An alert on Microsoft’s site said it was ‘aggressively pursuing all pathways to reduce impact’ and blamed a server issue

Microsoft says it is “aggressively pursuing all pathways” after users reported issues accessing its 365 suite of programs, including Outlook and Teams.

Outage website Down Detector showed a spike in Microsoft 365 problems, with nearly 130,000 reports of issues affecting access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams as well as enterprise services such as SharePoint and OneDrive. AI assistant Copilot was also affected.

A new analysis of data from Florida found a higher risk of mortality in those receiving the Pfizer versus the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in the year after a first dose. It does not establish that the Pfizer vaccine was dangerous or caused deaths, contrary to suggestions by the state’s surgeon general or statements by online purveyors of vaccine misinformation.

The study did not compare outcomes to unvaccinated people, so it cannot say whether vaccination with either shot was associated with higher or lower mortality overall. The paper acknowledged that one possible reason for Pfizer’s higher relative mortality risk is that the Moderna vaccine was more effective against COVID-19 than the Pfizer shot.

The study was published on Nov. 4 in the journal Global Epidemiology and was mostly conducted by members of the Florida Department of Health using state data. It found that compared with a Moderna dose, adult Pfizer recipients had a 40% higher risk of dying from any cause within one year of a first dose. Relative to Moderna, the Pfizer vaccine was also associated with a 91% higher risk of dying from COVID-19, a 57% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 37% higher risk of dying from something other than COVID-19, as recorded on a death certificate.

Previous research has not found that either vaccine increases mortality. Both vaccines have saved many lives by preventing COVID-19 deaths.

Experts told us the study itself, which was upfront about its limitations, is not especially problematic. But some interpretations of it — including by some of the paper’s own authors — are.

“As I said in January 2024, no one should be taking mRNA COVID-19 vaccines because of their terrible safety profile,” Dr. Joseph Ladapo, a co-author and Florida’s surgeon general, wrote on X the day after publication. “But for those who had to take one, Florida’s public health data strongly implies that thousands of Floridians died as a result of receiving Pfizer instead of Moderna. The number of lives lost in the U.S. and internationally is staggering, based on this analysis.”

Jeffrey S. Morris, the director of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania who wrote a detailed critique on X of what the paper can and cannot say, told us that Ladapo’s comment goes beyond the evidence.

“That is like orders of magnitude beyond what his own paper showed,” he said.

Ladapo, who has a history of promoting flawed studies that argue the mRNA vaccines are dangerous, including one from the Florida Department of Health that claimed to identify a higher risk of cardiac death after vaccination in young men, cited unsubstantiated concerns when calling for a halt in the use of all mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in January 2024. That fall, the Florida Department of Health began advising all people — even older people at high risk of severe COVID-19 — to not get vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine. At the time, and still today, there is only one non-mRNA COVID-19 vaccine available in the U.S., the protein-based Novavax vaccine. No other state recommends against mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.

Speaking to Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit opposed to vaccines that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. previously led, Ladapo framed the results as indicative of a safety concern, saying the new study helps show that “our system for evaluating vaccine safety is broken.”

“The findings of this study should not be interpreted as establishing the overall safety of the Moderna vaccine,” he said, citing prior research that he claimed also raised safety concerns about the Moderna vaccine (we’ve written about that study, too).

“We reiterate our recommendation that, based on what is currently known about the safety of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, no one should receive them,” he added.

The Florida Department of Health did not respond to our inquiries asking about his interpretation of the study and whether the department shared his views.

Online, others made even more explicit claims about the new paper.

“This is an extremely important paper. It shows that the Pfizer vaccine was not safe. It killed people. There is no other way to interpret this data,” Steve Kirsch, a former tech entrepreneur who has long spread inaccurate information about the vaccines, said on X on Nov. 5.

“An official government study just confirmed that COVID shots resulted in a CATASTROPHIC loss of life,” Nicolas Hulscher, another prominent spreader of vaccine misinformation, wrote on X, sharing a video in which he further claimed that extrapolating the Florida findings to the U.S. would mean “you get a minimum of 330,000 American deaths from Pfizer alone.”

These claims are false.

Natalie Dean, an associate professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Emory University, told us the study isn’t evidence that either of the vaccines is killing people. “I don’t see how this is an indictment of the safety of these vaccines since it’s just a comparison of two different vaccines,” she said.

“The way the paper is getting talked about does not align with the actual evidence in the paper,” Morris, who is also a distinguished research fellow with our parent organization, the Annenberg Public Policy Center, said. 

“The study legitimately demonstrates an association between vaccine brand and subsequent mortality in a selected matched Florida cohort,” he said in an X post. “It does not establish that these differences are causal, much less that they reflect vaccine-related harm.”

When asked for comment, a Pfizer spokesperson told us that medical experts and regulatory authorities around the globe have reviewed and approved or recommended the vaccine, and that it continues to be monitored for safety. “With billions of doses of the vaccine administered around the world, the safety profile for the vaccine for all authorized groups continues to be favorable,” the spokesperson said.

Study Limitations

In the Global Epidemiology paper, the authors attempted to identify similar individuals in the state who received a Pfizer versus a Moderna vaccine in the first eight months of the vaccine rollout. They then looked at death outcomes within a year of the first vaccine dose to estimate relative mortality risk. 

To try to control for factors other than vaccine brand, the authors matched about 1 million individuals who received a Pfizer vaccine with 1 million who received a Moderna dose on seven different variables. These were age group; sex; race; ethnicity; calendar month of vaccination; type of vaccination site, such as private pharmacy or hospital; and census tract.

The authors also did other checks to try to show that this matching was largely successful, finding no statistical difference, for example, when the same pairings were assessed for cancer deaths or suicide or homicide.

The problem is that since this is an observational study, there is still concern that the mortality differences observed between the vaccines were not due to the vaccines themselves, but to other factors.

A key issue Morris and Dean raised is that the vaccine recipients were not matched for medical frailty or underlying health status. If the Pfizer recipients were in poorer overall health or had more risk factors for COVID-19 or other diseases, that could explain a large part of why the Moderna recipients appear to have lower mortality, rather than suggesting anything about the vaccine itself.

Then, even if the mortality difference is due to the vaccines, Morris explained in an article on X, it does not necessarily mean that the Pfizer vaccine is causing harm. It may simply be that the Moderna vaccine is better at preventing harm, making the Pfizer vaccine look bad in comparison.

“You can see the better effectiveness of the Moderna vaccine in there,” Dean said of the study’s findings.

Several studies have found that the Moderna vaccine was slightly more effective at preventing severe COVID-19 outcomes than Pfizer’s. Although quite similar, the original Moderna vaccine contained significantly more mRNA per dose than the Pfizer shot and the second dose was given an extra week apart.

Higher protection against COVID-19 could also spill over into the other mortality categories as well, particularly during Florida’s delta variant wave in 2021, Morris said. “Any deaths that were in fact due to COVID, but they didn’t formally get tested would not have been documented as COVID, so they would be in the non-COVID deaths,” he told us.

Studies have found that severe COVID-19 infections raise the risk of cardiovascular events and death well after the infection.

In the paper, the authors were careful to note many of these caveats, and to say that the findings could be explained by a more protective Moderna vaccine, other factors the researchers were not able to control for, or what they term “non-specific effects” of the vaccines (or some combination thereof).

It is nevertheless clear that in public, some of the authors preferred to promote the latter idea, which could include the notion that the Pfizer vaccine has some kind of harmful effect.

In a post on X, Retsef Levi, the corresponding author, wrote, “This study adds to a growing evidence that the mRNA COVID vaccines of Moderna and Pfizer may have different non-specific effects.”

Levi is a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s business school who has long said that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines should not be used. He was one of Kennedy’s appointees to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee in June 2025 before a judge paused the appointments and temporarily blocked the group’s decisions in March. 

In his X post, Levi also pointed to a recent nanoscience study that he said “showed significant differences in systemic persistence of nano-lipids and spike mRNA between Moderna and Pfizer mRNA COVID vaccines!”

The senior author of the nanoscience paper, immunologist Stephen Kent of the University of Melbourne, told us in an email that it is “inappropriate to refer to our paper supporting death from Pfizer” and that “it would not be scientifically appropriate to use our findings to draw conclusions about vaccine safety or mortality risks.” He, too, said the observed outcome in the Florida analysis could be related to Moderna protecting against COVID-19 better than Pfizer.

Putting the Study in Fuller Context

Another argument against jumping to the conclusion that the Pfizer vaccine is actively harming people through an unspecified mechanism is the larger body of research conducted on the COVID-19 vaccines.

In particular, there is a Veterans Affairs study published in December 2021 in the New England Journal of Medicine that also compared the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to one another using a matching approach similar to the one in the Florida analysis. (This study also did not match for health status or comorbidities, but unlike the Florida analysis, it did provide a table showing that the matched pairs did not substantially differ on those parameters.)

The study was smaller and over a shorter time period, but it found that the Moderna vaccine recipients had a lower risk of a variety of adverse COVID-19 outcomes. Although not statistically significant, Pfizer recipients were 11% more likely to die from COVID-19 than Moderna recipients. The study did not, however, find any other mortality differences between the vaccines. As a check on their main findings, the authors looked at non-COVID-19 deaths, finding virtually identical patterns of death in matched recipients of both vaccines (see figure S3).

“They found absolutely no difference in non-COVID deaths, like not even a trend,” Morris said.

A few other studies have identified a slightly higher all-cause mortality after vaccination with various Pfizer shots compared with Moderna, but nothing approaching 40% — and some results have favored the Pfizer vaccine instead.

If the Florida study results “were really true and really driven by vaccine harm, we would expect them to be replicated elsewhere, but it doesn’t seem to be,” Morris said.

Notably, the studies that have looked at all-cause mortality among vaccinated and unvaccinated people have consistently found much lower rates of death in vaccinated people. 

A 2025 French study, for example, compared mortality over four years, finding about a 25% lower risk of death in vaccinated versus unvaccinated individuals (with a lower risk for Pfizer than Moderna). 

Scientists don’t think the vaccines actually lowered death risk by that much because of something called the healthy vaccinee effect. People who choose to get vaccinated are generally healthier than those who don’t — especially closer to the vaccination date, since people near the end of their lives aren’t getting vaccinated. While studies try to adjust for this issue, and longer-running ones are less affected by it, it remains a concern when interpreting the results. Still, these findings do not support the notion that the vaccines are increasing the risk of death. The authors of the French study concluded that “a causal link between mRNA vaccination and excess long-term mortality appears highly unlikely.”

For both vaccines to have some kind of toxic effect, as some claim — and for the Pfizer vaccine to have a nearly 40% higher risk of death than Moderna, but not be detected in these sorts of studies — the healthy vaccinee effect would have to be “really enormous,” Morris said.

Dean noted that even if the Moderna vaccine is better at protecting against COVID-19, it was still important to have both vaccines as options. When the shots were first rolled out, not only was it not yet known how the two vaccines compare, but there weren’t enough shots of any single brand for all Americans. 

Some data suggest the Moderna vaccine caused more intense expected side effects, such as a fever, than the Pfizer shot. “For some people, Pfizer has been a better option” because of the milder side effects, she said. “I just don’t understand indicting things backwards.”

It’s worth noting that the original versions of the Florida analysis, which were posted to preprint servers, made more sweeping statements more akin to how some authors have presented the paper online, with one preprint concluding that the results are “suggestive of differential non-specific effects” of the two vaccines “and potential concerning adverse effects on all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.” The published version lacks these statements.

Individuals can now point to a published document “that is going to be hard for people to understand because it’s very complex and there’s a lot of tables,” Dean said, and it can be used to “make more extreme claims.”

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102. 

The post Florida’s Surgeon General Spins State COVID-19 Vaccine Comparison Study appeared first on FactCheck.org.

Prime minister says reset could be a deal ‘like the Brexit people thought they were voting for in 2016’

Andy Burnham has said he believes a “win-win” deal could be done with the EU that could be “more like the Brexit that people thought they were voting for in 2016”.

The prime minister was meeting fellow leaders at the European Political Community summit in Dublin, ahead of a keenly anticipated EU-UK summit next week, where he hopes to bring Britain closer to Europe.

Kayla Smith stabbed Chloe Watson Dransfield to death during planned fight over young man

An 18-year-old woman who stabbed a teenage girl to death during a planned fight over a young man has pleaded guilty to murder.

Chloe Watson Dransfield, 16, was attacked by Kayla Smith, 18, after going to the latter’s home with her boyfriend Blake Dowling in Leeds, West Yorkshire, a court heard.

Sightings of the species are becoming increasingly common as experts worry about danger posed by busy waterways

A humpback whale was spotted on Thursday swimming in New York’s Hudson River, sparking a social media frenzy.

Brad Hoylman-Sigal, president of Manhattan borough, was among those to share a photograph of the whale on Facebook, an image taken on Thursday morning and provided by Gotham Whale, a citizen science and education group that tracks marine mammals in New York’s waterways.

Suspect has died after suffering a gunshot wound; one injured person in critical condition

• Multiple people shot in Washington DC as police warn people to stay inside

The incident is shifting from an active shooter response to a barricaded subject response, a federal law enforcement official has told NBC News.

It is believed there is no other individual there at scene so this is not considered a hostage situation, they said, adding that it has been about 90 minutes since the suspect fired at law enforcement, which did not strike anyone.

Defense secretary issues commendation to US army sentinel who told him and his aides to be quiet after laughter was heard at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

• Pete Hegseth awards medal to soldier who reprimanded him

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

Perhaps you saw this ad from Scott Colom, who was just elected to serve as Mississippi’s first Democratic senator since 1989:

The New York Times spoke to Russ Hudson, the man who is grilling in the first part of the ad and uttered the “sheeeit” that has now become an emblem of Colom’s successful campaign. Here’s what he had to say, from the Times:

The lines, he said, felt natural. He left thinking maybe a couple thousand people would see it.

“I just did it like a Mississippian would,” Mr. Hudson said in an interview.

Nov. 12, 2026 — NVIDIA Board of Directors announced today that Jensen Huang has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board, effective immediately.

Colette Kress, current Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NVIDIA, has agreed to serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer. Kress will continue to serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer while serving as Interim Chief Executive Officer until a permanent successor has been named. The Board is initiating a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer and will consider internal and external candidates.

Credit: NVIDIA

Kress has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NVIDIA since joining the company in September 2013. During her tenure, she has led the company’s finance organization and has played a key role in NVIDIA’s growth and evolution. Prior to joining NVIDIA, Kress spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at leading technology companies, including Cisco and Microsoft.

The Board of Directors appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever Chair of the Board. Mr. Jones has been an entrepreneur, technology executive, and active venture investor for over 30 years, including serving as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of Synopsys.

“Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position,” said Harvey Jones, Chair of the NVIDIA Board of Directors. “She is supported by an experienced leadership team that has been instrumental in executing NVIDIA’s strategy and advancing its technology roadmap. The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption.”

“NVIDIA’s strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years,” said Colette Kress, Interim CEO and CFO, NVIDIA. “We will continue advancing the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and AI, and execute on the opportunities ahead. Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders.”

Jensen’s contributions to NVIDIA are profound. NVIDIA is one of the most consequential technology companies in the world. The Board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry.

NVIDIA will report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 financial results on Tuesday, November 17, at approximately 1:20 p.m. PT, as previously scheduled, followed by its earnings call at 2 p.m. PT.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in AI and accelerated computing.

Source: NVIDIA

The post NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang Resigns, Colette Kress Named Interim CEO appeared first on HPCwire.

Nvidia’s value slumps by $888bn this week as scandal over longtime CEO’s two affairs, including with a suspected Chinese spy, engulfs chip maker

• Analysis: Jensen Huang built an AI kingdom. What now?

• Full report: Jensen Huang resigns as Nvidia CEO

Too big – and too well-connected – to sack?

Huang does not enjoy the supercharged voting rights that are par for the course elsewhere – his shareholding is a plain vanilla 3.6%. On the other hand, Nvidia’s board does not appear to have spent much time worrying about succession planning and “key person risk” or other standard concerns of corporate governance wonks outside the US.

An X account associated with D.C. shooting suspect Matt Lambert was filled with complaints about mold, rodents and disrepair in his unit in the condo building.

Huang was a visionary leader with deep relationships in the complex world of tech. Losing him will hurt Nvidia, according to Wall Street analysts.

Russia had resisted a European role in the negotiations, and President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated his opposition to European peacekeepers.

Florida is poised to break its execution record for the second year in a row. Three exonerated inmates asked Byron Donalds to avoid the possibility of killing other innocent men when he takes office.

Figures highlight spread of virus, officially declared eliminated in US in 2000, but CDC does not identify which states accounted for deaths

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported six measles-related deaths in the US this year, according to figures published on its website on Thursday, as the country faces its most severe resurgence of the disease in decades.

The newly reported total is twice the number of deaths recorded in 2025, highlighting the spread of the highly infectious virus, which was officially declared eliminated in the US in 2000.

Project Quicksilver uses RAVEL Orchestrate AI to investigate distributed workload management, energy efficiency, infrastructure economics, and performance

SEATTLE, Nov. 12, 2026 — RAVEL today announced a research collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories on Project Quicksilver, a multi-phase initiative using RAVEL Orchestrate AI to investigate dynamic, power-aware orchestration of artificial intelligence (AI) workloads across geographically distributed computing environments. The research aims to inform more efficient, responsible, and cost-effective approaches to data center design and operations by examining how power availability, operational conditions, and workload requirements can guide scheduling and workload placement decisions to address energy, capacity, and cost constraints.

The race to expand AI infrastructure is creating a fundamental challenge: more computing capacity does not automatically translate into more productive capacity. As power availability, infrastructure costs, regulatory requirements, and workload demands increasingly shape AI infrastructure decisions, Project Quicksilver investigates how dynamic, power-aware orchestration can help organizations make more productive use of power and compute capacity across distributed environments.

“The next phase of AI infrastructure leadership won’t be won by simply building more. It will be determined by how efficiently and productively we use every megawatt, every GPU, and every dollar invested,” said Denise Muyco, CEO and Co-founder of RAVEL. “The United States has an opportunity to continue to lead and innovate not just in AI capacity, but in how intelligently that capacity is managed. Project Quicksilver will investigate how orchestration can help make AI infrastructure investments more productive while supporting more responsible energy use.”

Federated, Power-Aware Orchestration with RAVEL Orchestrate AI

RAVEL Orchestrate AI provides a federated orchestration layer for managing AI workloads across heterogeneous, geographically distributed computing resources. Rather than optimizing each environment in isolation, federation enables workloads to be managed across locations as part of a coordinated system, with scheduling and placement decisions informed by available power, cost, and performance requirements. The platform combines power-aware scheduling and policy-driven management to account for infrastructure conditions, workload requirements, and operational priorities.

“AI infrastructure can’t reach its full potential if every data center operates as an island,” said Philippa Carroll, Chief Product Officer at RAVEL. “As AI infrastructure becomes more distributed, the challenge is no longer just how much computing capacity we have, but how effectively we can use it. Project Quicksilver will investigate the trade-offs between power, cost and performance—and the role orchestration plays in ensuring we make better and more responsible infrastructure decisions.”

Informing Future AI Infrastructure Design and Operations

Project Quicksilver aims to generate evidence that could inform future AI infrastructure design and operations, including approaches to managing workloads across distributed computing environments.

Sandia serves as the initial research lead, with plans to expand Project Quicksilver to additional U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories and explore additional use cases for environmental and performance optimization.

Learn More at SC26

RAVEL and Sandia will discuss Project Quicksilver at SC26, November 15–20, 2026.

Project Quicksilver: Dynamic Power-Aware AI Orchestration Across Distributed Computing Environments

• Tuesday, November 17, 2026 | 2:30 p.m. CST
  
• U.S. Department of Energy Booth | SC26

The presentation will cover Project Quicksilver’s experimental approach, planned test phases, and anticipated research outputs.

Visit the DOE booth at SC26 to learn more about Project Quicksilver.

About RAVEL

RAVEL is redefining intelligent orchestration for IT operations. Through its Orchestrate AI platform, RAVEL empowers teams to scale innovation, reduce infrastructure friction, and unlock the full potential of AI—from research to production.

Source: RAVEL

The post RAVEL and Sandia to Present Project Quicksilver at SC26 appeared first on HPCwire.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth awarded a medal to the service member who reprimanded his group for making noise at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier​.

Lance Oppenheim (left) and Nathan Fielder (right) speak onstage at the You Can See Everything Q&A during the 29th SCAD Savannah Film Festival on October 27, 2026 in Savannah, Georgia.

Companies to co-design infrastructure and advance hybrid quantum-classical applications

PALO ALTO, Calif. and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 12, 2026 — PsiQuantum and AMD today announced an expanded strategic partnership to co-design the computing infrastructure required to operate utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers and the hybrid applications that combine quantum, high-performance, and AI computing.

The collaboration builds on the companies’ existing work around AMD Versal FPGA technology—selected by PsiQuantum for the development of its fault-tolerant quantum computing platform—and expands it into a broader relationship spanning AMD Instinct GPUs, AMD EPYC CPUs, and the AMD ROCm software stack, combined with PsiQuantum’s silicon photonics platform and its fully integrated platform. As quantum systems scale toward practical use, PsiQuantum and AMD expect the integration of classical high-performance, AI, and photonic quantum computing technology to form the world’s most powerful hybrid computing fabric.

To reinforce its commitment to the partnership, AMD also plans to make an equity investment into PsiQuantum.

“Quantum computing will enable solving problems in healthcare, materials, energy, finance, and other domains that are out of reach today, working in concert with AI and high-performance computing,” said Victor Peng, Chief Executive Officer of PsiQuantum. “By bringing our teams and technologies together, PsiQuantum and AMD will advance the future of computing, from the infrastructure that supports utility-scale quantum systems to new approaches for networking with silicon photonics and scaling the foundations of next-gen AI.”

“AMD has a long track record of bringing together the compute technologies and deep engineering partnerships needed to build the world’s most powerful supercomputers and AI infrastructure,” said Mark Papermaster, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, AMD. “We see that same opportunity with quantum computing, where leadership in classical computing is essential to building systems at scale. Our work with PsiQuantum brings the breadth of AMD compute and software to this next frontier, combining our strengths to accelerate the path to utility-scale quantum computing.”

The collaboration aligns with the U.S. Department of Energy’s recently released Quantum Genesis Priority Applications, which identify a key set of scientific problems that fault-tolerant quantum computers will be expected to solve.

PsiQuantum’s proprietary computational chemistry methodologies are performing beyond state-of-the-art calculations on AMD hardware today, and the companies’ planned initial focus on drug discovery falls within biological modeling, an identified emerging application area for Quantum Genesis.

By leveraging PsiQuantum’s expertise in workflow and fault-tolerant algorithm development, these methodologies help elevate today’s GPU-based approaches beyond state-of-the-art while preparing critical industries for the arrival of fault-tolerant quantum computing. Working with AMD, PsiQuantum researchers have optimized a highly accurate machine-learning decoder—PRISM—for low-latency implementation on programmable hardware accelerators. The result combines speed and accuracy in a design for real-time error correction in utility-scale photonic quantum computers.

The combination of PsiQuantum’s workflows with AMD’s GPU expertise running large scale simulation has already delivered initial breakthrough results in simulation of covalent inhibitors, a class of molecules relevant in drug discovery for oncology. PsiQuantum plans to build on these results and explore integrated accelerated computing solutions for commercial applications, initially focusing on the broader pharmaceutical research and drug discovery space.

Both companies will also explore expanding their collaboration with a footprint at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) in Chicago, America’s largest quantum computing project, where PsiQuantum serves as the anchor tenant.

“Illinois is bringing together world-class researchers, a growing list of innovative companies, and a skilled workforce to build the industries of the future,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “AMD and PsiQuantum’s expanded partnership has the potential to advance that work at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park. Together, we’re laying the foundation to create new opportunities for Illinoisans.”

AMD and PsiQuantum will share more about their strategic partnership at SC26 (November 15-20) in Chicago.

About PsiQuantum

PsiQuantum was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company’s mission is to build and deploy the world’s first useful quantum computers. PsiQuantum’s photonic approach enables it to leverage high-volume semiconductor manufacturing, existing cryogenic infrastructure, and architectural flexibility to rapidly scale its systems. Learn more at www.psiquantum.com.

About AMD

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) drives innovation in high-performance and AI computing to solve the world’s most important challenges. Today, AMD technology powers billions of experiences across cloud and AI infrastructure, embedded systems, AI PCs and gaming. With a broad portfolio of AI-optimized CPUs, GPUs, networking and software, AMD delivers full-stack AI solutions that provide the performance and scalability needed for a new era of intelligent computing. Learn more at www.amd.com.

Source: PsiQuantum

The post PsiQuantum and AMD Broaden Collaboration Across Quantum, HPC and AI appeared first on HPCwire.

Nov. 12, 2026 — Q-CTRL today announced a landmark Series C private fundraise of US$290 million (A$415 million), led by Salesforce Ventures. The round is headlined by significant participation from Bullhound Capital and Affinity Partners, and a global syndicate of new and existing investors.

From left: Robert Love, Chief Technology Officer; Michael Hush, Chief Scientist; and Michael Biercuk, founder and CEO. Credit: Q-CTRL.

The oversubscribed round mints the newest quantum-sector unicorn and places Q-CTRL among the best-capitalized quantum firms in private markets. The company’s Series C saw two expansions to meet investor demand and represents the largest quantum-sector fundraise for a software-focused business.

This success is underpinned by the company’s unique “AI for quantum” infrastructure software, which is critical to deploying quantum computers in data centers and integrating quantum sensors into real-world vehicles for autonomy and commercial aviation.

Quantum advantage represents the holy grail for the industry, and Q-CTRL’s AI-driven software has already made it a reality—delivering global firsts across both quantum computing and quantum sensing. The company’s marquee product, Ironstone Opal, is an unjammable, unspoofable, and undetectable quantum navigation system that works when GPS is unavailable or denied. The company’s proprietary software-ruggedization enables its highly sensitive quantum sensors to perform in the field 100 times better than the best alternative, and is being deployed on commercial aircraft and autonomous vehicles.

In this next phase of growth, Q-CTRL will double down on its software-first capabilities, cementing its market leadership at the intersection of AI and quantum. Concurrently, the company will scale globally to meet customer demand across sectors, from finance to energy, and continue to deliver on major autonomy and aerospace programs.

New investors supporting the company’s expansion include Affinity Partners, AMD Ventures, EDGE Group, MPower Partners, Australia’s National Reconstruction Fund Corporation, and SPARX Asset Management. Returning investors include Alpha Edison, Alumni Ventures, Bullhound Capital, DCVC, In-Q-Tel, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Main Sequence, Ridgeline, Salesforce Ventures, Salus Ventures, and Square Peg. Q-CTRL’s investors bring a mix of perspectives spanning strategic corporate venture, private equity, and growth-stage venture capital, and position the company to scale opportunities through joint sales, technology integration, and direct revenue generation.

“The investor syndicate we’ve assembled showcases the strength of our technology, revenue growth, and strategic alignment with some of the most important sectors today, from AI to aviation,” said Q-CTRL CEO and Founder Michael J. Biercuk. “At Q-CTRL, one of our core values is to Be Real, and that means a continued drive to deliver true customer value from quantum technology through our unique focus on infrastructure software. We’re excited to be able to deliver technical and commercial leadership as one of the largest and most successful privately held companies in the global quantum sector.”

“The hard problem in quantum is not building the machine, it is getting useful output from it. Q-CTRL solves that with AI-powered control software, and the proof is already public: a materials simulation on IBM hardware that any developer can now call directly from the IBM Quantum Platform, and the first quantum navigation system qualified for safety of flight. That software layer will decide whether quantum shows up in enterprise data centers this decade, and it is why Salesforce Ventures led this round,” said Robert Keith, Partner, Salesforce Ventures.

“Our investment in Q-CTRL reflects the company’s unique position at the forefront of quantum technology, combining technical leadership with strong commercial momentum,” said Luis Videgaray, Partner at Affinity Partners. “Mike and his team have demonstrated an exceptional ability to translate cutting-edge innovation into real-world applications, and we look forward to supporting their continued growth and success.”

“Q-CTRL is one of the few quantum companies with real customers and real revenue,” said Per Roman, Bullhound Capital Founding Partner and Q-CTRL board member. “Michael has executed on everything he told us he would and then some. We’re pleased to keep backing him.”

“We see Q-CTRL as more than a commercial leader; they are a strategic asset across the entire quantum industry,” said Tony Holt, Co-founder and Partner of Square Peg. “Q-CTRL’s contributions to aviation and autonomy through its leadership in GPS-free quantum navigation are already reshaping the future of commercial air travel and boosting passenger safety. We’re proud to renew and expand our commitment to Q-CTRL as we’ve seen their growth trajectory first-hand since 2019, and look forward to them becoming one of the defining global businesses of the quantum era.”

“Quantum technology only creates true value when it moves beyond the lab and performs reliably in the field—and Q-CTRL’s software-first approach proves that transition is already underway,” said Kathy Matsui, General Partner, and Kazuhiro Hosaka, Vice President, MPower Partners. “From enabling navigation where GPS fails to delivering the quantum-powered data center, Q-CTRL is solving mission-critical challenges across global industry and resilience. MPower Partners is thrilled to back Q-CTRL, and we look forward to expanding their footprint in Japan, where deep industrial demand and sovereign commitment make it a natural hub for quantum commercialization.”

About Q-CTRL

Q-CTRL is the pioneer in AI-powered infrastructure software for quantum technology, offering a hardware-agnostic software platform that makes quantum machines thousands of times more powerful. This opens many parallel market verticals in computing, sensing, and health, making Q-CTRL a ubiquitous quantum company based on a single unique technology.

Source: Q-CTRL

The post Q-CTRL Secures $290M Series C to Accelerate Convergence of Quantum and AI appeared first on HPCwire.

Residents have been asked to avoid the area of 15th and P Street in Washington, D.C., as police respond to the incident.

New York City officials have confirmed at least eight casualties – six adults and two children – in the collapse

Flatbush Ave in Flatbush, New York, stood still and in shock after a three-storey apartment building collapsed on Wednesday afternoon near a construction site.

“The last time I saw something like this was when I went to work at 9/11,” Prudence Foster said.

Nov. 12, 2026 — AI infrastructure, in-memory databases, and HPC workloads continue to drive requirements for memory capacity, performance, and data resilience. At the CXL Pavilion at SC26 in Chicago, IL, Netlist will demonstrate three CXL memory proof-of-concept (POC) designs showing complementary approaches to intelligent memory tiering, data persistence, and memory expansion and reuse. SC26 runs November 15–20, 2026; the exhibit hall gala is November 16, and regular exhibits run November 17–19.

Target applications across the portfolio include AI infrastructure and KV-cache management, in-memory databases (IMDB), virtual machines (VMs), HPC, and other memory-intensive workloads. Together, the demos show how CXL can manage data across memory tiers, preserve critical data, and extend the life of existing memory assets.

NVvault-HM

NVvault-HM is a POC design for intelligent memory tiering that combines DRAM and NAND for high-capacity CXL memory expansion. The architecture uses DRAM as a high-speed cache for NAND-backed capacity, helping manage hot, warm, and cold data through tiering, telemetry, and data migration.

The design targets AI infrastructure and KV-cache management, databases, analytics, and other capacity-intensive workloads.

NVvault-PM

NVvault-PM is a CXL-attached non-volatile memory POC designed to combine DRAM-class performance with data persistence. Built on CXL Type 3 over PCIe Gen5, the architecture pairs low-latency DRAM with onboard NAND backup and an embedded energy source to protect DRAM-resident data during power loss.

The design targets persistent, cache-coherent memory expansion for applications such as KV-cache management, AI/ML checkpointing, and accelerated recovery in database and HPC environments.

NVvault-D4

NVvault-D4 is a CXL-attached DDR4 memory expansion POC designed to extend the value of existing DDR4 memory assets. The architecture makes DDR4 available as expanded host memory, increasing memory capacity and enabling DDR4 reuse.

The design targets in-memory databases, virtual machines, HPC, and other enterprise workloads.

CXL Pavilion at SC26

Together, the three POC designs illustrate how CXL can support memory tiering, persistent memory and DDR4 reuse. Each approach targets a different combination of capacity, performance, data persistence, and memory efficiency.

Visit the CXL Pavilion at SC26 (Booth no. 1218) to see how CXL-attached memory can support intelligent tiering across DRAM and NAND, protect DRAM-resident data through power loss, and extend the use of existing DDR4 memory.

Source: CXL

The post Netlist to Demonstrate 3 CXL Memory Proof-of-Concept Designs at SC26 CXL Pavilion appeared first on HPCwire.

A multi-institutional team leveraged ALCF’s Aurora and OLCF’s Frontier systems to perform exascale simulations of a liquid-metal fusion breeding blanket, demonstrating new modeling capabilities that could help advance the design of future fusion reactors.

Nov. 12, 2026 — Using two U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) exascale supercomputers devoted to open science, a multi-institutional team has carried out the largest and most detailed simulations to date of a critical component for fusion energy systems. The work has been named a finalist for the Association for Computing Machinery’s prestigious Gordon Bell Prize, which recognizes outstanding achievement in high-performance computing.

Close-up of the tritium breeding zone with the magnetic field switched off. This region exhibits a complex turbulent flow, with warmer colors indicating higher normalized flow speeds. Image: Rupert Eardley-Brunt, UK Atomic Energy Authority.

The simulations targeted a key part of many proposed fusion reactor designs: the breeding blanket. Located around the plasma in a fusion reactor, breeding blankets are designed to capture energy from fusion reactions, help shield reactor components from damage, and produce tritium, a scarce hydrogen isotope needed as fuel.

The team zeroed in on the water-cooled lead-lithium (WCLL) blanket design for ITER, the international fusion experiment under construction in France. Their simulations captured several processes interacting across the full blanket, including liquid-metal flow under strong magnetic fields, heat transfer, buoyancy, tritium transport and water cooling.

“We’re tackling a very challenging multiphysics, multiscale problem involving fluid systems with very different properties,” said project lead Elia Merzari, a professor of nuclear engineering and mechanical engineering at Pennsylvania State University with a joint appointment at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. “This is the first time a blanket has been modeled at this fidelity, including all the physics.”

Meeting that challenge required expertise in both fusion energy science and high-performance computing, along with access to two of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. The project brought together researchers from Argonne, Penn State, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

To carry out the massive simulations, the team used Aurora at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) and Frontier at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF). Both are exascale supercomputers capable of performing quintillions of calculations per second. The ALCF and OLCF are DOE Office of Science user facilities supported by DOE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program.

Multiphysics Across Multiple Scales

Fusion blankets are highly complex systems. In a WCLL blanket, liquid lead-lithium flows through breeding zones, where lithium interacts with neutrons to produce tritium. Separate water circuits remove heat. Because the liquid metal is electrically conductive, its flow is strongly affected by the powerful magnetic fields used to confine plasma in a reactor.

Interactions between the liquid metal and the magnetic field can create extremely thin boundary layers — regions where the flow changes sharply over a very short distance. Those tiny features exist within a blanket that spans roughly a meter, creating an enormous difference between the largest and smallest scales in the flow. At the same time, water can move through the system hundreds of times faster than the liquid metal, so the simulation must also account for processes occurring at very different rates. Capturing this wide range of spatial and temporal scales required a high-resolution multiscale model and exascale computing power.

With access to Aurora and Frontier, the team’s calculations used more than 2 billion spectral elements and 2 trillion grid points, making them the largest liquid-metal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations to date. Spectral elements divide the blanket model into smaller regions that represent its geometry. Grid points are locations within those regions where the model calculates conditions such as velocity and temperature.

“Modeling two trillion grid points is something you can only do with exascale computing,” Merzari said. “The need for that resolution is really driven by the physics. You need very high resolution to capture the thin boundary layers in the flow created by MHD.”

The simulations allowed the researchers to examine how these physical effects influence blanket behavior. One key finding was that MHD suppresses turbulence and reorganize the liquid-metal flow, affecting pressure, temperature and heat transfer. The team also observed that temperature differences in the liquid can drive buoyancy, further altering the flow, especially near the wall facing the plasma. Understanding these complex interactions can help researchers improve fusion blanket designs.

Snapshot of the normalized flow speed in the water-cooled lithium-lead tritium breeding blanket module (WCLL TBM), including magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effects. The magnetic field causes a sudden laminarization of the flow, producing smoother and more orderly motion. (Image: Rupert Eardley-Brunt, UK Atomic Energy Authority)

Cracking the Code for Exascale

Carrying out simulations at this scale required years of code development and validation. The team used NekRS, an open-source computational fluid dynamics code developed at Argonne, for the high-fidelity multiphysics simulations. NekRS builds on decades of advances in the Nek5000 code, which has supported past Gordon Bell Prize-winning research and demonstrated high performance and scalability for incompressible flow simulations on CPU-based supercomputers. NekRS extends that foundation by adapting and improving algorithms for GPUs. The team also used the open-source OpenMC code to calculate neutron transport, providing data on heating, tritium production and water activation as inputs to the NekRS simulations.

To prepare for the exascale runs, the researchers expanded NekRS to model MHD effects and optimized the code for simulations of this scale. This effort was led by Yu-Hsiang Lan, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He worked closely with two mentors and longtime NekRS developers, Paul Fischer of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Argonne, and Misun Min of Argonne.

“My role was to develop the solver that brings MHD into NekRS and validate it against similar problems in the literature to make sure everything was working correctly before we pushed it to larger scales,” Lan said.

Lan also implemented a capability known as global mesh refinement in NekRS. This allowed the team to start with a lower-resolution model and progressively add detail rather than building the largest model from the outset.

“In terms of workflow, this was a lifesaver,” Merzari said. “It really helped us get this work done in a fraction of the time.”

NekRS’s ability to run on different types of GPUs allowed the team to perform and scale the simulations on both Frontier and Aurora. Large-scale supercomputers are made up of thousands of interconnected computers, called nodes, that work together to perform complex calculations. The team ran simulations on more than 9,000 nodes on each system, using nearly the full capacity of both machines. They also demonstrated strong scaling on both systems, showing that increasing the number of nodes continued to reduce simulation time.

Frontier served as a primary platform for code development, testing and validation. The system also supported in-situ visualization using the open-source Ascent software. This capability allowed researchers to capture simulation data at high frequency as the calculations ran, enabling them to study transient flow behavior in greater detail and generate high-quality movies of the evolving flow.

The researchers turned to Aurora for their largest simulation, leveraging its substantial memory capacity to run the complete multiphysics model, including MHD, at a resolution of 2 trillion grid points.

From Simulation to Engineering Design

High-fidelity simulations provide a valuable complement to fusion experiments, allowing researchers to study and predict how fusion systems behave under extreme conditions.

“These types of experiments are very hard and also very expensive,” Lan said. “Simulation is an important tool for design and can help reduce the cost of actual experiments.”

The detailed data from these simulations can also help researchers develop and test new approaches to fusion engineering. One longer-term goal is to use simulations of different designs and operating conditions to develop faster models that require less computing power.

“Now that we’ve shown this is doable, people can use the results or the code as a tool to validate a low-fidelity model,” Lan said. “Then the low-fidelity model eventually can be used for things like AI design optimization or digital twins.”

Lan is already contributing to a separate Argonne-led project that is building on this work, using data from the blanket simulations to develop simplified system-analysis tools for fusion applications.

More broadly, the team’s exascale simulations mark another step forward for fusion modeling. Their scale and level of detail provide new insights that can help accelerate the path to practical fusion energy.

“There is such interesting physics in simulations at this scale and so much we can learn as we continue working to develop better fusion energy technologies,” Merzari said.

Project Team

This research is detailed in the paper “Exascale Multiphysics Simulations for Liquid Metal Fusion Blankets,” which will be presented Nov. 17 as part of the ACM Gordon Bell Finalists Presentations session at SC26. In addition to Elia Merzari and Yu-Hsiang Lan, the paper’s authors are Misun Min, Haomin Yuan, Patrick Shriwise, Stefan Kerkemeier, Kristopher Rowe and Ramesh Balakrishnan of Argonne National Laboratory; Paul Fischer of Argonne and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Tri Nguyen, Maximiliano Dalinger and Luiz Aldeia Machado of Penn State University; Ananias Tomboulides of Aristotle University; and Andrew Davis, Aleksander Dubas and Rupert Eardley-Brunt of the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

The team received computing time on Aurora and Frontier through DOE’s Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program, which is supported by the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research. Development of Nek5000 and NekRS was supported by ASCR’s Applied Mathematics program and DOE’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program.

Source: Jim Collins, ALCF, and Coury Turczyn, OLCF

The post Exascale Fusion Simulation Team Named Finalist for 2026 Gordon Bell Prize appeared first on HPCwire.

Ace will offer vendor-agnostic Amalgamy.ai orchestration with its custom GPU systems and the companies will sell and support it together, giving government, academic and enterprise buyers a single source for hardware and governed orchestration

CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 2026 — ThisWay Global Inc. (TWG), a company focused on sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure and the developer of the Amalgamy.ai orchestration platform, today announced a strategic partnership with Ace Computers, a Chicago-area builder of custom computing systems since 1983. Under a reseller agreement, Ace will offer Amalgamy as a term license with the GPU systems it builds, and the two companies will jointly market and sell Amalgamy to government, academic and enterprise customers.

The partnership pairs Ace’s decades of systems engineering with TWG’s orchestration software. Ace will provide first-line support for Amalgamy on the systems it builds, backed by TWG for advanced technical support and software updates.

Research computing centers and agencies invest heavily in accelerators, yet much of that capacity goes unused even while schedulers report it as busy. TWG calls this the Utilization Illusion: allocation looks high, but in TWG’s analysis of research and enterprise clusters productive output often lands between 30 and 50 percent, largely because conventional schedulers are not designed to balance security, data requirements and available compute together. Amalgamy is built to close that gap, and it measures success in goodput: the useful work delivered per GPU dollar.

Amalgamy works with existing schedulers such as Slurm and Kubernetes. Users describe the work, and Amalgamy selects the accelerator, stages the data beside it and runs the job. It is designed to place each workload on the hardware that best fits its requirements, whether that calls for high precision, low precision or another specialized capability. As new accelerator generations arrive, customers can add them to the same fabric while earlier generations stay in productive use.

Amalgamy is vendor-agnostic and is designed to work with the hardware and tooling each operator selects, reducing the risk of vendor lock-in. Beyond scheduling, it supports policy administration, data-access controls, metering and evidence management. These capabilities work in coordination with TWG’s Sovereign Blueprint, an evidence-based framework designed to help organizations identify and document controls over their data, models, computing resources and access. Policy controls are designed to keep the right people on the right data and the right silicon across sites, including air-gapped deployments.

“Ace has built the systems government and research teams have depended on for more than 40 years,” said Angela Hood, Founder and Executive Chairman of ThisWay Global. “This partnership lets those customers buy Amalgamy with hardware they already trust, get more productive work from every accelerator they own, and show who controls their data, models and computing resources.”

“Our customers want systems that deliver results,” said John Samborski, Chief Executive Officer of Ace Computers. “Partnering with ThisWay Global lets us offer Amalgamy with our GPU systems, so customers can run multiple accelerator generations as one fleet and get more work from the hardware they already own.”

Availability. Proof-of-concept engagements are available now through Ace and TWG, with general availability of Amalgamy v1.0 planned for Q1 2027.TWG also plans to deploy Amalgamy at the Reveille AI Compute Center (RACC), which TWG is developing at the Texas A&M RELLIS campus in Bryan, Texas.

SC26 attendees can see Amalgamy running on Ace systems at the companies’ shared booth #2534 at McCormick Place. Information on Amalgamy and the Sovereign Blueprint is available at www.thiswayglobal.com; information on Ace is available at www.acecomputers.com.

About ThisWay Global

Founded in 2016, ThisWay Global is a certified woman-owned business based in Austin, Texas. With roots in R&D at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, TWG works with governments, enterprises, universities and research institutions on governed AI and high-performance computing infrastructure. TWG developed the Sovereign Blueprint, an evidence-based framework for evaluating and documenting controls over data, models, computing resources and access, and Amalgamy.ai, vendor-agnostic software that orchestrates mixed accelerator fleets across NVIDIA, AMD and Intel hardware. For more information, visit www.thiswayglobal.com.

About Ace Computers

Founded in 1983, Ace Computers is a family-owned builder of GPU servers, AI workstations and HPC clusters headquartered in the Chicago area. Ace builds TAA-compliant systems under ISO 9001 quality processes for federal, state and local government, academic and enterprise customers. Its contract vehicles include [NASA SEWP V and VI, GSA, ITES-4H, ADMC-3, NASPO and NCPA]. In 2025, Ace earned the EPEAT Climate+ designation for select computers and displays.

Source: ThisWay Global

The post ThisWay Global and Ace Computers Partner on GPU Orchestration Ahead of SC26 appeared first on HPCwire.

Analysts say the board will be on the hunt for someone who has the technological know-how to lead the world's leading chip manufacturer.

LightSolver to present its Boeing corrosion-simulation work and join Birds of a Feather (BoF) session on analog computing at the supercomputing conference in Chicago

Rehovot, Israel, Nov. 12, 2026 — CollPlant Biotechnologies Ltd. has announced that its subsidiary LightSolver Ltd., a pioneer of pure photonic computing and developer of the Laser Processing Unit (LPU), will unveil the LPU capabilities in a first public demonstration at SC26, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, taking place November 15-20, 2026 in Chicago. The demonstration will be presented at LightSolver’s booth #5102 during the exhibition, November 16-19.

The LPU is a photonic computer designed to process and solve mathematical problems using light itself, through interacting laser beams, rather than conventional electronic computation. In this first public demonstration of an all-optical computer, LightSolver will showcase live how the LPU solves real mathematical and computational problems – including systems of linear equations, differential equations, and complex optimization problems – using only interacting light.

