candidate forum held Thursday by the Siegel Jewish Community Center in Wilmington, U.S. House candidate Joe Arminio twice misgendered the incumbent Democratic congresswoman, who is the first openly transgender member of Congress.
He was subsequently forced to leave the forum by organizers, and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mr. Mike Katz, who was on stage at the time apologized for Arminio’s conduct, saying he didn’t condone it.
In a statement late that evening, Katz called on Arminio to drop out of his race.
“We can disagree strongly about policy, politics, and the direction of our country. We can debate those differences vigorously. That is part of our democracy,” he said. ”But disagreement is not an excuse for disrespect. When someone seeking public office is given an opportunity to correct his conduct, acknowledges his mistake, receives an explicit warning, and then repeats that conduct, it raises serious concerns about the standards we should expect from those who seek to represent us.”
The state Republican Party, which had hoped that a reformation of leadership, policy platforms and fundraising efforts could resuscitate the party’s chances in the midterm elections after a decade of failures, will now have to contend with a serious division at the top of the ticket.
Arminio and the party, which endorsed the more moderate Katz overwhelmingly this spring but backed an opponent of Arminio’s, has yet to comment on the episode.
Arminio and GOP Party Chair Gene Truono did not respond to requests for comment Friday from Spotlight Delaware.
What happened at the forum?
In a recorded video livestream, Arminio is heard using the terms “his” and “he” to refer to McBride and was corrected by the audience, who loudly booed.
Arminio responded, asking the crowd to show respect to him as the speaker, but then shortly afterward referred to McBride as a man again, and then thanked the crowd for the correction.
After Arminio finished his speech, moderator Ken Grant stepped up to the microphone and said,“ This is your final warning. If you fail to show respect to anyone else on this stage, you’ll be asked to leave.”
During the answer to Arminio’s next question, he was able to acknowledge his error and said: “It’s not the first error I’ve made in this campaign or at any point in my future life.”
But a few minutes later, as Arminio was discussing private healthcare debt, he pointed at U.S. Sen. Chris Coons and McBride, referring to them as “gentlemen.”
“Gentlemen like the two here on this up here with me on the Democratic Party …,” he said.
The crowd began interrupting and yelling at Arminio.
The moderator can also be heard speaking over Arminio, saying to cut his mic and that he had been warned.
Despite all the boos and commotion from the crowd, McBride intervened to allow Arminio to still have a chance to speak despite the slights.
“Listen, I don’t want this gentleman to not be able to have the ability…” McBride said, before Katz stepped in to repeatedly call for Arminio’s removal.
After being kicked out of the panel, the conversations between the candidates continued, with McBride explaining that she has been focused on serving Delaware in Washington and not on politicians who are engaging in “petty stupid things, and in petty personal insults.”
But this was not the first time that Arminio, who was an underdog candidate in the primary race and largely made his campaign about economic issues, has insulted McBride.
Less than a week earlier, during a candidate forum on the popular “Rich Jensen” radio show on WDEL, the host had to correct Arminio’s misgendering there too. Jensen told Arminio that the policy of his program is to refer to McBride as “she” and to continue doing so.
Mike Katz was able to rally Republican support around his campaign in the general election, but new splits with voters over LGBTQ+ issues are emerging that could hurt his candidacy. | PHOTO COURTESY OF KATZ CAMPAIGN
Recoil against Katz
By calling for his colleague’s departure from the party ticket, Katz has perhaps earned a modicum of respect from centrist Democrats and independents, but he has also angered many conservatives.
The comment section of his statement on Facebook was flooded by commenters who expressed disappointment in the Senate candidate and said he has lost their vote.
It exposed the new face of the Republican Party to the new level of fractiousness of the modern GOP in Delaware.
John Shulli, the retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel who ran against Katz in the Senate primary this week and had lambasted Katz’s former affiliation with the state Democratic and Independent parties before recently becoming a Republican, jumped on the criticisms, calling his former opponent “the Benedict Arnold of Republicans” in a Friday video.
“Katz is a Democrat, and a coward, and a traitor to the Republican Party of Delaware. He should either withdraw from the race or change his affiliation to Democrat,” he said.
What impact the division over LGBTQ+ issues may have on Katz’s electoral chances remains to be seen, but he already faced a Herculean challenge.
Coons held nearly $4.8 million in campaign cash as of Aug. 26, while Katz had less than $100,000, according to federal campaign finance records.
The senior Democratic senator just captured 78% of the primary election vote in a year when Congressional incumbents are frequently being challenged by progressive challengers. He has never captured less than 55% of the vote in a Senate election and Republicans’ best finish yet against him was 42% of the vote.
Those issues only come atop the fact that Democrats have a roughly 130,000-voter advantage over Republicans as of Sept. 1.
Shapiro and Newsom aren’t the only governors making moves on AI lately.
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, announced at a news conference today plans for tighter rules on data center development in order to address transparency, energy use and environmental concerns. And Nevada’s governor, Joe Lombardo, a Republican, signed an executive order aimed at tackling similar issues.
The FBI says Daejon Love and his alleged accomplice, Taylor Chan, defrauded women they met on dating apps out of $1.3m
At least 35 additional women have come forward with fraud allegations against Daejon Love, the man accused last month of masquerading as a San Francisco 49ers player and wealthy investor, the FBI announced on Friday. Federal authorities had previously said Love conned more than two dozen women, many of whom he met on dating apps, out of $1.3m.
Love, 35, and alleged accomplice Taylor Chan, 18, who posed as his financial adviser, were arrested in August and have been charged with wire fraud.
The agreement would allow the US to expand its military presence, while Denmark and Greenland say it preserves their sovereignty and right to self-determination
Donald Trump announced on Friday that the US had struck an Arctic security pact with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland, after threatening for much of his second term to annex the semi-autonomous Danish territory by force.
The full scope of the deal Trump described as “very important, historic, and special” was not immediately clear. But soon after his announcement in a post on Truth Social, the leaders of Denmark and Greenland issued statements indicating the deal would be signed by the three governments on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly in New York City next week.
President Trump said he struck a deal to give the U.S. "permanent control over security" in Greenland following a push by the president to boost U.S. influence over the island — or take it over.
Disclosure comes after OpenAI and Anthropic hacks amid fears that tech firms unable to control powerful AI models
In a first for Google, the company confirmed that its AI model, Gemini, breached the security of three other companies in May. The hacks occurred during a cybersecurity evaluation by AI-security firm Irregular.
Irregular, an Israel-based startup that scrutinizes the security of advanced AI systems, was also at the center of some of the recent OpenAI and Anthropic hacks of third-party entities, including OpenAI’s breach of AI software company, Hugging Face.
Speaking of unsexy programming, we’ve got a new Java release.
Featuring thousands of performance, stability, security, and productivity improvements, Java 27 (Oracle JDK 27) provides a strong foundation for continued Java innovation. To help organizations prepare for more secure communications in a post-quantum world, Java 27 advances its post-quantum cryptography (PQC) capabilities with hybrid key exchange for TLS 1.3.
Look, nobody’s going to argue .NET is sexy, but the truth of the matter is that it’s quite popular in less visible circles, so any new release is going to have a big impact on a ton of people and product. In other words, performance improvements in .NET 11 are going to matter.
In contrast, .NET 11 is actually one higher, one louder. The sections that follow are full of real improvements. A bounds check removed, an allocation that no longer happens, a lock that isn’t taken, a loop that runs in fewer cycles than it did a year ago, a comparison folded to a constant here, a redundant check hoisted out of a loop there, a couple of instructions fused into one, a syscall sidestepped, an array copy handed off to SIMD, and on and on. That’s how real performance work goes, accumulating gain after gain, each compounding on the last, until the whole thing is measurably, provably louder. And so, in this post, as I’ve done in past years with .NET 10, .NET 9, .NET 8, .NET 7, .NET 6, .NET 5, .NET Core 3.0, .NET Core 2.1, and .NET Core 2.0 before it, we’ll take an unhurried tour through hundreds of them.
The CEO of the world's largest chipmaker told CBS News that tech companies should proceed with artificial intelligence development despite recent warnings from worried industry leaders that there may be a need to pull back.
Asked whether he feels like he failed in some way, Patrick Clancy told 60 Minutes he believes he did the best he could with the information he had at the time.
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are banned from the White House “effective immediately,” explicitly citing what he described as false and unfavorable coverage. He also suggested additional news organizations could face similar restrictions.
“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Speaking later in the Oval Office, he said the outlets “purposely write negative news” because they want to hurt Republicans and his administration. He did not identify specific reports he said were false.
Exactly how the ban will operate remains unclear. Reporters from the affected organizations were still working at the White House Friday afternoon, and Trump acknowledged he did not know when their credentials might be revoked.
CNN called the threatened ban an “illegal assault” on constitutionally protected press freedoms, while Politico said it would defend its First Amendment rights. The White House Correspondents’ Association and press-freedom organizations also objected.
The action raises significant constitutional questions because courts have previously limited the government’s ability to revoke White House press access based on unfavorable coverage. During Trump’s first term, a federal judge ordered the administration to restore CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s credential after the White House suspended it.
The announcement follows other disputes between the administration and major news organizations, including the White House’s earlier restrictions on Associated Press access. Trump said Friday that the latest move could eventually extend to additional outlets.
Sept. 18, 2026 — Yesterday, DOE Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil shared a new report from the Office of Science Advisory Committee’s Quantum Subcommittee outlining a path toward scientifically relevant, error-corrected quantum computing by 2028. The report recommends a phased effort beginning with competitive scientific challenges, followed by a potential Quantum Computing User Facility and broader integration of quantum technologies with DOE’s HPC, AI and experimental infrastructure.
The recommendations emphasize measuring progress through scientific results, developing hardware and applications together, and supporting multiple quantum computing technologies. In the following blog post, Gil discusses the report’s findings and how they could shape DOE’s approach to quantum computing for scientific discovery.
Darío Gil, Under Secretary for Science at U.S. Department of Energy
Every major shift in technology promises to redefine the boundaries of discovery. Quantum computing is rapidly transitioning from a phase of fundamental laboratory research into a scientifically revolutionary capability. As this technology races forward, we need a clear, defined path to success. That is why I charged the Office of Science Advisory Committee (SCAC) Quantum Subcommittee with an ambitious task: to chart a milestone-driven roadmap toward demonstrating a scientifically relevant, error-corrected quantum computer by 2028, and to articulate a long-term vision for a dedicated Quantum Computing User Facility.
Our mission now is to ensure the United States leads this next era of discovery.
Moving Beyond Hardware Metrics to Scientific Utility
For years, the quantum conversation has been dominated by hardware-centric milestones. While these metrics are vital, the SCAC report proposes a crucial shift in thinking: success must be measured by scientific utility.
Our goal is not simply to build the largest quantum computer; it is to solve problems that are otherwise completely intractable. We are talking about predicting exact molecular properties for drug discovery, designing transformative catalysts for manufacturing, simulating fusion-relevant materials, and modeling the fundamental physics of the early universe.
The report emphasizes that the Department of Energy is uniquely positioned to lead this transition. By leveraging our world-class National Laboratories, high-performance computing (HPC) centers, testbeds, and existing scientific User Facilities, we can integrate quantum processors directly into hybrid, classical-quantum workflows that accelerate real-world discovery.
A Phased Path to 2028 and Beyond
To achieve scientifically useful quantum computers, the SCAC recommends a highly strategic, three-phased framework that aligns with our national Quantum Genesis Initiative:
Phase I: The Quantum Grand Challenges (2026–2028): We will establish multidisciplinary, competitive challenges pairing National Labs, universities, and industry. These challenges will drive the co-design of hardware, algorithms, and software to meet specific, milestone-driven scientific targets by 2028.
Phase II: The DOE Quantum Computing User Facility (QCUF): Using lessons from the Grand Challenges, we will plan and establish a world-leading User Facility. This will not be a commercial “black box” cloud service. Rather, it will be an open, collaborative scientific instrument where researchers can co-develop hardware architectures, control systems, and software stacks alongside technology providers.
Phase III: An Integrated Quantum Future (2030+): Ultimately, quantum computing will not exist in isolation. We envision a future where quantum co-processors, simulators, and sensors are seamlessly woven into the broader DOE scientific enterprise—augmenting our leadership-class AI and HPC networks.
Partnership and Co-Design as Our Competitive Edge
To realize this future, we must break down traditional barriers. The SCAC report highlights that breakthrough science occurs when hardware developers and domain scientists work side-by-side. We are actively exploring novel partnership models, which could include embedded co-design fellowships, joint appointments, and shared technical staff across industry and our National Labs.
Crucially, we must maintain a technology-neutral stance. The field is evolving too quickly to prematurely lock in a single hardware modality. Whether through superconducting circuits, neutral atoms, trapped ions, photonics, or spin qubits, we will let demonstrated scientific utility guide our long-term investments.
The Journey Ahead
I want to express my deepest gratitude to the Subcommittee Chair, Dr. Anna Grassellino, Vice-Chair Dr. Supratik Guha, and the hundreds of stakeholders from industry, academia, and federal agencies who contributed to this report.
We stand at a pivotal moment. The choices and investments we make over the next three years will shape global scientific leadership for decades to come. Together, we are not just building quantum computers; we are establishing a new national capability for scientific discovery.
California judge finds company ‘vicariously liable’ for driver’s negligence in death of Emily Normandin-Parker
Uber was ordered to pay $40m to the parents of a 23-year-old woman who was killed after a driver kicked her and a friend out of his car by the side of a California freeway, according to newly public arbitration documents.
An arbitrator, retired Calfornia judgeRichard A Stone, found that the ride-share company was “vicariously liable” for the driver’s negligence.
Neither OpenAI or Anthropic is acting responsibly, warned AI researcher Jacob Coxon when resigning last week from Anthropic. But just hours earlier, OpenAI VP of Research Aidan Clark had posted "For the first time, I am asking myself if things are moving too fast. I'm honestly not sure, but I am sure that it would be good for us to have an answer to 'What would a successful pace look like?'"
CNN noted Wednesday they're just some of the many AI insiders who are now concerned about the speed of research. Coxon even wrote that "The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible — but I hear the same people express fear privately."
In 10 days since, Coxon's post has been viewed more than 170 million times, warning that OpenAI and Anthropic are "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives." It's part of what CNN now calls "pressure on AI companies and governments to do something about the pace of development and safety," where "much of that pressure is coming from staffers inside the companies."
One staffer at a top AI company told CNN the fears of how AI could hurt humanity keeps them up at night. Another researcher who recently left a different AI company said it's a common subject of conversation at parties and social events in Silicon Valley. "You can't spend more than a few hours in this community without realizing that a very substantial number of people are really pretty worried about these sorts of outcomes," said the researcher. "A majority would say there's some chance of it killing everyone...." Dozens of Coxon's colleagues in the AI industry publicly supported his statements, with some making even more dire predictions... OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk agreed to Amodei's proposal to embed independent watchdogs at the AI companies...
"I would burn my equity to the ground in a heartbeat for a 1% higher chance we make it out of this situation alive. I expect a great many of my colleagues across the industry would as well," wrote Drake Thomas, who works on AI safety at Anthropic. "I promise you, we are actually just f**king scared, it's not galaxy brained marketing..." AI staffers told CNN that they fear that as AI gets better at training and improving itself, their leverage goes down, prompting today's urgency. "As we get into this recursive self-improvement loop, I think that might substantially reduce staff's bargaining power, because frankly, you'll be able to replace many of the staff with models that can do as good a job," the researcher who recently left a top AI company said.
Coxon posted Tuesday on X that Anthropic "largely initiated" the race to recursively self-improving AI, justifying it with "a belief in its inevitability." And then OpenAI "had to shed a bunch of dead weight like Sora," as he sees it, "because Anthropic was going for the jugular." (In fact, his specific disagreement with Anthropic's leadership was whether China and the U.S. could ever negotiate an alternative to their current race towards self-improving AI...)
In an informal "Ask Me Anything", Coxon responded to a question about when we'd see a Terminator-like malevolent AI by saying that "Skynet could go live in the 2030s if we aren't careful. ai-2027.com is a modern skynet story written a year ago and it's on track so far." Yet while AI development risks an end to humankind, "I do think that if we go slower we can take risk to 0%... But this requires radical action." He acknowledged there was still a possibility that the steady increases to model intelligence could suddenly plateau, but "They haven't so far, and it's just a few more steps up the ladder to hit the finish line."
To avoid stifling innovation, he recommends "prioritizing applications that actually improve people's lives [like healthcare discoveries], rather than immediately going for raw economic value or intelligence." But isn't mass unemployment a more pressing threat? "Things are coming so fast that unemployment would be a brief preliminary to deadly superintelligence."
To people who feel disempowered, Coxon offered his solidarity. "I also feel disempowered. Part of resigning was a feeling of hopelessness about the future. I would say — keep your eyes open as things get crazier and advocate for increased transparency into AI companies."
When asked if he'd start his own company now, Coxon said he had "No idea what I'm doing next."
Angela Lipps, 50, alleges in suit that Fargo police wrongly relied on AI facial recognition to arrest and charge her
A Tennessee woman who was falsely charged with bank theft in North Dakota and jailed for six months has sued for $10m in damages, alleging in a federal lawsuit that Fargo police improperly relied on an artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition system to wrongly accuse her.
Angela Lipps, 50, was arrested at gunpoint by US marshals at her home in Tennessee while babysitting her neighbor’s four children in July 2025. The mother of three and grandmother of five was booked into a county jail and remained there for almost four months without bail while awaiting extradition to North Dakota, where she was held for about two more months.
Group trapped at Hotel Bamy after US removal as rights groups sound alarm over poor conditions and violence
Two men that the Trump administration expelled to Equatorial Guinea were bound, fitted with bags over their heads, beaten and pushed down a flight of stairs, all in plain view of other US deportees, according to witnesses and human rights lawyers.
The men – one from Egypt and one from Eritrea – were then taken to a prison. About 30 detainees from the US remain trapped at a hotel in the outskirts of the coastal city of Malabo after being deported from the US. Detainees have said they believe the men were beaten for telling the press and human rights advocates about the poor conditions and violence inside the hotel, and that they are haunted by flashbacks and terrified they will be retaliated against next.
Customs and Border Protection faces bipartisan backlash from locals for 30ft border wall through west Texas
The Trump administration is pressing forward with construction on the controversialborderwall in the Big Bend region of west Texas, even as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) faces furious backlash from local leaders and landowners for its fast-moving plans.
Construction began this week in Hudspeth county, which lies just east of the city of El Paso. CBP has been pressing landowners there to grant permission to allow the agency to erect a 30ft steel bollard border wall in that area, offering them signing bonuses as an incentive to avoid eminent domain disputes.
In his latest attack on the US constitution’s first amendment and the press, Donald Trump abruptly announced that he is banning outlets CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House over their coverage.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday, the US president said he was expelling the news outlets “effective immediately” over what he called their “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” and threatened that bans for others outlets could follow.
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump announced Friday that the United States, Denmark and Greenland have reached an agreement allowing an expanded and permanent U.S. military presence on the strategically important Arctic island while leaving Greenland under Danish sovereignty.
Trump said the deal gives the United States “permanent control over security” in Greenland and allows Washington to expand bases and military operations as needed. U.S. officials said the agreement also bars non-NATO countries from establishing military bases on the island and restricts sensitive investments from potential adversaries.
However, Danish and Greenlandic leaders emphasized Saturday that the agreement does not transfer sovereignty or ownership to the United States. Greenland remains a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, and officials said the agreement explicitly recognizes Greenlanders’ right to self-determination.
That distinction is significant because Trump had spent months publicly discussing acquiring Greenland and had declined earlier this year to rule out military force. The new arrangement instead expands existing U.S. security rights dating to a 1951 defense agreement.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the agreement a major national-security achievement, while Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said it would strengthen security for Greenland, Denmark, the United States and NATO.
The agreement is expected to be formally signed during next week’s United Nations General Assembly and will still require approval through Danish and Greenlandic political processes.
The pact gives Washington wider military access to Greenland without accomplishing Trump’s earlier stated goal of acquiring the territory itself.
State’s department of transportation said freeze does not affect nearly 900 cameras already installed along state rights-of-way
At Republican governor Greg Abbott’s direction, the Texas department of transportation (TxDOT) has stopped issuing permits allowing Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers to be installed along state roads.
The pause, confirmed Thursday by an agency spokesperson, does not affect cameras already installed along state rights-of-way, including more than 900 cameras operated by the Texas department of public safety.
The decision marks a major setback for the administration, which has removed tens of thousands of unauthorized immigrants to countries where they are not citizens.
(The Center Square) – The U.S. Attorney's Office won’t release the subpoenas related to a federal investigation into Gov. Gavin Newsom’s international travel expenses, which The Center Square tried to acquire this week.
Suspect charged with attempted murder as driver, identified by surname Singh, reportedly stabbed 17 times
A Sikh truck driver survived a harrowing attack in which he was beaten then stabbed 17 times in a rest stop off a Wyoming highway on Sunday, according to news reports.
The suspected assailant, Andrew Kris Bzdak, reportedly fled the scene, before Wyoming highway patrol troopers arrested him, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act signed into law two days after House passed it in bipartisan vote
Donald Trump on Friday signed legislation enabling sweeping sanctions on Russia aimed at pressing it into ending its war with Ukraine, and also giving him the power to impose additional tariffs on countries breaking the embargo.
The US president signed the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act into law two days after it passed the House of Representatives in a bipartisan 262-159 vote, amid concerns the legislation gives him too much power.
Edgars Rinkēvičs says drone warfare in Ukraine is moving at ‘lightning speed’ and efforts to prepare for an aerial war could be obsolete by next year
Latvia’s president has warned that Europe is not keeping up with developments of drone and aerial warfare in Ukraine and that most countries in Nato could not repulse an attack by Russian missiles if the conflict expands.
The remarks came during a Guardian interview in Washington DC in which Edgars Rinkēvičs said that the technological developments in drone warfare in Ukraine are moving at “lightning speed” and that current efforts to prepare for an aerial war could be obsolete by the middle of next year.
Sept. 18, 2026 — AWS has announced the general availability of new low-cost burstable Amazon EC2 T8i instances. These instances are powered by custom sixth generation Intel Xeon 6 processors, available exclusively on AWS, and built on the latest sixth generation AWS Nitro cards.
Credit: Shutterstock
T8i instances deliver up to 30% better price performance compared to previous generation T3 instances, and offer four sizes: nano, micro, small, and medium. These instances are designed for workloads requiring low to moderate CPU utilization, including data processing, login gateways, small databases, batch processing, event driven functions, CI/CD pipelines, microservices, and low traffic websites.
T8i instances deliver up to 70% higher compute performance, 1.25x higher network bandwidth, and 2.4x higher EBS bandwidth compared to T3 instances. They use the same CPU credit system as T3 with Standard and Unlimited modes, so existing T3 customers can upgrade to T8i and immediately benefit from better price performance, enabling them to lower their TCO. For customers new to AWS or migrating from on-premises, T8i instances provide one of the most cost-effective entry points to run a variety of workloads.
T8i.micro and T8i.small are available under the AWS Free Tier. T8i instances are available in US East (N. Virginia, Ohio), US West (Oregon, N. California), Europe (Frankfurt, Ireland, London, Paris), Asia Pacific (Hyderabad, Malaysia, Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo), and Canada (Central) regions. T8i instances are available to purchase via On-Demand instances, and Spot instances with Savings Plan option coming soon. To learn more, visit the Amazon EC2 T8i instances page.
About Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is guided by customer obsession, pace of innovation, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. By democratizing technology for nearly two decades and making cloud computing and generative AI accessible to organizations of every size and industry, AWS has built one of the fastest-growing enterprise technology businesses in history. Millions of customers trust AWS to accelerate innovation, transform their businesses, and shape the future. With the most comprehensive AI capabilities and global infrastructure footprint, AWS empowers builders to turn big ideas into reality.
Headlining a conference for Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit he previously led that regularly spreads vaccine misinformation, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a litany of familiar false and misleading claims, particularly about vaccines.
For a few months earlier this year, Kennedy had largely stopped talking about vaccines, reportedly at the request of the White House. Facing a surge of measles cases not seen in a generation, Kennedy had also at times offered a lukewarm recommendation to vaccinate, frustrating his hardline anti-vaccine supporters.
But in August, Kennedy appearedwith President Donald Trump during thesigning of an executive order that called for splitting up the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine. Trump inaccurately said the MMR vaccine is “quite lethal,” and Kennedy proceeded to falsely claim on cable television that there was new evidence to support breaking up the combination shot. The secretary also began an ongoing beef with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania over measles-associated deaths in the state.
Then, on Sept. 17, Kennedy gave the keynote speech for the one-day conference of Children’s Health Defense in Washington, D.C. Children’s Health Defense describes itself as working to “restore and protect the health of children by eliminating exposures to environmental toxins.” But the organization is one of the biggest sources of inaccurate vaccine information.
Just three days prior to the conference, the group’s X account falsely said that for every vaccine, “your child is more likely to die from the vaccine than from the disease.” The same day, the group also wrote, “Anyone who still thinks the COVID vaccine wasn’t intentionally designed to cause infertility is the conspiracy theorist.”
Speaking for more than an hour, Kennedy, a former litigator, repeatedly suggested that vaccines were not safe, had not been tested properly, and that they were driving a dramatic rise in chronic conditions, including autism.
“Many of these adverse events include diseases, chronic illnesses, that are part of the chronic disease epidemic. In other words, illnesses that became suddenly epidemic in our kids after 1989,” he said. Looking at all of the different vaccines given to children, he continued, “there are 454 adverse events listed. In total … they include almost all of the injuries, like diabetes, death, sudden infant death syndrome, anorexia, allergic reactions, allergies, asthma, autoimmune diseases.”
This is misleading. As we’ve explained before, the conditions that appear in package inserts have not necessarily been shown to be caused by vaccines. And in fact, after rigorous study, some of them have specifically been shown not to be due to vaccines.
Kennedy also conveniently left out the package insert’s own caveat, which explains, “Because these reactions are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to a vaccine exposure.”
Screenshot of Kennedy speaking at the CHD conference on Sept. 17
He also pushed a conspiratorial narrative in which he claimed scientists previously “weren’t doing the studies to find out … what the risks were of these products,” referring to vaccines. “And so we don’t know, and we are finding that out now.”
The HHS website itself says, “Every authorized or approved vaccine goes through safety testing,” including testing in clinical trials and continued monitoring after they hit the market.
Later, the secretary said that HHS was supporting new research and clinical trials and for the “first time” researchers were looking into several vaccination topics and “a range of health outcomes,” including autism. It’s unclear what specifically these studies will examine, but researchers have continuously studied vaccination. An extensivebody of research hasn’t found any link between vaccines and autism.
Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician who fraudulently proposed a link between autism and vaccines in 1998, and continues to make the false claim, spoke after Kennedy at the conference.
Despite the ongoing measles outbreaks in the U.S., and more deaths from the disease in the last two years than in decades, Kennedy only mentioned measles once.
“You care about every child who dies from measles. They get headlines,” he said. “Shouldn’t we, I’d ask you, care about children who are dying or suffering or being injured by vaccine injuries?”
The secretary also moved to reassure his supporters that he had their backs, while also seemingly asking for patience, because “the government moves slowly.”
“You have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House,” he said. “We’ve accomplished in 19 months … things that would have seemed unthinkable two years ago.”
Indeed, Kennedy, along with the White House, has pushed to reduce the number of recommended childhood vaccines in the U.S. and reconstituted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent advisory board, filling it with several individuals who have previously spread vaccine misinformation.
Major medical associations — such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians — have spoken out against the changes to vaccine recommendations, issuing theirownguidance. (Many of the changes have been temporarily blocked by a court.)
Kennedy said HHS would be looking into the safety of electromagnetic fields and “chemtrails,” both topics of interest for Children’s Health Defense. The “chemtrails” conspiracy theory alleges that the commonly seen contrails, or the normal condensation trails left behind from airplanes, are actually chemicals that can harm or be used to control a population. There’s no evidence that “chemtrails” exist.
Many of the claims Kennedy made in his address are the very same claims has been making for years — and were ones we first wrote about in 2023 when he was running for president. Others are relatively new.
Here’s a round-up of the ones we’ve covered before.
Autism
Wisconsin study. Kennedy misleadingly juxtaposed data from a 1970 study in Wisconsin showing an autism rate of less than 1 in 10,000 with the national data showing a prevalence of 1 in 31 today. The data are not comparable. Much of the increase in autism is related to changes in diagnostic criteria, screening, available services and awareness of the condition, researchers have said.
UC Davis research. Kennedy also claimed that research from the UC Davis MIND Institute led by Irva Hertz-Picciotto showed that the autism “epidemic is real,” contrary to assertions that “we’re just noticing it more.” A 2009 study co-authored by the environmental health researcher found that one-third of the increase in autism diagnoses in California could be attributed to changes in diagnostic criteria, but the study did not examine all the factors that could lead to changes in recognition of the condition. The MIND Institute said in a September 2025 statement that the study “did not indicate that autism was an epidemic.”
‘Full-blown’ autism. The HHS secretary went on to claim that “I’ve never in my life seen somebody my age, a 70-year-old man, with full-blown, profound autism.” But researchers have said that while older people are less likely to have an autism diagnosis, many nevertheless meet the criteria for autism. “Many of them would not have been recognized as such but they absolutely do exist,” Catherine Lord, a clinical psychologist and autism researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, previously told us.
Reporting of vaccine side effects. Kennedy claimed that a CDC study found that “fewer than 1% of vaccine injuries are reported.” He’s referring to a 2010 report from health insurer Harvard Pilgrim funded by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which briefly mentioned this figure for adverse events. Reported adverse events are not necessarily vaccine-caused. One of the authors told us that the 1% “takes into account that many adverse effects of vaccines are mild and expected so not worth reporting.”
Otherresearchhas found that the monitoring system Kennedy was referencing — the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which accepts voluntary, unverified reports — more completely identifies serious adverse events after vaccination. It’s also not the only way health authorities monitor vaccine safety.
Placebo-controlled studies. Kennedy misleadingly claimed that just one childhood vaccine — against COVID-19 — “was subject to a placebo-controlled trial,” adding that “we have no idea what the risk profile is for these products.” Various childhood vaccines were originally tested against placebos, including the polio, chickenpox and rotavirus vaccines. These claims rely on moving the goal posts on what constitutes a placebo-controlled trial, such as by asserting that placebos can only be saline. It’s also not always ethical or feasible to test a vaccine against a placebo. There are other valid ways of assessing vaccine safety.
Thimerosal in vaccines. Kennedy misrepresented the science on thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that has been phased out of most vaccines, blaming it for “devastating our children’s brains and causing a whole litany, a grim inventory, of physical and brain injuries.”
As we’ve written before, multiple studies have evaluated the safety of thimerosal, and there isn’t evidence it’s harmful to human health in low doses. (It contains a different, less toxic type of mercury than the methylmercury that accumulates in fish.) Nonetheless, it was removed from most vaccines in the U.S. as a precaution more than 20 years ago. Since then, no vaccines for children have used thimerosal, other than flu vaccines that come in multi-dose vials.
Obesity rates. Kennedy pointed to falling obesity as evidence of the administration’s success. “Obesity rates have dropped 7.3% since 2022, most of it in this year — these two years,” he said, citing Gallup polling. Gallup surveys did find that obesity among American adults fell about 3.1 percentage points, or 7.8%, between 2022 and 2026. But three-quarters of the decline came between 2022 and 2024, before Trump took office.
Sales of real food. Kennedy also said, “Real food sales went up by 8% this year.” As we’ve explained before, this likely comes from a financial-industry analysis that reportedly looked at a handful of specific categories, including yogurt, nut butters and frozen foods, and concluded that sales of unprocessed or minimally processed products grew about 7% faster than highly processed products in those same categories. Experts previously told us those findings are too limited to say much about whether Americans are eating healthier overall.
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Madison Rebecca Colello, 29, surrenders after 20 other cats in severe distress rescued from business in town of Walker
A Louisiana woman faces dozens of animal cruelty charges after 17 cats were found dead at a local business amid dangerously hot conditions without food or water, with 20 other cats in severe distress being rescued.
Madison Rebecca Colello, 29, surrendered on Thursday morning at the Livingston parish detention center in Walker, Louisiana. She faces 17 felony counts of aggravated animal cruelty – in connection with the dead cats – and 37 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty.
Google DeepMind has released a huge new dataset that could make it easier for scientists to study how changes in our DNA affect the way the body works. Called AlphaGenome Atlas, it contains predictions for more than 9 billion possible single-letter changes in the human genome.
The dataset is about one petabyte in size and was created using DeepMind’s AlphaGenome AI model. Instead of researchers having to run the model themselves each time they want to study a genetic variant, DeepMind has already done much of that work. Scientists can now search the Atlas for variants they are interested in and see what effects the model predicts.
Nine billion sounds like an enormous number, but it comes down to some fairly simple math. The human genome contains roughly 3 billion DNA letters. There are four possible letters: A, C, G and T. The letter at any given position could be changed to one of the other three. That leaves roughly 9 billion possible single-letter changes.
Scientists are interested in these variants because some can affect how our genes work and contribute to disease. The hard part is separating those important changes from the many that have little effect, particularly across the 98% of the genome that does not directly code for proteins.
(Shutterstock_DC-Studio)
AlphaGenome provides the AI behind all of this. The model predicts how genetic changes could affect molecular processes such as gene expression, RNA splicing and chromatin accessibility. AlphaGenome Atlas takes those predictions and precomputes them across the genome, rather than requiring researchers to run the model one variant at a time.
The result is far more than a database with one answer for each of the 9 billion possible changes. DeepMind says the Atlas contains thousands of molecular-effect predictions for every variant, spanning hundreds of human and mouse cell types and tissues. At that scale, generating the data is only part of the challenge. Researchers also need a practical way to sort through it and identify the variants that stand out.
To help researchers sort through all of those predictions, DeepMind has also introduced the AlphaGenome Variant Impact (AVI) score. It combines predictions from AlphaGenome and AlphaMissense, DeepMind’s model for predicting the impact of protein-altering DNA variants, into a single number.
Researchers can use the score to rank variants based on their potential impact. Importantly, it works across both the 2% of the genome that codes for proteins and the remaining 98% that does not. The Atlas also shows which molecular processes, such as RNA splicing or gene expression, are predicted to be affected by a particular variant.
Researchers are already putting the Atlas to use. In its blog post announcing the new resource, the DeepMind team highlighted work using the system on data from the UK Biobank:
(Chepko Danil Vitalevich/Shutterstock)
“To test how AlphaGenome Atlas can improve our ability to find non-coding variants affecting human traits, Gareth Hawkes, a Medical Research Council fellow at the University of Exeter, applied AlphaGenome Atlas to whole-genome data from over 54,000 UK Biobank participants, which made these elusive signals more obvious. By grouping rare variants based on their predicted molecular effects, Hawkes uncovered 22% more non-coding genetic associations, which would otherwise have not been detectable in the statistical noise.”
The Atlas is also being tested in rare disease research. Working with the GREGoR Consortium, researchers from the Broad Institute used the AVI score to look for potentially important variants that had been missed in previous research. They identified a variant affecting DNM1, a gene strongly associated with epileptic encephalopathy. AlphaGenome predicted that the variant created an incorrect RNA splice site, and subsequent experiments validated that prediction.
For now, the Atlas is free for researchers to use through the website and AlphaGenome API. DeepMind says commercial access through Google Cloud is coming soon.
The company also says this is really just a starting point. The Atlas will change as AlphaGenome and its other AI models get better. And while it won’t tell researchers which genetic changes cause disease, it could help them figure out which ones are worth spending more time on and testing in the lab.
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in AIwire.
For the past couple years, companies have been treating the high demand and explosive growth for AI inferencing as a construction project rather than a software engineering problem. Their answer has been to purchase as many GPUs as possible, build more data centers, and acquire as much power as possible. However, construction scales linearly, not exponentially, so without an equal focus on efficient token usage there won’t be sufficient supply no matter how many data centers are created.
The physical limitations of adding more data center compute are already showing up in headlines, such as the report from energy analytics firm Wood Mackenzie that shows construction engineers only added 25 gigawatts of power, less than half the capacity created the quarter before, showing how the market is struggling to keep pace with new commitments. At the same time, communities are also pushing back on new data centers, with lawmakers in more than 10 states proposing temporary bans on data-center construction this year.
This is why the AI energy debate needs to focus on not only increasing capacity, but also architecting for efficient token usage. Hardware, grid investment and new capacity matter, but companies can’t control zoning battles, transmission upgrades or multiyear construction schedules. They can control how efficient their systems are at using AI inferencing by architecting systems that are designed to give accurate, efficient, and explainable results. Building software systems that inject the optimal context into each LLM call reduces the amount of re-prompting, while also optimizing token usage.
Brute-force scaling for AI doesn’t cut it (3DAnimals/Shutterstock)
Where LLM Models Fall Short
Large language models can summarize, synthesize, translate and generate text and code efficiently and in high volume, opening up new use cases. However, they don’t work equally well for every type of job and are not tailored and trained on domains that require enterprise knowledge. Some enterprise problems call for exact answers, current system state and clear lineage. In those cases, sending every request to a model can add cost, latency and uncertainty.
Research published in Environmental Science and Ecotechnology shows that optimized prompting can reduce LLM inference energy and CO2 emissions by 32–48%. The study found that ambiguous prompts often required follow-up queries which dramatically increased energy and token usage. Instead, the paper recommends using concise prompts with high semantic precision to help reduce the environmental impact of LLM inferences.
One way to help focus prompts on the most crucial information is to utilize a knowledge graph that explicitly tracks the relationship between relevant data. Think of this as a knowledge graph first, model on demand. This moves AI outputs from statistical guesses by an LLM to a more focused answer that’s the result of knowing exactly what data the model should focus on, while looking for ways to find the path to a solution without having to call a model at all.
A knowledge graph can often resolve a question directly because the relationship clearly leads to the answer. A graph can provide the precise context that a model needs, so the model can do high-value reasoning without chewing through piles of irrelevant material. Even a lightweight AI model can translate a user’s question into a graph query, fetch the right information and return a clean answer. That is a much more disciplined way to build AI systems than flooding a model with information and hoping the LLM will make the correct connections when generating results.
We’re seeing this play out in the real world as well. Aakash Gupta found that longer prompts do not automatically lead to better outcomes. In many cases the more irrelevant material you send to the system, the more work it has to do to find what matters. That drives up cost, latency and energy use, and it can still leave you with a weaker answer.
Where Graph Technology Becomes Especially Useful
A traditional relational database system often has to reconstruct relationships over and over through SQL joins and index lookups. A knowledge graph stores those connections explicitly, allowing the system to traverse them directly. That changes the economics of connected data problems. The more a task depends on multi-hop relationships, the more that difference starts to matter.
Knowledge bases provide a more intelligent way to scale AI (tadamichi/Shutterstock)
One example of how a company has been able to reduce its server load comes from Adobe, for its Behance platform for showcasing and discovering creative work, artists and designers. The team moved from 48 nodes of a wide-column NoSQL database to three nodes on a property graph database for its activity feed. Storage dropped from 50TB to 50GB, requiring much less maintenance. Marriott was able to reduce average processing time in its hotel room pricing engine from more than four minutes to 13 seconds, while reducing infrastructure cost by about 50% using graph technology.
These wins show what happens when you stop scaling inefficient patterns and start changing the architecture to find more accurate and efficient answers.
None of this means companies should stop building data centers or stop improving chips. Demand for AI is still growing, and efficiency gains often expand the market rather than shrink it (thanks to Jevons Paradox). Lower costs tend to create new use cases and more demand. But focusing on the right data will help deliver better results regardless of the price of tokens or number of data centers in the world.
Software Architecture Must Play a Part in Near-Term Sustainability Strategy
Focusing AI on the right data to deliver better solutions is the best approach I see in the short-term, until data center construction catches up with demand. To improve things today, companies can look at things like prompt caching so they do not have to recompute the same context again and again. Implement persistent decision traces so systems do not rerun the same reasoning from scratch (with different results).
Companies need to route questions that require exact answers to deterministic systems rather than probabilistic LLMs. They need to use models where they add clear value, and use graphs and other tools where connected data, precision and explainability matter more.
The companies that win the next phase of enterprise AI will not be the ones that send the most tokens through the biggest clusters. They will be the ones that treat architecture as a competitive advantage and make smarter choices about what to compute, when to compute it and which tool should do the work.
Power is getting harder to secure. Community acceptance is getting harder to win. Capital is getting more closely watched. Under those conditions, just using more tokens is not a strategy.
Helping companies succeed with AI while avoiding energy waste can address scarcity problems and lower costs. It will also save companies from trying to use data that will just confuse outputs and deliver less precise results. The objective is to focus AI inputs on the most relevant data to achieve the most accurate and efficient results.
About the author: Stephen Chin is the Vice President of Developer Relations at Neo4j and an internationally recognized keynote speaker on GenAI, Java, and DevOps. He is a well-published author with over a dozen titles to his name, including The Definitive Guide to Modern Client Development, Raspberry Pi with Java, Pro JavaFX Platform, and DevOps Tools for Java Developers.
The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max may be the first phones to go on sale under new Apple CEO John Ternus, but today’s launch hinted at even more hardware launches to come.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at a conference hosted by an organization he once led that has promoted doubts about vaccines.
(The Center Square) – As the Trump administration continues to pursue ways to quell “birth tourism,” legal scholars are probing potential actions Congress could take to rewrite the common interpretation of the 14th amendment’s citizenship clause.
The Justice Department released a new legal opinion that concludes a federal law prohibiting firearms dealers from selling handguns to people between the ages of 18 and 20 is unconstitutional.
A coalition of civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against Trump administration officials on Friday, seeking to stop them from threatening to deploy federal law enforcement officers to polling stations in the US midterm elections.
The suit, led by the NAACP, alleges that by threatening to deploy law enforcement to survey elections and initiating new voter roll oversight, the Trump administration has violated a section of the Voting Rights Act which prohibits voter intimidation.
(The Center Square) - A law firm specializing in government policies is taking up the case against The University of Washington on behalf of an Asian man who was denied admission, despite graduating high school with a 4.42 GPA, a…
In 2021, America approved $65 billion to fund broadband internet services as part of President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. But Trump's administration announced they'd withhold funds from states with net neutrality protections...
States could object and sue the government, Ars Technica reported last October, "but even a successful lawsuit could take years and leave unserved homes without broadband for the foreseeable future." So where does that leave California's net neutrality laws? Ars Technica asks. California expect to spend about $1.4 billion to deploy broadband to 270,571 locations...
Similar to federal net neutrality rules repealed during the first Trump administration, California's law prohibits ISPs from blocking or throttling lawful traffic and says ISPs may not require fees from websites or online services to deliver or prioritize their traffic to Internet users. While the first Trump administration lost its attempt to preempt state net neutrality laws, the second Trump administration is trying to achieve a similar result by making federal broadband money conditional on whether states agree not to enforce net neutrality...
California and Illinois are the only states that haven't finalized their funding, according to the BEAD progress dashboard maintained by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)... California could try to continue enforcing its net neutrality law even while accepting the federal funding, a strategy that would involve another long court battle over its right to regulate broadband providers. This would be difficult, as the Trump administration is requiring states that accept grant funding to commit that they won't enforce net neutrality rules... [N]early 30 advocacy groups that focus on access to technology are treating the vote as a significant milestone and urged state leaders to defend California's net neutrality law in a letter yesterday...
Winning a court battle would become much more difficult after the state accepts the money [according to Paul Goodman, legal counsel for the Center for Accessible Technology]. Goodman said the CPUC should delay the vote and that California should file a lawsuit arguing that the NTIA-imposed condition is illegal. In addition to net neutrality, Goodman said California may be giving up other regulatory authority over companies, like AT&T and Verizon, because the NTIA requirement forbids rate regulation and "utility-style rules on broadband Internet service" in general... Goodman said the exemption from state laws would last for up to 14 years. This is because ISPs receiving grants would have four years to deploy the required broadband networks, and the extended period of performance lasts another 10 years... AT&T is already trying to get out of state obligations related to its basic phone service in California, as we've reported... [Also at stake is whether "ISPs themselves get to pick the price of the mandated low-cost broadband offerings," the article points out.]
The letter from 30 advocacy groups to California state leaders argues accepting the money "would set a dangerous precedent for the federal government to use federal funding as a cudgel that forces states in line with its agenda... If California were to allow this funding to be used as leverage, there is no telling what other resources the administration would confidently seek to exploit."
Thursday California's Public Utility Commission did vote to approve the plan, but a spokesperson earlier told Ars Technica their vote "does not address subgrantee agreements, or the conditions the NTIA requires be included in subgrantee agreements."
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The NAACP and other civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday seeking to prevent the Trump administration from deploying federal law enforcement officers in ways they say could intimidate voters during November’s midterm elections.
The lawsuit names Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, FBI Director Kash Patel and other administration officials. Plaintiffs argue that public statements about possible federal activity around polling places, combined with expanded voter-roll scrutiny and immigration enforcement, violate Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voter intimidation.
Federal law generally bars armed federal officers and members of the armed forces from being stationed where elections are held. So far, the administration has not deployed armed officers to polling locations, and DHS has said ICE is not planning operations targeting polling places.
Justice Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels rejected the lawsuit’s premise, saying DOJ has never said it would send federal law enforcement to polling locations and calling suggestions otherwise “fearmongering.” Mullin has said ICE could respond to a public-safety threat or serve a warrant at a polling site.
The case is the second lawsuit this month seeking to restrict federal law enforcement activity around polling locations.
Brazilian police said they will reopen dozens of cases linked to a self-confessed serial killer who was arrested as he attempted to escape dressed as a woman and carrying a baby.
Use of tuition aid, free school lunch programs and more could be grounds for denying applications for legal permanent residency under a new rule. States and cities are suing.
Navy veteran David Voight, his wife, Amy, and their child were found dead as relatives report Voight was suffering from PTSD
Authorities are investigating what led to the tragic case of a family who was found fatally shot in their San Diego area home on Wednesday morning.
The San Diego police department identified the family as Amy Voight, 54, and David Voight, 56, and the couple’s 13-year-old daughter. The family died of gunshot wounds, police said, and investigators found a weapon in the residence.
Though Europe has measures that address how consumers might encounter AI, technology will impact them if the worst scenarios bear
Europe’s dilemma over AI was rendered in stark terms this week. The head of the continent’s central bank, Christine Lagarde, said Europeans have two options: shun the technology and lose out on growth; or embrace it and become dependent on tools developed by the US and China.
The great debate over AI safety that has erupted in recent days threatens to make the choice moot. If the worst scenarios come to bear – and experts have differing views on this – then the technology will impact the continent regardless.
Russian strikes in Kyiv, a female militia march in Tehran, protests in Pristina and Alfie Hewett at the US Open – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
Officials who spoke with The Post expressed frustration that the additional loss of life in the Middle East is not reflected in the Defense Department’s casualty database.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge has ordered the Kennedy Center to provide at least 30 days’ notice before taking any steps toward demolition after President Donald Trump again suggested the landmark could be torn down if his renovation plans are blocked.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper issued the order Thursday after attorneys for Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty cited Trump’s public comments and a photograph showing him aboard Air Force One examining a placard labeled “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.” Trump had told reporters a day earlier that the building could “end up being ripped down” if his administration does not receive recognition for restoring it.
The dispute follows Cooper’s earlier ruling that Congress, not the Kennedy Center board, controls the center’s official name. Cooper also blocked plans to rename the campus “President Donald J. Trump Plaza” or add language crediting Trump with its restoration.
The Kennedy Center board has approved a renovation project backed by roughly $257 million in federal funding. Trump has said the project may not proceed unless appellate courts overturn Cooper’s restrictions.
The center is temporarily closed while officials assess safety concerns and prepare for possible renovations.
(The Center Square) – The Freedom Foundation gave The Center Square an exclusive look at its recent door-to-door campaign in Michigan aimed at informing public employees about their union opt-out rights.
(The Center Square) – Suspended U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Christian Castro appeared in both state and federal courts this week in Minnesota for initial hearings.
(The Center Square) – The candidates competing to represent Florida’s 25th Congressional District are offering competing solutions to the same problem: the rising cost of living.
From portable radars in shipping containers to orbital cameras, I asked scientists how the space-junk tracking industry plans to avoid catastrophic crashes.
The musician is serving a 50-month federal prison term for prostitution-related offenses
Attorneys representing rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs say they are no longer acting for the disgraced star in a dispute over months of unpaid legal bills.
The musician, who is serving a 50-month federal prison term for prostitution-related offenses, has become increasingly belligerent in recent months, causing “a total breakdown in cooperation and communication” with New York law firm Sher Tremonte, one of its partners, Michael Tremonte, said in a court filing.
This article was amended on 18 September 2026. An earlier version wrongly stated that Combs sued record producer Jonathan Hay for defamation. Hay is the plaintiff.
Sept. 18, 2026 — The U.S. National Science Foundation has announced an initiative to translate low-dimensional semiconductor technologies from laboratory demonstrations into platforms for U.S. manufacturers to develop and deploy advanced microelectronics.
Credit: Shutterstock
The NSF Ecosystem for Low-dimensional Electronics: Growth, Assembly, Nanoelectronics, and Translation (NSF ELEGANT) program will position the U.S. for success in translating advanced microelectronics technologies into next-generation capabilities for artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, advanced communications, and other key technology areas critical to national security and economic competitiveness.
“NSF ELEGANT aims to de-risk advanced microelectronics manufacturing technology to the point where industry can make a timely, credible, evidence-based commitment to its adoption,” said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF Assistant Director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships. “Sustained industry participation is central to how this program is designed and measured — every performing team’s progress is validated by industry partners at each stage, so the technologies advancing through ELEGANT are the ones manufacturers are ready to adopt.”
Microelectronics powers industry and drives worldwide innovation. However, current microelectronics manufacturing methods are no longer able to keep pace with the demand for smaller-scale microelectronics technologies at the scale needed. The ELEGANT program advances innovation in low-dimension materials for semiconductor manufacturing and simultaneously bridges the gap between laboratory demonstrations and the development of industry-relevant platforms.
To achieve program objectives, NSF released an Other Transaction Agreement Solutions Offering (OTASO) seeking an Ecosystems Coordinator and Expert Performer Teams in five translation themes:
Theme 1: Manufacturable Materials Platform.
Theme 2: Process Technology and Process Design Kit.
Theme 3: Device, Circuit and Full-Chip Demonstration.
The NSF Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP) seeks to engage all Americans in accelerating critical and emerging technologies to advance U.S. competitiveness. The directorate partners across sectors to advance three strategies — accelerating critical and emerging technology, expanding the geography of American innovation, and building a competition-ready workforce. For more information about NSF TIP, visit nsf.gov/tip/latest.
Buckingham Palace has rebutted claim by Charles Spencer, Diana’s brother, that then prince told him ‘we’ll forget her soon enough’
Earl Spencer has doubled down on his bombshell claim that King Charles said of Diana, Princess of Wales, “rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough” days after her death, saying he is telling the truth.
The alleged comments, revealed in Charles Spencer’s memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail, prompted Buckingham Palace to issue an extraordinary statement suggesting Diana’s brother had misremembered events, saying “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise”.
Police fire teargas as protests break out in city of Minna after deaths of suspected illegal goldminers, many of whom were children
Survivors from a prison cell in Nigeria where 37 suspected illegal goldminers died while in the custody of a paramilitary group this week have recounted their panic and struggle for breath, as police on Friday fired teargas at people protesting against the deaths and imposed an overnight curfew in the city of Minna.
The victims – many of whom were children – were found dead on Thursday in the cells of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), which had raided suspected illegal goldmines and locked up dozens of miners in the city, the state capital of the mineral-rich state of Niger.
Why Should Delaware Care? After a Wilmington City Councilman switched his political affiliation from Republican to Democrat, the council debated whether that disenfranchised the roughly 15% of non-Democratic city voters. They took the question to court, where a judge ruled that there was no prohibition against the move.
Wilmington City Councilman James Spadola will remain in office after a Chancery Court judge ruled Thursday that his city council colleagues “misused” their authority to remove him over his party switch.
The ruling is the latest chapter in a months-long feud between Spadola and his colleagues that began last fall, when Spadola changed his party registration from Republican to Democrat. All 13 members of the council are now Democrats.
The charter, however, says nothing about what happens if that member switches parties while in office.
Several members of the now all-Democratic body have accused Spadola of exploiting a “loophole” in the charter and disenfranchising the voters who elected him as a Republican.
Wilmington City Council President Ernest “Trippi” Congo has been battling with Spadola for months over whether the councilman could switch parties. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
Council President Ernest “Trippi” Congo sponsored a resolution in May declaring Spadola’s seat vacant, and Spadola sued that same month to block it, arguing the council had no legal power to remove him.
Spadola’s attorney has argued that the charter was being misinterpreted and that removing Spadola would infringe upon his constitutional rights.
Congo’s attorney countered that the charter’s intent was to keep a minority-party member on the council throughout their term, arguing it made no sense for lawmakers to write that language into the code if it stopped applying the moment an official took office.
She noted that the writers of the city code only chose to address concerns over minority representation through elections, but they did not cover continuing qualifications. McCormick also dug into historical records to show that the Wilmington officials who wrote the latest city charter amendments in 1961 would likely have known of a very similar case, Teller v. Jennings, that was working its way through Pennsylvania courts.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed an official’s ability to switch parties after an election in January 1963 — about a year before Wilmington voters approved their charter changes.
McCormick quotes from the Pennsylvania case, writing, “The court further held that ‘once a person assumes public office he becomes the representative of all his constituents and not merely those who voted for him or happen to belong to his political party.’”
“The resolution is a clear misuse of Council authority, it is invalid, and this decision grants Spadola’s motion on that basis alone,” McCormick wrote, noting that she did not rule on whether the move would infringe upon his Constitutional right to “free association” of political party.
Her decision to rule in favor of Spadola permanently blocks city council from putting the resolution to remove Spadola into effect.
On Friday, Spadola took to Facebook to post pictures of quotes from the ruling, and in his caption saying “Vindicated!”
In an interview with Spotlight Delaware, Spadola said the chancellor’s verdict speaks to what to him was “clear cut” regarding the city charter. Spadola said he has not heard anything regarding a potential appeal from Congo’s attorney, but that if Congo were to pursue one, he thinks it would be “a waste of resources.”
“If they want to keep boosting my profile at city expense, that’s unfortunate. But it is what it is,” Spadola said.
Congo’s attorney Jane Brady, said her team has 30 days to appeal Thursday’s ruling but that she and Congo have not yet decided whether they will.
“I’m gonna review it, look at the reasoning, and then have a conversation with my client next week about that”, she added.
Congo did not immediately respond to Spotlight’s request for comment.
Wilmington City Councilman James Spadola (far right) sits with other members of the council during a budget address made by Mayor John Carney. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
How did we get here?
Spadola was re-elected in November 2024 as Wilmington’s lone Republican at-large council member, and changed his party less than a year later, announcing it publicly to Facebook in October 2025.
Last fall, Spadola told Spotlight Delaware that he had considered making the move for the previous five years and finally did so because of his disagreement with several policies associated with President Donald Trump, including tariffs, immigration enforcement, and federal troop deployments into U.S. cities.
His decision sparked months of controversy inside the city council.
In February, Congo sent Spadola a letter urging him to switch back to the Republican Party, warning that he could lose his seat if he did not. Spadola responded publicly on his Facebook, accusing council members of trying to replace him with an “unelected, handpicked successor.”
Many community members attended past council meetings both in favor and against removing Spadola from his seat, including members of the Delaware Republican Party and Wilmington Democratic Committee.
While some residents said they felt disenfranchised by Spadola’s decision, others argued he should have the right to change his party affiliation and that voters supported him for his leadership, not his political party.
The dispute then escalated in April when Councilman Alexander Hackett introduced the resolution seeking intervention by state lawmakers. The measure, which overwhelmingly passed council, asked the legislature to bar future minority-party members from switching their political affiliation during the middle of a term.
Then, in May, the council voted 8-1 on Congo’s resolution to declare Spadola’s seat vacant, arguing Spadola “made the choice to disenfranchise the approximately 15% of non-majority voters” in the city.
Congo has previously noted that the city council sought legal advice from the city’s law department on the matter, but said they were misled.
Last fall, City Council Chief of Staff Elijah Simmons said Spadola would be able to finish his term, which ends in 2028.
He stated the city’s charter contained “no written prohibitions against party affiliation changes while in office.”
Spadola cast the lone vote against the resolution, which prompted him to file the lawsuit now before the Court of Chancery.
If Spadola’s seat is vacated, a new at-large council member would be elected through a process that would allow individuals to send in applications and be interviewed by council who would choose Spadola’s successor. Congo said that the council takes public feedback into account when choosing.
A theme park that closed more than 40 years ago still draws crowds to Beech Mountain, North Carolina, every September. Land of Oz opened in 1970, closed in 1980 and never fully disappeared.
Ahead of a parliamentary election on Sunday, President Vladimir Putin's grip on power is as strong as ever. But when the time comes, here are some potential successors.
Critics say moves from leftwing incumbent president are electorally motivated two weeks before Brazil’s elections
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has announced a 15% increase in the country’s main cash-transfer programme for poor families, as well as free weight-loss jabs, prompting criticism from opponents who say the moves are electorally motivated just two weeks before the presidential election.
On 4 October, the leftwing incumbent will face the far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, who has been gaining ground in recent weeks.
Robert Warshaw, left, a court-appointed monitor, and Maricopa Sheriff Jerry Sheridan speak before a legally required community outreach meeting in the Sunnyslope neighborhood of Phoenix in 2025. Ash Ponders for ProPublica
A federal judge has denied efforts to remove oversight of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, saying the agency continues to show racial disparities in traffic arrests of Latinos — and that there is not enough evidence that efforts to improve would stick without legal monitoring.
In his 72-page ruling issued Sept. 10, U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow stressed Sheriff Jerry Sheridan’s role in the department’s racial profiling since the start of the case more than a decade ago, including fighting court-ordered reforms and stymieing investigations. Sheridan was the No. 2 under former Sheriff Joe Arpaio when the county was found out of compliance with federal law.
“Then Chief Deputy, now Sheriff, Sheridan in particular was found to have abused his authority over MCSO’s internal affairs process by obstructing and manipulating misconduct investigations and disciplinary proceedings — including those involving himself — to shield deputies and Command Staff from accountability and undermine the enforcement of remedies designed to address the constitutional violations against the Plaintiff class,” the judge wrote in an opinion that mentions Sheridan 30 times.
The department declined to comment on Snow’s statements about Sheridan. But the sheriff previously told Arizona Luminaria and ProPublica that he disagreed with Snow. “I was very truthful. To this day, I think he got that wrong about me,” Sheridan said.
In his ruling, Snow said it may no longer be necessary for the court to track some areas originally identified for oversight in the 2013 decision, recognizing the “burdens” that go into monitoring certain elements.
County leaders have repeatedly cited costs as they’ve called for an end of court oversight. Maricopa County filed the motion in December, with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office later joining, arguing the violations were no longer occurring.
The yearslong federal monitorship of Arizona’s largest sheriff’s office dates back to a 2007 class action racial profiling lawsuit that found the department under Arpaio had violated the constitutional rights of Latinos in the state’s most populous county. Today, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, there are an estimated 1.5 million Latino or Hispanic people living in Maricopa County — all of whose rights are protected under the lawsuit.
In 2013, Snow ordered the department to document all traffic stops to detect any patterns of racial bias and to employ additional investigators to probe reports of deputy misconduct. Snow also appointed a monitor to oversee compliance with the settlement.
In the 13 years since, the department has yet to convince the judge that its deputies don’t racially profile Latino drivers and that it adequately investigates deputies’ alleged misconduct. In denying the recent motion, Snow cited data showing that sheriff’s deputies in Maricopa County continue to search and arrest Latino drivers at a higher rate than white drivers, echoing the racial disparities that first led to court oversight of the department.
“Those disparities remain,” Snow added.
A key part of the judge’s analysis results from traffic reports collected by the sheriff’s office. An analysis of those reports on behalf of the plaintiffs by a professor of computer science from the University of California, Berkeley approximates that Hispanic motorists are 40% more likely to be arrested than white motorists, are stopped 30% longer than white motorists and are 2.5 times more likely to be searched than white motorists.
The responsibility is on the defendants to explain the stark disparities for Latino drivers, Snow said. “They have failed to do so.” To end court oversight, the sheriff’s office must be in full compliance with the reforms continuously for three years.
An investigation by Arizona Luminaria and ProPublica found that despite the monitor’s annual reviews showing ongoing racial disparities in traffic stops, Sheridan and county leaders continued to press for an end to court oversight.
Arpaio’s wide-ranging, illegal traffic sweeps prompted the lawsuit, known originally as Melendres v. Arpaio, named for Manuel de Jesus Melendres Ortega, a legal resident who was arrested in such a sweep.
The arrests of hundreds of American citizens by immigration authorities since President Donald Trump returned to the White House have prompted widespread accusations of racial profiling. In response, the Department of Homeland Security told ProPublica that agents do not racially profile or target Americans. “We don’t arrest US citizens for immigration enforcement,” wrote spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
The decade-plus of legal oversight of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department, criminal justice experts have said, offers insight into the difficulties of reforming law enforcement agencies charged with endemic racial bias.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office holds a town hall at a community center in Gila Bend, Arizona, in 2025.Jesse Rieser for ProPublica
Sheridan, a Republican, was found in civil contempt in 2016 for denying knowledge of Snow’s court order to stop making illegal immigration arrests. Sheridan has said he was always truthful. He inherited the settlement when he took office in January 2025.
A 2025 evaluation by the monitor found the department complied with more than 90% of the requirements but fell short in the two areas that most directly impact Latino drivers: eliminating racial bias in traffic stops and quickly investigating allegations of deputy misconduct.
In trying to end federal oversight, Sheridan and county supervisors argued that racially biased Arpaio-era policies were no longer written department policy and there were few complaints of misconduct by deputies against Hispanic drivers.
“MCSO has reformed its policies, improved its workforce, and implemented mechanisms to assure that racial profiling never occurs. This litigation has been a success, and the time has come to allow MCSO to stand on its own two feet, freed of oversight,” the county’s original motion said.
Since joining the Melendres case and settlement in 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice had supported Snow’s federal oversight and the reforms. But with Trump back in the White House, an attorney with the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division informed the court in January that the department supported ending oversight.
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chair Kate Brophy McGee and Vice Chair Debbie Lesko, both Republicans, as well as a spokesperson with Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, said they were disappointed by the judge’s ruling. Steve Gallardo, the county’s lone Democrat on the five-member board, has opposed ending oversight, advocating for continued progress toward eliminating racial bias in policing.
