The Justice Department accused the EEOC of violating civil rights laws by issuing guidelines that effectively pressured employers to make race-based considerations in hiring and promotions.
NHS England plans to roll out Microsoft Copilot to 505,000 clinicians and support staff after a 30,000-person pilot claimed the AI assistant saved users an average of 43 minutes a day on administrative work. The Register reports: The rollout won't happen overnight. NHS England said that each trust will receive a central allocation of licenses based on headcount, typically starting with around 2,000 Copilot seats, and that more than half a million staff are expected to have access by October 2026. The NHS has no shortage of administrative work to throw at the software. The rollout envisions Copilot helping with discharge paperwork, bed management, rota planning, meeting minutes, board papers, briefings, data analysis, and assorted HR, finance, and procurement tasks. NHS organizations will also receive access to Copilot Studio, Microsoft's toolkit for building custom AI agents. NHS England said trusts will be able to develop agents for tasks such as handling Freedom of Information requests, processing complaints, reducing helpdesk workloads, and assisting with financial analysis. A governance framework called Agent 365 will oversee the deployment of those systems.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Your credit card balance can quietly reshape your retirement healthcare, and not always in the way you'd expect.
As Trump voices optimism for a deal with Iran within a few days, a tense truce between Israel and Iran is tested by ongoing violence in Lebanon.
The report offers a fresh look at the finances of a program that provides benefits to more than 70 million Americans.
PSNI give update on attack after the Northern Ireland secretary praised members of the public for intervening
Badenoch said, after the murder of Stephen Lawrence, it was right that people wanted to ensure this did not happen again.
It led to the Macpherson report, she said.
[It] wanted to put right what went wrong with policing in the 1990s.
However, in attempting to do so, it also enshrined a principle which I believe is wrong that a racist incident is racist if it is perceived as racist by the victim or any other person.
Equality law, properly designed, should protect us all in the same way. It should be a shield, not a sword.
It should protect people from discrimination. It should protect people from being treated differently because of their race, sex, religion, sexuality, disability or age.
Continue reading...Police appeal for calm as graphic video of a Belfast stabbing attack fuels calls for anti-immigration protests in Northern Ireland.
NASA's Artemis III astronauts plan to carry out rendezvous and docking procedures with commercial moon landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
AI is creating a new set of demands for HPC centers. Researchers are no longer focused only on training models. Many are now looking for inference services and AI agents that can be used as part of their everyday research. For HPC centers, that means figuring out how to provide these services at scale and make them work alongside existing HPC infrastructure.
Those issues were a major focus of the TPC26 session, “Toward Scientific AI Platforms: Inference, Agents, and AI Services at HPC Facilities.” The discussion brought together speakers from national labs, supercomputing centers, industry, and research organizations to share how they are building and operating AI services for researchers.
Participants included Dr. İlkay Altıntaş, Chief Data Science Officer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center and Principal Investigator of the National Data Platform; Dr. Venkat Vishwanath, AI lead at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility; Dr. Jason Haga of Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST); Samantha Sury of HPE; Dr. Paola Buitrago of the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center; Dr. Shoaja Fan, and Dr. Dan Stanzione, Executive Director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC).
Dr. İlkay Altıntaş presents on AI inference services and the National Research Platform at TPC26.
Dr. Altıntaş kicked off the discussion with an overview of the National Research Platform, which provides researchers access to AI models through shared services.
“We have to think of it as three different layers,” said Dr. Altıntaş. “There’s definitely an infrastructure layer here, compute, storage and everything around it. This is a bit like HPC services, but instead of core hours, we think of tokens.”
The National Research Platform currently offers nine open models and is designed to give researchers access to AI capabilities without having to deploy and manage their own infrastructure. The topic came up repeatedly throughout the session as speakers discussed how HPC centers are adapting to growing demand for inference services and AI tools.
Building those services also requires infrastructure designed specifically for inference. That was the focus of Dr. Haga’s presentation, which outlined Japan’s efforts to evaluate a range of AI accelerators and inference technologies through a national testbed initiative.
“What we’re trying to do is evaluate diverse and cutting-edge AI accelerators and developing technologies to realize highly performant inferencing services and ways to actually access these different computing resources,” said Haga.
For researchers, the hardware itself is often secondary. What matters is whether the service is available, performs well, and can be integrated into their work without requiring them to become experts in the underlying infrastructure.
The project is designed to help researchers experiment with different AI hardware platforms and also to offer a framework for deploying inference services. The effort is exploring how a broader mix of accelerators could support future scientific AI workloads.
The presentation highlighted a challenge facing many HPC facilities: researchers may not care what hardware is running underneath, but they increasingly expect AI services to be readily available when they need them.
Dr. Jason Haga discusses AI inference infrastructure and accelerator research at TPC26.
While much of the discussion focused on infrastructure and technology, Dr. Stanzione argued that economics may ultimately prove to be the bigger challenge.
“I think what will become the thorny issue for us is that tokens, as it turns out, cost money,” said Stanzione. “When you have people aggressively use tokens, there’s a lot of labs we’ve seen talk about forgone usage in the last few months.”
As AI services become more widely available, usage is rising quickly. That creates a different set of pressures than traditional HPC workloads. This is particularly the case as institutions try to balance growing demand with finite budgets. According to Stanzione, the long-term challenge may not be building inference platforms – but finding sustainable ways to operate them.
“I do think among our many technical issues, the financial side of this is probably going to drive more of what we do than anything else in the long run,” he said.
The discussion offered a glimpse into how HPC facilities are adapting to the next phase of AI adoption. While much of the industry’s attention remains focused on models and hardware, speakers often returned to the practical and inevitable realities of delivering AI as a service.
From shared inference platforms and accelerator testbeds to the economics of token consumption, the challenges discussed during this presentation suggest that the future of scientific AI may depend as much on operations and infrastructure as it does on advances in the models themselves.
The post TPC26: Toward Scientific AI Platforms at HPC Facilities appeared first on HPCwire.
We would like to hear from fans in New York and around the world about their reactions to the Knicks’ performance in the NBA finals
The New York Knicks are leading the NBA finals 2-1 against the San Antonio Spurs, much to the excitement of fans across the world. It’s their first appearance in the playoff finals since 1999, when they lost the best-of-seven series to the very same Texas team.
We would like to hear from New Yorkers and Knicks fans, both in the state and around the globe, about how they’re feeling in this current moment. With the Knicks doing so well after so long, how are you celebrating? Are you still optimistic despite the Spurs’ close win in Madison Square Garden on Monday? How are you feeling about the future?
Continue reading...House report said governor and state attorney general Keith Ellison were aware of ‘widespread taxpayer fraud’ in social programs
The US vice-president, JD Vance, asked the Department of Justice to investigate Tim Walz, his rival in the 2024 election, after a congressional report renewed allegations of inaction and retaliation over fraud schemes in Minnesota.
In the Trump administration’s latest broadside by the federal government against the midwestern state and its political leaders, Vance referred Walz, its Democratic governor, and Keith Ellison, its Democratic attorney general, for investigation.
Continue reading...Polls for Maine’s primary elections close at 8pm ET as it appears voters may be sticking with Platner despite string of controversies
Vice-president JD Vance has added a chicken coop to his residence at the US Naval Observatory, the Daily Wire reports, along with a dozen baby chicks whose new henhouse is designed to look like the Victorian home where the second family lives.
The coop was built without taxpayer money, a person familiar with the project told the Associated Press. The residence hosted a family event over the weekend where local 4-H students taught other kids about the newly installed coup, the person said.
Continue reading...US spy-tech company to challenge London mayor’s intervention after he raised concerns over breach of procurement rules
Palantir intends to sue the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, after he blocked a contract between the US spy-tech firm and the Metropolitan police.
The Met had planned to use Palantir’s software to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations, until Khan intervened in late May, sparking a row between the UK’s largest police force and the mayor’s office.
Continue reading...Banks, crypto firms and Kremlin oil reserves also targeted in 21st set of measures since full-scale invasion of Ukraine
The EU hopes to ban Russian soldiers from entering its territory as part of further sanctions against Moscow that also target banks, crypto firms and the Kremlin’s oil revenues.
Announcing the proposals on Tuesday, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “We propose for the first time to ban from entry into the European Union anyone who has served in the Russian armed forces since the beginning of the war. So Europe stays off limit for anyone who has participated in the invasion of Ukraine, as simple as that.”
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as the AI trade bounces back
The pound is strengthening against the US dollar today, as calm returns to the markets.
Sterling is up a third of a cent at $1.3376.
A light week in terms of macroeconomic news out of the UK meant the focus for sterling traders was mostly elsewhere. We did see an MPC member (Greene) stating that she would consider voting for a hike at the next Bank of England meeting later this month.
A notable upward revision in the PMI business indices last week suggests that the initial confidence drop was overstated and that the UK economy is more resilient to the Middle East events than first feared. We look to this week’s April monthly GDP data, released Friday, to validate this modestly optimistic view.
“Just when the supersized tech rally was looking a little tired, along comes the news of OpenAI’s decision to IPO.
Presumably the move has been spurred along by Anthropic’s recent move towards a public listing, but and now markets face the test of yet another superheavyweight firm listing to test demand for these highly-valued companies that promise to reshape not just the investing landscape, but the entirety of human society.”
The race is on to extract money out of the roar of enthusiasm for companies providing the backbone to the artificial intelligence revolution. There’s now a hat trick of mega listings on the cards, with OpenAI’s filing for an IPO coming hot on the heels of Anthropic and SpaceX. The research company behind the hugely successful ChatGPT had first-mover advantage, buoyed by an early deal with Microsoft, but Anthropic has gained ground and is tackling adeptly from behind, winning reams of enterprise contracts.
The price of staying at the top of the game is eye-watering for OpenAI – it’s estimated to be spending more than $100 billion a year on the infrastructure and processing power to support its services and power the next generation of AI models. To stay high and dry in its AI fortress, the company reckons that by spending at this level, it will create a moat too difficult to cross for the competition, enabling it to keep raking in revenues and eventually turn big profits.
OpenAI is currently valued at $850bn, the ‘baby’ of the group, since Anthropic is now valued ahead of OpenAI at $965bn. The company laid out the ‘third phase of OpenAI’ on Monday and said that it is undertaking research into artificial general intelligence, and looking at becoming a ‘product company’.
The latter is interesting for investors, since it would be a major potential source of future revenue. Although it is early days, if OpenAI launches its own product range, it could become a major competitor to Apple and Google, and their share prices are worth watching closely on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Meta pledged to invest $115 million to train electricians, plumbers and other workers needed to operate data centers.
National average gas price stands at about $4.16 per gallon as Americans grapple with price hikes sparked by the war
Donald Trump has claimed US fuel prices are “not very high, relatively speaking” as his administration grapples with affordability concerns after the surge in costs sparked by his war on Iran.
The national average gas price stood at about $4.16 per gallon on Tuesday, according to AAA – $0.37 lower than a month ago, but still about $1 more expensive than the same time last year.
Continue reading...Shasta county has one of the state’s highest rates of suicide and gun ownership. Here’s how locals are trying to combat it
Like many men in the mountainous California county of Shasta, about 200 miles north of San Francisco, Bill Rocha loved to hunt and fish, spending the infernal summers out on the lake in his boat. For decades he made his living as a contractor, working hard with his hands every day. And like many men in rural parts of the state, Bill was a gun owner. He had several hunting rifles, some of which he kept locked in a safe, and another firearm that he kept unlocked in his car.
Kelly Rocha, his daughter, described him as extremely sociable, but in private things were starting to fray. She didn’t know the extent of what her father was struggling with until she got a call one night in 2019. She had slept through two voicemails from her father’s wife, but finally picked up when her own mother called. “It was after midnight,” recalled Kelly, who was then 43. “She told me that my dad went out to his truck and killed himself.”
Continue reading...Don't miss out on big discounts and record low prices on tech, smart home gear, kitchen gadgets and more with this week's best deals.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has given Apple, Google, and other tech firms until September to introduce device-level protections that prevent children from taking, sharing, or viewing explicit images. "If businesses do not comply within three months, legislation will be brought forward requiring the protection to be added to all phones and tablets sold in the UK," reports The Guardian. "Tech firms that fail to do so could face fines, and their senior managers could be made criminally liable." From the report: "Today, I am calling on tech companies operating in this country to introduce vice controls that prevent children from sending and receiving sexually explicit images. Because this is not an impossible challenge," he said. "If they choose not, then we will act and we will change the law." [...] Under the changes, sexual predators will be prevented from being able to exploit and abuse victims through their devices, and children stopped from being able to access pornography, the Home Office said. Adults will still be able to take, share or view nude content once they have verified their age. In the Commons, Melanie Ward, the Labour MP for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy, said: "It's time to stop asking social media companies to make their products safe, and instead time to start requiring them to do so through regulation." Clive Efford, the Labour MP for Eltham and Chislehurst, said the "sociopaths" running social media platforms had no concern for the welfare of children. "The only message that they're going to listen to is if there's legislation put before this house that is going to act and send a clear message to them." The proposal is designed to sit alongside the Online Safety Act, which requires companies to have processes for removing material that is illegal or harmful to children.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A man suspected of driving while impaired was attacked by an alligator after attempting to flee police in Louisiana, authorities said.
Spurs had 24-8 free-throw advantage in second half
Towns: Officiating didn’t cost us the game
New York have 2-1 lead in NBA finals
Knicks coach Mike Brown had harsh words for the officials about what he characterized as inconsistent foul calls in New York’s 115-111 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of the NBA finals.
The Spurs took 24 free throws to the Knicks’ eight in the second half Monday night at Madison Square Garden. Fourteen of San Antonio’s attempts came in the third quarter, when New York took just three. In the final period, frustrations boiled over: the Knicks were whistled three times in the opening 64 seconds, and within three minutes they were in the bonus.
Continue reading...Deal to create a streaming and sports powerhouse will be scrutinised by Competition and Markets Authority
The UK competition watchdog has opened an investigation into Paramount Skydance’s $110bn (£82bn) takeover of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).
The deal will create a media powerhouse controlling assets including the Paramount and HBO Max streaming services, Channel 5 and TNT Sports, which broadcasts Champions League, Premier League and the Olympics, the Hollywood studios behind franchises including Superman, Batman and Top Gun, as well as HBO, home to shows including Game of Thrones, The White Lotus and Succession.
Continue reading...Head of Chatham House Ukraine Forum gives evidence to UK Parliament Defence Committee on Ukraine war News release jon.wallace
Orysia Lutsevych provided evidence on 9 June, discussing Ukraine’s war effort, the impact of the war on civilians, and public attitudes towards a ceasefire with Russia.
Head of Chatham House’s Ukraine Forum Orysia Lutsevych gave oral evidence to the UK Parliament Defence Committee on 9 June, during a one-off session – discussing the outlook for the war in Ukraine and the possibility of a ceasefire. Her evidence follows the publication of the new Chatham House report, How a Russia–Ukraine ceasefire could imperil Ukrainian and European security.
During her evidence, Orysia discussed the factors that have been contributing to Ukraine’s recent success on the battlefield in the war with Russia, including defence industry innovation, unity of purpose among Ukrainians, and increasing European support amid US withdrawal.
Orysia Lutsevych speaking at Parliament on 9 June.
She also described Ukraine’s challenges: a population exhausted by constant Russian bombardment; internal displacement; and debate about conscription and remuneration.
Orysia also described growing support inside Ukraine for a ceasefire and the conditions that Ukrainians would accept – resting on credible security guarantees.
Addressing the current situation, Orysia said:
‘I would say the support inside Ukraine for a ceasefire…is growing compared to the start of the war. Ukrainians would accept a ceasefire along the current front line… under the condition of the presence of the multinational force that will jointly with Ukraine…deter the next Russian invasion. That support is strong…but when you start subtracting that multinational force [from an agreement]…of course support for the ceasefire decreases.
‘I think the main goal of Ukraine is to ensure the next generation of Ukrainians are not fighting against Russia again. But we still see in public opinion polling a strong commitment to endure…for as long as it takes.’
Orysia also called on the UK government to increase its production and supply of long range missiles and air defence interceptors to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian attacks on its cities and critical infrastructure.
Police use teargas to disperse demonstrators in Nanyuki, 120 miles from Nairobi, amid rising anger at US plans
A man has been shot in the head during a protest in a town in central Kenya against a proposed Ebola quarantine facility for US citizens.
Photographs from the scene appeared to show a person lying motionless on the ground. Dozens of people had gathered near Laikipia airbase, the proposed site of the centre in Nanyuki, 120 miles from the capital, Nairobi, some wearing protective equipment and carrying a coffin with “Ebola” written on it.
Continue reading...Father and mother of Annabel Rook praise her dedication to helping others and want to focus on her legacy
A retired Old Bailey judge has paid tribute to his daughter after her killer was jailed for life.
Clifton George, 45, was sentenced on Tuesday to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years after being found guilty of the murder of Annabel Rook, 46, whom he stabbed in the living room of her home in Stoke Newington, north London, in June last year.
Continue reading...Audience members said baby’s cooing and gurgling ruined Branagh’s return to the RSC after 30 years, with some seeking refunds
Boatswain! The opening scene of Shakespeare’s seminal play The Tempest, in which Prospero conjures up a violent storm to shipwreck his treacherous brother, is enough to wake up anyone – let alone a baby.
Audience members at a matinee performance of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production, starring Kenneth Branagh as Prospero, complained after a baby gurgled and cooed its way throughout the entire first half.
Continue reading...Nick Reiner is accused of stabbing his parents Rob and Michele Singer Reiner to death at their home in December.
Reform had previously suggested Farage would be ‘steering clear’ of event, modelled on US conservative gathering
Nigel Farage will be headlining at an American conservative summit brought to the UK by Liz Truss next month alongside a raft of hard-right speakers, despite his party previously suggesting he would be “steering clear”.
The Reform UK leader has announced he will speak in July at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which claims it wants to “save Britain, save the west”.
Continue reading...The House will be voting on Republicans' $70 billion bill to fund immigration enforcement agencies for the rest of the Trump administration.
Gabriel Raimondo put his A-levels on hold to run in Channel Islands and ‘represent the younger voice’
Most politicians who win an election in Jersey are probably satisfied with a pat on the back from their supporters and a mention in the local newspapers.
But after becoming one of the youngest politicians in the world, Gabriel Raimondo received a message of congratulations from Donald Trump.
Continue reading...The president’s new Craposseum is the perfect venue for Vance, Hegseth and others to battle for favour. Fight, fight, fight indeed
On behalf of the US administration, the American embassy in London has published a notice advising the UK government not to ban social media for the under-16s. Thanks, but … we didn’t ask? Or perhaps that’s uncharitable. It’s actually a privilege to take child protection lectures from a country where the leading cause of death in children and adolescents is gunshot wounds. Are we allowed to suggest a surprisingly obvious way to help with that grimly perennial problem – or is international advice just a one-way street?
Either way, lectures from Donald Trump’s administration have not been in short supply in recent days, with the US defence secretary deciding that a D-day commemoration address was a seemly moment to dump all over Europe. It’s always painful to be reminded of Pete Hegseth, with his fundamentalist “body art” and Mr Whippy hair – primarily because it dilutes the purity of one’s loathing for JD Vance. (Who, it won’t have escaped you, was also on the international lecture circuit last week.) But standing at the podium in Normandy, Hegseth had just phoned in some stuff about how wars are won, when he got to the needle-scratch subject-change you sensed he’d made the transatlantic journey for. “Sadly,” began this here-it-comes moment, “today, different European beaches are stormed by different, dangerous ideologies. Beaches in Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria, boats and men arrive.”
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Maine Democrat Graham Platner is seeking to make the nomination official to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.
MUNICH and ESPOO, Finland, June 9, 2026 — IQM Quantum Computers today announced that it has developed a novel quantum error-correcting code that achieves up to three orders of magnitude lower logical error rates than the surface code, also requiring up to eight times fewer physical qubits.
IQM´s new technology, called barbell codes. Credit: IQM
Unlike many alternative high-performance quantum error-correction approaches, the new code also maintains a comparatively low hardware complexity, marking a significant advancement toward scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Quantum error correction remains one of the defining challenges in the race toward practical quantum computing. Errors introduced by noise must be corrected faster than they accumulate, a requirement that previous approaches demanded either complex hardware or significant performance trade-offs, which IQM’s codes address both constraints simultaneously.
IQM´s breakthrough technology, called barbell codes, is a family of quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes tailored to IQM’s Constellation, a unique quantum processor topology with enhanced planar connectivity where each qubit can natively interact to 12 other qubits; vs. four qubits in a conventional square grid topology, but only requiring three couplers for the computational qubits and six for the central elements.
By exploiting qubit connectivity and requiring only a single long coupler connection for every other qubit, barbell codes make high-performance error correction with dramatically reduced hardware complexity a reality.
The development details and numerical performance analysis published by the IQM team on arXiv demonstrate a major advancement in quantum computing. Barbell codes are constructed by connecting two sites of standard planar Constellation connectivity with a single long coupler for every second qubit, thereby providing the capability for generating entanglement between such pairs.
Therefore, this unique design eliminates the need for additional long-range crossing couplers on open boundary conditions — simplifying fabrication without compromising performance. The result is a solution engineered not for ideal laboratory conditions, but for the practical realities of superconducting qubit manufacturing.
“We are pioneering the next chapter in quantum computing,” said Jan Goetz, CEO and Co-founder of IQM Quantum Computers. “Our approach offers a highly competitive path to scalable quantum error correction with superconducting qubits, paving the way for large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers.”
IQM has sold more quantum systems than any other manufacturer and will deploy 150-qubit systems to customers later this year. The company has further announced IQM Halocene, an advanced quantum computer for error correction codes.
The barbell codes approach aligns with the company’s development roadmap, positioning IQM on a credible path to fault-tolerant quantum systems with hundreds of high-precision logical qubits and possibility of quantum advantage across multiple industries.
IQM recently announced increased commitments to its PIPE, driven by upsized investor demand ahead of its planned Nasdaq listing through a merger with Real Asset Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: RAAQ).
About IQM Quantum Computers
IQM Quantum Computers is a global leader in superconducting quantum computers, delivering full-stack quantum computers and cloud platform access to research institutions, universities, high-performance computing centers, national laboratories and enterprises worldwide. IQM’s on-premises deployment model gives customers direct ownership and control of their quantum infrastructure. Founded in 2018, headquartered in Finland with major operations in Munich, it has over 400 employees. IQM operates across Europe, Asia, and North America. IQM has filed an F-4 registration statement to the SEC with the intention to become the first publicly listed European quantum company on Nasdaq Global Exchange in the U.S by merging with Real Asset Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: RAAQ).
Source: IQM
The post IQM Announces Novel Quantum Error Correction Approach Toward Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing appeared first on HPCwire.
States across the Midwest and northern Plains could see ongoing flooding as severe storms hit, forecasters say.
Donald Trump arrived at the Knicks’ biggest night in 27 years hoping to cement his status and power in his hometown. But the fans had other ideas
On Monday night, the most powerful man in the world crashed a citywide celebration 27 years in the making and almost shut it down, with barricades around Midtown Manhattan, security lines outside Madison Square Garden and agents wanding Victor Wembanyama as if the San Antonio Spurs phenom were a threat off the court as well as on it. And when Donald Trump finally arrived for his grand entrance, it was in a half-mile-long motorcade. Anyone taking in the scene couldn’t help but ask the quintessential New York question: who does this guy think he is, some kind of big shot?
At this point in Trump’s presidency, it’s fair to wonder if he got into politics for the free tickets. On a night when he could’ve been dealing with far more pressing issues – soaring living costs, war with Iran, a global economy under strain – Trump flew to New York expressly to watch the Knicks play host to their first NBA finals game since he started making noises about running for office someday; he evidently couldn’t turn down the game after being invited by “numerous people.”
Continue reading...Pair are friends and will play golf together at college
Tournament will start at Shinnecock Hills next week
Miles Russell was among two 17-year-olds who earned a spot in the US Open on Monday. Still to be determined was whether Russell brings his caddie from the 36-hole qualifier – the son of three-time champion Tiger Woods – to Shinnecock Hills next week.
Russell, the No 10 amateur in the world, survived a bogey on the first playoff hole and grabbed the fourth and final spot from the Florida qualifier. Charlie Woods is one of his close friends who has the same commercial agent and is following Russell to Florida State to play college golf.
Continue reading...Groff worked for Epstein for nearly 20 years, starting in 2001, in which her job was to ‘organize one man’s life’
Lesley Groff, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime executive assistant, is testifying on Tuesday before the House oversight and reform committee as lawmakers on the panel continue their investigation into the late convicted sex offender.
Groff worked for Epstein for almost 20 years, beginning in 2001 and ending in July 2019 when he was arrested.
Continue reading...TEL AVIV, Israel, June 9, 2026 — Quantum X Labs Inc., an advanced quantum technologies company, and IQCC, a Quantum Machines company, today announced the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement, under which Quantum X Labs will evaluate its AI-based quantum error-correction technology on Quantum Machines’ quantum control infrastructure. The primary objective is to run Quantum X Labs’ proprietary AI-driven error correction algorithm in a fully integrated hardware-software environment.
The collaboration will test Quantum X Labs’ AI-based decoding technology using IQCC’s quantum computing infrastructure, with the goal of exploring its applicability to future quantum error-correction workflows.
IQCC will provide access to its quantum control and orchestration infrastructure, including the OPX1000 real-time quantum controller, used by leading quantum research institutions and commercial quantum-computing programs worldwide. IQCC’s systems are designed to support future low-latency feedback and quantum error-correction workflows.
“This collaboration represents an important milestone in our roadmap toward validating our AI-based decoder on real quantum-hardware data,” said Prof. Nir Sharon, Chief Quantum Technology Scientist at Quantum X Labs. “By working with IQCC and Quantum Machines, we gain access to a highly respected quantum-computing environment that enables us to evaluate our technology under realistic operating conditions and accelerate its path toward practical deployment.”
“Quantum error correction is widely recognized as one of the key challenges on the path to large-scale quantum computing,” said Dr. Nir Alfasi, GM of IQCC. “By providing access to advanced quantum infrastructure, IQCC enables researchers and companies to explore new approaches under realistic conditions. We look forward to working with Quantum X Labs as they assess their AI-based decoder on real quantum hardware.”
Quantum X Labs Inc.
Quantum X Labs Inc. and its subsidiaries are focused on quantum technology, digital advertising and computing and enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Quantum X Labs Ltd. is focused on developing and promoting quantum algorithms for the transportation, drug discovery and security segments as well as developing quantum- based GPS replacement and quantum atom accuracy solutions. Gix Media develops a variety of technological software solutions, which perform automation, optimization and monetization of internet campaigns, for the purposes of acquiring and routing internet user traffic to its customers. Metagramm is a developer of grammatical error correction software and offers tools for writing and reviewing, grammar, spelling, punctuation and style features, as well as translation and multilingual dictionaries, using artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. For more information about Quantum X Labs, visit https://quantumxlabs.xyz.
About IQCC
The Israeli Quantum Computing Center is Quantum Machines’ research and development testbed that provides multi-vendor quantum hardware, access for academic and industrial users, and an environment for benchmarking, algorithm development, and hardware evaluation. The IQCC operates multiple quantum processors and advanced control systems, enabling researchers to explore different modalities of quantum computing within a unified infrastructure. The company focuses on facilitating collaboration, accelerating quantum technologies, and expanding hands-on access to cutting-edge quantum systems
About Quantum Machines
Quantum Machines (QM) is the leading global provider of hybrid quantum-classical control solutions. The company’s flagship Orchestration Platform harmonizes quantum and classical operations to eliminate friction and optimize performance across the entire stack. By providing a unified hardware and software infrastructure that supports any qubit modality, QM empowers researchers and builders to iterate at speed, resolve setbacks, and scale systems previously thought impossible. Learn more at: https://www.quantum-machines.co.
Source: Quantum X Labs
The post Quantum X Labs and IQCC Explore AI-Driven Quantum Error Correction Workflows appeared first on HPCwire.
Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories propose partnering with Rescale to make DOE simulation codes accessible through agentic AI
SAN FRANCISCO, June 9, 2026 — Rescale today announced a landmark proposed collaboration with three premier U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The proposed collaboration builds on existing work with the ORNL Manufacturing Demonstration Facility to bring world-class simulation codes developed at the national labs to American industry at scale. Operating as the Agentic HPC Pipeline Initiative (AHPI), the partnership would use recently launched agentic digital engineering capabilities on the Rescale platform to accelerate U.S. manufacturers’ deployment of DOE-developed codes in production engineering environments.
For decades, the Department of Energy has invested in developing some of the world’s most sophisticated engineering simulation codes, spanning advanced manufacturing, materials science, energy systems, and beyond. Yet operating these codes has required specialized expertise to configure and maintain the software on HPC infrastructure as well as run the advanced simulations themselves, keeping their power out of reach for most of U.S. industry.
The AHPI consortium is designed to close these infrastructure and expertise gaps. By hosting DOE codes on the Rescale digital engineering platform and pairing them with agentic AI that guides users through every step, engineers across U.S. industry can translate intent into fully autonomous simulation workflows. Tasks that previously demanded deep specialist knowledge, such as mesh configuration, hardware selection, solver tuning, and checkpoint management, are now handled autonomously by these simulation-native agents.
“America’s national laboratories have spent decades building the most powerful engineering simulation software in the world, like our AMReX framework, but the depth of domain expertise required to configure and validate these tools has kept them out of reach for many manufacturers,” said Peter Nugent, Division Deputy for Science in the Applied Math & Computational Research Division at LBNL and Principal Investigator of the AHPI project. “By integrating our codes with Rescale’s AI agents, we are fundamentally shifting the paradigm. We are replacing the manual burden of solver selection, checkpointing, and hardware configuration with intelligent automation. This translates scientific intent directly into computational reality.”
Rescale’s in-platform agents are already orchestrating manufacturing codes developed at ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, enabling engineers to integrate manufacturing data into automated workflows.
“At ORNL, we are focused on pushing the boundaries of what is possible in physical production,” said Ramanan Sankaran, ORNL Lead. “We are already seeing our advanced manufacturing codes from the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility being orchestrated by in-platform agents. By reducing the expertise bottleneck in job configuration and allowing engineers to train surrogate models on their simulation data using in-platform agents, we are enabling U.S. manufacturers to innovate at speeds that were previously impossible.”
The proposed collaboration with LLNL builds on the established HPC for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) program, which connects U.S. companies with national laboratory expertise and resources in high performance computing, modeling and simulation.
“Through HPC4EI, LLNL has a long and successful history of bridging the gap between national lab supercomputing and real-world industrial applications,” said Aaron Fisher, LLNL Lead. “However, scaling that impact requires a new approach to user accessibility. We believe the use of agentic AI will lead to a step change in our ability to bring these capabilities to American industry. This effort is exploring scalable pathways to help manufacturers access AI-enabled simulation workflows beyond initial DOE engagements, while building on HPC4EI’s broader mission.”
Together, the three laboratories bring complementary depth across fluid dynamics, phase and chemical transformations, additive manufacturing, materials science, and energy systems, covering the full breadth of advanced manufacturing applications. The Rescale platform is intended to provide secure, cloud-native access to these codes through an intuitive, agent-augmented interface that requires no specialized HPC expertise to operate.
“In the United States, both industry and the national labs have made extraordinary investments in computing infrastructure and simulation software,” said Joris Poort, CEO of Rescale. “Rescale’s digital engineering platform serves as the bridge that brings both investments together in one place and puts them to work accelerating innovation for American industry. By pairing the world’s best simulation codes with AI agents that automate the complex workflows around them, we are giving American manufacturers a compounding advantage to accelerate progress, which is the ability to explore design spaces, validate materials, and optimize manufacturing processes at speeds and scales that were previously out of reach.”
The AHPI initiative represents a broader strategic vision for the role of AI in closing the gap between government-funded scientific capability and commercial industrial application. As AI-powered simulation becomes increasingly critical to how products are designed and built, the companies with access to the best tools will have a meaningful edge. AHPI is committed to making sure those tools are within reach for U.S. industry.
The Rescale platform, including the capabilities powering the AHPI consortium, is available now. For more information, visit rescale.com.
About Rescale
Rescale is the digital engineering platform built for the AI era. The Rescale platform integrates intelligent HPC, advanced modeling and simulation, agentic digital engineering, and AI physics to create compounding value that accelerates product development and empowers digital transformation. The Rescale platform delivers the world’s largest network of engineering and R&D applications, intelligent automation, and computing infrastructure to enterprises across aerospace, automotive, energy, life sciences, semiconductor, manufacturing, and the public sector. Rescale is backed by leading investors such as NVIDIA, Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Microsoft, Samsung, Hitachi, University of Michigan, and others. Rescale has a global customer base that includes Applied Materials, General Motors Motorsports, SLB, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Source: Rescale
The post Rescale and US National Labs Form Initiative to Bring DOE Simulation Codes to American Industry appeared first on HPCwire.
The cause of an Apache helicopter crash near the Strait of Hormuz that led to the U.S. military's first-ever sea drone rescue is under investigation.
June 9, 2026 — A year ago at London Tech Week, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a declaration: the U.K. would be an AI maker, not an AI taker.
At this year’s event, NVIDIA and its partners are showcasing how that commitment is producing real momentum across the nation’s infrastructure, startups and enterprises.
Credit: NVIDIA
U.K. technology leaders are innovating across healthcare and life sciences, coding, agentic AI, inference and more — all running on sovereign AI deployments.
AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said: “A year ago, we said the UK would be an AI maker, not an AI taker. Today we’re delivering on that — with sovereign compute powering British startups to push the boundaries of what AI can do, from drug discovery to healthcare to robotics. This is what it looks like when a country backs its own talent with the infrastructure to match.
“NVIDIA’s decision to invest billions here is a reflection of the strength of what’s being built in Britain. We are determined to make sure the next generation of AI breakthroughs happens in this country, and we have everything we need to make it happen.”
Commitment to Compute
Over the past year, the number of AI cloud providers planning to deploy AI infrastructure on U.K. soil has doubled.
Nebius has announced plans to expand customers and cloud capabilities with three new deployments of advanced NVIDIA AI infrastructure, as the NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem partner continues to build out its commercial and AI R&D hub in London. Combined, the deployments are expected to reach 65 megawatts when fully ramped up in 2027.
CoreWeave is building in the U.K. Government’s AI Growth Zones, and seven more NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem partners have plans in the pipeline. BT and Nscale announced plans to build sovereign AI data centers across three existing BT sites in the U.K., combining NVIDIA AI infrastructure, Nscale’s full stack and BT’s trusted nationwide connectivity backbone.
From Fund to Frontier
Central to that sovereign compute story is Isambard-AI — the U.K.’s most powerful computer. Built on 5,400 NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips and running entirely on zero-carbon electricity, it’s the engine behind some of the U.K.’s most ambitious AI research.
The U.K. government’s Sovereign AI Fund is putting that capability to work by backing homegrown companies and providing the domestic infrastructure needed to scale their ambitions.
Among its first recipients is Ineffable Intelligence, which recently announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to build the future of reinforcement learning infrastructure.
Other recipients include four U.K.-based NVIDIA Inception startups, each pushing the AI frontier using Isambard-AI. These startups are:
Cosine Builds Sovereign Coding Platform
Cosine is building an end-to-end sovereign AI coding platform for highly regulated industries such as financial services, critical infrastructure and national security. Using Isambard, Cosine is training a new, large-parameter, mixture-of-experts, multimodal agentic LLM for natively handling data types beyond text and image.
“Access to Isambard enables the project, full stop,” said Alistair Pullen, cofounder and CEO of Cosine. “We already have the people who know how to do this. We have the data. We have the infrastructure and the training. The thing we’ve never had is this level of compute.”
Cursive Trains Self-Improving AI Systems
Cursive is building self-improving AI systems that learn continuously from real-world data, enabling them to operate autonomously over long periods of time. This is unlocked through new memory-augmented architectures with dramatically larger context windows, currently in development using the Sovereign AI Fund resources. In addition, the team recently adopted the NVIDIA Megatron-LM framework for distributed training at scale.
“The Sovereign AI Fund is more than just processing power — it’s a statement about investing in AI in the U.K.,” said Talfan Evans, cofounder and CEO of Cursive. “Sovereignty is actually now a buying criterion — and it’s a challenge to tap into the resources we uniquely have as U.K. and European companies.”
Doubleword Optimizes Inference to Deliver Abundant Intelligence Tokens
Doubleword, the U.K.’s first dedicated inference lab, optimizes every layer of the AI stack to maximize what it calls “IQ per dollar.” The company deploys open models including NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B and builds on the NVIDIA Dynamo inference framework.
On Isambard, Doubleword’s early results achieved 70x faster model cold starts — aka model loading times — and 4x lossless KV cache compression, critical advancements for long-running agentic workloads. The result: inference at 90-95% lower costs than other leading inference providers.
Credit: Doubleword
“Sovereign AI is most impactful at the inference layer,” said Meryem Arik, cofounder and CEO of Doubleword. “Inference is when you’re actually getting the value from the model — we want that value created in the U.K., with U.K. compute and U.K. data centers.”
Prima Mente Uses Foundation Models to Study Alzheimer’s and More
Prima Mente builds biological foundation models to identify new biomarkers, subtypes and drug targets of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS. With its Isambard allocation, the company is developing Pleiades 2, a foundation model combining five biological data modalities.
Achieving nearly 3x speedups in model training with NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, Prima Mente also uses NVIDIA Parabricks for genomic data processing and NVIDIA Transformer Engine for model optimization.
“Research shows Alzheimer’s might be 25 different subgroups of disease, and we want to help by using AI to identify these subtypes and the biology within the cells as they change,” said Hannah Madan, cofounder of Prima Mente.
AI Talent, Policy and Production
NVIDIA’s £2 billion investment in the U.K. startup ecosystem — in collaboration with leading venture capital firms — is bringing new capital and advanced AI infrastructure to major U.K. hubs including London, Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester.
U.K. membership in the NVIDIA Inception program has increased by 50% over the past year. AI-native companies like Doubleword, Synthesia and PolyAI are scaling globally from U.K. roots.
At last year’s London Tech Week, NVIDIA announced a collaboration with the U.K Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 6G and AI skills. The 6G collaboration has seeded testbeds at four U.K. universities. In May, the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI) delivered two new courses — added to support the nation’s wireless research community — to participants from over 30 U.K. universities.
Plus, as part of this AI skills collaboration, NVIDIA DLI courses are offered as part of QA’s AI Apprenticeships in England.
And the NVIDIA Developer Program now includes more than 200,000 U.K. developers.
The Sovereign AI Forum, which launched last year with seven charter members, convened the country’s AI leadership to turn policy into deployment roadmaps. Over the past year, the Forum has welcomed dozens of participants across government, industry and the startup community — turning policy into deployment roadmaps.
And enterprise AI is moving from pilot to production:
It all reflects momentous progress in U.K. AI leadership — and offers a glimpse of where it’s heading.
Source: Anthony Hills, NVIDIA
The post NVIDIA Showcases Sovereign AI Growth Across UK Infrastructure and Startups appeared first on HPCwire.
Also: Anthropic advocates for a ‘pause’ on AI advancement – days after filing to go public on the US stock market
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, the US tech editor at the Guardian. Today we’re discussing Donald Trump’s neediness for AI and the contradictions of Anthropic’s safety-first posture.
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People in the US are poised to endure another summer of unusually ferocious heat and there will be little respite in the years ahead, with a new study finding that the coming 15 years could see a doubling in hospitalizations due to heat-related illnesses.
The number of annual heat-related emergency department visits or hospitalizations across the US are set to rise from about 109,000 cases a year to as many as 237,000 cases by 2040, the new research has estimated.
Continue reading...Rights groups and some locals worry that program to ‘track illicit activity’ could become a data collection project
The Great Lakes have rarely ever been considered a hotbed of illicit drug activity or center for illegal immigration.
But that hasn’t stopped US government agencies and the company behind surveillance sailing drones from treating the region as such. The US Coast Guard recently announced it has launched an armada of at least six sailing drones in the Great Lakes this summer in an attempt to, in part, “track illicit activity”.
Continue reading...Pacoima is hemmed in by highways and heavy industry, and its residents are fighting pollution with hyperlocal air quality monitoring
Jose Luis Salas looks up at the ladder. “Are you ready?” he asks Shance Taylor, an environmental project manager who’s holding a white container, about the size of a shoebox, covered with wires and numbers.
Taylor nods and climbs up to reach the side of Salas’s tidy house in Pacoima, a neighborhood in Los Angeles’s north-east San Fernando valley. The curious box in their hands is known as Aeroqual sensor – part of a community air-quality monitoring program run by Pacoima Beautiful, a local environmental group.
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An alligator inserted itself into a police pursuit in south-eastern Louisiana, chasing and attacking an allegedly impaired driver who tried to evade law enforcement by leaping into a swamp.
The suspect, a 40-year-old man, was eventually captured and arrested with injuries to both arms. Deputy body-worn camera footage of the alligator swimming at speed towards the man and thrashing with him in the water was posted on YouTube by local CBS News affiliate and Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana.
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A lawyer who represented Ken Paxton, Texas’s attorney general, for nearly a decade over accusations of corruption and securities fraud is supporting Democrat James Talarico – and not his former client – in one of the biggest US Senate races.
Talarico on Monday drew attention to his campaign winning the endorsement of Houston attorney Dan Cogdell, who was part of Paxton’s defense team during the Republican’s historic impeachment trial in 2023 that ended in acquittal.
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Continue reading...In an exclusive interview, Ukraine’s president says he believes the war will be won when Russian society feels its impact. Plus, why California’s election count is taking so long (hint: it’s not fraud)
In the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine, Volodymr Zelenskyy says he is feeling upbeat and has been grateful for military support from the US, but has a pointed message for Washington.
Speaking to Luke Harding and Pippa Crerar in London, the Ukrainian president acknowledged that the priority of Trump’s second term in foreign policy had shifted away from Ukraine to conflict in the Middle East.
What did Zelenskyy say about Trump’s relationship with Putin? He carefully praised US diplomatic efforts, despite his bruising encounter in the Oval Office and the fact that Trump has been willing to meet Vladimir Putin, saying: “I always said to President Trump that Putin is lying. He plays games with you, with the White House.”
Does he see any prospect of the war ending? The military situation was the most promising it had been for Kyiv for two and a half years, Zelenskyy ssaid. “We can’t say Russia is losing this war. But we can say they are losing the initiative each day, day by day,” he added. “Victory in this war is when Russian society recognises that the war is awful, that the war is a tragedy not for someone, somewhere, but for themselves.” To that end, Zelenskyy said the purpose of long-range strikes – drones buzzing above apartment blocks in greater Moscow and St Petersburg – was to make residents “feel” what war meant.
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“Whoever said ‘money can’t buy happiness’ really knew what they were talking about,” Elon Musk wrote in February on Twitter/X, the social network he bought for $44bn. He capped the statement with a sad face emoji.
Alas, Musk’s information is outdated. A 2024 study found a substantial difference in happiness between the wealthy and people who are low income. “A greater feeling of control over life can explain about 75% of the association between money and happiness,” the study’s author noted.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist and the author of Strong Female Lead
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A white Ford pickup truck broke through a thick curtain of fog one morning in February, winding its way down a muddy farm road in California’s Central Valley. From it emerged a 64-year-old dairyman, burly and tan, who left the engine running as he lumbered toward me with open arms.
“You must be Mark,” I said, warning him I wasn’t one for hugging.
“I’m a hugger,” he said, pulling me in anyway. “I feel like I’ve known you for a lifetime.”
I had spent the past couple of weeks corresponding with Raw Farm founder Mark McAfee, who’d filled my inbox with messages and PowerPoints extolling the virtues of his most important, and controversial, product:
It is delicious.
It makes you feel good (the gut-brain serotonin and dopamine cycle).
It’s great for asthma and literally saves lives.
He was talking about raw milk, which, if you trust 150 years of bedrock science, offers little reason to consume. By definition, it has not been pasteurized, the simple process of heating milk to kill off harmful bacteria. Before the practice was widely adopted a century ago, thousands of babies died each year from illnesses linked to contaminated dairy. Today, most scientists and health experts agree that raw milk has no significant, proven nutritional benefits over its sanitized counterpart, cannot treat or cure disease and subjects its consumers to over 100 times the risk of foodborne illness, which can be especially dangerous for young children.
And yet, McAfee’s farm, the largest raw-milk dairy in the country, is pulling in about $30 million a year, meeting a growing demand from customers who say they want food that hasn’t been robbed of health benefits by industrial processing. Once drawing a fringe crowd, raw milk has been thrust into the mainstream in recent years by a potent mix of politics, wellness culture and a wave of suspicion that health institutions have been compromised by Big Pharma and Big Food. Its proponents have turned it into a symbol of freedom and defiance. More than 10 million Americans now drink it; national weekly sales rose by 65% from 2023 to 2024 alone.
Raw milk’s success confounded me: How had it gained such a foothold in this country, despite regular outbreaks of salmonella and E. coli, and even the discovery of bird flu in Raw Farm’s milk? More pressing still, what was the government doing to protect the public amid demands for products that scientists warn are risky, even deadly? Speaking with McAfee seemed like a good place to start; federal and state regulators had linked his business to more than a dozen recalls and outbreaks that had left hundreds of people ill.
“I’ve put a couple kids in the hospital, and they have been sick, but they recovered,” McAfee acknowledged before my visit. “But here’s the thing: I’m a pioneer. And I’m going against the grain here. I’m climbing a mountain they say you can’t climb.”
McAfee isn’t any ordinary farmer. He is a raw-milk zealot who has escaped serious sanctions despite two decades of skirmishes with the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Justice, which have repeatedly accused him of breaking federal laws and regulations. The Biden administration was on the verge of a crackdown against his farm when President Donald Trump assumed office and turned over leadership of the nation’s health agencies to one of McAfee’s most notable customers.
The year before he was confirmed as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president, using his campaign platform to decry the government’s “aggressive suppression” of raw milk. In his new role, he said he was “advocating” for it and celebrated the release of a federal report to Make America Healthy Again with a toast of raw-milk shooters in the White House.
For his part, McAfee isn’t just selling Kennedy’s favored milk. He is selling the notion that his dairy products are safe and healthy — for you, your kids, your grandparents — because his farm thoroughly screens its milk for bacteria.
“They think we’re some kind of a fringe, weird trend, and we are dead serious here,” McAfee said after he greeted me at his farm, which he runs with his adult son and daughter, 20 miles southwest of Fresno. “And you’ll see that in what we’re doing today.”
He led me into a cream-colored bungalow he called his pathogen laboratory, where two workers in lab coats prepared milk samples.
The farm screens each batch for four types of bacteria: salmonella, E. coli, campylobacter and listeria, all of which thrive in the intestines of cattle and can contaminate milk through microscopic flecks of infected feces. The microbes can cause a constellation of symptoms in humans, from vomiting and diarrhea to sepsis, kidney failure and even death.
“We catch these things and divert the milk immediately,” McAfee said of the pathogens.
I assumed that after diverting batches, the farm discarded them.
Later that day, I learned otherwise.
“We have a red-flag system here, where if there’s anything that gets really out of whack, they can immediately tag the milk, and it doesn’t go to anything but cheese,” McAfee told me. “Because, you know, cheese is resistant to pathogens.”
Research has shown that raw cheese is not, in fact, resistant to pathogens; while aging can mitigate some risk, harmful bacteria can still survive the usual 60-day maturation process.
Hearing about the practice took me by surprise — the farm did what with that milk? — so I asked about it again.
McAfee confirmed that milk with pathogens was used to make cheese, except for batches with salmonella, which he said were dumped or sent out for pasteurization. (I later learned the FDA knew he was doing this and had told him to stop two years ago. But no one had alerted the public.)
“Our cheese is just wildly successful across America,” McAfee said, noting it was sold in hundreds of stores from natural food shops to chains like Sprouts Farmers Market. “H-E-B down in Texas sells 50,000 bucks a week.”
I wondered how long it might take for the cheese to be linked to another outbreak.
Unbeknownst to me, one was already underway.
In the early 2000s, McAfee was producing pasteurized milk for the dairy group Organic Valley when a raw-milk enthusiast named James Stewart made an unusual request.
Stewart had founded a private food club in Venice, Los Angeles. Its members included movie stars, “crystal worshippers” and other “fanatical people,” McAfee recalled. They were looking for a steady source of raw milk at a time when consumers were waking up to the risks of food contaminated by additives, fertilizers and pesticides.
“How fast can you drive down here with as much milk as you can?” McAfee recalled Stewart asking.
McAfee, not fully grasping why people would want to drink milk that was unpasteurized, nonetheless went to his silo, filled half-gallon containers and packed them in ice chests. Then, with his wife, he made the long drive south to the L.A. coast.
Dozens of people were waiting for them, McAfee said, launching into a scene that unfolded with a Hollywood sheen. “I couldn’t even get out of the car,” he said. “They’re beating on the windows and opening up the back. … Just mayhem, cheering, excitement, crying.”
As their $20 bills started flying at him, so did their stories, about how raw milk had healed their health issues, including asthma. The moment transformed him, he said: He realized that he was selling more than just milk — it was “food as medicine.”
Twenty-odd years later, Stewart, too, recalls the moment. “I saw the light go off in his head,” Stewart told me. “He was looking for a way to expand what he was doing and not just be a commercial, pasteurized, homogenized milk provider.”
McAfee, a third-generation California farmer, was born into a family that had charted an unconventional course. His father, whom McAfee described as both a humanitarian and a rebel, founded multiple farm cooperatives and made national news in 1972, when he helped post bail for activist Angela Davis by putting his land up as collateral.
McAfee didn’t initially follow in his father’s footsteps. He worked for 16 years as a paramedic before taking the helm of family farmland that his grandparents left behind. The farm grew apples, almonds and alfalfa, and, by 2001, McAfee had expanded into commercial dairy. But his days of producing milk for pasteurization were short-lived; within a few months of meeting Stewart, McAfee converted his dairy to sell only raw milk.
He entered a market on the verge of extraordinary growth.
California had always permitted raw milk to be sold in stores, but Los Angeles County’s more stringent rules had, in effect, curbed its retail sales. In 2001, food-freedom advocates, including Stewart, successfully petitioned the county to weaken regulations, providing McAfee access to a new pool of customers. That would happen again and again, in state and local governments across America, as the internet, and then social media influencers, drew exponentially more people to the cause.
Around the time McAfee converted his dairy to raw milk, only 27 states allowed its sale.
In one way or another, nearly all of them ultimately would.
A consumer could buy raw milk:
One thing stood between McAfee and all of that business: a federal regulation restricting the sale of raw milk from one state to another. The 1987 ban had the effect of keeping outbreaks contained, making it easier for local officials to address them.
But there was a loophole: Raw milk could be sold across state lines if labeled as pet food.
McAfee saw an opportunity, and he wasn’t subtle about it on the website for his farm, which at the time was called Organic Pastures. The farm “creatively labeled its products for sale outside of California in such a way that it is not illegal,” the site said, and it assured people they could still consume them. Justifying the strategy to an Oregon newspaper, McAfee said in 2005, “I am a revolutionist in this, and I won’t overlook any loophole that will get the milk out there.”
As his raw dairy grew, McAfee portrayed himself as an underdog waging a war against industrialized food. “The giants of the marketplace have processed our food to death to extend shelf life and expand distribution,” he said in a 2006 interview. “The raw milk revolution grows right out of this disorder.”
Two decades later, he still talks about raw milk with the passion of a convert. He answered even simple questions with lengthy explanations, speaking in a quick, torrential style and snapping his fingers or pinching the air for emphasis. Only later did I realize that much of what sounded spontaneous was a pitch he had been refining in years of promotional interviews and farm tours.
McAfee has professed the benefits of unpasteurized milk in public libraries and chiropractor offices. Raw dairy, his farm has claimed, could cure, treat or prevent myriad diseases and ailments, from diabetes and ear infections to allergies, eczema and arthritis. The farm developed the website icanbreathe.org to promote the so-called Milk Cure for asthma. “Only raw milk works in this natural treatment,” the dairy stated. “Pasteurizing milk kills or changes the natural enzymes, antibodies, and fatty acids that are critical to the physiology of how this works in your body.”
McAfee founded a nonprofit, Raw Milk Institute, in 2011, broadcasting similar claims alongside studies he said support them. While a few European studies he cited observed a correlation between drinking raw milk and lower rates of asthma and allergies, they did not prove raw milk directly led to reduced illness, nor did they recommend its consumption due to pathogenic risk. Experts have suggested the association could likely be explained by the “farm effect,” in which children growing up around animals and agriculture have been shown to have stronger immune systems.
Exhaustive reviews of the published science on raw milk have broadly been unable to substantiate claims of its benefits, and most experts agree that it is neither healthy nor safe to consume. But McAfee said his customers know better. To him, the stories of families who believe raw milk has transformed their health are their own form of evidence, revealing truths that institutions have failed to capture. “If raw milk was a fad or a lie, then why would people repeatedly buy raw milk and then tell the world how they love it,” he said. “Our consumers read their gut and watch their kids thrive.”
He also said the government hasn’t invested enough in research to assess its benefits.
“I’m begging you to say: ‘This is not anti-science, this is extremely pro-science,’” he told me. “It’s using science that is not conveniently accepted yet.”
And for many health-conscious people, this possibility that raw milk may help them — or their loved ones — is often enough for them to try it.
Mary McGonigle-Martin was shopping in a Southern California grocery store in 2006 when she spotted ads suggesting McAfee’s milk could treat allergies and digestive problems. She thought of her 7-year-old son, Chris, who she suspected was dealing with dairy sensitivity, and later visited McAfee’s website to learn more. She knew the risks of forgoing pasteurization, but the site eased her concerns: It said the farm tested its milk and had never found a single pathogen.
So she started buying it, and her son started drinking it. And about a month later, he fell gravely ill. What began as a trip to the nearest hospital for bloody diarrhea turned into a race to save his life as his kidneys started to fail. Airlifted to a children’s hospital in Loma Linda, Chris was put in a medically induced coma. He spent nine days on a ventilator and 18 days on dialysis, during which time doctors gave him blood, platelet and plasma transfusions. “He was on the verge of death,” Martin told me. “I had flashes of him being in a casket and being at his funeral.”
Chris had a dangerous strain of E. coli, known as O157:H7, which led to hemolytic uremic syndrome. This rare condition, which mostly impacts children, occurs when bacterial toxins spread throughout the body and damage red blood cells, causing clots in the organs, primarily the kidneys. With quick intervention, most people survive. But it can cause lifelong complications.
While sitting in the intensive care unit, Martin overheard another mother mention her daughter had the same condition. It turned out the young girl had also drank milk from McAfee’s farm. Hoping to intervene before others got sick, the families reported the illnesses to the dairy and the state, which quickly issued a recall and quarantine order, suspending distribution of the farm’s products.
McAfee told me that when he learned of the two sick children, he “wanted to know the truth.” So he took his wife’s Volvo and drove four hours to the hospital. Then, somehow, he found a way into the ICU. “I knew how to get back past security,” he said. “A paramedic can get anywhere, and I sucked up to the nurses.”
Martin told me she was surprised when McAfee introduced himself in the waiting area, but nonetheless she shared details of her son’s ordeal. “I listened to her as compassionately as I could,” McAfee told me. But in his recollection, he observed that Martin’s son was not as critically ill as he’d been led to believe. “He’s eating McDonald’s, watching cartoons, doing just great, and they’re telling the story to the world that he’s ready to die,” claimed McAfee. “I was really upset about that.”
McAfee’s version of events was impossible, Martin told me: When he appeared at the hospital, Chris had just been taken off the ventilator and still struggled to breathe on his own; reams of her contemporaneous notes confirm this. Even after being extubated, he couldn’t have solid food for weeks due to severe pancreatitis. “I was so hungry,” Chris told me. “I started crying because I couldn’t eat.”
When I asked Martin why she thought McAfee gave such a different account of their meeting, her response was simple: “Mark is the master of spin.” (McAfee maintained that his recollection was accurate: “This is not spinning; this is simple truth.”)
Six people contracted E. coli during the first outbreak connected to McAfee’s farm, according to federal regulators; their median age was 8. While the outbreak’s specific strain of E. coli was not found in the products, some samples taken by investigators had high bacterial counts, indicating contamination.
Chris suffered permanent kidney damage. Now 27, he can’t drink alcohol and will spend the rest of his life under a nephrologist’s care because of his elevated risk of chronic kidney disease.
The illness lingered in other ways, too. “I would have random flashbacks and panic attacks from anything,” he told me. The smell of hospital soap. The sticky feeling of Band-Aids or tape on his skin. His mother found him a trauma counselor, which was “life-changing,” he said, except he still held onto a knot of resentment. Not toward his parents; he views them as victims like him. “Just so much anger towards Mark,” he recently told me. When he later saw McAfee’s milk being sold at a Sprouts, “I wanted to take a bat and smash the entire aisle.”
Martin couldn’t let go either. She hired Bill Marler, a Seattle attorney who specializes in food safety litigation. Alongside the family she met in the hospital, she sued McAfee’s farm in 2008, and the dairy settled for an undisclosed sum. “They couldn’t find the pathogen in our milk,” McAfee told me. “She claims she had it in her milk with her child, and that’s what the insurance company took to settle, and we weren’t going to litigate it.”
Emboldened, Martin, who was a high school guidance counselor, found her second calling as a food safety advocate, testifying against raw-milk-access bills across the country.
Following the settlement, McAfee wrote to Martin to apologize, but also begged her to move on.
“Mary, please appreciate that so many children thrive and grow very strong on raw milk,” he wrote. “The very remote theoretical risk of illness from tested, retail, approved raw milk is far outweighed by the health and recovery from the illness that children that drink raw milk enjoy.”
Martin appreciated the note, but recognized that even in his seemingly heartfelt apology, McAfee could not adapt his belief system to fit her experience. “He really believed this was like a fluke. It’s not going to happen again,” she said.
Eager to keep showing me his farm’s serious approach to pathogens, McAfee ushered me into his truck to see the milking of his cows. Raw Farm keeps about 1,400 of them, which produce up to 8,000 gallons a day, each priced at $19. The smell of sweet milk hung in the air, mixed with the earthy musk of manure.
“We’ll see what kind of music they’re playing this morning up in the milk barn,” he mused.
“You play music for the milking?” I asked.
“Mexican music,” he said, as he got behind the wheel. “It’s very Pavlovian. … You start seeing milk coming out of their teats.”
In the open-sided barn, workers sprayed a small herd of cows with a fire hose, removing flies and flecks of manure from their bellies, which were then inspected, coated with iodine and wiped with a towel. The steady pulsing of milking machines mingled with a thumping musical beat as McAfee marched down the rows, pointing to their light pink udders. “Super clean,” he said with pride.