The LPU is designed to operate alongside conventional GPUs, with the potential to significantly accelerate certain computationally intensive workloads while offering the potential for reductions in energy consumption. These capabilities build on previously published, peer-reviewed research conducted in collaboration with the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS), as well as ongoing paid collaboration programs with leading industrial partners, including Boeing and others.

Boeing Corrosion Simulation at the Exhibitor Forum

LightSolver will present its work with Boeing on PDE-based corrosion simulation at the SC26 Exhibitor Forum. The presentation will set out the engineering problem and present comparative benchmark results against existing solvers. The work is part of a paid, multi-year development program with Boeing, announced in April 2026.

Analog Computing with the HPC Research Community

LightSolver will also take part in a Birds of a Feather session informed by the U.S. Department of Energy report “Analog Computing for Science: From Emerging Technologies to a Shared Research Agenda,” alongside researchers from HLRS, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), TU Dresden and other institutions. Dr. Talya Vaknin, Head of Research at LightSolver, will present the company’s perspective on the advantages of keeping most of the computation in the optical domain.

“The first public demonstration of an entirely new type of computer — one that uses light itself to perform computation — marks a major milestone for LightSolver as we work to move from a working prototype toward a commercial product,” said Dr. Ruti Ben Shlomi, Co-Founder and CEO of LightSolver. “It is an exciting moment for our company and everyone involved in building this new computing paradigm. We see this as an important step toward our long-term vision of photonic computing in data centers, which we believe has the potential to perform computational workloads at significantly higher speeds while reducing energy consumption. And there is no better place to showcase this technology than at a leading supercomputing event, where the world’s experts, researchers, industry leaders, and innovators in high-performance computing come together. It is the ideal stage to introduce this new computing paradigm to the community that will help shape the future of computing. We believe that computing with light has the potential to fundamentally transform the future of computing infrastructure.”

Investors and analysts interested in meeting LightSolver management in Chicago during SC26, or in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, may contact investors@lightsolver.com to arrange a meeting.

Subject to shareholder approval, CollPlant intends to change its name to OptiPhi Computing Ltd. and, subject to Nasdaq confirmation, its Nasdaq ticker symbol from “CLGN” to “OPHI.”

About CollPlant

CollPlant (Nasdaq: CLGN) is an innovative technology company operating at the intersection of deep-tech photonic computing and advanced biotechnology. Through its subsidiary LightSolver, CollPlant is advancing the development of proprietary all-optical laser-based computing architectures designed to resolve the world’s most demanding computational bottlenecks across artificial intelligence, aerospace, financial engineering, and high-performance computing. CollPlant also retains its proprietary plant-derived recombinant human collagen (rhCollagen) and bio-ink assets, for 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs and medical aesthetics. For more information about CollPlant, visit www.collplant.com.

Source: CollPlant

The post LightSolver to Unveil 1st Public Demonstration of Its All-Optical Computer at SC26 appeared first on HPCwire.

The USMNT head coach is on the verge of sealing a move to Manchester United, but it’s hard to know who could be in the chair next

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Even before the 2026 World Cup, the US Soccer Federation projected an air of confidence in its ability to, someday, replace Mauricio Pochettino.

“We have a process of, on a regular basis, always reviewing sort of succession planning for all of our key roles at US Soccer,” JT Batson, the federation CEO, told ESPN in April. “We’re ready when anything happens, whether it’s CFO, whether it’s a head coach or anything in between.”

Tech has already shed more than 200,000 jobs in 2026 — leaving Wall Street to wonder if retail and finance are next.

Jensen Huang's shocking exit as CEO of Nvidia unspooled suddenly, yet signs of trouble had emerged much earlier.

President says vice-president will focus on supposed ‘Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States’

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump has said that the US is no longer seeking a deal to end the war with Iran and ordered JD Vance, who had spearheaded recent efforts to restart negotiations with Iran, to focus on domestic politics instead.

In a post to his social media site on Thursday, Trump said he was redirecting the vice-president to focus his “complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States throughout the U.S”.

Scientists say a "tipping point" may have been reached for the highly social species.

Mississippi has elected the Democrat Scott Colom in a historic race in the traditionally deep-red state, making him its first Black senator since shortly after the US civil war. The closely contested race was called more than a week after the US midterms, with Colom running against the Republican incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith. How did Colom’s grassroots campaign win despite limited early backing from national Democrats? Lucy Hough speaks to politics and democracy reporter George Chidi

Google is launching its first Gemini-powered smart glasses, with Samsung supplying the computing hardware. Given their built-in 12-megapixel camera, Google is emphasizing privacy protections, including a tamper-resistant recording light, automatic face redaction, and restrictions on real-time facial recognition and livestreaming. The company also promises not to use captured photos or videos for AI training or targeted advertising. Ars Technica reports: Google says the frames all weigh about 41 grams, which is not terrible but is definitely near the top for glasses generally. They will, naturally, weigh much more when you account for lenses. That will also determine the final pricing. So far, we only have the starting prices for these devices, including non-prescription lenses. The setup here is similar to the Ray-Ban Meta glasses we've seen for a few years. There are no screens in the lenses, but you can interact with the AI system via voice or by activating the integrated camera. The experience should be similar to using Gemini Live on your phone, but it will be a lot easier to fire up the AI. You can say "Hey Gemini" or tap a touch-sensitive area of the frame to start interacting with the robot. Since this is the same chatbot that operates across the Google ecosystem, it has access to your data and preferences. You can ask questions and get personalized answers, have Google Maps guide you by voice, or just talk with the AI to kill time. The glasses use custom open-ear speakers to limit distractions for those around you. Google notes the directional microphones should not pick up speech from other people, either. Adding the camera feed is where things get interesting. When the AI can see what you see, it has the potential to do more work on your behalf. Google suggests asking Gemini for recommendations when looking at a bookshelf or glancing at an event poster to have the AI add it to your calendar. The glasses will also support Gemini Guided Vision, which provides conversational audio descriptions for people who are visually impaired. The new frames are available for preorder today starting at $395.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Donalds is governor-elect in state that leads the US in the number of executions, with its 20th this year taking place next week

Three exonerated former death row prisoners in Florida have called on incoming governor Byron Donalds to halt the state’s record run of executions and review the cases of all 235 prisoners who are now condemned.

At a press conference in Tallahassee on Thursday hosted by the advocacy group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP), the men said they were seeking a roundtable discussion with Donalds, a Republican, as well as the state’s new legislative leaders in pursuit of a moratorium.

Several creative apps are ready to take advantage of the iPhone Duo’s many display configurations.

A rescue operation continued Thursday as first responders sought anyone trapped beneath the rubble.

We’re using our custom-made robot to open and close the iPhone Duo hundreds of thousands of times. Watch along and get your questions answered by CNET editors live.

Displaying Ten Commandments in class, whitewashing history and study of Bible verses drove many to vote blue

Michelle Palmer has run for the Texas state board of education twice before, but this time felt different.

“I was hearing from day one from people who had not really been politically active before that they were worried about education,” Palmer said.

CEO was viewed as ‘irreplaceable’, but recklessness of affair with a woman regarded by US officials as a Chinese spy made him a political liability

Half the tech world made up its mind before the facts could be assessed properly. Jensen Huang was “irreplaceable”, said the chorus at the start of this week. Nvidia would melt without the co-founder’s brilliance, apparently. The chipmaker’s board had to find a way to save its genius for the sake of corporate America and the entire AI universe.

It was always nonsense because, after the passage of only a few days since his confession of infidelity, Huang looked less like a towering corporate titan and more like a political liability.

“It was a really traumatic time for him.”

Little Manraj Singh Hans. (CCLG via SWNS)

Government considers further curbs on non-disclosure agreements after Guardian investigation of TV personality

Ministers are looking at ways to change the law quickly to expand protections that stop non-disclosure agreements being used to cover up harassment or discrimination in the wake of the allegations about David Walliams.

This could involve extending measures that mean an NDA cannot be used this way to silence an employee so that it also applies to others, such as freelancers or volunteers.

DNA testing showed that a mother bear and her three cubs attacked and killed Jennifer Balcarras and Selah Reed in British Columbia last week, authorities said.

Here's what to know about El Niño, the powerful climate pattern impacting weather across the globe.

Many hemp companies are shipping their remaining inventory to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Tennessee, which have different regulations

At midnight this morning in Illinois, hemp-derived THC drinks transformed from grocery store commodities into illegal narcotics, and manufacturers have been rushing to sell their inventory or ship it out of state.

Republicans tacked a last-minute provision on to last year’s spending bill that ended the government shutdown, banning all hemp-derived THC products, including the THC-infused alcohol alternatives sold at liquor stores and grocery stores. Under the new law, no container can have more than 0.4mg THC total.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are negotiating for now-resigned Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang​ to appear before Congress.

‘We love standards. Well done, Specialist’, the defense secretary writes following Veterans Day visit

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The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on Thursday awarded a Joint Service Commendation Medal to the soldier who called out him and members of his staff after some in the group were heard laughing and talking near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during a Veterans Day visit.

“We love soldiers. We love standards. Well done, Specialist,” Hegseth wrote in a social media post. “Carry on Patriots.” The post included a series of photos of Hegseth with the soldier.

The Warriors superstar’s forceful defense of his wife over an on-screen kiss has exposed the ugly double standards and fragile masculinity of sports’ manosphere

If Steph Curry is leading with his full government name, know that he means business. In a 90-second video released on Wednesday, from the Instagram account of “Wardell Curry”, he put the internet trolls who have been attacking his wife for years on notice. “Usually the noise doesn’t bother me, doesn’t bother Ayesha,” the four-time NBA champion and Paris Olympic knockout artist said. “But when you’re trying to step on the accomplishments of my wife, and feel the need to have to jump in and give an opinion on something that you really don’t know about, [it] kind of speaks to the bigger conversation on how you view women in this world and what they’re allowed and what they’re not allowed to do.”

Posterity will remember this as the NBA’s Oscar slap moment, but without the unnecessary violence. A bizarre turn in the parasocial compact when the restless fanboys pressured a superstar into publicly defending his wife. On this occasion, Curry had to defend his wife for the heinous crime of being the leading lady in a Christmas romcom: a Hallmark knockoff called Second Chance Holiday in which Ayesha Curry plays a dating expert with bad holiday luck and shares a kiss with a man who is not Wardell Stephen Curry II – her husband of 15 years and father to their four children. That apparently was a bridge too far for some of Curry’s former NBA peers.

Scott Malfitano, whose appointment was announced Nov. 9, will oversee construction, supply chains, staffing and daily operations. He also serves on the company’s board of directors and brings nearly 35 years of construction and corporate operating experience, according to Aternium.

Planned hydrogen and heavy water facility would bring about 50 permanent jobs and hundreds of construction jobs to Garrison Oak

WILMINGTON — Aternium has named longtime Delaware business and civic leader Scott Malfitano chief operating officer as it develops a proposed $380 million hydrogen and heavy water production facility in Dover.

Malfitano, whose appointment was announced Nov. 9, will oversee construction, supply chains, staffing and daily operations. He also serves on the company’s board of directors and brings nearly 35 years of construction and corporate operating experience, according to Aternium.

His appointment follows Gov. Matt Meyer’s Oct. 30 announcement that the planned facility at Garrison Oak Business and Technology Park had been accepted into Delaware’s JobsFirst Permitting Accelerator.

Together, the announcements outline the company’s next steps: building its operating leadership and coordinating the government reviews needed before construction can begin.

“We are building something unprecedented at Aternium, and Scott’s arrival strengthens our ability to turn vision into execution,” said Andrew Cottone, Aternium’s founder and CEO.

The proposed Dover facility would produce high-purity hydrogen for Mid-Atlantic customers and heavy water, also known as deuterium oxide, for industries including pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, defense and advanced technology.

According to the governor’s office, the project is expected to create about 50 permanent technical, engineering, operations and manufacturing jobs with salaries in the low six figures, along with hundreds of construction jobs.

The state said the United States relies on imported heavy water and that domestic production could help strengthen supply chains for advanced manufacturing, research and emerging technologies.

“America needs a reliable domestic supply of heavy water, and Aternium is bringing that production back to the U.S. – starting in Delaware,” Cottone said in the Oct. 30 announcement.

The project remains a proposed development. As of the state’s Oct. 30 announcement, it was in the planning phase, and local, state and third-party approvals had not yet begun.

Construction is projected to start in late November 2027 and take about 18 months.

Admission to the JobsFirst program does not constitute approval to build. Established through Executive Order 18, the accelerator provides participating projects with a single point of contact and coordinates permitting reviews across state agencies.

The program targets completion of complex state permitting reviews within 120 business days while retaining environmental, public safety and regulatory standards, according to the governor’s office. That target applies to state permitting reviews, rather than the project’s full development or construction schedule.

“When a company chooses Delaware, our job is to make sure government helps them succeed instead of standing in their way,” Meyer said in the Oct. 30 announcement.

The accelerator’s involvement follows earlier state financial support. In September 2025, the Delaware Division of Small Business awarded Aternium $1 million through the State Small Business Credit Initiative’s Delaware Accelerator and Seed Capital Program to support expansion of its clean hydrogen production capabilities.

Malfitano’s background includes more than three decades in leadership roles at CSC. His work there included managing development and construction of the company’s global headquarters and launching CSC Station, a coworking and innovation hub in Wilmington.

According to Aternium, he also helped develop CSC’s electronic recording services, launched its business license and permit business and helped pioneer its online incorporation services.

Malfitano began his government career with the New York State Comptroller’s Office. He chairs the Delaware Workforce Development Board, according to the Department of Labor’s current board roster.

His civic involvement has included service with the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, the B+ Foundation and Nativity Prep School. Aternium also credits him with founding the Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation and Intern Delaware.

“I’ve spent my career helping organizations scale, innovate, and build lasting value,” Malfitano said in the Nov. 9 announcement. “As Aternium advances America’s critical supply chains, strengthens energy security, and expands advanced manufacturing, it is creating capabilities that are vital to the nation’s future.”

To Go Box

• What: Aternium’s proposed $380 million hydrogen and heavy water production facility.
• Where: Garrison Oak Business and Technology Park, Dover.
• Projected jobs: About 50 permanent positions with salaries in the low six figures, plus hundreds of construction jobs, according to the state.
• Timeline: Construction is projected to begin in late November 2027 and take about 18 months, subject to approvals.
• Project information: aternium.com
• Permitting program and project tracking: jobsfirst.delaware.gov

• F1 driver urges Israel to let aid into Gaza

• Trip involved tour of facilities with aid workers

Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton said on Wednesday that Israel must allow aid ⁠trucks into Gaza, a day after he visited the Rafah border crossing in Egypt.

Hamilton, a seven-time ⁠world champion, arrived ⁠in ​El Arish on Tuesday, where he was briefed on how aid is prepared and coordinated before it ⁠is sent into Gaza, as he toured the Rafah crossing and the Egyptian Red Crescent’s aid warehouses.

Dan Hicks was the voice of golf, Olympic swimming and Notre Dame football during a 35-year career at NBC Sports.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Conversation: On April 10 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration revealed the first picture of a black hole. The object is at the centre of a galaxy known as M87, about 55 million light-years away. The iconic ring structure instantly became one of the most recognized scientific images of the modern era. It showed a black hole "shadow" outlined by light from swirling hot gas -- just as predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. The result supported the long-standing idea that the centers of galaxies house supermassive black holes. However, scientists have since had some disagreements on whether the details and structure of the ring in the original publication were accurate. Our new research, published today in Nature, used new techniques to investigate the original datasets. Not only do our results validate the original work, but they also provide a fresh perspective on the ring structure. Our independent results enhance confidence in one of the most significant modern scientific results. And we bring the image of a black hole millions of light-years away back into focus. [...] When compared directly to images from the EHT collaboration, our result is consistent in diameter and overall orientation. Naturally, there are some differences in the fine details of ring width and surface brightness along the circumference, but the overall structure matches. This provides a fresh perspective on the iconic black hole ring while also resolving previous discrepancies. To prove this success didn't depend solely on advanced machine learning, we also developed a complementary imaging method based on traditional statistical techniques. This entirely different method also validated our structure using the new closure invariant data we produced. Overall, our work delivers a strong independent validation of the supermassive black hole structure at the centre of galaxy M87. And it could do more in the future. Our technique could also be useful in other situations where data from multiple sensors are combined to map unknown structures -- such as medical imaging or mapping earthquakes.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

San Fransisco had as many as 20 gay bathhouses at their peak in 1982. Today there are none, but that may change soon.

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On the Today programme this morning, the Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a prominent leftwinger, indicated she might vote against legislation to implement the Alan Milburn proposals. She said she was concerned by the idea that the cuts would apply to people already getting sickness and disability benefits, and she said it appeared to be a breach of a promise given last year that people already getting Pip (the personal independence payment) would not lose it.

She said:

I just don’t think that you get a disabled young person into work by taking away the money that helps them to get into work.

The cuts seem to land on young disabled people, and many of them are in college already or already in work. So I don’t see how you fix the first by punishing the second.

Milburn said he concluded fundamental change was needed. He said:

The whole system needs to be changed, because the system is geared to keeping people inactive when, for young people in particular, it’s all about how can you make them active, get them earning, learning, so that they can rely on a wage rather than on a benefit. So, this is not about cutting one benefit, it’s about rebuilding the system from scratch.

He said that he decided existing claimants should be covered by the changes, not just new changes.

It’s a big rewriting of the welfare system. And obviously one of the conundrums was, ‘Should this apply to only new claimants?’

I came to the conclusion that wouldn’t be right, not least because you’ve got hundreds of thousands of young people stuck in a benefit system that is trapping them in poverty, giving them no prospect of prosperity or a job.

Milburn admitted this meant the plans would not be “pain-free”.

I’m not saying that any of this will be easy or that it will be pain-free because it won’t. You know, candidly, it could mean that some people will get less financial support at the beginning of their benefit claim than under the current system.

He said he wanted the system to prioritise improving people’s life chances in the long term over easing their financial hardship in the short term.

Actually for young people there’s a different debate that we’ve got to resolve, which is whether the priority is their longer-term life chances or just their immediate shorter-term finances.

I think what the current system does, it prioritises the latter over the former. I believe that’s the wrong choice and it needs to be the other way around.

He said, alongside the cuts to benefits he is proposing (see 11.56am), he wanted to improve employment support for young people.

We need to make sure people have the opportunities to get an apprenticeship, a job, a work placement, a pre-apprenticeship, a college place.

The menu of opportunities has got to increase. They’ll have a personal adviser, they’ll be coached all the way through. The adviser will stick with them until they have found a job or an apprenticeship or college place.

He also confirmed he wants to let young people do some work before they start losing benefits.

They will get immediate access to support if that’s what they need, if that’s the thing that is holding them back from being in education or training.

He admitted that offering better employment support and mental health support would mean his plans would initially cost money. According to the Times, he did not did not deny claims the whole package could cost £6bn. But, in the long run, there would be savings, he said.

Obviously this costs money. And frankly it’s a better use of money, both from the point of view of the young person and the taxpayer, to spend that money getting them into work rather than spending that money keeping them on benefits.

This is the sort of fatuous thing about this debate. You’ve got to invest upfront in order to get savings out of the back end. Cost-free is fatuous. So we’ve got to be candid about that. It will need significant investment.

To get a return on investment will take time … the only way of cutting the benefits bill sustainably is by getting young people into work, paying their taxes and being less reliant on benefits. Unless you are prepared to put the investment upfront it will never be possible.

He said he was “confident” that Andy Burnham was full-square behind the changes that are needed.”

CEO’s affair and resignation has brought company’s murky corporate contracts and supply chains into sharp focus

Can the AI economy survive without its “central bank”? What does Jensen Huang’s fall mean for the world’s second-most valuable company, and what might a tremor in its fortunes mean for the world?

Nvidia’s sky-high valuation is based on the fact that it designs and sells the advanced AI chips, called graphics processing units (GPUs), that underpin the AI economy. Without these, AI models such as ChatGPT and Claude could not be trained and would not run.

The Trump administration is preparing to kick nearly 80,000 people, about half of them children, off federal housing assistance over their family’s immigration status, threatening to drive thousands into homelessness. 

On Thursday, the Department of Housing and Urban Development published a final rule that’s on track to effectively bar families of mixed immigration status from receiving most federal housing assistance, which allow people to receive housing vouchers to reside in privately owned rental homes or in government-owned or -assisted public housing units.  

As it stands, undocumented immigrants and temporary non-residents in the United States already are barred from personally receiving most forms of federal housing assistance. But if some members of the family are eligible, the eligible members can receive prorated assistance to help cover their housing, and the non-eligible family member can live with them.

The new rule, which goes into effect in mid-December, would disqualify an entire family if one member is ineligible after a temporary grace period, forcing them to choose between separation and eviction. 

Families are “going to be faced with the impossible choice of deciding whether they want to split up so that some people can stay housed, or to stay together and risk homelessness and eviction,” said Marie Claire Tran-Leung, Evictions Initiative Project director at the National Housing Law Project. 

Children will bear a disproportionate burden, Tran-Leung said. Of the nearly 80,000 people who could be affected, according to estimates from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, nearly 37,000 are children.

Many families have one parent who doesn’t qualify, one parent who’s a citizen or otherwise eligible immigrant — i.e. a permanent resident — and kids who hold U.S. citizenship. According to Tran-Leung, the typical mixed-status family in HUD housing is a family of four that fits that profile.

This rule is “going to tear families apart and take adults away from their children,” said Deborah Thrope, chief program officer at the National Housing Law Project.

Beyond potentially leaving tens of thousands of families and children homeless or separated, the change could cost the already beleaguered federal housing agency hundreds of millions of dollars, housing experts told The Intercept. This would likely worsen conditions across the board for the roughly 9 million people in federal housing, who would now be subject to onerous documentation requirements. 

“The impacts are not just limited to mixed-status families,” said Renee Williams, senior advisor for public policy at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. 

Currently, both U.S. citizens and non-citizens are required to submit a declaration under penalty of perjury attesting that their citizenship or immigration status makes them eligible for housing assistance. Non-citizens under age 62 must submit a document that proves their immigration status. And additional documentation can be requested by local housing agencies or landlords. 

The rule change would upend the current system. U.S. citizens would have to go through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, also known as SAVE, to verify their eligibility status.

“It’s a system that hasn’t been used to verify citizenship before but now is because of the work that DHS and DOGE did together on a very expedited timeline at the beginning of the Trump administration,” said Tran-Leung. “This causes a lot of concern for us about the very significant risks of residents who are citizens being caught up in verification issues and potentially losing their housing.”

If SAVE cannot verify someone’s eligibility, the new rule requires the person to provide documentation proving their status. The rule would give families 30 days to obtain evidence of immigration status, in addition to the initial 30-day grace period where families can receive pro-rated assistance before having to go through verification.

Tran-Leung and other experts worry that the new documentation requirements could make it harder for low-income tenants — particularly older immigrants over the age of 62, who were previously exempted from verification requirements — to access the program.

Older people, low-income people, and people who’ve experienced homelessness are far more likely to lack access to proof of citizenship such as a passport, valid photo ID, or birth certificate. That means an untold number of the millions of eligible people in federal housing programs could lose assistance just for lack of documentation. 

“For folks who may not have easy documentation accessible, who may not have access to a birth certificate, who may not have access to a passport, we’re really worried,” said Williams. 

The changes would also burden housing agencies financially by requiring their staff to review documents that were previously not required by federal law.

Related

“Offensive Driving”: ICE’s Deadly Weaponization of Vehicles Against Civilians

It is unclear just how expensive these additional administrative costs will be for HUD. But an analysis from HUD itself found that because mixed-status families receive assistance prorated, it would cost the federal government $300 million in additional funds to serve the same number of families as it does now.

For example, a family of four with one ineligible member currently receives 75% of a full household subsidy. A family of four that is not mixed status receives 100% of the subsidy, making it more expensive for the agency to house the non-mixed-status family even though the two families have the same number of people.

“At the same time, HUD is requesting fewer funds from Congress to end homelessness,” said Kayla Blackwell, senior housing policy analyst at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. President Donald Trump recently proposed cutting $3.8 billion from the agency’s affordable housing, homelessness, and community development programs.  

HUD Secretary Scott Turner has justified the rule by claiming that mixed-status families are “pushing aside hardworking U.S. citizens” for housing. But experts said the changes will make the system worse for everyone.

“This is scapegoating immigrant families, and HUD is doing less,” said Blackwell. 

For the families who either are forced out of the program or leave willingly due to fears around their status, the road ahead is difficult. The majority of mixed-status families live in California, Texas, and New York, where the cost of living can be incredibly high.

“It’s going to be really difficult, I think, for families to be able to stay in their communities and not be displaced if they lose their access to HUD assistance,” said Blackwell. 

The post New Trump Rule Threatens Immigrant Families With Separation or Homelessness appeared first on The Intercept.

Home sales are slumping, and mortgage rates have pushed up the typical monthly payment for homebuyers in the U.S.

‘I must now listen to my body and my doctors’, says Taylor, who was one of the earliest members of the new wave hit-makers

The drummer for Duran Duran, Roger Taylor, is to step down from the band due to worsening tinnitus.

In a statement, Taylor said: “This is one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. Playing drums in this band has been the joy of my life, and I’ll never be able to properly thank the fans for the love they’ve shown us over the years. But the truth is that my tinnitus has been getting steadily worse, and I’ve reached the point where I must now listen to my body and my doctors.”

Russian president says he would target any foreign troops sent to Ukraine and refuses to soften territorial demands

Vladimir Putin warned US negotiators that Russia would target any foreign troops deployed to Ukraine, in a series of hardline remarks that came as the Ukrainian military faced renewed disruptions to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service.

During the talks at the Kremlin with the US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff on Thursday, the Russian president refused to soften his territorial demands, insisting on full control over four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims to have annexed.

Sales of built units fell to 3.75m in October, down by 8.8% from last year, with mortgage rates at nearly three-year high

US existing home sales hit a 16-year low in October as buyers were driven away by record-high mortgage rates and rising inflation, according to new data released on Wednesday.

Sales of already built units dropped to 3.75m in October, down by 8.8% from last year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported. The median existing-home sales price increased slightly to $416,700. Declines in sales were seen in the midwest, south and west, though sales in the north-east held steady.

• Russians ‘have no business’ in country, says minister

• Skating and cross-country skiing first to be affected

Finland says it will restrict entry to the country for Russian athletes because of the war in Ukraine, potentially affecting a number of winter sports. The move follows a backlash in Finland to Russia being reinstated for the ice hockey world championships.

“As long as Russia’s war of aggression continues, Russian athletes have no business in Finland,” said Elina Valtonen, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. “Their entry into the country would be a threat to Finland’s international relations. The same is true of other short-term work under visas that is not essential to Finland’s national interests.”

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Luxembourg’s PM Luc Frieden looks to be absolutely chuffed to be representing all three Benelux countries at today’s summit, as his Belgian and Dutch colleagues are too busy to attend as they face domestic crises.

“I have the privilege of representing 30 millions citizens today,” he said on arrival to Dublin, with a massive smile on his face.

A new study dives into the consequences of collaborating with AI on creative endeavors, and what it means for output and satisfaction at work.

Exclusive: Former health secretary wants to ‘tear up the old approach’, and end ongoing payments to certain under-25s

Some young people with disabilities will lose their personal independence payments but will be able to apply to a local fund for short-term expenses and equipment, Alan Milburn’s review will recommend.

While those with the most severe needs’ entitlement will be protected, others will be asked to apply for money for specific purposes rather than an ongoing payment.

Large numbers of police in tactical gear arrived in downtown Washington DC where an active shooter incident at a gym 'resulted in a barricade situation in the 1500 block of 15th Street, Northwest', DC police said

• Suspect in DC gym shooting dead by suicide as four people injured and one dead

Far from the opposition American tech giants face, it's smooth sailing for the Chinese AI firms racing to catch up, and hoping to overtake them.

Mostafa Sepahvand and Farhad Javadi Manesh carried out surveillance in an effort to inflict violence on targets

Two men of Iranian origin who were hired through social media as part of a plan to “eliminate” journalists in the UK have been found guilty of assisting Tehran’s intelligence services.

Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, carried out surveillance and reconnaissance between August 2024 and March last year in an attempt to inflict violence on “subjects” in the UK.

At a time when individual men wield massive power, the ramifications of the Nvidia CEO’s affair could be enormous

One of the reasons you want to distribute power and responsibility in powerful organizations and high-stakes enterprises is so that the narcissism or myopia of one man do not come to carry outsized consequences.

When power is spread out across multiple people, it matters less if one of those people is prone to flattery, or in the midst of a midlife crisis, or perhaps just a bit stupid; the limits on his power become limits on the fallout of his character flaws.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned effective immediately, the company's board of directors announced Thursday.

President Trump says the war with Iran has been won and "we don't need a deal," as Tehran sticks to its demands and continues attacking ships.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported record immigration enforcement numbers Thursday, saying it deported 483,200 people and arrested 474,850 during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 — the highest totals in the agency’s 23-year history.

The deportation total was 9% higher than the previous record of 442,640 and 78% above the 271,480 removals recorded in 2024. Arrests nearly doubled from the prior year’s 239,890 and were more than four times the 113,430 arrests in 2024.

The new ICE release did not provide a breakdown showing how many people arrested had criminal convictions, unlike reports issued under previous administrations.

Earlier enforcement data, however, complicates the administration’s repeated description of those targeted as the “worst of the worst.” AP reported that more than half of ICE arrests in July involved people with neither criminal convictions nor pending charges, while fewer than one-quarter had criminal convictions.

Separate TRAC data showed that 70.6% of people held in ICE detention on July 11 had no criminal conviction, although some detainees could still have pending charges or immigration violations.

ICE said monthly arrests exceeded 48,000 in September after reaching a record 50,925 in August.

The record numbers come as President Donald Trump has acknowledged that portions of his deportation policy may have been “too tough,” while incoming congressional Democrats are preparing increased scrutiny of ICE enforcement and spending.

Sources:

• Associated Press – MBFC Rating

The post ICE Reports Record Arrests and Deportations Under Trump Immigration Crackdown appeared first on News Facts Network.

A critical flaw in Apache HTTP Server's HTTP/2 module could allow unauthenticated attackers to remotely execute code and potentially take control of affected server processes. Tracked as CVE-2026-119618, the vulnerability affects Apache HTTP Server 2.4.55 through 2.4.70 when HTTP/2 is enabled and is fixed in version 2.4.71. The Hacker News reports: The vendor's assessment, published yesterday, also says "public research has demonstrated a reliable exploit" against a server in its default configuration with mod_http2 enabled. It does not name or link that research. Security company Wiz said later that day that no exploit was available and that no exploitation in the wild had been reported. HTTP/2 runs only where the Protocols directive turns it on, as the module documentation explains. The directive uses h2 for HTTP/2 over TLS and h2c for HTTP/2 over plain TCP. It can be set for the whole server or for a single virtual host, so admins should check the server-wide setting and every virtual host. Standalone builds of the module, released on GitHub as mod_h2, are affected from version 2.0.8 through 2.0.42. Admins who run the Apache HTTP Server project's own releases should move to version 2.4.71, the fixed release named in its security advisory. That release also fixes a crash in mod_md, rated important, and a one-byte overwrite of stack memory in mod_vhost_alias, rated low.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

You can keep up with strike analytics, scores, fight cards and other details.

Humans allows members to follow, share, comment and react to each other’s data and achievements.

The president suggested Thursday that he was dialing back diplomatic efforts to end the conflict with Iran and ending a dealmaking effort by the vice president.

Move follows admission of affair with woman alleged to be Chinese spy and reported relationship with employee

• From washing dishes at Denny’s to rockstar of AI: the rise and fall of Jensen Huang

Jensen Huang has resigned as chief executive of Nvidia after reports of extramarital affairs with an alleged Chinese spy and a company employee.

He will be replaced on an interim basis by Nvidia’s chief financial officer, Colette Kress, until a full-time successor is named.

Ukraine says its ability to intercept Russian strikes is again hampered by speed restrictions on Musk's Starshield network amid U.S.-led diplomacy.

A South Carolina man accused of burying his 11-month-old son in a dog crate in a clump of scrubby pines was denied bond Thursday.

Your bank probably won’t cover the mistakes you give AI permission to make.

Reform leader this week criticised the Labour party for ‘cosying up to’ and ‘promoting’ disgraced comedian

• UK politics live – latest updates

Nigel Farage appeared on Russell Brand’s US podcast nine months after the comedian was investigated by police over allegations of sexual assault, the Guardian has learned.

The Reform UK leader has criticised Labour for “cosying up to” and “promoting” Brand a decade ago, after the comedian was sentenced this week to more than 10 years in prison for rape and sexual assault.

Swedish activist criticised world governments for their failure to prevent environmental breakdown

The planet is “not dying, it is being killed and we know by who”, said Greta Thunberg, who excoriated world governments for their failure to prevent environmental breakdown in her first appearance at the annual UN climate talks in five years.

Thunberg, 23, the Swedish activist who became famous for heading the school climate strike movement, delivered her stark message to those gathered at the Cop31 summit in Antalya, Turkey, amid the ongoing failure by countries to adequately address the climate crisis.

The expert hunter is heading south after spending the warmer summer months in the Atlantic off the coast of Canada.

(OCEARCH via SWNS)

The fourth-gen Apple TV 4K is now twice the price of Roku’s top streamer.

XPerf’s ClusterBeacon forecasts GPU failures 10–30 minutes ahead, and ClusterMarshal suggests where, when and how each job runs. See both at SC26, booth 5617

ROUND ROCK, Texas, Nov. 12, 2026 — XPerf Inc., an AI infrastructure software company building the control plane for heterogeneous data centers, today announced two product milestones ahead of SC26: ClusterBeacon, an AI cluster failure prevention and resolution software, is now available for commercial deployment, while ClusterMarshal, a scheduler for AI workloads on heterogeneous hardware, is opening for pilot deployments. Together with ClusterReady, XPerf’s AI rack validation platform, the three products address the full AI cluster lifecycle.

XPerf will demonstrate its portfolio at SC26 in Chicago, Nov. 17–19, at booth 5617, shared with Infraeo.

More Output from the GPUs Already Installed

With power limiting how quickly new data center capacity can be built, more output has to come from the GPUs already in service. In one published study of a 4,704-GPU cluster, GPUs read 97–99% busy while doing useful compute only about 40% of the time (Hu et al., NSDI 2024).

“Power limits and stricter regulation are making it harder to build new data centers. Meanwhile, GPU utilization is often below 50%. It’s time to get more from the GPUs already installed, and to put every job on the most cost-effective, efficient GPU that meets its demand,” said Alex Carter, Ph.D., Co-Founder & CEO, XPerf Inc.

ClusterReady: Validate, Proven with Partners

ClusterReady validates AI racks and clusters under AI training and inference workloads before they go live. A validation run takes 65 minutes to 8 hours, typically 3–4 hours, compared with 2–6 weeks for conventional L11/L12 testing. Each rack gets a tokens-per-second performance baseline, and every issue found comes with its root cause and remediation suggestions.

• With MiTAC Computing, ClusterReady showed an AMD Instinct MI325X rack performing 20% above AMD’s published FLUX.1-dev benchmark results in the tested configuration, with 95.8% scaling efficiency from one to four nodes on Llama 3.1 8B pre-training.
• With Akash Systems, ClusterReady documented the energy and thermal effect of Diamond Cooling on AMD Instinct MI350X servers under AI workloads.
• With AMD, XPerf operated MLPerf Training v6.0 submissions on AMD Instinct platforms in May 2026, on behalf of Akash Systems and MiTAC Computing.
• With a tier-1 ODM, XPerf finds the root cause of defective racks in minutes.

“XPerf gave us AI-workload performance evidence that demonstrates what our Diamond Cooling technology does in practice. We’re glad to keep working with XPerf because of the speed and quality of their work,” said Pamit Surana, Co-Founder & CCO, Akash Systems.

ClusterBeacon: Operate, Now Available for Commercial Deployment

ClusterBeacon learns each node’s safe operating envelope under load, then forecasts GPU cluster failures 10–30 minutes ahead, with recommended preventive actions. When something fails, it traces the incident to an evidence-cited root cause in minutes, where manual investigation typically takes hours to days. Engineers approve most changes, and ClusterBeacon verifies the fix with telemetry. It runs on-premises on NVIDIA and AMD GPU clusters, including in air-gapped data centers, and keeps all data on site.

ClusterMarshal: Maximize, Ready for Pilot Deployment

ClusterMarshal decides where, when and how each GPU job runs. It starts with operator input and moves toward fully autonomous placement.

Today a user describes a job: a training script or an inference model with a request rate and latency target. ClusterMarshal proposes two to four ways to run it, each with GPUs, start time, run time and cost. The user chooses one, and ClusterMarshal submits it as that user to the cluster’s existing scheduler. If it does not respond in time, the scheduler places the job as usual. Pilots begin in shadow mode: ClusterMarshal recommends alongside the scheduler without affecting placement, so operators can compare its predicted run times and costs with what actually ran. Once operators trust the results, they enable submission for a queue or an entire cluster.

From there, ClusterMarshal makes the placement selection itself, submitting jobs without waiting for a person. Operators set the policies and limits, and the scheduler continues to execute each placement.

ClusterMarshal launches with Kubernetes support, with Slurm to follow. It runs on an XPerf-supplied appliance or customer-supplied hardware, including air-gapped environments; cloud deployment is also available. XPerf will demonstrate ClusterMarshal at SC26.

Availability

ClusterReady and ClusterBeacon are available for commercial deployment. ClusterMarshal is available for pilot deployments, starting in shadow mode. Meet the XPerf team at SC26, booth 5617, Nov. 17–19. To book a meeting, contact Alex Carter at alex.carter@xperf.ai.

About XPerf Inc.

Founded by ex-Intel engineers with deep experience deploying and managing GPU and ASIC clusters at scale, XPerf Inc. is an AI infrastructure software company building the control plane for heterogeneous data centers. Its products cover the full AI cluster lifecycle: the ClusterReady platform validates AI racks and clusters 10× faster than L11/L12 workflows; ClusterBeacon software predicts, prevents and resolves GPU cluster failures on-premises; and the ClusterMarshal scheduler helps teams choose where, when and how each GPU job runs. XPerf Inc. is a member of NVIDIA Inception, CNCF, the gBETA accelerator program, and the Endless Frontier Labs accelerator program.

Source: XPerf

The post XPerf Brings Its AI Cluster Lifecycle to SC26 appeared first on HPCwire.

‘Rules of origin’ on vehicle batteries due to come into force on 1 January if deal on new delay is not reached

• Business live – latest updates

The UK car industry is preparing to push for a two-year delay to Brexit tariffs on electric cars traded with the EU, after an initial European proposal suggested a shorter delay.

Tariffs are due to kick in on 1 January for the majority of electric cars traded between the EU and UK unless the two sides can come to an agreement to delay for a second time the implementation of “rules of origin” on batteries.

Scientists say consuming a high-fat diet leaves “lasting changes” in intestinal stem cells that can increase the chance of tumors developing.

Since 1995, mixed-status families have been permitted to live together in federally funded housing, but a revised rule changes that.

Authorities identify suspect as ‘white male’ who was a member at VIDA Fitness, the gym where people were shot

• Washington DC shooting latest updates

Four people were injured and one person died after a shooting in Northwest Washington DC on Thursday morning, local police said.

In a Thursday morning press conference, authorities identified the suspect as a “white male” who had been “contained”. Shortly after the press conference, the Associated Press and NBC News both reported that the suspect was dead, citing law enforcement officials.

At least eight people were killed and 17 others were injured​ after a building collapsed in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

(OCEARCH via SWNS)

Government proposal aims to reduce number of children in custody in England and Wales and boost youth employment

Children found guilty of robbery, dealing drugs to other children or violent disorder will no longer have to disclose their criminal records to prospective employers under sweeping government proposals to change the youth justice system.

People in England and Wales will not have to share records of crimes committed when they were under 18 for the rest of their lives under the proposals, which ministers say will boost youth employment and make life fairer for people from disadvantaged backgrounds in particular.

Anyone who assumed they had already missed their best shot at the northern lights this cycle was wrong. The sun crossed its most active point ... Read moreThe post Arctic destinations from Norway to Alaska still deliver strong northern lights…

Jensen Huang has stepped down as CEO of Nvidia after 33 years leading the company, with CFO Colette Kress taking over as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent replacement. "The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company's operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption," said board chair Harvey Jones in a release announcing the news. The abrupt departure follows revelations about Huang's affairs, including one with a woman U.S. intelligence reportedly believes was a Chinese spy. CNBC reports: Huang, 63, apologized on Sunday for being "unfaithful to my wife," though he provided no details about the affair with businesswoman Alice Huang, who has worked for a Chinese company and Nvidia customer called Megaspeed. Late Wednesday, The New York Times reported that the Nvidia CEO also had a separate affair, this one with Kimberly Powell, vice president of health care at the chipmaker. Later that afternoon The Times and other outlets reported that Nvidia's board met to discuss the company's future. Jensen Huang denied allegations that he had compromised national security or Nvidia secrets after reports of the Alice Huang affair. The news sparked concerns that Nvidia knew companies based in Singapore and Malaysia had been evading U.S. export controls in accessing its technology. The board said on Tuesday that it had hired Wachtell Lipton to investigate the intelligence allegations.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A woman holding her belly due to stomach cramps.

A person holding a TV remote control in front of a smart television displaying various streaming and broadcast apps, alongside a green coffee mug on a wooden table.

Ron DeSantis signed law prompting the city of Delray Beach to announce it was scrapping its popular Irish celebration

A Florida mayor is working to salvage his city’s St Patrick’s Day parade after it was canceled to comply with a new Republican law banning municipalities from hosting events deemed to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

The state’s hard right governor Ron DeSantis signed the law in April that takes effect on 1 January, prompting the city of Delray Beach, near Fort Lauderdale, to announce it was scrapping next year’s popular Irish celebration that regularly attracts tens of thousands of visitors, and also its Pride event.

The historic SS United States ocean liner has marked the end of its journey at sea, as it was sunk off the coast of Florida to become the 'world's largest artificial reef', according to Okaloosa county. Once the fastest ocean liner in the world, the ship took around five hours to sink. It will rest on the seafloor at a depth of approximately 180ft, with the ship’s upper decks sitting about 55ft below the surface

• Historic US ocean liner sinks near Florida to become world’s largest artificial reef

The company’s founder steps down after reports of multiple affairs, and the AI industry faces unsettling questions.

Exclusive: Ron Wyden, citing Guardian report, is launching inquiry into whether health secretary lied about Samoa trip during confirmation hearings

A top Democratic senator has launched an investigation into evidence that Robert F Kennedy Jr “unlawfully lied” in his 2025 confirmation hearings to become the US health secretary, citing a report by the Guardian.

Ron Wyden of Oregon, the incoming chair of the powerful Senate finance committee, is seeking extensive records from Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the non-profit anti-vaccine group Kennedy has used as a vehicle to fuel his political rise, including all documents related to a 2019 trip Kennedy took to Samoa.

The post Trump Directs Vance to Target Alleged Corruption in Democratic-Run States appeared first on News Facts Network.

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 12, 2026 — KIOXIA America, Inc. has announced a new storage-density milestone in supporting modern AI and data lake workloads. In collaboration with Dell Technologies, the company’s 245.76 TB KIOXIA LC9 Series SSDs are used to create the world’s first 157 PB object storage solution in a single industry-standard 42U server rack. The solution is designed to improve data center efficiency through a smaller storage footprint, higher TB/W and lower cooling requirements compared with HDDs or lower capacity SSDs at the same capacity.

The solution is built with software-defined Dell ObjectScale running on 16 PowerEdge R7725xd servers and configured with 640 KIOXIA LC9 Series 245.76 TB SSDs to deliver 157 PB of raw flash capacity in an industry-standard 42U rack.

Dell ObjectScale is an enterprise-grade, cloud-scale object storage platform designed for unstructured data workloads, including AI training, big data analytics and modern cloud-native applications.

AI is Reshaping Infrastructure Requirements

As AI workloads drive continued growth in unstructured data, organizations need storage that can deliver higher capacity without a corresponding increase in data center floor/rack space, power consumption or cooling requirements. High-capacity NVMe SSDs can help address these demands by consolidating more data into a smaller, more efficient infrastructure footprint.

Together, Dell Technologies and Kioxia have a long history of enabling scalable infrastructure for data-driven applications. This latest milestone underscores a shared commitment to advancing high-density architectures that improve performance, reduce energy consumption and maximize data center efficiency. Last summer, Kioxia announced the industry’s first 245.76 TB NVMe SSD, highlighting its value for generative AI, large-scale datasets, vector databases and other data-intensive environments. Dell Technologies published a blog on high-density object storage for AI-era data environments using KIOXIA 245.76 TB SSDs.

“AI is driving unprecedented growth in unstructured data, and customers need to scale capacity without scaling their data center footprint and power consumption,” said George Papadopoulos, SVP, Product & Engineering, Dell Technologies. “With Dell ObjectScale and KIOXIA’s 245.76 TB SSDs, customers can consolidate more data into fewer systems and racks while reducing cabling, power and cooling requirements. This collaboration helps deliver a more efficient, scalable foundation for AI and data-intensive workloads.”