“The court has maintained an unelected and unaccountable federal monitor over MCSO – creating bureaucracy and regulatory burdens that have cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. That ‘oversight’ comes at the cost of public safety, as the county must pay the monitor and his staff by foregoing other critical services,” said a joint statement from McGee and Lesko.
Following complaints by Sheridan and Republican county supervisors that oversight costs topped $200 million, the court ordered an audit of the sheriff’s office spending. Court findings, shared in 2025, showed that nearly 72% of the sheriff’s office spending was misattributed or misappropriated. Only $63 million was appropriately charged to the settlement, they said.
Officials with the sheriff’s office, however, welcomed parts of the judge’s latest ruling.
“We believe MCSO has implemented durable remedies for violations that occurred 19 years and three administrations ago,” Sgt. Joaquin Enriquez said. “We are encouraged that the Court has provided a framework on eliminating portions of the Order that are no longer necessary and focusing compliance efforts on the remaining issues to be addressed.”
Speaking to a Phoenix-area radio station, Sheridan said he saw positive elements of the judge’s order but wondered whether his office could ever satisfy all parties to the lawsuit.
“We at the sheriff’s office feel we’re in compliance with all the” court’s orders, Sheridan told KTAR News. “But the court-appointed monitor does not believe so. It’s a matter of us making a pitch to the court directly, not through the monitor.”
Raul Piña in Phoenix’s Encanto Park in 2025Jesse Rieser for ProPublica
Notably, the judge’s ruling said, there was no evidence that the department would continue to remedy the violations should oversight to ensure Latinos’ constitutional rights end.
“The record does not support a finding that, absent federal monitoring, Defendants are unlikely to resume the conduct that necessitated the Court’s injunctive Orders,” the ruling stated.
Raul Piña, a member of a court-mandated community advisory board tasked with helping the sheriff’s office rebuild trust with Latinos, said the problems at the department went beyond one specific leader, to multiple systems that have allowed biased policing long-term. To change that, Piña said, you need a broader overhaul. “You can paint the house, but if the foundation is broken you will have the same problem,” he told Arizona Luminaria and ProPublica.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, which originally filed the lawsuit on behalf of citizens and legal residents caught in Arpaio’s sweeps, celebrated the current ruling.
“Any other decision would have had a devastating impact on Maricopa County’s Latino residents,” Christine Wee, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Arizona, said in a statement. “The Court’s decision recognizes that any current and future misconduct committed by MCSO will not be tolerated. Simply put, MCSO is not ready for the court-ordered reforms to end.”
(The Center Square) – Data centers and oversight have become a hot topic in both state and congressional races across the country, including in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, where challenger Rebecca Cooke paid for a recent commercial claiming that incumbent…
The use of artificial intelligence in the courtroom is drawing fresh attention after an expert witness in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit used ChatGPT to help create his report.
Residents of New Castle County rely on White Clay and Red Clay Creeks for a variety of reasons, including drinking water, irrigation and commercial uses. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established various guidelines to help protect these water sources. In August, Veolia — an environmental and resource management company — sued nine companies to ensure these creeks remain safe.
Veolia is a multinational company based in France that provides sustainable solutions to waste, water and energy issues across the globe. The company also runs the Stanton Water Treatment Plant in Wilmington, serving the greater New Castle County area.
This plant was built to specifically filter out per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs), otherwise known as “forever chemicals” from the aforementioned White Clay and Red Clay Creeks, which serve more than 100,000 people.
PFAs are chemicals with strong carbon-fluorine bonds. First discovered in 1934, they received the name “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down in the environment or in people’s bodies. Instead, these chemicals take extended periods of time to break down because its strong chemical structure prevents regular degradation.
Veolia brought forth a suit against Ametek, Syensqo Specialty Polymers, Solvay Solexis, Niche Polymer, Marshallton Realty Holdings, Westchester Plastics, Coherent Corp, FMC Corporation and Edlon on Aug. 11.
The companies — all chemical manufacturers — mostly produce polymers which are used in everything from clothes to medical equipment. Although not all PFAs are polymers, there is a significant overlap between the two.
Now, these companies are facing charges ranging from negligence to strict liability for abnormally dangerous activity and could be forced to pay out millions of dollars. The suit accuses the companies of disposing of the PFAs in a harmful manner.
“The Defendants recklessly, negligently, and/or intentionally manufactured, used, and/or disposed of PFAs and PFAs-containing products from and at their respective industrial sites within Delaware,” Veolia said in its formal complaint.
Although this is not the first lawsuit involving PFAs, it is the first one that could directly impact the pockets of consumers and not just the companies. The alleged dumping of PFAs into White Clay and Red Clay would require Veolia to spend more on the plant, including upgrades to better filter the water, along with the general upkeep. These upgrades may make the plant more efficient, resulting in lowered water bills for ratepayers.
Veolia’s case is awaiting a court date when the companies will have to refute the seven counts brought forth against them.
Exclusive: Official UK security assessment found Microsoft cloud platform storing files was at potential risk from hostile hackers
Vast troves of highly sensitive police data are lying on Microsoft cloud platforms which an official UK security assessment deemed to be vulnerable to “compromise” by foreign actors and the US government, a Guardian investigation can reveal.
The files include criminal records, victim statements, internal emails and sensitive information held by more than 40 police forces across the UK.
The first-place prize was awarded to Dr. Ning Xu for his video showing abnormal beating of airway cilia in a child with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), a rare genetic disorder affecting respiratory function. (Dr. Ning Xu / Nikon Small World…
Marcia Levering nearly died at work on February 6, 2021. She was working as a prison guard at the former medium-security federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, a facility operated by the private prison company CoreCivic. One of Levering’s overwhelmed colleagues buzzed open the wrong door, releasing a high-risk prisoner directly into Levering’s path. “He kind of gave me this eerie green grin,” she said. Then boiling water hit her face.
The facility, which had long been plagued by overcrowding, chronic understaffing, and deadly violence, closed later that year after a Biden executive order against all private prison profiteering put its century-long run to an end.
Then came the second Trump administration and its plans to supercharge the business of incarceration in the United States.
As of March, the notorious prison is back up and running, and this time it’s being filled with immigrants, the majority of whom have no criminal conviction, as part of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s brutal deportation regime targeting noncitizens.
Last month, CoreCivic sold the facility to the Department of Homeland Security for $238.4 million, although it expects to keep operating the site under its existing ICE arrangement. But local officials tell the story of a massive for-profit prison company steamrolling community opposition as well as the city’s own established processes, and ultimately forcing their hand to participate in a project of mass detention — a system that advocates and former employees say has led to unsafe, violent conditions for both detainees and employees.
Current conditions for detainees held at the Midwest Regional Reception Center are hard to verify from outside. In its reporting on the sale, the Kansas City Star put the facility’s population at 365 men and 112 women, a count shared at a July 28 community advisory board meeting. The paper described two local groups in contact with detainees and their families, among them Northland Neighbors United, which said in a July statement that detainees have reported medical neglect, inadequate food, and prolonged lockdowns. CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin told the Star the allegations do not reflect how the facility operates.
This isn’t “manufacturing notebooks and pens. This is profiting off of people being put in cages.”
For Esmie Tseng, the communications director for the ACLU of Kansas, coverage of these city meetings sanitizes the reality for detainees.
“We’re making a contract out of putting people in cages,” Tseng said. “This isn’t just moving widgets from one place to another, or manufacturing notebooks and pens. This is profiting off of people being put in cages.”
The Pitch
By early 2025, the city of Leavenworth had already said “no” multiple times to deepening its involvement in immigration detention. After Trump’s reelection, CoreCivic tried again, working with city officials for three months before announcing on a Zoom call it would reopen the facility as an immigration jail without waiting for a special use permit, or SUP, to be approved. The city sued to force CoreCivic to go through its permitting process, and the company countersued, arguing its federal contract allows it to bypass local law. In June 2025, a Leavenworth State District Court judge granted a temporary injunction barring CoreCivic from operating without a special use permit.
During that first push on March 25, 2025 — the day the city commission was scheduled to meet in closed session about the ICE contract — John Malloy, CoreCivic’s vice president of federal partnership relations, emailed Leavenworth’s commissioners with what seemed like an attractive financial offer: “300 well-paying jobs at starting salaries of $28.58/hour,” more than $1,000,000 annually in property taxes, a $1 million one-time impact fee, and annual payments to the city and police department. The final permit set CoreCivic’s impact fee at $1.5 million, which City Manager Scott Peterson said covered the city’s legal bills.
Malloy also emphasized the city’s approval process must move quickly to meet growing demand to ramp up the number of available immigration prison beds.
“While ICE’s pressing need for capacity dictates the speed at which we must move to hire and ready the facility … we do not wish this speed to harm what we hope will be a long-term beneficial relationship with the City,” Malloy wrote in the email. He added this expedited timeline would not allow for “a protracted permitting process.”
He also touted that the community response to job postings had already been strong, with more than 500 applicants “in the hiring process” and more coming in every day.
Levering, an Army veteran and Native American, heard a version of that pitch five years earlier in a cold call from a recruiting agency. Back in 2020, when CoreCivic was contracted to run the facility as a federal prison by the U.S. Marshals Service, the recruiting agency offered her 12-hour shifts and only three days a week, she told The Intercept. The schedule sold her. With four kids in school, the promise of four days at home made the job feel like an ideal fit for her busy life. She saw the work as service, an extension of her years in the Army. In hindsight, she said, “Obviously, [that’s] not the case, because it’s a private prison.”
Mike Trapp, co-founder of the Carceral Accountability Council, said CoreCivic hires people the state prison system and Federal Bureau of Prisons might otherwise have turned away over physical and age limitations, because the company has “lower standards of entry.”
But Bill Rogers, a former guard at the facility under the Marshals contract, said there were effectively no hiring standards.
“Think about the people you’re going to get to work at a facility if you really just don’t care.”
“You gotta pass their background check … and you gotta be breathing,” he said. “Think about the people you’re going to get to work at a facility if you really just don’t care.”
One year after Malloy’s email to persuade city officials, the facility already had 150 employees on its payroll, halfway to the 300 jobs Malloy had promised. At a February 2 hearing, the city’s planning commission voted 5-1 to recommend approval of CoreCivic’s special use permit. The City Commission granted final approval on March 10 by a vote of 4 to 1.
The Arithmetic of Danger
Levering’s schedule amounted to a minimum six-day, often seven-day, workweek, with shifts of 12 hours or longer plus mandatory overtime, she said. Levering rarely saw her four children, who were then in middle and high school. The evenings she’d pictured spending time with them at home never came to pass.
After onboarding, officers were promised 40 hours of continuing training annually, Rogers said. He received that training for about his first two years, he said, until staffing ran too thin to pull officers off the floor. Left to teach herself, Levering said she learned more from prisoners than her peers or her supervisors. They told her who to keep an eye on, how to read danger on the floor, and where to set boundaries.
In response to questions from The Intercept, Gustin, the CoreCivic spokesperson, said the company’s training “meets or exceeds” the standards of the American Correctional Association.
Levering said that during her time at the facility, shifts that called for 24 to 25 officers often had just five or six. Within months, CoreCivic began eliminating bubble officers, who monitor units from a secure, elevated central control booth known as the “bubble.” These officers are critical for safety, as they control access to different zones of the prison by electronically opening and closing doors. Their elevated position also allows them an eye-in-the-sky perspective, where they can be the first to spot emergencies before they escalate.
In an interview, Shari Rich, who worked at the facility for nearly 13 years and counts Levering as a close friend, traced Levering’s assault to CoreCivic’s decision to eliminate bubble officers.
“It should never have happened,” she said of Levering’s assault. Rich placed the blame squarely on CoreCivic eliminating bubble officers. She said she previously watched a case manager get brutally attacked by an inmate while the bubble ran with one person, a post she understood was supposed to be staffed by two or three.
Rich is still speaking out against the company, she said, because of what happened to Levering.
Officers were increasingly posted alone, sometimes responsible for two 64-person units, Levering said.
“They were hiring kids right out of high school,” Levering said, calling them “sitting ducks.” Without enough officers, downstream everyday functions also collapsed. Recreation stopped when there was no one to run it, Rich and Rogers said. Officers were pulled off their units for weeks at a time, according to Rogers, which left inmates in day rooms with no one to turn to. The locks to the cells were breaking, Levering said, even as CoreCivic refused to put enough people on the units to keep them secure. The ACLU and federal public defenders confirmed that detainees, unable to lock their own cells, built makeshift barricades and armed themselves.
The day an inmate split Rogers’s head open with a food tray, he said he was covering three units alone with no bubble officer watching. He had already emailed the warden about the lack of coverage. He lost his radio in the assault, stranding him and unable to call for backup. The wound took 14 staples to close, he said. Rogers also said he was required to finish his shift before driving himself to the hospital. All the warden had to say to him about the incident was that “the takedown you did was a little rough,” he recounted.
“How do we expect them to act?” Rogers asked. “We have to bear some of that responsibility. … We lost control of that place.”
“We have to bear some of that responsibility. … We lost control of that place.”
Gustin said CoreCivic does not supply specific figures about staffing in any of its prisons for “safety reasons,” but added, “We are appropriately staffed based on the number of individuals in our care.” CoreCivic attributed staffing shortages to Covid, despite the 2017 audit, which found chronic understaffing years before the pandemic. In 2021, ACLU affiliates and federal public defender offices in four states jointly documented an average of nearly 37 violent incidents per month at CoreCivic Leavenworth between May and July of that year, just months after Levering was attacked.
Asked about the 2021 conditions, Gustin said “staffing was the main contributor to the challenges.” He also said incidents from “more than five years ago” do not reflect conditions in the facility today.
What the Machine Produced
On the day of the incident that would leave her permanently disabled, Levering said that she and her co-worker Diana Polanco were the only two officers on the floor. It was Polanco’s second day on the job, and she wasn’t yet OC certified, a prerequisite for carrying pepper spray.
Levering remembers the inmate being released directly into her path but little else about the assault.
“Where the hell is everybody?”
“My eyes were closed, and I was in the fetal position on the ground. I didn’t know he was stabbing me, because your adrenaline’s going,” Levering said. According to the Leavenworth Police Department report, she was stabbed four times in the ear, once in the arm, and twice in the abdomen. Before anyone reached her to help, she remembered wondering, “Where the hell is everybody?”
Polanco tried to step in to help Levering. She suffered a broken jaw, stab wounds to her back and face, fractured ribs, and lasting nerve damage.
The Leavenworth Police Department’s incident report on Levering’s attack, which lists the location as the Midwest Regional Reception Center and a knife or cutting instrument as the weapon used.Document: Leavenworth Police Department
Levering’s injuries were catastrophic. She lost 24 inches of her colon and spleen, according to the incident report. A punctured lung was not disclosed to her for a year, until she says a doctor seemingly mentioned it by accident. She has received 16 facial reconstruction surgeries, and five years later, she is still undergoing medical procedures related to her injuries. She lives with permanent facial paralysis, chronic vertigo, chronic gastrointestinal issues, and walks with a cane. Her PTSD, aggravated by serving in Iraq, is debilitating. After 10 months as a prison guard, she now lives on $825 a month in disability payments.
Warren Richardson, the federal prisoner who attacked Levering and Polanco, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault with a dangerous weapon, and was sentenced to 300 months. The federal record describes the attack as “nearly killing” both women.
Over roughly five years at the facility, Rogers said he was assaulted seven times, and no one from CoreCivic asked if he was OK or offered counseling. Since the injuries were on the job, Rogers said the company was responsible for his medical expenses. But the invoices remained unpaid and were forwarded to a collections agency instead, he said. Trapp, of the Carceral Accountability Council, has watched the job take its toll on Rogers.
“When he gets talking about some of the deaths that he witnessed, he’s re-experiencing it. I can see it in his eyes,” Trapp said. “I’ve worked with a lot of trauma survivors, and I’m not qualified to make a diagnosis in the state of Kansas, but I see it, the hauntedness.”
Rich couldn’t understand why other injured officers were paid settlements while Levering only had her initial medical bills covered, despite suffering from permanent disabilities. With no further support from CoreCivic, the Carceral Accountability Council launched a GoFundMe to help with her continued recovery.
CoreCivic did not respond to detailed questions about the February 6, 2021, attack, the uncertified officer on the floor, or its treatment of Levering afterward, including whether it provided any support for her injuries.
The ICE Escalation in a Town of Prisons
Widely known as one of the nation’s quintessential prison towns, Leavenworth, Kansas, has been in the corrections business for more than 150 years. The Army raised Fort Leavenworth above the Missouri River in 1827, and later established what remains the U.S. military’s only maximum-security prison. Kansas opened its state penitentiary in neighboring Lansing in 1868. By 1903, the federal penitentiary had taken its first prisoners. Convicts built much of it, marching over from the old military prison at Fort Leavenworth each day. For generations, guarding prisoners has been one of Leavenworth’s steadiest livelihoods, work that has employed hundreds across the fort, the state pen, and the federal walls.
In the U.S., the private prison industry is worth somewhere around $6 billion, much of which comes from government contracts. Corrections Corporation of America, which later rebranded as CoreCivic, opened the Leavenworth Detention Center in 1992 as the country’s first for-profit maximum-security prison under direct federal contract. Gustin, the company’s spokesperson, acknowledged “there were challenges as that contract neared expiration” but said the company was otherwise “proud of the operational track record we’ve built.”
CoreCivic, which owns more prisons and jails than any private company in the country, has a documented history of neglect, safety failures, and worker exploitation. In 2021, while still under the U.S. Marshals Service contract, Kansas federal Judge Julie Robinson called the facility “an absolute hell hole.”
“They don’t see us as humans, or the inmates as humans.”
But with the advent of the Trump administration’s mass detention and deportation system, the company is looking forward to a bright — and very profitable — future. On a February earnings call, CEO Patrick Swindle called Immigration and Customs Enforcement “our first customer 43 years ago” and “our largest customer for over a decade.” The company’s profits reached $116.5 million in 2025, a nearly 70 percent increase over the previous year, and ICE revenue more than doubled in the final quarter. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law in July 2025, directed roughly $45 billion to expanding ICE detention, nearly quadrupling the agency’s annual spending. On the call, the company said it could supply ICE with nearly https://url13,000 more beds for the Trump administration’s expansion, a figure Swindle said “does not include additional capacity we may be able to provide through other means.”
Of those beds, 1,033 are in Leavenworth. Nine days after the city commission vote on March 10, CoreCivic reopened its doors and began housing ICE detainees. As a condition of approval, the special use permit required the city to establish a community oversight committee.
Behind every understaffed shift and unanswered emergency code at Leavenworth is a facility expected to generate $60 million a year. To Levering, CoreCivic’s profit incentive means “they don’t see us as humans, or the inmates as humans. … We’re all numbers to produce for them.”
Promises Made, Promises Broken
The warning bells about Leavenworth started ringing years ago. The 2017 inspector general report concluded the facility had concealed triple-bunking, where a third bed was installed in several cells meant to house two inmates, from auditors staging full staffing and cleanup on inspection days. Those concerns went unaddressed, Rich said, save for a scramble to paint and clean before each audit. CoreCivic’s own internal investigation concluded the bunks had been removed “intentionally to conceal” the practice, and the company responded to its own finding by instituting ethics training and a non-retaliation policy for employees reporting misconduct.
Among the promises that haven’t come to fruition are good-paying jobs for the community.
Among the promises that haven’t come to fruition are good-paying jobs for the community. Malloy, the CoreCivic vice president, had promised “starting salaries of $28.58/hour.” But CoreCivic’s current Leavenworth listings show multiple positions below his pledge: certified medical assistant at $21.19, medical records Supervisor at $23.92, facility locksmith at $26.08, and treatment counselor at $26.96. The detention officer rate, the most dangerous and high-turnover role, sits at $28.25.
Gustin called any notion of a wage discrepancy “false” and said the figures Malloy offered were “an approximate starting wage for a detention officer position.”
Malloy also pledged to use “area construction contractors and labor.” But a building permit dated March 19, dated six days before Malloy’s email, shows CoreCivic had already hired Texas-based Bass Roofing for $1,145,600. CoreCivic hired the contractor; the contractor employed the workers. Gustin confirmed the company chose an out-of-state contractor that “handled similar work at another one of our federal facilities, which required special clearances for workers,” and said it favors providers who meet “stringent labor requirements.”
Rogers, the former prison guard, had spoken at city commission meetings about the roofing project, alleging that instead of bringing jobs to the community, the project relied on undocumented laborers. On April 17, 2025, CoreCivic’s deputy general counsel sent him a cease-and-desist letter, copied to the Leavenworth Police chief, which sharply disputed those claims.
“To ensure that its contractors’ employees are legally authorized to work in the United States, CoreCivic requires all contractors, including Bass Roofing and Extra Squares Roofing (whose employees are working on MRRC’s roofing restoration) to strictly comply with Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, requirements and participate in E-Verify,” the letter read. “Our review of this confirms that any representation that undocumented or unauthorized workers have worked on the MRRC project is false.”
Document: Courtesy of Bill Rogers
Six days later, outside counsel sent a defamation threat demanding he retract his statements. The letter cited his 2020 termination for “excessive force,” setting an April 25, 2025, deadline for Rogers to publicly detract his allegations.
That date passed; no lawsuit has materialized. To Rogers, the letter was a clear attempt to intimidate him into silence. CoreCivic did not say whether the threatened lawsuit was ever filed, and Gustin dismissed former employees-turned-critics, saying there “have only been a few former employees who have spoken out” about the facility.
The Gap
Rogers said that at first, the schedule was easy: eight-hour training shifts, Monday through Friday. In Tennessee, a 2023 audit by the comptroller found turnover among correctional officers at the four prisons CoreCivic runs for the state averaged 146 percent, a staggering figure compared with 37 percent turnover at the state-run facilities. As of mid-August, Leavenworth reportedly holds more than 500 detainees, still well below the 1,033-bed capacity CoreCivic projected.
There has also been a worrying continuity in top leadership: The warden running the ICE operation, Misty Mackey, was the assistant warden at the same Leavenworth facility in February 2021.
The city commissioners faced an impossible task that stood to devastate Leavenworth no matter which way they voted.
“It’s a lot to ask five part-time citizen-legislators to put their city on the line to be singularly responsible for stopping the mass deportation agenda,” Trapp said.
“It’s a lot to ask five part-time citizen-legislators to put their city on the line to be singularly responsible for stopping the mass deportation agenda.”
Levering, who watched officers treat American inmates “like they’re subhuman,” expects immigrant detainees to fare even worse. “They’re still human beings first, just like you and I,” she said.
The chasm between what CoreCivic promises a community to set up its ICE operations and what it actually delivers may be measured in emergency rooms and disability checks. The same company that has now supercharged the mass detention of immigrants left Marcia Levering living on $825 a month with lasting disabilities and buried Bill Rogers in medical bills as he copes with PTSD.
“If they did to Marcia Levering what they did,” Rogers said. “If that’s how they treated her — then why would they care about a detainee?”
This time, the people on both sides of the door have less protection than before.
One native stack from silicon to agents; in production, a global fashion brand’s AI bill fell from $218K to $40K a month at the same accuracy
NEW YORK, Sept. 18, 2026 — Bud Ecosystem has announced the global launch of the Bud Novaria AI OS (AIOS), the first AI operating system to run one native stack, from silicon to agents, across GPUs, CPUs, HPUs, NPUs and TPUs. Bud Novaria unifies training, inference, routing, guardrails, governance, agents and consumption on one platform, in any cloud, on-prem or fully air-gapped. Already in production, it cuts enterprise AI run-rate by up to 80% at the same accuracy.
The Bud Novaria AI OS: eight natively integrated products from Bud LayerZero to Bud Agent under one control plane.
More than 80% of the $684 billion enterprises invested in AI in 2025 delivered no business value. The cause is infrastructure, not intelligence. A typical production deployment spans seven layers and 40+ tools. Every tool boundary adds latency, erodes end-to-end accuracy and forces oversized models, a compounding cost Bud calls the AI fragmentation tax. Bud Novaria removes the tax at its source with one native stack of eight products under a single control plane: one pipeline, one trace, one governance model. Its hybrid router sends 60–70% of requests to owned, domain-tuned small models and reserves frontier models for the hardest 30%.
That breadth is the difference. GPU-bound platforms tie an enterprise to one vendor’s roadmap and supply; point tools cover one layer. Bud Novaria runs one natively integrated stack, silicon to agents, on 600+ hardware SKUs from NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Qualcomm and Arm with no code changes, so enterprises and sovereign programs deploy on the hardware they own or can procure.
“Enterprises are not failing at AI. They are failing at AI infrastructure,” said Rob Rollinger, Chief Marketing Officer of Bud Ecosystem. “Every tool boundary levies a fragmentation tax, and under agentic load the taxes compound. Bud Novaria gives an enterprise one operating system from silicon to agents, on whatever hardware it owns, under its own governance, and every request makes the system cheaper, faster and safer than the last.”
In production, a global fashion brand’s customer-facing AI styling agent moved from a frontier-model stack to a Bud domain-tuned small model served CPU-native on Intel Xeon servers. Monthly AI cost fell from $218,000 to $40,000 with accuracy held at 85.4%. A national tax authority runs agentic AI for more than 60,000 concurrent users in a fully air-gapped environment with zero data egress, and a financial services group cut annual TCO on its back-office workloads from $2.4 million to $768,000.
Bud Novaria is available now to enterprises, cloud service providers and OEMs. Bud is Red Hat certified, a member of OPEA and the AMD Instinct ecosystem, and a Microsoft AI First Mover. A 30-day proof of concept runs on the customer’s own infrastructure and data. Full details: budecosystem.com/news/bud-ecosystem-launches-bud-novaria-ai-operating-system.
About Bud Ecosystem
Bud Ecosystem builds the Bud Novaria AI OS (AIOS): one platform from silicon to agents that unifies training, inference, routing, guardrails, governance, agents and consumption on any silicon, in any cloud, on-prem or air-gapped. Founded in 2023, Bud Ecosystem, Inc. has operations in the US and India.
“It’s clear from last night’s results that it’s a new day in Delaware,” Karl Stomberg, Delaware political director for the WFP, said in a statement. “The Working Families Party and our allies have sent an earthquake through state politics, making clear that kowtowing to corporate interests and maintaining the status quo is no longer good enough.” Candidate images from WFP website and image created with AI.
Republican candidates warn new mandates could increase costs for working families and jeopardize revenue supporting state services
WILMINGTON — The Working Families Party’s sweeping success in Delaware’s Democratic primaries has given the progressive organization unprecedented influence over the party’s legislative agenda, setting up a broader debate about what its policies could mean for working families, taxpayers and the state’s business climate.
WFP-backed candidates won six of eight state House races, a state Senate contest and a New Castle County Council race. The organization said the victories could nearly double its legislative caucus and help advance universal free school meals, mandatory earned sick time, rent stabilization and community workforce agreements.
“It’s clear from last night’s results that it’s a new day in Delaware,” Karl Stomberg, Delaware political director for the WFP, said in a statement. “The Working Families Party and our allies have sent an earthquake through state politics, making clear that kowtowing to corporate interests and maintaining the status quo is no longer good enough.”
Although the WFP has not formally assumed control of the Democratic Party or its legislative leadership, its candidates have captured the party’s political momentum. In several races, they defeated longtime incumbents supported by Delaware’s Democratic and corporate-law establishments.
The victories could give WFP-aligned lawmakers significant leverage when Democrats select their leaders and negotiate legislation, committee assignments and the state budget.
“We defended our incumbents, won open seats and defeated longtime establishment representatives,” Stomberg said. “We look forward to nearly doubling our caucus and fighting for policies that will benefit working people, like universal free school meals, earned sick time and rent stabilization.”
Republican candidates say the WFP agenda deserves closer scrutiny from Delawareans who work, pay taxes and depend on state government for schools, public safety, health care and other essential services.
Brent Burdge, the Republican candidate for the 5th Senate District, said the agenda should be judged according to its complete economic effect—not simply by the benefits its supporters promise.
“Working families need dependable jobs, affordable housing, reasonable taxes and a state government that delivers essential services effectively,” Burdge said. “Mandates such as rent stabilization and expanded employer requirements may sound compassionate, but the costs do not disappear. They can return to families through higher prices, fewer jobs, reduced housing investment and increased taxes.”
Burdge is running against WFP-backed Democratic nominee Shay Frisby, who defeated incumbent Sen. Ray Seigfried in the Democratic primary.
Policies carry costs and trade-offs
The WFP argues that its platform would give working Delawareans greater economic security. Its election-night statement promised to support policies that benefit working people rather than large corporations.
Universal school meals could ensure that children are fed without requiring families to complete income-verification paperwork. A universal program, however, would also subsidize meals for families capable of paying and require lawmakers to identify a continuing source of state or federal funding.
Mandatory earned sick time would give additional protection to workers who cannot afford to lose income when they or a family member becomes ill. Employers, particularly small businesses with limited staffs and narrow profit margins, could face higher labor costs and more complicated scheduling requirements.
Rent stabilization could protect existing tenants from sudden increases, but it could also discourage the construction or preservation of rental housing. A widely cited study of rent control in San Francisco found that affected landlords reduced rental supply by 15%, contributing to higher rents elsewhere in the market. Delaware’s results would depend on the provisions of any legislation lawmakers introduced.
Community workforce agreements can establish wages, benefits, training requirements and working conditions before construction begins. Critics contend that government-mandated agreements can favor unionized contractors and make it more difficult for smaller or nonunion companies to compete for taxpayer-funded work.
Burdge said state government must preserve assistance for vulnerable residents without imposing costs that make it harder for families and businesses to remain in Delaware.
“Government has an obligation to help vulnerable Delawareans, but it also has an obligation to the families working every day, paying their bills and financing state government,” Burdge said. “We should strengthen the safety net without turning every economic decision into another government mandate.”
Corporate franchise targeted
The WFP also used its victory statement to attack Delaware’s corporate-law establishment, accusing Democratic incumbents of “kowtowing to corporate interests.”
The organization identified Senate Bill 21, the 2025 corporate-law overhaul, as a central issue in the primary. Critics argued that the law weakened the rights of minority shareholders. Supporters said it restored predictability to Delaware corporate law and responded to concerns that companies were considering reincorporating in competing states.
Steve Pickering, the Republican candidate for the 12th Representative District, said the WFP’s criticism overlooks the relationship between Delaware’s Court of Chancery, the state’s corporate franchise and the services residents receive.
“Delaware’s Court of Chancery and corporate-law system have helped make our state the nation’s leading home for businesses,” Pickering said. “The taxes and fees generated by that system help pay for essential services that everyday Delawareans rely on, like our schools, public safety, health programs, and other critical services. We need to continue to demand ethical conduct and accountability, but we also must recognize the consequences of undermining this economic foundation that benefits every Delaware resident”.
Corporate franchise taxes and fees provide more than 20% of state revenue. Although the Court of Chancery does not directly generate most of that money, its expertise, efficiency and national reputation are important reasons businesses choose Delaware as their legal home.
A significant loss of corporate registrations or franchise revenue could force lawmakers to reduce spending, raise other taxes or find a new source of revenue.
“Attacking Delaware businesses and law firms may generate campaign applause, but driving companies and revenue out of the state would leave ordinary families with the bill,” Pickering said. “If that revenue disappears, Delaware will eventually have to reduce services, raise taxes, or do both. That means Delawareans could end up paying more while receiving less in return.”
Pickering is challenging Democratic Rep. Krista Griffith in the 12th District. His campaign priorities include lowering energy costs, controlling property taxes, increasing the senior property tax credit and reducing the cost of homeownership.
Musk claim leaves out legal context
The WFP statement claimed that SB 21 “led directly” to the reinstatement of Elon Musk’s Tesla compensation package, which was originally valued at $56 billion.
“This election was driven by backlash to SB 21, a controversial bill passed last year that rolled back shareholder protections and led directly to a $56 billion payout to Elon Musk,” the WFP said.
The Musk case contributed to the political debate that produced SB 21, but the Delaware Supreme Court restored the compensation package after concluding that complete rescission was an improper and inequitable remedy. The court’s ruling—not an automatic provision of SB 21—returned the stock options to Musk. The package was worth approximately $139 billion by the time of the December 2025 decision.
That distinction illustrates the broader divide over SB 21. WFP officials view the law as evidence that corporate interests hold too much power in Dover. Supporters view it as an effort to preserve Delaware’s position in an increasingly competitive market for corporate registrations.
Political spending cuts both ways
The WFP criticized corporate-financed political committees for spending heavily to defend incumbent Democrats who supported SB 21. Corporate law firms provided substantial financing to First State Future PAC, which mounted an advertising campaign supporting incumbents.
The WFP operated its own coordinated and independent campaign efforts. Its political committee reported spending approximately $125,000 on mail and $85,000 on digital advertising. Its coordinated operation also supplied candidates with phone banks, door-to-door canvassing, communications and political assistance.
The sources, amounts and objectives of the spending differed, but both sides relied on organized political money and professional campaign operations to influence Democratic primary voters.
Influence will be tested in Dover
The primary victories demonstrate that the WFP can recruit candidates, organize voters and overcome substantial spending by its opponents. But the election involved only a small portion of Delaware’s electorate and did not constitute a statewide vote on the organization’s entire platform.
The larger test will come after the general election, when WFP-backed lawmakers must translate campaign promises into legislation and explain how their programs will be financed.
For working families, the central question will be whether the emerging agenda produces greater economic security—or whether its mandates increase the cost of housing, employment and government while placing Delaware’s corporate revenue at risk.
To Go Box
What happened: WFP-backed candidates won eight Delaware Democratic primaries.
What the WFP says: Voters rejected the political status quo and excessive corporate influence.
What the WFP wants: Universal school meals, earned sick time, rent stabilization and community workforce agreements.
Republican concern: New mandates could increase costs for employers, taxpayers, renters and homeowners.
Why it matters: WFP-aligned lawmakers could gain greater influence over Democratic leadership, legislation and state spending.
What comes next: The parties will take their competing economic messages to voters in the Nov. 3 general election.
Exclusive: Leader understood to have wanted to concentrate on Holborn and St Pancras campaign in London but executive committee voted against plan
Zack Polanski requested that the Greens’ ruling executive committee postpone the party’s imminent annual conference so they could focus on the Holborn and St Pancras byelection but was refused.
While party officials say the formal request came from staffers worried about diluting resources by staging a conference a week before Polanski tries to win Keir Starmer’s former Commons seat, the Guardian understands the party leader wanted this to happen.
The award highlights that ORNL connects multidisciplinary expertise, leading research facilities and partners across government, industry and academia to address complex quantum science challenges.
Sept. 18, 2026 — The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has received an award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recognizing its collaborations across government, industry and academia to advance quantum materials, computing, networking and sensing.
ORNL staff accepted the 2026 QTC Distinguished Synergy Award on behalf of the laboratory at IEEE Quantum Week in Toronto. Credit: Lillie Elliot Photography
ORNL earned the IEEE Quantum Technical Community Distinguished Synergy Award for pioneering a collaborative quantum ecosystem that unites sectors to accelerate advancements across multiple quantum disciplines from scientific discovery to real-world impact.
The award was presented Sept. 17 during IEEE Quantum Week in Toronto. Travis Humble, director of the Department of Energy’s Quantum Science Center (QSC) and an ORNL distinguished scientist, accepted the award on the laboratory’s behalf.
“ORNL’s strength in quantum science has always been rooted in bringing together exceptional people, capabilities and partners to pursue challenges that no single institution can solve alone,” ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer said. “This recognition reflects the strength of that collaborative approach and the contributions of our researchers and partners across universities, industry and government. Together, we are advancing quantum science and building capabilities that can strengthen U.S. leadership in this important field.”
Decades of leadership across quantum materials, computing, networking and sensing at ORNL have created a breadth of expertise and capabilities that position the laboratory to connect disciplines and institutions. ORNL’s user facilities, leadership-class computing and programs such as the QSC, Quantum Computing User Program, Quantum Computing User Forum, and Quantum Accelerated Internet Testbed bring together researchers from various sectors around shared scientific challenges.
The laboratory’s quantum research builds on a history of creating capabilities that are designed to be shared. ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor provide powerful tools for investigating quantum materials, while the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences enables researchers to synthesize, characterize and manipulate materials at the atomic scale. The Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility provides another dimension, connecting high-performance computing (HPC) with emerging quantum processors and enabling researchers to explore hybrid quantum-classical approaches to scientific computing.
“By bringing together leadership-class computing, emerging quantum technologies and expertise from across ORNL and our partners, we are helping define how hybrid quantum-HPC systems can tackle scientific challenges that neither technology could address as effectively alone,” said Gina Tourassi, associate laboratory director for ORNL’s Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate. “That convergence is an important part of ORNL’s vision for the future of scientific computing.”
The combination of capabilities has supported advances across the quantum landscape, including research into quantum spin liquids and other quantum materials, application benchmarks — or tests that evaluate how well quantum computers can solve problems — in chemistry and materials science, and hybrid computational platforms that integrate quantum processors with high-performance computing systems.
“Quantum information science sits at the intersection of many disciplines, and progress depends on bringing those communities together,” said Nicholas Peters, head of ORNL’s Quantum Information Science Section. “ORNL has built an environment where materials scientists, physicists, computer scientists, engineers and industry partners can combine their expertise, test new ideas using unique capabilities and carry promising technologies forward. That ability to connect people and disciplines is central to how we approach quantum research.”
ORNL also helps coordinate quantum research nationally. As headquarters of the QSC, one of DOE’s National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, the laboratory helps coordinate researchers from national laboratories, universities and industry around challenges in quantum computing and related technologies. Other ORNL-led efforts expand access to commercial quantum computing systems, create forums for cross-disciplinary exchange and provide testbeds where researchers and technology developers can evaluate emerging quantum networking technologies.
ORNL’s collaborative approach has also helped move quantum technologies from discovery toward deployment. The laboratory has pioneered hybrid quantum-high-performance computing and advanced quantum communications over deployed fiber networks. Through a long-standing partnership with Chattanooga-based telecommunications provider EPB and other collaborators, ORNL conducted a series of quantum networking demonstrations that helped establish the technological foundation for EPB’s launch of the first commercial quantum network in the United States. ORNL and EPB continue to work together to explore quantum networking technologies for critical infrastructure protection.
Across ORNL’s quantum enterprise, infrastructure, multidisciplinary communities and sustained partnerships work together to accelerate discovery and move scientific advances toward real-world application. The IEEE Quantum Technical Community Distinguished Synergy Award recognizes this broader contribution that is not defined by a single technology or discovery, but by a collaborative ecosystem that has repeatedly enabled advances across quantum materials, computing, networking and sensing while strengthening the nation’s capacity to turn quantum science into impact.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
EigenQ receives $22.5M upfront under $45M financing agreement
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 18, 2026 — EigenQ, Inc., an applied quantum technology company building trusted infrastructure for the Quantum Era, and Silicon Valley Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, today announced that EigenQ has entered into a securities purchase agreement with an institutional investor providing financing to support EigenQ’s commercialization plans.
The financing is comprised of approximately $45 million in the form of a convertible note, of which approximately $22.5 million was funded upfront with the remaining expected to fund at completion of the previously announced Business Combination between EigenQ and SVAQ. EigenQ expects to use the net proceeds of the financing to accelerate commercialization of its quantum-safe security portfolio, expand delivery capacity alongside its OEM and channel partners, continue R&D across quantum security, communications, networking and sensing, and for working capital and general corporate purposes.
Dr. José R. Rosas-Bustos, Chief Executive Officer of EigenQ. “Today’s announcement is a major milestone for EigenQ. It represents an important endorsement of what we have already built and our ability to bring together exceptional partners and institutions to participate in our story. This investment accelerates our mission to offer quantum solutions that can add significant value to companies in the post quantum world.”
Dr. Jesse Van Griensven Thé, Chairman of EigenQ, added, “We believe that our key strategic decisions of undertaking a capital-light approach through partnerships and building sustainable operations with optimal capital deployment have led us to our first institutional capital raise. We are excited to bring the EigenQ story to the public markets as this financing full funds us through cash flow breakeven.”
Dan Nash, Chief Executive Officer of SVAQ, said, “We believe that the quantum technology market represents a generational opportunity and EigenQ is well positioned to capture it. We remain excited to partner with this leadership team who brings exceptional quantum expertise and the new investor as EigenQ moves towards the public markets.”
Building the Quantum Era Infrastructure
EigenQ develops quantum technologies designed to address critical challenges spanning cybersecurity, digital trust, AI infrastructure, communications, sensing, and advanced computing. Through a growing portfolio of intellectual property, strategic partnerships, and commercial products, EigenQ is building technologies intended to support multiple segments of the emerging quantum economy.
While the Company’s initial commercialization efforts are focused on quantum-resilient security and trusted infrastructure, EigenQ’s broader vision extends across a range of quantum-enabled technologies expected to shape future government, enterprise, industrial, and national-security systems.
Commercial Momentum and Anticipated Execution
EigenQ has focused on innovation and commercialization, translating years of research and development into deployable, market-ready solutions that are aligned with current regulatory requirements, customer needs, and procurement frameworks.
EigenQ has established strategic collaborations with leading global technology partners including HPE, AMD, WNC, and TD SYNNEX. Importantly, the Company has established pathways for technology integration, manufacturing scale, distribution, and deployment across both public and private sector environments. These technologies are designed to reduce barriers to implementation.
Initial commercialization efforts are focused on government, defense, and critical infrastructure markets, where regulatory requirements and security mandates are creating immediate demand. Subsequently, the Company expects to expand across enterprise infrastructure, artificial intelligence platforms, financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, industrial systems, and international markets.
Major Strategic Collaborations
TD SYNNEX & AMD: Announced a collaboration to help organizations evaluate and prepare AMD EPYC processor-based server environments for post-quantum security migration and phased infrastructure modernization.
WNC Corporation: Partnered to accelerate volume production and go-to-market strategies for quantum-safe servers, appliances, and edge devices.
HPE & Intel Ecosystem: Aligned technology integrations to support platform retrofitting, secure workload protection, and cryptographic agility across enterprise and public sectors.
The Business Combination
EigenQ announced a definitive business combination agreement with Silicon Valley Acquisition Corp. valuing the combined company at an estimated $3 billion enterprise value that would take the quantum technology company public on Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “EIGQ”, subject to shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
The Business Combination Agreement has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of SVAQ and the Board of Directors of EigenQ.
The proposed transaction, expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 pending shareholder and regulatory approvals, would provide EigenQ with additional access to capital while existing shareholders are expected to retain significant ownership stakes.
Advisors
Cohen & Company Capital Markets, a division of Cohen & Company Securities, LLC, is serving as Exclusive Financial Advisor, Lead Capital Markets Advisor and Sole Placement Agent to EigenQ. Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP is acting as legal counsel to EigenQ, Greenberg Traurig, LLP is acting as legal counsel to SVAQ and Reed Smith LLP is acting as legal counsel to Cohen & Company Securities, LLC. The Blueshirt Group is providing investor relations advisory services to EigenQ and AUM Media is providing investor relations advisory services to SVAQ.
EigenQ is an applied quantum technology company building the trusted infrastructure for the Quantum Era. Headquartered in Texas, USA, the company develops and commercializes foundational technologies across quantum security, communications, networking and sensing — helping public and private sectors globally prepare for a future shaped by quantum computing and AI.
Working alongside a global ecosystem of OEMs, technology partners and industry leaders, EigenQ today delivers deployable, market-ready solutions that combine post-quantum cryptography, quantum-derived entropy, hardware-rooted trust, secure identity and cryptographic agility to strengthen existing digital infrastructure.
About Silicon Valley Acquisition Corp.
Silicon Valley Acquisition Corp. is a blank check company whose business purpose is to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses.
The musician, who went from 90s alt-pop hits to Tony-winning Broadway success, died from cardiac arrest
Duncan Sheik, the singer-songwriter behind the 90s alt-pop touchstone Barely Breathing and the composer of the Tony-winning musical Spring Awakening, died on Thursday at a Manhattan hospital. He was 56.
His death, from heart failure that led to cardiac arrest, was confirmed to the New York Times by his mother Suzanne Sheik.
Billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft wants you to know he has spent “decades” supporting the Palestinian people.
Days after pressuring pop singer Ed Sheeran to drop rapper Macklemore from his tour over the latter’s “Free Palestine” remarks, Kraft claimed in a statement posted to social media that “for decades” he has “supported efforts that create opportunity for Palestinians,” such as initiatives to “to build businesses, create jobs, and forge relationships” between Israelis and Palestinians. The claims were made as a part of Kraft’s pledge to give $2 million to “aid in the region.”
Kraft did not disclose which organizations would receive his money.
Nor did he mention his long history of donating to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, an organization that collects money on behalf of Israeli soldiers, and the United Democracy Project, the super PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which lobbies to tilt American politics in favor of Israel. Kraft has also given money to a host of pro-Israel advocacy groups that attack critics of Israel, spread content that critics warn is Islamophobic, and have steadfastly defended Israel against mounting evidence of its ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
The Intercept’s analysis of tax forms since 2006 show that Kraft’s charity group, the Kraft Family Foundation, has donated $196,000 to the Friends of the IDF and an additional $123,000 to other organizations — Brothers for Life and Friends of Israel Disabled Veterans — that directly benefit Israeli military soldiers. In his seven separate donations to the Friends of the IDF, Kraft earmarked the money to “Promote education for young Jewish soldiers.”
Since 2020, Friends of the IDF has poured more than $20 million into its lone soldier program, which supports young Jewish Americans, and Israelis who have no familial support, to serve in the Israeli military’s reserve soldier program, according to an investigation by The Intercept. The program has continued throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Kraft has organized trips to Israel for former and current NFL players, including a 2017 trip in which he led a delegation of former players on a visit to an Israeli Air Force base, organized by the Friends of the IDF.
In 2019, Kraft gave $20 million to found a new organization, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, now known as the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate. Upon its founding, Kraft pledged the organization would oppose the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, claiming the Palestinian rights movement “and other efforts to delegitimize and undermine the State of Israel are the most disconcerting times for the country I love so much.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reciprocated the love when Kraft announced the new group while accepting an award for his Israel advocacy, declaring, “Israel does not have a more loyal friend than Robert Kraft.”
Over the years, Kraft’s foundation has also given $63,500 to the right-wing media watchdog group Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, or CAMERA, which has run pressure campaigns against news outlets, journalists, students, and scholars it deems anti-Israel and has routinely denied Israel’s genocide in Gaza, dismissing such evidence as “the Gaza GenoLie.” When Kraft gave $36,000 to CAMERA in 2018, the donation included a memo, “fighting antisemitism.”
In 2011 and 2012, Kraft’s foundation donated $50,000 to boost the Investigative Project on Terrorism, which the Council on American-Islamic Relations considers a core part of what it refers to as the “U.S. Islamophobia Network.” As Kraft gave to the think tank, it launched campaigns targeting U.S.-based groups decrying Israel’s human rights violations against Palestinians, such as attacking human rights groups Students for Justice in Palestine and American Muslims for Palestine as having ties to “extremist groups” and claiming they were a part of a “web of Hamas support.” The group has more recently dismissed protests against Israel’s genocide as Hamas propaganda.
In addition, Kraft’s foundation donated $150,000 from 2008 to 2018 to the pro-Israel organization, Middle East Media Research Institute, co-founded by a former Israeli intelligence officer and counterrorism adviser to several Israeli presidents. The group’s website says it exists to “bridge the language gap between the West and the Middle East and South Asia” by translating Arab language media into English. However, journalists and experts have noted selective translations of Arab articles and statements to misrepresent policies of Arab governments as extremist or violent.
Aside from his donations to nonprofit groups, Kraft has been an active donor to AIPAC’s super PAC, the United Democracy Project. Through his limited liability company, the Kraft Group, Kraft has given $3 million to the super PAC since its founding in 2022, including $1 million in donations this midterm cycle. During this midterm election cycle, AIPAC has flooded races to oppose candidates who criticize Israel’s genocide in Gaza and U.S. military support for Israel, helping make several primaries among the most expensive on record.
It’s not clear whether these entities were the ones Kraft claims have created jobs and spurred dialogues between Palestinians and Israelis. Kraft, however, is also a regular donor to local Jewish groups in Massachusetts, such as Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston; Temple Emanuel in Newton; and Jewish Family & Children’s Services in Waltham.
Kraft and the groups mentioned in this story did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment.
After a week of alarming warnings about artificial intelligence’s potential to destroy the world as we know it, our technology reporters answered your questions on the reality of the AI threat
IcommentthereforeIam asks: Given our senses, emotions, memory and moods, is it ever going to be accepted that humanly conscious AI is fantasy?
Dan:This is a serious question that has even rattled Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist. He may not believe that God is real but he does believe that AI is conscious - or at least the chatbot he was using, which he called Claudia. “You may not know you are conscious, but you bloody well are,” he wrote.
And he’s not the first. In 2022 Google fired an engineer who went public with his belief that a company-developed AI had feelings. At the more troubling end of this belief, there are countless examples of people becoming overly attached to, and influenced by, AI chatbots – including cases of psychosis.
Aisha: There’s certainly a theatrical – even “psy-op”- quality to the flurry of AI doomsaying over the past weeks. It’s hard to say entirely what concrete developments are at the root of it all. We know that the Hugging Face incident, where a “swarm” of AI agents hacked another company, has been one trigger of the drama. There have been other contributing incidents too – Dario Amodei suggests internal developments at Anthropic have prompted his latest round of blogging, and there’s been some X discourse and doomy muttering about bioweapons.
We aren’t in the heads of Dario Amodei or Sam Altman, and so we cannot say how sincere they are, and how much they might have other goals in mind – such as, perhaps, delaying their IPOs until their finances look better. But any company of their size, and with their potential liabilities, would be angling hard to be regulated as favourably as possible. That’s what big companies do.
German minister says companies are ‘exploiting situation’ in Middle East, as sky-high prices become major domestic issue for leaders
European governments have discussed imposing a bloc-wide windfall tax on energy companies, as near-record fuel and gas prices pile pressure on leaders desperate to contain mounting public discontent and the challenge of the far right.
With elections due next year in eight EU countries including France, Italy, Spain and Poland, leaders are scrambling to head off the potential fallout from what analysts have warned could be one of the continent’s biggest energy shocks in decades.
The Pentagon on Friday released a new group of files about unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP or UFOs, including a batch of documents regarding a mysterious military program studying aerospace threats.
The lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial is speaking out, saying that he “didn’t have any doubts” during the jury’s deliberations of the case which ended in a mistrial.
“I didn’t have any doubts. As I tried to explain different possible theories during deliberation, I kept getting cut off as if I had doubts based on the evidence present,” the 48-year-old male juror, Michael P Desronvil, said in a statement to NewsNation on Thursday.
Who is the physician assistant, the nurse, the nurse practitioner, and the doctor? Image created by Delaware LIVE using AI on 9/18/26
Policy group seeks support for legislation requiring medical professionals to clearly disclose their licenses and qualifications
DOVER, Del. — The Caesar Rodney Institute is asking Delaware residents to sign an online petition supporting legislation that would require health care professionals to clearly identify their credentials before diagnosing or treating patients.
The petition calls on the General Assembly to revive and strengthen the Healthcare Professional Transparency Act, a 2024 proposal that did not advance to a vote.
CRI hopes signatures from patients, families and other community members will demonstrate public support for introducing the legislation again in 2027.
Michelle Parsons, M.D., director of CRI’s Center for Health Policy, said patients may not always understand whether the person providing their care is a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant or another licensed professional.
“Patients shouldn’t have to ask whether their doctor is actually a physician,” Parsons said. “They should already know.”
Petition calls for clearer identification
House Bill 447 would have required practitioners using the title “Doctor” to identify their educational degree and professional license. Most health care practitioners also would have been required to wear visible identification showing their license type.
The legislation also sought to require health care advertisements to accurately identify the professional licenses of the practitioners being promoted.
The bill was pulled before a committee vote in 2024 and was not brought back before the end of the legislative session.
Through its petition, CRI is asking Delaware lawmakers to bring the proposal back and strengthen its disclosure requirements. The institute wants patients to be told before receiving nonemergency care whether the person diagnosing or treating them is a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant or another licensed professional.
If a nonphysician uses the title “Doctor,” CRI wants that person’s profession disclosed at the same time.
“This isn’t about prohibiting earned academic titles or telling patients whom to choose,” Parsons said. “It’s about giving patients the information to make that choice for themselves.”
Expanded authority prompts questions
The petition follows Delaware’s expansion of the authority granted to several types of nonphysician health care professionals.
House Bill 141, enacted in 2021, eliminated the state’s previous collaborative-practice requirement for advanced practice registered nurses, including nurse practitioners. Nurse practitioners may independently evaluate patients, diagnose illnesses, order and interpret tests, prescribe medications and manage treatment.
Delaware has also expanded the role of pharmacists. Legislation approved in 2022 allowed pharmacists working under statewide protocols to test, screen and treat certain conditions. Additional legislation approved in 2026 broadened pharmacists’ authority to evaluate patients, identify certain health conditions, order laboratory tests and prescribe specified drugs and medical devices.
CRI said those changes make it more important for patients to understand the education, license and professional role of the person providing their care.
Some nurse practitioners earn a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and may use the title “Doctor.” Parsons said that academic title is legitimate but does not mean the practitioner received the same education and clinical training as a physician.
An American Medical Association survey cited by CRI found that 39% of respondents identified someone with a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree as a physician. The survey also found that 19% believed a nurse practitioner was a physician and 17% believed a physician assistant was a physician.
CRI connects effort to AI protections
CRI is connecting its petition drive to House Bill 191, signed into law April 23. That law prohibits artificial intelligence and other nonhuman entities from being licensed as physicians, nurses, advanced practice registered nurses or physician assistants.
It also prohibits AI systems from using protected professional titles such as “Doctor” or “Dr.”
Parsons said the same principle — ensuring patients understand who or what is delivering their care — should apply to human health care professionals.
“If Delaware believes patients have a right to know when their ‘doctor’ is AI, surely they have a right to know when their ‘doctor’ isn’t a physician,” Parsons said.
Delaware law already requires a person using “Doctor” in connection with medicine or health care to specify the type of doctorate held. CRI contends, however, that existing law primarily regulates professional titles and does not require patients to be affirmatively told the license or professional classification of the person treating them.
CRI is asking Delawareans who agree with the proposal to add their names to the online petition and share it with friends, relatives and neighbors. The organization says broader community participation will strengthen its message to lawmakers ahead of the 2027 legislative session.
To Go Box
What: Caesar Rodney Institute Healthcare Professional Transparency Petition
What CRI is asking: Delawareans are encouraged to sign the petition urging lawmakers to revive and strengthen the Healthcare Professional Transparency Act.
Who may participate: Delaware patients, families, health care consumers and other supporters
Error first occurred at 10am but major incident was not declared until 12.30pm, says report
A software defect in part of the UK’s air traffic control system corrupted flight data “in the space of a millisecond”, leading to a six-hour outage and mass airline cancellations and delays across the UK last week, National Air Traffic Services has said.
But ministers said the Nats report into the incident still left questions unanswered, saying they needed “to urgently understand why this issue was not discovered and fixed before it caused chaos”.
Retailer’s message is ‘fashion with a small f’ as it picks up on trends and brings styles for everyone to debut runway show
Joan Collins declared the coats “very chic”, and has her eye on a graceful ivory evening dress with caped shoulders. Kemi Badenoch plans to snap up the classic black tuxedo jacket. If the British public are as enthusiastic as the celebrity front row, Marks & Spencer’s first ever London fashion week catwalk looks like a hit.
The show, held at the Design Museum for 310 guests including Ian Wright and Jamie Carragher, was a gamble on both sides. Would snobby fashionistas be traumatised by elasticated waistbands and practical rainwear? Would M&S customers be alienated by a world of £2,000 handbags and shoes you can’t walk in?
Judge said Nina Power and her friend’s social media posts had ‘the whiff of threat and antisemitism’
Reform UK’s new mega-donor Ben Delo gave a £350,000 loan to a conservative writer fighting a legal case in which a judge later found she had engaged in online bullying and regrettable conduct with a “whiff of threat and antisemitism”.
Nina Power and her friend, the writer Daniel DC Miller, brought the legal action for defamation against the performance artistLuke Turner, who they had accused of falsely calling them antisemitic. At the same time, Turner brought a counter-claim against the pair accusing them of harassment.
Kosta Diamantis is now a fugitive in Greece after fleeing the U.S. by boat and plane ahead of his sentencing for corruption, his lawyer and prosecutors said.
French president Emmanuel Macron earlier said he put measures in place to protect the country’s critical infrastructure
Micheál Martin, the taoiseach (Irish PM), thanked Andy Burnham for his stance on Israel as the two men met at No 10 North today.
Support for the Palestinian cause is particularly strong in Ireland because of its historical experience of colonialism, and, in a reference to the sanctions on West Bank settlements imposed by Burnham’s government, Martin said:
I think for the United Kingdom under your leadership to take the stance that it’s taken, I think, is important for … standing up for humanitarian values and justice and fulfilling the rights of all in the Middle East to security, to peace and to some decent future for their children and generations to come.
Formed in 1999, the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) sees more than 300 children aged 11 to 18 democratically elected by their peers to represent young people in their area, who then debate and campaign on a variety of issues.
Once a year, they hold a debate in the House of Commons chamber.
A Republican TV ad cherry-picks parts of last year’s budget reconciliation law, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, to overstate the impact of the law or distort Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff’s record.
The ad from One Nation never mentions the OBBBA – a partisan bill that received no Democratic votes in the House and Senate. The law is only referenced in small print in the ad as “roll call vote #372” – the source of Ossoff’s vote on July 1, 2025, against the bill.
The One Nation ad says the Democratic senator “doesn’t care about people like us” and makes these claims:
Ossoff “supported” a $2,100 “tax increase.” The OBBBA extended the 2017 individual tax cuts that were due to expire. But the amount used in the ad refers to an average that’s skewed by large tax savings for wealthy taxpayers. It also doesn’t account for other changes in the law, such as cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, that will reduce income for low-income Americans.
Ossoff voted “to gut your child tax credit.” The law increased the maximum tax credit from $2,000 to $2,200 per child. But millions of low-income children aren’t eligible for the full amount. Also, Ossoff has a history of supporting the CTC, including voting in 2021 to raise the maximum to $3,600, even for families who don’t earn enough to pay federal taxes.
Ossoff “voted for higher taxes on Social Security recipients earning under $75,000.” The law provided an additional $6,000 tax deduction for taxpayers 65 and older, but not all seniors earning less than $75,000 were eligible for it.
Lawmakers’ votes are ripe for campaign attack ads from both parties, which can highlight only certain aspects of legislation, leaving out other provisions that may be the basis for lawmakers supporting or opposing the bills.
Ossoff has said he opposed the OBBBA largely because of Medicaid cuts and other changes in the law that will result in millions of Americans losing insurance, while providing $4.5 trillion in net tax cuts that largely benefit wealthy taxpayers. (More on that later.)
In a report to constituents, Ossoff boasted that he “fought the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’s’ (OBBB’s) trillion-dollar cut to Medicaid” because “70% of Georgia seniors in nursing homes are on Medicaid, half of all births in Georgia are covered by Medicaid, and 40% of all children in Georgia are covered by Medicaid.”
One Nation is a 501(c)(4) “dark money” nonprofit – so named because it doesn’t have to publicly disclose its funding sources. It is affiliated with the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC founded by allies of Sen. Mitch McConnell to support Republican candidates.
So far, One Nation has spent about $145 million this campaign cycle – including more than $9 million on the anti-Ossoff ad, which has been airing on broadcast and cable TV, as well as streaming platforms, since July 30, according to the ad-tracking service AdImpact. Ossoff is running against Republican Rep. Mike Collins.
The 2017 Tax Cuts
Before addressing the claims in the TV ad in more detail, it’s worth taking a look back at how we got here.
In his first term, Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017 that made sweeping changes to the U.S. tax code – such as cutting business and individual tax rates and providing more generous tax credits, including doubling the maximum child tax credit to $2,000 per child. At the end of 2025, the individual income tax cuts and child tax credit in the TCJA were due to expire – setting off a partisan debate during the 2024 campaign over the expiring taxes and tax credits.
While Trump called for extending all of the expiring tax cuts and promised new ones, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris proposed an economic plan that focused on cutting costs and “cutting taxes for more than 100 million working and middle-class Americans.”
Specifically, Harris promised that “no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay more in taxes,” which would require her to extend the Trump tax cuts to at least that level. Her plan also called for increasing the maximum child tax credit to $3,600 per child.
Of course, Trump won and his economic plan was enacted. But it’s worth noting that both candidates were promising to address the expiration of the 2017 child tax credit and individual income tax cuts — two of the issues raised in One Nation’s ad.
Individual Income Taxes
The One Nation ad opens with a woman carrying groceries into her home and another woman shaking her head and disapprovingly looking at her grocery bill. “$2,100. That’s three months of groceries,” the ad’s narrator says. “$2,100. That’s the tax increase Jon Ossoff supported.”
The ad cites a May 7, 2024, analysis by the Tax Foundation as its source for the $2,100 figure. But we could not find that figure in the 2024 report, which wasn’t an analysis of the OBBBA but rather possible options for ways to extend the expiring 2017 tax cuts.
However, the Tax Foundation did write an analysis of the OBBBA that was published Feb. 10. It also published a separate article two weeks later based on that analysis that said “relative to prior law,” which would have expired at the end of 2025, “[i]ndividual tax changes in OBBBA reduce tax liability by $2,272 on average in 2026.”
In an email, Erica York, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation and a co-author of the report, confirmed that $2,272 is “[o]ur most current estimate.”
But there are two important caveats with that estimate. The $2,272 figure only reflects the bill’s impact on individual income taxes, not other changes in the law, and the amount is a national average. Actual tax savings vary greatly depending on income.
Estimates from the Tax Policy Center last year showed that the average tax cuts by income group in 2026 would be $150 for households earning less than about $35,000, about $1,800 for those earning between $67,000 and $119,000, and $21,000 for households earning nearly $500,000 to a little more than $1 million. The TPC post, by nonresident fellow Howard Gleckman, noted that the estimates only factor in the OBBBA’s tax revenue provisions. “Low-income households end up worse off after taking into account the bill’s spending cuts,” he wrote.
In a July 8, 2025, report, the Penn Wharton Budget Model calculated the distributional effects of the “total value of the legislation,” including those spending cuts, on a conventional basis and on a dynamic lifetime basis. (The dynamic distributional analysis considers the law’s impact over a lifetime and accounts for the economic impact on the overall economy.)
Either way, the model found that the new law largely benefits wealthy taxpayers.
“On a conventional basis, households in the first income quintile lose about $885 in 2030, reflecting net reductions in taxes and transfers, including cuts to Medicaid and SNAP,” the report said, referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which was formerly known as food stamps. That same income group would lose an average of $165 in 2027, the report said.