Hygiene appeared to be a clear priority everywhere we went, from the thick binders of safety plans — “not one of those documents collects dust,” he told me — to the sterile, full-body moon suits workers wear to package milk.
McAfee said the 2006 outbreak opened his eyes to the risk of his product and was part of the reason he developed standards for unpasteurized dairies.
But more awareness and better practices didn’t stop McAfee’s customers from continuing to get sick — in 2007, and 2011, and 2012, and 2016 — and the farm had to issue recalls more than half a dozen times after pathogens were found in its products.
And then between 2023 and 2024, regulators linked the farm to one of the largest publicly known raw-dairy outbreaks in decades, with more than 170 people falling ill from salmonella. McAfee disputed his farm’s connection to many of the outbreaks, including this one.
“I call complete crap,” McAfee said, claiming that his farm was not responsible for all the cases. “It was 25, maybe 30.” He also disagreed that the majority of patients were children, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had detailed in a report published last year. “I challenge that data at the fundamental level.”
It was a typical McAfee defense. Throughout our conversation, he never lost his composure, even when discussing outbreaks. Instead, he calmly dismissed the government’s methodology, explaining that it was counting cases of “standard diarrhea,” which he said have “no claims for illness,” as they could be managed with “good hydration and plenty of good bone broths and electrolytes and stuff.”
He also seized on instances when the government could not identify an outbreak strain in his products, but instead found it in samples of farm water and cow feces or drew ties to his farm using genetic sequencing or interviews with patients — practices epidemiologists routinely rely upon. McAfee held that none of this was smoking-gun proof that his farm directly caused outbreaks. Instead, such episodes seemed to reinforce his perception that he was climbing a mountain alone, battling institutions that were already biased against raw milk before hearing his case.
When mandated quarantines ended, he would declare victory.
After his dairy reopened following an outbreak that sickened five children in 2011, he revealed how much people were suffering without his product in a celebratory video. McAfee shook the hand of a young man who was wearing a sideways cap. “This guy came all the way from Alaska to get raw milk!” McAfee said. The young man described a kind of withdrawal: “My immune system broke down. I lost a lot of lean body mass.” When a gray-haired woman said she was driving four half-gallons to her grandbabies in Texas — “that’s how desperate I am for them to be healthy” — McAfee kissed her on the head and called her a “raw-milk freedom rider.”
At least 233 people have been sickened in eight outbreaks that federal and state regulators have connected to McAfee’s farm since 2006, and at least 40 of them have been hospitalized.
The tally is almost certainly an undercount, experts and regulators told me. Many recover at home from foodborne illness and do not seek out testing.
Federal and state regulators have linked 233 outbreak cases to Organic Pastures or Raw Farm. The true number of cases is likely higher.
The outbreaks raised an obvious question: Why hadn’t regulators shut down the farm? America’s food safety system aims to balance public health with people’s freedom to eat foods that can harm them, like raw oysters and sushi. Regulators expect some will inevitably get sick, and so they focus on ensuring consumers, at the very least, are aware of the risk.
State regulators are responsible for overseeing raw milk sold legally within their borders. In California, they require it to be sampled and tested monthly for pathogens. Raw Farm is in good standing, according to the Department of Food and Agriculture, consistently meeting standards for sanitation and cow health. But spokespeople for that agency and the state Department of Public Health emphasized that the best way to prevent illness is to drink milk that has been pasteurized. Otherwise, they wrote in an email, “there will always be some risk of contamination.”
Many people who turn to raw milk don’t have a full understanding of that risk, John Lucey told me. A professor of food science who directs the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Lucey grew up on a farm and has studied dairy products for three decades. “Cows poop all the time,” he said. “Farms are just a reservoir of bacteria: The soil has got bacteria, the walls have got bacteria, the cows are carrying bacteria.”
One of the draws of raw milk is a deeper connection to its source; by knowing a farmer personally, people assume their food will be more safe, Lucey said. But what raw-milk consumers often don’t realize is that many dairy farmers are in a relentless battle to produce clean milk.
“Sometimes you lose because the cow kicked off the milking machine. Something just happens,” he said. “Farmers do the best they can and they are super hardworking people, but just because Daisy is a nice cow and the farmer is a nice guy doesn’t guarantee that things are sanitary and that they can prevent things 100% of the time.”
Over the past two years alone, nine states have experienced outbreaks that regulators linked to raw dairy, not including those connected to McAfee’s farm. In Washington state, about 10 people fell ill with E. coli connected to raw-cheese consumption, and in Florida, where raw milk can be sold only as pet food, about 20 people got sick. Among them was a pregnant mother whose toddler was hospitalized; she said she caught his bacterial infection and had a miscarriage at 20 weeks. (The Florida farm said its products had not tested positive for pathogens and that it informed customers its raw milk was not for human consumption; the Washington creamery voluntarily recalled its cheese.)
Just last week, Idaho’s health officials announced that nearly 60 people had become ill after consuming raw milk.
Discussing the risk of raw milk with McAfee was a challenge.
As we rode in his truck to the next stop on the tour, I brought up the prevalence of pathogens, as well as his farm’s pattern of outbreaks. He acknowledged that some risk exists, but stressed that it was “very, very, very small” and was “fantastically” outweighed by raw milk’s therapeutic value. And then, he insisted one should disentangle the benefits from the risk, as if that’s even possible.
“Show me the criticism of raw milk if it’s safe,” he told me, one hand on the wheel, the other punctuating his points in the air. “None.”
“Well, the critics would argue that there’s risk—”
“No, if it’s safe,” he said, cutting me off. “If it’s safe, how could you criticize it?”
“But they would argue that it’s not safe,” I said.
“Show me the risk,” he repeated. “I’ve yet to see it. We found it. We immediately diverted it.”
We’d seen nearly every stage of production — from “grass to glass,” as McAfee called it — when he parked his truck next to the hangar that houses his Cessna 210 Centurion propeller plane. Next to it, steps from his hacienda-style home, is a bungalow he uses as an office.
He showed me his replica medieval broadsword, his podcasting setup and one of his favored books, Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War.” He said the ancient Chinese military treatise had informed his longstanding feud with the federal government.
Two decades ago, his use of the pet food loophole to ship across state lines attracted scrutiny almost immediately. In 2005, an undercover investigator from the FDA called the farm and was told the milk was safe for human consumption. Two years later, according to court records, the farm sent an email to consumers saying, “Raw milk can be shipped via UPS to all US states,” and “Tell everyone who has asthma that they will be cured by raw milk.”
In 2008, the DOJ pursued criminal charges and a civil suit. McAfee resolved the charges, promising that the farm wouldn’t sell raw milk across state lines again. But prosecutors wanted a court order that would force McAfee and the farm to comply, citing their “unabashed efforts to manipulate the law.”
To illustrate McAfee’s ongoing defiance, the government pointed to statements he had made online that year and the next. In one post on a blog, he said, “If we ever get raided it will be grand theater. … There will probably be some riots.” In another, he said he would not use guns “until the tipping point” and mentioned “another Wounded Knee, Ruby Ridge or Waco.” Prosecutors argued his conduct demonstrated a “cognizable danger” that he would violate the law again.
In 2010, the judge granted a permanent injunction, requiring, among other things, that the farm stop selling raw milk beyond California and take down any statements promoting its health benefits. McAfee told me the directive was an attack on his right to free speech. “I deeply and passionately believe in the truth, and they were telling me I could not speak the truth,” he said. “I’ve had to have therapy over that, you know. I didn’t want to do something stupid.”
A violation of the order could have led to an enforcement action, but in the years that followed, officials pulled their punches. (McAfee insisted they had no punches to throw.)
The FDA and the DOJ kept finding evidence of violations, in 2016, and 2019, and 2021, according to court records. Though federal prosecutors initially pushed for strong penalties, including holding Raw Farm and McAfee in contempt, they agreed to a consent decree in 2023, which required the farm to undergo independent audits to ensure it was complying with the law.
Then, in early 2024, FDA inspectors discovered the farm had a “standard practice” of producing cheese from milk suspected or known to contain pathogens, according to court documents; lab records showed its cheese had also tested positive even after the mandated aging period.
That February, federal regulators publicly linked Raw Farm’s cheese to a monthslong E. coli outbreak. Nearly a dozen people across five states fell ill.
Among them was Paul Panelli, who went to his grocery store in Newport Beach, California, looking for Tillamook cheese to make tacos. Finding it was sold out, he reached for Raw Farm’s cheddar, drawn in by packaging that made it seem organic and all-natural. He told me he didn’t realize the cheese was made with unpasteurized milk.
Both Panelli and his wife, Julie, came down with food poisoning. She was diagnosed with an E. coli infection that left her needing several kidney surgeries. “She literally is afraid to eat things,” her husband told me. The family’s lawsuit against Raw Farm is ongoing; in court records, the farm denied responsibility for their illnesses.
Raw Farm pushed back against the government, maintaining that it followed federal regulations by aging its cheese and claiming to have tested all of it before sale, so no contaminated product reached the market, according to court records. Federal law allows the interstate sale of unpasteurized cheese as long as it’s aged for at least 60 days, though this doesn’t fully eliminate the risk — or account for a farm using pathogenic milk to make it. The FDA told the farm to destroy any cheese made with contaminated milk, arguing that it was violating the law, according to court documents. The farm’s lawyer said it was in compliance, and insisted there was no “bad cheese” to throw out.
To force the farm to follow the government’s orders, it needed a judge’s ruling, but a backlog in the under-resourced Eastern District of California left the case on pause well into 2025. The arrival of the Trump administration that year created a political opening for McAfee.
By the time Kennedy took the helm of the health department, McAfee had already developed close ties to his inner circle. “I go way back with him,” McAfee told me. Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, had made a stop at Raw Farm during his presidential campaign, creating multiple videos featuring McAfee. (She did not respond to my emailed questions.) He was even asked to become an adviser to the FDA, McAfee told me. The position never materialized, but McAfee still benefited from the change in administration.
Without publicly stating a reason, this past January the government dropped its efforts to take action against the farm. A former federal employee with knowledge of the suit told me that cases involving raw milk were deprioritized in the new administration because of Kennedy’s stance on it.
Natalie Baldassarre, a DOJ spokesperson, didn’t respond to my questions about the decision, but said in an email that the administration will “always be concerned about risks to public health and will continue to take enforcement action as appropriate to protect American consumers.” The health department and the FDA did not respond to my attempts to seek comment. Kennedy, through his department, also did not respond to my questions.
McAfee called the withdrawal a “big win.” Drawing on Sun Tzu’s teachings, he told me that he had learned not to engage in “their war,” but his own.
“You win the war they don’t expect you to fight,” he said. While officials were gathering evidence, he was focused on the “education” of consumers. He once delivered his message to dozens at a time. Now online influencers spread it to audiences of millions. “They have the guns and the money,” he said of the government. “I got the truth and the moms.”
His work could soon pay off. A month after I shook McAfee’s hand and left his farm, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, and Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, reintroduced the Interstate Milk Freedom Act, which would prohibit “federal interference” with the interstate sale of raw dairy in states where raw milk is already legal.
Massie, who served raw milk at his recent wedding, has a farm with 50 cattle, and Pingree, a former dairy farmer and the only Democratic sponsor of the bill, raises her own grass-fed beef. “The Interstate Milk Freedom Act would make it easier for families to buy the milk of their choice,” Massie said when he announced the bill, “by reversing the criminalization of specific dairy farmers.”
When asked if she was concerned the bill may increase access to a product that puts people at risk, Pingree told me that the bill was not about marketing raw milk or making any health claims. “I trust state departments of agriculture and health to monitor compliance, assess health risks, and enforce the rules in place to protect consumers,” she said in an emailed statement. Massie did not respond to my questions.
Six weeks after I left Raw Farm, it happened.
On March 15, federal regulators publicly linked its cheese to yet another E. coli outbreak.
Nine people were infected across three states; more than half were younger than 5. Of the three people who had to be hospitalized, according to regulators, one developed the same severe kidney condition that Martin’s son had battled two decades earlier.
Initially, federal health agencies didn’t urge the public to avoid the cheese or throw it away, as they had under previous administrations. Instead, a CDC notice said consumers should “consider” not eating it; the FDA gave no consumption guidance at all. Three federal health employees later told me political appointees had watered down the original language. (The agencies’ advisories have since been updated. Neither the CDC nor the FDA responded to my questions.)
The fact that the agency was under Kennedy’s leadership didn’t make Raw Farm any more compliant when regulators asked it to recall its products. It refused. “If there was ever a question about whether there was a pathogen in our products,” McAfee later told me, “I’d be the first one to recall immediately, voluntarily.”
He said he texted Kennedy to “call off the dogs,” but got no response.
When FDA inspectors showed up unannounced at the farm, it complied with an investigation. And when the agency threatened to force a recall, the company reluctantly issued its own, 18 days after the outbreak was announced.
The farm appended several unusual statements to its April 2 advisory:
This Voluntary Recall is being performed under protest.
This Voluntary Recall is performed as a path forward.
The farm retracted those statements five days later, but continued to dispute the cause of the outbreak and contest the agency’s findings. It had tested its products, found no pathogens and wasn’t at fault, McAfee said.
However, during its investigation, the FDA also sampled and tested the company’s cheese. While it didn’t find the recent outbreak strain, one sample tested positive for E. coli. In their inspection, agency officials also found the farm’s cheese had recently tested presumptively positive for pathogens even after 60 days, showing the limitations of its aging process. The farm destroyed these contaminated batches.
I reached out to McAfee and asked him whether the illnesses might be connected to his practice of using problematic milk to make cheese. But now, he told a different story.
“We would in the past divert to cheesemaking,” he told me. “We no longer do.” He didn’t pinpoint exactly when the farm made the change, throwing out dates from two years ago to last summer. “It’s been quite some time.”
I brought up the fact that he’d made similar disclosures in podcasts in the last year and to me just weeks earlier. But he doubled down.
“I think you have caught me in something where there’s an issue between practice and what I’m saying,” he said. “If I said it, I believed that at the time to be true, but I do know that now we do not use any questionable milk.”
In almost the same breath, McAfee noted that his farm would not have violated any laws if it had done so. “It’s not illegal,” he said. “That’s why the FDA dropped their thing.” (California regulators told me such a practice was “concerning.” The FDA refused to respond to questions about it.)
Speaking to a congressional subcommittee on April 16 about the outbreak, Kennedy noted that companies usually comply with recalls right away. “But there was foot-dragging,” he said. “This company was intransigent.”
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., asked Kennedy whether in the face of these new, serious illnesses, it wasn’t time for a shift in his messaging: “You are the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Is there not some moral responsibility or compunction to say, ‘Don’t drink raw milk’?”
“Every product can contain contaminants,” Kennedy replied. “What we do is inform the public, and we let people make the choice.”
On April 30, the FDA closed its investigation without taking any enforcement action. McAfee told me his raw-cheese products were back in stores. Sprouts and H-E-B, two major retail chains that have carried his cheese, did not respond to my emailed questions about the outbreak.
“We don’t feel bad at all,” McAfee told me about the entire episode. “Our sales are highest they’ve ever been, and feedback online with influencers is: If the FDA says something, do the opposite. It’s safer. They don’t trust them at all.”
On a sunny weekend in early May, hundreds congregated at Raw Farm for its annual Camping With the Cows event. Blue skies extended to the horizon, and a small colony of tents, camper vans and motorhomes sprawled out across the lush alfalfa fields. Influencers in cowboy hats chugged cartons of milk. Matt James, the leading man on Season 25 of “The Bachelor,” ambled around with his mother in a T-shirt that read, “Raw Milk Club.”
Many attendees were unbothered by the recent illnesses. They said they consumed raw dairy because they wanted to reduce their inflammation, and avoid additives, and prevent lactose intolerance, and clear their skin, and bring their hormones into balance. They wanted nutrients that didn’t exist in “boiled to death” milk. They wanted to drink it “the natural way.”
Alyssa Wolfer, a 42-year-old mother of two from Bakersfield, viewed raw milk as a symbol of “true American freedom,” she said. “I very much lean on the side of freedom of people to choose what they consume and less regulation.”
“I’m seven months pregnant, and I drink raw milk because that’s how God has created it to be,” said Lindsay Espinoza, 34, reclining on a bale of hay with her husband and young son. “There’s so much fear behind raw milk, but it makes sense to us.”
Some, like 58-year-old Melanie Copeland from Huntington Beach, questioned whether the outbreak had occurred at all. “The odds of it being true are slim to none,” she said, “and people need to do their research.”
McAfee mingled among his flock. Some stopped him for pictures as he beamed down the camera and flashed a thumbs-up.
The post He Profits Off Raw Milk That’s Making People Sick. The Government Isn’t Stopping Him. appeared first on ProPublica.
After helping track fires for years, Watch Duty is aiming to become your disaster go-to with flood coverage straight from the front lines.
Researchers say mysterious, seconds-long GPS interference bursts detected across Europe appear to come from Russian EKS early-warning satellites, making this "a rare example of human-made GPS interference coming from space," reports Ars Technica. The signals may be tests of space-based jamming capability, short satellite communications, or something else, but experts say they raise troubling questions about whether GPS disruption could eventually be weaponized on a continental scale. From the report: The discovery came from an investigation detailed in a June 2 preprint paper by Todd Humphreys and his student Zach Clements at The University of Texas at Austin, along with Argyris Krizise at Stanford University in California. By sifting through public data from ground-based stations with global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers, they identified a pattern of high-powered interference lasting less than 10 seconds each time but simultaneously detectable by ground stations across Europe from Norway to Spain to Poland, and even reaching as far west as Greenland and Canada. By analyzing the ground station data from January 2019 to April 2026, the researchers found 75 days with at least one widespread GNSS interference event overlapping with the GPS L1 frequency band centered on 1575.42 megahertz. That represents the main band used for signal transmission by the US-made GPS satellite constellation and GNSS constellations from other countries. Such interference patterns happened mostly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays during business hours in Europe, Humphreys told the YouTube channel Veritasium. Because such "continental-scale" interference was simultaneously affecting GPS receivers across Europe and beyond, Humphreys and his colleagues calculated that the source had to be at least 1,200 kilometers above the Earth. [...] In the Veritasium video, Humphreys speculated that the Russians may have been testing the satellites' GPS interference capabilities only briefly on a neighboring frequency adjacent to the typical GPS band. "And then in the eventual future when there is a hot conflict, they go ahead and tune their transmitter down to the GPS band, but it's much more damaging now that it lies right on that band," he said. Incidentally, the raw data also revealed a second interference burst from the Russian satellites in a lower-frequency band used by China's BeiDou navigation system. "I can no longer say this is accidental with confidence," Humphreys told Veritasium. He also described the Russian satellites' quiet demonstration as a "massive escalation in the electronic warfare background conflict that is going on right now." Richard Bowden, division head of assured and resilient PNT at the multinational technology company GMV in Spain, wrote in a LinkedIn comment: "These signals are, without a doubt, intentional and placed on or around GNSS signals, and have the potential to disrupt legitimate use of GNSS services. But from our side at least, we can't be sure they are intentionally malicious or intended as an EW [electronic warfare] weapon."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Low wages and fears of ICE crackdowns have set workers on edge of strike as thousands set to arrive during World Cup
Hospitality and food service workers in several US cities hosting World Cup games are warning of looming labor disputes and possible strikes as the largest single sport tournament in the world gets ready to kick off on 11 June.
In Los Angeles, California, about 2,000 workers at SoFi Stadium represented by Unite Here Local 11 voted 96% in favor of a strike authorization as workers are seeking a new union contract with wage increases and protections from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Continue reading...18-year-old Subhan Ahmed allegedly assisted with the torching of four ambulances used by a Jewish volunteer organization
TUC, GMB and Unison leaders reject invitation to affiliate to Reform amid rising support for party among their members
Major trade unions and the TUC have rebuffed Nigel Farage’s call for unions to affiliate to Reform UK, saying the party is “cosplaying” as workers’ champions and has opposed new employment rights.
Farage issued a call on Tuesday for unions to attend Reform’s conference and to affiliate to the party, and he suggested one union may be on the brink of doing so.
Continue reading...MLB All-Star former catcher Yadier Molina said on social media that the plane was bound for Texas to pick him up, along with family and friends.
Updated Pentagon list includes swathe of China’s top technology firms in move that could inflame tensions between the countries
The US added Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, internet search provider Baidu and carmaker BYD to a list of companies it believes are aiding Beijing’s military, in a move that could inflame tensions between the countries.
The long-awaited update released on Monday supersedes a list from early 2025, and comes less than a month after Donald Trump met China’s Xi Jinping on a visit to Beijing, where the two leaders maintained a delicate trade war truce.
Continue reading...The dollar will decline, not fall Expert comment jon.wallace
The history of pound sterling, the world’s previous dominant currency, is not reassuring for the dollar.
Over the past 18 months there has been considerable debate about the dollar’s ability to retain its pre-eminent role in the global economy.
For some, a tipping point is approaching where the world dumps the dollar. For others, the currency’s inherent strengths will make it robust even to the latest vagaries of partisan politics.
But these arguments lack something vital – history. The decline of pound sterling, the world’s first truly global currency, suggests that the dollar’s demise may well be inevitable – but also that it’s unlikely to be quick or straightforward.
The way in which a currency becomes dominant can be usefully explained in both standard economic terms and through a geoeconomic lens.
Economic theory links the rise of dominant currencies to self-reinforcing interactions between trade and finance. A disproportionate degree of trade invoicing in a currency leads to stronger demand for that currency. That depresses borrowing costs in that currency, which in turn reinforces demand for it.
Meanwhile, the geoeconomics perspective links currency dominance to hard power. In this set up, a hegemon uses the strength of its domestic economy to underwrite safe assets – typically government debt. As foreigners are attracted to these safe and liquid assets, the hegemon strengthens its hold over foreign economies and generates an excess return. But the hegemon will also be tempted to overreach, to maximize its influence, and issue more assets than it can safely back.
Two insights flow from these models: First, that currency decline may be inevitable once an economy passes its peak. Second, that the entanglements that arise from dominance can make that decline extraordinarily slow.
Sterling’s decline illustrates both points. Britain was the trading powerhouse of the first era of globalization, accounting for 30 per cent of global trade in the later-19th century, over which period ‘60 per cent of world trade was invoiced and settled in sterling’.
Arguably, Britain’s hard power peaked around the same point, between the Napoleonic and Boer wars. Yet from this late-19th century peak in Britain’s global dominance, sterling wasn’t definitively surpassed by the dollar until the immediate post-war years and played a meaningful global role well into the 1970s. That represents around a century of decline.
It’s common to assert that this time is different, because there is no alternative to the dollar. But such an argument rests on the simplistic assumption that only one currency at a time can hold a dominant role. Sterling’s history offers a straightforward rebuttal to this argument.
The most comprehensive historical estimates show not only that the dollar and sterling were close rivals in the interwar years, but also that sterling was rivalled by both the French franc and the German mark throughout its 19th century heyday – dominance doesn’t preclude serious rivals.
The more sophisticated version of this ‘no alternatives’ argument states that potential competitors to the dollar have serious flaws, for instance that euro assets lack the liquidity and market depth of dollar assets; and that the renminbi is largely closed to external investors.
Yet it is easy to overlook two striking facts. First, the euro accounts for a larger share of trade-invoicing than the dollar, even if that largely reflects the scale of trade between Euro Area countries.
Second, the euro comes a distant but stable second to the dollar in foreign exchange reserves, retaining its 20 per cent share even while the dollar share has tumbled from nearly 75 per cent to below 60 per cent over the past quarter century.
Meanwhile, China and the Euro area are vastly larger trade partners than the US for most countries. A set of topical and technically feasible reforms, enhancing competitiveness and capital market depth and liquidity, could support a stronger role for the euro and renminbi. Linking back to sterling’s experience with rivals: the alternatives don’t have to be perfect to play a prominent role.
A newer strand of argument in defence of dollar dominance appeals to technology. This argues that the rise of dollar-denominated stablecoins will sustain demand. But that misses the point as to which technology matters for currency dominance.
Again, sterling provides an illustrative example. It’s commonly forgotten that sterling safe assets weren’t sovereign-issued – they were highly liquid trade bills, backed in the first instance by the private sector, but ultimately backed by commitments to low inflation, sound public finances and by the scale of the UK economy.
Put simply, a currency dominates when it is the unit of account for safe assets. And safety arises through scale and credibility, not through specific asset types or market structures.
Why was sterling’s decline so drawn out? A lot of people had a stake in preserving its value. It retained its global role after the Second World War partly because the dollar was scarce – but mostly because huge sterling balances had been accumulated during the war.
It was in no one’s interest to liquidate those quickly, destabilizing the global monetary system and destroying asset values. Hence, a complex system of managed decline was constructed between the UK, holders of sterling and wider participants in the global economy. Equally, today dollar assets are widely held, making a sudden demise in no one’s interest.
Sterling’s decline was drawn out – but that is not to say it was gradual. It was punctuated by a series of crises with global impact. In 1931 it brought down the gold standard; in 1949 it forced a reset of the Bretton Woods monetary system; and, in 1968 it brought Bretton Woods down altogether.
Those global crises sat alongside domestic ones, including the ‘stop-go’ years, when the UK current account constrained growth and London was forced to repeatedly borrow from the BIS and IMF, culminating in the controversial IMF bailout of 1976.
Does the end of dominance necessarily mean depreciation? Superficially, sterling’s history would suggest yes. At the onset of the First World War, one pound sterling bought $4.86; it hasn’t bought $2.00 since 2001.
But the reality is more complex. After the war, Britain pursued loose monetary policy and financial repression leading to high inflation – not only were sterling assets less attractive, but they were prevented from adjusting to become more attractive.
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: What happens to self-government when we decide a free press isn’t worth the trouble to defend?
CBS News fires Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes”: Is CBS clearing out anyone who still believes journalism should make powerful people uncomfortable?
Experts criticize plan for American-only Ebola quarantine center in Kenya: It’s less public health and more a fear-driven move that ignores evidence and abandons basic ethics.
The Knicks Have Celebrity Fans. The Spurs Have Nuns: The Spurs’ beloved nuns are a lovely story, but lovely stories can also distract from who gets priced out of the arena.
What I’m Reading: Walter Mosley’s Ghalen offers a patient, humane portrait of love, family, and neurodivergence that rewards readers willing to let character lead.
Jukebox Playlist: Ella and Louis turn a modest romantic request into something warm and lived-in.
“There is no more essential ingredient than a free, strong, and independent press to our continued success in what the Founding Fathers called our ‘noble experiment’ in self-government.”
40th U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) with a written message on the Observance of National Newspaper Week, October 6, 1983
Read those words without attribution and you might think they came from a left-wing editorial board or a lawyer with the ACLU. When you see Ronald Reagan’s name attached, your brain does a little double-take because we’ve watched the political party he led and the political movement he built devolve into something that treats the press as a target rather than an institution worth defending. That gap between what he wrote then and where things stand now shows you how quickly our leaders will abandon principles the moment they become inconvenient to maintaining power. But the word that Reagan chose to characterize the role a free press plays in our democracy deserves attention: it’s an “ingredient,” something that gets mixed in as part of an overall recipe. Take it out and the meal may look the same, but the final dish could have an entirely different flavor.
Still, a credible defense of the press demands an acknowledgement of what the press has actually done wrong. The coverage in the run-up to the Iraq War was a genuinely serious institutional failure: major outlets accepted and amplified claims about weapons of mass destruction without sufficient independent verification, and The Times eventually published a formal apology for its journalistic errors. That’s a real thing that happened. So was the false equivalency with which the press treated the few lapses of judgment in Hillary Clinton’s distinguished career in public service and Donald Trump’s lifelong habits of greed, corruption, and abusive behavior towards women. But by using the media’s occasional errors to rebrand the entire industry as “fake news,” Donald Trump has convinced a significant portion of our population not to trust anyone who writes for the nation’s newspapers or appears on the nightly news.
Reagan also invoked “our noble experiment,” and the word “experiment” is the most important one in that phrase. Do we actually treat our democracy as something that requires constant attention, that might blow up in our faces if we don’t practice it with the rigor and integrity it demands? Too many of our citizens, not to mention our politicians, do not. If they took the experiment seriously, they wouldn’t look at the collapse of the media industry with such an indifferent attitude. Since 1990, newspaper employment in this country has declined by roughly 82 percent. More than 3,200 newspapers have closed since 2005. When local newsrooms close, school board meetings go unattended, city contracts go unscrutinized, and government corruption simply goes unreported.
Politics isn’t a game, like basketball. The winners and losers in our democratic system aren’t playing for titles or championship rings: they’re competing for food, housing, and their children’s future. We need the free press to keep a close eye on everyone involved and make sure these competitions, which can be actual matters of life and death, are played fairly and according to the rules. Because, no matter what he says, you can’t trust a politician with a bullhorn labeled Truth to tell you anything but lies.
The tournament kicks off on Thursday in Mexico City. Here’s what newcomers can expect from one of the world’s largest and most watched events
It is! Every four years the best men’s teams on the planet gather to see who will be crowned world champions. This year’s tournament will be co-hosted by frenemies Canada, Mexico and the United States in 16 cities as different as Vancouver, Kansas City and Guadalajara. The 48 teams are initially divided into [does arithmetic] 12 four-team groups with each team playing the others in the group once. The top two from each group, along with the eight best third-placed teams – 32 in total – will advance to the knockout stages. Matches from that point on are single-elimination - lose and you’re out. If scores are level at the end of extra-time, the match is decided by a penalty shootout.
Continue reading...Darren Sharper, who pleaded guilty or no contest to raping women in four states, is projected to be released in 2028
Admitted serial rapist and former National Football League champion Darren Sharper has been transferred from federal prison to a halfway house program with his projected 2028 release date nearing.
In a statement to the Guardian on Monday, a US Bureau of Prisons (BoP) spokesperson said Sharper, 50, was transferred on 27 May from a federal correctional institution near Elkton, Ohio, to “community confinement” overseen by the agency’s residential re-entry management office in Baltimore.
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Collage by Alex Bandoni/ProPublica. Source images: Westend6, JHVEPhoto, Jean Catuffe and Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.
In late November in Jamnagar, India, the scions of two of the most powerful families in the world stood face-to-face. On one side was 30-year-old Anant Ambani, son of one the richest men in Asia. On the other was Donald Trump Jr. For months, the Trump administration had been on the offensive against the sprawling Ambani energy empire, placing it at the center of an escalating tariff campaign against India. But after Trump Jr. touched down, the two men toured the Ambanis’ private zoo, and at night they performed a Gujarati folk dance, grinning as they moved together to the music.
Four months later, an obscure Texas startup called America First Refining announced that it had received a nine-figure investment from the Ambanis’ company. The deal puzzled numerous energy investors familiar with the project, which aims to build the first major new oil refinery in the U.S. in about 50 years. The company is run by a serial entrepreneur with a history of bankruptcy and lawsuits alleging fraud. After more than a decade of failed attempts to raise money, blown deadlines and rebrands, it had been floundering.
America First Refining’s unexpected breakthrough came after it forged a previously unreported relationship with Trump Jr., who secretly acquired a stake in the startup, according to records and seven people familiar with the company. The new details reveal the role the president’s son has played in a theme of Trump’s second term: overseas investors with interests before the administration putting money into the Trump family’s business interests.
Over the past year and a half, Trump Jr. has amassed a fortune from stakes in companies ranging from crypto startups to a drone business to a firearms retailer. Some firms tied to the president’s son have received contracts or other support from the federal government, part of what critics describe as a run of Trump family self-dealing. In December, Forbes estimated that Trump Jr.’s net worth had rocketed from roughly $50 million to $300 million since the election. But the Forbes figures were based on the investments that have been publicly disclosed. The America First Refining episode suggests there is much about the family business that remains secret.
The size of Trump Jr.’s stake in America First Refining and what he paid for it remain unclear. Top executives at the startup have also said that they speak regularly with Trump Jr., according to a person close to the company. And after the Ambani investment was announced, Trump Jr.’s personal lawyer took credit on social media for playing a part in the deal.
America First Refining has flexed its Trump Jr. connections during pitch meetings with foreign officials. Early last year, Trump Jr. joined the company’s leadership for a meeting in South Florida with potential investors from Saudi Arabia, according to two people familiar with the matter. Another foreign government official pitched on the project told ProPublica that the company’s team emphasized they had backing from the Trump family and suggested that an investment would help with White House access.
The Ambanis’ investment coincided with the family’s securing major U.S. policy wins that their company, Reliance Industries, had been lobbying for. “Reliance Goes From Trump Foe to Friend With Refinery Pledge,” ran the Bloomberg headline after the deal was announced. Reliance’s intent with the deal was to “smooth out” tensions between the U.S. and India, the outlet reported.
A Trump Jr. spokesperson said that Trump Jr. “has no operational involvement in AFR and is simply a passive minority investor in an American company that aligns with his worldview.”
“The entire premise of this story relating to Don is false,” the spokesperson said, adding, “Don does not interface with the Federal Government on behalf of any company that he invests in or advises.” ProPublica did not find evidence Trump Jr. was aware of refinery executives’ suggesting that an investment would help with White House access.
In response to detailed questions, a spokesperson for America First Refining said, “The claims in this story are false,” but declined to specify what they were referring to. The company’s CEO previously denied wrongdoing in the lawsuits against him reviewed by ProPublica, and the suits were either settled or dropped.
The Ambani family had long been cultivating its relationship with the Trumps. Reliance paid $10 million to the Trump Organization in 2024 as a “development fee” for a project in Mumbai, according to the president’s financial disclosure. (Despite the payment, Reliance has not yet announced a Trump project. Reliance told ProPublica that “the real estate project is real” and “remains under development.”) Ivanka Trump attended Anant Ambani’s wedding party in India that year, where guests were treated to a Rihanna concert. Anant’s father, Mukesh — who is worth an estimated $90 billion and lives in a 27-story home — came to Washington, D.C., for Trump’s second inauguration, posing with the president at a private reception.
But by the summer of 2025, the family was under attack from the White House. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Reliance had reportedly made billions in profits by purchasing vast quantities of Russian oil at a discount. In August, as Trump grew frustrated with his administration’s struggles to bring the war to an end, the president doubled his tariffs on India to 50%. The move was explicitly designed to force companies like Reliance to stop buying Russian oil. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro publicly assailed “India’s politically connected energy titans” for “funding Putin’s war machine,” widely read as a reference to the Ambanis.
Amid this tension, Trump Jr. visited Anant Ambani on his November trip to India. At the end of the trip, Trump Jr.’s personal lawyer commented at a business conference in Miami: “I had a nice closing this morning with Don Trump Jr., who’s flying back from India today.” (The following week, the Texas startup — then called Element Fuels — filed paperwork to create America First Refining LLC. In an email, the attorney, John Willding, told ProPublica that there was “no transaction in India or with an Indian company that I was ever involved with.”)
Anant Ambani, who helps run Reliance’s energy business, personally worked on the Texas refinery deal for months before it was announced, a major Indian newspaper later reported.
As the Ambanis quietly finalized their deal with America First Refining, U.S.-Indian relations appeared to warm. In February, the Trump administration struck a trade deal with India, dramatically lowering tariffs, and also reportedly gave Reliance a license to buy Venezuelan oil. When the Iran war broke out and rocked global energy markets, the U.S. gave India a sanctions waiver to buy Russian crude. (The waiver was later expanded to all countries.)
In response to ProPublica’s questions, the White House said that “there are no conflicts of interest.” Reliance did not answer ProPublica’s questions about Trump Jr.’s and Anant Ambani’s roles in the investment deal, but said in a statement that the company did not receive “any unique or preferential treatment” from the U.S. government.
“There is no connection between Reliance’s investment in AFR and any unique measures associated with general U.S. trade, tariff, sanctions or licensing outcomes,” Reliance said. “The investment was evaluated and approved on its commercial merits, strategic fit and long-term value creation potential.”
In March, President Trump personally announced Reliance’s deal with the Texas startup on Truth Social, thanking the Ambani company for its “tremendous Investment.”
After the announcement, Willding, the Trump Jr. lawyer, shared the news on LinkedIn: “Just so proud to have been part of this one.”
Willding rowed back his claim in an email to ProPublica. “I have never worked for or advised AFR and had zero involvement in their deal with Reliance Energy,” he said. “I simply saw the press release and was excited for them.” America First Refining’s spokesperson called Willding’s comment “moronic and false.”
In June 2025, Willding registered a new entity in Wyoming called TX Fuels, LLC, listing the company’s address as Trump Jr.’s mansion in Jupiter, Florida. In his email, Willding said his “only involvement in AFR was handling the legal paperwork” for the Trump Jr. LLC’s investment in the startup.
Trump Jr. first hired Willding in May 2021, according to interviews the lawyer has given. A corporate deal lawyer in Dallas, Willding has referred to himself as “outside business counsel to the Trump family” and has said he talks to Trump Jr. or Eric Trump almost daily. A former Bill Clinton and Barack Obama voter who fell hard for MAGA, the attorney has installed a portrait of President Trump over the mantel in his living room.
Willding’s practice has boomed during the second Trump administration, bringing the lawyer to Argentina, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. “Everybody in the world wants to do business with the United States right now,” Willding said at a conference in June 2025. “Every company wants to do business with the Trump family.”
There are other fingerprints of the Trump world on the refinery deal.
Howard Lutnick’s firm Cantor Fitzgerald — which his sons took over when Lutnick became Trump’s commerce secretary — is working as the financial adviser to America First Refining, including on the Ambani investment deal, Cantor Fitzgerald announced. (Cantor Fitzgerald declined to comment.)
And the Trump administration played a direct role helping America First Refining find potential foreign investors, according to public comments from the company’s CEO, John Calce. “We have received support from the White House,” he told a local news outlet. The National Energy Dominance Council, led by the interior and energy secretaries, has “helped us with, candidly, introducing us and helping us meet some of these people overseas,” Calce said on an industry podcast.
America First Refining has recently explored going public, according to three people close to the company. That could allow its current investors to start cashing out even if the refinery never gets built — a milestone many energy industry insiders still view as a long shot. Reliance made its investment in the startup at a valuation of at least $1 billion, according to America First Refining’s announcement.
Building a refinery at the Port of Brownsville on the Gulf Coast has been Calce’s mission for a decade. A former Yale offensive lineman, he started his career as a high school football coach after an unsuccessful attempt to make the NFL and now describes himself as a “lifelong entrepreneur.”
The project has been serially delayed, out of money, rebranded and trailed by angry former business partners. At one point, Calce’s companies were being sued simultaneously by eight other firms. In 2022, during bankruptcy proceedings for an earlier iteration of the project, the trustee appointed to impartially oversee the case sued Calce too. The trustee alleged that Calce and other insiders had improperly siphoned away cash and other assets. (Calce denied wrongdoing. The case was ultimately settled.)
During the Biden administration, as the company sought financial support from the Department of Energy, it pitched itself as a climate-friendly green project that would also help “people of underrepresented social demographics” in Brownsville, according to records from that period. The company failed to get enough money from outside investors, and the planned construction was delayed.
By the company’s own estimate, building the refinery will take years and cost $3 billion to $4 billion. Even if it’s built, profitability could be hard to achieve. Many energy investors told ProPublica there’s a reason the U.S. hasn’t seen a major new refinery in decades. “Refineries cost a lot of money and essentially make pennies on the dollar,” said Ed Hirs, an energy economist in Houston. “Wall Street is not going to finance a new refinery.”
Even after the start of the second Trump administration, the company was in jeopardy, according to interviews and documents. It laid off workers last year, and, by late 2025, with delays continuing to plague the refinery, officials at the Port of Brownsville believed the project looked to be dead, according to records reviewed by ProPublica.
That has not stopped Calce and his team from making grandiose claims to the public. Earlier this year, a website went live for another Calce company called Brownsville Energy Storage Terminals. It claims to have a far-flung network of oil storage terminals in places like the Netherlands and Singapore, more than 850 employees and a C-suite of experienced energy executives. But ProPublica could find no evidence that the executives are real people or that the storage terminals actually exist. The phone numbers on the website are also currently listed online as the contacts for a Houston baklava caterer, a Dallas-area taxi service and an OB-GYN office. The numbers are dead.
America First Refining’s political ties, though, may have boosted its standing with Texas state regulators. In February, shortly before the Ambani investment became public, the company sought an extension on its permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Inside the state agency, emails obtained by ProPublica show, officials scrambled to approve the request.
“Need to get this one logged and processed asap,” wrote one official.
“You are going to have to do this one. I will explain why in person in a few,” wrote another. “You can guess if you check out the name.”
America First Refining got its approval the next day. A spokesperson for the Texas agency did not address questions about the emails. “This request was processed quickly due to the quality of information provided,” the spokesperson said.
The post An Indian Billionaire Was Targeted by Trump. Then He Poured Money Into a Startup Secretly Backed by Donald Trump Jr. appeared first on ProPublica.
These are the best sci-fi programs Apple has to offer.
Even somewhat puritan Massachusetts is giving soccer fans more time to drink during the tournament.
The magazine writes: ‘Resisting Gen-Z socialism is therefore an urgent task.’ That urgency must outweigh any urgency of feeding hungry people
A spectre is haunting Europe and America – the spectre of gen Z socialism.
That’s the urgent warning from the Economist in a new cover-story editorial, How to fight back against Gen-Z socialism. Alarmed by a youthful threat to the established order, the magazine is calling for heightened vigilance from defenders of private enterprise.
Norman Solomon is the director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy
Continue reading...Critics say president using well-worn playbook – with loyalists in key positions ready to amplify his message
Donald Trump is “inventing fraud” in California’s primary elections, and likely to ramp up unfounded allegations when more races go against him, pro-democracy experts have warned.
While the US president has used this playbook for years – from his loss at the Emmys as a reality TV star to his defeat in the 2020 presidential election – election integrity campaigners fear this time could be different.
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Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware is set to open its first medical school in 2028. For years, lawmakers and healthcare leaders have pointed to healthcare worker shortages in the state, especially below the C&D Canal. And as Delaware gets older and sicker, more physicians and specialists will be necessary to meet the demand.
Last week, Delaware announced it would open its first medical school in partnership with Thomas Jefferson University, bringing one of Gov. Matt Meyer’s campaign platforms to life.
Meyer hoped the school would help to close the medical professional shortage gap in the state. When the federal government announced last summer it would dish out billions of dollars across all 50 states to build out their rural healthcare infrastructure, the possibility of a medical school came into focus.
But some questions still remain unanswered about how exactly the school will operate, and how some of the more technical agreements will work between more than a dozen state institutions taking part in the venture.
The state has committed to funding dozens of students’ educations if they commit to working in rural Delaware following their graduation, and nearly a dozen hospitals and higher education institutions have rallied around Jefferson as a “consortium” to stand up the medical school. Currently, students are set to begin classes in 2028.
But Spotlight Delaware has yet to see any signed agreements between Delaware’s hospitals, higher education institutions or the state, so the exact operations of the medical school remain unclear. A public records request for those materials is pending.
Here is what we know about Delaware’s first medical school, and its potential impact on the state’s healthcare landscape.
A federal taxpayer grant, for at least five years, will pay for Delaware’s medical school. But state officials have said that following those five years, the medical school will be able to sustain itself.
The grant, the Rural Health Transformation Program, is aimed at improving rural health across the country. It was created last summer 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.
In February, Meyer’s office released an initial batch of requests for potential vendors to carry out programs that will be funded by the federal grant.
It came weeks after the state received its first award from the federal government totaling more than $157 million. The full RHTP award amount for the state remains unclear, but Delaware will receive at least $500 million from the multi-year program.
In plans submitted to the federal government, Delaware budgeted more than $100 million to run its medical school for five years. But Neil Hockstein, chair of the Delaware Health Care Commission, said the signed contract allows Jefferson to run the school for $78 million.
Asked how the state is required to spend the remaining funds, he said Delaware is allowed to reallocate that money to any of its other 14 RHTP initiatives.
Hockstein added the state intends to spread those leftover funds across multiple different programs instead of reallocating them to just one initiative.
Additionally, Hockstein said when the federal money runs out for the medical school, it would be “self-sustaining without an influx of state dollars.” Still, he said he hopes the state’s philanthropic ventures would help to support the medical school’s future.
When the state announced Jefferson would run the medical school last week, Meyer also said students in the first cohort would be eligible for a free education. To qualify, Meyer said students would need to commit to practicing in one of the state’s rural hospitals.
That would likely mean five years of work at Bayhealth, Beebe Healthcare or TidalHealth. But at the moment, TidalHealth – western Sussex County’s principal hospital – is not a part of the agreement between the dozen healthcare and higher education institutions to collaborate on the medical school.
Students in that first cohort receiving free education would be allowed to leave the state for their residency, but would be required to return to Delaware following that post-graduate education. For that first cohort, Delaware officials said that tuition would be funded through the federal grant.
“Students who enroll in the Primary Care–Rural Health pathway, or who complete their clinical training in Delaware, may be eligible for financial awards covering the full cost of their education in exchange for a commitment to practice in rural Delaware after completing their training,” a spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) said.
For months, as questions loomed over who would run Delaware’s maiden medical school, the location remained just as unclear.
So when officials announced last week that the University of Delaware would host medical school classes in Newark, questions arose over why the state would select a northern, suburban venue if it wants to bolster rural health.
Representatives from the university did not answer whether there are plans to move the campus downstate at any point, but state officials have made the argument in the past that where the campus is located is not as important as the curriculum it offers.
“Jefferson and UD have worked together to educate Delaware students for decades, and this partnership builds directly on that foundation,” a spokesperson for DHSS said.
According to a FAQ page for UD about the medical school, students enrolled in Jefferson’s program would attend two years of classes at its campus then be placed into clinical rotations somewhere downstate.
The university’s webpage also said the new medical school would have no impact on its tuition or programs, and that the university is not running the medical school, simply hosting classes for Jefferson.
The rural health grant prohibits Delaware from using any money for new construction. Still, the university said last week that space on its campus would be “refurbished” using the federal grant and would supplement the work of its College of Health Sciences.
According to the federal government’s requirements for the grant, capital expenditures for the state’s entire grant cannot exceed 20% of its budget.
The state has two other large capital expenses it will likely incur using RHTP funds, its two proposed homeless shelters in Kent and Sussex counties, though it is unclear at the moment how much these renovations will cost.
For those who heard news that Delaware would be opening its own medical school, some within the state may have asked about existing state programs meant to place Delawareans into medical education.
The Delaware Institute of Medical Education and Research, better known as DIMER, is the state’s most prominent medical education program. Currently, it places Delaware students into nearby medical schools like Jefferson and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM).
Jefferson reserves 20 seats annually for Delawareans and PCOM reserves 10. With both of those universities having competed to run the medical school, and Jefferson winning the race, some questioned whether DIMER would become obsolete.
It appears, however, that DIMER will continue to operate as normal, but may evolve in the coming years. At a Delaware Healthcare Commission meeting on Thursday, Hockstein said the medical school and DIMER programs serve different purposes.
“One is to give Delawareans an opportunity to get into medical school, and the other is to bring students from around the country to Delaware, where they can train,” Hockstein said during the meeting.
Hockstein also hinted that the program might shift toward specialty training and sending students away to bring back clinical skills the state sorely lacks.
In a statement from PCOM, a spokesperson said the college is “committed” to its DIMER partnership with Delaware. Hockstein also said the state and PCOM had discussed its role in DIMER and that the college was “very enthusiastic” about continuing its work in the program.
A key part of the state’s strategy in training and retaining doctors in Delaware is banking on students who complete their residency in the state and stay for the long term. On top of the financial aid incentives built into the federal grant, the state hopes to close the physician gap.
“Together, these investments are designed to strengthen Delaware’s long-term physician workforce and improve access to care in communities that need it most,” a spokesperson for DHSS said.
The post What to know about Delaware’s new medical school appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Why Delaware Should Care?
In recent years, the unhoused community in Wilmington has grown. In response, Mayor John Carney introduced a plan to convert an Eastside park into the only city-sanctioned encampment. But the initiative has since faced protests and criticism. Now, officials have decided to close down the encampment.
The Wilmington City Council has taken a stand against Mayor John Carney’s plan to shut down the city’s only sanctioned homeless encampment next week.
In a resolution unanimously passed Thursday, the council urged Carney to “immediately halt any forced removal” plans at Christina Park “until a comprehensive, humane, and adequately funded transition plan is fully operational.”
The resolution vote followed an hour of comments from the public, featuring dozens of residents speaking against the city’s plan to close the Eastside neighborhood park on June 15. Some of the commenters live at the park.
“Seeing us in that park is an eyesore for [Carney], but at the same time, he has to realize, we have nowhere to go, nowhere to sleep,” park resident Andreu Taylor-Simmons said.
In response to the council resolution, the Carney administration reaffirmed the city’s intention to close the encampment on June 15.
In a statement released Monday, city officials stated that the Eastside neighborhood park was always meant to be a temporary space for the unhoused. They also argued that neighbors have been “patient” while waiting for the park to be restored for recreational use.
Transition plans already in place, they said.
As part of the transition plan, the city said there are 20 beds at two separate housing organizations that offer case management services. For those unable to get one of them, the Wilmington Housing Authority will cover the cost of emergency hotels and motels, the city said.
The statement from the Carney administration follows a letter sent by city officials to the council, arguing that the resolution did not acknowledge the administration’s progress.
“Instead, it demands that Wilmington taxpayers continue to shoulder the cost of temporary encampment until the state completes its planning work,” the letter read.
The resolution’s sponsor, Councilwoman Shané Darby, read the letter during a city council committee meeting last Wednesday.
When asked about Carney’s promise to link park residents with housing, Darby expressed skepticism, stating in an interview with Spotlight Delaware, “I would love to see it.”
Darby’s resolution also recommends creating a senior-level Homelessness Response Coordinator position in the mayor’s office to coordinate citywide outreach, work with service providers, track homelessness data, pursue funding and develop long-term plans to reduce chronic homelessness in Wilmington.
The Carney administration launched its initiative to direct homeless people to Christina Park seven months ago. At the time, there were already about 50 people living in tents there.
Since then, officials have faced mounting criticism from encampment residents and housing advocates who said that the city had not provided promised services and that it had imposed burdensome rules.
Many also decried the city’s decision in April to direct residents into city-issued tents placed on large pallets at the park. The city spent nearly $60,000 on the pallets and tents.
Last month, Kim Eppehimer, the head of the nonprofit contracted to oversee the encampment, called the mayor’s plan to evict park residents an “unfortunate displacement of folks who are essentially already displaced.”
The city contract for Eppehimer’s nonprofit, Friendship House, is set to expire June 30.
Opposition to the encampment closure has also arisen outside of formal organizations. A petition, sponsored by local housing advocates, that asked the city to pause the eviction received over 150 signatures.
During Thursday’s council discussion, Darby said she believes the park should be returned to the public, but argued there should be a plan in place before the eviction takes place.
Several council members also asserted that the city and state need to expand the number of shelter beds available, and affordable housing. Councilman Chris Johnson said more dollars are needed for social services targeting homeless people in the city.
Councilwoman Yolanda McCoy noted that homelessness has been a years-long issue — one for which Carney isn’t to blame. She said his initial sanctioning of the encampment at Christina Park simply brought “eyes to a situation we were already in.”
In the Carney administration’s response to Darby’s resolution, officials also said talks are ongoing with Springboard Delaware about potentially bringing a tiny home village to Wilmington.
They also noted that Carney has directed the City Council to select one of two sites for the village by July 1, in order to secure federal COVID-era relief dollars before they expire. The sites include a property across the street from Christina Park and another that sits along Garasches Lane, a small street lined by industrial land in Southbridge.
Last month, Southbridge residents expressed their opposition to the proposed site in their neighborhood.
Darby told Spotlight Delaware the council was being rushed to make a decision, saying members were not thoroughly consulted before the two locations were presented.
“The administration was like, ‘Hey, here’s this email. There are two locations, you choose it. You’ve got to do it before July.’ And I was like, ‘What?’” Darby said.
Reporter Naomi Weiss contributed to this report.
The post Wilmington City Council formally opposes mayor’s plan to close park encampment appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Three Practical Strategies for Scaling AI and HPC Infrastructure Despite Flash Constraints
The rapid emergence of AI is forcing research organizations and HPC teams to rethink infrastructure much faster than many expected. GPU clusters are expanding, training datasets are growing, and organizations are under pressure to modernize environments originally designed for very different workload patterns.
At the same time, the flash storage market is tightening. SSD pricing pressure, constrained supply, and long procurement cycles are arriving just as many institutions are attempting to scale infrastructure for large AI workloads.
But the real challenge extends beyond SSD availability itself. AI is exposing architectural assumptions that have existed in HPC infrastructure for years, particularly around how flash storage is deployed and utilized across compute environments.
Many organizations already have large amounts of NVMe flash distributed throughout their compute clusters inside CPU and GPU servers. Yet much of that storage remains isolated as node-local scratch space rather than operating as part of a coordinated, shared high-performance data architecture.
Several practical architectural approaches can help organizations scale AI and HPC infrastructure more efficiently despite ongoing flash constraints.
Most modern HPC and AI environments already contain significant amounts of high-performance NVMe flash distributed across CPU and GPU servers. In many cases, this node-local storage is used only as temporary scratch space because it operates outside the shared storage architecture supporting the broader environment.
As GPU infrastructure scales, this isolated flash capacity becomes increasingly valuable. Large compute environments may already contain petabytes of NVMe storage that remain operationally underutilized because they are not integrated into a coordinated data architecture. Treating this distributed flash as a shared Tier 0 storage layer can significantly reduce pressure on centralized all-flash infrastructure while delivering extremely low-latency access for AI training, checkpointing, and high-performance data pipelines.
Within the Hammerspace architecture, node-local NVMe can be incorporated into the global namespace as shared high-performance storage, rather than remaining isolated within individual servers.That allows data placement and protection policies to operate automatically across Tier 0 flash and downstream storage tiers.
For example, AI training checkpoints can be written locally to Tier 0 flash for extremely fast access, then automatically orchestrated to other storage tiers as they age. Critically, this Tier 0 architecture is not another storage island. The value comes from integrating node-local flash into a coordinated multi-tier data architecture spanning shared NVMe, high-capacity flash, disk, object storage, and cloud environments under a single operational framework. More on that below…
The reality is that AI workloads do not require every dataset to reside permanently on premium flash storage. Training pipelines, checkpoints, reference datasets, embeddings, and archival data often exhibit very different access and performance characteristics, making multi-tier architectures increasingly important as flash costs rise. Hammerspace demonstrates how a coordinated data architecture allows flash, disk, object storage, and cloud tiers to operate as part of a unified environment, with data placement handled dynamically according to operational requirements rather than static infrastructure boundaries.
Frequently accessed or latency-sensitive data can remain close to accelerated compute resources, while colder datasets are automatically shifted toward lower-cost capacity tiers without disrupting user or application access.
Equally important, modern parallel file system architectures such as Hammerspace allow organizations to combine flash and disk tiers without sacrificing the throughput and parallel access patterns required by modern AI and HPC workloads.
AI infrastructure is increasingly distributed across hyperscalers, sovereign cloud providers, neoclouds, and on-premises environments. As organizations look for available GPU capacity, the challenge is no longer simply where compute exists, but how to operationalize data consistently across these fragmented environments. The challenge is coordinating access to distributed datasets while maintaining governance, sovereignty, and operational consistency across environments.
A coordinated data architecture allows organizations to span on-premises and cloud environments within a unified operational framework, with data placement orchestrated dynamically according to policy. This means that data is automatically pushed to the cloud GPU resources that are available when needed, and can leverage cloud storage resources that are available, all as part of one file unified system.
For example, organizations may need to place only a subset of project data near temporary cloud GPU resources for model training or inference. Intelligent orchestration allows the relevant datasets, and only the relevant datasets, to move dynamically into those environments while governance policies remain intact. HPC environments have long relied on sophisticated compute scheduling and orchestration frameworks. Increasingly, the same level of orchestration is required at the data layer itself.
In that sense, flash constraints may ultimately accelerate a broader architectural transition already underway across AI and HPC infrastructure: the shift toward unified, orchestrated data architectures capable of scaling across distributed compute environments without requiring organizations to continuously build new all-flash storage systems.
If you would like to learn more, come visit us at booth A20 at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg June 22 – 26.
The post Modernizing HPC Infrastructure in an SSD-Constrained Era appeared first on HPCwire.
Players and fans denied visas, the spectre of ICE raids on stadiums, Pete Hegseth’s latest speech ... By the end of this contest, the nature of this US government will be even clearer
Whenever my kids and I are stationary in the same room, within five minutes they will have started talking about football. Every now and then, a name will float out that I recognise – Jude Bellingham, say – but most of the time it lacks the dramatic texture to hold my attention. Everyone is either a genius or an irretrievable loser.
There’s a lot of counting. “Would you watch a play in which everyone was either entirely wise or entirely stupid and the rest of it was mainly a body count?” I ask, trying to wedge myself back into the conversation. They reply: “Hello? Romeo and Juliet?!” then go back to the shortcomings of La Liga, so I go back to looking at my phone.
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Shoshana Gordon/ProPublica. Source images: Records obtained by ProPublica, USDA Forest Service photo by Andrew Avitt.
A little over a year ago, Sen. Tim Sheehy floated an audacious proposal to reshape the way the federal government fights wildfires. It called for expanding the use of private planes and helicopters to quickly attack blazes while also eliminating the U.S. Forest Service’s rigorous airworthiness inspections for those aircraft.
The idea stood to benefit Sheehy, a Montana Republican, personally. Before running for Congress, he founded and ran an aerial firefighting company called Bridger Aerospace, which is known for its scoopers, aircraft built to retrieve water from lakes or oceans and drop it onto fires. Since 2021, the Forest Service has paid Bridger more than $235 million for use of its scoopers, according to public records.
Sheehy’s ownership of Bridger is well known, but what hasn’t been reported is that the same month the proposal leaked, a Forest Service inspector had discovered a crack in a wing of an aircraft Bridger had presented as ready for service. The scooper had failed the very inspection Sheehy sought to eliminate.
Forest Service inspectors have flagged problems with Bridger’s scoopers for years, according to sources and documents obtained by ProPublica under the Freedom of Information Act. The records were heavily redacted by the agency, including the problem that the inspector discovered last April. But a former government official with direct knowledge of the inspection told ProPublica it had revealed a crack in a wing. “It was a big crack,” the official said. Other experts said that kind of finding is rare and could have proved catastrophic.
“Very seldom do you find a crack in a major component,” said Paul Markowitz, a former national aviation maintenance manager for the Forest Service. Detecting such problems is the reason the Forest Service operates an airworthiness program, he added: “It’s to keep people alive.”
Veteran fire officials noted that Sheehy’s proposals would eliminate costly oversight of the company he founded and others like it while increasing spending on aerial firefighting. At the time the document leaked, he owned Bridger stock worth between $13 million and $15 million.