Key features of the KIOXIA LC9 Series include:

• Built with KIOXIA BiCS FLAS generation 8 3D QLC technology and 32-die stack architecture, enabling industry-leading density
• Up to 245.76 TB in an E3.L form factor
• Up to 122.88 TB available in 2.5-inch and E3.S form factors
• Flash die failure protection
• Mean time to failure (MTTF): 2.5 million hours (over 285 years)
• Compliant with PCIe 5.0, NVMe 2.0 and NVMe-MI 1.2c specifications
• Open Compute Project (OCP) Datacenter NVMe SSD specification v2.5 support (not all requirements)
• Flexible Data Placement (FDP) support to minimize write amplification and extend SSD lifespan
• Security options including SIE, SED and FIPS 140-3 validation
• CNSA 2.0 firmware-signing support

“KIOXIA’s 245.76 TB LC9 Series SSDs enable Dell Technologies to deliver a new level of storage density for AI and data-intensive workloads – helping customers consolidate massive data footprints into fewer systems while improving data center efficiency and scalability,” said Faraz Velani, Head of Go-to-Market, SSD business unit at KIOXIA America, Inc. “Together, KIOXIA and Dell are redefining what’s possible with high-capacity flash storage.”

About KIOXIA America, Inc.

KIOXIA America, Inc. is the U.S.-based subsidiary of Kioxia Corporation, a leading worldwide supplier of flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). From the invention of flash memory to today’s breakthrough BiCS FLASH 3D technology, Kioxia continues to pioneer innovative memory, SSD and software solutions that enrich people’s lives and expand society’s horizons. The company’s innovative 3D flash memory technology, BiCS FLASH, is shaping the future of storage in high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs, automotive systems, data centers and generative AI systems. For more information, please visit Kioxia.com.

Source: KIOXIA

The post KIOXIA and Dell Collaborate on 157 PB Single-Rack Object Store appeared first on HPCwire.

President Donald Trump blended two of his frequent topics, immigration and tariffs.

As governments adopt AI, workers are gaining ground in how it’s used and securing safeguards against its harms

In the shadow of Silicon Valley, workers for the city of Oakland, California, worry the region will deploy AI systems that could increase surveillance and inaccurately evaluate their performance. Pushing for protections to ensure workers won’t be laid off or disciplined by AI, their union overwhelmingly voted on 22 October to authorize a strike, with 94.1% in favor.

“We just want the city administration to really be intentional about how it’s engaging with AI products,” said Julian Ware, an Oakland spatial data administrator and member of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21. “Sometimes with a fancy new toy, it actually costs more, it’s more difficult to implement and the results are not as good.”

• USMNT coach agreed framework of a deal with United

• United have made contact with US federation

• Balogun: ‘I’d like to keep things the way they are’

• Live news and reaction for Pochettino’s move to Man Utd

Mauricio Pochettino will lead the US men’s national team through the remainder of this international window, a source with direct knowledge of US Soccer’s plans told the Guardian on Thursday.

Pochettino has emerged as the leading candidate to replace Michael Carrick, who was sacked as Manchester United manager on Thursday. The Guardian previously reported that the framework of a deal had been agreed between Pochettino and United. The Athletic was first to report news of Pochettino’s plans for the upcoming US matches.

New York mayor Zohran Mamdani says crews are working through ‘extremely dangerous conditions’ to find anyone trapped

Rescue crews have continued to search for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed building in Brooklyn, New York, as the death toll rose to eight.

Authorities in New York City said at least 17 people were hurt when the three-storey residential building on the edge of a construction site in the borough’s Flatbush neighbourhood collapsed at about 4pm on Wednesday.

Photo Courtesy of Delaware State University

Fall enrollment rises nearly 12%; university reports its largest class of Delaware freshmen and a 56% increase in high school students earning college credit

DOVER — Delaware State University’s fall enrollment has reached a record 7,407 students, with returning students, graduate programs and international partnerships helping push the total up nearly 12% from last year.

The university announced Nov. 10 that its certified fall 2026 enrollment increased by 784 students from 6,623 a year earlier. Enrollment at the historically Black university has grown more than 47% since 2020, when it enrolled 5,027 students.

The total includes 5,959 students attending the university’s two Dover campuses or studying through its online programs, an increase of 7.8% from 5,528 last fall. Another 1,448 students are enrolled through international partnership programs in the Caribbean, Asia and Africa.

University officials attributed the growth partly to students continuing their studies and increased demand for graduate programs.

“This year’s growth came from a more intentional emphasis on students who were already here and decided to keep going, a central part of our work — and from a graduate school that working adults in Delaware and across the country are choosing in record numbers,” university President Tony Allen said in the announcement.

Delaware students and tuition support

The university reported its largest in-state freshman class, with more than 80% of new Delaware freshmen enrolled full time receiving INSPIRE Scholarships.

The four-year, full-tuition scholarship supports qualifying Delaware high school graduates who enter Delaware State the fall after graduation. The university said the program has brought more than 2,500 Delawareans to campus since its creation.

In-state undergraduate enrollment increased 8.4%, compared with 4.5% growth among out-of-state undergraduates. The incoming freshman class had an average high school GPA of 3.13.

The scholarship can make a significant difference for families weighing college costs, although full tuition does not mean all college expenses are covered. Prospective students should review eligibility requirements and costs beyond tuition with the university’s financial aid office.

Graduate programs lead growth

Graduate enrollment increased 27.1%, making it the university’s fastest-growing enrollment category. The number of continuing graduate students rose 34.1%, while online graduate enrollment increased 46.1%.

Gwendolyn Scott-Jones, dean of the School of Graduate, Adult and Extended Studies, said the programs are designed to serve students balancing education with other responsibilities.

“They are choosing Delaware State because our programs are built for people who are working, raising families and serving their communities while they earn the credential that moves them forward,” Scott-Jones said in the announcement.

High school students earn college credit

Dual enrollment — allowing high school students to take university courses for college credit — increased 56% to 684 students. That total includes 482 Delaware students and 199 students at HBCU Early College Prep in Queens, New York.

The university identified the Williams School as an important part of that pipeline. The early college school was dedicated in September in honor of former university President Harry L. Williams and Robin S. Williams.

Roughly two-thirds of the school’s graduates go on to Delaware State, according to the university.

Connecting enrollment to careers

The enrollment announcement also highlighted programs intended to help students complete degrees and prepare for employment.

More than 1,000 Delaware State students have completed the Braven Accelerator, a three-credit career preparation course taken during sophomore year. The university announced in October that it would expand that partnership through a Center for Economic Mobility intended to reach every undergraduate.

Its College of Business also hosted 720 students at its largest DEEP Day, while the College of Agriculture, Science and Technology welcomed 213 first-year pre-health students at a Sept. 29 White Coat Ceremony.

The final enrollment count exceeded an October projection that the university was approaching 7,000 students. Officials said additional online sessions and international semester starts were included before the Oct. 31 census.

To Go Box

• Learn more: Delaware State University.
• Admissions: Visit the university’s website and select Admissions for undergraduate, graduate and online program information.
• INSPIRE Scholarship: Review eligibility, renewal requirements and covered costs on the scholarship webpage.
• Dual enrollment: Contact the university or your high school counselor about courses, eligibility, costs and how credits may transfer.

Shares of the chipmaker extended their losses after Nvidia said its longtime CEO is stepping down amid revelations of a relationship with a suspected Chinese spy.

WAYNE, Pa., Nov. 12, 2026 — Cornelis today announced the Cornelis CN6000 family, its next-generation 800G networking platform engineered to address the demanding communication requirements of AI and high-performance computing (HPC). Drawing on Cornelis’ HPC networking heritage, CN6000 is designed to reduce networking bottlenecks in parallel workloads, from large-scale scientific simulation to AI training and disaggregated inference, helping organizations make better use of their compute investments. With CN6000, Cornelis takes the fabric technology proven in leadership-class supercomputers to the standards-based Ethernet that runs mainstream AI. OEM and system partners across the AI and HPC ecosystem are planning validation and support for CN6000.

The CN6000 family supports Omni-Path and RoCEv2 Ethernet SuperNICs, along with the CN6000 Omni-Path switch. With 800G connectivity and a choice of networking fabrics, customers can select the infrastructure that best fits their workloads and existing environments. Omni-Path delivers Cornelis’ highest performance, and the Ethernet SuperNIC gives Ethernet-first customers a standards-based option. CN6000 is Cornelis’ second consecutive product generation to achieve first-silicon-to-production success, bringing SuperNICs and switches to customers for evaluation today and to partner systems in Q1 2027.

“Every minute an accelerator waits on the network is capacity our customers paid for and didn’t use,” said Lisa Spelman, CEO of Cornelis. “We built CN6000 for the communication patterns that make parallel AI and HPC workloads so demanding. Omni-Path delivers the highest message rate in the industry with lossless delivery at scale, and our new Ethernet SuperNIC brings that same parallel computing expertise to the standards-based fabrics where most AI infrastructure runs. That combination of performance and choice is what our customers need as they scale training, inference, and scientific computing.”

Designed for Demanding AI and HPC

CN6000 is built to keep accelerators working. The Omni-Path SuperNIC doubles the bandwidth of CN5000 to 800G and delivers 1.6 billion messages per second, the industry’s highest. Its sub-microsecond MPI latency is 21% lower than NVIDIA InfiniBand XDR at the same 800G speed. For tightly coupled HPC codes that exchange millions of small messages, that gap shortens every communication step. The SuperNIC’s multi-plane and multi-rail support lets customers build fabrics that isolate traffic and stay up through link failures. In fabrics built with the CN6000 Omni-Path switch, adaptive routing spreads traffic across every available path to reduce congestion and keep data moving efficiently as workloads scale. For Ethernet environments, the new Ethernet SuperNIC brings low-latency RoCEv2 to industry-standard Ethernet switches. Ultra Ethernet support will follow through software updates.

The CN6000 Family

The new CN6000 family includes:

• Omni-Path SuperNIC: 800G connectivity, 1.6 billion messages per second, sub-microsecond MPI latency, multi-plane and multi-rail support, and credit-based lossless delivery. A dedicated hardware Root of Trust with SPDM 1.4 attestation and post-quantum (ML-DSA) signatures verifies firmware before the SuperNIC joins the system.
• CN6000 Omni-Path switch: A 1U switch completes the 800G fabric with 48 ports of 800G, adaptive routing and native multi-plane support.
• Ethernet SuperNIC: Low-latency RoCEv2 connectivity with industry-standard Ethernet switches, plus Ultra Ethernet support through software updates.
• Open software ecosystem: Support for NCCL, RCCL, libfabric, MPI, and OpenSHMEM on Omni-Path, using the same software and host driver as CN5000.

Broad Ecosystem Momentum

AI and HPC system partners across the industry support Cornelis networking today. CN6000 supports AMD, Arm-based, and Intel CPU platforms and AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm accelerators. OEM and system partners planning validation and support include Dell Technologies, Hyve Solutions, Lenovo, NEC, Penguin Solutions, Supermicro and more.

AMD

This week, Cornelis announced expanded collaboration with AMD to help HPC and AI for Science customers design, validate and deploy systems pairing AMD EPYC CPUs and AMD Instinct GPUs with Cornelis networking. The program combines AMD compute platforms and engineering with the Cornelis fabric, so customers get more choice in compute, systems validated on their own applications, and a direct path to buy and deploy through the OEMs and system integrators they already use. Cornelis is validating CN6000 with AMD EPYC 9006 Series CPUs and next-generation AMD Instinct GPU platforms, with OEM systems expected beginning in Q1 2027.

Intel

Intel and Cornelis continue to validate and optimize Xeon platforms with Omni-Path for AI and HPC customers. Systems built on that work run in production today at leading national labs and institutions, including the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). The companies are now extending that collaboration to CN6000 and next-generation Xeon platforms.

“Intel Xeon and Cornelis Omni-Path have run together in production HPC systems for years, and our joint customer labs and workload optimization work show up in the results those systems deliver,” said Jeff McVeigh, Vice President & GM of Data Center Strategic Programs, Intel. “CN6000 brings an 800G fabric to Xeon 6 platforms over PCIe Gen6 and supports Ethernet and Omni-Path. It fits the open, standards-based infrastructure Intel is building and will give our customers performance and deployment flexibility. We’re proud to partner with Cornelis to deliver exceptional performance on our customers’ most demanding workloads.”

Lenovo

Cornelis and Lenovo have an established partnership across AI and HPC. CN5000 is qualified across Lenovo ThinkSystem V3 and V4 servers and supported in Lenovo EveryScale, with joint reference architectures for CAE and multi-node HPC on Neptune liquid-cooled systems. Lenovo is now qualifying Cornelis with its new AMD EPYC-powered Lenovo ThinkSystem servers to support networking for demanding AI and HPC workloads.

“AI and HPC are converging around increasingly large, distributed workloads that demand the right combination of compute, networking and energy efficiency,” said Martin Hiegl, Executive Director, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Lenovo. “Lenovo is bringing these technologies together to help customers build high-performance AI and HPC environments that can scale from advanced simulation to AI-driven research and discovery. Lenovo ThinkSystem infrastructure provides a high-performance foundation for the compute, storage and networking capabilities customers need to accelerate time to insight while maximizing infrastructure efficiency.”

Penguin Solutions

Penguin Solutions designs, builds, and operates AI and HPC solutions for commercial, research, and government customers. The company plans to validate and support CN6000 in those systems.

“The network largely determines how much of their compute investment our customers put to work,” said Phil Pokorny, Chief Technology Officer at Penguin Solutions. “As AI and HPC workloads continue to evolve, high-performance, low-latency networking is essential to maximizing infrastructure performance and utilization. At Penguin Solutions, we design and build complex AI and HPC environments that bring together compute, networking, storage and software to meet demanding workload requirements. Innovations like Cornelis’ CN6000 help us deliver the performance, scalability and reliability our customers need to maximize the value of their infrastructure investments.”

Supermicro

Supermicro has validated Cornelis CN5000 across its FlexTwin, BigTwin and Hyper platforms and plans to extend that work to CN6000.

Availability

The Cornelis CN6000 family, including SuperNICs, switches and software is available from Cornelis today for evaluation and early deployments, with systems from OEM and system partners beginning in Q1 2027. Cornelis will demonstrate the CN6000 family at SC26 in Chicago, Nov. 15–20, at booth #1419.

Product details are available at cornelis.com/products/cn6000.

More from HPCwire

• AMD and Cornelis Expand Collaboration for HPC and AI for Science as GWDG Deploys EMMY P4 Supercomputer
• Cornelis Unveils Active Compute Fabric for Scale-Up and Scale-Out Networking

About Cornelis

Cornelis delivers high-performance, scale-out and scale-up networking solutions that accelerate AI and HPC workloads. Cornelis technology enables lossless, congestion-free networking that reduces training time, improves inference, and maximizes compute utilization. From foundation model training to complex climate modeling and real-time analytics, Cornelis solutions power the most demanding workloads across commercial, academic, government, and cloud environments. With a focus on performance, scalability, and efficiency, Cornelis helps organizations achieve faster insights and greater return on infrastructure investments. Learn more at www.cornelis.com.

Source: Cornelis

The post Cornelis CN6000 Networking Platform Delivers 1.6B Messages per Second at 800G for AI and HPC appeared first on HPCwire.

Suzan Jackson’s book, Finding a New Normal: Living Your Best Life with Chronic Illness, brings together lessons learned through writing, raising children and navigating a condition that transformed her family’s life.

A New Chapter, a New Normal: Hockessin Author Finds Joy Beyond Illness

By John Riddle

Suzan Jackson’s audiobook recording studio was her son’s bedroom closet. Her writing desk might be a recliner or, on difficult days, a couch where she works lying flat.

The surroundings change. Her purpose remains steady: helping people with chronic illness build lives that include joy, connection and meaning.

For the longtime Hockessin resident, that message comes from experience. Her book, Finding a New Normal: Living Your Best Life with Chronic Illness, brings together lessons learned through writing, raising children and navigating a condition that transformed her family’s life.

Originally from Rochester, New York, Jackson met her husband while both were working as chemical engineers for DuPont in New Orleans. Marriage and a transfer brought them to the Wilmington area 36 years ago. They have lived in their Hockessin home for 32 years.

“We never expected to stay,” Jackson said.

Then, on March 1, 2002, her life changed abruptly.

“I suddenly became very ill with what felt like a severe flu … but it never went away,” she said.

A year later, Jackson received a diagnosis of myalgia encephalomyelitis, commonly called ME/CFS. She describes an illness that severely restricts her energy and stamina, with even modest activity potentially bringing prolonged symptoms.

Two years after she became ill, both sons developed the condition, too. Their experiences would eventually help shape her writing and her work supporting other families.

Jackson’s publishing career began before her illness. Her first book, The ISO 14001 Implementation Guide: Creating an Integrated Management System, was traditionally published in 1997 through Wiley.

Freelance writing later offered work she could do from home when consulting and corporate training became impossible. She wrote about chronic illness, family, travel, outdoor experiences and books, while developing her blog, Live with ME/CFS.

Around 2018, she began gathering articles into a book for readers facing many kinds of chronic health conditions.

Professional editing proved essential.

“I edited it myself several times and thought it was in good shape,” Jackson said. After hiring an editor, she discovered the manuscript still needed substantial work.

Independent publishing brought another education. Jackson researched distribution, hired help and learned unfamiliar production tasks. When a formatter quit after saying her requests were impossible, Jackson figured out the formatting herself.

Throughout the process, she had to respect her physical limits.

“Any kind of work, including writing, has to be done in tiny increments over a long period of time,” she said.

Her book addresses emotional coping, daily living and relationships. It draws on her family’s experiences and lessons shared through support groups she has established.

“The emphasis in this book is on LIVING your life, not just enduring it,” Jackson said.

Making that message accessible inspired an audiobook edition. Knowing some readers depend on listening, Jackson learned recording and audio editing, narrated the book herself and eventually hired a professional to polish the recordings.

The closet studio became another example of adapting a goal to the circumstances.

Her advice to aspiring authors includes investing in professional editing, preparing for ongoing marketing and understanding distribution beyond Amazon.

“While it is now easy for anyone to upload a book to KDP, quality still matters,” she said.

Jackson also runs a local support group for people with ME/CFS, long COVID and related conditions, along with caregivers. Meetings mostly take place through Zoom.

Across her books, blogs and support work, she returns to the possibility of finding a new normal: accepting today’s limits while leaving room for hope.

For Jackson, helping readers recognize that possibility gives her writing purpose. Each completed page offers another chance to share what her family and fellow patients have learned.

“Be prepared to learn!” she said.

We would like to hear your reaction to Colom’s election win and your hopes for his leadership

Democrat Scott Colom has unseated Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent Republican senator, to become the first Black senator in Mississippi elected since Reconstruction.

Colom had been written off by pundits as having no chance of winning when he announced his campaign last year. But his viral campaign ads created memorable slogans, while he made efforts to engage Mississippians where they were – from driving a truck that offered free tacos, to talking to students and alums at college homecomings, to chatting with voters queued to see Donald Trump.

Just 28% of 18- and 19-year-olds have received their first dose in one-off campaign, UKHSA says

The clock is ticking for young people in the UK to receive vaccinations to protect against meningitis B, experts have said, as figures reveal fewer than one in three eligible in a one-off campaign have received their first dose.

Earlier this year, an unprecedented outbreak of meningitis B in Kent and clusters of cases in Dorset and Berkshire caused three deaths, as well as lifelong health consequences among some of those who survived.

Caravel and Newark Charter field hockey during their semifinal game on November 11. Caravel won and advanced to the 2026 DIAA Division Two Field Hockey State Championship game. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti

The Tower Hill Hillers defeated the Indian River Indians and the Caravel Buccaneers defeated the Newark Charter Patriots to earn a chance at a state championship in the 2026 DIAA Division Two Field Hockey State Championship game, November 13.

FREDERICA, Del. — The teams for the 2026 DIAA Division Two Field Hockey State Championship game are set. The Tower Hill Hillers and Caravel Buccaneers will play each other for the division two state title on Friday, November 13, at DE Turf Sports Complex. It’s the first championship meeting between the two programs since 2003.

No. 1 Tower Hill defeated No. 5 Indian River, 2-0

The game was scoreless in the fourth quarter when Tower Hill junior, Charlotte Flynn, got set to pass the ball into play and initiate the Hiller’s penalty corner. Flynn passed the ball from the goal line to junior Molly Gallagher at the top of the circle. Gallagher passed to her right for senior Charlotte Vanni and Vanni settled the pass for what looked like a shot attempt. Instead, Vanni passed to the right side of the goal where Maisie Carr was waiting.

Carr stood near the right post ready for Vanni’s pass that had a bit of pace to it. Carr never stopped the pass’ momentum, but redirected the ball with a backhand shot that guided the ball past the Indian goalkeeper for the game’s first score. 

Carr’s goal with just over nine minutes remaining in the game helped Tower Hill defeat the Indians, 2-0, Wednesday night.

“I am not a scorer on the field hockey team. I always joke in corners, it’s my sprints at practice like I just to get to the post,” Carr said postgame. “I just put my stick out and it went in and I literally blacked out in that moment.” 

Vanni was the first to congratulate her after the goal which Carr said made her realize the shot went in. Vanni was credited with the assist and added to her night with the Hillers’ second goal of the fourth quarter.

Vanni’s goal came on nearly the exact same play as Carr’s. Flynn initiated the action with a pass to Gallagher at the top of the circle and Gallagher moved the ball along to Vanni. Vanni dribbled a little then settled for her shot and rocketed the ball to the back right of the cage for a goal that doubled the Hiller lead with less than six minutes remaining in the game.

“I kind of thought the same thing, I was like the angle [is] there again. They kind of left that side really open and it worked the first time,” Vanni said after the game. “If it’s not broke don’t fix it.” 

The Hillers are now set for the program’s first championship game appearance since 2017 with hopes of becoming the first Hiller team since 2008 to win the state title. Hiller head coach Lindsay Goeller said making it to the state championship is something the group has worked toward since the first day of preseason led by the team’s seniors.

“We got together as a group of seniors and privately said that this was the goal and it took a little while to realize that we were going to be here, but we’ve kept the course all year and we’re really proud of the team and the girls and the effort they’ve put in to earn a spot back in the championship game,” Goeller said. 

“Just getting to be with them for all this time through the highs and lows, especially the highs, feels really good, but I just love them all so much and just getting to play with them two more days just means the world to me,” Vanni said.

No. 3 Caravel defeated No. 2 Newark Charter, 3-1

Caravel freshman Jordan Hirschey stepped up to the ball on a restart and blasted a pass between a pair of Patriot defenders getting the ball to sophomore Samantha Sweeney along the right side of the field. Sweeney passed the ball along to senior Dalaney Mumford. The pass evaded two Newark Charter defenders before reaching Mumford racing toward the circle, leaving Mumford and sophomore Paige Losten with only the goalkeeper to beat.

Mumford passed the ball to Losten after the duo breached the circle and forced the goalkeeper out of the cage to fend off Losten’s shot. Mumford fielded the rebound on the right side of the cage and patiently waited as junior Carly Milhorn — who was trailing the play — settled in front of the goal. Mumford made one more pass and Milhorn guided the ball in giving the Buccaneers a two-score lead right out of halftime.

Caravel scored once more in the second half to defeat Newark Charter, 3-1, Wednesday night and earn its first championship game appearance since 2020.

“I was making sure to look up the field to see if any of my teammates were there and I was just thinking to myself hustle, hustle, hustle, get that ball,” Mumford said about the breakaway opportunity postgame. 

Mumford finished the game with one assist and one goal which came in the second quarter on one of Caravel’s two first half penalty corner chances. Mumford was positioned at the top left of the circle when Milhorn fired a shot toward the cage. The ball ricocheted off senior Karly Estes’ save right to Mumford who fired a shot toward the cage without hesitation. The goal put Caravel ahead with less than four minutes remaining before halftime.

“It was just pure joy,” Mumford said. “All I saw was joy and I saw my teammates running at me and it was just the most amazing feeling ever and I would do anything to relive that again.”

The Patriots broke through in the fourth quarter with a goal from senior Genevieve Walch that cut the Buccaneer lead in half, but the score was answered minutes later on a penalty stroke goal from sophomore Allie Sweeney. The Patriots offensive aggressiveness continued to put pressure on the Caravel defense, but the Buccaneers remained stout and finished the game without allowing another point. Sophomore goalkeeper Hartley Haynes finished the game with four saves.

“Just strong communication,” Haynes said about what allowed the Caravel defense to have success throughout the game. “Really knowing where everyone is on the field. I think that really helped clearing it out of the backfield.”

The Buccaneers will play the Hillers on Friday with a chance to become the program’s first state championship winning team. Caravel already overcame one hurdle with its win over Newark Charter — the Patriots defeated the Buccaneers in the semifinals last season — and will try to overcome another in the championship game against Tower Hill who beat the Buccaneers in a tight game earlier this season.

“It’s amazing,” Caravel head coach Sarah Broehl said. “We started off the season 0-3 with three really tough teams, but we kind of never lost the belief. We just stuck to the plan, we knew we would battle back. We’re very young. The development in our younger girls from August until now has just been tremendous. We could just see it, we could see it happening, things started clicking, they work together so well it’s not just, you know, one or two kids taking over the game. It was a huge team effort.”   

The division two state championship game will be held at DE Turf on Friday, November 13, at 6:30 p.m.

DAEJEON, South Korea, Nov. 12, 2026 — Qunova Computing, a world leader in quantum computations for advanced chemistry, today announced that its HI-VQE algorithm has become the first quantum algorithm to reach chemical accuracy (a level of precision required for practical use) at 80 qubits. It did so while simulating the 4Fe-4S iron-sulfur cubane cluster in a quantum/classical supercompute workflow using an IBM Quantum System Two quantum computer at RIKEN, along with RIKEN’s classical supercomputer Fugaku. This result represents the most accurate quantum computation of the molecule to date.

Qunova’s extrapolation of the cluster’s ground-state energy, −327.2482 ± 0.0007 Hartree, is consistent within chemical accuracy regarding the leading classical reference calculated using the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) method (−327.2471 Hartree). This result is more accurate than the latest extrapolated Trimmed Configuration Interaction (TrimCI) results. This places a quantum-based approach on equal footing, in terms of accuracy, with the strongest classical methods available today for one of the most demanding problems in chemistry.

“4Fe-4S has long been a proving ground where only the very best classical methods could compete, and today a quantum algorithm has reached that standard,” said Kevin Rhee, CEO and founder of Qunova Computing. “Our ground-state energy estimate is within chemical accuracy with respect to the classical benchmark DMRG, making HI-VQE the first quantum approach to achieve this type of result at this scale. We are also very encouraged that our method points to a slightly lower estimate of the groundstate energy estimate of the true ground state. Our next goal is to identify additional industrial use cases where HI-VQE consistently delivers better results than the best classical methods. We believe this result shows we are on the right path.”

For chemical, pharmaceutical, and materials companies, the significance is confidence. For the first time, a quantum-based workflow has produced results for an industrially relevant molecule that stand alongside the best that classical computing can offer. Reaching this level of accuracy, reproducibly, is the prerequisite for quantum-enhanced chemistry to move from a capability demonstrated by a handful of institutions toward one which industrial users can apply to real design questions.

The result marks a significant step forward among quantum approaches. Compared with previously published sample-based quantum diagonalization (SQD) result for 4Fe-4S, HI-VQE reached a lower ground-state energy of −326.9821 Ha by the second iteration using only 2,518 Fugaku node-hours, which represents a ~300x reduction in computational cost.

Mitsuhisa Sato, Division Director of Quantum-HPC Hybrid Platform Division from RIKEN Center for Computational Science, said “One of the principal reasons we have built our world-class JHPC-quantum QC-HPC hybrid computing platform is so that we can enable forward thinking innovators to test and prove their theories in practice for advanced QC-HPC hybrid applications. We are therefore pleased to see that Qunova’s HI-VQE is delivering highly accurate results to complex problems far faster than alternative approaches. It is important in this way that we can continue to enhance the value that quantum computing brings to industrial users around the world.”

The result shows how HI-VQE is directly relevant to industrial users working in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and materials science. Iron-sulfur clusters serve as the catalytic and electron-transfer cores of a large class of metalloproteins, including ferredoxins, hydrogenases, nitrogenase, and numerous respiratory and photosynthetic enzymes. Computing their electronic structure correctly underpins the understanding of biological nitrogen fixation, hydrogen production, and electron transport. The molecule is also among the most computationally demanding systems known in chemistry, beyond exact solution by any method, and a recognized proving ground for new approaches.

“Qunova has demonstrated an impressive ‘quantum plus HPC’ workflow on a highly challenging chemistry problem, using IBM quantum computers and Fugaku, which has shown promising efficiency compared with selected-CI approaches,” said Jay Gambetta, Director, IBM Research and IBM Fellow.

Qunova’s findings also indicate that even better results may be possible, and processing between 500 million and 3 billion unique states puts the next accuracy milestone within reach. Additional functionalities such as orbital rotation and orbital optimization will be added to HI-VQE over the coming months to unlock this added performance, and Qunova is now working to identify the systems where HIVQE consistently outperforms other methods. Furthermore, because HI-VQE assumes neither linearity nor locality, the same solver applies to catalysts, electrode materials, and drug targets. This represents a crucial area where HI-VQE delivers the accuracy required to create value for industrial users of quantum computing.

Research Support

This research is supported by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), an organization under the jurisdiction of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)’s “Research and Development of Quantum-Supercomputers Hybrid Platform for Exploration of Uncharted Computable Capabilities” (Project Leader: Mitsuhisa Sato) as part of the “Project for Research and Development of Enhanced Infrastructures for Post 5G Information and Communications Systems (JPNP20017).”

About Qunova Computing

Founded in 2021, Qunova Computing builds algorithms designed to deliver practical value from quantum computing to its early adopters. These algorithms have been tested with leading quantum hardware companies and research institutes, and results indicate Qunova’s algorithms can deliver highly accurate results for users, even using Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum computers (NISQ). By using a hybrid approach and algorithms which provide a high level of accuracy, the company is unlocking the tremendous potential of quantum computing for industrial users, by reducing the large number of trials required to develop new materials with specific properties. This will allow users to significantly reduce the time and expense related to industrial R&D processes, enabling them to bring new products to market more quickly and at a lower cost. For additional insight into our groundbreaking work, please visit qunovacomputing.com.

Source: Qunova Computing

The post Qunova Reports Chemical Accuracy in 80-Qubit Hybrid Chemistry Simulation appeared first on HPCwire.

Nov. 12, 2026 — The Danish Centre for AI Innovation (DCAI), the company behind Denmark’s AI supercomputer Gefion, is expanding its ownership as Netcompany joins current owners, EIFO and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Together, the three partners are investing an additional DKK 500 million in DCAI aimed at strengthening Denmark’s AI infrastructure and expanding access to sovereign AI for businesses, public institutions and researchers.

Credit: DCAI

With Gefion, Denmark has already established a world-class foundation for AI. Now, the ambition is to take the next step: extending access to that capability across a much broader part of Danish society and helping organisations move from AI experimentation to real-world adoption.

As part of a new investment into DCAI totaling DKK 500 million, Netcompany is investing DKK 325 million, while EIFO adds another 150 million. The Novo Nordisk Foundation tops up their investment to maintain a majority stake, while also leaving room for the new ownership. Following closing of the new investments, DCAI is to be owned 52.6% by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, 23.7% by EIFO and 23.7% by Netcompany.

Together, the partners aim to strengthen a shared sovereign national AI platform that reduces barriers for advanced AI adoption, particularly for public institutions, regulated industries and smaller businesses. The partnership brings together DCAI’s advanced AI infrastructure with Netcompany’s experience in developing and operating some of Europe’s most complex and society-critical digital systems.

The investment also supports Denmark’s ambition, as set out in the 2026 government platform, to become a frontrunner in the development and responsible application of AI. The government intends to provide DKK 150 million to increase public commitment through EIFO.

“Denmark must be among the countries shaping the direction of tomorrow’s technology. With Gefion, we are investing in Europe’s digital sovereignty and its ability to compete in a world where access to computing power, data and artificial intelligence is crucial. Now Gefion is strengthened with DKK 500 million. This will give Danish companies and researchers greater computing power to turn good ideas into new solutions, businesses and jobs. At the same time, it will strengthen our competitiveness and help ensure that ownership of tomorrow’s technology is not left to others,” says Martin Lidegaard, Minister for Business and Competitiveness.

“The computing power of AI supercomputers is a vital resource for our researchers and businesses. Europe must be able to do much more on its own, and Denmark must contribute to European technological sovereignty – not least so that we can regulate and develop technology based on democratic values. That is why it is fantastic news that we continue to pool resources in a public-private partnership and ramp up the capacity of Gefion – and give even more muscle to the most powerful Danish AI supercomputer,” says Christina Egelund, Minister for Research, Higher Education and Digital Affairs.

Strengthening Denmark’s AI sovereignty

The growing demand for secure and sovereign AI infrastructure across Denmark and Europe, creates significant commercial opportunity and a need for additional capacity.

“The real value of Gefion will not be measured in computing power alone. It will be measured by what Denmark and Europe are able to build with it. Together with the Novo Nordisk Foundation and EIFO, we want to transform this technological foundation into a national AI capability that enables businesses, researchers and public institutions to develop and deploy AI securely, responsibly and at scale. This is about strengthening Denmark’s and Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and digital sovereignty, and ensuring that we do not simply participate in the AI revolution, but that we are shaping it,” says André Rogaczewski, CEO of Netcompany.

Demand for secure and sovereign AI infrastructure is already growing rapidly across Denmark and Europe. Gefion already serves users in defence, research, academia, healthcare and industry. Market analysis points to an addressable market many times DCAI’s current scale, highlighting the opportunity for further capacity expansion.

“Gefion is approaching full capacity, making timing right for bringing on board additional capital and competencies to accelerate DCAI as a platform for sovereign and secure AI. We are seeing a shift in AI from training models to deploying and running them at scale, driving demand for more capacity and new capabilities. With today’s announcement, we are evolving DCAI as a strong, sovereign Danish platform, ready to capture this opportunity,”says Nana Bule, Chairperson of DCAI.

“When Gefion was inaugurated in 2024, the main task was to train large AI models. Today, companies and public organisations are building AI into their products and workflows, and a new generation of AI agents is taking on more complex tasks. DCAI will now be able to build modern AI capacity that public institutions and businesses can trust and adopt, not least where data is sensitive or regulated,” says Martin Svensson, CEO of DCAI.

Turning AI potential into progress for Denmark and Europe

Building on the foundation set by EIFO and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, DCAI’s ambition can now be further raised to give Danish innovation the power to grow, Danish research the capacity to lead and businesses of all sizes access to world-class AI capabilities on competitive terms.

“AI is fundamentally changing our economy and society, and within only five years, we expect the demand for AI capacity in Denmark to increase at least sixfold. Danish access to a strong and sovereign AI-infrastructure is therefore essential. By investing further in DCAI, we are building on what we have already created and quickly securing more AI capacity anchored in Denmark – and with perspectives that extend into Europe,” says Peder Lundquist, CEO, EIFO.

“We are proud to have co-created DCAI from the very beginning and to see how Gefion has developed since its launch. As a key shareholder, we remain committed to its continued development to become the trusted backbone for regulated AI in Denmark. Netcompany brings valuable expertise to the partnership, and by welcoming them as co-owner, we can cooperate at the scale needed to undertake that mission,” says Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, CEO, Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Netcompany will be represented on DCAI’s board of directors and will have usual minority shareholder rights. DCAI was founded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and EIFO.

About DCAI

Danish Centre for AI Innovation (DCAI) is a company established to run and operate Gefion, Denmark’s first AI supercomputer. Our mission is to lower the barrier to access the most advanced computing capabilities, and we work with customers from academia, startups, and enterprise to accelerate AI research and innovation.

About Netcompany

Netcompany is Europe’s trusted technology partner for digital transformation in the most complex and regulated environments, serving governments, critical industries and enterprises that cannot afford to fail. Building on proven products and platforms, Netcompany own the full journey – from strategy and development to daily operations. As Europe’s leader in sovereign AI with the Feniks AI stack, we keep data, infrastructure, and control within European borders – delivering world-class technology on Europe’s own terms: open to collaboration, never dependent on it.

About EIFO

EIFO works to help Danish companies grow and do business in Denmark and around the world. We open doors to global opportunities, drive the green transition, support innovative technologies, and contribute to Denmark’s security.

As Denmark’s national promotional bank, official export credit agency and largest venture investor, EIFO provides loans, guarantees and investments to companies ranging from startups to global corporations. With a total exposure of more than 24 billion euro, we are active in more than 100 countries.

About the Novo Nordisk Foundation

Established in Denmark in 1924, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is an enterprise foundation with philanthropic objectives. The vision of the Foundation is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet. The Foundation’s mission is to progress research and innovation in the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic and infectious diseases as well as to advance knowledge and solutions to support a green transformation of society.

Source: Novo Nordisk Foundation

The post DCAI Plans Expansion as Gefion AI Supercomputer Nears Full Capacity appeared first on HPCwire.

Order a Diet Coke or invade Iran – that’s the choice facing the US president in one of several satirical games, as designers turn the gamification of politics back on the White House

In early September, the Trump White House announced a surprising new addition to its official website. Named simply Arcade, it is a collection of browser games based on classic titles such as Flappy Bird, Snake, and Tetris, but re-tuned as flagrant works of political propaganda. Designed to court reactionary gamers, they push the administration’s policies on immigration and other hot-button issues, while dehumanising their targets. There have recently been some new additions: a Temple Run clone named Red Scare about crossing the “ration market” and escaping the Democratic Socialists of America, and another simple item-matching game about the threat of socialism. In the midst of increasing fuel, utility and grocery prices thanks to the Iran war, these were naked attempts to distract voters by appealing to their video game nostalgia.

After an explosion of news coverage, Arcade caught the attention of the games industry. The Tetris Company warned on social media that it “took copyright infringement very seriously.” Days later, the game was removed from the White House site. However, aside from a March 2026 statement from the Pokémon Company condemning the White House for using its characters in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) propaganda, major video game companies have been relatively silent in the face of the administration’s widespread usage of their IP.

Some advocates say it no longer makes sense for their movement to be so intertwined with the Republican party

After the Democrats’ huge wins in the US midterm elections last week, gun rights advocates are updating their strategies in an attempt to cross the aisle and find allies on the left.

While most of the biggest and most visible gun rights groups, such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), are already signaling that they will challenge any gun safety legislation brought by the new Democratic Congress, others say it no longer makes sense for their movement to be so deeply intertwined with the Republican party.

Warby Parker’s and Gentle Monster’s Google and Samsung-created smart glasses have cameras like Meta’s, but these have some subtle differences when it comes to AI.

US investment firm Gordon Brothers is ‘taking due care’ to consider if one of three bidders has enough funds

• Business live – latest updates

Poundland’s owner has said it is “taking due care” to consider if one of three bidders had enough funds to ensure its survival after the troubled budget retail chain secured two more weeks to find a deal.

The management of Poundland, which employs approximately 12,000 people and operates 600 stores in the UK and Ireland, won approval from the high court for an extension of legal protection from creditors on Thursday morning.

At least four people were killed when weekend storms triggered a landslide onto tent shelters, which are exposed to risks during severe weather.

Defeating Cindy Hyde-Smith makes the 43-year-old district attorney the first Black Mississippi senator elected since Reconstruction. Plus, the South Korean scarf vendor who has gone viral for telling people not to buy

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Good morning. In a stunning upset after more than a week of vote counting in one of the country’s most reliably red states, the Democrat Scott Colom has defeated Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent Republican senator, in Mississippi. He becomes the first Black senator elected in the state since Reconstruction.

Colom’s election capped a national wave of anger at Donald Trump’s administration, sweeping away Republicans in places where Democrats had not been competitive in decades. With the addition of Colom, Democrats will hold at least 55 seats in the Senate, the party’s largest midterm gain since 1986.

What did Colom say about his victory? Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, said there had been times when his long-shot campaign felt defeated but “I had to have faith”. He told supporters: “My commitment to you, each and every one of you, is that first I’m going to treat your children like I want my children to be treated. I’m going to treat your parents the way I want my parents to be treated. I’m gonna treat your future the way I want my future to be.”

How have Democrats responded to a White House threat? Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the oversight committee in the House of Representatives said it appeared Donald Trump had “something to hide” after the White House threatened criminal investigations over the party’s planned scrutiny of the administration. Garcia said in a statement that Congress’s authority came from article I of the constitution, “not from the permission of the White House”.

Deleting old games isn’t the only option you have to make space for GTA 6.

So I found the culprit. D 15. A did to ground in case of a voltage spike. It not powered up and connects. Just waiting on diode to put back in.

Actor and race car driver Frankie Muniz has been released from a Florida hospital after a crash during a practice lap at Daytona International Speedway.

After a month-long investigation it was concluded that Kundizeza’s story The Blue Fighter, which won the £10,000 Caine prize, was ‘human-written’

The Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Kundizeza has been cleared of using AI to write a prize-winning short story, after the prestigious Caine prize for African writers concluded that his entry was “human-written” after a month-long investigation.

Kundizeza’s story The Blue Fighter, which charts the declining fortunes of a family after the father invests in fish tanks, was announced as the winner of the £10,000 prize on 6 October.

Despite John Healey’s defiance, the economy faces threats from a tech slowdown and energy bills this winter

• AI helps UK economy grow at fastest pace for more than two years

The forecasters were clear when John Healey became chancellor in July: Britain’s resilience to the war in the Middle East would not last. The global economic headwinds were too strong, inflation was beginning to rise and growth would slow to a trickle.

Four months into the job, the economy is continuing to defy expectations after growing by 0.7% in the third quarter – the fastest expansion in two and a half years. It puts the UK on course to be the second-fastest growing G7 economy this year.

An Israeli airstrike targeting the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza killed six people and wounded at least a dozen more, Gaza's Hamas-controlled Health Ministry said.

Pope Leo declared Peru his "homeland" as he arrived in Lima at the start of his historic visit​, returning to the place that taught him how to be a pastor.

China has fined a company what amounts to about $120,000 over an ad it created for Dove chocolate featuring a woman in a "situationship," saying it promoted the "wrong views on marriage and relationships."

Shares up 7% after announcement as Jaime Gilinski Bacal seeks exit three years after helping to rescue bank

Metro Bank is putting itself up for sale three years after its near-collapse, in a move that could hand a £420m windfall to its Colombian billionaire investor, Jaime Gilinski Bacal.

Metro Bank made the rare decision to publicly announce it was open to bids on Thursday, paving the way for a wider pool of suitors. The announcement pushed the share price up by 7% by mid-morning, valuing the bank at about £1.3bn.

The slew of port and plug options is great, and the built-in display is just as useful.

• Kerr admits concern is ‘high’ for Curry’s injury

• Bassey says Smart guilty of ‘fake toughness’

Kevin Durant scored 20 points, Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson added 19 and the Houston Rockets snapped Golden State’s eight-game winning streak with a 115-108 victory on Wednesday night.

The Warriors played most of the game without Stephen Curry after the star left in the first quarter with right abdominal soreness and didn’t return. He was due to get an MRI on the injury.

CEO says ‘democratic approach’ has helped brand outperform tough market, with big rises in China and US

Burberry has returned to profit as its back-to-basics strategy drove strong sales of the British brand’s coats, jackets and handbags over the summer.

Joshua Schulman, the chief executive, said the luxury brand had outperformed a “challenging luxury market” to achieve sales growth of 6%, helped by strong online and wholesale sales particularly in China and the US. “Our strategy is working,” he said.

For the next time you need Cobra Commander to crash a Teams meeting.

Hospital director says 28 wounded in attack on one of few remaining medical facilities in the strip

An Israeli airstrike on Nasser hospital in southern Gaza killed six people, including a surgeon and a disabled man, and wounded 28 others, according to the hospital director.

The Israeli military carried out the attack on the hospital, in Khan Younis, early on Thursday saying in a statement it had struck a Hamas commander and other fighters there, without providing evidence.

As the Trump administration seeks to manage Venezuela’s oil industry, residents are protesting at a pace not seen in years, mainly about the failing power grid.

Complaints about banks and other financial players keep rising as Trump officials squelch enforcement actions at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

• This story was supported and co-published by the journalism

  non-profit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project

The American Cancer Society’s first update to prostate cancer screening guidance in more than a decade endorsed regular PSA tests for certain older men.

Members of Democratic Socialists of America have a unique opportunity to fulfill campaign promises and group’s ideals

As progressive candidates scored wins across the country last week, a historic number of socialists swept into power – in Congress, in state legislatures and at the helm of American cities.

Democratic Socialists of America members Nithya Raman and Janeese Lewis George were elected to lead the second largest US city – Los Angeles – and the capital – Washington DC respectively. Two other young DSA members, David Morales and Yousef Rabhi, were elected mayors of Providence, Rhode Island, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. They will join a handful of socialist mayors in smaller cities, including Burlington, Vermont, and Irvine, California – as well as Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist mayor of New York, the largest city in the US.

Video shot from the rescue helicopter showed the boy was shirtless and sunburned. He was wearing shorts and boots and was using towels as blankets.

Former Radio 1 DJ accused of new offences against women in London and now faces trial in January for 17 charges

The former radio DJ Tim Westwood has denied two additional sex offences dating back to 1991 and 2004.

His latest not guilty pleas mean he now denies 17 charges against nine women between 1983 and 2016.

A major technical rescue operation was ongoing, involving hundreds of firefighters.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair must be the costliest fling in human history – and a preview of what awaits when the tech bubble bursts

One thing we all know about the tech billionaires is they are super-smart. We know this largely because they never stop telling us. The “cognitive elite”, to use their favoured phrase, are entitled to shape our future without our say-so. When Elon Musk goes hiring, he wants “super-high-IQ small-government revolutionaries”. Long before they got private jets, what fuelled these boys was faith in their own brainpower. As a teenager, Jensen Huang wooed his future wife, Lori, thus: “If you do homework with me every Sunday, I promise you you’ll get straight As.”

Lord Byron: I believe it’s your move.