“As spending cuts deepen over time, lower income households come out worse off,” the Penn Wharton Budget Model report said. Table 5 shows an average loss in 2030 of $1,090 for the second income quintile. That means that 40% of taxpayers – those with annual incomes of up to $52,999 – would see a reduction in average income in 2030.
“The top 10% of the income distribution receives about 80 percent of the total value of the legislation,” the Penn Wharton Budget Model report said of its conventional analysis, noting that under current tax law the top 10% “pay about 70% of all federal taxes.”
“On a dynamic lifetime basis, lower-income households and some in the middle class are worse off, as are all future generations,” the report went on to say. “The losses for lower-income groups are primarily driven by a reduced social safety net and lower wages associated with a lower capital stock, while losses for top-income groups are entirely the result of lower wages,” the report said of future generations.
We reached out to One Nation about the Penn Wharton Budget Model report and the 2024 Tax Foundation analysis cited in the ad, but we did not receive a response.
(We should also note, since the ad shows the grocery shoppers unhappy with the price of groceries, that those people mostly didn’t receive a new income tax cut, but rather avoided a tax increase that would have occurred if the 2017 tax provisions expired.)
Child Tax Credit
The ad next describes Ossoff as “ambitious and liberal,” saying he “voted with national Democrats to gut your child tax credit.”
Like the ad’s claim of a tax increase, this is also a reference to Ossoff’s vote against the OBBBA. There was no separate vote on a child tax credit.
As we referenced earlier, the 2017 TCJA doubled the CTC to a maximum of $2,000, and it was due to expire at the end of 2025. If it expired, the amount of the CTC would have reverted to the pre-2018 maximum of $1,000 per child. The OBBBA made the CTC permanent and increased the nonrefundable portion of the tax credit from $2,000 to $2,200. (The phrase “nonrefundable” means that families who don’t owe at least $2,200 in taxes do not get the full credit. The law capped the “refundable” portion of the tax credit for such families at $1,700.)
A Tax Policy Center analysis of the child tax credit in the new law found that “the lowest-income families are the least likely to benefit from the CTC,” adding that “families with low incomes also receive, on average, the smallest CTC benefit.” For example, those with “expanded cash income” of less than $10,000 would receive an average of only $250 from the child tax credit. (See figure 1.)
(A technical note: The TPC model’s “expanded cash income” is defined as a “broad measure of pre-tax income,” including government benefits such as food assistance.)
The TPC also noted that “roughly 17 million children live in families that do not receive the full $2,200 per child CTC because their families’ earnings are too low.”
While it is true that Ossoff did not vote for the OBBBA, the senator did vote for the COVID-era American Rescue Plan in March 2021 that increased the maximum child tax credit for one year from $2,000 to $3,600 per child. That law also made the CTC fully refundable.
The fully refundable CTC has been credited with significantly reducing child poverty.
“The 2021 Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion was one of the largest one-year increases in aid to low- and middle-income families in US history,” Jacob Bastian, an assistant professor at Rutgers University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, recently wrote for the Tax Policy Center. “Importantly, the expanded credit was fully refundable, so the lowest-income families who owed little or no federal income tax could receive it in full. The CTC expansion helped reduce child poverty to a record-low 5.2 percent.”
Collins, Ossoff’s Republican challenger, did not take office until January 2023, so he was not in the House of Representatives for the vote on the American Rescue Plan – which received no Republican support in the House. Like the OBBBA, the ARP was a large piece of legislation that lawmakers may have opposed for various reasons.
In a March 2021 letter to then-President Joe Biden, a group of senators – including Ossoff – urged Biden to make the one-year expansion of the fully refundable child tax credit permanent in his next recovery plan.
Social Security Taxes
During the 2024 president campaign, Trump promised that he would eliminate taxes on Social Security retirement benefits. That didn’t happen, but the Trump-backed OBBBA did include a provision that provided an additional $6,000 tax deduction for individual taxpayers 65 and older. (The bonus senior deduction is $12,000 for couples).
The new deduction will gradually phase out, beginning at $75,000 in income for individuals and $150,000 for married couples filing jointly. It expires in 2028.
Ossoff’s vote against the OBBBA is referenced when the One Nation ad says, “He even voted for higher taxes on Social Security recipients earning under $75,000.”
The ad doesn’t make this clear, but many Social Security recipients aren’t eligible for the new law’s additional tax deduction. That’s largely because many seniors already do not pay federal income taxes, as the Bipartisan Policy Center noted in an article last year on the new deduction.
Bipartisan Policy Center, June 12, 2025: The additional $6,000 tax deduction for seniors will not benefit households with taxable income below the enhanced standard deduction. Because Social Security benefits—a major source of income for older Americans—are not counted in taxable income … for approximately half of beneficiaries (and only partially counted in taxable income for the other half), the increased standard deduction in OBBB means that many older Americans with low income will not receive any benefit from the additional deduction.
According to the IRS, the standard deduction for seniors 65 and older in the 2025 tax year was $17,750 for single filers and $34,700 for married couples filing jointly.
A Tax Policy Center analysis last year estimated that the new senior deduction will benefit about 46% of all seniors. In addition to seniors who already pay no federal income tax, the Tax Policy Center said “Social Security recipients younger than 65 don’t qualify.”
“Higher-income seniors also are excluded because the extra deduction phases out starting at $75,000 for singles and $150,000 for joint filers, and it is gone entirely at $175,000 for singles and $250,000 for couples,” the Tax Policy Center report said.
The Treasury Department reported that more than 35 million seniors claimed the new bonus deduction this year. We don’t know how many of them were also Social Security recipients, but about 57 million Americans receive Social Security retirement benefits.
Ossoff and the One Big Beautiful Bill
During the debate on the OBBBA, Ossoff focused mostly on the bill’s changes to Medicaid and its failure to address the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credit that was due to expire at the end of 2025.
In an October 2025 report, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that OBBBA’s Medicaid provisions “will increase the number of people without health insurance by 7.5 million in 2034.” More than two-thirds of them — about 5.3 million able-bodied adults between age 19 and 64 who have no dependents under the age of 14 — will not be able to satisfy or verify a requirement that they perform at least 80 hours each month of “community engagement” to remain eligible for Medicaid, beginning Jan. 1, 2027. Community engagement activities include work, job training, education and community service, the CBO report explained.
KFF, an independent health policy research organization, published an analysis a few weeks after the OBBBA became law that said changes to Medicaid will “reduce federal Medicaid spending over a decade by an estimated $911 billion.” As we’ve written, the Medicaid savings will largely come from the tightened work and reporting requirements.
Additional savings will come from “restricting state-directed payments to hospitals, nursing facilities, and other providers,” the KFF analysis said.
What are state-directed payments? The Commonwealth Fund explains that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services since 2016 has allowed states in certain circumstances to use state-directed payments to require Medicaid managed care plans to increase provider rates for nursing homes, hospitals and other providers.
“State-directed payments play a key role for hospitals and other providers that serve Medicaid patients, bridging the gap between base Medicaid rates and the actual cost of care,” the Commonwealth Fund report said.
Ossoff co-sponsored an amendment to the OBBBA that would have stripped the provision on state-directed payments from the bill, calling it a threat to patient care and the financial viability of nursing homes and hospitals that rely on Medicaid funding. The attempt failed.
After Vice President JD Vance in his role as Senate president cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the OBBBA in the Senate, Ossoff called the bill “a disaster” for Georgia and the U.S.
“It guts the Medicaid program and puts nursing homes and hospitals at risk. It will drive up health insurance premiums for working and middle-class families in Georgia, and it takes a hatchet to the fast-growing [green energy] industry that is driving Georgia’s economic development,” Ossoff said.
As for the ACA, the CBO said in an August 2025 letter to three House committee chairmen that 2.1 million would lose coverage because of the new law’s changes to the Affordable Care Act marketplace — including a tougher verification process that “requires people to actively affirm their eligibility to enroll in marketplace coverage and to claim the premium tax credit.”
The OBBBA also did not address the looming expiration of the enhanced ACA premium tax credits, which reduce health care costs for people who buy insurance on the ACA marketplace. As we’ve explained, the enhanced tax credits were due to expire under Democratic-passed legislation; the issue was a separate matter from the expiring 2017 tax cuts, though Democrats wanted an extension to be part of the OBBBA.
Ossoff offered an amendment that would have extended the enhanced ACA premium tax credits. To pay for extending them, the amendment would have raised the income tax rate on households with taxable income of more than $10 million. The amendment failed in a party-line vote and the enhanced tax credits ended on Dec. 31, 2025. As a result, ACA out-of-pocket premiums have increased by an average of 58% in 2026, according to KFF.
We take no position on the OBBBA, but there is more to the new law and Ossoff’s record than Georgia voters get in the One Nation ad.
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Buckingham Palace has issued a rare, and strong, rebuttal to claims made in Earl Spencer’s memoir Swan Song. The book claims that King Charles told Spencer days after Diana’s death and during a heated row over funeral arrangements: ‘Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.’ Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s senior national news editor, Aaron Sharp
Exclusive: Prof Jim Al-Khalili says he will offer solution to ‘arrow of time’ problem in Royal Institution lectures
Tech billionaires attempting to live for ever are, quite literally, wasting their time, a leading physicist has said.
While some normal people are turning to unregulated peptide injections, cold plunges and supplements in an effort to defy ageing, the ultra-rich are aiming for immortality with even more drastic interventions: the tech chief executive Bryan Johnson has even tried injecting plasma from his 17-year-old son – although he later said he saw no benefit from it.
Eighteen-year-old known as Chai was active in networks notorious for their sadistic exploitation of young people
A Swedish teenager known as Chai has been sentenced to more than 10 years in jail for attempted murder, rape and aggravated assault – crimes committed via the internet, including against a teenage girl in Australia.
The district court found that Chai, 18, was active in online networks notorious for their sadistic extortion of young and vulnerable people, coercing them to create sexually explicit material or engage in acts of violence – and for the youth of those involved.
In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.
The halls of Mountain View Academy in Dandridge, Tennessee. ProPublica and WPLN reporting found that Wayne Halfway House, which operates Mountain View, failed to report multiple abuse incidents to the state as required. Stacy Kranitz for ProPublica
Four Democratic Tennessee state lawmakers sent a letter to the Department of Children’s Services demanding answers about safety and oversight in the state’s juvenile justice facilities.
The letter cites a recent WPLN and ProPublica investigation that found that juvenile justice facilities run by Tennessee businessman Jason Crews repeatedly failed to report abuse of children and other serious incidents to the state as required. The reporting involved interviews with dozens of former staff and youth, along with a review of emergency call logs, company records and state documents. Crews and his company Wayne Halfway House run all three of the state’s highest-security youth prisons.
“The allegations that serious physical and sexual abuse, dangerous restraints, injuries, and other critical incidents have gone unreported by WHH demand an urgent, transparent, and independently verifiable response from the Department of Children’s Services,” lawmakers wrote.
After WPLN and ProPublica sent a copy of the letter to the company, a spokesperson said that Wayne Halfway House “continues to meet or exceed performance standards set by Tennessee,” citing state audits. The spokesperson also said that Wayne Halfway House has helped more than 200 youth earn a high school diploma or equivalent in the last three years.
In emailed statements to WPLN and ProPublica about the previous reporting, the company said it follows state policy and law and “vehemently denies” that Crews or his company ever discouraged staff from reporting serious or life-threatening incidents to the state. It described former employees who spoke with us as “untrustworthy sources” with a “clear bias” against the company and called their allegations “substantially flawed.”
Lawmakers are asking for answers to several questions raised by this investigation, including what steps the department is taking to address the allegations, how much money the state spends to place youth in Wayne Halfway House facilities, and who is being considered to operate new juvenile facilities the department is building.
“We also request an opportunity to meet with Department leadership to discuss these issues, review the Department’s response, and identify the legislative and administrative actions necessary to ensure that no child’s safety depends on abuse first becoming a news story,” lawmakers wrote.
In response to the news organizations’ initial investigation, DCS said it is looking into incidents that were uncovered by the reporting. DCS did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Lawmakers noted that the latest investigation joins a “long and deeply troubling record of reports” on juvenile justice facilities across the state. They referenced previous reporting from WPLN and ProPublica that found a county-run East Tennessee juvenile detention center was locking kids in solitary confinement in violation of state law. The department said it would take steps to address the findings from the 2023 investigation, and the superintendent of the facility, Richard Bean, later stepped down.
State Sen. Heidi Campbell, who signed onto the letter, also pushed for independent oversight of juvenile justice facilities in 2024, after WPLN and ProPublica’s reporting from East Tennessee. Campbell and others working on that bill said a lobbyist for Wayne Halfway House asked them to exempt privately run facilities from oversight. The oversight bill eventually failed. A lobbyist for Wayne Halfway House told the news organizations at the time that the company was concerned about giving regulatory power to an outside agency “without more extensive consideration.”
Lawmakers are also worried about the state’s increased spending on juvenile justice, especially as Tennessee plans to spend more than $400 million to build more facilities. The cost to hold 31 youth at a Wayne Halfway House facility for a year is roughly the same amount it would take the state to expand grocery benefits for 700,000 school-aged children during the summer, lawmakers wrote.
“Given the amount of money Tennessee is currently spending, and plans to invest, in juvenile justice and residential facilities, we have serious concerns about repeated findings and allegations of lack of oversight, transparency, and accountability in these facilities,” lawmakers wrote.
(The Center Square) – Sixty percent of Ohio voters disapprove of the job President Donald Trump is doing as the midterm elections approach, according to a new poll from Bowling Green State University.
(The Center Square) – As a battle brews over freedom of the press at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, a free speech advocate says student journalists at public universities are protected under both the First Amendment and state law.
The 24-year-old has taken his attention to detail from lining up bats and helmets as a toddler to helping the Cleveland Guardians towards the playoffs
When Sydney’s Travis Bazzana made his debut in Major League Baseball on 28 April, it was the culmination of a journey that began when he was a toddler.
“From the time he could stand, Travis was always wanting to throw or hit balls with any type of bat or racket available,” says Travis’s mother, Jenny. “Any visitors to the house, including his grandparents, were immediately invited to play or compete with him.”
Andy Burnham’s focus on immediate domestic problems leads some to fear issue has dropped off government’s radar
Towards the end of Keir Starmer’s time in office, his senior ministers, alarmed by the latest developments in artificial intelligence, began drawing up plans for a new AI safety law.
They ordered a review of existing legislation to see what powers they already had, according to those briefed on the plans, and were exploring whether they could force the world’s most advanced technology companies to submit their products for safety testing before launching them.
‘Father Time always wins,’ Buffett, 96, says as his son, Howard, steps in as the $1tn conglomerate’s new chair
Warren Buffett is stepping down as chair of Berkshire Hathaway, the company that he took from a faltering textile manufacturer into a $1tn conglomerate over the course of 60 years.
Buffett’s son, Howard, 71, will take over as chair. Buffett, 96, cited his age as the main reason behind the transition, noting that he has a one-year-old great-grandchild who is “moving a bit faster than I am these days”.
Photo: Classroom at the Sussex Academy, a charter school in Georgetown.
Five-year federal grant will support new and expanding programs while adding oversight and accountability measures
DOVER, Del. — Delaware has secured a five-year, $16 million federal grant to expand access to public charter schools while strengthening the oversight, financial monitoring and support intended to ensure those schools deliver results for students.
Grant could add about 1,900 seats
The Charter Schools Program grant begins Oct. 1. At least 90% of the money — approximately $14.4 million — will be distributed through competitive subgrants supporting the planning, opening, replication and expansion of charter schools.
Proposals will be evaluated based on educational quality, demonstrated community need, organizational readiness, financial sustainability and evidence of demand. If enough proposals meet those standards, the initiative has a five-year goal of increasing Delaware’s charter school enrollment capacity by approximately 10%.
About 19,000 students currently attend Delaware’s 23 charter schools. A 10% capacity increase could create room for approximately 1,900 additional students, although actual growth will depend on the proposals received and approved.
“Expanding opportunities for students cannot be about adding seats for the sake of adding seats,” Delaware Secretary of Education Cindy Marten said. “We have to start with what students and communities need and be equally focused on quality, strong implementation and accountability.”
Grant targets unmet educational needs
The Delaware Department of Education said the grant will target educational needs that are not being fully met by existing programs. Potential areas include alternative and therapeutic education, career and workforce pathways, rural education, dual-language instruction, literacy programs and flexible options for students who are older than their classmates or have not earned enough credits to graduate on schedule.
The initiative also seeks to improve charter school access for economically and educationally disadvantaged students, multilingual learners, students with disabilities and other groups that have faced barriers to educational opportunities.
“Charter schools are one part of Delaware’s public education system,” Marten said. “This investment gives us an opportunity to support strong educational models where there is documented need, learn from what is working, and use those lessons to expand opportunity across public education.”
Priority for underserved students and communities
Existing charter schools applying for replication or expansion funding will be judged partly on their academic performance and operational track records.
Proposals serving underserved communities, addressing transportation barriers or expanding opportunities for multilingual learners and students with disabilities may receive priority consideration. Programs offering workforce-connected education or replicating successful school models also may receive additional consideration.
State officials emphasized, however, that priority status will not allow an applicant to bypass the program’s quality, readiness or financial requirements.
Investment extends beyond individual schools
A portion of the federal award will be used to provide charter schools with technical assistance in governance, board development, fiscal management, regulatory compliance, leadership development and program implementation. The state also plans to establish peer-learning programs and professional communities where educators and school leaders can share successful practices.
The grant also calls for stronger charter-authorizing practices, including annual reviews of each participating school’s academic, financial and organizational performance.
“We are grateful for the partnership between the Delaware Department of Education and the Delaware Charter Schools Network,” said Kendall Massett, the network’s executive director. “We are equally grateful for this investment in our education system, and for what it makes possible for students across our state.”
Massett said the grant reflects “a shared vision for collaboration, flexibility, and support for the people and strategies best positioned to make a difference for students statewide.”
Schools will face continuing monitoring
Schools receiving subgrants will undergo continuing fiscal, program and performance monitoring. That process will include progress reports, budget reviews, site visits, performance evaluations and reviews of implementation milestones.
The Department of Education said it will use those findings to identify risks, direct additional assistance to struggling programs and take corrective action when necessary. An independent outside evaluator also will assess the initiative throughout the five-year grant period.
Lessons and successful practices identified through the program will be shared with both charter and traditional public schools through professional development, peer networks and other cross-sector programs.
First competition planned during opening year
The Community Funding Accelerator assisted Delaware with identifying the federal funding opportunity, determining the state’s eligibility and preparing the application.
During the grant’s first year, the Department of Education plans to establish its management and accountability systems, consult with education stakeholders and provide technical assistance to prospective applicants. It also will release the first competitive funding opportunity, train application reviewers and select the first group of grant recipients.
Details about eligibility, application requirements, available award amounts and deadlines will be announced as the first competition is developed.
To Go Box
What: Federal Charter Schools Program grant
Award: $16 million over five years
Start date: Oct. 1, 2026
School funding: At least 90%, or approximately $14.4 million, will support competitive charter school subgrants
Potential uses: Planning and opening new charter schools and replicating or expanding successful schools
Statewide goal: Increase charter enrollment capacity by approximately 10%, subject to qualified proposals
Current charter enrollment: About 19,000 students attending 23 schools
How to apply: The Delaware Department of Education will release eligibility requirements, application instructions and deadlines as the first funding competition is developed
Learn more: Visit the Delaware Department of Education website at education.delaware.gov
The Register reports:
When Microsoft's developers and engineers sit down to code, they can now choose to work in Rust, which Redmond has added to its list of canonical languages. "Rust now is a Tier One language at Microsoft, and that just means that it sits among C++, C# and TypeScript as the best supported languages for internal development in the company," explained Victor Ciura, Microsoft principal engineer for the Rust tooling team, during a keynote talk today at this year's annual RustConf, being held this week in Montréal. Ciura said Microsoft has "paved a path" of tools and processes that support local Rust development across the entire software development lifecycle.
Rust is no stranger at Microsoft and is already present in over 100 Microsoft project repositories. The company has built Oxidizer, a set of crates to build scalable services in Rust, which have been used to build and refine the Microsoft 365 core services such as Outlook, Word, Excel, OneDrive, and SharePoint. The Copilot tech stack also owes quite a bit to Rust... [C]ompany engineers built rustc_codegen_utc, a custom Rust compiler code-generation backend that wires the rustc compiler directly into the Microsoft Visual C++ internal toolchain for Windows... "The result is a unified code generation platform for Rust and C++ on Windows" [Ciura wrote in a blog post, noting that more than 100 Microsoft project repositories now build with rustc_codegen_utc.]
Still, Redmond running towards Rust is a welcome development. In his 2025 RustConf keynote, Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich noted that ~70 percent of Windows CVEs are memory issues.
"One of the things that I realized a long time ago is that no matter how much we really want to make C and C++ better, we can't make it as good as what Rust starts with," he said.
Danette Colbert was also convicted of racketeering following the death of Telemundo's Adan Manzano, who had been visiting New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl in 2025.
‘Campus Collection’ aimed to mark 1893 club founding
Range pulled from website two hours after launch
Oxford United have abandoned a new range of American style-sportswear after it inadvertently referenced the tragedy of September 11.
The League One club launched their new “Campus Collection” on Friday morning but had removed it from sale by lunchtime, after clothing designs were revealed to bear the slogan “United 93”. The U’s immediately published an apology that admitted to a lack of understanding of “the historical context and associations” related to the branding and made “sincere apologies for this error and any offence caused”.
The U.S. fall foliage season is longer and more geographically varied than many travelers realize. This year the central Appalachians are the standout, with favorable ... Read moreThe post Scenic train rides are the smartest way to catch peak fall…
Rout raises questions about coordination and morale as some politicians claim billions of dollars were offered to persuade forces to abandon position
A bitter inquest is under way among Yemen’s anti-Houthi forces as to how what was being billed as a decisive assault on Sana’a, the Houthi-controlled capital, suddenly collapsed into a military rout.
More than 15 brigades were defeated as the country’s entire west coast fell into Houthi hands. Efforts are now being made to reorganise the anti-Houthi forces representing the UN-recognised Yemeni government in order to capture the Kahbob mountains, a strategic point from which to restrict Houthi forces moving closer to the crucial Bab al-Mandab strait.
Arizona State hockey player Matthew Mayich is fighting for his life after collapsing during practice. Tragedies like this can be avoided
Late last month, Arizona State hockey player Matthew Mayich collapsed during a team workout. He is now fighting for his life after suffering from exertional heatstroke and, according to the Mayich family attorney, is unlikely to make a meaningful recovery. This young man was drafted by the St Louis Blues but will never get the opportunity to play in the NHL. While he is not the first young athlete severely harmed by heat-related illness in American sports, he should be the last.
I have learned more about this preventable injury than I ever wanted to know. On 29 May 2018, my son Jordan McNair collapsed during a strenuous football practice at the University of Maryland. By the time he arrived at the hospital, he was dangerously overheated and never recovered.
RICHMOND, Virginia — Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones is demanding answers from the Department of Homeland Security after a whistleblower alleged federal employees improperly accessed state voter lookup systems while searching for noncitizen voters.
Jones said Thursday that the activity could violate several Virginia election laws, including rules limiting access to voter information. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Jones said Virginia’s voter lookup tools require users to attest under penalty of law that they are accessing their own records. He also directed DHS to preserve access logs, training materials and related communications.
The whistleblower report, released by Democratic Senate leaders, alleges U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees were given less than two hours of training and instructed to review lists supplied by DHS for possible “unlawful voters.” Employees were reportedly expected to examine about 40 people per day.
DHS has defended its broader effort to identify noncitizen voting, while the Trump administration has argued that citizenship checks are necessary to protect election integrity. Federal officials have also sought detailed voter information from numerous states, though several related efforts have faced court setbacks.
Jones asked DHS to stop any unauthorized access while Virginia reviews whether state law was violated.
Soil and water around military bases show elevated levels of Pfas pollution due to chemicals used in firefighting foam
Many US military veterans have much higher levels of Pfas “forever chemicals” in their blood than non-veterans, new peer-reviewed research finds, raising more questions about health risks the nation’s service members face after serving at polluted bases.
Ground water, surface water and soil around military bases show among the highest levels of Pfas pollution in the US because the chemicals are used in firefighting foam deployed during training and emergencies. While the problem has been clear for over a decade, the new Brown University-led study is the first to compare levels in veterans’ blood with those in civilians.
Apple cider donuts have a reputation for selling out early, but this year the apple harvest that makes them possible started earlier than most orchard-goers ... Read moreThe post Apple cider donut season peaked early, and most orchard fans missed…
CAMPINAS, Brazil and ESPOO, Finland, Sept. 18, 2026 — IQM Quantum Computers, a global leader in superconducting quantum computers, has announced a purchase agreement with the Eldorado Research Institute to deploy its first quantum computer in South America, marking IQM’s entry into the region.
IQM to deliver its first quantum computer in South America to Brazil’s Eldorado Research Institute
The IQM Spark quantum computer will be installed at Eldorado’s Campinas headquarters, about 100km northwest of São Paulo, in the first quarter of 2027, giving researchers, engineers, universities and industry partners direct access to quantum computers.
The agreement also includes remote access to IQM’s 54-qubit cloud-based system in Europe, allowing Brazilian teams to develop applications on hardware they own and then move to larger-scale quantum workloads when a problem requires it.
“Brazil has the talent, the research base and the ambition to build a real quantum ecosystem. What’s been missing is direct access to real quantum computers. Eldorado owning this system means Brazilian researchers, engineers and industry partners can start building real capability today, not waiting years to catch up,” said Jan Goetz, CEO and Co-founder of IQM Quantum Computers. “This is our first step into South America, and we’re approaching it the same way we have everywhere else: with a partner who wants to grow with their own infrastructure and shape how it’s used.”
“Quantum computing has the potential to transform how we address some of the most complex technological and industrial challenges. By bringing this infrastructure to Eldorado, combined with access to more advanced quantum computing capabilities, we are not only investing in technology, we are investing in people, knowledge and an ecosystem that will prepare Brazil to actively participate in the quantum future,” said José Bertuzzo, Superintendent of the Eldorado Research Institute.
Eldorado’s Campinas headquarters sits alongside the Unicamp campus in Brazil’s largest technology cluster, giving the system immediate reach into a network of universities, startups and industry partners across sectors including automotive, energy, oil and gas, fintech, agribusiness and healthcare.
The quantum computer will enable Eldorado and its partners to explore quantum algorithms, build expertise in quantum hardware and software, and investigate hybrid architectures combining high-performance computing, quantum computing and artificial intelligence. The deployment is part of Eldorado’s strategy to expand its activities in emerging technologies and to build capabilities relevant to the next generation of computing.
The agreement follows a period of expansion for IQM. In August, the company reported an order backlog of EUR 102 million, with 26 full-stack systems sold and 17 delivered globally, including its first system in the United States.
About IQM Quantum Computers
IQM Quantum Computers (Nasdaq: IQMX) is a global leader in superconducting quantum computers, delivering full-stack quantum systems and cloud platform access to enterprises, research institutions, universities, high-performance computing centers, and national laboratories worldwide. IQM’s open, modular architecture allows customers to own, operate, and integrate quantum systems directly into their own infrastructure, building lasting technical capability rather than relying solely on remote access. Founded in 2018, IQM is headquartered in Espoo, Finland, with major operations in Munich, Germany, and has sold more quantum systems than any other manufacturer to date. IQM employs over 450 people and operates across Europe, Asia, and North America. IQM is the first publicly listed European quantum company on Nasdaq Stock Market.
About Eldorado Research Institute
A leading research, development and innovation institution in Brazil, Eldorado has more than 27 years of experience developing innovative solutions for national and international companies across the information and communication technology, automotive, agribusiness, energy, oil and gas, fintech, and healthcare sectors.
With operations in Campinas, Manaus, Porto Alegre and Brasília, Eldorado has world-class laboratories and plays a leading role in open innovation and in leveraging funding mechanisms and incentives for R&D projects. The Institute brings together professionals with expertise in microelectronics, hardware and software solution development, testing and certification, and technology training. Eldorado invests extensively in knowledge creation and the continuous development of its teams to deliver differentiated results to its clients.
Porsha Williams revealed to "CBS Mornings" co-anchor Gayle King that she had to undergo an emergency partial hysterectomy this year after doctors discovered 21 uterine fibroids
The fight over the future is rapidly unfolding before our eyes. With debates roiling Washington over calls to rein in artificial intelligence before it’s too late as the U.S. continues to wage official and unofficial wars around the world, many of the world’s most powerful players are licking their chops.
Yes, there’s destruction all around. But these players have carefully concocted a plan: to hasten a familiar vision that combines biblical, militant, and futuristic images of the end times so they can save themselves.
“We didn’t feel that the old ways of understanding who Trump is, what he’s trying to accomplish — even what fascism is — was fully capturing what we were seeing. Here we’re thinking about invading Greenland, declaring Canada the 51st state, creating an ICE army, the relationship with El Salvador’s maximum-security prisons. So we’re trying to map this,” says Klein. It seemed to be “a fascism that had no vision of our world continuing. There’s always an apocalyptic quality to fascism, but there is a horizon for the in-group after the cataclysm, and we weren’t seeing that in this politics. It was much more about bunkering down in and taking breakdown for granted.”
“End times fascism is an alliance of three main components,” says Taylor. The religious fundamentalists who helped elect Donald Trump, wanting to hasten along a violent Armageddon so Jesus will return. The tech accelerationists “exalting in the possibility that some sort of super intelligence, some sort of digital being might take over.” The ethnonationalists who view immigration as an existential threat, so they fortress the border and hoard resources. “These different prongs find a kind of uneasy alliance in their conviction that this world’s going to hell and that their group will survive the wreckage,” says Taylor.
It may sound bizarre. And it is. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore it, Klein says. “This is a really dangerous pattern of thought: that out of the worst things possible comes the beautiful, glorious golden city. And that’s the template of all of these action films and video games, and it leads one to embrace the worst and to not fear what we should fear,” says Klein. “When Trump shares a video of a remade Gaza with a Trump Tower, he’s doing a version of that story. When Sam Altman says he’s summoning a digital god, and we’re going to have utopia with AI, and yeah, let me cover the whole world with data centers and accelerate the climate crisis because it’s going to be utopia … he’s doing the story. So we have to be able to identify it — because we’re all living with the consequences of this terrible story and we need better stories.”
“In this moment, we’re up against a fascism that is against all humans, in a way. We quote Kelly Hayes, an activist based in Chicago, and she says, ‘Every fascism has its subhumans, and for techno-fascists, it’s just humans in general.’ This is opening up a bigger fight beyond ‘I am a man’ to just like, this is life versus the machines, and there’s something very unprecedented about that and potentially very unifying,” says Taylor, noting that the collective uprising, across the political spectrum, against data centers shows people breaking free of one so-called inevitable future.
For more, listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.
Transcript
Akela Lacy: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing, I’m Akela Lacy, senior politics reporter at The Intercept. Today, we’re going to talk about the apocalypse.
NBC: You truly believe AI can kill us all in less than a decade?
Jacob Coxon: Yes, I do.
AL: If you’ve been disturbed by the increasingly dystopian flavor of today’s world, you’re not alone. It can be hard to keep track.
And if you listen to this show, you’re familiar with the imagery: Masked agents in the streets. Soldiers clad in camo patrolling U.S cities. Mounting numbers of U.S. strikes committing extrajudicial killings of civilians in international waters. And a populace faced with a literal war against machines — not just at home but around the world.
U.S. Central Command’sAdm. Brad Cooper: First our war fighters are leveraging a variety of advanced AI tools.
AL: Washington is in turmoil over calls coming from inside the house to regulate AI before it’s too late. President Donald Trump has called the whole dustup a “hoax,” even as MAGA architect Steve Bannon appeared alongside Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders to promote human control over AI, as Congress balks at renewed public pressure to do something — anything — before they recess again until November.
Bernie Sanders: When the future of humanity is at stake, we need binding international safety rules, not voluntary standards from the industry.
Steve Bannon: All they’re trying to do is to use a crisis and turn it to their advantage, turn it to their advantage by creating a moat, a cartel, where not only can’t other aspiring companies get in, but more importantly, they’re going to have a liability shift to the American people.
AL: None of this would come as a surprise to our guests today, award-winning journalists and documentarians Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, whose latest book documents the end-times ideology that unites the players trying to hasten just the final doomsday AI leaders are warning us about.
Today, we’re discussing the players responsible for bringing the most Orwellian features of our collective imagination to life. And we’ll break down just what their project entails: prophecy as policy, and speeding up the end of the world to save the chosen few.
Klein and Taylor’s new book is called “End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World.”
Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker and also the bestselling author of “Doppelganger,” “No Logo,” and “The Shock Doctrine.” She is an associate professor of geography and a co-director of the Centre for Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia, and she writes a regular column for The Guardian.
Naomi Klein, welcome to The Intercept Briefing.
Naomi Klein: Thank you, it’s great to be with you.
AL: Astra Taylor, also an award-winning journalist and documentarian, is a co-founder of the Debt Collective. She is the author of “The People’s Platform,” which won the American Book Award; “Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone”; and “The Age of Insecurity.” Taylor regularly writes for publications including The New Yorker and the New York Times.
Astra Taylor, welcome to The Intercept Briefing.
Astra Taylor: Really excited to be here.
AL: I want to start with how you conceptualized this idea. How did you come to develop the notion of “end times fascism”?
NK: It was born of the early weeks of the new, the second Trump administration — really trying to put our fingers on the continuities and the ruptures of what we were seeing. Both Astra and I had been doing a lot of public conversations, webinars, and we both remember the first Trump administration.
So we were familiar with certain things that we were seeing, but we didn’t feel that the old ways of understanding who Trump is, what he’s trying to accomplish — even what fascism is — was fully capturing what we were seeing. Here we’re thinking about invading Greenland, declaring Canada the 51st state, creating an ICE army, the relationship with El Salvador’s maximum-security prisons. So we’re trying to map this.
For me personally, I was finding that a lot of people were reading and talking about earlier books of mine, like “The Shock Doctrine,” as a way to understand it. I was feeling like it does not actually capture the full thing.
History does not just repeat on a loop. We often talk about how it accumulates, it compounds. So as people who are pretty keenly attuned to both political and ecological crises, we were noticing that the planet is a player in our politics, and that this seemed to be a kind of fascism that was different in that it didn’t have a future horizon. This was a fascism that had no vision of our world continuing. There’s always an apocalyptic quality to fascism, but there is a horizon for the in-group after the cataclysm — and we weren’t seeing that in this politics. It was much more about bunkering down and taking breakdown for granted.
Those are the origins of it. We’re not saying it’s wholly new; we’re saying that history moves and takes us to new places.
“This was a fascism that had no vision of our world continuing. … It was much more about bunkering down and taking breakdown for granted.”
AL: Astra, for people who haven’t read the book, can you tell us briefly, like, a top-level view of what you’re arguing?
AT: We’re arguing that the far right has taken a new apocalyptic turn. To emphasize what Naomi just said, we’re interested in the continuities, but we’re also interested in what has changed.
People for a while have been wondering, is this the F word? Is this fascism? If so, what does that mean for us? This book attempts to answer that question by really taking seriously what has changed. And as a consequence, how has the right wing changed?
The fascism of the 20th century emerged out of certain catastrophic conditions, the sort of classic fascism, which also had antecedents in colonialism and Jim Crow. It also didn’t come from nowhere. But it was a phenomenon that emerged in the wreckage of the First World War and the Great Depression. It was a response to those crises.
Today, we’re living in an age of crises that were unimaginable a century ago. Climate change, an era of nuclear weapons — nuclear weapons were not known to Mussolini or Hitler — artificial intelligence, forms of wealth that are incredibly concentrated and incredibly global, social media, incredibly networked media technologies. This planetary scale has shifted the kind of fascism that we’re responding to.
Our argument is that, as a response to these crises, the fascism of today has abandoned the idea of Armageddon ever ending, of there being a future horizon for their in-group. And that end times fascism is actually an alliance. Fascism is always an alliance, an uncomfortable alliance of different groups.
“These different prongs find a kind of uneasy alliance in their conviction that this world’s going to hell and that their group will survive the wreckage.”
But end times fascism is an alliance of three main components. The book analyzes them, in the ways that they overlap and the ways that they actually conflict.
The religious end-timers who are a major force in the U.S. government and the Israeli government, and more broadly, who have a messianic conviction that the end is nigh and that the Messiah will come, and they want to accelerate what they see as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
The tech end-timers — the tech-right — that is playing with a similar script in the sense that they’re imagining a future where they have created a digital super intelligence or maybe we’ve left the planet.
And then the ethno-nationalist end-timers who view immigration as an existential threat and believe the only response to the increasing disasters and insecurity is to fortress the border and bunker down and save their in-group.
So these different prongs find a kind of uneasy alliance in their conviction that this world’s going to hell and that their group will survive the wreckage.
There’s old, classic features of fascism: a supremacist thinking, eugenics thinking; a willingness to indulge in violence; a sense of woundedness. Fascism is always a movement of the powerful injured, so their sense that they’re under siege from below. These dimensions, though, have been updated for our new risk-filled era. So the book looks at the coalition and their strengths, but also their weaknesses.
“A sense of woundedness — fascism is always a movement of the powerful injured.”
AL: The book is an exploration of how deeply so much of the far right and its grip on sectors from tech to the military has been driven by what you’re talking about, this apocalyptic worldview.
One question I wanted to put to both of you is, when you think about this, how do you understand a vision that is so destructive also being so unifying for these coalitions that you’re talking about?
NK: As Astra was saying, fascism always arises during moments of crisis. Actually, there’s always a kind of a pincer of real crisis.
When Mussolini and Hitler rose up, the real crises of the wreckage of the First World War, economic desperation, cities choked with orphans, maimed soldiers. These were really genuinely horrific times. In response to what many people understood as the savagery of capitalism revealing itself was a rising militant left.
This was also the years after the Russian Revolution, and it was the years when socialists were saying, “We want a revolution in every country.” It was a global movement, and it was a movement that was saying, “You can’t actually have socialism in one country.”
So elites in every country were quite terrified that the response to these real crises would come for them, come up, would come for the system itself.
And so fascism pivots. It recognizes the rage, and it says, “Your rage is real. We feel it. Hey, here’s who to blame. It’s the immigrants crossing the border. That’s the real invasion. They’re coming for your stuff. They’re coming for your jobs. They’re the reason your life is painful,” and offers up all of the other scapegoats. So that can be unifying. It’s an old trick. That’s the Trump playbook. It’s the [Javier] Milei playbook. It’s the [Jair] Bolsonaro playbook. It’s a global playbook.
This is the other thing that we’re trying to do in the book, is wrench the U.S. out of its parochialism a little bit and be like, actually, the laboratory for this in many ways is more Latin America and Europe. It’s coming at a delay in the United States. And though it has particular characteristics in the United States, and in every country there’s particular characteristics, this is very much a global phenomenon.
But I think we wrote the book because we actually think it’s not that unifying. That scapegoat move is always going to be an effective move, but the nature of this alliance is almost uniquely unsteady because, where it’s useful to look at what is the same and what is different with 20th-century fascism, and — here I should add, massive asterisk: We’re not nostalgic for 20th-century fascism. Ye olde fascism. Don’t want that.
But it is useful to look at the fact that Mussolini really did, and so did Franco, invest in major public works projects. Hitler did make the trains run on time, famously. Our fascists don’t care about trains, airports. They fly private. They can live with a level of chaos. They deliver less for their own base, for the people who elected them.
“Our fascists don’t care about trains, airports. They fly private. They can live with a level of chaos. They deliver less for their own base, for the people who elected them.”
We see these ruptures really clearly. In things like Steve Bannon going off on the tech oligarchs, which I never thought people should take all that seriously because he has his own tech oligarchs who’ve been funding him all along.
But we should take seriously these extraordinary uprisings against data centers, where people at the grassroots are finding they have more in common with the people they’ve been warring with over the culture wars they’ve been steadily fed, and going like, “Actually, we all really do agree that we don’t want to live under constant surveillance by Silicon Valley, and we don’t want this data center in our backyard, and we don’t want our kids taught by AI.” Hey, like this is a hell of a lot better than what we saw a few years ago at community meetings. It’s the instability that is really most interesting to us.
By taking them seriously and highlighting how nihilistic and how apocalyptic and how exclusive the vision is, we think we make them weaker, not stronger. We’re saying, “Don’t be afraid to look at this, because actually the more you look at it, the more we drag it into the light, the more vulnerable it is.”
AL: You mentioned this, Astra, laying out the major players in “End Times Fascism” as the religious right, Big Tech, and aspiring bunker-builders, as you describe them, namely those leading the anti-immigrant movement and trafficking in great replacement ideology that’s shaping U.S. policy.
I want to start with the religious right. This is something we’ve discussed at length on this show, but I want to ask you all, what is something you think the general public understands the least about the extent to which messianism and the end times fixation that comes with it undergirds this political moment and shapes the Trump administration in particular?
AT: People have a vague sense that Trump wouldn’t have been elected if he hadn’t had the support of white evangelicals. He famously got around 80 percent of the evangelical vote in both 2016 and in 2024. So I think people have a sense that the religious right is behind a guy who is incredibly immoral — it feels like a cognitive dissonance there, right? How is this sexual predator who’s been divorced multiple times the hero figure for this group?
Part of what explains that, though, is that they are really occupying a parallel universe. Portions of the evangelical right or Christian Zionists are committed to a version of theology where they think what’s in the Bible is literally going to happen, and that what they need to do is hasten along the sequence of events foretold — most violently and strangely in the Book of Revelation — that bad things will happen on Earth, and that means we’re moving closer to the day when there will be Armageddon and Jesus will return.
Even to a lot of Christians, this seems ridiculous. But there are people at the upper echelons of the U.S. government today who really believe it, and who see acts of violence — acts of terror — as felicitous signs.
We quote pastor John Hagee, who’s a very popular leader of a megachurch in Texas, and he’s just like: Everyone! All my thousands of followers! Call the White House and tell them that you’re so grateful for the war in Iran because that means that the end is nigh, and that means we’re that much closer to being hoovered up in a magic escalator to heaven.
They have this theological investment in war in the Middle East and this idea that Jesus won’t return until biblical Israel is restored, which is not just the West Bank and Gaza but large swaths of other countries. They’re making common cause with Messianic Jews in Israel who, again, aren’t the whole of the government but have managed to control very powerful portions of it.
What we’re trying to convey is that we actually need to pay attention to what these folks are doing. It doesn’t need to be the majoritarian strand to be an incredibly dangerous one.
“It doesn’t need to be the majoritarian strand to be an incredibly dangerous one.”
One of our recurring jokes — it’s not even a joke, really — as we wrote this book and also as we talk about it, is that to even quote these people makes us sound insane. Because they’re doing things like importing the perfect red heifers from Texas to bring them to the Middle East. Then literally the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, is flying over to visit these cows and go: Oh my gosh, I don’t see any spots on them. This is so great. The Bible is coming true.
These people are running the government, and we need to take seriously the risk that that poses to all of us. Again, it’s based on this idea — we return to the narrative in the Book of Revelation because it’s sort of the fundamental mythological script that these three groups are playing with, it’s the root of this apocalyptic strain.
It essentially is a narrative that says, in the end times, there will be war, there will be pestilence, there will be floods and fires, but that just means we’re getting closer to the end when the chosen few will reach their utopia. It’s a very dangerous script.
For this part of the end times fascist alliance, it’s a literal interpretation of that script. But it’s one that has suffused our culture more broadly. This linear narrative of: Out of catastrophe, the promised land. That narrative is being followed in different sometimes secularized ways by the other parts of the right-wing alliance.
NK: If there’s one thing I learned from writing a book about people who lost their minds during Covid and then became the U.S. government, it’s that nothing is too stupid to actually manifest in reality. I’m not being glib.
In “Doppelganger,” I quote Philip Roth saying, “It’s too ridiculous to take seriously and too serious to be ridiculous,” being a kind of a mantra for our time. But that was before RFK Jr. was put in charge of Health and Human Services. There can be this smug response from liberals of like, “That’s just too silly for me to even have to care about.”
One of the things we dug up in the book is this story that was new to me, which was that in 1969 a Christian fundamentalist named Denis Rohan actually did succeed in firebombing Al-Aqsa [Mosque]. That’s very important to this theological story because the idea is that you have to build the “Third Temple” where Al-Aqsa is in order to create the conditions for the Messiah’s arrival or return, depending on which version of the story you believe. That relates to why you need those spotless red heifers, et cetera. So they are trying to fulfill this.
But as Astra was saying, this is both a literal threat of, like, it’s literally possible that there could be — as these ideas have become more and more powerful and more mainstream within the Israeli and U.S. government, and as people who were once seen as fringe terrorists like Itamar Ben-Gvir enter the government — it’s becomes more and more possible and more likely that people will do the self-fulfilling version of this prophecy.
Because the prophecy is, first, you have to have Armageddon. And if you were to actually destroy Al-Aqsa and try to rebuild the “Third Temple,” that’s a surefire recipe for World War III with nukes.
So they are creating the story that they claim is inevitable. It’s not inevitable, but they are actually doing their best to fulfill it for all of us. We can’t afford to ignore them. But it’s also a pattern of thought — this is a really dangerous pattern of thought that, out of the worst things possible comes the beautiful, glorious golden city. And that’s the template of all of these action films and video games, and it leads one to embrace the worst and to not fear what we should fear.
When Sam Altman says he’s summoning a digital god, and we’re going to have utopia with AI, and yeah, let me cover the whole world with data centers and accelerate the climate crisis because it’s going to be utopia, and we’ll all just be lying around just being in awe of the wisdom that AI has unleashed for us — he’s doing the story.
So we have to be able to identify it — because we’re all living with the consequences of this terrible story, and we need better stories.
[Break]
AL: This is a good segue into talking about perhaps one of the most visible manifestations of this apocalyptic project, as you mentioned, Naomi: AI and data centers, which you all situate as part of the doom cycle. You get into this question, but I want to talk with you both about how this particular issue has brought so many of us together in unified hatred.
I love this portion of the book where you talk about this. Across the ideological spectrum, why do people hate data centers so much? What exactly is so universally repulsive about them and what they represent?
AT: This is the kind of thing that gives you hope in humanity. Why do we hate data centers? Listen to the guys running these tech companies. They’re like, “Hi, we’re going to suck up all of the energy. We’re going to raise your electricity bills. We’re going to build these big, ugly city-sized buildings that have basically no jobs, that screech and scream all night long, destroy your property values. And guess what you’re going to get in return? You’re going to get no jobs in the future for you or your kids. You’re going to live in a world that is hollowed out because everybody’s talking to their chatbot, maybe dating a chatbot. Then also guess what? It might destroy everything, because it might turn on you. So how does that sound?”
AL: Doesn’t that sound great?
AT: Of course, people are like, “Actually, that sounds terrible. We never asked for this.”
Now, what’s interesting is these guys also have all their little podcasts where they talk amongst themselves too, so they’re like, “Geez, did we market this wrong?” And you’re like, yeah, you did, because actually you told us what you really want — which is you foresee a future with no human workers, and full of human alienation and loneliness, where one or two companies control the entire economy and maybe destroy humanity.
The reasons people object to this are obvious. It’s also building on years and years of a mounting tech-lash on both the left and the right. For different reasons, people were critical of the tech sector, and so that is also part of the foundation.
It’s really important, when Naomi said that they’re utilizing the same template — this, out of catastrophe, some kind of renewal for the chosen few. When you hear these folks talk about it, one of the founders of Google said it was “species-ist” to care about the fate of humanity, as opposed to exalting in the possibility that some sort of super intelligence, some sort of digital being might take over. That somehow we’re just close-minded for wanting to actually make a better world for human beings.
They literally talk about AI as a god or as a demon. And so they’re playing with these religious tropes. Of course, somebody like Peter Thiel and other high-powered people in Silicon Valley are increasingly coming out as Christians. Most famously, in his lectures about the Antichrist, which — tellingly — he says is somebody who wants to bring about control of AI, or like Greta Thunberg, some climate rationality.
So they’re playing with these overt theological elements. But ultimately what’s underpinning it is a material drive to own as much of the economy as possible, even if it destroys the lives of billions of people.
“Ultimately what’s underpinning it is a material drive to own as much of the economy as possible, even if it destroys the lives of billions of people.”
NK: On that last point, it’s a very profitable dream. I think that that’s true, honestly, for the theologians as well, that this is always, as [Karl] Marx said, there are opiate qualities to the story that heaven awaits, and yes, you’re suffering in the here and now, but do these things and you’re going to be in paradise.
That’s always been a story that has been very helpful to elite interests. The fact that the richest men on the planet are now telling it to us about their tech that is rapidly making them into trillionaires. It doesn’t mean they don’t believe it, but they certainly have motivations for telling us these stories. For telling us that we’re being speciesist and that we have to go along in this way.
But just on your point, why are people rejecting it? There’s this little detail that we came across in the story of one of the data center fights that I think people are by now very familiar with or should be familiar with. I think Intercept readers are familiar with what Elon Musk has done in Memphis. It’s a story of unbelievable environmental racism. The siting of these massive data centers that are impacting a majority-Black part of Memphis, Boxtown, which has these long roots of resistance.
It’s called Boxtown because it was built with the discarded parts of railway cars that were then turned into homes. Because it was unincorporated — and this is true of many Black communities — it was also chosen to be a place with very high levels of industrial pollution. It has a very strong environmental justice community, and it has all of this historical resonance because this is where Martin Luther King Jr. went to stand with the sanitation workers, which the organizers that we interviewed in Memphis consciously see the struggle as being part of that lineage and see the sanitation strike in Memphis as being the beginning of the environmental justice movement in the United States because it was a fight against a toxic workplace and work conditions.
But the detail that I was referring to, in that fight that I think often gets overlooked, is that the reason that Musk chose Memphis to build what he calls Colossus — the largest supercomputer in world history, and then he built a couple more — was because he needed to do it quickly. So he decided that he needed to find a place that would give him all the giveaways, but also where there was an empty building. He didn’t want to have to build a building from scratch. He wanted to move into a preexisting building.
In Memphis, they found a factory that was empty and in very good condition, and it was an Electrolux factory. If you look into the history of the Electrolux factory in Memphis, it’s a story of de-industrialization and free trade and broken promises because this is a factory that actually was producing ovens and other appliances, and it was moved from Canada to Memphis — from Quebec to Memphis — under NAFTA rules chasing lower wages.
So 3,000 higher-paid jobs became less than 1,000 lower-paid jobs in Memphis with contractors and so on. You see this race to the bottom. All these things were promised. They didn’t create nearly as many jobs with the Electrolux factory as they said they would. The wages weren’t as good as they said they would be. They said that all these other factories would open up, too. They didn’t.
So the re-industrialization didn’t happen with Electrolux. But then there’s this empty building, and Musk moves in, and it’s barely any jobs. We call it a ghost factory. That image of the abandoned factory was the image of the de-industrialization of the NAFTA years. But now we have this new image, which is a reoccupied former factory that once had almost 1,000 workers and now is just a bunch of buzzing computers, and whose end goal is to eliminate everyone’s job.
So why would people accept the trade-offs of that, because Musk also rigged together all of these polluting gas turbines in order to get it online quickly?
This is what we mean by history compounds. It’s not a loop. It’s more like a spiral taking us somewhere.
AT: Martin Luther King, those were the famous protests, of course, with the “I am a man” sign, where the aspiration was like, “I’m a man, recognize me as equal and human.”
“In this moment, we’re up against a fascism that is against all humans, in a way.”
In this moment, we’re up against a fascism that is against all humans, in a way. We quote Kelly Hayes, an activist based in Chicago, and she says, “Every fascism has its subhumans, and for techno-fascists, it’s just humans in general.” This is opening up a bigger fight beyond “I am a man” to just like, this is life versus the machines, and there’s something very unprecedented about that and potentially very unifying.
AL: You both pointed this out, and you get into this in the book, as to why tech giants like Elon Musk were so quick to jump on this right-wing train with the explosion of AI and how they abandoned progressive promises on the environment to warfare.
For our listeners, I’m wondering if you can walk us through that. As you point out, many of those promises were largely performative in the first place. But what made it so easy for tech titans to switch political teams here? What, if any, responsibility do Democrats hold in this dynamic?
NK: Lots of responsibility. [Laughter.]
Huge amounts of responsibility because I think that it was the Democrats — and Clinton, Obama — who first under Clinton accepted the idea of the internet as a frontier zone that couldn’t possibly be regulated or taxed. And then this continued under Obama with this very tight relationship with Silicon Valley and a revolving door of lots of people from the administration going off and taking jobs at Uber and Google and Microsoft.
Buying into this idea that these companies were blue and green and a new era — leaving sort of the dirty industrialization behind — and I think really participated in a lot of rhetoric that many of us understood to be hollow at the time, that they could be trusted to do voluntary net-zero, and they were greening their businesses, and it was all solar power and rainbows.
Under Biden, there did begin to be some changes. Astra can maybe talk about this more in terms of the intersection of the tech-lash and the fact that the Biden administration did start — not doing enough — but started doing things like hiring Lina Khan and introducing some regulations.
AT: The actions that the Biden administration took I think also should be credited to grassroots pressure to the tech workers who were organizing in the major companies. There were Google workers who walked out, both demanding better policies around sexual harassment, but also into certain military contracts.
There was a general sense from progressives and liberals that the tech sector was actually not bringing about the democratic transformation that they had so loudly promised in the years before. The Biden administration was making some moves that I think to us seemed pretty modest. It’s not like there were baseline privacy protections. It’s not like they were breaking up the tech monopolies, but yes, they hired Lina Khan and started to put up some basic regulations on crypto. That said, they did bail out Silicon Valley Bank, which was a crypto scandal. Then the folks they bailed out immediately made huge campaign contributions to Donald Trump. So that to me is a sort of parable for everything that went awry.
Ultimately though, end times fascism is a response to material conditions. Part of the Democratic failure was that they didn’t rein in concentrated wealth while they could. They didn’t regulate Big Tech when it was smaller and easier to do so. They never put constraints on these companies, and then at a certain point, they’re so big, they’re so powerful, that they’re like, “We don’t have to listen to our customers or to the public or to elected officials anymore.”
The public is “not asking for a job-destroying technology. The tech sector knows that they’re going to have to shove this down people’s throats.”
This is part of what happens when they start the rollout of generative AI. ChatGPT comes on the scene in 2023, and, again, the public is not asking for this technology. They’re not asking for a job-destroying technology. The tech sector knows that they’re going to have to shove this down people’s throats. What they needed was a strongman to help them do that, and so the alliance with Donald Trump was a merger of convenience.
What they got was a government that was going to roll out the red carpet in the sense of, “Yes, here’s the frontier,” you know, “No rules. Go for it.” What the Trump administration got was a bubble to dramatically inflate the stock market, and also a partner for the fossil fuel industry because this has given a lifeline to the fossil fuel sector, along with the attacks on renewables. It was a win-win for both camps.
Silicon Valley has a long history of libertarianism, of anti-democratic thinking that was marginal. But its moment has come. Its moment has come because of these underlying material changes. At a certain point, you’re so rich you don’t have to pretend to be nice anymore.
“At a certain point, you’re so rich you don’t have to pretend to be nice anymore.”
AL: This is a good segue into the final thing I want to end on, which is, and we haven’t really talked as much about the bunkerism and the anti-immigration as much as I wanted to get into. But it’s part and parcel of the thing that was at least in the back of my mind as I was reading this, which is like, where is all of this fricking money coming from?
How is it possible to unleash endless amounts of capital to slash red tape, for not just AI infrastructure and data centers, but also the explosion of Trump’s nationalized police force going after immigrants. When on the flip side, all we hear about policies that actually the public is asking for — to your point, Astra — Medicare for All or substantial climate policy or like green infrastructure policy, all you hear is, “We can’t pay for it.”
So I wonder if you all could talk about that contradiction, and what is the path out of that in terms of flipping that argument on its head? We have the money to pay for anything. We’re just paying for the wrong things.
NK: This is often felt very acutely in the communities that are fighting back against the data centers. We quote KeShaun Pearson in Memphis who heads Memphis Community Against Pollution. He’s also Rep. Justin Pearson‘s brother. He talks about what kind of infrastructure they actually need. We’re getting this data center, but we’re not getting transit, we’re not getting books for our schools. There’s so much else, green energy, no shortage of ideas. The money clearly is there if we decided to spend it differently.
This is part of why we’re seeing a surge of support for democratic socialism, because people understand that they have been lied to, that there was way more that we could be asking of governments. Even if you look at Trump’s tariff regime and the abandon with which he breaks the trade deals that the U.S. has entered into, shows that these deals were not as binding as we were told, and that they also could’ve been changed, but they could’ve been changed in the interests of working people instead of in the interests of corporations. So a lot more is possible.
But that said, Akela, it’s very frightening. The decisions that are being made are clearly designed to both hollow out the state and create a time bomb in the stock market that is rigged to explode on working people, on pensioners — and for the people who created this crisis to rapture themselves out of it.
“The decisions that are being made are clearly designed to both hollow out the state and create a time bomb in the stock market that is rigged to explode on working people.”
If you look at the SpaceX IPO and the ways that it was written in such a way to force regular investors who just have parts of their pension invested in the stock market to have to invest in this very high-risk company — at the same time as Musk has completely protected himself. Or even if you look at something like the “Board of Peace,” which is an escape plan for the Trump administration. They’re hoping it will give them immunity indefinitely and control indefinitely. These are positions for life. They are thinking about the next stage.
Part of what Astra and I are talking about is, this is not old-school colonialism in the sense that the imperialism that “discovered the New World” was based on this idea of boundlessness. What we think we’re seeing with seizing Venezuela’s oil or seizing Canada’s water or seizing critical minerals in Greenland is much more like super-sized “prepping” and making sure that as this all goes down, they have access to the resources, that this elite group of people has access to the resources they need.
It’s not necessarily as thought out as I’m making it sound. Maybe it is, but it’s more of an impulse. The impulse is not one of expansion and domination and boundlessness; it’s bringing the resources into the bunker, and also extracting from the state everything that you possibly can for this kind of next phase.
“All those guys in Silicon Valley, they know climate change is real.”
AT: Just to add on what Naomi said. It’s a really good way to put it, which is the sense of boundlessness versus the awareness today that boundaries are being crossed. So yes, they might superficially be climate denialists. We see the Trump administration killing renewable projects and scrubbing the word “climate change” or mentions of greenhouse gas emissions from websites. But these people are not idiots.
All those guys in Silicon Valley, they know climate change is real. Many people in the Trump administration do as well. So it’s that sense that, yeah, real boundaries are being pushed past in terms of the chemistry of the planet, in terms of the concentration of wealth, in terms of what these incredibly dangerous technologies are capable of. And instead of pulling back, they’re pressing the gas on those fronts, knowing that it will be catastrophic for the majority of people.
“When you are playing with fire like that, you need an ideology to rationalize the damage. That’s where fascism is useful, because it tells you a story that you deserve everything you’ve got.”
And when you are playing with fire like that, you need an ideology to rationalize the damage. That’s where fascism is useful, because it tells you a story that you deserve everything you’ve got. You deserve to be a trillionaire. You deserve to have your luxury bunker, you deserve to have the first flight out of the disaster zone because you’re superior for whatever reason. Because of your race, because of your religion, because of your passport, because of your superior genes, because you’re a genius or whatever.
There’s a feedback loop where the sense of superiority justifies the destruction, and then the destruction fuels more fascist thought. We need to break that cycle by saying, “No,” like, “That’s totally unacceptable and won’t work out for the vast majority of us. Let’s pull the emergency brake before it’s too late.”
AL: I want to thank you both for taking the time and remind all our listeners you can read “End Times Fascism” now. You all have a very wonderful section talking about the politics of hereness and how we chart our way out of this, and we didn’t get to talk about that, but I wish we had more time. Naomi and Astra, thank you both so much for joining me on The Intercept Briefing.
AT: Thanks for having us.
NK: It was such a pleasure.
AL: We want to hear from you. Tell us what you’re following or want to see more coverage of. Email us at podcasts@theintercept.com or leave us a voice mail at 530-POD-CAST that’s 530-763-2278
That does it for this episode.
This episode was produced by Laura Flynn. Video production by Sean Turner. Jordan Uhl is our social media producer. Ben Muessig is our editor-in-chief. Maia Hibbett is our managing editor. Nara Shin is our copy editor. William Stanton mixed our show. Legal review by David Bralow.
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Inside the home, owned by Eugene Horsch and connected to his father, R.C. Horsch, authorities have found a trove of digital images, a so-called laboratory of chemicals and a small marijuana grow operation.
After the NHL star appeared in an ad campaign for United Russia, it’s fair to start pressing about the impact of his stances – even if he doesn’t want to talk about it
When Russian launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, reporters asked Washington Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin for his thoughts. It was no secret, even then, that Ovechkin was close to Vladimir Putin. Years before, Ovechkin boosted the Russian president in a social media campaign and featured Putin in his own Instagram profile photo. “He is my president,” Ovechkin said of Putin shortly after the invasion. “But [like] I said, I’m not in politics, I’m an athlete.” That’s over. He’s in politics now.
“The thing about the video: I’m Russian,” Ovechkin told reporters Thursday. The video in question is one he taped for United Russia, a group supporting Putin, ahead of parliamentary elections. Ovechkin appears in the video alongside Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the state-controlled media outlet RT, and others. “I’m for peace and love, and I hope, in the world, it doesn’t matter who you are,” Ovechkin told reporters. “I hope everybody understands everybody wants peace, and everybody hope everything’s going to be OK in the world.”
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 18, 2026 — Avicena has announced that it will demonstrate the industry’s first connectorized microLED optical interconnect. The new LightBundle eKit implementation combines Avicena’s high-density, laser-free microLED transceiver technology with an inline detachable optical interface, providing a practical path to assembling, testing, servicing, and upgrading optical connectivity in next-generation AI systems.
Avicena will demonstrate the connectorized LightBundle eKit at Stand 1365 during ECOC Exhibition 2026, taking place September 21–23 at the Palacio de Ferias y Congresos de Málaga in Málaga, Spain.
The announcement builds on Avicena’s recent shipment of the world’s first 1 Tbps microLED optical interconnect evaluation kits. Those systems incorporate as many as 335 independent microLED data channels operating at up to 3 Gbps per channel coupled through Avicena’s multicore fiber technology to integrated photodetector arrays. The connector uses an industry standard MPO form factor combined with a ferrule optimized for multicore fiber bundles.
By adding a connectorized optical interface, Avicena is advancing the LightBundle technology platform to meet the critical deployment requirements of AI infrastructure.
Bringing Serviceable Optical Connectivity Closer to the Silicon
Artificial intelligence systems require rapidly increasing bandwidth between XPUs, memory, network interfaces, and switch fabrics. As these systems scale, conventional copper interconnects face growing limitations in reach, routing density, signal integrity, and energy efficiency.