Within the Forest Service, the company was known to resist oversight, officials told ProPublica. Five current and former Forest Service officials say Bridger Aerospace has chafed at the agency’s rigorous inspections, even as records and sources indicate the company has presented aircraft in need of maintenance and repairs as ready to fight fires. The sources asked not to be named for fear of reprisal.
Bridger did not answer questions about the failed inspection but said in a statement, “Safety is the bedrock of our company, and we spare no expense.” It added, “Our investment in maintenance and training runs into the tens of millions annually and reflects the high safety standard we believe this work demands.”
Bridger’s aircraft have never been involved in a crash, according to records maintained by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Sheehy’s office did not respond to interview requests. But he has been open about his frustration with the Forest Service’s inspections and contended that Bridger’s scoopers, because they are built to fight fire, require less oversight than other firefighting aircraft that were originally designed for other purposes.
In response to detailed questions about Sheehy’s role in reshaping the fire service, a spokesperson for the senator said he stands by his efforts to eliminate Forest Service inspections. The process is “a relic of a bygone era and has become an unnecessary barrier to asset availability,” the spokesperson said in an email. The spokesperson also said that Sheehy has no conflict of interest because he has since moved his assets into blind trusts, adding, “The senator will continue to be adversarial toward anyone protecting a broken status quo that has allowed cities to burn to the ground.”
Former Forest Service officials say it’s common for companies to complain about inspections. What sets Bridger apart is its connection to a senator who is seeking to change how wildfire aviation is managed. A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, did not answer questions about Sheehy’s relationship with the agency.
Last June, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to consolidate their wildland fire programs, an idea Sheehy and others have long favored. The order left Forest Service inspections in place. But as fire officials discuss consolidation, an influential industry group that Sheehy helped shape is advocating for ending them.
The United Aerial Firefighters Association was launched in 2022, with Sheehy serving as a founding board member. The group now wants to allow contractors to develop their own inspection standards.
“Industry inspects itself all the time. Industry inspects automobiles. Industry inspects baby formula,” said Tiffany Taylor, UAFA’s senior policy director. “Why can’t we be inspecting ourselves?”
Contractors like Bridger own the vast majority of aircraft that the federal government uses to fight wildfires. In 2022, the last year for which data is available, only 5% of the Forest Service’s flight hours for firefighting came from aircraft it owns. Regardless of their ownership, aircraft must be inspected before flying. That job falls to about 25 aviation safety inspectors, most of whom work for the Forest Service.
The Federal Aviation Administration certifies aircraft but does not conduct regular inspections. The agency instead relies on companies to ensure their planes and helicopters are airworthy. Even when the FAA performs inspections, fire officials and contractors say, they do not account for the stresses inflicted by steering aircraft through wildfires. “The Forest Service is way more in-depth,” said Britt Coulson, president of Coulson Aviation, a prominent air tanker contractor.
Forest Service officials often say the agency’s rules governing aviation are written in blood. A pair of shocking crashes in 2002 ignited the push for more rigorous inspections. That June, an air tanker was dropping retardant in California when its wings folded upward, like a bird in flight, and detached. The plane burst into flames and fell to the ground. The harrowing moment was caught on video. Three people onboard were killed, and the NTSB later attributed the accident to undetected cracks in one of the plane’s wings. One month later, in Colorado, another tanker contracted by the Forest Service crashed after a wing separated from the fuselage. Two pilots were killed. Once again, the NTSB said the accident was caused by unidentified wing cracking.
Since 2010, when the Forest Service implemented its current airworthiness program, the accident rate for aircraft it owns or contracts has plummeted. Between 1993 and 2010, it reported 85 accidents that killed 63 people — an average of nearly four deaths per year. Between 2011 and 2023, the last year for which data is available, the agency reported just 17 accidents and seven fatalities.
Inspectors examine everything from the fuselage to the altimeter. When they find problems, they require the contractor to make changes before they issue a certifying document known as a card. In a separate procedure, inspectors issue cards to contractors’ pilots.
By 2018, Bridger had a modest fleet of surveillance aircraft, but Sheehy had bigger ambitions. According to Sheehy’s 2023 book, “Mudslingers: A True Story of Aerial Firefighting,” his brother, Matt, a Bridger co-founder, helped connect the company to the Blackstone Group, which invested a reported $150 million. Bridger used the funds to buy six scoopers from Viking Air. Sheehy wrote that the day of the first aircraft’s arrival in 2020 was “among the proudest of my life.”
In his book, he described that aircraft as a “brand new” model CL-415 but according to FAA records and aviation experts, this was inaccurate. The records show Bridger’s first scooper was built in 1985 and that it is in fact a precursor to the CL-415 model. Viking Air is now part of a larger company called De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited. A De Havilland spokesperson declined to comment about the aircraft’s age.
Records also show that Bridger’s first scooper had undergone extensive repairs before the company bought it. The skin of the fuselage had cracked from stress, and both wings had been repaired. One repair, done in 2012, fixed a crack in the left spar — a load-bearing beam extending outward from the fuselage. Experts say any repair to a wing spar is significant. “A spar is what’s holding the damn thing together,” said Markowitz.
According to Sheehy’s account, in 2020, the Forest Service’s airworthiness chief at the time, John Nelson, insisted that Bridger’s scoopers meet an updated standard of maintenance and inspection. Sheehy was extremely upset. “Unfortunately, the relationship between industry and the USFS Airworthiness Branch is at an all-time low,” he wrote in his book. (Nelson did not respond to questions about Sheehy’s characterization.)
The next year, Bridger’s first scoopers received cards, allowing the government to pay for their use.
By 2023, the company had six contracted scoopers. Inspectors soon found more problems with the aircraft, according to the records. In January 2024, Bridger presented its first scooper as ready for service, only to have a Forest Service inspector find issues with the engine and electronics. The problems and reasons for the failed inspection were redacted in documents obtained by ProPublica. The scooper received its card the next month.
According to experts who examined the Bridger inspection records at ProPublica’s request, these issues are common in the aerial firefighting fleet. But they said it’s extraordinary for inspectors to find a problem like the one identified last spring.
In early April 2025, Bridger presented two scoopers for carding, saying they were ready for service. During one of these assessments, a Forest Service inspector found a crack in a wing.
The Forest Service records show that Bridger completed a repair in Montana by April 18. Within a week, both aircraft had been cleared for flight.
Bridger did not answer specific questions about the repair. In a statement, the company said, “For a 30,000-pound aircraft that skims bodies of water repeatedly at 100 mph to scoop 11,700 pounds of water in 12 seconds, regular maintenance and periodic repairs are an inherent part of the job.” The company added, “We welcome the rigorous certification process.”
But the relatively quick repair was not a reflection of the severity of the issue. Gil Elmy, a former Forest Service official who wrote the agency’s aircraft inspector guide, said such a finding “should not happen.” Markowitz said the finding evoked an uncomfortable historical echo. The 2002 crash, which was caught on camera and precipitated the Forest Service’s reckoning and its modern airworthiness program, was caused by unidentified wing cracking.
As Bridger’s scooper was being repaired, officials in the wildland fire community were responding to a proposal from the senator’s office that would have ended the airworthiness program. In March 2025, Sheehy asked Brooke Rollins, the secretary of the Department of Agriculture, to stop the inspections, and in mid-April, a draft executive order that proposed eliminating them leaked from his Senate office. Metadata showed the draft had been edited by one of Sheehy’s policy advisers at the time as well as a lobbyist for Bridger. The United Aerial Firefighting Association also shaped the draft.
“Senator Sheehy’s office circulated a living, breathing document to members of congress, outside policy experts, and industry stakeholders on ways to improve the way we fight fire in this country,” wrote Sheehy’s spokesperson.
When Sheehy resigned from Bridger in July 2024 to run for the Senate, he owned 21% of the company, making him its largest individual shareholder. Four months after taking office, in May 2025, he moved most of his stock into two revocable blind trusts, claiming they eliminated any conflict of interest he might have.
But the trusts appear to be managed by executives at Tallgrass, an energy infrastructure company that until March was run by Sheehy’s brother, Matt, who was also a significant early investor in Bridger. Neither Matt Sheehy nor representatives for Tallgrass responded to questions about the trusts. In an email, a spokesperson for the senator did not dispute the Tallgrass executives’ stewardship but pointed out that the Senate Select Committee on Ethics had vetted the trusts. The spokesperson wrote, “Senator Sheehy’s blind trusts are completely independent — he has no control over them.”
According to Cynthia Brown, senior ethics counsel at the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a decision to entrust stock to such close associates undermines the purpose of a blind trust, which is to ensure that a lawmaker’s investments are independently managed. In an email, Brown said, “Selecting a family member’s company appears to do that exact thing that the rules mean to prohibit.”
Since last spring, Sheehy has said little about airworthiness inspections. But he has pushed other policies that would increase business opportunities for aviation companies, such as requiring a response within 30 minutes to all wildfires on federal land. At the same time, he has driven an agenda that could debilitate his longtime foe, the Forest Service.
In statements, on podcasts and in the New York Times opinion section, he has advocated for a single national fire service. And at almost every turn — including in proposed legislation — he has insisted that the Forest Service’s vast wildfire apparatus be moved within the Department of the Interior’s smaller operation. It would hollow out the Forest Service, which draws more than half its budget from fire operations. “It would be a fatal wound,” said Doug Crandall, the agency’s former legislative affairs director.
There are inefficiencies in a fire aviation system spread between agencies. The rush for a couple dozen inspectors to certify hundreds of planes and helicopters before wildfire season can cause delays, temporarily grounding aircraft and cutting into contractors’ revenues. And the agencies have sometimes required duplicative inspections.
But even officials and firefighting labor advocates who support consolidation, which requires congressional approval, have questioned why Interior should absorb the Forest Service’s fire program. Some liken it to forcing a minnow to swallow a whale. The Forest Service employs about twice as many full-time wildland firefighters as the Interior Department, and it spends at least three times more on aviation contracting. It is also responsible for the vast majority of inspections. According to a recent organizational chart reviewed by ProPublica, only five aviation safety inspectors currently work for the Interior Department.
Bridger carries significant debt and in 2024 warned shareholders that it had “substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.” But last year, the company reported a profit for the first time since going public. It also purchased two more scoopers and predicted that efforts to unify fire agencies “could increase contracting opportunities for private aerial providers.” In another recent filing, Bridger said, “the legislative and policy environment has never been more aligned with our mission.”
Last year, six Forest Service aviation safety inspectors resigned or retired, according to the agency. The recent organizational chart reviewed by ProPublica shows the same number of positions remain unfilled, representing more than 20% of Forest Service aviation safety inspector jobs. It’s unclear what would happen to the rest of the inspectors if the Interior Department were to absorb the Forest Service’s fire operations. In an emailed statement, Adam Mendonca, the Forest Service’s deputy director of fire and aviation management, said the agency “has no intention to change our aircraft inspection standards,” adding that it was “working closely with the Department of the Interior to streamline aviation operations.”
In late March, the Forest Service announced a dramatic reorganization that will move its headquarters to Salt Lake City. The Department of Agriculture reiterated the administration’s desire to fold the Forest Service’s fire operations into the Interior Department.
By that point, blazes had ignited in the Midwest. With the arrival of fire season, the Forest Service’s airworthiness inspectors performed their close examinations. At hangars across the country, they looked for cracks.
The post A U.S. Senator Pushed to Cut Firefighting Aircraft Inspections the Same Month His Former Company Failed One appeared first on ProPublica.
Commentary: Some say Apple is lagging behind in the AI gold rush. I think the company has positioned itself strategically.
Socks from Arsenal Football Club have a new life helping rescued donkeys and horses heal from injuries.
Embattled International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan was suspended after the court's oversight body referred him for disciplinary proceedings.
Medical Protection Society calls for law to be overhauled to help medics avoid liability for errors made by technology
Doctors and the NHS could be sued for medical negligence over mistakes made by artificial intelligence tools used in diagnosing patients and suggesting their treatment, ministers are being warned.
Under the law as it stands, medics and the health service can be held liable for patients being harmed or dying even if it was AI that made the errors that resulted in their suffering.
Continue reading...JPMorgan Chase leads 65 banks making decisions incompatible with restraining rising temperatures, researchers say
The world’s largest banks committed $906bn in financing to the fossil fuel industry last year, an “unfathomable” increase in investment locking in years more of coal, oil and gas production as the world continues to overheat, a new report has found.
The surge in new fossil fuel lending, up $64bn or nearly 8% on 2024, shows that the world’s largest 65 banks are making decisions incompatible with international agreements to restrain rising global temperatures, according to the coalition of environmental groups behind the new analysis.
Continue reading...Dr Hussam Abu Safiya now in cell barely big enough to sit in, says son, after UN experts demanded his release in March
The son of a prominent Palestinian doctor who was detained by Israeli forces in Gaza in late 2024 and held for more than 500 days without formal charges has spoken of his deep concern for his father’s wellbeing after he was transferred without explanation to solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, was detained at work on 27 December 2024. Physicians for Human Rights Israel said last week it had received information indicating that the 53-year-old had been transferred from Ketziot prison to Ramon prison, part of the Ganot prison complex, where he had been put in solitary confinement. PHRI said it had not been told the reasons for the transfer.
Continue reading...Track and field’s youngest world champion on ‘wanting to change the sport’ and his admiration for Napoleon
We are in living in the era of teenage super talents. On Saturday, Mirra Andreeva won the French Open at 19. Spain’s Lamine Yamal, at 18, is one of the favourites for the World Cup’s golden ball. Then there is Cooper Lutkenhaus, the 17-year-old American already making the world’s best athletes gasp for air and reach for superlatives, who may yet prove the best of the bunch.
True, it is early days. But Lutkenhaus is already track and field’s youngest world champion, having won 800m indoor gold in March. On Sunday, he added to his CV with victory against a top-class field in his first Diamond League race. But it was what his rivals said afterwards in Stockholm that left the deepest mark.
Continue reading...His toxic Henry Nowak intervention fits a pattern. Vance has hard-right views, a disdain for European society – and he may yet become president
Immigration is falling in Britain. It’s falling so fast and so hard – net migration to the UK nearly halved between 2024 and 2025 – that before long we could conceivably be a shrinking population, with more people leaving the country than coming here. (And no, that’s not because of an exodus of bright young Britons fleeing overseas, though you wouldn’t blame them given how hard they’re finding it currently to get jobs: the rise, as the Institute for Government’s Sam Freedman helpfully points out, is mainly in foreign students and foreign workers going home.) Even small-boat crossings are down on last year. We have, in short, finally made ourselves as unattractive to the rest of the world as leave voters always wanted – which means that, sooner or later, populists who built their careers on railing against supposedly uncontrolled immigration are going to be needing another scapegoat to explain why taking back control hasn’t magically solved all the country’s problems. And with a grim inevitability, they’re finding it in turning on migrants who are already here.
That’s the background to two hand grenades lobbed aggressively into British politics from across the Atlantic last week, causing enough concern in Downing Street to prompt a rare public rebuke. The claim from the US vice-president, JD Vance, that “righteous anger” was “the only response” to the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak would have been provocative enough, given its pointed echo of Nigel Farage’s now widely condemned call for “pure, cold rage”.
Continue reading...A battery researcher's investigation, backed by more than 20 independent experts, claims Donut Lab's much-hyped "solid-state" battery is actually a conventional lithium-ion cell, with voltage curves and expansion data matching high-nickel NCM chemistry rather than the promised sodium-ion solid-state design. Electrek reports the company raised about $25 million from more than 1,300 mostly small investors on claims of 400 Wh/kg energy density, 100,000-cycle life, and 5-minute charging that now appear unsupported. From the report: The investigation consulted over 20 independent battery experts, including Julian Zanau from the Fraunhofer Research Institute, Dr. Yahim San from Justus-Liebig University, Tom Bicha from Leona, and Dr. Yuo Hesca from Seinajoki University of Applied Sciences. Every single one confirmed the tested cell is lithium-ion. There are two key pieces of evidence. First, the voltage curves from VTT testing match high-nickel lithium-ion cells (NCM chemistry). The cell sits at 3.7-3.8 volts at 50% state of charge -- right where lithium-ion cells operate. Sodium-ion cells don't go significantly past 3.5 volts at 50% SOC. The second piece of evidence is even more damning: VTT's cell expansion data. When a battery charges, ions squeeze into the anode material, causing it to expand in a predictable pattern. A graphite anode produces a distinctive "kink" in the expansion curve around 50-70% state of charge, caused by how ions reorder themselves in graphite's layered structure. The Donut Lab cell shows exactly that kink. This is critical because sodium ions are physically too large to fit into graphite layers. The graphite anode signature proves the cell uses lithium ions. The investigation puts it well: "it's like we have a slightly noisy fingerprint and a picture of the suspect's face. And yet again, it's a match." The calculated energy density? About 298 Wh/kg -- what you'd expect from a good lithium-ion cell, not the 400 Wh/kg claimed. The investigation reveals that the battery technology traces back to CT Coatings, a German company with an "eclectic" array of patents -- including inventions for screen-printed paving slabs, menu folders, and warning triangles. CT Coatings promised Nordic Nano and Donut Lab a screen-printed sodium-ion solid-state battery. What it delivered was a lithium-ion pouch cell.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman surged past Spencer Pratt on Sunday in the race for LA mayor. The California governor's race remains undecided.
Protectionist measures will deal blow to country’s budget as it defends itself against Russia, says Metinvest chief
New EU limits on steel imports could destroy Ukraine’s industry and deal a big blow to the country’s budget as it defends itself against Russia, according to the head of its biggest steelmaker.
Yuriy Ryzhenkov, the chief executive of Metinvest, said the new EU quota system due on 1 July could “kill the Ukrainian steel industry”.
Continue reading...Victor Wembanyama had 32 points, eight rebounds and six assists in his first NBA Finals win, carrying the Spurs to a 115-111 victory over the Knicks in Game 3 on Monday night.
Exclusive: Ukrainian leader says he has ‘a very good relationship’ with British monarch, who has supported his country
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has revealed that he plans to invite King Charles on a state visit to Ukraine as early as this year, which would make him the most senior royal to travel to Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The Ukrainian president said he had a close relationship with the king, whom he has met on numerous occasions, including when he gave a public show of support after Zelenskyy’s explosive visit to the White House last year.
Continue reading...In a wide-ranging interview, an upbeat Ukrainian president also discusses Donald Trump, King Charles, and how Kyiv is prepared to share its experience of drone warfare with the west
Sitting down with the Guardian in London, Volodymyr Zelenskyy seems cheerful. More than four years after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion, he believes Europe’s biggest war since 1945 appears to be slowly turning in Ukraine’s favour. The military situation is the most promising it has been for Kyiv for two and a half years, Zelenskyy says. “We can’t say Russia is losing this war. But we can say they are losing the initiative each day, day by day,” he insists.
Over the past week the Kremlin has suffered a series of setbacks. Long-range Ukrainian drones have hit Putin’s home city of St Petersburg, setting fire to oil terminals and sending smoke billowing above the skyline. Similar attacks have crippled occupied Crimea. A key supply road is littered with burning lorries and tankers and the peninsula seized by Russia in 2014 is experiencing severe fuel shortages.
Continue reading...Datacentre off Shanghai coast uses less power and water than land-based equivalent
The world’s first wind-powered underwater datacentre has started operations off the coast of Shanghai, as China presses forwards with solutions for energy challenges created by the country’s artificial intelligence boom.
The Shanghai Lingang undersea datacentre demonstration project, which launched in May, has a capacity of 24 megawatts. It is a joint effort between HiCloud Technology and China Communications Construction, a state-owned company.
Continue reading...I've been getting obsessed with possibly buying a OneWheel. I've owned multiple Boosted Boards and e-bikes in the past which had been great, but the OneWheel feels like it could be really fun for doing slight off road excursions especially when going camping and what not.
Naturally I've been binging all the YouTube videos I could and, while absurdly expensive, the GT S-series seems like the way to go for the "safety" aspect of the added power. But I have a question about the safety of a OneWheel in general...
Obviously the OneWheel is a single point of failure device -- one wheel -- and electronics can fail. But every post I read seems to have a mention of someone being hospitalized or at minimum nose-diving hard unexpectedly. Is this just part of the OneWheel life or are these crashes/falls more often than not user error of pushing the device past it's limit and purposely ignoring the pushback of the device? Hitting like a bump wrong and having to jump off is not a concern, but a lot of what I see are pretty serious falls
My XR Classic with 198 miles went into low power mode and nosed up at 21%. I was on a ride and thought I could make it back but the board had other ideas. What’s going on here? I started the ride at 90%. Love that thing but man it totally made me do the walk of shame. I was running it at a lower tire PSI since I was doing gravel / trail riding.
America depends on global order—and can restore it.
The oceans may soon be tolled.
Spurs 19-9 Knicks, 6.49, 1st quarter
Finally, it’s time for basketball. The Spurs rattle off the first seven points behind a couple of Wembayana dunks and a Vassell three, doing their best to take the steam out of a deafening atmosphere. Hart answers with a three-pointer, but another Wembanyama lay-up and a Castle three makes it 14-5 to San Antonio. The Spurs have made six of their first eight shots while New York look quite scattered on the defensive end. Play continues well past the first TV timeout and by the time of the first whistle, San Antonio lead by 10.
Continue reading...People told not to enter damaged buildings for fear of aftershocks from magnitude-7.8 quake
At least 37 people have died and hundreds have been injured after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake shook part of the southern Philippines early on Monday, collapsing buildings and triggering tsunami alerts.
The quake hit early in the morning about 20km (12.4 miles) off the coast of Sarangani province, with tremors felt strongly across Mindanao and 420km away in the city of Manado on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
Continue reading...Donald Trump was booed loudly by fans inside Madison Square Garden when he was shown on video screens during the national anthem prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The world's oceans are under "severe and accelerating" pressure from human activities, with the rate of sea-level rise double that of a decade ago, according to a damning assessment from the United Nations. The "intensifying" stressors, which include pollution and large-scale industrial fishing, are cumulative, said the report, resulting in widespread biodiversity loss and putting ocean systems under "severe strain." The UN's third World Ocean Assessment, which reflects the work of nearly 600 scientists from 86 countries, looked at the oceans' health from 2021-25. The previous report, that covered up to 2018, found persistent degradation of the marine environment. Five years on, scientists know more about the cumulative impacts of anthropogenic pressures on the ocean, and the latest report shows just how much of the damage has been done in the past few years. The scientists' key findings include: - Sea levels continue to rise at an increasing rate, from 2mm a year prior to 2015 to 4.3mm a year in 2023. - 16% of the increase in global ocean heat since 1955 occurred after 2018. - The greatest relative warming has been observed in the Atlantic Ocean and the southern parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. - Large gaps in knowledge persist -- with only 27% of the ocean floor mapped by 2025, deep-sea ecosystems remain poorly understood. Lukas Meus, Greenpeace's global ocean campaigner, said: "We are calling on governments to create fully protected ocean sanctuaries that will close vast areas of the ocean off from extractive human activities. Governments have promised to protect 30% of the world's ocean by 2030 -- the minimum scientists say we need for the ocean to be able to recover."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
When I needed to ship my XR I had some difficulty figuring it out based on what I could find online. I kept seeing different methods and dreaded failures and some outdated info.
Here is what worked for me. Hopefully it's of use for others.
I sold through ebay which gives you the option to create a label after a sale. It matters which shipper you go with. I went with UPS and generated a generic label. Because of the lithium battery there are restrictions but I recommend not selecting a hazardous material label until you get to the shipper. ebay has a drop down with all kinds of selections. Class 9 Lithium Battery Mark (UN3481) being the correct one but as of now, even if you select it, it does not give you an option for UPS or FedEx. It could be a software bug or some other reason but it defaults to USPS if you select the class 9 label.
Instead, I got the label for a basic non-hazardous shipment. However you create your own label, this is what I would recommend as well. The reason is when you ship, the shipper will apply a Class 9 Lithium Battery Mark (UN3481) sticker to the box. That's all it is. It does not need to be on the shipping label itself.
I wasn't sure of the weight so I estimated 30lbs.
I bought a 12x12x40 inch box from u-haul to cut down to 30 inches as an outer box. If you want other options, Loews also makes that size box but as far as I was able to figure out, Home Deport does not.
This process worked perfectly for me to make an outer box:. See the instructions at 1:34: https://youtu.be/l6bc-XFW75A?si=pdlrQQTri9kKj0y1.
My XR had a retail box but I did not have those useful cardboard corners it originally came with. I got some bubble wrap, packed the retail box and then slid it into the modified outer box.
If you don't have a retail box you can still use the same size outer box or you might want to trim it further. Pack it well with bubble wrap so there is no sliding around. Seal the outer box with heavy duty clear tape.
My box was almost 40lbs because of a hyper charger so I had to pay a little extra at the UPS Store but it was literally a 5 minute exercise. No hiccups. There was no resistance or interrogation by the shipper. It just needs the 3481 sticker which costs nothing. Just remember to mention it at the shipper. The weight of the box is the only cost. It goes ground.
I'm sure there are variations to this process that will work as well.
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for June 9, No. 624.
I am low vision and i want a board i can have fun on without feeling like i have to do tricks. I was thinking about getting the summerboard but i saw horrible reviews on it. Is one wheel something you have fun riding around on without going on ramps or doing anything extra?
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for June 9.
Football fans are celebrating the tournament coming to Guadalajara. But with a brutal crime syndicate holding sway there, what are the risks for fans – and the government?
Excitement is mounting in Mexico as the World Cup opens in Mexico City, then heads to the city of Guadalajara.
Mexican journalist Leon Krauze is a fan. He was there the last time the World Cup came to Mexico and will be watching again. The city of Guadalajara has a mythical footballing past: “Pele’s Brazil played there in 1970, then Zico and Socrates played there in 1986. There is a real football memory there, a love affair between Guadalajara and football in general, and I expect it to be a wonderful party.”
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed.
Donald Trump on Monday posted on Truth Social that “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting’” before claiming an hour later that Israel and Iran were “looking to do an immediate ceasefire” and that “final negotiations on peace” were under way.
While he did not provide any further details, AFP reports that Trump had called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
Continue reading...The surprising and divisive mayoral campaign of right-wing reality TV star Spencer Pratt came to an end on Monday, when Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, claimed her spot on the general election ballot against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.
The second-place finish for Raman means that in the coming months, Bass will have to grapple with a challenger from her left. The incumbent mayor’s establishment bonafides at once lend her a strong political apparatus and make her the object of voter frustration. Raman, meanwhile, will face an uphill battle against the entrenched Democratic machine, which helped Bass easily secure a first-place finish. The embrace of mail-in voting by Angelenos slowly turned the tide for Raman, who initially trailed Pratt when polls closed last Tuesday.
Under California’s nonpartisan, open primary system, all viable candidates stood for the same June election — putting Pratt, a Republican, in the same primary as the heavily Democratic field. The top two advance to a runoff in November, meaning Los Angeles voters will choose between two Democrats in the general election ballot.
The emergence of Pratt, who rode a wave of outside conservative funding, prompted an intense debate among the city’s left on how to vote in the open primary. Rae Huang entered the race early on a progressive platform of strident police accountability measures, free and fast buses, and public housing. Raman, a city councilmember, decided to run at the last moment, with polls quickly showing she had a clearer path to a November runoff to fend off Pratt. Huang and her supporters insisted that she had the bolder leftist vision for the city, while Raman’s backers accused the Huang campaign of splitting the left amid a real threat from Pratt. The left is now faced with the task of repairing its fractures ahead of the November runoff.
Following Zohran Mamdani’s successful run for mayor in New York City, pundits were quick to ponder whether Los Angeles might be having its own Mamdani moment. But closer watchers of LA politics have been asking whether a different New York import could improve elections in the nation’s second biggest city: ranked-choice voting.
A ranked-choice voting system allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. The system often leads to opponents with similar platforms and voter bases to cross-endorse, as was the case with Mamdani and his fellow progressive opponent Brad Lander, which helped stave off the more conservative-leaning former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In the LA race, ranked choice would have allowed Raman and Huang to forge a similar alliance without compromising their positions and cooling the fierce debates among their supporters.
“We’ve heard lots of voters that they are voting strategically, they try and follow the polls instead of supporting their real favorite — that’s the narrative that I think ranked-choice voting would solve,” said Rachel Hutchinson, deputy director of research and policy at FairVote, a nonprofit that is pushing for ranked-choice voting across the U.S., including in Los Angeles, where City Council has until June 26 to decide whether to place a measure on the November ballot that would implement the system in future elections.
“Not only do people not have to drop out, but they can actually act civilly toward each other, especially if they share an ideology or they represent a similar community,” Hutchinson continued. “Voters under this system would feel more empowered to vote their conscience because they can still support their candidate.”
Raman joined the LA City Council as part of a wing of left-leaning victories that shifted the city’s political calculus, and has cast herself as a pragmatic leader with an eye for policy. But she faced challenges garnering support from the left amid accusations of flip-flopping and cozying up to entrenched local power. Despite running on defunding the police in 2020 as the first member of the Democratic Socialists of America elected to the council, Raman repeatedly voted to expand the Los Angeles Police Department budget, although she has pushed back on plans to expand the force. In 2024, Raman accepted an endorsement from Zionist group Democrats for Israel–Los Angeles, which opposed a ceasefire in Gaza, for which she was widely rebuked and even censured by DSA–LA.
Even though Raman and Huang are both DSA members, the local chapter declined to reopen the endorsement process for them. Raman’s three DSA colleagues on the City Council opted to endorse Bass.
Bass focused much of her fire on attacking Raman, despite arguably having the biggest ideological disagreements with Pratt. Bass and Raman were once allies: Bass campaigned for Raman in 2024, and Raman supported Bass in her previous mayoral race. But once Raman launched her last-minute campaign, Bass criticized her for claiming to be an outsider with no control over the current issues plaguing the city, despite Raman having spent years in City Hall.
On Monday, the local publication LA Material released a text message Bass sent Raman shortly after the latter filed to run; it contained only a tweet announcing Raman’s filing and a woman shrugging emoji.
Bass’s tenure as mayor has been rife with controversy, particularly over her handling of the deadly 2025 Pacific Palisades fire. The mayor was in Ghana attending an embassy party when the fire broke out, and she returned home the following day, with her city and reputation in tatters. Bass’s office has also been criticized for watering down an after-action report on the Palisades fire, including allegations that she scrubbed the most damning findings about the city’s shortcomings in responding to the blaze.
Her supporters are quick to point out that the Santa Ana winds, and not Bass, fueled the intense fire. And in fact, President Donald Trump, who endorsed Pratt, also shares blame for the slow recovery effort. The president and Republicans in Congress have declined to release the $34 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency aid requested by California Gov. Gavin Newsom for assisting fire survivors.
The controversy over the fires largely fueled the campaign of third-place finisher Pratt, a former television star on “The Hills” who has never worked in politics and is best known for getting into public spats with his female co-stars. He centered his pitch on his anger at Bass’s handling of the Palisades fire — which consumed his home as well as thousands of others — as well as his disdain for the city’s homeless population, whom he called “bums” and “zombies” and argued should be arrested en masse.
Housing experts told The Intercept that Pratt’s assertions were completely divorced from reality. But they pointed out that the lack of significant progress on the issue of homelessness in Los Angeles under Bass has emboldened figures like Pratt to swoop in and spread misinformation and dangerous propaganda.
The post Democratic Socialist Overcomes GOP-Funded Opponent to Advance in Los Angeles Mayor Race appeared first on The Intercept.
A fan blurted out an exuberant rhyme for his beloved basketball team. It has transcended sports and become a joyful anthem to unity.
OpenAI's move toward public markets raises a bigger question: Is the AI surge a lasting shift or an expensive gamble?
A renowned academic, Wood was hit by a car as he was crossing a supermarket’s parking lot and later died of the injuries
Gordon S Wood, a Pulitzer prize-winning author and historian, was killed on Sunday when he was struck by a car in a supermarket parking lot in Rhode Island.
Wood, 92, won the Pulitzer in 1993 in the history category for The Radicalism of the American Revolution, a landmark tome that advanced the theory of the break with Britain being at least as much of an internal social and political transformation as a desire to be rid of colonial masters.
Continue reading...Group seeks emergency injunction to halt UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House before a single punch is thrown – key US politics stories from Monday 8 June
Donald Trump is throwing himself quite the 80th birthday party at the White House on Sunday. All he needs now is for a federal judge, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and a passing thunderstorm not to ruin it.
The watchdog group Public Integrity Project filed a lawsuit on Saturday in DC federal court, seeking an emergency injunction to halt the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Freedom 250 event before a single punch is thrown on 14 June – which is both Flag Day and the president’s birthday.
Continue reading...Two new rape complaints have been filed against the 67-year-old singer and actor, who denies the claims
French singer and actor Patrick Bruel, facing sexual assault allegations from multiple women, was taken into police custody on Monday, as two new rape complaints were filed against him.
The 67-year-old, a major figure in French pop culture with multiple top-selling albums and more than 40 film appearances, is being questioned about 13 victims, the prosecutor’s office in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre said in a statement.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
Continue reading...President attends Spurs v Knicks game at MSG
Knicks aiming to win first title since 1973
Donald Trump was loudly booed when he was shown on the video screens at Madison Square Garden on Monday night before Game 3 of the NBA finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks.
Trump was shown on the jumbotron while the Star-Spangled Banner was being sung before the game, and jeers and boos broke out around the arena. The president was shown for a little over eight seconds and held a salute the whole time with a smile on his face. A few seconds later, the video board showed Knicks players in line and the boos turned to cheers.
Continue reading...Progressive challenger to face incumbent mayor in November as former reality star Pratt trails behind
Nithya Raman, a progressive Los Angeles city council member, has advanced to the November runoff for LA mayor, edging out former reality TV villain Spencer Pratt for the chance to face incumbent mayor Karen Bass.
Pratt, who decided to run for mayor after his Pacific Palisades home burned down in the 2025 wildfires, held a lead over Raman for days. But as ballot processing from last week’s election continued, the city councillor pulled ahead.
Continue reading...  | Head to Head racing start at seeknshred 6 in the Pro Men finals! Full Video Below!! [link] [comments] |
The biggest WatchOS 27 upgrade could finally make Siri useful on the wrist. But most older watches are being forced to sit this one out.
On my fourth day riding the Pint S, is it just me or does it feel a bit wobbly? The PSI is at 15, and I weigh 145 lbs—should I pump it up a little to make it less wobbly? I mostly ride on the street for my commute, and I’m wondering if there’s a stance that helps reduce wobble. it's my first one wheel.
The inner lining on Prada's spacesuits will keep astronauts comfortable and protected from the often harsh temperatures on the moon.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for June 9, No. 1,094.
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for June 9, No. 828.
"AI can make everything that was on my plate visible to colleagues while I'm gone," one expert said.
Going public will allow OpenAI, valued at $852 billion, to inject more cash into its business as the AI race quickens.
CBS News projects that incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will face off against Nithya Raman in November's runoff election.
Prediction market apps are doubling down on paid content creators denying election results, asking them to remove posts or lose sponsorship
Popular online prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket will prohibit paid creators and affiliates from denying election results, NPR reports, as online creators spread misinformation about California’s election.
In a social media post, Bobby Allyn, NPR technology reporter, reports: “Kalshi now says it prohibits paid creators from calling into question the integrity or accuracy of an election, legal ruling or official determination in connection with an election.
Continue reading...Federal immigration authorities barred a Somali soccer referee who was slated to officiate the FIFA World Cup from entering the U.S. over the weekend, citing "vetting concerns."
An earthquake off Cuba was felt across parts of Florida, but Miami officials reported no major injuries, significant damage or tsunami threat.
Exclusive: Analysis shows 72.5% of 91 judgments in England and Wales contained judicial victim-blaming, with mothers scrutinised more intensely
A report has found “widespread and concerning evidence” of bias and victim-blaming in the family courts – primarily disadvantaging women.
The report, Scratching the Surface: Victim-Blaming and Bias in Family Court Judgments, by the nonprofit organisation Right to Equality, will be shared with MPs on Tuesday at an event in parliament.
Continue reading...Government-funded JobsPlus trial in 10 neighbourhoods could be scalable nationwide, evaluation shows
A government-funded pilot of “hyperlocal” job support in 10 neighbourhoods across England has shown “promising early signs of effectiveness”, including for young people, and could be scalable nationwide, a new evaluation has shown.
The JobsPlus scheme, backed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Youth Futures Foundation, an independent non-profit organisation, focuses intensive support in a small area of predominantly social housing. Echoing a similar, long-established scheme in the US, “community champions” at each site help to engage hard-to-reach people in the local area.
Continue reading...David Lammy to announce trial of AI assistants in crown courts in effort to cut backlog of cases
A plan to roll out virtual legal assistants powered by artificial intelligence to crown courts has prompted warnings that the technology should not be used to “replace vital funding and additional court staff”.
David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, will announce on Tuesday that AI assistants will be trialled in an effort to cut the backlog of court cases in England and Wales.
Continue reading...Echo project will help erase images as part of package of support to end ‘prolonged suffering of survivors’
Victims of child sexual abuse in England and Wales will be given help to remove online images of their abuse as part of a wider package of support to end the “prolonged suffering of survivors”.
The Echo project will help those who have reported their abuse to the police to identify and remove images of abuse online. They will also be given trauma support, the possibility of having a victim impact statement read in court against their perpetrators and the opportunity of criminal or civil compensation.
Continue reading...OpenAI has confidentially filed for an IPO, "setting it up for what may be the most highly anticipated market debut in recent history and a massive payday for early investors," reports CNN. The decision follows recent IPO announcements from Anthropic and SpaceX. From the report: OpenAI said it has not decided on timing yet. And because the filing is confidential, it's not yet clear how many shares the company plans to sell or at what price. "It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company," it said in a post on its newsroom page. But the company said the filing "gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best." The transition to a public company will give Wall Street a window into OpenAI's finances as the company pours billions into AI infrastructure and computing resources. Investors dumped tech stocks last week as they questioned whether a recent run-up in those shares had gone too far. OpenAI was last valued at $852 billion after raising $122 billion in March, but it's faced pressure to demonstrate it can generate the cash to match that valuation.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
"The people are there to see these two teams play," Bill Bradley said of President Trump's plan to attend Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday night.
Commentary: I can't trust AI to complete my tasks as I would.
Shortly before abruptly ending his "Meet the Press" interview, President Donald Trump wrongly pointed to California’s ballot counting pace as evidence of "a rigged election."
When Trump said the state was still counting ballots days after the June 2 election, host Kristen Welker said, "That’s how they count the votes in California."
Trump said: "Do you know why they’re doing that? Because they’re cheating on the election."
Welker asked Trump for his evidence that the election was rigged.
"All I have to do is look," Trump said, adding, "And I listen. And I listen to people. And let’s see what happens."
After more back and forth, Trump called Welker’s show and network "crooked," saying, "Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough." Shortly after, he walked out of the interview, bringing it to an abrupt end.
The California primary featured multiple races, including for governor and Los Angeles mayor. California typically takes longer than other states to count ballots, which is largely a function of the state’s laws and reliance on voting by mail.
Trump’s interview was recorded June 5, three days after the election. As of mid-afternoon California time June 8, about 72% of the votes were counted in the governor’s race showing Democrat Xavier Becerra in the lead followed by Republican Steve Hilton.
We asked the White House for information showing that the California election is rigged and how that relates to ballot counting. A spokesperson referred us back to the president’s comments.
For years, Trump has repeatedly spread falsehoods about "rigged" elections, including in California. Trump’s not alone in his criticism of the pace of California counting ballots, however, he distorted what it means. It’s not a sign of widespread cheating.
In California, a state with about 23 million registered voters, election officials mail ballots to all active voters. In 2024, about 19% voted in person.
It takes time to process mail ballots, including election workers verifying identity by matching signatures on the envelopes with registration records.
The state Legislature in 2025 shortened the timeframe for counting ballots, requiring counties to count most ballots by June 15, nearly two weeks after the primary. County election officials have 30 days to process some ballots including provisional ballots.
Many voters turn in their ballots on Election Day, experts say. The state counts ballots postmarked by Election Day that are received by counties within seven days after the election.
County elections officials must report their final results to the secretary of state by July 3 and the state will certify results by July 10.
Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, pointed to other factors that affect ballot processing time in the state’s 58 counties, including the election staff’s capacity, equipment and space.
Even if counties had the money to add more equipment and staff, many don’t have the space, Alexander said. The foundation, along with Protect Democracy United, which works to build public confidence in elections, proposed that the state spend $91 million on additional county funding for equipment, space and staff as well as for voter outreach and education promoting early ballot return.
Alexander said that the pace of the count is not proof the election was rigged.
"But there is plenty of evidence that long vote counts undermine voter confidence," and California should better explain that it is prioritizing access, security and accuracy, Alexander said.
California also requires a mandatory 1% manual tally for all jurisdictions, which also slows the process but is a security measure in addition to post-election audits, said Lisa Bryant, a Fresno State professor and expert on election administration.
Secretary of State Shirley Weber has defended California’s system.
"Accuracy comes before speed," Weber said in a statement days after the primary.
The ballot counting has drawn interest in part because in the nonpartisan Los Angeles mayor’s race, Democrat Nithya Raman pulled ahead of Republican Spencer Pratt for second place. Mayor Karen Bass has remained in first place with the majority of votes counted.
There is anecdotal evidence of fraud in elections, but historically not enough to change the outcome.
Bill Essayli, a Trump appointee and first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, wrote on X that his office has "multiple election fraud investigations underway" but provided no details. In another post, he pointed to the 2026 case of Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, who agreed in May to plead guilty on a charge related to paying a homeless person to register to vote.
Essayli has challenged the state’s election laws and questioned whether the state is keeping voter rolls up to date, including removing dead people. The federal government is in a legal battle with California and other states seeking their full voter rolls.
Trump said the ongoing ballot counting in California means "they’re cheating on the election."
The pace of counting ballots in the June 2 primary is in accordance with the state’s election laws. Those policies apply to all voters regardless of party.
Most Californians vote by mail, with about 19% voting in person in 2024. County election officials count most ballots in 13 days but have 30 days for some ballots. It takes time to process mail ballots, including election workers veryifying identity by matching signatures on the envelopes with registration records.
We rate the statement Pants on Fire!
RELATED: Trump’s promise to count all votes on election night stalls as related case heads to Supreme Court
RELATED: All of our elections fact-checks including California
Six people, including the suspect, were taken to the hospital after a stabbing incident at New York City's Penn Station on Sunday evening.
Commentary: Apple's new feature for adjusting the composition of a photo could be genuinely useful.
Thirty-nine people taken near Magamin Diddi village in Maradun municipality, north-west Zamfara state, police say
Armed bandits in north-west Nigeria abducted dozens of villagers whom they invited to a meeting about potential peace negotiations, authorities and residents said on Monday, highlighting the region’s worsening security.
According to local police, 39 people were seized on Sunday during a meeting in the forest near Magamin Diddi village in the Maradun municipality of north-west Zamfara state. But some residents and officials believe the number of those abducted could be as high as 50.
Continue reading...As president and allies spread baseless conspiracy theories, here’s what you need to know about the California count
As California continues to slowly count ballots, edging closer to determining who will advance in elections to run the state and its largest city, Donald Trump and other Republicans are spreading claims of election fraud that have become common after California elections.
On Monday, Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton was inching closer to securing the second runoff spot in the California governor’s race, after Democrat Xavier Becerra secured the first spot on Friday. But the race has yet to be called for Hilton, with more than 2.5m ballots still left to be counted across the state.
Continue reading...Some of my top new features were made possible by AI, but a lot weren't.
This live blog is now closed. For the latest, read more of our coverage on the Middle East conflict here.
Iranian media is reporting that there were no immediate casualties following apparent Israeli strikes on the Karun petrochemical plant in Mahshahr, a city in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province.
According to the Fars news agency, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they responded to what they described as an American-Israeli strike on the Iranian petrochemical site by launching a missile attack on a similar plant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
Continue reading...SpaceX is setting aside a large chunk of shares for ordinary investors as it seeks to raise a record $75 billion. Here's what to know.
Last Thursday, Wired reported that Meta had quietly embedded an unreleased facial recognition system called NameTag into software installed on millions of phones. In a follow-up report, Wired says the tech giant has now removed the face-recognition-related code, while saying "no final decision" has been made about whether the feature will launch. From the report: On Thursday, WIRED reported that Meta had quietly integrated substantial portions of the NameTag system into the Meta AI app. Though never publicly enabled, the feature was designed to convert faces captured by the glasses into unique biometric signatures, commonly known as faceprints, and compare them against a database of faceprints stored on the user's device. WIRED also found that faces the system failed to recognize were cropped, indexed, and stored locally for future processing. NameTag first surfaced in February, when The New York Times, citing internal Meta documents, reported that the company was developing face recognition for its smart glasses and weighing a launch as soon as this year. One memo reportedly described releasing it during a "dynamic political environment," when privacy and civil liberties advocates would be distracted. Last week, WIRED reported that much of NameTag's machinery was already built into the Meta AI app, downloaded by millions of users, as early as January, even as Meta publicly said it had made no final decision about face recognition. After WIRED's report, Stone dismissed the findings, writing that the company couldn't answer questions about how the system would work because "the feature does not exist." Andrew Bosworth, Meta's chief technology officer, called the reporting "incredibly misleading" and "absolutely dishonest." [...] The newly released version of Meta AI removes nearly all traces of the feature Meta said did not yet exist. Gone is the face-recognition software itself, along with the code that ran the NameTag recognition process and the "Person recognized" alert the app would have shown if someone were identified. The update also strips out a folder where the app would have stored the cropped images and biometric signatures of faces it captured but could not identify. [...] A few fragments of the NameTag system remain in the version of latest Meta AI, including an internal debug menu label and a dormant link meant to open a recognized person's profile. The leftover code points to parts of the system that are no longer there.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Apple's next Mac operating system update moves on from Intel chips.
Commentary: By simply talking to me like I'm not a baffling millionaire, Apple showed it has more sense than Google.
Apple is ready to fulfill many of its years-long promises for AI. Here's what to know about the new, and hopefully improved, Apple Intelligence.
Attorney general pick joined Trump’s legal team in 2023 – there seems little doubt he would be prepared to carry out the president’s wishes
Todd Blanche’s nomination to be permanently made the attorney general marks the apex of a gamble from a man who bet everything on representing Donald Trump and became one of his most steadfast and punishing enforcers.
Trump announced the news at the White House on Monday. The nomination will require Senate confirmation to become permanent.
Continue reading...
An Election Night data reporting lag in California fueled misinformation and false claims of voter fraud in the Los Angeles mayoral primary.
Several X accounts shared similar claims in the days following the June 2 election, saying an update showed 24,000 new ballots reported in the mayoral primary, with former reality TV star Spencer Pratt receiving zero.
Pratt, the Republican favorite in the nonpartisan mayoral primary for the heavily Democratic city, was polling as one of the top three candidates in the leadup to the election, along with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman. The top two candidates will advance to the November general election.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., shared the same claim, and Elon Musk amplified another version of it.
The claim came as President Donald Trump repeatedly said, without evidence, that Democrats are committing election fraud in the California primary.
Bill Essayli, who leads the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles that Trump has said is investigating alleged fraud, said the claim that Pratt received zero votes in an update is false.
"We reviewed official county records. The claim is false. Each candidate received votes in every update," Essayli wrote on X. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office told the Los Angeles Times Pratt had received votes in each of the updates the office reported.
There was a claim circulating on social media about an election night ballot update at the Los Angeles Registrar of Voters where one candidate received zero votes.
— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) June 6, 2026
We reviewed official county records. The claim is false. Each candidate received votes in every update.
My office…
Automated data lag from media outlet muddled vote totals
The 24,000 ballot claim originated from numbers momentarily reported on news websites, not from official Los Angeles County reported results. On websites that draw from The Associated Press’s vote totals, an initial count showed a total of 308,878 counted votes, and a later update at about 8:35 p.m. Pacific Time displayed 333,712, a 24,834-vote difference.
But the update did not include all results reported by the county at the time, which led to websites briefly displaying zero new votes for Pratt.
The cause of the discrepancy was a lag in the AP’s vote count system that counted other candidates’ vote totals before counting Pratt’s, an AP spokesperson said.
"Specifically, an electronic update from the Los Angeles County website pulled in votes for only one group of candidates, including Karen Bass and Nithya Raman," AP spokesperson Patrick Maks said in an email to PolitiFact. "Exactly one minute later, the electronic update picked up the votes for another group of candidates including Spencer Pratt."
Maks said those two updates included 21,870 votes for Pratt, 12,850 votes for Bass and 9,521 votes for Raman.
A review of multiple data sources, including The Ballot Book and a GitHub project that scrapes each update from the government election website, shows the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office never reported a batch of results with zero votes for Pratt.
That matches what was reported at the time by outlets like Decision Desk HQ and VoteHub. The Ballot Book, an independent California election data outlet, shows the same results in its log of the 8:35 p.m. update.
The update in question at around 8:35 p.m. Pacific Time was the first one after an initial results announcement at 8:15 p.m. The initial results showed:
Karen Bass: 117,579
Spencer Pratt: 86,323
Nithya Raman: 61,949
The 8:35 p.m. update added 48,433 new votes to the count, with the top three candidates receiving votes as follows:
Karen Bass: 12,850
Spencer Pratt: 21,870
Nithya Raman: 9,521
After that update, the candidates’ new totals were:
Karen Bass: 130,429
Spencer Pratt: 108,193
Nithya Raman: 71,470
Screenshots used as evidence for the claim show 130,429 votes for Bass and 71,470 votes for Raman after the update, but show Pratt’s total at 86,323. That’s in line with the AP’s explanation of the data being updated out of sync.
Social media posts said Pratt received zero votes out of 24,000 in a vote update during the California mayoral primary tally.
The narrative originated from numbers that were momentarily reported on news websites, not from official Los Angeles County reported results. The media site reporting was based on a momentary data lag. Pratt received votes in each election update.
We rate this statement False.
Apple says your iPhone's search results could be faster, more reliable and more accurate.
ChatGPT maker expected to be valued at more than $850bn, one of most highly valued listings in market history
OpenAI has filed confidentially to go public on the US stock market, according to a company blogpost published on Monday. The artificial intelligence giant’s debut on Wall Street is expected to be one of the most highly valued listings in market history with a valuation at more than $850bn.
“We recently submitted a confidential S-1. We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it,” the company’s post reads. “We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”
Continue reading...A deadly earthquake rocked the southern Philippines, killing dozens of people and sending small tsunami waves toward at least three nations.
Commentary: The new Siri announced at WWDC 2026 comes with personalization options. My take: Voice assistants like Alexa and Gemini should have had these for years.
At WWDC 2026, Apple announced that it's bringing a 3-band custom EQ to its latest AirPods this fall, so you can manually tweak their sound to your liking.
In today’s climate, I needed this: GentleOS, an operating system targeting both 386 (GentleOS/32) and even processors as old as the 80186 (GentleOS/16), with a lovely retro graphical user interface, usable on bare metal, and, of course, open source.
Its goal is to provide a simple platform for tinkering with retro hardware and running graphical interactive apps on bare metal.
At minimum, it only requires an i386 CPU, 4MB of RAM, and a VGA display capable of 640x480x16 mode.
By design it’s entirely monolithic, mostly configured at compile time, and only supports standard PC devices: VGA/SVGA, keyboard, PS/2 mouse, serial mouse, PC speaker. The only future plans are bugfixes, optimizations, and adding more apps.
GentleOS/32 has a pure 16-bit spin-off called GentleOS/16, which targets devices as old as 80186.
↫ GentleOS GitHub page
While it can be run on real hardware, you can also run it in Qemu to make it easier to test and play around with. It looks great, and the stated goal of just focusing on maintenance and possibly additional applications is music to my heart. With everything that’s going on in technology today, this is an ice-cold glass of tonic in a scorching, data center-infested desert.
In speech on Tuesday, Tory leader will claim obligation to consider equality being used to advance ‘divisive agendas’
Kemi Badenoch will vow to scrap the duty on public bodies to consider how they can promote equality as she seeks to head off the challenge from Reform UK by presenting her party as responsible but also in tune with populist anger.
Badenoch, who was Conservative minister for equalities between 2020 and 2022, will commit to scrapping the public sector equality duty (PSED), a legal requirement obliging those bodies to think how they can improve society and promote equality in their day-to-day business.
Continue reading...Acting in the role since April, Blanche faces Senate confirmation after controversial DoJ moves
Donald Trump nominated Todd Blanche to serve permanently as attorney general on Monday, lining up his former personal lawyer to be the country’s top law enforcement officer.
The US president suggested earlier this week that Blanche, who was appointed on an acting basis in April after the president fired Pam Bondi, was set to receive the nod. “He’s a very talented guy,” Trump told a podcast.
Continue reading...Commentary: The company stuck to using "Apple Intelligence," referencing its own proprietary AI, rather than the two-letter acronym and the negative baggage it carries.
Apple's software event, the last for outgoing CEO Tim Cook, gave us an early look at new features for iOS and MacOS and an overhauled Siri.
Senior administration officials jump on death of Henry Nowak – and statements echo language of the far right
Over a breathtaking few days that spanned Saturday’s 82nd anniversary of D-day, senior Trump administration officials have trampled over diplomatic protocol to tear into Europe’s immigration and anti-racism policies and argue that such actions could end western civilization.
From the United States, Vice-President JD Vance and other administration officials jumped on a controversial murder case in Britain to accuse Keir Starmer’s government of lacking the Trump administration’s “political will and leadership” to stop mass migration and defend national sovereignty.
Continue reading...Microsoft executive Matt Booty says future Xbox exclusivity will be decided "case-by-case," with Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution remaining Xbox console exclusives while major multiplayer, live-service, and previously promised PlayStation releases stay multiplatform. But IGN's Tom Phillips says Microsoft's announcement still leaves numerous questions unanswered, like "why just Gears and Clockwork Revolution?" and "how will this policy be enforced in future?" From the report: Last night's Xbox Showcase featured the return of games specifically earmarked as exclusives for Xbox consoles (though, of course, they'll still also be coming to PC). But why just Gears and Clockwork Revolution? And how will this policy be enforced in future? Microsoft's announcement left numerous questions unanswered. "We want a reason for people to get on board with Xbox, we want them to have a reason to buy an Xbox, we want them to have a reason to be an Xbox fan," Booty said. "At the same time, we want to reward all our players that have been with us for a long time -- we know that exclusives are important, and that's why we've got Gears coming in 2026 and Clockwork [Revolution] coming in 2027." "We also want to be clear that our big multiplayer games and live-service games are going to continue to be multiplatform," he continued. "If we've promised something to players already, we're going to honor that promise. And then -- I think Asha said it -- we're going to make the right decision and not the fast decision. "We're going to keep thinking about this going forward," Booty continued, "and, I think you guys know already, our principle is when we announce the date, we announce the platforms. So, it's going to be case-by-case, but we're going to be clear, that when it's got a date, it's got a platform and you'll know what the choice is going to be." Beyond those games already confirmed for PlayStation (such as the upcoming Halo: Campaign Evolved, and the PS5 version of Forza Horizon 6 due later this year), last night saw Microsoft make the call that other upcoming titles would still be coming to PS5 as well. While it had been assumed that State of Decay 3 would get a PS5 version, yesterday saw it made official. Hellblade threequel Senua was unveiled, and is getting a PS5 version. And, unsurprisingly, Spyro: A Realm Beyond is coming to Xbox, PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Netanyahu acknowledges pause in fighting in TV speech but vows forceful response to future attacks
Fears of a return to a full-scale regional war in the Middle East eased on Monday as Israel and Iran said they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from Donald Trump to “immediately stop shooting”.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, acknowledged the halt in fighting with Iran in a televised speech, but vowed to respond “with force” to future attacks.
Continue reading...Commentary: Workout Buddy has the potential to be a great fitness app. But without major changes at WWDC 2026, it's not there just yet.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake off the southern Philippines on June 8 local time has killed at least 35 people, injured hundreds and destroyed buildings.
Online, people shared real footage of the destruction, but one video was captioned misleadingly.
"7.8 earthquake hits the Philippines today!!" a June 7 X post read, containing a video that showed people fleeing and screaming while debris fell from the building’s ceiling. It gained more than 488,000 views within 16 hours of being posted.
The footage was not taken during the June earthquake; it captured a different earthquake that shook the Philippines two years ago.
Reverse-image search showed this video was uploaded by multiple accounts on Nov. 17, 2023, when a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the nation’s south. That earthquake killed 11 people.
PolitiFact was unable to find the original 2023 post, but a couple of accounts credited the video to "Dave Miles." The captions pinpoint the location to a mall in General Santos City, which is consistent with photos posted by a news outlet.
Either way, the video is not from June in the Philippines. We rate that False.
Amid unsubstantiated claims of a rigged California primary, amplified by President Donald Trump, social media users shared an image of a blue-haired person in an all-black outfit, holding multiple pieces of folded paper in front of a ballot box.
"Do you still not believe California is using people to ballot harvest?" read a June 5 X post featuring the image. The same day, another X post said the image was taken at a ballot box in Glendale, California; and posts on Facebook and Threads with the image said it showed a "California voter" who "identifies" as many "different people."
The image does not show a real incident or person; it was created using artificial intelligence. It contained the logo of Gemini, a Google AI tool, on the bottom right corner.
(The photo’s bottom right shows the logo of Gemini, a Google AI tool.)
When we uploaded the image to Gemini, it found that the image was "edited or generated with Google AI." Images generated with Google’s AI tools contain SynthID, a digital watermark that is invisible to humans but detectable by Google’s technology.
(The text on the ballot box also featured warped letters and misspellings.)
We found no news reports or other evidence that this was a real incident.
Trump has falsely claimed that voting by mail means cheating, but his claims about the use of drop boxes and ballot harvesting for fraud have been exaggerated.
California law outlines security measures for securing drop boxes; they are often placed in public locations, with constant video surveillance. The state allows voters to designate another person to return their ballots, while following requirements.
This image of a person stuffing ballot boxes in California is fake. We rate it Pants on Fire!
Commentary: Apple is at last addressing the most un-Apple-like thing about MacOS Tahoe.
At his final WWDC keynote, Tim Cook highlights AI-forward upgrade to the voice assistant to be widely released in fall
After years of anticipation, user frustration and false starts, Apple announced a major upgrade to Siri at its annual developer conference on Monday. The voice assistant will come integrated with Apple’s artificial intelligence tool, Apple Intelligence, and has been rechristened “Siri AI”.
The new Siri, which will be widely released in the fall, will more closely resemble AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Google Gemini, than a question-and-answer tool that draws from the web.
Continue reading...The drone, which entered Latvia from Russia, was the latest to violate the airspace of a NATO member during the war.