Unprecedented view of cosmos provided by Euclid mission throws up many more cases of gravitational lensing

A mission to create the largest ever 3D map of the universe has revealed more than 900m galaxies in its first major data release together with about 15,000 potential cases of a phenomenon that could help unlock the secrets of the “dark universe”.

Launched in July 2023, the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission promised to create the largest cosmic map ever made, encompassing a third of the sky and more than 10bn years of cosmic history.

It is built of wood, resembles an Ikea and its power is totally renewable. Plus, it was built with the local community in mind. Is this facility in Falun the best datacentre in the world?

‘It was pretty cool, when they were building it. It looked like a very large Ikea,” says John Wernvik, of EcoDataCenter. He is giving me a tour of their facility in Falun, Sweden, which could lay claim to being the world’s greenest datacentre – although to many, that is a contradiction in terms.

One difference is immediately visible: this datacentre is made out of wood. Huge panels of cross-laminated timber arrived at the site pre-cut, and were assembled by crane according to instructions, like flatpack furniture. Aesthetically, this section of the datacentre is more like an Ikea before the fit-out, a cavernous, echoey, immaculately clean hangar. The wood is not EcoDataCenter’s only claim to sustainability; it is more than just cosmetic, says Wernvik, the company’s chief external relations and sustainability officer. “Compared with a traditional datacentre built with steel and concrete, we lower the embodied carbon of the full structure by three times.” With a complex the size of a football pitch, that is a lot of wood, but, says Wernvik, “the amount of timber one of our datacentres uses takes the Swedish forest about 10 to 15 minutes to grow back”.

Exclusive: The Guardian revealed 29 hospital trusts were not or hardly using the controversial patient data tech

NHS England has deleted a claim from its website stating 137 hospital trusts are benefiting from Palantir’s AI health data system after the Guardian revealed 29 of them were not using all or most of the controversial technology.

Health bosses had published a list of all the NHS bodies “live” with and “realising benefits” from the AI-powered federated data platform (FDP), a system set up to improve patient outcomes, boost operating theatre efficiency and speed up bed discharges. But after 29 trusts said it was either not live or they were not using any of its applications, the original list of hospitals appears to have been taken down.

Voters remembered Trump’s many promises to avoid the same kind of regime-change wars started by his predecessors

For much of his political career, Donald Trump ranted at past US presidents who got the US entangled in endless foreign conflicts. He used it as a cudgel to belittle his predecessors, calling George W Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 “the worst single mistake ever made in the history of our country”. Trump also regularly derided the occupation of Afghanistan as “a total disaster”.

Then Trump decided to launch his own disastrous war against Iran eight months ago. And that conflict may well have cost Republicans control of Congress in last week’s midterm elections.

Kerry decries president for ceding clean-energy dominance to China and says climate crisis still a key issue for voters

Donald Trump is the “biggest loser we’ve seen in a long time” for scrapping action on the climate crisis and ceding the clean energy race to China, former US secretary of state John Kerry has said.

Kerry, speaking at the Cop31 climate summit in Turkey, criticized Trump for withdrawing the US from the international climate process and axing measures that reduced planet-heating emissions. Unlike almost all other countries in the world, the Trump administration has sent no delegation to the resort city of Antalya for the annual UN climate talks, which started on Monday.

As public mood has shifted on Israel-Gaza and the Iran war, so has the manosphere’s devotion to the US president

Earlier this week, Donald Trump announced that the UFC president, Dana White, was to become his press secretary. The US president hoped the creator of Power Slap, a face-slapping league which one of the world’s leading neurologists called “a sport inconsistent with the intelligence of humans”, might be the right man to deliver his daily rebuttals to the media.

Trump later backtracked on the appointment, saying he was “only kidding”, yet it is easy to understand why he might be pining for White’s muscles, trash talk and thirst for athletic violence. White is representative of the way Trump transcended politics in 2024 to become a celebrated figure in the manosphere, the loosely defined cluster of male content creators who have a direct line to America’s bored and aggrieved young men. On the night of the 2024 election, White stood at the victory podium reading out “thank yous” to the formerly heterodox podcast bros who came out for Trump: “the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin’ With The Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan”. Trump ended up winning 63% of young white men that night, unheard of for a Republican politician.

New Department of Homeland Security figures show more than 483,000 deportations and 491,000 immigration arrests in fiscal year 2026.

Republicans described the incoming minority leader as a "fighter" who can go head to head with Hakeem Jeffries.

Tim Peters, one of Python's earliest and most influential contributors, died on July 15 at age 74. Known as Python's second real user, Peters created the Zen of Python and Timsort sorting algorithm while contributing to numerous core components. He also served as a Python Software Foundation director from 2001 to 2014. Adafruit remembers Peters in a blog post: He's best known for the Zen of Python, PEP 20, still printed by typing import this. In 2002, he gave Python Timsort, the sorting algorithm he designed for lists, later adopted by Java and Android. He also polished the cyclic garbage collector and the pymalloc allocator, worked on the dict implementation, the float object, the math module and Karatsuba multiplication in longobject, and wrote the first version of doctest, plus difflib, pickletools and tabnanny. He was a director of the Python Software Foundation from 2001 to 2014. Before Python, he wrote compilers at Cray Research and speech-to-text software at Dragon Systems. The thread is full of recollections from core developers about his patient, detailed answers on the mailing lists, signed with his trademark . Python creator Guido van Rossum also paid tribute to Peters in a post on discuss.python.org, writing: "It's hard to overestimate Tim's influence on Python. He's probably best known for writing the Zen of Python (PEP 20), but to me he was a mentor and language co-designer long before that..." Further discussions can be found on Hacker News and Reddit.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A bipartisan bill making its way through Congress aims to smooth the transition into college and to help students qualify for accommodations without additional testing.

Rallies will take place on more than US 40 campuses as workers seeking better pay and conditions decry stalled talks

Starbucks baristas, students, elected officials and allies are planning rallies at over 40 college campuses across the US on Thursday to support the Starbucks Workers United boycott campaign as the union nears five years of deadlock with the company over contract negotiations.

Starbucks Workers United is seeking better pay and stronger staffing levels, including a $17 an hour minimum wage for baristas and a minimum staffing of three workers per store. It has called on the public to boycott Starbucks until its first contract is reached.

With Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth temporarily safe from impeachment, a dozen humanitarian groups are calling on Congress to investigate one of the eight shelved charges lodged against him: his role in the deaths of hundreds of people during the “unauthorized war in Yemen.”

“We urge members of Congress to conduct robust oversight into Operation Rough Rider and the resulting human toll,” reads a new letter shared exclusively with The Intercept, using the Pentagon’s term for its war against Yemen’s Houthi government. The 12 groups — including Airwars, Amnesty International USA, the Center for Civilians in Conflict, and Mwatana for Human Rights — seize on civilian harm prevention efforts that Hegseth’s War Department slashed, demanding “more information about how and why civilian harm incidents occurred, what lessons the Department learned from these operations, and the status of ongoing civilian harm assessments and investigations.”

The push for accountability follows last week’s electoral rout of the GOP and immediate calls by top Democrats for scrutiny of war powers abuses by the Trump administration. But with Democrats taking the gavel in both chambers next year, a defense official told The Intercept that the Trump administration’s failed 2025 conflict in Yemen risks becoming a “forgotten war” amid a push for accountability focused on higher profile conflicts.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the House Armed Services Committee’s incoming chair, announced last week that the committee’s “top priority will be to conduct vigorous oversight of the Department of Defense and the Trump Administration,” specifically singling out “the illegal war against Iran” and “unauthorized military strikes in the Caribbean and Latin America.” Smith did not mention Yemen, and his office did not respond to repeated queries about whether Yemen would also be a priority. The office of Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who is slated to head the Senate Armed Services Committee, also did not immediately respond to questions about whether oversight of Rough Rider would be a focus.

Over just 52 days, from March to May 2025, Rough Rider caused “extraordinarily high numbers of civilian casualties,” the groups noted. As The Intercept first reported in August, the Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on civilian harm acknowledged almost 400 civilian casualties — 153 deaths and 243 injuries — from just three attacks in Yemen: a strike in Sanaa on April 6, a strike on the Ras Isa Port on April 17, and a strike on a migrant detention center in Saada on April 28.

Related

Trump’s Yemen Strike Killed 61 Immigrants and No Combatants

Amnesty, one of the signatories, spoke with five survivors of the strike in Saada who cannot work because of their injuries. “If I don’t take a painkiller, I feel hopeless and wish to die,” said a 22-year-old Ethiopian man who sustained a serious arm injury in the U.S. attack. “I think about how at such a young age I can’t even support myself and still rely on help from others. The metal rod inside me is very painful and uncomfortable. It drives you insane.” 

A U.S. official called the Pentagon’s civilian casualty count “lowball numbers.” According to the Yemen Data Project, the estimated toll was higher: at least 238 civilians killed and 467 injured.

“It’s striking that the Department acknowledged nearly 400 civilian casualties from just three incidents — a staggeringly high rate — without any explanation whatsoever about what happened and why, how they’ll respond to victims and their families, and how they’ll prevent it from happening again,” Annie Shiel, the U.S. director of Center for Civilians in Conflict, told The Intercept.

More than a year after Operation Rough Rider ended, 15 additional attacks were still under assessment, according to the civilian harm report. One official told The Intercept in August that the backlog would likely carry over several years. Under Hegseth, the 10-person civilian harm mitigation team at Central Command, or CENTCOM, has been reduced to just one individual.

This lack of attention doesn’t bode well for understanding civilian harm in Hegseth’s longer-running and even more destructive war efforts, officials said.

“How will they get through hundreds of cases for Iran if their one civilian harm person still hasn’t finished Yemen?” a U.S. official asked in August.

Related

Yemenis Unable to Reach Hospital Are Part of the Iran War Death Toll

At present, CENTCOM claims that the U.S. attack on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, Iran – that killed more than 150 people, most of them children — is the lone civilian harm incident of that burgeoning forever war. For months, CENTCOM has failed to answer questions about that attack and additional Iranian civilian casualties, including eight members of a family — the youngest, a 20-day-old infant — killed in a strike documented in an investigation by The Intercept.

Shiel highlighted the connections between the civilian casualties during Rough Rider and those in Iran.

“There is a through-line here from Yemen. We’ll never know if the devastation of Minab would have been prevented through a fully staffed civilian protection program and a more robust inquiry into what happened in Yemen, but it’s clear that important reckoning didn’t happen,” she said. “This is part of a broader trend of focusing on ‘lethality’ over civilian lives, ignoring hard-learned lessons in the process.”

A group of Democratic lawmakers told Hegseth in a July letter that his “gutting” of Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response efforts has left the Pentagon unable to “comply with the law and its congressionally-mandated CHMR responsibilities.” Sent by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and nine other lawmakers, the letter echoed concerns raised by a War Department inspector general report that described civilian protection efforts as largely “inactive.” The May missive by the Pentagon’s top watchdog says cuts to civilian harm mitigation and response efforts have been so severe under Hegseth that the United States cannot adequately protect civilians in conflict zones or track harm when it occurs. 

Related

Hegseth’s War Department Slashed Civilian Protection Staff, Brought in AI Assessments

These criticisms were echoed in an another report, first revealed by The Intercept in July, that found Hegseth’s Pentagon gutted its premier center devoted to preventing civilian casualties in war zones. The War Department’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence slashed its staff from 40 personnel in January 2025 to just nine by the end of the year, according to the report.

Last week, The Intercept published an exposé quoting six current and former defense officials under Hegseth who called for his ouster, including a former senior adviser at that center. “He is conducting state terrorism. He is 100 percent a war criminal. He needs to be prosecuted,” said Wes J. Bryant, who was pushed out of his job for blowing the whistle on Hegseth’s efforts to undermine protections for civilians.

The 12 humanitarian groups called on Congress to “fully restore” the Pentagon’s civilian harm mitigation program, “including by mandating minimum staffing levels and earmarking funding in annual appropriations and maintaining robust oversight over DoD implementation of congressionally-mandated policies.” The groups also specifically requested the release of the Civilian Protection Center’s lessons-learned study on Operation Rough Rider, which has been bottled up for months.

During a rare Pentagon press conference on Tuesday, ahead of the impeachment vote, Hegseth celebrated Rough Rider, claiming the Houthis “cried uncle.” But a post-mortem of the operation in the CTC Sentinel — published by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point — said that because of Rough Rider, the Houthi leadership “will have the confidence that, like the Taliban in Afghanistan, it can simply outlast the United States.”

Related

The Incredible Shrinking Superpower

The U.S. has, to date, failed to come to the aid of its staunch ally Saudi Arabia as the Houthis have battered that country’s airports and energy infrastructure for weeks. On Monday, an attack on the financial district in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, damaged an office of Aramco, the state oil giant.

The White House failed to respond to questions about the Yemen war from The Intercept. CENTCOM did not reply to a request for information on the status of civilian harm assessments or formal investigations stemming from Rough Rider.

Shiel was emphatic about the necessity of accountability, telling The Intercept, “Congress needs to step in and force that reckoning through oversight over civilian harm incidents and by mandating and funding the restoration of the civilian harm mitigation program.”

In their letter, the 12 humanitarian organizations urged the U.S. to make amends to survivors and the families of victims.

“The Department’s 2025 report also stated that ex gratia or condolence payments to victims and survivors were ‘determined to not be appropriate’ in the three Yemen incidents. This decision is premature and seemingly arbitrary,” they wrote. “Rather than dismissing amends out of hand, the Department should undertake a good-faith effort to understand families’ needs and preferences for responses.”

The post Humanitarian Orgs Demand Answers on Yemen War After Hegseth Impeachment Fails appeared first on The Intercept.

Progress of bill to reinstate struck-off doctors hinged on support from far right figure Roberto Vannacci, whose rise is shaping politics before 2027 elections

Antonio Cremasco contracted Covid at a dinner party on 6 March 2020. Four days later, as Italy became the first European country to go into nationwide lockdown, he was fighting for his life. “I spent 20 days in intensive care, followed by another 20 days in a hospital ward,” said Cremasco, from Bassano del Grappa in the northern Italian Veneto region.

After leaving hospital, he needed oxygen therapy for another six months. Cremasco’s ordeal was such that when Covid vaccines became available in Italy in early 2021, he had no qualms about being vaccinated, and he believes the decision saved his life once again.

There are many problems in this world – some big, some small, some so minute nobody ought to put them to paper at all. The problem I’m going to highlight here is even smaller than that. This literally – the actual literally – does not matter and absolutely nobody should care about it, let alone put any work into changing it or addressing it some other way.

I want to talk about the iconography GNOME’s Disks utility uses to symbolise “mount” and “unmount”. No, I’m not descending into madness.

GNOME’s Disks utility uses the “play” symbol on the mount button, and the “stop” symbol on the unmount button. Inexplicably, considering the state of the world in general and the rapidly deteriorating quality of software specifically, this bothers me. Out in the real world, built on decades of consistent use, these symbols have gained clearly defined meanings, and mounting and unmounting disks definitely isn’t one of them.

In fact, the meaning of these symbols isn’t mere convention; they’re defined in a variety of international standards for symbols for use in software and on equipment, such as ISO/IEC 18035 (which you need to buy to read; my copy fell of a truck):

ISO/IEC 18035:2002 defines a consistent set of icons and related functions that are represented by multimedia applications on a computer screen and that users interact with to control such applications. It describes controls applying to such functions as: Play, Pause, Stop, Rewind, Scan forward, Scan backward, Replay backward, Loop, Go to beginning, Go to previous, Go to next, Go to end, Set volume and Mute.

↫ ISO/IEC 18035:2003

They’re also part of ISO 7000/IEC 60417, a much larger, more encompassing standard that also contains things like the various symbols used on laundry machines, tumble dryers, in cars, and so on. The symbols themselves are much older than the standards, of course, with many of them dating back to the 1960s and possibly even 1950s. The point remains, though: the play and stop symbols have clearly defined meanings, and I don’t think they are at all a good fit for mount and unmount.

The function of the “play” symbol according to ISO/IEC 18035:

To enable the user to start the presentation of dynamic media, except where the task requires automatic playing of that media.

↫ ISO/IEC 18035:2003

And of the “stop” symbol:

To enable the user to stop the presentation of dynamic media.

↫ ISO/IEC 18035:2003

Neither of these descriptions match what mounting and unmounting mean or do. Mounting a drive or partition doesn’t present any media at all; it merely makes the drive or partition in question accessible. Unmounting also doesn’t eject anything; it merely makes the drive or partition inaccessible. I would argue that play and pause act upon contents of a drive or volume, and not upon the drive or volume itself. As it stands right now, you “play” a drive” to “play” a video stored on said drive.

Madness.

I already know what you’re thinking, and yes, I agree that the Disks utility is a tool aimed at more advanced use cases and users, and most normal, average users will never even know it exists, let alone open it at all. Very few people get to see these symbols, and those that do already know full well what mounting and unmounting mean, reducing the importance of said symbols considerably. But now it’s time for the big surprise, the twist in the story that turns this entire thing on its head.

Files, GNOME’s file manager, uses an entirely different symbol for unmounting! Instead of the “stop” symbol, Files uses the “eject” symbol. You may think this is a more accurate visual representation of what unmounting means, but I strongly disagree. Let’s turn to ISO/IEC 18035:2003 once again:

To enable the user to eject the current physical media from the appropriate drive.

↫ ISO/IEC 18035:2003

Unmounting doesn’t eject anything! If you unmount a USB stick, the stick doesn’t get fired out of the USB port. If you unmount a volume, it doesn’t get removed from the SSD. Hell, if you unmount a CD-ROM, it doesn’t even eject it! Ejecting a CD-ROM – opening the drive’s tray or spitting the CD-ROM out of a slot-loader – is an entirely different act! Are we really “ejecting” a CD-ROM twice? Are we “mounting” a CD-ROM when we merely close the tray? No!

Madness!

The real underlying problem here is, of course, that mounting and unmounting are deeply weird and confusing concepts, bordering on the esoteric, that simply do not have physical equivalents to fall back on. Using symbols and iconography designed in the 1960s explicitly for playing music or stopping a video or ejecting a cassette tape are not a good fit for something as difficult to explain to most people as mounting and unmounting. It’s like putting an eject symbol on a car’s door handle or a play symbol on a soap dispenser.

Should GNOME developers waste any time or resources to address this? No, of course not, that would be stupid. Nobody should care about this but me. I should suffer in silence, every time I need to mount or unmount something, forced to look for an eject or stop symbol in whatever user interface I happen to be using. Every time, I should die a little inside. Please, don’t be like me and waste precious resources thinking about this.

I’m not descending into madness. I just want mount and unmount symbols that make sense.

I’m not descending into madness.

Nintendo Switch/2, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/series X/S, PC; Denkiworks/Inpleron Limited
This gentle game of fixing and fetching, in which you play as a furry post office worker on a BMX, has a slow, calming magic that delights in routine and restoration

Arriving alongside November’s blue wave, Tanuki: Pon’s Summer is a game of quiet restoration that feels perfectly suited to the current moment. Tasked with repairing an ancient shrine in the weeks leading up to a local festival, you’ll find yourself cleaning out trash, mending broken arches and slowly bringing a small rural community back together.

It sounds a bit like JL Carr’s compact but enchanting novel A Month in the Country, except instead of shell-shocked veterans of the first world war you’re left exploring the rich inner life of a Japanese racoon dog who can ride a BMX. Even so, the mixture of steady progress and general low stakes proves intoxicating. This is a short game, but it’s hard not to linger over it.

A Long Shadow: Postwar Japan Through the Lens will be the first show of Japanese photography in more than three decades at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibit brings together 15 intergenerational artists as well as photographic prints, including more than 25 books and magazines and a video installation, all combining to show how photographers in Japan documented the country in the decades after the second world war. The exhibition runs until 2 May 2027

The Department of Homeland Security says it’s not detaining Americans. 

In written statements, it has said that “allegations that ICE is arresting and deporting U.S. citizens is FALSE.”

It has said that “when individuals are briefly questioned under ‘reasonable suspicion’ and are found to be U.S. citizens, they are immediately released.” And it has said that “U.S. citizen agitators are only held while they actively remain a safety threat to our officers and the public.”

But ProPublica has identified more than 500 citizens detained since President Donald Trump returned to office.

They are not just numbers. 

Among them is an elderly car wash owner whom agents repeatedly knocked to the ground as they detained several of his workers. A 6-year-old whose mother says still has nightmares after agents pointed guns at him and his siblings. A high school senior who was detained after she tried to stop officers from questioning her autistic younger brother. A dad who was held for several days and missed his daughter’s third birthday. 

Over the past year, several of these people shared the lingering effects of what happened to them with ProPublica.

Ana Michelle Ramirez Sanan

In their own neighborhood

In September 2025, Ana Michelle Ramirez Sanan learned that ICE agents had intercepted members of her family as they drove one of her uncles to a court hearing. Ramirez Sanan, then 17, said she rushed to the scene and discovered agents had broken the car windows and pulled her two uncles, her mother and her younger brother out. Video of the incident showed agents kicking and slamming Ramirez Sanan’s mother to the ground and then twisting her arms to handcuff her. Ramirez Sanan said she saw other agents questioning her brother against a fence, threatening to arrest him if he couldn’t prove he had legal status.

Both she and her brother are citizens.

“Him being a 13-year-old with autism, he doesn’t understand these things like we do. He didn’t know what ‘a legal status’ is. He’s not able to tell them: ‘Yes, I have a legal status. I’m born here,’” Ramirez Sanan said. She said that when she rushed toward her mom and brother, begging agents to let them go, they detained her. “It was really scary thinking that they might have taken us and deported us to Guatemala, where we don’t have anything.”

DHS said that its agents intercepted the car in order to detain the uncle who was going to court that day, and that they “used the appropriate force necessary.” He was facing charges of sexual assault on a child and remains in ICE custody. He has pleaded not guilty. 

As for Ramirez Sanan, her mother and her brother, they were released the day of the incident. Her mother, who has lived in the United States for 20 years and has a green card, was treated at a hospital for a concussion, bruising and nerve damage in one of her arms. 

DHS denies that they were ever detained.

“We have so much trauma just from the 30 minutes we were held,” said Ramirez Sanan, who struggled with anxiety and depression after the incident. “I lost my whole senior year fighting this. My brother isn’t the same either.”

Andrea Velez

On her way to work

In June 2025, Andrea Velez was dropped off at work at a shoe company in downtown Los Angeles and inadvertently walked into an immigration raid on street vendors. She said one of the masked agents rushed toward her, grabbed her and slammed her to the pavement. Velez said she attempted to shield herself with her work bag. 

“Throughout the whole time, I kept saying I was a U.S. citizen,” Velez recalled, saying that agents called her an “alleged U.S. citizen” even after they checked her ID. “They kept saying how many ‘bodies they got’ that day.”

Velez said that she was detained for two days, and that she was denied an opportunity to call family or a lawyer for most of that time. The government charged Velez with assault. DHS said she “made physical contact” with agents and tried to impede them. A judge ultimately dismissed the case. 

After her arrest, Velez said she was so afraid of being detained again that she worked remotely and avoided going outside.

Quentin Williams

At the end of his school day as a teaching assistant

In January, not long after immigration agents in Minneapolis had shot and killed an American woman named Renee Good, Quentin Williams, a teaching assistant at nearby Roosevelt High School, was guiding students toward buses when more agents arrived outside his building.

Williams said that agents began confronting students and staff. At some point during the commotion, he said, the agents threw him to the ground and choked him so hard he couldn’t breathe.

“They didn’t even know what they were doing — just kind of being reckless [with] assault rifles out and pepper-spraying staff after they took me down,” Williams recalled. 

Agents drove Williams to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, where they detained him for several hours.

Later, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi published his photo on her social media accounts, describing him as a “Minnesota rioter.” Federal authorities issued a warrant for his arrest for assaulting officers. The charges against him were eventually dismissed, and he’s filed a claim against the government for damages over his arrest. 

Williams said he’s still haunted by the idea that he came close to meeting the same fates as Good and George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. “I didn’t leave the house for at least up to a week,” he said. “I felt lucky to be alive.”

Anabel Romero, John Carter, Juana Rodriguez and their children

Attending a horse race

In October 2025, some 200 federal agents and local police officers in armored vehicles, a helicopter and on horseback conducted a raid on a racetrack in Wilder, Idaho, and detained hundreds of people, including dozens of children. Among them ProPublica identified at least 30 U.S. citizens.

Anabel Romero had left her kids eating in the car while she went to look at the horses. They were on opposite sides of the track when the raid began. 

Romero said the agents wore camouflage and had their guns drawn. She had no idea who they were. So she ran and tried to hide. “They didn’t identify themselves,” Romero said. “I didn’t know who they were.” 

She said unidentified officers tackled her, zip-tied her and threatened to “fucking blow your head off.”

On the other side of the track, Romero’s 14-year-old daughter, SueHey Tello, said officers surrounded their car, pointing guns at her brother, 6, and sister, 8. When Tello refused to exit the car without her younger siblings, agents pulled her so roughly out of the car that she fell, leaving bruises. She said agents zip-tied her hands.

Romero and Tello said the agents refused to remove the zip ties for hours, despite Tello’s age. The teenager said the incident has affected her view of law enforcement. Her mother says that the 6-year-old still has nightmares. Officers are meant “to keep us safe,” Tello said. “But yet they treated all of us like that.”

John Carter was working security at the track when the raid started. He had brought his girlfriend and his two children along with him. He recalls officers throwing a flash-bang near him and his son, and then the officers detained them. “They cinched the zip ties down as tight as they could,” Carter said. He said the officers also zip-tied his 14-year-old daughter but removed the restraints when he complained.

Carter explained that he is active in the local Republican Party and a strong supporter of law enforcement. But he said that what he saw officers doing that day was wrong.

“Things are supposed to be done humanely and correctly,” he said. “This wasn’t.”

The agents also detained Juana Rodriguez, who attended the event with her family. She said that she was zip-tied beside her 3-year-old son, which left her unable to pick him up and comfort him during the long hours they waited to prove their citizenship. “He wanted me to hug him, to hold him,” Rodriguez said. She and her son are both U.S. citizens and lead plaintiffs in an ACLU of Idaho lawsuit alleging the raid illegally targeted Latinos. ICE, the FBI and several Idaho agencies have denied the charge and asked that the lawsuit be dismissed.   

DHS did not respond to any specific allegations made by Rodriguez, Romero, Carter or their families. Instead, a spokesperson wrote in an email statement that the raid successfully helped dismantle an illegal gambling operation, and that ICE officers “didn’t zip tie, restrain or arrest any children.” The FBI declined to comment to ProPublica but told local media no “young children” were zip-tied. DHS, the FBI and multiple Idaho law enforcement agencies have refused to share the number of U.S. citizens held that day.

Amanda Trebach

Monitoring ICE operations

In August 2025, Amanda Trebach, a nurse and volunteer with an immigrant advocacy organization, said she was monitoring ICE activities outside a facility that the agency was using to stage operations when agents grabbed her and pinned her to the ground, kneeling on her neck and back. They shoved her into the back of a van and held her for several hours until taking her to a federal detention facility in Los Angeles. She was not given the opportunity to speak with an attorney during the 33 hours that she was in custody. She said agents took her phone and never returned it.

DHS said Trebach was detained because she attempted to physically impede its agents’ operations by jumping in front of moving vehicles, hitting their cars with her protest signs and shouting obscenities at agents. She denies this. 

She said that after the incident she felt paranoid that she was being followed.

“I didn’t want to walk to my apartment by myself; I didn’t want to be out in the dark by myself,” she said. “I didn’t know if they were going to come get me.”

George Retes

Driving to work

George Retes, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq, was driving into work at a cannabis farm in July 2025 and arrived to find the place being raided by immigration agents. Protesters had gathered outside the farm. He found himself trapped between the agents and the protesters. The agents broke his car window, pepper-sprayed him and pulled him out onto the ground. He was detained for three days, missing his daughter’s third birthday. Retes said, agents refused to explain why he’d been detained or to let him call relatives or a lawyer.

When ProPublica published Retes’ story last year, he said agents knew he was a citizen.  

“They didn’t care,” he recalled. “They still sent me away to jail.” 

DHS officials made statements claiming Retes had assaulted their agents. But he was never charged.

Javier Ramirez

Working at his auto shop

In June 2025, immigration agents conducted a raid on an auto shop owned by Javier Ramirez and his family. He said agents swept him up as they were detaining his workers. He recalled hearing one of the agents yell: “Hey, just get him! He’s Mexican.” He said agents tackled him and one of them put a knee on his face. He recalled hearing the agents boasting about the numbers of immigrants they were detaining across the city that day, saying: “How many did you get? I got 10, I got 15.” According to a lawsuit that Ramirez filed against DHS, he said he was held in federal custody for four days and was denied medication he needs for diabetes. DHS has not filed a response to the lawsuit, but previously the agency said that Ramirez was arrested for obstructing law enforcement, and that it never denied him medication.

Jeane Wong

Monitoring ICE operations

When Jeane “Bleu” Wong, an operator of a daycare center and activist, heard in July 2025 that ICE agents had arrived at a nearby apartment complex, she rushed to the scene to provide assistance to people who were being detained. Agents detained her when she tried to remove one of their masks. 

She was held in the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the largest and busiest land border crossing in the Western Hemisphere, and later moved to a federal prison. Wong said that during her time in custody she was strip-searched and shackled in chains that restricted her from using the restroom. Federal authorities charged Wong with assaulting a federal agent. She eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.

A little over a year later, Wong received a notice from the California Department of Social Services that her license to care for children had been revoked because of the assault. She and her wife are selling their home and relocating outside of Southern California. 

“We could totally fight, and I’d probably win,” she said. “But we don’t have the money, time, energy.”

Rafie Ollah Shouhed

Working at his car wash

Rafie Ollah Shouhed, 79, was born in Iran, moved to Los Angeles after the Islamic Revolution and became a U.S. citizen. On Sept. 9, 2025, Shouhed, owner of Valley Car Wash, watched with alarm as immigration agents stormed into his business and attempted to detain his employees. He rushed outside to see what was going on. Security video of the incident shows agents knocked Shouhed to the ground repeatedly. He told agents that he had just had heart surgery. “They were sitting on me,” he recalled. “I was begging them, ‘Just let me breathe!’” He said in an ongoing lawsuit that the agents kept him handcuffed for 12 hours and left him with injuries to his arm, elbows and ribs. Shouhed said that he’s still receiving treatment for his injuries, and that he has quit working. DHS said Shouhed was arrested for interfering with and assaulting officers and did not answer questions about his lawsuit. He was released without charges.

Leonardo Garcia Venegas

Working construction

Leonardo Garcia Venegas was laying concrete with his construction crew in Alabama in May 2025 when immigration agents arrived at the site without a warrant and began detaining his co-workers, including his brother. Garcia Venegas pulled out his phone to film the agents. Videos he and other workers recorded show agents approaching to arrest Garcia Venegas while he filmed, tackling and arresting him while he yelled that he was a U.S. citizen. Garcia Venegas said that he told the agents he had his REAL ID on him, but that they dismissed the document as fake. They held him in handcuffs for an hour before finally releasing him without charges. DHS said he was impeding officers. After that first incident, immigration agents detained Garcia Venegas two more times, each time ignoring statements and identification documents that prove he is a U.S. citizen.

Garcia Venegas filed a lawsuit against DHS over its warrantless raids on construction sites. DHS responded to the lawsuit, saying that its agents didn’t need warrants to operate at construction sites because they’re open to the public. The agency also said that brief stops like Garcia Venegas’ were “reasonable.” Until the case is resolved, a judge ordered a temporary halt to the operations.

“I just want to live in peace,” he told ProPublica after his third arrest.

Aliya Rahman

Driving to the doctor

Aliya Rahman, who is autistic and disabled, was driving to a doctor’s appointment in January when she reached an intersection where protesters were confronting immigration officers. She said several agents swarmed her car and yelled at her to move out of the way. They broke her window and pulled her from the car.

“Nobody ever asked me for ID, my name or my citizenship,” Rahman said.

DHS said agents detained Rahman because she ignored their instructions. She denied that, saying that she was confused and saw no way to move without hitting someone. 

She said agents then shackled her feet and held her in a detention cell at the federal building. She passed out and awoke in a hospital room. She was released without charges later that day.

Jeyli Salguero

Sleeping in her bedroom

In January, Jeyli Salguero awoke when she heard someone banging on her door and then the sound of the door breaking open. Federal agents, their guns drawn, rushed inside and told her family they were looking for her brother.

“We told them yes he lived here, but he doesn’t live here anymore,” Salguero said she told the agents. “They started getting a bit more angry and were like, ‘Since you’re not collaborating, we’re gonna start checking your status.’” An agent grabbed Salguero’s phone and ordered Salguero to face a wall. In an ongoing lawsuit, Salguero has said that the agents entered the home without a valid warrant. DHS said that agents were searching for a fugitive, and that it has suspended the policy of entering homes without a judicial warrant.

Her father has temporary protected status but had not received paperwork showing that his status had been renewed. He was handcuffed and then detained for a month. Salguero’s older sister, who was undocumented, was handcuffed and deported to El Salvador. The rest of her family is now planning to sell their home and move to El Salvador. “It’s been a mental toll — a very big mental toll on all of us.”

Juan Muñoz

Protesting the Broadview ICE Detention CenteR

Juan Muñoz, an elected member of the Board of Trustees that governs Oak Park Township outside of Chicago, was participating in an October protest outside the Broadview ICE Detention Center when he said that he was knocked to the ground by the commander of the Border Patrol. “When I looked up,” Muñoz recalled, “it was Commander Greg Bovino who was standing over me.” In depositions, Bovino denied tackling Muñoz, saying videos of the arrests showed no “reportable uses of force.”

Muñoz said agents knocked away his phone and zip-tied his hands. “Every agent that I encountered, I told the same thing, ‘I’m an elected official.’ No response.” 

Muñoz was held inside of the detention center for eight hours before agents dropped him off at a gas station, without explaining why he’d been held. “They were over capacity, keeping people for way longer than that facility was intended for,” he recalled about the detention center. “It was filthy. They don’t have proper hygiene products or are able to feed people properly,” Muñoz said. DHS did not comment on his specific detention. But, referring to Muñoz and other protesters detained with him, it posted a comment on social media, saying, “We will NOT allow violent activists to lay hands on our law enforcement.”

Jessie Fuentes

Responding to ICE in a hospital

In October 2025, Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes said she rushed to a local emergency room because she’d been told that ICE agents had been spotted inside. She identified herself to the agents as an elected official and began asking them whether they’d obtained a warrant. Video taken of the incident shows that agents grabbed and handcuffed her. Fuentes was held for 15 minutes, during which time members of her staff posted the video online and her supporters gathered outside the hospital to demand her release. DHS, in a written statement, told ProPublica that Fuentes was put in “handcuffs but NEVER placed under arrest.”

“These individuals are operating above the law,” Fuentes said. “They’re operating with impunity.”

Caitlin Arwen

Monitoring ICE operations

Caitlin Arwen was scrolling through a Facebook group for moms in October when she noticed a shared post that said immigration agents were detaining people in her town, which is about an hour’s drive outside of Chicago. Later that day she saw some of the vehicles that had been posted on Facebook and began following them, honking her horn to alert residents of their presence. One of the vehicles slammed on its brakes. U.S. marshals who were working with ICE surrounded her car, broke her window and pulled her out.

“They threw me on the broken glass, and they were all on top of me. I couldn’t breathe,” she recalled. Arwen estimates she was kept handcuffed face down on broken glass for roughly 35 minutes. “They taunted me, took photos of me, called me names, berated me and acted like I was somehow deserving of this.” DHS referred questions about Arwen’s arrest to the U.S. Marshals Service. A spokesperson for the service said Arwen’s arrest was a “task force arrest” and declined further comment.

Arwen was taken to a hospital, where marshals handcuffed her to the bed. After she was discharged, agents shackled her and moved her to a DHS detention facility, where she was not allowed to contact a lawyer or anyone else for help. “I didn’t have access to water or food the whole time,” said Arwen, adding that she was held for several hours. “Nobody showed me their badge all day. No one identified themselves. No one once read me my Miranda rights.” 

Though federal officials declined to prosecute Arwen, state authorities charged her with traffic violations and obstruction of law enforcement. She has pleaded not guilty.

Read More

More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

The post More Than Numbers: Portraits of U.S. Citizens Detained by Immigration Agents appeared first on ProPublica.

Meta gave its new AI agent a cuddly mascot, but security researchers and privacy advocates say its data-harvesting practices are anything but friendly.

Much of the questionable opioid settlement spending in 2025 occurred at the county and city level, where decision-makers often have no background in addiction policy.

As a lawyer on President Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection bid, Gary Lawkowski filed a complaint against the Washington Post for supposedly making an in-kind contribution to the Kamala Harris campaign by buying social media advertising for its articles.

In the White House, he played a pivotal role in the pardons process that rewarded Trump cronies and donors.

Now, Lawkowski could serve in an obscure but crucial role within the nation’s top intelligence agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. On Monday, Trump nominated Lawkowski to serve as general counsel of ODNI.

It is unclear when Lawkowski will appear before a confirmation hearing or whether Democrats will look favorably upon him when they take control of the Senate in January. His nomination is already drawing pushback, however, from a progressive group that says it represents another attempt to politicize the ODNI after Trump’s bid to install loyalist Bill Pulte as its director fizzled.

“Lawkowski has been a key player in Trump’s corrupt pardon scheme and his nomination tells us that the administration is trying to stack the intelligence community with cronies so they can further weaponize it against their perceived political opponents and innocent Americans,” Hajar Hammado, senior policy adviser at Demand Progress, said in a statement. “Senators must oppose his nomination.”

The ODNI is a relatively small agency, and it doesn’t hoover up its own raw data. As the only intelligence body operating at the Cabinet level, however, it is tasked with coordinating and overseeing intelligence collection and analysis at other spy agencies like the CIA and National Security Agency.

Under former Director Tulsi Gabbard, the ODNI took an unusually prominent role in declassifying information that cast a negative light on Trump’s enemies or fed into right-wing obsessions, such as the Covid lab-leak controversy.

The general counsel plays an important role in interpreting spying law — meaning that Lawkowski could either facilitate or block intelligence community abuses.

Related

Intel Pick Jay Clayton Won’t Tell Congress Whether Trump Ordered Subpoenas of NYT Journalists

In recent months, Trump has displayed an unusual interest in the ODNI, installing housing czar Pulte to replace Gabbard before bipartisan pushback forced him to tap former prosecutor Jay Clayton as a permanent replacement.

In his current role at the White House, Lawkowski serves as deputy assistant and deputy counsel to the president, according to his most recent ethics disclosure, and it is unclear whether he has relevant national security experience.

There is ample evidence that he is a loyalist to Trump. As a lawyer on the Trump campaign, he blasted off a complaint to the Federal Election Commission claiming that the Washington Post’s online advertisements about stories on Trump represented an in-kind contribution to Harris’s campaign. Campaign finance law experts said the claim was baseless. Lawkowski also represented Trump in litigation over the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

In the White House, he has helped decide who does and does not receive pardons, according to reporting last year in the New York Times. Under Trump, the White House has asserted authority over a pardons process that traditionally flowed through the Department of Justice.

Related

Pardoned Capitol Rioter Tried to Hush Child Sex Victim With Promise of Jan. 6 Reparation Money, Police Say

Trump’s blanket clemency for January 6, 2021, insurrectionists preceded a parade of pardons for people who donated to his campaign or causes, or Republican officials who had been convicted of corruption, drawing widespread criticism.

One of the many who received a Trump pardon was former Tennessee state senator Brian Kelsey, who had been represented by Lawkowski before the lawyer went to the White House. Lawkowski did not respond to a request for comment on whether he recused himself from that pardon.

It is unclear whether Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., will push to have Lawkowski confirmed before the next Senate is sworn in on January 3. The Senate is dealing with a cramped calendar before the end of the year. (Cotton’s office declined to comment.)

The likely incoming intelligence chair, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., was harshly critical of Trump’s temporary appointment of Pulte at the ODNI. He ultimately voted against Clayton’s nomination after touting him as a more acceptable alternative to Pulte. (Warner’s office did not respond to a request for comment.)

Lawkowski was tapped to replace John “Jack” Dever, who was confirmed by the Senate to serve as general counsel a little over a year ago. Dever joined the government-backed mortgage finance company Freddie Mac as its executive counsel and vice president in September, according to its website. (Dever left the ODNI with Director Jay Clayton’s blessing and remains well-respected at the agency, an ODNI spokesperson said.)

Dever’s resume included extensive work in the national security realm as a Korean linguist for the U.S. Army, an assistance general counsel at the FBI, and a counter-terror prosecutor in Illinois.

The post Trump Taps Campaign Lawyer and Pardon Adviser for Top U.S. Intel Agency appeared first on The Intercept.

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 Nov. 13-15, 2026. What should be on our radar for future editions? Let us know!

Our Delaware

Cultural festival offers global dance, music, food

Sunday, Nov. 15, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. University of Delaware, Arsht Hall. 2700 Pennsylvania Ave., Wilmington, DE 19806. Tickets: $10 adults, free for kids 12 and under.

Delaware is home to countless cultural organizations, from the Latin American Community Center to St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church, and on Sunday, a handful of these organizations will share some of their arts, food and culture during Spotlight Delaware’s second Our Delaware Cultural Festival in Wilmington. 

Come enjoy dance, music and poetry, from Nanticoke dance to African drums, while enjoying eats from vendors like Mojo Loco 302, Mitch’s Mo’Better Chicken and Tia Erika’s Cafe. The event will also feature face painting, balloon art and henna, free for all attendees.

Beachside Art

Explore the studios of southeastern Delaware

Saturday, Nov. 14, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Thirteen locations in Bethany Beach, Ocean View, Frankford and Dagsboro, DE (see website). Free. 

Founded in 1995, the Southeastern Delaware Artists Studio Tour began as a way to showcase the creatives the region had to offer. 

For this year’s free, self-guided tour, 13 artists from Dagsboro to Bethany Beach will open their doors to show off their practices. You’ll find the whimsical, multi-colored angler fish and cats by painter John Donato one moment, and get a glimpse of metalsmithing from jeweler Dawn Pierro the next. 

If you’re so inclined, you can participate in an art raffle. Proceeds will go to art education programs in the Indian River School District, for which the Southeastern Delaware Artists Studio Tour has raised over $70,000 since its inception.

Enemies-to-Lovers

Georgetown theater company stages rom-com musical

Friday-Sunday, Nov. 13-15 and Nov. 20-22. 7:30 p.m. on Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. on Sun. Possum Point Players. 441 Old Laurel Road, Georgetown, DE 19947. Tickets: $30.

Imagine: your least favorite co-worker turns out to be your anonymous pen pal you’ve fallen in love with. 

This concept, originating in the 1937 play “Parfumerie,” has been iterated on many times, most recently in the 1998 rom-com “You’ve Got Mail,” starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. 

Georgetown’s Possum Point Players are bringing the 1963 Broadway musical version of the tale, “She Loves Me,” to the stage. Like the original play, this version is set in a Budapest parfumerie in the 1930s. 

Fans of the “enemies-to-lovers” trope, this one will make you swoon.

Killing Our Silent Universe

Join the (art) club

Sunday, Nov. 15, noon-4 p.m. Dover Art League. 21 W. Loockerman St., Dover, DE 19904. Free. 21+. 

If you’re a young, Delawarean artist wondering where the heck your people are, that’s what artist Talia Brown, also known as Sharkmouth, was wondering when she moved from New York City to Delaware. 

So, she started the KOSU Art Club. KOSU stands for Killing Our Silent Universe, a nod to its mission of fighting social isolation in the art-making process.

These drop-in gatherings of up-and-coming creatives are the perfect place to make some crafts and some friends. This month, the club will meet at the Dover Art League to learn the art of collage. 

Guilty of Stealing the Spotlight

Legal professionals take to the stage

Friday-Saturday, Nov. 13-14 at Laird Performing Arts Center (1501 Barley Mill Road, Wilmington, DE 19807) and Sunday, Nov. 15 at Delaware State University (1200 N. Dupont Highway, Dover, DE 19901). Tickets: $25.

Every other year since 2002, Profundo Bono, a theater company made up of Delaware attorneys, judges and other legal professionals, has staged a musical to fundraise for the Combined Campaign for Justice, which funds civil legal aid for Delawareans. 

This year, the theater company is staging its first completely original script: “Flifferschmeep: Another Example of What Happens When You Get Lawyers Involved.” The script follows a man given a single wish by a genie. But when word spreads about his wish, the man is bombarded with requests about how to use it.

The show features puppetry, 25 rapid-fire musical parodies and much more. But what does “Flifferschmeep” mean? You’ll just have to see the show to find out. 

The post Weekend Spotlight: Studio tours, cultural festival, lawyers onstage appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Healthcare in Delaware is among some of the most expensive in the country. As cuts to federally funded programs like Medicaid are set to go into effect later this year and commercial insurance rates rise, Delaware is looking to reinvent its healthcare ecosystem with a federal grant. 

Delaware is set to receive another hundred-million-dollar sum to continue building out the state’s rural healthcare infrastructure over the next four years.

Earlier this week, state officials announced Delaware would receive $160.3 million in its second year of funding from the federal Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), a provision of the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that earmarks $50 billion for states to improve their rural health care infrastructure.

The program doled out its first award last year, and Delaware received $157 million. 

Delaware officials have already spent the funds investing into health infrastructure in Kent and Sussex counties, including building the state’s first medical school and two new homeless service shelters in the lower counties.

The program was created to court Republican senators hesitant to support more than $900 billion in cuts to Medicaid, which could disproportionately impact rural communities and their healthcare facilities.

And as Delaware’s second-year award will soon enter the state, a question looms over one of its hallmark projects: Who will be dean of its new medical school? Delaware officials announced in June the state’s first medical school will be run by Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University.