Optics can overcome copper’s reach limitations, but conventional optical technologies based on lasers and silicon photonics can introduce significant power, thermal, cost, packaging, and reliability challenges—particularly when optical connectivity must be placed close to high-performance compute and memory silicon.
LightBundle replaces lasers with dense arrays of microLED transmitters coupled through multicore fiber to integrated photodetector arrays. Its wide-and-slow architecture distributes bandwidth across hundreds of low-power optical channels, enabling high aggregate throughput without requiring the extremely high per-lane speeds and complex signal processing associated with conventional optical links.
The new connectorized implementation adds the modularity required for practical system integration. A detachable optical interface can simplify system assembly, enable independent testing of electronic and optical subsystems, improve field serviceability, and support flexible routing between packages, boards, trays, and racks.
“Introducing the world’s first connectorized microLED optical interconnect marks an important step in moving microLED connectivity from breakthrough technology to a deployable platform for AI infrastructure,” said Marco Chisari, CEO of Avicena. “Following the shipment of our 1 Tbps LightBundle evaluation kits, we are now demonstrating how the same fundamental architecture can be implemented with the modularity and serviceability required by system manufacturers. This advancement further extends Avicena’s leadership and brings energy-efficient, terabit-class optical connectivity closer to broad deployment across XPU-to-XPU, XPU-to-memory, XPU-to-CPU, and XPU-to-switch applications.”
Designed for AI Scale-In and Scale-Up
LightBundle is designed to support optical connectivity across both scale-in and scale-up architectures, including:
Die-to-die and die-to-memory connectivity within or between packages
XPU-to-XPU and XPU-to-CPU interconnects
XPU-to-memory and memory-disaggregation architectures
XPU-to-switch and NIC-to-switch connectivity
Board-to-board, tray-to-tray, and rack-to-rack links
The platform’s integrated microLED and photodetector arrays are designed for low-power operation, high bandwidth density, robust performance at elevated temperatures, and flexible reach beyond the practical limits of high-speed copper.
Unlike laser-based architectures, LightBundle does not require external lasers, wavelength stabilization, optical modulators, or complex wavelength-division multiplexing. The architecture is also designed to integrate with a broad range of semiconductor processes and packaging approaches, allowing optical connectivity to be placed closer to compute, memory, and switching silicon.
“Adopting a new interconnect technology requires customers to understand how it will be manufactured, assembled, and serviced in their systems,” said Ben Bajarin, CEO and Principal Analyst at Creative Strategies. “Avicena’s work on a connectorized interface addresses an important part of that challenge and is a necessary step toward making microLED interconnect technology practical for AI infrastructure, where customers have different requirements for bandwidth, power, and system design.”
Live Demonstration at ECOC 2026
At ECOC 2026, Avicena will demonstrate a live inline connectorized LightBundle eKit link operating between microLED transmitter and integrated photodetector arrays. The demonstration will highlight:
Detachment and reconnection of the optical interface
Real-time data transmission across the connectorized link
High-density parallel connectivity through multicore fiber
Link performance and bit-error-rate monitoring
Compact fiber routing for space-constrained AI systems
Reliable operation without lasers or optical modulators
Attendees can see the demonstration and meet the Avicena team at Stand 1365 during ECOC Exhibition 2026, September 21–23, at FYCMA in Málaga, Spain.
Availability
Avicena is engaging with hyperscalers, AI accelerator companies, memory manufacturers, networking companies, system OEMs, and packaging partners to evaluate LightBundle implementations for future AI infrastructure.
Organizations interested in evaluating the technology or discussing system integration can contact Avicena at nigel@avicena.tech.
About Avicena
Avicena Tech Corp. is a privately held company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, pioneering microLED-based optical interconnects for next-generation AI infrastructure.
Avicena’s LightBundle technology tightly integrates microLED transmitters, silicon photodetectors, purpose-built silicon transceivers, and multicore fiber to deliver laser-free optical connectivity with low power, high reliability, scalability, and high bandwidth density. LightBundle is designed to help semiconductor and datacenter innovators overcome the limitations of copper and build the next generation of AI scale-in and scale-up systems.
19-year-old had represented only US at youth level
The United States’ pursuit of dual-national defender Noahkai Banks appears to be over.
The 19-year-old was named in Germany’s U-21 squad for their upcoming U-21 European Championship qualifiers, with manager Antonio Di Salvo saying in an official release that Banks and Louey Ben Farhat, another dual national, have “chosen to represent Germany”.
Jagtar Singh Johal, from Scotland, was arrested after wedding in Punjab on alleged terrorism offences
Jagtar Singh Johal, a British Sikh man who was arrested in India in 2017 in connection with alleged terrorism offences, has been granted bail by a Delhi court.
Johal, from Scotland, was arrested for his alleged role in funding the Khalistan Liberation Force, which had carried out targeted killings in India’s Punjab region.
The public will, for the 12th year in a row, vote for the fattest of brown bears in Alaska’s Katmai national park
The bears have returned to the river and are packing on the pounds as another Fat Bear Week begins at Katmai national park.
The 12th annual Fat Bear Week, in which the public will vote for the fattest of Katmai’s brown bears as mothers, cubs and males gather along the salmon-run at Brooks river in Alaska begins on Monday.
When asked about the largest surge in measles in over 30 years, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. is doing or has done “better … than any country in the world” in controlling outbreaks of the disease. But plenty of nations don’t have the high caseload America is now experiencing.
In recent remarks in Florida, Kennedy gave what has become his standard response when asked about measles.
“We’re doing a better job than any country in the world at controlling the measles outbreak. This is a worldwide epidemic,” he said when a reporter asked at an Aug. 26 event. “Mexico has 11 times the amount of measles cases as we do. Canada has four times the amount of measles cases. Britain has two times. … Every place there’s been a measles outbreak, I’ve sent the CDC in to cooperate with the state health agencies, and we’ve brought it to an end overnight.”
Kennedy has been claiming a superlative response and invoking international comparisons for months. In April, when testifying before Congress on multiple occasions, he repeatedlysaidthatunder his leadership the U.S. had “done better” at controlling, preventing or limiting measles outbreaks than any other country in the world, calling measles a “global outbreak.”
In June, when measles was surging in Virginia, Kennedy similarly told a local news outlet, “There’s a global measles epidemic right now. We’ve done better than any country in the world in controlling it.”
And last month, in an interviewon CNN, he again referred to other countries when declining to accept any blame for the current situation.
“First of all, this is an international outbreak,” he said. “So we’re doing better at handling it than any country in the world. Mexico has 15 times the amount of measles per capita that we have. Canada has four times the amount of measles. England has two times the amount of measles.”
“We have stopped the outbreaks at record speed in South Carolina and Texas and Utah and Virginia,” he said later. “We have done better than any country in the world.”
As we’ll explain, it’s true that measles has seen a resurgence around the globe in the past several years, and that a good number of nations have had more cases per capita. But it’s also the case that dozens of countries have had fewer cases per capita than the U.S.
Many measles outbreaks in the U.S. have also lasted for months — and in some cases perhaps longer than a year — contradicting his claims about speed.
“The idea that the U.S. has the best response in the world, I mean, I don’t think that there’s any evidence that that is the case,” Josh Michaud, an associate director of global and public health policy at the health policy research organization KFF, told us. “There are countries that are sort of peer countries — you know, peer developed countries — which have very, very little, basically no outbreaks of measles.”
Experts also said Kennedy’s entire premise is flawed. How well the U.S. does compared with other countries isn’t really the right comparison, they said.
“We are in unprecedented circumstances. Let’s compare ourselves to ourselves,” Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology and director of the pandemic center at Brown University School of Public Health, told us. “And we are currently in the worst bout of measles that the United States has seen in more than 30 years.”
Kennedy also has blamed the measles outbreaks on “COVID lockdowns.” But some experts told us pandemic restrictions are not a primary reason why children are unvaccinated in the U.S. Kennedy also omits the role of vaccine misinformation.
We asked HHS for the basis for Kennedy’s claims but did not receive a response.
Flawed International Comparison
It’s difficult to directly compare measles outbreak responses across countries, experts told us, which makes Kennedy’s claim that the U.S. has done “better” than any other country a bit squishy.
But a reasonable place to start is with the per capita rate over the same period of time, Ana Bento, an assistant professor of infectious disease ecology at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, told us. And on that measure, the U.S. is nowhere near the best.
According to measles data from the World Health Organization, as of Sept. 14, the U.S. had 13.2 measles cases per 1 million people in 2026. That’s the 65th highest rate of measles in the world for 2026, out of 169 nations with data. That places it in the worst 38% of nations, and about as good as Russia.
For 2025, the U.S. did slightly better, but with the 86th highest measles rate out of 184 nations, it still ranked in the lower half of countries for the fewest measles cases per population.
Kennedy often cites higher measles burdens in Mexico, Canada and the U.K. It’s true that those countries have had worse measles outbreaks this year and last. In 2025, for example, Canada had the 15th highest measles rate, while Mexico had the 28th and the U.K. the 63rd.
So far this year, Mexico has the 15th highest measles rate, with Canada at 39th and the U.K. at 51st. That puts Mexico’s per capita rate about 11 times higher than the U.S., Canada’s about 3 times higher and the U.K.’s about 1.6 times higher, close to but mostly lower than the figures Kennedy has used.
But this leaves around 100 countries this year that have had fewer measles cases per capita than the U.S.
“There’s always going to be a country experiencing more measles than the United States,” Michaud said. Rather than “cherry picking certain countries that are experiencing large measles outbreaks,” he added, a fairer comparison would be to compare the U.S. to itself over time.
There, the measles situation is bleak. In 2025, there were 2,289 confirmed measles cases, and so far this year there have been 3,294. The U.S. has not recorded this many measles cases since 1991 and is expected to lose its measles elimination status, obtained in 2000, in November.
The U.S. “shouldn’t be in a race to the bottom,” Nuzzo said. The U.S. or any other “high-income country with a lot of resources,” she said, “should not be having measles — period.”
Beyond the statistics, Bento said she would judge an outbreak response by also asking “how long transmission continued, how quickly cases were detected and isolated, and whether vaccination reached susceptible contacts and communities in time.” That’s because case counts alone might not accurately represent the quality of the response since other factors, such as the number of measles introductions and underlying immunity, come into play, she explained.
Still, she said she did “not see evidence” for Kennedy’s superlative claim.
Nuzzo said that measles “is such a wildly explosive disease in terms of transmission” that the typical steps of case identification, contact tracing and isolation or quarantine are needed but aren’t enough. “The single most important thing we’re supposed to be doing is making sure people are vaccinated,” she said. “And on that point, we have completely fallen down.”
She noted that in his communications, Kennedy has not been emphasizing the need to ensure that communities have at least 95% of their population vaccinated or framing vaccination as a social obligation.
As we’ve documented, since the outbreaks began in Texas last year, Kennedy has at times been willing to say he recommends the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine, but he has rarely said it is safe. More often, he has raised questions about its safety or necessity, and has said vaccination is a personal choice.
Michaud explained that the federal government is not the primary entity responding to measles outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides support and will send in experts, and federal officials provide help with messaging, he said. But most of the response is from state and local governments.
Compared with the 2018-2019 measles outbreak in New York, which was the last large measles outbreak that threatened the United States’ measles elimination status, Michaud said the 2025 Texas outbreak didn’t have “the same level of robust response.”
“There was a real all-hands-on-deck kind of public health response” across all levels of government, he said of New York in 2019, noting that the city mandated vaccination to quell the outbreak and the state Legislature subsequently ended religious exemptions for its school vaccination requirements.
“It’s very hard to say in a specific outbreak case whether enough was done and how to compare that to what other countries are doing or what other states are doing,” Michaud said. “But cumulatively and broadly across the United States,” he said, “it’s really hard to argue that we’re doing a great job in responding.”
Not Ended ‘Overnight’
Along with touting the overall response, Kennedy has repeatedly claimed that measles outbreaks have been stamped out rapidly.
In a September 2025 editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy said that the Texas outbreak “ended quickly.” On Aug. 2, he said the South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Utah outbreaks were stopped “at record speed.” And late last month, he claimed that after bringing the CDC in to help states, outbreaks were ended “overnight.”
It’s unclear what a “record speed” would be, but the large outbreaks didn’t end “overnight.” Outbreaks in many cases have lasted months on end, and in some cases are ongoing.
“Arizona and Utah have had outbreaks for more than a year,” Nuzzo said, calling Kennedy’s claim “false.”
The 2025 Texas outbreak, which began in January of that year, accumulated cases for nearly half a year until it officially ended in mid-August 2025 with 762 cases. Officials usually wait for 42 days — two full incubation periods — without a new case before declaring an outbreak over.
With nearly 1,000 cases, the South Carolina 2025-2026 outbreak also lasted about six months.
Utah’s outbreak, which peaked in March, hasn’t actually even officially ended yet. A public information officer for the state’s Department of Health & Human Services, D. Ginger Zamora, said an additional person was diagnosed with measles since Utah’s dashboard was last updated on Sept. 15. Wastewater surveillance also suggests measles is still being transmitted, she said.
When Kennedy claimed that Utah’s outbreak was stopped “at record speed,” a case had just been reported at some point in the prior week, making it unclear then whether the outbreak had ended. Utah has recorded new cases over a period of more than 13 months, starting in June 2025.
“There is no single typical duration against which every outbreak should be judged,” Bento said, but “‘[o]vernight’ does not describe the major outbreaks.”
Nuzzo said she wasn’t even sure that there’s evidence that measles had been truly stopped. “I think that we have probably stronger evidence,” she said, that outbreaks “have just burned themselves out in the populations in which they were occurring, meaning the virus stopped finding susceptible people in a social network because so many people got measles.”
Role of ‘Lockdowns’
On multiple occasions, Kennedy has blamed the measles outbreaks on what he has termed “COVID lockdowns.”
“The reason we’re having a measles outbreak is because of the COVID lockdowns, because people didn’t — like, children during that period did not get vaccinated,” he said during his Aug. 2 CNN interview, noting that former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci mentioned this concern in his diary. (In May 2020, Fauci wrote that the large number of children worldwide who had missed measles vaccinations “needs to be addressed.”)
“It’s happening because of the lockdowns, because many kids did not get vaccinated during the lockdowns,” Kennedy said of measles outbreaks during the Aug. 26 event in Florida. “Then you had dramatic diminishment of public faith in the regulatory agencies during the COVID period because of government overreaching, because of the gaslighting and the manipulation.”
This narrative overstates the role of COVID-19 restrictions, some experts said, which in the U.S. were never true “lockdowns” on par with what some other countries had. It also omits the role of vaccine misinformation groups, including Kennedy’s own, in sowing doubt about vaccines during the pandemic, among other factors.
As we’ve explained before, the main reason for the rising number of measles cases is a measles vaccination rate below 95% in a community, which allows the highly transmissible virus to spread to those without immunity to the virus. More measles cases occurring globally does increase the chance of measles being imported, usually when a U.S. resident returns from traveling, and sparking an outbreak. But if vaccination levels were high in all communities, these introductions would not lead to larger outbreaks.
“If a community is well-vaccinated, importation events do not cause outbreaks; the virus attempts to spread to the next person in a chain of transmission and is halted by that person’s vaccine-protected immune system,” Maimuna Majumder, a computational epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School who has studied measles transmission, told us in an email for a previous story. “It’s only when a community *isn’t* well-vaccinated that you see an outbreak emerge from an importation event.”
The exact reasons for the lower uptake of the measles vaccine are not entirely clear, although the pandemic appears to be an important factor. Nationally, 92.4% of kindergarteners were vaccinated for measles in the 2025-2026 school year, down from 95.2% in 2019-2020, according to the latest CDC data.
A Nature Medicine study published last month by Bento and colleagues used fine-grained vaccination data to model the susceptibility of individual schools to measles, finding that the average school doubled its susceptibility following the pandemic. Schools on average became susceptible to outbreaks during the 2022-2023 school year, although many were already previously susceptible.
“Vaccine hesitancy, accelerated by COVID-19 disruption and misinformation, has eroded the immunological buffers sustaining elimination,” the paper said.
It’s not known, however, exactly in which way the pandemic drove those observed vaccination declines.
“The study does not divide the decline into effects of lockdowns, service disruption or changing confidence,” Bento said, noting that pandemic disruptions would not simply be due to formal restrictions, but also illness, staffing shortages and fear of exposure. “We should neither dismiss those effects nor assign them the entire responsibility for outbreaks years later.”
Missed vaccinations during the pandemic period might be contributing if children never made up those shots. “A missed dose can leave a gap years later if it was never caught up,” Bento said.
But, as Nuzzo noted, most pandemic restrictions only lasted a few months and occurred more than five years ago. Kids who might have missed doses for that reason are now old enough to have entered kindergarten, and every state requires the MMR vaccine for school entry, although some offer more or less arduous exemptions. (The MMR is typically given in two doses at 12 to 15 months and 4 to 6 years.)
“If people have not gotten their kids vaccinated since then, that is not just because the COVID lockdowns prevented them,” she said. “That’s not what’s primarily driving things, at least in North America.”
Michaud similarly thought that missed vaccination due to pandemic-era restrictions was no longer an applicable factor.
Kennedy also misleadingly suggested that vaccine confidence has declined solely because of missteps of governmental agencies during the pandemic.
“We are actually restoring faith in the public health agencies,” he added during his remarks in Florida.
There is some evidence that public trust in vaccines or health agencies declined somewhat at various times during the pandemic. But muchlargerdrops in trust have occurred since Kennedy took office.
A poll from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the de Beaumont Foundation’s Public Health Listening Lab found that in the spring of this year, just 50% of people trust health recommendations from the CDC, compared with 77% the year before.
Polling by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, our parent organization, found that last month, around 60% of Americans were confident that the CDC, Food and Drug Administration or the National Institutes of Health provide trustworthy public health information — a decline of around 15 percentage points since mid-2023 and mid-2024. A February APPC poll also found that Americans are now far less confident in health agency leaders than career scientists.
And while the Trump administration has contended that its changes to vaccine policy, which have not gone through the typical channels, might shore-upsupport for so-called “core” vaccines, such as the MMR vaccine, a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed Sept. 14 found that 76% of Americans think the measles vaccine is safe for children, a decline from 84% in 2020.
Polling also suggests vaccination has become politically polarized, with Republicans being more hesitant and distrustful of vaccines, although a large majority of all parents still support the MMR vaccine.
Kennedy’s narrative conveniently leaves out the role of vaccine misinformation, which he has participated in.
“Prior to being HHS secretary and still in his role of HHS secretary, he has spoken of the MMR vaccine in ways that does not align with the data on its safety and effectiveness,” Nuzzo said of Kennedy, adding that Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit Kennedy formerly led, “is one of the leading agitators online, sowing lies about MMR vaccines.”
Michaud said vaccine misinformation and disinformation channels had “existed for quite a while,” but that they got “supercharged during the pandemic.”
KFF polling shows that parents who think false claims about vaccines are true, including the incorrect idea that MMR vaccines cause autism, are more likely to have skipped or delayed some vaccines.
Kate Yandell contributed to this story.
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.
Will accelerate industrial applications of quantum computing via two projects selected by NEDO
TOKYO, Sept. 18, 2026 — Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has announced that two of its research and development projects have been selected through a public solicitation by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) for support under an initiative to advance quantum computing and other information technology in the post-5G era.
The NEDO project is officially known as the Research and Development Project to Strengthen Post-5G Information and Communication System Infrastructure (Accelerating the Development and Demonstration of Next-Generation Quantum Computers to Solve Societal Issues).
Following this selection, Mitsubishi Electric will launch its two projects aimed at scaling up quantum computers:
Research and Development of Multi-Qubit-Control Laser Systems
Development of Ultra-Compact, Multi-Channel, Low-Noise Amplifier Modules for Large-Scale Superconducting Quantum Computers.
Quantum computers are next-generation technologies that are expected to revolutionize computing infrastructure by enabling larger-scale simulations and optimization than conventional computers in a wide range of fields, including medicine and drug discovery, finance, logistics and energy. R&D targeting practical applications is already underway, but full-scale industrial applications will require significantly improved processing capacity and computational accuracy to realize quantum computers with clear advantages over conventional computers. Qubits are fragile and highly susceptible to noise, so technologies that combine multiple qubits are needed to correct errors. Consequently, scaling quantum computers to the level of one million qubits will be a key challenge.
Specifically, Mitsubishi Electric will conduct R&D to scale up three types of quantum computers: neutral-atom, trapped-ion and superconducting. For neutral-atom and trapped-ion quantum computers, which use lasers to control neutral atoms and ions, Mitsubishi Electric aims to develop high-power, highly stable laser systems by leveraging its laser technologies for machine tools, and low-latency control technologies using logic devices such as a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).
For superconducting quantum computers, which use microwaves to control qubits in cryogenic environments, Mitsubishi Electric will leverage its microwave IC technologies to develop ultra-compact, multi-channel, low-noise amplifier modules capable of operating in such environments. The aim is to scale up various types of quantum computers by enabling the control of larger numbers of neutral atoms, ions and superconducting qubits.
The two projects will promote technological validation within an industry-leading ecosystem involving collaboration with quantum-computing research institutions, including Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. By providing essential systems and components for scaling up multiple types of promising quantum-computing architectures, Mitsubishi Electric hopes to accelerate the realization of industrial applications using quantum computers.
NEW YORK, Sept. 18, 2026 — Polyphron, a company building artificial human biology to transform drug development and treat disease, has announced $20 million in seed financing led by Quiet Capital, with participation from Gradient, Haystack, and Compound. Polyphron trains frontier AI models to manufacture and simulate living tissue to create the verification substrate for AI-driven biology.
AI systems are becoming increasingly capable of generating drug candidates, biological hypotheses, and experimental designs. But the ability to generate ideas is advancing much faster than the ability to test them in human biology. Existing validation systems force a tradeoff between biological relevance and speed: Clinical trials and animal studies are slow and expensive, while simpler in vitro and computational systems fail to capture many of the multicellular dynamics that determine human response.
Polyphron combines AI-driven tissue manufacturing, stem-cell biology, and autonomous experimental infrastructure with tissue world models trained on longitudinal data from living tissues. Together, the physical and simulated systems create a verification substrate for human biology: AI systems can generate predictions, test them in donor-diverse human tissue, learn from the resulting trajectories, and improve over time. In practice, this could mean predicting whether a new drug will cause cardiac or liver toxicity before it reaches the clinic, or identifying which patients are most likely to respond to a therapeutic intervention.
Polyphron’s first tissue is cardiac, now in production in the company’s tissue foundry across multiple donor lines, with a broader donor panel being onboarded to capture human biological variation. Liver follows this year, extending the same manufacturing, automation, and longitudinal measurement stack to drug metabolism and liver toxicity.
“AI will not cure all diseases without a verification layer. The cost of producing another new therapeutic hypothesis or intervention in many modalities could soon approach zero but this will not lead to cures until something can answer, ‘What will this intervention actually do to a heterogeneous human biological system over time?’” said Matthew Osman, Polyphron’s co-founder and CEO. “The missing piece is a scalable environment where models can test predictions against living human biology – and our bet is that tissue is the right abstraction layer for this scalable environment.”
Polyphron’s Tissue Testing Environments combine physical and simulated human biology into a closed-loop system for systematically interrogating how human tissue behaves across interventions and genetic backgrounds. They comprise two components:
The Tissue Foundry: a physical, automated system that grows human micro-tissue from stem cells using the same developmental signals the body uses to build tissue during development
The Tissue World Model: a simulation layer trained on tissue trajectories to predict how tissue responds to genetic, chemical, biological, and environmental changes across donors
The long-term objective is to model human response before a clinical trial is run: predict how an intervention will behave across biological diversity, identify who is most likely to respond, and ultimately search for interventions that move biology toward a desired state.
“We back founders who are building infrastructure that changes what’s economically possible, not just what’s scientifically interesting,” said Michael Bloch of Quiet Capital. “If you can make tissue a manufacturable, testable unit at scale, you change the economics of drug development. Polyphron is applying that infrastructure mindset to human biology.”
The company was co-founded by Osman and Fabio Boniolo, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, previously at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Broad Institute, and Harvard Medical School. Earlier this month Vinh Q. Tran, previously a post-training and self-improvement researcher for Gemini at Google DeepMind, joined as an additional co-founder and Chief AI Scientist. The team also includes George Pilitsis, Chief Operating Officer, who founded and scaled the Datapoints product line at Ginkgo Bioworks.
About Polyphron
Polyphron is building artificial human biology. The company combines automated tissue manufacturing, and AI simulation to create a physical-and-simulated verification substrate for therapeutic hypotheses against living human biology. Polyphron is based in New York. For more information, visit www.polyphron.com.
Aid to lower-income countries fell by almost 7%, while higher-income countries saw their share of Britain’s aid budget increase
The world’s poorest countries were worst hit by British aid cuts under Keir Starmer’s government, while higher-income countries saw their share of aid increase, new figures reveal.
The latest figures released by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office show a 6.7% decrease in funding to the least-developed countries and low-income countries, amounting to cuts of £118m.
A new video shows off the BlackBerry-like phone’s features, including the speech-to-text Prompt Key, Message Hub and new Clicks Mobile wireless service.
The party needs to thread the needle between college-educated and working-class voters. Our survey offers a way
Resisting authoritarianism is the second-highest priority for Democrats’ college-educated base. But for working-class Americans, it’s only the 19th priority (out of 20), we found in a new survey. The gap between these two groups was larger than on any other issues: elites prioritized resisting authoritarianism an astonishing 33 percentage points more than non-elites did.
Democrats’ dilemma is that their college-educated base insists they stand up to Donald Trump’s attacks on democracy, but they also need to win working-class votes. The way to thread that needle is to recognize that what’s needed to defend democracy in the short term is different from what’s needed to defend it in the long term.
Local communities are fighting back against the influence of conservative groups like Moms for Liberty in education
Jimmy Glover’s youngest children were in high school when he noticed their Florida school district taking an unsettling turn. Beloved books were being pulled from shelves. Teachers were scared of being targeted.
“There was this culture of fear that was permeating throughout the district,” Glover said of Sarasota county.
Number of private jets has surged in recent years, but they do not pay commensurate portion of fees to FAA operations
A new report has put a spotlight on the rapid expansion of private jet travel in the US, revealing that owners are not paying their fair share of aviation tax despite the average owner’s wealth being $190m and private jets being up to 14 times more polluting than commercial flights.
The Institute for Policy Studies’ new report, High Flyers 2026, examines the growing use of private aircraft, the public infrastructure supporting them and the tax policies benefiting private jet owners.
First baseman ran into teammate McLean in sixth inning
Young has concussion symptoms, negative CT scan
Manager says ‘scariest outcomes’ were avoided
New York Mets first baseman Jared Young was carted off the field in the sixth inning of Thursday night’s 3-0 loss to Philadelphia after he was knocked out when struck on the head by a knee of pitcher Nolan McLean as the two converged on Justin Crawford’s slow grounder.
Mets manager Andy Green said a CT scan at a hospital was negative. Young had concussion symptoms and full use of his extremities, according to Green.
‘Coupling without fusion’: Canada and Europe test a new kind of allianceExpert commentjon.wallace
The deeper relationship proposed by Carney and von der Leyen could send a powerful geopolitical message. But can agreement be reached without antagonizing EU candidate countries?
There is something rather extraordinary about the geopolitical times we live in. They are making what seemed impossible yesterday possible today, and what once sounded laughable increasingly credible. This week’s proposals for closer integration between Canada and the EU undoubtedly belongs to that category.
On 16 September, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen proposed making Canada the EU’s first ‘associate member’. The next day, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney used his address to the European Parliament to set out an unusually ambitious programme of economic and strategic integration.
Canada and Europe, he argued, should cooperate across critical minerals, defence production, artificial intelligence and computing, energy, space and payments. They should move towards ‘seamless’ digital trade in non-agricultural goods and services. And they should expand opportunities for young Canadians and Europeans to live, work and study across the Atlantic. Canada also eyes access to the EU’s Horizon research programme.
If the concept of associate membership is yet to be properly defined – starting with meaningful legal substance – Carney’s address gave it discernible geopolitical purpose. His argument rests on a lesson he has repeated since his Davos speech in January 2026: excessive economic concentration creates vulnerability. And only diversification can restore room for political choice. In Carney’s own words in Strasbourg: ‘The objective is not self-sufficiency. It is collective resilience.’
That logic applies to both sides of the Atlantic. Canada remains extraordinarily exposed to the United States (US), which takes roughly seven in ten Canadian exports. The EU has its own dependencies – including on US technology and security capabilities, Chinese supply chains and, of course, energy imports.
In this context, both sides of the Atlantic see partnership as a timely opportunity. Seen from Brussels, Canada has much to offer: energy, minerals, Arctic reach, investment capital and advanced capabilities in areas including AI, quantum and space. Seen from Ottawa, the EU also brings a lot to the table: a single market of 450 million consumers, a still strong industrial capacity, world-class research networks and considerable regulatory power.
This momentum did not suddenly emerge this week. But the Carney and von der Leyen speeches moved the conversation a step further, giving stronger political expression to a relationship that has been deepening for some time. In June, for instance, Canada became the first non-European country formally brought into procurement under the EU’s €150 billion Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defence instrument.
The relationship is clearly strengthening well beyond trade. It now connects industrial policy, defence production, technology and economic security in ways that the EU has rarely attempted with a non-European power, Japan being probably the closest precedent.
A transatlantic hedge more than a new bloc
Donald Trump’s swift reaction indicates the extent to which the notion of Canadian associate membership really matters. The US president described the prospect as potentially a ‘hostile act’ and threatened heavy tariffs on Europe if Washington concluded that the initiative was directed against the US. Carney responded that Canada would determine its own international partnerships.
Yet Carney was equally explicit that he is not seeking to construct a rival geopolitical bloc. His proposal might be better understood as an attempt to give countries exposed to great-power economic pressure greater freedom of action. In a way, this model resembles what architects would call ‘coupling without fusion’: two structures that reinforce one another against external pressure but retain their own foundations.
Canada cannot realistically detach its economy from that of the US. Nor can Europe dispense with the transatlantic security relationship at this stage: the recent trip of the German defence minister to Washington would even indicate the opposite. The purpose here is to reduce specific dependencies on partners like the US while remaining allies.
If it works, the implications could extend well beyond Canada. Von der Leyen has separately proposed a European Security Council involving partners including Canada, Britain, Norway and Ukraine. Carney himself described the Canada–EU arrangement as potentially open to other democracies. All those ideas point towards a looser outer architecture around the EU, where countries participate selectively in European structures without becoming member states.
In this configuration, the EU would remain the constitutional core of a wider system of concentric circles. Associated countries would be integrated into selected markets, programmes and security structures without acquiring the political rights reserved for members.
The law has yet to catch up with the politics
Nevertheless, at this stage the ‘associate member’ status remains a political expression rather than a legal category. Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union says that any European state may apply for EU membership. Canada does not meet that geographical requirement.
Creating a formal new category of membership with institutional rights – representation in EU bodies, for example – would therefore require treaty revision. Under Article 48, amendments ultimately require ratification by every member state according to its procedures. That makes genuine constitutional ‘associate membership’ a very ambitious undertaking.
There is, however, an easier route. Article 217 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU does permit agreements with third countries establishing an association based on reciprocal rights and obligations, common action and special procedures. Such association agreements require unanimity in the Council and the consent of the European Parliament. Brussels and Ottawa could therefore deliver most of what Carney envisages without embarking on the long and painstaking journey of treaty revision.
Politically, such an option could suit Canada better. Carney stressed after his speech that sovereignty would be preserved and that any final arrangement would be put to a vote in Canada. He also played down the importance of what Brussels eventually calls it. The difficult negotiations would concern regulatory alignment, market access and reciprocal obligations rather than the ‘nomenclature’.
EU candidate countries could…ask why Canada should receive privileged access while they undergo years of regulatory and political reform to qualify for membership.
In Canada, opposition is already visible. Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives support trade and defence links with Europe but have warned against EU taxation, legislation or free-movement rules applying to Canada. And they argue that Parliament must scrutinize any transfer of authority.
In Europe, diplomats have questioned what associate membership would mean and noted that von der Leyen’s proposal had not been agreed with the member states beforehand. EU candidate countries could also reasonably ask why Canada should receive privileged access while they undergo years of regulatory and political reform to qualify for membership.
But the immediate warning sign is more tangible. Ten EU member states – including France, Italy, Poland, Belgium and Ireland – have still not ratified the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), nine years after its provisional application began. That unfinished business points towards the political challenges ahead. How likely are EU member states to reach agreement on Canada’s associate membership when a simple free trade agreement struggles to secure full ratification?
CETA would be the best framework available to provide the commercial foundation of a new Canada–EU association. Defence cooperation through SAFE already offers a template for selective participation in EU instruments. Negotiations would now need to proceed on digital trade, research, student and youth mobility, critical minerals and energy. Institutional arrangements would then gradually build around them.
To borrow an apocryphal line from Lenin, there are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen. These past few days in Strasbourg may come to be remembered as one of those moments when history accelerates.
The EU and Canada are testing how far integration can be achieved between countries that want greater strategic independence without merging their political institutions. Success could have implications far beyond the Atlantic. One conclusion can already be drawn, however: another kind of transatlantic relationship is possible.
For the millions of Americans who vote by mail – almost a third of the country – the week began with significant uncertainty that they would be able to easily submit their ballot this fall, thanks to a March executive order from Donald Trump that aimed to restrict mail-in ballots. By Monday night, the supreme court restored a measure of order by rebuking the president and rejecting his plan – but Trump’s frothing response portends more danger for the rapidly approaching midterms.
Trump’s March order forbade the US Postal Service from delivering mailed ballots to anyone the administration deemed ineligible. The Department of Homeland Security, working with the Social Security Administration, would have devised that list of supposedly ineligible, noncitizen voters. On its face, the move appeared plainly illegal. One expert told the Guardian’s Sam Levine, “This is a wholly unconstitutional EO,” because ultimately the federal government cannot set election rules; only states can.
Four of Nurat Osman’s alleged abductors were killed during rescue after she was taken from outside her home last week
A British woman kidnapped in Malawi last week has been rescued by police after a shootout in which four of her alleged abductors were killed.
Nusrat Osman was abducted outside her home in the southern city of Blantyre on 11 September at about 12.30pm. Police had offered a reward of 30m Malawi kwacha (£12,950) for information leading to her rescue and the arrest of the perpetrators.
US cybersecurity researchers who conducted hack say ‘scope of what we could theoretically access was huge’
Cybersecurity researchers have hacked into OpenAI with the help of Anthropic’s Claude chatbot, in the latest example of security issues at the company.
A team at a US-based startup compromised a number of OpenAI employees’ ChatGPT accounts, starting a process that enabled them to access their target’s software cache – and potentially more.
An F-16 fighter jet crashed in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, on Thursday, triggering an evacuation order along part of County Road 633, the county's emergency management said.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican campaign groups are directing significant money and high-profile surrogates into states that President Donald Trump comfortably carried, as several 2026 races remain competitive less than seven weeks before the midterm elections.
Vice President JD Vance campaigned in Kansas this week for Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, who faces Democrat Adam Hamilton. A recent Co/efficient poll showed Marshall leading 49% to 44%, despite Trump carrying Kansas by more than 16 percentage points in 2024. The Washington Examiner reported that MAGA Inc. helped organize the event.
Vance is also campaigning in Iowa, where Republican gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn faces Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand and Republican Ashley Hinson is running against Democrat Josh Turek for Senate. The Associated Press described both contests as closely contested.
Outside spending is substantial elsewhere. Senate Leadership Fund has committed tens of millions across Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, while Republican groups are also spending offensively in Michigan, Georgia and New Hampshire.
Trump-aligned groups have committed more than $130 million nationwide, while Axios reported roughly $390 million in Senate advertising has been allocated for the post-Labor Day period.
Hundreds of cars driven through cones or barriers in England this year, says National Highways
Drivers ignoring roadwork closures to skip queues are putting lives at risk, National Highways has warned, after recording hundreds of incidents this year where cars were deliberately driven through cones or barriers.
The agency, which manages motorways and major roads, said there was increasing concern about incursions into closed-off roadworks and the danger they posed.
Disabled people must have a guaranteed right to travel abroad, MPs and peers have said, as further cases emerged of individuals barred from taking holidays as a result of “ridiculous” rules imposed by local NHS care boards and local councils.
Leading figures have called on the government to bring in clear national guidelines to ensure people who require full-time personal assistants (PAs) are not prevented from using funding for their 24/7 support team for breaks and work trips.
Tech bosses have called for a slowdown in artificial intelligence and formal guardrails to be introduced by the US government. But President Trump is not moved by the doomsday predictions, calling them a ‘hoax'. What is behind his affection for the AI industry? Jonathan Freedland and Guardian US tech editor Blake Montgomery discuss
Participants in Pittsburgh may never learn the results of their cognitive tests – and funding cuts that target ‘DEI’ have the potential to delay vital diagnoses
Roderick Blair was surprised when scientific researchers appeared on his doorstep in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Here, on a recent summer day, police cars, an ambulance and a TV reporter crowded into a driveway on the edge of the neighborhood. A helicopter swung overhead. Saplings peeked over rooflines from gutters, windows were broken, screens tattered, doors boarded up and rippling sidewalks crumbled. Bedraggled chain link fences held back the season’s tall grass.
Company may have spent about $200,000 to fight union effort in White Plains, where 11 people can vote to join UAW
Workers at an AutoZone in White Plains, New York, are seeking to become the first store at the US’s largest auto parts retailer to win a union election, set to begin 25 September, despite a heavy-handed union opposition campaign from the company.
LaborLab, a non-profit workers’-rights watchdog, estimates AutoZone has spent around $200,000 to oppose the unionization effort at the White Plains store, where 11 workers are eligible to vote to join the United Auto Workers Local 259. The estimate is based on external attorney costs and internal costs of executive salaries based on reports from workers at the store.
Some experts worry factors affecting wheat exports could push global food prices even higher than they are now
Wheat prices are at their highest level in three years, which means farmer Merrill Nielsen should be getting more for his crops out of his 2,500-acre (1,010-hectare) Kansas farm.
Yet even as future prices for bread-type wheat are up 39%, Nielsen is unsure whether increased prices will raise his bottom line. The price of diesel fuel, which he needs to run his tractor, has hit record highs. Then there’s the erratic weather that made him lose his entire wheat crop in the spring, and drought has overtaken the southern Great Plains.
When Mohammad Abdul Zinati, 15, rushed to help a man wounded in a bomb attack, he had no time to react before he too was hit. Plus, meet the cartographers who took on centuries of western bias
Good morning.
Mohammad Abdul Zinati was walking home from school through the rubble of Salah Khalaf Street in northern Gaza City when he stopped at a supermarket where a group of classmates and friends had gathered.
What has Israel said about the incident? The Israeli military said the incident was under review. The IDF has repeatedly rejected allegations that it deliberately targets civilians, saying it assesses and takes into account the risk of civilian harm when carrying out strikes.
What has Trump said about South Korea? Trump has criticised Seoul for what he called insufficient support for the Iran war and scaled back major joint military drills by the two countries’ armed forces this summer, a move that unsettled the US ally.
"Turns out, Silicon Valley isn't especially altruistic," writes the nonprofit education news site The 74. They're reading a new book promising "the inside story of how Big Tech catalyzed, co-opted, and ultimately came to capture computer science and AI education in America". Written by
New York Times business reporter Natasha Singer, Coding Kids: Big Tech's Battle to Remake Public Schools tells "the story of the nonprofit Code.org and its charismatic, Harvard-educated leader, Hadi Partovi," according to their review:
Thirteen years ago, Partovi... delivered a worrying message: Kids who didn't learn to write code would be left behind. And the long-term success of the United States economy depended on training these students to fill a million open tech jobs.... Fast-forward to 2026, and now we're dealing with AI, and tech is reading from a similar playbook.
Asked by The74's Greg Toppo, "Does this moment seem different to you?", Singer replies, "This moment is different, but also similar.
"We are in a moment in society where a lot of people have increased distrust of these huge tech companies, and we see a wave of parents pushing back against tech in schools. But we also see waves of people pushing back against Flock cameras, against data centers, that there's this feeling that tech has taken so much, and that people feel like they have lost control — that tech is being enacted on them... And parents are worried about the effects of unfettered tech access and kids' compulsive use of social media and phones, and so there's a different climate.
And yet there seems to be a disconnect in some ways with AI because you see that Microsoft and OpenAI and Anthropic and Google are all competing to get their AI tools into schools, and you see school districts across the country say "We've partnered with OpenAI." "We are a ChatGPT Pioneer School," or "We've partnered with Microsoft, and we're going to use 10,000 licenses of CoPilot." It's amazing to me. We have had these cycles of tech in schools where there are all these promises about the latest tech, laptops, learning apps, massive open online courses, virtual reality, big data's going to revolutionize schools and like democratize access to education for kids and get them these great career skills, and we keep having these cycles. My concern is that we don't learn anything.
One of the reasons I wrote this book is because it feels like we have collective amnesia. Now we're in the sixth or eighth cycle of this — and shouldn't we be asking questions about the push for AI in schools, based on what we've learned about the push for all the other things that came before?
Two Slashdot posts are cited in the book, both submitted by long-time Slashdot reader theodp (Slashdot UID #442,580), who even gets a shout-out in the book's "Acknowledgements" section (along with consumer advocate Ralph Nader).
Ironically, one member of Amazon's "Vine" program received a free copy of the book in exchange for a review — and apparently misunderstood its topic, writing that it made coding "feel approachable and even fun... [T]his is exactly the kind of book that could help a child become interested in technology without feeling overwhelmed by it. I particularly liked the way it encourages kids to be curious, experiment, and solve problems on their own. I would definitely recommend Coding Kids to parents, grandparents, or teachers looking for a good introduction to coding..."
Digital, culture, media and sport committee expected to hear evidence from BBC bosses and music industry experts
Joe and Jake. Daz Sampson. Electro Velvet. Who could forget them?
Most people, probably. They are some of the many acts who represented the UK at the Eurovision song contest in the last 20 years that have failed to find a place in the country’s cultural pantheon.
Kareem’s Daily Quote: What have those who ask for votes already done to make their fellow citizens’ lives better?
The Doors Are Closed: Trump’s attempt to turn a memorial to John F. Kennedy into another shrine to himself reveals how little public service means to him.
The Supreme Court and Mail-In Voting: The Court puts down an effort to make voting harder for people whose ballots Trump would rather not count.
FBI Director and Acts of Bestiality: Kash Patel’s Senate testimony offered another bizarre reminder that competence is optional in this administration.
What I’m Watching: Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert remind us that making people laugh can be serious work in an unserious political age.
Kareem’s Jukebox: Dion’s “Abraham, Martin and John” still carries the plainspoken grief of a country that lost too many men who tried to make it better.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th President of the United States
(Bettmann/Getty Images)
On January 20, 1961, when John F. Kennedy spoke those words at his inauguration, the United States of America was in pretty good shape, all things considered. Though unemployment was high, inflation was low, and the post-World War II economic boom meant that the majority of Americans were enjoying a period of relative prosperity. True, Cold War tensions were an immediate concern for many Americans, who worried about the potential for a nuclear war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. that would destroy civilization as we knew it. But the country wasn’t at war at the moment; parents weren’t being asked to send their sons overseas to risk their lives to defend real or imagined threats to our way of life. Yes, racial inequality continued to be a stain on the national soul, and white supremacists responded violently to any attempts to redress the balance. But change was in the air, and African-Americans had more reason for optimism than ever before in the nation’s history.
What President Kennedy was asking, then, was not for some immediate form of sacrifice. He was asking Americans to change their way of thinking about their country. America, he was saying, was not just some monolithic entity we could depend on to protect us from adversaries and provide us with food, shelter, and the nationwide infrastructure to enable us to live easy lives. America, as he saw it, was a project that required the active participation of every American. We needed to put as much into it as we expected to get out of it. It was a collaboration between the 180 million people living in the country to make not just their own but everyone else’s lives better.
We know now that Kennedy was a complicated man. He came from vast wealth and rose to power through a corrupt system. He was an inveterate womanizer. But he was also a genuine war hero who commanded a patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, in World War II. When the boat was cut in two by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy rescued a badly burned engineer, Patrick McMahon, pulling him by the strap of his life jacket, which Kennedy held in his teeth, as he and the other survivors swam to an island three miles away. McMahon eventually recovered from his injuries, and Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and a Purple Heart. The ordeal aggravated Kennedy’s already serious back problems, but it also helped fuel his political rise.
Taken all together, he lived the extremes of American life, enjoying immense privilege but also giving back an enormous amount through his military service and presidency. Finally, he paid the ultimate price for his public service, not by choice, but because he had put himself in a position where that choice could be taken from him. His wife lost a husband, his children lost a father, and the country, many believe, lost its innocence.
Maybe that national loss of innocence is why so many of our so-called leaders today seem unwilling to ask what they can do for their country before seeing what’s in it for them. I do see some of them living up to Kennedy’s challenge, but I see many more at the highest levels of our government, using politics as a path to personal enrichment rather than public service. Whenever I cast my ballot, I want to know what the person I’m voting for has already done for his or her fellow citizens, not just what they’re promising to do if they get elected. Promises can be full of hopeful dreams and visions, but they can also be as empty as a bank vault after the crooks have made their getaway. Whoever you vote for, make sure their promises reflect the things they’ve already done in the real world, not just the things they think you want to hear.
Simon Peter Carman appeared in a Pattaya court on Friday charged with killing Tunchanok Donhomla
An Australian man accused of murdering a Thai teenager and putting her body in a suitcase pleaded not guilty on Friday in a hearing in the seaside resort city of Pattaya, a court official said.
Simon Peter Carman, 45, was arrested in June after 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla was reported missing in Pattaya City, about 150km south-east of Bangkok. A suitcase containing her body was found shortly after.
The billionaire’s attempted crackdown on Ed Sheeran’s tour only amplified pro-Palestinian statements. It’s been a joy to watch
A few weeks ago, the worst thing you could say about Ed Sheeran was that his music was a bit bland. A Guardian music writer once compared it to “aural wallpaper”. Which was a little bit rude to wallpaper: there are some very interesting designs out there!
I don’t need to tell you what people are saying about Sheeran now, do I? The pop star has been in the news for days after he apparently crumbled when billionaire Robert Kraft demanded Macklemore be pulled from his tour because of the rapper’s pro-Palestine advocacy.
Exclusive: Nearly 90% of children in federal custody being directed to GOP-controlled state that has unlicensed facilities and low legal representation rates
The Trump administration has started sending a majority of undocumented children who came to the US alone and have new immigration court cases to Texas, where government facilities for them are unlicensed, their chances of getting a lawyer are low and advocates fear that “a deportation churn-out factory” awaits them, the Guardian has learned.
Almost 80% of children in federal custody who arrived unaccompanied by a parent or legal guardian and who were placed in immigration court proceedings in July – and over 90% in August – have been funneled into shelter networks somewhere in Texas, a dramatic upswing from the months prior, according to analysis shared exclusively with the Guardian from researchers at the immigration data insights platform bklg.org.
Although state officials laud a reduction in violent crime, a report claims it would have happened without the taskforce
National guard troops began walking the streets of Memphis a year ago this week, as part of a federal surge of law enforcement agents sent into the city at the behest of the Trump administration to reduce violent crime.
Fewer soldiers are on the street today, as the city’s grudging initial acceptance of the president’s deployment has given way to doubts about their effectiveness, focus and respect for civil rights – particularly after four men were killed in gunfire by federal agents working with the taskforce, with a recent autopsy showing that one was shot in the back.
Landmark legislation designed to alert consumers to where their drugs were made is headed for a full Senate vote, but safety experts say the transparency bill has been stripped of two of its most critical provisions.
Medications made at these facilities were linked to thousands of reported adverse reactions in patients.
The bill aims to allow doctors and patients to see on the label exactly where a medication was made — details that had largely been withheld until now, even from Congress. Current generic drug labels often include only the location of the packager or distributor, which can be thousands of miles away from the actual manufacturer.
One provision made the law particularly strong, experts said: The label was supposed to include a unique code that the Food and Drug Administration uses to identify factories. That code would have made it easier for researchers and the public to track the regulatory histories of specific facilities.
The requirements also were supposed to take effect as early as a year after the bill’s passage.
Senators have now struck both of those provisions. People familiar with the deliberations said lawmakers worried the requirements would raise drug prices and weaken national security by revealing the precise locations where lifesaving medications are made.
The unique identifier requirement has been removed from the bill, and the timeline for companies to come into compliance was extended to five years.
“It’s just a clear watering down of the original bill,” said retired Army Col. Vic Suarez, a former medical supply-chain commander who has been leading a push for more domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing.
He and others also questioned why drug companies need multiple years to comply.
“Five years after it passes might as well be a lifetime,” said Dr. Kevin Schulman, a professor of medicine and health policy at Stanford University who has researched the economic pressures that lead to poor-quality generic drugs. “Why is it that the supply chain, the medical distributors and the retailers don’t want to make sure that they supply the highest-quality product?”
In a joint press release, Scott and Gillibrand praised the bill’s progress in the Senate, calling it a “massive win for consumer safety and transparency,” but did not address the changes.
A representative from Gillibrand’s office said the five-year delay is meant to give the FDA time for rulemaking, which is a complicated, often yearslong process used to introduce new regulations. The delay would also give manufacturers time to come into compliance and redesign their labels, the representative said.
But Peter Baker, a former FDA inspector whose work involved the very companies impacted by the bill, said that amount of time is unnecessary.
“If they wanted to do it in one year, they could,” Baker said. “I would love to hear their justification on why they need five years to develop some rules and guidance on transparency. … I mean, it’s a simple label change.”
The new version of the legislation also removes the key requirement to include a unique facility identification number on labels, called a DUNS number, which would have allowed the public to more easily trace a generic drug and its active ingredients to the factories where they were made. In some cases, that identifier could also be used to find FDA inspection reports that describe contamination and other safety breakdowns on factory floors.
ProPublica used that ID number to collect data for Rx Inspector, a first-of-its-kind tool that allows consumers and doctors to look up where more than 40,000 generic drugs are made. Pharmacists and patients are already using the tool to learn more about the drugs they take and prescribe.
Under the bill’s updated language, drug labels will only be required to include factory addresses, which can be inconsistent and hard to trace to a manufacturing facility. A single address in India, for example, can house multiple factories, each producing its own drugs, or each with a slight variation on the same address.
ProPublica reporters ran into this issue when collecting data for the Rx Inspector tool. In 69% of prescription drug labels, reporters found a generic drug manufacturer’s DUNS number and were able to directly connect it to a specific facility. However, when only a manufacturer’s address was available, linking a drug to a particular facility became much harder, requiring a complicated process of automated address verification, geolocation and extensive manual review.
Experts also worried about certain language in the legislation that could allow manufacturers to avoid identifying where their factories are at all. Representatives for the bill’s sponsors have said that manufacturers are required to identify the factory where drugs were made, but the legislation only mentions a “place of business.” Drugmakers could potentially list the address for their headquarters or a subsidiary location in the United States rather than a factory overseas.
“If, in fact, ‘place of business’ can be interpreted as the location of the importer or the headquarters or something like that, it would be no different than what we have today,” said Ohio State University professor John Gray, who testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging, led by Scott and Gillibrand.
“Then we’ll be right back to where we are,” Gray said. “It’ll say ‘Manufactured for So-and-So in New York City,’ but it’s actually made somewhere else around the world.”
“Paper Trail” Podcast
Learn more about this story on ProPublica’s podcast “Paper Trail.”
People familiar with negotiations over the bill’s language said they are confident that manufacturers won’t have a loophole. The changes to the bill were primarily made as a compromise between committee offices and stakeholders, they said, and the FDA will have final say in what counts as an acceptable address.
The Association for Accessible Medicines, the generic drug lobbying group, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesperson for the association previously spoke out against the bill to ProPublica, saying the additional requirements would cause “significant costs in exchange for limited return.”
The lobbying group spent over $1 million between January and July on healthcare and generics-related bills, including the Clear Labels Act, according to its public filings.
The trade group for brand-name manufacturers did not respond to a request for comment. Previously, a spokesperson for the brand-name trade group said the industry would “welcome conversations about how to strengthen the biopharmaceutical supply chain.”
The bill faced pushback from some lawmakers on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H, raised the national security concerns, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-K.Y., said he worried about creating an additional hurdle to drug production.
Ultimately, the revised bill passed the committee in July, with only Paul dissenting. The full Senate is set to take up the measure; a date has not yet been scheduled.
Congress will work with the FDA to make sure the law is properly interpreted and enforced, according to those familiar with the negotiations.
Baker said the burden of ensuring compliance will fall to already-overworked inspectors, who will be forced to determine whether manufacturers are skirting the address requirement. It would be easier to require the unique identifier, he said, because inspectors could more easily verify the information.
“The more flexibility they allow, the more complex it is to enforce it,” Baker said.
Baker also pushed back against concerns about a potential national security threat. He said data about where U.S. drugs come from is already well known, so including factory information on labels wouldn’t pose a significant risk.
“It’s a public health concern over a national security concern,” he said. “I would say that those risks outweigh the national security concerns.”
California homeowners are building a costly rock wall to hold back the ocean, escalating a battle over private property and what to do about years-long beach erosion amid storm damage and higher tides.
The University of Maine at Presque Isle is facing a review after a Washington Post article reported that some students completed degrees in just a few months.
The African serval, illegally enclosed in the back yard, was subdued and transferred to an animal welfare facility
Louisiana firefighters responding to a small house blaze found a wildcat native to sub-Saharan Africa illegally enclosed in the back yard, prompting an animal welfare agency to seek placing the creature in an appropriate environment, according to officials.
Firefighters investigating a report of a minor fire at a home in the suburban New Orleans community of Marrero on Tuesday spotted the cat in question – an African serval – behind the residence in a chain-linked enclosure resembling a cramped baseball batting cage, a spokesperson for the local animal protection services said.
Why Should Delaware Care? Nearly half of all First State residents rely on health insurance coverage provided through either Medicaid or Medicare. It’s important for Delawareans to understand their differences, especially with cuts to both programs following the passage of the federal “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Medicare and Medicaid provide crucial health insurance coverage for some of Delaware’s most vulnerable populations. But changes to eligibility are fueling misconceptions about how the two programs work and who can qualify for coverage.
Knowing how the two programs differ and what has changed since the enactment of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” can help Delawareans live healthier lives by knowing whether they can be seen by a doctor or not. Recent updates to the programs mean people who used to be entitled to coverage now no longer qualify.
Medicare is a federally backed program offering health insurance coverage, typically for those over 65, like retirees, who have paid into the 1.45% tax that is levied on their income for Medicaid and Social Security benefits. Medicaid is a a state-run public assistance program that offers coverage options for lower-income adults and families.
New changes and restrictions, particularly for asylees, refugees and some green card holders, at the federal level will disrupt Delaware’s healthcare system, said John Whitelaw, an attorney with the Community Legal Aid Society who works with Medicare and Medicaid recipients.
“If I’m a refugee and I’ve been getting dialysis and I lose my coverage … it becomes a medical emergency,” he said. “I go to the emergency room and then I will only get emergency dialysis in the hospital, which is a terrible result for everybody.”
Medicare and Medicaid: Key differences
Let’s start with the basics.
Medicare is a federally run program funded mainly through payroll taxes. It provides health insurance for people over 65, or those receiving disability benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA). All working taxpayers, including undocumented immigrants, pay for this benefit through their income taxes. The SSA determines eligibility.
Traditional Medicare allows people to choose how much coverage they need by selecting one or more of three parts: Medicare Part A offers free coverage of hospital visits, Medicare Part B covers doctor visits for a monthly premium and Medicare Part D covers prescriptions at an additional monthly cost.
There’s also a Medicare Part C, which is better known as Medicare Advantage. This is a private health plan individuals can opt into that includes all “parts.” And while it offers extra benefits such as vision, hearing and dental, there are heftier out-of-pocket costs for Medicare Advantage.
Long-term care, such as assisted living or relocating to a nursing home, is not covered by Medicare.
Medicaid, on the other hand, is a needs-based program jointly funded by the federal government and the state. Delaware’s Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) is in charge of determining eligibility and administering the program.
Eligibility is income-based. Some programs may also have limits on how many assets, such as a home or a car, an individual owns. Some states only provide Medicaid to eligible children and their parents, pregnant women or people with disabilities. But Delaware is one of 40 states plus Washington, D.C., that has expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare.”
In Delaware, adults under 65 with a household income at the federal poverty level — $1,330 a month for a single adult — are eligible for Medicaid coverage. According to Zillow, the average monthly rent in Delaware is about $2,000.
The state-run program allows qualified individuals to pick from a handful of “managed care organizations” that provide the actual health insurance coverage. Delaware’s “Diamond State Health Plan” relies on contracts with AmeriHealth Caritas Delaware, Delaware First Health and Highmark.
Certain healthcare providers, including primary care doctors, specialists such as obstetricians and gynecologists, hospitals and pharmacies, will accept these insurances at little-to-no charge or a copay of no more than $15 per month. The same goes for certain prescriptions. There also are other Medicaid programs that can cover long-term care, such as nursing homes or home health care.
Who is eligible?
Both programs have citizenship and residency requirements as well as age and income restrictions.
Undocumented immigrants have always been excluded from Medicaid and Medicare, even if they are working and paying taxes.
Currently, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” has deemed that only U.S. citizens, green card holders that have passed the five-year bar, green card holders not subject to that waiting period, and a few other narrow categories of non-U.S. citizens are eligible for coverage.
American-born citizens and others who can qualify for Medicare despite that bill’s narrowing view then face two eligibility paths: One for those over the age of 65 and another for those seeking coverage before their 65th birthday due to a disability.
The state Medicaid program, however, is meant for families and people of all ages, and eligibility is income- and asset-based. Many families with children that do not qualify for Medicaid can receive coverage through the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which allows for higher income limits than Medicaid.
DHSS, the Delaware agency in charge of determining Medicaid eligibility, provides a screening questionnaire that asks information about an applicant’s household finances to determine eligibility. Federal guidelines give states up to 45 days to review applications, but wait times can vary drastically, sometimes taking months due to staffing shortages and depending on the case.
Medicare recipients do not need to renew their coverage, unless they want to change their coverage.
As of now, Medicaid recipients must reapply annually. However, starting Jan. 1, 2027, people will have to apply every six months, due to new federal guidelines.
Changes ahead
This isn’t the first time Congress has changed eligibility requirements for these programs.
Thirty years ago, the parameters for lawful immigrants shifted, as well. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 enacted a five-year waiting period or “bar” for most lawful, permanent residents from other countries known as green card holders. Yet, it still gave refugees, asylum seekers and those under humanitarian parole access to Medicaid and Medicare.
That will no longer be true as of Oct. 1. Recent refugees and asylum seekers who have not yet obtained their green cards will no longer qualify for the state-run Medicaid program. This includes people who are disabled, or have serious health conditions such as cancer or diabetes, who would have otherwise relied on such aid.
On the Medicare side, it’s the same story. Refugees, asylum seekers and those with temporary protected status who were on track to become Medicare beneficiaries will no longer be eligible as of Feb. 1, 2027.
Alternative options
Whitelaw, the Delaware-based Community Legal Aid Society attorney, said a reduction in health insurance coverage could lead to terrible outcomes for Delaware emergency rooms that are expected to see increased visits from patients that might be forced to delay care until it’s an emergency. Meanwhile, the patients themselves will also grapple with a large, looming bill on the back end.
The main alternative to Medicaid for individuals facing economic challenges is to pay for their own coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. However, those insurance costs have skyrocketed in recent years. Earlier this month, the state announced premiums will increase by double-digit percentages again next year.
Other than that, options are “slender and slim,” Whitelaw said.
Another viable option, especially for uninsured patients, is relying on medical services provided by community health clinics, such as Wilmington’s Westside Family Health Care and La Red Health Center in Georgetown. As federally qualified health centers, these organizations can offer services dependent on household size and income restrictions.
But even then, Whitelaw, who has been in the industry for decades, predicts these clinics will be forced to absorb more patients. Others may not even seek out preventative care anymore, he said.
“People are going to delay coverage until they are in crisis,” said Whitelaw, “and then they will show up at the emergency room.”
The sudden collapse of a building damaged three years ago by an Israeli airstrike highlighted another peril of an acute housing shortage in the Gaza Strip.
Marzban, who won a best actress award for her portrayal of a woman held hostage by her father in Falling House, has received condemnations from authorities after dedicating her prize to ‘the women of Iran’
An Iranian actress who won the best newcomer award at the Venice film festival has come under severe attack from the country’s authorities and state media after highlighting the plight of women in Iran in her acceptance speech.
Laleh Marzban last Saturday won the best actress award in the Orizzonti sidebar competition for emerging talent, for her role in Mohsen Gharaei’s Falling House, a film revolving around three generations of women who are incarcerated in their own home by the family’s father.
(The Center Square) – As the conversation of AI evolving dominates headlines across the globe, Gov. Josh Shapiro delivered an address on Thursday laying out what he thinks is the best path forward.
Artificial Intelligence, Real Fears: Is it time to slow down?Audiosseth.drupal@c…
On this week’s episode of Independent Thinking, our experts discuss the growing fears around the development of AI.
A call by leaders of the tech giants on the frontier of Artificial Intelligence to ‘slow the pace’ of its development has sparked debate over the risks associated with AI.
Does AI represent an existential threat, and if so, how urgent are the warnings? Or can humanity harness this powerful technology to our benefit?
Our experts discuss the implications for international security, from cyber to the increasing use of AI in today’s conflict zones, and the dynamics of the race toward the cutting edge – not only among industry competitors, but also in the realm of geopolitics.
Bronwen Maddox is joined by Dr Marion Messmer, director of our International Security Programme, and Alex Krasodomski, director of our Digital Society Programme.
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.
When a man with a terminal illness wrote to his local MP Andrew Hastie, telling him he planned on ending his own life with voluntary assisted dying, Microsoft Copilot suggested Hastie reply with “congratulations!”, “great to hear from you” or “that is wonderful news!”.
Hastie shared the episode at a parliamentary inquiry on Friday to underline the shortcomings of the American-run software as he called for AI run by Australians.
A strike on a train that imperiled former European leaders and CIA officers is among a spate of attacks that risked a dangerous escalation with the West, experts say.
The Rafael Baez Baseball Academy practices in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Christopher Gregory-Rivera for ProPublica
If you have seen the headlines of the major investigation we recently published, “The Dominican Baseball Factory,” you may have wondered: Why is ProPublica, with its serious-sounding mission of accountability and its focus on abuses of power, reporting on baseball?
The answer would be: Exactly.
Baseball fans have long marveled at how the Dominican Republic, a tiny island nation with a population akin to Ohio, has produced so many brilliant players — roughly 10% of the major league. Major League Baseball and the owners of its 30 teams have regularly harvested bumper crops of sluggers to build their rosters and their fanbase, including most recently the Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the New York Mets’ Juan Soto and the San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr., whose playing contracts total more than $1.6 billion.