The U-Haul driver who fatally struck a University of Delaware student on Main Street last year is facing a mandatory life sentence after being convicted of murder and related charges last week.
Apple's tablets will get more AI features when iOS 27 ships later this year.
We move from the famed alpine lake and mountains of Tahoe to the iconic Bay Area bridge.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin ruled in favor of a group of 20 states that challenged President Trump's new $100,000 visa fee.
Currently acting attorney general, Todd Blanche may face an uphill confirmation battle from some wary Republican senators.
Iran and Israel declare a halt to fighting as President Trump says both are seeking an "immediate ceasefire" after a major escalation in the 101-day war.
Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for June 9, No. 1,816.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from AppleInsider: Apple has unveiled its next Mac operating system, macOS Golden Gate, with Apple promising better performance, the improved Siri, and more. [...] On the surface, macOS Golden Gate is not as significant an upgrade as macOS Big Sur, or even macOS Tahoe with its Liquid Glass redesign. But under the surface, it is much more significant than it seems. Apple has chosen this release to draw a line in the sand. For the first time, the new macOS Golden Gate will not support Macs that have Intel processors. [...] Nonetheless, as of when this is released to the public in September or October, no Intel Macs will ever be supported again. One of the most notable design tweaks in this new release is a refinement of macOS toolbars and sidebars: toolbars are now more distinct, sidebars can stretch all the way to the window edge, and sidebar icons have regained color. Apple is also tightening window corner radii to address complaints about resizing behavior.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Apple’s developer conference started today, and as is tradition, this means it also announced coming updates to its operating systems lineup. macOS is probably one of the two major ones OSNews readers are interested in, so let’s start there:
Much like Mac OS X Snow Leopard in 2009, Apple said it focused on improving macOS’s performance and dozens of underlying technologies this year.
macOS Golden Gate has some Liquid Glass design changes. For example, apps now have a unified toolbar at the top, and the sidebar now expands to the edge of the window.
A new slider on macOS 27 lets you customize the opacity of Liquid Glass.
↫ Joe Rossignol at MacRumors
Effectively, a ton of “Liquid Glass” features touted only a year ago are being changed and fixed, which should make using Liquid Glass less of a frustrating affair. Of course, there’s a whole slew of new “AI” stuff built entirely on top of Google’s Gemini, but luckily for us Europeans, we won’t be getting those features because EU privacy and consumer protection regulations are too strict. Apple, one of the world’s most valuable companies, seemingly cannot create “AI” features that comply with some basic consumer protection legislation.
As for the other major platform, that’s iOS of course.
At WWDC 2026 in Cupertino, Apple announced iOS 27, the next mobile operating system for compatible iPhones. The update focuses on tweaking and improving last year’s iOS 26, particularly in areas like app launch time, Liquid Glass design, and more. It does not offer a lot of major new features or upgrades, as Apple focused on polishing the experience. However, there are some new upgrades, such as reworked parental controls, new Siri AI, better search, and performance improvements.
↫ Taras Buria at Neowin
These new versions, as well as those of Apple’s other operating systems, will be available later this year.
Votes in the Los Angeles mayoral primary on June 2 are still being counted, but some social media users — and President Donald Trump — are already contesting the potential outcome and suggesting it’s fraudulent.
Conservative influencer Rogan O'Handley, known as @DC_Draino on X, in a June 7 post said: "Nithya Raman already gave a concession speech. Think about that. Not even she believed it was possible to make the top 2. But greedy machine Dems are still pumping her fake votes to get Spencer out of the top 2. Insane levels of fraud."
The latest election results update on June 7 shows that incumbent mayor Karen Bass is leading, followed by city councilwoman Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV personality. Raman moved to second place in the latest update after an early vote count June 2 showed her out of the running. The top two in the race will advance to a Nov. 3 runoff.
Raman spoke on election night before the release of any initial results. C-SPAN titled her speech a "concession speech," but at no point during her remarks did she concede. There are also no concession speeches or messages in her official social media campaign accounts.
Raman on election night thanked the city, her campaign and family, and spoke about campaign challenges and victories.
"Tonight may not give us a final answer on this race. Many thousands of votes will be counted in the days ahead. We may not get an answer we like. But regardless of what happens next, nobody can take away what all of us have built together," Raman said.
She cried as she thanked her 10-year-old twins for their patience and said her campaign was intended to build a better city worthy of every child. She didn’t give the impression she was crying because she lost the race or because she was leaving it.
On June 8, Trump shared on Truth Social an X post from U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., saying California elections aren’t fair because Raman was projected as one of the top two primary winners.
"No way this could have happened. Rigged Election!" Trump wrote.
During a June 7 interview on NBC News "Meet the Press," Trump also said the California primary elections were fraudulent.
"The (2020) election was rigged. It was a dirty election. And it’s happening again right now in California," Trump said. "It’s four days and they aren’t even close to coming up with the — do you know why they’re doing that? Because they’re cheating on the election."
The 2020 presidential election wasn’t rigged. There’s also no evidence that the California primary elections are rigged.
In the interview, Trump referred to how long it takes California to count the ballots and the changing election results. But this isn’t unusual.
After election night, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber reminded voters in a June 4 memo that although voting ended June 2, the counting process continues for up to 30 days after the election, in accordance with state law.
Weber said election results will change throughout the counting period as county election officials process votes by mail, provisional ballots and other ballots. This is normal as some mail in ballots are counted even if they were received seven days after the election, but are postmarked on election day. Last year, during a statewide special election, more than 80% of Californians voted by mail.
County elections officials must report their final results to the secretary of state by July 3; the election results will be certified by July 10.
Social media users said Raman had conceded the Los Angeles mayoral race as of June 7.
C-SPAN titled a June 2 speech by Raman a "concession speech," but at no point during her remarks did she concede. Raman said that on that night her campaign might not get the results it wants, but she also said votes were still being counted.
Raman is still in the mayoral race as one of the possible top two contenders for the November runoff, and vote counts days past election day are the norm in California because of state laws.
We rate this claim False.
PolitiFact Senior Digital Research Analyst Jeff Cercone contributed to this report.
The Library Avenue railroad bridge will close for approximately eight weeks to allow a Delaware Department of Transportation contractor to make repairs to the bridge.
Apple Intelligence is getting an upgrade after the company partnered with Google.
Several older iPhones will get at least one more year of major software updates.
On Friday, the Pentagon cut the number of religious affiliation codes from over 200 to 31 to help military chaplains streamline religious support services.
SEOUL, South Korea, June 8, 2026 — Trillion Labs, a South Korean foundation model lab, announced that it is developing Industrial World Models for AI Factories, built with NVIDIA Omniverse libraries and NVIDIA Nemotron open models.
Industrial World Models are designed to enable AI systems and agents to understand, simulate, and optimize complex industrial environments such as AI data centers and power plants. Trillion Labs builds its world models from scratch, using NVIDIA Omniverse libraries for physics-accurate simulation and NVIDIA Nemotron for advanced reasoning, to serve as the intelligence layer for next-generation AI Factories.
Trillion Labs has built proprietary foundation models spanning large language models (LLMs) and vision-language models (VLMs), and is now developing world models for physical infrastructure. The company has also developed expertise across the entire AI stack, from training and inference to deployment and operations. This full-stack approach allows Trillion Labs to design and optimize models specifically for real-world industrial applications.
While continuing its foundation model research, Trillion Labs is increasingly focusing on industrial and engineering-specific AI models. Rather than developing general-purpose or generic AI, the company aims to build specialized foundation models capable of understanding and manipulating complex physical infrastructure and industrial operations.
Trillion Labs’ key focus is AI Factories, where data centers, power generation facilities, cooling systems, and other operational infrastructure operate in tightly connected ecosystems — increasingly, under one roof. Trillion Labs is developing Industrial World Models that can understand complex schematics, time-series data, facility operations, maintenance histories, operational constraints, and infrastructure dependencies, enabling AI systems to support optimization across industrial environments.
The company has been collaborating with GS Group on critical energy infrastructure, as well as other enterprise partners across industrial domains.
“Large language models remain the foundation of advanced intelligence, but understanding language alone is not enough to understand the physical world,” said Jay Shin, CEO of Trillion Labs. “Industrial World Models are our next step toward extending AI from language understanding to real-world reasoning. By combining foundation models we build ourselves with simulation and specialized reasoning, we aim to build AI systems capable of understanding and optimizing critical infrastructure at scale.”
The initiative reflects Trillion Labs’ broader vision of Industrial Superintelligence, where AI systems can understand, simulate, help, and eventually autonomously operate complex industrial systems. The company believes Industrial World Models will become a foundational building block for the next generation of AI-powered infrastructure.
Shin presented on Korean LLMs as a speaker at NVIDIA GTC 2025 and has maintained a meaningful partnership with NVIDIA through the Inception program. Trillion Labs views Industrial World Models as a key opportunity to combine its foundation model expertise with NVIDIA’s AI factory, digital twin, and physical AI ecosystem.
As the build-out of AI Factories continues to explode globally, Trillion Labs aims to establish a new category of Industrial Intelligence that bridges foundation models and real-world infrastructure.
About Trillion Labs
Trillion Labs is an AI research lab founded in 2024 by Jay Shin, a key architect behind NAVER’s HyperCLOVA X. Within a year of its founding, the company developed and open-sourced a full lineup of large language models (LLMs)—including 7B, 21B, and 70B parameter models—from scratch. Since then, Trillion Labs has expanded beyond language models, introducing a vision-language model (VLM), Korea’s first large language model built on a diffusion-based transformer architecture (dLLM), and gWorld, a mobile world model. Through these advancements, the company has demonstrated full-stack AI capabilities spanning foundation models, multimodal AI, and world models.
Source: Trillion Labs
The post Trillion Labs Targets AI Data Centers and Power Plants with Industrial World Models appeared first on HPCwire.
US president for years has repeatedly suggested – and said outright – that he would not take the country to war
Donald Trump has forcefully denied he ever promised not to draw the US into war, having spent years pledging to avoid doing just that.
The US president’s own biography on the White House website credits him with “putting a stop to endless wars” – raising questions about the US-Israel war on Iran, which he launched, with no end currently in sight.
Continue reading...Kids will be able to request permission to do things like browse new websites or buy apps.
The next major iOS software will be available on devices as old as the iPhone 11, and it will land on your device this fall.
I've seen AI video analysis like this before, but Apple has a unique twist that could mean a lot for home security.
Hey floaters - looking for lock recommendations. I’ve been riding for 5+ years and never leave my OWs out of my sight, but my high schooler is a unique situation where they won’t let him bring his board into the school. He uses it to get to and from. There is a “bike room” with racks that is locked during the school day so it’s fairly secure, but he needs to leave his board there and have it locked. We need a lock mainly for deterrence rather than protection. Any recommendations on something lightweight that could be easy for him to use? I’m thinking just a light weight cable bike like but open to all suggestions.
I've only got 1000 miles and four months on this board but the tire has started bulging on the sidewalls. I've had three other boards with even more time and miles and none of them show this kind of wear. Even the threads on the edges have started flaring. Am I just too gnarly or do they get worse every year?
I've tested dozens of noise-canceling headphones. These are my current top picks at a variety of prices -- from high-end to budget models.
Exclusive: Ukrainian president says ‘small mistake can break a big friendship’ in wide-ranging interview with Guardian
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the decision by some Reform UK councils to take down the Ukrainian flag was the kind of “small mistake that can break a big friendship”, as he underlined the significance of strong bilateral relations.
The Ukrainian president tempered his rare foray into UK domestic politics by stressing how much the two countries “need each other” in the battle against Russia, which he said posed a threat not only to Ukraine but to Britain too.
Continue reading...At WWDC 2026, Apple announced a new "Siri AI," describing it as a more conversational, personalized, and systemwide assistant that can understand on-screen context and interact with apps while relying on on-device processing or Private Cloud Compute. The relaunch comes two years after Apple's original Apple Intelligence promises stumbled and "never fully materialized," reports The Verge. MacRumors reports: Siri is now embedded directly in the Dynamic Island, accessible by swiping down from it, pressing the side button, or saying "Hey Siri." A revamped voice engine makes the assistant sound more expressive, with micro-adjustable voice settings available during initial setup. During Apple's keynote demo, presenters showed Siri handling chained, multi-step requests with apparent ease. In one sequence, a presenter asked about a Suki Waterhouse concert, was told tickets require a lottery entry, and asked Siri to set a reminder when the lottery opens, which it did. In another, the assistant identified a photo's landmark, pulled up navigation to that location, and surfaced photos from a recent family trip, adding a specific image to a shared family album on request. Another demo showcased Siri's ability to synthesize information across apps. A presenter asked about a dessert he had heard about at an event, and Siri located the relevant details from his Messages history. It then compiled the information into a watch-party menu, drafted a message to his contacts with the menu included, and presented send and edit options. In a further demo, a presenter asked about something his son had shared in a message and followed it up by asking Siri to compose an email on the subject. A new dedicated Siri app lets users scroll back through prior conversations and kick off new ones, with conversation history synced via iCloud so sessions carry seamlessly between devices. The app is also coming to watchOS. On the Mac, Siri is now also integrated into Spotlight and available via right-click context menus on any file or window. On visionOS, Siri AI gains a 3D visualization that users can place anywhere in their space.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Fire in Bermondsey sends huge plumes rising high over the city and disrupts train travel in the area
Fifteen fire engines and about 100 firefighters have been called to tackle a major fire at a recycling centre in south London.
Fire control officers were first called just after 5.30pm on Monday to the centre on Landmann Way in Bermondsey.
Continue reading...Cook received a minutes-long standing ovation during his live speech ahead of WWDC.
President dramatically raised cost of visa for highly skilled workers in executive order last year
A US judge has invalidated Donald Trump’s $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visa applications, ruling it an unlawful tax that violated federal administrative law and the constitution.
US district judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the 42-page ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging a fee Trump announced in September that dramatically raised the cost of obtaining H-1B visas.. The ruling vacated the sweeping fee, which was a 20-to-50 fold increase on existing rates, and the Trump administration is widely expected to appeal.
Continue reading...President Donald Trump had urged restraint after the two countries intensified attacks, and Iran said it would halt its strikes.
The Seventh National Research Platform (7NRP) workshop was held at the University of California San Diego on May 5–7, 2026, with an agenda focused on artificial intelligence (AI) in education and agriculture.
After a welcome address by Rajesh Gupta, dean of UC San Diego’s Halicioğlu School of Data Science and Computing, keynotes were given by Christopher Alvarez (U.S. Department of Agriculture chief data officer) and Katie Antypas (National Science Foundation (NSF) senior adviser for cyberinfrastructure). UC San Diego San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) Director and NRP Principal Investigator (PI) Frank Würthwein then presented the status of NRP and its strategic vision for the future, while Sesh Murthy of the Halıcıoğlu School and Portia Restuccia of Vocareum described the UC San Diego ASPIRE Math Tutor program as an example of the power of personalized AI tutors.
Thursday’s agenda comprised three guided sessions led by UC San Diego researchers: Melissa Floca discussed AI for agriculture; Mohammad Firas Sada focused on AI inference infrastructure and services; and Larry Smarr presented a whirlwind tour of NRP science highlights. Chin Guok, chief technology officer at Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory gave a talk about the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Genesis Mission and American Science Cloud.
Larry Smarr, NRP’s pioneer architect
The NRP’s pioneer architect was Larry Smarr (on left). For decades Smarr, a distinguished professor emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego, has promoted a vision for a high-speed, distributed scientific cyberinfrastructure (CI), informed by decades of experience with and service to the federation. In 1985 he founded the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), located on the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) campus, where he also contributed to the high-speed research network that became NSFNet. In 2000, he moved from UIUC to UC San Diego to become the founding director of the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology (CalIT2), a consortium of UC San Diego, UC Irvine and UC Riverside. In 2013, the UC San Diego Division of CalIT2 was named the Qualcomm Institute (QI), under the direction of UC San Diego Professor Ramesh Rao. Work with CalIT2 and QI engineers shaped Smarr’s enthusiasm for optical networking, LambdaGrids, distributed visualization and geographically distributed scientific collaborations.
Frank Würthwein, director of the SDSC (Credit: Kristina Mallari, assistant producer-director, Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego)
In 2015, with Würthwein (photo on right) as co-PI, Smarr launched the Pacific Research Platform (PRP) which self-identified as a “science-driven, high-capacity, data-centric freeway system.” By 2019, a fully operational NRP emerged via contributions from a number of engineers, network researchers and collaborative institutions, with significant input and oversight by the SDSC team, Würthwein (Operations Lead and PI of prototype NRP), Philip Papadopoulos (Co-PI: Distributed Systems & Cloud Infrastructure), Tom DeFanti (Co-PI Visualization & Networking Infrastructure), Derek Weitzel (Co-PI: Kubernetes & Distributed Networking Architecture), Tajana Rosing (Co-PI: AI Systems & Energy-efficient Computing), and SDSC Chief Data Science Officer İlkay Altıntaş (Co-PI: NRP Data-intensive Science Integration).
Over the years, the platform progressed through three major phases, including the PRP regional experimental networking era; national prototype CI phase (Toward a National Research Platform); and a strategic AI research CI that fully integrates with NSF’s National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot. WIth NAIRR integration, the NSF recognized the platform’s potential to democratize CI access (which currently supports 25 projects across the country). All along, it engaged with and benefitted from DOE ESnet topology, which supports software-defined networks, federated CI for data-intensive research, distributed collaborations, and ultimately cloud-native and AI/Machine Learning (ML)-oriented scientific orchestration.
In 2024 the PRP was renamed the NRP and leadership transitioned from Smarr to Würthwein signifying the shift from visionary development to a fully operational, federated CI. Primary partner institutions include the UC San Diego, SDSC, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing (HPC) Center. NRP comprises 88 institutions, including 70 colleges and universities, three national laboratories and one museum in 129 geographic locations served by 14 research and education networks. There are twice as many non-R1 institutions as R1s on the NRP. Hardware is owned by the community, and participation allows institutions to access immense computational power that a single entity could never afford on its own. The NRP user base is about half the size of the community that uses the NSF ACCESS (Advanced CI Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support) federated CI, and half the size of the DOE user community.
Larry Smarr stands with a Cray-1 supercomputer as the center opens for business in January 1986. Photo courtesy of NCSA.
Traditional CI involves HPC systems housed under one roof; data centers are interconnected with high-speed networks. Conversely, NRP was conceived from the beginning as a nationally distributed, AI-oriented research platform that embraces the operational philosophy of commercial cloud platforms. Its core system, Nautilus, acts more like a hyperscale cloud for science than a classic HPC queue-based cluster. Collaborative institutions contribute hardware to a shared federation in which researchers use a secure, unified CI without having to negotiate privileges at each location. Workloads run wherever capacity is available. While traditional HPC can still outperform NRP with some tasks, modern AI/ML workflows run far more efficiently on NRP’s distributed infrastructure.
NRP’s storage, compute, networking and orchestration are well integrated which alleviates common AI/ML bottlenecks that occur with traditional HPC (checkpointing, distributed dataset access, model sharing, storage throughput, and more). Rather than treating storage as an afterthought, as with traditional HPC, NRP integrates high-speed networks, distributed storage, Ceph/Rock infrastructure, science DMZ transfer nodes, and national-scale content delivery methods so data processes geographically closer to its compute resource, thereby expediting the workflow.
As for acceleration, NRP has CPUs, GPUs and FPGAs; field programmable gate arrays are especially useful when developing novel chips, software-defined networks and more. There are CPU-only nodes, mixed CPU/GPU nodes, high-memory CPU systems, and distributed CPU clusters. Its CPU nodes range from 16 to 384 cores per node, with memory (RAM) ranging from 16GB to 2.16TB per node, large CPU pools accessible via Kubernetes, JupyterHub, Coder, and more.
Traditional HPC is scheduler-centric (for example, Slurm, PBS, Torque, and LSF), whereas NRP is Kubernetes-native, which supports AI/ML workflows more effectively since they increasingly rely on containers, microservices, elastic scaling, notebooks, inference endpoints, distributed data pipelines, edge (IoT/remote inferencing), and heterogeneous accelerators. Such workflows often involve batch jobs, distributed training, fine-tuning, agentic decision science, autoscaling and workflow orchestration – all of which Kubernetes supports. NRPs heterogeneity is also useful for compiler and benchmarking research.
Slides courtesy of Mohammad Firas Sada, UC San Diego.
In traditional environments, the systems administrator or facilitator with root access must build new modules for every customer. With NRP, users are responsible for their own container and its required dependencies, for example: CUDA versions, PyTorch/TensorFlow builds, model-serving stacks, custom compilers, and inference frameworks. Then, Kubernetes provides the primary orchestration layer. Containers are portable and repeatable across sites, and therefore reproducible. A range of application programming interfaces (APIs) fit within Kubernetes environments, such as large-language model (LLM) serving, vector databases, JupyterHub, Ray, Kubeflow, MLFlow and inference APIs. About 90 percent of NRP projects (151) use JupyterHub as an API which makes it easier for those who lack computational skills to engage with traditional advanced CI.
Mohammad Firas Sada, AI and FPGA specialist at SDSC
When asked about compliance, Würthwein said, “While the NRP can support research projects that implement compliant controls (within their containers), the platform itself is not officially certified for regulated workloads.”
Since February 2026, NRP’s LLM-as-a-service has supplied 751 users on 276 projects with LLM frameworks, computational services, and expertise without charge. According to Sada (photo on left), that amount of computational power would cost roughly $300k in a commercial cloud (via Claude tokens, for example). Fifty NRP GPUs are retained exclusively for LLMs. To date, the largest NRP LLM user has consumed 10B tokens. If projects exceed a certain threshold they, or their industry sponsors, can pay for NRP services – income that sustains the program for the long-run. Otherwise, small workloads are always free.
On-demand access is an NRP feature that Altintas (photo on left) emphasized several times in presentations about WIFIRE, the National Data Platform (NDP) and other projects she is involved with at her Societal Computing and Innovation Lab (SCIL) that run on the NRP. She described WIFIRE workloads as urgent and “bursty” requiring access to an agile CI resource. “We can’t wait around for an allocation to be approved,” she said.
İlkay Altıntaş Chief Data Science Officer at SDSC
The NDP provides an integrated and extensible environment for data discovery, collaborative workflows, and scalable computing. Both Würthwein and Altintas emphasized the importance of workforce development, and described how NRP and NDP are used in the classroom.
“Colleges that fail to adequately educate students on data science and machine learning concepts will go bankrupt,” said Würthwein.
“Education needs content,” said Altintas. “Customizable, compute-ready digital assets, like data, notebooks, readings, models, and agents; the NRP and NDP provide these, and more.”
A three-day NDP Education Hub Content Development Workshop will be held August 4–9, 2026 at UC San Diego.
Smarr also fostered a vision that empowers CI instructors to share, create, modify and contribute to open-source education materials. Sean Michael Morris (photo on left; UC Berkeley) presented UC Berkeley’s flagship data science education course, “Data 8 JupyterHubs for Education.” With an open-source blueprint, Data 8 makes it easier for high school and college instructors to teach data and CI skills in the classroom.
Katie Antypas (National Science Foundation (NSF) senior adviser for cyberinfrastructure) delivered a virtual keynote (Photo by Kristina Mallari)
Originally created and piloted in 2015, Data 8 achieved national recognition by 2019. Since its inception, the need to improve U.S. competitiveness and build an AI-savvy workforce has driven its development. Rising demand for and reliance upon CI for research and education created a bigger gap between the institutional haves and have-nots. The post-Moore-Law era complicated domain science adoption of CI, in many cases. Data 8 prioritizes CI access for everyone, builds environments for collaboration and makes it possible for more schools to develop the national CI workforce. During COVID, remote scaling and broader online infrastructure adoption led to the mature, foundational model for modern data science education that we enjoy today.
The Data 8 course is wrapped in a Canvas shell, and organized week-by-week, with slides, videos and readings that are embedded into lesson plans – all accessed via a common browser. Its familiar look-and-feel facilitates adoption by experienced and novice teachers alike. It’s not necessary to have Git/GitHub experience; beginning practitioners easily adapt. JupyterHub utilizes CiLogon authentication, and GitHub occasionally uses OAuth. Each school gets access to two CPUs, RAM (1-2GB), development environments that include Jupyter Lab and Jupyter Notebooks, VS Code, RStudio, and languages (Python, R and C++). Everything is standardized and scales to accommodate class sizes ranging from two to 2000 students. No packages must be built or installed; everything is baked into the turnkey Canvas course.
Sean Michael Morris, UC Berkeley
Data 8 currently serves 3k students each semester at two California high schools, 27 California community colleges, 11 California State Universities and University of California institutions, and seven universities outside of California. Data 8 and the resources it provides are available at no cost.
Photos of Frank Würthwein, Katie Antypas and the cover photo are by Kristina Mallari, assistant producer-director, Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego. Editorial contributions by Senior Science Writer and Editor Kim Bruch (UC San Diego) and others were much appreciated.
7NRP was funded by NSF; gold sponsors Ciena and IBM; silver sponsors Vocareum and Bedrock; and others. For recordings of each session, visit the NRP website.
Watch for part two of the 7NRP workshop recap in HPCwire!
About the author: Elizabeth Leake is an HPCwire contributor and founder of STEM-Trek, a global nonprofit that supports underrepresented STEM scholars with travel and professional development. She is also a project manager of advanced cyberinfrastructure at Texas A&M University.
The post 7NRP: The Seventh National Research Platform Workshop, Part One appeared first on HPCwire.
Department of Agriculture says new cases in Texas and New Mexico as officials move to combat parasite’s spread
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Monday confirmed three additional cases of New World screwworm – two more in Texas and the other in New Mexico, according to the agency’s animal health arm.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said the two Texas cases affected a calf in La Salle county and a goat in Gillespie county.
Continue reading...
When the Delaware Community Foundation (DCF) began planning the relaunch of its original podcast series Building Opportunity in late 2024, the country looked very different. Federal budget cuts had not yet upended the nonprofit landscape, immigration enforcement had not dramatically ramped up surveillance, and shifting political dynamics had not rendered certain words controversial.
The DCF debuted season 1 of How to (Not) Kill Your Community as a video podcast in April 2025 — the same week it launched its Meet the Moment initiative, which would ultimately deliver over $600,000 in grants and capacity-building programs to Delaware nonprofits assessing new paths to viability.
Hosted by DCF President and CEO Stuart Comstock-Gay, the first season brought on guests like U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride and Dogfish Head co-founder Mariah Calagione to talk about sustaining communities for the long haul in an atmosphere of caution and uncertainty. The first nine episodes included a disclaimer: “This podcast was recorded before recent federal policy changes impacted many of the programs discussed and may not reflect the most current information.”
If season 1 approached the shifting cultural and political landscape with restraint, season 2 of How to (Not) Kill Your Community – which dropped its final two episodes on June 9 – dives right in. Episode 1 features an indomitable U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester speaking on everything from the February attacks on Iran to the hard work of loving those you disagree with to praying for the lives of her colleagues on the Capitol balcony on Jan. 6, 2021.
“My good friend Congresswoman Val Demings from Florida … grabbed my arm and I grabbed hers. She said, ‘Lisa, you know there’s only one who can get us out of this,’” Blunt Rochester recalled in the episode. “I could hear the gunshot at one door. I could see the Capitol police holding down the other door on the floor, and I just started to pray.”
Other Season 2 guests include Hook PR & Marketing founder Patricia Rivera talking about Hispanic entrepreneurs; Director of Community Engagement for the Delaware Department of Justice Corie Priest on high recidivism rates; and Rabbi Yair Robinson and Pastor Jeffrey Ross on the role of religion when democracy is under threat.
“The landscape has changed a lot since we recorded Season 1,” Comstock-Gay said. “Communities, along with the people and organizations that serve them, are navigating intersecting crises. Guests this season are stepping up to meet these challenges and generously sharing what they’ve learned.”
Watch season 2 of How to (Not) Kill Your Community from the Delaware Community Foundation on YouTube and listen on Apple and Spotify.
You can also click on the images below to watch them on YouTube right now!
The post DCF takes on deepening crises in Season 2 of How to (Not) Kill Your Community appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Recent exchange of missiles between Iran and Israel highlights diverging views between US president and Israeli PM
The latest eruption of hostilities between Iran and Israel appears to have been contained for now after Donald Trump insisted he called “all the shots” in the Middle East, but in a dangerously fragile region Benjamin Netanyahu has again shown he is ready to take shots of his own.
The exchange of missiles on Sunday and Monday was ample demonstration of the inherent instability of the current limbo between war and peace, but it also shone a bright light on the complex and conflicted relationship between the US president and the Israeli prime minister, frenemies who could determine the fate of the current ceasefire.
Continue reading...SEOUL, South Korea, June 8, 2026 — NVIDIA and SK hynix have announced a multiyear technology partnership to advance next-generation memory for the global AI factory buildout and accelerate semiconductor design and manufacturing. The agreement builds on years of deep co-engineering collaboration that has powered some of the world’s most advanced AI computing platforms.
Credit: Shutterstock
“AI factories are the engines of the next industrial revolution, and advanced memory is essential to their performance,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “SK hynix has been an extraordinary partner to NVIDIA, playing a central role in delivering advanced memory technologies for NVIDIA AI computing platforms. Together, we will codevelop the next generation of memory for AI factories and support the accelerating global expansion of AI infrastructure — from frontier model training to agentic and physical AI.”
“SK hynix and NVIDIA have been building toward this for years, and this partnership reflects the depth of that collaboration,” said Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group. “Together, we are codeveloping the next generation of memory for AI factories and applying AI to how we design and manufacture semiconductors — work that will shape the future of AI infrastructure.”
The multiyear agreement supports supply to address the extended development cycles of advanced memory. As AI factories scale globally, this strategic partnership enables memory supply to keep pace with NVIDIA’s infrastructure roadmap and the sustained buildout of AI infrastructure worldwide. Through this partnership, SK hynix will diversify into new markets NVIDIA is creating — spanning AI infrastructure, personal AI and physical AI — codeveloping memory for NVIDIA Vera Rubin AI supercomputers, NVIDIA Vera CPUs, NVIDIA RTX Spark-powered PCs and NVIDIA Jetson Thor robotic computing platforms.
Accelerating Technology Computer-Aided Design and Semiconductor Simulation
SK hynix is using NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries and AI to speed semiconductor simulation, including technology computer-aided design and computational lithography workflows.
SK hynix is also using CUDA-X and the NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo framework to deliver core-workload acceleration across its in-house simulation codes and AI physics workflows.
By extending these tools to the semiconductor electronic design automation and simulation ecosystems, this initiative paves the way for three-way collaborations among chipmakers, NVIDIA and electronic design automation software vendors.
Advancing Fab Digital Twins for Autonomous Manufacturing
SK hynix is developing fab digital twins as a foundation for autonomous fab operations. Teams can use scene optimization technologies, as well as NVIDIA Omniverse libraries and OpenUSD pipelines, to build 3D factory scenes for visualizing, simulating and optimizing complex semiconductor manufacturing environments.
These digital twins can also support operational optimization, including the movement of autonomous mobile robots and other fab assets, using the open source, GPU-accelerated NVIDIA cuOpt decision optimization engine and the NVIDIA Metropolis platform.
The companies are also exploring ways to connect digital twins with existing legacy software and agentic AI workflows, enabling AI systems to reason over fab data, automate tasks and improve manufacturing decision-making.
About SK hynix Inc.
SK hynix Inc., headquartered in Korea, is the world’s top tier semiconductor supplier offering Dynamic Random Access Memory chips (“DRAM”) and flash memory chips (“NAND flash”) for a wide range of distinguished customers globally. The Company’s shares are traded on the Korea Exchange, and the Global Depository shares are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Further information about SK hynix is available at www.skhynix.com, news.skhynix.com.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in AI and accelerated computing.
Source: NVIDIA
The post NVIDIA and SK hynix Announce Partnership to Advance Memory for AI Factories appeared first on HPCwire.
Interest earnings with a 6-month CD can be significant now, and they'll be available relatively quickly, too.
A controversial insertion in the National Defense Authorization Act currently winding its way through the House would permanently intertwine U.S. and Israeli defense technology, including artificial intelligence and autonomous systems.
Lawmakers and military experts told The Intercept that Section 224, named “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” is highly irregular — and closely resembles a bipartisan bill backed by the pro-Israel lobby that died in Congress earlier this year.
“I can’t think of another example of Congress formalizing integration of critical national security technologies with a foreign power,” said retired Air Force Lt. Col. William Astore.
Unlike traditional foreign military aid programs, Section 224 would establish a framework for integrating Israeli-developed technologies directly into U.S. research, procurement, manufacturing, and acquisition processes — which military experts warned would be complicated, if not impossible, to unwind. It would apply across areas including AI, autonomous systems, cyberwarfare, biotechnology, missile defense, and defense industrial production.
Astore, who has taught military history at multiple institutions, said he’s particularly concerned about the AI component. “Israel is a leader in using AI predictive models and programs to surveil and kill people, using manned and unmanned drones,” he said. “The ‘smart,’ even autonomous technologies Israel has used against Palestinians could very well be used by the U.S. government against American citizens — especially the so-called radical left that President Trump appears to see as domestic terrorists.”
“The ‘smart,’ even autonomous technologies Israel has used against Palestinians could very well be used by the U.S. government against American citizens.”
The debate is raging as Congress prepares to take up the fiscal year 2027 NDAA, a routine piece of legislation that spells out congressional priorities and budgeting for the armed forces. The House Armed Services Committee approved the legislation on Thursday evening; it now advances for consideration by the full House.
A handful of legislators from both parties have rebuked Section 224. Among them is Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican known for opposing all foreign military aid — a stance that drew the ire of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and drove millions in spending against him in the recent primary he lost to a Trump-backed challenger.
Massie was quick to condemn the proposal before it moved forward, writing: “If the provision in the NDAA to integrate/synchronize the U.S. and Israeli militaries (section 224) makes it out of committee, I’ll offer an amendment to strip it from the bill on the floor.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and Massie’s frequent collaborator, attempted to do something similar at the committee stage. On Thursday, Khanna introduced an amendment seeking to remove Section 224, arguing that Congress should not deepen military integration with Israel at a time when lawmakers are increasingly questioning the future of the U.S.–Israel relationship. But the amendment failed in committee after opposition from both Republicans and Democrats, including Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith, D-Wash., who argued the U.S. benefits from access to Israeli military technologies developed under real-world combat conditions, citing missile defense, drone warfare, and other emerging capabilities as areas of mutual interest.
According to its proponents, the goal of Section 224 is to transition Israel away from decades of dependence on U.S. taxpayer-funded military assistance and toward a model centered on trade, co-development, and defense partnership — mirroring a desire expressed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
With the Obama-era Memorandum of Understanding with Israel set to expire in 2028, Israel and its backers in Congress are searching for new ways to preserve U.S.–Israeli military collaboration. The current U.S.–Israel MOU provides approximately $3.3 billion annually in foreign military financing and $500 million annually for missile defense cooperation, totaling $38 billion over 10 years through 2028.
Netanyahu stated in January that he hoped to replace Israel’s dependence on American military assistance in the next decade. Less than a month later, lawmakers in both the House and Senate introduced the United States–Israel Framework for Upgraded Technologies, Unified Research, and Enhanced Security (FUTURES) Act of 2026, a bipartisan proposal designed to expand U.S.–Israel cooperation in many of the same tech and AI areas as Section 224.
The FUTURES Act was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and in the House by Reps. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and Don Davis, D-N.C. All four sponsors have received substantial campaign support from AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups.
The legislation also received public backing from both AIPAC and FDD Action, the advocacy arm of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which has long advocated for deeper U.S.–Israel defense and technology cooperation.
The FUTURES Act did not advance as standalone legislation — but many of its core concepts later reappeared in Section 224 of the FY2027 NDAA. Legislative records and congressional offices contacted by The Intercept indicate that Section 224 adopts the same initiative and many of the same provisions previously proposed in the FUTURES Act, including language related to integrating Israeli-origin technologies into U.S. military programs, defense industrial cooperation, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, biotechnology, cyber capabilities, and joint research and development.
The Intercept contacted the House Armed Services Committee and the Department of Defense, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s office, seeking clarification on the origins of Section 224 and whether Pentagon officials participated in its development. Neither the committee nor the Pentagon responded to requests for comment before publication.
The Pentagon’s refusal to answer questions about Section 224 comes amid renewed scrutiny of U.S.–Israel intelligence relations. Reporting published this weekend by the New York Times and Military.com detailed Defense Department concerns regarding Israeli espionage risks, raising additional questions about efforts to deepen technological integration between the two countries.
Wes Bryant, a former Air Force special operations member who previously served as chief of civilian harm assessments at the Pentagon’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, argued that deeper military integration raises broader concerns about the technologies and doctrines the United States may adopt through closer cooperation with Israel.
“Israel is a terrorist state, wantonly committing atrocity and genocide largely facilitated by its use of AI, and we are further along on the same path but, at the very least, complicit,” Bryant said. “And moreso the more we militarily integrate and partner with Israel.”
In a piece for The Guardian, the co-authors of the upcoming book “Israel’s Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power,” Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick, described Section 224 as “not an alliance with a talented and responsible ally that will help keep the US safe, but a trap being set by Israel and its lobby to bind our country to a state that, for all its past promise, has gone rogue.”
The post Congress Is Trying to Permanently Integrate U.S. and Israeli Defense Tech appeared first on The Intercept.
At WWDC 2026, Apple shows off new AI image creation and editing tools.
Trump administration officials earlier this year killed a federal criminal investigation into the coal empire owned by Sen. Jim Justice, a Republican from West Virginia and a close ally of the president’s.
The investigation examined potential criminal violations of the Clean Water Act by the multistate mining operations largely run by Justice’s son, Jay, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter.
The criminal probe was a significant escalation in the yearslong effort to police serial pollution offenses by Virginia-based Southern Coal and dozens of affiliated mining operations controlled by the family. In the past decade, Southern Coal and other Justice corporations have racked up tens of thousands of alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and have been sued repeatedly by state and federal prosecutors over their failure to properly follow environmental laws at their mining sites.
The investigation shuttered by the Trump administration was a joint effort by prosecutors and investigators with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Virginia to probe whether the incessant violations of antipollution laws had risen to the level of criminal behavior, people familiar with the matter said.
People familiar with the investigation told ProPublica that prosecutors believed they had a strong case. They initially had the blessing of Robert Tracci, President Donald Trump’s top official in the Western District of Virginia, to move forward.
But in recent months, as prosecutors battled the Justice companies in court over subpoenas for records, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General shut down the probe. At the time, Todd Blanche still headed the office, before assuming the role of acting attorney general in April.
“They were told ‘pencils down,’” a person familiar with the investigation said.
That prosecutors were even conducting a criminal investigation is noteworthy, people said, because the DOJ only charges a dozen or so criminal Clean Water Act cases each year. It is rare for top DOJ officials to derail a criminal investigation initiated by career officials at such an early stage, people familiar with the case said.
“I’ve never heard of that happening before,” said former federal prosecutor Rick Mountcastle, speaking generally about DOJ protocols. Mountcastle spent 24 years as a prosecutor in the Western District of Virginia. “There shouldn’t be some sort of untouchables list of people who are immune from enforcement.”
The move is part of a pattern of behavior at the top echelons of the DOJ to push cases against Trump’s political adversaries and ease up on allies.
Environmental enforcement against large polluters has plunged under the second Trump administration. Just days after inauguration, the administration reassigned top career environmental lawyers at the DOJ, including those overseeing the Southern Coal case, to work on the president’s immigration crackdown. At the beginning of the year, Blanche personally ordered prosecutors to stand down from cases against diesel emissions cheating.
We’re still reporting. If you know more about this case or other instances of the Trump administration shutting down criminal investigations, please contact our reporting team.
Molly Redden
Send me tips or documents about lawyers getting special access to the Trump administration, the DOJ rewarding Trump’s supporters and pursuing his enemies, the administration’s legal strategy, and the White House’s judicial appointments.
Steven Ruby, an attorney for the Justice companies, said they became aware of the criminal investigation earlier this year.
“Ultimately the finding of the inquiry by the government was that there wasn’t any evidence to pursue criminal charges,” Ruby said. “There’s never been any intentional wrongdoing by the companies.”
While objecting to the subpoenas in court, the company simultaneously convinced the DOJ to drop the case, he said.
“The Justice companies — because Sen. Justice has been governor and because he’s now a senator — are singled out and put under a microscope, and there’s news coverage of violations and consent decrees and compliance actions,” Ruby said. “But the fact of the matter is that those kinds of issues exist throughout the industry.”
Current and former government officials familiar with the companies’ environmental record called them routine bad actors.
Spokespeople for the EPA and the Western District of Virginia referred questions to the DOJ. Justice’s senate office did not respond to questions.
“There is no case to be made here for a criminal investigation,” Emily Covington, a DOJ spokeswoman, said in an email. “Any career prosecutor who would paint a criminal case as strong is simply a deep state prosecutor continuing to push the priorities of the Biden administration.”
The deputy attorney general’s office is routinely involved with reviewing cases, she added. The office determined that this case was not consistent with the Trump administration’s priorities, she continued, and it was more appropriate to resolve it through the less punitive civil process. “The bottom line is that this was a politically motivated prosecution for a case that can and should be resolved civilly,” she wrote.
The Justice family runs a sprawling coal mining enterprise that extends across the South. Estimates of its fortune fluctuate. Forbes tallied Jim Justice’s net worth to be as much as $1.9 billion until 2021; more recently, it declared him “broke” and facing $1 billion in debt. But environmental groups have accused his companies of misrepresenting their assets to avoid paying environmental penalties.
Ruby said company finances seesaw because coal is a “boom and bust” industry.
Justice, who was first elected governor of West Virginia as a Democrat, announced he had become a Republican at a Trump rally in 2017. Trump backed Justice’s bid for Senate in 2023, amid a contested GOP primary. Justice went on to win the seat, helping Trump clinch a GOP majority in the Senate.
Coal mines often leach dangerous chemicals like arsenic into waterways and are required to strictly monitor pollution discharge and keep it under certain limits. The family’s companies have settled many accusations of environmental violations by agreeing to pay fines and invest in better pollution prevention without admitting or denying culpability.
In recent years, however, the company has repeatedly flouted regulators and the legal process. Jay Justice has been a no-show at court hearings involving Clean Water Act violations in the past, and in 2024 a judge in Alabama issued a civil contempt order against him for his repeated failure to respond to those lawsuits. Ruby, the Justice companies’ lawyer, attributed the violations in that case to surrounding facilities the family does not own. The case is now in mediation.
A number of recent legal proceedings have laid bare the extent to which the Justice companies may have knowingly violated environmental laws, a key threshold for bringing a criminal matter.
Such allegations surfaced in a 2023 civil case brought by the Justice companies’ former chief of environmental compliance Robert Fowler. In the suit, Fowler claimed that Jay Justice blocked him from spending the money necessary to comply with environmental laws, including making court-ordered payments and repairing equipment. As a result, according to emails disclosed in the lawsuit there were at times complaints of near-daily violations of permit water requirements.
In a resignation letter and in subsequent court filings, Fowler said he was concerned the circumstances exposed him to “potential civil and criminal liability.” Fowler declined to comment.
The Justice companies denied Fowler’s accusations. The Justice companies believe the government’s criminal investigation was based primarily on Fowler’s claims, which Ruby dismissed as the allegations of a “disgruntled” former employee.
Last month, a jury in Alabama found that the Justice companies had made false representations to Fowler about his role, but it did not award him the millions of dollars in damages he demanded in his lawsuit. The judge has yet to enter his final ruling.
In the DOJ’s aborted investigation of Southern Coal, prosecutors and federal agents had begun to gather evidence, scrutinizing testimony in the Justices’ various civil trials, and had approached former employees seeking information. Government attorneys also sent subpoenas seeking further documentation, said those familiar with the probe, a move that was opposed by the company’s lawyers.
People familiar with the case said Justice Department attorneys were ready to fight the Justices’ lawyers over the subpoenas.
But before they could move forward, Blanche’s office shut it down.
The post Trump Administration Killed Criminal Investigation of GOP Senator’s Coal Companies appeared first on ProPublica.
Before you replace your air conditioner, make sure you understand the full cost — and what can impact it.
Point and shoot your phone camera, then press the Siri shutter button for a chatbot to tell you what you're taking a photo of.
The latest VisionOS updates give Apple's headset a few things that future glasses could also add.
Hey guys, I recently bought an enduro tire for my GT and am starting to second guess if it was a good idea to try and install it myself.
Context: I have about 3.5k miles on my GT and this is my 3rd tire, but the other tire changes were done by a local Onewheel repair guy. Unfortunately, he moved away about a year ago. I was a little nervous about the idea of doing it myself, as I’m not handy at all, but after some digging it seems like people agreed it was pretty easy even for someone who has never even changed a real tire.
Well, 20% into the video and I’m already stuck. Ive been trying for an hour but can’t get the motor plug out. In the video he just turns the lock ring and it comes right out but idk if it’s because mines a bit dirty or I just don’t understand how the ring works. because the plug won’t budge. I’ve looked at other videos and they all take like 5 seconds to show the lock ring and plug so they don’t help. Do I have to push it in or squeeze it to loosen the ring? It really doesn’t make sense and my fingers are barely able to even fit in the small gap so maybe it’s a dexterity issue.
If I’m struggling this much with the simple part of the video should I just cut my losses and ship the whole thing off for someone else to do it? I don’t want to pay like $100+ to ship it but this motor plug thing has me very much doubting if il be able to do the more difficult parts of the video.
Anyone else experienced issues with the motor plug? I don’t mean to be a downer but I’m almost at my wits end and I haven’t even gotten to the “difficult” part
TLDR: first time changing a tire, can’t even get motor plug unplugged, wondering if I’m in over my head
We move from the famed alpine lake and mountains of Tahoe to the iconic Bay Area bridge.
wiredmikey shares a report from SecurityWeek: Meta-owned communications app WhatsApp says it recently detected and disrupted a spear-phishing attempt linked to spyware company NSO Group. The attack is allegedly in defiance of a court order that bars the spyware maker from targeting WhatsApp. WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against NSO in 2019, after it came to light that a zero-day vulnerability had been exploited to deliver spyware to users. [...] NSO has been seeking to overturn the order blocking it from targeting WhatsApp users, arguing that the company will "suffer irreparable harm." According to WhatsApp, the spyware maker has violated the permanent injunction. The messaging app reported on Monday that it had recently learned of a social engineering attack that attempted to trick users into clicking on malicious links. WhatsApp has only shared a few domains as an indicator of compromise (IoC), but says it was able to link the attack to NSO, pointing to similarities to previously reported one-click phishing campaigns tied to the spyware company. WhatsApp says it also caught the attackers creating test accounts and groups. Those accounts and groups have been disabled, but further action is also being taken. WhatsApp says it is asking a federal court to hold NSO in contempt for allegedly violating a permanent injunction barring it from targeting WhatsApp and its users. The company also said it is making a "significant contribution" to the Spyware Accountability Initiative, a fund aimed at exposing and stopping spyware abuse.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Progressive and former reality TV star have been battling for the number two spot to face off against Karen Bass
Nithya Raman, the progressive Los Angeles city councillor, appeared to be edging out Spencer Pratt in the LA mayoral race challenging Karen Bass as Donald Trump continues to repeat falsehoods that California elections are “rigged”.
The pair have been battling for the number two spot to face off against the incumbent, who already secured enough votes to advance to a runoff in November. Pratt, a former reality TV star, held a lead over Raman for days, but as ballot processing from last week’s election continued, the city councillor has pulled ahead.
Continue reading...The Iranian regime has announced the end of attacks against Israel, while the US president has claimed both sides ‘want a ceasefire’. This comes after Iran and Israel attacked each other’s territory for the first time since a fragile ceasefire took effect in April. The Israeli strikes are in apparent defiance of Donald Trump, who told Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, not to retaliate against Iran, in order to avoid derailing peace talks. Nosheen Iqbal speaks to the Guardian’s senior international correspondent Julian Borger
Continue reading...Apple unveiled the new Siri at WWDC 2026. It's more capable and more conversational and also comes with its own dedicated app.
Although working remotely offers flexibility, it also takes a toll on people's mental health, experts said.
The economy has changed considerably this year. Here's what a good mortgage interest rate is considered to be now.
Redox progressed another month, and that means a ton of improvements and new features to talk about. The biggest news this past month is that Xfce has been ported to Redox, which offers a better X11 experience than MATE currently does. There’s still some bugs but apparently is works quite well. The porting process for the COSMIC desktop environment also progressed, with COSMIC’s new Monitor application making its way to Redox.
As part of Google Summer of Code, the EEVDF scheduler has been implemented in Redox, delivering better, more stable scheduling and overall system performance improvements. Also as part of GSoC inode caching has been implemented for RedoxFS, which improves file system performance. Of course, there’s a lot more here too, including the usual long list of kernel fixes, relibc improvements, and more.
Post on Facebook received more than 900 comments, with one Italian writing that they were ‘ashamed’
A US tourist has warned visitors to Rome after paying €44 (£38) for two ice-creams in the Italian capital.
Nicole Ann, from Florida, advised fellow tourists to “avoid Don Nino”, an ice-cream parlour on a street off Piazza Navona. She claimed she had ordered two small cups of ice-cream but instead was charged for two large cones topped with trimmings that were allegedly not requested, including macarons, cannoli and panna (whipped cream).
Continue reading...Paris and Berlin conclude firms involved unable to agree on way forward in blow to Europe’s common defence push
France and Germany have concluded that the companies involved in building a joint fighter jet will not be able to reach an agreement and have abandoned the project, officials in Berlin have said in a blow to Europe’s common defence efforts.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, had “reached the shared assessment that the companies will not be able to come together”, an official told Agence France-Presse. “They acknowledge this reality.”
Continue reading...Micheal Barwegan is part of an all-Canadian crew at this World Cup, and says the new offside system makes his job easier in some ways
The 2026 World Cup will be the first edition of the tournament to feature semi-automated offside technology, utilizing a dozen cameras to track player movement at a rate of 50 stills per second. In theory, it sounds like an effective, if dizzying, way to cut down on delays and better aid the officials.
One of those officials is Micheal Barwegan, who is part of the first all-Canadian officiating team in men’s World Cup history. He has worked with referee Drew Fischer and fellow assistant referee Lyes Arfa increasingly often over the past two years. The team worked in-tandem at the 2024 Olympics and last summer’s Club World Cup along with their more regular work in club soccer.
Continue reading...Molly Rose Foundation says government should instead set strict safety standards for apps
A rushed under-16s social media ban in the UK could unravel and families will be left to count the cost, a leading child safety charity has warned.
The Molly Rose Foundation (MRF) said an age limit on the use of tech platforms could unravel, after it was reported that the prime minister, Keir Starmer, would announce a ban on under-16s accessing “harmful” social media apps.
Continue reading...President Trump abruptly ended an interview with NBC News when repeatedly challenged on his claims of election fraud
Announced at WWDC 2026, Apple's Health app will support cycle tracking for menopause and perimenopause. This is why it matters.
New York Fed survey shows growing concern about household finances and the job market, even as the job market remains solid.
My OG XR+ BMS kicked the bucket and I don't want to run a loop key to jerry rig this thing back to life. I am looking at VESC conversions but none seem to use the original battery. Since mine is still healthy (good cell and overall voltage), it seems pointless to buy another battery. Is there a conversion that uses the original battery? Or is there a drop in BMS replacement I can buy (I can't find one that isnt OEM)?
June 8, 2026 — A research team from Forschungszentrum Jülich has won the international “Metascience Novelty Indicators Challenge.” The scientists at Jülich Systems Analysis developed a method that enables artificial intelligence to assess the novelty of scientific publications – in other words, the extent to which a study advances scientific knowledge. For their success, the team has been awarded prize money of £300,000 to further develop the method.
The challenge was organized by the UK Metascience Unit (UKRI) in collaboration with international partners. The aim was to develop a scalable method for assessing the novelty of research articles at the time of their publication.
To this end, the organizers provided a dataset of 100,000 recent scientific publications. Experts from the respective disciplines assessed their novelty independently of one another. The task for the participating teams was to predict these expert judgements as accurately as possible – without knowing the assessments.
Jülich Approach Achieved Best Results Across All Evaluation Criteria
“Until now, the ability to assess what is truly novel and valuable in a scientific paper has been limited to human experts,” said Jann Michael Weinand, Head of the Integrated Scenarios Department at the Institute of Climate and Energy Systems – Jülich System Analysis (ICE-2). “Our approach shows that modern AI systems can support this task with astonishing reliability.”
AI Analyses Content Rather Than Citation Counts
Unlike many established research metrics, the Jülich system does not assess how often a paper is cited later on.
“Metadata is not sufficient to assess novelty at the time of publication. Our system therefore examines the content of a study and relates it to the state of knowledge at the time of its publication,” said project leader Jan Göpfert, also from ICE-2, who developed the approach together with his colleague Samuel Kieling.
To do this, the system first analyses the study itself as well as selected scientific papers to which it refers. On this basis, the AI reconstructs the state of knowledge at the time of publication, including known gaps in research. It then assesses the contribution made by the new study. Does it introduce a new method? Does it deliver surprising results? Does it solve a previously unsolved problem? In doing so, the system deliberately collects arguments both for and against the novelty of a paper and weighs them against one another.
In the end, the AI assigns a novelty score between 0 and 100. It also provides an interval indicating how confident the model is in its assessment. A detailed written justification then makes the evaluation transparent.
“The biggest challenge was defining novelty in a meaningful way. For us, novelty does not simply mean dissimilarity. What matters is a work’s contribution to scientific progress,” said Kieling.
Earlier Visibility for Important Research
The number of scientific publications continues to grow rapidly. At the same time, an increasing number of papers are being produced with the help of AI tools. This makes it increasingly difficult for researchers, academic journals and funding organizations to identify particularly relevant contributions at an early stage.
This is where the novelty indicator could help in future. Research with particularly high potential for generating new insights could be identified during the peer-review or publication process – rather than only years later, when its significance becomes apparent through citation metrics.
“We hope this will particularly benefit research that is often overlooked by traditional metrics,” said Kieling. “Our goal is not to replace human judgement. Rather, AI should help draw attention to potentially important research and support better-informed decisions.”
Furthermore, the Novelty Indicator opens new possibilities for metascience, i.e. the scientific study of the research system itself.
Prize Money Enables Further Development
With the prize money of £300,000, the team intends to further develop the existing prototype into a reliable scientific tool. The novelty indicator is intended to be transparent, resistant to manipulation, and must not exacerbate existing inequalities within the scientific system.
In the long term, the researchers envision applications far beyond scientific publications – for example, in the context of patents or the identification of new and promising research questions and hypotheses. “At the same time, this development raises fundamental questions: What role should AI play in scientific decision-making in the future? And how can we ensure that scientific evaluation and progress remain transparent and traceable?” said Göpfert.
The work of the Jülich researchers demonstrates that AI is now capable of far more than analyzing data or summarizing texts. It is increasingly able to evaluate scientific research itself – opening up new possibilities for the science of tomorrow.
About the Metascience Novelty Indicators Challenge
The Metascience Novelty Indicators Challenge was hosted by the UK Metascience Unit at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Coefficient Giving. Partners in the competition were the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex, the research and consultancy institute RAND Europe, and Challenge Works, global leaders in the design and delivery of challenge prizes, and part of the research and innovation foundation Nesta. £300,000 prize was provided by Coefficient Giving.
Source: Forschungszentrum Jülich
The post Jülich Researchers Earn Top Honors for AI-Based Scientific Novelty Indicator appeared first on HPCwire.
There are multiple ways in which savers can earn $300 with a CD account now. Here are three to consider.
FM made sure you cannot install a bigger battery on a PintX, so there’s nothing you can do. Range extenders / VNR is not possible. If you got soldering skills you could beef up the charging path to allow for faster charging without killing your charger/BMS connector. That’s about the only way to make longer rides a bit less painful…
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author, who died Sunday, explored fundamental questions about what it means to be an American.
Firefox has merged initial support for Vulkan Video decoding, giving the browser a more cross-platform path for GPU-accelerated video playback beyond Linux's long-running reliance on VA-API. Phoronix reports: Firefox on Linux has long been focused on the Video Acceleration API (VA-API) that isn't universally supported by Linux graphics drivers. This has left to efforts like NVIDIA-VAAPI-Driver to layer VA-API atop NVIDIA NVDEC interfaces to enjoy GPU-accelerated video playback in Firefox. Smaller Arm/embedded graphics drivers also have been largely left out of the game in the VA-API space. But with Vulkan Video we are beginning to see more adoption and in a cross-platform manner. [...] The Firefox 153 release due out in July will have Vulkan Video decoding support available. The Vulkan Video activity in Firefox Git culminated this week with the work of NVIDIA engineer Tymur Boiko and Red Hat's Martin Stransky. Firefox 153.0 is expected for release on 21 July with this Vulkan Video support assuming no last minute issues.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Performing arts venue takes down references to a ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ in compliance with judge’s ruling
The Kennedy Center has removed Trump’s name from its website after a US district judge’s order last month to remove the US president’s name from the performing arts venue.
The removal of Trump’s name from the website on Monday came just days before a deadline instructed by the center’s general counsel to remove all references to the president by 12 June.
Continue reading...Xi Jinping arrived Monday to pomp and fanfare in Pyongyang, celebrating what he and Kim Jong Un called the “unbreakable” bond between their countries.
Hundreds of video games were shown at June’s annual bonanza. After watching more than 15 hours of showcases, our video games editor picks the highlights
The sequel to a revered 2014 horror game from British developer Creative Assembly: this time you must evade the xenomorph on the surface of a storm-ravaged colony world.
Continue reading...Plane on way to pick up Yadier Molina and his family crashed in Dominican Republic, killing pilot and co-pilot
A pilot and co-pilot from the United States have died in a fiery plane crash as they attempted an emergency landing in the Dominican Republic, authorities said.
Former major league baseball all-star catcher Yadier Molina said on social media that the plane was bound for Texas to pick him up, along with family and friends.
Continue reading...CBS News contributor David Begnaud shows an athletic coach in Illinois how he impacted one of his students, changing the trajectory of that student's life forever.
Former safeguarding minister says if ban came into force properly it could ‘basically eliminate’ problem
The government has highlighted work done by the internet safety firm SafeToNet as showing that the technology is already in place that would allow tech companies to stop children using phones to take naked pictures of themselves, or other people. The Home Office says:
Measures to protect children already exist within smartphones and tablets, but are applied inconsistently, often switched off by default and only blurring content rather than blocking it. But the government is working closely with technology companies — some of whom, like Apple, have already taken steps to implement protective features — to make this goal a reality.
Companies must introduce these measures without threatening privacy or collecting any data. The device should simply block harmful content across all apps and services. Over-18s will still be able to view adult content by providing proof of age.