Jefferson beat out three other bidders — the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM), Puerto Rico-based Ponce Health Sciences University and consulting giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers — to win the medical school contract.

Delaware officials will likely announce the inaugural dean before the end of the year. 

State leaders also hope to fund 13 additional programs, including additional preventative care, financial assistance for medical students that commit to working in Delaware for five years after graduation, and robust nutritional education. 

Gov. Matt Meyer said in a press release earlier this week the funds have already been at work. The state is building out programs to bolster the state’s healthcare workforce and lower costs for patients, he said. 

“A Delawarean’s ZIP code should never determine whether they can afford to see a doctor or get the care they need,” Meyer said in the release.

Community health centers 

Earlier this fall, Delaware officials made their most recent award to three community based health centers to build out rural preventive care. 

The three Delaware medical centers will receive nearly $23 million this year, as state officials look to invest deeply into primary care options for Delawareans and shift how the state pays for its medical services. 

State officials met outside of La Red Health Center in Georgetown in September to make the announcement, where they hope these funds will help to modernize the federally qualified health center’s preventative care capabilities. 

Federally qualified health centers, also known as FQHCs, are community-based clinics that typically offer primary care services in medically underserved areas.

The $22.7 million injection into the state’s three primary FQHCs represents Delaware’s effort to reframe its healthcare ecosystem: keep people healthier on the front end so they are able to avoid costly emergency room visits.

Leaders from Delaware’s primary FQHCs — La Red, Wilmington’s Henrietta Johnson Medical Center and Westside Family Health Care, which has locations in Kent and New Castle County — gathered in September to discuss how the awards would help to modernize their operations. 

The CEO of Westside Family Health Care, Chris Fraser, said the funds would support modernization efforts that have often been out of reach for the smaller health centers. 

Additionally, he said incoming reductions to Medicaid, set to go into effect at the end of December, will stretch the health centers financially.  

“Some of us are doing well, and some of us are really challenged operationally to make ends meet,” Fraser said. “So the coming Medicaid cuts are going to, unfortunately, make that worse.”

The post Delaware receives additional $160M for rural health support appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
For 80 years, Kingswood Community Center has provided education and family services in one of Wilmington’s most vulnerable communities. Despite the challenges, the center has given residents access to services many would otherwise have to look elsewhere to find. Now in a new building, the organization hopes to expands its mission.

The Kingswood Community Center in Wilmington is completing its 80th anniversary year with a newly constructed $56 million facility.

The new building — built with a mix of public and private dollars — officially opened last week with a ceremony held in its new gymnasium and attended by more than 200 staff, community members, and elected officials, including Gov. Matt Meyer. 

During the ceremony, Logan Herring, who leads the nonprofit that runs the facility, said it exists to benefit the broader Riverside neighborhood, which for years had suffered as an isolated, low-income Black community. 

“This is a $60 million investment in the Riverside neighborhood, a neighborhood that is so worthy of this investment,” Herring said, noting the cost of the $56 million facility as well as dollars spent on an early learning academy, a health center, and technology.

Of the total, more than $45 million came from state and federal governments. 

Herring said the return on the investment will be ten-fold, as his goal is to help families work toward self-sufficiency and be able to pay for services the center provides. 

“When those families are self-sufficient and … no longer need those subsidies, that’s another thing to boost our economy in a tide-to-lift-all-boats,” he said.

The two-story center on Rosemont Avenue is nearly five times the size of Kingwood’s former home that has sat along nearby Bowers Street since 1958. 

The new facility also serves as the home for Kingswood’s Montessori school, case-management program for families, a Nemours Children’s Health clinic and recreational activities. 

Herring said his team also is working to phase in public access to the facility in 2027, which would include open hours to its fitness room, gymnasium and outdoor courts. The access would be available with the purchase of a membership, he said.

The construction of the facility occurred alongside broader efforts to revitalize Riverside by a coalition of nonprofits – called the WRK Group – which includes Kingswood, The Warehouse teen center and the redevelopment entity, REACH Riverside. 

As part of those efforts, REACH Riverside has built over 600 new homes. 

Herring has called the REACH Riverside redevelopment work a $600 million-plus effort.

A clinic, a school, and a rec center

The northeast Wilmington center traces its roots to 1946, when Kingswood Methodist United Church opened its doors to neighborhood youth for recreational activities. Kingswood grew to become a supportive arm for locals in an area long affected by crime and poverty, providing childcare, senior care and social services.

“We wanted this to be a one-stop shop,” Herring said. 

The new center houses the Ernest L. Webster Montessori Academy, named after the man known as “Mr. Kingswood,” the center’s first Black employee who worked at the center for more than 40 years. Herring said the academy will serve roughly 150 to 200 children, infants through pre-K, along with before- and after-school care and summer camp.

At the Nov. 6 ceremony, the Rev. Theressa Holmes, a board member of Kingswood and Webster’s daughter, said her father knew Kingswood was never about “physical walls. It was about the people.”

Herring noted that the school does now use a tiered tuition system, based on income and family circumstances — a change as the school used to be free of charge.

Additionally, Nemours Children’s Health has taken over 15,000 square feet of the building for a pediatric health center. It will offer primary care along with specialty services the community asked for, including dental, vision, and pulmonary care. 

The building also houses Kingswood’s Empower program, a team of coaches who work with families on goals toward self-sufficiency, including workforce and access to services.

There is also a new full-size gymnasium and an outdoor court. Herring said that when such spaces become open to the public, he anticipates a nominal fee membership based on individual circumstances. 

The gym can seat 600 people for games or 1,500 as an auditorium, according to the EDiS Company – the construction company that built the new space. The building also includes a commercial kitchen and dining hall.

Herring said the new Kingswood center also hopes to provide food next year for its 100 employees and for those who live in the neighborhood. 

On Wednesday, Spotlight Delaware also spoke to a handful of Northeast Wilmington residents, asking for their thoughts on the community center. Some had mixed feelings.

One resident, who lives near Nemours’ previous clinic along Jessup Street, was taking her children to see a doctor at the new Kingswood facility. She said she was surprised when Nemours doctors told her they had moved to the new center. 

And she also believes the money could have been better spent on housing. 

“Y’all put a doctor’s office inside of a community center with a bunch of kids. Why would y’all do that?” said the resident, who provided her name as India G.

Another resident, who lives nearby Kingswood with his two daughters, said he believes the investment is worthwhile, but noted that he misses the old Riverside housing projects because they remind him of growing up in the neighborhood.

“I just feel that if it’s for the kids, it’s the most important thing,” the resident, Victor Harmon, said.

Other residents echoed the sentiment that the new facility is an asset. One, who only provided her first name as Carmen, said she currently utilizes the Empower program at Kingswood, which provides workforce training and personalized coaching. 

“I think it’s really beautiful. I think they have a lot of resources,” she said.

A new era for Kingswood  

The most emotional moment during last week’s opening celebration for Kingswood came from the Twin Poets — former Wilmington City Councilman Al Mills and state Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha (D-Wilmington) — who grew up near Kingswood and later worked there.

In a spoken-word piece, the twins recalled a neighborhood they said had long been neglected and young people lost to the streets and gun violence. They also celebrated the area’s progress, and called the community center “a new beginning” for Riverside’s children and seniors.

Mills remembered a young man named Buff. If the new building and its resources had existed then, he said, Buff would have been inside the gym with everyone.

“He might still be alive,” he said. “He might have never been gunned down on those basketball courts under 95.”

Meyer, who taught sixth- and seventh-grade math nearby at the now-closed Prestige Academy, said today’s kids face challenges unlike any before. He said Kingswood would “equalize opportunity” for kids in the area.

Other speakers included U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Lt. Gov. Kyle Evans Gay, Attorney General Kathy Jennings, Wilmington Mayor John Carney, and City Councilwoman Zanthia Oliver.

The post $56M Kingswood Community Center opens as part of larger Riverside revitalization appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

“I don’t know when we’ve owed a debt of gratitude to any animal as much as we do to that raccoon,” said Faye Prichard, Hanover County board supervisor.

Researchers found differences in the effects of running, martial arts and more.

Millennials had a better housing market than boomers. An analysis shows how the economic shifts of recent years have changed that.

Millions from recent legal settlements are being spent on homelessness and housing, raising questions about whether the funds are staying focused on addiction.

With the season reaching its halfway point, it’s time to see which teams and players are excelling

Josh Allen, QB, Buffalo Bills. Joe Burrow is excelling for the Bengals and is rightly a frontrunner for MVP. He’s stylish, precise and mentally rock-solid, everything a franchise needs. But is he the most thrilling quarterback in the NFL? Right now, Allen is box office each and every week. But it’s not just the entertainment factor: Allen has a weaker supporting cast than Burrow and many of the other MVP contenders – imagine what he could do with Ja’Marr Chase as a teammate – and yet the Bills top the AFC at 7-1 thanks in large part to his passing and hammering runs.

How Technology Is—and Isn’t—Changing the Global Economy

The strategic logic of foreign aid.

CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 2026 – The next frontier of AI infrastructure is moving beyond raw compute performance toward high-speed interconnects and seamless coordination across computing nodes. Compal Electronics will showcase its AI infrastructure solutions integrating NVIDIA’s next-generation computing and networking technologies at Supercomputing 2026 (SC26), the annual international conference for high-performance computing, taking place November 17–19. Leveraging its system engineering and integration expertise spanning silicon, server platforms, and AI network fabrics, Compal will highlight key technologies designed to support large-scale distributed AI computing at Booth #5008 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

As AI applications evolve toward agentic AI and distributed computing, effective CPU-GPU coordination, high-bandwidth data movement, and low-latency network connectivity are becoming essential to scaling AI infrastructure. The extreme codesign approach behind the NVIDIA Rubin platform reflects this architectural evolution, bringing computing and networking technologies into closer alignment to support increasingly complex AI workloads.

In response to this technological shift, Compal continues to expand its portfolio of NVIDIA-based server platforms, including the SGX30-2 air-cooled and OG430-2-L1 direct liquid-cooled servers powered by NVIDIA HGX B300, as well as the OG231-2-L1 accelerated computing server featuring NVIDIA HGX Rubin NVL8. These systems provide flexible deployment options to address varying compute density and cooling requirements. NVIDIA MGX modular architecture and NVIDIA RTX PRO acceleration technologies further extend these capabilities to enterprise AI and visual computing applications. Beyond GPU acceleration, Compal will also showcase the NVIDIA Vera CPU Compute Tray, demonstrating its system engineering expertise spanning compute modules, server platforms, and rack-scale infrastructure to support high-density AI computing and inter-node collaboration.

For multi-node AI clusters, minimizing data transfer latency, increasing network throughput, and improving resource coordination are critical to overall system performance. NVIDIA BlueField-4 DPU offloads selected networking, storage, and infrastructure management tasks to reduce the processing burden on host CPUs. NVIDIA ConnectX-9 SuperNIC delivers high-performance, low-latency connectivity to support high-volume data exchange between compute nodes, while NVIDIA Spectrum-6 Ethernet switches enhance cluster-level networking and data transfer efficiency, providing the high-speed network foundation for large-scale distributed AI computing.

By integrating these networking technologies with NVIDIA’s advanced computing platforms, Compal continues to extend its system engineering capabilities beyond individual servers toward AI network fabrics. Its system-level approach brings together CPU and GPU computing resources, network interfaces, inter-node connectivity, rack-level integration, and the power and cooling infrastructure required for high-density deployments. Through its cross-platform engineering and integration expertise, Compal helps customers build scalable AI clusters with efficient data movement and flexible expansion capabilities, supporting distributed AI, scientific computing, and large-scale high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.

To support real-world deployment of these advanced computing and networking technologies, Compal continues to strengthen its global AI server manufacturing and system delivery capabilities. The opening of its Daxi AI Server Manufacturing Center in Taiwan in August 2026 has expanded its server manufacturing and rack integration capabilities. Meanwhile, investments in its Texas manufacturing operations and Vietnam production capacity are enhancing regional manufacturing flexibility and supply chain resilience. Together, these resources enable Compal to support customers across server platform adoption, system integration, and large-scale AI infrastructure deployment.

“High-speed interconnects and integrated system architectures are essential to scaling AI infrastructure efficiently,” said Alan Chang, Vice President of the Infrastructure Solutions Business Group (ISBG) at Compal. “By combining NVIDIA’s advanced computing and networking technologies with our system engineering expertise and global manufacturing capabilities, we help customers build highly scalable AI infrastructure, accelerate system deployment, and translate technological innovation into tangible business value.”

About Compal

Established in 1984, Compal has grown into a leading global manufacturer of computers and smart devices, partnering with top-tier brands worldwide. Compal was recognized by CommonWealth Magazine as one of Taiwan’s top 7 manufacturers and has consistently ranked among the Forbes Global 2000 companies. Compal has actively expanded into new growth areas, including cloud servers, automotive electronics, smart medical and healthcare, and advanced communication solutions. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, Compal operates design and production facilities in the United States, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, and Poland. Learn more at https://www.compal.com.

Source: Compal

The post Compal Unites NVIDIA Compute and Networking at SC26 appeared first on HPCwire.

Researchers use tiny drops of coolant to reduce the temperature of simulated chip hotspots by up to 17°C in just 15 seconds

Nov. 12, 2026 — Data centers at the heart of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution could be cooled more effectively and economically with a hybrid system under development at the University of Waterloo that targets hotspots on computer chips with a single drop of boiling coolant.

The novel concept combines general immersion cooling with inexpensive deionized water and targeted spot cooling of especially hot areas with drops of costly coolant.

Waterloo Engineering researchers (l-r) Arnav Banerjee, Dr. Tian-Yu Zhang and Dr. Sushanta Mitra are developing a novel system to cool AI data centres that includes targeting hotspots on computer chips with coated drops of coolant.

“It’s a division of labor,” said Dr. Sushanta Mitra, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at Waterloo. “Water is excellent at handling steady, everyday heat and the drops take care of sudden spikes.”

To deal with the enormous amount of heat generated in sprawling data centers, operators are increasingly immersing electronic components such as chips and processors in specialized coolant.

Depending on the workload, small areas in chips can get much hotter than others in a matter of seconds, causing them to slow down, age faster and undermine reliability. Coolant that simply flows by is too slow to react to the sudden hotspots.

The research team – which included Dr. Tian-Yu Zhang, a postdoctoral researcher, and PhD student Arnav Banerjee – tackled that problem by building on its previous work to encapsulate one liquid in a thin skin of another.

They selected an electronics coolant with a much lower boiling point than water. The coolant is also heavier than water, so it doesn’t mix with it and stays put when placed on a hotspot.

In laboratory testing, a single drop of coolant boiled and reduced the temperature of a simulated computer chip hotspot submerged in a tank of water by up to 17° C in 15 seconds, several times faster than conventional immersion.

“Boiling soaks up a lot of heat and the rising bubbles stir the surrounding water so it carries heat away faster,” said Mitra, executive director of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology. “We get the punch of boiling, but only where and when it’s needed.”

Researchers then used their encapsulation technique to wrap coolant drops in a thin skin of silicone oil. Adding tiny, heat-conducting ceramic particles to the coating helps control how quickly the drops boil.

Researchers envision the system ultimately working in one of two ways – either coolant drops that circulate through water and activate when they hit hotspots, or drops that are delivered directly to hotspots detected by sensors.

The hybrid cooling approach also has potential applications in technologies including electric vehicles, batteries, high-powered lasers and LED lighting.

The study, A hybrid immersion cooling assisted by liquid-liquid encapsulation: A game changer for thermal management of transient hotspots, was recently published online in the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science.

Source: University of Waterloo

The post Waterloo Researchers Develop Hybrid Cooling Method for Chip Hotspots appeared first on HPCwire.

Meeting comes after CEO admitted to having a relationship with a woman who is alleged to be a Chinese spy

• Business live – latest updates

Nvidia’s board of directors met on Wednesday to decide whether to oust Jensen Huang as CEO of the world’s most valuable chip company, according to reports, after a tumultuous week in which the executive and co-founder of the company admitted to having a romantic relationship with a woman who is alleged to be a Chinese spy.

The meeting marks ⁠a sharp shift from Sunday, when Nvidia’s board ​expressed confidence in Huang and his leadership team. However, Huang’s position became more tenuous late on Wednesday after it was reported by the New York Times that Huang had a separate extramarital affair with a company employee named Kimberly Powell. She was Nvidia’s president of healthcare and was reportedly captured on video being affectionate with Huang at a hotel during a company conference in March.

"ScienceAlert is reporting that researchers may have finally determined why, for many years, power grids around the world have been pulsing every 60 seconds," writes longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot. The likely culprit? Uninterruptible power supplies running routine battery checks. From the report: Every minute, some uninterruptible power supplies perform routine battery checks, creating small but measurable surges in electricity demand. And it's like clockwork. "Even benign control routines can become systemically relevant when many devices act coherently," writes a team led by physicist Dirk Witthaut of the University of Cologne, Germany, in a paper published in Nature Energy. "Unintended synchronization can generate recurrent and potentially amplified oscillatory behavior in large-scale cyber-physical energy systems." To figure it out, Witthaut and his colleagues analyzed high-resolution electricity measurements from buildings at the Forschungszentrum Julich research campus in Germany. [... they found that] the 60-second pattern appeared in four buildings, all of which contained uninterruptible power supplies. None of the buildings they measured without these systems showed the same pattern. Following the electrical signals more closely, the researchers detected tiny bursts of current from the batteries at precisely one-minute intervals. They were able to trace the resulting fluctuations through one building's electrical system, all the way to the connection with the public high-voltage grid. The manufacturer subsequently confirmed the culprit's identity -- routine battery self-tests, conducted automatically by the systems' management software. But why would equipment in different buildings, let alone different countries, be doing this at the same time? The answer appears to lie in the clocks. Digital devices can synchronize their internal clocks using external time signals, meaning that independently operating systems can end up performing their scheduled tasks together. Individually, these small checks are insignificant. But when enough devices act in synchrony, their combined electricity demand can produce a measurable effect across an entire power grid.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Workplace relations minister Amanda Rishworth launches best practice guide on AI adoption after Qantas and Canva job cuts

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Entry-level jobs will be the first to be automated due to AI, but it could mean fewer hours and higher wages for ordinary workers – or make jobs tougher with more burnout and workplace surveillance – the government has warned employers.

While major companies like Qantas and Canva slash their workforces in restructures spurred by AI changes, workplace relations minister Amanda Rishworth said employers must give workers “a clear plan” about how automation could affect their jobs, and the opportunity to move into new roles.

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When he finally arrived at his victory party, Colom walked out to T.I.’s Let ‘Em Know. The audience, still galvanized even after hours of standing, roared

• How Scott Colom won deep-red Mississippi with little help from Democrats

About a thousand people gathered on the Woodworth Chapel Lawn at Tougaloo College, a historic black college in Jackson. A DJ played classic southern line dance tunes and much of the crowd obliged, dancing while they waited for Scott Colom, Mississippi’s new senate-elect, to arrive.

All of the Divine 9, a nickname for the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), an umbrella organization of nine historically Black Greek-letter fraternities and sororities, were represented, their members proudly wearing paraphernalia bearing their organization’s letters. Others were decked out in gear from some of the state’s colleges and universities – Tougaloo College, of course, but also Alcorn State University, Millsaps College, Jackson State University, Mississippi State University and others.

In today’s newsletter: US intelligence reportedly believes the former tech executive was recruited by Beijing, raising questions about the security of the AI industry and Trump’s close ties to Nvidia chief Jensen Huang

Good morning. Espionage is supposed to be a secretive business, and spies are supposed to be virtually invisible. That hasn’t been the case for Alice Huang, the mysterious Shanghai executive who formed a romantic relationship with Jensen Huang, the founder of Nvidia, one of America’s most powerful tech companies.

Many questions have arisen since it emerged that US intelligence believes that Huang (no relation of Jensen’s) is an asset recruited by the Chinese intelligence services to spy on behalf of Beijing. This morning’s newsletter explains what we know about the story, and what it tells us about the effectiveness of Chinese espionage. That’s after the headlines.

UK | Ministers are considering changing the law to force the entertainment industry to better protect women and children in the wake of the revelations over David Walliams and the conviction of Russell Brand.

Climate | The UK government has appointed the world’s first special representative for climate security, in the strongest sign yet of fears that climate breakdown will bring chaos to the country.

US midterms | Democrat Scott Colom has become the first Black senator in Mississippi to be elected since Reconstruction, in a stunning upset after more than a week of vote counting in one of the country’s most reliably red states.

Europe | Millions of people across Spain have joined the country’s first general strike in 14 years, setting up picket lines to protest against soaring housing prices before an election in which the far right could be catapulted into power.

Technology | Police officers risk arresting innocent people, especially from ethnic minorities, if they treat inaccurate facial recognition data as evidence, an official report has found.

Sensirion Inside: DFRobot Gravity: SFA40 Formaldehyde Module

The Adecco Group

Extending AI Bio-Computing into Drug R&D and Agricultural Breeding

After spending decades in Peru as a missionary and bishop, the first American pope is back in his second home.

JA's PV modules installed at the Sediba solar project

The national association for Canadian dog trainers says the online school has demonstrated alignment with its National Dog Training Curriculum Standard

Substackers in love, dodgy romance scams and Jeff Bezos as the dashing lead … the film-makers behind the remake of the dial-up classic will be facing an embarrassment of pitches

Assuming you have already heard about the You’ve Got Mail reboot, you are probably in one of two states. You are either excited that the news might be a signal of a long overdue romcom resurgence, or you are embittered because it’s another sign that Hollywood has run out of original ideas.

I hold absolutely no truck with the latter view. Quite frankly, if there was ever a film in dire need of a reboot, then it’s You’ve Got Mail. The film is almost 28 years old, and it shows every single day of its age. You’ve seen it, you know how it goes. It’s about two people who use the futuristic new technology of email (email is no longer new) to communicate, despite being rival booksellers (nobody reads books any more), and eventually begin a relationship (nobody wants to be in a relationship any more). The whole thing is preposterous. Of course they should try again.

Massachusetts Nurse Association (PRNewsFoto/Massachusetts Nurses Association)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky secured the 218 signatures needed Wednesday to force House consideration of a second Epstein files transparency bill, once again bypassing Republican leadership.

All 214 House Democrats signed the discharge petition, along with Republicans Massie, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. Democratic Reps. Adam Smith and John Garamendi supplied the final two signatures.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act II would allow Jeffrey Epstein survivors, state attorneys general, local prosecutors and members of Congress to sue the Justice Department if it unlawfully withholds, delays or heavily redacts records covered by the original transparency law. It would also give victims access to unredacted records concerning themselves.

Massie says the DOJ is still withholding more than 3 million Epstein-related files despite a 2025 law requiring disclosure. The Justice Department says it has complied with that law and that unreleased material consists largely of duplicates, privileged information or records covered by legal exceptions.

Massie used the same procedural tactic last year to force the original Epstein Files Transparency Act onto the House floor. That bill ultimately passed 427-1 and was signed by President Donald Trump.

The new petition must remain on the discharge calendar for seven legislative days before a signer can formally move to bring it up. A floor vote could come in early December.

Sources:

• The Hill – MBFC Rating

The post Massie Secures 218 Signatures to Force New House Vote on Epstein Files appeared first on News Facts Network.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has relocated to a U.S. military base because of security concerns as the Trump administration continues an aggressive financial campaign against Iran.

A person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press that the move was prompted partly by media reports that helped identify Bessent’s home address. The New York Times first reported the relocation.

The security concerns come as U.S. intelligence indicates Iran has stepped up efforts to target American personnel in the Middle East and elsewhere. Those warnings contributed to the State Department reducing staffing at four U.S. embassies in the region last month.

Bessent has been a central figure in the administration’s effort to isolate Tehran economically. The Treasury Department announced what it called an “economic D-Day” campaign in August, pressuring countries and businesses to cut financial ties with Iran or risk U.S. retaliation.

The pressure has produced some results. Turkey and the United Arab Emirates reportedly halted transactions involving Iran’s leading commercial bank, while Iranian airlines have lost access to several important regional routes.

President Donald Trump said this week that the eight-month Iran war is “militarily effectively over,” although U.S. sanctions, a naval blockade and other economic pressure remain in place.

Bessent is not the only senior Trump official living on a military installation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also reside on military bases because of security concerns.

Sources:

• PBS NewsHour – MBFC Rating

The post Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Moves to Military Base Over Security Concerns appeared first on News Facts Network.

The 1,000-foot-long SS United States was sent to the bottom of the ocean in a controlled, explosive-free sinking that is taking place about 20 nautical miles off the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Colom beat Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith after race was called eight days after midterm election day

• Democrat Scott Colom wins race for US Senate in Mississippi

• How Colom won deep-red Mississippi with little help from Democrats

• Sign up for the US Breaking News email

Some Democrats, out of the 11 who missed the key procedural vote on Tuesday to impeach Pete Hegseth, blamed a traffic jam in Washington DC for their inability to make it to the US Capitol in time.

By a vote of 211-204, Republicans referred the articles of impeachment to the judiciary committee – effectively killing the effort to oust Hegseth.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PBS: The historic ocean liner SS United States will be intentionally sunk Wednesday off the coast of the Florida panhandle. Live coverage of the sinking of the SS United States is expected to start at 1 p.m. EST, with the sinking expected at 2 p.m. EST. Watch live in the video player above. In its heyday, the SS United States crushed the trans-Atlantic speed record, which it still holds. The luxury ocean liner took only three days to cross from New York to Europe on its maiden voyage in 1952. Carrying presidents and Hollywood stars, the nearly 1,000-foot vessel was a technical marvel of its time. However, the rise of air travel and high operating costs sunk its economic viability, and the ship was pulled from service in 1969. The ocean liner sat at Philadelphia's Pier 82 for nearly 30 years. After a contentious back and forth with a pier landlord over rent and docking fees, Okaloosa County in Florida eventually stepped in to purchase the ship and bring it to the Gulf of Mexico to become the world's largest artificial reef. The multi-million dollar project is also aimed at creating an economic development opportunity as a major diving attraction. "It was our goal to make sure that she wasn't lost forever," said David Lawrence, a member of the board for the SS United States Conservancy, the group that sold the vessel to the Florida county. Like the ship's unconventional life, it will also have an unconventional sinking. Federal environmental and explosives rules prevent the county from using explosives. Instead, tanks inside the ship have been removed and large holes were cut into the decks. Once the valves are opened, water will flood the hull, sinking the ship. Resting at 180 feet below the surface of the water, the SS United States will join more than 500 artificial reefs in Okaloosa County, which the county relies on to support the underwater ecosystem.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SS United States, which set transatlantic speed record during maiden voyage in 1952, is sunk off coast of Destin

The historic SS United States has reached the end of its journey at sea, sinking Wednesday off the coast of Destin, Florida, where it will begin a new life underwater as an artificial reef.

The nearly 1,000ft American-made vessel, once the fastest ocean liner in the world, was launched in 1952 and made history by setting a transatlantic speed record during its maiden voyage. The ship carried thousands of passengers across the Atlantic over 17 years of operation before being retired in 1969.

Since the US war on Iran began in February, there have been hundreds of oil spills, posing a ‘generational’ threat to wildlife

The vast, dark slicks in the strait of Hormuz are visible from space. Throughout October, oil tankers were struck by missiles or sea mines in the waterway and spilled crude into the sea. The pollution has spread across the Gulf, contaminating coastlines and threatening to cause lasting damage to marine ecosystems that are home to dolphins, sea turtles and countless species of fish.

Eight months into the war between the US and Iran, one of the world’s busiest oil shipping routes has become a battlefield and the centre of a growing environmental disaster.

Even if the site was no longer very useful, it’s still sad to lose free peer support.

He served nearly 36 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago and was ranked by many as second in influence only to members of the Supreme Court.

A guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier reprimanded a group of people that included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for making noise at the site.

Nvidia shares fall sharply in after-hours trading as the company's board considers whether to remove Jensen Huang as CEO.

At least three people were killed and two others were severely injured when an SUV crashed into a food stand near a Metro bus stop in North Hollywood.

Democrat Scott Colom defeated GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Mississippi Senate race, delivering Democrats an eighth flipped Senate seat after the dramatic race had been up in the air for days.

Nvidia's board of directors is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang soon, according to two sources, amid allegations Huang had an affair with a woman U.S. intelligence agencies believe was a Chinese asset.

AMD says it’s working on a software fix for a bug causing excessive writing to drives.

At least three other organizations are also giving employees time off to play the new game.

IBM says New Nighthawk r3 processor will be built to execute 10,000 quantum operations, enabling larger and more complex computations as company advances its roadmap toward fault tolerance

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y., Nov. 11, 2026 — IBM today announced IBM Quantum Nighthawk r3, its next-generation processor, will be built to accurately execute 10,000 quantum operations across 520 qubits to tackle larger, more complex problems while maintaining the speed and quality demonstrated by the current generation Nighthawk available today.

Renders of IBM Quantum Nighthawk r3 (L), and IBM Quantum Nighthawk r2 (R), IBM’s most powerful processors designed to support 10,000 quantum operations in 2027. Credit: IBM.

In 2027, IBM plans to link two Nighthawk r3 processors into a single system with more than 1,000 qubits.

To be at the frontier of quantum computing, industry-relevant applications demand both computational quality and speed. Speed matters because a quantum computer delivers its answer in samples: each run of a quantum circuit returns one result. Applications increasingly require circuits executing thousands of quantum operations on approximately 100 qubits or more, generating millions to billions of samples. Scale and quality enable increasingly complex computations, but speed determines whether these demanding workloads can be completed in practical timeframes and at a reasonable cost.

“Useful quantum computing hinges on whether results can be delivered with accuracy and speed, both are fundamental,” said Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and IBM Fellow. “Nighthawk is already showing us what that looks like today. As we scale this architecture to larger and more powerful quantum computers, the capabilities of quantum computation will reach new levels as we integrate more closely with classical resources and march ahead to fault tolerance.”

Nighthawk r2: Delivering Speed for Real-World Workloads

Introduced in September, IBM Quantum Nighthawk r2 delivers up to 100,000 samples per second while supporting accurate computations with more than 7,500 quantum operations on 120 qubits. Its high-speed qubit reset technology dramatically reduces the time between circuit executions, enabling applications to collect the millions or billions of samples needed for complex computations far more efficiently.

Clients and partners including E.ON, Algorithmiq, and Q-CTRL have executed 34 billion circuits on Nighthawk r2 to date, reporting performance improvements of up to 19x while maintaining the quality needed for scientific computation.

The results are already demonstrating value across industries. E.ON reported a 15x speedup on Nighthawk r2 in quantum machine learning for energy grid optimization. IBM used Nighthawk r2 for a 12x speedup of an experiment ran earlier this year with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which simulated real magnetic materials and produced results consistent with neutron scattering experiments. Both of these speedups were achieved over previous work on IBM Quantum Heron. Quantum Elements and ParityQC are also among the partners reporting significant performance improvements on their own Nighthawk r2 workloads.

The quantum advantage experiments IBM and its partners published in July were first run on IBM Quantum Heron, with circuits and results openly available for independent testing through the community-led Quantum Advantage Tracker. An experiment with Algorithmiq to simulate a heterogeneous quantum material has now been extended to Nighthawk r2, leveraging its speed and connectivity to execute circuits 8 times faster than the original experiment on Heron. At the same time, the new circuits are significantly more challenging for classical computers to simulate, requiring an estimated 240 times more memory to achieve comparable accuracy when using leading classical tensor-network methods.

Nighthawk r3: Scaling to More Than 1,000 Qubits

Building on the performance demonstrated by Nighthawk r2, Nighthawk r3 will extend the same high-speed architecture to larger quantum computers. The new processor is designed to support 10,000 quantum operations on 520 programmable qubits, with 2,034 total physical qubits. It retains r2’s square-lattice connectivity and fast operations while introducing 10 chip-to-chip interconnects, called l-couplers, designed to connect processors into larger systems.

IBM has already demonstrated two critical technologies that enable this modular approach. This year, IBM connected Nighthawk r1 processors using four l-couplers, achieving 99.3 percent quantum state transfer fidelity and progressing toward its 99.9 percent target. IBM also connected two cryogenic modules into a single system for the first time, reaching operating temperature in under five days and cooling below 15 millikelvin.

Together, these advances demonstrate critical progress in modularity and provide confidence in IBM’s ability to scale Nighthawk to larger quantum computers. In 2027, IBM plans to connect two Nighthawk r3 processors into a single 1,040-qubit system, extending its high-performance architecture to larger and more complex computations.

Quantum Meets Classical on the IBM Quantum Platform

Advancing quantum computers requires continued progress in how they work alongside classical compute to handle errors. Industry-relevant workloads will demand layers of quantum error correction and error mitigation techniques alongside noise learning and post-processing. As quantum workloads scale, they will call for more classical resources, and the challenge now is how to best scale this integration.

To unite these paradigms, IBM Quantum Platform is bringing high-performance (HPC) classical and quantum computing together into a single managed environment. Users can now integrate quantum workflows directly with a range of classical compute – whether from their laptop or a powerful supercomputer – or with the HPC and classical resources that are newly available on the platform.

Users are seeing promising results from these integrations. For example, using the new environment, IBM and RIKEN scientists executed their original sample-based quantum diagonalization (SQD) workflow roughly 5 times faster while performing 100 times more computations than in the original study. Cleveland Clinic and RIKEN also leveraged the platform to automatically process 608 million samples for modeling biologically relevant structures, 33 times faster than without workflow automation.

Enhanced capabilities will also fuel breakthroughs in quantum error correction. IBM Quantum Platform offers pulse-level capabilities to give researchers precise control over how they can detect, understand, and better correct errors within quantum and classical architectures. This helps them better time operations, reset qubits faster, and extract more information from quantum measurements – giving researchers the visibility to improve error correction at its most fundamental levels.

IBM recently launched a new co-design platform for quantum error correction with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and AMD that physically co-locates Nighthawk with ORNL’s Umbra High-Performance Computing (HPC) system, powered by AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs and 5th Gen AMD EPYC CPUs.

More from HPCwire

• IBM Nighthawk r2 Tops 100,000 Circuits per Second with New Reset Architecture
• IBM Brings Quantum System Two Online in Chicago
• ORNL, IBM, and AMD Launch New Co-Design Platform for Quantum Error Correction

About IBM

IBM (NYSE: IBM) is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider, helping clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. For more information, visit https://research.ibm.com.

Source: IBM

The post IBM Announces Nighthawk r3, Plans 1,040-Qubit System for 2027 appeared first on HPCwire.

SC26 showcase features CPI’s OCP Open Rack V3, previews of upcoming power and cooling solutions, and integrated liquid cooling solutions for high-density environments.

SIMI VALLEY, Calif., Nov. 11, 2026 — Chatsworth Products, Inc. (CPI), a global manufacturer of infrastructure solutions supporting AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and other demanding data center environments, has announced CPI’s OCP Open Rack V3 (ORV3), expanding its portfolio of high-density infrastructure solutions.

Chatsworth Products’ (CPI) OCP Open Rack V3 (ORV3) solutions offer customizable rack architectures designed to support OCP-standard components, high-density AI and HPC workloads, and evolving data center infrastructure requirements.

At Supercomputing 2026 (SC26), CPI will showcase its broader rack, power, and cooling capabilities. Attendees will also get an early look at upcoming eConnect PDUs with 480V Input and CoolStream Rear Door Heat Exchanger (RDHx), alongside ZutaCore HyperCool waterless direct-to-chip liquid cooling integrated into CPI’s ZetaFrame Cabinet System.

Increasing rack densities are creating more complex infrastructure decisions around equipment integration, power distribution, and thermal management. These interconnected requirements are influencing how data center operators plan and deploy infrastructure to support next-generation AI and HPC environments.

“As AI and HPC workloads drive greater demands on data center infrastructure, organizations must consider how rack architecture, power distribution, and cooling technologies work together to support performance and scalability,” said Sam Rodriguez, Senior Product Manager, Cabinets, Containment and Industrial Solutions, Chatsworth Products. “Our expanded portfolio reflects CPI’s commitment to helping customers address these challenges with flexible infrastructure solutions, backed by engineering expertise and U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities.”

Flexible Open Rack Architecture for Evolving Infrastructure Requirements

CPI’s ORV3 carries the OCP Accepted designation from the Open Compute Project Foundation, recognizing its alignment with OCP specifications and principles. Available in standard and customer-specific 44OU and 48OU ORV3 and High-Power Rack (HPR) configurations, the solution supports 21-inch Open Rack equipment, with optional support for 19-inch EIA equipment.

Optional 48V DC power shelf solutions range from 18 kW to 33 kW, while compatible busbars range from 350 A to 2500 A, providing additional options for rack-level power distribution.

Key capabilities include:

• Customizable Open Rack Architecture: Standard and customer-specific 44OU and 48OU ORV3 and HPR configurations support diverse deployment requirements.
• Support for OCP-Standard Components: Designed to accommodate OCP-standard 48V DC busbars, power shelves, and IT equipment for integration within Open Rack environments.
• Compatible Power Distribution Solutions: Optional 48V DC power shelves and busbars support integrated rack-level power distribution, with factory-installed busbars available to streamline deployment.
• U.S.-Based Manufacturing: Domestic manufacturing capabilities provide flexibility to address customer-specific requirements and support deployment planning.
• Engineering Expertise and Support: CPI’s engineering and technical support teams assist customers with rack configuration, component integration, and deployment requirements.

Previewing Upcoming Power and Cooling Technologies

CPI will also offer attendees an early look at two upcoming solutions designed to address evolving power and thermal management requirements in high-density data center environments.

The upcoming eConnect PDUs with 480V Input are designed to support higher rack-level power requirements, helping organizations plan power distribution infrastructure for increasingly demanding AI and HPC workloads.

CPI will also preview its CoolStream Rear Door Heat Exchanger (RDHx), designed to bring liquid-assisted cooling to the rack level. The solution supports high-density thermal management while helping organizations address space and cooling infrastructure considerations.

Showcasing Integrated Liquid Cooling Capabilities

CPI will also showcase ZutaCore HyperCool waterless two-phase direct-to-chip liquid cooling integrated into CPI’s ZetaFrame Cabinet System.

The solution brings together ZutaCore’s advanced liquid cooling technology with CPI’s cabinet infrastructure, demonstrating how complementary technologies can help organizations address increasing heat loads, infrastructure efficiency, and thermal management requirements in high-density AI and HPC environments.

Explore CPI’s High-Density Infrastructure Solutions at SC26

CPI will exhibit at Supercomputing 2026 (SC26), taking place November 15–20, 2026, at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. During the exhibition, November 17–19, attendees can explore CPI’s ORV3, preview upcoming eConnect PDUs with 480V Input and CoolStream RDHx, and see ZutaCore’s waterless direct-to-chip liquid cooling integrated into the ZetaFrame Cabinet System.

Visit CPI at Booth #4203 to connect with the team and learn how its rack, power, and cooling solutions support evolving AI and HPC infrastructure requirements.

About Chatsworth Products

Chatsworth Products (CPI) is a global manufacturer of products and solutions that power and protect businesses’ ever-growing investment in information and communications technology for IT and industrial automation applications. As a trusted business partner, CPI is uniquely prepared to respond to requirements with global availability and rapid product customization, giving businesses a competitive advantage. With decades of experience engineering thermal, power and cable management solutions for the data center, enterprise networking and industrial enclosure markets, CPI is well positioned to provide organizations with unequaled application expertise, customer service and technical support, as well as a global network of industry-leading distributors.

Source: Chatsworth Products

The post Chatsworth Products Showcases Rack, Power, and Cooling Solutions for AI and HPC at SC26 appeared first on HPCwire.

• Ukrainian wins 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 after eight-minute timeout

• Andreeva beats Sabalenka 6-4, 6-0 to top Group B

Elina Svitolina staged a remarkable comeback to beat Karolina Muchova and remain in the hunt for the WTA Finals title.

The Ukrainian appeared to be on her way out of Indian Wells when she was a set down and required an eight-minute medical timeout. But she recovered to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 and stay in with a chance of reaching the semi-finals.

Colom takes victory by razor-thin margin in state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982

Democrat Scott Colom defeated Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent Republican senator, to become the first Black senator in Mississippi elected since Reconstruction, in a stunning upset after more than a week of vote counting in one of the country’s most reliably red states.

“All I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this,” Colom told a crowd of hundreds who on Wednesday had gathered at Tougaloo College for his victory party. “I had the courage to believe in Mississippi. I had the courage to understand that we can show the country that Mississippi matters.”

Three-story building was at the edge of a construction site where another edifice had been demolished

Firefighters dug through the rubble of a three-story building in Brooklyn on Wednesday after it collapsed at the edge of a construction site, killing at least one person and trapping others beneath the wreckage.

Firefighters were called to the scene in the borough’s Flatbush section at about 4pm. News helicopter footage showed dozens of firefighters scouring the debris, with a group homing in on one area and appearing to use a saw to cut through the wreckage.

Democrats won pivotal races in Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Michigan and elsewhere. Here are the biggest victories of the 2026 midterms.

Once thought to have been looted by Scottish tribes, the gilded limb is the centrepiece of a new exhibition on Roman Scotland in Edinburgh

A large bronze leg found in a bog in rural Scotland more than 200 years ago and then hidden away in a duke’s storeroom is helping to rewrite the history of the Roman empire.

Antiquarians argued that the so-called Mislington leg had been looted, perhaps from York, hacked off by marauding Scottish tribes and carried north over Hadrian’s Wall. “We cannot visualise the conditions which would have led to its erection anywhere north of the Great Wall,” said one scholar, James Curle, in 1932.

Inspectors find some officers acted on potential matches from retrospective searches without making enough checks

Police officers risk arresting innocent people, especially from ethnic minorities, if they treat inaccurate facial recognition data as evidence, an official report has found.

Although the technology can help fight crime, the report found it is beset by errors and biases, and operators do not always realise they must make further inquiries to verify the data.

United Airlines is banning unauthorized third-party AI agents from booking flights, checking in passengers or making account changes on travelers' behalf. CBS News reports: To make an airline booking, an AI agent requires access to a customer's personal information, including credentials like payment information. United has a problem with that, saying that "sharing account credentials with personal, third-party, AI assistants can expose sensitive information, and actions taken by these tools may result in unintended purchases, account changes, or use of MileagePlus miles." The carrier also said that using an AI agent to, for example, check in for a flight could violate federal regulations, including rules requiring travelers to verify in person that their luggage does not contain banned substances. "As a result, United is taking steps to restrict access -- directly within our digital platforms and indirectly via travel agencies and aggregators -- to prohibit use by unauthorized, third-party personal AI agents or assistants," said the airline, which is updating its booking and ticketing policies to reflect the new rule. "United is saying they don't want to add yet another, and potentially even more powerful, intermediary than they already face in terms of Google search, price-comparison metasearch sites and online travel agencies," said Henry Harteveldt, an aviation analyst at Atmosphere Research Group. "Flight searches cost airlines money, and undoubtedly United wants to avoid the expense associated with the surge of AI bot flight searches."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A Russian internet comedy duo tricked three of OpenAI’s highest ranking military and national security staff into a candid conversation about arming Ukraine. The online pranksters posed as officials from Ukraine’s government, according to a recording of the meeting posted online.

The Russian comedy duo known as Vovan and Lexus have pulled off a long string of prank telephone calls to famous figures since 2011, with victims ranging from Elton John to John McCain. The group, whose pranks have often aligned with Russian foreign policy priorities, have been accused of working in league with its government, a charge they deny.

Related

AI Tried to Buy the Midterms — Then the Lobby Learned Everyone Hates AI

The latest to fall for their routine were Sasha Baker, who runs national security policy at OpenAI; the company’s lead for strategic initiatives, Caroline Zier; and Ben Crampton, who leads the company’s forays into European national security matters. All three have extensive government experience, with Baker and Zier taking high-level postings in the Department of Defense, and Crampton working in the European Union and United Nations.

“Weeks ago, we launched a thorough investigation into the call’s authenticity,” OpenAI spokesperson Nate Evans said in a statement to The Intercept. “We acted internally and with the relevant authorities to conclude that it was a prank conducted by individuals with a history of targeting officials and other companies. We took action to prevent similar situations from happening in the future.” (The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

The Russian prank duo said they arranged a high-level meeting with OpenAI by pretending to be Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service. During their 17-minute video conversation, a recording of which the Russian group uploaded to Rumble, the participants discussed OpenAI’s military support to Ukraine to aid its ongoing defense against Russia, including the possibility of providing offensive capabilities.

“There’s no question, I think, from our perspective that we want to have as deep a relationship as we possibly can with Ukraine,” Crampton said when asked about selling such offensive military AI services to the country. “But it may not be possible to get to where we want to be straight away.”

“There’s a general reluctance on the part of many people who are senior in the company to get too involved in offensive uses of our technology in a military context,” Crampton continued. “Part of our job is to explain that offense and defense are not necessarily distinguishable from each other under certain circumstances.”

OpenAI’s ongoing $200 million contract with the U.S. Department of War says it provides artificial intelligence applications aimed at “warfighters” that will “improve military advantage, military utility, or enhance military decision making,” according to contract documents obtained by The Intercept.

In the conversation with the Russian pranksters, Baker added that the company has been in contact with the Pentagon about aiding Ukraine.

Related

The Pentagon Asked OpenAI for Artificial Intelligence Designed to Rarely Say No

OpenAI officials also mentioned ongoing work with the Ukrainian government based around the company’s Daybreak Blue AI model, a system for fixing computer vulnerabilities, as well as a nascent “partnership” with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

“There has been some contact with the Ministry of Defense,” Crampton said. “It’s primarily through a colleague of ours based in Washington as well, who previously had worked with the Delta team in your Ministry of Defense. I think in this field we are interested to partner in as many ways as we can.”