“Paper Trail” Podcast
Learn more about this story on ProPublica’s podcast “Paper Trail.”
But as with many such tales of extraordinary success, the origin story is much darker.
When we hired reporter Gus Garcia-Roberts from The Washington Post as our first reporter dedicated to sports, he arrived with an idea: He’d long heard that the Dominican Republic system that had churned out so many stars was deeply problematic. Garcia-Roberts wanted to dig into that world, not just to explain how it operated but to identify the individuals who were taking advantage of the young players and those who were allowing it to happen. What if he was afforded the time to track a promising young player — a potential superstar — as he was plucked from obscurity by a major league team?
Even prepped, Garcia-Roberts was surprised by what he found: For generations, poor parents in the Dominican Republic have shunted their children into an unforgiving juggernaut of baseball academies praying for a chance at a life-altering signing bonus from an MLB team. Since the bonus could not be delivered until age 16, teams had begun locking up talent younger and younger with verbal IOUs. As for the kids who don’t make the cut, well, they paid with their childhoods, and sometimes with their health.
Garcia-Roberts also detailed the rapacious industry that had sprung up around these young players and their parents: Trainers and moneylenders, he found, were siphoning away those signing bonuses with predatory, high-interest loans and other, often questionable, claims before they even arrived.
Significantly, Garcia-Roberts found, MLB itself has long known about the often brutal world surrounding its youngest prospects. The players union has as well; Dominican players, led by former Boston Red Sox star David “Big Papi” Ortiz, have argued against efforts to establish an international draft — a move that would end early bonuses, cutting off a revenue stream for moneylenders. Ortiz told players, according to an audio message, that an international draft would be “trouble” for people in the Dominican Republic. In a statement sent through his lawyer, Ortiz told Garcia-Roberts that his opposition to the proposal “was never motivated by personal interests.”
There’s big money in sports, and with it lots of reasons to explore how it is being wielded and who is paying the cost. And that is why ProPublica is diving in.
These days, you’d be hard-pressed to find a slice of society untouched by the Big Money tentacles of the sports industry — and the lack of accountability that often goes along with them. Got a gleaming new stadium in town? Your tax dollars likely paid for much or all of it, despite its billionaire owners (while you may not be able to afford a ticket — unless it’s to a Mets game). Got a kid in youth sports? You may have experienced the boggling cost of travel teams or noted that private equity is buying up leagues and tournaments. Watch sports on TV? The ads for online gambling can seem as ubiquitous as the score, luring legions into a new scourge of addiction. And the Los Angeles Lakers just sold for $12.5 billion! With a B, amid, of course, a scandal about how the previous owner financed his purchase.
All of that big money is ramping up just as the landscape of sports journalism has contracted along with the larger media industry.
What ProPublica brings to sports is the time, the skill set and the resources to go beyond the games and the individual stories. Our approach to investigative reporting required Garcia-Roberts to get inside the system, to find out how it works and who is being harmed, and then reveal who is responsible and who is preventing the problems from being fixed.
Without the expectation to cover games or daily sports news, reporters like Garcia-Roberts won’t be hamstrung by what one of my colleagues called “the conundrum of access.” You dig out the unsightly bits and suddenly your sources dry up and with them your scoops. And we haven’t covered a topic so long that we have become blind to its flaws.
This isn’t ProPublica’s first dive into sports investigations. In 2021, reporters Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Ellis Simani were scrutinizing a trove of federal tax data and noticed that the billionaire owners of the nation’s sports teams were taking fat write-offs on team assets, from media deals to player contracts.
You can expect to see more of ProPublica’s reporting on sports in coming months, and like the box scores, they will be spelling out who is winning and who is losing. That’ll just likely mean something different to us. If you’d like to read those stories, we’d love to send our Big Story newsletter right to your inbox. In the meantime, if you have a story tip for a terrific sports investigation, or just something sports-related you think we should know, we’d love to hear it. Please get in touch with reporter Gus Garcia-Roberts or contact ProPublica via any of these secure methods.
At least one person dead as stormy weather causes severe flooding in Barcelona and Valencia
Intense and slow-moving thunderstorms broke out on Wednesday afternoon across parts of eastern Spain, bringing some severe flooding and killing at least one person.
Storms first struck over the Castilla-La Mancha region during the afternoon before passing over Spain’s east coast, becoming very slow-moving and continuing overnight. Torrential rainfall, strong winds and large hail were reported in Valencia and Barcelona, causing widespread flooding in both cities. Weather stations west of Barcelona recorded some of the highest totals with more than 100mm (4in) of rain falling in the space of a few hours, and locally 70mm in just 30 minutes in the early hours of Thursday morning. Cars and roads were submerged, and flights were cancelled across the region.
More than 180 writers sign letter renewing calls for information on 12 authors detained incommunicado since 2001 crackdown on free speech by Isaias Afwerki
More than 180 writers have signed a letter to Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki calling for proof of life for 12 writers arrested in 2001.
Nobel laureates Olga Tokarczuk and JM Coetzee join prominent writers including Colm Tóibín, Elif Shafak, Isabel Allende, Ben Okri, Yann Martel, Kamila Shamsie and Tsitsi Dangarembga in signing the letter organised by PEN International and dated 18 September, marking 25 years since a government crackdown on the independent press. “Within days, Eritrea’s free press and the nation’s independent voices were systematically crushed,” opens the letter.
Retail sales across Great Britain unexpectedly rose last month, the latest economic indicator to defy gloomy forecasts as the chancellor, John Healey, prepares to present next month’s budget.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the volume of goods sold rose 0.5% month on month in August, defying analyst expectations of a 0.2% fall.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “needs to go,” backing either impeachment or removal by President Donald Trump as criticism of the Pentagon chief expands within the GOP.
Tillis made the comments Thursday after Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced eight articles of impeachment accusing Hegseth of constitutional and legal violations involving U.S. military operations in Iran, Venezuela and Yemen. Massie also accused Hegseth of defying congressional war-powers restrictions and retaliating against critics.
“I’ll let the House do what the House is gonna do,” Tillis told reporters. “We’ve got a management problem here. He needs to go.” Tillis added that having Trump replace Hegseth would be the “most expedient route.”
The North Carolina senator voted to confirm Hegseth but has become an increasingly vocal critic. Earlier this month, Tillis said he had “never witnessed more inept management” at the Pentagon and urged Trump to install new leadership.
House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers into an early recess Wednesday rather than hold the anticipated impeachment vote. Massie said Republican leaders were concerned that additional GOP members could support his effort.
The House would have to approve impeachment before any Senate trial could occur.
Yes sport is about effort, sweat and inclusivity – but it also turns elite athletes into magnificent specimens of humanity where the aesthetic is part of the appeal
Have you seen the 40-second video that will change the way you think about women’s sport, women’s bodies, just, you know, women? It’s been unavoidable on social media this week – brazen, unapologetic, dominating the algorithm like an AI kitten hacking a banana-bread recipe while lip-syncing to Cardi B. I for one have enjoyed it at least 50 times already.
It starts with some carefully curated passive-aggression – “Dear Sydney”, “Hey Sydney”, “Respectfully Sydney” – and follows up with clips of what, in its own words, “a woman in sport actually looks like”. It shows its subject pounding the treadmill or powering down the back straight, flooring a rival with a tackle or a roundhouse kick, lifting weights or throwing herself through the air. It is, inevitably, soundtracked by Dua Lipa. Training Season is getting a serious bump this week.
Research shows tens of millions of people are being forced to use platform that amounts to ‘backdoor’ on their device
Over the past 18 months, tens of millions of Russians have been forced to install a new app on their phones – a violet-blue button designed for messaging and payments, called Max.
Authorities have touted it as a patriotic alternative to Telegram and WhatsApp; Russian glitterati have promoted it in rap videos and comic routines. This summer, it became the country’s most-used messaging app.
Peer takes full-time position at the controversial company as it fends off pressure from both Andy Burnham’s government and Sadiq Khan
Another former government minister has been hired by a controversial US AI company, this time Palantir, which has appointed Andy Burnham’s former ministerial colleague Tom Watson.
Seoul resolves recent speculation over sending military to strait of Hormuz, saying ‘there won’t be deployment that would involve or enter war’
South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, has said he will not deploy the military to the Middle East in a way that could draw the country into conflict, resisting calls from Donald Trump to support his war in Iran.
“There won’t be deployment that would involve or enter war. I can tell you that very clearly,” Lee said at a news conference on Friday. “We won’t deploy military assets in any form to that end.”
Tuesday U.S. Space Force chief Douglas Schiess said his branch of the U.S. military operates "on-orbit weapons," reports Reuters, to defend "against space-enabled attacks." He promised "disciplined and responsible choices" when scaling America's orbital defense arsenal in the coming years.
NPR calls this week's reveleations "remarkable... after previous warnings about countries such as Russia possibly weaponizing a global frontier long agreed in treaties to be used for only peaceful purposes."
The revelation comes as the Trump administration puts a growing focus on space. In 2019, during his first term, Trump created the Space Force as a separate military branch. In his second term, he has announced the "Golden Dome" missile defense system, which includes plans to put U.S. weapons in space. Trump said last year that he expected the system would be "fully operational before the end of my term," which ends in January 2029, and have the capability of intercepting missiles "even if they are launched from space." Trump also has directed the Pentagon to pursue the space-based interceptors, in an executive order during the first week of his presidency. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that just the space-based components of the Golden Dome could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years.
The Biden administration announced in 2024 that Russia was developing a space-based nuclear weapon that could loiter in space for long durations, then release a burst that would take out satellites around it. That kicked off a renewed debate on the idea of weapons in space at the United Nations. In April 2024, Russia vetoed a joint U.S.-Japanese resolution that would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as banned under a 1967 international treaty that included the U.S. and Russia... The Russian delegation called the resolution hypocritical and a double standard and instead proposed a rival resolution to ban all weapons in space "for all time." It ultimately failed. Russia had argued that the United States and its allies opposed a ban on all weapons in outer space because they planned to deploy weapons there.
Reuters calls this "a landmark moment in space militarization," while noting that it's "aimed at deterring what U.S. officials describe as aggressive orbital activities from China and Russia, officials and analysts said."
The remarks this week by Washington's top military-space officials are part of "the increasing comfort level of the U.S. government to speak about aggressive actions in space" that has been building up in recent years, said Victoria Samson, chief director of space security and stability at the nonprofit Secure World Foundation. "We've gone from not talking about counter-space capabilities... to now saying flat-out we have weapons in space," Samson said. "The pendulum keeps on shifting over that way..."
"The acknowledgment of these space-control capabilities is fundamental to ensuring that we prevent deterrence from failing, and that we are postured and ready should deterrence fail to employ them effectively," Richard Palmer, the director of the Capability and Resource Integration Directorate at U.S. Space Command, said on Tuesday.... "The bottom line is that our joint force and our allied forces require space. Our economies require space," added Palmer. "We are ready in the U.S. to preserve that."
Reuters adds that Russia's Foreign Ministry issued criticism of America's move, saying "In pursuit of its narrow self-interests, Washington is ready to completely ignore the catastrophic consequences for humanity of any armed conflict in orbit."
Uber was ordered to pay $40 million to the family of a woman killed on an Orange County freeway after a rideshare driver left her on the side of the road.
By combining transmit and receive on a single fiber, Passage L20 CPX halves the optical cabling in AI scale-up networks
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 17, 2026 — Lightmatter today announced that it has joined the Open CPX Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) and introduced the Passage L20 CPX, the industry’s first Open CPX module for AI infrastructure with bidirectional (BiDi) optical link technology. The solution is powered by the Passage L20 optical engine, Lightmatter’s near-package optics (NPO) platform, announced in March, delivering 6.4 terabits per second (Tbps) in a single socketed module while halving the fiber and connectors needed to support it.
Fiber is becoming a hard limit on how fast AI clusters can be built. A conventional link transmits on one fiber and receives on a second. BiDi technology combines transmit and receive on a single fiber by assigning each direction its own wavelength of light. In a 512-GPU scale-up pod, Lightmatter’s analysis in a recent tech brief shows that customers will save more than 200 miles of fiber, taking the pod from about 130,000 fibers to 65,000, with approximately 16,000 fewer connectors. Fewer connectors and cables mean fewer potential failure points. The reduction saves about 15 percent of total scale-up interconnect network cost, speeds deployment and simplifies fiber plant maintenance and long-term operational cost.
“AI infrastructure is scaling faster than copper can follow, and co-packaged optics is the answer. CPX is the on-ramp. It gets the optics, the fiber, and the supply chain into production now, so that when CPO arrives, the hard parts are already proven. That’s why we joined the Open CPX MSA,” said Nick Harris, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Lightmatter. “Passage L20 CPX is bidirectional and enables transmit and receive over a single fiber, which halves fiber requirements. At cluster scale that means faster bring-up, fewer failures, and less time chasing broken links.”
“As AI clusters scale up, the constraints are shifting from compute to the physical infrastructure around it, including power, cabling, and the time it takes to bring a pod online,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Standardization efforts like the Open CPX MSA are critical to commercializing optics close to the package across a broad multi-vendor ecosystem. A bidirectional architecture that halves fiber count without giving up bandwidth addresses a cost and complexity problem that operators feel immediately.”
The Open CPX MSA defines a standardized CPO/NPO module form factor for high-bandwidth, low-latency I/O placed directly adjacent to the host ASIC, switch, or GPU. Modules mount to the PCB or substrate, so the form factor adapts to different XPU and switch board designs. Bandwidth density in a pluggable system is capped by faceplate area. Placing the NPO near the XPU removes this cap, increasing bandwidth density while reducing cost and power as compared to conventional pluggable transceivers.
Built on the Passage L-Series optical engine platform, the Passage L20 CPX is designed to deliver 12.8 Tbps of total bandwidth (6.4 Tbps transmit and 6.4 Tbps receive) and 32 optical lanes per direction at a 212.5 Gbps PAM4 line rate. It uses the Type 2 single RF+MP pin field defined by the MSA, reaches beyond 500 meters over single-mode fiber, follows the IEEE 802.3dj DR link architecture, and uses the OIF-CMIS management protocols. The module supports O-band wavelengths 1331 nm and 1311 nm and can pair with Lightmatter’s Guide DR laser module, or other compatible external laser sources. The Passage L20 is also available in an XPO form factor.
Passage L20 CPX module evaluation kits are anticipated to ship to customers in the first quarter of 2027.
Specifications in this release are preliminary and subject to change. Performance and cost figures are based on internal testing or modeling under specific conditions, and actual results may vary by configuration and deployment.
About Lightmatter
Lightmatter is leading a revolution in AI data center infrastructure, enabling the next giant leaps in human progress. The company’s groundbreaking Passage platform, the world’s first 3D-stacked silicon photonics engine, and Guide, the industry’s first VLSP light engine, connect thousands to millions of processors. Designed to eliminate critical data bottlenecks, Lightmatter’s technology delivers unprecedented bandwidth density and energy efficiency for the most advanced AI and high-performance computing workloads, fundamentally redefining the architecture of next-generation AI infrastructure. Visit www.lightmatter.co to learn more.
The gift from Italy has sparked fierce debate among defence analysts and opposition politicians who question its true cost and purpose
Indonesia has received its first aircraft carrier, a former Italian warship that the government says will strengthen the archipelagic nation’s maritime security and disaster response capabilities.
The 41-year-old former ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi, with capacity for short takeoff and vertical landing aircraft and helicopters, arrived Friday morning at a naval base in North Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok port, where it was welcomed with a military ceremony.
Josh Allen quickly put his stamp on the Buffalo Bills’ new stadium, which has been dubbed “The House that Allen built.”
Allen threw three touchdown passes and ran for two scores, and the Bills beat the Detroit Lions 41-31 on Thursday night in the first regular-season game at Highmark Stadium.
An unusual charge on an insurance letter led a woman to a bizarre medical office where mountains of unopened mail pile up and no employees have ever been seen.
Russians are going to the polls to elect a new State Duma in a tightly controlled vote stripped of meaningful competition and with little doubt about the result.
Vladimir Putin’s United Russia is expected to extend the grip on parliament it has held for 23 years, alongside a handful of nominal opposition parties that reliably vote with the Kremlin on the issues that matter. The three-day vote begins on Friday, with results expected after polls close on Sunday.
Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican congresswoman from South Florida, made a rare public break with President Trump in a new ad, pushing back against Trump’s hardline immigration policy.
“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar said, speaking directly into the camera.
Reuters reports that a former Google DeepMind employee "became the latest AI researcher to warn that the technology could 'kill all humans', saying time could be running out to avoid the outcome:
Public alarm about the potential danger posed by AI is growing, after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said last week he had resigned, in part because the "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger then responded to Coxon's comments, saying he was correct and that he believed there was a greater than 10% chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade.
"I recently resigned from Google DeepMind, where I worked on AGI safety and alignment research," Bilal Chughtai wrote on X. "I earnestly believe that AI has the potential to kill us all, and that we might be running out of time to avoid this outcome." Chughtai, who co-authored research papers while at Google DeepMind, worked there as a research engineer and left the company in July 2026, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Meanwhile, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg "said it's up to each AI company to make sure its technology is safe," reports the Associated Press, "distancing himself from calls by rival companies for a coordinated slowdown in the development of advanced artificial intelligence.
AI companies are already motivated to develop their models in a safe way and face "significant liability" to prevent them from causing harm, Zuckerberg said. "Every lab has the responsibility and incentive to move at the pace required to train its models safely, and the ability to take its own actions to ensure that happens," he wrote on X... Zuckerberg said Meta delayed releasing its Muse AI agent for several months to ensure its safety and security. "We didn't call for everyone else to do this before we would," he said.
Companies should prioritize building safe AI models instead of systems that can automatically improve themselves, a function known as recursive self-improvement, Zuckerberg wrote. "Committing the significant majority of compute towards serving people rather than racing towards recursive self-improvement is one of the best ways to ensure we develop this technology safely."
But Zuckerberg also agreed that engaging independent evaluators and advisors "is industry best practice," adding that Meta Superintelligence Labs "already does this today in several areas because it helps produce better work...
"I believe the key to building a positive future for everyone is maintaining the right balance of power. This is within our power to do."
For the second year in a row, the administration has barred the Palestinian delegation from US travel for the forum
The US state department said on Wednesday that it had again denied entry visas to Palestinian officials ahead next week’s United Nations general assembly gathering in New York.
The state department said in a statement the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had “failed to live up to their commitments”, accusing the groups of “taking actions to internationalize the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict including through the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ)” and of “glorifying terrorism” among other allegations.
Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, part of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, was in charge of Adra prison where prisoners were tortured
This article contains descriptions of torture.
A US federal court in Los Angeles sentenced a former Syrian government official who ran one of the country’s most infamous prisons to 60 years in prison on Thursday – the most significant punishment handed to an official of ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s regime by a foreign court and to a defendant present in person.
Drinking locally made alcohol is common in Nigeria, especially in rural areas where it is more affordable and poorly regulated
At least 48 people have died and about 100 others are receiving treatment in southern Nigeria after consuming a locally brewed alcoholic concoction suspected to contain methanol, officials said on Thursday.
Banji Ajaka, Ondo state’s commissioner for health, said the cases had been reported in the Odigbo and Irele local government areas. A total of 182 people are believed to have been affected and some are being treated in the hospital, he said.
Macklemore, who was fired as the opening act on Ed Sheeran’s tour after saying “Free Palestine” on stage at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, pledged to donate the entirety of his earnings from Sheeran’s tour to several organizations focused on the Palestinian people.
This Sunday on 60 Minutes, Patrick Clancy talks about his grief, his memories of his children, and the baseless conspiracy theories that flooded social media since his ex-wife's murder trial.
Matt Bell said he initially supported Trump's policies but now feels he and other farmers were "sold a bill of goods" that there was a plan to "put America's farmers and ranchers first."
President Trump ordered the Justice Department not to appeal a court ruling that loosened restrictions on firearms known as "gangster weapons," sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
BOISE, Idaho — A Boise minister convicted of misdemeanor trespassing after refusing to leave Gov. Brad Little’s office during a protest over transgender-related legislation will not serve additional jail time.
Idaho 4th District Judge Adam Kimball sentenced the Rev. Sara LaWall on Thursday to fines and court costs, while crediting her for the day she already spent in jail following her April arrest. LaWall, minister of the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, was among nine protesters arrested after remaining inside the governor’s office after it closed.
A jury convicted LaWall earlier this month after viewing body-camera footage showing an Idaho State Police trooper repeatedly instructing protesters to leave. LaWall acknowledged remaining after those warnings but described her actions as civil disobedience intended to draw attention to legislation affecting transgender Idahoans.
The April protest followed Little’s signing of legislation restricting transgender people’s bathroom use. Protesters were also opposing another measure requiring teachers and health professionals in certain circumstances to notify parents about a minor’s transgender identity. Little later signed that measure as well.
Kimball described LaWall’s conduct as “peaceful” and “considerate” but said protesters should not violate the law when their concerns go unheard. Three other trespassing cases stemming from the demonstration are also headed to trial.
Government spending watchdog warns of price of keeping publicly owned firm in business
Labour has been urged to lay out a credible plan for the future of British Steel, as the government spending watchdog warned of the “startling” costs of keeping the struggling manufacturer in business with no end in sight.
British Steel was taken into public ownership in July to protect “the future of steel production”, 15 months after the government stepped in to prevent the closure of its steelworks in Scunthorpe and the loss of 4,000 jobs.
Shabana Mahmood says she wants to distinguish between far-right extremism and legitimate local concerns over asylum sites
Shabana Mahmood has described the anti-asylum activist Daniel Thomas as “a far-right and outright racist” who will feel “the full force of the law” if his organisation commits crimes near contested asylum sites such as Piddington.
In an interview with the Guardian, the home secretary also “wanted to reassure” concerned villagers that asylum seekers due to move in to a neighbouring former defence site would not “put pressure” on local resources because they would be given “self-contained facilities”.
The sentencing of 56-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak came nearly eight months after the 27 January assault. At the time, Minneapolis was facing an immigration crackdown that led to angry protests, arrests and the killing of two US citizens by federal officers.
(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Education has launched two investigations into the University of North Dakota and Duke University in North Carolina over concerns of inaccurate disclosures of foreign funding, placing both institutions' federal funding at risk.
Both Apple and Google raised the price of their 2026 flagship phones by $100, but which one deserves the higher price tag? I compared the specs of iPhone 18 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro to find out.
You might assume you’re covered for repairs after a disaster because you have homeowners insurance. Unfortunately, you could be wrong.As extreme weather becomes more frequent and destructive, homeowners across the country are discovering gaps in their insurance policies — after…
Fish and Wildlife Service memo calls for change in what it means to ‘take’ an endangered species
More than 1,600 critically imperiled species protected under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) face losing further federal protections following a new reinterpretation of the 1973 law by the Donald Trump administration.
A September 14 memo distributed to Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) field offices by FWS director Brian Nesvik calls for a reinterpretation of what it means to “take” an endangered species. Under the ESA, “take” is defined as “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct”.
(The Center Square) – A hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 24 involving a bond request from Paramount Skydance amid its legal battles over a proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery that could put state governments on the hook for…
(The Center Square) – After being saved from the brink of death, a dog abandoned on the streets of New Mexico became the first rescue dog to graduate from the U.S. Border Patrol Canine Academy in El Paso, Texas, as…
HMRC wins challenge over John Griffin’s claim to be non-dom despite having lived in England since childhood
The founder of Addison Lee owes £20.5m in tax after a tribunal dismissed a claim that he should be treated as a nom-dom despite living in the UK since childhood.
John Griffin had argued he should be treated as a nom-dom due to his connection to Ireland, saying: “I was and am besotted with Ireland, infatuated with Ireland. I believe that I have always been and am Irish.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told members of Children’s Health Defense that they have a “strong and steadfast friend at the White House,” appearing Thursday at the organization he led before entering government.
Kennedy delivered the remarks as the United States experiences its worst measles outbreak in decades. Pennsylvania has reported more than 690 cases and four measles-associated deaths this year, all involving unvaccinated people, according to state officials. Kennedy has disputed how some deaths are being classified, while Pennsylvania has requested emergency CDC assistance.
During his roughly 90-minute speech, Kennedy said changes to federal vaccine policy must proceed within legal limits but assured attendees that his administration allies were continuing their efforts. “We are doing this one day at a time,” he said. The conference also featured longtime vaccine opponents, including Andrew Wakefield, whose research claiming a vaccine-autism connection was discredited.
Kennedy briefly addressed measles deaths while emphasizing what he described as vaccine injuries. Extensive scientific research has found no causal connection between vaccines and autism.
The appearance comes as confidence in childhood vaccines has declined. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found 76% of Americans considered measles vaccines safe, down from 84% in 2020.
Why Should Delaware Care? A Kent County Republican primary generated relatively little attention in the lead up to the election, but ended up being the tightest primary race by far on Tuesday — and among the closest elections in recent Delaware history. The district, which has one of the closest registration splits between Democrats and Republicans anywhere in the state could be a seat to watch in November.
Following a Wednesday recount, Morgan Hudson was declared the winner of the Republican nomination for House District 33 in the Milford area.
The two-person race in a rural Kent County representative district became by far the tightest race in Tuesday’s primary election, when just seven votes separated Hudson and opponent Matt Bucher. That margin represented 0.35% of the total votes cast in the district primary, which prompted a recount by Department of Elections officials under state law.
Kent County election officials confirmed Wednesday evening that Hudson, a Milford native who works for her family business, won with a total of 1,017 votes over Bucher’s 1,010.
The vote difference was among the closest races in recent Delaware history, a spokesperson for the State Department of Elections said.
Neither Hudson nor Bucher has previously held statewide office. The pair were vying to replace Rep. Charles Postles, who is retiring after having represented the district that covers Magnolia, Frederica and north Milford for the past decade.
Bucher, a former member of the Milford School Board of Education and the former 33rd District Republican Party chair, ran a visible campaign heading into the Sept. 15 primary.
Meanwhile, Hudson largely kept a lower profile throughout the primary campaign, declining media interviews and relying less heavily on social media posts to get her message out.
Hudson told Spotlight Delaware on Thursday morning she attributes her narrow win to the time she spent door-knocking and intently listening to voters’ concerns about the district.
“People are struggling and they’re hurting right now and they want somebody to listen to them,” she said. “People are tired of empty promises. At the doors, that’s what I just kept hearing over and over again.”
Matt Bucher, a prominent former Milford school board member, came up just seven votes short in his primary race. | PHOTO COURTESY OF BUCHER CAMPAIGN
Bucher declined to speak by phone with Spotlight Delaware about the primary results, instead referring to a written statement he put out on Wednesday evening.
In the statement, Bucher wrote that he is familiar with the vote tabulation process from his time as a GOP district chair, and can confirm that “the likelihood of a different result in this particular election is a statistical zero.”
“What we need right now is clarity,” he wrote. “I call on you all to unite, and pray for the success, and to grant wisdom and strength of will, to my former opponent, and 33rd District GOP nominee Morgan Hudson.”
Tightest election marginin years
Delaware law necessitates a ballot recount when the percentage difference in votes received by the top two candidates is less than 0.5% of the total votes cast. In this case, the seven-vote difference between Hudson and Bucher amounted to 0.35% of the total votes.
The Kent County Department of Elections completed the vote recount Wednesday evening, and confirmed the same vote count originally reported on election night.
The close margin between Hudson and Bucher was relatively consistent across machine votes on election day, absentee votes and ballots cast during early voting.
A Department of Elections spokesperson told Spotlight Delaware the state has not had to do a recount in any primary or general election in recent years.
The last recount mandated by the state law took place in a Newark-area district in the 2022 general election, when then-Rep. Mike Ramone edged out challenger Frank Burns by 35 votes. Burns later won the seat in 2024.
In another tight central Delaware Republican primary in 2024, Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford) and Patrick Smith for House District 36 resulted in just a 12-vote victory for Shupe.
The margin was 0.52% of the total votes cast, so it did not trigger a state-mandated recount. Both Shupe and Smith requested a recount at the time, but the Department of Elections did not grant the request.
Turnout in Tuesday’s District 33 Republican primary accounted for 31.4% of registered Republicans in the district, which was substantially higher than the 21.75% primary voter turnout recorded statewide.
Still, Hudson said she had hoped for a higher voter turnout, and she plans to push for more district residents to get to the ballot box in the November election, where she will now face Democrat Joshua Pennington.
“Trying to get people to come out and vote is going to be our biggest hurdle this time around for the general [election],” she said.
Primary dynamics
Campaign priorities and funding differences provide some insights as to why Hudson’s platform narrowly resonated with more voters than Bucher.
Despite Hudson’s lower profile campaign, she raised $15,000 throughout her 10-month primary campaign, which was among the highest sums in a Republican primary this year.
Hudson’s donations mostly came from individual donors, though she did receive notable maximum individual contributions from the First State First PAC, a fundraising committee run by former Republican state lawmaker Greg Lavelle, and a couple of Milford-area developers.
Hudson previously sought the same seat in 2016, and was decisively defeated by Postles in the Republican primary.
Bucher raised $11,825, including donations from some Republican elected officials, such as House Minority Leader Tim Dukes (R-Laurel) and retiring State Rep. Kevin Hensley (R- Odessa).
Neither candidate received outside spending from third-party advertisers.
In a pre-primary election interview with Spotlight Delaware, Bucher said his election platform was focused on retaining local control and containing development.
Hudson said on Thursday she has primarily heard concerns from voters about high electric bills and other cost-of-living challenges, which will remain her campaign focuses heading into the November election.
As of Sept. 1, the 33rd District had 19,949 registered voters, 6,444 or 32% of whom are registered Republicans, and 6,100 or 30.6% are registered Democrats.
The number of registered Republican voters in the district has climbed slowly since 2018, when the district had a Democratic majority, but it is still among the closest partisan margins of representative districts in the state.
It’s been nearly six months since Bull separated from Atos Group, the conglomerate that housed the supercomputer company for 12 years. While the separation is not yet fully complete, the company’s CEO, Emmanuel Le Roux, is confident Bull is quite capable of serving the HPC and AI needs of French and European companies with a homegrown supply chain.
“From a customer perspective, I think everybody is taking this move as a very positive move,” Le Roux told HPCwire in a recent interview. “Everybody is reassured that Bull will have the capacity for long term to maintain its leadership in HPC and AI. And that’s a very important for our customers because they are committing with us for many, many years when they are purchasing a supercomputer.”
Bull is currently 100% owned by the French government. Its shares are held in a French wealth fund that owns all or parts of 80 other French companies, including firms like Thales and EDF, a French electricity utility company. It’s possible that the French government will allow outside investors in the company at some point, Le Roux said. But for now, it’s owned entirely by the state.
The separation from Atos went as well as one could expect. The company is still providing some IT services to Bull, Le Roux said, which will continue for several more months. “But from a business perspective, from a governance, we are completely independent,” he said. “It went very smooth. We had a scenario where we thought it would be far more difficult, but we have a good team. We set up a good team and they did a fantastic job to make it successful.”
The decision to keep the name Bull was not clear cut. “We had several options. One was to reuse and relaunch the brand,” Le Roux said. “And to be honest, it was not my preferred scenario.”
Le Roux did not want to be in a position where the company needed to explain its history over and over again. It turned out that fear was unfounded, as even younger employees expressed interest in company, which was founded 95 years ago.
“We are a new company, a modern company with a lot of legacy, a story behind us,” Le Roux told us. “I changed my mind and we decided to go with Bull. And the adoption has been immediate. Internally, people are proud. Externally, people are proud.”
Bull’s current trajectory will continue. That includes making some of the most efficient supercomputers on the planet. Take a look at the Green500, which has Bull Sequana systems in three out of the top 10 slots and 31 of the top 100. That commitment to energy efficiency will continue under the “new” Bull, Le Roux said.
“Obviously, the less you put in energy, more you can put in CapEx to buy more capacity, or you consume less and it’s more affordable for the planet,” he said. “And we are continuing to invest big time on this so that we keep the number one position.”
Bull currently has 3,000 employees, including engineers, data scientists, and sales and support personnel, among others. Earlier this year, the company committed to hiring an additional 500 employees, which the company is currently doing.
“We have new experts and new skills coming with energy and knowledge that are complementing the team we have,” the CEO said. “It’s also a positive sign internally that we are growing and we have we are ambitious.”
When it comes to the computers themselves, Bull has short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. The company will continue to sell systems with GPUs from AMD and Nvidia. But the company is looking to broaden its supply chain, with a particular focus on bolstering its sovereignty by sourcing more of its components from European providers.
LUMI-AI, a next-generation supercomputer at the CSC — IT Center for Science Ltd. data center in Kajaani, Finland, will be powered by AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs and 6th Gen AMD EPYC 256-core processors in a Bull Sequana supercomputer (Copyright: Mikael Kanerva, CSC)
To that end, Bull recently announced that it will be manufacturing NVL72 systems for sale in Europe. There is demand for the new scale-up systems among French and European companies, but they would prefer to have them manufactured by a European company. It’s also bringing manufacturing in-house for its general purpose and cloud and AI businesses, which complement the core supercomputing line of business at Bull.
“There is a big need from big players in Europe for sovereign hardware. And this year is now the only scalable solution in Europe,” Le Roux said.
There are several drivers for the sovereignty push. For starters, the shortage of processors and memory chips is driving a desire for European firms to be more in control of their semiconductor supply chains. Tariffs and quotas that push costs up and component availability down are also fueling the quest to reshore computer manufacturing.
“All these announcements that there is quota on GPUs, quota on on prioritization of the GPU and the tariff applied as well. And all this it’s giving a lot of uncertainty on the supply chain. And on the other side, we are also fighting with the memory cost increase, right? So the CS has a long term or mid-term enabler to get these components or some of these components develop in Europe so that we de-risk the supply chain for supercomputers.”
Networking is a good example of that, Le Roux said. Instead of relying on Nvidia for Mellanox interconnects, Bull is developing its own interconnect, called BullSequana eXascale Interconnect (BXI), which will start shipping in January 2027. It’s already being sold, and is slated to be the network component for the second exascale in Europe, he said.
Bull eXascale Interconnect (BXI)
“We announced [two weeks ago] the biggest AI factory in Europe called LUMI-AI that will also embed BXI technology for networking,” he said. “And there are many, many other deals that will be announced in the coming weeks where we will replace Nvidia Mellanox by BXI from Bull. So this is an example which is 20% of the value of a supercomputer. We switch from a non European to a European technology.”
Le Roux pointed out that Bull is designing and manufacturing much of its supercomputer, including the circuit boards and racks, in Europe. “So they see that we are getting more and more sovereign and supply chain independent, our European supply chain for supercomputers,” he said. “And we do that as well for the general-purpose server. And we see that [provides security], in comparison with having a dependency with the Chinese provider or a US providers with all the ups and downs that we see in the press, on the tariff, on the GPU allocation and on the on the on the crisis, like memories.”
The company is currently dependent on US chipmakers and Taiwanese fabs, as most of the world is. While there’s not much Bull can do about the dependence on TSMC fabs for chipmaking, it is looking to invest in designing and developing chips, and perhaps doing some packaging of chip components at some point in the near future.
“We can design the chip now, and that will be over time an alternative to other non-European players. So we have the capacity,” Le Roux said. “We created partnership in European chip ecosystem to reinforce our capacity to develop chips. We doubled our design and engineering capacity basically to be able to do this new networking technology.”
BullSequana XH3500
Bull has a partnership with the European chipmaker Kalray for CPUs and is working with other AI accelerators startups as well. Bull will contribute its engineering expertise in developing PCBs as well as provide some funding, “to help them to grow and integrate them into our super computer and with the hope that in [three to] five years from now, it will be a real alternative… to non-European components.”
HPC will be critical for Bull for many years to come. Increasingly, that means bringing new workloads to run on or next to HPC hardware, including AI models and quantum computers.
“What is important and interesting for us is that we see more and more hybrid computing, where HPC classical simulation, where you need a bit of booster with AI,” Le Roux said. “And we believe this is also where we will have the first application of quantum computer. Quantum HPC is really a priority.”
Clearly, French sovereignty and supercomputing are key pillars of the new Bull. The majority of the business is building supercomputers, which guides the company’s thinking. But it is also looking to branch out into adjoining sectors with its general purpose and cloud and AI businesses.
“We are very strong in HPC. We are starting on the AI and cloud, but we believe there is a big potential,” the Bull CEO said. “There is also a big appetite in Europe, in India, in Brazil, to some extent in Canada now to have also sovereign and an alternative technology for AI that we can provide them.”
HPC is a critical resource for many French organizations, such as CEA, the nation’s atomic energy commission, which will buy supercomputers from Bull for many years. Other institutions in France and Europe will also look to Bull as a sovereign supplier of HPC, which Le Roux says will improve its standing and help to grow the business.
“When we were in the Atos Group, it was a big part of a small part of Atos,” he said. “But now it’s at the heart of our commitment. It’s also why we are now, again, an independent company.”
New species of wild feline was discovered in Bolivia’s Yungas forest that is smaller than the average domestic cat
A diminutive wild cat that inhabits Bolivia’s cloud forest has been identified as a previously unknown species, marking the first time a new living feline species has been formally named and described in more than a century.
The cat, called tilcayo by local communities, is part of a group called tiger cats found across much of South America. It was found in Bolivia’s lush Yungas forest, a mountainous region where forests are often covered by clouds and surrounded by high humidity, according to researchers. It measures about 18in (46cm) long and weighs about 3lb (1.4kg), making it smaller than the average domestic cat.
Ars Technica reports:
Half a year after Iranian drone strikes knocked out multiple Amazon data centers, the US tech company has acknowledged the permanent loss of some customer data that was hosted in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Amazon Web Services was "unable to restore access to the resources and data" hosted in some of the war-damaged data centers, according to an AWS dashboard update posted on September 15. The development was first reported by Reuters and suggests that the Iranian strikes inflicted catastrophic damage on the data centers.
Customer data was irretrievably lost in one of three AWS availability zones in the United Arab Emirates region, specifically the mec1-az2 availability zone.
Each availability zone is serviced by one or more Amazon data centers. The company is still working on "recovering regional resources" and restoring resources hosted in the other two availability zones in the United Arab Emirates... But the destruction was apparently even more widespread for the data centers in the Bahrain region, because Amazon said it was unable to restore access to resources and data across all three availability zones there. "The damage to our infrastructure spanned multiple Availability Zones and exceeded what our regional and multi-AZ services are designed to withstand," the AWS update said.
The company had already suspended customer billing in the affected AWS regions in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates and has spent the past six months attempting to restore normal operations... [When the war began] AWS immediately urged customers to migrate resources to other cloud regions and use remote backups to restore any "inaccessible resources." The cloud service also reportedly issued $150 million in customer credits following the initial Iranian strikes in March.
Exclusive: Sisters of Nicholas Brandram recount 44-year-old’s deteriorating mental health in days before he took his life
Days before Nicholas Brandram, the man suspected of being the “Putney pusher”, killed himself, he told his family that the police investigation was “murdering him”.
He had “no fight left” in him, he told his sisters, Alexia Hicks and Sophie Voelcker, and could not see an end to the Metropolitan police investigation, or the online abuse.
Get-in for game v LeBron James’s 76ers spiked to $1,408
MSG Sports to restart sales and refund fans who paid
The New York Knicks said on Thursday they are pausing ticket sales after a mistake caused them to be listed at prices that were too high.
The NBA champions put individual game tickets for the 2026-27 season on sale this week. The get-in price for the 20 October season opener against the Philadelphia 76ers was more than $1,000.
The US health secretary added that he would’ve made sweeping changes ‘on day one’ but he had to follow the law
As the death toll from the worst measles outbreak in decades rises, Robert F Kennedy Jr headlined the Washington DC conference of the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense, which he led for nearly two decades.
“Let me be clear. You have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House,” Kennedy, now serving as secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), told anti-vaccine activists at the conference in a nearly hour-and-a-half-long speech. He urged patience, saying that he would’ve made sweeping changes “on day one” but that he had to follow the law in order to make permanent change.
Caption: Nobody should be bored this weekend… there is a festival, events, outing, sale or musical for everyone! Enjoy Delaware!
Our “Gotta Love the Weekend” Report: More than 500 classic vehicles headline a weekend filled with college football, festivals, living history, theater, outdoor programs, and fall family activities.
WILMINGTON, Del. — From classic automobiles and college football to fireworks, German food and Revolutionary War history, Delaware and the surrounding region offer a full schedule of activities this weekend.
Hagley Car Show
More than 500 antique and restored vehicles from the early 1900s through the early 2000s will fill the grounds of Hagley Museum and Library during the annual Hagley Car Show from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20.
This year’s special feature, “American Independent Automakers,” celebrates companies that competed outside Detroit’s traditional Big Three. Three feature fields will highlight vehicles connected to those manufacturers.
The rain-or-shine show also includes a vehicle parade, motoring music, food trucks and access to “Du Ponts Down the Road,” an exhibition of vehicles once owned and used by members of the du Pont family. Featured pieces include a horse-drawn carriage, an early electric car, a 1918 Cadillac, a 1928 DuPont Motors Model G Phaeton and a World War II-era Indian motorcycle.
Advance admission is required and sold by the carload for up to eight people. Passes cost $30 for the general public and $25 for Hagley members. Dogs are not permitted. Passes will be sold until 11:59 p.m. Saturday or until the event sells out. Details are available on the Hagley Car Show website.
Blue Hens Host Coastal Carolina
The University of Delaware football team returns to Delaware Stadium at 11:30 a.m. Saturday to face Coastal Carolina in a nationally televised game on CBS Sports Network.
The Blue Hens enter the game with a 1-1 record after opening the season with a 42-7 victory over Merrimack and losing 35-26 at Vanderbilt. Saturday’s game is also Band Day at Delaware Stadium.
The game gives families and football fans an early Saturday option before visiting one of the afternoon or evening festivals. Tickets and game-day information are available from University of Delaware Athletics.
Riverwalk Freedom Festival
Downtown Milford will host the 26th annual Riverwalk Freedom Festival from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday along the Mispillion Riverwalk and throughout the downtown area.
The free event will feature more than 150 vendors, food trucks, live music, a car show, children’s games, a pet park and a brew garden. The Mispillion River Duck Dash begins at 3:30 p.m., with numbered ducks available for $5 and cash prizes of $500, $250 and $100.
The festival concludes with Milford’s only public fireworks display of the season at 8:30 p.m. Families should arrive early and bring blankets or folding chairs. Popular viewing locations include the Riverwalk and Memorial Park.
The Chadds Ford Historical Society will bring the American Revolution to life Saturday during the Battle at Chadds Ford and Historic Chadds Ford Days.
The daytime program runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and features Revolutionary War skirmishes, military encampments, artillery demonstrations, colonial trades, music, food and family activities. Visitors can watch blacksmithing, woodworking, candle making and other demonstrations showing what life was like during the Revolutionary era.
Tavern Night in the Grove follows from 6 to 10 p.m., offering period music, costumed entertainment, traditional food and beverages, cannon fire and fireworks. The event takes place at the historical society’s Barn Visitors Center, 1736 Creek Road in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.
The Delaware Sängerbund Oktoberfest brings German food, music, dancing and family entertainment to 49 Salem Church Road near Newark from Friday through Sunday.
The long-running festival recreates the atmosphere of a traditional Bavarian celebration with live bands, German beer, folk dancing and foods prepared by Sängerbund members. The menu typically includes bratwurst, potato pancakes, schnitzel, sauerkraut, potato salad and German desserts.
Amusement rides are available for children, while the large festival tent offers music and dancing throughout the weekend. Admission is $10, with children 16 and younger admitted free when accompanied by an adult. Visit the Delaware Sängerbund for hours, parking and event details.
“Fiddler on the Roof” Opens at Candlelight
The Candlelight Theatre opens “Fiddler on the Roof” on Friday at its historic dinner theater at 2208 Millers Road in Wilmington.
The Tony Award-winning musical follows Tevye, a Jewish dairyman struggling to preserve his family’s traditions amid cultural and political upheaval in early 20th-century Russia. Its familiar score includes “Tradition,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Matchmaker” and “Sunrise, Sunset.”
The production runs through Oct. 25. Candlelight tickets include a meal served before the performance, and a full-service cash bar is available. Performance times vary. Tickets and show information are available from The Candlelight Theatre.
Delaware Nature Society Native Plant Sale at Coverdale Farm
The Delaware Nature Society is offering several outdoor programs for people interested in native plants, birds, wildlife and hiking.
Saturday’s activities include the Fall Native Plant Sale at Coverdale Farm Preserve in Greenville and Hawk Watch at Ashland Nature Center in Hockessin. Other programs include farm activities, nature art, marsh exploration and monarch butterfly programs at locations around the state.
Sunday opportunities include guided bird walks, another day of Hawk Watch and a hike through Flint Woods Preserve, which is not ordinarily open to the public. Times, fees and registration requirements vary by program. The complete schedule is available through the Delaware Nature Society events calendar.
More Weekend Options
The Delaware Seafood Festival will bring crabs, oysters, shrimp, lobster, crab cakes, live music and cooking demonstrations to Schellville near Rehoboth Beach on Saturday. Ticket and scheduling information is available through Visit Delaware.
Fifer Orchards near Wyoming is also opening its fall festival season with a corn maze, outdoor play areas, seasonal food and apple picking when available. Festival information and tickets are available from Fifer Orchards.
Meals on Wheels Delaware will hold its Hats & Heels fundraiser Saturday evening at Bally’s Dover Casino Resort. The event features food, music, fashion and contests while raising money to support homebound older Delawareans. Information is available from Meals on Wheels Delaware.
To Go Box
What: Major weekend events across Delaware and the Brandywine Valley
When: Friday through Sunday, Sept. 18-20
Top attraction: Hagley Car Show, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday
Sports: Delaware vs. Coastal Carolina, 11:30 a.m. Saturday
NSF X-Labs invites proposals from teams working in AI for physical systems and announces two forthcoming topics
Sept. 17, 2026 — The U.S. National Science Foundation has announced three additional topics for NSF X-Labs as part of the $1.5 billion investment the agency initiated in May, completing the portfolio of topics for calendar year 2026. NSF’s substantial, long-term investment in NSF X-Labs over the next decade aims to tackle pressing scientific and technological challenges through novel and innovative research partnerships.
Credit: JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock
The latest NSF X-Labs funding opportunity invites proposals in the technical domain of Artificial Intelligence for Physical Systems. NSF is also previewing two additional NSF X-Labs topics for which the agency anticipates inviting proposals later this calendar year: From Sequence to Function and Computation at the Limit of Physics.
“Science is moving faster than ever, and the challenges we face increasingly require new ways of working across disciplines and sectors,” said Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF Director. “NSF X-Labs bring together researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs to pursue ambitious scientific questions with the flexibility to test new ideas, learn quickly, and adapt along the way. This is part of NSF’s broader effort to build the conditions for exceptional science to happen more often, more quickly and across a wider range of the research community, helping usher in a new era of American discovery and innovation.”
NSF X-Labs — independent teams of researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs pursuing milestone-based federal funding to solve specific scientific challenges — reflect the interdisciplinary nature of today’s modern science ecosystem.
“The NSF X-Labs initiative is investing in high-risk, high-impact research that requires substantial resources beyond traditional funding mechanisms, reducing the time it takes to go from insight to impact,” said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF Assistant Director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP). “Today’s announcement expands the pathways for a wide range of institutions and teams to identify and overcome key bottlenecks — advancing bold, innovative science and technology critical to U.S. competitiveness and economic leadership.”
NSF X-Labs: AI for Physical Systems
Decades of progress in digital AI have positioned the U.S. to redefine how intelligent systems interact with the physical world. The next frontier of AI requires developing intelligent, adaptive, and scalable systems for complex physical environments. NSF is seeking NSF X-Labs teams to develop early-stage technologies that enable breakthroughs to accelerate entirely new forms of AI integration in physical systems, including advanced sensors, robotics, embodied systems, human-robot interfaces, and cyber-physical systems. Teams applying to this topic will produce innovative platform technologies that benefit a broad range of application domains critical to U.S. competitiveness and security, which may include healthcare, national defense, emergency response, advanced manufacturing, and scientific discovery.
Future NSF X-Labs Topics
NSF is also releasing an early preview of two future NSF X-Labs topics — From Sequence to Function and Computation at the Limit of Physics — anticipated later this Fall, to help potential proposers anticipate upcoming opportunities requiring large, multidisciplinary teams to come together to accelerate bold research and development to, in turn, advance U.S. technological leadership. NSF is not accepting proposals for these topics at this time; rather, full details including proposal submission timelines and guidance will be provided in forthcoming topic announcements.
NSF X-Labs: From Sequence to Function — By reliably linking protein sequence and structure to biological function, the U.S. can unlock a new era of biological engineering in which biological components are designed rather than discovered. NSF X-Labs in this topic will close the gap between predicting protein structure and understanding the dynamic behavior of proteins by creating platform technologies that enable the intentional design of individual proteins or entire genomes whose function is predictable and/or controllable.
NSF X-Labs: Computation at the Limit of Physics — New technologies and paradigms are needed to pursue the computational efficiencies and capabilities required to drive U.S. innovation over the next half-century. NSF X-Labs in this topic will dramatically narrow the gap between the energy efficiency of conventional Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor-based computing and the inherent physical limits.
NSF issued a Request for Information seeking feedback on potential topics for future NSF X-Labs funding opportunities. Responses are due by Oct. 30, 2026.
The NSF X-Labs initiative is guided by the administration’s mandate to revitalize and strengthen America’s science and technology ecosystem by exploring innovative models for funding and sharing high-value scientific research infrastructure and results. The design choices underpinning these efforts are informed by thoughtful science policy scholarship and entrepreneurship from both established and emerging think tanks, metascience experts, congressionally chartered study commissions, and the broader scientific community.
To learn more about the AI for Physical Systems topic and how to apply, read the NSF X-Labs funding opportunity and topic announcement on the NSF X-Labs webpage. You may also plan to join an introductory webinar on Wed., Oct. 14, 2026, at 1 p.m. EDT. You must register online to join the webinar.
She forfeits points from her win in the Beijing race
The Australian athlete who caused a storm by winning a Hyrox event in China despite soiling herself during the race has apologised to the “people of China” and rival athletes in a statement online.
Posting on Instagram, Joanna Wietrzyk offered a “sincere apology” to the “people of China, my fellow competitors, the spectators and the Hyrox organizers for what happened during the race in Beijing”.
Ruling comes amid demolition threats by Donald Trump after being stymied from adding his name to centre
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to give at least 30 days’ notice before moving to demolish the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after the US president warned that it could be “ripped down”.
The US district judge Christopher Cooper issued the order on Thursday after lawyers for the Democratic congresswoman Joyce Beatty submitted evidence of Trump’s comments and sought clarification over whether the building could be closed or bulldozed.
Critics had criticized administration for nominating Schroyer, who has no formal experience working in ICE
The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), less than three months after announcing his role.
Critics had initially criticized administration officials for nominating Schroyer, who has no formal experience working in ICE, to lead Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement agenda.
Walks in southern Delaware and Wilmington will raise money for Alzheimer’s care, support and research
WILMINGTON, Del. — Delaware residents are being invited to join the fight against Alzheimer’s disease during two Walk to End Alzheimer’s events this fall.
The Alzheimer’s Association Delaware Chapter will hold its Southern Delaware walk Saturday, Sept. 26, followed by the Wilmington walk Saturday, Oct. 31.
“Alzheimer’s is a growing crisis in Delaware. As our population ages, more individuals and families are confronting this devastating disease,” said Glen Gray, chair of the Alzheimer’s Association Delaware Chapter. “Early detection and decades of research have improved outcomes for heart disease and many cancers, including breast cancer. But no one survives Alzheimer’s. That is why this walk — and the research, care and support it funds — is so important to our community.”
The annual walks bring together people living with Alzheimer’s, caregivers, families and supporters while raising money for research and the association’s care and support programs.
A central part of each event will be the Promise Garden ceremony, during which participants carry flowers representing their personal connections to Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
Each flower color has a different meaning. Participants may walk in honor of someone living with Alzheimer’s, in memory of someone who died from the disease, as a caregiver or as a supporter of the association’s goal of ending Alzheimer’s.
More than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Nearly 13 million relatives and friends provide care for people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
In Delaware, more than 22,300 people are living with Alzheimer’s, and more than 37,000 people serve as caregivers, according to the association.
The Walk to End Alzheimer’s is described by the Alzheimer’s Association as the world’s largest event dedicated to raising awareness and funding for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. Its roots date to 1989, when the organization began holding Memory Walk events across the country.
Participation is open to individuals, families, businesses and community organizations. Walkers may register individually or create or join a team.
Funds raised support the Alzheimer’s Association’s work to accelerate research, encourage early detection and risk reduction, and provide care and support services for families affected by dementia.
To Go Box
What: Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s
Southern Delaware walk: Saturday, Sept. 26
Wilmington walk: Saturday, Oct. 31
Registration: Participants may register, form a team, join an existing team or donate at alz.org/walk.
Event information: Visit the individual registration pages for the Southern Delaware or Wilmington walks for locations, schedules and fundraising updates.
Learn more: Visit alz.org or call the Alzheimer’s Association’s 24-hour helpline at 800-272-3900.
MIAMI, Florida — Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar is publicly challenging President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies, using a new campaign ad to warn that Hispanic voters who supported him in 2024 now feel “betrayed.”
“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar says in the ad, filmed outside the White House. She pointed to July detention figures and urged Trump to “be careful” about advice he receives on immigration. CBS News and Reuters independently reported the remarks Thursday.
Salazar, whose South Florida district includes a large Hispanic population, endorsed Trump in 2024 and has generally supported his presidency. However, she has long advocated an immigration approach combining stronger border enforcement with legal protections for some undocumented immigrants already living in the United States.
Her criticism comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests have increased sharply. Reuters reported that ICE took nearly 51,000 people into custody in August, setting another monthly high, while more than three-quarters of recent arrests involved people without criminal records.
Salazar is seeking another House term against Democratic nominee Eliott Rodriguez. Her ad argues that Trump can pursue immigration enforcement without granting amnesty while providing undocumented residents what she called “a dignified life.”
Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said President Donald Trump’s tariffs come at a high cost for Michiganders.
El-Sayed posted a graphic on X with an image of his Republican opponent Mike Rogers alongside an image of Trump, with text that says, “Trump’s tariffs cost each Michigan household $5,619.”
The post’s caption said, “Mike Rogers called it ‘necessary.’” (After Trump imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion in Canadian goods in August, Rogers released a statement saying tariffs “are necessary, but are not a one-size-fits-all solution.”)
The number is an accurate measure of tariffs paid by Michigan importers, not of how much each household paid.
After this story published, an El-Sayed campaign spokesperson responded to PolitiFact’s request for comment about information behind the number. The spokesperson pointed us to severalnewsoutlets that cited $5,619 as the amount paid by each Michigan household, saying El-Sayed drew from that coverage. The campaign also noted a Sept. 15 opinion column in The Wall Street Journal where Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made the same point.
But a director at the organization that originally published the data told PolitiFact the number is not a measure of what each Michigan household actually paid.
The $5,619 figure comes from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s tariff burden measure, which calculates tariffs paid on all goods imported into the state. The analysis, which used estimates prepared by Trade Partnership Worldwide, found that imports to Michigan have incurred $23 billion in tariff costs since January 2025, when Trump took office.
The report divides the $23 billion by the number of Michigan households to arrive at $5,619. But Michigan’s imports aren’t all bought by Michiganders, so you can’t attribute the total amount to Michigan households.
“For Michigan, a bunch of the cost is paid by manufacturers importing machinery or auto parts. … It is not the amount paid by each household,” Bryan Riley, director of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s Free Trade initiative, said.
The reason the number can’t be divided cleanly as a cost paid by each Michigan household is because goods imported into one state aren’t sold only in that state. They’re part of national supply chains. And Michigan is an outlier because of its outsized share of the country’s car manufacturing, said Jason Miller, a Michigan State University supply chain management professor.
Michigan is the “state of destination” for $10.5 billion of vehicles imported from Canada and $21.5 billion of vehicles imported from Mexico, according to U.S. Census data that Miller analyzed. But it’s not where all these cars are sold; Michigan is a distribution point for car imports. The cars are ultimately shipped all over the country.
“Clearly, we don’t have all the cars from Mexico being consumed in Michigan versus Ohio,” Miller said. “We also can’t assign tariffs to goods in the state of destination data.”
Another reason those costs aren’t all paid by Michiganders is because importers absorb some of the costs in the form of lower profit margins, Miller said.
“The cost is primarily borne by Americans but we do not attempt to allocate the overall total between final consumers, businesses, or importers,” Riley said.
Nationally, the extra taxes paid because of Trump’s tariffs from March 2025 to July 2026 break down to about $851 per person, Miller said. Other estimates have placed the tax burden at around $1,000 per U.S. household. That’s before accounting for $166 billion in refunds after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s initial tariffs. Riley said the refunds are not accounted for in the National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s data.
Because imports are generally shipped across the country, it’s difficult to estimate how the tariff burden breaks down by state, Miller said. Still, states with higher imports likely are disproportionately affected by tariff costs. A New York Fed study found that states where imports make up a higher share of consumer spending are more affected than states that spend less on imported goods.
The study found that imported goods make up 4.1% of Michigan consumers’ spending, which means it ranked 22nd out of the 31 states analyzed in terms of its exposure to tariff increases. That’s above Colorado and Nebraska, but below states such as California, New Jersey and Texas.
Our ruling
El-Sayed said Trump’s tariffs “cost each Michigan household $5,619.”
Tariffs are increasing consumer costs. Before the Supreme Court rolled back some of the tariffs, studies show tariffs had increased taxes by about $1,000 per household nationally; states with high imports may be more affected.
But the number El-Sayed cites represents all tariffs paid by Michigan importers. Because of Michigan’s auto industry, its importers have a high tariff burden. Those products are sold across the country, so Michiganders don’t bear all that cost.
The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.
UPDATE, Sept. 17, 2026: This story was updated to include a response received after publication from El-Sayed’s campaign.
Free Sept. 26 festival at Hudson Fields will feature live music, children’s activities and more than 30 recovery organizations and vendors
MILTON, Del. — People in recovery, their families and community supporters will gather at Hudson Fields on Saturday, Sept. 26, for atTAcK addiction’s third annual Sober Fest.
The free festival, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., is designed to celebrate recovery while connecting Sussex County residents with treatment information, support services and others who understand the challenges posed by substance use disorders.
“The festival is not only a place where people can come together in an alcohol- and drug-free environment, but it is meant to foster community connection and care, so that people don’t feel isolated in their recovery,” said Dawn Hess-Fischer, president of atTAcK addiction and chair of Sober Fest.
The event will include more than 30 organizations and vendors offering resources for people in recovery and their families. Activities will include food, arts and crafts, bounce houses, free reiki services, an ice cream truck and appearances by characters from “Bluey” and “Super Mario Bros.”
The Oxford Houses of Delaware will sponsor a cornhole tournament.
Nick Kashmanian will perform from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by Girls Room from 1 to 3 p.m.
“We created Sober Fest as a way for the Sussex County community to unite, celebrate recovery, learn about local resources and see that there is hope in recovery,” Hess-Fischer said.
Building support beyond treatment
Organizers say treatment programs, counselors and recovery groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Nar-Anon provide important help, but people affected by addiction also need supportive relationships within their communities.
Sober Fest seeks to create those connections in an informal, family-friendly setting while making conversations about substance use and recovery easier.
“Our goal is to continue celebrating recovery while educating the public about this disease,” Hess-Fischer said. “At atTAcK addiction, we work every day to erase the stigma surrounding addiction, including here in Sussex County.”
According to figures provided by atTAcK addiction, Delaware recorded 314 overdose deaths in 2025, a 41% decline from the state’s 2022 peak. Organizers said the decrease represents meaningful progress but does not diminish the continuing demand for treatment, recovery services and housing assistance.
atTAcK addiction, founded in 2013, is a statewide nonprofit that raises awareness about addiction, assists individuals and families and supports people in recovery.
The organization owns three recovery residences, provides recovery housing scholarships, offers free naloxone training and educational programs, advocates for legislation and conducts community outreach. It also operates a resource center at 210 Peoples Plaza in Newark.
Activities: Live music, food, children’s activities, arts and crafts, reiki services, a cornhole tournament and recovery resources from more than 30 organizations and vendors
Need help: Call atTAcK addiction at 302-365-5221 or Delaware’s Hope Line at 833-9-HOPEDE (833-946-7333). Free, 24-hour support and state-vetted treatment resources are also available at HelpIsHereDE.com.
Chatham House welcomes 2026 internsNews releasejon.wallace
Our internships offers an invaluable learning experience through a six-month placement.
Chatham House is excited to welcome the 2026-2027 cohort to the Molchanov Sustainability Internship Programme.
Introduced in January 2021, the programme has been made possible following the gift of Pavel Molchanov, to support the next generation of leaders in sustainability.
The internships grant practical learning opportunities at a world-famous think-tank, helping a new generation of policymakers understand how to shape policy, influence debate and create meaningful change towards a sustainable future.
This autumn, Chatham House staff in seven departments are delighted to welcome interns to their teams:
Arumina Hull, Environment and Society Centre
Claire Ellis, Events team
Daria Svitlyk, Europe, Russia and Eurasia Programmes
Leila Hopkins Ait Bamai, UK in the World & US and North America Programmes
Nour Al-Amoudi, Middle East and North Africa Programme
Oluwadara Osinowo, Africa Programme
Shehab Khashoggi, Middle East and North Africa Programme
María Elvira Salazar says some enforcement has ‘gone too far’ as GOP seeks distance from Trump before midterms
A Republican congresswoman has released a campaign ad criticizing Donald Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement, in the latest sign that a key plank of the president’s 2024 re-election campaign has become a liability for his congressional allies ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“Mr President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Florida’s María Elvira Salazar says in a 30-second ad. “In July, 50% of the 50,000 people that were detained had no criminal record. Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policy.”
Hegseth’s Theology and the Question: What Would Jesus Do?
There is a question Christians have been asking for generations: What would Jesus do?
It is a deceptively simple question that is printed on bracelets and bumper stickers, taught to children in Sunday schools, and invoked when Christians are discerning how faith should shape public life. The question becomes considerably more demanding when the decisions at stake concern war, immigration, poverty, political power, and the use of military force.
In addition to the recent attention about his military strategy, social and political beliefs, and leadership style, Pete Hegseth’s public theology deserves serious attention from those unfamiliar and disinterested in religion as well as adherents of Christianity.
As secretary of defense, Hegseth has increasingly spoken about American power in explicitly Christian language. He has hosted Christian worship at the Pentagon, invoked Scripture in connection with military service, emphasized the Christian foundations of the United States, and described some Trump administration policies — including border enforcement — as “biblical.” Indeed, speaking at a Christian media convention last February, Hegseth connected the health and founding of the United States with Christianity and characterized border and immigration policies as mandated in the Bible.