The government is right to act. Children have been failed for too long. This news will be welcomed by parents across the UK and hopefully, will inspire other countries to follow the UK’s lead.
We can put an end to so much online misery with this approach. SafeToNet’s HarmBlock technology is a proven example that it is possible to make the device safe by default and not as some optional add-on.
The changes will apply to UK devices, including both existing and newly sold smartphones and tablets. Legislation could cover operating system providers and others in the supply chain, such as retailers, and will not affect the use of devices owned and used by adults who verify their age …
Apple recently introduced age checks for iPhone users, making it the first company to activate safety features by default for those who are not verified as over 18. This is a significant step forward following the government’s commitments to work with industry, and one this announcement builds on.
Continue reading...Great white sharks are classified as "critically endangered" in the Mediterranean Sea, and underwater sightings are incredibly rare.
Bending Spoons, the Italian app studio behind acquisitions like Eventbrite, Vimeo, WeTransfer, Evernote, and AOL, has filed to go public in the U.S. after growing into a subscription-heavy app conglomerate with more than 500 million monthly active users. TechCrunch reports: In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bending Spoons said it ended the year with $1.31 billion in revenue and has generated $601 million in Q1, a 132% year-on-year jump. The company gets the majority of its revenue from subscriptions, which account for 84% of its business. It generated $27.4 million in profit in Q1 2026. The company raised funding at an $11 billion valuation last year, up from $2.8 billion in 2024. In April, Reuters reported that the company could seek a $20 billion valuation with the IPO.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Paul Quinn will serve at least 14 years for the 2003 rape in Salford and could spend less time in prison than Malkinson
The government’s most senior law officer has been asked to review the “unduly lenient” prison sentence handed to a rapist who evaded police for nearly two decades in one of Britain’s biggest miscarriages of justice.
Paul Quinn was jailed last week for a minimum of 14 years, meaning he could spend less time in prison than Andrew Malkinson, who was wrongly convicted of his crime.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer is reportedly also on the brink of banning social media for children under 16, just as Australia has done.
The Trump administration on Monday announced it is seeking to revoke the citizenship of 17 U.S. citizens accused of immigration fraud.
Russia sanctioned Alexander Browder, son of financier-turned-activist Bill Browder, after he unveiled an alleged cryptocurrency money laundering network.
As Trump fumes over fighting that has impeded his peace talks with Iran, some Israelis recall the 18-year occupation of Lebanon that began in 1982 and cite “complete déjà vu.”
The AI-powered research assistant is getting major chat upgrades, better customization and more formatting options.
In his presentation at the TPC26, Dieter Kranzlmüller, Chairman of the Board of the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) and Professor of Computer Science at LMU Munich, talked about his vision for the Blue Swan AI Gigafactory and the role it could play in Europe’s AI future.
Europe’s interest in AI Gigafactories stems from a belief that current AI infrastructure will not be sufficient to support future AI workloads in science and industry. While Kranzlmüller agrees that Europe needs more AI computing capacity and that AI Gigafactories are worth pursuing, he raises a broader question: Should Europe simply build the biggest possible GPU clusters? Is there a more sustainable path?
“What I’m always questioning, and I have no answer to that is: What about sustainability? If we are spending $500 billion now, does it mean in five years we have to spend the same amount of money because we have to throw away all the old GPUs? That’s a question which comes up. And I believe actually it’s not that size that we need.”
Kranzlmüller’s concerns stem from the scale of AI infrastructure projects now being proposed and executed around the globe. He pointed to Project Stargate in the U.S., which is linked to nearly half a trillion dollars of capital and data centers consuming hundreds of megawatts of power. That is a massive scale. Is it sustainable? Kranzlmüller acknowledged the importance of expanding AI computing capacity, but he questioned whether simply building larger facilities is the answer.
According to Kranzlmüller, Europe should leverage decades of experience operating HPC systems. Energy efficiency, cooling technologies and long-term utilization must be considered alongside raw compute capacity. “I don’t think it’s optional,” he said of sustainability. “I think it must be a priority.”
(FOTOGRIN/Shutterstock)
The hardware alone will not create value, according to Kranzlmüller. But when combined with a surrounding ecosystem of tools, services and domain expertise, it becomes significantly more useful than a standalone GPU deployment.
A key differentiator of the proposal is its emphasis on science as well as industry. Currently, Gigafactories are envisioned by the European Commission as being driven by private sector capital. However, Kranzlmüller is of the opinion that research institutions should play a bigger role.
“Whatever we put in this, the only group today on the planet that can use all these GPUs here in Europe is the scientists. We can scale up these things. And I have enough friends in AI that tell me, well, if you give me 100,000 GPUs, I’ll make use of them.”
For Kranzlmüller, that is where Blue Swan begins to differ from many of the other Gigafactory proposals currently being discussed across Europe. The project is built around the idea that science should not simply be another user of the infrastructure. Instead, researchers should help shape it from the beginning.
If Europe is going to invest billions in AI infrastructure, someone has to use it. According to Kranzlmüller, scientists are among the few groups already working at the scale envisioned for these systems. Bring research institutions into the mix from day one, so that the Gigafactory can remain productive while industry gradually ramps up its own AI ambitions.
Kranzlmüller sees AI as an opportunity for Europe to build on its strengths in HPC rather than start from scratch. The supercomputing community has spent decades wrestling with issues such as power consumption, cooling, efficiency and system utilization. In his view, those lessons are just as relevant to AI as they were to traditional HPC.
The demand for AI compute is only going to grow. Kranzlmüller acknowledged that. He is not suggesting that Europe should build fewer AI systems. Instead, he argued that Europe should build smarter ones.
Kranzlmüller, who was named one of HPCwire’s 35 HPC Legends, sees AI as an opportunity for Europe to build on its strengths in HPC rather than start from scratch.
The supercomputing community has spent decades wrestling with issues such as power consumption, cooling, efficiency and system utilization. In his view, those lessons are just as relevant to AI as they were to traditional HPC.
The post Blue Swan AI Gigafactory: Can Europe Scale AI Sustainably? appeared first on HPCwire.
If a creditor sues you in retirement, understanding the process could help you avoid some costly mistakes.
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as South Korea’s KOSPI index slumps by 8%
Shares in European companies at the heart of the AI boom are falling sharply at the start of trading.
Chip firms such as Besi – BE Semiconductor Industries – (-4.5%) and ASML (-3.2%) which makes chipmaking machines are among the big fallers on the pan-European Stoxx 600 index, which is down almost 0.9%.
Continue reading...LONDON, June 8, 2026 — AMD today announced plans to invest up to £2bn over the next five years in the United Kingdom to accelerate AI innovation and research and expand access to the compute resources needed for long-term economic growth and scientific leadership across the country.
Credit: Shutterstock
Speaking at London Tech Week, AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su outlined a series of investments and strategic collaborations designed to help accelerate the UK’s AI ecosystem and broaden access to the advanced computing that underpins scientific discovery and public-sector innovation. The initiatives align with the UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan and AI Hardware Strategy, supporting broader national priorities to build world-class AI infrastructure, develop technical talent and accelerate AI adoption.
“The United Kingdom has the talent, research excellence and ambition to help lead the next era of AI,” said Dr. Lisa Su, chair and CEO, AMD. “AMD is proud to deepen our commitment to the UK and work with partners across government, academia and industry to expand access to the compute infrastructure needed to advance sovereign AI, accelerate discovery and drive long-term economic growth.”
The announcement was welcomed by UK government leaders as a significant step toward strengthening the country’s AI infrastructure, research ecosystem and long-term economic competitiveness.
“This investment is a major vote of confidence in Britain’s place as a global AI superpower. We’ve got the talent, the world-class universities and the ambition to lead, and partnerships like this help turn that potential into real progress,” said Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer. “It will drive more cutting-edge research here in the UK, open up opportunities for people to build the skills they need for the jobs of the future, and speed up breakthroughs that can improve people’s lives and grow our economy.”
“This investment reflects the strength of Britain’s talent, research and ambition in AI – but also the infrastructure we are putting in place to match it,” said Liz Kendall, Technology Secretary. “With world-class chip designers, leading universities, and partners such as AMD choosing to invest here, we are building the compute capability needed to power innovation, drive growth, create jobs, and ensure the most advanced AI technologies are developed in the UK.”
New Strategic Collaborations to Advance AI Research and Infrastructure
Building on its recently announced work with Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) and JPMorganChase, AMD also announced a collaboration with Imperial College London to advance computational science and supporting research that relies on large-scale computing resources, including healthcare innovation and climate modeling.
AMD and Imperial also intend to explore opportunities to optimize AI models, scientific workflows and data-intensive applications on AMD compute platforms and AMD ROCm open software.
Additionally, AMD is collaborating with Oriole Networks in support of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) Scaling Inference Lab, a national initiative designed to address critical AI infrastructure bottlenecks.
The effort combines Oriole’s PRISM photonic networking architecture with AMD Instinct GPUs and AMD EPYC processors to evaluate new approaches for scaling inference workloads while improving performance and energy efficiency and reducing latency.
The initiative supports what is expected to be the world’s first large-scale AI system powered by a pure photonic network, an important step toward infrastructure technologies that can support future generations of AI systems in the UK.
Expanding National AI Supercomputing Capacity
AMD and Dell Technologies are working with the University of Cambridge on its expanding national AI infrastructure footprint, including the new Zenith AI supercomputer and the Sunrise fusion AI system developed in collaboration with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).
Zenith is a significant new UK AI-for-science platform, funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), designed and operated by the University of Cambridge, and built with AMD and Dell technology.
Sunrise is a second AI supercomputer powered by AMD and Dell being built now, funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), owned by UKAEA, and operated by the University of Cambridge. Sunrise is part of a long standing UKAEA-University of Cambridge partnership and dedicated to the fusion mission.
Together, these systems support a broad range of AI-for-science applications including healthcare research, climate modelling, materials science, engineering simulation, fusion research and scientific AI model development.
Supporting the UK’s National AI Future
By combining strategic investments with research and ecosystem partnerships, AMD is helping expand the UK’s computing capabilities and supporting the next generation of scientific and technological breakthroughs. The company will continue working with government, academia and industry to strengthen the foundations for long-term competitiveness and global leadership in AI.
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-optimised 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: AMD
The post AMD to Invest up to £2B to Accelerate AI Innovation and Research in UK appeared first on HPCwire.
Debbie Crosbie receives £3.2m in bonuses after mutual building society’s takeover of Virgin Money
Nationwide building society has nearly doubled the pay packet of its chief executive, Debbie Crosbie, a year after the board pushed through a controversial bonus scheme for its top boss.
The mutual, which is owned by its members, released its annual report on Monday, showing Crosbie was handed £3.2m in bonuses – a combination of payouts for annual and longer-term performance – up from £1.1m a year earlier.
It pushed her overall pay packet to £4.7m for the year to March 2026, marking an 88% jump on the near-£2.5m she earned for the previous year.
Continue reading...The late-night host detailed how the Florida liberal arts college became a testing ground for a rightwing agenda
John Oliver dedicated Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight to examining how Florida’s New College has been taken over by the conservative state governor, Ron DeSantis, and his allies.
New College used to promote itself with videos that emphasized its inclusive community and unique academic program – a rarity for a US state college.
Continue reading...Case argues Trump administration broke federal laws to accomodate ‘deeply corrupt’ commercial sporting event
Donald Trump is throwing himself quite the 80th birthday party at the White House on Sunday. All he needs now is for a federal judge, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and a passing thunderstorm not to ruin it.
The watchdog group Public Integrity Project filed a lawsuit on Saturday in DC federal court, seeking an emergency injunction to halt the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Freedom 250 event before a single punch is thrown on 14 June – which is both Flag Day and the president’s birthday.
Continue reading...Job transitions often come with severance pay, but they can also come with unexpected financial complications.
Former investment star was banned from holding senior manager roles after collapse of popular equity fund
The UK financial regulator is taking legal action against the former investment star Neil Woodford for allegedly offering unauthorised investment advice online, months after being banned from the City.
The Financial Conduct Authority said it was seeking an injunction against Woodford and W4.0, a United Arab Emirates-registered company, to stop them carrying out “potentially unlawful activities”.
Continue reading...Jeff Bezos is backing Flourish, a new "neuro AI" startup with $500 million in funding and a reported $2.5 billion valuation, that aims to reinvent AI by studying the brain's architecture and building systems that learn continuously while using far less power than today's large language models. The company's long-term bet is that neuroscientists and AI researchers working together can uncover the brain's "core algorithm" and eventually create brain-inspired AI that runs on a tiny fraction of current compute. Wired reports: Rob Williams knows how to pitch Jeff Bezos: You write a press release as if your product has already been built. Bezos reads it and gives a thumbs up or down. Williams went through this process a lot as an executive on Amazon's "S-team," in charge of software products such as Alexa, until his departure last fall. But the pitch he made a few weeks later -- in December 2025 -- was different. Now he was collaborating with Thomas Reardon, a neuroscientist and repeat startup founder, and approaching Bezos as a funder, not a boss. Here's what Bezos, sitting on his yacht somewhere, read while Williams anxiously watched on Zoom: "Flourish is a neuro AI company that is solving the two most difficult problems facing AI today: power efficiency and continuous learning. We are building Cortex AI, the first synthetic intelligence system designed to match the computational capacity, learning efficiency, and power budget of the human brain." A month later, I'm lunching with Reardon and Williams in the Flatiron neighborhood in New York City. Reardon gets right to the point. AI has dug itself into a hole, he says. Though increasingly powerful, large language models are greedy consumers of computer power and data. Though the inspiration for LLMs was rooted in biology, current frontier models have little in common with the human brain. A person uses about 20 watts of energy to process information; a single chip in an AI training cluster uses more than 30 times that amount. The hyperscalers require thousands of chips and gigawatts of energy, enough to power small cities. And those models need to suck up virtually all of what humans have written. Each new model requires more, more, more. For all of that, the models don't learn. Once you train them, they're stuck. The goal, Reardon tells me, is to build "a synthetic artificial intelligence brain that runs on 50 watts or less." It should adapt to its conditions, be as nimble as a human mind, and burn a tiny fraction of an LLM's compute power and energy. The proof of concept is thriving inside our skulls. "There's something fundamentally wrong with saying, "I need to basically read every book ever written 20 times over in order to learn English,'" Reardon says. "A human baby does it with a couple hundred thousand utterances." Reardon and Williams haven't figured out yet how to build systems that match the magic of a human brain. What they have is a belief that an expert, well-resourced team -- of AI researchers and neuroscientists working essentially side by side -- can find the answer. The neuroscientists will conduct original wet lab experiments with some of the most advanced lab equipment available, to hunt for usable intel on the brain's architecture. They plan to release the models they're currently developing as near-term products on the path to a full reinvention of AI. The fuzziness of the proposal didn't bother Jeff Bezos. After reading Williams' two-pager, he chipped in $50 million. Other funding came from Lux Capital, Google Ventures, and Catalio, among others. Bezos then almost doubled his initial stake and told Reardon he'd have given more if they'd asked. Now with a war chest of $500 million and a reported valuation of $2.5 billion, Flourish just needs to invent a new way to do AI.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Arch-enemies Israel and Iran have returned to active confrontation while Donald Trump tries to present himself as mediator
Israel and Iran have returned to active war for the first time since a ceasefire was agreed two months ago in an exchange of rocket fire that threatened efforts to end the conflict.
Donald Trump, who started the war in February alongside Israel but has since attempted to present himself as a mediator, told the two sides to stop shooting and said “final negotiations” on peace were proceeding. By late afternoon on Monday, the attacks had stopped.
Continue reading...From high-altitude training to made to measure kits, teams have resorted to all manner of things to adapt to conditions at the tournament
• Predict the winner | Daily podcast | Download our app
The heat and the altitude worried everybody. The 1970 World Cup in Mexico would not be a normal one. So the Bulgarian authorities sent their squad south of Sofia to get used to playing several thousand feet above sea level. Which seemed a great idea until somebody noticed that the temperature in the Pirin mountains was not in the mid-20s as it is in Mexico but somewhere near freezing. How then could they replicate the effect of playing in intense heat? By restricting water intake so that the players got used to performing while dehydrated.
The plan was not a great success. Bulgaria lost their first two World Cup games in 1970 and had already been eliminated by the time they drew with Morocco. It’s safe to assume that preparations for this World Cup will be rather more sophisticated than they were 56 years ago. Most countries back then seemed to take the view that training at altitude was the logical way to prepare for games in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara. Israel went to Ethiopia and Colorado. Uruguay played in Quito and Bogotá. Mexico held a five‑month training camp that featured 13 friendly internationals in four months before two games against Dundee United.
Continue reading...The FCAS fighter jet looks like it’s dead. Could that be a good thing? Expert comment jon.wallace
FCAS was already competing with the GCAP project and Swedish and Turkish fighters. Europe should combine its efforts.
European states have known since the early 2000s that they will need to develop a replacement for their existing fighter aircraft.
Concepts for a ‘next generation fighter programme’ go beyond the development of just a jet. Plans to include a combat ‘cloud’ and uncrewed systems to operate alongside fighter jets have been around for almost the same amount of time.
But difficulties around the German-French-Spanish fighter project – the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) – demonstrate that even in a strategic context transformed by the Ukraine war and US disengagement, cooperative defence development in Europe remains fraught with difficulty.
The original plans for a next generation fighter were co-developed by several European states, including the UK and Italy, in the early 2000s. In 2017-19, the FCAS grouping around France, Germany and Spain was formed, primarily driven by President Emmanuel Macron and former German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. The idea was, in part, to create an aircraft that could complement or compete with the US’s F35 next generation fighter.
However, the collaboration between industrial partners Airbus and Dassault has been challenging from the start. The partners have struggled to agree how to divide work packages, leading to delays and deadlock – several deadlines to secure the fighter’s future passed without agreement. And both Airbus and Dassault have spoken about developing the fighter separately, or moving forward only the ‘cloud’ element, leading to speculation that the fighter collaboration would end. On 8 June, finally, the Financial Times reported that Germany has informed France it wants to withdraw from the joint fighter jet and continue working on the combat cloud.
Part of the challenge has been that Germany and France are looking to develop different types of aircraft. For France, the ability to carry nuclear weapons and to land on an aircraft carrier is essential if it is to replace its existing Rafale fighter jets, which currently carry out part of France’s nuclear mission and fly from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. Germany meanwhile, is primarily looking for a conventionally armed fighter jet, without the requirement for carrier operations.
Looking to develop two separate aircraft – possibly with new partners – while continuing cooperation on the joint cloud and uncrewed systems, might work. But it would presumably undo a significant part of the cost savings promised by collaboration.
Leaders in Germany and France are frustrated by the disagreements at the technical level. It seems to demonstrate the limits of their ability to set incentives for private industry where industry does not want to cooperate.
The situation is further complicated by the many other competing European projects. There are three other significant European future fighters.
Since December 2022, the UK, Japan and Italy have been working on the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP). Even though this collaboration started several years after FCAS, it now seems to be on surer footing with governance structures agreed and work on some aspects of the system underway. But the UK Treasury is reportedly worried the project’s international nature will make costs hard to rein in.
Separately, Saab has also announced work on a next generation fighter that would succeed its Gripen programme. Gripen was originally developed as a non-NATO alternative for states that did not want to buy US or European equipment and has become a big export hit: Most recently, Ukraine has selected Gripen to form the backbone of its fighter wing, in part for the aircraft’s ability to operate in harsh conditions and from improvised airstrips. Saab is presumably seeking to capitalize on this and other export successes with a new project. Turkey, another NATO member, is also developing a new stealthy fighter jet.
Meanwhile the UK, Italy, Germany and many other European powers are purchasing the US F35 aircraft: only last year the UK doubled down on its F35 investment, announcing a purchase of the nuclear-capable F35A variant, in addition to its F35Bs. Germany is reportedly considering buying more F35s, as the FCAS project stalls.
With four next-generation fighter programmes underway – perhaps soon to be five – Europe risks replicating the mistakes of late 1980s and1990s, when Europe developed three competing fighter designs:
The Eurofighter Typhoon, a collaboration between the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain originally included France, but Dassault preferred to go at it alone then, too and developed Rafale separately. Gripen also competed.
At that time Europe’s strategic defence partnership with the US through NATO seemed solid. That meant European defence industrial projects had the luxury of developing fighters while pursuing goals other than defence: they could be as much about investing in local industry, keeping skills and production capabilities alive, and competing for a lucrative export market.
However, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and faltering US commitments to Europe’s security, mean these incentives have changed significantly. There is a clear need for Europe to take its own defence more seriously. The wisdom of European NATO members pursuing multiple next generation fighter projects with broadly similar capabilities is questionable. Separate programmes mean countries spreading their resources thin rather than pooling them. It also means separate projects competing for the same export business. That hardly speaks to a Europe that is pulling in one direction on defence.
Part of the problem is that GCAP and FCAS still have some elements of the ‘old’ European defence procurement model, in which equal weight is given to international prestige, domestic economic growth and exportability rather than focusing on Europe’s increasingly urgent defence requirements.
With US disengagement looming and the Russian threat significant, the emphasis must shift to prioritizing the quality of kit and the speed with which it can be delivered. Equally, there is no longer an argument for a separate Swedish project to target an export market that does not want to buy NATO kit: Sweden is now also a NATO member-state.
There is an urgent reality that European countries must confront: if they are unable to produce a European alternative to the US F35 programme, they will be stuck relying on an increasingly unreliable US for a crucial part of their defence equipment – a platform they might conceivably have to rely on until well into the 2040s. That would dash the stated wishes of both President Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Were European countries to begin by focussing on NATO interoperability and strengthening European deterrence, it would make more sense to pool money and resources and produce a single next-generation fighter system. If Sweden and Turkey cannot be persuaded, the so called ‘E3’ powers of the UK, France and Germany should at least live up to their rhetoric and invest in a joint outcome.
Of course, that raises the question of the extent to which European governments can influence their defence industries – who know how politically hard to kill international prestige projects like next generation fighter jets are. If one company does not play well with others and prefers to go it alone, what tools do governments have to influence them? The lesson of FCAS is: not many.
Valdo Calocane was protected at expense of public safety in years before June 2023 stabbings, families of victims say
The parents of a victim of the Nottingham attacks have said medical staff have a duty to breach patient confidentiality if the person they are treating is a risk to others.
The families of the victims of the June 2023 attacks spoke at a news conference in London on Monday after evidence concluded in a 14-week public inquiry into the attacks.
Continue reading...A vehicle carrying fireworks caught fire on a highway in Tennessee on Saturday, sparking a spectacular display. Footage from the scene on Interstate 75 near Ooltewah showed a huge cloud of sparks and rockets emerging from a trailer of a truck as a crowd watched from an overpass.
The local volunteer fire department said in a statement: 'The trailer was full of fireworks, all of which became involved in the fire and exploded during the incident.' It added that the devices 'were going off in different directions, endangering drivers' but that no one was injured in the incident, which was quickly brought under control by first responders
Continue reading...Regulator will monitor measures taken by companies
‘Spikes have often targeted Black and minority ethnic players’
Ofcom has written to social media companies to remind them of their responsibilities regarding online abuse and said it will monitor measures taken against “illegal hate content” during the World Cup.
After the experience of England players during the men’s 2021 European Championship and the women’s Euros last year, Ofcom has urged online platforms to make sure they have effective mitigations against abuse in place and that they are “adequately prepared for increased occurrence during the World Cup”.
Continue reading...Sean McGovern pleaded guilty to two charges relating to a deadly feud after being extradited from the UAE
A leader of the notorious Kinahan criminal cartel has been sentenced to 24 years in prison at a Dublin court.
Sean McGovern, 40, who has been described as a senior lieutenant in the group, pleaded guilty to two charges of directing the activities of a criminal organisation relating to a deadly feud between the Kinahan and Hutch criminal gangs.
Continue reading...Norman Feske, one of the main developers behind Genode and Sculpt OS, has published a blog post detailing how he developed a two-factor authentication application for Sculpt OS.
With this little tool, which I have turned into an deploy option on Sculpt OS to swiftly bring it up whenever I need it, TOTP-based two-factor authentication has become part of my daily routine. Should you want to risk a look under the hood, let me point you to the vitotp Goa project.
↫ Norman Feske
The Genode project moved from GitHub to Codebrg recently, and needed a native TOTP impelentation for that purpose.
Keir Starmer says he will fight on as prime minister, but behind the scenes he is said to be thinking about his legacy. He’s talking this week about tech companies and the shape of a social media ban, but he is also focussed on resetting the UK’s relations with EU and defence. Pippa and Kiran discuss what his legacy might be and the role Andy Burnham has to play
Continue reading...Apps, emails, promos, DMs and tiny red badges had hijacked my attention. Taking it back forced me to evaluate my relationship with my phone.
Chokehold on shipping route draws Houthis in Yemen back into conflict as commenters see ‘no turning back’
Iran’s reversion to large-scale military exchanges with Israel broadened the conflict that began in February not only by making the Israeli attacks on Hezbollah a direct casus belli for Iran for the first time, but also by drawing the Houthis in Yemen back into the conflict with as yet incalculable consequences.
Some in Tehran, buoyed up by past perceived military success and emboldened by the chokehold of the strait of Hormuz, would like to turn this moment into the point of no return in the conflagration with Israel. A minority would welcome the abandonment of ceasefire talks with the US, an outcome for which they have been agitating for weeks.
Continue reading...Australia leads world in residential solar per capita with 22GW installed but commercial and industrial sector has deployed only a quarter of that
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Australia’s revolution in rooftop solar has left behind commercial and industrial buildings, where installations have lagged far behind homes, according to new analysis.
Australia leads the world in residential solar on per capita terms, with 22GW installed as of last December. But businesses have only installed about a quarter of that – 5.6GW – despite consuming more electricity than households, a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) has found.
Continue reading...Our writer found a surprisingly effective way to cut down his smartphone use. Plus, what to eat while watching the World Cup – inspired by all 48 teams
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I recently learned through Apple’s Screen Time app that I was spending about eight hours a week on my phone browsing Reddit and Instagram. That’s 17.3 days a year spent consuming entertaining but ultimately pointless fluff. So my piece looking for solutions for phone addicts was highly personal.
The warning signs are if your phone is the first thing you look at in the morning and the last thing you look at in bed, says Prof Marcantonio Spada, emeritus professor of addictive behaviours and mental health at London South Bank University and chief clinical officer at Onebright, who I spoke to for my article.
Continue reading...Drops follow sharp sell-off of US tech stock last week while oil prices seesaw after Iran and Israel exchange strikes
Stock markets have fallen amid concern about the prospects for tech stocks, while oil prices have risen after renewed conflict in the Middle East dampened hopes that the strait of Hormuz would soon reopen.
Markets in Asia and Europe fell on Monday after a sharp sell-off in US tech stocks late last week, as investors fretted over how firms at the forefront of the artificial intelligence boom would fund their “eye-watering” spending plans.
Continue reading...Will the UK’s Defence Investment Plan finally be honest about Britain’s defence? Expert comment jon.wallace
Here are the key questions that should be asked when assessing the much-delayed plan.
Britain’s defence policy has been dysfunctional for decades. The slow implementation of the 2025 Strategic Defence Review and delays in the release of the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) – originally scheduled for autumn 2025 – are the continuation of a litany of failures. As Britain’s capabilities have withered, allies have become increasingly sceptical of Britain’s ability to function as a military actor and frustrated at the slow pace of reform.
A core problem of UK defence strategy, revealed in new research I have published with Dr Maeve Ryan and Dr William Reynolds of King’s College, London, is that dishonesty is endemic. It operates across a spectrum, from self-deception via optimism bias, to engaging in ‘alchemy’ over budgets, to lying for self-interest. It affects every aspect of defence planning.
The issue is: will the DIP continue this trend or break it – by confronting the choices and costs involved in providing for UK defence? When the plan finally appears, a series of key questions will determine whether it is a valuable step forward, or another badly flawed exercise.
UK policymakers see Britain as a leading military actor, despite the sharp decline in its capabilities. In recent years, they have explored various ambitious projects, including: leading a coalition to stay in Afghanistan after the US withdrew; providing a peacekeeping force to Ukraine; leading a freedom of navigation mission in the Strait of Hormuz; and providing a Corps-sized contribution to NATO.
The disconnect between these ambitions and the UK’s resources suggests a high level of self-deception about what the UK can do militarily. Each mission would stretch the armed forces to or beyond their limit.
The Strategic Defence Review (2025) is ambitious enough, calling for the UK to play a leading role within NATO and take on more responsibility for European security. This would require a rapid and significant increase in UK capabilities.
Yet the record so far is clear: rhetoric about heightened insecurity and urgency, followed by a lack of money and action in response.
The first question must therefore be: does the DIP set out a plan for defence that aligns actual resources with realistic and achievable strategic goals?
For decades, policymakers have argued that Britain could do ‘more with less’, using technology to make up for declining mass. The result is the UK now has a shadow force of the full spectrum of capabilities – but so little of any one capability that it has few military options on the table when a crisis breaks out.
This was starkly illustrated at the outbreak of the US/Israel/Iran war in 2026, when the UK had no maritime presence in the Gulf or the eastern Mediterranean and took weeks to deploy one ship to reassure allies. (The ship then had to be diverted for maintenance).
At the same time, the core assumption of all British defence planning for decades – that the US will always take the lead and the UK will be a niche provider in support of the mission – is no longer true. Yet it continues to underpin procurement decisions.
The Defence Investment Plan therefore must make some big calls about how to de-risk the UK’s defence relationships, and the costs involved. Sourcing military equipment domestically, to bespoke designs, is slower and more expensive than buying on the open market. And the evidence for the economic benefits of defence industry spending is weak.
Furthermore, the UK simply doesn’t have the military resources to do what it used to, whether that be global force projection, or continental land deterrence, at scale.
If it’s honest, the DIP will finally have to make a choice between focusing on capabilities to defend the mainland UK and the Arctic and ‘High North’ or opt for a massive effort to reconstitute its ability to project force around the world – with all the associated costs.
The next questions should therefore be: does the DIP explain how it will decide between sovereign capabilities or ‘off the shelf’ procurement options? Does it acknowledge the costs and trade-offs involved? And does it commit to investing in a force posture directed to address specific threats?
UK defence once again finds itself facing a financial black hole, this time estimated at £28 billion. In the past, these have been met with two tactics, both of which have failed.
Firstly, officials and service chiefs promised efficiency savings which never materialized. The 2025 SDR and NSS were undermined at the outset by the promise of £6 billion in savings. In our research, senior military officers talked about the ‘alchemy’ involved in pretending cuts would not affect frontline capabilities and budgets would be balanced by savings; privately acknowledging these were either wildly optimistic or put forward disingenuously for political reasons.
No one injured in incident, volunteer fire department says, and it is not known how truck caught fire
Firefighters in Tennessee had to respond to an unexpectedly early Fourth of July scene after a truck caught fire on a major highway and its load of fireworks went off, triggering a spectacular display.
Video of the scene on Interstate 75 in the community of Ooltewah showed a huge cloud of sparks and rockets emerging from a trailer that the truck was hauling, as a stunned crowd watched from an overpass.
Continue reading...June 8, 2026 — A landmark £1.1 billion plan to boost Britain’s ability to develop, deploy and scale AI technologies and chips has been unveiled today – pouring investment to back the next generation of British chip companies to support growth and jobs, strengthen national security, and boost the UK’s competitiveness.
Credit: Shutterstock
AI is already changing how economies work, public services operate and countries protect their interests. As more of the economy and public services comes to rely on AI, it matters more than ever that Britain has the ability to develop key technologies securely here at home. Ready access to compute is critical to these ambitions: giving AI innovators the digital horsepower they need, to get to work in Britain.
The new AI Hardware Plan, announced by the Technology Secretary Liz Kendall at London Tech Week today, sets out how the government will back British companies developing the chips and semiconductor technologies behind AI, while also investing in the scientists, engineers and technicians needed to turn new ideas into products and good jobs in the UK.
It comes just over a month after she announced in her speech at RUSI that the government would bring forward plans to boost Britain’s sovereign AI capabilities.
The global AI chips market is expected to reach one trillion dollars in the early 2030s. If Britain could secure just 5% of this market it would bring fifty billion dollars in revenue to the UK with tens of thousands of highly paid jobs in tech.
British companies – from Arm, whose chip designs are used in everything from smartphones to AI data centers, to startups like Fractile and Olix, which have raised more than £320 ($440) million between them – are already leading the next generation of AI hardware. This plan backs them – and the startups coming up behind them – to become the British AI titans of the future.
As the market shifts from general-purpose chips to bespoke hardware, that plays directly to the UK’s strengths, creating an opportunity for British firms to lead in the AI infrastructure of the future.
“AI is the defining currency of economic and hard power in today’s world and the countries that control the hardware behind it will hold the keys to the future,” said Technology Secretary Liz Kendall. “The UK is already a global leader in chip design, and I believe this is a race Britain can win. To do that, we must back more British AI – and that means investing in the chips, computing power and skilled people behind it. That is exactly what this plan does, backing the British firms developing the next generation of AI hardware, so we get more jobs, more growth, and more control over the technologies our future depends on. We are backing Britain because we believe in Britain.”
The AI Hardware Plan includes:
Building on the UK’s strength in cutting-edge tech, a new fund led by Silicon Valley investors Playground Global – whose partners include Pat Gelsinger, former CEO of Intel – and backed by up to £150m from the British Business Bank, will invest in UK-based AI hardware companies, giving British innovators the long-term backing they need to grow and stay in the UK, subject to completion of due diligence and legal negotiations.
It is the single largest fund investment the British Business bank has ever made, a signal of the scale of the government’s commitment to backing British AI hardware. The fund, developed by DSIT, and announced by the Chancellor at London Tech Week, will help them crowd in more private investment, and develop the technologies the UK’s future depends on, ensuring Britain can compete with the biggest players on the world stage. Playground Global will also open its first office outside the US in the UK, underlining Britain’s position as a leading place to develop the next generation of AI hardware.
Further Details
AI developers need vast amounts of computing power to train advanced models, test ideas and run complex simulations, and a lack of access to it can be a serious bottleneck on their ability to grow. By building out the UK’s supercomputing capacity, the government is tackling that bottleneck head on, helping promising start ups to scale, innovators to develop new products, and scientists to make discoveries sooner.
The plan is about making sure the UK has the tools it needs to stay competitive, support innovation and protect its national security. It combines work with world-leading partners and support for British companies in the frontier technologies prioritised by the government’s Modern Industrial Strategy, where the UK has a real edge.
On top of this, the government is doubling the compute available through the AI Research Resource to firms backed by the Sovereign AI fund, ensuring founders get the computing power they need to build, scale and compete globally.
The plan includes a new £12 million Centre for Doctoral Training in Chip Design to train the next generation of chip designers in UK universities, and working with employers to open up more routes into semiconductor and AI hardware careers. It expands the government’s existing semiconductor skills program, which is funding 300 undergraduate bursaries this year, and this will rise to 400 from next academic year and 500 the year after, with the total budget increasing to £48m.
Through TechFirst, the government has agreed a new strategic industry partnership with Arm, bringing one of the world’s leading chip designers into the UK’s skills pipeline, supporting the development of the future AI hardware workforce through industry engagement, expertise and alignment of training with real-world chip design needs.
A new £20 million expansion of the TechFirst program will support 500 more UK PhD students with funding and support throughout their training in strategically critical fields like chip design and AI hardware, helping attract and retain the British researchers the sector needs to grow.
In addition to the £1.1 billion AI Hardware Plan, the government will soon be launching the tender process for the £750 million Next National Supercomputing Service at the University of Edinburgh – a major step in building the next generation of UK compute infrastructure, giving Britain the capability it needs to power advanced research, industry and public services into the future.
Source: UK Government
The post UK Commits £750M to National AI Supercomputer in £1.1B Hardware Strategy appeared first on HPCwire.
Round 1 of the CNET Big Guessing Game is complete, and your predictions are enlightening.
LONDON, June 8, 2026 — Oriole Networks today announced continued progress in its collaboration with AMD, in support of the UK’s Advanced Research & Innovation Agency (ARIA) Scaling Inference Lab. The work brings together Oriole’s photonic networking system and AMD Instinct GPUs and AMD EPYC CPUs to demonstrate how next-generation network fabrics address the growing performance, latency, and energy constraints of AI infrastructure. In the collaboration, which has been underway for more than a year, Oriole is set to deploy the world’s first pure photonic AI network at scale, built to supercharge AI performance at the system level by providing the lowest possible latency.
Oriole is contributing its PRISM photonic networking solution, which replaces electronic switches in the network core with nanosecond-scale optical circuit switching. AMD is supporting the program by providing CPU and GPU hardware, and technical collaboration to develop and run large-scale network models relevant to frontier-scale AI systems.
It also marks the first commercial deployment of Oriole’s technology, which has gone from R&D to production in just three years. Oriole’s xPU-agnostic designs are now locked and set for wider rollout across the industry in 2027 to meet growing demand from multiple accelerator platforms.
Reimagining AI Networks
At the core of the network is Oriole’s technology, PRISM: the world’s first AI networking platform that routes data as photons rather than electrical signals. For decades, data center networks have run on electrical switches that are inefficient, power-hungry, and generate enormous heat. Coupled with the rise of AI, with its need for thousands of chips exchanging data trillions of times per second, data center networks have been pushed to the breaking point.
PRISM removes the need for electronic switches entirely, replacing them with nano-second-switched optical circuits, which cuts core power consumption by 81%. With photons able to travel directly from chip to chip, GPU idle time drops from 60% today to less than 1%. With less hardware in the loop, PRISM can also reduce dependency on the complex supply chain that underpin today’s networking hardware and can minimize the need for cooling, thus slashing water usage. As the work with AMD shows, this leads to supercharged AI output with more tokens per second and more users served simultaneously from the same hardware.
Agnostic by Design
Crucially, PRISM is not built for any single chip vendor; it works across any accelerator platform, giving the wider industry a path to frontier-scale system-wide performance without the need for proprietary stacks.
Madhu Rangarajan, corporate vice president, Compute and Enterprise AI business, AMD, said: “AMD is excited to collaborate with Oriole on the ARIA Scaling Inference Lab cluster. Oriole’s AI backend networking with nanosecond optical circuit switching represents a fundamentally different way to connect accelerators at scale. We are helping to validate how photonic fabrics can work alongside AMD compute to deliver the low-latency, high-bandwidth connectivity that AI Inference workloads demand.”
James Regan, CEO of Oriole, said: “A year ago, we were proving the physics; today, we’re proving the business. Our collaboration with AMD has moved from concept to deployment to a system an order of magnitude larger, and the data proves this is already driving performance increases at pace. This is what it looks like when photonic networking stops being a research curiosity and starts being the foundation of how serious AI infrastructure gets built.”
Suraj Bramhavar, Program Director at ARIA, said: “Meeting the demands for modern AI requires rapidly identifying ways to improve the performance and cost-efficiency of large-scale AI clusters. ARIA is thrilled to collaborate with Oriole and AMD to demonstrate the benefits of this new technology and it’s exactly the type of collaboration, between innovative startups and industry leaders, that the Scaling Inference Lab was designed to foster.”
About Aria
Created by an Act of Parliament from the UK government, and sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, ARIA funds breakthrough R&D to catalyze new paths to prosperity for the UK and the world. The Scaling Inference Lab is a testbed backed by £50m ($68m), set up to address a key bottleneck of AI workloads.
About Oriole Networks
AI Networking, Reimagined. Oriole Networks is a photonic networking company, developing disruptive technologies for AI/ML and HPC networking that will revolutionize data centers. These technologies address AI’s biggest challenges – speed, latency, and sustainability. Our holistic approach replaces energy-hungry electrical switching with photonic switching. By using only light to move data in the network, our solution will increase the efficiency of LLM training and inference to unprecedented levels while dramatically reducing the energy consumption of data centers, currently putting a huge strain on energy grids. We can offer faster, more efficient, and more sustainable AI without sacrificing the planet.
Source: Oriole Networks
The post Oriole and AMD Deploy Photonic AI Network for ARIA Scaling Inference Lab appeared first on HPCwire.
Suspect in custody at busy rail hub adjacent to Madison Square Garden one day before game three of NBA finals
Six people were stabbed in a Sunday night attack at New York’s Penn Station, authorities said, with Amtrak police saying a person believed to be homeless was being held in custody as a result.
The stabbings at the US’s busiest railroad hub came one day before thousands of basketball fans were expected at the third game of the NBA finals at the adjacent Madison Square Garden complex, although the events are not believed to be linked.
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The Tabli system hits the US market this week and aims to take the plastic out of single-serve coffee.
In response to AI’s hyperrealism, artists and creatives are gravitating toward the homespun and imperfect
Earlier this year, a group of film-makers, commercial directors and AI industry influencers gathered in New York City for the Runway AI Summit – a daylong hype-fest, trumping up the potential of this new technology. During one talk, Rob Wrubel, co-founder and managing partner at San Francisco ad firm Silverside, talked up his work on the Coca-Cola company’s AI-generated 2025 Holiday Caravan ad. “What’s incredible about AI,” Wrubel said, “is that you can go from script to production is just two weeks!”
What Wrubel failed to mention was that the ad – with its computerized polar bears and fake-looking trundling delivery trucks – was widely despised by pretty much anyone who saw it. Indeed, the public distaste for the campaign became its own news story, spawning headlines like “People really don’t like Coke’s AI holiday commercial” and “Coca-Cola’s New AI Holiday Ad is a Sloppy Eyesore”. It may indeed have been quickly conceived – and it looked like it. Reached for comment about the backlash, Wrubel admits: “The conversation around the ad became almost as important as the ad itself because it surfaced questions the entire creative industry is wrestling with right now.”
Continue reading...Jonathan Rinderknecht is accused of starting the blaze that became Los Angeles’s deadliest and destructive wildfire
The trial of a 29-year-old charged with sparking a wildfire that went on to become the deadly Palisades inferno, the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history, is set to begin on Monday in a case that has gripped the city as Angelenos seek answers more than a year after the deadly fire.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, an occasional Uber driver, is accused of starting a small blaze on New Year’s Day 2025, later dubbed the Lachman fire. Although the Los Angeles fire department extinguished the fire on 2 January, it reignited five days later due to high winds and tinderbox conditions after burning undetected deep in the dry hillsides.
Continue reading...LONDON, June 8, 2026 — AMD today announced a strategic collaboration with Imperial College London to advance AI-enabled scientific discovery, sovereign AI infrastructure and next-generation high-performance computing (HPC) systems in the United Kingdom.
Credit: Shutterstock
Bringing together AMD expertise in accelerated computing and open software with Imperial’s world-class expertise in science, engineering, and healthcare research and innovation, the organizations will explore new approaches to tackling some of the world’s most complex scientific problems.
The collaboration is expected to support advanced computational research across fields including engineering design, multiphysics simulation, materials discovery, climate and earth system modeling, neuroscience and brain imaging, epidemiology, biosecurity, genomics and computational biology. AMD and Imperial also intend to explore opportunities to optimize AI models, scientific workflows and data-intensive applications on AMD compute platforms and AMD ROCm open software.
“AI and accelerated computing are transforming how researchers solve complex problems and turn discoveries into real-world impact,” said Dr. Lisa Su, CEO and chair, AMD. “By combining AMD leadership AI and HPC platforms with Imperial’s globally recognized research and innovation ecosystem, we aim to help to help researchers tackle larger challenges, develop next-generation AI talent and advance open, interoperable sovereign AI infrastructure in the U.K.”
U.K. Science Minister Lord Vallance said, “This partnership between AMD and Imperial will combine world-class computing and AI expertise with engineering and research to help tackle some of the toughest challenges we face, from healthcare to our changing climate. By backing discovery, skills and innovation here in the U.K., it has the potential to improve lives, open up new opportunities for students and researchers, and support the growth of businesses and jobs across the country.”
Beyond research, AMD and Imperial plan to work together on education, workforce development and science-based innovation initiatives spanning AI, HPC, accelerated computing, semiconductor technologies and engineering. The parties will explore opportunities to provide students, researchers, startups and innovators with access to computing resources, software environments and technical expertise through workshops, seminars, internships, pilot programs and industry engagements. These activities will take place across Imperial’s WestTech London innovation ecosystem, which encompasses its campuses at South Kensington, Paddington Life Sciences, the White City Innovation District and Old Oak Innovation Cluster.
“Imperial College London is committed to advancing world-leading research and innovation that delivers real-world impact,” said Hugh Brady, president, Imperial College London. “Working with AMD creates new opportunities to expand opportunities for researchers, students and innovators to access advanced AI and accelerated computing infrastructure working across scientific, engineering and healthcare disciplines.”
The collaboration reflects the shared commitment of AMD and Imperial to strengthen sovereign AI capabilities, support open and interoperable computing ecosystems, and contribute to the long-term growth and competitiveness of the U.K. AI and scientific innovation economy.
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.
About Imperial College London
Imperial is a world-leading university for science, technology, engineering, medicine and business (STEMB), where scientific imagination leads to world-changing impact. As a global top ten university in London, we use science to try to understand more of the universe and improve the lives of more people in it. Across our 10 campuses and throughout our Imperial Global network, our 22,000 students, 8,000 staff, and partners work together on scientific discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. Their work navigates some of the world’s toughest challenges in global health, climate change, AI, business leadership and more. Founded in 1907, Imperial’s future builds on a distinguished past, having pioneered penicillin, holography and fibre optics. Today, Imperial combines exceptional teaching, world-class facilities and a habit of interdisciplinary practice to unlock scientific imagination. Learn more at www.imperial.ac.uk.
Source: AMD
The post AMD and Imperial College London Partner on AI, HPC and Scientific Discovery appeared first on HPCwire.
Addressing lawmakers, Leo XIV also highlights migration at a time when Madrid is bucking European trends
Pope Leo XIV has used an address to the Spanish parliament to warn the world is undergoing “a deep spiritual and cultural crisis” and to urge the international community to tackle the causes and consequences of what he termed “the tragic drama of migration”.
In a wide-ranging speech delivered to lawmakers in Madrid, the pontiff also touched on conflict, artificial intelligence, the climate emergency, and the issues of abortion and euthanasia.
Continue reading...Onerous and costly restrictions aimed at immigrants cause difficulties for group prioritized by Trump for admission
Among President Trump’s most vocal supporters are South Africans seeking asylum in the US.
An estimated 6,300 people have arrived in the US since the administration’s announcement in February last year of a refugee resettlement program specifically for white South Africans and other minorities.
Continue reading...The vote reflects his diminished standing at home and loss of leverage over Iran as he scrambles to exit a disastrous war
Donald Trump suffered a significant setback last week. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a measure under the 1973 War Powers Resolution. It directed the White House “to remove all US forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran”. This occurred several weeks after the US Senate voted 50-47 to advance its own version of the bill. (A final vote has yet to be scheduled.) Unlike previous failed attempts, both votes won support from some Republican lawmakers.
Trump was predictably irate. “Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he wrote in a June 4 Truth Social post. “Who would do such an unpatriotic thing. [sic]”
Continue reading...Government urged to help speed up vital industrial project amid growing alarm over National Grid delays
Trade unions have called for the government to intervene to speed up Tata Steel’s connection to the electricity grid in south Wales, after the company said its new furnace would be delayed by up to a year.
Tata Steel last month told investors that National Grid had said it would face a six- to eight-month delay. That could stretch to 12 months amid unexpected engineering difficulties.
Continue reading...Most supply-chain attacks using Ruby's package hosting site "exploit a narrow window," according to a new blog post form Ruby core maintainer Hiroshi Shibata. So its packaging-managing Bundler tool now offers a filter that blocks new version until it's been public "for at least N days. Releases too new to have been scrutinized are passed over in favor of ones that have aged past the window." The feature was designed in the open, drawing on how other ecosystems approach the same problem. It is opt-in, and complements rather than replaces existing defenses like mandatory 2FA and trusted publishing... Cooldown is unset by default, so a project without it keeps resolving to the newest versions.... Passing 0 disables cooldown for the run... Cooldown is most useful as one part of the wider security investment happening on rubygems.org. The registry now validates gem contents at push time and checks logins against Have I Been Pwned so that compromised passwords cannot be reused, work described in Protecting rubygems.org from the outside in. A dedicated team is running AI-assisted vulnerability scanning against the most critical gems, backed by Alpha Omega and Anthropic, and the direction of all of this is tracked on a public roadmap. Trusted publishing and mandatory 2FA already raise the bar for who can push a release in the first place.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Wildlife department says drought conditions and water released from dam led to ‘major fish kill’ at San Carlos Lake
Arizona officials have indefinitely closed a popular lake to visitors after its entire population of fish died recently.
The recreation and wildlife department that maintains San Carlos Lake said in a Facebook statement on Friday that drought conditions as well as water released from a dam there “resulted in a major fish kill affecting approximately 100% of the fish population”.
Continue reading...Pope Leo XIV denounced the "scourge" of sexual violence by Catholic clergy and called for a "culture of care" in the Church ahead of an expected private meeting with victims in Spain.
Direct exchange of fire between warring nations in apparent defiance of Trump was in response to an Israeli attack on Beirut, and breaks April’s ceasefire. Plus: incredible pictures of the Beatles’ final tour of the US
Good morning. Israel has again attacked Iran, in apparent defiance of the US president, Donald Trump, who had said in an recent interview that “I call all the shots”, not the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The attack was the first exchange of direct strikes between the two enemies since a ceasefire paused the US-Israel war with Iran in April. Iranian state media reported explosions in Tehran, Isfahan, Karaj and Tabriz. Iran also launched about 10 ballistic missiles at northern Israel, in response to Israel bombing a target in southern Beirut.
How has Trump responded? “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting,’” he wrote in a social media post.
How is the wider region being affected? Saudi Arabia sounded missile alert sirens in an area home to Prince Sultan airbase that hosts US forces. The Israeli army also said it was working to intercept a missile launched from Yemen. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who joined the Middle East war in March in support of Iran, have previously launched attacks on Israel.
What is the continuing economic impact? Brent crude jumped $3.50 to $96.59 a barrel on Monday, while stocks in Asia, a region heavily dependent on oil imports, fell sharply in early trading.
How did Welker respond? When the veteran reporter asked the president for any evidence, he accused her of being “crooked”. “You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they’re rigged. Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”
Continue reading...Kristen Welker questioned Trump’s allegations that races for California governor and 2020 president were ‘rigged’
Donald Trump walked out of an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press after he repeatedly made false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and faced questions about compensation for those charged in the January 6 insurrection.
The US president’s abrupt exit came during a tense exchange between himself and NBC’s Kristen Welker during a Friday interview in Wisconsin that aired on Sunday.
Continue reading...Israel and Iran were firing missiles at each other Monday, endangering the shaky truce that's been in place as well as talks on a deal to end the fighting.
Singer-songwriter Talay Riley worked on tracks for stars including Tinie Tempah, Britney Spears and Craig David
Stormzy and Oritsé Williams are among the artists who have paid tribute to the singer-songwriter Talay Riley, who was stabbed to death in Silvertown, east London.
The 35-year-old musician, whose real name was Mark Orabiyi, was found with stab wounds by paramedics on the morning of 5 June and pronounced dead at the scene.
Continue reading..."Schmigadoon!" — which was tied for the most nominations, with 12 — won Best Musical, and "Liberation" took home the honor of Best Play at the 2026 Tony Awards.
A series of drone incursions into countries neighboring Ukraine and Russia is fueling concern that their four-and-a-half year war could spread.
Fired journalist accuses CBS News chief of interfering with report because it did not echo Trump’s view of the shooting
The fired 60 Minutes anchor Scott Pelley has accused editorial management at CBS of interfering with a broadcast segment on the killing of the Minneapolis protester Renee Good by an immigration officer in January.
The veteran broadcaster, who was recently dismissed from the show, said CBS News’s editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, had sent an email to his supervisor requesting changes shortly before the airing of the segment in question.
Continue reading...Harmonie Perrone, 28, is suing Advocate Good Shepherd in Illinois, where reproductive rights are enshrined in law
Harmonie Perrone, 28, knew she was probably having an ectopic pregnancy, and she knew exactly what she needed to do: seek medical care immediately, before life-threatening complications set in.
But she was denied that care twice as she feared for her life – and, after the delay in care, she lost her fertility, she says in a new lawsuit filed Monday.
Continue reading...Though the federal government’s prosecution fell apart, the Broadview Six of Illinois say their lives have been upended
Michael Rabbitt was 4,000 miles (6,400km) away from home last October, celebrating his 30th wedding anniversary in Portugal, when a pair of messages from the FBI brought news that would upend his life. He was under federal indictment, and was ordered to surrender by the next day.
The month before, Rabbitt, 62, had been protesting at an ICE detention facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, during a period of tense daily demonstrations. Now, the federal government was accusing him and five others of felony conspiracy, saying they had illegally blocked an ICE vehicle.
Continue reading...Guardian analysis finds facilities to be built in some of the driest areas as outcry grows over water needed to power AI
A record-shattering drought has racked much of the US. But the artificial intelligence industry is pushing ahead regardless, with the majority of planned datacenters set to be built in drought-ridden locations, a Guardian analysis has found.
About two-thirds of upcoming datacenters, which typically require a large amount of water to operate, are set to be built in places that have been among the driest in the country over the past year.
Continue reading...Kim Jong-un welcomes Chinese leader on visit to renew relations strained amid Pyongyang’s closeness with Russia
Xi Jinping has arrived in North Korea for a two-day trip, his first in nearly seven years, as China’s leader looks to revitalise ties with his junior ally.
Footage published by China’s Xinhua state news agency showed an Air China plane carrying Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, touching down at Pyongyang’s Sunan international airport.
Continue reading...A KitchenAid mixer can be used to make more than just baked goods.
India declares onset as up to 280mm of rain falls in 72 hours in Kerala, while downpours hit south-west Thailand
The monsoon season has officially begun in parts of Asia, marking the start of a period of enhanced rainfall vital to the region’s economy.
The south-west monsoon begins each year as a consequence of a growing temperature difference between the Asian land mass and the Indian Ocean. Through spring, the land heats up more rapidly than the surrounding sea, creating a pressure difference that draws moisture-laden ocean air inland. Once this contrast reaches a critical point, the humid air pushed over the continent rises, condenses into cloud and unleashes intense rainfall across the region.
Continue reading...Released just before the World Cup kicks off, this upstart football game is positioning itself as a credible alternative to EA Sports FC
This month something extremely unusual happened in the video game world: someone launched a new football game. It used to be that the market could support a vast array of contenders, from arcade kickabouts such as Super Sidekicks and Hat Trick Hero, to serious simulations named Actua Soccer or This Is Football, to eccentric oddities such as Namco’s LiberoGrande which made you experience the whole match as a single onfield player.
For the past decade plus, however, the scene has been dominated EA’s Fifa series, now EA Sports FC. With the exception of Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer, now eFootball, there have been few competitors – and few plucky upstarts.
Continue reading...What is necessary to return Venezuela to stable economic growth and democracy after the US operation? 16 June 2026 — 16:00 TO 17:15 BST Anonymous (not verified) Online
How to bring credible elections, rule of law and economic recovery to Venezuela.
This webinar will bring together leading Venezuelan and international experts to discuss the ways the US, the international community and the interim government can initiate and sustain the complex processes for credible elections and for a system of rule of law to foster economic growth, prosperity and human rights.The White House touts success of its January 2026 Venezuela operation, but the path to stability, democracy and growth remains unclear. While a three-stage process has been outlined by the US, concrete plans are lacking. This meeting convenes scholars, policymakers and business leaders to discuss credible elections, rule of law and economic recovery.
The discussion builds off recently published Chatham House policy papers, one on elections and one on the rule of law, which identify and recommend the steps, priorities and benchmarks for elections and the rule of law in Venezuela under the interim government and beyond. The session intendeds to help focus those discussions for Venezuelans – in the opposition and the interim government – and the international community.
Key event questions:
While we do not outright oppose the taking of AI company stock, or of a US a sovereign wealth fund, there are better ways to achieve the senator’s goals
Let no one accuse Bernie Sanders of ducking the big questions. Writing in the New York Times last week, the senator asked: “Will the future of humanity be determined by a handful of billionaires who have promoted and developed AI, with virtually no democratic input, who stand to become even richer and more powerful than they are today?”
We agree entirely that this is one of the most potent questions facing global democracy today. Our book, Rewiring Democracy, surveys the emerging uses for and impacts of AI in democracy around the world and reaches the same conclusion: that the most urgent risk posed by AI is the concentration of power, wealth and control among tech oligarchs.
Continue reading...Flock Safety is setting up cams and drones around the country. Here's why communities are fighting back and exactly how this technology works.
We choose our favorites of Verizon's unlimited phone plans.
Doctors are jumping the gun to prescribe a medication lacking FDA approval that has gone viral on social media. "Why are we waiting?" one physician asked.
A Post examination reveals how Epstein cultivated a network of modeling industry associates who offered to bring women into his orbit after he was released from jail.
Pennsylvania’s Bob Brooks is one of a slew of working-class Democrats on the ballot – can he beat a Koch-backed rival?
Bob Brooks has worked a lot of jobs, sometimes several at once to make ends meet.
He was a paper boy at age 10, and then a dishwasher, prep cook, pizza deliverer, bartender and truck driver. Even after he became a firefighter in 2005, Brooks managed to start a snow-removal and lawn-care business and coach baseball.
Continue reading...All eyes on US Senate race as Platner, mired in controversy, is set to advance to take on incumbent Susan Collins
Voters in Maine head to the polls on Tuesday for one of the most closely watched primary elections in the country. The US Senate race has become a national fixation as Democrats try to unseat a longtime Republican with a political newcomer who has spent months under fire.
Graham Platner, 41, is set to advance as the Democratic nominee for the Senate, after his primary rival – the state’s two-term governor, Janet Mills – suspended her campaign in April. The primary result will probably set up a months-long contest between Platner, an oysterman and marine veteran with a groundswell of popularity and a mounting list of scandals, and Susan Collins, a 73-year-old Republican senator who has held the seat for nearly three decades.
Continue reading...
Why Should Delaware Care?
Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
Below are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.
The Delaware General Assembly will reconvene on Tuesday, following a two week scheduled break for budget hearings. This week begins what is likely to be an eventful final push for lawmakers ahead of the end of this year’s legislative session on June 30.
Legislators have just 10 working days left to consider several substantive bills, the most important being a nearly $7 billion state budget for the 2027 fiscal year that begins July 1.
Any bills that do not pass through both the House and Senate before the legislature gavels out at the end of the month will effectively be dead in the water. They would need to be formally reintroduced next January, after the start of a new General Assembly, in order to be considered again.
Aside from the state’s budget, other key bills that will likely be considered over the next three weeks include a slate of property tax and assessment regulations, primary healthcare reforms and more.