During the video call, both Baker and Zier commented that they had met Umerov previously and were pleased to be speaking to him again. The faux-Umerov appears to have kept his camera turned off for the duration of the meeting.

Vladimir Kuznetsov, the member of the Russian comedy duo known as Vovan, told The Intercept the prank was simple to arrange.

“We initially contacted a senior Ukrainian official in San Francisco, posing as Mr. Umerov,” Kuznetsov said. “It turned out that he had been working to establish connections with OpenAI through the Ukrainian diaspora in California. He was already in touch with Sasha Baker, especially since she had maintained close ties with Ukraine during her time at the U.S. Department of Defense. Believing he was speaking with Umerov, the official offered to arrange a meeting with OpenAI.”

The conversation touched on other topics, including whether OpenAI could help protect against the influence of Elon Musk, and President Donald Trump’s sentiments on the war.

“I’m afraid we probably can’t help you with Elon Musk,” said Baker. “He’s not a fan of our CEO either, if it helps you at all. So, we’re in the same boat.”

Related

OpenAI on Surveillance and Autonomous Killings: You’re Going to Have to Trust Us

Of Trump’s increasingly icy stance on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Baker said, “It’s unfortunate. Of course, we’ve been reading in the news the back and forth and the comments from the U.S. president. But I do want to reassure you that I think the majority of the U.S. government, the U.S. people certainly, and our researchers are very supportive of Ukraine.”

The post OpenAI Fooled by Russian Pranksters Into Thinking They Were Speaking to Ukrainian Official appeared first on The Intercept.

America has an insatiable appetite for computing power. But the failure of technology companies, energy providers, policymakers, and local communities to find common ground may pose a greater threat to responsible progress than the infrastructure challenges themselves.

We’re building the infrastructure of tomorrow while fighting the political battles of yesterday.

Across America, data centers have become flashpoints in an increasingly polarized debate. Supporters see opportunities for economic growth, technological innovation, and national competitiveness. Opponents worry about electricity costs, water resources, environmental consequences, and the communities they call home.

Both have legitimate concerns. Both deserve to be heard.

Yet instead of working together, we’re watching another consequential national issue deteriorate into competing political positions and confrontations over who wins and who loses.

What if the greatest obstacle to responsible technological progress isn’t the technology itself, but our inability to sit down together and make thoughtful decisions?

Perhaps it’s time to stop taking sides and return to the round table.

The future of farmland is on the table in the data center discussion (GlimHux02/Shutterstock)

A Tale of Two Washington Communities

Washington state offers a compelling illustration of both the opportunities and challenges.

In Quincy, a small agricultural community in Central Washington, data centers have become an important economic engine. Technology investment has expanded the tax base and helped finance roads, public facilities, and community services.

As stated in The Newsfeed, August 17, 2026 on Cascade PBS, Mayor Paul Worley has emphasized these improvements. Former Mayor Patty Martin, however, has expressed concerns about farmland, resource consumption, and changes to the community’s character.

Both perspectives deserve consideration.

In 2025, Grant County Public Utility District imposed limits on data center load growth because projected demand threatened to outpace available transmission capacity. (Columbia Basin Herald, March 31, 2025)

Quincy illustrates that economic success doesn’t eliminate the need for responsible planning. If anything, it makes thoughtful long-term planning even more important.

Now consider Walla Walla County, where Amazon is pursuing a proposed $4.8 billion, multiphase data center development near the Columbia River. (Washington State Standard, October 6, 2026)

The project could bring substantial investment, employment opportunities, and tax revenue. County officials point to its location within an established industrial zone as evidence that the site is appropriate.

But some residents see a different picture.

They’re questioning water consumption, electricity requirements, environmental impacts, and the transparency of decisions made before the public fully understood what was proposed.

According to the Washington State Standard, port commissioners signed a nondisclosure agreement with Amazon in March 2023, preventing them from publicly identifying the company behind the development until 2026.

Amazon held a community open house in August, 2026, and published project information.

County officials maintain they’ve made significant efforts to inform the public.

Cooling and power are required ingredients for data centers (eric1207cvb/Shutterstock)

Notably, on October 2, 2026, Amazon announced that it would stop using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies on future data center projects.

In retrospect, Amazon did conduct outreach, and there is credible evidence of that. But its first documented open house occurred roughly three and a half years after the March 2023 nondisclosure agreement and nearly two years after the original 2024 land arrangement.

That doesn’t establish that Amazon acted improperly, but it does illustrate the difference between making information available and involving residents early in consequential decisions.

Nevertheless, residents have demanded additional environmental review and a moratorium on data center development.

Government officials believe they’re pursuing legitimate economic development. A corporation sees an opportunity to invest billions. Residents believe decisions affecting their future advanced without sufficient public involvement.

The central question is no longer simply whether a data center should be built. It’s whether the decision-making process has been sufficiently transparent, whether the promised benefits and potential trade-offs have been thoroughly investigated and honestly communicated, and whether the public has been given the opportunity to weigh the outcome.

That’s fundamentally a leadership and communication challenge.

When Every Table Has Two Sides

Unfortunately, we live in an increasingly polarized political climate where confrontation is rewarded, cooperation is discouraged, and compromise is too often mistaken for weakness. Listening to an opposing viewpoint can be interpreted as surrender. Complex questions become simplistic choices between being for something or against it.

If you support technological development, you may be accused of disregarding communities and environmental concerns.

If you question a proposed development, you may be accused of opposing innovation and economic progress.

Neither characterization helps.

Once people become entrenched in opposing camps, the objective shifts from finding solutions to defending positions. But responsible leadership isn’t about winning every argument. It’s about finding solutions that serve the broader public interest.

Perhaps we need to reconsider the shape of the table itself.

A round table has no sides. No designated opponents. No privileged position from which one participant can dominate the conversation.

The author advocates bringing all sides to the data center discussion (Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock)

Everyone has a seat. Everyone has a voice. Everyone shares responsibility for what happens next.

Public Notification Is Not Public Participation

Major infrastructure projects move through complicated approval processes involving zoning, utilities, environmental reviews, and multiple government agencies.

Each step may satisfy legal requirements, but legal compliance and public confidence aren’t necessarily the same thing.

In many cases, residents may receive formal notification, an opportunity to submit comments, or a few minutes to speak at a public hearing.

Technically, the public has been consulted. But has it genuinely participated?

There’s an enormous difference between informing people about a decision and inviting them to help shape it.

Transparency isn’t achieved simply by publishing documents or holding hearings. Genuine transparency means providing understandable information, acknowledging uncertainties, and creating opportunities to influence decisions before they become effectively irreversible.

When residents believe consequential decisions have already been made behind closed doors, even worthwhile projects can become objects of suspicion.

We shouldn’t automatically assume improper motives. When I was young, my mother used to tell me, “All politicians are crooked.” That was a rather cynical view, but there’s a reality we shouldn’t ignore. Bad actors exist at every level of government and authority. Those who put self-interest above the public good have little interest in sitting around a table seeking common ground.

But I believe there are just as many good people, genuine champions of their communities and constituents, who want to do what’s right. People who understand that cooperation isn’t weakness, compromise isn’t surrender, and meaningful progress begins with a willingness to sit down, listen, and work together.

We should also recognize that economic development is a legitimate responsibility of government, and private investment is essential to a healthy economy.

But good intentions and procedural compliance aren’t substitutes for effective leadership.

Government officials must explain why decisions are being made, who benefits, and who bears the costs, both short- and long-term. Developers must communicate openly about potential consequences, including uncomfortable ones.

Communities, in turn, must participate constructively, evaluate credible information, and recognize that legitimate concerns don’t automatically make every development unacceptable.

Trust is a shared responsibility. Leadership must create the conditions in which it can grow.

Communication Is More Than Delivering Information

I’ve spent much of my professional career working with scientific, technical, corporate, and government leaders. One lesson has remained remarkably consistent.

Communication isn’t simply distributing information. It’s building understanding.

That requires listening, acknowledging uncertainty, respecting different perspectives, and sometimes accepting that someone else has identified a problem we overlooked.

(Yuganov Konstantin/Shutterstock)

Too often, organizations approach public engagement as a communications problem to be managed rather than a relationship built on mutual understanding and trust.

When the objective becomes gaining acceptance for a predetermined course of action, that’s persuasion, not collaboration.

Imagine instead that discussions about a proposed data center began around a round table.

Developers would explain technological requirements and economic opportunities. Utilities would clarify electrical capacity and potential costs to ratepayers. Environmental specialists would evaluate resource requirements and other impacts. Community residents would share their concerns, expectations, and ideas for protecting the places they call home. And together, they could explore creative solutions that might otherwise never emerge.

Would everyone agree? Certainly not.

Would some projects need to be redesigned, relocated, or rejected? Quite possibly.

But disagreement isn’t evidence of failure. In a healthy decision-making process, disagreement is often where better solutions begin.

Transparency invites people into the conversation. Communication builds understanding. Collaboration creates better decisions. Together, they provide the foundation for public trust.

Leadership Means Accepting Shared Responsibility

Responsible leadership begins with transparency, but it cannot end there.

Transparency must be accompanied by accountability, meaningful participation, and a willingness to reconsider decisions when legitimate concerns arise. Otherwise, it risks becoming little more than a public relations exercise.

Collaboration doesn’t mean everyone gets everything they want.

Responsible development requires difficult trade-offs and sometimes unpopular decisions. But those decisions should emerge from a process people can understand, scrutinize, and influence.

That means engaging communities early, making environmental and economic assessments accessible, and establishing clear expectations about infrastructure costs.

It means negotiating meaningful safeguards and community benefits rather than relying exclusively on permits and promises.

And accountability must continue long after construction ends.

The objective shouldn’t be to guarantee approval or rejection. It should be to ensure decisions are responsible, transparent, and informed by everyone affected.

 The Round Table: A Model for Tackling Our Toughest Challenges

Similar tensions surround energy production, transportation, housing, water management, and countless other issues requiring cooperation among government, industry, and the public.

We cannot continue treating every disagreement as a contest in which one side must win and the other must lose.

Nor can we expect public trust to survive when people feel excluded from decisions shaping their futures.

Trust isn’t established through slogans, public relations campaigns, or promises of transparency.

It’s earned through behavior.

Through transparency when facts are uncomfortable. Honesty when answers are uncertain. Listening when criticism is difficult. Accountability when expectations aren’t met.

Progress shouldn’t be measured solely by how quickly we build, how much we invest, or how much computing power we create. It should also be measured by how responsibly we make decisions and how well we treat the people whose lives those decisions affect.

Perhaps the first step toward better outcomes isn’t another political argument or carefully crafted statement defending a position.

Perhaps it’s something far more meaningful.

Pull up a chair. Sit down at a round table. And start listening.

About the author: Mike Bernhardt is a seasoned expert in strategic communications, marketing, market relations, and stakeholder engagement, with over 30 years of experience advising organizations at the forefront of high-performance computing and emerging technologies.

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views of HPCwire.

The post The Great Data Center Divide: It’s Time to Return to the Round Table appeared first on HPCwire.

Members of Congress seek to ‘bring sanity’ to system but decline to give details on plans to reform or abolish agency

A group of congressional Democrats on Wednesday pushed for immediate efforts to rein in the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement operation and “bring sanity” to an immigration system that Donald Trump said, after his party’s midterm drubbing, had been “too tough” in certain aspects.

Just over a week after the midterm elections in which the US president’s harsh crackdown on immigration fueled a voter backlash against Republicans, some sitting and newly elected Democrats gathered outside the US Capitol in Washington to advocate for a bipartisan approach to reforms – even as they gear up to take control of both legislative chambers next year.

Democrat chatted up people at hair salons, colleges and at Trump rallies to become Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction

The ad is simple, less than half a minute long, but many say it was the moment the nation took notice of Mississippi’s US Senate race.

In it, the incumbent Republican senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a cattle farmer, answers a reporter’s question about the rising price of beef: “You know, you have so many proteins to choose from,” she says.

(The Center Square) - Democratic candidate Scott Colom flipped Mississippi’s U.S. Senate seat, bringing the upper chamber to a 55 seat Democrat majority.

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI — Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s closely fought U.S. Senate race Wednesday, becoming the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction and expanding the Democratic Senate majority to 55 seats.

Hyde-Smith conceded after several days of counting absentee and provisional ballots. Colom led by roughly 4,600 votes, about half a percentage point, with nearly all ballots counted. The Associated Press called the race after late returns made it clear the remaining ballots were insufficient to erase his lead.

Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, becomes Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator since Blanche Bruce left office in 1881 and the state’s first Democratic senator since 1982.

His victory is especially striking in a state Donald Trump carried by nearly 23 points in 2024. Colom campaigned heavily on affordability, rising food and fuel costs, and dissatisfaction with Republican economic policies. Hyde-Smith’s widely criticized suggestion that consumers upset about beef prices should “pick another protein” became a recurring campaign issue.

In his victory speech at Tougaloo College, Colom displayed a placard reading “Picked Another Senator,” turning Hyde-Smith’s remark into a final campaign jab.

The win gives Democrats a projected 55-44 Senate advantage, with one race still unresolved, and marks one of the most significant Democratic breakthroughs in the South during the 2026 midterm wave.

Sources:

• Reuters – MBFC Rating

The post Democrat Scott Colom Flips Mississippi Senate Seat in Historic Victory appeared first on News Facts Network.

Group attending Veterans Day ceremony sharply reminded by sentinel to maintain ‘silence and respect’ at sacred site

A US army sentinel guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier loudly reprimanded the embattled US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and his top staffers on Wednesday, after some in the group were heard laughing and talking near the memorial following a Veterans Day ceremony.

According to video captured by the TV network pool, Hegseth was with his wife, Jennifer, chief of staff Ricky Buria, deputy chief of staff Patrick Weaver and senior adviser and deputy assistant Tami Radabaugh walking up the steps in front of the memorial after posing for pictures. A laugh is audible, prompting the guard to yell: “All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times.” Hegseth looked over his shoulder in the direction of the soldier as he continued walking up the steps.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is facing scrutiny over an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. Now, The New York Times reports that Mr. Huang also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company's vice president of health care and a direct report, raising questions about conflicts of interest and compliance with the company's policies governing personal relationships. From the report: The relationship, which has not been previously reported, was with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care, said the people, who spoke under the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive information. Under Nvidia's code of conduct, employees are told to "avoid situations where our actions create conflict" including "personal relationships," and the company states that it "promptly investigates reports of misconduct." Many corporations have policies against managers having relationships with subordinates. Mr. Huang, 63, and Ms. Powell, 48, were captured on video being affectionate at a San Jose, Calif., hotel during a Nvidia conference in March, according to two of the people who worked at the company. The New York Times has not seen the video. Both Mr. Huang and Ms. Powell are married to other people. [...] One bystander captured the interaction on their phone, three people briefed on the incident said. Mr. Huang's security witnessed the bystander with their phone and sequestered them, the people said. They made the person an offer to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Further reading: Nvidia and Jensen Huang Face Shareholder Lawsuit Alleging Investors Were Misled About Spy Affair

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Remains believed to have belonged to Africans or Afro-Brazilians repatriated after being flown back by diplomats

Two skulls, including that of a man believed to have taken part in Brazil’s greatest slave revolt but whose remains were taken to the United States and used in racist eugenics studies at Harvard University, were repatriated on Wednesday.

The remains had been outside Brazil since the 19th century. One was taken about 190 years ago from Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia; the other, about 160 years ago, from Rio de Janeiro – and were welcomed back in moving, subdued ceremonies in both cities.

Even though Florida defied midterm trends to maintain Republican control, its incoming governor acknowledged that voters hit a breaking point over high living costs.

In a Nov. 8 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Kristen Welker played Florida Gov.-elect Byron Donalds a clip of the state’s current Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, criticizing GOP candidates who blamed high gas prices on former President Joe Biden, instead of the Iran war.

Donalds challenged that claim. 

“I didn’t really hear any Republicans trying to blame gas prices today on what the Biden team was doing,” he said, pivoting to oil shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.  

“I actually just read an article from the Wall Street Journal about this,” he said. “The insurance costs of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have gone up substantially, even though there’s more oil going through the strait today than there was pre-war.”

That’s misleading, and omits key context about oil flow in the region. 

Donalds did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for more information. But he referenced theWall Street Journal, which published an Oct. 20 story headlined, “More oil is now coming out of the Persian Gulf than before the Iran war.” 

The article describes a single week in October during which more oil was transported through the Persian Gulf — which includes, but is not limited to, the Strait of Hormuz — compared with pre-war levels of about 23 million barrels per day, according to ship tracker Kpler. 

It’s important to note that the region’s oil flows fluctuate, and different tracking organizations arrive at varying figures. And, as The Wall Street Journal story also notes, the average amount of oil passing through the strait itself remains below pre-war levels, refuting Donalds’ statement.

Skip York, an energy and global oil fellow at Rice University’s Center for Energy Studies, said there were several days in October when oil moving through the Gulf region reached over 20 million barrels per day, but the flow isn’t exceeding pre-conflict levels.

That traffic doesn’t mean the U.S.-Iran conflict is winding down or that operations in the strait have returned to normal, experts said. Instead, it’s driven by money: Oil traders and ship operators stand to profit massively if they are able to get oil through the strait to sell to international markets. 

“What makes this remarkable is that we have seen increasing traffic through Hormuz even though the middle of the month saw a dramatic ramp-up of attempted Iranian interdictions (drone and missile attacks),” York said in an email. “In fact, about half of the vessels hit since the conflict started in March happened in the month of October.”

More oil is moving through Hormuz since war began, but below pre-war levels

During the week ending Oct. 18, The Wall Street Journal reported that overall Middle East oil flows, including shipments through Hormuz and alternative routes across the region, averaged more than 24 million barrels a day, surpassing pre-war levels of 23.3 million barrels a day, according to ship tracker Kpler.

The story says preliminary figures show Hormuz oil flows, including offshore transfers in the Gulf of Oman, “came to around 14 million barrels a day on average for the same period, or 82% of pre-war levels.”

Other data show that Strait of Hormuz traffic has remained below pre-war levels. 

Vortexa, a data analytics company for global energy and freight markets, looked at all Middle East oil flows, which includes flows through the strait and exports from Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, the United Arab Emirates and Oman’s ports outside of the strait. For the same week ending Oct. 18, Vortexa found those flows reached 19.2 million barrels a day. That’s below the 24 million barrels that Journal cited, but marks some of the highest oil flows through the Persian Gulf since the war began.

The following week, Vortexa estimated that 15.1 million barrels of oil made it through the Gulf region per day, and 17.1 million barrels per day the week after that. In the Strait of Hormuz alone, the organization found that  9.2 million barrels of oil made it through each day in the week ending Oct. 18.

Reuters reported Nov. 3 that Gulf oil exports dipped in October from September, when exports were the ‌highest since the war started. 

Vortexa found Middle East flows of crude and refined oil products averaged around 17.1 million barrels per day in October, according to Reuters, a drop from ‌18.9 million barrels per day in September.  The figures could be revised upward slightly as tankers have ramped up efforts to avoid detection, and could be missing from official estimates.

&&

Tanker Trackers, a maritime intelligence company that tracks oil shipments found that overall Middle East crude oil exports averaged around 18.7 million barrels per day in the week ending Nov. 5. During that time, the organization said 13.1 million barrels went through Hormuz,  below pre-war levels. 

Increased tanker traffic through the strait has to do with profit, not security

Heightened wartime oil traffic in the region shows charterers and boat operators are willing to take safety risks for big payouts.  

“It’s the exact opposite of a success story,” said Clark Williams-Derry, an energy finance analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, who also pointed to attacks on ships traversing the strait hitting an all-time high in October. Any recovery in oil flows happened in spite of the volatile maritime environment, he said.

Some Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq, dropped the asking price for oil in order to lure back buyers who had been scared off by the war’s shipping risks in the strait or nearby waterways. 

To capture profits from shipping oil from the Gulf to much higher-priced international markets, charterers (such as national oil companies that hire ships or tankers to transport oil) are paying astronomical daily freight rates of around $1 million a day, energy experts said. 

“If you can move a million barrels of oil through the Strait, you can make tens of millions of dollars on a short-ish trip to Asia. Worth it to find a vessel that’s willing to take the risk,” Williams-Derry said.

The situation remains precarious. Movement through the strait could stall if fighting resumes and the expensive operation contributes to ongoing high prices at the pump.

&&

Our ruling

Donalds said, “There’s more oil going through the Strait (of Hormuz) today than there was pre-war.”

In recent weeks, daily oil flows through the Persian Gulf region, which includes the Strait of Hormuz and alternative routes, have occasionally matched or exceeded pre-war levels, but it isn’t happening consistently.

The average amount of oil passing through the strait itself remains below pre-war levels.

Oil flows through the region, and the strait, remain lower than before the war began.

Gulf shipping routes are still dangerous, with tankers braving them for big payouts, not because of improved security.

Donalds’ statement contains an element of truth — regional oil flows have occasionally surpassed prewar levels — but it misleads in that wartime flows through the strait itself are lower than they were before the war. We rate it Mostly False.

PolitiFact Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this report. 

A Sprawling CIA Plot

Forty years ago, on the evening of October 5, 1986, I sat conferring with members of my local Nicaragua solidarity organization. We were trying to understand the implications of the day’s events in San Carlos, a small town in southern Nicaragua. A young Sandinista soldier had fired a shoulder-launched missile, bringing down a plane in a wreck survived by one Eugene H. Hasenfus. The plane contained U.S.-supplied weapons destined for the Contras, the counter-revolutionary force illegally supported by the CIA to overthrow the Nicaraguan government.

Hasenfus was captured, tried, and convicted of terrorism, and then, in a clever PR move by the Sandinista government, pardoned and released in time to spend Christmas at home with his family in Wisconsin.

Hasenfus’s capture — along with his planeload of AK-47s, 50,000 rifle cartridges, some shoulder-mounted missiles, and grenades — provided concrete evidence of something we’d known for a while: The Reagan administration was actively defying Congress by illegally funding and supplying the Contras. In those years, the Boland amendments (addenda to laws funding U.S. intelligence agencies) prohibited the CIA from using appropriated monies to support the Contras. Hasenfus’s capture not only demonstrated that those amendments were being violated, but also eventually led to the unraveling of a much bigger plot, known today as the Iran–Contra affair.

Oliver North, Iran, and “The Enterprise”

The trail from Hasenfus led to a military aide at the National Security Council, Oliver North, who was running a project to fund the Contras — with money from congressionally outlawed missile sales to Iran. Iran needed the military hardware for a brutal war of attrition with neighboring Iraq. The Reagan administration wanted to free U.S. hostages held in Iran and by Iran’s ally Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. So the arms-for-hostages deal was cooked up. Ollie North saw a way to use that one illegal deal to enable a second one. He would funnel unappropriated funds for the Contras by charging Iran a steep markup on the weapons and stashing the difference in Swiss bank accounts, outside U.S. government control.

At the suggestion of CIA Director William Casey, North had recruited Richard V. Secord, a retired Air Force major general, to establish what they called “the Enterprise.” North would later describe the Enterprise as an “off-the-shelf, self-sustaining, stand-alone entity that could perform certain activities,” i.e., covert overseas operations. The congressional committee that eventually investigated the Iran–Contra affair reported:

The Enterprise, functioning largely at North’s direction, had its own airplanes, pilots, airfield, operatives, ship, secure communications devices, and secret Swiss bank accounts. For 16 months, it served as the secret arm of the N.S.C. staff, carrying out with private and non-appropriated money, and without the accountability or restrictions imposed by law on the CIA, a covert Contra aid program that Congress thought it had prohibited.

Related

Oliver North Worked With Cocaine Traffickers to Arm Terrorists. Now He’ll Be President of the NRA.

North became something of a comic figure in U.S. history, especially after the escapade in which he choked a government office shredder during a late-night document “shredding party.” He and the coterie of implicated officials both above and below him all received pardons from incoming President George H. W. Bush, who’d served as Reagan’s vice president.

There is no way of knowing just how large North’s Enterprise might have grown had Hasenfus’s plane not been shot down, or what other sorts of dirty money-making businesses it might have spawned. Perhaps today we’d be living in a country with a largely self-funding, and therefore (even more) unaccountable, national security apparatus.

Big, “Dirty” Business in Venezuela

I thought about the Iran–Contra affair and North’s Enterprise for the first time in years when I read that Pete Hegseth’s Defense Department is getting into the oil business in Venezuela. Under the new arrangement, the Department of Defense would receive “penny warrants” for an ownership stake in at least one company developing Venezuelan oil fields. These warrants, according to the New York Times, “would give the Pentagon the option to take up to a 35 percent stake in the parent company” of North American Blue Energy Partners.

The company, which is legally registered in Barbados, is run by Alejandro Betancourt López, a Nicolás Maduro crony, around whom corruption rumors have swirled for at least a decade. The deal would also provide the Defense Department with the right to purchase up to 20 percent of the company’s oil output “at production cost” and first refusal on the remaining 80 percent, presumably at market rates.

There are a number of issues to consider here: The U.S. invasion’s legality, the logistical difficulties of extracting and using Venezuela’s “dirty” crude, and, of course, the human folly of pouring even more oil on the climate fire. But what especially caught my attention in the Times story is that the Pentagon taking an equity stake in a private oil company looks a lot like a new edition of North’s off-the-shelf operation from the 1980s.

Related

The Dawn of a New Cold War

The Pentagon isn’t alone among federal agencies acquiring ownership stakes in a variety of companies. Perhaps most notable is the Commerce Department’s purchase of an almost 10 percent interest in the chip manufacturer Intel for $8.9 billion, a stake that’s now reportedly worth $42 billion. As the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported in February, “the Trump administration is acquiring a strategic portfolio of investments in companies directly related to national security, spanning minerals, nuclear energy, and semiconductors, among other sectors.”

The CSIS report lists several smaller — though still enormous — Defense Department equity investments, among them:

• Vulcan Elements, a manufacturer of rare earth magnets: warrants to purchase equity at an undisclosed fixed price; $620 million loan against a $50 million equity stake
• MP Materials, a rare earth magnet manufacturer: 15 percent stake for $400 million
• Korea Zinc, a joint venture with Commerce and private investors in a Tennessee smelting installation; Defense Department to take 40 percent ownership, total cost $1.9 billion
• ReElement Technologies, a rare earth magnet recycler: warrants for future stock purchase; $80 million from Defense “matched by private capital”
• Trilogy Metals, a Canada-based company with Alaskan mining rights: 10 percent stake purchased for $35.6 million, with warrants to purchase another 7.5 percent

Since that report was published, DoD has continued to expand its portfolio with other equity purchases, which seem to be aimed at least in part on restocking American weapons reserves depleted by the Iran war:

• L3Harris Missile Solutions: $1 billion direct equity investment for solid rocket motor and missile production
• The Elmet Group: $450 million preferred equity investment in the only U.S.-based tungsten producer. Tungsten is crucial in the production of Patriot missiles, an essential defense against incoming missiles and drones, and a much-depleted armament in U.S. stores because of the Iran war.
• Hertha Metals: an apparent $65 million investment — for an undisclosed number of shares — in a steel manufacturer. The libertarian Cato Institute, which generally opposes federal ownership stakes in corporations, called the investment with Hertha an “apparent” deal, as only the company, not the DoD, has announced it publicly.

Beyond taking direct ownership shares in corporations, DoD continues to diversify its loan portfolio beyond traditional military materials. For example, President Donald Trump recently promised a $100 million Pentagon investment to rebuild a pharmaceutical factory in Winchester, Kentucky — but only if Republicans won the midterms in that state.

How Does Government Ownership of Corporations Work?

The federal government has taken temporary partial ownership of U.S. corporations before Trump’s current string of acquisitions. What makes this round of purchases different is that it seems the Pentagon intends to make them permanent. In the past, when the federal government acquired warrants or corporate shares, the move was part of a program to shore up failing institutions in the midst of a more general financial disaster.

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As the SEC Cracks Down on Shady SPACs, CIA Officials Get In on the Action

This was the case with the Troubled Assets Relief Program, which formed part of the Obama administration’s response to the 2008 fiscal crisis, and more recently when airlines faced bankruptcy during the 2020-21 Covid pandemic. In neither case did the government retain permanent ownership of the entities it bailed out.

The evidence is that this time around, the Trump administration envisions permanent ownership stakes in companies it deems essential to military preparedness and national security. In the case of the Pentagon, two related offices are responsible for overseeing DoD’s equity investments.

The Office of Strategic Capital was established in 2022 during Joe Biden’s administration and funded under the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024. The OSC’s initial purpose was to facilitate Pentagon loans to industries it deems crucial to national security. Other parts of DoD use grants or purchases to get money to defense industries. Only OSC can lend those corporations money. Still, neither the NDAA for 2024 nor subsequent NDAAs permits the OSC to buy shares in companies.

The OSC received a huge funding boost under Trump’s 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act. While simultaneously meting out drastic cuts to programs that support Americans’ actual everyday security — such as Medicaid, nutritional assistance, housing, and student loans — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act awarded OSC $1.5 billion in additional funds.

The other entity tasked with overseeing Defense equity investments is the Economic Defense Unit. Established this year through an internal DoD memo, the EDU offers a hint that the Pentagon isn’t ready to give up on capital. Like the Office of Strategic Capital, the EDU is overseen by Defense Department Undersecretary Stephen Feinberg, a billionaire, major Trump donor, and co-founder of the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.

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Bankrolling American Empire in the Philippines

EDU’s ostensible purpose is to coordinate U.S. economic competition with adversaries such as China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. But reporting suggests another reason Feinberg established the unit. Quoting a knowledgeable inside source, The American Prospect says that the EDU “operates as a ‘venture capital firm-type entity that looks at deals, what the government’s going to do and evaluates them,’” determining what the government’s ownership stake should be.

The Cato Institute says of the EDU:

Available information points to an investment apparatus being created within the Pentagon, staffed by financiers connected to the same private-equity world that stands to benefit from it. 

It sounds like another attempt by the administration to construct a pseudo-sovereign wealth fund controlled by the executive branch.

In other words, the Economic Defense Unit looks like the beginning of a Defense Department investment bank.

As of today, no law explicitly permits the Pentagon to own pieces of corporations or to develop its own pseudo-investment bank, but the 2027 NDAA may change that.

In the meantime, what happens to any revenue derived from DoD’s investments? Such income could include interest on loans, share dividends, or proceeds from the sale of equities. Legally, any such income should be deposited to the U.S. Treasury within three days, according to the U.S. legal code section § 3302(b), perhaps in the Pentagon’s Industrial Base Fund at Treasury.

History tells us North sent the Iran–Contra money to Swiss banks, not the U.S. Treasury. Can we trust Hegseth — who just this week survived an impeachment vote — and his boss not to do something similar with the Pentagon’s earnings today? How would we even know if that trust were violated?

Just Like Egypt and Iran?

The prospect of a metastasizing U.S. Defense Department may seem far-fetched, but it’s already happened in a number of other countries. In Egypt, popular demonstrations brought down President Hosni Mubarak, the country’s effective dictator, during the 2011 Arab Spring. After a brief period under an increasingly unpopular elected president, the Egyptian military staged a coup and has ruled the country directly ever since.

But Egypt’s army is more than a military force. It’s the most powerful economic entity in the country as well. As the Carnegie Middle East Center describes the situation, the Egyptian military has its tentacles in every aspect of Egypt’s economy. Members of the military:

… deliver massive infrastructure projects, produce consumer goods ranging from food to household appliances, manufacture industrial chemicals and transport equipment, and import basic commodities for civilian markets. They have expanded into new sectors as diverse as steel production, pharmaceuticals, gold prospecting, and managing religious endowments and pilgrimage.

At the same time, “thousands of retired senior officers have benefited from the powerful political influence of the military to occupy senior positions throughout the state’s civilian apparatus and public sector companies, securing extra postretirement incomes for themselves while complementing the formal military economy in return.”

Related

The CIA Just Invested in Woolly Mammoth Resurrection Technology

(This sounds a lot like the egregious post-service opportunities promised to the investment bankers being recruited to work in the Pentagon’s EDU. After serving on the Pentagon’s new 30-person investment team, where they would have “unmatched access to top-level government officials and privileged information flow,” the recruitment pitch goes, “if you ever want to raise your own fund, you will gain access to fund-raising channels that include royal families and foreign sovereign contacts,” according to the New York Times.)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has emerged as Iran’s most powerful economic force, plays a similar role, according to CSIS:

The IRGC now owns businesses in the oil and gas sectors, as well as land, marine, and air transportation. The IRGC-owned company, Khatam al-Anbiya, established as the IRGC’s arm in the construction sector, currently controls 812 officially registered Iranian companies which have a total of some 1,700 governmental contracts. Another IRGC-owned company has also recently bought a 51 percent stake in the Iranian Telecommunications company that was privatized at a value of $5 billion.

Can It Happen Here?

Could the Pentagon really emerge as an economic power in its own right, one that operates in tandem with, but parallel to, the federal government? Not tomorrow, certainly, but now is the time to step on the brakes to prevent that scenario.

The prospect of an economically independent U.S. military would be frightening under any circumstances. But it becomes both more frightening and more likely with a Pentagon that Hegseth is reshaping in his own white Christian nationalist and misogynist image. He’s already removed many of the potential human guardrails by purging long-serving top military leadership. As long as DoD doesn’t threaten any of the enterprises of the Trump family and friends — including those of Don Jr. and Eric Trump, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff — we can expect little resistance from the demented relic in the White House.

Fortunately, Hegseth is not the sharpest bayonet in the armory. As with many aspects of this nightmare administration, we may yet be saved from a metastasizing Pentagon by the ineptitude of its leader. Let us work to make it so.

The post Pentagon, Inc. appeared first on The Intercept.

Exclusive: Madeleine Alessandri, chair of the joint intelligence committee, will take on the role of advising No 10 on climate-related national security risks

The UK government has appointed the world’s first special representative for climate security, in the strongest sign yet of fears that climate breakdown will bring chaos to the country.

Prime minister Andy Burnham will announce the move on Thursday at Cop31, the UN climate summit, with the new role designed to advise the government on national security risks from the climate crisis before they spell catastrophe.

• Warriors star defends wife over romantic comedy role

• Arenas called Ayesha ‘only blemish’ on Curry family

• Four-time NBA champion condemns double standards

Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry has criticized several ex-professional athletes for questioning his wife Ayesha’s decision to appear in a romantic comedy featuring an on-screen kiss, accusing them of diminishing her accomplishments and perpetuating double standards about women.

The four-time NBA champion posted a 90-second video on Instagram on Wednesday in response to comments by former NBA players Gilbert Arenas and Nick Young, as well as former NFL players Emmanuel Acho and LeSean McCoy, following the release of Ayesha Curry’s new film, Second Chance Holiday.

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 11, 2026 — Super Micro Computer, Inc. today announced that its H15 generation server portfolio is now shipping. Powered by the 6th Gen AMD EPYC 9006 Series processors (formerly codenamed “Venice”), the H15 portfolio is a core component of Supermicro’s DCBBS architecture. Optimized for next-generation GPUs, including AMD Instinct accelerators, these industry-leading systems deliver rack-scale performance designed for the agentic AI era and enable customers to deploy high-performance AI infrastructure more rapidly.

Supermicro’s latest H15 server portfolio—powered by 6th Gen AMD EPYC 9006 Series processors—achieved outstanding benchmark results, setting multiple SPEC CPU world records on the 2U Hyper and CloudDC servers demonstrating generational leaps in performance and speed.

“With the H15 portfolio now shipping, Supermicro and AMD are giving customers a faster, more efficient path to an agentic AI infrastructure,” said Michael McNerney, senior vice president, Marketing, Supermicro. “Built on our DCBBS architecture and powered by 6th Gen AMD EPYC 9006 processors, these servers deliver substantially higher core density, memory bandwidth, and PCIe throughput. Our close engineering collaboration with AMD provides customers the flexibility to scale AI, cloud, and enterprise workloads with confidence.”

“Shipping the latest high-performance AMD EPYC processor is essential to advancing AI on every scale. Our close collaboration with Supermicro ensures customers receive optimized platforms that combine leading CPU performance with Instinct GPUs, AMD Pensando networking, and modular designs,” said Dan McNamara, senior vice president and general manager, Compute and Enterprise AI, AMD. “These platforms help organizations deploy AI infrastructure faster, improve utilization, reduce energy use, and lower total cost of ownership while running more concurrent agents and demanding enterprise workloads.”

The ready-to-ship H15 server portfolio includes purpose-built, high-density systems optimized for cloud, HPC, and agentic AI workloads, delivering exceptional performance and multiple SPEC CPU world records on the 2U Hyper and CloudDC platforms. Supermicro’s broad range of AMD EPYC 9006 SP7 and SP8 socket servers—spanning performance workstations and edge systems to high-density multi-node and enterprise GPU servers—positions Supermicro as a single-source partner for data center CPU, GPU, and storage. In parallel, Supermicro is expanding its AMD CPU- and GPU-powered rack-scale infrastructure with the new Helios and Helion platforms, providing end-to-end options from agentic to hyperscale AI deployments.

Supermicro’s DCBBS delivers complete, modular AI infrastructure with end-to-end deployment flexibility, bringing the latest AMD-powered data center solutions to customers with fast time-to-market. Combining DCBBS designs with AMD server CPU, GPU, and networking architecture enables customers to bring next-generation AI infrastructure to market faster, with 33% more cores, 2× PCIe bandwidth, and 2.6× higher memory bandwidth. Together, this enables Supermicro and AMD to provide enterprise customers with 1.8× higher tokens per second for frontier-model host nodes compared to previous generations of AMD CPUs.

Supermicro’s comprehensive portfolio of more than 20 optimized systems includes:

• Hyper: The flagship dual-socket platform engineered for enterprise applications, AI inference, virtualization, and cloud workloads, with advanced thermal design to support the highest-performance AMD EPYC processors
• CloudDC: A single-socket system for cloud-scale environments, built on the Open Compute Project (OCP) Data Center Modular Hardware System (DC-MHS) specification for open data center standards
• FlexTwin: A 1 OU (ORv3), two-node, liquid-cooled, high-performance, high-density dual-CPU compute system for cloud-native and hyperscale deployments
• GrandTwin: A high-density 2U 2-node, single-socket architecture designed for scale-out environments, including object storage, virtualization, cloud services, and HPC
• Petascale Storage: 2U high-capacity all-flash storage platforms optimized for software-defined storage-based AI data lakes, large-scale analytics, and HPC environments, supporting up to 4.8 PB per system
• SuperBlade: The H15 6U SuperBlade supports both single-socket and dual-socket blade configurations, with air- and liquid-cooled versions optimized for maximum density, high performance, and efficiency

Next-Generation Rack-Scale Data Center Solutions

Supermicro and AMD are collaborating closely to bring the Helios and Helion rack-scale solutions to market, delivering complete end-to-end AI infrastructure for enterprise customers. Both solutions are optimized for large-scale and agentic AI deployments, each with a distinct focus. Helios is built for maximum GPU performance, powered by AMD Instinct MI455X GPUs to accelerate frontier model training and high-throughput inference. Helion is designed for compute performance and deployment flexibility, built on the latest 6th Gen AMD EPYC CPUs.

Both solutions integrate seamlessly with Supermicro’s DCBBS architecture, combining rack-scale system design, leading AMD AI compute, and integrated software innovations into a single cohesive platform.

Click here to learn how Supermicro DCBBS can help build and scale your next-generation AI infrastructure.

About Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI) is a global leader in Application-Optimized Total IT Solutions. Founded and operating in San Jose, California, Supermicro is committed to delivering first-to-market innovation for Enterprise, Cloud, AI, and 5G Telco/Edge IT Infrastructure. We are a Total IT Solutions provider with server, AI, storage, IoT, switch systems, software, and support services. Supermicro’s motherboard, power, and chassis design expertise further enables our development and production, enabling next-generation innovation from cloud to edge for our global customers. Our products are designed and manufactured in-house (in the US, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Netherlands), leveraging global operations for scale and efficiency and optimized to improve TCO and reduce environmental impact (Green Computing). The award-winning portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions allows customers to optimize for their exact workload and application by selecting from a broad family of systems built from our flexible and reusable building blocks that support a comprehensive set of form factors, processors, memory, GPUs, storage, networking, power, and cooling solutions (air-conditioned, free air cooling or liquid cooling).

Source: Supermicro

The post Supermicro Now Shipping Next-Gen Servers Powered by 6th Gen AMD EPYC 9006 Series CPUs appeared first on HPCwire.

(The Center Square) – Interest costs on the national debt totaled $1.4 trillion in fiscal 2026, according to an audit of Treasury's books released by the Government Accountability Office. About $1.1 trillion of that was paid out to bondholders, with…

An infant was found alive after apparently being buried in a dog crate for about 24 hours, authorities in South Carolina said.

Charlotte Web shares a report from the Associated Press: A shareholder has sued Nvidia and its CEO, Jensen Huang, accusing them of deceiving investors in their responses to media reports about Huang's affair with a purported Chinese spy that threatens national security. [...] The news reports said that the Commerce Department was investigating Alice Huang's company, Singapore-based Megaspeed, on suspicions that it was helping to sidestep U.S. export restrictions blocking Nvidia chips from being sold to China. But Nvidia said then that its compliance team checked and determined that Megaspeed wasn't doing anything illegal. But, according to the complaint, the statements were misleading because they were made when Jensen Huang was having an affair with Alice Huang, who is "suspected of seeking to help smuggle Nvidia products into China." It accuses Nvidia and Huang of failing to disclose the affair and issuing false statements about Nvidia's relationship with Megaspeed, which posed a "material risk" to Nvidia's reputation and business prospects. [...] "As a result of Defendants' wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Company's securities, Plaintiff and other Class members have suffered significant losses and damages," the complaint said. Had investors known the truth, they wouldn't have purchased Nvidia's shares "at the artificially inflated prices that they did, or at all," the complaint said. "Fun fact: Nvidia donated $25 million to Trump's White House ballroom fund," notes Slashdot reader Charlotte Web. UPDATE: The New York Times reports that Huang also also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company's vice president of health care and a direct report.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Move comes as chipmaker reels from reports its CEO was having an affair with an alleged Chinese spy

Nvidia has appointed a leading US law firm to conduct a “thorough and independent” investigation into the relationship between its chief executive, Jensen Huang, and an alleged Chinese spy.

The $4.1tn (£3tn) chipmaker’s board has hired New York-based Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz for the investigation, which will be led by the Wachtell partner Joon Kim. The firm’s website describes Kim, a former government prosecutor in New York, as a specialist in areas including internal investigations, white-collar criminal and regulatory defence, and crisis management.

• USSF cites state department advisory about Qatar

• Competition set to kick off in eight days

The US men’s national team have pulled out of the Fifa U-17 World Cup, which is due to kick off in Qatar in just over a week. In a letter sent to players explaining the decision, the US Soccer Federation cited safety concerns for players and staff, referring them to the US state department’s travel advisory for Qatar, which encourages citizens to reconsider travel to the country “due to risk of armed conflict” and asks government employees to obtain special authorization to do so.

“Unfortunately, in light of current circumstances … we are no longer able to participate in the tournament,” US Soccer’s letter to players reads. “The wellbeing of our players and staff will always be our top priority.

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth and members of his team were reprimanded by a US sentinel at Arlington national cemetery after the Veterans Day commemoration that Donald Trumped attended on 11 November

Doorbell video captured two White students making monkey gestures and sounds outside an apartment where a group of Black students live.

The North American affairs specialist entered the diplomatic service just after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union and was appointed ambassador in March 2025.

(The Center Square) - Political parties spent a record-breaking $11.8 billion in advertising for the 2026 midterm elections, with varying results across the country.

The new robots were made instead with a design approach called “tensegrity”.

Eleven Democrats missed the key procedural vote on the impeachment effort, which failed by just seven votes

• US politics live – latest updates

Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage at nearly a dozen of their colleagues for missing a vote Tuesday evening to impeach the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, allowing Republicans to defeat the effort.

Eleven Democrats missed the key procedural vote on the impeachment effort, which failed by just seven votes. Some blamed traffic and conflicting events and others accused Speaker Mike Johnson of closing the vote early. Many of those not in the Capitol said they support the effort to impeach Hegseth.

Anti-hunger advocates are blasting a proposed change to SNAP rules that could cut off more than 6 million people from access to federal food aid.

The Senate race in deep-red Mississippi remains unresolved, as Democrat Scott Colom has mounted a surprisingly competitive challenge to incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

New York has forced T-Mobile to remove a 50GB monthly data cap from its $15 low-income broadband plan after regulators found customers who exceeded the limit had their speeds cut by more than 97%, to just 650 Kbps. "Additionally, the [Office of the Attorney General (OAG)] found T-Mobile restricted [New York's Affordable Broadband Act (ABA)] plans to areas with 5G coverage, despite offering standard-rate 25 Mbps plans in 4G areas, and intentionally coded its website to hide affordable plans from search engines," reports RochestFirst. From the report: Under the terms of the settlement, T-Mobile must: - Eliminate data caps on its ABA plans and deliver guaranteed 25 Mbps download speeds. - Expand ABA plan availability to all geographic areas where it offers fixed-wireless home internet service. - Make its ABA webpage indexed and easily discoverable via standard web searches.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thinking about spending Christmas somewhere different this year? Across the country, small towns are getting ready for the holidays with Christmas lights, parades, and traditions that draw visitors year after year. Here are five places worth checking out this Christmas…

Photo Credit: Deposit Photos

Spotlight Delaware is proud to host its second annual Our Delaware Cultural Festival this Sunday, November 15, at Arsht Hall in Wilmington, celebrating the diverse communities that make up the First State. The festival returns with an expanded slate of performances and representation from 13 heritage and affinity groups, as well as award-winning food trucks and free activities for kids. 