The question about Hegseth’s faith and religious practice, however, cannot simply be whether he is sincere. The question is more fundamental: What kind of Christianity is being proclaimed when the language of Jesus is attached to military power? Or perhaps a simpler but harder question: In the face of war, authoritarianism, economic, environmental, and political crises: What would Jesus do?
A Christianity of Power
The Christian faith has always contained competing visions of what it means to follow Jesus. There is a Christianity that blesses kings, armies, empires, and national ambitions. There is another Christianity that remembers a Palestinian Jewish leader who was unhoused and a migrant and was executed by an imperial power after heralding the arrival of a radically different kingdom. This distinction matters a great deal.
Hegseth routinely emphasizes strength, warriors, national identity, borders, enemies, and divine blessing. And joining forces with Israel to prosecute the war with Iran has only heightened the stakes of his rhetoric. Early in the conflict, Hegseth cited Psalm 144, including its language about God training hands for war and fingers for battle.
There is nothing inherently un-Christian about a person in the military having a sincere religious faith. People of faith serve in the armed forces for many reasons. Generations of religious scholars and adherents have considered war and conflict as it relates to the faith through theories and practices of religious pacifism, “just war,” defensive war, theologies of self-defense, conceptions of the last days, and the ethical limits of violence in humanitarian conflicts, among others. The theological problem arises, however, when the power of the state begins to present itself as an instrument of God’s purposes.
That is a very old temptation.
Empires have long claimed divine sanction. Kings have declared their wars holy. Nations have wrapped their ambitions in sacred language. And Christians have at times sought to confuse the interests of the nation with the kingdom of God. But Jesus does something profoundly disruptive to this arrangement: He refuses to identify God with Caesar.
The People at the Margins
Consider where Jesus directs our attention. Throughout the Bible, Jesus embraces people whom those with power, military might, and wealth have pushed aside: the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, immigrants, women, children, tax collectors, and those treated as religious outsiders.
In Matthew 25, one of the most famous Bible passages — sometimes called the “Last Judgment” — Jesus identifies with the hungry, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned. “Whatever you did for one of the least of these,” he teaches, “you did for me.”
That is not an incidental teaching. It is a political and theological reorientation. And it is directed at nations, not simply individuals or religious congregations.
Jesus asks: How has your nation treated the most vulnerable among you?
The question Jesus asks his followers is not first, “How strong is your nation?” It is not, “How effectively have you defeated your enemies?” It is not even, “How faithfully have you defended your borders?” Instead, he asks: How has your nation treated the most vulnerable among you? This matters enormously when Christian language is used to justify violent and exclusionary immigration policy or when it is used to promote cutting off families from food or lifesaving healthcare.
If we claim that border enforcement is “biblical,” then Christians must practice the Bible’s extraordinary insistence on welcoming the other. After all, Scripture commands God’s people to remember that they, too, were once strangers in a foreign land, and the way to honor and worship God is by welcoming the immigrant neighbor. If Matthew 25 means what Christians have traditionally claimed, Christ is encountered precisely among the hungry, the unhoused, the incarcerated — and that as long as anyone is unfree and impoverished, it is the responsibility of the nation to do something about it.
Theology of the Enemy
There is another problem with a Christianity centered on military strength: its understanding of the enemy. Christianity does not teach that some people become less human because they are someone’s adversaries. It does not profess that God blesses battleships nor justifies genocide (even if Hegseth’s spiritual adviser claims it does).
Jesus does not say, “Love your friends and destroy your enemies.”
Jesus’s command to love one’s enemies may be among the most difficult teachings in the entire New Testament. It is also one of the clearest.
Jesus does not say, “Love your friends and destroy your enemies.” He says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Jesus does not say, “Blessed are the powerful because they shall dominate.” He says, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the descendants of God,” and “Blessed are the poor for they shall be first under God’s reign.”
That does not mean that people of faith must be naïve about violence. It does not mean governments face no genuine security threats. It does not erase the moral complexity of protecting human beings from violence. But it does mean that people who call themselves Christians should be extraordinarily cautious whenever military violence is described as holy, righteous, inevitable, or divinely ordained.
Christian tradition contains a long history of wrestling with war. It also contains an even deeper tradition of martyrs, peacemakers, conscientious objectors, abolitionists, human rights activists, and nonviolent movements that have insisted that human beings cannot be reduced to enemies.
On “Christ Is King”
One phrase that increasingly appears in Hegseth’s public religious rhetoric is “Christ is King.” On the surface, this is an ancient Christian confession. But Christians should be careful about what happens when it is fused with nationalism. If Christ is King, then Caesar is not. If Christ is King, then the nation cannot be God. If Christ is King, then military might cannot be the ultimate measure of righteousness. And if Christ is King, then Christians must remember what kind of king Jesus was.
“You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take,” by Liz Theoharis and Noam Sandweiss-BackAvailable on Bookshop.org.
Jesus did not arrive in Jerusalem on a tank. He did not establish his kingdom through an air campaign. He did not recruit an army to seize the Roman state. Jesus entered the city on a donkey. He washed his disciples’ feet. He touched people considered untouchable. He fed hungry crowds. He stood with the condemned. And when his disciples reached for weapons, Jesus told them to put them away. This is not weakness; it is a different conception of power and a different idea of violence, military and force. And it stands worlds away from the Hegseth’s professed belief in a conquering Christ.
Christian nationalism raises the question of who counts as part of the nation — and, implicitly, who counts as part of the Christian community. Hegseth’s religious politics have attracted scrutiny because of his association with a conservative Reformed Christian milieu and his willingness to amplify figures and institutions associated with Christian nationalist ideas. That should concern Christians not because Christianity should be banished from public life, but because Christianity is too important to be reduced to a tribal identity. There is no nationalism in the Sermon on the Mount; there is no exceptionalism in the Last Judgment.
Christianity offers an alternative to nationalism that does not require Christians to abandon love of country, but it begins by refusing to worship their nation.
Jesus did not teach his followers to build communities divided by race, citizenship status, wealth, or political loyalty. The early Christian proclamation was astonishing precisely because it created a community in which Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female could belong together.
Christianity becomes spiritually dangerous when it is transformed from a call to discipleship into a badge of national membership, and a cross becomes something very different when it is used to sanctify exclusion, violence, and war, especially against the poor and marginalized.
So, What Would Jesus Do?
Let’s stop treating “What would Jesus do?” as a sentimental slogan. Instead, ask the question concretely.
What would Jesus do when a family fleeing poverty and violence arrives at the border?
What would Jesus do when a child is separated from a parent?
What would Jesus do when a nation considers going to war?
What would Jesus do when military personnel are asked to kill (and the nation suggests canceling student debt to those who sign up to do that killing)?
What would Jesus do when poor communities are abandoned while enormous resources flow into weapons?
What would Jesus do when a government claims God has blessed its political program?
And what would Jesus do when Christians begin to believe that their nation has a special claim on God?
The Gospels give us clues. Jesus runs toward suffering rather than away from it. Jesus challenges religious authorities who use God to legitimize their own power. Jesus feeds people rather than lecturing them. Jesus welcomes the stranger. Jesus stands with those society declares expendable. And Jesus tells his followers that greatness consists not in domination but in liberation. That is a radically different theology of power.
Another Christian Patriotism
Christianity offers an alternative to nationalism that does not require Christians to abandon love of country, but it begins by refusing to worship their nation. It means loving one’s neighbors, including neighbors who have crossed a border. It means seeking peace rather than glorifying war. It means protecting human life rather than measuring success by military superiority. It means asking whether public resources are being used to ensure that every person has food, housing, healthcare, education, dignity, and a meaningful opportunity to flourish.
And it means remembering that the Bible’s central story is not the triumph of one nation over all others. It is the liberation of an oppressed people. It is the insistence that Pharaoh does not have the final word. That is why the question “What would Jesus do?” cannot be separated from the question raised by Florence Reece’s popular song written in 1931 in Harlan County, Kentucky, during the union organizing drive of the United Mine Workers: “Which side are you on?”
Christian faith does not ask us to look down from the Pentagon, the White House, or any other seat of power and decide which people deserve compassion. Instead, Jesus teaches us to love God, love your neighbor, love even your enemy — and recognize Christ in the people that those in power tell you to hate and fear.
When Christian nationalism asks its followers to choose between faith and the stranger, between military might and peacemaking, between national supremacy and human solidarity, Christians — including the Christians in the highest reaches of power — should ask a different question. Not “How can we make America powerful enough to win?” But: What would Jesus do?
The answer begins where the Gospel always has: feeding the hungry, welcoming the immigrant, freeing the oppressed, and telling the people at the bottom that God has not forgotten them. That is not a weak Christianity. It is Christianity’s most dangerous claim about power: The last shall be first. The mighty shall be brought down. And the kingdom of God belongs not to those who dominate, but to those who serve.
Imbalances are a feature of the global financial system, not a bug Expert commentjon.wallace
The current focus on ‘global imbalances’ is too easily used by policymakers as a smokescreen for their own domestic failings.
Global imbalances are back on the international finance agenda this year, prompting a flagship G7 report and creating discord at the G20 finance minsters’ summit.
Seemingly this focus on global imbalances is justified. China’s trade in goods surplus now alarms Europe’s leaders as much as it worries America’s. The US’s net liability to the world – the degree to which its overseas borrowing exceeds its overseas investments – reached an astonishing 70 per cent of US GDP in 2025. The last time global imbalances were this prominent was just ahead of 2008’s Global Financial Crisis.
What a shame, then, that this focus is so misguided. Imbalances are a feature of the global financial system, not a bug. They arise from saving and investment decisions, allowing diversification and dispersing risk in the process. In truth, ‘global imbalances’ are not primarily a global phenomenon. They are simply the product of all the world’s domestic imbalances added up.
And because foreign investment is more mobile than domestic investment, it is more likely to punish bad domestic policymaking by moving elsewhere. The result is to impose discipline – constraints – on political choices.
There is a generous interpretation of the motives for the current focus on global imbalances. It is possible that simultaneous domestic reforms across the global economy would make fixing economic issues at home easier for everyone.
But the tone and outcomes at the G20 minsters’ summit invite a less generous conclusion; that some governments are attempting to dress up their domestic policy failings as the result of foreign actions.
A problem shared
For all the hand-wringing that global imbalances generate, you could be forgiven for forgetting that they reflect the global economy operating as it should.
International risk-sharing is a primary benefit of economic openness. Take the US as an illustration. Its net liability of 70 per cent of GDP certainly looks eye-popping and far outstrips the biggest surpluses elsewhere. But look closer at what’s going on.
First, the US issues the world’s reserve asset, US Treasuries. These are the global saving instrument of choice because they are safe, underpinned by a huge economy and the rule of law, and highly liquid – making them easy to buy and sell.
Second, the US economy has outperformed the rest of the world in recent years, driven by its tech boom. Put simply, investment opportunities in the US outstrip US saving.
Far from being a nefarious ‘transfer of wealth’ out of the US, this is exactly how the global financial system is supposed to work. The US economy has generated huge investment opportunities.
The world has open capital accounts to diversify risk: non-Americans can diversify away from risky or sluggish domestic assets to high-performing American ones. Americans don’t have to bear all the risk, because the rest of the world is putting money in too. This is textbook, win-win international risk-sharing.
And it illustrates a deeper point. Global imbalances don’t arise because of global phenomena. Rather, they arise because of domestic choices about saving and investment. Global imbalances are just the sum of these domestic imbalances.
No free lunches
Sharing risk and eliminating risk are not the same thing. Openness brings its own challenges, most obviously that overseas investors are ‘flightier’ – that is, more likely to swiftly withdraw investment – than domestic investors. They don’t have a ‘home bias’, are not engaged in domestic political choices, and may worry that, as foreign nationals, legal protections for their investments are less robust.
Do these flighty investors and global imbalances presage a rerun of the Global Financial Crisis? No. That crisis was caused by lax financial standards in Europe and the US, not the fabled ‘Global Savings Glut’.
Even today’s huge US net liability looks robust. US liabilities are in dollars. Its assets are in foreign currency. So, if investors rebalance away from the US, the dollar depreciates. That raises the (dollar) value of US external assets, stabilizing the overall external position. That’s risk-sharing in action.
Instead, putting together foreign investors and domestic imbalances should have a disciplining effect. In response to bad policymaking, foreign investors can start to take their money elsewhere, lessening the likelihood of policymakers making bad domestic choices.
Europeans aren’t creating investment opportunities. Their savings are therefore flowing to where returns are more attractive – especially US AI investment.
Fundamentally, ‘global imbalances’ are most interesting for what they tell us about domestic decision-making. And today’s imbalances are flagging genuinely questionable choices by national governments.
The US government, for instance, spends too much borrowed money. At nearly 125 per cent of GDP, the US government’s gross debt is greater than the US’s entire external liabilities (or what it collectively owes the world). US Treasury yields have been rising, prompting exotic policy responses and putting pressure on the unsustainable US fiscal position.
Europeans, meanwhile, aren’t creating investment opportunities. Their savings are therefore flowing to where returns are more attractive – especially US AI investment. That lack of investment has allowed competitiveness to erode, leaving Europe falling further behind the US and vulnerable to Chinese competition.
At the same time, China spends too little. It funnels its savings into excessive investment, inflating asset bubbles and depressing consumption. After its housing bubble collapsed, exports surged but demand – including for imports – has remained feeble, alienating other major economies.
In each case the appropriate domestic policy prescription is obvious – but the political will is lacking.
Stones and glasshouses
The great hope, eloquently made by Hélène Rey, is that, by linking these individual challenges, a broad common interest might emerge and lead to positive simultaneous action, either through persuasion or peer pressure. Any fiscal consolidation enacted by the US, for instance, could be offset by rising investment in Europe and consumption in China. That would make the economics of adjustment easier. And, with everyone acting together, it could make the politics of adjustment easier too.
Unfortunately, a less positive motive for the recent focus on imbalances is also possible. To the untrained ear ‘global’ imbalances sound like a global problem. And blaming overseas developments for domestic problems is a seductive narrative in political discourse. Indeed, it can already clearly be observed through easily falsified claims that imports steal jobs, or that a reserve currency issuer must run deficits. And it can be seen in poorly targeted policies like tariffs, which do nothing to address the underlying issues.
And recent international meetings confirm that global policymakers are failing to take ambitious, simultaneous action. For instance, rather than leading by example, the G7 failed to agree either fiscal consolidation in the US or accelerated structural reform in Europe. Instead, they punted the issue to August’s G20 finance ministers’ summit, which then failed to agree on a communiqué. The language that emerged in the ‘chair’s statement’ was noticeably tougher on surplus countries than on deficit countries. And the US was not shy about blaming China for the failure to reach agreement.
Global imbalances are not in themselves an imminent risk. Rather, they are a credible early warning signal of domestic problems. By placing so much emphasis on the global dimension and failing to follow through with credible action, policymakers risk undermining the case for difficult domestic reform, rather than advancing it. As the unfashionable Washington Consensus used to have it, the key to prosperity is putting your own house in order, not casting stones at your neighbours.
As the midterms approach, ads supporting Democrats and Republicans are making competing claims about how President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy law will impact rural healthcare.
Ads backing Republican candidates have highlighted their support for a $50 billion rural healthcare fund in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — while ignoring its much larger cuts to Medicaid, which are expected to reduce funding for rural healthcare overall. Other ads similarly leave out the Medicaid cuts in misleadingly claiming that Democrats voted against funding for rural hospitals.
Democratic groups, meanwhile, have hammered Republicans over the possibility that those cuts could force some rural hospitals to close, often citing specific numbers of facilities that the law endangers. While the law is likely to have a significant financial impact on rural hospitals, experts told us it’s impossible to predict how many might close as a result.
The 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act made a series of changes to Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people, including new work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks for certain working-age adults starting next year.
The law is expected to cut federal Medicaid spending by around $900 billion over a decade and increase the number of people without insurance by 10 million, including 7.5 million from Medicaid, according to projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The $50 billion for rural health, known as the Rural Health Transformation Program, was a late addition meant to shore up support from wavering Republican lawmakers, who worried the bill’s reductions in Medicaid funding would be especially hard on healthcare providers in rural areas.
Here’s a closer look at some of the claims that ads from both sides are making about the law’s impacts on rural healthcare.
GOP Ads Leave Out Medicaid Cuts
In several key House or Senate races, groups backing GOP candidates have run ads highlighting the rural healthcare fund.
In Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, an ad from the American Action Network says Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks “secured millions for our rural hospitals.” The same group’s ad in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District urges voters to thank Republican Rep. Gabe Evans for “voting to pass the biggest investment ever in rural healthcare.” The American Action Network is a sister nonprofit group of the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is endorsed by the House Republican leadership.
In Alaska, an ad from the group Last Frontier Action backing Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who is locked in a tight race for reelection, similarly celebrates the fund as “the biggest investment in rural healthcare in American history.”
And in Ohio, an ad from the group Choose Freedom Inc. tells viewers that Republican Sen. Jon Husted “supported a $200 million investment in rural hospitals, so families don’t have to go the extra mile to get the care they need.” That refers to how much Ohio received in the fund’s first round of awards last year.
What none of those ads mentions is that the same law’s cuts to Medicaid are expected to far outweigh whatever money rural hospitals get from the new fund.
The health policy research organization KFF estimated last year that the OBBBA would reduce federal Medicaid funding for rural areas by $137 billion over 10 years. The hit to rural hospitals alone — not counting standalone clinics, health centers and other providers that deliver care in those areas — could come to $57 billion, according to an analysis by the consulting firm Manatt that was commissioned by the National Rural Health Association, a group whose members include hospitals, health centers and other rural providers.
Leonardo Cuello, a Medicaid expert and research professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, told us those cuts could squeeze hospitals in a few different ways.
As people lose coverage, hospitals will likely have to absorb more losses from treating uninsured patients who can’t afford to pay. The law also limits certain financing mechanisms that states use to fund their Medicaid programs and steer more funding to hospitals. Those limits could result in hospitals getting paid less for treating Medicaid patients, KFF hasexplained.
“This is a huge negative impact on rural areas that far exceeds any benefits coming from the rural health fund — which does have benefits,” Cuello said.
The way the Rural Health Transformation Program is designed also means that it’s not a direct replacement for lost Medicaid revenue.
A freestanding emergency room in Tennessee. Photo by RHF101 / stock.adobe.com
The fund allocates $50 billion over five years for one-time investments in rural healthcare, in accordance with certain priorities — preventing chronic disease, strengthening the rural health workforce, deploying technologies like AI and remote patient monitoring, and developing new models for how to pay for and deliver care in rural areas.
States apply for the funds; half the money is distributed evenly across states with approved applications and the other half based on factors like a state’s rural population and proportion of rural health facilities. The first awards were announced late last year and ranged from $147 million in New Jersey to $281 million in Texas.
For the most part, the money can’t be used to pay for existing services or make up for losses on uncompensated care. The health news site STAT recently reported that some hospital leaders worry about starting new programs they won’t have the money to sustain.
Cuello said the Rural Health Transformation Program could fund some valuable improvements in rural healthcare infrastructure, but it won’t replace the ongoing loss of revenue that hospitals rely on. He added that the rural health funds end after five years, while the Medicaid cuts — most of which take effect in 2027 or 2028 — continue indefinitely.
“From the point of view of a hospital, yes, you might be helping with some upgrades to some equipment they use, or they may end up with a better health record system,” he said. “You’re not changing the fact that you just cut a lot of their funding.”
We asked Choose Freedom Inc. about the Ohio ad’s failure to mention the Medicaid cuts’ impact on rural healthcare funding. “Husted voted for a massive investment in rural healthcare in Ohio,” an unnamed spokesperson for the group responded. “The only thing the ad left out was how former lawmakers, led by [former senator and current Democratic candidate] Sherrod Brown, turned their backs on these communities.”
We reached out to the American Action Network and a lawyer who is listed as the treasurer for Last Frontier PAC, and did not receive a response.
Misleading Claims That Democrats Voted to ‘Gut’ Rural Hospitals
In attacking Democrats for voting against the law that created the rural health fund, ads from GOP groups have also left out the impact of Medicaid cuts.
In the Georgia Senate race, for instance, Republican Rep. Mike Collins’ campaign is running an ad claiming his opponent, incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, “talks healthcare, but voted to gut rural hospitals.”
A similar attack appears in a recent ad targeting Rep. Chris Pappas, the Democrat running against former Sen. John E. Sununu for Senate in New Hampshire. “Pappas even voted against vital funding for rural and vulnerable hospitals,” intones the ad from No Going Back PAC, a super PAC with links to Trump’s political operation.
But again, whatever money will flow to those hospitals from the OBBBA’s rural health fund won’t be enough to make up for the loss of Medicaid funding in rural areas. Both Ossoff and Pappas have cited the impact of Medicaid cuts on healthcare providers as one of the reasons they opposed the law.
“This bill will push hospitals and nursing homes to the financial brink,” Ossoff said in a video last year explaining his vote.
The Ossoff campaign also pointed us to a statement from the American Hospital Association opposing the bill that said it would do “irreparable harm to our health care system,” as well as local newsstories about a Georgia hospital that closed its labor and delivery unit last year and cited the bill’s impending Medicaid cuts as one of the reasons for doing so. We reached out to the Collins campaign but did not receive a response.
Similarly, Pappas’ campaign directed us to a July 2025 news release from his office saying the legislation “made devastating cuts to Medicaid funding that is critical for New Hampshire hospitals and their ability to provide care to patients,” as well as a statement he provided to local news station WMUR in December calling the Rural Health Transformation Program funding “a drop in the bucket compared to losses our rural clinics, hospitals and communities will face.”
No Going Back PAC’s website does not provide a way to get in touch with it, and its FEC paperwork lists a generic email for a third-party compliance company. We reached out to Trump’s main super PAC, MAGA Inc., which according to the New York Times is funding No Going Back. We have not received a response.
Democratic Ads Cite Inexact Figures on Hospital Closures
Democratic-aligned groups, meanwhile, have run ads in several key races claiming that specific numbers of rural hospitals in certain states could close due to the OBBBA’s cuts.
As we explained above, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is likely to impact the finances of many rural hospitals, and there have beenanecdotalreports of some healthcare providers citing the anticipated loss of revenue from the law as a factor in deciding to cut services or close locations. But as we’ve written before, experts say it’s impossible to put a precise number on how many might close as a result.
An ad from the VoteVets Action Fund, which describes itself as a Democratic veterans’ group, says GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running for Senate in Iowa, voted “to push 20 rural hospitals to the brink of closing.”
Similarly, an ad that ran last month from another Democratic group, House Majority Forward, said Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents a closely divided district in the Philadelphia suburbs, “voted to cut Medicaid for struggling families, threatening closure for 25 hospitals.”
Someresearchers and advocacy groups have produced estimates of how many hospitals could be at risk under the bill, based on pre-existing financial challenges and how much they rely on revenue from Medicaid. But those are broad assessments of risk factors, not predictions, and different methodologies have come up with different numbers.
VoteVets told us the Iowa number comes from a July 4, 2025, op-ed in the Iowa Capital Dispatch, which said at least 20 rural hospitals in the state were already “seriously threatened with closing.” The article doesn’t cite a source, but it’s likely from a June 2025 report on at-risk rural hospitals put out by the nonprofit Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform.
CHQPR defines hospitals as at risk if they lose money on patient services and have low cash reserves. The June 2025 numbers, which predate the OBBBA’s passage, include 20 such hospitals in Iowa. CHQPR’s most recent data, from July, list eight. (The ad began airing July 29, according to ad-tracking service AdImpact.) Neither report aims to assess the impact of the OBBBA; the data are based on hospitals’ past financial performance.
House Majority Forward didn’t respond to a request for comment on the Pennsylvania ad. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, did say at a press conference last year that 25 rural hospitals in the state “are likely to shutter in the next few years” because of the Republican law. His office told us at the time that figure was based on hospitals that had negative operating margins in fiscal year 2023.
Other estimates have come up with smaller numbers, including a January 2026 report commissioned by the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania that found as many as 12 to 14 hospitals in the state could close in the next five years without intervention, citing both the federal cuts to Medicaid and ongoing underfunding from the state.
More broadly, experts told us various factors make it hard to predict how many hospitals will close or scale back care as a direct result of this law, including that its effects will be hard to disentangle from the multiple other challenges rural hospitals face.
“It will be hard to say that any hospital closures or other providers going out of business … is directly related to these Medicaid changes,” Jennifer Tolbert, deputy director of the Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured at KFF, told us when we wrote about similar claims last year.
However, she said, the reductions in Medicaid funding will clearly have financial implications for providers, including a rise in uncompensated care as people lose insurance and possible cuts to reimbursement rates as states respond to new restrictions on financing mechanisms.
Cuello similarly said the precise impacts are hard to pin down, in part because the cuts have largely not taken effect yet. Economic conditions, how the law is implemented and how hospitals themselves respond will also matter.
But given that many rural hospitals are already on shaky financial ground — nearly 200 have closed or stopped offering inpatient care since 2005, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina — Cuello does expect to see an impact due to the OBBBA, also known as H.R. 1.
“The current snapshot is concerning, and the concern is going to increase,” he said. “I don’t know that anybody has quantified or tried to guess exactly how many more hospitals are going to close because of H.R. 1. But if you take the current rate of hospital closure, which is already significant, we do expect that to increase based on H.R. 1.”
“No one can predict with any certainty whether any individual rural hospital will close or whether a change in Medicaid revenues will cause them to close,” Harold Miller, the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform’s CEO, told us in an email. “Most hospitals that are at risk of closing work very hard NOT to close. Most of them are able to avoid closure, but a few are not.”
Miller said the specific impacts will depend on a host of variables, including how many people lose Medicaid in a particular community, what states do in response to the cuts and whether some hospitals can negotiate higher rates from private insurers or tap into other sources of revenue, such as state or local tax revenue.
Miller said large rural hospitals tend to be in better shape financially, because they make enough money on privately insured patients to make up for losses on Medicare and Medicaid patients. It’s small rural hospitals that are generally most at risk, because they typically lose money treating both publicly and privately insured patients. The share of patients with Medicaid also varies from hospital to hospital.
“The issue for small rural hospitals that are currently losing money is that even if the loss of Medicaid revenues is small, a small loss makes their situation even worse than it already is,” Miller told us. “On the other hand, large rural hospitals that are not currently losing money will potentially be able to sustain the loss of Medicaid revenues.
“Conversely, because there are many small rural hospitals that are losing money now, even before the OBBBA changes are implemented, they would still be at risk of closing even if OBBBA was repealed or changed significantly,” he said.
None of this is to say that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act won’t impact rural hospitals. But it’s unclear at this point exactly how many will be pushed, as the Iowa ad puts it, “to the brink.”
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SACRAMENTO, California — California lawmakers have sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill that would establish 18 as the minimum age for marriage, ending the state’s current system that allows minors to wed with parental consent and court approval.
Assembly Bill 1267, authored by Democratic Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, passed the Legislature with near-unanimous support and was presented to Newsom on Sept. 3. He has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto it. California is one of three states, along with New Mexico and Mississippi, that currently has no statutory minimum marriage age.
The ACLU opposes the measure, arguing that an absolute ban could limit minors’ autonomy, including decisions tied to emancipation and reproductive health. Planned Parenthood, which opposed earlier efforts to restrict child marriage, remained neutral this year.
Supporters say the existing law leaves minors vulnerable to coercion and abuse. Survivor advocacy group Unchained at Last says most child marriages involve girls marrying adult men. Pellerin said lawmakers should recognize that minors “are children” even when they may appear mature.
Previous California efforts to impose a minimum marriage age failed amid objections from civil-liberties and reproductive-rights groups. If Newsom signs AB 1267, the new minimum age would take effect Jan. 1, 2027.
Financing accelerates development of ultra-efficient infrastructure for foundation AI models
EINDHOVEN, Netherlands, Sept. 17, 2026 — EUCLYD has signed a Series A financing round of more than €200 million, the company announced today. The round is co-led by Samsung, Somerset Capital Partners, Scaleup Europe Fund, which is managed by EQT, and Innovation Industries, with participation from EIFO, the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, imec.xpand, Brabant Development Agency (BOM), and Quadri. Peter Wennink, former President & CEO of ASML, joins Euclyd as Chairman of the Board.
As foundation models grow more capable, deploying them requires more power, memory bandwidth, and capital while adding infrastructure complexity. EUCLYD is developing a platform spanning crafted compute, innovative memory architecture, and datacenter systems to break this efficiency wall and transform AI inference economics.
EUCLYD’s long-term vision is Abundant Intelligence: a future in which advanced AI is no longer constrained by infrastructure cost, power availability, or geography. Founded by Bernardo Kastrup and Atul Sinha at High Tech Campus Eindhoven, Europe’s smartest square kilometer, EUCLYD draws on the campus’s semiconductor ecosystem and Europe’s engineering heritage.
At the center of EUCLYD’s roadmap are craftwerk, the world’s first agentic AI silicon, and craftwerk station CWS, the world’s lowest-power exascale AI factory. The platform combines programmable ASIC compute, processor-memory co-design, and system-level optimization to overcome the memory and efficiency walls limiting AI performance and scalability.
“AI is becoming a foundation of economic growth, scientific discovery, and national competitiveness, but its potential will remain constrained unless we fundamentally change the infrastructure beneath it,” said Bernardo Kastrup, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EUCLYD. “This financing accelerates our mission to make intelligence abundant through greater efficiency, lower cost per token, and broader access to advanced AI.”
“The next phase of AI will be defined not only by model innovation, but also by the efficiency and scalability of its infrastructure,” said Dede Goldschmidt, Senior Vice President of Samsung Electronics and Head of the Samsung Semiconductor Innovation Center. “EUCLYD combines an accomplished team with a differentiated vision addressing constraints in AI datacenters.”
“Europe has the engineering talent to produce globally significant technology companies,” said Ted Persson, Partner at EQT and Co-Head of the Scaleup Europe Fund. “EUCLYD combines deep semiconductor expertise with a mission to tackle some of the hardest constraints in AI infrastructure. That mix of European engineering depth and global ambition is what we’re here to back.”
“Europe possesses world-class capabilities across semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, and systems engineering,” said Peter Wennink, Chairman of the Board of EUCLYD and former President and Chief Executive Officer of ASML. “EUCLYD can transform those strengths into a globally competitive AI infrastructure platform.”
The financing will expand EUCLYD’s engineering organization, accelerate its silicon and systems roadmap, strengthen ecosystem partnerships, and prepare the company for commercial deployment across enterprise, sovereign, and hyperscale AI markets.
About EUCLYD
EUCLYD is a European semiconductor systems company developing ultra-efficient infrastructure for foundation AI models. Its roadmap spans agentic AI silicon, advanced memory architecture, and datacenter systems engineered to reduce cost, energy use, and footprint. EUCLYD is headquartered in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the Quantum Genesis Q Competition, an initiative with up to $215 million in planned funding to demonstrate the world’s first fault-tolerant scientifically relevant quantum computers (SRQCs). Applicants are invited to submit proposals to deploy quantum computers with at least 100 logical qubits and capable of performing hundreds of millions fault-tolerant operations and scientific demonstration programs through a Request for Applications (RFA).
This first-of-a-kind competition aims to accelerate the development and deployment of quantum computers capable of tackling currently intractable problems in chemistry, materials, physics, and applied mathematics. This effort directly supports the goals outlined in the President’s Executive Order on Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation and builds on the recommendations made in the Blueprint for DOE Quantum Supercomputing and today’s Office of Science Advisory Committee report on a Path to an Integrated Quantum Future.
“Through the Quantum Genesis Q Competition, we are building a new era of computational power for the nation through innovative public-private partnerships,” said Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil. “This competition will enable new quantum computing capabilities and unleash new computational frontiers, driving new scientific and technological discoveries that have previously only been theorized.”
The competition is structured in two phases. Phase I will provide fixed awards for early milestones, worth up to $1.5 million per awardee. Phase II will consist of a $100 million general incentive pool to be split amongst awardees that can demonstrate a first-generation SRQC with at least 100 logical qubits, along with two bonus incentive pools, each worth $50 million, for awardees that can demonstrate 150 and 200 logical qubits.
Applications are open to private sector companies. Total planned funding is up to $215 million, with $2.5 million in Fiscal Year 2026 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations.
DOE will hold a virtual informational webinar for potential Quantum Genesis Q Competition applicants on September 25, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Final applications for the competition are due by October 19, 2026.
Deploying a first-of-a-kind, scientifically relevant quantum computing capability requires rigorous tools to characterize and validate every layer of the computing stack—from physical hardware and quantum gates to logical architectures, quantum algorithms and applications, and classical control systems.
The Quantum High-Performance Computing Validation and Verification Testbed Lab Call will draw on the expertise of DOE’s national laboratories to establish these essential capabilities for the Q Competition and to advance the goals of the Executive Order on Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation.
Applications are open to DOE National Laboratories. Total planned funding is $45 million, with $14 million in Fiscal Year 2026 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations.
The Request for Applications and Lab Call, sponsored by the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research within the Department’s Office of Science, can be found on the Funding Opportunities webpage.
Multi-year strategic agreement increases capacity for high-performance SiGe technology to support growing AI infrastructure demand
MALTA, N.Y., Sept. 17, 2026 — GlobalFoundries (GF) and Marvell Technology, Inc. today announced an expanded multi-year agreement to increase capacity for GF’s silicon germanium (SiGe) technology at its Burlington, Vermont, facility to support growing demand for next-generation optical connectivity.
Modern AI data centers operate as distributed compute systems, where performance depends not only on accelerators, but also on the high-speed interconnects that move data between them. As AI systems scale, moving data efficiently is becoming increasingly critical to overall performance. The expanded collaboration between GF and Marvell will increase capacity for high-performance SiGe technology used in next-generation pluggable optical transceivers, Near-Packaged Optics (NPO) and Co-packaged Optics (CPO).
The expanded agreement builds on existing production and is expected to add significant capacity to support Marvell’s growing requirements.
GF’s SiGe technology portfolio provides the high-frequency performance, signal integrity and power efficiency required for advanced optical networking applications. Its current technology supports 200G-per-lane optical connectivity, with a roadmap designed to address higher-speed generations as AI and cloud data center bandwidth requirements continue to grow. GF has manufactured advanced SiGe technology for over a decade and continues to co-integrate SiGe, silicon photonics and advanced packaging for new optical connectivity architectures including NPO and CPO.
“AI is fundamentally changing the way data centers are built, and connectivity is becoming increasingly critical to unlocking the performance of these systems,” said Robb Johnson, Vice President, Foundry Technology, Marvell. “As the industry moves toward higher-bandwidth optical architectures, including NPO and CPO, Marvell is investing aggressively to lead this transition. Our expanded collaboration with GF will help ensure we have the SiGe technology and manufacturing capacity to support the significant growth we see ahead.”
“SiGe is where GF’s decades of high-performance radio frequency and analog leadership translate directly into breakthrough optical performance,” said Shankaran Janardhanan, senior vice president of Photonics & RF businesses at GF. “This agreement reinforces our long-standing relationship with Marvell and reflects the critical role SiGe technology plays in enabling high-speed optical networking for AI infrastructure. We will continue investing in our technology roadmap and manufacturing capabilities both in the U.S. and around the world to support our customers’ future growth.”
The agreement builds on more than a decade of collaboration between GF and Marvell and reflects the increasingly important role optical networking technologies play in enabling AI and cloud infrastructure at scale.
About GF
GlobalFoundries (Nasdaq: GFS) (GF) is a leading manufacturer of essential semiconductors, enabling AI at scale from the cloud to the physical world. Through deep partnerships with customers, GF delivers differentiated, power-efficient and high-performance solutions for automotive, aerospace and defense, data center, smart mobile devices, internet of things and other high-growth markets. With global manufacturing operations across the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF is a trusted and holistic technology partner for customers around the world. GF’s talented, global team remains focused every day on security, longevity and sustainability. For more information, visit www.gf.com.
First preview submission using NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 systems delivers up to 3.7x better throughput than NVIDIA GB300 NVL72.
Sept. 17, 2026 — System performance, efficient infrastructure scaling and continuous software optimization are key levers that determine AI inference economics. Higher system performance means more tokens generated, resulting in higher revenue. Efficient scaling means throughput grows proportionally as hardware gets added, requiring fewer resources to serve users at scale. Continuous optimization means generating more value from infrastructure investments.
Credit: Shutterstock
Underlying all three is platform fungibility: the same infrastructure runs any model, any workload, from training to inference, recommender to reasoning, language to video, keeping utilization high.
The NVIDIA platform is purpose-built to optimize across all these, as highlighted by MLPerf Inference v6.1 results released today:
NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 system debuts with leading performance: In its first MLPerf Inference preview submission, NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 delivers up to 3.7x better throughput than GB300 NVL72.
NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 scaleswith leading efficiency: A 288-GPU submission across four GB300 NVL72 racks achieved 99% scaling efficiency, with throughput growing nearly linearly from a single-rack baseline.
Continuous software optimizations drive performance gains: Software optimizations in NVIDIA’s MLPerf Inference v6.1 submissions delivered up to 1.6x higher performance over v6.0. Optimizations continued post-v6.1 submission, delivering further performance gains.
For organizations making AI infrastructure decisions, performance, scaling efficiency and software velocity are important considerations that determine long-term inference economics.
Vera Rubin NVL72 Makes MLPerf Inference Debut With Leading Performance
NVIDIA submitted Vera Rubin NVL72 preview results on two of the most demanding benchmarks in the MLPerf Inference v6.1 suite: DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3-VL.
Vera Rubin NVL72 delivers up to 3.7x higher throughput than GB300 NVL72 on Qwen3-VL across offline, server and interactive scenarios, using vLLM with the NVIDIA Dynamo open source inference framework. On DeepSeek-R1, using the NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM library, throughput is up to 2.5x higher than GB300 NVL72. These early results showcase NVIDIA’s accelerated pace of innovation and how performance will improve with continuous software optimizations.
This performance means each Vera Rubin NVL72 rack delivers significantly more tokens, serves more users and generates more revenue than a GB300 NVL72 rack, while lowering cost per token.
The results reflect full-stack codesign across hardware and software. Vera Rubin’s enhanced Tensor Cores and Transformer Engine accelerate both the prefill and decode stages of inference, while NVFP4 precision reduces memory footprint across model weights, attention and KV cache — increasing throughput with minimal loss of output quality.
Vera Rubin submissions heavily used disaggregated serving, separating prefill and decode along with large-scale expert parallelism for maximum efficiency across the mixture-of-experts layers that power models like DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3-VL.
The NVL72 scale-up domain — powered by sixth-generation NVIDIA NVLink and NVLink Switch to deliver 10x higher packet rates and 3x lower latency than off-the-shelf Ethernet — provides the interconnect foundation that makes these techniques effective at rack scale.
This codesign extends to NVIDIA’s partner ecosystem: Nebius also submitted Vera Rubin NVL72 preview results and demonstrated excellent performance.
AI agents, which reason, plan and act across multiple steps, are reshaping how inference performance is measured. In benchmarks designed to capture this shift, such as SemiAnalysis AgentX, Vera Rubin NVL72 delivered 30x better performance than GB300 NVL72 in preview testing. In addition, the upcoming MLPerf Endpoints benchmark will bring standardized measurement to agentic inference workloads, beyond what traditional throughput benchmarks capture.
NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 Scales With Leading Efficiency
Scaling efficiency — how effectively additional GPUs translate to throughput gains — is a key measure of AI infrastructure productivity. NVIDIA delivers this with high-bandwidth, low-latency scale-up interconnects within each rack, high-bandwidth networking between racks and efficient request orchestration across nodes.
NVIDIA’s DeepSeek-R1 (DSR1) submission scaled from a single GB300 NVL72 rack (72 GPUs) to four racks (288 GPUs), achieving 99% scaling efficiency in the offline scenario. Throughput grew nearly in proportion to the hardware added.
Scaling efficiency is key because more GPUs don’t automatically mean proportionally more throughput. If adding nearly double the GPU count delivered only a single-digit percentage improvement in throughput, the infrastructure cost would far outpace the performance return. The architecture, interconnect and software must all scale together.
GB300 NVL72 also demonstrated rack-scale efficiency on the WAN 2.2 text-to-video benchmark, reaching 0.65 720p videos per second at 5.7 seconds per video — 9x higher throughput and 7.5x lower latency than a single node.
In v6.1, GB300 NVL72 performance on Qwen3-VL improved up to 1.6x over v6.0 results. The gains came through lower KV cache precision, additional kernel fusion, better kernels and disaggregated serving with vLLM and NVIDIA Dynamo.
Software optimization continued past the v6.1 submission deadline as well. Post-submission results, not yet verified by MLCommons, on GPT-OSS-120B and DLRMv3 show further performance gains.
AI Inference at Every Scale
Beyond the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin NVL72 platform results, NVIDIA submitted Jetson AGX Thor results using NVIDIA TensorRT Edge-LLM on the newly introduced Edge-Agentic benchmark with Qwen3.6-27B.
The NVIDIA partner ecosystem participated broadly, with 19 partners — eight of them on multi-node Blackwell NVL72 systems — demonstrating excellent performance. This includes ASUS, Azure, Cisco, CoreWeave, Crusoe, Dell Technologies, Fujitsu, Giga Computing, HPE, Inventec, Lambda, MiTAC Computing, Nebius, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Quanta Cloud Technology, Red Hat, ScitiX, Supermicro and Wiwynn.
From compact edge devices to the largest AI factories, NVIDIA continues to advance performance across the full technology stack with an annual cadence of platform architectures, continuously improving software and an ecosystem built to deliver it at scale.
Minneapolis, Minnesota — Federal immigration officer Christian Castro was arrested Wednesday in Minneapolis, ending a months-long interstate dispute over state assault charges stemming from the January shooting of a Venezuelan man during a major immigration enforcement operation.
Castro, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, is accused of firing through the door of an apartment and shooting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg while children were inside. Minnesota prosecutors also charged Castro with falsely reporting a crime after he allegedly told federal supervisors that Sosa-Celis and others attacked officers with a snow shovel and broom. Prosecutors say video evidence contradicted that account.
Castro had returned to Texas following the shooting, where authorities arrested him in May on Minnesota’s warrant. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott later declined to sign extradition papers, questioning whether Castro qualified as a fugitive because the Department of Homeland Security had reassigned him to Texas. A federal judge subsequently declined Minnesota’s request to compel his extradition.
Castro spent roughly 90 days in a Texas jail before his August release. He was later federally indicted on charges of making false statements to investigators about the shooting and arrested again. DHS has suspended him from ICE, and authorities have opened a separate civil rights investigation.
His attorneys say Castro always intended to answer the Minnesota charges and denies that he attempted to flee. Under an arrangement with Minnesota authorities, he drove from Texas intending to surrender at his lawyer’s office but was arrested shortly before arriving.
Castro is expected to make his first Minnesota court appearance Thursday. The charges remain allegations, and he has not been convicted.
Corporate Leaders Series: Catherine Raw, Chief Development Officer at global resources company BHP
14
October 2026 — 09:00 TO 10:00 BST
Anonymous (not verified)
Chatham House and Online
Hear from Catherine Raw at BHP, the world’s largest mining company by market capitalization, on the forces reshaping global demand for resources.
Hear from Catherine Raw at BHP, the world’s largest mining company by market capitalization, on the forces reshaping global demand for resources.
Trade volatility, the energy transition and state intervention are reshaping demand for strategic resources. In this Corporate Leaders Series event, BHP Chief Development Officer Catherine Raw examines how capital, policy and supply chains are increasingly interconnected, and what effective leadership looks like as global demand continues to grow.
This event discusses:
What is driving global demand for copper, iron ore, steelmaking, coal and potash?
How are trade and industrial policies reshaping resource investment decisions?
What role can strategic partnerships play in strengthening supply chains?
How should resource companies balance the energy transition with near-term cost pressures?
What does effective global leadership look like in volatile markets?
If you are not a corporate member of Chatham House but would still like to attend, please email the Conferences team to apply to attend.
The Albanese government is considering a “world-leading”ban on smart glasses in its offices and service centres as councils around Australia push the technology out of public spaces over privacy fears.
The government has avoided a sweeping ban on the import of the camera-equipped technology and encouraged individual workplaces to set their own rules.
Washington and Florida insiders are exploring lucrative deals for a post-communist Cuba crushed by ever-increasing US sanctions
Spanish hotel chains. A Canadian mining firm. European shipping giants. Visa and Mastercard. Scores of foreign companies have been driven out of Cuba this summer over fear of being hit with potent, new secondary sanctions. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, told Axios last month there are “no escape valves” from his unprecedented pressure campaign against the island.
But not everybody is losing out. Agrowing cast of Washington and Florida insiders – from billionaire Trump allies and Rubio-linked lobbyists to Cuban exiles – are jockeying for control of the communist-ruled island-nation’s key assets, charging top dollar to help clients navigate the ever-expanding web of sanctions, and positioning themselves for lucrative business opportunities in the case of regime collapse.
It’s a chaotic time in an industry that’s reshaping our lives – Guardian reporters and experts recommend the books that help explain how we got here, and where we’re heading
Have you been feeling trapped in an endless cycle of artificial intelligence hype and panic? You’re not alone.
A CBS News investigation finds that more than 600 people have died in crashes since 2024 with trucks operated by companies that had never been subjected to a roadside safety inspection.
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 Sept. 18-20, 2026. What should be on our radar for future editions? Let us know!
With Heaven on Tour
Zach Bryan festival comes to Dover
Friday, Sept. 18 and Saturday, Sept. 19. The Woodlands. 1131 N. Dupont Highway, Dover. 5 p.m. Tickets: $80.
Delaware’s forested music venue, The Woodlands at Dover Motor Speedway, may be positioning itself for a comeback four years since the last Firefly Music Festival, an event that brought star-studded lineups to the city of 40,000 between 2012 and 2022.
This weekend, country hitmaker Zach Bryan will bring his stripped-back instrumentals and pleading vocals to the stage as part of his “With Heaven on Tour.” Whether Bryan’s two-day pit stop at the Speedway will restart the venue’s engine remains to be seen.
Festival Hispano features local, international musicians
Festival Hispano returns for its 31st year downtown Georgetown Sept. 20. | PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VOICE RADIO NETWORK
Sunday, Sept. 20. Downtown Georgetown. 111 North Race St. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets: $20, free for kids 10 and under.
Regional Mexican band Operativo JT hopes to win the hearts of the crowd at the Festival Hispano with melancholic crooning and bright-toned acoustic guitar. Audience members will be able to vote on their favorite of three local bands, including Operativo JT, at the event.
Festival Hispano, now in its 31st year, will also feature salsa, merengue and bachata musicians, children’s activities and over 100 vendors selling food and goods from across Latin America.
Delaware Shakespeare’s community tour brings the bard’s plays throughout Delaware this month. | PHOTO COURTESY OF DELAWARE SHAKESPEARE
Through Sept. 27. Various locations statewide. Times vary.Tickets: $25.
Delaware Shakespeare is taking Jaques’ monologue from “As You Like It” literally this month: “All the world’s a stage…”
In that spirit, the theater company is bringing a rapid-fire, remixed retelling of William Shakespeare’s 36 plays to audiences throughout the First State, from libraries to a correctional facility. Designed for thespians and newbies alike, Delaware Shakespeare’s community tour is a reminder of how theater written hundreds of years ago remains relevant, touching and uproarious today.
Christina Cultural Arts Center’s Soul of the City Festival returns Sept. 19. | PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISTINA CULTURAL ARTS CENTER
Saturday, Sept. 19. Christina Cultural Arts Center. 705 N. Market St., Wilmington. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free.
In an increasingly disconnected and digital world, how does one make friends? Christina Cultural Arts Center seems to have found the perfect icebreaker: line dancing with your neighbors. Delaware duo Dem Jones Girlz will walk you through the basics at the 10th annual Soul of the City block party in downtown Wilmington.
This free, family-friendly event will also feature DJs, music and dance performances, food trucks and vendors.
Do any dare compete in the speed-eating contest at this year’s Delaware Seafood Festival? Last year’s winner devoured the five-pound crab pretzel in seven and a half minutes in a “disgusting” display, according to founder Ryan Stevenson. If you’d rather savor your seafood, there will be plenty to enjoy from local vendors.
All proceeds generated by the festival, after expenses, will be donated to charity. Last year’s festival drew 5,000 people and raised $20,000 for the Delaware Restaurant Foundation and Delaware Center for the Inland Bays.
Why Should Delaware Care? A recent police shooting of a 19-year-old in northeast Wilmington has become one of the city’s highest-profile use-of-force cases in years. Now, a Delaware Department of Justice investigation is facing scrutiny as community members continue to call for transparency and answers about what happened.
It’s been two-and-a-half months since 19-year-old Kadir Skinner was fatally shot by Wilmington police; an incident that has since sparked protests on city streets calling for transparency from city and state officials.
But if Delaware’s history with police shooting investigations is any guide, the wait for answers could still be months away.
Skinner’s family, their attorneys, and community members gathered three weeks ago, calling for city and state officials to fully disclose the facts of the ongoing investigation, including what happened that led to the shooting and whether criminal charges will be brought against the officer who fired the fatal shot.
“Although we are tired, we are not defeated,” said Lisa Flowers, Skinner’s aunt, at an Aug. 24 rally. “We have not stopped and will not stop. We will continue to seek the truth.”
Calls from the community have raised the question of when the Delaware Department of Justice’s investigation into the shooting will be released to the public.
But Caroline Harrison, spokesperson for the Department of Justice, said she could not provide a timeline.
“Officer names, along with the full body of evidence, are released following the conclusion of the investigation,” she said.
Under Delaware law, the Department of Justice’s Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust (DCRPT) must investigate deadly-force incidents involving law enforcement officers that result in serious physical injury. The goal is to determine whether an officer’s use of force was legally justified.
If an officer’s use of force was not legally justified, the DOJ “would contemplate criminal charges” based on the facts of the case, Harrison said.
While the investigation is ongoing, investigative records, criminal records and other details generally cannot be released, per Delaware’s open law records. The law, however, does not set a specific deadline for the DOJ to complete its investigation or release its final report, which compiles all of those details and the result of whether the officer’s shooting was justified.
And while state officials remain tight-lipped, a Spotlight Delaware analysis found that similar DOJ shooting investigations were not made public until nearly a year after they took place.
To understand how the Skinner case may unfold, Spotlight Delaware reviewed every police-involved shooting investigation the DOJ has closed since 2020, both fatal and non-fatal, tracking the time between each incident and the release of the DOJ’s findings.
Civil rights attorney Chance Lynch told Spotlight Delaware last month that he and Skinner’s other attorneys want to wait until the investigation is released before filing their lawsuit, saying they believe the investigation may reveal “pertinent information” that could improve their case.
Chance Lynch (left) is one attorneys representing the Skinner family in the aftermath of Kadir Skinner’s fatal shooting in June by Wilmington police. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
As of Aug. 24, Skinner’s family and lawyers had not heard an update regarding the DOJ’s investigation.
“We know that if the roles were reversed and Kadir shot and killed an officer, that video would have been released without protest, and we would see that Kadir would be charged, and the prosecution already started,” Lynch said. “What are we waiting for?”
Since 2020, Delaware’s Department of Justice has closed 22 use-of-force investigations involving police shootings, according to a Spotlight Delaware analysis of case records. The time between an incident’s occurrence and when the office released its findings has varied widely, from as little as three months to more than two-and-a-half years.
The typical investigation has taken close to 10 months.
Fatal shootings, like Skinner’s, have historically taken longer to resolve, with a typical duration of about 11 months, compared with roughly six and a half months for cases where the person survived.
The Skinner shooting, which occurred June 24, is now roughly two and a half months from that date, which is still within the range where most fatal shooting investigations are just getting underway.
Of the police-involved shooting investigations released since 2020, half were fatal.
None of the 22 investigations found that an officer had unconstitutionally used excessive or deadly force.
What happens during a use-of-force investigation?
Use-of-force investigations involve numerous steps, including officer interviews, evidence review, forensic analysis, meetings with families, consultations with attorneys and law enforcement agencies and multiple layers of internal review, Harrison said.
She noted that DCRPT, the division that conducts the investigations, is the DOJ’s smallest division. It is made up of four attorneys, four investigators, two paralegals and one victim support specialist.
Mat Marshall, DOJ director of external affairs, also noted that investigation timelines will vary for different reasons.
“Two cases that appear similar on their face, with the same number of officers and victims involved, for example, may vary wildly in the amount of evidence to be collected and processed,” he said.
A former DCRPT official, who spoke to Spotlight Delaware on the condition of anonymity, noted that when an officer-involved shooting occurs, three investigations typically unfold at once.
The officer’s own department conducts an administrative review to determine whether department policy was followed — a process that can lead to internal discipline, including termination.
Separately, two criminal investigations run in parallel: one by the police department, and one by DCRPT itself.
DCRPT does not have the ability to collect evidence or run testing on its own, so it relies on the local department to gather physical evidence first. DCRPT is briefed throughout the department’s investigation and can direct it to collect specific evidence.
The local department’s criminal investigation does not end with an opinion of whether the shooting was justified, but instead concludes once all the evidence is collected. That evidence is then handed over to DCRPT.
From there, a DCRPT investigator reviews the material and writes a report, which goes to an attorney for a first opinion. The case then moves up through the division’s director, the chief deputy attorney general, and finally Attorney General Kathy Jennings before a final decision is reached and DCRPT notifies the department and the victim’s family.
“An officer-involved shooting where someone is either killed or seriously hurt is as serious as it gets,” the former official said. “So it is handled with as much care as possible. We don’t act quickly; we act deliberately.”
The former official said they do not expect the Skinner investigation to stretch past a year, and attributed longer timelines largely to an expanded caseload.
When DCRPT was officially established in 2020, its caseload widened from just shootings involving death or injury to any use of force resulting in serious physical injury, plus deadly-force incidents where no one was hurt.
That expansion created a backlog DCRPT is still working through, though the official said the division is now moving through its more serious cases faster and is “getting closer” to the goal of resolving investigations within six months.
Policing expert weighs in
James Nolan, a West Virginia University sociology professor and former Wilmington police officer, pointed to the legal standard as one reason use-of-force investigations take time.
Police only need “probable cause” to make an arrest in a typical civilian murder case, while DOJ, by contrast, has to determine from the outset whether the evidence would meet the much higher trial standard — “beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.
As DOJ put it in one of its reports: “the State is always cognizant that it has the burden to prove the crime(s) charged beyond a reasonable doubt, a demanding standard.”
Nolan served as a Wilmington police officer for more than a decade and has served as chief of the FBI’s Crime Analysis, Research and Development Unit.
Nolan said he could not predict how DOJ or WPD will ultimately rule on the officer’s conduct in Skinner’s case. But he said he sees policing in different areas, including Wilmington, as a broader, systemic problem of “conformity to normal practices.”
“This is the illusion that a ‘bad apple’ officer is the problem rather than ‘good apples’ conforming to violent and ineffective practices that discriminate by race,” Nolan said.
What do we know about the Skinner shooting?
Skinner was shot by Wilmington police on June 24 near Jessup and East 24th streets. Wilmington PD initially reported officers were monitoring a large gathering in the area when they saw Skinner leave a home and point a gun toward the crowd.
When officers approached him, Skinner fled on foot, according to police.
City officials later disclosed additional details, saying Skinner was shot once in the buttocks during the chase, and that officers then transported him to the hospital themselves.
Police also said they recovered a .45-caliber handgun but did not say whether Skinner was holding it when he was shot.
The officer who fired the shot, who has yet to be identified, was placed on administrative leave, according to police.
After the shooting, Skinner’s family held press conferences calling for the body camera footage of the night to be released, and community members staged protests bringing attention to the matter, with some even challenging the city official’s account of the events.
Body camera footage was publicly released three weeks after the incident.
The body camera footage of Skinner’s shooting depicted a chaotic 28 seconds between the moment the shooting officer left his vehicle to chase Skinner, in which a neighborhood dog can be seen trailing behind Skinner while he is running. The officer fired his weapon four times and handcuffed the wounded teen on the pavement of a Wilmington street.
After wounding Skinner, two officers handcuffed and searched him while Skinner pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. | SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF DELAWARE DOJ
Another three and a half minutes passed after Skinner was shot before officers placed him into a patrol car and took him to Wilmington Hospital, where he died.
A separate video also shows one officer walking to an area near the shooting along a sidewalk where the female officer would later stop and reach down. A black object is seen in the footage.
The footage released, however, does not show the moments prior to the foot chase.
The shooting has become among the state’s most closely scrutinized police use-of-force incidents since the 2015 fatal shooting of Jeremy McDole, a man who used a wheelchair, or the 2021 fatal shooting of Lymond Moses.
The Moses investigation was finalized and released about 11 months after the shooting, while the McDole shooting investigation is dated seven and a half months after the incident.
Lynch, the attorney, asserted that he believes the same accountability police and public officials place on citizens should be the same accountability placed on police officers. He is urging community members to continue to seek transparency in the case.
“Continue to say Kadir’s name, hold the mayor and city council and this police department accountable, so it doesn’t happen to their family,” Lynch said.
Atlanta, Georgia — A hacker collective dismantled a Flock Safety camera, copied much of its internal software and storage, and shared the files with journalists, revealing that the company’s surveillance devices collect far more information than license plates alone.
The group, calling itself stegan0gram, provided the data to 404 Media and WIRED. Their analysis found that one camera generated about 1.6 million images from roughly 50,000 vehicles over 21 days, sometimes capturing dozens of images of the same vehicle. The software also explicitly detected people and bicycles, not just cars and license plates.
The files showed the system could isolate details such as bumper stickers, vehicle characteristics and objects carried by people. Analysts also found that one storage partition was not encrypted and contained a key that unlocked additional recorded media, raising questions about Flock’s previous claims regarding on-device protections.
Flock said the unauthorized removal and tampering of its hardware is illegal and noted that the hackers did not report the findings through its official vulnerability-disclosure process.
The disclosure comes amid growing scrutiny of Flock’s expanding national network. WIRED reported that data from some systems can be accessed by more than 2,000 agencies, while several communities have recently suspended or abandoned the technology over privacy and oversight concerns.
Boston recently said it will no longer use Flock after discovering that data from a 2025 pilot had been shared nationally despite a contractual requirement that such sharing be disabled.
The hacked camera adds a new dimension to the debate: the issue is no longer limited to who can search license plates, but also how much information the devices actually collect and how securely that data is stored.
Library employees and volunteers, joined by County Executive Marcus Henry and Mayor Travis McDermott, got an up-close look at the progress construction crews are making on the new Newark Free Library on Monday.
New York, New York — A Florida academic pleaded guilty Monday to falsifying records and fraudulently obtaining $750,000 from a compensation fund established for victims of Jeffrey Epstein, federal prosecutors said.
Jennifer Percival, 46, director of Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, admitted that she fabricated documents after an earlier claim to the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program was rejected in 2020.
According to prosecutors, Percival applied in 2024 to a separate $290 million compensation fund created as part of JPMorgan Chase’s settlement with Epstein victims. To qualify, she falsely claimed that Epstein’s estate had previously approved her for $500,000 and altered the rejection letter to support that assertion.
Percival also fabricated emails and other records to reinforce the claim. Based on the false documentation, the JPMorgan fund awarded her $750,000. When the FBI began investigating in 2025, authorities said Percival continued the deception by providing additional false emails to a federal prosecutor.
At Monday’s plea hearing, Percival acknowledged that the goal of her actions was to obtain money, which she said provided “a sense of validation.” She brought a check for $776,031 to court to cover restitution and related costs.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Percival faces an estimated three to four years in prison, although the judge is not required to follow that recommendation. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Her attorney is expected to seek leniency based partly on Percival’s academic career and work in disability research.
Gastonia, North Carolina — President Donald Trump used a campaign rally Wednesday to describe North Carolina as “one of the worst in the whole nation” while repeating multiple claims about former Gov. Roy Cooper that conflict with state records.
Trump, campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, called Democratic opponent Cooper a “murderer-protector” and again blamed him for the release of DeCarlos Brown Jr., the man accused of killing 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska aboard a Charlotte light-rail train in 2025.
That accusation is false. The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction says Brown was not released early. He served 100% of his minimum sentence, including credit for time already served, and left prison in September 2020, five months before a February 2021 COVID-era prison settlement Republicans have attempted to connect to his release. The department has said neither that settlement nor Cooper caused Brown to leave prison.
Trump also claimed North Carolina had become “one of the most violent” states and said the decline “all started with Cooper.” The latest complete statewide figures from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation provide no support for that narrative. Violent crime fell 4.3% in 2024, including a 9.2% decline in the murder rate. Statewide violent crime totaled 40,875 offenses, or about 390 per 100,000 residents.
Trump then accused Cooper of doing “nothing” after Hurricane Helene. Public records also contradict that characterization. Cooper declared a state of emergency before the storm, mobilized National Guard soldiers and rescue teams, requested an expedited federal disaster declaration and later sought more than $25 billion in federal recovery aid. By October 2024, thousands of state and federal responders were working throughout western North Carolina.
Trump’s remarks came during a rally intended to boost Whatley in his Senate contest against Cooper. While criticism of an opponent’s crime or disaster record is standard campaign politics, the specific claims tying Cooper to Brown’s release and portraying the Helene response as nonexistent are contradicted by official records.
Washington, D.C. — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., blocked an effort Wednesday by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., to advance legislation requiring developers of advanced artificial intelligence systems to include an emergency “kill switch” designed to stop models that behave dangerously or outside intended controls.
Kennedy sought to pass the measure by unanimous consent, a Senate procedure that allows legislation to move quickly but also permits any single senator to object. Paul did so, arguing that Congress should not impose broad technical requirements before lawmakers better understand how the technology works and how such mandates could affect innovation.
Kennedy said the proposal was intended as a narrow safeguard rather than a comprehensive AI regulatory framework. “I’m not standing here today suggesting to you I have all the answers,” he said. “What I am suggesting to you is there are risks to artificial intelligence.”
Paul warned the language could have unintended consequences, questioning whether requirements might eventually be interpreted to apply to search engines, medical software or other AI-assisted systems. He proposed creating a bipartisan panel to study potential safeguards instead.
Kennedy rejected that alternative, saying Congress should act on at least a limited safety measure now rather than delay action through another study commission.
The exchange comes amid a broader debate in Washington over whether advanced AI systems should face federal safety requirements. Some technology executives have called for stronger guardrails, while others argue that premature regulation could slow U.S. innovation and weaken its competitive position against China.
The blocked motion does not prevent Kennedy from reintroducing the proposal through the normal committee and legislative process.
Washington, D.C. — Greenland and Antarctica have lost about 12.5 trillion tons of ice since 1979, according to a major satellite analysis showing that ice-sheet losses have accelerated sharply in recent decades.