On Tuesday afternoon, the House of Representatives is set to vote on a bill that would bolster mental health and addiction treatment by requiring insurers to improve the number of providers in their networks. If passed on Tuesday, that bill – Senate Bill 22 – would go to Gov. Matt Meyer’s desk to be signed into law.
Aside from SB 22, lawmakers are set to debate more than 130 pieces of legislation both in various committee hearings and on the House and Senate floors this week.
📍 The Delaware General Assembly is set to reconvene at 2 p.m. Tuesday inside Legislative Hall, located at 411 Legislative Ave. in Dover. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, scroll through the “What’s Happening” tab here.
Sussex County Council will vote Tuesday on whether to allow higher rents and more density in the county’s affordable housing program.
The ordinance would raise limits on rent, and lower the required number of affordable units for a housing development to qualify for a county program that incentivizes developers to build affordable rental units, specifically in areas near the Delaware beaches.
The county is facing pressure from the state to address the growing affordable housing shortage around the county’s popular beaches. This vote could be the first major action the county has taken on the issue in years.
📍 The Sussex County Council is scheduled to meet at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday inside the Sussex County Administrative Office Building, located at 2 The Circle in Georgetown. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here. To submit comments about the proposal before the meeting, click here.
The plan to turn a Delaware State University dorm off U.S. Route 13 into the state’s second Hope Center has the potential to make an impact on central Delaware’s homeless population.
The project, which would sit at the front of a busy commercial plaza, has raised some questions from the public though.
During Dover’s Tuesday night Council of the Whole meeting, city leaders will hear from Matt Heckles, the director of the Delaware State Housing Authority, regarding the project.
📍 The Dover Council of the Whole is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday inside City Hall, located at 15 Loockerman Plaza. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
The post Get Involved: General Assembly reconvenes, Sussex affordable housing, more appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
American children lined up for the world’s first measles shots in the early 1960s, but it took nearly 40 years of shoring up immunization programs before the infamous contagion had been so thoroughly controlled that a panel of experts declared in 2000 that the United States had eliminated measles within its borders.
For a quarter century, the U.S. only saw outbreaks when infected travelers brought the virus in from abroad. The resulting waves of measles didn’t last more than a year.
Those days are gone.
Measles began tearing through the dusty plains of West Texas in January last year, and since then, all but a handful of states have seen cases. Two unvaccinated Texas girls and an adult across the border in New Mexico died before the West Texas outbreak seemed to burn out last July.
By then, measles was popping up in Utah, and state health officials couldn’t tell where the earliest patients had caught the virus. Infections in that state took off that fall and winter and continued into May of this year.
The Texas and Utah cases now sit at the center of an unusually technical — and politically fraught — question: whether the United States will lose its measles-free distinction.
Countries aren’t penalized for losing the status, but it’s an indication of cracks in a nation’s once rock-solid immunization programs, a loss of faith in vaccines among its people — or both.
To have any chance of keeping the designation, the U.S. will need to make a strong case that measles didn’t spread endemically — from person to person in a continuous chain within the country for more than a year. If the Texas virus, for example, made its way across the Southwest to Utah and continued infecting people there, that would be a problem. But if cases in Utah were instead sparked by a patient who caught measles abroad, that would be a new chain, restarting the clock.
For clues, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is analyzing the full genetic code of measles viruses that infected patients. Last November, the CDC’s leader at the time said preliminary genomic analysis suggested the Utah cases were not directly linked to those in Texas. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told ProPublica that the work was done by the state laboratories and the CDC is conducting a more comprehensive investigation.
ProPublica embarked on its own analysis, reviewing over 1,800 whole genome sequences, including those released as recently as last month, to compare the genetic fingerprints of measles viruses circulating in the U.S. and Canada. This showed that the measles virus still spreading in Utah as of this May is very closely related to the one that sickened Texans over a year ago.
ProPublica’s analysis isn’t a smoking gun that proves endemic spread. It’s impossible to tell from this information whether the virus spread from state to state or if it at some point left the country and was brought back by a sick traveler.
But given how similar the viruses are in the sequences ProPublica identified, it’s going to be difficult for the U.S. to prove measles isn’t endemic — “unless CDC has something up their sleeves,” said Dr. Alberto Severini, a retired molecular virologist and measles expert who spent two decades at Canada’s Public Health Agency.
This is a small portion of the genetic code from a sample of measles virus collected in Utah in May 2026. Each letter represents one of the four molecules that encode the unique instructions for how the virus is built and operates.
ProPublica compared it to the sequence from a virus collected during the first days of the Texas outbreak in January 2025.
The two sequences are nearly identical. But when you look closely, mutations — tiny changes in the virus’s genetic code — begin to appear. These mutations form a distinct fingerprint.
Out of the nearly 16,000 genetic letters in each sequence, only 12 differ between the original Texas virus and the Utah virus sampled more than a year later. The mutations did not appear all at once.
As the virus spread in Texas, tiny copying errors appeared in its genetic code. One of these cropped up weeks into the outbreak: a G molecule turned into an A.
Over the following months, this branch of the outbreak continued spreading — and continued mutating. By May 2025, a virus collected from a Texas patient bore five distinct mutations.
Then those same five mutations appeared in Utah. A virus carrying this distinctive genetic pattern was found there in June 2025.
Soon, measles cases surged in Utah. Many viruses collected there carried the same five mutations, along with additional new ones. Related viruses continued infecting Utah residents as recently as this May.
The unique fingerprint of mutations hasn’t been limited to these states. The five mutations observed in Texas and Utah were also present in sequences the CDC published of viruses that infected patients last May and June in Iowa, North Dakota, Minnesota and Alaska.
But it’s not clear that the genetic fingerprint is only in the U.S.: No whole genome sequencing has been made public from cases in either Mexico or the Canadian province of Ontario, where measles has also raged.
That matters because whether the virus was spreading continuously in the United States for more than a year — rather than circulating abroad and being brought back into the country by travelers — is a key question facing a panel of experts convened by the Pan American Health Organization.
A regional office of the World Health Organization, PAHO will decide whether the U.S. keeps its measles-free designation. Canada lost its status last year. PAHO invited the U.S. to make its case in April, but American officials asked for more time to investigate how the virus had been spreading. The review was moved to November.
Daniel Salas, a PAHO official, said the kind of thorough analysis that CDC is doing “takes time.”
“What the U.S. is trying to do with this whole genome sequencing is trying to find some patterns that could eventually say, for example, this mutation of the virus occurred in a different country, in a different place to the current outbreak that they’re trying to analyze, so that eventually, that might be taken into consideration to somehow replace the epidemiological information that is missing,” he said. “There’s no country that has done this before.”
One of the biggest questions is how the virus got into Utah. Health officials determined that the first confirmed patient there, identified last June, couldn’t have been exposed to measles in another country or even another state. Utah State Epidemiologist Dr. Leisha Nolen said she and her team reviewed the places the patient had been and the people they had been around, but still couldn’t figure out where they caught the virus.
Clues suggested measles had been quietly spreading in the region. A CDC disease detective investigating subsequent cases that spanned the Utah-Arizona border said there had been reports of community members with rashes last June, but the patients declined measles testing and families were often reluctant to answer questions.
Throughout the outbreak, no interviews suggested any patient was exposed in another country, Nolen said, but she and her team cannot rule out the possibility.
ProPublica asked the CDC whether its epidemiologists had linked any of Utah’s measles cases to an international outbreak, but the agency wouldn’t say, nor would it directly comment on genetic similarities ProPublica found between viruses in Texas and Utah. In a written statement, a spokesperson said, “Sequencing alone cannot determine whether transmission has been continuous or sustained.”
While genomic analysis can provide clues, the spokesperson wrote, “These findings must be interpreted alongside epidemiological data, including travel history, exposure information, and known outbreak connections.”
The CDC is still working on “a comprehensive analysis of potential linkages among cases and outbreaks” and has gathered additional epidemiological data, the spokesperson said, but did not elaborate on what that shows.
With the midterm elections approaching, the spread of measles has become a political liability for President Donald Trump, who picked the founder of an antivaccine organization to be his health secretary. Since Trump’s inauguration last year, there have been more than 4,300 U.S. cases, a high not seen in three decades.
Eliminating the endemic spread of measles is the public health equivalent of slaying a dragon. The disease is among the most contagious humans have ever encountered. Patients are infectious even before the telltale rash appears, and the contagion can linger in a room for two hours after they leave.
Policymakers built the U.S. immunization system on lessons learned from measles outbreaks. To get the sky high-vaccination rates needed to stop the disease from spreading, states made shots mandatory for school and daycare attendance, and the federal government provided them free to low-income kids. When measles still managed to roar back, state lawmakers in California and New York cracked down on exemptions to their school mandates. The U.S. helped other countries fight measles, too, not only to prevent deaths but also because people in power recognized that infectious diseases kept in check abroad are less likely to return to American shores.
During prior U.S. outbreaks, health and political leaders, with unwavering language, urged Americans to vaccinate their children and assured them the shots were safe.
Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. haven’t followed that playbook. Both have fueled doubts about the safety of the MMR shot, which guards against measles, mumps and rubella.
Researchers around the world have found the vaccine does not cause autism. Nevertheless, at a press conference on autism last fall, Trump said he had heard for years that there was a problem with the combination vaccine and urged parents to insist on separate shots for their kids — even though standalone shots don’t exist in the U.S.
Kennedy has said the vaccine offers protection from measles, but he also has repeatedly made the shot sound scarier than the disease.
“There are adverse events from the vaccine,” he told Sean Hannity on Fox News last year. “It does cause deaths every year.”
On a podcast, Kennedy said that when he got the virus as a kid, he got to watch television for a week. “I got chicken soup and vitamin A, which nobody can patent,” he said.
Measles kills 1 to 3 out of every 1,000 people infected and can cause deafness, intellectual disability and brain swelling. In a “know the facts” post, the Infectious Diseases Society of America said there have been no deaths shown to be related to the shot in healthy people. “There have been rare cases of deaths from vaccine side effects among children who are immune compromised, which is why it is recommended that they don’t get the vaccine,” the medical society explained. “That’s why it is so important that everyone who can get vaccinated does so, to protect those who can’t.”
HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in an email that Kennedy “believes Americans deserve clear information about both the benefits and risks of medical products so they can make informed healthcare decisions in consultation with their healthcare providers.”
Nixon said “heavy-handed mandates” contributed to the significant loss of trust in health institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Secretary maintains that public health agencies rebuild trust through honesty, transparency, and respect for individual choice — not coercion,” Nixon wrote.
Kennedy has tried to distance himself and the administration from the measles resurgence. He said the U.S. has done a better job of limiting the spread than any other country and pointed to the far higher number of cases in Canada and Mexico, whose populations are much smaller.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai told ProPublica, “Fake News reporters should be spending more time examining why the Trump administration’s efforts to contain America’s measles outbreak has been so much more successful than those of Canada and Mexico instead of regurgitating the same, tired narratives.”
Kennedy has also reminded lawmakers that the Texas outbreak began before he became health secretary.
“We have a global pandemic,” he told senators in April. “It has nothing to do with me.”
Kennedy has been among the most prominent voices in the antivaccine movement for more than a decade.
Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious disease physician who wrote a book about measles, said Kennedy has done “everything in his power to undermine confidence in vaccines in the U.S.”
During a measles outbreak in New York City that began in 2018, Ratner treated at least five unvaccinated kids who were hospitalized, including a couple who needed intensive care, so he knows that not every child escapes the disease with nothing more than memories of screen time and soup.
While most parents still support immunizations, Ratner worries that the country no longer has the stomach for the kinds of policies that once stopped endemic spread. Rather than making school vaccine requirements stricter, some states are working to do away with them altogether in the name of medical freedom.
“You need a highly vaccinated population to control the spread,” he said. “In the absence of that, I think that we will have ongoing spread, and we’ll have tragedies like the ones that we saw in West Texas with the two kids who died.”
The U.S. may very well find the international travelers it needs to prove that the country is still measles free. But if all remains the same, experts said, it will only be delaying the inevitable.
“It doesn’t change the fact that there’s been transmission of measles in the United States for over a year,” Severini said. “If people don’t vaccinate, measles is going to be endemic.”
The post What ProPublica Found in the Genetic Code of America’s Measles Outbreaks appeared first on ProPublica.
Incarcerated activist Malik Muhammad’s standing client call in March with their lawyer had been canceled without any real explanation. When Muhammad’s attorney, Lauren Regan, went to check their status on the Oregon Inmate Tracker, she found nothing. They seemed to have vanished without a trace.
Friends and family feared the worst. Muhammad, an army veteran and activist serving the longest federal sentence of any 2020 Black Lives Matter protester, had been a target inside the state prison because of their outspoken political beliefs and organizing efforts while incarcerated, several of their friends and supporters told The Intercept.
“We were calling everyone,” said Christopher Kuttruff, a close friend and supporter. “We were terrified that they were in the hospital or dead …your mind obviously goes to the worst places.”
For weeks, the activist disappeared from all tracking systems. The best Muhammad’s supporters could ascertain by early April was that they had been transferred to a “confidential location.” Late that month, Muhammad was able to get a letter out to their partner from Kirkland Correctional Institute, in South Carolina, an intake facility 3,000 thousand miles from Oregon — or, as Regan puts it, “as far away from me as possible.”
Muhammad described the conditions at Kirkland as deplorable, claiming that incarcerated people are denied access to enough water, food, and recreation, and are forced to sleep on mats on the floor, which sometimes get confiscated as punishment.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections had little to say of Muhammad. In mid-May, the state’s prison system told The Intercept they had no record of someone named Malik Muhammad anywhere in their custody; the prison system did not respond to a follow-up query in June. The activist had become a living ghost within the carceral system.
Even now, friends and family struggle to reach Muhammad, with only the occasional letter or call to the few people approved to contact them serving as proof of life.
Because she is not licensed in South Carolina, Regan said she has “not been able to speak on the phone or in person in an attorney-client privileged manner since their transfer,” seriously impeding her ability to represent her client. She had to hire a local attorney to speak with them in person and collect potential evidence.
Millions of people flow through the U.S. prison system every year. And every year, an untold number of them vanish off the map, lost in a massive system that is legally obligated to watch over them. In New Mexico, Stephen Slevin spent nearly two years in solitary confinement in county jail after county officials appear to have simply forgotten about him after charging him with driving under the influence. Slevin never saw a judge or a lawyer and had to pull his own tooth due to consistent medical neglect.
Wanda Bertram, communications strategist for the Prison Policy Initiative, said that people getting lost in the prison system is “pretty common,” even when they haven’t moved as far away as Muhammad. “There’s never any effort made by prisons to tell incarcerated people’s families, ‘Hey, we’re moving this person,’” said Bertram.
As the Trump administration ramps up its use of incarceration as a method of immigration enforcement, concerns are mounting about the already stretched system’s ability to keep track of the people within its care — and the opportunity such lapses in oversight create for authorities to target activists and dissenters adversarial to the government.
“Not only is [Malik] intelligent,” said Regan, a founder and director of litigation and advocacy at the Civil Liberties Defense Center, “but Malik is Black, Muslim, an anarchist, [and] a political activist, and they have targeted Malik as a result of all of those things.”
Muhammad, who was arrested in October 2020, received the harshest sentence out of the hundreds of protesters hit with federal charges in the wake of the 2020 summer protests for racial justice. After tens of thousands were arrested in some of the largest mass arrests in history, many were released without charges or saw their cases dropped, but some prosecutors pushed for harsh sentences and elevated state or local infractions to the federal level, arguing that rioters were masquerading as protesters.
Muhammad pleaded guilty to both state and federal charges, including two counts of “unlawful possession of a destructive device,” for throwing a Molotov cocktail during a protest in East Portland. In 2022, the then-25-year-old was sentenced to 10 years in state prison.
Their plea agreement specifically stated that they would serve their time in Oregon state prison, near their supporters and community. Regan says that Oregon’s prison system has reneged on the agreement — illegally transferring Muhammad interstate as retaliation for their activism while incarcerated — in another attempt by the criminal legal system to punish Muhammad for their organizing.
“Normally, they would have been sentenced to the federal prison system,” said Regan. However, “because their friends and family and supporters at the time were based in Oregon, they explicitly negotiated an outcome that ensured that they would remain in Oregon.”
Federal prisons tend to be “better,” said Regan, because they often have more funding, allow for more freedom of movement, and have marginally better food. Put it this way, she said, “generally speaking, if you had a choice between Oregon State Prison or Federal Prison, most people would choose [federal].” But instead of relative comfort, Muhammad chose community.
Prisons are essentially a “black box” where people can disappear into solitary confinement or be transferred without their family’s knowledge, according to Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative.
“There’s so many constant questions that you live with as the loved one of an incarcerated person, and then when that person suddenly disappears, it’s terrifying,” said Bertram.
To make matters worse, she said, “prisons have a kind of nasty habit of not telling the family when someone dies or is transferred to an outside hospital, or needs emergency care,” compounding concerns for people who cannot locate their loved ones on the inside.
In Regan’s view, there are “a number of reasons” to characterize Muhammad’s transfer as retaliatory. For starters, she said this is part of a pattern of behavior from the Oregon prison system. In 2024, The Intercept reported that Muhammad had been effectively held in solitary confinement, which in Oregon is called “special housing,” for more than 250 days — despite the fact that Oregon limits the use of this type of confinement to 90 days.
She said Muhammad had met people in prison, many who’d been through excessive solitary, and suggested that they could become potential plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit the Oregon Justice Resource Center is seeking to file against the state prison system. “The prison is, of course, retaliating against them for basically assisting a nonprofit legal organization in bringing a giant lawsuit about the abuses of solitary confinement in the Oregon prison system,” Regan said.
Oregon flatly denies sending Muhammad to South Carolina as retaliation.
“These decisions are not made lightly and require a thorough review process conducted by all parties. In the case of Mr. Muhammed [sic], there is extensive background for the reasons [they were] a candidate for an Interstate Compact,” Amber Campbell, communications manager at the public affairs division for the Oregon Department of Corrections, wrote in a statement to The Intercept.
Muhammad’s advocacy and community building inside have consistently put a target on their back, said Jeremy, a close friend and pen pal. Friends described Muhammad as “empathetic,” “generous,” and “passionate,” as eager to sing for their cellmates as they are to share a book on political theory.
Now, Muhammad’s friends and family have to sit and wait, and hope the prison system won’t lose them all over again.
Correction: June 8, 2026, 1:56 p.m. ET
This story previously misstated which legal organization is seeking a class-action lawsuit against the Oregon state prison system; it is the Oregon Justice Resource Center.
The post They Were Serving the Longest Federal Sentence of Any 2020 BLM Protester. Then They Vanished in Prison. appeared first on The Intercept.
Why Should Delaware Care?
The popularity of artificial intelligence has sparked a boom in the construction of energy hungry data centers, including in Delaware. These bills aim to prevent an energy demand spike from raising electric bills, though critics say they may also scare off the growing industry.
Delaware legislators are scrambling to address concerns about data centers raising residents’ energy bills before the legislative session ends.
Newly-amended House Bill 233 would make data centers the first to be cut off from power in a blackout unless the project includes its own energy generation. It is sponsored by Rep. Frank Burns (D-Pike Creek) and Sen. Stephanie Hansen (D-Middletown).
The regional electric grid is struggling to produce enough energy to meet growing demand, primarily from the boom in energy-hungry data centers that power new artificial intelligence models.
“So they have to be the first in line to take the hit,” Burns said.
The bill also requires data center developers to enter into service agreements that are meant to ensure they pay the full costs of the energy they use, including potential transmission upgrades.
And House Bill 445, sponsored by Rep. Debra Heffernan (D-Bellefonte), would require data center developers to supply all of the power they use within 10 years of beginning operations, and require some of that power to be renewable.
These bills come as Delaware braces for the impact of five new data centers proposals that have a combined energy demand that could double the state’s entire electricity usage.
Some fear that scenario would lead to increased energy bills across the state — both because of a limited supply of electrons, and because of the costs of the infrastructure needed to serve the demand.
HB 445 has yet to come up for debate, but HB 233 has drawn criticism from some lawmakers, business lobbyists and union representatives, who expressed fears that the legislation could prevent the growing data center industry from even coming to the state.
“We’re putting up another sign that says Delaware is not open for business. And when we continue to do this, then we hurt everybody,” Rep. Jeff Hilovsky (R-Long Neck/Oak Orchard) previously said about HB 233.
The legislature only has 10 days left in its session to consider these and many other bills in the pipeline.
HB 445 will likely come before the House Natural Resources & Energy committee, chaired by Heffernan, at its next meeting on Wednesday, June 10. HB 233 has already passed through that committee, and Burns said he is not sure when it will come before the House for a vote.
The original version of HB 233 requires the Public Service Commission, the state body in charge of regulating utilities, to create a “large-load tariff,” or electricity rate and service agreement.
The Public Service Commission is already creating this tariff, but the bill added specific requirements for what it would have to include.
The recent substitute for HB 233 combines this original proposal with Senate Bill 205, adding a requirement that large energy users like data centers enter into transmission and energy service agreements meant to prevent costs from being shifted to other electricity users.
These agreements give the Public Service Commission and utilities some leverage to potentially stop data center projects from moving forward.
Normally, energy utilities are required to serve any company that requests to be connected to the grid. But under this bill, if large energy users and utilities can’t come to a consensus on the service agreements — or if the Public Service Commission denies them — the utilities are not required to connect the projects.
The bill also requires data centers and other large energy users to be the first to be cut off from power in a blackout unless they generate renewable energy.
HB 445 says that data center companies must produce a quarter of the energy they use in Delaware when they begin operations, then produce all of the energy they use in the state within 10 years.
That energy production has to follow the state’s renewable energy portfolio standards, which requires that Delaware’s utilities derive 40% of their energy from renewable sources by 2035. The bill allows nuclear energy to count toward that percentage.
A representative from New Castle County’s Chamber of Commerce said in a written statement that it opposes both bills because there is not enough time in the session to deliberate them. The statement also says the chamber and trade unions “are concerned about the significantly negative impact that the legislation would have on Delaware’s economy.”
Delaware Building Trades did not respond to several requests for comment.
Public Advocate Jameson Tweedie, who is responsible for representing the public in state decisions about energy policy, said he supports both bills because they could help address the potential energy supply/demand imbalance that could drastically raise electricity prices.
“The risks to ratepayers are dramatic if we don’t have enough generation capacity for the new enormous [energy] users,” he said.
Delaware joins states across the country that are proposing data center regulations to protect ratepayers and promote clean energy.
Hansen said the electric service agreement required in her bill is based on Minnesota’s new law with a similar provision. Sponsored by a Republican representative and Democratic senator, the bill passed the House and Senate there with wide margins.
She said data center companies and other legislators were hesitant about her original proposal because it did not exist in other states. While electric services agreements are not very common in data center regulation bills, at least one state has done it before.
“We like being the first state on a number of things, but this was not going to be one of those things,” Hansen said.
The New Castle County Chamber of Commerce called a recent Pennsylvania data center regulation bill “a more balanced approach” than the Delaware proposals.
That bill does not create any new type of service agreement, but it directs the state’s public utilities commission, a similar public body to Delaware’s Public Service Commission, to review contracts for their impact on electric service reliability and affordability for residential customers.
Similar to HB 233, the proposal gives the commission the teeth to deny a contract if it negatively affects electric bills or reliability.
Similar to Heffernan’s clean energy initiative, the Pennsylvania bill also requires data centers to generate 10% of the energy they use as renewable energy by 2027, 14.5% by 2030, and 32% by 2035.
Lauren Posey, an environmental policy advocate for Pennsylvania environmental rights nonprofit Protect PT, said the feasibility of a clean energy requirement depends on a state’s renewable energy breakdown.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, about 8% of Delaware’s total in-state net energy generation came from renewable resources in 2025. Pennsylvania gets about 5% from renewables.
While she believes it would be better for data centers to use renewable energy, Posey explained HB 445 could be hard to pass since Delaware is already lagging behind in renewable energy and relies heavily on natural gas like Pennsylvania.
“Delaware certainly has a much loftier goal than Pennsylvania does,” Posey said. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Shoot for the moon, maybe you’ll land among the stars.”
Democrats make up all the sponsors on Pennsylvania’s bill. Republican representatives have criticized the bill, saying it doesn’t do enough to bring more power generation to the state.
The measure passed the Pennsylvania State House on March 24 and now sits in the Senate.
The post Bills would require, incentivize Delaware data centers to bring their own power appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware is currently the only state where residents do not vote on proposed constitutional amendments. A new bill could give voters the final say, while also shortening the legislative timeline.
A new bill could change how Delaware’s Constitution is amended, letting voters decide the fate of proposed constitutional changes.
Introduced last month by House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn-Harris (D-Dover), House Bill 440 would shift the power to pass constitutional amendments from lawmakers to voters via a public ballot. If passed, Delaware would join the rest of the union in having voters decide on constitutional changes.
Currently, proposed constitutional amendments must receive a two-thirds vote by the legislature in two consecutive sessions of the General Assembly — sessions that are separated by an election.
House Bill 440 calls for a single two-thirds supermajority vote in both the House and Senate, followed by a statewide referendum that would require 55% voter approval.
But Harris’ bill comes at an interesting political juncture for Delaware Democrats.
Senate Democrats currently hold a two-thirds supermajority, and their House counterparts could also soon hold that same power. Should House Democrats gain just one seat during this fall’s general election, the party would have the power to amend the state’s constitution without any bipartisan support.
So Harris’ bill, in effect, could remove a strategic political maneuver from Democrats’ potential playbook.
“Some people might say that it’s not strategic,” Harris said. “I come from a different standpoint, which is what would you want to happen if you weren’t in power?”
But the legislation, as it is currently written, would not cede Democratic political power entirely. If a proposed amendment were to fail to receive 55% of a referendum vote, it could then be reconsidered by the General Assembly, and potentially enacted without voter approval.
Harris told Spotlight Delaware she included that provision in case a referendum loses by a slim margin, or the public shows more interest in it after the fact. She described the second legislative vote as a “failsafe,” but also a chance to garner more public input.
House Bill 440, technically itself a proposed constitutional amendment, would need to be passed once before June 30, and again during the next General Assembly in order to become law.
Harris’ bill has yet to be heard in committee, but it has already drawn scrutiny from some Republican lawmakers.
Critics of the bill, like Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford), warned the current two-stage process prevents impulsive changes to the constitution by temporary legislative majorities.
While Shupe told Spotlight Delaware he would vote against the bill, he said he is “not opposed to adding the referendum process,” and thinks it would be beneficial to look at a referendum process moving forward.
Shupe’s biggest concern is shortening the timeline to pass a constitutional amendment and the threshold from a two-thirds supermajority in the General Assembly to 55% of the public, he said.
“We’re not talking about normal legislation here, we’re talking about the foundational constitutional principles that hold up all of legislation,” he said.
As for the 55% threshold, Harris said she saw it as a midway between a simple majority where a small minority could sway the vote and a 60% supermajority, which she said could be a more challenging target for voter turnout.
In a May 27 episode of “For The Record,” a podcast produced by the Delaware State Senate Republican Caucus, Senate Minority Whip Brian Pettyjohn (R-Georgetown) also said he “didn’t mind putting the question to voters.” However, he’d like to see the bar raised from 55% of voters to 60%.
Pettyjohn also described the part of the bill that sends the proposed amendment back to the General Assembly if the referendum does not pass as “a direct slap in the face to the will of the people.”
But Harris defended that provision of the bill.
“If the General Assembly overturns the will of the voters, the people in the General Assembly are going to have to have something to answer for, and that will be a big deal,” Harris said.
While Delaware stands alone as the only state in the country that does not include a referendum vote, its current system — a supermajority requirement in two consecutive General Assemblies — may make it one of the strictest states to amend its constitution, said Quinn Yeargain, a Michigan State University professor who studies law and democracy.
Neighboring states like Pennsylvania and Virginia both require a bill to pass two legislatures, but they only need a simple majority.
In New Jersey, an amendment can pass if it receives a three-fifths vote in a single legislative session, or a simple majority in both the House and Senate during two legislative sessions.
While Harris’s bill would make Delaware’s constitutional process consistent with other states by adding a referendum, Yeargain also said changing the requirement from two sessions of the General Assembly to one would bring Delaware in line with other states.
A separate bill that would change the way lawmakers notify the public about proposed constitutional amendments, House Bill 321, drew criticism from last month as a blow to government transparency.
Harris said she had been drafting HB 440 for a while, and had originally intended to release it at a later time. After the outcry over HB 321, however, she felt it was the right time to introduce the bill.
House Bill 321, which would no longer require the state to notify the public about proposed constitutional amendments in print newspapers, passed the House on April 21.
Harris said HB 321, which passed the House in April, is no longer being considered in the Senate.
She said that bill was not intended to make people uncomfortable, and was rather a modernization effort. But after the reactions to the bill and anxieties about transparency, “it felt like the right time to drop it.”
After the reactions to HB 321, Harris described HB 440 as an affirmation that the party had no intention to hide proposed constitutional amendments from the public.
Rather, she said, lawmakers want voters to participate in the process.
House Bill 440 has until Jun. 30 — just 10 working days for lawmakers — to receive a supermajority vote from the House and Senate. Still, if it passes, the bill would have to make it through the second leg of the General Assembly under Delaware’s current constitutional amendment system.
Make your voice heard on legislative issues in Dover this year. Click the button below to find your representative or senator and let them know your opinion on proposed legislation.
The post New bill would give Delawareans vote on constitutional changes appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Attacks raise fears of return to full-scale regional war and come after Trump says ‘I call all the shots’, not Netanyahu
The Israeli military has launched airstrikes on Iran after the Iranians fired missiles at northern Israel in the first exchange of fire between the two countries since a ceasefire was reached on 8 April, raising fears of a return to a full-scale regional war in the Middle East.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels also fired at Israel and warned they would target Israeli-affiliated ships in the Red Sea, further escalating tension.
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Tate & Lyle has agreed to a £2.7bn takeover by its US rival Ingredion, in a deal that could put hundreds of jobs at risk and represents yet another loss for London’s struggling stock market.
The FTSE 250 business, which makes artificial sweeteners such as Splenda, has agreed to a deal that values it at 615p a share, about 60% above its price before news of a possible takeover emerged.
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As a former NBA player, I know that criticism is part of the game. But in an age when players are under attack constantly, the Knick star is an example to us all
The entire basketball world is singing the praises of Jalen Brunson and rightfully so. He has led the Knicks to the NBA finals for the first time since 1999 and has united the entire city of New York in a unique way.
On every New York street you can see people of every race, color, creed, nationality, religion, economic status and political affiliation unified in excitement as the team seek their first NBA title since 1973. While older Knicks fans break out their Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley and John Starks jerseys, younger fans have the names of Brunson, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns on their backs. Chants of “MVP!” fill the air in every New York borough every time Jalen Brunson steps up to the free-throw line. Knicks fans have staged watch parties on the sidewalks, in the parks, and on the corners. All of New York is, in the words of JadaKiss, “outside”.
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On the day 5-year-old Lens Joseph was killed by a Boston Public Schools bus last year, the driver had already struck a postal truck, ignored a stop sign and missed several stops, prosecutors said. When he got to Lens’ house, he dropped him off on the wrong side of the street and then ran over the kindergartner as he crossed in front of the bus.
Transdev, a multinational company that has been the city’s sole bus contractor since 2013, hired and trained the driver of the bus that killed Lens. Yet a federal safety database shows no sign that the company was involved in the April 2025 crash. WBUR and ProPublica found at least 60 fatal Transdev crashes in the last decade, but the federal database shows only 18 under the company’s name. That means 42 fatal crashes are not identified as Transdev’s.
This missing information is important because the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which oversees commercial motor vehicles, relies on it to pinpoint unsafe companies.
But the process the agency uses to collect information is faulty: It identifies only a fraction of a company’s fatal crashes.
As a result, the full safety record of Transdev, one of the largest private operators of public transit in the U.S., remains a secret to regulators, the public and the local government agencies that might award it a contract.
“That is a serious, serious gap in safety,” said Peter Kurdock, general counsel with Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a nonprofit that promotes transportation safety and has pushed for improvements in crash data for years. “And it’s a serious, serious shortcoming when it comes to the regulation of these carriers by FMCSA.”
If you are a current or former FMCSA employee, or someone in the industry with information about the agency or the safety of school buses, transit buses or motor coaches, our team wants to hear from you. Willoughby Mariano can be reached by phone at 617-358-0802, Signal at willoughbymariano.55 and email at wmariano@bu.edu.
The deadly crashes associated with Transdev span at least 16 states and involve pedestrians, at least two bicyclists and other vehicles. Lens’ death and at least two others have resulted in criminal charges against the bus drivers. Transdev did not provide comment on any specific crash.
The crash data feeds into FMCSA’s online Safety Measurement System, which makes safety records public for bus companies nationwide. Instead of listing Transdev, that data often lists collisions under the government agency that hired Transdev or the name of a company it acquired. Also, when crashes are listed under other names, companies that oversee the buses involved are not required to claim the collisions. The agency’s instructions for how to determine the motor carrier involved in a crash are interpreted differently by police who respond to the scene, the news organizations found.
Based in France, Transdev has vast U.S. operations. It says it holds contracts in busing, light rail and other forms of public transit in 46 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The multibillion-dollar company employs more than 30,000 people nationally. Transdev’s only school bus contract is with Boston Public Schools.
Transdev U.S. CEO Laura Hendricks declined an interview. In a written statement, Transdev said it complies with “federally mandated reporting standards.”
“Transparency and continuous improvement are central to our safety approach, and we work closely with oversight agencies and our clients to ensure our practices meet or exceed expectations,” the statement said.
The statement did not respond to questions about why Transdev did not ensure crashes the company was involved in were logged as part of its safety record. It did stress that reporting crashes is the responsibility of law enforcement.
At the publications’ request, Transdev reviewed lists of the crashes that reporters tied to the company. Transdev confirmed that most of them matched with collisions in their records but did not have records for all of them.
The FMCSA did not respond to requests to interview Derek Barrs, the head of the agency, or emails with a list of questions.
Other than the federal database, there are few ways to connect crashes to particular bus companies. A different database, run by the Federal Transit Administration, records transit crashes but doesn’t connect them to contractors. Separately, FMCSA requires all bus companies to keep an internal register of how many serious crashes take place during their operations. However, those records are not open to the public, and companies are not obligated to submit the information to regulators unless they ask for it. Transdev declined the publications’ request for its register.
So while Transdev may know about its own collisions, federal agencies and the public often don’t.
Darin Jones, a former FMCSA Midwest field administrator, spent more than 35 years in federal transportation safety and often oversaw investigations. He said investigators are supposed to consider a company’s serious crashes as part of their assessment. If many are logged inconsistently, they cannot determine whether Transdev or any other company is operating safely.
“ The knowledge of this motor carrier’s operation, any motor carrier’s operation, is critical,” said Jones. “If you don’t have the full picture of an operation, how do you truly know what’s going on?”
At least in Boston, Transdev appears to have had no serious school bus crashes over 10 years. But that’s not true. WBUR and ProPublica uncovered at least 71 serious crashes involving the company that weren’t under its name.
Kurdock says the FMCSA needs to fix its safety data, especially in Boston.
“The agency needs to be much more proactive in ensuring that the data they do have is accurate, even more so when you’re talking about a carrier that is operating a transportation service for schoolchildren,” Kurdock said. “If there is one bipartisan issue left here in Washington, D.C., it’s that schoolchildren should have a safe ride.”
Since 2016, about two-thirds of Transdev’s 60 fatal crashes have appeared in federal safety data under the names of a company it acquired or agencies that contracted with them. Click a state to see more details about the Transdev crashes we found there and how they were recorded in the federal database.
When a crash happens, local law enforcement fill out accident reports that document the location, identities of the drivers and companies involved. This information becomes part of the federal safety database and helps regulators connect a crash to a particular company.
But the news organizations found multiple examples where that system masked the company running the bus lines. For most of these crashes, the database is also unclear on whether the drivers violated traffic laws.
In Lens’ case, the motor carrier is listed as “CITY OF BOSTON MVMB,” an abbreviation for the city’s Motor Vehicle Management Bureau, which acquires and manages municipal vehicles. There is no mention of the school district or Transdev being involved.
Another crash killed registered nurse Renée Shea in southern Massachusetts in 2017. It appears under the name of the Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority, not Transdev, the agency’s contractor at the time. A bus made a left-hand turn into the path of the Jeep SUV she was driving, according to a police report. The bus company’s driver, Margaret Correia, may have been distracted because she began to take off her jacket before she made her turn, the report found. She could not be reached for comment.
Correia pleaded guilty to misdemeanor negligent operation of a motor vehicle, court records show. A GATRA spokeswoman said Shea’s family received $1 million from the area transit agency’s insurer.
Charlie Shea said his ex-wife was a generous mother who had taken custody of her granddaughter.
As a former MBTA bus driver, Charlie Shea said he continues to be shocked by the bus driver’s actions.
Driving and taking your jacket off “ain’t a bright idea for anybody,” he said.
He said his ex-wife’s death, like all crashes, needs to be part of Transdev’s safety record.
“It’d make them more accountable,” Shea said. “They would have to use their safety records to get contracts from the state or the counties or from schools.”
Outside Massachusetts, there are dozens of other fatal Transdev crashes in the database with no mention of the company.
In a November 2023 Las Vegas crash, federal records list the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada as the motor carrier of a transit bus that killed bicyclist David Ortiz in a crosswalk. Court records state driver Johnelle Johnson, a Transdev employee, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge. A lawsuit by Ortiz’s family against Transdev and the driver was settled for an undisclosed sum.
Transdev has operated the Las Vegas-area bus system since 2023, when it acquired First Transit, which originally held the contract, the commission’s records show.
Although First Transit is now part of Transdev, at least five fatal crashes across the United States are still recorded under First Transit’s name after the acquisition.
Beyond the fatal crashes, WBUR and ProPublica also took a close look at all of Transdev’s serious, but nonfatal, crashes with Boston Public Schools. Those include crashes where any person was transported to a hospital or a vehicle was towed.
In a December 2024 crash, a bus lurched onto a sidewalk outside Curley K-8 School in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood. The bus struck an 8-year-old boy with autism and his school aide before smashing into two fences, a police report states. The crash sent both victims to the hospital with long-term injuries, their civil lawsuits against Transdev allege.
A bus camera showed that Transdev driver Vitony Laguerre’s eyes were closed and his head was back before he pressed the accelerator, police stated. He pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of negligent operation of a motor vehicle.
The federal record lists the city of Boston, not Transdev, as the carrier.
Attorneys for Laguerre and both crash victims did not comment for this story. Laguerre and Transdev denied they were negligent in the crash, according to records in an ongoing civil case.
Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper declined an interview request. A spokesperson did not answer a list of questions, but in a written statement said that the district follows established safety protocols and has worked with Transdev over several years to improve accountability and performance.
“We will continue to work with our transportation partner to monitor performance, address issues as they arise, and ensure every student gets to and from school safely,” the statement said.
The current system of collecting and publishing bus crash data began as part of a federal push for safer roads. In the early days of this work, in the 1970s and 1980s, rules put the burden on bus and truck companies to self-report serious crashes to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Each operator had to report its fatal bus crashes in person or by telephone “as soon as possible”; crashes that resulted in injuries or serious vehicle damage had to be reported in writing, and in triplicate.
But both companies and federal safety investigators complained the process was burdensome and inadequate. For one thing, investigators could not tell whether companies failed to report their accidents, said Jones, the former FMCSA regional administrator.
Regulators and traffic safety researchers thought they could do better. At the time, many states were already collecting crash information electronically from local police departments.
“Why burden the industry with reporting?” Jones said. “We had a more accurate record from the states.”
So in 1993, the federal Department of Transportation decided to end self-reporting by carriers. Today, local law enforcement agencies send their bus and truck crash information to state agencies, which submit it to FMCSA.
After investigating, a local officer must fill out a form that asks for the name of the bus company, or “carrier,” that is involved in the crash and the company’s U.S. Department of Transportation identifier. FMCSA training material recommends the officer determine which company should be included in the form by figuring out which entity “controls” or “directs” the bus.
For transit and school buses, this decision can be surprisingly complicated. Transdev employees may be behind the wheel, and the company may manage the daily operations of the buses, but the transit agencies or a school district may choose the routes. So who is in charge? In these cases, Transdev’s role often disappears in the data.
Transportation experts and former FMCSA officials said bus companies can voluntarily inform the agency that crashes under other names belong to them.
But Alex Scott, a University of Tennessee, Knoxville transportation expert, said companies rarely update the federal record, according to research he published in 2021. “There’s not really an incentive for them to account for all of their crashes,” Scott said. “If a company could just magically make them go away, of course they would.”
Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy, a former teacher for the district where Lens attended school, has become a vocal critic of how Transdev operates its buses. She was shocked when she learned from a reporter that the company is not required to take steps to ensure all its crashes are part of its federal safety record.
“Horrifying,” she said. “Why would they be able to not report accidents — one that was a fatal accident? There’s nothing worse than a fatal accident.”
“There’s not really an incentive for them to account for all of their crashes. … If a company could just magically make them go away, of course they would.”
Alex Scott, a transportation expert at University of Tennessee, Knoxville
After several passenger bus crashes with multiple fatalities, Congress passed legislation in 2012 that gave FMCSA powers to conduct more comprehensive inspections into the safety operations of bus companies.
When Transdev underwent one of these reviews in 2016, investigators uncovered what they described as “numerous crashes” that were not listed as part of the contractor’s safety record, according to the inspection report. There were enough crashes that the FMCSA planned to give Transdev a “conditional” safety rating, which would mean the company had insufficient safety procedures.
Because local police departments may not “be aware or equipped” to report crashes to the FMCSA, the carrier should report them, the report stated.
“This self reporting is required for accurate evaluation by FMCSA and the accurate safety record of the carrier,” it added.
The company successfully appealed the decision to lower its safety rating by arguing its drivers could not have prevented many of the crashes investigators uncovered.
FMCSA investigators urged Transdev to report to the agency when its role in a crash is not reflected in safety data, yet the company’s name continues to be absent from many of them. Transdev did not comment on this recommendation.
Lens’ death last year became a local flashpoint, shedding new light on Transdev’s safety procedures and raising questions about its ability to keep the city’s children safe.
The driver of the school bus that killed Lens should not have been behind the wheel that day, and the bus never should have been on the road, according to information from city officials and prosecutors.
Driver Jean Charles became ineligible to operate a school bus in December 2024 after a required driving credential expired, according to a statement from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s office last year. But the company did not take him off the road then. In the weeks before Lens died, Charles had two minor collisions and underwent remedial training, it said, and soon returned to work.
On the day of Lens’ death, Charles began his shift without conducting a required pretrip inspection, prosecutors alleged. One of the bus’s four rear tires was flat, and a safety crossing bar was broken. Transdev is also in charge of maintenance, but it’s unclear how long the bus had these problems.
Had Charles followed procedures, the bus would have been sent for repairs, prosecutors said. And yet Charles set off on his route to UP Academy Dorchester, where Lens climbed aboard.
At 2:42 p.m., Charles dropped off Lens and his 11-year-old-cousin on the wrong side of their street. To get home, they would have to cross in front of the bus.
Neighbor Carolyn Tomlinson was inside her home cleaning windows when the cries of a child brought her outside. She followed the sound to the corner of Glenwood Avenue and Washington Street, where she saw the cousin screaming. Lens was on the ground.
“I’m looking at Lens, just lying there,” Tomlinson said. “And as a mom it broke my heart.”
Tomlinson said she dialed 911 and held the cousin in her arms to comfort her.
“I was praying with her, saying, ‘It’s going to be OK. God’s got us,’” Tomlinson said.
Lens’ father, Esaie Joseph, had parked his truck in North Carolina after a day on the road as a long-haul trucker when his brother told him about the crash in a phone call. Hours later, he got word that his boy was dead.
Lens was Joseph’s only son, and he was self-assured beyond his years, his father said in an interview with WBUR. His nickname was “smart guy.”
Every time Lens asked Joseph for a new toy, he’d begin with, “Dad, you know I’m a smart guy?” the father recalled.
Joseph has kept his son’s soccer ball and toy cars, and he smiled as he sorted through them on a recent evening: a police car, because Lens wanted to be an officer. A Spider-Man-themed car because he loved the superhero.
After he lost Lens, Joseph stopped driving trucks and moved with his relatives to a new neighborhood, away from the scene of the crash. He now is a driver for a city of Boston van service for seniors.
He and his family are suing Transdev and Charles, who resigned from Transdev soon after the crash. Joseph said he wants some good to come from Lens’ death, and for Transdev to operate safely.
“The first thing I hope is justice for him,” he said. “They have to care for safety so something like this will not happen again.”
Charles pleaded not guilty to felony involuntary manslaughter and other charges in March. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
Transdev did not comment about the crash and said the company had discussed its safety measures publicly during a Boston City Council meeting last August. The company and Charles denied in civil court filings that they were negligent or reckless.
Transdev is in the third year of its five-year, $651 million contract with Boston Public Schools and transports about 19,000 of the district’s students every school day. It is currently looking to expand in Boston, where it is one of three finalists for a multibillion-dollar commuter rail contract.
To this day, the federal record does not show that Transdev was the operator of the bus that killed Lens. Neighbor Tomlinson wants it to be part of Transdev’s safety record so regulators can hold them accountable, and agencies and school systems can understand the companies they are hiring.
“It should be visible to the ones that need it, so we can see it and keep our babies safe,” Tomlinson said.
The post A School Bus Killed a 5-Year-Old. The Crash Is Among Dozens Missing From the Bus Company’s Federal Safety Record. appeared first on ProPublica.
African migrants say legal status offers little protection as rallies against illegal immigration gain momentum
African migrants in South Africa say they are living in fear after a series of marches calling for illegal immigrants to leave reignited long-held xenophobic sentiment in the country.
March & March, a campaign group at the forefront of recent protests, has given people living illegally in the country until 30 June to leave, without specifying what will happen to those who do not.
Continue reading...Companies such as Apple and Google have until September to install software or face legislation, says PM
Apple and Google have been given until September to install software that blocks explicit images on children’s mobile phones or face legislation to force them to do so, Keir Starmer said on Monday.
The prime minister said tech companies must activate nudity-detection algorithms or other technical solutions on smartphones and tablets to prevent users taking photos or sharing images of genitalia unless they are verified as adults.
Continue reading...After an eight-year hiatus, Newark Nite picked up right where it left off, drawing a large crowd to Main Street on Friday evening.
It was once an article of faith that even those who speak words we disagree with deserve protection. As regards Palestine, that’s now not true
Remember the Satanic Verses controversy? Remember “Je suis Charlie”? Remember the constant invocations of Voltaire and Orwell? The great irony of our age is that many of the cadre of politicians who spent years anointing themselves as champions of free speech have become its most enthusiastic enemies when the subject turns to one issue: Palestine.
For decades, western governments lectured the world about liberal values. They declared freedom of expression the hallmark of a liberal democratic society. Protest was deemed patriotic while the right to offend was considered sacred. Then came Gaza. Suddenly, the principles that we were once told were non-negotiable became highly negotiable indeed.
Mehdi Hasan is the editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo
The assault on freedom with Mehdi Hasan and Arwa Mahdawi
At 7.30pm BST on Monday 8 June, join Mehdi Hasan and Arwa Mahdawi at a joint Zeteo/Guardian event to discuss the current seismic changes in geopolitics, the alarming rise of populism and nationalism, and its global implications. Only livestream tickets are now available.
Book tickets here
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.
Continue reading...A burglar took a self-driving Waymo taxi to rob a San Francisco yoga studio this past January, reports TechCrunch — "and police have still not caught them." Even the police officer assigned to the case thought it would be easier to solve, notes The San Francisco Chronicle, since Waymos are outfitted with multiple high-definition cameras and require users to make accounts with their credit card numbers: It's common for officers to seek video footage of a crime from any of the Waymos, Teslas and other high-tech vehicles that record their surroundings. That information can be crucial for identifying suspects or creating a reliable timeline of events. At times, police will go so far as to obtain search warrants to tow the vehicle "witnesses" to ensure they don't lose valuable video evidence. In the Hot 8 Yoga burglary case, San Francisco police issued a search warrant that forced Waymo to turn over information on the account that ordered the ride and video footage from the white Jaguar that served as the getaway car, police records show. Faye said that he couldn't discuss certain details of the case, but that the Waymo user's account information didn't lead police to the suspect. In general, he said, it's not unusual for a criminal to order a service with stolen information or a burner phone. The video evidence didn't help much either, Faye said. He said that the company had not retained interior footage of the car by the time the search warrant was filed in April and that it had kept the faces seen outside the car blurred for privacy reasons... Waymo does not publicly disclose how long it retains video footage. The company blurs faces and license plates in the public-facing images it uses in a database designed for research.... Last year in Los Angeles, a person allegedly robbed a grocery store before hopping in a Waymo. Officers were able to chase down the vehicle after the suspect got inside, and the car pulled itself over after police turned on the car's emergency lights, according to Los Angeles-area news outlets. "Farah Issa, studio manager of Hot 8 Yoga, showed the Chronicle a copy of the surveillance video from her phone, noting how the Waymo dropped off the suspect and waited for him to finish the burglary before taking off again."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Result strengthens PM Nikol Pashinyan’s drive for deeper integration with Europe despite warnings from Moscow
Armenia’s ruling pro-Europe party has won parliamentary elections, confirming the country’s pivot towards Europe and away from its traditional ally, Russia.
Final results in the small South Caucasus country showed the prime minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party securing a slim majority, while the Strong Armenia alliance, led by the Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, won 25% of the seats in parliament.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
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Is Australian music at risk of extinction? Here’s what the data tells us
The music that charts in Australia has changed considerably over the past couple of decades – rock is out, country is in and old tracks are new again.
Because of Richard’s brilliant research, advanced Melanoma went from a death sentence to a curable disease. As a result of that breakthrough, in a country with the highest melanoma rates on earth, thousands of Australians are alive today. …
After being diagnosed with brain cancer, Australians got to know Richard as a man of warmth and hope. He faced his disease with optimism, with a smile, and with a deep sense of purpose. Just a few months ago, living with stage four brain cancer, he was still riding his bike through Tasmania, raising money for a cure.
Continue reading...Iata boss Willie Walsh blames fuel suppliers, governments and aircraft makers, saying new ‘realistic timeline’ now needed
The aviation industry’s landmark pledges to be net zero by 2050 will probably not now be achieved, airline leaders have admitted.
The collective goal to eliminate net carbon emissions was declared by global airlines only five years ago in 2021, with similar pledges made by national aviation industry leaders and governments, including in the UK, in 2020.
Continue reading...Trucks with billboards depicting phrase alongside Jacinta Allan wearing a black pointed hat have been seen around Melbourne for about six weeks
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Julia Gillard and Anthony Albanese have joined a chorus of politicians criticising a truck-mounted billboard featuring the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, alongside the phrase “ditch the witch”.
The billboards, which have been seen travelling around Melbourne for about six weeks, also ran AI-generated images of Allan wearing a black pointed hat and with warts on her chin, in between advertisements for a brothel.
Continue reading...Police and hunters in Utsunomiya, 100km north of the capital, resume their search for animal that is not usually seen so close to Tokyo
A city in Japan has closed all its 94 primary and secondary schools after a bear was spotted in the municipality for the first time.
Officials in Utsunomiya, a city of half a million people about 100km (62 miles) north of Tokyo, took action after a medium-sized black bear – estimated to be about one-metre-long – was seen near a park in the city on Saturday. The bear was spotted again on CCTV running just in front of two startled young men in the city centre, in the early hours of Sunday.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed – our live coverage of the Middle East crisis continues here
Donald Trump also aggressively pushed back against claims that he broke a key campaign promise to keep the US out of new foreign conflicts.
“Well, well, first of all, I didn’t guarantee no war,” Trump said during the Meet the Press interview. “Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?”
Continue reading...Insurer found 18,400 suspect claims last year with some scammers using AI to fake accident scenes and documents
Bogus insurance claims worth more than £230m were detected by the insurance firm Aviva last year as scammers tried new tricks including using artificial intelligence to fake car accident scenes, documents and to exaggerate damage.
The insurer identified more than 18,400 suspect claims across its brands in 2025, with a combined value of £233m. The fraud claims level was a record for the insurer, although this was the first year that it included the Direct Line brands it acquired last summer.
Continue reading...Reuters reports: Several large data centers and crypto facilities planning to connect to the Texas power grid ahead of peak summer demand have failed key reliability tests, raising the risk of power outages just as electricity use hits its seasonal high, according to the state grid operator... Unlike traditional industrial customers, which tend to draw electricity steadily and predictably, data centers are engineered to cut their connection to the grid at the first sign of trouble to protect their equipment and keep services running. That makes them an unpredictable and potentially destabilizing force on grids already under pressure from rising demand. Four groups of unnamed large electricity users, including data centers, abruptly disconnected from the Texas grid during a test of how they would handle routine voltage disturbances, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said in a report dated May 21. When large customers abruptly cut their power use, it can knock the grid off balance and trigger wider outages. ERCOT, which manages electricity for most of Texas, said it reviewed about 20 gigawatts of large customers seeking to connect to the system, including eight projects totaling roughly 3.9 gigawatts aiming to start up before July 1. It said it identified four groups of large power users that could each trigger more than 5,000 megawatts of demand tripping under certain fault conditions, based on simulations of transmission system disturbances. Those abrupt drops in demand were equivalent to the electricity consumption of a large city such as Boston.
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Terron Harmon has been a part of the Delaware School for the Deaf for virtually his whole life, starting as a young child and now finishing as a high school senior.
The Brennen School, which serves students with autism, celebrated the graduation of 22 students during a ceremony June 5 in the Newark High School auditorium.
Meta’s former head of global affairs says executives pivoted right in some cases for ‘rather more self-interested’ reasons
Silicon Valley companies including Meta have decided to embrace Maga politics, some for “rather more self-interested” reasons, the former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has said.
Clegg, who spent nearly seven years at Meta as the head of global affairs, told The Rest is Money podcast that it felt like “a very good time for me to move on” when he left the company in March 2025, three months into the second Trump administration.
Continue reading...How Americans think about U.S. military interventions.
What American military force can and cannot do.
Donald Trump said: ‘I’m about to call Bibi right now and tell him not to respond’, as conflict risks spiralling – key US politics stories from 7 June at a glance
Donald Trump’s appeal to Benjamin Netanyahu to “not to strike back” after Iran launched missiles at Israel appears to have been unsuccessful after the Israeli military said it struck targets inside Iran.
The US president made the plea after Iran responded to Israeli strikes on southern Beirut in Lebanon earlier on Sunday, as the conflict again threatened to spiral into a broader regional war.
Continue reading...The exchange, after Tehran’s first such strike on Israel in two months, threatened to further complicate efforts to broker a peace deal aimed at ending the war.
Dancer, dog owner, bank robber. Germany’s most wanted woman, Daniela Klette, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after decades on the run. Deborah Cole and Jason Burke report
To her friends and neighbours, there was nothing extraordinary about Claudia Ivone.
As our Berlin correspondent, Deborah Cole, explains, the silver-haired 67-year-old had spent years living in the same apartment in a bohemian neighbourhood of west Berlin. She led an ordinary life: she owned a dog, went shopping and pursued an unusual hobby as an active member of a local capoeira dance group.
Continue reading..."When Hugo Parra was arrested last year on felony charges, his pleas of innocence fell on deaf ears," reports the Times of San Diego: San Diego police had a description of the Alfa Romeo car he was riding in [but no license plate number] and a witness who identified him during a curbside lineup as the man who brandished a handgun in Golden Hill. They had also checked the city's automatic license plate camera system, run by the private company Flock, and got a "hit," substantiating the claim. The problem, says attorney Alex Coolman, was that Parra was five miles away from Golden Hill at the time of the crime, and the so-called hit from the license plate reader was captured before any police pursuit began. "This Flock hit was obviously the wrong car, as it could not have been in both places simultaneously," said Coolman, who represents Parra and the driver, 23-year-old Ariel Beltran. Despite the signs pointing to it being a different Alfa Romeo, police arrested Beltran and Parra... [An officer had informed dispatch that one of the men "matched the victim's description, other than having a different-colored hooded sweatshirt."] Parra spent nearly one month behind bars, missing Thanksgiving and other special events with his family, before the assault with a firearm and evasion charges were dropped. Parras says he was incarcerated with actual murderers, according to the article, and Parra and Beltran are now preparing to sue the city, seeking $1.5 million each in damages for civil rights violations and negligence. Their claim notes they'd driven past several other Flock cameras which officers could've used to corroborate their story (not to mention location data on their cell phones). Meanwhile, the article also notes that last month the Institute for Justice "identified at least 17 cases in the United States of officers allegedly using Automated License Plate Reader technology to keep tabs on partners, exes, and strangers who had caught their eye..."
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American survives close putt on final hole
Korda claims $2.5m first prize for victory
England’s Hull misses out on first major title
Nelly Korda won the US Women’s Open on Sunday for her second consecutive major victory, holding off Charley Hull and Gaby Lopez by one shot when her final putt curled perilously around the cup and dropped in.
Korda’s first US Open win is the fourth major victory of her career, and she claimed it with a steady two-under 69 in the final round – but only after her second putt on the 18th green – from a little over 2ft – caught the edge and toured half the circumference of the hole before falling.
Continue reading...Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman has surpassed political newcomer Spencer Pratt in the race for L.A. mayor after trailing by nearly 6% on election night.
EMMA KARCZ
Staff Reporter
After six grueling months of back-to-back games, division rivalries and the Winter Olympics, where National Hockey League (NHL) players participated for the first time in 12 years, the 2025-26 NHL season has been nothing short of spectacular.
Out of 16 teams participating in the playoffs, six had not qualified for them last year. Specifically, the Buffalo Sabres ended their 15-year playoff drought, securing the top spot in the Atlantic Division with 109 points for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
The NHL playoffs work in four rounds of best-of-seven series, ending in the Stanley Cup, where the winners of the Western Conference and Eastern Conference face off, typically held in mid- to late June.
In the 1999-2000 season, the NHL adopted the point system used today to determine which teams make the playoffs. The system operates in a 2-0-1 format: two points for a win, no points for a regulation loss and one point for a loss in overtime or a shootout.
This has largely been a controversial system, especially this season, as many teams that had more regulation wins did not make the playoffs, while teams with fewer regulation wins did. Regardless, the 16 teams that made the playoffs this year fought long and hard for their spots. The Colorado Avalanche is one example of these.
The Avalanche won the Presidents’ Trophy this season, meaning they were the league’s top team and among the top cup contenders according to many sports analysts. Ending the season with 121 points, the 2022 Stanley Cup Champions were hungry for more. They faced off against the Los Angeles Kings, who barely squeezed into the second Western Conference wild card spot in the first round. Colorado knocked the Kings out in a clean four-game sweep, advancing early to the second round.