“Last year, the Our Delaware Festival was one of the great joys of our holiday season, with so many groups that have their own festivals coming together to dance and celebrate under one roof,” said Allison Taylor Levine, publisher and CEO of Spotlight Delaware. “This year, with even more groups participating, the festival will showcase the history and traditions of so much of our state.”

Groups performing at this year’s festival include:

• Ballet Folklorico México Lindo
• Delaware Chinese American Association
• Lanetzach Tzi’irim – Folk Dance Troupe from Adas Kodesch Shel Emeth Synagogue
• Nanticoke Indian Dance Troupe
• Nrithyalavanyam School of Dance
• Priyanka’s Nritya Academy
• Rainbow Chorale
• Sankofa African Drum and Dance Troupe
• Terpsichorean Dance Group from the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral
• YMCA Essence Legacy Performing Arts
• JoAnn Balingit, former Delaware State poet laureate (providing a concluding poem)

“The performances were an audience highlight of last year’s event,” said David Stradley, director for community engagement. “So we’ve leaned into that aspect this year. Most of the groups will also offer chances for audience participation. Last year, I joined in an Israeli folk dance. I can’t wait to see what new experiences I’ll have this year, along with attendees.”

In connection to Delaware 250 celebrations honoring the country’s independence, the Our Delaware Cultural Festival will celebrate the different people who have come to call the First State home. Eleven heritage clubs, religious organizations, and affinity groups will represent their constituents and share their culture with attendees at the Heritage Fair, including:

• Delaware Chinese American Association
• Delaware Historical Society
• Delaware Saengerbund 
• Hispanic American Association of Delaware
• Indo-American Association of Delaware
• Irish Culture Club of Delaware
• Jewish Federation of Delaware
• Latin American Community Center
• Lenape Indian Tribe
• New Sweden Alliance
• St. Mary Coptic Church of Delaware 

Six-time Best of Delaware Winner Mojo Loco 302 will be serving their unique take on street food, fusing global cuisines into flavorful tacos, quesadillas, grilled cheeses, and more. Mitch’s Mo’Better Chicken will also be on site, dishing out fried chicken, seafood, and sandwiches for the whole family. And if you need a pick-me-up, Tia Erika’s Cafe will be there with a full espresso bar, yerba mate, and signature lattes inspired by Latin American and Caribbean favorites. 

And it wouldn’t be a festival without fun for the kids! Face painting, balloon art, and henna will be available free of charge for all attendees.

Anyone interested in volunteering at the Festival can contact David Stradley here.

Tickets are on sale now, and more information about the festival and its programming is also available. Tickets are $10 for adults and admission is free for children under 18. Food and drink is available for additional purchase.

The post Spotlight Delaware’s Our Delaware Cultural Fair to Bring Community & Camaraderie to Wilmington appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

La Red Health Center says federal support will strengthen care teams, expand transportation and improve coordination as Delaware builds out rural health services.

NEW CASTLE, Del. — Delaware will receive another $160.3 million in federal rural health funding, bringing its first two years of awards to nearly $317.7 million as the state works to expand access to care, particularly in Kent and Sussex counties.

The funding will support community health centers, medical education, technology and other initiatives. Measuring its return will require tracking whether those investments translate into more available appointments, a stronger health care workforce and more affordable care.

The Delaware Department of Health and Social Services announced the $160,294,521 second-year award Nov. 9. It is approximately $2.9 million more than Delaware’s first-year award of $157.4 million.

For Sussex County’s La Red Health Center, the support is intended to address practical barriers to receiving care, including transportation and coordination among providers.

What La Red plans for Sussex County

La Red was awarded approximately $10.1 million in first-year funding, according to the state’s September announcement of nearly $23 million for federally qualified health centers.

“This funding is an investment in the future of rural healthcare in our county,” said Rachel Hersh, president and CEO of La Red Health Center.

“It will allow us to strengthen La Red’s care teams, expand transportation support, and improve how we share information and coordinate care with hospitals and specialists,” she said. “For our patients, that means better-connected care, more support managing chronic conditions, and easier access to their own health information.”

Hersh said the funding also would strengthen prevention.

“It also means a stronger focus on prevention by helping patients get screenings, identify health problems early, and have the tools and support to take greater control of their wellness,” she said.

Along with La Red, the state announced approximately $11.3 million for Westside Family Healthcare and $1.29 million for Henrietta Johnson Medical Center. The three awards total approximately $22.7 million.

Committed dollars and completed services

As of July 31, Delaware had obligated approximately $76.9 million, or 49% of its first-year award, according to state-submitted information published by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Obligations generally represent commitments through contracts, grants or other agreements. They do not necessarily establish that money has been spent, facilities have opened or patients have received additional services.

The July figures also predate the September health center awards and November update. They cannot establish how much Delaware has committed or spent since then.

CMS describes the report as an incomplete view of state progress and says it will update the information following submission of the Nov. 30 quarterly report. RHTP Tracker

Where the first-year commitments are going

The July report listed approximately $26.4 million obligated for two Hope Centers in Kent and Sussex counties, intended to connect homeless residents with housing, primary care, behavioral health and other services.

Approximately $16.8 million was obligated for Delaware’s medical school initiative, while $6.55 million was committed to health information technology involving real-time insurance verification and prior authorization.

Those technology improvements are intended to reduce administrative barriers that can consume staff time and delay care. RHTP Tracker

In its November announcement, DHSS said Delaware had funded four new school-based health centers in Sussex County and advanced plans for medical education through Thomas Jefferson University, including clinical training in Kent and Sussex counties.

The announcement did not establish that all four school-based centers were operating.

DHSS also reported work on telehealth, remote patient monitoring, chronic disease management and workforce recruitment. Secretary Christen Linke Young described the funding as an opportunity to improve rural care while addressing the long-term drivers of rising health care spending. news.delaware.gov

Private-sector innovation tied to milestones

Delaware is also directing part of the federal funding toward health technology companies.

Delaware Prosperity Partnership and DHSS are developing the Delaware Rural Health Challenge, an accelerator expected to award up to $5 million in competitive, milestone-based grants to health technology startups.

The grants are non-dilutive, meaning companies receive funding without giving up an ownership stake.

The program will begin by identifying specific rural health care problems with providers, community organizations and other stakeholders, then recruiting companies to develop and deploy solutions.

Program materials call for selected companies to work with Delaware health care organizations and rural communities to test and measure their impact. They set a Sept. 30, 2027, deadline for disbursing all program funds.

For taxpayers, evaluating those awards will require examining both whether companies meet their milestones and whether their products deliver useful, affordable services for patients and providers.

Measuring results and sustaining services

As Delaware enters the second year of the five-year federal program, evaluating its performance will require distinguishing funding commitments from improvements in care.

Useful measures would include additional appointment capacity, providers recruited and retained, completed transportation trips, shorter waits for treatment and changes in avoidable emergency care. Cost reporting could help establish whether technology and care coordination reduce expenses or shift them elsewhere.

Long-term operating costs also warrant attention. Expanded facilities, transportation and care teams can require recurring spending on personnel, maintenance and technology after startup funding has been used.

The announcements reviewed for this story do not provide a comprehensive explanation of how every initiative will cover those continuing costs after the federal program ends, or whether additional state support will be needed.

For patients, the practical test will be whether they can obtain timely, affordable care closer to home. For taxpayers, it will also be whether those improvements can be sustained at a manageable cost.

To Go Box: Delaware Rural Health Transformation Program

• What: A five-year federal program supporting rural health care access, workforce development, technology and changes in care delivery.
• First-year award: Approximately $157.4 million.
• Second-year award: Approximately $160.3 million.
• Two-year total: Approximately $317.7 million.
• First-year funding obligated by July 31: Approximately $76.9 million, or 49%. This is a dated measure of commitments, not a current spending total.
• La Red award: Approximately $10.1 million, announced in September.
• Primary focus: Rural communities in Kent and Sussex counties, with some statewide initiatives.
• Learn more: DHSS funding announcement, community health center awards and Delaware Rural Health Challenge

Falling gas prices in the week after the Nov. 3 election created online speculation about the shift. 

“Gas prices are dropping which means the gas companies purposely increased the prices so you would blame Trump and vote blue,” read several social media posts, including one from an Instagram account called Republican Party (which is not an official GOP account) and from conservative influencer David J Harris Jr.  “It had nothing to do with the Iran war,” Harris posted.

But prices have been falling since late September, well before the election. Energy market experts attribute the decline largely to seasonal shifts and increasing Middle East oil exports.

The U.S. average gas price dropped below $4 for the first time since July on the week of Nov. 9. The nationwide average on Nov. 11 was about $3.94, more than $0.50 below the peak of $4.48 on Sept. 21. 

The average on the West Coast was $5.11 on Nov. 9, compared with $5.60 on Sept. 21.

Gas prices generally drop in the autumn. People drive less, which reduces demand, and gas stations switch over to a wintertime gasoline blend that is cheaper than gasoline sold in the summer, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for the gasoline price tracker GasBuddy. 

Hugh Daigle, a University of Texas at Austin associate professor of petroleum and geosystems engineering, said recent prices have fallen a little more than what’s normal for this time of year, but the change is still in line with seasonal trends.

“I think the overall trend is mostly normal seasonal fluctuations,” Daigle said, adding that more oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz helps, too.

Average U.S. gas prices have gone down every week since Sept. 21, according to Energy Information Administration data. The current price is still higher than it was at this time in the last four years.

The Iran war is the main cause for this year’s spike in gas prices. After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, Iran closed off the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping route, restraining global oil supply.

Changes in the global oil flow and Trump’s posture on Iran have also helped ease prices, De Haan said. Trump said on Nov. 9 he didn’t see a need for more military strikes. Despite continuing attacks from Iran on commercial tankers in the strait, oil exports from the Middle East have increased through the strait and alternative routes, like oil pipelines, increasing oil supply. 

Some analysts have also said Democrats’ election win had an effect on oil prices, even though no policy has changed yet. Oil prices are based partly on expectations, and the next Congress could affect how the war is funded and conducted.

There’s no reason to believe gas companies purposely inflated prices, De Haan said. 

Oil is traded on a global market, and American gas companies have little ability to dictate the price of oil and gas. And Democrats tend to regulate the oil and gas industry more than Republicans, so there’s no clear incentive for oil companies to tip the scale for Democrats, De Haan said. 

“There’s never going to be a shortage of these conspiracy theories, but ultimately, as an analyst that’s been covering markets for 20 years, I see all the numbers behind the scenes and I’m not worried about conspiracies,” De Haan said.

Our ruling

Social media posts said falling gas prices mean “the gas companies purposely increased the prices so you would blame Trump and vote blue.”

Gas prices are following normal seasonal trends, and new developments around the Iran war are bringing down oil prices. The decrease began before the election, and there’s no evidence it was coordinated by gas companies to hurt Trump. 

We rate the claim False.

Driver, 61, faces DUI and murder charges after Tuesday crash critically injuring two others in North Hollywood

A driver who reportedly crashed into pedestrians on a Los Angeles corner during Tuesday rush hour, killing three people and critically injuring two more, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and three counts of murder, police said on Wednesday.

The fatal crash took place near a North Hollywood metro station.

Death of Javits Frimpong, who moved to the US from Ghana a year ago, has affected close-knit Ghanaian community

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Javits Frimpong in the Bronx.

The teenager was taken from his Bronx home for questioning Wednesday morning and brought to the New York City police department (NYPD)’s 42nd precinct. The suspect, whose identity has not been released, faces several charges, including murder, manslaughter, criminal possession of a weapon and other firearm-related offenses.

He was sentenced to one year and nine months on Nov. 10.

Russia's Yandex says 2.84% of customer data has been permanently lost following Ukrainian strikes on data centers in the country. "According to the company, recovery is impossible because of critical damage to equipment and the lack of backup copies on the platform," reports UNITED24 Media. From the report: Yandex clarified that customers who had previously enabled the platform's backup tools did not experience any data loss, as their information remained fully preserved. The incident has prompted the company to revise its approach to data protection and disaster recovery, particularly the default settings for cloud infrastructure. Under the updated policy, automatic backups will be enabled by default whenever customers create new virtual machines on Yandex Cloud. Users will retain the option to disable the feature manually through the management console. In addition to changing its backup policy, Yandex Cloud announced the launch of a new availability zone, designated ru-central1-f. The new availability zone operates from a separate location, improving the resilience and reliability of the services. The report says Ukrainian drones targeted three Yandex data centers in Russia over four days, beginning October 8 with a strike on a facility in the Ryazan region that houses two of the company's three supercomputers. A second attack hit Yandex's largest data center in the Kaluga region on October 9, followed by a third strike on October 11 targeting a facility in the Vladimir region that houses the company's remaining supercomputer.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk originally said Tesla would wind down production​ at its Texas factory in mid-2027.

Once a Dallas school teacher, Hall became a star in later life with roles in Soul Food and Collateral

Actor Irma P Hall, star of Soul Food and the Coen brothers’ The Ladykillers, has died at the age of 91.

Hall died on Tuesday, her family confirmed alongside a statement that described her as “a beloved actress, author, poet, educator and public speaker whose contributions touched countless lives throughout her remarkable career”.

Using an artificial intelligence agent to make flight reservations poses security risks and could violate federal rules, according to United.

Voters in Providence, Rhode Island, chose to pull foreign investments from countries that profit from genocide

The tectonic blue wave that washed over the country in last week’s midterms also brought about a historic night for the pro-Palestine movement.

Up and down the ballot, candidates who demanded an end to Israel’s war in Gaza resoundingly defeated opponents funded by the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac).

Pet ownership can come with some big expenses, but the right financial plan can help you prepare for them.

Credit cards can bridge the budgetary gap when paying for vet care, but they're not the best long-term option.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the latest U.S. official to be threatened or targeted by Iran, but he is far from the first.

The SS United States will sink off the coast of Destin, Florida to become an artificial reef, ending long-running wrangle over its fate

• Historic ocean liner to ‘live on’ beneath waves as world’s biggest artificial reef

A small investment firm issued a report about Nvidia in May that foreshadowed issues that have embroiled CEO Jensen Huang in scandal.

Experts say they are the earliest known example of a tradition of making clay figurines in the Middle East.

Fragment of a Natufian figurine depicting a gazelle head with horns made of perishable materials (e.g., twigs) modelled in clay 12,000 years ago, discovered at the site of Eynan-Mallaha (Upper Jordan Valley). The head was painted red with engobe (a…

Retailer’s management to seek two-week extension of legal protection from creditors in high court

MPs have accused the owner of Poundland of extracting millions of pounds from the budget retailer when it was on a “knife-edge” as it seeks extra time to secure a rescue deal.

The management of Poundland, which employs 12,000 people and operates 600 stores in the UK and Ireland, will seek a two-week extension of legal protection from creditors from the high court on Thursday morning.

The man was later arrested and also charged with hitting a cyclist, who sustained serious injuries.

Video grab as a dad gave other drivers a thumbs up as he drove a stolen minibus on the wrong side of the road and hit a cyclist before being arrested. // Darragh OÂ’Grady, 31, of no fixed abode but…

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump reflected on American veterans’ service and sacrifice in an address delivered at Arlington National Cemetery Wednesday, while defending his administration’s military operations and record on veteran care.

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie launched a discharge petition over the summer to circumvent leadership and force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act II.

Paralympian Richard Whitehead ‘gobsmacked’ at Tory leader’s speech over proposed £36bn welfare cuts

The double amputee marathon runner Richard Whitehead has criticised Kemi Badenoch for “weaponising his sporting success” to justify her proposed £36bn welfare cuts.

The Conservative leader used the example of “double amputees running marathons” in a speech this week to explain the reasoning behind her proposed cuts to disability benefits, which she said were enabling people to “live a life of dependency”.

Dozens of service members have suffered TBIs during the current conflict with Iran, and hundreds of thousands of veterans have been diagnosed in the quarter-century of the U.S.'s global war on terrorism.

L/Cpl Nicholas Horne, from 4th Battalion of Royal Regiment of Scotland, charged with one count of rape on 23 October

A British soldier has been charged with the alleged rape of a UK army servicewoman in Cyprus.

L/Cpl Nicholas Horne, who serves in the 4th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, also known as The Highlanders, was charged with one count of rape on 23 October, the Defence Serious Crime Command (DSCC) said.

Marshall Leese, 32, of Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, has been sentenced to one year and nine months in prison at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on Nov. 10. (Staffordshire Police via SWNS)

• It calls for inquiry into claims she was on Fifa payroll

• Fifa: Infantino personally pays for ‘any domestic staff’

A complaint has been filed to the United States Internal Revenue Service calling for an investigation into claims an individual on the Fifa payroll was working privately as a housekeeper for Gianni Infantino.

If the IRS investigates and finds the claims to be proven then Fifa could lose its tax-exempt status in the US. Fifa has 501(c)(4) status in the country, a category for organisations “created to promote community welfare for charitable, educational or recreational purposes”.

Leonardo Bertulazzi, 74, awaiting extradition to Italy, reportedly used harness to flee custody

A 74-year-old former member of Italy’s radical Marxist group the Red Brigades has escaped from house arrest in Argentina, the country’s security ministry confirmed on Wednesday, after he reportedly hid his ankle monitor inside a tube of pork and lowered himself from a fifth-floor balcony.

Authorities placed Leonardo Bertulazzi under house arrest in Buenos Aires in 2024, prior to his extradition to Italy to serve a 27-year prison sentence. He had received the sentence in 1987 for joining a subversive association and belonging to an armed group.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Trump administration's fight to stop suspected leaks of top-secret military information on LinkedIn can't sweep in "a vast number of confidential sources" of random journalists "who have no conceivable relationship" to the Department of Justice's investigation, an appeals court ruled (PDF) Tuesday. The order came after the DOJ asked LinkedIn to turn over 18 months of communications from targeted journalists who collectively published more than 1,000 articles on many different topics over that time period. The request was not limited to journalists involved in a controversial report from a news outlet that Trump said exposed confidential military information in a foreign country. (The outlet is not being named to protect national security secrets.) Instead, the DOJ cast a wide net, requesting extensive LinkedIn data on journalists who had any possible link to the journalists around the time the report was drafted. The majority of journalists have LinkedIn accounts and publish their contact information to encourage sources to connect on the platform, LinkedIn argued. So allowing that government overreach went beyond harming targeted journalists and threatened to undermine a critical platform where journalists frequently connect with confidential sources, judges ruled. Even more concerning, the Trump administration secured a secrecy order barring LinkedIn from telling anyone about the sweeping request for a year. That left journalists unaware for far too long that their First Amendment rights had been compromised, judges ruled. "A request by the government to scoop up reporters' records wholesale and ascertain the identity of their sources would tip the balance against informed discourse in a manner inimical to democratic health," Wilkinson wrote. He criticized the lower court for approving the request simply because the records were technically feasible to collect, emphasizing that "serious security and speech claims are in tension in this case. There is space under law for both." While declining to quash the order entirely, Wilkinson also directed the lower court to reconsider a limited exception to the government's secrecy order that would allow LinkedIn to notify an attorney representing the news outlet under investigation. Bruce D. Brown, President of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), celebrated the ruling, saying: "This ruling is a big deal and will quickly become one of the leading opinions in the area -- one we will be quoting from it for a long time. The court recognized that confidential sources are the 'lifeblood' of investigative reporting and that dragnet demands from technology companies to reveal those sources violate the law."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

(The Center Square) – Texas has the most veterans in the country – nearly 1.5 million – and the second most killed in the war on terror. California has a close second.

Marshall Islands president warns of worsening floods as UN chief calls for a windfall tax on oil and gas firms

Failure to provide an overwhelming response to the climate crisis means “the world we know is over”, the president of the embattled Marshall Islands has warned, as dozens of leaders gathered in Turkey for the Cop31 climate summit.

Hilda Heine, one of a handful of Pacific Island leaders to make an impassioned speech at Cop31 on Wednesday, told other heads of state that overshooting the 1.5C Paris temperature target would mean waves eating away their shores and floods that destroy towns, schools and hospitals.

Twenty-four-hour stoppage draws high participation weeks before election in which far right could gain power

Millions of people across Spain have joined the country’s first general strike in 14 years, setting up picket lines to protest against soaring housing prices before an election in which the far right could be catapulted into power.

At the centre of Wednesday’s nationwide 24-hour stoppage, singularly called for by tenants’ associations and later backed by workers’ unions, is a pushback against Spain’s deepening housing crisis.

Boeing researchers leveraged the exascale power of Frontier to push the boundaries of their aerodynamic simulation technology, enabling them to design safer, more fuel-efficient aircraft

Nov. 11, 2026 — High-accuracy aerodynamic simulations are essential to designing commercial aircraft that are safer, faster, and more fuel efficient. But the physics of airflow is so complex that the aerospace industry needs more computing power to capture turbulence in its most chaotic states.

A Boeing simulation on Frontier shows turbulent airflow over an aircraft wing during landing. The close-ups show airflow along the wing’s leading edge progressing from (left) unstable flow to (center) turbulent bursts and then to (right) fully developed turbulence. Credit: Boeing, Jill Hemman/ORNL.

That’s why Boeing researchers turned to Frontier, the world’s most powerful supercomputer for open science. Located at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Frontier enabled Boeing researchers to enhance their simulation capabilities to better predict how the accumulation of ice and microturbulent airflow affect flight performance, especially during scenarios involving complex landing configurations.

The Frontier simulations are expected to help guide aerodynamic design improvements, mitigate issues found during flight testing, and support efforts to develop more fuel-efficient aircraft.

“We want to fly in the laminar regime as long as possible because that’s the most fuel-efficient way of flying, where airflow is smooth and steady,” said Adam Clark, an aerodynamics engineer at Boeing. “Reducing fuel consumption helps lower the operational costs for the airline, which could also translate to less expensive tickets for consumers.”

Boeing’s research shows that reducing the amount of drag by 1 percent while flying in cruising conditions can lower fuel consumption by about 0.75 percent on a flight, which means small changes can add up to big savings.

“Improving aerodynamic designs means we need to advance our ability to simulate airflow on grids with incredibly dense meshes,” said co-investigator and fellow Boeing aerodynamics engineer Konrad Goc. “But that’s something we really can’t do as effectively without more powerful computers.”

The Molecular Mechanics of Airflow

Turbulence is a chaotic, nonlinear system that’s constantly moving. That’s why solving turbulence, or predicting how it will behave, is such a difficult problem mathematically. In fact, turbulence is one of the few problems that traditional physics can’t fully solve.

Accurately predicting airflow requires an almost microscopic understanding of how air molecules move, but the more closely researchers look, the more complex the problems become. Their focus is on the boundary layer — the thin layer of air closest to the wing — where interactions with the surface create drag, which slows the aircraft down and increases fuel consumption.

“It’s not enough to study just the turbulence we experience when we’re on an airplane and the captain turns on the seat belt sign,” Clark said. “We need to understand it at a fundamental level.”

“Imagine a bunch of marbles on a table. If you push them slowly with two hands, they will kind of stay together, but if you move them impulsively, they will interact in a complex and chaotic way,” Goc explained. “That’s a very basic way to describe the difference between air molecules in laminar and turbulent flows, except we’re dealing with millions and billions of marbles.”

The Engineering Approach to Calculating Wind

There are three primary approaches to evaluating aircraft aerodynamics: wind tunnel experiments, flight tests, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations powered by high-performance computing. Each method provides complementary insights, iteratively validating and refining designs until they converge on a final solution.

Wind tunnels are large facilities used to replicate a wide range of aerodynamic conditions in a controlled environment, whereas flight tests provide the ultimate assessment of an airplane’s performance. Both are essential but can be resource intensive. CFD simulations offer a faster, lower-cost, and lower-risk alternative to some physical tests.

“Over the last 20 to 30 years, computer modeling has allowed us to go from having to perform 20-plus wind tunnel experiments on different wing variations to now just a couple,” Clark said. “The goal isn’t to replace wind tunnels, but oftentimes, in physical testing, we see things that we can’t explain — things that we literally have no data for, and that’s what CFD simulations can shed a light on.”

The Science Behind CFD

The team’s computational efforts center on high-lift aerodynamics, which includes the low-speed takeoff and landing phases of flight.

“That’s when the parts of the wings move forward and backward as the plane gets closer to the airport,” Goc explained. “We’re looking at how the aerodynamics of the wings change as the angle of attack, or the pitch of the airplane, increases. So we’ve really been trying to hone our engineering practices around getting better accuracy in our predictions.”

CFD simulations model airflow by overlaying a grid, or mesh, onto an aircraft or its individual components. The mesh can contain hundreds of millions of cells, or more, down to millimeters in size. The simulation calculates properties such as velocity, pressure, and temperature for each cell. These results are combined to visualize airflow over components and then integrated to provide a complete picture of the aircraft’s overall aerodynamic performance.

Turbulence simulations vary widely in complexity. Engineers have long relied on Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, which involve modeling turbulence statistically — fast and practical for full aircraft but limited in capturing complex, unsteady flows.

Higher-fidelity methods such as wall-modeled large eddy simulation resolve larger turbulent structures and finer scales near the boundary layer but at much greater computational cost. At the highest level, direct numerical simulation resolves all turbulence without modeling, thereby delivering maximum accuracy. However, the enormous computing power it requires makes it impractical for full-scale aircraft simulations.

“If we were to run a full-scale wall-modeled simulation on our in-house system, it could take several months just to get a single solution,” Clark said. “But we’re not looking for a single answer. We need ensembles of answers to understand how airflow changes throughout a process — for example, not just when an airplane is taking off but also as it gains altitude and airflow begins to stabilize. That’s what we need to be confident in the performance of our turbulence modeling code.”

The Power of Exascale Computing

Frontier is the world’s first exascale supercomputer, with a peak performance of 2 exaflops — or 2 quintillion calculations per second. Boeing gained access to Frontier through DOE’s INCITE Leadership Computing program, which provides industry, academia, and government researchers with access to the nation’s most powerful supercomputers.

To simulate turbulence, Boeing collaborated with computing experts at ORNL’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), a DOE Office of Science user facility, to optimize their tests and increase the speed and resolution of their simulations.

With higher-fidelity simulations, the team focused on two key challenges: investigating how ice accumulation affects wing performance and examining how wings respond to airflow when turbulence is modeled at full complexity. This work helped shed light on previously unexplained wind tunnel results for some high-lift wing designs.

“All of our airplanes are certified to operate safely in those conditions, and with Frontier, we were able to simulate flight through cold, icy clouds to understand how different ice shapes, sizes, and textures affect performance,” Clark said.

Because the temperature of the wings influences how air moves over the surface, the GPU-accelerated simulations also gave the team a powerful new way to evaluate their anti-icing technology — both in preventing ice buildup and in removing it once it forms.

“I would consider laminar-to-turbulent transition to be one of the central challenges in fluid mechanics, including the impact wall heating has on a turbulent boundary layer. It’s an invisible problem, something we can’t see in wind tunnels or by looking out the window during flight tests,” Goc said. “Frontier was really instrumental to that end because direct numerical simulations can be very computationally and cost intensive, limiting their use for airplane product development.”

The researchers said the accuracy of the simulations allowed them to predict the coefficient of lift — the upward force on an aircraft — to within 1 percent, which gives them the confidence they need to advance certain prototypes into production much faster than before.

“Not only did Frontier allow us to run simulations that we couldn’t do before, but we were also able to get results in a matter of days, which would have taken months using a typical industrial-scale computing system,” Goc said.

The Broader Impact for the Aerospace Industry

The team says it isn’t just Boeing that will benefit from the Frontier simulations. Because the team used a widely studied high-lift model, the findings will be easier for the broader aerospace community to build on, thereby helping advance aerodynamic designs across the industry for safer, more economical aircraft.

“As an aerospace company, we live at the intersection of aerodynamic theory, scientific computing, and physical testing,” Goc said. “This work helps translate fundamental scientific advancements into real-world engineering applications.”

Related Publication: Goc, K. A., and J. D. Crouch. “Surface heating effects on attachment-line transition and relaminarisation.” Journal of Fluid Mechanics (2026). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2026.11949

This research is supported by DOE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program.

UT-Battelle LLC manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science.

Source: Jeremy Rumsey, OLCF

The post ORNL: Aircraft Simulations Scale New Heights with Frontier Supercomputer appeared first on HPCwire.

Regime adviser says Tehran could be forced into pre-emptive strikes if stalemate continues

Senior Iranian officials believe the US is planning either further military strikes or an ever-tightening economic stranglehold that will push Tehran into retaliatory action.

The assessment comes from Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to Iran’s chief negotiator in talks with the US, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

President Donald Trump repeated his comparison of the Iran operation with the U.S. wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Donald Trump’s $10bn defamation lawsuit against the BBC has been granted permission to proceed, after the corporation’s attempt to get it dismissed was thrown out by a Trump-appointed Florida judge. The case focuses on an edit in a 2024 Panorama documentary that spliced two comments together that were made by the president during a rally before the January 6 Capitol riots, for which the BBC has apologised. With the lawsuit now set to continue, what’s at stake for press freedom? Lucy Hough speaks to global editor Devika Bhat

Senah Park, 24, was last seen near Panther state beach on Sunday evening amid historic high tides and water levels

The US Coast Guard announced that it has suspended its search for a 24-year-old woman who is believed to have been swept out to sea in California.

The woman, identified as 24-year-old Senah Park, was last seen near Panther state beach in Santa Cruz county at about 8.30pm local time on Sunday, authorities said earlier this week.

The Delaware Department of Labor’s Office of Wage & Hour announced Holiday Helper: Hiring Teen Workers 101 in a release posted Nov. 10. The 20-minute, on-demand webinar became available Nov. 1 and requires registration and the link for the on-demand options will be emailed to you.  Photo courtesy of the State of Delaware, image created on 11/11 using ai

Free online session covers work permits, scheduling, pay, and safety for young workers, parents and employers

WILMINGTON, Del. — Delaware’s youngest holiday workers and the businesses hiring them have a new resource to help prepare for the first shift: a free online workshop explaining work permits, scheduling restrictions and workplace protections.

The Delaware Department of Labor’s Office of Wage & Hour announced Holiday Helper: Hiring Teen Workers 101 in a release posted Nov. 10. The 20-minute, on-demand webinar became available Nov. 1 and requires registration and the link for the on-demand options will be emailed to you.

Designed for ages 14 to 17, it also serves parents, educators and employers. The video expands access to material used in the department’s in-person HireME! Teen Job Readiness Workshop.

“Every young person deserves the opportunity to enter the workforce feeling informed, confident, and prepared,” Labor Secretary LaKresha Moultrie said in the release.

A teen presenter guides viewers through workplace scenarios involving six young workers. Topics include permits, hours, breaks, hazardous tasks, pay protections, and fraudulent job advertisements.

Start with the work permit

For jobs covered by Delaware’s child labor law, employers must keep a validated work permit on file for each employee under 18. A new permit is required when a minor changes employers.

The teen and employer complete their portions of the form before an authorized issuing officer approves it. For 14- and 15-year-olds, a parent or guardian must also sign.

Issuing officers are available through schools and the Department of Labor. The state’s form also provides instructions for submitting paperwork by email. Employers should accept only permits signed and dated by an issuing officer.

Check both state and federal scheduling rules

Employers must account for both Delaware and federal requirements. When both apply, the more protective rule controls.

That distinction matters for 14- and 15-year-olds. Delaware’s permit form lists a four-hour limit on school days, but federal law generally limits covered nonagricultural employment to three hours on a school day, including Friday.

Federal rules also generally limit those workers to 18 hours in any week when school is in session, even for only part of the week. The limits are eight hours on a nonschool day and 40 hours in a week when school is not in session.

For ordinary holiday-season scheduling, 14- and 15-year-olds may work only outside school hours, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Delaware also limits them to six workdays a week. The later summer cutoff of 9 p.m. ends on Labor Day.

Under Delaware law, 16- and 17-year-olds cannot spend more than 12 hours a day in school and work combined. They must have at least eight consecutive hours free from school and work in each 24-hour period.

Minors cannot work more than five consecutive hours without a nonworking break of at least 30 minutes.

Match the duties to the worker’s age

Scheduling is only part of the responsibility. Delaware law generally bars workers under 16 from operating meat slicers, deep-fat fryers and certain other powered equipment. Hazardous-occupation restrictions also apply to older teens.

A work permit does not authorize an employer to assign duties prohibited for that worker’s age. Employers with questions about a particular job or piece of equipment should check with the Department of Labor before assigning the task.

To Go Box

• What: Holiday Helper: Hiring Teen Workers 101.
• Format: Free, 20-minute, on-demand online workshop.
• Who: Teens ages 14 to 17, parents, employers, educators and community organizations.
• Register: Holiday Helper workshop registration.
• Work permits: Download Delaware’s work permit form.
• Permit submissions: workpermits@delaware.gov.

PM wrote to transport commissioner to oppose ‘megashed’ in Astley shortly before he entered No 10

Andy Burnham raised safety concerns about dozens of lorries leaving a “monster” warehouse near a primary school because there was “no safe crossing” for children, a public inquiry has heard.

Concerns about the 18-metre-high “megashed” in the village of Astley, Greater Manchester, are being examined by Britain’s office of the transport commissioner.

Republicans know that the president’s folly and excesses cost them the elections. That doesn’t mean they’re ready to challenge him

Shortly after polls closed last Tuesday, with the scale of the Republican trouncing in the midterms still becoming apparent, Donald Trump briefly adopted an oddly conciliatory tone. He declared that he was “absolutely” willing to accept the results, would look forward to working with Democrats and that deportation policies might have been “too tough”.

It was never going to last. He soon cast doubt on the elections’ legitimacy. On Friday, he replaced his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, with her deputy, Stephen Miller – a white nationalist, or “stone-cold racist”, in the words of Hakeem Jeffries, likely to be the next House speaker. Ms Wiles executed the president’s decisions faithfully, but was seen as a somewhat calming if not restraining influence, which may help explain her departure.

Broadcaster plans to make £30m in ‘temporary’ savings before inquiry into takeover by Sky

ITV plans to slash its programming budget as new figures showed that spend on the production of films and prestige TV shows in the UK was down more than £2bn over the last year.

The broadcaster plans to make £30m in “temporary” savings, including £25m in content and £5m elsewhere in the business.

BIDDEFORD, MAINE — The ICE agent who fatally shot a 25-year-old Colombian man in Maine this summer had a documented history of anti-immigrant hostility and employment red flags before joining the agency, according to new reporting from The New York Times and the Portland Press Herald.

David Brouillette shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero during an immigration operation in Biddeford on July 13. Maine authorities said Guerrero attempted to flee in a vehicle toward an officer, but the state attorney general’s office is still investigating whether the use of deadly force was legally justified.

The Times reported that Brouillette sent racist emails in 2021 attacking his sister’s Colombian-born partner, disparaging his “bloodline” and telling him to return to his country. The Press Herald previously reported that a Hallowell official considered Brouillette to have “too many red flags” to hire as a local police officer.

New reporting also indicates Brouillette did not complete ICE’s full training program in Georgia and that his background investigation remained incomplete because of a large agency backlog. His access to some federal computer systems was reportedly restricted because he lacked full clearance.

Trump border czar Tom Homan said earlier that, if allegations about Brouillette’s background were accurate, he “should not have cleared vetting.”

The case raises additional questions about ICE’s rapid hiring expansion and whether vetting and training safeguards kept pace.

Sources:

• Portland Press Herald – MBFC Rating

The post ICE Agent Who Killed Colombian Man Had Racist Emails and Hiring Red Flags appeared first on News Facts Network.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — U.S. household debt climbed to a record $19.1 trillion in the third quarter of 2026, while the share of debt falling behind on payments also increased, according to new Federal Reserve Bank of New York data.

Total household debt rose by $334 billion, or 1.8%, from the previous quarter. Mortgages accounted for most of the increase, rising $257 billion to $13.4 trillion. Credit card balances increased by $22 billion to $1.29 trillion, while auto loans reached $1.73 trillion and student loan balances rose to $1.66 trillion.

The share of outstanding debt in some stage of delinquency rose to 5%, up 0.3 percentage points from the second quarter. Mortgage and auto loan borrowers were somewhat more likely to fall newly behind, while serious delinquency rates improved slightly for credit cards and student loans.

Despite the increase, New York Fed economist Donghoon Lee said overall housing-credit quality remains strong.

Home equity borrowing also accelerated. HELOC balances increased by $23 billion to $481 billion, the largest quarterly increase since 2005.

The figures underscore a mixed picture for U.S. consumers: borrowing continues to expand and most debt remains current, but more households are showing signs of financial stress.

The New York Fed’s report is based on a nationally representative sample of anonymized Equifax credit reports.

Sources:

• Scripps News – MBFC Rating

The post U.S. Household Debt Hits Record $19.1 Trillion as Delinquencies Rise appeared first on News Facts Network.

Man, 30, is in custody in Florida and awaiting extradition to New York for alleged rapes at park in 2021, 2023 and this year

Authorities have arrested a man in Miami who is wanted in connection with three alleged rapes in New York’s Central Park, including one reported last month.

On Tuesday, authorities including the US Marshals took 30-year-old Dereck Rivera-Deleon into custody while he was working at a Burger King in Miami, New York City police said.

Under a new "Logi Game Day" initiative, Logitech is giving all 7,000 of its employees an extra paid day off to play GTA 6 when it launches on November 19. Employees and interns can use the day off anytime over the next year. Tom's Hardware reports: As for Logitech, the company believes that it's time for people to move away from the belief that playing games is a waste of time, hence its new initiative. It makes sense for a company that makes gaming accessories to say that, of course, but CEO Hanneke Faber argues that the company sees "how engagement in one sphere supports performance in the other." The hope will be that, by allowing employees to play games, a productivity boost will follow.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nearly 5m households relying on heating oil could see 70% increases, as advocates call on Congress to provide relief

Americans are likely to face higher heating bills this winter amid a growing affordability crisis, with costs projected to climb more than 7% nationwide and some households facing increases of up to 70%, according to a new report.

The National Energy Assistance Directors Association (Neada), which represents state officials seeking federal funding, warns that disruptions stemming from the war with Iran are pushing heating costs higher as millions of families already struggle to pay utility bills.

You can get $20 off your first two orders of $25 for the first two weeks.

A new bill would bring scrutiny to pardons tied to the president's allies and donors, but legal experts say it would likely run up against the Constitution.

• Former Jets and Bills coach turned himself in

• Ryan faces six misdemeanor charges over incident

• Two pedestrians allegedly struck in Nashville

ESPN analyst and former NFL coach Rex Ryan turned himself in to police on Wednesday after allegedly hitting two pedestrians with his car in Nashville and leaving the scene.

Nashville police said on Wednesday that the pedestrians had the right of way while crossing a main street in the city’s downtown last week when Ryan allegedly turned at a red light and drove over their feet.

He has survived blame for the US midterms disaster and dodged an impeachment vote, but it will be one battle after another now – and he can’t win them all

Like the brief, wondrous cycle of the mayfly, we may come to look back on the career of Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defence who cheekily rebranded himself secretary of war, as the defining appointment of the Trump era: that is, one in which extraordinary power was handed to a man of cartoonish inappropriateness and which, despite this week’s shelved attempt to impeach him, may still turn out to have been luminously short-lived. In January, the Democrats will assume a majority in both chambers and are likely to have another crack at impeaching Hegseth. In the meantime, we can only look on and wonder at his meaning.

It is quite something, in the context of Trump cabinet appointments that have included Robert F Kennedy Jr and Kristi Noem, to be the most glaringly underqualified person in the West Wing, but since being sworn in almost two years ago, Hegseth has comfortably seen off any rivals to his crown. This week, eight articles of impeachment, or “high crimes and misdemeanours” as the official rubric has it, were levied against him by Thomas Massie, an outgoing Republican congressman from Kentucky, who accused Hegseth of illegal acts including violating the constitution by conducting an unauthorised war with Iran and effecting regime change in Venezuela.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Stacy Keach, one of America's finest stage actors who became best known for playing scruffy private eye Mike Hammer on TV, has died. He was 85.

Ahead of the midterms, conservative election activists discussed plans to wield a powerful new weapon in the war against fraud: a data tool built by one of their own that could identify suspicious voters and help with contesting their ballots.

The system was put to the test this week in Forsyth County, Georgia, where a member of the county’s election board provided other officials with what he suggested was evidence of wrongdoing: four allegedly dead voters.

But it turns out all four are alive and well, ProPublica determined. The board rejected the attempt to challenge their ballots.

The effort, though, shows that even after last week’s blue wave, those who believe the 2020 election was stolen have continued to relentlessly search for ways to contest Republican losses. In Georgia, Democrats swept statewide offices.

The board member who initiated the Forsyth County challenge, Max Clavijo, is a member of the Election Integrity Network, a group led by conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell that works to restrict voting and tighten election laws and rules. Mitchell worked closely with Donald Trump in his attempt to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election and, since he retook the presidency, has been central to his push to assert greater federal control over voting.

In the run-up to the midterms, on right-wing media and on private organizing calls, EIN participants outlined plans to search voter rolls with a software tool known as ELLY’s Election Monitor and contest ballots the tool deemed suspicious.

ELLY was developed by EIN member Rick Richards. It aggregates public data from state voter files, federal change-of-address records, tax documents, obituaries, property websites like Zillow and other sources. In Georgia, State Election Board members and top staffers have urged counties to use the tool to search their voter rolls for signs of fraud.

Richards talked about ELLY’s national potential on a podcast in late September, on which right-wing media personalities and activists touted its capacity to help GOP candidates contest their defeats. “We can prove the fraud that’s gone on in every state,” one commentator said. “This data will be able to set up challenges to those who lose.”

The following month, on a private call with EIN members and other conservative activists, Richards promised to provide data from more than 3,000 counties to “citizen monitors” and GOP candidates to try to prove fraud, according to a recording reviewed by ProPublica.

Read More

How Cleta Mitchell Turned Trump’s “Big Lie” Into a Movement

In an interview, Richards told ProPublica that he gave Clavijo data on Forsyth County at Clavijo’s request. He said in a subsequent email that their actions were meant to inform the board and remain confidential. Clavijo didn’t respond to questions from ProPublica.

Richards refused to answer questions about whether Clavijo’s effort was part of a wider EIN campaign to contest votes cast in the midterms.

“That’s irrelevant,” he said. “The data is the data. People can use it for what they want to.”

Mitchell, EIN’s leader, didn’t respond to questions about the group’s plans related to ELLY, either in Georgia or nationally.

In the months since some on Georgia’s State Election Board started promoting ELLY’s use, its accuracy has been much debated. The tool doesn’t have access to personal identifiers such as voters’ Social Security or driver’s license numbers or full dates of birth, which increases the potential for mismatches involving people with the same names.

Voting rights groups have called ELLY error-prone. The Cherokee County election director complained to the state board after the tool falsely flagged a county board member’s spouse as dead.

State Election Board members and Richards have defended ELLY. Accusations that the data is unreliable were “horse hockey,” Richards told ProPublica, explaining this was “a Southern colloquialism for B.S.”

Late last week, according to several people familiar with the matter, Clavijo circulated documents to board members and Forsyth County’s election director. Based on data from ELLY, Clavijo questioned whether the names of more than 22,000 people on the county’s voter roll were correct and disputed the eligibility of 69 voters. In addition to four he claimed were deceased, he alleged others had moved out of the county or state, had voter ID irregularities or had registered under fictitious names, giving an initial as their first name.

During the meeting, Clavijo claimed that he was not trying to disrupt the election’s certification or formally challenge the voters, a process outlined in statutes that can lead to ballots being tossed or voters removed from the rolls. (Richards also said they had not formally challenged ballots.) Clavijo said he was merely seeking “to clean the voter rolls” and inform the board so officials could investigate further.

But other board members accused him of doing an end run around the formal challenge process. Barbara Luth, the board chair, said she felt “sorry for” Clavijo because activists were bypassing the challenge procedure “by coming to you and having you submit it.”

Under fire from fellow board members, Clavijo admitted he could not vouch for the data’s accuracy.

“I did not make any explicit accusation that the information was 100% correct,” he said.

The cover letter Clavijo submitted with the challenges said that they had not been verified with any “human review,” according to sources familiar with the matter.

Richards and Clavijo submitted obituaries for the voters they claimed were dead, but there were discrepancies between the information in them and the voters’ records. All of the obituaries said or suggested the deceased lived outside of Forsyth County, which would have made it impossible to vote there. One said the person lived in Arizona.

ProPublica confirmed that all four are actually alive.

Alexis Ramirez, a night-shift nurse, told ProPublica that she cast her ballot during early voting. She was surprised to hear her vote had been contested — and why.

“It’s kind of crazy that they attempted to do that without trying to prove it first,” she said.

Saramma George, another voter Richards and Clavijo claimed was dead, said she was “really angry” to have the validity of her ballot questioned.

In the third case, ProPublica spoke with a voter’s son, who said she was alive but didn’t want to talk to ProPublica. Her “ballot is valid,” he said.

The fourth voter, Chris Strickland, said, “I don’t know where they’re getting their information from, but it’s false. I’m alive. I’m here.”

The majority of the challenges — 38 of them, according to people familiar with the matter — involved voters who’d registered using an initial.

One voter, Alexander Knight, told ProPublica that he goes by his middle name and that the information in voter records mirrors how Department of Driver Services officials suggested he be identified on his driver’s license.

“I am real,” he told ProPublica.

Four other challenged voters said they, too, abbreviated their first names. A. Joseph Guntherberg confirmed he routinely used the same formulation of his name, adding that blocking his ballot would not help the challengers: “My candidate didn’t win.”

Richards said it was up to county election workers to check ELLY’s data — he merely gathers it to facilitate efforts to maintain accurate voter lists.

But at the meeting, Joel Natt, a Republican board member, said the responsibility lay with challengers to justify their accusations. “This has no relevance to anybody here until” they provide solid evidence, he said, “through the proper channel.”

The post A Tool Built by Election Deniers Said These Voters Were Dead. We Found Them Alive. appeared first on ProPublica.