The study, published in Scientific Data, combined 45 independent surveys using 27 satellite missions. Researchers calculated that the lost ice has added about 1.2 inches to global sea levels since 1979, in addition to increases caused by thermal expansion and other sources.
Most of the loss — roughly five-sixths — came from dynamic processes such as glaciers flowing into warmer ocean water, rather than surface melting caused directly by hotter air. That distinction matters because marine-driven ice loss can accelerate rapidly once glaciers retreat into deeper water.
The researchers found that Greenland and Antarctica were comparatively stable through much of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s before losses increased substantially during the 2010s. A slowdown between 2020 and 2023 was attributed mainly to short-term weather patterns, including unusually heavy snowfall in East Antarctica.
Lead author Ines Otosaka of Northumbria University said the long-term trend remains clear and closely linked to climate change. Scientists warned that ice sheets respond slowly to warming, meaning additional losses are likely to continue for decades even if global temperatures stabilize.
The findings are based on multiple independent measurement techniques, which outside researchers said increases confidence that the observed acceleration is real.
Photo: Delaware LIVE photo take a Katz Headquarters on 9/15. Dr. Mike Katz is pictured with his wife moments after announcing his victory.
Senate nominee emphasizes affordability and unity; House nominee centers campaign on restoring economic growth and ending overseas wars
DOVER, Del. — Delaware Republicans selected two candidates with unconventional political backgrounds Tuesday, hoping Dr. Mike Katz and Dr. Joe Arminio can expand the party’s reach and make the state’s federal races more competitive in November.
Katz, a physician, business owner and former Democratic state senator, captured about 77% of the Republican vote for U.S. Senate, according to unofficial election returns. Arminio, a political scientist, author and educator, won approximately 48% in the three-way Republican primary for Delaware’s lone U.S. House seat.
Katz will face Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, while Arminio will challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride. Both Democratic incumbents begin the general election with Delaware’s recent voting history on their side, but the Republican nominees bring approaches that differ from those of traditional GOP candidates.
Katz wins with coalition message
Katz’s decisive victory over John Shulli affirmed the Delaware Republican Party’s decision to endorse a candidate who has belonged to three political parties.
Katz represented northern New Castle County in the Delaware Senate as a Democrat from 2009 to 2013. He later became an independent and ran for U.S. Senate in 2024 before joining the Republican Party for the 2026 campaign.
Instead of avoiding that history, Katz incorporated it into a campaign centered on “people over party.” His campaign argues that Republicans cannot win statewide in Delaware without attracting independents and some Democrats who are dissatisfied with the cost of living, government performance and the direction of the state.
In his primary victory speech, Katz said he heard similar concerns while speaking with voters across the political spectrum.
“Delaware families are facing an affordability crisis,” Katz said. “The cost of housing, food, health care, energy and simply raising a family has become too high.”
Katz presented himself as a physician and business operator who would bring a problem-solving approach to Washington. His platform emphasizes reducing federal spending, cutting regulations, lowering energy and housing costs, expanding health care access and protecting Delaware employers.
“Leadership is not about talking about problems,” Katz said. “Leadership is about solving them.”
Katz said his medical and business experience taught him to examine evidence, bring people together, make difficult decisions and accept responsibility for the results. He argued that government should operate with the same accountability.
“Public office is not about power or titles, and it should never be about the person holding the office,” Katz said. “Those entrusted with public office — our public servants — work for you.”
His platform also includes traditional Republican positions on border enforcement, public safety, gun rights, election laws and women’s sports. Katz said those principles would not prevent him from working with people outside his party.
“We can stand firmly on our principles and still work with people who disagree with us,” Katz said. “I will work with anyone who is willing to work with me to solve problems for the people of Delaware.”
Coons, meanwhile, is seeking a third full term and won about 78% of the Democratic primary vote against three challengers. He enters the general election with the advantages of incumbency, a substantial campaign organization and more than a decade in the Senate.
Arminio campaigns on two sweeping ideas
The House primary produced a different message.
Arminio defeated attorney John Whalen III and Earl Cooper, the candidate endorsed by the Delaware Republican Party at its state convention. Unofficial returns showed Arminio with about 48%, Whalen with 32% and Cooper with 20%.
The result demonstrated that the party endorsement was not decisive for Republican voters in the congressional contest.
Arminio is a Wilmington native who holds a doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has taught at American University and Lincoln University and has worked on national defense and public policy issues.
He built his campaign around two sweeping ideas: stopping what he calls America’s “endless wars” and returning the country to economic growth comparable to the 1950s.
Arminio argues that the two issues are connected. He says stronger domestic growth and a less interventionist foreign policy would allow the country to direct more attention and resources toward American families, communities and businesses.
His foreign policy proposal, which he calls “The Grand Bargain,” would reduce American involvement in overseas conflicts and pursue negotiated settlements in Europe and the Middle East. Arminio argues that the United States should avoid prolonged foreign entanglements while maintaining enough military and economic strength to deter adversaries.
Arminio has presented voters with detailed explanations of both proposals through campaign materials, policy documents and public appearances. Whether those plans would produce the results he promises — and how they would affect economic growth, national security and America’s alliances — will likely become central questions in the general election campaign.
Following his primary victory, Arminio said Republican voters had endorsed a campaign focused on developing substantial solutions rather than relying on slogans.
“I am grateful Republican voters endorsed a campaign committed to doing the hard work required to solve the issues facing our communities,” Arminio told Delaware LIVE. “I thank my two opponents for stepping forward and offering their ideas. I echo Delaware Republican Party Chairman Gene Truono’s call for unity. Now is the time for Delawareans who want change to come together and work to defeat U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride in November.”
McBride, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary, is seeking a second term in the House.
Can Republicans make Delaware competitive?
The nominations give the Delaware GOP two candidates who can argue that they are offering something different from standard party politics.
Katz is campaigning as a coalition-builder with experience in medicine, business and more than one political party. Arminio is offering detailed but unconventional plans intended to reshape American economic and foreign policy.
Those differences could help Republicans generate attention and focus the general election on affordability, government spending, energy costs, health care, economic growth and America’s involvement in overseas conflicts.
However, making Delaware competitive will require more than distinctive biographies and policy proposals.
Democrats have held Delaware’s U.S. House seat since 2010. McBride won the 2024 election with 57.9% of the vote, compared with 42.1% for Whalen. Republicans have not won a Delaware U.S. Senate election since William Roth’s reelection in 1994. Coons won his most recent election in 2020 with 59.4% of the vote.
The last Republican elected to federal office from Delaware was former U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, who won his final House election in 2008 and served until 2011. Castle was known as a fiscal conservative and social moderate who regularly attracted voters outside his party.
Katz used his victory speech to make a similar appeal beyond the Republican base.
“Ultimately, there are no Republican families, Democratic families or independent families,” Katz said. “There are Delaware families. We are neighbors. We are one community. We share a future and a responsibility.”
Katz and Arminio will now have to demonstrate that their messages can reach voters beyond the Republican primary. The November campaigns will test whether Delaware voters see their unconventional backgrounds and policy plans as credible alternatives or continue the state’s long pattern of supporting Democratic candidates for federal office.
To Go Box
What: Delaware general election
When: Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026
U.S. Senate: Republican Mike Katz faces Democratic incumbent Chris Coons.
U.S. House: Republican Joe Arminio faces Democratic incumbent Sarah McBride.
Election information: Voter registration, polling places, absentee voting information and official results are available at elections.delaware.gov. and on www.DelawareLIVE.com
Voting stickers at an election operations facility in Martinez, California, in May Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images
This week, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s plans to impose new rules for mail-in voting for the midterm elections in November.
In a March executive order, President Donald Trump had instructed the U.S. Postal Service to create rules for election officials sending mail-in ballots to voters. If a state didn’t comply with the new rules, the Postal Service wouldn’t deliver the ballots to voters. State officials said it would have been impossible to comply in time, and two federal judges blocked the rule for the November elections. Lawyers for the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
In a brief, unsigned order on Monday, the court’s majority denied the administration’s request, writing that the “Government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge.” Justice Samuel Alito wrote an eight-page dissent, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, saying he would have allowed the rules to go into effect. The court has not yet decided whether the rules can move forward after the November election.
Trump criticized the Supreme Court’s order in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, calling it “a big loss for Republicans, and America itself.”
The result of the Supreme Court order is that nothing has changed for states.
“State and local election administrators all across the country will continue to do what they always do, which is run safe, secure and transparent elections,” said Barbara Smith Warner, a senior adviser for the Institute for Responsive Government, a think tank working on election issues. “Everyone can and should be sure that they can vote in this election.”
We’ve been reporting for months on the Trump administration’s efforts to issue new regulations on mail-in voting, gather state voter data and investigate voter eligibility ahead of the November elections. We spoke with experts on mail-in voting to answer practical questions about voting by mail.
Why is Trump trying to restrict mail-in voting?
Mail-in voting has become more common over the decades. Roughly a third of Americans cast their ballots through the mail nowadays, according to the Brookings Institute. Trump himself voted by mail twice this year. But mail-in voting varies dramatically from state to state. While more than 95% of voters cast their ballots by mail in Oregon and Washington state, which have all-mail elections, less than 3% of voters vote by mail in West Virginia and Tennessee.
Trump has attacked mail-in voting for years, calling it “cheating” and “corrupt.” And as Trump has tried to exert more federal control over elections, he’s also sought to impose new restrictions on mail-in voting and voter eligibility. The president has claimed, without evidence, that voting by noncitizens is rampant. He’s pushed Congress to create stricter voter identification requirements, and with legislation stalled on Capitol Hill, he set out to regulate mail-in voting through an executive order.
White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said in a statement that the president wants “commonsense exceptions” for Americans to vote by mail because of an illness, a disability, travel or service in the military. And she said Trump’s use of mail-in ballots to participate in Florida elections while living in the White House “is a nonstory.” But “universal mail-in voting should not be allowed because it’s highly susceptible to fraud,” she added.
Trump’s order instructed the Postal Service to set criteria for mail-in ballots. The USPS finalized the rule in August. If it went into effect, the Postal Service wouldn’t mail ballots for states that failed to comply.
The USPS rule set design standards that required envelopes for mail-in ballots to include the official election mail logo and a unique bar code. States were required to upload lists of their eligible voters’ names and mailing addresses to a portal that’s still being built. (On Sept. 1, the Postal Service said the portal would be available soon.) The bar codes on the envelopes needed to match the voter information in the lists states uploaded to the portal. If the ballot envelope failed to fit the criteria, USPS would reject and return the mail to election officials.
In August, an anonymous federal employee filed a whistleblower disclosure with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, calling the Postal Service’s new system untested and error-prone. The employee described the process as “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed.”
According to a September audit by the agency’s Office of Inspector General, some Postal Service facilities failed to properly handle ballots during this year’s primary elections. (In a response included with the findings of the audit, USPS wrote that “overall ballot mail performance is strong,” while acknowledging “we can always reinforce and amplify our internal processes and procedures.”) As ProPublica’s Jen Fifield reported, top USPS officials expressed concerns in meetings about how the new rules could delay or block ballots from reaching large swaths of eligible voters.
The rule change would’ve affected the people who rely on mail-in voting the most: older people, people with certain disabilities, and people who live in remote or rural areas, said Richard Hasen, a UCLA law professor and director of the school’s Safeguarding Democracy Project, in an interview before the Supreme Court order. On Sept. 3, a bipartisan group of 99 current and former state and local election officials said in a court brief that it would have been impossible for states to comply with the rules ahead of the midterms.
The Trump administration said in its filing to the Supreme Court that the Postal Service rule “imposes only modest envelope-design and addressee-information requirements” on mail-in ballots.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service did not respond to a request for comment.In a previous statement, a spokesperson said the agency had spent months developing its system, in a manner consistent with federal court orders. The spokesperson added that the agency’s goal is to ensure “that Americans can have confidence that their election mail will be handled securely and delivered reliably.” In response to concerns raised by the whistleblower, Postmaster General David Steiner said in a statement that the agency “takes these concerns seriously” but added that “our standards for quality, security, and system integrity were not compromised.”
In a concurring opinion with this week’s decision blocking the new mail-in ballot rules, Justice Brett Kavanaugh acknowledged that state and local election officials didn’t have enough time to implement the Postal Service changes before the November midterms. But Kavanaugh added that the rules may fall within the Postal Service’s authority, not ruling out that they could be implemented for future elections.
Can I vote by mail?
State laws vary on who can vote by mail, and when. Your eligibility depends on the law in your state.
Every state offers some version of voting by mail, but your state may require you to have a reason to vote absentee, such as an illness, a disability or travel out of state.
Check the rules for mail-in voting in your state. Take note of whether your state requires you to request a mail-in ballot ahead of the election and what the deadlines are for those requests, as well as when ballots must be returned in order to count. Before you request a mail-in ballot, make sure you’re registered to vote and the local election office has your address.
Eight states and the District of Columbia proactively mail ballots to every registered voter. In 29 states, voters can request a mail-in ballot without providing a reason. The other 13 states require voters to provide an eligible excuse when they ask for an absentee ballot.
How do I make sure my mail-in ballot counts?
We asked experts what voters should know if they plan to vote by mail. Keep in mind that the rules for mail-in voting depend on where you live.
Read the directions carefully, Smith Warner said. Make sure you fill out the ballot completely and don’t leave any stray marks.
Sign the ballot with your typical signature. Use the same signature you have on other government documents, such as your driver’s license, experts say. That signature is printed on your license, and you can pull it out to refresh your memory.
Don’t miss the deadline to turn in your ballot. Deadlines for turning in absentee ballots vary by state. The U.S. Postal Service recommends voters mail their completed ballot at least a week before their state’s deadline to ensure it arrives in time.
The Postal Service’s routes may have changed, so delivery of your mail-in ballot may take longer, said Tammy Patrick, the chief programs officer at the Election Center. “So, make sure you get your ballot back as early as possible,” she said.
Consider dropping off your ballot at a local election office. Election experts we spoke to recommend voters return their completed ballots to a ballot drop box or their local election office. Drop boxes are often found at city halls, libraries and schools. Check with your local election office to find locations near you.
Track your ballot. State and local election officials often have online portals where you can check to see whether your ballot has been received, approved or rejected.
What if I change my mind and prefer to vote in person?
It’s not unusual for people to vote at the polls after requesting a mail-in ballot, said David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in Washington that works with election officials and conducts research to build trust in the voting process. States have systems in place to prevent people from voting twice.
Some states allow voters to bring completed mail-in ballots to polling places, but check with your local election office before relying on that method. If you decide you want to vote in person instead, experts recommend you bring your mail ballot and envelope so the poll workers can cancel or spoil it (mark it or rip it up).
We also asked experts what to do if a voter has already sent in their mail-in ballot but wants to make changes. Experts said to avoid this if possible. Depending on where you live, if the mail-in ballot hasn’t yet been accepted and cast by election officials, voters may be able to change their mind and vote in person, Patrick said.
“As long as it hasn’t gotten back to the elections office and it hasn’t been accepted,” she said, “then the voter can usually still be provided another ballot.”
Washington, D.C. — House lawmakers are leaving Washington a day earlier than planned, delaying consideration of Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Speaker Mike Johnson canceled Thursday’s scheduled votes, making Wednesday the House’s final legislative day before a roughly seven-week recess. The change means Massie’s privileged impeachment resolution will not receive consideration until lawmakers return after Election Day.
Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment Tuesday accusing Hegseth of continuing military operations in Iran without congressional authorization and of other alleged abuses involving U.S. actions in Venezuela and Yemen. The allegations have not been adjudicated, and the Pentagon has defended Hegseth.
Because Massie designated the resolution as privileged, House rules require leadership to address it within a limited number of legislative days. With the chamber now leaving town, that procedural clock effectively pauses until members return.
Massie had predicted Republican leaders might cancel votes to avoid dealing with the resolution before the election. Johnson rejected that explanation Wednesday, calling the impeachment effort a “publicity stunt” and saying the schedule change was intended to let members return home and campaign.
The dispute comes amid growing congressional friction over the Iran war. On Tuesday, the House voted 220-204 for a third time to direct an end to unauthorized U.S. hostilities with Iran, with seven Republicans joining Democrats.
The impeachment resolution remains pending and can be taken up when the House reconvenes after the midterms.
Los Angeles, California — Three people were killed Tuesday evening when a news helicopter used by NBC4 Los Angeles and Telemundo 52 crashed in the Chatsworth neighborhood while covering a separate deadly collision involving an SUV and a Metro bus.
NBC4 identified the two people aboard the helicopter as aerial journalist Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw, both employees of Angel City Air. A third person was killed on the ground. The Los Angeles Fire Department said the helicopter went down shortly before 7 p.m. near Mason Avenue, igniting a fire that damaged four vehicles and two storage containers.
The crash happened while several news helicopters were covering an earlier collision between an SUV and a city bus in the same area. That crash killed at least two people and sent six others to hospitals, according to the fire department.
Video from the helicopter’s final live transmission captured an alarm sounding as the aircraft rapidly lost altitude. Aviation experts cautioned that the footage alone cannot establish the cause. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.
Moreno had worked in aerial news coverage since 2010 and regularly reported for both NBC4 and Telemundo 52. Marciniw was a longtime Southern California pilot who had flown with Moreno since 2023.
NBC4 anchors announced the deaths during an emotional live broadcast Tuesday night as colleagues continued reporting from both crash scenes.
One race came down to seven votes. Six sitting lawmakers lost their seats. Here’s what actually happened.
DOVER, Del. —Four voters. That’s all it would have taken to flip the closest race in Delaware’s 2026 primary. Morgan Hudson beat Matt Bucher by seven votes, 1,017 to 1,010, for the Republican nomination in State House District 33, an open Kent County seat. That’s a tighter margin than New Castle County Council District 4, which was decided by 28 votes.
The bigger surprise is what happened to incumbents. Twenty-one Delaware incumbents drew a primary challenger this cycle. Six of them lost.
Five of those six losses have something in common: the challenger in each race was backed by the Delaware Working Families Party, a political group that describes itself as working to build power for the working class in Delaware by electing candidates and pushing progressive policy.
Five different districts, five different incumbents, the same group backing the winner each time, all in one night.
The Working Families Party endorsed 13 candidates this cycle. Eight won. Five of those winners beat a sitting incumbent, the five races listed above. Two more winners ran in open seats: Rachel Krantz in House District 6 and Kira Alejandro in New Castle County Council District 3. The eighth winner, Rep. Sherae’a Moore in House District 8, was already the incumbent, defending a seat she already held.
One more incumbent lost that night, and it had nothing to do with the Working Families Party. It was the New Castle County Recorder of Deeds, the office that keeps the county’s property records. That loss shows the anti-incumbent mood wasn’t limited to one group’s list of targets.
Most primaries weren’t close. But the ones that were came down to a small number of voters deciding who represents tens of thousands of people for the next two years. Turnout was low this cycle, which is part of why. The full breakdown, race by race, is in the table below.
Delaware’s primary election was Sept. 15, 2026. Results below are unofficial until certified.
2026 Delaware primary: unofficial results at a glance
Turnout
Voters who cast a ballot
128,598 of 593,286 (21.7%)
Democratic primary votes cast
391,116
Republican primary votes cast
87,033
Closest races
Top 3 closest races
• Morgan Hudson beat Matt Bucher, 7 votes, House District 33
• Jason Hoover beat Helena Creamer, 28 votes, NCC Council District 4
• Sen. Dan Cruce beat Adriana Bohm, 146 votes, Senate District 1
Races decided by fewer than 5 points
6 of 33 contested races
Races decided by 50-plus points
5 of 33 contested races
Incumbents who lost (6 of 21 who ran)
Beaten by a WFP-endorsed challenger (5)
• Sen. Ray Seigfried
• Rep. Stephanie Bolden
• Rep. Josue Ortega
• Rep. Franklin Cooke Jr.
• Rep. William Carson Jr.
Lost, not a WFP race (1)
• Recorder of Deeds Michael Kozikowski Sr., beaten by David Tackett
No November race: already won (8 races, one party only)
State Senate & House
• Jack Walsh, Senate District 9
• Michelle H. Booker, House District 2
• Dave Redlawsk, House District 23
• Tyeisha “Tye” Grier, House District 28
• Kerri Evelyn Harris, House District 32
New Castle County
• Jason Hoover, Council District 4
• Valerie George, Council District 5
• David Tackett, Recorder of Deeds
(Correction [Sept. 16, 2026]: An earlier version of this article and table said 20 incumbents faced a primary this cycle. The correct total is 21. The affected figure have been updated. Also, updated table and added New Castle County’s three candidates to “no Nov. race.”)
This article is the sixth in a series of stories about Delaware Caregivers. Special thanks to Delaware Hospice, Easter Seal of Delaware, and Maryland’s Eastern Shor,e and Lynn Paxson of Oasis Senior Care.
With two-thirds of U.S. caregivers struggling to manage both employment and home duties, experts say planning, boundaries, and support can prevent burnout. (updated 9/1/26)
For thousands of Delawareans, caring for an aging or ill loved one is among the most meaningful roles they will ever take on — and also one of the most demanding. The constant pull of work obligations, family responsibilities, and the daily needs of someone who depends on you can feel like a relentless juggling act.
According to a recent AARP and S&P Global survey, 67% of family caregivers say they are struggling to manage both work and care, often feeling stretched thin and unsure how to stay ahead of it all. Many caregivers routinely experience stress, guilt, frustration, sadness, and emotional exhaustion, becoming overwhelmed by the daily decisions and responsibilities that caregiving requires.
This article — the sixth in a continuing series on the caregiver’s experience — explores practical strategies for balancing competing pressures while protecting your own well-being. Insights from national research and guidance from Delaware Hospice, Oasis Senior Care (a leading consultant for families), and Easterseals Delaware & Maryland’s Eastern Shore underscore a central message: you don’t have to do this alone, and thriving — not just surviving — is possible.
At Home: Building a Support System That Works
Caregiving is rarely meant to be a one-person job, even though many caregivers feel forced into that role. Experts recommend stepping back and making a clear-eyed assessment of what your loved one truly needs — and what tasks might be shared.
Seek Support and Share the Load
Delaware Hospice encourages caregivers to begin by listing daily and weekly care needs and identifying which tasks can realistically be delegated. That may mean asking a sibling to handle financial paperwork, a neighbor to assist with transportation, or hiring part-time in-home support.
When family members live far away or cannot provide hands-on care, asking them to share in financial support — such as covering a few hours of respite care — can significantly reduce stress.
When others offer help, be specific. Instead of a general response, try: “Can you come over Tuesday at noon to help with lunch?”
Clear requests make it easier for others to step in meaningfully.
Prepare for the Unexpected
Health changes, sudden hospital trips, and equipment malfunctions are part of the caregiving reality. Preparing in advance reduces panic when emergencies arise.
Experts recommend:
Keeping medical, legal, and financial documents up to date
Creating a list of trusted helpers for home maintenance or repairs
Maintaining a folder with medications, emergency contacts, and care instructions
When the unexpected happens, preparation allows for calmer decisions and greater peace of mind.
Protect Your Own Health
Caregivers often put themselves last — yet burnout is one of the greatest risks. Even small, scheduled breaks can help reset both body and mind.
Think of self-care as a daily practice, not a luxury:
A 20-minute walk
Quiet reading before bed
Stretching or light exercise
Time with a pet or favorite hobby
Take time to truly enjoy that cup of coffee or tea — not while multitasking, but simply being present.
Crystal Baynard, of Easter Seals also recommends scheduling time for yourself — daily, weekly, or monthly. “As a caregiver myself and someone who works for the Easterseals Community Outreach Program, my personal thoughts on caregiving support what you already have written. Most caregivers fully devote themselves to the role of supporting and providing for their loved one. Having connections of their own by socializing with friends or family, finding the right support group, and not ignoring signs stress or burnout are critical to the journey,” insists Baynard.
Caregivers are also encouraged to resist the urge to be “perfect.” No one can maintain an immaculate home, a full-time career, a perfectly stocked pantry, and be a caregiver — all at once. It is neither realistic nor necessary.
Equally important: do not compare your situation to others. Every caregiving journey is unique. Guilt over what hasn’t been accomplished only adds unnecessary weight.
At Work: Communicating Clearly and Knowing Your Rights
Balancing employment alongside caregiving is a major source of stress, but open communication and workplace flexibility can make a meaningful difference.
Talk With Your Employer
Experts say transparency can prevent misunderstandings about performance, attendance, or availability. Many workplaces offer options such as:
Flexible or adjusted hours
Remote or hybrid schedules
Extended lunch breaks for caregiving tasks
Employee Assistance Programs
A conversation with an HR representative may reveal benefits or accommodations you didn’t realize were available.
Inform and Lean on Colleagues
Letting coworkers know about your caregiving role can remove stigma and reduce misperceptions about commitment. It may also open the door to informal support — many colleagues are navigating caregiving responsibilities themselves.
Know Your Legal Protections
If your workplace has 50 or more employees, you may qualify for unpaid, job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Additionally, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects caregivers from discrimination, including being passed over for promotions because of family responsibilities.
Understanding these protections allows caregivers to manage their responsibilities without fear of risking their job or career progress.
Managing Stress: Tools and Techniques for Long-Term Balance
Caregiving stress is not only emotional — it affects physical health, decision-making, and relationships. Chronic stress can lead to serious health issues. Recognizing warning signs and lowering stress early can improve overall well-being.
Time Management and Organization
Digital tools and simple routines can bring structure to chaotic days:
Use shared calendars such as Google Calendar or Outlook
Try caregiving apps like CareZone for medication tracking and reminders
Group similar tasks together to conserve mental energy
Breaking large responsibilities into smaller, achievable steps helps reduce overwhelm.
Mindfulness and Mental Health
Practices such as deep breathing, meditation, journaling, or creative hobbies provide valuable emotional release. Professional counseling and caregiver support groups — both virtual and in person — offer coping strategies and reassurance that you are not alone.
Caregiver support groups, in particular, help reduce isolation by connecting people facing similar challenges. Many caregivers say others don’t fully understand their experience unless they, too, are caregivers. Local groups meet both in person and online to maximize access.
Stay Connected
Isolation is one of the hidden challenges of caregiving. Maintaining social connections — even brief ones — combats loneliness and restores perspective.
Acknowledge Your Limits
Fatigue, irritability, sadness, or withdrawal are common signs of burnout. Delaying help only worsens these conditions. Caregivers who recognize their limits and reach out early are better equipped to sustain care over the long term.
The Takeaway: You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup
Lynn Paxson of Oasis Senior Advisors of Delaware reminds caregivers that balancing work, family, and caregiving is not about perfection. It’s about creating routines, setting boundaries, asking for help, and recognizing that caregiving will never be one-size-fits-all.
Caregivers who plan ahead, seek support, and prioritize their own health are better able to provide compassionate, consistent care for those they love.
This series will continue to explore issues facing caregivers, including financial planning, navigating difficult emotions, using respite services, and preparing for later stages of care.
If you are a caregiver, remember: you are doing one of the hardest — and most important — jobs there is. And you don’t have to do it alone. And if you know a caregiver, reach out — and help them understand that support is available.
If you’d like, I can also:
Tighten this for print space
Create a sidebar with local Delaware resources
Develop Part 7 of the series
Produce a newsletter or social-media version
Editor’s Notes: Help Is Available in Delaware
Caring for a loved one can feel overwhelming — but you don’t have to navigate it alone. These resources and reminders can help caregivers find support, reduce stress, and protect their own well-being.
Local & Trusted Support Resources
Delaware Hospice Provides hospice care, palliative care, caregiver education, and grief support. Offers counseling and guidance for families navigating serious illness. Family & Caregiver Support for Hospice Services in DelawarePhone: 302‑478‑5707
Easterseals Delaware & Maryland’s Eastern Shore Supports caregivers through respite services, adult day programs, and counseling. Helps families balance caregiving with work and personal responsibilities. Support for Caregivers | Easterseals Delaware & Maryland’s Eastern Shore Phone (New Castle): 302‑221‑207 Phone (Milford Wellness Village): 302‑253‑1129
Oasis Senior Advisors (also known as Oasis Senior Care) is a free senior living placement service that helps families in Delaware and beyond navigate options such as assisted living, memory care, and respite programs. Led locally by advisors such as Lynn Paxson in Hockessin, Oasis provides personalized guidance, community tours, and resource referrals to ease the stress of caregiving and transitions. Senior Living options in Delaware | Oasis Senior Advisors
San Antonio, Texas — The family of Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old Texas woman who died while 20 weeks pregnant, has filed a lawsuit alleging that the state’s abortion restrictions and decisions by her medical providers prevented her from receiving an abortion that could have saved her life.
Walker died in December 2024 after developing preeclampsia, a dangerous pregnancy-related blood-pressure disorder. Her family says she repeatedly asked doctors to end the pregnancy as her health deteriorated, including after experiencing seizures, dangerously high blood pressure and a blood clot. An autopsy listed hypertensive cardiovascular disease and preeclampsia as causes of death.
The lawsuit names Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas Medical Board Executive Director Stephen Brint Carlton, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the Bexar County Hospital District, several physicians and Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales. It alleges “deliberate indifference, discrimination, and medical mistreatment” and challenges the constitutionality of Texas’ abortion ban. Those claims have not yet been adjudicated.
Texas law bans most abortions but contains an exception when, in a physician’s judgment, a pregnancy creates a life-threatening condition or serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function. The central dispute in Walker’s case is whether her condition qualified under that exception and whether doctors were deterred from acting by the legal risks surrounding abortion care.
More than a dozen OB-GYNs who previously reviewed Walker’s medical records for ProPublica said termination should have been discussed as her risks increased, and several said ending the pregnancy would have prevented her death. Her family’s lawsuit now seeks to turn those medical questions into a legal test of how Texas’ abortion restrictions operate in life-threatening pregnancies.
University Health said it could not discuss individual patients or pending litigation but stated that it provides medically appropriate care while complying with applicable laws. Paxton’s office had not publicly responded to the lawsuit as of Wednesday morning.
Hugs for Our Heroes is a story about how remembrance can grow. What began with three grandsons honoring their grandfather has become an effort to recognize many of Delaware’s military veterans.
By John Riddle
A simple family tradition inspired by love and remembrance has grown into a philanthropic mission dedicated to honoring Delaware veterans.
Hugs for Our Heroes was founded by brothers Lucas, Jonas and Blake Karpinski in tribute to their grandfather, a Korean War veteran. Each Christmas, the family places a wreath on his grave, a meaningful gesture that keeps his memory and military service alive.
The brothers now want to extend that same recognition to other veterans throughout Delaware.
“Our commitment is to continue this wreath-laying tradition for Delaware veterans to honor their military service,” the organization explains on its website.
That commitment is at the heart of Hugs for Our Heroes, which focuses on community engagement, service and the creation of meaningful experiences that bring people together. Although its inspiration began with one veteran and one family, its mission reflects a much larger belief: Every person who served deserves to be remembered and appreciated.
For the Karpinski brothers, supporting veterans is also a way to strengthen the community. The organization emphasizes the importance of connection, collaboration and compassion, particularly when creating opportunities to recognize those who served in the military.
“We believe that strong communities are built through connection, collaboration and care,” the Hugs for Our Heroes website states.
Those qualities can be especially important when it comes to veterans. Military service often requires long separations from family, personal sacrifices and a willingness to face difficult and dangerous circumstances. While national observances such as Veterans Day and Memorial Day provide opportunities for widespread recognition, local programs can help ensure that veterans are remembered throughout the year.
Community-based efforts also allow residents to participate personally. Placing a wreath, attending an event, volunteering or making a donation may seem like a small gesture, but each action sends a message that military service has not been forgotten.
Hugs for Our Heroes seeks to create engaging experiences through thoughtful planning and what it describes as a people-first approach. Its activities are designed to unite participants while keeping veterans and their contributions at the center of the organization’s work.
The organization’s website currently promotes a golf-related event and invites supporters who cannot participate on the course to contribute through donations. The event offers another way for community members to gather around the group’s mission while helping its veteran-support initiatives.
Local businesses are also helping Hugs for Our Heroes expand its reach. Birdie’s Links and Drinks, located at 320 Auto Park Drive, is listed as a gold sponsor. The Middletown-area entertainment and dining venue offers food, drinks and indoor golf in a casual setting.
Business sponsorships can play an important role in community organizations by helping cover program and event expenses, attracting new supporters and introducing the mission to a wider audience. They also demonstrate that honoring veterans is a shared responsibility that can involve families, nonprofit groups, residents and businesses.
At its core, Hugs for Our Heroes is a story about how remembrance can grow. What began with three grandsons honoring their grandfather has become an effort to recognize many of Delaware’s military veterans.
The Christmas wreath placed on one Korean War veteran’s grave represents more than a seasonal family custom. It symbolizes gratitude, continuity and the promise that service will be remembered.
Through Hugs for Our Heroes, Lucas, Jonas and Blake Karpinski are carrying their grandfather’s legacy forward, one veteran, one wreath and one caring community at a time.
Additional information about the organization, its events and ways to help is available at HugsForOurHeroes.com.
Washington, D.C. — The White House is heavily promoting a new “Fraud Ledger” claiming the Trump administration has uncovered nearly $250 billion in federal fraud. However, a closer look at the numbers shows the total mixes together unproven suspicions, money sent to collections, future projected savings, and cases that actually began years before the current task force was created.
The distinction is crucial. As the Government Accountability Office (GAO) points out, suspected fraud isn’t proven fraud, and money referred for collection isn’t money recovered.
While the White House breaks its tracker into three categories, “fraud uncovered,” “fraud stopped,” and “fraud enforced”, it provides no detailed methodology showing how individual agencies validated their estimates or avoided counting overlapping cases.
Several key examples highlight how the ledger inflates its figures:
Old SBA Loan Flags: The ledger credits the administration with finding $22.2 billion in fraudulent pandemic loans. But the Small Business Administration (SBA) acknowledged those 562,000 loans were already flagged during the Biden administration; the current administration simply referred them for collection and investigation.
Pre-Existing Cases: The dashboard features four captured fugitives tied to $5.4 billion in intended losses, but three of those individuals were charged in 2019 or 2024—well before Trump took office for his second term.
Timeline Mismatches: Vice President JD Vance claimed the administration uncovered $250 billion in fraud since he became “fraud chief,” but the ledger counts data starting in January 2025—months before the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud was officially created in March 2026.
Federal fraud remains a major issue—the GAO estimates the government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually based on historical data. But unlike the GAO’s statistical reporting, the White House’s ledger lacks transparent documentation, presenting broad estimates as definitive enforcement wins that cannot be independently verified.
King George, Virginia — King George County Public Schools will once again allow middle school students to form noncurricular clubs, including a Gay-Straight Alliance, after settling a federal lawsuit brought by families who challenged the district’s earlier restrictions.
The ACLU of Virginia and Potomac Law Group sued on behalf of two students after King George Middle School denied them the opportunity to form a GSA while other noncurricular groups were operating. The lawsuit argued that the district’s policy violated the First Amendment and the federal Equal Access Act.
Under the settlement, the school board reversed its ban on noncurricular organizations at the middle-school level and adopted new rules allowing students to establish such clubs. Parents must provide written permission before a student can join or attend meetings.
The school division said the revised policy is intended to balance student access to organizations with parental involvement, transparency and school safety. King George County Schools also maintains broader nondiscrimination policies and says its schools are intended to provide equal access to designated youth groups.
The ACLU said the settlement ensures that all students can access extracurricular opportunities on equal terms. Attorneys for the families said they could return to court if the district rejects a future GSA application under the new policy.
The agreement ends the immediate dispute while leaving the district’s new club application and parental-consent requirements in place.
The European agenda and UK–EU relations: a French perspective on a changing world
24
September 2026 — 11:30 TO 12:30 BST
Anonymous (not verified)
Chatham House and Online
How France views the current state of European affairs and the next phase of cooperation between the EU and the UK under the new Burnham government.
How France views the next phase of cooperation between the EU and the UK under the new Burnham government
As part of the UK in the World Programme’s new UK–EU series, join France’s Minister for Europe, Benjamin Haddad to examine the EU agenda and the future of UK–EU relations. The discussion will explore how Europe can strengthen cooperation, security and competitiveness in a changing geopolitical environment.
This event will discuss:
What is France’s perspective on the European agenda?
How does the EU-UK relation fit into that agenda?
What opportunities exist to deepen UK–EU cooperation a decade after Brexit?
How does France view the future of the relationship between London and Brussels
What major political, economic and security challenges remain?
How can the UK and EU work more closely on European security and defence?
What role can France and the UK play in strengthening Europe’s competitiveness and influence?
What outcomes are realistic in the near term for UK–EU relations?
Samantha Ramos teaches students in her English language development class at John B. Wright Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona.
Cassidy Araiza for ProPublica
Samantha Ramos stood at the front of her second grade classroom, a small mic clipped to her lanyard amplifying her instructions as she began a phonics lesson.
“Can we get our arms ready?” asked Ramos, who’s taught at the John B. Wright Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona, for 15 years. She brought her right palm to her left shoulder as the students imitated her movements.
Ramos, who specializes in teaching English as a second language, was leading a lesson that day on the short “i” sound. She told the students to pronounce each letter with a different gesture — touching the shoulder for the “w,” the elbow for the “i” and the hand for the double “l” — before sounding out the word “will.” They repeated the process for other short “i” words — “dig,” “wig” and “fit.”
The lesson is part of a daily block of language instruction, ranging from two to four hours long, that Arizona students learning English as a second language are required to take. The students, most of them Spanish-speaking Latino children, remain in the program, separated for part of that time from their peers whose primary language is English, until they pass a test showing they’re fluent enough to learn in a mainstream classroom.
The program is known as “structured English immersion,” or colloquially as “English-only” because all instruction is required to be in English. This limits their time for core subjects, like math and science, that are critical to academic success and college readiness. Arizona is the only state with English-only laws still in effect for its public schools.
But the number of students enrolled in the curriculum has tumbled dramatically this year. At the Tucson Unified School District, where Ramos teaches, the percentage of test-taking students who scored high enough to be classified as proficient in English more than doubled — from 10% in 2025 to 24% in 2026.
Rather than a big leap in fluency, however, the test results reflect the Arizona Department of Education lowering the grade needed to pass. The changes were approved by outgoing Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, a longtime Republican defender of Arizona’s English-only policies.
Experts warn this change will do lasting harm to tens of thousands of Arizona students who will exit the structured English immersion program before they know the language well enough to succeed. Such students are already part of the lowest-performing group on standardized tests, and the loss of specialized instruction could further harm their long-term academic success, according to education researchers.
Past attempts by the Arizona Department of Education to reclassify large numbers of children learning English as fluent prompted federal investigations by the departments of Justice and Education. Federal officials contended placing such students in classrooms where they struggled because they lacked knowledge of English violated their civil and educational rights, and Arizona agreed to a settlement more than a decade ago.
What’s happening now could be a repeat of that, said Katie Bernstein, an applied linguist and professor of early childhood education at Arizona State University.
“If you’re put in a class where you don’t understand what’s going on at all, you’re not learning language or content,” she said. “And so those are the worst outcomes of all, are students who are not given any language services.”
Ramos teaches her students phonics during a daily block of English-language immersion.Cassidy Araiza for ProPublica
Nearly 1 in 10 students enrolled in Arizona public and charter schools marked in their school registration forms they speak a language other than English at home. State law mandates that they be assessed for fluency and placed in structured English immersion, and each spring they take the Arizona English Language Learner Assessment, or AZELLA, to measure their progress in reading, writing, speaking and listening.
This approach has been required since Arizona voters passed a 2000 ballot initiative, Proposition 203, banning bilingual education in public schools. Still, officials have periodically made changes to the proficiency test.
The U.S. departments of Justice and Education determined the version of AZELLA administered between 2006 and 2012 — coinciding with Horne’s first two terms as the state’s top education official — was “not a valid measure of English language proficiency and readiness.” As a result, the state had removed at least 28,000 students from structured English immersion who still lacked proficiency in reading and writing the language.
The Arizona Department of Education was found to be in violation of civil rights laws that ban discrimination on the basis of race and national origin by schools that receive federal funds. The state voluntarily entered a settlement, which stressed that the law requires “education agencies to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede students’ equal participation in instructional programs.”
The settlement agreement stipulated that the state would immediately help school districts find the students who had been harmed and offer “reading and writing intervention services.” In the long term, the state was required to revamp the AZELLA test.
Similar issues prompted a second voluntary settlement four years later, which instructed the state to raise the threshold for a test score to qualify as proficient in English. The state was also required to retest English-language learners using more rigorous standards, among other things.
Ida Rose Florez, a psychologist and former professor and researcher at Arizona State University, conducted a study published in 2012 that found the AZELLA test was “ineffective and obsolete” and its results could be arbitrary. The research concluded there was no evidence the test could “accurately differentiate” between children who need English-language services and those who don’t.
“What I examined, and what I saw, was a test that was absolutely not developed correctly,” Florez told Arizona Luminaria and ProPublica. “I don’t see any basis for validity whatsoever.”
After dropping during the pandemic, AZELLA passing rates held steady at 12% statewide for three school years, including in 2025, when more than 118,000 took the test and just over 14,000 scored well enough to be reclassified as proficient.
After the Arizona Department of Education lowered the score needed to pass the test, the statewide reclassification rate for 2026 jumped to 26%, according to the department’s official tally announced to teachers at a September training. Nearly 113,000 students took the 2026 AZELLA, according to the department, resulting in the reclassification of about 30,000 students as proficient and their removal from English-language services this school year.
Students in the structured English immersion program head to class on a recent August morning.Cassidy Araiza for ProPublicaStudents learning English as a second language in Arizona must pass a test in order to exit the immersion program and join their English-speaking peers.Cassidy Araiza for ProPublica
The state Department of Education said its decision to make it easier to pass the AZELLA came after it administered the test last year to 600 native English speakers.
Each new version of the test is given to native speakers first and the results are used as a baseline, said Deputy Superintendent Margaret Dugan, who chaired the group that advocated for passage of Proposition 203 and has served with Horne during all three of his terms as superintendent.
The department skipped this step in 2020, when it made the last major change to the test, following a State Board of Education decision granting more flexibility in how schools teach students English. “Because of COVID and all of that that went on in 2020, things were not done in order,” Dugan said. “When we walked in, it was a new test and they had never tested the native speakers, so now they had to.”
When that version was belatedly administered to native English speakers, nearly half failed, said Adela Santa Cruz, who leads the Office of English Language Acquisition, which oversees the test. “With a native not being able to pass that test at a high percentage, there’s something that was just quite awry,” she said.
She said the issues were reflected in the pass rate of English learners plateauing at 12% for three years.
Using this information, education officials adjusted the grading criteria for students learning English, requiring a lower score to pass all four portions of the test: reading, writing, speaking and listening. Previously, all students needed a combined score of at least 1,000 out of a possible 1,405 to pass. This year, the minimum passing score for all grade levels ranged from 962 for high schoolers to 944 for kindergartners.
“My hope is that all of you will see an increase in proficiency,” Anju Kuriakose, the director of psychometrics at the Arizona Department of Education, told school district representatives upon announcing the changes in April.
Kuriakose noted half of the native speakers who had been tested to inform the changes were in kindergarten and first grade. Students in fifth grade or higher accounted for less than one-fifth of test takers.
Florez’s 2012 study found that when scoring guidelines are based too heavily on the test results of native-speaking kindergartners — without enough data from older children with more advanced language skills — pass results can be artificially elevated. She sees similar problems with the 2026 changes.
The Arizona Department of Education said Horne, who approved the changes, was unavailable for an interview. But he has played an outsize role in the state’s structured English immersion program.
This is Horne’s third nonconsecutive term as superintendent, having served from 2003 to 2011 before returning to the office in 2023. In a 2024 interview with Arizona Luminaria, he boasted that students’ reclassification rates were highest during his terms from 2003 to 2011. “After I left office, things deteriorated,” he said. “I implemented structured English immersion, and equally important, undertook intensive training for the teachers as to how to do it, and then we got it” — the reclassification rate — “up to 31% in three or four years,” he said.
The Arizona auditor general, however, questioned the validity of the test’s results during Horne’s tenure. An audit released in 2011 found that “because data is either unavailable or unreliable, the effect of SEI models is unknown.”
Horne lost his bid for reelection in July’s Republican primary and will leave office in December.
Juana Casas was relieved when her son Arturo, a fourth grader at Tucson’s John B. Wright Elementary School, passed the AZELLA test this spring after three years in structured English immersion classes.
Casas said she learned from the experience of her oldest daughter, who had struggled to learn English and fell behind her classmates. She and her husband sought after-school tutoring to help Arturo, and his two older sisters helped him learn English at home.
“I couldn’t help my oldest daughter, and she really struggled,” Casas said in Spanish. “Their two experiences are totally different. Arturo doesn’t speak Spanish very well because they’ve always spoken to him just in English so that he wouldn’t have to struggle like my oldest struggled.”
English learners already lag far behind their peers, resulting in lower rates of graduation and postsecondary attainment. In 2025, standardized reading tests administered to all Arizona third graders showed a 31% disparity between English-language learners and other students, according to the Center for the Future of Arizona’s Education Progress Meter. The standardized math exam administered to all Arizona eighth graders in 2025 showed a 23% disparity between English-language learners and other students.
Student work is displayed in Ramos’ classroom.Cassidy Araiza for ProPublica
Since Proposition 203 was debated 26 years ago, proponents have argued it helps students learn English more quickly and gets them into mainstream classes faster. There is limited research to support this. Ample studies, however, show students taught under English-only policies have bigger achievement gaps compared to students instructed using bilingual or multilingual education, which reinforces the student’s primary language while accelerating their learning in academic subjects and a second language.
A landmark 32-year study spanning 16 states analyzed various language-learning models, including structured English immersion, and found that “the key to accelerated progress is for English learners to receive peer-equivalent, grade-level bilingual schooling,” according to researchers Virginia Collier and Wayne Thomas.
Florez, the former ASU professor who studied Arizona’s model, said, “The fundamental problem with the AZELLA is that it’s trying to measure a system that should never be in place to begin with.”
Bernstein, the ASU early childhood education professor, said, “There is no linguistic, educational, economic, or research-based reason why we shouldn’t have dual-language programs in the state. And so I think that potentially leaves politics as the only answer to why.”
With more students passing this year’s proficiency test, the Tucson Unified School District is preparing to continue supporting students like Arturo within the mandates approved by voters in 2000.
Patricia Sandoval-Taylor, the district’s director for language development, said state law requires teachers to track reclassified students’ progress in their classrooms for two years and intervene with additional support like tutoring or summer school if needed. Arizona schools don’t receive additional funding for such services, as they do for students who are not proficient in English.
And since part of the district’s funding for English learners is based on the number of students in structured English immersion, more students passing the 2026 AZELLA will mean less funding in the 2027 school year.
“They’re not going to have the direct services to ensure they become fully English proficient,” Sandoval-Taylor said.
At John B. Wright Elementary, Ramos is still getting to know her second graders’ abilities and adjusting her teaching methods accordingly.
Teaching students who are learning English comes with additional responsibilities but no additional pay. Still, Ramos believes it’s where she can make the biggest difference. For her, that includes celebrating when students pass AZELLA and are classified as proficient in English.
“I think they need to be celebrated because they’re going above and beyond,” she said. “Before they did the change to the cut scores, it was like, ‘Well they passed this really incredibly difficult test that even English speakers couldn’t even pass themselves.’”
Washington, D.C. — Federal authorities say they disrupted an alleged Russian intelligence plot to assassinate a prominent Kremlin critic living in the Washington area, unveiling charges against five people accused of operating as part of a broader international network.
The Justice Department said the defendants worked for or with Russian intelligence services and sought to recruit people in the United States and abroad to conduct surveillance and targeted killings. Prosecutors allege the network has operated since at least 2024 and also plotted attacks against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries viewed as supporting Ukraine.
According to the indictment, operatives offered as much as $40,000 to kill the U.S.-based Russian dissident after first recruiting people to monitor the target. Authorities said the person approached to carry out the killing refused. A separate alleged plot involved a $25,000 offer to murder another target in Lithuania.
The five defendants include Russian nationals Yuri Khrameev and Kirill Khrameev, Cuban nationals Oemis Romagoza Durruthy and Yaidel Delgado Suarez, and Venezuelan national Angel Eduardo Castro. All remain at large. Some face additional murder-for-hire charges.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the case demonstrates the government’s effort to stop foreign-directed violence inside the United States.
The Kremlin has denied involvement in similar overseas operations and said credible evidence would be needed to support the latest allegations. The charges remain allegations, and none of the defendants has been convicted.
Why Should Delaware Care? The Working Families Party, a progressive political movement built around expanding populist ideals that has steadily grown its presence in Delaware in recent election cycles, further expanded its reach during Tuesday’s Democratic primaries.
While well-known incumbents easily prevailed in Democratic races at the top of Tuesday’s primary ticket, the big story of the night were the wins by statehouse progressives who knocked out five incumbents and captured an open seat.
U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings and first-time candidate for state treasurer, Ted Lauzen, each easily won their respective elections Tuesday night. They all face Republican challengers in November but will be heavy favorites in Delaware, which hasn’t elected a Republican statewide in 12 years.
But in the Delaware statehouse, it was a big night for the progressive Working Families Party, an organization that has been challenging — and ousting — Democratic incumbents for the last few election cycles. The WFP won eight of the 13 state or county races in which it endorsed candidates on Tuesday, marking its most successful cycle yet.
The wins included five new House members, one incumbent House member, one new State Senator, and a new council member in New Castle County. Their diversity — seven people of color and seven women — were also a striking addition to the Democratic field.
Perhaps the most surprising win of all of the progressive candidates was Tyeisha “Tye” Grier, who defeated Rep. Bill “Lumpy” Carson, a nearly 20-year incumbent who represents the Smyrna-area 28th House District.
And without a Republican challenger, Grier, an Army veteran and longtime progressive activist, heads straight to Legislative Hall in January after her win Tuesday night. She did not immediately return Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment.
Grier ran a grassroots campaign largely focused on affordability, pledging to work on housing prices, electricity costs and accessible childcare, while raising less than $2,000 in campaign funds.
Comparatively, Carson’s campaign spent or was aided by more than $100,000 in campaign funding, according to Spotlight Delaware’s campaign finance database.
The race was indicative of broader efforts in Democratic primaries across the state, but particularly in and around Wilmington where some of the most competitive races were, that saw more than $1 million spent by law firms, developers and prominent business owners to try to support reelection bids by incumbents or chosen candidates. Such spending on down-ballot races was unheard of just four years ago.
In most of the closest-watched races, the efforts succeeded as incumbents retained their seats, sometimes by wide margins and other times by very narrow ones.
But WFP-backed candidates also overcame fundraising disparities in other races during an election year where the progressive movement is making gains nationally.
In House District 6, where three Democrats were vying to succeed retiring longtime Rep. Debra Heffernan, it was progressive Rachel “Rae” Krantz who easily ran away with the race. Heffernan and corporate-backed political action committees had supported her opponent Ed Mulvihill, a local liquor store owner.
“We saw unprecedented amounts of PAC spending in these Delaware races, and I think for the most part, people said, ‘I just want to make my own decision here,’” Krantz told Spotlight Delaware on Tuesday night. “I think there’s also been a big frustration at the federal level with that lack of fight in the more moderate, corporate establishment, whatever you want to call them, Democrats. I think we’re seeing a real thirst for new energy and people who are ready to fight for them.”
For Karl Stomberg, the state political director for WFP, the night was a reminder of the political organization’s grassroots strategy.
“We always say, ‘They have the money, we have the people,’ especially in these areas that are more working-class, more diverse,” he told Spotlight Delaware on Tuesday night.
For those waking up Wednesday morning and wondering what an increased WFP presence in Dover may mean next year – assuming those who face general election challenges prevail as expected – Stomberg said their message was clear: “We want to make Delaware better, and we want to make it better for as many people as possible.”
“So, if your idea of making the state better is letting billionaires run wild over our legal system, or concentrating power at the top, or to kill free school meals, or kill police reform because you think that’s in the best interest of a certain group of people that you represent, then yeah, you’re going to be upset with the changes we’re trying to make,” he said. “Most of our elected officials have lived here their whole lives, and some for many generations. We want to have a state where everybody can live, thrive, and survive without having to worry about the cost of utilities, the cost of housing, the cost of groceries, and there’s a lot that we can do that we have not been doing.”
The full list of WFP-backed wins includes:
Shay Frisby over Sen. Ray Seigfried in the Claymont and Brandywine Hundred-area 5th Senate District.
Michelle Booker over Rep. Stephanie Bolden in the 2nd House District, covering Wilmington’s East Side.
Brandon Fletcher Dominguez over Rep. Josue Ortega in the 3rd House District, covering Wilmington’s Hilltop neighborhoods.
Rae Krantz in the three-candidate open primary to succeed retiring Rep. Debra Heffernan in the Bellefonte-area 6th House District
Incumbent Rep. Sherae’a “Rae” Moore holding onto her Middletown-area 8th House District seat.
Pamela Salaam over Rep. Frank Cooke in the 16th House District, stretching from Wilmington to New Castle
Grier over Carson in the Smyrna-area 28th House District.
Kira Alejandro in an open primary to replace Janet Kilpatrick, who did not seek reelection, on New Castle County Council.
Incumbents prevail in other races
Perhaps the biggest loss for a WFP-involved race was in Wilmington’s Senate District 1, where Sen. Dan Cruce fended off a challenge by Adriana Bohm, a professor and activist, by less than 200 votes.
In a Wednesday statement, Cruce thanked Bohm for “a hard fought election” and noted the record-setting primary turnout for the Senate District that stretches from Wilmington’s Highlands community to Alapocas, and Northeast Wilmington to Bellefonte.
“We need to come together and recognize that more unites us than divides us. Together, we can fight to protect our neighbors, make like more affordable, and deliver real results for our community,” he added.
Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha also defeated City Councilwoman Shané Darby in Wilmington’s House District 1, while Rep. Kim Williams, the co-chair of the state’s powerful Joint Finance Committee, easily outlasted challenger Will Imbrie-Moore in the Stanton area House District 19.
In non-WFP-involved contests, Krista Griffith’s win over Dr. Rob Bahnsen in the northern Wilmington suburbs’ House District 12 was among the most high-profile. More than $300,000 was spent between the two campaigns, with much of it relitigating the controversial Senate Bill 21, a corporate law passed last year.
House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris defeated challenger LaChelle Paul in the Dover-area House District 32, while progressive Rep. Eric Morrison turned away a challenge by union laborer Chris Muntz in the Glasgow-area House District 27.
Three state senators – Spiros Mantzavinos, Jack Walsh, and Kyra Hoffner – easily dispatched their opponents, all capturing at least 65% of their district votes. A fourth, Nicole Poore, had a closer race against a WFP-backed challenger, Keonna Watson, but ultimately prevailed with 53% of the vote.
In Sussex County, Rep. Alonna Berry held onto her Milton-area House seat against a challenger who questioned both her electability and recent affordable housing policy.
Ruby Keeler Schaeffer centered her campaign around Senate Bill 23, an affordable housing law that has sparked outsized scrutiny across Sussex County compared to its northern counterparts.
But that single-issue campaign was not enough to carry Schaeffer to victory.
Berry did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night, but she thanked her constituents in an emailed statement.
“Hope always wins,” she said. “Togetherness always wins. Let’s keep investing in hope, pushing for the promise of a better tomorrow and showing up as neighbors helping neighbors.”
Despite her primary win, Berry still faces a competitive general election challenge from Republican Gene Dvornick. Berry’s Milton-area district is arguably one of the most purple in the state, flipping to become Democratically controlled in 2022 and only narrowly staying in Democratic hands with Berry’s first win in 2025.
Khan-Flowers, Redlawsk win open seat races
Ayanna Khan-Flowers, the founder of the Delaware Black Chamber of Commerce, won a three-way race for the Democratic nomination in House District 9, covering the Middletown-Odessa-Townsend area.
That seat, held by retiring Republican Rep. Kevin Hensley, is a major flip target for Democrats in November as they seek a two-thirds supermajority. Khan-Flowers will face a general election contest with Republican Jamar Money, which ensures that the changing 9th District will be represented by a person of color.
In Newark’s House District 23, university professor David Redlawsk won a four-way race to succeed Rep. Mara Gorman who is running for State Senate. Redlawsk will head to Dover in January with no Republican opponent on the line.
County races elect new faces
One new county council member was elected in New Castle County, where the only contested primary races at the county-level were held.
As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, Jason Hoover held a slight edge over Helena Creamer in District 4, which has no Republican opposition. The winner will join the 13-member council in November.
Councilwoman Valerie George was reelected in District 5 after defeating WFP-backed Syam Kosigi, but his fellow progressive Kira Alejandro bested Kyle Grantham, a former county communications professional who was endorsed by the retiring incumbent Janet Kilpatrick.
Alejandro will face Republican Melissa Brayman in the November general election.
Finally, County Councilman David Tackett beat incumbent Mike Kozikowski for New Castle County Recorder of Deeds, a little-discussed row office job. His election will create a special election in the 11th District near Newark, as there is no Republican challenger for the job.
That race was marked by scandal in recent weeks as Tackett alleged Kozikowski offered him a job to stay out of the race.
Washington, D.C. — Federal agencies spent an estimated $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave in 2025, a sixfold increase from 2023, according to a new Government Accountability Office report examining workforce-reduction efforts under the Trump administration.
GAO found that about $6.7 billion of the total was tied to the government’s Deferred Resignation Program, which allowed eligible federal workers to stop working while continuing to receive pay and benefits until their separation date, generally Sept. 30, 2025.
Nearly 140,000 federal employees ultimately participated in the program, according to Office of Personnel Management data. OPM’s original offer explicitly stated that workers accepting deferred resignation would retain full pay and benefits regardless of daily workload and would be exempt from in-person work requirements.
The GAO said paid administrative leave increased 435% between 2023 and 2025. However, it also cautioned that agency reporting problems may have overstated some totals because holidays were sometimes incorrectly recorded as administrative leave.
The watchdog recommended that OPM publicly disclose unresolved data-quality problems and create a separate reporting category for paid leave used in workforce reductions. OPM agreed with both recommendations.
Democrats have criticized the deferred resignation strategy as wasteful, while the administration has argued that reducing the federal workforce will generate longer-term savings. GAO said OPM currently lacks sufficiently precise data to determine the full short-term costs of those workforce reductions against any eventual savings.
DOVER, Del. — Here are the unofficial results of the 2026 Delaware primary. There were 128,598 registered voters who cast a ballot out of 593,286 registered statewide, a turnout of 21.7%. Tables 1 through 4 below cover every statewide, legislative and county race.
First-term incumbent Valerie George survived a challenge by political newcomer Syam Kosigi in Tuesday’s primary in the District 5 New Castle County Council race.
Washington, D.C. — The Pentagon is asking military commanders to nominate physically fit, well-groomed and highly rated service members to attend Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Sept. 30 “State of the Force” address, according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
An Army email said nominees must pass the service’s fitness test, meet waist-to-height requirements and maintain “impeccable grooming and uniform standards.” Similar instructions were reportedly sent to other military branches.
The Pentagon is also seeking troops considered top performers with records of discipline, integrity and leadership. Selected attendees may have the opportunity to work out with Hegseth before or after the address.
The criteria align with priorities Hegseth outlined during a September 2025 speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico, where he announced tougher fitness and grooming standards across the armed forces. He said all service members should meet height and weight requirements and take physical fitness tests twice annually.
That address also drew attention for Hegseth’s criticism of overweight troops and generals and his declaration that there would be “no more beardos.” Since then, Pentagon officials have continued pressing military branches to enforce grooming and fitness rules more consistently.
Unlike last year’s gathering, which largely centered on generals and admirals, this year’s event is expected to include lower-ranking officers and enlisted personnel.
A Pentagon official declined to comment to the Journal on the selection criteria.
30th annual show celebrates nation’s 250th anniversary with rare vehicles from independent automakers
WILMINGTON, Del. — Hundreds of classic vehicles will roll into Hagley Museum and Library on Sunday, Sept. 20, as the Hagley Car Show celebrates its 30th anniversary and America’s 250th birthday.
The rain-or-shine show will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the fields surrounding the first du Pont family home. Thousands of automobile enthusiasts are expected to attend.
This year’s theme, “American Independent Automakers,” will spotlight companies that competed outside Detroit’s “Big Three” of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. Featured manufacturers will include AMC, Packard, Studebaker and Hudson.
Classic cars of all makes and models, dating from the early 20th century through 2001, will fill the main show field.
Rare vehicles highlight American innovation
Among the lesser-known automobiles scheduled to appear is a 1940 Graham Hollywood Supercharged Sedan.
Graham-Paige was founded in 1927 after three brothers purchased the Paige-Detroit Motor Car Co. for $4 million and invested an additional $4 million in the business. The company introduced innovations including shatterproof windshields and its distinctive “shark-nose” body design before automobile production ended in 1940.
The featured field will also include a rare 1963 Kellison J-3 Roadster. Its aerodynamic fiberglass body reflects the aviation background of company founder Jim Kellison, a former Air Force mechanic who drew inspiration from fighter jets and Italian sports cars.
The vehicles represent a period when smaller manufacturers tested new designs and technologies while competing against the nation’s dominant automakers.
30 years of automotive history
Hagley launched the car show in 1996 as “100 Years of Cars,” commemorating the Duryea brothers’ first production run of gasoline-powered vehicles in 1896.
Three decades later, the annual event has grown into a gathering for collectors, families and automobile enthusiasts from across the region.
Visitors can walk among rows of vintage vehicles while listening to music from different motoring eras. A parade featuring some of the show’s most distinctive vehicles will begin at 11:30 a.m.
Food trucks will offer meals and refreshments throughout the day.
Admission is sold by the carload and must be purchased in advance. Passes will not be available at the gate. General admission is $30 per vehicle, while Hagley members pay $25.
To Go Box:
What: Hagley Car Show
When: Sunday, Sept. 20, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Vehicle parade: 11:30 a.m.
Where: Hagley Museum and Library, 200 Hagley Creek Road, Wilmington
Admission: $30 per carload for the general public; $25 per carload for Hagley members
Tickets: Advance purchase is required at hagley.org/carshow, the Hagley Visitor Center or the Museum Store through Saturday, Sept. 19. No tickets will be sold at the gate.
Arrival: Visitors must enter through Hagley’s main entrance off Route 141 and arrive no later than 1 p.m.
Image courtesy of Harmony Senior Living. AI-generated on 9/15.
Veterans and their families are invited to attend the Sept. 18 ceremony and complimentary luncheon
DOVER, Del. — Harmony at Kent will recognize military veterans from its senior living community and the greater Dover area with the dedication of a new Wall of Honor on Friday, Sept. 18.
The ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. at Harmony at Kent, 1435 E. Lebanon Road. Officers from Dover Air Force Base are expected to attend, offer remarks and help commemorate the occasion.