Another exciting matchup in the West was the Dallas Stars vs. the Minnesota Wild — two powerhouse teams out of the Central Division. Minnesota took the series with a game six win over Dallas, sending them to round two.
The Wild, who traded for defensive superstar Quinn Hughes mid-season, have been a strong contender. The Stars, also filled with generational talent, have proven themselves year after year in the playoffs, despite losing to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Finals the past two seasons.
Next is the Utah Mammoth vs. the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas topped the Pacific Division while the Mammoth claimed the first wild card spot. Two very recent additions to the NHL, the Golden Knights joined the league at the end of the 2017 season and the Mammoth relocated from the Arizona Coyotes at the beginning of the 24-25 season. A fairly split matchup, Vegas won the series in six games to advance.
The last matchup of the Western Conference is the Edmonton Oilers vs. the Anaheim Ducks. Edmonton, which has lost to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final the past two years, faces the Ducks, who haven’t made the playoffs since the 2017-18 season.
In a surprise to many analysts who were expecting a knockout by the Oilers, the Ducks surged forward, taking the series lead 3-1 after four games, leaving Edmonton on the cusp of elimination. With a desperate, gutsy win in game five, Edmonton kept the series alive, and returned to Anaheim for game six. The Ducks finished the series with a 5-2 win, ending the Oilers’ season.
In the Eastern Conference, the Buffalo Sabres faced off against the Boston Bruins. After being widely predicted to be at the bottom of the standings this season, Buffalo proved everyone wrong with a strong 10-game win streak throughout December and an eight-game win streak in March, pushing them to win the Atlantic Division and finish fourth overall.
After an interesting first four games, the Sabres led the series 3-1 as they headed back to Buffalo for what would be an exciting game five on home ice. After being tied 1-1 through regulation, Boston surged forward with an overtime (OT) goal from alternate captain David Pastrnak to advance to game six, where they fell short losing the series with a 4-1 loss.
The Montreal Canadiens vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning in another Atlantic Division matchup. Two teams with a ton of hunger have had one one of the most exciting series of the first round. With numerous fights, bench brawls and insane OT wins, the series was tied 2-2 going all the way to game seven, where the Canadiens came out on top.
After losing the 2020-21 Stanley Cup Final to the Lightning, the Canadiens rebuilt and were out of playoff contention until last season, when they were beaten in five games by the Washington Capitals in the first round.
Squeezing into the wild card spot only last year, the Canadiens came third in the Atlantic this year and are ready for a massive playoff push. The Lightning, on the other hand, have been a consistent playoff team since the 2017-18 season, winning back-to-back cups in 2020 and 2021, and are looking to add to that tally.
The Carolina Hurricanes faced the Ottawa Senators in another series that was fun and energetic for fans, with fights breaking out after almost every whistle. The Canes dominated, sweeping Ottawa in four games, becoming the second team to advance to the next round.
Finally, one of the most exciting matchups for students at the university is the battle for Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers have both been held out of the postseason for the past five years.
Based on regular-season statistics, the Penguins were looking to be the clear winner and advance early, but the Flyers came out of the gate running, winning the first three games of the series. Facing elimination, the Penguins collected themselves and went on to win games four and five, keeping their playoff hopes alive for one more game until the Flyers topped them off, ending the series at six. These two huge rivals in the league have given fans the energy and excitement they’ve been waiting for after so long without a postseason.
The Stanley Cup final, after three rounds of playoff competition, includes the Vegas Golden Knights vs. the Carolina Hurricanes. Beginning the series in Raleigh each team came away with a win, leaving the series 1-1 before heading to Vegas for games three and four. Game three was won by the Golden Knights in double overtime after the Hurricanes made an impressive comeback from a 4-0 deficit, scoring four unanswered goals to force OT where they lost to a goal by Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore. As this series continues both teams will fight for what is most important.
The NHL playoffs always deliver excitement and flair to the sports scene. Between heated rivalries and underdogs fighting back, there has been no shortage of passion in this year’s games. As the fight for the Stanley Cup continues, teams will be pushed to play the best hockey of their careers, in search of the one thing all young hockey players dream of, lifting the cup.
Rose Byrne, Sarah Paulson, Daniel Radcliffe, Adrien Brody and others gather to celebrate Broadway’s biggest awards night. The 79th annual Tony awards are hosted by Pink at Radio City Music Hall in New York
Continue reading...I like the Hoosier look but sounds like enduro may be best for mostly asphalt riding , some trails and straight away speed. What do you guys think?
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for June 8.
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for June 8, No. 623.
Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for June 8, No. 1,815.
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for June 8, No. 827.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for June 8, No. 1,093.
The lawsuit calls the event "deeply corrupt" and argues that it seeks to enrich the president and his allies and lacks proper authorization.
Cockroach Janta party began as online joke but is growing into one of the most unexpected challenges to country’s rightwing government
The call out to the youth of India was simple: “Get ready to swarm the streets of Delhi with peaceful and loving dissent.” They came in their thousands.
The weekend marked the first public protest of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP), a movement that began as an online joke, but which has swiftly grown into one of the most unexpected challenges to the indomitable power of the country’s rightwing Narendra Modi government – driven by millions of discontented and disillusioned young people.
Continue reading...Italian fashion house Prada "unveiled on Sunday the inner-layer garment set to be worn by NASA astronauts heading to the moon," reports Reuters. "The body-hugging suit, created in collaboration with Houston-based space infrastructure developer Axiom Space, features ventilation tubes knitted into the garment." Expertise for developing space exploration products "can come from lots of seemingly unrelated industries," said Jonathan Cirtain, CEO of Axiom Space... The new product follows Prada's splashy foray into space fashion in 2024 with the unveiling of a spacesuit that is expected to be used for NASA's anticipated Artemis 4 moon landing in 2028... Other fashion and apparel companies have jumped on the space bandwagon. Under Armour has partnered with spaceflight company Virgin Galactic to create space apparel, while Columbia Sportswear has worked with space exploration company Intuitive Machines on space fabric technology. The new "Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment" was displayed on a mannequin at an event at Prada's Manhattan store.
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This year’s Tony awards have already seen wins for musicals Schmigadoon! and Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon!
Ellenore Scott, Ragtime
Ani Taj, The Rocky Horror Show
Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, Cats: The Jellicle Ball – WINNER!
Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant, The Lost Boys
Without it the ‘true scale’ of former Harrods owner’s alleged network will stay hidden, says survivors’ group
Survivors of abuse perpetrated by the former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed are calling for a full trafficking investigation to be launched, arguing that without it the “true scale” of the billionaire’s alleged network would remain hidden.
Survivors at No One Above (NOA), a collective founded by victims of abuse at the hands of Fayed, are calling for the Metropolitan police to broaden their investigation into the billionaire and make trafficking the main focus.
Continue reading...The Dog Aging Project is working to help dogs live longer, healthier lives. The research results may help humans age well, too.
China rolls out over 1,000 cargo ships a year, while the U.S. – maybe three. The Trump administration has called this a crisis with both economic and national security risks.
Federal judges say criticism from President Trump can put their safety at risk. The White House says the president "understands the dangers of political violence."
The Rowe family dog Ralph was one of many canines with dementia who participated in a study of rapamycin. Scientists were able to gain new insight into the drug's potential as a treatment by studying his brain.
David Rush, who was arrested in May, stole millions from US government through ‘special access program’, officials say
A former executive intelligence agent who is accused of stealing more than $40m in gold bars from the CIA reportedly created a fake spy program to siphon money, the latest on his fraudulent activity, the Washington Post first reported.
David Rush, who was a senior-level employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for 17 years, was arrested in May after FBI agents discovered Rush had taken 303 bullion bars, each about 2.2lbs, dozens of luxury watches, and more than $2m in foreign currency from his government office.
Continue reading...Is Microsoft making a comeback?
People are disabling the "recording light" on Meta's Ray-Ban smartglasses — "by my count, thousands of people," says tech journalist Joanna Stern in a new video report: STERN: "They're hiring people on Facebook Marketplace to drill out the light for as much as $100. According to our reporting, folks are offering this service in at least 30 states — despite Meta's attempts to stop it... In most states, we found multiple listings. In the New York and New Jersey area alone there were 23 listings." Stern watched a man in New Jersey disable and then conceal the light with a drill and dental probe in a New Jersey garage (a skill he learned watching YouTube and TikTok videos). He said the same day he'd already been contacted by eight more interested customers, and Stern also found at least 10 other people willing to do the same thing, just in New Jersey. "But what we found is they're all over the country." Meta sold 7 million smartglasses in 2025, but a Meta spokesperson insisted to the videomaker that a "majority" of their smartglasses owners aren't blocking the recording light. And furthermore, they added "We aggressively target anyone advertising tampering tools, have removed thousands of violating ads and Marketplace listings for these services, and pursue legal action when appropriate." (The reporter acknowledges "many" of the Marketplace ads disappeared after they brought them to Meta's attention — and Meta also said they were working with other retailers and sellers to take down listings for smartglasses-tampering parts.) The reporter also heard from one journalist who said they'd used it so they could record the activities of federal immigration agents without being targeted. "Others told me they just don't want people asking questions when they're recording." (There's video of one young man saying "It's already difficult enough to film in public. I don't want to have a blinking light on my face.") Tampering with smartglasses isn't illegal — though it is against Meta's Terms of Service, and could void your warranty. But a lawyer in the report says recording others without consent may be illegal, depending on a wide range of "jurisdictional nuances" like whether you live in an all-party consent state or a one-party consent state. "This seems to be our new reality," the report concludes: "more cameras, more microphones everywhere, and less certainty about who and what is recording." (Tech blogger John Gruber offered this assessment. "Using a Meta platform to find people to hack a Meta device so you can surreptitiously record strangers. So perfectly Meta.") Stern's report points out that "People are trying to fight back. Apps have popped up that use Bluetooth to scan for nearby camera glasses." (In the video one app-maker wonders why Meta isn't offering the same service themselves. "There are technical solutions to these problems.") Ironically, when I watched the report on YouTube, it was preceded by... an ad for Meta's Ray-Ban AI smartglasses.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
After encountering civil rights emblem Ruby Bridges, he spent his career documenting the impact of social and political unrest, especially on the young.
These headphones were put to the test by headphone experts and sleep experts.
Keir Starmer hosts Ukrainian, French and German leaders in Downing Street after Russia fires hypersonic weapons at Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leaders of the UK, France and Germany discussed “the urgent need to scale up” Ukraine’s air defences and deep-strike capabilities in London on Sunday night, after Russia fired hypersonic weapons at Ukraine, Downing Street said.
The meeting of Ukraine’s staunchest allies in London came hours after a Russian drone strike damaged a storage centre for spent nuclear fuel nine miles from the Chornobyl nuclear power plant.
Continue reading...Tehran official had promised ‘decisive and painful’ reply to Israeli bombing of apartment buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs
Iran launched missiles at Israel on Sunday in response to Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, shattering a fragile ceasefire and marking the most serious escalation since April, after 100 days of war.
A senior Iranian official has promised a “decisive and painful” response to Israel’s airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut and, a few hours later, sirens sounded across northern Israel.
Continue reading...Don't expect it to be cheap.
San Antonio 2-0 down in best-of-seven series
Game 3 is on Monday night at Madison Square
Victor Wembanyama’s dream run in his first NBA playoffs has taken a nightmarish turn, but the San Antonio Spurs star says he is embracing the setbacks as well as the success.
“I think the key is acceptance a lot of times, taking a step back, realizing all the journey that’s behind this and what’s ahead of this,” Wembanyama said on Sunday as the Spurs prepared for a crucial Game 3 of the NBA finals in what promises to be a hostile Madison Square Garden.
Continue reading...About 48 people rescued alive after vessel reportedly left Libya carrying about 60 passengers
Italian rescuers have recovered 10 bodies after a migrant boat capsized in waters off Malta, a coastguard statement said on Sunday.
The vessel, which had departed from Libya carrying about 60 people, overturned about 45 nautical miles east-south-east of Malta, the Italian coastguard said.
Continue reading...Call for ‘clear and truthful account’ comes amid questions about the Reform leader’s property spending
The Labour party has written to Nigel Farage urging him to stop “evading reasonable scrutiny” over the £5m personal gift he received from the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.
The letter coincides with approval of a planning application that reveals the Reform leader’s plans to transform a dilapidated Kent property into a luxury beachfront residence.
Continue reading...Enhanced security will be in place for game at MSG
New York City hosting first finals game since 1999
The New York Knicks are warning fans to bring as little as possible to Monday night’s Game 3 of the NBA finals at Madison Square Garden, which Donald Trump plans to attend.
The Knicks are encouraging fans to arrive at least two hours before tipoff as part of enhanced security measures due to the president’s attendance. The New York Police Department also announced it will cancel a watch party outside Madison Square Garden as part of the measures. The decision was made after discussion between the Secret Service and the NYPD. There was trouble at the watch party outside the venue on Friday when more than 20 people were arrested as people celebrated the team’s win in Game 2 of the finals.
Continue reading...  | I wanted it to look like the watermelon flavored Ghost Energy drink, and the stock black XR colors were getting boring. [link] [comments] |
Democratic congressman issues qualified defense of Maine candidate in his bid to unseat Republican Susan Collins
Progressive Democratic congressman Ro Khanna issued a qualified defense of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner on Sunday, saying “his actions were misogynistic, they were shameful, they were wrong, but they didn’t come as a surprise to a lot of the folks in Maine.”
The former Marine-turned-oyster farmer, who is campaigning to unseat the state’s Republican senator Susan Collins in November, has been hit with successive waves of accusation about his past actions, including sending sexually explicit messages he sent to women while married and being stenciled with a Nazi-themed tattoo.
Continue reading..."Texas has dethroned California as the state with the most Fortune 500 companies," reports the Los Angeles Times: The Fortune 500 list ranks the largest U.S. companies by revenue. This year, 57 of the top companies are headquartered in Texas, compared with California's 56. It's a reversal from two years ago when the Golden State had the pole position... California's corporate haters say they try to avoid the state's high costs, income taxes and strict regulations, but the western state is still a top money maker. "California dominates on nearly every other measure: its Fortune 500 companies are the most profitable ($647 billion), most valuable ($20 trillion), and employ more people than any other state (2.8 million workers)," Fortune said in a news release. Indeed, despite the naysayers, Californian companies have been leading the world in developing artificial intelligence technology as well as the latest in space and defense tech. The state is home to nearly 400 "unicorns," or billion-dollar startups — more than any other state, according to CB Insights. It also gobbled up nearly two-thirds of U.S. venture capital last year, with San Francisco Bay Area startups such as OpenAI leading the way, according to the business information platform Crunchbase. Texas and California have been in a tug-of-war for the crown. In 2024, after a decade, California bagged the top spot with 57 companies on the list, while Texas and New York tied in second with 52 companies each... The fourth spot was tied between Illinois and Ohio, with 29 companies each. Amazon was the top company on the list, ending Walmart's 13-year reign at the top of the annual Fortune 500 companies list. Amazon's 2025 revenue was $716.9 billion, compared with Walmart's $713.2 billion. Seattle-headquartered Amazon joined Exxon Mobil, General Motors, and Walmart as the only four companies to have ever held the top position since Fortune began publishing the data in 1955.
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On this "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" broadcast, Reps. Ro Khanna and Don Bacon join Margaret Brennan.
Potential proposal would secure control of Diego Garcia base amid stalled UK plans to cede sovereignty of territory
Donald Trump is reportedly weighing a plan to buy the Chagos Islands from Mauritius amid stalled plans from the UK to cede sovereignty of the territory, the Telegraph first reported.
The White House did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment on the report about the potential plan.
Continue reading..."Can a company take away something you've already paid for?" asks the BBC. "In the world of online video games, some already do." Publishers can decide to switch off a game's servers, often leaving it effectively unplayable. Stop Killing Games, a growing consumer rights campaign started by American YouTuber Ross Scott in 2024, is challenging that practice. In January, the group submitted a petition featuring nearly 1.3 million signatures to the European Commission, triggering a public hearing in the European Parliament in April. What began as an online campaign is now awaiting a decision from one of the EU's most powerful institutions... Scott's campaign began following an announcement from the major studio Ubisoft, saying it would shut down the online-only racing game The Crew in 2024... Ubisoft has already defended its position in court. Responding to a proposed class-action lawsuit brought by two The Crew players in California, the studio argued that customers had purchased a licence to use the game, not unlimited ownership rights, and that players had been warned online services would not be available forever. The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice in June 2025, after the plaintiffs voluntarily withdrew the case. The wider games industry has also pushed back against the campaign. Video Games Europe, which represents many of the industry's largest publishers, said shutting down online services "must be an option" when games are no longer commercially viable. It also warned that some of the campaign's proposals could make online-only games significantly more expensive to develop. "In no way are we asking companies to keep servers running or services going, they can end it any time they want," said Scott. Instead, he and his fellow campaigners argue that when a game is shut down it should be done "responsibly", with publishers considering "end-of-life plans" such as updating the game to work offline or releasing software that allows players to continue running it. Two key points from the article: "In March, French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir launched legal action against Ubisoft over the shutdown of The Crew, arguing that players were misled about the permanence of their purchase and that some of the company's contract terms were unfair." "The European Commission must respond to the European Citizens' Initiative — the petition brought by the group — by 27 July." Thanks to Alain Williams — Slashdot reader #2,972 — for sharing the article.
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The moderate Republican, an advocate of abortion rights, resigned in 1995 amid accusations of sexual harassment
Former US senator Bob Packwood, a moderate Oregon Republican whose reputation as a champion of abortion and women’s rights was spoiled at the end of his career by allegations of sexual harassment, has died. He was 93.
Packwood’s death on Saturday was announced in an obituary sent to media outlets by his family.
Continue reading...One in five of the 1.92m patients on list wait longer than six weeks for tests such as CT and MRI scans, analysis shows
A record number of people are waiting for a diagnostic test on the NHS, triggering fears that delays in accessing CT and MRI scans could endanger patients’ health.
A total of 1.92 million patients in England are waiting to have a test to diagnose their illness such as by an ultrasound scan, assessment of their hearing, bone scan or various tests for cancer.
The diagnostic waiting list has grown by 500,000 since 2022.
It is 83% higher than before the Covid pandemic.
On current trends the waiting list will hit 2 million in March 2027.
Continue reading...Are there any new app options for checking battery levels ?? For years, I’ve been using the apps OWCE is gone and now Float-Remote aka Nosedive, requires something ? , not sure…thanks for any help
Paul Edwards ordered the publication before the birth of his son in 2007, but experienced pregnant pause before receiving it this week
When Paul Edwards ordered a parenting magazine in 2007, he was hoping that it would provide helpful advice and offers to help him navigate the stresses and challenges of bringing up children.
However the magazine never arrived – until now. The copy of Mother & Baby was delivered on Friday – 19 years after he ordered it – with his children now studying at university.
Continue reading...An 18-year-old died last week on a hike deep in the Grand Canyon, after showing symptoms of heat-related illness, the National Park Service said.
I have a onewheel pint with only 350 miles and I’m looking to trade for maybe a gt or xr my dream is the rally xl so if anyone is interested or has any suggestions/questions please reach out
The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on June 7, 2026.
In his fourth major final, Alexander Zverev beat Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1 for the French Open title on Sunday.
I’ve been using Fedora Silverblue on my desktop and laptop for the past, what, five years? Silverblue is Fedora’s main atomic variant, a spiritual counterpart to Fedora Workstation. I also make niri, a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor. In other words, a core system component that you cannot properly test from inside a container or VM—you really want it directly on the host. So, why would I choose an… immutable distro? How does that even work?
↫ Ivan Molodetskikh
That’s a great question, and as immutable or immutable-like Linux distributions become more popular and widespread – and eventually the default download option for many distributions, I’m sure – articles like these are quite important. I’m sure quite a few developers discarded the idea of using something like Silverblue because they assumed it wouldn’t be fit for purpose, but if the developer of Niri makes it work, I’m fairly sure anybody can.
90s PlayStation fans, rejoice: California studio Toys for Bob is making Spyro: Realms Beyond, intended to ‘inspire love, joy and laughter’
As the gaming mascots of millennial childhood have been resuscitated one by one for a nostalgic audience, one has remained notably absent: 1990s PlayStation hero Spyro. A new game starring the purple dragon was announced at tonight’s Xbox Game Showcase – the first original title since 2008. Called Spyro: A Realm Beyond, it is being developed by studio Toys for Bob in California and will be released in spring 2027 on Xbox, PlayStation 5, PC and Nintendo Switch 2.
It features a freshly redesigned Spyro with his trademark quiff, voiced by Tom Kenny, the original star of the games. Unlike in the original Spyro titles, players will be able to take flight at any time. “[We’re] leaning into the true capabilities of being a dragon,” explains creative director Lou Studdert. “It’s really engaging … the player is making decisions how they fly. They are diving down to sustain speed. They are using fire-breath to light campfires, to create an updraft to get lift before flapping their wings.”
Continue reading...x86CSS is a working CSS-only x86 CPU/emulator/computer. Yes, the Cascading Style Sheets CSS. No JavaScript required.
What you’re seeing above is a C program that was compiled using GCC into native 8086 machine code being executed fully within CSS.
↫ Lyra Rebane
Hand-written CSS, no JavaScript, and effectively no HTML.
Wizardry.
"His actions were misogynistic, they were shameful, they were wrong," Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who campaigned with the Senate candidate on Friday, said.
Hey guys what's the best and fastest charger out there for the pint s ?
Yesterday 2026's International Obfuscated C Code Contest concluded, with 22 new winners announced in a special three-hour livestreamed ceremony! Started 42 years ago, it's been described as the internet's longest-running contest, with entrants concocting convoluted programs glorying in the C programming language's subtleties, all while having some fun. And "For IOCCC29, the volume and quality of submissions were at near-historic heights," explains its home page. There's a "Tetris-optimized" GameBoy emulator with source code that looks like a GameBoy, as well as a quasi-Rogue-like game voted "most likely to teleport." Awards were also given for the best imaginary emulator (a virtual machine in 366 bytes of C) and the best fractional emulator (a maze generator for the Commodore 64). But every one of the 22 winning programs seems wildly creative... Quine Pong. "Running the program produces the source code to generate the next frame, formatted to display the current frame. By repeatedly compiling and running each successive frame, you can play the game. To move, pass either "w" (up) or "e" (down) as an argument..." A winning Taiwanese programmer formatted their source code in the shape of a Tardis from Doctor Who — code that displays an intricate ASCII animation of Doctor Who's 1963 opening title sequence. One winning entry emulates an IBM 7040 mainframe, first converting a program (encoded in whitespace) into ASCII-character drawings of punchcards for a FORTRAN program — and then executing that program to calculate the light visible to an observer looking at black hole, ultimately creating an image. It's all recreating what astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet had to do in 1978 to generate the first-ever simulated photograph of a black hole (on an IBM 7040 mainframe). "The entry can also run other FORTRAN programs — but "they must be provided as a deck of punch cards... Tools have been provided to convert to/from decks and to interpret..." "We have added fun challenges to this year's winning entries competition..." the web site notes. "After you figure out what a given winning entry does, we encourage you to attempt the fun challenge!" Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader achowe for bringing the news (who has submitted winning entries in four different decades, starting in 1991 and continuing through 2025) — and who won again this year for a program simulating the Space Invaders-like game from Casio's 1980 MG-880 calculator. Follow the IOCCC on Mastodon.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
I'm the original owner of an XR+ with 650 miles on it. The board is in great shape with rail guards on since day 1, mag fender, c&r gel footpad and c&r skid guards. I've kept the battery charged between 50&75% but don't ride it anymore. What's it worth in the used market?
Williams, 44, returns to tennis for first time since 2022
‘I don’t have anything to prove, everything is a gain’
Serena Williams has said her professional tennis return at the age of 44 is about “just having fun,” insisting winning is “not important” after earning 23 grand slam singles titles during a hugely successful career.
Williams will play doubles alongside the Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko at Queen’s Club in her first competitive outing since stepping away from tennis in 2022. Although she has committed to playing doubles in Berlin afterwards, her future beyond that remains uncertain. Meetings to determine the first batch of Wimbledon wildcards begin soon but when asked whether she intends to return to singles competition, Williams said: “I can’t say yeah, I can’t say no. Right now, no.”
Continue reading...The previously stoic pope is drawing huge crowds and seems to be making a star turn, enthralling the faithful with emotive assurance.
CBS California Investigates reviewed online shopping carts at three major retailers selected randomly. We found prices fluctuated significantly over a period of weeks, making it difficult to determine when the best price is.
So my mosfets fried and for some months i was looking for an option to fix it, maybe Vesc it, stock controller , even fixing it, after a lot of research I went for the stock controller, if u live out of the us (south america) getting vesc is nearly impossible ($700+ floatwheel cause of taxes) so just waiting that the controller arrives soon, got some rails protectors too, I will show updates when it arrives, thanks for the previous advisements
A 4GB file called weights.bin may have appeared on your hard drive, thanks to Chrome. Here's what it is and how to get rid of it.
Exclusive: Dr David Wilson says former British police officer approached him as part of efforts to influence his work
The author of a Home Office-sponsored report on the Chinese state and organised crime in the UK was the target of failed honey traps and a suspected attempt to compromise him by a former British police officer, it is claimed.
Dr David Wilson, whose groundbreaking analysis was declassified in February, has told of multiple attempts to influence him or discredit his work as he sought to examine the policing challenges posed by the Chinese Communist party (CCP) and criminal gangs.
Continue reading...From Christian Pulisic to Weston McKennie, many of the team’s biggest stars have been open about their faith, creating a new dynamic for a home World Cup
• World Cup newsletter | Daily podcast | Get the app
In the third episode of the interminable, nine-part Pulisic docuseries, its subject, Christian Pulisic, sits down at a dining table, pink orchids blooming behind him.
“It is what time?” a friend asks him, holding a camera in Pulisic’s face.
Continue reading...Danish follicle rebels go head to head in competition for best short-in-the-front, long-in-the-back cut
Business in the front, party in the back. A packed Danish crowd has celebrated the much-maligned but enduring mullet hairstyle, defined by very short hair at the front and longer hair at the back.
Denmark’s raucous 2026 Mullet Championship, presented on an outdoor stage in central Copenhagen, attracted 12 well-coiffed competitors and more than 1,000 spectators.
Continue reading...Move comes as 137 Labour MPs sign letter demanding ‘urgent, concrete action’ to stop settler violence
The UK Foreign Office and a group of western countries are due to announce a package of sanctions against Israel this week designed to deter companies from becoming involved in a proposed West Bank settlement that would split the territory in two and render the concept of a two-state solution near impossible.
Nine countries including France, the UK and Australia have warned that settlement violence must stop and no company should be involved in what is known as the E1 development.
Continue reading...US president says ‘I’d pay the kind of money they deserve’ amid questions over his administration establishing fund
Donald Trump declined on Sunday to definitively rule out compensating individuals who were charged with assaulting police officers when his supporters attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 toward the end of his first presidency.
Trump did that in an interview on NBC News’s Meet the Press, where he spoke in support of what his administration calls an “anti-weaponization” fund, arguing that people who entered the Capitol while Congress was preparing to certify Joe Biden’s victory over him in the 2020 presidential election had been treated unfairly by prosecutors and should receive compensation.
Continue reading...The new James Bond-themed videogame 007 First Light had a budget of 1.3 billion Danish krone — a little more than USD $202 million, reports IGN, citing a report from Denmark's public service broadcaster. "Denmark's TV 2 said that makes 007 First Light the most expensive entertainment product in the country's history" — and the game "still has some way to go before breaking even." 007 First Light is estimated to have sold 2.2 million copies, generating $150 million in revenue... [Saturday IGM reported sales had jumped to 3 million copies.] The only official sales data we have comes from developer IO Interactive, which said that 007 First Light had become the fastest-selling game in the company's history, shifting 1.5 million copies in its first 24 hours... The impressive sales milestone was achieved without the aid of the Nintendo Switch 2 version, which is due out this summer. The James Bond adventure is also the highest rated IOI game ever, with an 87 on Metacritic... The developer has said it wants to make a trilogy of James Bond games. Game-tracking company Alinea Analytics tweeted their estimates that 55.1% of sales were on PS5, 33.1% on Steam, and 11.8% on Xbox (Xbox console, Windows, and cloud combined). And Polygon reports that new downloadable game content was announced Friday.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on June 7, 2026.
Attack was ‘extremely vile’ and deliberate, says Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy
A Russian Shahed drone has substantially damaged a building used to store spent nuclear fuel close to the disused Chornobyl nuclear power plant, in what Ukraine’s president described as a deliberate and “extremely vile” attack.
While the structure – the reception building of the spent fuel storage facility – was empty of containers at the time, the targeting of the sensitive site appeared to be direct messaging from Moscow amid an intensifying battle of long-range aerial strikes in which high-profile locations on both sides have been hit.
Continue reading...The following is the transcript of the interview with Rye Barcott, a Marine veteran and With Honor founder, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on June 7, 2026.
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said the timing of the appointment takes FISA Section 702 reauthorization "off the table."
The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on June 7, 2026.
Local man had been accused of rape in months before murder but series of delays meant police had failed to summon him for questioning
Thousands of mourners have turned out for a silent march for a 11-year-old schoolgirl whose murder prompted widespread outrage when it emerged police had failed to question the suspected killer about previous child sexual abuse allegations.
The parents of the girl, who has been named only as Lyhanna, led the cortege on Sunday in the south-western village of Fleurance behind a banner reading “Never again”. Most of those who marched, including children, wore white shirts or T-shirts, many bearing a smiling portrait of the young victim.
Continue reading...Pontiff urges followers to dedicate themselves ‘to our brothers and sisters, to the poor, to those who suffer’
More than a million people filled the streets of Madrid to join Pope Leo in an open-air mass where the American pontiff appeared to emphasise the disconnect between Christian values and far-right politics, telling worshippers: “No one can kneel before the Lord and despise their brother.”
Queues to access the mass began forming hours before the sun rose on Sunday as people scrambled to secure a spot for what was billed as the biggest gathering of the pope’s week-long visit to Spain.
Continue reading...Deputy PM says he spoke to US vice-president about post that blamed ‘mass invasion of migrants’ for teenager’s death
David Lammy has said he told the US vice-president, JD Vance, he was wrong to blame the murder of the British teenager Henry Nowak on mass migration.
The deputy prime minister said he spoke to Vance by phone on Saturday to tell him “our democratic process is working well” and that he was wrong in his commentary about the murder.
Continue reading...Science magazine reports: For decades, string theory promised a "theory of everything" that described all particles and forces as tiny vibrating strings. Physicists hoped it could also solve one of the field's deepest problems: reconciling quantum mechanics with gravity. But as string theory grew increasingly elaborate — and experimentally unreachable — many physicists lost hope. Now, some researchers are revisiting the theory from first principles. In a paper in press at Physical Review Letters, Clifford Cheung, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, and colleagues lay out a small set of assumptions about the universe and show that they inevitably give rise to string theory.... Cheung's study, along with another one posted to arXiv in January, starts with two reasonably conservative assumptions: that the probabilities of all possible outcomes of an event add up to 100%, and that the laws of physics are consistent for observers moving at different speeds. Each group then posits additional assumptions that have not been borne out by observations. Cheung's analysis invokes "ultrasoftness," the idea that the probability of certain particle interactions drops off at a particular rate at high energies. The second study, led by University of Michigan physicist Henriette Elvang, instead assumes "supersymmetry," a maximal coupling between matter and forces. Both groups conclude the only theory that can satisfy their assumptions is one that looks like string theory... Cheung and Elvang stress that their aim is not to prove the inevitability of string theory. "I don't have a dog in the fight; I just work here," Cheung says. Rather, the goal is to explore the space of possible theories under rigid constraints — regardless of whether they reflect reality... The one thing the researchers all agree on is that the field would benefit from more alternative models to string theory. Cheung sees the agnostic, bottom-up exploration as a step in that direction. "You can either give up on the problem because it's too culturally toxic, or you can ask: If you want to find an alternative, what do you need?" he says. "Now, we know exactly what to do." Thanks to Slashdot reader sciencehabit for sharing the article.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Migration is woven into the story of the small African nation of Cape Verde and its national soccer team, as advocates raise concerns about who can attend the tournament.
Russian drone strikes killed three people at a bus stop in southeastern Ukraine and damaged a nuclear storage site near Chernobyl, officials said.
The allocated payment will go to your PlayStation Network wallet after the final approval hearing.
The Socceroos playing on football’s biggest stage in my adopted country would normally have me racing to book tickets. Not this year
Is “USA! USA! USA!” a more fundamentally obnoxious chant than “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!”? As an Australian who has spent most of the last 15 years living in the United States and is now a permanent resident, the Socceroos’ World Cup group match against the USA raises some questions. Has my adopted nation dethroned my homeland as the world’s foremost exponent of being unconscionably terrible to immigrants? And on a more personal level … who do I support here?
Well, look, OK, there’s really only one answer to that second question. I’m not an especially patriotic type, but if anything does bring out my Australian-ness, it’s the World Cup – perhaps because it’s one of the few events at which we can still claim to be underdogs. And now, two decades after I rose at dawn to watch Australia’s dreams dashed by the intersection of Lucas Neill’s leg and Fabio Grosso’s general vicinity, I find myself living in a country hosting the tournament.
Continue reading...Here are the highly rated series you should stream on HBO Max, plus new additions in June.
A "growing wave" of Reddit's "promoted posts" are sending U.S. and European audiences to money-stealing scams that impersonate major news organizations including the BBC, the Financial Times, and The Guardian, according to new findings from Bitdefender Labs. "Domains are short-lived and rapidly rotated to evade detection," they write, noting that the impersonating sites apparently even use language "to falsely imply that the investment platform had been reviewed, approved, or vetted" by the legitimate site they're impersonating: The campaign promotes fake AI-powered investment platforms such as Wencoin STX, Warrior Coin AI, and Nevo Coin, using fabricated celebrity endorsements, cloned news websites, fake interviews, and invented financial success stories to lure victims into depositing money. Researchers Andrea Olariu and Emanuel Puscasu have identified multiple promoted Reddit posts masquerading as legitimate financial or breaking news stories. Some ads claimed that: — NVIDIA and OpenAI were "creating the future" — Heathrow police discovered hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash — Governments and banks were allegedly trying to "hide" a revolutionary AI investment platform — European regulators were "silencing" articles about AI trading systems Some Reddit ads delivered in video format, including what appeared to be a deepfake BBC news segment featuring a news anchor presenting fabricated financial headlines... Examples observed by researchers included: — Fake BBC pages discussing "$20 billion conversations" tied to AI investments — Fraudulent Financial Times articles about Heathrow airport cash seizures — Fake Guardian stories claiming governments were trying to suppress coverage of Wencoin STX or Nevo Coin The pages featured fabricated interviews, fake profit screenshots, manipulated banking documents, false testimonials, and even fictional journalists or business editors designed to make the scam look legitimate. In many cases, the content sought to create a sense of exclusivity or conspiracy, suggesting that banks, regulators, or governments were trying to suppress public access to the investment platform... Our researchers found that after users clicked links embedded within the fake Guardian articles, they were redirected to a registration form allegedly used to create a "Nevo Coin" investment account. The form requested personal contact information, including the victim's name, email address, and phone number. To increase pressure and encourage immediate action, the page warned that registration availability was limited, claiming that once all spots were filled, new user registrations would be suspended. And in the final stage, they're asked to deposit money...
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Soaring 50 stories above Barcelona, the Sagrada Família basilica has been under construction for nearly a century and a half – the improbable dream of architect Antoni Gaudí, who died 100 years ago, leaving behind clues to complete his masterpiece.
A look at the career of one of Hollywood's most celebrated filmmakers
As a child, Steven Spielberg stared at a meteor shower and began his love affair with the sky. The director of the 1977 classic "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" returns with "Disclosure Day," which imagines closely-held secrets surrounding alien visitations.
Search enters second day after Saturday shooting that wounded 12, two reported in critical condition, police say
Organizers of a festival in the historic center of Toledo, Ohio, have cancelled planned events on Sunday as police continue the search for at least two shooters who wounded 12 people a day earlier.
The Toledo police deputy chief, Joseph Heffernan, said the shooters were “probably shooting at each other” when gunfire erupted just after 5.30pm near the Old West End festival, an annual gathering of live music and architectural home tours.
Continue reading...Five hospitals in England and Wales have switched to urine test, rather than invasive hospital procedure
NHS hospitals are using a new way of diagnosing bladder cancer that is faster, more accurate and more convenient for patients than the existing test.
Doctors said the Galeas bladder test was a major breakthrough because it involved a urine test taken at home rather than an invasive procedure done at hospital which was uncomfortable for patients.
Continue reading...Comedian is doing first tour in more than 15 years and says many issues he talked about in 1980s are still alive today
Lenny Henry has said racism is “still at large” as he does his first standup tour in more than 15 years.
Henry, best known for The Lenny Henry Show, which ran from 1984 to 2005, said the things he used to talk about in the 1980s were still relevant now.
Continue reading...New film revives story of Taylor Parker, convicted in 2022 of cutting unborn daughter from womb of friend she killed
In an America so often saturated with brutal crime stories, it takes special circumstances to truly register shock.
But the story of Taylor Parker, now sitting on a Texas death row after being convicted of murdering her pregnant friend Reagan Simmons-Hancock in 2020 and cutting her unborn daughter Braxlynn from her womb, is horrific in part because it appears almost against nature itself.
Continue reading...If a phone you didn't order arrives on your doorstep, there's a good chance someone's trying to scam you. Here's how to recognize this scam and make sure you don't get tricked.
Approved 20 years ago as a diabetes treatment, GLP-1 drugs have been found to help patients reduce weight, changing the lives of more than 30 million people in the U.S. But there also have been troubling side effects reported.
At least 12 people were wounded in a shooting near the Old West End festival in Toledo, Ohio, on Satuday. Toledo's deputy police chief, Joe Heffernan, said two people were in a critical condition. No arrests have been made and the search for the suspects is continuing
Continue reading...The Broadway revival of the musical (nominated for 11 Tony Awards) depicts drama, joy and heartbreak in the pursuit of the American Dream at the turn of the 20th century, with parallels to the contemporary world, from issues of race to the immigrant experience.
With the unemployment rate for young workers about twice as high as the national average, "Sunday Morning" talks with recent graduates from across the country about how AI is affecting both their prospects and the hiring process itself.
Gymnast says experience was one of scariest of her life
29-year-old says she will give more details at later date
Simone Biles suggested she came close to death after a medical emergency that left her in hospital.
“I’m not one to normally share things like this because I value privacy in today’s age, but almost dying wasn’t on my bingo card earlier this week,” Biles wrote in an Instagram story on Saturday. The story also showed a photo of her wrist encircled by several hospital bracelets.
Continue reading...Firings are part of a broader personnel purge under the leadership of director Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist
Several FBI analysts tied to the creation of a 2023 memo warning of a potential threat from Catholic “violent extremists” were fired on Friday, according to their lawyer, the latest wave of terminations under the leadership of its director Kash Patel.
The fired employees included four intelligence analysts and a supervisory analyst. The FBI declined to comment.
Continue reading...The number of places where people were shot initially raised concerns that there could be multiple, coordinated attackers.
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions explores a topical issue of personal cybersecurity
I’ve been struggling to get my head around the idea that a passkey, which can be a PIN on your phone, or facial recognition, can be safer than using a complicated password, and two factor authentication.
I get that having something unique to your device, not stored on a company’s server is unphishable, and less hackable by cybercrims, but what if your phone is nicked and someone guesses the password? And what if you lose your phone?
Continue reading...After decades of alienating working-class and rural voters from the Democratic party, it’s time the left bridges the divide
It was a warm morning in rural Virginia. I was cutting into a pile of downed logs – wild cherry, oak and black locust – left behind when a piece of land was cleared for a small house.
A young guy pulled up, stepped out of his truck and gave me a nod, the way people do out here. Chainsaws in hand, we quickly figured out we both knew the owner and had her permission to take the wood – me for our home and greenhouse, him for much the same. Then we got to it – work.
Continue reading...Proposed memorials have become flashpoints in a wider struggle over history and political power
Disputes provoked by public monuments, flags and symbols are intensifying as the US’s 250th birthday approaches next month, and none are so contentious as those proposed by Donald Trump.
Among the recent projects planned by the US president are a Garden of Heroes, a monumental “Freedom” arch, a massive ballroom and turning the reflecting pool at the Washington monument the color of a Bahamian luxury hotel pool.
Continue reading...After Dayton discovered its Flock cameras were sharing data with federal immigration enforcement, city workers reached for the only tool they could use: trash bags.
Enjoy the most sunlight of any day you'll get all year. At one spot in Alaska, the sun is up for a full 24 hours.
As protests flare at New Jersey’s Delaney Hall, Jessica Ordaz examines the US’s complex relationship with migration and detention
For more than two weeks, at least 300 detainees at the Delaney Hall immigration detention center have been on a hunger and labor strike. They describe “horrible” conditions at the Newark, New Jersey, facility: spoiled food, inadequate medical care and poor living conditions. Others have alleged physical abuse by guards, including being beaten and pepper-sprayed by a riot squad, causing some detainees to be rushed to the hospital. They’re calling for a meeting with the New Jersey governor, Mikie Sherrill, to urge the immediate release of all detainees from the privately operated 1,000-bed center. As of now, the Department of Homeland Security has partly restored family visitation at the center and released pregnant detainees.
To raise the alarm, protests have persisted outside Delaney, and violent clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement officials have escalated. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have wielded batons and used pepper spray and stun guns against protesters, journalists and a US senator. Federal authorities arrested demonstrators on allegations of assaulting law enforcement officers, and Sherrill deployed the New Jersey state police to the protests, leading to the arrests of more than 60 people in a single night. Meanwhile, ICE officers abruptly transferred Martin Soto, a detainee held in solitary confinement for being a suspected strike leader.
Soto’s story, and that of the hundreds of detainees on strike, fits into a long history of immigrant incarceration – and how detainees resisted – said Jessica Ordaz, a historian and professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and the author of The Shadow of El Centro: A History of Migrant Incarceration and Solidarity. Strikes have been reported at other facilities across the country, including in New Mexico and California, where detainees are protesting over water quality, mold and a lack of medical care.
Continue reading...The justice secretary said he spoke to the US vice president after he blamed mass immigration for Nowak’s murder
Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf said that UK police are “institutionally racist”, claiming that there is “structural anti-white prejudice”.
When asked by Laura Kuenssberg if he thinks the police are institutionally racist, he said: “I think the correct answer to that has to be yes given literally on their website it tells people not to treat people the same – to not be colour-blind.”
Continue reading...Historians and campaigners accuse US defence secretary of desecrating memory of soldiers who fell in Normandy
The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has been accused by historians and rights campaigners of “grotesque stupidity” and desecrating the memory of the soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy after he sought to link immigration to the D-day anniversary, saying Europe was facing a different “invasion” of its shores.
Speaking in north-west France on Saturday to mark the 82nd anniversary of the D-day landings, Hegseth seized on the moment marking the wartime liberation of Europe to reiterate the US administration’s longstanding attack on European immigration policies.
Continue reading...Committee calls for apology from government amid reports navy’s hunter-killer submarines are all docked
A parliamentary committee that scrutinises public spending has made scathing comments about the impact of delays in the publication of the government’s defence investment plan (Dip).
The plan, originally expected last autumn, has been repeatedly postponed amid warnings that the military faces a huge funding gap over the next four years. It is due to be published before a Nato summit early next month.
Continue reading...Sea stars almost went extinct along the West Coast a decade ago. Recently, they have been making a comeback.
The octogenarian artist has recently seen her star rise within the art world – now the Oakland Museum of California will exhibit works from her 50-year-long career
The artist Mildred Howard keeps Junipero Serra, the Spanish missionary who brutalized Native Americans throughout California, bound and blindfolded in her garage next to her black Mercedes.
The 10ft-tall sculpture is part of her Untold Histories / Hidden Truths series (2025), in which she recreates monuments to slaveholders and colonizers and wraps them in what she refers to as “Make America Great Again red”. Serra, symbolically mummified and holding his signature cross aloft, cuts a haunting figure in the dimly lit garage surrounded by U-Haul storage boxes, cans of paint and abandoned furniture.
Continue reading...The iPhone 18 rumor mill is pointing toward Apple's foldable debut, a bigger battery, a variable-aperture camera and a split 2026-27 release schedule. Plus, there might be new dark cherry and light blue colors.
Video of figures clambering in and out of manholes sparks intrigue – and comparisons to crime-fighting turtles
It started in early May. Under cover of darkness, three people pried open a manhole cover in Queens, New York, and clambered down into the sewer.
The incident might have gone unnoticed, but the subterranean quest, which was caught on film, captured New Yorkers’ interest when it happened again, and again, in the same month, with two other groups filmed making their way in and out of the sewer system in Brooklyn. The string of events have seen those involved dubbed “mole people” by the local press.
Continue reading...Holy Family Catholic primary school says enthusiastic response from parents has been biggest surprise
Schools banning pupils from having smartphones are commonplace. But what about a school where pupils ban teachers from using their smartphones, and then get their parents to join in?
And not just phones: at Holy Family Catholic primary school in west London teachers are also barred from using laptops, monitors or tablets during the school’s screen-free Mondays, after an idea that came from the pupils themselves.
Continue reading...U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders announced a plan for the public to take a 50% ownership stake in AI companies, remembers the Associated Press. And then OpenAI's Sam Altman "told Sanders that he, too, wants the public to have equity in AI companies." Though the CEO said he couldn't support Sanders' threshold of 50%, he nonetheless wanted to work with him to advocate for the general idea, according to people with knowledge of the conversation. The nearly hourlong meeting in Sanders' Senate office this week, held at Altman's request, highlighted the inherent tension between AI powerhouses and policymakers as Americans are increasingly asked to accept the costs of the AI boom even as they remain unconvinced of its direct benefits. Yet it's also creating odd political bedfellows fueled by populism as politicians from Sanders to President Donald Trump embrace giving the public a stake in AI's growth. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Friday, Trump described a potential partnership "where the American people can benefit from the success of AI" and said executives from leading AI companies will visit the White House, "probably next week," to discuss the idea. The article points out that Altman also met with congressional leaders from both of America's political parties.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Video from the storm showed rain and wind that reached speeds of 40 mph tearing up a tent, with one person flying through the air while trying to hold it down as another person rolls uncontrollably down a hill.
Kreuzberg campaigners win court ruling against €2m fence aimed at shutting out drug dealers
The “hollow” in Görlitzer Park was heaving with revellers who had gathered in reaction to a court ruling against Berlin’s mayor who wanted to lock it up at night. “Görli is our garden,” said Monika, a retired psychiatric nurse who lives nearby and had joined the crowds on Monday night for a beer and a bop on the popular deep bowl-shaped meadow in the Kreuzberg district.
“Görli is where we socialise and where my daughter grew up,” she said, using the affectionate nickname for the centrally located green space covering 14 hectares (35 acres).
Continue reading...A $205m expansion team is the latest step in the league’s rapid growth, but conflicts over funding and facilities show the tensions of public-private unions in sports
Sports fans’ connection to their team of choice is usually strengthened by high points – wins, championships and the like. For Emily Kegg and thousands of other Columbus Crew fans, their connection was reinforced by a potential loss of their team itself. When the Crew’s then-ownership group and Major League Soccer threatened to relocate the team to Texas in 2017, Kegg and her family were eager to join the grassroots movement to Save the Crew. They made friends through the effort to keep the team in the city, bonding over a shared love of soccer.
In late 2018, when a new ownership group announced it intended to buy the team and keep it in Columbus, Kegg decided to stay involved. Now she’s the community director of the Nordecke, the supporters’ group of just under 600 members that coalesced during Save the Crew.
Continue reading...Black women are two and a half times more likely to be murdered by men than white women are. This is a public health crisis
In April alone, at least half a dozen Black women were allegedly killed by their partners, including the high-profile cases of Cerina Fairfax, estranged wife of the former Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax, and Nancy Metayer Bowen, vice-mayor of Coral Springs, Florida. Shaneiqua Elkins survived a shooting by her husband, Shamar Elkins, that wounded her and killed seven of her children and one of their cousins in Shreveport, Louisiana.
These tragedies are shining a light on the killings of Black women and the systems that allow that violence to continue.
Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist
Continue reading...As Trump officials take aim at vaccine schedule, scientists encouraged by companies’ desire to continue coverage
A group of insurers will continue covering routine vaccines through 2027 as the Trump administration once again takes aim at the shots and outbreaks of preventable illnesses such as measles and whooping cough lead to hospitalizations and deaths.
Experts told the Guardian that the move has raised questions ahead of the November midterms, but certainly indicates that insurance companies believe vaccines are “safe and effective”.
Continue reading...Aaron Spencer never denied fatally shooting Michael Fosler, 67, the sexual abuser of his daughter, aged 13
An Arkansas sheriff’s candidate who was alleged to have killed his teenaged daughter’s sexual abuser says he is focused on “family and getting back to a normal life” after the dismissal of a murder charge filed against him.
“I’m grateful this chapter is closed,” Aaron Spencer also said in a statement after the dismissal on Thursday.
Continue reading...Expenditure is growing fast and consumer take-up accelerating. But alarm bells are sounding
The race is very much on. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which makes AI models as well as space rockets, announced last week it is seeking a $1.77tn (£1.31tn) valuation on the US stock market while Anthropic, the startup behind the Claude chatbot, said it had filed for an initial public offering. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is expected to follow.
This latest peak in the AI market comes amid a multitrillion-dollar spending spree on related infrastructure such as datacentres. Meanwhile, companies are attempting to deploy the technology in a way that makes investing in it worthwhile. Here’s a look at what stage the AI boom is at and six key charts that tell us how we got here.
Continue reading...UK lagging behind rivals on tourism growth because of travel costs and lack of joined-up planning, says CEO Sean Doyle
The cost of travel to and around the UK is keeping millions of tourists away and slowing economic growth, the boss of British Airways said, as he urged a rethink of aviation taxes.
The airline’s chief executive, Sean Doyle, said the UK had some of the highest aviation taxes in the world and was falling behind countries such as Japan, France and Germany in boosting its inbound tourism.
Continue reading...The defeat hurt, but the Americans’ response to an early German goal provided perhaps the clearest evidence yet that their manager’s message is taking root
A sunshower began dousing the fans at Soldier Field as Matt Freese picked the ball out of his net. It was only the second minute of the United States’ final friendly before the World Cup, and mighty Germany had already opened the scoring with plenty of talent to turn the occasion into a rout.
On this occasion, however, “when it rains, it pours” did not befit the US performance. By the time the precipitation subsided after 10 minutes or so, Pochettino’s starters stepped into the sunlight, determined to not be embarrassed by the four-time world champions. The hosts seldom looked over-run despite trailing, setting the stage for Antonee Robinson to volley an emphatic equalizer past Hoffenheim’s Oliver Baumann in the 37th minute.
Continue reading...Netflix always delivers the sci-fi goods.
Casey Wasserman, the entertainment super-agent, has attracted his fair share of controversy as the head of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee.
In addition to passionate debates about the Olympics themselves — the geopolitics of the Games and their effect on local hosts — Wasserman has come in for criticism over his ties to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, his support for Israel, and the potential that the Games might bring him profits through his role as a talent manager for entertainment stars.
The controversies, especially revelations about his relationship with a member of Epstein’s inner circle, nearly led to Wasserman’s ouster from his role atop LA28, the Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee.
Now, another personal wrinkle is coming to light: Wasserman’s daughter, Stella, is training to compete for the Israeli equestrian team at the 2028 Games.
The participation of Wasserman’s daughter in the Games could create an awkward dynamic for the local Olympic chief.
Stella Wasserman, 21, is training to compete with the Israeli team in the show jumping competition, according to a recent profile in World of Show Jumping, a trade publication covering the sport. Instagram accounts for Stella Wasserman and her mother, Laura Ziffren Wasserman, posted in the wake of the article to celebrate Stella’s plans to compete with the Israeli team.
There’s a very real possibility that the man responsible for orchestrating an American Olympic games will have a child competing for another country that has become an international pariah due to its genocide in Gaza and wars with Lebanon and Iran — a team that is likely to face protests in LA. (Casey Wasserman, Stella Wasserman, LA28, and the Israeli Olympic committee did not respond to requests for comment.)
Casey Wasserman is himself an outspoken supporter of Israel. In December, he took a trip to Israel during which he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pledged that the safety of athletes, and particularly Israeli athletes, was his “number one concern,” according to Algemeiner, a right-wing, New York-based newspaper covering Jewish issues.
“If you’re claiming that this thing that you’re promoting so heavily is going to bring all these benefits to Los Angeles, but you’re also promoting the interests of a foreign genocidal state — and on top of that your daughter is representing that state in the Games — that’s a conflict,” said Miguel Camnitzer, an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace Los Angeles. “Somebody else, without those very personal connections to Israel, might be able to make a different call, but he’s unable to.”
Wasserman, a longtime local powerbroker and grandson of Hollywood Golden Age tycoon Lew Wasserman, has been central to bringing the Games to Los Angeles, a role that has come under increased scrutiny due to his ties to Epstein and the late pedophile’s former companion, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
While his connections to the Epstein world were known to some degree for years — he rode with Bill Clinton on Epstein’s private jet for a humanitarian mission to Africa — the release of the so-called Epstein files earlier this year revealed graphic sexual emails between Wasserman and Maxwell. The revelations sparked a backlash from some of the artists represented by his eponymous talent agency, which in March changed its name to The Team; Wasserman also announced he would be selling the company.
This week, Wasserman reaffirmed that he has no plans to step down as the chair of LA28.
Despite her young age, Stella Wasserman is an accomplished show jumper and owns at least four competition horses, according to a report in the Chronicle of the Horse.
It is common for athletes from one country to compete for a country in which they hold dual citizenship; the International Olympic Committee requires that competitors be nationals of the countries on whose behalf they are competing.
Amid the genocide in Gaza, the Israel connection underscores arguments from critics of the Olympics who say that the Games whitewash human rights abuses by nations taking part — and that international approaches to the Games foster a global double standard that penalizes some nations while allowing others to compete. In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian teams were barred from competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics; Israel has faced no such sanction.
The yearslong campaign by Wasserman and others — including former Mayor Eric Garcetti — to host the Olympics in Los Angeles has met with stiff opposition from local activists. Forming a coalition, dubbed NOlympics, the activists sought to call attention to the ways in which they say the Games would exacerbate issues of affordability, surveillance, and anti-immigrant policing by federal law enforcement.
“Mega-events like the Olympics or the World Cup don’t necessarily create problems from whole cloth, but they accelerate them.”
“When we started organizing against the Olympics 10 years ago, LA was already reeling from homelessness, housing shortages, brutal policing, and ICE. And 10 years later these issues are all worse,” said Jonny Coleman, an organizer with NOlympics LA. “Mega-events like the Olympics or the World Cup don’t necessarily create problems from whole cloth, but they accelerate them.”
In December, LA28 announced it had raised more than $2 billion in sponsorship revenue, according to Reuters. If the costs of the Games exceed what the Olympic committee is able to fundraise, however, Los Angeles would be on the hook for the first $270 million of over-cost expenses, with the next $270 million to be covered by the state of California.
The Games, activists said, could be a boon for Wasserman. Wasserman chaired a host committee to bring the Super Bowl to LA in 2022; his client Kendrick Lamar was featured in the halftime show — a coveted slot not least for the millions the exposure can bring.
For Coleman, Casey Wasserman’s relationship to Ghislaine Maxwell and Stella Wasserman’s potential competition on behalf of Israel only further highlights the corrupt nature of the Olympics.
“We know these mega-events are a way to legitimize awful regimes,” said Coleman. “It’s disgusting, but I don’t really care about the supposed integrity of the sports, personally. So yeah, let her play — why not?”
The post Daughter of 2028 Olympics Chair Dreams of Competing in LA — for Israel appeared first on The Intercept.
Residents talk about immigration, belonging and what it means to be a good neighbor ahead of America’s 250th — and as an antidote to some Trump policies.
Backlash against AI is taking an extremist turn, following in the footsteps of earlier techno-pessimist militants
When a 20-year-old man from Texas was arrested earlier this year for allegedly trying to burn down OpenAI’s headquarters and Sam Altman’s house, authorities found an anti-AI manifesto alongside his lighter and a jug of kerosene. It was one of a spate of attacks that has caused alarm among researchers, the tech industry and law enforcement about the rise of anti-tech extremism.
In April, an Italian “nature pilled” Instagram influencer was arrested in Rome and charged with plotting a series of anti-tech attacks that took inspiration from Ted “The Unabomber” Kaczynski. Two self-described “ecofascists” that carried out a deadly anti-Muslim attack on a mosque in San Diego last month also cited “AI slop” and JD Vance’s ties to Palantir as motivations for their violence in their manifesto. An Indianapolis city councilor woke up earlier this year to gunshots being fired into his home before finding a note that read “NO DATA CENTERS”.
Continue reading...A Post reconstruction of Amal Khalil’s final hours in Lebanon found that Israel’s military denied rescuers access to her during a key period when she was still alive.
Voters to choose between pro-Russian opposition and incumbent Nikol Pashinyan, who is more closely aligned with the west
Armenians are going to the polls in an election that could cement the country’s shift towards Europe and away from its traditional alliance with Russia.
Prime minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party enters the vote as the favourite, ahead of three opposition candidates who advocate for closer ties with Moscow. Pashinyan’s main challenger, Samvel Karapetyan, a Russian-Armenian billionaire who built much of his fortune in Russia, has been forced to campaign from house arrest at his mansion outside Yerevan.
Continue reading...Retatrutide is designed to control appetite and blood sugar but also increase body’s energy expenditure, unlike other drugs
A new triple-action weekly jab for type 2 diabetes could significantly reduce blood sugar and body weight, according to phase 3 trial results.
Patients in the trial receiving weekly retatrutide injections for 40 weeks lost more than four times as much weight as those on placebo, while the average drop in long-term blood sugar (HbA1c) was more than twice that of the placebo.
The triple hormone drug mimics three gut hormones that help control your appetite, blood sugar and metabolism: GLP-1, GIP and glucagon. Unlike other diabetes medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which primarily target the GLP-1 pathway to suppress appetite, or Mounjaro, which contains GLP-1 plus GIP to control blood-sugar levels, retatrutide also engages the glucagon receptor, which helps increase energy expenditure.
Continue reading...Private browsing mode keeps your activity out of your local browser history, but it doesn't make you invisible online.