Microsoft outlines the pledges it makes to data center communities as industry tries to sway public opinion on AI.

White House counsel Will Scharf warned that congressional subpoenas could lead to investigations from the executive branch.

The unusual global footprint of Megaspeed, a major buyer of Nvidia's powerful AI computer chips, is fueling questions about whether it's a front for the Chinese government.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has relocated from his home in the Washington, D.C., area to a U.S. military base.

US envoys to visit Moscow and Dublin on Thursday for talks with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy respectively

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to the “largest prisoner exchange” of the war at their first US-brokered talks since February but made little progress towards a broader peace agreement.

Both sides sent senior delegations to the two-day talks, led by Donald Trump’s envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, in an effort to find a solution to end the nearly-five-year war.

The post White House Threatens Criminal Probes as Democrats Prepare Trump Oversight appeared first on News Facts Network.

Apple is shutting down its Apple Support Community forum on November 20, ending a user-to-user support platform whose history stretches back to the 1998 launch as the Apple Tech Exchange. The forum is already read-only, and Apple has not said whether the nearly three decades of community posts will be preserved or disappear when the site closes. Here's the full banner notice that's currently displayed on the website: "The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state. You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site. We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products." Apple told MacRumors that it decided to sunset the forum after a careful evaluation of strategy and customer needs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Trump has already made history as the only president to be impeached twice. After the Republicans’ thrashing in the midterms, could there be a third attempt?

The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting longer and some Republicans are getting nervous. After a long stretch of impunity, it’s impeachment season in the US. While the attempt to impeach the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, failed yesterday, Donald Trump may be worried he’s next.

In January, the president warned Republicans that they had better win the November elections or he would be in big trouble. “If we don’t win the midterms … they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” Trump said. He repeated this plea to voters during an October rally in Oklahoma: “Pretend I’m running, please. Just pretend. ’Cause I am on the ballot. And if we don’t win, they’ll end up impeaching me.”

Departure of Tom Waterhouse, Reform’s ‘latest fall guy’, will be blow to party amid push towards professionalisation

• UK politics live – latest updates

Reform UK’s general secretary has left the role as Nigel Farage’s party continues to face turmoil over questions about vetting failures and professionalisation.

The departure of Tom Waterhouse comes after Reform UK’s leader on Hampshire county council, George Madgwick, was charged with 12 counts of rape and one of distributing indecent images of a child.

The OBR normally only includes growth measures in their scorecard if they will increase growth by at least 0.1% of GDP

Here are some more comments on the report for the Casey commission released today looking at how social care is run in England. (See 9.56am.)

This is from Natasha Curry, deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust and one of the report’s authors.

Compared to the other countries we looked at, the governance of England’s social care system is confused and complex. Overlapping and unclear roles leave dangerous uncertainty around who is responsible for important decisions, contributing to the inertia around reform England has struggled with for decades. The serious consequences of this were laid bare during the Covid pandemic.

The system for governing adult social care in England has evolved haphazardly and with little clear planning. That has been exacerbated by successive governments ducking politically unpalatable decisions for decades. That has scattered responsibility for the sector across and outside government in a way that few would design from scratch.

This report makes for sober reading of how adult social care and those who rely on it have been systematically failed. The fragmentation we see today is what happens when there is a total absence of political leadership to ensure the sector is well-funded and provides equitable access to care.

[Burnham] struggled to dampen splits among cabinet ministers, which were first revealed by The i Paper, who used the meeting to express differing views on the future relationship with Brussels.

One source with knowledge of the cabinet discussion said there was a “clear divide between those who want to go further and those who don’t want to push the issue too far”.

White House warns Democratic pledges to investigate president ‘may cross line into blatant criminality’

The incoming Democratic chair of the powerful congressional oversight committee said it appears Donald Trump has “something to hide” after the White House threatened criminal investigations over the party’s planned scrutiny of the administration.

Robert Garcia, ranking member of the oversight committee in the House of Representatives, vowed to press on in the face of what he

Ethics watchdogs question necessity of the US secretary of state flying between DC and Gainesville so often

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, has emerged as a superfan of the University of Florida’s football team, spending more than $1.2m of taxpayers’ money on frequent personal trips to watch them play, a report published on Wednesday claims.

Ethics watchdogs have questioned the necessity of the country’s top diplomat shuttling so often between Washington DC and Gainesville, where his son Anthony has a walk-on role as a running back for the team known as the Gators.

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

After two days of losses, Nvidia’s stock is expected to recover some lost ground today.

Nvidia’s shares are up almost 5% in premarket trading, ahead of the Wall Street open in just over four hour’s time.

“The FTSE 100 advanced 0.8% to 10,835, putting it ever closer to hitting the magic 11,000 level. It only needs to rise a further 1.5% to win the prize. Hitting 11,000 would have psychological benefits, and doing so could help win over naysayers who say the UK market has nothing to offer.”

Children who were taken to the park at least once a week from birth to 11 years of age scored better on their mental health assessments.

The U.S. has helped broker a new Ukraine-Russia prisoner exchange and diplomacy will continue, but there's no sign of a breakthrough on a wider peace deal.

Children enjoy playing on the swings in a play park. (Louise Vennells / University of Exeter via SWNS)

Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff also says the ‘thicket of rules’ about how PMs operate should be cleared away

Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, has called for a rethink of “quasi-judicial” powers given to cabinet ministers such as the energy secretary’s ability to approve future oil and gas fields.

McSweeney, who helped propel Starmer to power and served as his chief of staff until February this year, said he believed “quasi-judicial processes” were stopping wider cabinet discussions and input from the prime minister on issues of national importance.

TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 11, 2026 — Classiq, a leading quantum computing software company, will showcase the value of a performance-portable software platform for hybrid quantum and HPC environments at SC26. SC26 brings together over 18,000 attendees from around the world to drive technological progress in HPC and related domains.

WHAT: Experience the application layer for quantum in HPC, where hybrid workloads benefit from powerful quantum performance for the applications that benefit most, complemented with ‘build once, deploy anywhere’ software engineering agility.

WHO: Speak with Classiq experts and view demonstrations of the company’s latest innovations for HPC, datacenter and enterprise infrastructure.

WHEN: Nov. 15–20, 2026, during exhibit hall hours.

WHERE: Booth #5442 at SC26, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois.

WHY: Classiq welcomes the opportunity to engage with innovators and leaders at SC26 to show how Classiq connects HPC environments to quantum hardware with a modality-agnostic software platform. At the event, Classiq will feature live booth presentations with customers and partners.

Attendees are invited to join the AWS & Classiq Quantummania Reception, Wednesday, Nov. 18 (4:00-6:00PM) at Amazon Web Services (AWS) Booth #4819.

About Classiq

Classiq, a leading quantum computing software engineering company, provides an enterprise-grade platform that makes it practical to develop scalable, efficient and portable quantum applications. Used by dozens of global enterprises, the Classiq platform combines AI agents, a high-level quantum programming language (Qmod) and design automation to accelerate the development of optimized, hardware-ready quantum software. The platform supports hardware benchmarking, resource estimation, fault-tolerant and hybrid implementations as well as cost and performance optimization.

Source: Classiq

The post Classiq to Showcase Application-Layer HPC and Quantum Synthesis at SC26 appeared first on HPCwire.

Protesters targeted former President Joe Biden and members of his family as they exited an event in Dublin, Ireland, on Tuesday night.

The University of Alabama’s new High Performance Computing Center will provide advanced computing and data infrastructure to accelerate research and education across Alabama

Nov. 11, 2026 — Dell Technologies has announced that The University of Alabama (UA) is deploying Dell high performance computing (HPC), AI and data infrastructure at the core of its new High Performance Computing Center.

Credit: University of College/Shutterstock

The facility, funded in part by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will provide large-scale computing, accelerated AI and research data infrastructure designed to grow with the needs of researchers across Alabama. The center will serve the University of Alabama System while creating opportunities for collaboration with other academic institutions, government agencies and industry partners throughout the state.

Researchers increasingly depend on advanced computing and large datasets to address problems in areas ranging from water resource management and materials science to health, national security and AI. The new center will give Alabama researchers access to computing capabilities that have historically been available primarily through national laboratories and major federal computing facilities.

The center will support traditional scientific simulation alongside AI, machine learning and data-intensive research. It will also provide computing infrastructure for UA’s new School of Data Science and support education and workforce development across disciplines, preparing students and researchers to apply advanced computing to real-world challenges.

Dell Infrastructure for HPC and AI

The new environment combines Dell PowerEdge servers with NVIDIA AI infrastructure, connected with high-speed NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking and Dell AI Data Platform file storage (Dell PowerScale).

Dell PowerEdge servers will support general-purpose and scientific computing with NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries. Dell PowerEdge R770 and XE7740 systems equipped with NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition and NVIDIA H200 NVL GPUs will provide accelerated computing for simulation, AI, machine learning and other data-intensive workloads.

Dell PowerScale will provide scalable storage for the large research datasets, scientific images and other unstructured data generated and used by researchers – a critical foundation for AI-driven discovery – while Dell HPC Deployment Services will support implementation of the overall AI-ready environment, bringing advanced computing capabilities to researchers more quickly.

The project builds on a relationship between Dell Technologies and the University of Alabama spanning more than two decades.

Perspectives

“This center started with a need for advanced computing at the University of Alabama, but the investment from the State of Alabama gave us an opportunity to think much bigger,” said Fernanda Foertter, executive director of the University of Alabama High Performance Computing Center. “We are building shared infrastructure that can support researchers, students, government and industry across the state. Our goal is to make advanced computing easier to access and useful to the people solving Alabama’s most important research and technology problems.”

“The University of Alabama is building shared research infrastructure for an entire state,” said Fran Bogle, senior vice president, Higher Education, Healthcare, State & Local Government, Dell Technologies. “This platform – combining HPC, AI and data infrastructure – gives researchers across Alabama the foundation for discovery, industry collaboration and long-term economic development, with the flexibility to evolve with advancements in science.”

More from HPCwire: University of Alabama Announces $96M High-Performance Research Hub

About Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) helps organizations and individuals build their digital future and transform how they work, live and play. The company provides customers with the industry’s broadest and most innovative technology and services portfolio for the AI era.

Source: Dell Technologies

The post University of Alabama Builds Statewide HPC Center with Dell Technologies appeared first on HPCwire.

This blog is now closed

Separately, I am also keeping an eye on Italy, with reports that several schools are being evacuated after receiving bomb threats by emails.

According to Rai and Sky TG24, the email was signed by “Mikhail Andropov” – the same name used in several hoax bomb alarms against European flights last week.

Lawyer says Britain wrong to believe in historic doctrine that crown has sovereignty over parts of oceans

Britain should not be permitted to act as a 17th-century colonial power treating the waters around the Falkland Islands as a Dominium maris Britannici, Argentina has told an international tribunal.

Marcelo Kohen, representing Argentina at a hearing in Hamburg, mocked Britain for apparently believing in the historic doctrine that the British crown has sovereignty over expansive parts of the oceans.

• Team must win World Cup group to trigger rule

• Spain, US, Germany and England currently in top four

The top four ranked teams will be separated until the semi-finals at the 2027 Women’s World Cup, ­provided they each win their group, after a change to the tournament’s draw procedure was confirmed by Fifa.

Spain, USA, Germany and England are ranked one to four in the world respectively, although USA and England still need to qualify for the tournament. The seedings will be based on the 7 December updated rankings, meaning the standings could change before the draw, which will take place on 11 December in Rio de Janeiro.

Los adolescentes de hoy son más responsables con el dinero que sus padres, según una nueva encuesta. La encuesta de 2.000 padres de adolescentes de 13 a 17 años reveló que el 46% cree que su hijo entiende mejor las…

Exclusive: Cutting 2030 goal would be a ‘step backwards’, say MPs, as ministers clash over proposed reductions

• UK politics live – latest updates

• Cop31 live – latest updates

Labour MPs are urging the government not to weaken its electric vehicle targets as divided cabinet ministers prepare for a crunch meeting on Thursday to thrash out a compromise.

Members of the climate and nature crisis caucus (CNCC) say ministers must not water down a legal requirement for carmakers to ensure that 80% of the vehicles they sell in 2030 are electric, saying doing so would be a backward step and “shortsighted”.

Behind every major scientific breakthrough is an infrastructure that makes discovery possible. This November at SC26, MGHPCC will share the stories of researchers, technologists, and institutions working together to advance science through high performance computing, data-intensive research, and artificial intelligence.

Nov. 11, 2026 — The Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) is excited to announce its participation in SC26, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis. As one of the nation’s leading collaborations in advanced research computing, MGHPCC will be represented through both an in-person exhibit and a virtual presence, highlighting the groundbreaking science and innovation enabled by the center and its member institutions.

Credit: MGHPCC

SC brings together researchers, technology leaders, educators, and industry partners from around the world to explore the latest advances in high performance computing and data-intensive science. This year’s event provides an opportunity to showcase how researchers are using advanced computing resources to tackle some of society’s most pressing challenges, from climate prediction and artificial intelligence to biomedical discovery, engineering, and fundamental science.

At Booth #3255, MGHPCC will showcase more than 75 computationally intensive research projects from member institutions and partner organizations, highlighting a diverse portfolio of work enabled by the center’s world-class computing infrastructure. Featured research spans artificial intelligence, health and medicine, energy, climate science, materials science, astrophysics, computer science, and other data- and compute-intensive disciplines, demonstrating how high performance computing is accelerating discovery across fields and empowering scientists to work at unprecedented scale. The exhibit will also highlight shared infrastructure and collaborative initiatives, including the AI Compute Resource (AICR), as well as MGHPCC’s unique partnership model that brings together universities, research organizations, and industry leaders to advance scientific computing and strengthen the broader research ecosystem.

In addition to the physical exhibit, MGHPCC has created an extensive virtual booth designed to extend the reach and lifespan of its SC26 presence. The virtual experience provides global access to project profiles, research highlights, videos, institutional initiatives, and information about MGHPCC programs and services. Beyond showcasing current accomplishments, the virtual booth serves as a window into the breadth of research enabled by the MGHPCC community and as an invitation for new researchers, educators, students, and partners to engage with the MGHPCC ecosystem.

For more than a decade, MGHPCC has served as a hub for innovation in advanced computing, providing the infrastructure and partnerships needed to support cutting-edge research. MGHPCC’s participation at SC26 reflects the remarkable work being conducted by its community and the growing importance of computational science in addressing complex global challenges.

MGHPCC invites conference attendees, collaborators, and members of the research community to visit, in-person or online, explore the featured projects, and learn more about the people and technologies driving discovery forward.

Source: MGHPCC

The post MGHPCC to Highlight HPC and AI Research at SC26 appeared first on HPCwire.

The jar of pumpkin pie spice was sold as a one-job shortcut, a way for bakers to skip buying a separate jar of every spice ... Read moreThe post After nearly a century on store shelves, pumpkin pie spice is…

Combining body mass index with other measurements and tests would lead to better care and outcomes, experts say

An alternative to BMI for diagnosing obesity could prevent misdiagnosis in millions of people worldwide, according to doctors who found it more accurately distinguished healthy people from those with harmful excess body fat.

Medical experts have long considered body mass index a blunt instrument for defining obesity, leading to concerns that substantial numbers of people with excess body fat are missed while others who are healthy are wrongly diagnosed.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Amazon's Ring is going deeper into surveillance with an indoor drone for home monitoring and an autonomous robot designed to patrol businesses. The company on Tuesday unveiled the $250 Ring Drone Cam, a security camera that can fly from room to room, including upstairs, as well as capture footage during the day or at night. When an alarm or sensor on windows, doors and home security devices is triggered, the textbook-sized drone travels a preset path to investigate suspicious activity. Users can also deploy the drone at any time, the company said. [...] The company on Tuesday also debuted the $1,000 Ring Rover Cam. The device repurposes Amazon's Astro home robot, which had a short life as a business device and has seen few upgrades since its 2021 debut, for companies to use to patrol offices, warehouses and other workspaces. Ring said it "leveraged the best of Astro" to build the Ring Rover Cam, which it describes as a "purpose-built security robot." Similar to the Astro, the device is a display mounted on a two-wheeled base with an extendable periscope camera. It also features a "built-in siren," two-way audio and a "light tower" that shines onto the ceiling to help users keep track of its whereabouts. The Ring Drone Cam ships in the U.S. on Jan. 27, while the Ring Rover Cam will begin shipping to users on Dec. 16.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Far-right populists remain insurgent and pro-EU governments are braced for Trump’s betrayal. But the midterms also showed that democracy can fight back

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“Is Maga dead?” asked Margaret, a Guardian reader in Switzerland, in a live Q&A with our correspondents after the seismic US midterm elections. If Margaret’s query expressed a hope that the Democrats’ blue wave could transform Europe’s fortunes after two years of Maga-induced trauma, she was probably not alone.

The resounding defeat for Donald Trump’s Republicans and the installation of a Democratic-controlled US Congress has been met with understandable relief in European capitals. In the short term however, the worst for Europe is not over. Trump didn’t need congressional approval, after all, to unleash a trade war on his supposed European allies, threaten to invade Greenland, try to stitch up Ukraine or go to war with Iran, an act that has inflated fuel and food prices disastrously.

Medicare open enrollment, which runs from Oct.15 to Dec. 7, gives people a chance to change their health coverage. Here's what to know.

Residents enjoying exercise, fresh air, and each other’s company at Harmony at Hockessin

The Concept we call “Blue Zones” demonstrates that healthy aging isn’t the result of one habit but countless small choices that promote purpose, belonging, movement, and connection.

By Harmony Senior Services

HOCKESSIN, Del – Imagine a place where 100-year-olds still walk steep hills each day, gather around family tables for hours-long meals, and remain active contributors to their communities. These places are known as Blue Zones, regions of the world where people live longer and healthier lives than average. While researchers have spent decades studying these communities, the lessons they offer may be less about secret diets or longevity hacks and more about something much simpler: living with purpose, connection, and belonging.

That lesson came to life for Amber Dahle, Vice President of Memory Care and Life Engagement for Harmony Senior Services during a recent study-abroad experience in Sardinia, Italy, one of the world’s original Blue Zones. The trip provided a firsthand look at how daily habits, relationships, and community culture influence health and aging.

The term “Blue Zone” originated when researchers studying longevity marked regions with unusually high concentrations of centenarians using blue circles on a map. Today, five locations are recognized as Blue Zones: Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Ikaria, Greece; the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California.

Although separated by geography and culture, these communities share striking similarities. Residents move naturally throughout the day, maintain strong social networks, eat minimally processed foods, stay connected to a sense of purpose, and remain deeply engaged with family and community life.

In Sardinia, one of the first things Dahle noticed was that movement wasn’t treated as exercise. There were no fitness challenges or elaborate workout programs. Instead, physical activity was simply woven into daily living.

The villages are perched on steep hillsides, requiring residents to walk regularly to visit neighbors, shop, attend church, and participate in community life. Even some of the area’s oldest residents continue navigating those hills well into their 90s and beyond.

Researchers have long identified natural movement as one of the foundations of Blue Zone living. In Sardinia, that principle is built directly into the environment.

But longevity isn’t simply about living longer. For Dahle, whose work focuses on dementia care, one of the most compelling observations involved the relationship between lifestyle and cognitive health.

Historically, Blue Zone communities have experienced lower rates of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. However, Dahle observed differences between traditional villages and more modernized areas where convenience, processed foods, and fast-paced lifestyles have become more common.

As communities move away from traditional habits, some of the protective factors associated with healthy aging appear to diminish. The observation reinforced a growing body of research suggesting that environment, lifestyle, and social connection all play significant roles in maintaining health as people age.

Nowhere was the importance of connection more evident than around the dinner table.

Dining – Sardinia, Italy provided by Amber Dahle, Harmony Senior Services

In Sardinia, meals are far more than opportunities to eat. They are opportunities to gather. Multi-course meals often stretch for hours as families and friends share stories, conversation, and companionship. Fresh breads, cheeses, pasta, and local ingredients are prepared with care, but the true centerpiece is the time spent together.

For many Americans accustomed to hurried lunches and dinners squeezed between obligations, the experience offers a powerful reminder that social connection itself may be one of the healthiest ingredients of all.

That theme surfaced repeatedly during conversations with Sardinian centenarians. When asked about the keys to a long life, they rarely pointed to specific diets, supplements, or exercise routines. Instead, they spoke about family gatherings, friendships, neighbors, traditions, and community.

Again and again, the answer came back to people.

In village squares, churches, and neighborhood gathering places, Dahle witnessed relationships flourishing through everyday interactions. Residents spent hours sharing meals, conversations, music, and stories. Community wasn’t something scheduled into calendars. It was simply part of life.

The experience also offered valuable insights into dementia care.

During a visit to the Don Orione Dementia Day Center in Sardinia, Dahle observed an approach that emphasized identity, purpose, and contribution rather than focusing solely on diagnosis or limitations.

Residents participated in meaningful activities that supported the life of the community, from gardening and cooking to music, art, and creative projects. The goal wasn’t simply keeping residents occupied. It was ensuring each person remained valued and connected.

The lesson was clear: purpose does not retire.

In many cultures, aging is often viewed through the lens of decline. Sardinia offered a different perspective. Older adults continued contributing, participating, and remaining connected for as long as possible. Age itself was not treated as a barrier.

Those observations are helping shape conversations throughout Harmony Senior Services, including within its Delaware communities at Harmony at Kent in Dover, Harmony at Hockessin in Hockessin, and Harmony at Glasgow in Newark. The company is exploring ways to further strengthen resident engagement, meaningful contribution, social connection, and person-centered wellness programming.

Ultimately, Dahle’s biggest takeaway from Sardinia wasn’t tied to longevity statistics or nutrition research.

It was a reminder that a meaningful life is built from everyday moments: sharing meals, maintaining relationships, staying active, contributing to others, and remaining connected to a larger community.

The Blue Zones demonstrate that healthy aging isn’t the result of one habit. It is the cumulative effect of countless small choices that promote purpose, belonging, movement, and connection. And while few of us may live on the hillsides of Sardinia, the lessons from those communities may help all of us add not just years to our lives, but life to our years.

Article provided by Harmony Senior Services

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 11, 2026 — Hitachi Vantara, the data storage, infrastructure and hybrid cloud management subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., today announced new capabilities across its Virtual Storage Platform One (VSP One) data platform and Hitachi iQ portfolio to help organizations build a stronger, more scalable foundation for enterprise AI.

Led by enhancements to VSP One Object, the latest updates give organizations a more practical path to deploy and scale object storage for AI and analytics workloads, bring data lakehouse analytics closer to where data resides and expand governed access to enterprise data through Hitachi iQ Studio. Together, the updates connect scalable data infrastructure, in-place analytics and governed AI software to help organizations move from trusted enterprise data to production AI with greater control.

As AI adoption accelerates, many organizations still struggle to turn experimentation into enterprise-scale deployment. According to McKinsey’s 2026 State of AI survey, nearly nine in 10 respondents say their organizations regularly use AI in at least one business function, yet only 44% report that AI is scaling across the enterprise. IDC research also finds that globally, 89% of organizations acknowledge some level of data-quality problem, underscoring the challenge of putting enterprise data to work for AI at scale. Moving beyond isolated deployments requires trusted and accessible data, infrastructure that can scale with growing workloads and governed tools that connect AI applications and agents to enterprise data, models and workflows.

The latest VSP One Object enhancements provide a smaller starting point for organizations building and scaling AI-ready data infrastructure. The four-node starting configuration and simplified deployment make it easier for organizations to get started with AI-ready data infrastructure, while continued small-object performance improvements support up to 5.5x faster access to data for AI, analytics and S3 workloads, enabling faster decision-making and more responsive applications. Expanded multisite replication and regional capabilities are designed to help data remain available, protected and accessible even in the face of disruptions, providing a more resilient data foundation for AI and analytics workloads.

VSP One Object also extends that data foundation into analytics by enabling organizations to query supported open-format data, including Iceberg, Parquet, JSON and CSV, directly on VSP One Object. These capabilities support up to 5x faster analytical query performance with 80% fewer CPUs. By reducing the need to move or copy data into separate analytics systems, organizations can reduce duplicate datasets, data pipelines and the additional infrastructure needed to maintain them.

“AI strategy is now inseparable from data strategy. As AI becomes part of more business-critical workloads, the infrastructure underneath it has to make it easier to put enterprise data to work,” said Octavian Tanase, chief product officer, Hitachi Vantara. “With VSP One, we’re giving customers a practical way to build the data foundation for AI, bring analytics closer to their data and scale with confidence as demand grows. That creates a stronger path from experimentation to production without sacrificing the resilience and control enterprises depend on.”

A Data Foundation for Enterprise AI

VSP One is Hitachi Vantara’s unified data platform, bringing storage together under a common intelligent control plane. For AI workloads, VSP One provides the data foundation for Hitachi iQ, helping activate governed data where it resides. With VSP One Object providing the storage foundation and bringing analytics closer to the data, Hitachi iQ brings validated AI infrastructure and software to connect AI applications and agents to enterprise data, models, tools and workflows, helping organizations move from trusted data through analytics to production AI.

Hitachi iQ Studio provides the enterprise software used to build, deploy, manage and govern AI applications and agents. With the latest release, Hitachi iQ Studio:

• Expands access to structured and unstructured enterprise data for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), including new filesystem and NFS knowledge sources, enabling more accurate, context-aware AI responses and agents without requiring organizations to move or restructure all of their data first.
• Adds Model Gateway for governed access to local and external models, governed Model Context Protocol (MCP) connectivity and ServiceNow support, along with role-based access, observability and lifecycle management for enterprise AI applications and agents. This allows organizations to more easily build AI agents, connect them to trusted data sources and strengthen governance across model access, tools and operations.

Hitachi Vantara is applying this combination of AI-ready infrastructure, software and industry expertise to real-world challenges. By combining Hitachi Vantara technologies such as Hitachi iQ with broader Hitachi industry expertise, this approach reflects the capabilities behind Hitachi AI Factory and helps customers move from AI experimentation toward production. This combination is designed to help organizations focus AI on real operational challenges and build toward solutions that deliver meaningful value at scale.

Hitachi Vantara will showcase its latest enterprise AI capabilities at SC26 (Supercomputing 2026), taking place Nov. 16-19 at McCormick Place in Chicago. Attendees can visit booth #1429 to explore governed AI agents built with Hitachi iQ Studio and analytics running directly against data in VSP One Object, bringing together AI-ready data, scalable infrastructure and governed agentic AI to help move enterprise AI from pilot to production.

Learn more about Hitachi Vantara’s presence at SC26 at https://liveevents.hitachivantara.com/SC26, and for more information about Hitachi iQ, please visit: https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/solutions/ai-analytics/hitachi-iq.

About Hitachi Vantara

Hitachi Vantara is transforming the way data fuels innovation. A wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., Hitachi Vantara provides the data foundation the world’s leading innovators rely on. Through data storage, infrastructure systems, cloud management and digital expertise, the company helps customers build the foundation for sustainable business growth. To learn more, visit www.hitachivantara.com.

Source: Hitachi Vantara

The post Hitachi Vantara Expands VSP One with New Object Storage and Data Lakehouse Capabilities appeared first on HPCwire.

Achieves 99.5% Median Two-Qubit Fidelity on 108-Qubit System, Further Validating Chiplet-Based QPU Architecture

BERKELEY, Calif., Nov. 11, 2026 — Rigetti Computing, Inc. (Nasdaq: RGTI), a pioneer in full-stack quantum-classical computing, has announced financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2026 and provided an update on recent business and technology milestones.

Third Quarter 2026 Financial Highlights

• Total revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2026 were $1.4 million.
• Total revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2026 were $10.9 million, compared with $5.2 million for the first nine months of 2025, representing growth of approximately 110%.
• Operating loss for the three months ended September 30, 2026 was $33.2 million.
• For the three months ended September 30, 2026, GAAP net loss was $3.1 million and non-GAAP net loss was $20.5 million.
• For the three months ended September 30, 2026, GAAP diluted net loss per share was $0.08 and non-GAAP diluted net loss per share was $0.06.
• As of September 30, 2026, cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investments totaled $497.1 million. The Company had no debt.
• Full-year outlook: 2026 revenue expected to be approximately $20 million, up significantly from 2025, assuming C-DAC customer acceptance and associated revenue recognition in the fourth quarter.

“Rigetti delivered meaningful progress during the third quarter across system performance, technology development and strategic execution,” said Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, Rigetti CEO. “Our Cepheus-1-108Q system achieved our goal of 99.5% median two-qubit gate fidelity, demonstrating continued performance improvement at the 100-plus-qubit level and further validating our chiplet-based approach to scaling superconducting quantum computers.

“We also signed a definitive $100 million agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce,” Dr. Kulkarni continued. “Building on the progress achieved this quarter, our next major system objective is to demonstrate a 300-plus-qubit system with approximately 99.7% median two-qubit gate fidelity and gate speeds below 60 nanoseconds by mid-2028.”

Rigetti ended the third quarter of 2026 with a strong cash position and no debt, providing flexibility to continue investing in its technology roadmap and customer opportunities.

Business, Strategic and Technology Updates

Technology Performance and Roadmap

• Rigetti’s superconducting systems continuously achieve gate speeds of 50-70 nanoseconds, which is about 10,000 times faster than trapped-ion systems and 100 times faster than neutral-atom systems.
• Cepheus-1-108Q achieved 99.5% median two-qubit gate fidelity, meeting its performance milestone and further validating the Company’s chiplet architecture.
• Cepheus-1-108Q achieved 99.6% median two-qubit gate fidelity on an 80 qubit sublattice and 99.7% median two-qubit gate fidelity on a 50 qubit sublattice.
• Cepheus-1-108Q is based on 12 interconnected 9-qubit chiplets. The performance improvement reflects work across chip design, materials, fabrication, calibration and system engineering while preserving the Company’s modular architecture.
• Rigetti is targeting a 300-plus-qubit system with approximately 99.7% median two-qubit gate fidelity and gate speeds below 60 nanoseconds by mid-2028. The system is expected to have a larger qubit count per chiplet, faster readout and expanded cryogenic capacity.
• Rigetti continues to target a path toward systems with approximately 1,000 qubits, approximately 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity, and gate speeds below 50 nanoseconds within approximately three years. The Company believes this combination of scale, fidelity and speed could provide a platform for demonstrating quantum advantage.
• For the 1,000+ qubit system, Rigetti plans to increase the density of qubits in a single fridge as opposed to networking multiple fridges together. The Company believes this approach enables higher performance at a lower cost on the path toward building systems with thousands, and eventually tens of thousands, of qubits.
• In support of its roadmap, the Company has continued investing in dilution refrigeration capacity and related infrastructure that can support higher-qubit-count systems. Rigetti believes its chiplet-based and open modular architecture provides a practical framework for scaling over time.

Definitive Agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce

• In September 2026, Rigetti signed a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce for an award of up to $100 million under the CHIPS Research and Development Office Broad Agency Announcement pursuant to the CHIPS Act.
• The award supports three research and development programs focused on miniaturized readout electronics, expanded cryogenic capacity through a new cryostat architecture, and fabrication capabilities for high-connectivity chip architectures. As a condition of the award, the Department received a minority, non-controlling equity stake in Rigetti.

About Rigetti

Rigetti is a pioneer in full-stack quantum computing. Rigetti quantum computers are based on superconducting qubits, which are widely believed to be the leading qubit modality given their maturity, clear path to scaling, and fast gate speeds. Rigetti quantum computing systems achieve gate speeds of 50-70 nanoseconds, which is about 10,000 times faster than trapped-ion systems and 100 times faster than neutral-atom systems.

Rigetti sells on-premises 9-qubit to 108-qubit quantum computing systems, which support national laboratories and quantum computing centers. Rigetti’s Cepheus 36-qubit to 108-qubit systems are based on the Company’s proprietary chiplet-based technology and include the Company’s control electronics. Rigetti’s 9-qubit Novera QPU supports a broader R&D community with a high-performance, on-premises QPU designed to plug into a customer’s existing cryogenic and control systems.

The Company operates quantum computers over the cloud through its Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services (QCS) platform, enabling global enterprise, government, and research clients to pursue R&D. The Company’s proprietary quantum-classical infrastructure provides high-performance integration with public and private clouds for practical quantum computing.

Rigetti developed the industry’s first multi-chip quantum processor for scalable quantum computing systems. Leveraging this proprietary technology, Rigetti deployed the industry’s largest multi-chip quantum computer in 2026 with Cepheus-1-108Q, based on twelve 9-qubit chiplets tiled together. The Company designs and manufactures its chips in-house at Fab-1, the industry’s first dedicated and integrated quantum device manufacturing facility. Learn more at https://www.rigetti.com.

Source: Rigetti

The post Rigetti Releases Q3 2026 Financial Results, Reports Improved Fidelity on 108-Qubit System appeared first on HPCwire.

We’re almost halfway through November, but we hadn’t seen Haiku’s monthly activity report for October yet. It’s here now, and there’s quite a few good things in here, like support for two and three-finger tap gestures on touchpads for right and middle-click, a new driver that adds Universal Flash Storage support, and even some build fixes for Haiku’s SPARC port as well as some fixes on the RISC-V side.

Of course, that’s just a selection, as there’s the usual long list of smaller changes, bugfixes, and improvements as well.

Children’s author and comedian, who wrote the book on which the movie Fing! is based, will also be removed from the publicity tour

• Revealed: David Walliams accused of using celebrity status to prey on young women for sex

• What are the key legal issues surrounding the David Walliams case?

The distributors of an upcoming Australian film based on a book by children’s author and television personality David Walliams have confirmed he will be removed from the film and its publicity run after sexual harassment allegations were made public.

Transmission Films has confirmed that Walliams, a co-writer of the children’s fantasy film Fing!, will no longer appear in the movie or take part in its media campaign before its 14 January cinema debut.

Today, we’re excited to announce the release of .NET 11! This year’s release makes building modern applications faster, more productive, and has improvements across C# 15, ASP.NET Core, .NET MAUI, and Windows development. With hundreds of runtime optimizations, more responsive SDK tooling, and less overhead in everyday commands, you can spend less time waiting and more time creating. Build richer web and cross-platform applications, take advantage of new C# language features, and explore AI-powered development with improved tools and agentic capabilities.

↫ .NET Team

I’m not going to pretend to care about .NET, but I know many of you have to care on a professional level, because .NET is remarkably popular in places where the spotlights don’t often shine.

An interesting question, and a detailed technical rundown of how to make this happen, which involved building a custom Linux kernel, of course.

I really, really enjoy the conclusion.

And you know? It turned out fine. Nothing exploded on my system. As I could predict, because this was otherwise impossible, nobody did it. The signal system was setup in such a way that you would most likely realize something you were doing was wrong, and not try it.

To pull back further, it is interesting to notice how the rules we all take for granted are just set somewhere in code. They were written by someone, at some point. If there is code restricting you from doing something, someone wrote it. Either they did not think anyone would want to do that thing, or they specifically prevented you from doing it. Those rules are written somewhere, and you can take it in your paws to go sniff around the code, pull out the relevant parts, and hack around the things that bother you. For fun, learning, or convenience.

Snoop around. Sniff code. Put your paws in it. Hack shit.

↫ lux at VulpineCitrus

Even if there’s no real reason to do, even if it’s just to satiate an odd and possibly slightly morbid sense of curiosity, fuck with code.

The California festival has unveiled its lineup, which also features Madonna, Phoebe Bridgers and Robyn

The lineup for the 2027 Coachella festival has been revealed after months of speculation, with Dua Lipa, SZA and Tame Impala set to headline the California event.

The festival will also see Madonna headlining the dance tent with Zara Larsson, Robyn, Phoebe Bridgers, Weezer and Daddy Yankee set to perform. The festival will take place in the Empire Polo Club in Indio on 9-11 April and 16-18 April.

The developers behind its virtual Florida share how they built their most ambitious world so far

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In 2015, a group of Grand Theft Auto developers from Rockstar North took their first trips to Miami to do field research for the next game in the phenomenally popular crime series. “Before you’re doing hyper-organised research trips, you’re immersing yourself in the place and its history, the vibe of it,” Rob Nelson, one of the lead developers on GTA VI, tells me. “[You see] the physical places you want to move characters through, the experiences you want them to have, and the juxtaposition between the extremes of society that are in Miami.”

I wondered: did people ever recognise them on any of their research trips? Did locals know what they were doing? This is the biggest game in the world, after all; I imagine it would be difficult to go entirely undercover. “We’re always semi-undercover,” he says. “But if you have a bunch of dorks going through a terrifying neighbourhood, you do stick out a bit.”

We asked 20 tweenagers what they already own, love and think would make great gifts. Turns out it’s Lego, dance mats and plenty of lotions and potions

• The best Christmas gifts for teenagers

Buying for someone in the tweenage years can be a balancing act: while some kids are still crafting, enjoying board games and deep into Lego, others have moved on to skincare and guitars.

So, in an effort to cover the whole range, I spoke to 20 tweens (from 10 to 12 years old) from across the country. But instead of asking what they want, I quizzed them on the things they already have, truly love and use regularly. Here are their tried and tested gift ideas for a range of prices.

Photographer Matt McClain shares memorable images from his journey marking the centennial.

Caption: Winners of the Fall 2025 and the Spring 2026 (pictured here) Grant may work with the Pete duPont Foundation in this new collaboration. Photo Courtesy of the Delaware Division of Small Business.  Image created on 11/11 using AI. 

Partnership with the state pairs business assessments with funded professional services and ongoing guidance

WILMINGTON — Twenty-eight Delaware businesses participating in the state’s EDGE 2.0 program have received help identifying operational challenges and connecting with professional services through a partnership with the Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation, the foundation announced Nov. 11.

The work spans the fall 2025 and spring 2026 cohorts and extends support beyond the grant competition, helping entrepreneurs address financial management, marketing, legal and operational needs as they prepare to grow.

“Access to capital is an important part of growing a business, but entrepreneurs also need the right systems, expertise and support to turn that investment into sustainable growth,” said Stephanie Johnnie, the foundation’s executive director, in the announcement.

“Through our partnership with the Delaware Division of Small Business, we are helping entrepreneurs identify their priorities, connect with professional resources and build stronger foundations for the future.”

From assessment to implementation

The foundation’s process starts with a five-week assessment conducted with support from IA Business Advisors. It examines operations, financial practices, leadership, marketing and growth objectives.

Business owners receive individualized reports and action plans that identify priorities and recommended improvements.

Those findings guide access to the foundation’s Resource Wallet, which provides funded professional services aligned with each participating business’s needs. Services may include financial management, marketing, legal guidance, operational improvements and commercialization planning.

Client success managers provide ongoing guidance, help owners navigate challenges and connect them with service providers as the plans move forward.

The foundation said implementation support remains underway, with staff continuing to coordinate services and monitor progress.

Early feedback identifies priorities

The foundation reported that all respondents to its post-assessment survey identified one to three clear business priorities for the next six to 12 months. All also rated their reports positively for accuracy and said they would recommend the process.

Among respondents, 78% identified previously unrecognized barriers or capability gaps, while 89% developed or planned new relationships with service providers or consultants.

The announcement did not specify how many business owners answered the survey. The findings describe participants’ assessments of the process; the announcement did not report changes in revenue, hiring or profitability.

Participating companies span technology, professional services, retail, health care and hospitality, according to the foundation.

An earlier foundation update listed 14 businesses in the spring 2026 group, including Huxley and Hiro, Little Town, 3E’s Equestrian Education Program, HouseCall VR and Mother Nurture Composting Services. Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation

How EDGE works

EDGE stands for Encouraging Development, Growth and Expansion. The Division of Small Business launched the grant program in 2019 and introduced EDGE 2.0 in fall 2025, adding greater funding flexibility and support after businesses pitch their proposals. State of Delaware News

The competition has separate Entrepreneur and STEM tracks. The state’s program page lists funding pools of up to $400,000 for Entrepreneur businesses and $750,000 for STEM businesses, divided among selected recipients.

Generally, eligible businesses must be majority located in Delaware, have operated for less than seven years, employ 15 or fewer full-time employees and have less than $700,000 in assets. Grants require $1 in business matching funds for every $3 from the state.

Applications are currently closed, according to the division’s website. State of Delaware %

To Go Box

• What: EDGE 2.0 business funding and support, including individualized assistance through the Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation.
• Who: Qualifying Delaware businesses; foundation support described in this announcement serves participating fall 2025 and spring 2026 businesses.
• Application status: EDGE applications are currently closed. Check the state’s website for future rounds and full eligibility requirements.
• EDGE information: business.delaware.gov/edge
• Foundation programs and participating businesses: petedupontfreedomfoundation.org
• Foundation contact: Stephanie Johnnie, stephanie@petedupontfreedomfoundation.org or 302-312-6476.

Theater sessions, partner demos, and a first-of-its-kind fabrics workshop show how Ethernet scales AI and HPC from the rack to the data center

Nov. 11, 2026 — The world’s largest AI clusters and its most powerful supercomputers now share the same limit: the network. As AI models grow to trillions of parameters and clusters grow to hundreds of thousands of accelerators, performance depends on how fast and reliably the network moves data between every GPU and XPU. For Broadcom, this is why SC26, November 15–20, matters so much this year. It is where researchers, national labs, government, and industry decide how the next generation of AI and HPC systems will be built.

Inside Broadcom Booth 4626

Open Ethernet can now serve every layer of that fabric. Broadcom Tomahawk 6, Tomahawk Ultra, and Jericho 4 switches, Thor Ultra 800G NICs, and TH6-Davisson Co-Packaged Optics give operators one Ethernet foundation to scale up, scale out, and scale across. At booth 4626, Broadcom and its partners will show what open Ethernet looks like across a complete AI and HPC fabric.

In the booth theater, Broadcom experts and partners, including AMD, Arista, Dell, Google, HPE, Meta, Microsoft, and Nokia, will deliver 20 plus state-of-the-art technology presentations on how these technologies come together in real AI and HPC systems. For example, Bhaskar Chinni, principal product line manager of Broadcom’s Core Switching Group, will be delivering a session entitled, “Scaling Intelligence: Open Fabrics. Built on Ethernet.” Four kiosks extend the story with partner demonstrations, including Aria Networks, Micas Networks, Accton & IP Infusion for a closer look at specific implementations. Seating is limited.

The expo hall opens with the Gala reception Monday evening, and theater sessions begin Tuesday. Broadcom plans one presentation per hour, with a second added in a few hours where demand calls for it.

Theater hours:

• Tuesday, November 17: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Wednesday, November 18: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Thursday, November 19: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Workshop on High Performance Fabrics for AI and HPC

Before the show floor opens, Broadcom is chairing the first workshop on “High Performance Fabrics for AI and HPC.” It is scheduled on Monday, November 16, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CST in room W176a and will be livestreamed and recorded. The workshop tackles transport, load balancing, congestion control, resilience, and visibility, with particular attention to Scale-Up Ethernet Transport (SUE-T), Ethernet for Scale-Up Networking (ESUN), Ultra Ethernet, transports, telemetry, and fabric management for AI and HPC workloads.

Hemal Shah, a distinguished engineer and architect at Broadcom, and Manoj Wadekar, AI systems technologist at Meta, serve as general chairs. Organizers include Mohan Kalkunte, vice president of architecture at Broadcom, and Dr. Dhabaleswar K. (DK) Panda of The Ohio State University. The program committee includes experts from Sandia and Argonne national laboratories, ETH Zurich, Stanford, Microsoft, Google, AMD, Arista, and OpenAI.

Accepted papers will be published in SC26 proceedings. More information can be found on the SC26 media kit page. Broadcom is also taking part in the Birds of a Feather session “Ultra Ethernet: Next-Generation Networking for HPC Supercomputers and AI Factories” on Wednesday, November 18, from 5:15 to 6:45 p.m. CST in room W183a.

Visit Broadcom at SC26

Visit Broadcom at booth 4626, check the SC26 media kit for the full presentation schedule, and register for the workshop through your SC26 conference pass.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) is a technology leader that designs, develops, and supplies semiconductors and infrastructure software for global organizations’ complex, mission-critical needs. Broadcom combines long-term R&D investment with superb execution to deliver the best technology, at scale. Broadcom is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. For more information, visit www.broadcom.com.

Source: Bhaskar Chinni, Broadcom

The post Broadcom Brings Open, High-Performance AI Networking to SC26 appeared first on HPCwire.

Less than a week after more than 20 European flights got fake bomb threats, hundreds of schools in Italy, the U.K. and Ireland were hit by similar hoaxes.

Naresh Bhatt, 28, said he dismembered wife’s body after she took her own life, a claim prosecutors called ‘ridiculous’

A Virginia man who claimed he dismembered his wife’s body after she took her own life is facing a life sentence after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors in Manassas called it “ridiculous” that Naresh Bhatt insisted that he woke to find Mamta Kafle Bhatt, 28, dead from suicide in their bedroom in July 2024, then panicked because he thought he would be held responsible.

The two-day talks in Abu Dhabi exposed a deepening split between the U.S. and European visions of how to approach Russia.

Memorial FC Barcelona, part of upgrade to Camp Nou stadium, will consist of 26,000 niches where fans can deposit their ashes

Lifelong supporters of Barcelona football club will soon be able to cheer on the club from beyond the grave – but, like everything else at Barça, eternal devotion comes at a price.

As part of an upgrade to the Camp Nou, the club has inaugurated the Memorial FC Barcelona, consisting of 26,000 niches where fans can deposit their ashes after their own final whistle has blown.

Clear clam chowder skips the cream and tomatoes, leaving the clams nowhere to hide. Cooks in Rhode Island and on North Carolina’s Hatteras Island have ... Read moreThe post Cream or tomatoes aside, the bigger chowder story is who manages…

The best part is that air fryer eggs require no pot, no boiling water and no frustrating peeling.