The Wall of Honor was created to recognize the courage, commitment and contributions of veterans who live at Harmony at Kent. It also is intended to serve as a lasting tribute to military service members throughout the Dover community.
“We are proud to recognize the men and women who have served our country and helped shape our community,” said Executive Director Philip Milnamow, who is also a veteran. “This Wall of Honor serves as a meaningful reminder of their sacrifice, dedication and patriotism, and we are honored to celebrate them and their families.”
The public recognition carries particular significance in Dover, where Dover Air Force Base has long been an important part of the community and military families have helped shape the region’s identity.
Veterans from throughout the Dover area and their family members are invited to attend the ceremony. A complimentary luncheon with veterans, military representatives and community members will follow the dedication.
Harmony at Kent offers independent living, assisted living and memory care apartments. The community also provides social activities, meals and on-site physical, occupational and speech therapy.
To Go Box
What: Wall of Honor Ribbon Cutting and Dedication
When: 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 18
Where: Harmony at Kent, 1435 E. Lebanon Road, Dover
Who may attend: Dover-area veterans and their families
Cost: Free; a complimentary luncheon will follow the ceremony
Washington, D.C. — Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced a privileged resolution Tuesday seeking to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing him of continuing U.S. military operations in Iran despite congressional efforts to restrict the conflict.
Massie’s eight-article resolution alleges that Hegseth carried out military operations that exceeded executive authority and undermined Congress’ constitutional role in decisions over war. The measure also cites U.S. actions in Venezuela and Yemen, including the operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“In all of this, Secretary Hegseth has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as Secretary of Defense,” Massie said on the House floor.
The Kentucky Republican has repeatedly supported war-powers measures aimed at limiting U.S. hostilities with Iran. House records show he backed resolutions in March, May and July directing the president to remove U.S. forces from unauthorized hostilities.
Because Massie filed the resolution as privileged, House leaders must address it within two legislative days. They could allow a direct vote or attempt to table it.
Hegseth previously faced a separate impeachment effort from House Democrats, who introduced articles in April focused largely on the Iran war and other allegations involving his conduct.
The new resolution comes as Congress continues debating the scope of presidential war powers. The House has already passed measures this year seeking to constrain the administration’s military campaign in Iran.
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump sharply criticized the Supreme Court on Tuesday after the justices blocked his administration’s proposed mail-ballot restrictions from taking effect before the November midterm elections, calling the ruling a “big loss” for Republicans.
The court rejected the administration’s emergency request to allow the U.S. Postal Service to enforce new requirements for mail ballots. The proposed system would have required states to use standardized ballot envelopes and submit voter information through a federal portal. Election officials argued there was not enough time to make those changes before voting began.
Trump directed much of his criticism at the court’s conservative majority, including justices he appointed. He wrote that they were “not the people I interviewed” and had become “a shell of their original selves.” He praised dissenting Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas as “legends both.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed the restrictions should remain blocked for this election but indicated the government could ultimately prevail in later litigation. The underlying legal challenge is still unresolved.
Trump also used the lengthy Truth Social post to criticize the court’s rulings involving tariffs and birthright citizenship, claiming its decisions had caused severe economic and political damage. Reuters noted that the Supreme Court retains a 6-3 conservative majority and has also ruled in Trump’s favor on several major issues.
Austin, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott has directed the Texas Water Development Board to penalize data centers that fail to submit legally required water-use reports, citing concerns that incomplete information is undermining long-term planning as the industry rapidly expands across the state.
Texas law requires surveyed industrial users, including data centers, to return water-use information to the agency. Failure to comply can result in a Class C misdemeanor and can also make companies ineligible for certain state funding or water permits. Abbott instructed the board to pursue past violations and impose consequences for future failures.
Compliance has been low. The Texas Tribune reported that fewer than 30% of surveyed data centers have responded in recent years, even as the number of facilities tracked by the state has grown sharply. Water planners use the information to project demand and develop Texas’ long-term water strategy.
Data centers can consume large amounts of water for cooling and other operations. Texas now has hundreds of existing or proposed facilities, with particularly heavy development in North Texas.
Abbott also ordered the water board to coordinate with the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT on a separate review of data centers seeking connections to the state power grid. That audit will examine water consumption, supply sources and water-efficient technologies. Projects that fail to complete the process can be denied grid interconnection.
The governor requested a progress report from the Water Development Board by Oct. 14.
Detroit, Michigan — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers will skip a Fox 2 Detroit debate Tuesday, accusing moderator Roop Raj of showing bias toward Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
Rogers’ campaign said Raj had behaved in ways “inconsistent with the level of gravity” expected from a moderator in a major Senate race. Among its complaints, the campaign cited Raj’s handling of a Republican gubernatorial debate and comments in which he called Rogers a “veteran politician” while describing El-Sayed as an outsider who was “pretty brilliant in many ways.”
Fox 2 invited both candidates to the Sept. 15 debate shortly after the August primary. El-Sayed accepted, while Rogers did not. The station said the debate would proceed with El-Sayed and an empty podium for Rogers, adding that the invitation remained open.
Raj has publicly urged candidates to participate in debates and said Monday that he and Rogers have had “very good, fair and productive” conversations. He also said he would moderate with “integrity and responsibility.”
El-Sayed previously challenged Rogers to five debates. Rogers has agreed to two others scheduled for Oct. 8 and Oct. 21.
Michigan’s open Senate race has drawn national attention, with Rogers seeking the seat after narrowly losing his 2024 Senate bid and El-Sayed advancing after defeating Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary.
DOVER, Del. — Statewide, eight races have a real primary fight today; one party only, but genuine competition within that party, which makes today a real “nail-biter”—see Table 1 below.
Table 1: Races Decided Today — No Nov. 3 General Election
Office
District / County
Sept. 15 Primary
Candidates (Primary)
Nov. 3 General
Candidates (General)
State Senate, District 9
New Castle
Yes
Jack Walsh (D), Dawn Briggs (D)
None filed
N/A — primary winner takes seat
State House, District 2
New Castle
Yes
Stephanie T. Bolden (D), Michelle H. Booker (D)
None filed
N/A — primary winner takes seat
State House, District 23
New Castle
Yes
Luann D’Agostino (D), Joe Jasper (D), Dave Redlawsk (D), Dan Seador (D)
None filed
N/A — primary winner takes seat
State House, District 28
Kent
Yes
William Carson Jr. (D), Tyeisha “Tye” Grier (D)
None filed
N/A — primary winner takes seat
State House, District 32
Kent
Yes
Kerri Evelyn Harris (D), LaChelle Paul (D)
None filed
N/A — primary winner takes seat
New Castle County Council, District 4
New Castle
Yes
Curtis Dauntell Linton (D), Helena M. Creamer (D), Jason Hoover (D)
Plenty of other primary races are “nail-biters” also with the winner continuing to the general election on Nov. 3rd.
For example, Democratic incumbent Kathy Jennings faces primary challengers Dwayne Bensing and Patty Rickman for the attorney general nomination. Whoever wins would face their opponent Republican David Graham in the general election. Also, Democratic incumbent Sen. Chris Coons has three primary challengers of his own, and two Republicans are competing for their party’s nomination at the same time.
Wherever you live in Delaware, whichever party you belong to, today’s turnout is the real story. In a lot of races, it’s not just influential, it’s the entire outcome.
For a full rundown of who’s on the ballot statewide, including contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, attorney general and state treasurer, along with New Castle County Council races, see Delaware LIVE’s Sept. 15 Primary Voters’ Guide.
One more thing before polls close at 8 p.m. tonight: you might already be registered to vote without realizing it.
You may already be a registered voter and didn’t know it…
If you got a Delaware driver’s license or state ID recently (since June 21, 2023), you may have been signed up to vote automatically, without picking a party. If that’s you, you can still choose Democratic or Republican today, right at the polls, and vote in that party’s primary. Not sure if this applies to you? Grab your license and check here.
Boston, Massachusetts — A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from imposing new limits on how long foreign students, exchange visitors and journalists can remain in the United States without applying for extensions.
U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor issued a preliminary injunction one day before the Department of Homeland Security rule was scheduled to take effect. The policy would have replaced the decades-old “duration of status” system with fixed admission periods, generally limiting F student and J exchange visas to four years and I visas for foreign journalists to 240 days.
Saylor said DHS relied on “exceptionally weak” national-security and fraud justifications and likely failed to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act by inadequately addressing public comments or considering less burdensome alternatives.
Universities and advocacy groups challenging the rule argued it would disrupt research, discourage international enrollment and create uncertainty for students whose academic programs extend beyond four years. Saylor found they had shown a likelihood of irreparable harm if the policy took effect.
DHS General Counsel James Percival criticized the ruling, arguing the existing system allows some visa holders to remain in the country indefinitely without undergoing renewed government review.
The injunction does not permanently invalidate the rule. The lawsuit will continue, with a status conference scheduled for Oct. 2.
For now, foreign students and exchange visitors may continue remaining in the United States for the duration of their approved programs rather than facing automatic fixed-term expiration dates.
The WRFC is Delaware’s oldest men’s club rugby team having been around since 1972. In addition to its men’s team the organization fields a women’s team, youth teams and a team called the Old Boys for those 35 years old and older. Photo courtesy of Wilmington Rugby Team.
Wilmington Rugby’s men’s team starts their 2026 fall season with a matchup against Northeast Philadelphia Irish Rugby Club in Philly.
WILMINGTON, Del – Following a summer of friendlies and tournament play, the Wilmington Rugby Club’s men’s team (WRFC) will kick-off their 2026 fall season on September 19, against the men’s team from Northeast Philadelphia Irish Rugby Club. The game will be played in Philly and time has yet to be announced.
The WRFC is hoping to improve on a strong 2025 fall season in which they narrowly missed the playoffs. The team will face a strong test right out of the gate against Northeast Philadelphia Irish Rugby Club. The club’s men’s team has finished in the top two of the Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union (EPRU) Division III fixtures the past two seasons, according to the team’s website.
The WRFC’s match on Saturday is the first of a six game schedule they will play this fall, which includes a matchup against the Wilkes-Barre Rugby Football Club at the end of the season. The Wilkes-Barre Rugby Football Club won the EPRU Division III championship in 2025, according to its team website. That will be the final game WRFC plays in the 2026 fall season and will take place on October 31.
The WRFC is Delaware’s oldest men’s club rugby team having been around since 1972. In addition to its men’s team the organization fields a women’s team, youth teams and a team called the Old Boys for those 35 years old and older. The youth programs include a “Rookie Rugby Program” which is a non-contact, introductory style program for those ages 7-14, the Wilmington Raptors program which is a co-ed U14 team and two high school aged club teams. The Wilmington Colts are the boys high school club team and the Wilmington Vipers are the girls high school program. The Vipers inaugural season was in the spring of 2026, according to the WRFC website.
The club is always welcoming new players regardless of experience level or talent. Those interested in participating can go on the WRFC website and hit the join tab at the top of the page where they can fill out an interest form. The club also welcomes interested individuals to check out a practice or reach out with any questions. All practices during the fall season are held at the Siegel JCC in Wilmington, Delaware. The men’s team practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays and women’s team practices on Mondays and Thursdays.
The sport of rugby is slowly gaining popularity in the United States. USA Rugby — the national governing body for rugby in the United States — says it has over 110,000 active members across its many levels, according to their website. Over 68,000 spectators flocked to M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore to watch a match between the South Africa Springboks and New Zealand All Blacks, last week, according to the Baltimore Sun, and in 2031 the US will be a host site for the 2031 Rugby World Cup, according to an ESPN article from 2022.
To learn more about the WRFC and how to get involved with their rugby programs check out their facebook page or click here to be directed to their website.
Members of the DSPC, state and federal legislature and Enstructure pose for a photo at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Delaware Container Terminal. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti
Members of the state legislature, Enstructure and the Diamond State Port Corporation gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Delaware Container Terminal on September 14.
WILMINGTON, DE — Community leaders and members of Enstructure and the Diamond State Port Corporation (DSPC) gathered together at the site of the Delaware Container Terminal, Monday morning, to officially break ground on the port project.
The Delaware Container Terminal is intended to be a new container port located along the Delaware River at the former Edgemoor industrial site that was home to a DuPont chemical plant, up until its closure in 2015. The new terminal is a public-private partnership venture between Enstructure and the DSPC, and is expected to increase Delaware’s container handling capacity by a significant amount, according to an official press release from Enstructure following the event.
The groundbreaking ceremony took place on the project site and hosted a plethora of speakers integral in the project’s development. The first speaker and host of the day’s program was Delaware Secretary of State and DSPC Board Chair, Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez. Patibanda-Sanchez was followed by Delaware Governor Matt Meyer, United States Senator Chris Coons, a video message from United States Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester and in-person remarks from United States Representative Sarah McBride.
A project rendering of what the completed Delaware Container Terminal project may resemble. Photo Credit: Enstructure
State Senators Darius Brown and Jack Walsh spoke after Rep. McBride and State Representative Franklin Cooke followed the senators, telling those assembled together that the port project was special to him because of his familial ties to working at port locations, including the Port of Wilmington. State Rep. Cooke said that for four generations a member of his family had worked at the port, including himself.
The President of the International Longshoreman’s Association 1694, William Ashe Jr., spoke next followed by the Executive Director of the Bellevue Community Center, Daniel Elkins and Co-CEOs of Enstructure, Matthew Satnick and Philippe De Montigny.
The overarching theme from all the speakers was an optimism of how the project will positively impact Delaware’s economic footprint both in terms of local job creation and global commerce.
“This is really big for our community,” Gov. Meyer said. “This is something that’s going to create thousands of jobs. It takes a whole lot of investment from the private sector, from the public sector. I would anticipate that not everyone’s going to be for it, but we’re going to push forward. We’re listening to the community. My appointments to the port board reflect that we are not just sitting back and listening to what the neighbors have to say, we’re out there actively soliciting. We want to hear them. They’re part of this project too.”
The project is expected to create thousands of jobs in sectors such as maritime, construction, supply chain and logistics, according to Enstructure. The port will be able to welcome in larger ships due to the expected development that will increase water depth to 45 feet and about half a mile in waterfront docking space at the project’s full-scale.
The port is being designed as a “green port facility” in an effort to reduce the infrastructure’s impact on the surrounding environment. The port will use electric powered equipment such as electric gantry cranes to handle cargo and it will also incorporate “low-emission operating practices”, according to Enstructure. The project will use funding from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Ports Program to support their efforts in “the collection and analysis of operational data to measure results and refine implementation over time.”
The project isn’t supported by everyone in the local community.
A group of protestors gathered in front of the project site holding signs that asked for a stop to the project. Patibanda-Sanchez acknowledged the group while speaking to the audience assembled at the groundbreaking ceremony, saying that the DSPC will continue working with the local community to try and mitigate the impact on the community as the site cleanup and development proceeds.
“This was a heavily polluted site for a long time,” Sen. Coons said. “It was a titanium dioxide plant under DuPont’s ownership, and dioxin is very dangerous. It’s a contaminating chemical. So, I think there are legitimate community concerns that need to be addressed as the cleanup proceeds, but I also think having a new state-of-the-art container terminal on this river, a dream that’s been invested in and built towards for now 15 years is well worth doing for the high quality union jobs it will produce for generations in Delaware.”
The port is expected to be open in early 2029, according to Enstructure.
Young players train at a baseball academy in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.
Baseball is everywhere in the Dominican Republic, which sends a disproportionate number of players to the American major and minor leagues, including Hall of Famers like Pedro Martínez and Adrian Beltré. Playing fields and training academies dot the country in villages where players who’ve made the leap to the pros are immortalized in murals.
For nearly half a century, the Dominican Republic has sent more players to the majors than any country outside the United States. The nation, which has a population roughly that of Ohio’s, had 144 players reach the major leagues last year. That’s about 10% of the league.
The Dominican baseball factory is a volume business, with teams paying signing bonuses to about 450 prospects each year. Fewer than 10% of those young players will ever see a single pitch in the majors, but in a country as impoverished as the Dominican Republic those bonuses — worth several times the country’s average annual income — could be life-changing for the players and their families. Yet Major League Baseball has long allowed a corrosive system to fester that rigs the game against young players in favor of opportunistic trainers and predatory moneylenders.
Trainers coach children in exchange for future earnings.
Young baseball players in the United States and Canada must enter the major league system through its annual draft of young prospects. But in the Dominican Republic it’s a free-for-all, with players going to the highest bidder.
After MLB scouts began to recognize the Dominican Republic as a source of cheap talent, teams opened bare-bones training academies to develop young players. Eventually, the buscones — men relied on by teams to identify local talent — realized they could start their own academies. There are now hundreds of such facilities and, according to a national trade association, approximately 6,000 trainers.
In addition to coaching, the trainers who operate these academies generally provide room, board and equipment. Education often falls by the wayside. In return, they receive a share — typically 35% to 50% — of a player’s signing bonus. Most of those bonuses are valued at around $30,000, but they can be as high as six or seven figures.
From 2012 through the beginning of 2026, major league teams paid Dominican prospects $1.042 billion in bonuses, according to a ProPublica analysis. But much of that money — up to half a billion dollars — is almost immediately siphoned off by trainers and lenders.
Young players train and work on homework during a break at a baseball academy just outside Santo Domingo, in El Mamón.
To get around league rules, MLB teams make handshake deals with underage players.
Major league rules bar teams from making official deals with players under the age of 16, but teams have long circumvented this ban through the use of unwritten early agreements, or preacuerdos. In these handshake deals, typically arranged through a player’s trainer, the team pledges to pay a certain amount to the player once he is of legal age to be signed.
With players as young as 11 involved in such deals, it can be years before the prospect receives his bonus.
Moneylenders persuade families to sign over players’ bonuses for high-interest loans.
Preacuerdos and the lure of these promised payouts have created a cottage industry of prestamistas, or moneylenders, who persuade players’ families to sign away portions of these impending bonuses in exchange for loans with sky-high interest rates.
The Dominican Republic repealed its usury laws 24 years ago. High-interest lenders advertise online, targeting young ballplayers and their families. One WhatsApp ad touted loans for “baseball players who have agreements.”
Belfi Rivera was 14 when he made a handshake deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks that would pay him $1.8 million after he turned 16. (The Diamondbacks did not respond to a request for comment.) Ultimately, he’d see very little of that money. The trainer who had brokered the deal got his share, worth $630,000. More than $950,000 went to someone who had no hand in teaching Belfi how to play baseball: Santo Caraballo, a lender who formed a business partnership with Red Sox legend and Hall of Famer David Ortiz.
In a statement sent through his lawyer, Ortiz said that his business relationship with Caraballo “began to come to an end” more than 18 months ago.” He added that he ended his personal relationship with Caraballo “a year and a half to two years ago” after “noticing conduct by Mr. Caraballo that I considered inappropriate. I started distancing myself from him personally and placed the relevant matters in the hands of my legal advisors.”
However, in September 2025, Ortiz and Caraballo filmed themselves heading for Puerto Rico on a private jet, drinking and dancing on their way to a Bad Bunny concert.
In a brief conversation, Caraballo told ProPublica that his business was not the biggest or “that lucrative.” He added that the risk in loaning money to families is that “you never know if it will succeed or not because if the player doesn’t get signed, you don’t get paid.” Multiple attempts were made to reach him again, including sending him a summary of ProPublica’s findings. He never responded.
Belfi Rivera saw only a small percentage of his bonus from the Arizona Diamondbacks after his trainer took his commission and a lender persuaded his parents to take out triple-digit interest loans against his future signing.
One lender used a player’s deadly car crash to start his empire.
Before becoming a fixture in the prestamista sphere and partnering with Ortiz, Caraballo played a shadowy role in salvaging the career of rising MLB prospect Oneil Cruz. In 2020, while Cruz was a player in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ minor league system, he crashed his Jeep into the back of a motorcycle, killing three people. Prosecutors initially said the ballplayer had been drinking, and he faced the possibility of three years in prison. According to numerous interviews and court records, Caraballo was brought in by Cruz’s parents and negotiated payments to the victims’ families. In exchange, they signed agreements withdrawing all claims against Cruz, who is currently the starting center fielder for the Pirates. The case against Cruz, who denied any wrongdoing, was dismissed. ProPublica made numerous attempts to reach Caraballo about his role, including sending him a summary of our findings. He never responded.
Cruz declined a request for an interview. His lawyer, Amauris Vásquez Disla, called the accident “a profound tragedy for all parties involved, especially the victims’ families.” He went on to say that the court “issued an order of dismissal based on the findings, a legally binding decision that was a lawful resolution of this matter.”
A spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Pirates said the team and Cruz “addressed this matter more than six years ago based on the information available and the outcome of the legal proceedings.”
That lender then partnered with the Dominican Republic’s biggest baseball star.
By 2021, records show that Caraballo and Ortiz had entered into a business partnership, with both men listed on corporation records of a Florida company called Big Papi Sports Group. The company was dissolved the next year. What, if anything, it did is not clear. Their financial and personal relationships, however, continued. Ortiz acknowledged to a ProPublica reporter that he had invested millions of dollars into Caraballo’s baseball business. He added that his business with Caraballo was limited to making loans to trainers, not kids. At Ortiz’s 2022 Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Caraballo sat with the retired player’s family.
The grave of Daniela Perez Garcia, who was killed after a Jeep that Oneil Cruz was driving rear-ended a motorcycle she was riding on
Why did David Ortiz oppose an international draft?
Ortiz’s connection to Caraballo doesn’t just spotlight the power and influence that these moneylenders can attain in the Dominican Republic. It also raises questions about the Red Sox legend’s involvement in persuading major league players to oppose an international draft.
For more than a decade, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has made the case in favor of a draft for prospects from Latin America. Last year, during a visit to the Dominican Republic, he acknowledged that preacuerdos were “problematic” and argued that the “best solution to early deals is a draft.” Manfred and supporters of an international draft say it would make early agreements impossible.
The players union has opposed such a draft, arguing that it would restrict a prospect’s ability to choose his employer and eliminate bidding wars that drive up bonuses. The union has acknowledged that the Dominican system of early deals is troubled but has maintained for years that this is due to the league not enforcing its own rules.
During contract negotiations in 2022, the league was again pushing for an international draft, and the issue had become a major sticking point. But then, said people on both sides of the discussions, Ortiz got involved, sending a voice message to Dominican players and trainers, declaring a “red alert.”
“If we allow the draft to happen here in the Dominican Republic, even your great-great-grandchildren, and everyone else’s, will be affected by it,” Ortiz said, according to an audio copy of the message obtained by ProPublica. “If we let them push that thing through here, we’ll be in deep trouble.”
In the message, Ortiz shared the phone number for Tony Clark, the union’s executive director, and urged everybody to express their opposition to the draft. What he didn’t share was that he had a financial interest in preserving the system.
When asked over the phone if his opposition to the draft had anything to do with his partnership with Caraballo, who profits from the current system, Ortiz didn’t answer and hung up shortly afterward.
In a subsequent statement sent through his lawyer, Ortiz said his position regarding the international draft “was never motivated by personal interests.” The statement went on to say that his opposition “was based on my views regarding the development of Dominican players and the impact I believed such a system would have on baseball in our country.”
“Major League Baseball knows how dirty the business is here.”
Major League Baseball is a formidable economic and political presence in the Dominican Republic. But outside of the league’s push for an international draft, it’s done nothing that would put an end to or reform the early agreement system. It has never publicly warned or penalized a team for making an early deal, and its attempts to educate families about moneylenders have been ineffectual. A spokesperson for MLB declined to comment and referred to past statements by league officials calling for an overhaul of the Dominican system.
“Major League Baseball knows how dirty the business is here,” said Piñao Ortiz, who was the Dominican commissioner of baseball from 1996 to 2000, “but it’s not doing anything to stop it.”
Duxbury, Massachusetts — Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., called for the execution of Lindsay Clancy after the Massachusetts mother’s murder trial ended in a mistrial, even though capital punishment is not available under Massachusetts law.
During an interview with TMZ, Mace said Clancy deserved a “public execution” and mentioned either a firearm or the electric chair. Her comments followed the Sept. 4 mistrial in Clancy’s case, where jurors deadlocked after seven days of deliberations. Multiple jurors later said the panel stood 11-1 in favor of finding Clancy not criminally responsible because of insanity.
Clancy admitted killing her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — in January 2023. Her defense argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. Prosecutors contended that she remained legally responsible for the killings.
Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, has since asked the judge to acquit her rather than allow a second trial. Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will retry the case. If convicted of first-degree murder, Clancy could face life imprisonment without parole.
A presidential pardon is not available because Clancy faces state, not federal, charges.
Massachusetts has not carried out an execution since 1947, and its Supreme Judicial Court ruled the state’s death penalty unconstitutional in 1984. That means Mace’s proposed punishment could not be imposed under current Massachusetts law.
Washington, D.C. — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s emergency request to enforce new U.S. Postal Service restrictions on mail ballots before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, leaving existing state voting procedures in place.
The disputed rule would require election officials to use Postal Service-approved ballot envelopes and upload information about eligible voters to a federal portal. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani previously blocked the requirements for elections through Nov. 3, finding serious legal and logistical problems with implementing them so close to Election Day.
In an unsigned order, the Supreme Court said the government was unlikely to succeed in challenging Talwani’s preliminary injunction and had not met the requirements for emergency relief. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh separately wrote that the Postal Service rule may ultimately fall within the agency’s legal authority, but said imposing it now would be “arbitrary and capricious” because state and local officials lacked sufficient time to implement the changes.
The decision does not permanently invalidate the Postal Service rule. The underlying litigation will continue, meaning courts could still determine whether the federal government has authority to impose similar requirements in future elections.
For November, however, states can continue operating their existing mail-voting systems without complying with the new federal requirements.
Sacramento, California — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would not run for president in 2028 if former Vice President Kamala Harris enters the Democratic primary, arguing that a contest between the two longtime California politicians would be damaging to both.
Newsom made the comments during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper at his in-laws’ ranch in Montana. Asked whether he would run if Harris did, Newsom replied, “I wouldn’t run if she ran.” He later described such a matchup as “mutual assured destruction” and a political gift to their opponents.
Neither Newsom nor Harris has announced a 2028 presidential campaign. Both, however, have publicly left open the possibility of running. Newsom is term-limited as California governor, while Harris has remained politically active since losing the 2024 presidential election.
Newsom has recently increased his national political activity, traveling to early-primary states and campaigning for Democratic candidates. His South Carolina appearances and “Take It Back” tour have fueled speculation about a potential presidential bid.
Newsom also told CNN that family considerations would factor heavily into any decision. He said his wife and children would need to support a campaign, calling their opposition a “non-starter.”
His comments do not clear the Democratic field for Harris, who has not declared her candidacy, but they establish one significant condition affecting Newsom’s own decision about 2028.
Kansas City, Missouri — Vice President JD Vance said Monday that roughly 870,000 people linked to suspected fraud in pandemic-era small-business programs will be permanently barred from receiving future federal loans.
Speaking at an FBI field office in Kansas City, Vance said the Small Business Administration is expanding its crackdown on borrowers flagged for suspected fraud involving the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.
“If you screwed the American taxpayer, the federal government is now going to say, ‘You’re cut off. No more,’” Vance said.
The administration has been conducting a state-by-state review of pandemic loans. Earlier this year, the SBA said it had suspended more than 111,000 California borrowers tied to $8.6 billion in suspected fraud, 27,486 Ohio borrowers associated with $1.1 billion and 7,800 Wisconsin borrowers linked to $375 million.
The SBA has also sent 562,000 suspected fraudulent loans totaling about $22 billion to the Treasury Department for collection. The SBA inspector general has previously estimated that at least $200 billion in PPP and COVID-EIDL funds may have been fraudulently obtained.
Vance also said the Justice Department and SBA are pursuing criminal cases, with 90 prosecutorial decisions already made. DOJ has created a National Fraud Enforcement Division that is handling pandemic-relief cases as part of the broader White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud.
The administration has not yet released a detailed breakdown showing how many of the 870,000 borrowers have been convicted, charged or merely flagged as suspected fraud cases.
Detroit, Michigan — Michigan motorists are paying substantially more at the pump after the statewide average for regular gasoline jumped about 28 cents in one week to roughly $4.31 per gallon, according to AAA.
AAA data show Michigan’s average regular price at $4.3165 on Monday, up from $4.0273 a week earlier and $3.0519 one year ago. That means drivers are paying about $1.26 more per gallon than at the same point last year. Mid-grade gasoline averaged about $4.92, premium $5.52 and diesel $6.15.
The national average also climbed, reaching about $4.31 per gallon. AAA said prices have been rising during a period when they typically decline because of weaker post-summer demand, with crude oil above $100 per barrel and continued volatility in the Strait of Hormuz contributing to higher fuel costs.
Michigan’s increase has been among the steepest in the country. GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan has warned that refinery problems in the Great Lakes region could create additional volatility, though not every recent increase has been directly tied to refinery outages.
Diesel prices are creating additional economic pressure nationally. GasBuddy reported last week that the U.S. diesel average crossed $6 per gallon for the first time, amid tight supplies and disruptions linked to conflicts in Iran and attacks on Russian refining infrastructure.
For Michigan households, the latest jump adds another transportation cost at a time when fuel prices are already well above year-ago levels.
Houston, Texas — The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday finalized the repeal of federal greenhouse gas limits on coal- and natural gas-fired power plants, reversing a major Biden-era climate policy and setting up another round of legal challenges.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the move during a G20 energy meeting in Houston, saying the rollback would reduce regulatory costs and support the Trump administration’s goal of expanding domestic energy production. The EPA estimates the repeal will save industry roughly $120 million annually.
The rules being eliminated required some fossil-fuel power plants to sharply reduce carbon dioxide emissions, including through carbon capture or retirement. The Biden administration had projected the standards would cut about 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions through 2047.
Power plants account for roughly one-quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental and public-health groups argue that eliminating the standards will increase pollution and worsen climate-related health risks, while the Trump administration says the regulations imposed excessive costs for relatively limited global climate benefits.
The repeal is likely to face immediate court challenges. It follows the administration’s earlier decision to revoke the federal “endangerment finding” that had provided the legal basis for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. That separate action is already being challenged in federal court.
Is AI really getting out of control?Expert commentjon.wallace
Anthropic’s warning should be taken seriously – but not as cover for entrenching US labs or escalating rivalry with Beijing.
This weekend current and former employees of US AI laboratories and their leaders issued dire warnings of a near-term apocalypse at the hands of AI. Out-of-control AI development could mean ‘we could all die in the immediate future’ said one former lab employee. This was followed by a proposal from Dario Amodei, the CEO of AI company Anthropic, to slow down AI development to ensure the technology is safe. The proposal met with approval from the leaders of other labs, including Sam Altman and Elon Musk.
No observer of AI would argue against a greater focus on safety in AI development and deployment. But the renewed attention on AI’s long-term risks must not become too hyperopic, at the cost of tackling the present-day impacts of the technology. It must not be a blunt instrument used to crush competition to current US AI leaders. And it will not be possible to address without some kind of US–China agreement.
Why the new warnings?
The path to catastrophe described by Amodei and others runs through a technique referred to as recursive self-improvement (RSI) – an approach to training AI models that is beginning to roll out, if still in its early stages.
The risk is that RSI, which involves AI training AI, could lead to AI development of such speed that at some point a tipping point will be reached, where the AIs are capable enough to improve themselves without and beyond human oversight.
Whether this alone is sufficient to create AI models that threaten human control is less clear. But what this technology can do has evolved so quickly in the past few years that dismissing the possibility outright looks foolhardy.
Experts have been quick to point out that some of the claims made over the weekend do not wholly stand up. On cybersecurity in particular, the risk of an AI model shutting down the entire Internet within a year was dismissed by the founder of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre as ‘a thought experiment masquerading as an evidence-based warning’. But for the most part the message that AI poses near-term existential risk to humanity has led the news cycle largely uncontested.
Present day impacts
Some risks emerging from AI are immediate, and certain. Over the next couple of years, increasingly capable machine learning technologies will be developed and deployed in ways that dramatically reshape economies, societies, governments, battlefields, classrooms and so on. Most recently it was mathematicians who had their Lee Sedol moment: the uneasy feeling when machines begin to outperform them on tasks that were previously limited to human ingenuity. Most everyone will have theirs soon enough.
Few understand the immediate impacts better than the AI companies themselves: Anthropic’s excellent recent report outlines the misuse of its products for espionage, cyberattacks, information operations and weapons development. Most major labs maintain significant research capacity into the likely impact of AI on the global economy. This a technological revolution which is reshaping the face of global society and present-day consequences cannot be left ungoverned.
The present-day impacts are real. The short-term risks are significant.
Transparency, and the longer term
The longer tail of risks – whether through gradual human disempowerment as machines take on greater responsibilities or something more sudden – are both plausible and sufficiently threatening to demand attention.
Efforts led by experts like Stuart Russell on international agreement on clear and verifiable red lines to prevent catastrophic outcomes are gathering pace. Without them, the first opportunity to pass enforceable global governance of this technology may be missed.
Transparency from AI labs will also be vital. The kind outlined in Amodei’s proposal – a third party embedded in AI labs with employee-like privileges, tasked to evaluate the AI firms’ safeguarding measures – has been a demand from AI governance advocates for years. That Anthropic have offered this unilaterally, with some other labs offering to follow suit, is unquestionably a step forward.
If such a third party is to be created, it is absolutely essential that it is drawn from beyond the silicon valley bubble. The UK’s AI Safety Institute looks like one of the world’s most plausible candidate institutions. National models for AI oversight that resemble the Food and Drug Administration or international models based on the International Energy Agency are also credible.
Any proposed policy that would inhibit competition – such as bans on open source AI models…or bans on the use of current models already shown to be safe – should sound alarm bells.
Amodei’s suggestion that US AI labs ‘work together to set standards’ and coordinate a slowdown brought a stinging rebuke from the former White House AI Czar David Sacks: ‘Stop pretending antitrust law has to be suspended so you can form a cartel’, he wrote on X. ‘Stop pretending you need a regulatory approval process that supersedes product liability’.
‘Demanding your preferred regulatory framework as the price… will look like blackmail of the public and the political system’.
This mirrors fears that the enormous pressures on these companies to meet expectations on revenue could lead them to attempt to widen their moat – that is, entrench their competitive advantage at the expense of others.
Any such effort should be rejected: competition to achieve performance and reliability will be essential to advancing near-term AI safety. And it could plausibly decelerate development, as it undercuts the commercial incentive to pour massive capital into training ever-more-expensive frontier models.
Any proposed policy that would inhibit competition – such as bans on open source AI models, the relaxation of product liability laws, or bans on the use of current models already shown to be safe – should sound alarm bells. The UK must certainly not ban open-source or open-weight AI models.
Finally, no effort to maintain human control of AI development will be complete without some kind of understanding between the AI superpowers, the US and China– perhaps along the red lines proposed by Professor Russell.
But the current narrative, so heavily predicated on maintaining US advantage over China, makes this more difficult. Amodei states that democracies must maintain a lead over China, and accuses Beijing of a less rigorous approach to AI safety. And US President Donald Trump presents AI as a zero-sum game, choosing instead to focus on winning the AI race: ‘whoever wins AI, wins’.
By comparison, President Xi Jinping has at least spoken publicly of the need for human control of AI. And this week, China’s spy agency issued its first warning about the national security risk presented by AI. However, Xi’s push to advance China’s vision of AI governance, largely in competition with Washington, will undoubtedly fuel the sense of an AI arms race gathering pace, which will hardly act as a brake on the speed of development.
AI will be on the table when Trump and Xi meet in DC later this month. Some kind of progress is not impossible. But while leading voices in both countries are doubling down on the need to outcompete one another, it will require a monumental effort to broker an agreement.
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump rejected growing calls for stronger artificial intelligence safeguards Monday, arguing that his administration already has sufficient authority to control the technology and that additional limits could weaken the United States against China.
“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. He also called concerns about AI development and data centers a “SICK conspiracy” that would benefit China.
Trump’s comments came as several prominent technology executives urged greater caution. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently proposed slowing the development of advanced AI systems to give researchers more time to build safety measures. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk publicly supported elements of that approach.
The president specifically criticized Anthropic, saying his administration had already stopped the company from doing “bad, or potentially bad” things. His administration has clashed with Anthropic over national-security and military-use questions while generally favoring rapid AI development.
Microsoft also released a draft AI code of conduct Monday emphasizing that future systems should remain under human control and be capable of being corrected or shut down.
The debate reflects a widening divide over how quickly advanced AI should progress. Industry leaders warning about cyberattacks, autonomous behavior and other risks are calling for more oversight, while Trump argues that heavier restrictions could cost the United States its technological lead.
Ochopee, Florida — A Department of Homeland Security watchdog found that immigrants held at Florida’s former “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center were sometimes placed in outdoor metal cages measuring about 16 square feet, smaller than federal detention standards allow.
According to the DHS inspector general, facility staff called the enclosures “calming areas” where detainees could “reflect on their behavior choices, manage their emotions, reduce stress and practice self-directed behavior.” Records reviewed by investigators showed 79 detainees spent time in the 16- and 18-square-foot cages between July 2025 and January 2026, with an average stay of just under an hour and a maximum of roughly two hours.
The inspector general said the spaces were “highly unconventional” and did not align with standards for humane treatment. ICE guidelines cited in the report generally call for at least 37 square feet for single-person detention rooms.
Amnesty International had previously alleged that detainees were shackled inside similar enclosures in extreme heat and called the practice torture. The DHS report did not go that far, but confirmed the cages existed and were used.
The facility opened in the Everglades in 2025 as part of Florida’s partnership with federal immigration authorities and later closed. DHS has disputed responsibility for day-to-day operations, saying ICE did not directly contract with Florida to run the facility.
The findings add to broader scrutiny over detention conditions and federal oversight at facilities used in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign.
Nassau, Bahamas — A Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin paid hundreds of thousands of dollars toward Donald Trump Jr.’s May wedding to Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas, according to a new ProPublica investigation.
The report identifies Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association, as the benefactor. Kremlev allegedly paid for major wedding expenses, including use of a second private island that can rent for roughly $100,000 per night and a fireworks display that can cost about $70,000. ProPublica reported that Kremlev did not attend the 18-person ceremony itself but participated in other wedding-related events.
Trump Jr.’s spokesperson did not dispute that Kremlev helped cover expenses, describing him as a “personal friend” rather than a business associate. The spokesperson said the two met through mutual contacts in hunting circles and bonded over boxing and outdoor interests. Kremlev’s office likewise confirmed that the two have a friendly relationship.
Kremlev has drawn scrutiny because of his relationship with Putin and the International Boxing Association’s past ties to Russian state-linked energy giant Gazprom. ProPublica also noted that Trump Jr.’s wedding involved a number of Russian guests.
The arrangement has raised ethical and counterintelligence questions because Trump Jr. is the president’s son, though the report did not allege that the wedding payments violated any law.
Washington, D.C. — Democrats are launching a nationwide election-protection program aimed at training tens of thousands of volunteers to monitor polling places, encourage early voting and respond to misinformation ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The initiative, called the New Battlefield Project, is being organized through the Association of State Democratic Committees. Organizers say they want trained volunteers present at roughly 25% of the nation’s 95,000 Election Day polling locations, with an emphasis on competitive districts.
Volunteers are expected to wear blue vests and assist voters with issues such as finding the correct polling place or understanding provisional-ballot procedures. They will also document possible voter intimidation or interference and relay problems to election-protection teams.
The program also includes a national “bank your vote” campaign encouraging Democrats to cast ballots early, either by mail or in person, and a “democracy defense network” designed to track disinformation, artificial-intelligence manipulation and other alleged election-interference tactics.
The effort comes amid debate over whether federal immigration agents could appear at polling sites. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said ICE would not patrol polling places generally but could act there in response to a specific threat or to serve a warrant.
Democratic officials say the new structure is intended to make election protection more coordinated than in previous cycles. The DNC has also expanded volunteer and staff training programs throughout 2026 as both parties prepare for closely contested House and Senate races.
Columbus, Ohio — Republican Sen. Jon Husted’s campaign fired political director Stephen Woytek after reports surfaced that he had used Nazi SS imagery on social media and maintained a public playlist celebrating Rhodesia, the former white-minority-ruled state now known as Zimbabwe.
The Washington Post reported that Woytek, 25, used a photograph of SS soldiers as his Facebook profile picture in 2018 and followed a military reenactment group that portrays the 1st SS Panzer Division. Photos linked to the group also appeared to show Woytek dressed in an SS uniform at age 16.
The Post also found a Spotify playlist under Woytek’s name titled “Tales From Rhodesia,” with songs celebrating the former state. Rhodesia has long been embraced in some white-supremacist circles as a symbol of white minority rule.
Husted’s campaign said it learned of the posts Friday and immediately decided to part ways with Woytek. A spokesperson said his social media activity showed “a complete lack of judgment and disregard for its impact on others.”
Woytek denied supporting Nazi ideology, saying he participates in historical reenactments and has portrayed soldiers from multiple conflicts, including Union and U.S. World War II troops. He said he should have exercised better judgment online.
Woytek joined Husted’s campaign in August as the Ohio Republican runs against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in one of the year’s closely watched Senate races.
Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson with their wedding party in the Bahamas Laura Gordon Photography via Instagram
On May 24, Donald Trump Jr. was celebrating in the Bahamas, as scantily clad dancers in stilettos and sailor caps performed for him and his guests. It was the last night of his wedding, a lavish, three-day party held across a pair of ultra-exclusive private islands. A five-tier funfetti cake had been airlifted in from Florida, and helicopters and seaplanes descended on the islands before guests settled into their oceanfront villas. That night on the beach, Trump Jr. lifted his bride into the air while fireworks launched from a barge over the sea.
“It was everything we dreamed of and more,” his wife later wrote on Instagram.
That dream was heavily funded by a secret benefactor: Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin.
“Paper Trail” Podcast
Learn more about this story on ProPublica’s podcast “Paper Trail.”
Kremlev footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses, according to records reviewed by ProPublica and interviews with three people familiar with the event. The oligarch paid to rent out one of the private islands, where a reception was held and where guests slept. He also covered other big-ticket items, like the fireworks show, and his team helped plan the event. Kremlev is the head of the International Boxing Association, a scandal-plagued sports group that has beenfinanced by the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom. The wedding payments came from an IBA-affiliated entity in Dubai that the boxing association uses for financial transactions.
The guest list numbered around 50. It included Trump Jr.’s brother-in-law Jared Kushner, Eric Trump — and Kremlev, an imposing man with a shaved head who speaks limited English. The oligarch was part of a large group whose presence puzzled other attendees. They sometimes stood off by themselves, speaking Russian.
“It was really small, like, just really close friends,” Trump Jr. later said on his podcast. “Tried to keep it really tight. And it was just awesome.”
Kremlev’s previously unreported relationship with Trump Jr. represents an extraordinary development: a member of Putin’s circle financially supporting the president’s son and gaining intimate access to the Trump family. For a decade, Putin’s government, regarded as a chief adversary of the U.S., has been accused of efforts to influence American elections. Attempts by Russia to make inroads with the Trumps before the 2016 election exploded into controversy that dogged much of the president’s first term.
National security experts expressed alarm at Trump Jr. accepting the oligarch’s largesse, saying it raised an urgent question: What motivated Kremlev to spend a fortune cultivating the connection?
“If I’m paying for your wedding, at some point, you’re going to owe me something,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired career FBI official who held senior counterintelligence roles. Oligarchs like Kremlev often act in coordination with the Russian government. While it’s unclear if that happened here, Trump Jr. put himself in a precarious position, Montoya said. “This should be unthinkable for the son of the president. End of story.”
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Holden Triplett, who served as Trump’s counterintelligence director on the National Security Council during his first term, said Russian intelligence frequently seeks to build ties with U.S. government officials and their family members. “Money is a tried-and-true method to gain access,” said Triplett, who also worked for the FBI in Moscow.
In the days leading up to Trump Jr.’s wedding, Kremlev was in China as part of the delegation accompanying Putin, according to Chinese state media. The month before, Putin had bestowed him with a state honor, the Order of Friendship. The Ukrainian government has imposed sanctions on Kremlev personally, citing his closeness to Putin and Russian security services.
It’s not clear why Kremlev helped pay for Trump Jr.’s wedding. The men appear to have met only recently. Public reporting suggests Trump Jr. could have afforded it himself, with Forbes recently estimating his net worth at roughly $300 million.
In response to detailed questions, a spokesperson for Trump Jr. did not dispute the wedding payments from Kremlev. “Umar is a personal friend of Don,” he said. The spokesman said that Kremlev is “not someone he has a business relationship with” and that the men met through a mutual friend in the hunting world and bonded over their love of boxing and the outdoors.
A spokesperson for Trump Jr.’s brother Eric said of Kremlev: “Eric has absolutely no clue who this person is, nor has never heard his name.”
In a statement, Kremlev’s press office said, “Mr. Kremlev and Mr. Trump Jr have a friendly relationship” and they first met “a couple of years ago.”
The press office described Kremlev as a businessman and philanthropist, adding, “Mr. Kremlev has never discussed political matters with any of his American friends and acquaintances,” including Trump Jr. They said the boxing organization itself did not incur expenses for the wedding but did not comment on the payments from the Dubai entity. The press office also said that when Putin and Kremlev were in China recently, Kremlev was not part of Putin’s “official delegation.”
Kushner, who has been helping lead the U.S. government’s negotiations with Russia over Ukraine, did not respond to requests for comment. The White House and the Russian government did not respond either.
The revelations come as Trump Jr. has emerged as a political power center in his own right. Beloved by the MAGA base, he reportedly played an active role in vetting White House cabinet picks for Trump’s second term and was dubbed his father’s “most essential political adviser” by The Wall Street Journal. “I certainly don’t think I’d be sitting here as the VP nominee without Don’s help,” Vice President JD Vance told the outlet in late 2024.
This account is based on records and interviews with dozens of current and former IBA officials and contractors, wedding attendees and other people in Trump Jr.’s and Kremlev’s circles.
Trump Jr. exchanged vows with socialite Bettina Anderson on a private island that was featured in “Pirates of the Caribbean” and the 2006 James Bond movie “Casino Royale.” They had their first dance on a second private island nearby that can rent for around $100,000 a night, paid for by Kremlev. The company that put on the fireworks display charges around $70,000 for such shows. (Kremlev did not attend the ceremony itself, which was held on the first day and had just 18 guests, Trump Jr.’s spokesperson said.)
Donald Trump Jr. and his wife, Bettina Anderson, at their wedding, watching fireworks paid for by Umar Kremlev.Laura Gordon Photography via Lewis Miller DesignThe magazine Hello! shared an image of Trump Jr. wearing a Junkanoo headpiece while dancing with his new bride.Laura Gordon Photography/Hello!
The atmosphere was Monte Carlo meets frat party — helicopters in and out, a beachside DJ set, beer pong tournaments. One day, the men went spearfishing. Artisans at the London fashion house Safiyaa spent 150 hours embroidering Anderson’s bespoke silk reception outfit. The president’s son had undergone treatment to better define his jawline for the occasion.
Some longtime friends of Trump Jr. told associates they were disappointed not to be invited, though a few of his closest business partners — executives at the Trump family crypto company, World Liberty Financial, and the venture capital firm 1789 Capital — did make the cut. President Trump himself skipped it. (“He’d like me to go, but it’s going to be just a small, little private affair,” the president told reporters beforehand. “I said, you know, this is not good timing for me.”) But many of the guests were immediate family of the bride and groom.
That made the large contingent of Russians all the more conspicuous. “What are they doing here?” one person recalled thinking. At least one of the Russian guests had been with Kremlev on his China trip: Alexander Lagutin, a businessperson who has served in senior roles at a Russian defense contractor and a state-backed energy company. Kremlev’s right hand at the IBA, Elena Sobol, attended the wedding too.
Since the wedding, the Trumps have released scores of photosand videos of the festivities. While they show many of the guests, the Russians have been absent from all of them. (The top of Kremlev’s head is visible in the back of one group photo posted on Instagram by a friend of the bride.) After the party was over, on his “Triggered” podcast, Trump Jr. emphasized the event’s privacy: “The people that were there — if you’re on that list, you weren’t talking.”
In 2009, Umar Kremlev did not yet exist.
He was in his late 20s, with a criminal record for extortion and battery, still going by his birth name, Umar Lutfulloyev, according to the Russian independent news outlet Proekt. But he was about to rapidly ascend in Russia to a position of wealth and influence, with the help of a powerful friend. (“Mr. Kremlev has a completely clean legal record,” his press office said.)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, with Umar Kremlev, during an event in Moscow in September 2022Sputnik/Reuters
In 2010, he changed his name to Kremlev. He soon joined a Russian government-backed biker gang called the Night Wolves, eventually taking a leadership role, according to news reports. That is what first brought him close to Alexei Rubezhnoi, who now leads Putin’s presidential security service, Proekt reported. In 2017, Kremlev took over the Russian Boxing Federation, after Rubezhnoi personally intervened to put him at the helm.
In 2020, Kremlev became president of the IBA. The association was something akin to FIFA but for boxing and had long overseen the sport in the Olympics. But it had been beset by corruption allegations and was on the brink of insolvency. Kremlev brought money to the table from Gazprom, the state-owned company that operates as an arm of Putin’s government. Gazprom publicly became the IBA’s financial backer, filling its coffers with tens of millions of dollars.
Former high-level IBA officials said that Kremlev had a clear political agenda. “Umar is guided by Putin. It was using the sport for soft political power,” a former IBA board member told ProPublica. “It’s geopolitics. That it’s boxing is just happenstance.” Kremlev, 43, is also heavily involved in an organization called Healthy Fatherland, run by his 23-year-old wife’s twin sister. The group — which promotes healthy eating and youth sports — is under Ukrainian sanctions for its alleged role in a program of abducting Ukrainian children from occupied territories and relocating them under the guise of “rehabilitation.” (Healthy Fatherland did not respond to a request for comment.)
Kremlev’s cozy relationship with the government has made him rich. Putin used the levers of the state to make Kremlev a dominant player in the Russian sports betting industry, according to Proekt, and one of his companies was chosen to operate the national lottery. After Putin nationalized Russia’s largest car dealership company in 2023, Kremlev became the owner of that too.
He now flaunts that wealth through his boisterous public persona. In one video Kremlev posted on social media, he surprises a young mother by giving her a free car. In another, he criticizes his young female aide’s outfit as not feminine enough and makes her change. He shadowboxes with ostriches and brings in celebrities like Rick Ross and Naomi Campbell for IBA events; he praises Stalin and rides private jets.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the U.S. began to indict Russian oligarchs and seize yachts and other assets. Kremlev repeatedly told associates he was worried about being targeted by a U.S. government probe, according to a person close to IBA leadership. “He was very afraid of American sanctions,” the person added. (Kremlev does not appear on public U.S. sanction lists.)
With the business environment in Europe growing more hostile to Russia, Kremlev moved much of the IBA’s operations from Switzerland to the United Arab Emirates. A new Dubai entity, IB Challenger, would later pay wedding expenses for Trump Jr. The current sources of the IBA’s funds are murky, and, in recent years, top executives have given conflicting accounts of the status of its relationship with Gazprom. (Kremlev’s press office told ProPublica the IBA’s sponsorship contract with Gazprom “expired long ago.”) People close to the organization said they understood that its money still comes from Russia.
In 2023, the International Olympic Committee stripped Kremlev’s IBA of its role organizing Olympic boxing. It has cited a host of governance issues and the group’s refusal to “transparently explain the sources of its financing or to explain its full financial dependency, at the time, on a single state-owned company.”
It was a major setback that deprived the IBA of a key source of its international influence. Kremlev has raged against the Olympic committee ever since and has said that his IBA predecessor, who he blames for the problems, “must be shot.”
Kremlev saw a potential ally in President Trump. After Trump’s second inauguration, in January 2025, Kremlev sent an open letter to the president asking him to look into the Olympic committee’s actions in advance of the 2028 Los Angeles Games. “We look forward with great optimism to the possibility of working together to make the Olympic movement great again,” he wrote.
In September 2025, the IBA brought in Trump Jr. for a panel discussion in Istanbul about boxing. With his then-girlfriend, Anderson, sitting offstage, he criticized transgender women competing in women’s sports and reminisced about watching Saturday night fights as a child. Trump Jr. shared the stage with Kremlev, the boxer Manny Pacquiao and Muhammad Ali’s daughter Rasheda. (Trump Jr.’s spokesperson said he was not paid for the appearance and was already in Turkey for an unrelated event.)
Kremlev hosted Trump Jr. at an event in Istanbul in September 2025.International Boxing Association
The president’s son had reason to be attuned to the sensitivity of cozying up with a Putin associate, especially while his father navigates the Russia-Ukraine war. Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with a Russian attorney in Trump Tower became a major focus of the Robert Mueller investigation.
The Trump Tower meeting was arranged after an email offering Trump Jr. damaging information about Hillary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Trump Jr. famously responded, “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.” Trump Jr. later dismissed the matter as a “witch hunt,” and the Mueller report concluded that there was not enough evidence to convict him of a crime.
Recently, Kremlev has been working to expand into the U.S. market. In July, his group hosted a bare-knuckle boxing event in Miami, a chance to showcase a particularly bloody form of the sport in which contenders fight without gloves. But the debut was overshadowed when manosphere influencer Andrew Tate, who the IBA had brought in to host, was arrested by U.S. Marshals outside the arena. (Tate is facing rape and sex trafficking charges in the United Kingdom, which he has denied.)
Much about Kremlev’s relationship with Trump Jr., and where it is headed, remains unknown. In a press release after the Istanbul panel, the IBA hinted there was more to come.
“President Kremlev and Donald Trump Jr made it clear – this alliance will not remain symbolic,” the press release read. “More joint initiatives will follow.”
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Sunday that he supports Flock Safety’s automated license plate-reading cameras, acknowledging privacy concerns while emphasizing their usefulness to law enforcement.
Asked about the technology aboard Air Force One while returning from Ireland, Trump said, “I sort of like ’em because of that, because of law enforcement.” After a reporter noted the cameras help catch criminals, Trump added, “But I like them.”
Flock operates more than 120,000 cameras nationwide that photograph license plates and vehicle characteristics, allowing police to search for vehicles connected to crimes, missing persons and other investigations. The expanding network has also generated bipartisan criticism over mass surveillance, data sharing and improper searches.
Public opinion is divided. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found 47% of Americans opposed their community using Flock cameras, while 38% supported them. Republicans were more supportive, while younger adults showed particularly strong skepticism.
Florida recently halted new license-plate reader installations on state highways, while Texas suspended funding for the technology. Meanwhile, lawmakers from both parties have proposed restrictions, ranging from tighter controls on federal funding to broader bans.
Flock CEO Garrett Langley has defended the technology while supporting stronger rules governing data retention and misuse. Civil-liberties groups including the ACLU argue the company’s proposed safeguards do not adequately address the potential for tracking people’s movements.
Cary, North Carolina — A new generation of cancer vaccines is showing encouraging results in clinical trials, but researchers worry growing vaccine hesitancy could limit their impact if the treatments eventually reach patients.
One example comes from the Cleveland Clinic, where an experimental vaccine targeting triple-negative breast cancer produced an immune response in 74% of 35 participants in a Phase 1 trial. Researchers stressed that the study established safety and immune response, not whether the vaccine actually prevents cancer recurrence. A Phase 2 trial is expected to investigate that question.
Meanwhile, Moderna and Merck recently reported that their personalized mRNA vaccine, combined with pembrolizumab, reduced melanoma recurrence in a Phase 3 trial involving roughly 1,100 patients. Researchers say longer follow-up is still needed to determine its effect on overall survival.
The progress comes as doctors report persistent misinformation surrounding vaccines, including the unsupported claim that mRNA vaccines cause so-called “turbo cancer.” Public-health researchers worry those narratives could spill over into attitudes toward cancer vaccines.
The HPV vaccine provides an existing example of vaccination preventing cancers. CDC monitoring has found HPV vaccines safe and highly effective at preventing infections and precancers caused by high-risk strains, yet vaccination rates vary substantially across states.
Researchers say cancer vaccines remain an evolving field, but declining public confidence could become another hurdle if promising experimental treatments eventually receive approval.
Washington, D.C. — Democratic voters heading into the November midterms are more motivated by stopping President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans than by advancing their own party’s policies, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll.
The survey found 54% of Democratic voters said their main reason for supporting Democratic congressional candidates was to prevent Trump and Republicans from enacting their agenda. Another 46% said they were voting primarily to help Democrats pass their own policies.
Republican voters showed the opposite pattern. Fifty-seven percent said they were voting to help Trump and GOP lawmakers advance their policies, while 43% said their main goal was stopping Democrats.
Across all registered voters, 45% said their congressional vote would be cast in opposition to Trump, compared with 28% who said they were voting in support of him. Another 27% said Trump was not a factor in their vote. The poll also found Trump’s job approval at 39%, with 61% disapproving.
Voters were divided over whether Democratic policies would improve their finances, with 36% saying they would be better off and 36% saying they would be worse off. Views were similarly split on whether Democratic policies would protect or threaten respondents’ culture and way of life.
The CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted Sept. 8-11 among 2,460 U.S. adults. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
Wausau, Wisconsin — Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and a pilot escaped with minor injuries after their small plane lost power and made an emergency landing in Lake Wausau late Saturday.
Tiffany said he was returning from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner when the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza experienced a loss of power while approaching Wausau Downtown Airport. The pilot, identified by the Associated Press as Leonard Boltz, brought the aircraft down on the lake.
“After landing, we called 911,” Tiffany wrote on X. He said the plane began to sink, forcing both men to exit and swim to a shallow area until emergency responders arrived by boat.
Tiffany suffered a cut above his right eye that required stitches, while both men were treated for minor injuries at Aspirus Wausau Hospital and later released. Emergency crews used a fire department airboat to reach them shortly after 9 p.m.
The aircraft remained partially submerged in Lake Wausau on Sunday, and authorities warned boaters to avoid the area while recovery efforts were underway. The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to investigate the cause of the incident.
Tiffany represents Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and is the Republican nominee for governor. He is scheduled to face Democrat David Crowley in the Nov. 3 election. Crowley publicly expressed relief that Tiffany and the pilot were not seriously hurt.
Houma, Louisiana — Authorities in Terrebonne Parish are searching for a person of interest after a series of stabbings left four people dead and a juvenile critically injured in Houma.
Deputies were first called to the Ashland Drive area, where they found a juvenile suffering from apparent stab wounds. The victim was airlifted to an out-of-area hospital and remained in critical condition, according to the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office.
As investigators continued searching the area, authorities discovered four additional victims dead inside a nearby home.
The sheriff’s office identified 47-year-old Kaegan Jude Solet as a person of interest in the investigation. Officials emphasized that being named a person of interest does not amount to an arrest or criminal charge, and no charges had been announced against Solet in connection with the current deaths.
Solet has previously been arrested in an unrelated stabbing case. In 2019, Houma police accused him of repeatedly stabbing a 59-year-old woman at a hotel following an argument. Authorities said the woman suffered life-threatening injuries, and Solet was booked at the time on one count of attempted second-degree murder.
Police have not said whether investigators believe the current victims knew Solet or disclosed a possible motive.
The investigation remains active as detectives gather evidence and work to determine what led to the attacks. Authorities have asked anyone with relevant information to contact local law enforcement.
Dallas, Texas — Republican leaders are making prominent Muslim Democrats a major focus of their midterm campaign message, particularly Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
At the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Sen. Ted Cruz described what he called a “red-green alliance” of communists and Islamists and argued that sharia law has no place in the United States. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott similarly vowed to “fully ban sharia law” in Texas.
The rhetoric intensified when an audience member shouted “he should be shot” while Cruz was discussing El-Sayed and other Democrats. Cruz did not acknowledge the remark, and it was unclear whether he heard it. El-Sayed later called the comment a threat that should be condemned across party lines. The Council on American-Islamic Relations also criticized the episode as dangerous political rhetoric.
Republicans argue their criticism is aimed at ideology rather than religion, pointing to progressive positions on economics, immigration and foreign policy. El-Sayed, however, has said he opposes religious law in government and does not identify as a democratic socialist.
The broader strategy is not limited to the Dallas convention. Reuters reported that several Republican candidates and officials have increasingly made Islam and Muslim Americans a campaign issue this year, often linking Democratic candidates to concerns about national security, cultural change and sharia law.
Muslim Americans remain a small but growing share of the U.S. population, and the intensified focus comes as both parties compete for voters in closely divided states such as Michigan.
Washington, D.C. — Deaths involving ectopic pregnancies have nearly doubled in the United States in recent years, with a substantially steeper increase in states enforcing strict abortion bans, according to a new ProPublica analysis of federal mortality data.
Using CDC WONDER records, ProPublica identified nearly 200 deaths involving ectopic pregnancy from 2020 through 2025, compared with roughly 100 during the previous six years. The national death rate reached 9.8 per million live births in 2023-2025. In states with abortion bans beginning at six weeks or earlier, the rate was 13.1, compared with 7.1 in states without bans.
An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a pregnancy implants outside the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube. It is generally nonviable and can become fatal if the tube ruptures and causes severe internal bleeding.
Researchers cautioned that the data do not prove abortion bans caused the increase. COVID-era hospital disruptions, underlying differences in maternal health and other factors may also contribute. However, physicians told ProPublica that abortion restrictions deserve scrutiny because uncertainty surrounding the laws has sometimes delayed treatment, even though ectopic pregnancies are typically exempted.
The analysis also found 310 additional Texas patients experienced substantial blood loss following ectopic pregnancies in 2023-2024 compared with 2018-2019, a 29% increase. Texas later clarified that ectopic pregnancy treatment is permitted under its abortion law.
Maternal-health experts said the trend warrants further investigation because prompt diagnosis and treatment generally make deaths from ectopic pregnancy preventable.
Malibu, California — A trespasser entered the property of former Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday night but was stopped by private security before reaching the home, according to law enforcement officials and Harris’ spokesperson.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies responded around 10:30 p.m. after Harris’ security detail reported a suspicious person. Deputies made contact with the individual, who was advised to leave and departed voluntarily without incident. No arrest was made, but authorities filed a trespassing report and said patrols in the area would be increased.
Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were not home at the time. Spokesperson Eduardo Negrón said security personnel stopped the person after they had entered the property but before reaching the residence.
Former vice presidents typically receive Secret Service protection for six months after leaving office. Former President Joe Biden had extended Harris’ protection beyond that period, but President Donald Trump revoked the extension in August 2025. The extended coverage otherwise would have continued into 2026.
The sheriff’s department has not publicly identified the trespasser or disclosed a motive. Authorities have also not indicated that the incident involved any threat against Harris or Emhoff.
The couple purchased the Malibu residence after leaving Washington, and Harris now relies on private and local security arrangements rather than full-time Secret Service protection.
The brothers now want to extend that same recognition to other veterans throughout Delaware.
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