Ahead of a national election on Sunday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has been talking about joining the E.U. and boasting of an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Ars Technica shares some anecdotes from Steve Jobs in Exile, a new book released last month: [Author Geoffrey] Cain reminds us, in stunning detail, that Jobs' "exile" era at NeXT was not only critical to his evolution as a man and an entrepreneur, but that it mattered for the rest of us, too. The technological innovations that came out of NeXT — notably, the NeXTSTEP OS — continue to live on in what we now call both macOS and iOS. As Cain puts it, "NeXTSTEP was Steve's attempt to make Unix taste sweet...." [W]hile many tech nerds know that Tim Berners-Lee created the first World Wide Web server on a NeXT machine while working in Switzerland in 1990, few know that NeXT employees were wary of bringing the news to Jobs. Why? They feared his wrath "and that he would dismiss [the web] as 'shit.'" (In another timeline, NeXT might itself have capitalized on this world-changing innovation....) Perhaps one of the wildest anecdotes that Cain uncovered was how one voicemail changed computer history forever. In 1996, when Apple was solidly in its mediocre Performa era — and considering buying BeOS as the basis for its new operating system — a mid-level NeXT product manager asked aloud, "Why don't we just frickin' call Apple?" (NeXT was also struggling during this period.) And so someone did. As Cain writes: Garrett left the group of managers, walked back to his office, and took a risk. He picked up his designer phone and called the head of software at Apple. He left what he described as "one of my more inspired sales pitches" on the man's voicemail, explaining why Apple should be looking at NeXT instead of Be... In any other universe, Garrett's call might have gotten him fired. But in this timeline, it worked out. And thanks to him, Steve [Jobs] was about to enter Apple's airspace once again. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader destinyland for sharing the article.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
After Alyssa Burkett was murdered, detectives quickly learned that the prime suspect was the father of her child, Andrew Beard. But as the investigation unfolded, they would find out that Beard wasn't the only one involved in the murder plot.
After Alyssa Burkett was murdered in broad daylight in Carrollton, Texas, Andrew Beard, the father of her child, became a suspect. Investigators would eventually discover a twisted murder plot they say was orchestrated by his fiancée, Holly Elkins.
Exclusive: deal in 2020 had sought to stimulate local battery making but industry says it still cannot meet targets
The EU and UK car industries are urging the European Commission to adjust the Brexit trade deal and suspend, for a second time, tariffs on imports of electric vehicles.
They have expressed concerns that they will not be able to meet the conditions set for 1 January 2027 for tariff-free sales. This is because of strict rules of origin over what products can qualify for tariff-free trade under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement which has applied since 2021.
Continue reading...Buyers are ripped off after assuming online stores were genuine because they are recommended by an AI tool
You want to buy a new bag and so you ask ChatGPT for help. You have always liked Russell & Bromley so you ask ChatGPT what is popular there at the moment.
The artificial intelligence (AI) assistant gives you cross body, shoulder, casual and formal options with the prices listed beside them. You click through from the sources to what looks like the official Russell & Bromley site and buy your new bag, which is conveniently on sale.
Continue reading...Legal papers, expert investigations and social media posts tell story of how a 32-year-old Iraqi appeared to run ‘proxy’ campaign
On Monday, a slightly dishevelled Iraqi man, shackled and dressed in beige prison overalls, was ushered into a Manhattan courtroom.
Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, 32, pleaded not guilty to a series of terrorism-related offences, then gestured toward the judge and prosecutors. “I’m a prisoner of war. I’m not a threat,” he told them. “Children and women are being killed by your rockets.”
Continue reading...Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of 1990s leader Alberto, is vying with a congressman to become country’s ninth president in a decade
Peruvians go to the polls on Sunday in an election runoff that pits a perennial rightwing candidate, Keiko Fujimori, against a leftist congressman, Roberto Sánchez. Amid rising crime, chronic political instability, corruption scandals and voter apathy, they are vying to become Peru’s ninth president in a decade.
Fujimori, who is the daughter of the late president Alberto Fujimori, won 17% of the vote in the first round in April. Sánchez, a former trade and tourism minister, took 12 % of the vote, edging out Rafael López Aliaga, an ultra-conservative former Lima mayor. The stage is set for a polarised left-right replay of the country’s last election in 2021.
Continue reading...The US president brags about ending wars but look at Ukraine, Gaza, Iran and Lebanon to see what his casual disregard for diplomacy and obsession with instant results have achieved
There are visionary statesmen and high-minded negotiators, pragmatic mediators and professional diplomats – and then there are meddling fools. As ceasefires implode, vast numbers of civilians die or flee, and wars Donald Trump started, fuelled or pledged to resolve rage unchecked, there’s no doubt which category he belongs to. In baseball parlance, in Ukraine, Iran-Lebanon and Israel-Palestine, Trump is “0 for 3”. He boasted he alone could cut deals and bring peace. He’s delivered neither. In striking out, he mostly makes matters worse.
The heroic age of 19th-century diplomacy, typified by Prince Metternich’s great power-balancing “concert of Europe” and Benjamin Disraeli’s Balkan “peace with honour”, is history now. But it’s not that long since Nobel-winning peacemakers such as the UN chief Kofi Annan and the Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari, or the US senator George Mitchell, who brokered Northern Ireland’s Good Friday agreement, were troubleshooting intractable conflicts the world over. Where are the successors to Desmond Tutu, Andrei Sakharov or Yitzhak Rabin when you need them?
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
Continue reading...David Shoebridge says Australia could become embroiled in a US war with China if purchase of Virginia-class attack submarines proceeds
Anthony Albanese has reiterated that Aukus is “full-steam ahead” after the Greens renewed calls to cancel the nuclear-powered submarines deal, which the minor party warned could draw Australia into a potential US war with China.
Debate over the security pact has resurfaced after the announcement that Australia would buy secondhand Virginia-class submarines from the US, rather than a mix of old and new vessels.
Continue reading...Theodore’s 2OT winner gives Vegas 2-1 series lead
Hurricanes erase four-goal deficit before falling short
Marner records fastest hat trick in Cup final history
Shea Theodore scored at 5:38 of the second overtime, avoiding what could have been a potentially devastating loss for the Golden Knights after they blew a four-goal lead, and Vegas beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 on Saturday night for a 2-1 series lead.
Theodore’s goal, which went off goalie Brandon Bussi’s skate, came long after teammate Mitch Marner had the fastest hat trick in Stanley Cup Final history.
Continue reading..."A DNA-editing feat involving editing the genes of early stage embryos was announced this week," reports the Wall Street Journal. They describe the feat as "a far cry from designer babies, but nevertheless a step in that direction." Dieter Egli, an associate professor of developmental cell biology at Columbia University and his co-authors, including Nathan Treff of Nucleus Genomics, a New York-based DNA-testing startup, say the technology could help fix disease-causing mutations in embryos. "We're not throwing the final 'OK, you will have gene-edited babies tomorrow' at the public," said Egli. "That is a process that can occur through discussion matched with scientific progress...." Previous gene-editing efforts have often used Crispr, which can cut out parts of the DNA sequence, but the technology can also cause damage if the wrong DNA is targeted or cut out. In 2018, Chinese scientist He Jianku said he used Crispr to tweak DNA in human embryos and was imprisoned for the work. The technology Egli's group used, called base editing, allows them to target individual DNA letters in sequences more precisely with fewer adverse effects... Egli's group focused on altering two genes, one that can raise the risk of heart disease and one that is tied to blood disorders like sickle cell disease, and the research showed they were sometimes able to do so successfully, in the same embryo, without damage. "I am generally supportive of the concept of embryo editing to prevent genetic disease," said Dr. Paula Amato, a fertility expert at Oregon Health & Science University who wasn't involved in the research... Base editing has been used in human embryos before, according to peer-reviewed studies. The technology was used to correct a disease-causing mutation and an Alzheimer's disease-risk gene variant, said Alexis Komor, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at the University of California, San Diego, who wasn't involved in the work. "There really is not any unmet medical or clinical need for this, especially from an in vitro fertilization perspective," Komor said. "Usually what you'll hear is that they're doing it just so that you know we can prevent genetic diseases, but there are so many other better ways to do that." Using embryo editing to create babies is illegal in the U.S. and many other countries. Scientists have long worried that it is a slippery slope and that the technology could ultimately be used to promote eugenics. Her worry is that "they're basically building a blueprint" for more ethically problematic forms of embryo editing. "In my opinion, I think this is a huge no-no," Komor said. "There's just no ethical way to use this...." Nucleus Genomics Chief Executive Kian Sadeghi said his company plans to fund Egli's further research, building on the new findings. His company sells a polygenic embryo-screening product, which screens prospective parents' embryos and produces risk scores for their likelihood of developing disease, as well as factors like height, IQ and eye color. The company has said the IQ predictions are limited in accuracy. The research was published online Monday on a preprint server.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for June 7.
Is there any modification that will make a stock one wheel GT not nose dive?
I just want to be clear I don’t want it to go faster. It’s plenty fast and not a speed machine.
The way it will nose dive though I just was wondering is there a way to make it never ever do that? Or is it really the safest thing for the machine to do if it’s being pushed on its limits. For reference I’m not hauling crazy fast on it but I am 200lbs.
Police in Toledo, Ohio, reported that there were believed to be at least two shooters. No suspects have been arrested.
What appeared to be an open-and-shut case for Texas investigators turned out to be a twisted murder plot involving victim Alyssa Beard's ex-boyfriend Andrew Beard and his fiancée Holly Elkins – who detectives say was the mastermind.
The University of California at Berkeley discovered the percentage of failing grades in multiple CS classes this spring "is significantly higher than past semesters," reports the campus's student newspaper. "Instructors point to students' increased reliance on AI, lack of mathematical preparedness and understaffing as potential contributing factors." According to [coursework platform] Berkeleytime, 35.3% of CS 10 students and 10.6% of CS 61A students received F's in spring 2026. In spring 2025 and spring 2024, the percentage of F's did not exceed 10% for either class. The electrical engineering and computer sciences department's grading guidelines state that 7% of students in lower division courses, including CS 10 and CS 61A, should receive D's and F's... [UC Berkeley teaching professor Dan Garcia, who taught both classes] believes the "primary driver" of these abnormally high failing rates is due to a "vast increase in academic dishonesty" due to students' usage of large language models, such as Claude, ChatGPT and Google Gemini. "Some of the numbers that you saw from the number of students who receive failing grades were because we caught them (cheating) and prosecuted them and are sending their cases to the Center for Student Conduct," Garcia said. "But in other cases, it's students who are leaning a little too hard on LLMs to do their work for them, and then at exam time just really aren't ready." According to Garcia, nearly 30 students in CS 10 were "caught cheating on take-home exams" in spring 2026... In addition to overreliance on AI, Garcia also pointed out that many students are underprepared mathematically, a concern echoed by campus associate teaching professor Gireeja Ranade. Ranade noticed a similar lack of prerequisite mathematical skills in her spring 2026 EECS 127 class, "Optimization Models in Engineering," which she described as "differently challenging" to teach this semester. The class saw a 16.8% F rate, far higher than the 5% of D's and F's that the EECS department describes as "typical" for an upper division course... Both Garcia and Ranade have joined more than 1,300 UC faculty in signing a petition calling for the reinstatement of ACT and SAT standardized testing scores for STEM admissions in the UC system. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader theodp for sharing the article.
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US and Iran exchange a series of strikes in latest threat to fragile ceasefire. Key US politics stories from 6 June at a glance
“Pessimistic” predictions that the Middle East war could push tens of millions more people into acute hunger if drawn out are being proven right, the UN says, as the US and Iran again exchanged fire, threatening the already fragile ceasefire.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) warned weeks ago that soaring oil prices were devastating global food security, but now, nearly three months into the conflict, “the negative scenario is unfortunately materialising”, said Jean-Martin Bauer, the director of WFP’s food and nutrition analysis service.
Continue reading...Sales have increased for Hyundai's under-$35,000 IONIQ 5, totalling 18,395 for the first five months of 2026, reports Electrek, "up 16% from the same period last year." But meanwhile BYD's overseas sales surpassed 160,000 for the first time last month, "up 80% from May 2025 and 19% from the previous record of 135,098 set in April." Through the first five months of 2026, BYD sold 616,263 vehicles overseas. In May, overseas sales accounted for over 41% of BYD's total sales. In several major markets, including the UK, BYD surpassed Tesla and Kia to become the best-selling EV brand through April. "With fuel prices remaining high, more drivers are turning to electric vehicles as a smarter and more economical choice," Bono Ge, BYD UK's Country Manager, said last month. Elsewhere Electrek notes that Toyota's bZ (starting at under $35,000) was the third-best-selling EV in the U.S. in the first three months of 2026, behind only the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y. "Last month, bZ sales doubled from May 2025, with 2,646 units sold." And meanwhile the first Volkswagen ID. Polo and Cupra Raval models "rolled off the production line at the Group's Martorell plant in Spain, the first of several new affordable, mass-market EVs." Starting at €24,995 ($29,000) and €26,000 ($30,100), the ID. Polo and Cupra Raval are the first models from the Group's Electric Urban Car Family... [T]he first customer deliveries are scheduled to begin later this summer and into the fall. Following the ID. Polo and Cupra Raval, Volkswagen will introduce new members to the Electric Urban Car Family, including the ID. Cross, an electric version of the T-Cross, later this year. According to Volkswagen, the ID. Cross will start at around €28,000 ($32,500).
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Wilson scores in first US appearance since 2024
Brazil answer with two goals in three minutes
Americans begin World Cup cycle with defeat
The US national team scheduled a pair of matches in Brazil in preparation of a return for the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
After quick start for the Americans, the hosts scored twice in three minutes for a 2-1 win at Sao Paulo on Saturday.
Continue reading...Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for June 7, No. 826.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for June 7, No. 1,092.
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for June 7, No. 622.
Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for June 7, No. 1,814.
The 3-in-1 handheld device offers cooling and heating therapy elements.
A search for the suspects continues as victims are taken to nearby hospitals, police say
A shooting near a community festival in Toledo, Ohio, wounded at least 12 people on Saturday, with police saying a search for the suspects was ongoing.
Two of the wounded were in a critical condition, Toledo deputy police chief Joe Heffernan said. He said it appeared there were at least two people firing weapons who were “probably shooting at each other”.
Continue reading...Golden Tempo made Cherie DeVaux the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner and the second woman to train a Belmont Stakes winner.
The Belmont Stakes hosted a New York rematch of the top two finishing horses from the Kentucky Derby to wrap up horse racing's Triple Crown for 2026.
 | Ive had my Onewheel pint S for a year and a half, but I’ve only put about 80 miles on it. I just moved to California hoping to finally get to use it, and somehow on the shipping journey it’s entirely blacked out and won’t respond to anything. ( shipped in the box I got it In with all the og padding) i messaged Onewheel, but since it’s out of warranty by half a year they want 400 or more dollars for a non guaranteed fix. I’m at a loss for next steps, any advise would be much appreciated. [link] [comments] |
In late March, his polling hovered near 3%, but in a stunning reversal Becerra has advanced to the general election
Xavier Becerra, the former Biden cabinet official whose California gubernatorial campaign survived a deeply underwhelming start, has advanced to the general election, in a stunning reverse of political fortune.
If he prevails in November, Becerra would make history as the state’s first Latino governor since 1875, when California was briefly led by Romualdo Pacheco, who was born in the territory when it was still part of Mexico.
Continue reading...Do you guys buy them used or new? I bought my other new.
I’m assuming people probably buy them it scares the shit out of them and they sell it.
Friday the Open Source Initiative welcomed the EU's new tech sovereignty package, noting that "over a third of the 29-page document is devoted to Open Source." The nonprofit OSI — maintainers of the Open Source definition — submitted their official feedback in February, and notes that "many" of their key requests were addressed, "as well as some exciting new announcements!" One of the biggest barriers to Open Source adoption has been public procurement. Too often, tenders have been designed around proprietary solutions, ignoring the benefits of Open Source and locking public institutions into closed ecosystems. The OSI called for procurement rules that prioritize interoperability, reusability, and vendor independence. The package takes a major step forward in this area. The EU pledges to make the public sector an anchor consumer for Open Source solutions. The Commission plans to reform procurement rules to remove barriers for Open Source, provide better guidance to EU countries on procurement criteria to avoid excluding Open Source, and uphold the "public money, public code" principle when procuring software development. Both proposals align with the OSI's feedback. The next critical step is the EU's public procurement law reform. The OSI will continue advocating to ensure these pledges translate into action. Beyond procurement, the OSI highlighted challenges faced by Open Source communities in Europe, particularly difficulties accessing investment and expertise to commercialize and scale projects. The Commission has responded by committing to ensure Open Source companies are considered for funding under the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF). It also plans to create "Open Source business accelerators" that will offer mentorship, training, legal and licensing consulting, and business development support, including marketing. Additionally, the Commission will work to raise industry awareness of Open Source solutions by leveraging the EU's existing business support networks. These measures directly address the OSI's concerns and could significantly boost the Open Source ecosystem in Europe... [I]n our feedback, we called for the continuation of the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative that has funded many Open Source projects, and for the creation of a European Sovereign Tech Fund to fund ongoing maintenance and features development to meet the EU's needs. We also highlighted the need to mainstream Open Source in other funding opportunities (like the €100bn+ Horizon Europe programme). The Commission's strategy addresses these requests. The NGI will be scaled up under the new name "Open Internet Stack." A new Open Source Maintenance Instrument will fund the "maintenance and security upkeep of essential components." The Commission will also create a list of critical and security-relevant Open Source dependencies to inform funding decisions and promote Open Source solutions as the default approach in Horizon Europe funding. Friday's announcement from the Open Source Initiative notes that the EU is already leading by example in Open Source adoption. It applauds the EU for "deploying a Matrix-based communications system and the openDesk collaboration environment internally, trialing an alternative operating system to replace Windows, which is currently widely used in EU institutions, and expanding its presence on the Fediverse, with Commissioners and key departments already joining the EU's Mastodon server.'
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The Treasury Department will use Iranian assets to help U.S. Gulf allies recover from damage caused by Tehran's regime, a source familiar with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's thinking told CBS News.
Widow of French ex-president Jacques Chirac was a steely behind-the-scenes operator known for her charity work
Bernadette Chirac, the formidable widow of the former French president Jacques Chirac and a driving force behind his political rise, has died at the age of 93.
As France’s first lady for 12 years, Chirac was a steely behind-the-scenes operator in support of her husband, who served twice as prime minister, 18 years as mayor of Paris and two terms as president.
Continue reading...Howdy Crew!
I know this has been asked a bunch of times but I feel like the posts I’ve seen have been with bigger or older riders. I’m 5’9 150lbs in my 20s. Mainly going to use it to commute back and forth from work about a 2 miles round trip. Maybe a little bit of gravel riding but mostly flat multipurpose trail by my house.
What are your guys opinions? I like the compact nature of the pints, is the XRC notably bigger?
This will be my first one wheel never ridden before. Was thinking about buying used but most of them in my area are only 100-200 dollars off of new prices.
Appreciate the help! Just don’t want to buy the pint and regret it.
+++Edit: are both boards equally waterproofed? I sometimes have to ride on wet roads, probably wouldn’t ride while it’s actively raining?
The Root reports: A New Mexico jury has found the Gila Regional Medical Center negligent in the death of Nichelle Nichols, who famously played Lieutenant Nyota Uhura on the hit television series "Star Trek." According to KRQE News 13, Nichols' family filed a lawsuit against the hospital last year following her 2022 admission for shortness of breath. Nichols' family claimed that she should have received a full cardiac examination, but the medical personnel sent her to the observation unit, and she was discharged the next day. After being transported to her assisted living home, the 89-year-old passed away just seven hours later. In response to Nichol's tragic passing, the lawsuit alleged that Gila Medical Center "hired, credentialed, and inappropriately supervised unqualified medical providers" who treated the actress. The lawsuit also alleged that the hospital failed to secure a bed for Nichols or transfer her to a facility that had one. Furthermore, the attorney argued that the staff should have known that the assisted living center was not equipped to handle a patient with her medical needs. On Thursday (June 4), a jury found the hospital negligent and awarded Nichols' estate $13 million. KRQE got this quote from the estate's attorney about the death of the 89-year-old acctress. "At the end of the day, Nichelle Nichols had a heart attack that was missed. Thatâ(TM)s why she died." The jury deliberated for "just two hours."
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Problems with processing visas had earlier led Iran to move its training base from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico.
Germany edge USA in final World Cup tune-up match
2 min: An early free kick given to Germany as Nmecha is brought down by Adams. Sané will take it.
1 min: And we’re off! The US kick off and attack from left to right in their all-blue strips. Germany are going from right to left in white shirts and blue shorts.
Continue reading...Antonee Robinson scores the Americans’ only goal
US open World Cup on 12 June against Paraguay
Ready or not, here comes the group stage.
The US men concluded their pre-World Cup preparations with a 2-1 loss against Germany on Saturday at Soldier Field, in front of a lively sellout crowd of 63,636. The fans made their way to the historic venue on a Chicago summer afternoon which alternated palpable heat with occasional drizzling rain.
Continue reading...The Ladybird browser isn't opposed to AI coding tools, but it's just brought a new change to their code-contributing policies. February 23: "Ladybird adopts Rust, with help from AI." Our first target was LibJS , Ladybirdâ(TM)s JavaScript engine... I used Claude Code and Codex for the translation. This was human-directed, not autonomous code generation. I decided what to port, in what order, and what the Rust code should look like. It was hundreds of small prompts, steering the agents where things needed to go... The requirement from the start was byte-for-byte identical output from both pipelines. The result was about 25,000 lines of Rust, and the entire port took about two weeks. The same work would have taken me multiple months to do by hand. June 5 (Friday): We will no longer accept public pull requests... A pull request no longer tells us as much as it used to about the person submitting it. A substantial patch used to imply substantial effort, and that effort was a reasonable proxy for good faith. That assumption no longer holds.... We have already seen patient, well-resourced campaigns in open source to earn maintainer trust and abuse it. What has changed is how much faster and cheaper it has become to produce work that looks like a serious contribution... Whether code was typed by hand is beside the point. What matters is who is responsible for it once it enters the browser. Ladybird is becoming a browser for real users. The people introducing changes to it must be the people who decide those changes belong in the project, and who will answer for the consequences. As part of this change, we will close all currently open public pull requests. We are grateful for the work people put into them, but keeping the existing queue open would keep that contribution path open in practice. There is no perfect time to make this change, so we are making it now. Going forward, pull requests will only be available to project maintainers. There will not be a separate process for submitting patches by other means. We do not want to create a shadow contribution system through issues, comments, email, or forks... Outside involvement still matters: clear bug reports, reductions, website testing, standards discussion, design discussion, security reports, and technical feedback all help move the project forward. This is the right change for Ladybird now. We are preparing to ship a browser to real users, and our development process has to match that responsibility.
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Donald Trump pardoned Stephen Buyer of Indiana, who served nearly two years in prison after conviction
As his administration promotes what it calls a crackdown on fraud in states run by Democrats, Donald Trump once again used the pardon power to excuse financial crimes committed by a Republican, granting a pardon this week to Stephen Buyer, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who served nearly two years in prison for making illegal stock trades based on inside information after he left office.
Buyer was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2023 for trades made while working as a consultant and lobbyist. He was ordered to forfeit more than $350,000, representing the amount of the illegal gains, and pay a $10,000 fine. He was released in 2025.
Continue reading...Plan backed by Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary had footprint reduced but concerns remain over its health impacts
Utah residents have teamed up with a progressive non-profit organization to sue over an under-development AI datacenter backed by celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary, claiming the planned Stratos project facility “irrevocably” cuts off citizens’ rights by not allowing sufficient public input.
Filed by the Alliance for a Better Utah and five unnamed residents of the Box Elder county area where the center is being developed, the lawsuit comes as Shark Tank co-host O’Leary agreed to scale back the physical footprint for the project.
Continue reading...The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was in his mother’s arms when soldiers fired on family in Hebron
Israeli troops killed a seven-month-old Palestinian baby in the occupied West Bank and injured his parents after opening fire on the family’s car, despite it having complied with an order to stop.
Soldiers opened fire on Friday on a car carrying the infant and his parents in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was critically injured, evacuated in critical condition to a hospital, where he later died.
Continue reading...The so-called "Flamingo Revolution" has taken up the cause of protecting the Albanian coast from a development led by the president's son-in-law.
From Android Authority: Singapore-based BMX has announced that its SolidSafe magnetic power bank lineup, first showcased at CES 2026, is now available for purchase through its website and Amazon US, with prices starting at $59. What sets these power banks apart is their use of semi-solid-state batteries. Traditional lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries rely on liquid electrolytes to move energy between electrodes. Semi-solid-state batteries significantly reduce the amount of flammable liquid inside the cell, improving thermal stability and lowering the risk of overheating, swelling, or fire... BMX says the power banks are designed to remain stable under extreme conditions and show greater resistance to physical damage and thermal stress than conventional battery packs. The company has also launched the SolidSafe Air, a 5,000mAh magnetic power bank that it claims is the world's thinnest semi-solid-state Qi2 power bank... BMX is positioning the device as a travel-friendly alternative for users who want added safety and the convenience of a magnetic battery pack without the bulk. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader destinyland for sharing the article.
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These are the pros and cons I experienced during the weeks I spent testing Dyson's HushJet Mini Cool, and whether it's worth the price this summer.
Eighteen-year-old man arrested after car collides with cyclist Anthony Canty, who died in hospital four days later
A lottery winner has died after a suspected hit-and-run in Essex, police said.
Officers were called to the collision between a cyclist and a black Ford Ka in Tiptree at 6.30am on 21 May. The cyclist, a man in his 30s, was taken to hospital where he died four days later, Essex police said.
Continue reading...I just got a pint it's a lot of fun I'm just having trouble controlling it I'm not sure if it's a confidence issue or if I'm just missing something I can't seem to turn without falling off
The party may reclaim the US House and even Senate, but primary candidates are far from united on how to move forward
Across the country, in front yards and on main streets, at dairy breakfasts and inside breweries, voters are delivering a similar message to Democratic primary candidates: they’re tired of both parties, and sick of being ignored.
The Democratic party brand is bruised after its disastrous 2024 presidential loss. A botched review of the defeat by the Democratic National Committee, and a drawn-out process over releasing the so-called autopsy, created another round of handwringing over the party’s direction.
Continue reading...Just came back from a ride on a trail that I discovered recently and while carving at a slow speed in a fairly empty lane a biker coming from the other direction swerved close to me flipping me off while saying “you’re not supposed to be here!” Funny thing is that he passed by e-bikes and people on scooters while saying nothing to them. So was I in the wrong for being on a paved trail with signs saying no motor vehicles?
Democrat denies reports of physical intimidation towards women, saying his past has been ‘weaponized’
The Democratic US Senate candidate Graham Platner on Friday predicted that Maine’s voters would support him four days later in his party primary despite a string of controversies – including recent negative headlines about his treatment of women that he said had been “weaponized”.
In a 25-minute speech before supporters in Bar Harbor, the oyster farmer and US marine combat veteran addressed the controversies about his personal conduct, which escalated on Thursday with a New York Times report in which three former romantic partners described disturbing behavior, including being physically intimidated by him.
Continue reading...Ukrainian leader will attend UK meeting along with French president and German chancellor
Keir Starmer will host Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz for talks in Downing Street on Sunday to discuss support for Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader will visit the UK with the French president and German chancellor after a week of heightened hostilities and Vladimir Putin’s rejection of his proposal of face-to-face talks on Moscow’s war.
Continue reading...My real concerns are whether it’s really worth it for the things I want to see improved by going VESC.
First and foremost: drops and trails. I like riding, doing big drops, and the occasional trail, but I really dislike how snappy and jerky FM firmware goes about it.
Second is speed, and I want to clarify this one heavily. I’m not trying to speed max in any way, shape, or form. I simply want to be able to keep up in the areas that don’t have sidewalks and where I’m forced to ride in the street. Basically, I’d like to be able to comfortably push it to around 35 and top out around 40 or something.
I’ve ridden with a tuned-up GT VESC that went around 40, and he claimed it could push close to 50. I don’t want that, but I feel like 35 would be nice.
I’ve never VESC’d a board before, so I’m more looking for guidance on whether my expectations are unrealistic or if getting the GT-S FO kit is worth it for what I’m after.
Bluesky's chief operating officer believes teen social media bans "risk entrenching Big Tech's dominance," reports CNBC: Rose Wang, Bluesky's chief operating officer, told CNBC on the sidelines of SXSW in London on Wednesday that the smaller open-source platform isn't opposed to regulation but that smaller players in the industry should be protected. "I support the protection and the safety of youth... The question that we have then is at what cost? Because essentially what I'm scared of is in the long term, we're headed to a world where there's about three to five platforms, and extreme heavy regulation of those platforms... "Basically the whole compliance teams of these platforms are 10 times the size of our entire team," Wang said. "So, basically, we're living in a world where it's almost impossible for smaller entrants to come in and build healthier spaces." The article notes Bluesky had grown to 43 million users as of March, "which is still only around 10% of X's estimated 450 million users. Bluesky has struggled to maintain popularity, and by the end of October last year, it had reportedly seen a 40% drop in daily mobile active users over the past 12 months."
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Just purchased a brand new XRC and it seems to be dead out of the box. Plug it in charger shows green. Board quickly flash red when I try to turn it on. I've plugged it now for a bit over 12 hours. Anything I should be looking for? Will the charger turn red ones the battery is balanced and actually charging?
Apple must pay iPhone owners to settle a lawsuit over delayed and missing AI features.
Musician donates to USC to help create endowed chair to recognize Dr Joseph Sugerman, who treated her for years
Legendary singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks has given $3m to the University of Southern California’s medical school to recognize the physician who has helped care for her voice throughout much of her career.
The major donation supports the creation of an endowed chair in otolaryngology at USC’s Keck School of Medicine in honor of Dr Joseph Sugerman, an ear, nose and throat specialist from Beverly Hills who has treated the singer – along with other performers and patients – for many years.
Continue reading...Hegseth's speech echoed broader Trump administration rhetoric over border security and migration in Europe.
Scientists "have made a discovery that may help prevent some people from developing lung cancer," reports the New York Times, noting that lung cancer "kills more people worldwide than any other cancer." A team of more than 80 researchers working across four continents have identified a set of proteins in the blood that accurately predict lung cancers more than five years before diagnosis. The scientists also found early evidence that an existing anti-inflammatory drug could significantly reduce lung cancer risk in people with elevated concentrations of these proteins, which they linked to inflammation. More research is needed before a test based on these proteins could be ready for use in patients. And scientists would still need to run a randomized trial to determine whether the drug prevents lung cancers. Still, outside experts said the findings, which were published on Thursday in the journal Cell, offer a promising starting point toward a long-held public health goal... Led by Dr. Swanton, Dr. Tej Pandya, a Ph.D. student, and other researchers took a set of 48,000 blood samples from the UK Biobank and used machine learning to identify 14 proteins associated with the development of lung cancer. When the researchers looked at the presence of those proteins and also took into account a patient's age, smoking status and history of lung disease, they were able to predict who would develop lung cancer more accurately than the best risk assessment models currently in use... Using mouse and cell models, the scientists showed that these proteins increased when a specific inflammatory pathway was activated. Smoking and air pollution can activate that pathway. This adds to the evidence that it isn't just genetic mutations caused by smoking, pollution or other factors that are driving lung cancers. Rather, Dr. Swanton said, the findings suggest that "smoke causes mutations and inflammation, which together cause cancer." They also found that the signature was increased in people who later developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pulmonary fibrosis, pointing to a common inflammatory environment upstream of all three diseases.
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my physical therapist said I need to massage my feet after 3 hours of riding. Any one do this? Any recs?
Technology secretary Liz Kendall says she is ‘very concerned’ about role of social media but will not be ‘bullied off’ X
The government is considering fresh action to halt the spread of misinformation during public crises, Liz Kendall has said, insisting she will not be “bullied off” Elon Musk’s X.
The technology secretary was speaking after rioting broke out in Southampton over the police response to the fatal stabbing of Henry Nowak, a case about which Musk has repeatedly posted.
Continue reading...As detainees go on hunger strike over conditions at Delaney Hall, relatives describe concern for loved ones’ wellbeing
In mid-May, Elder Guerra was showering inside the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility when he slipped and fell.
Guerra, a Guatemalan immigrant, has been locked up in the New Jersey jail for nearly five months. He was arrested by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in Newark in January while helping a friend move his snowed-in car. Officers had approached and asked a few questions, according to a relative who spoke with the Guardian.
Continue reading...Pontiff to make marginalised a focus of first papal visit since 2011 including meeting with migrants in the Canaries
Pope Leo has urged political leaders to seek unity, rather than divide their populations for political gain, and said they must fight for peace, in the opening speech of his tour in Spain.
The pope has made the marginalised a focus of his visit – his first tour of an EU country, apart from Italy – including meeting homeless people in Madrid and migrants in the Canary Islands. The pope, who has clashed with the US president, Donald Trump, over his immigration policies and war with Iran, said his visit was aimed at setting an example of respecting “every human being”.
Continue reading...With colorful signage depicting corporate greed and pollution, AI data center protesters staked out Microsoft's annual Build conference.
Governor issues disaster declaration as agencies move to stop spread of parasite, including release of sterile flies
A second case of the flesh-eating screwworm fly has been confirmed in Texas by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), days after an initial case in a one-year-old calf set off an aggressive response to stop the spread of the parasite in the dominant cattle-producing state.
Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, said on Friday that state officials were working with the federal government to slow the spread of the fly and the infestations caused by larvae that feed on the living flesh of warm-blooded animals and humans.
Continue reading...Karmelo Anthony, who is Black, is accused of stabbing Austin Metcalf, who was white, at track meet in an affluent Dallas suburb
After a 2025 high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, ended with one student dead and another accused of murder, Karmelo Anthony, then 17, was indicted on first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf, 17. Social media posts about the death divided the case into racial lines, sparking national outrage. Anthony, who is being tried as an adult, is Black; Metcalf was white.
This week marked the beginning of Anthony’s murder trial.
Continue reading...Kristen Gonzalez, a state senator who authored the bill, said moratorium would target ‘hyperscale’ datacenters over 20MW
New York moved closer toward becoming the first US state to enact a moratorium on large datacenters this week. On Thursday, the state legislature approved a one-year ban on the facilities powering the AI boom.
The measure now heads to Kathy Hochul, the governor, who will decide whether to sign it into law. The Guardian spoke to a state senator in the wake of the historic vote about authoring the bill and the wider US backlash against datacenters.
Continue reading...A long trade war looms. Trump’s scattershot protectionism, chaotic tariffs and belligerence against our natural allies guarantees that US trade policy will remain a hot mess
We are in for a long trade war.
In the months since “Liberation Day” last year, when Donald Trump let loose a volley of tariffs against imports from everywhere, countries have rushed to build new relationships in the hope of maybe circumventing the US to protect the global trading system.
Continue reading...Union says collective agreement is just the start of a broader fight to unionize major employers across the country
Canadian warehouse workers have signed the first-ever collective agreement with Walmart, a breakthrough labour organizers are calling a “historic and powerful step”.
But the union says the deal with a corporation long hostile to organized labour is only an opening salvo in a broader fight to unionize major employers across the country.
Continue reading...The red-hot Knicks are going home, two wins away from an NBA championship that the capital of the world has been waiting to see for generations.
A botched tumbler promotion on the anniversary of a pro-democracy massacre unleashed a boycott, police investigation and political firestorm
It was a PR nightmare: customers smashing Starbucks branded tumblers and mugs as fans deleted loyalty apps and cashed out prepaid balances. Amid the uproar, government ministries cut ties with the coffee chain and apology notices were pasted on Starbucks stores across South Korea.
The initial shock may have passed, but the anger remains.
Continue reading...The NTSB released its preliminary report on a United Airlines plane that struck a light pole on the New Jersey Turnpike in May.
A man was critically injured in a motorcycle crash on Otts Chapel Road on Friday morning.
Shared high performance computing resources enable work across disciplines and create new opportunities for students and faculty
COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 5, 2026 — At Wright State University, a public university in Dayton, Ohio, faculty and students are using the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) to support hands-on coursework and data-driven research across campus.
Hands-on research and collaboration helps prepare Wright State students for work in modern research computing environments. Image Credit: Wright State University
For Mike VanHorn, Wright State’s Campus Champion for OSC, connecting users with these resources is a central part of his role. As senior computer systems administrator at the College of Engineering and Computer Science, VanHorn works closely with faculty and students while also helping expand awareness of OSC across campus.
“As a Campus Champion, it’s my duty to serve as a local proponent for access and utilization of OSC resources on Wright State’s campuses,” VanHorn said. “In practice, that means I try to direct Wright State’s faculty and students toward OSC whenever I see an opportunity for their work to be done more efficiently.”
In the classroom, OSC gives students access to computing resources at a scale beyond what is available locally. In computer science and engineering courses, students write and submit parallel programs, test their code, and debug their work. Through this, they gain hands-on experience using tools commonly used in research and industry.
While Wright State maintains its own computing resources for instruction, those systems are designed for smaller-scale use. OSC provides access to significantly larger computing power, allowing students to run more complex jobs and work with datasets that would be difficult to handle locally, all within an environment that mirrors real-world research computing.
“Exposing our students to large-scale and leading-edge resources really gives them the perspective they need going forward,” VanHorn said. “It helps them understand the kinds of problems they’ll be able to solve using high performance computing.”
The same resources that support classroom learning are also being used for research across campus. Faculty are using OSC for projects ranging from machine learning and natural language processing to engineering simulations and quantum-based nanomaterials modeling.
In one project, psychology researchers are using machine learning techniques to analyze team communication in training environments, transforming large volumes of text into structured data that can be used to evaluate performance. In another, mechanical and materials engineering researchers are developing deep learning models to simulate complex manufacturing processes, helping reduce the computational demands of modeling multiphysics interactions.
“Performing Finite Element Method (FEM) and machine learning is not even possible without accessing OSC resources due to the sheer size of the simulation domain, the number of coupled differential equations, and the overall size of the required data for deep learning approaches,” said Hamed Attariani, faculty member in mechanical and materials engineering.
Across disciplines, VanHorn sees both the range of users and the variety of workloads as key strengths.
“The two things that jump out at me are the varied groups from Wright State that are using OSC, and the different types of workloads,” he said. “The wide range of applications that OSC can support is amazing.”
VanHorn is also working to build a stronger campus-wide community as more faculty and students begin using OSC. He created an internal user group to connect Wright State’s OSC users and is exploring ways to introduce the technology to a broader audience.
One idea under development is an “OSC Day,” which would bring introductory presentations and hands-on workshops directly to campus.
As Wright State continues to expand its research activity, VanHorn sees increasing awareness of OSC as a key step.
“I think a lot of students and faculty feel that there’s a learning curve with using HPC or are intimidated by the idea of learning a new way of doing things,” VanHorn said. “If we can show how accessible this technology is, it should increase the university’s research footprint and support continued growth in our R2 research activities.”
About OSC
The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) addresses the rising computational demands of academic and industrial research communities by providing a robust shared infrastructure and proven expertise in advanced modeling, simulation, and analysis. OSC empowers scientists with the services essential to making extraordinary discoveries and innovations, partners with businesses and industry to leverage computational science as a competitive force in the global knowledge economy, and leads efforts to equip the workforce with the key technology skills required for 21st-century jobs.
Source: Lexi Biasi, OSC
The post Wright State Expands Research and Teaching Capabilities with Ohio Supercomputer Center appeared first on HPCwire.
June 5, 2026 — Boston University has joined a major National Science Foundation (NSF)–funded effort that’s using artificial intelligence (AI) to unlock new discoveries in physics—potentially bringing fresh insights to research topics that span nature’s smallest particles to the universe’s largest-scale cosmic phenomena.
The NSF AI Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI) also aims to use physics principles to, in turn, develop new approaches to AI. BU will be a core IAIFI member, teaming up with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, Northeastern University, and Tufts University. The NSF recently gave IAIFI a funding boost, which will support its work for the next five years.
BU’s participation in the institute, which was founded in 2020, will be led by Siddharth Mishra-Sharma, a BU Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences assistant professor of computing and data sciences. Before joining BU last fall, he was a fellow at the institute and a member of the technical staff at AI company Anthropic, where he remains part-time.
“For BU, joining IAIFI means being embedded in a rich interdisciplinary network that spans physics theory, experiment, observation, and foundational AI,” says Mishra-Sharma. “Conversely, IAIFI stands to benefit substantially from BU’s strengths across data science, cosmology, astronomy, condensed matter physics, and biophysics.”
Mishra-Sharma’s research is focused on how AI will reshape scientific practice, and he’s excited by the potential for IAIFI to accelerate projects drawing experts from across BU, including existing efforts to build the next generation of cosmological surveys and to use statistical physics to improve understanding of machine learning. He says being an IAIFI fellow was a key part of his career trajectory and hopes being involved in the institute can have an equally positive effect on his colleagues and their work.
“AI for science is a shining example of convergence, and CDS is increasingly seen as a leader in that space,” says Azer Bestavros, BU’s Warren Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and associate provost for computing and data sciences. “The promise I see in Siddharth’s research is the transition from AI as a tool to AI as a collaborator. He is exploring the limits of automated scientific reasoning, asking how an AI can participate in the entire scientific process, from simulation and modeling to the generation of entirely new physical models.”
According to an IAIFI press release announcing its funding renewal ($4.98 million annually), it’s ready to broaden its ambitions, pushing “deeper into what the institute calls the ‘physics of AI’—using physical reasoning, physical challenges, and physical tools not just to apply AI, but to understand and improve it.”
The institute’s director, Jesse Thaler, an MIT professor of physics, says Mishra-Sharma and BU are exciting partners to help in that mission. “Siddharth has been an important part of IAIFI from the very beginning, not only through his research, but through the energy, generosity, and community spirit he brings to everything he does,” says Thaler. “With Siddharth now at BU, we’re excited to see Boston University play an important role in IAIFI, adding real intellectual strength and reinforcing the collaborative model that has been central to the institute from the start.”
A key pillar of the institute’s mission is to build a community of researchers and to educate the public about physics and AI. In addition to hosting summer workshops, colloquia, and hackathons for scientists, it runs activities targeted at K–12 students. Mishra-Sharma says there will be opportunities for BU students to get involved too.
“A huge part of IAIFI is training the next generation of talent,” he says. “BU students and postdocs will be able to participate fully in the institute’s research, training, and community activities.”
More from HPCwire: NSF Renews IAIFI Funding to Advance AI-Driven Physics Research
Source: Andrew Thurston, BU
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June 5, 2026 — Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have developed a practical, comprehensive noise-modeling framework for a popular class of superconducting quantum processors. Their work, published in the journal PRX Quantum, offers a sevenfold improvement in predictive accuracy over existing approaches.
Quantum bits, or qubits, are intrinsically prone to noise — interference arising from environmental factors such as electrical and magnetic fields or temperature fluctuations — as a result of the extreme sensitivity that makes them so valuable for computing. Developing accurate noise models is key to creating the robust quantum algorithms and resilient error-correction protocols required to build truly fault-tolerant quantum computers.
“To really advance the field, we need models that can predict a wide range of behavior while utilizing a small number of parameters, rather than theoretical models that try to account for all of the fundamental physics at play in quantum interactions,” said project lead Gregory Quiroz, a senior physicist at APL and an associate research professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. “The novelty of our approach lies in a unified and experimentally validated framework that connects multiple noise mechanisms and yields a coherent predictive methodology.”
Characterizing Noise in Cloud-Based Quantum Processors
To study quantum noise in real, multi-qubit systems, the team made use of cloud access to 39 qubits across seven superconducting devices. Specifically, they studied transmons, a type of superconducting qubit prized for its reduced sensitivity to noise from electric charge and therefore popular in mainstream quantum computing architectures. Relying on cloud access presented an opportunity but also a challenge, because the team had to work out how to study and characterize noise on the quantum computers without low-level access to the hardware. That lack of access also reflects increasingly common real-world scenarios involving proprietary systems, Quiroz noted.
“Actual quantum computer users won’t have low-level hardware access either — they’ll just be running applications, and they’ll need to be confident that they’re running correctly,” he said. “Our experiments reflect those conditions.”
Yasuo Oda, the paper’s first author and a postdoctoral researcher who was Quiroz’s student at JHU while contributing to the study, said that working around that limitation required a creative approach.
“Fundamentally, we’re trying to drive a transition in a system of qubits from one state to another — in other words, to perform a quantum computation — and study how noise affects the success of that operation,” Oda said. “That sounds simple, but the specific way you actually drive that transition varies widely from platform to platform. Without low-level access, we had limited insight into the characteristics of the hardware.”
Instead of studying a single operation in detail, the team ran repeated computations on the quantum processors in order to drive an accumulation of errors. By studying how often those accumulated errors occurred and how widely they deviated from the expected result, they were able to glean insights into what was happening in the underlying physical system.
A Simple Yet Comprehensive Model
Significantly, the team’s approach enabled them to characterize two fundamentally different types of errors — often referred to as “incoherent” and “coherent” errors — in a single model. Incoherent errors occur when information is irretrievably lost; coherent errors can, for example, represent flaws in control hardware calibration, and are fixable.
“If you have access to data about coherent errors, you have the option of engineering a system to prevent them or fixing them afterward,” Oda said.
While there is extensive literature about both types of errors, they are typically studied in isolation. To the team’s knowledge, no one has created a single predictive framework that brings both types of errors together for superconducting qubit hardware.
“We were able to put a wide variety of errors together into one model, which is simple in terms of parameters but also comprehensive in the types of phenomena it can describe — even predicting the performance of small quantum algorithms,” he said. “That’s our biggest contribution.”
From Characterization to Correction
Now that the team has created this model, the next step will be to apply it to improving hardware performance, Quiroz said.
“Now that we have this low-weight noise model, we have the opportunity to apply it across all levels of the quantum computing stack, from hardware design to algorithm design to error correction,” he said. “The information we can get from the model can inform every level of the quantum computing stack.”
This work is a part of SMART Stack, an APL-led project focused on designing quantum software stack components and principles that make error characterization and management more scalable, modular, adaptive across platforms, reconfigurable, and targeted (hence, SMART) in current and near-future quantum processors. APL’s partners in this endeavor include researchers at the University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Unitary Foundation, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Infleqtion. Funded by a competitive quantum computing award from the Department of Energy, the effort builds on previous successes in quantum error management and is part of APL’s larger quantum computer science portfolio.
“APL is committed to characterizing and mitigating quantum noise and errors at every level of the quantum computing stack, including hardware, software, and hybrid computing systems combining quantum and classical computers,” said Kevin Schultz, assistant program manager for Alternative Computing Paradigms in APL’s Research and Exploratory Development Mission Area and a co-author on the paper. “This noise model represents a significant step toward achieving those goals.”
Source: Ajai Raj, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
The post Johns Hopkins Team Models Quantum Noise on Superconducting Processors appeared first on HPCwire.
From Values to Action: Where do LGBTIQ+ rights sit in UK foreign policy? 30 June 2026 — 17:30 TO 19:30 BST Anonymous (not verified) Chatham House and Online
In an increasingly contested world order and with global threats to LGBTIQ+ rights, experts discuss a path forward for LGBTIQ+ rights and the rule of law in UK foreign policy.
In an increasingly contested world order and global threats to LGBTIQ+ rights, experts discuss a path forward for LGBTIQ+ rights and the rule of law in UK foreign policy.LGBTIQ+ rights are a meaningful but increasingly complicated pillar of UK foreign policy. The UK has positioned LGBTIQ+ rights as an integral aspect of its foreign policy, from diplomacy to development and international advocacy. But UK foreign policy on LGBTIQ+ issues has been shaped by challenges of aid cuts, changing political priorities at home and the wider world order. LGBTIQ+ people in the UK continue to face significant systemic issues, including hate crimes, discrimination, healthcare disparities and transphobia. UK foreign policy also operates in an increasingly contested normative world order, with rising global backlash against LGBTIQ+ rights.
To commemorate Pride Month, Chatham House’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Working Group has the privilege of convening a panel bringing together leading voices to examine what lies ahead for the UK’s foreign policy approach towards LGBTIQ+ rights.
This panel is followed by a drinks reception.
IAIFI enters its second phase with increased funding, broader ambitions, and a growing community at the frontier of AI and fundamental physics.
June 5, 2026 — The MIT-led Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI) has received renewed support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for an additional five years, increasing annual funding from $4 million to $4.98 million. The renewal marks a new phase for IAIFI, which has spent its first five years building a research model and an interdisciplinary community around a central premise: that AI can open new ways of doing physics, while physics can help mold better AI systems.
Launched in 2020 as part of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program, IAIFI brings together researchers from MIT, along with Harvard, Northeastern, Tufts, and Boston universities. Its work has shown that machine learning can accelerate discovery in physics, while insights from physics can make AI systems more principled and interpretable.
“From the beginning, IAIFI has been built around a two-way street: AI enabling better physics, and physics enabling better AI,” says Jesse Thaler, IAIFI’s director and a professor of physics at MIT. “We have seen this virtuous cycle play out across multiple areas of physics and AI over the past five years. The exchange is producing not just new results, but genuinely new ways of doing science.”
Research Across Physics and AI
IAIFI’s research spans particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, and foundational AI, with many advances emerging from collaborations across those areas.
In particle physics, IAIFI researchers have developed AI techniques to handle the immense data rates from the Large Hadron Collider in real-time, helping turn a firehose of collision data into actionable physics. In nuclear physics, IAIFI researchers are using AI-based generative methods to model the interactions of quarks and gluons in lattice quantum chromodynamics, creating new ways to study the structure of matter from first principles. In astrophysics, machine learning is being used to uncover new cosmic phenomena and improve the sensitivity of the MIT-led LIGO gravitational-wave experiment.
At the same time, ideas from physics are informing the development of new AI methods. IAIFI researchers are developing learning algorithms and new model architectures that embed physics knowledge and best practices — including symmetries, geometric structures, exactness guarantees, and statistical methodologies — directly into neural networks, producing systems that are more reliable, interpretable, and data-efficient.
“AI has begun to transform how physicists tackle some of the field’s most challenging problems,” says Mike Williams, interim director of IAIFI and a professor of physics at MIT. “More importantly, it is starting to expand the frontier of what problems we can realistically address, making it possible to pursue questions that were once completely beyond our reach.”
Training the Next Generation
A defining feature of IAIFI is its investment in people. The IAIFI Postdoctoral Fellows program supports early-career scientists pursuing research at the intersection of physics and AI, pairing each fellow with mentors in both domains and fostering collaboration across institutions.
Eight fellows have completed the program to date. Three have secured faculty positions; others have taken research roles at leading AI companies or joined startups, reflecting how broadly the skills cultivated at IAIFI translate.
“The IAIFI Fellowship shows what can happen when early-career scientists are given the freedom and support to work across traditional boundaries,” says Phiala Shanahan, IAIFI’s interim deputy director and a professor of physics at MIT. “Our fellows aren’t just contributing to physics or to AI separately — they are helping shape a growing field at the intersection.”
IAIFI’s annual PhD Summer School has become a focal point for the growing community of “centaur scientists” with expertise in both physics and AI. For the 2026 edition, the program received nearly 600 applications for roughly 100 in-person spots, with about 300 additional participants expected to join virtually. Previous participants have strongly recommended the school to their peers for its combination of lectures, hands-on tutorials, coding sprints, and networking events.
At MIT, IAIFI has helped shape new educational pathways, including an interdisciplinary PhD program in physics, statistics, and data science — a collaboration between the Department of Physics and the Statistics and Data Science Center — which has awarded 20 doctoral degrees since 2021. IAIFI members Phil Harris and Isaac Chuang have also developed a course on computational data science in physics, offered both on campus (Course 8.16) and as a free online course through MITx.
A Growing Community
Beyond its core research and training programs, IAIFI convenes researchers through its annual summer workshop, which will be held this year at the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing building. The institute also engages the broader public through collaborations with the MIT Museum, the Museum of Science in Boston, hackathons, and widely viewed online content exploring AI and physics.
“IAIFI shows what becomes possible when researchers in physics, computation, statistics, and data science organize around shared scientific questions,” says Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the MIT School of Science and the Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics. “That kind of sustained, cross-disciplinary collaboration is essential to the future of scientific discovery.”
IAIFI is hosted in the Laboratory of Nuclear Science at MIT, led by Director Jesse Thaler (currently on sabbatical), Interim Director Mike Williams, Interim Deputy Director Phiala Shanahan, and Managing Director Marisa LaFleur, along with steering committee members Lisa Barsotti, Isaac Chuang, Will Detmold, Bill Freeman, Phil Harris, Lina Necib, Tess Smidt, and Marin Soljacic (and steering committee members from other IAIFI universities).
Looking Ahead
As a member of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program, IAIFI is part of a nationwide effort to advance AI-driven discovery and innovation.
“The connections among the NSF AI Institutes have been as valuable as the work within them and continue to grow,” says Marisa LaFleur, IAIFI’s managing director. “We’re sharing management strategies and resources for training, community building, and collaboration that make the whole network stronger.”
For IAIFI, the renewed funding is an opportunity to push deeper into what the institute calls the “physics of AI” — using physical reasoning, physical challenges, and physical tools not just to apply AI, but to understand and improve it. That agenda, along with a growing community of researchers trained to work across disciplines, is what drives the institute’s next phase.
“The first phase of IAIFI established the model: interdisciplinary research, early-career talent, and a dynamic community, organized around the idea that AI and physics make each other stronger,” Thaler says. “Now we have the foundation — and the entrepreneurial spirit of our centaur scientists — to push that model into new territory and raise our ambitions.”
Source: MIT News
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Chemists have a scale problem. It is estimated that chemical space contains as many as 10^60 small organic molecules, however, only a tiny fraction of that have ever been studied in detail. Finding useful new molecules for batteries, materials and other applications remains a slow and labor-intensive process that often relies on a combination of lab experiments and computational screening. Even using modern computing resources, exploring more than a small portion of that space is difficult.
At TPC26, University of Michigan PhD student Anoushka Bhutani discussed one possible way to speed up that search and overcome the scale problem.
Her talk focused on MIST – a family of large molecular models trained on billions of chemical structures and designed to predict a wide range of molecular properties. The goal with MIST is to help researchers point out the promising candidates before committing significant simulation or experimental resources. The real-world applications include everything from battery electrolytes to fragrance design.
Bhutani’s presentation highlighted how advances in large-scale computing and data availability are beginning to change how researchers explore the chemical space. This is making it possible to evaluate far larger numbers of candidate molecules than was previously practical.
The largest version of MIST was trained on roughly 2 billion molecules and contains about 1.8 billion parameters. With that scale in the context, Bhutani also talked about the cost of building the models.
“Training a foundation model is an extremely computationally quite expensive,” said Bhutani. “And we wanted to make sure that we were using the compute we had been given as optimally as possible. So we turned to neural scaling laws. However, neural scaling laws only account for the amount of data you’re training on and the number of parameters your model has.”
Bhutani explained, “Model performance is also sensitive to many other hyperparameters, such as learning rate or the depth of the model. So we added penalty terms to account for these. And this reduced the need for full factorial sweep over all possible hyperparameters which was done in prior scaling studies. In addition to this, we used Bayesian parameterization to fit the models, which gave us robust uncertainty estimates.”
To avoid wasting compute on extensive tuning runs, Bhutani and her team modified existing scaling law approaches to account for factors beyond model and dataset size, such as the effects of hyperparameters. The team also used Bayesian parameterization to guide the process.
Those changes reduced model development costs by roughly 10x. For academic groups trying to build large scientific models on tight budgets, that sort of impact may be just as important as the applications themselves.
The first application Bhutani highlighted was battery research. Her team focused on lithium-air batteries: a technology that has long attracted interest because of its potential for extremely high energy density.
The challenge with them is finding electrolyte materials that can survive inside the battery. Both the oxygen-related reaction products and the lithium metal anode are highly reactive, making the search for stable molecules difficult.
“These are attractive because they have extremely high energy density, because they use oxygen from the air as a cathodic reaction, so they don’t need to store the extra mass of the cathode,” emphasized Bhutani. “However, it’s also very hard to find electrolytes for which can be used in these batteries because both the oxygen intermediates formed during the reaction and the lithium metal anode are highly reactive.”
The team used MIST to fine-tune models to predict a range of properties relevant to electrolyte design. This included stability, safety and phase behavior. Candidate molecules were screened against multiple requirements at the same time. This was more efficient compared to evaluating one property at a time.
Bhutani shared that the workflow identified 139 potential electrolyte candidates after running on eight H100 GPUs for around eight hours. The results show how large molecular models can help narrow enormous chemical search spaces before researchers move to more expensive simulations.
The most unexpected results from the research came from olfaction – the sense of smell. This was a problem that Bhutani described as difficult because datasets are sparse and subjective. They are also often disconnected from molecular structure. Two molecules can look nearly identical but smell completely different – and structurally unrelated molecules can produce similar scents.
Even with those challenges, MIST performed well when it was optimized. More specifically, when it was fine-tuned for scent prediction, it was able to identify meaningful relationships between different scent categories. It was able to group similar smells together even though the task is notoriously difficult. The findings also pointed to deeper structural patterns that resemble those seen in neuroscience research on how humans perceive odors.
Bhutani’s presentation at this year’s TPC revealed how large-scale molecular models are beginning to move beyond prediction and toward discovery. This could go a long way in helping researchers navigate vast and challenging regions of chemical space that are impractical to explore through simulation or experimentation alone.
The post Foundation Models Offer a New Way to Explore Chemical Space appeared first on HPCwire.
Why Should Delaware Care?
In an increasingly technology-dominated world, access to high speed internet is a priority for many Delawareans. While the state continues to roll out initiatives to expand broadband internet access in remote areas, some rural Delawareans are forced to turn to libraries and other short-term solutions for connectivity.
Despite government pushes in recent years for high-speed internet to reach more residents, some rural Delawareans feel left behind by the broadband expansions and question the state’s approach to improving connectivity.
After initially being sidelined by the Trump administration, the state announced this spring that the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program would invest roughly $100 million toward creating 4,700 new internet connections across Delaware.
The program will use a combination of federal funds and private company dollars to provide connectivity to some of the forgotten – or “last mile” – homes in Delaware, eventually aiming to reach complete high-speed internet coverage in the state by 2030.
But some experts and residents are skeptical.
Researchers who study broadband internet access say the BEAD program’s approach – prioritizing the quicker deployment of copper cables over more long-lasting fiber optic ones – is ineffective for long-term sustainability.
At the same time, some residents and lawmakers have given up hope that high-speed internet will reach rural corners of the state. Instead, they have turned to Starlink – a satellite internet service created by Elon Musk’s SpaceX – or WiFi hot spots to get connectivity.
And even when rural residents have gotten the option of broadband internet access in recent years, some say they cannot afford the cost of an internet bill. This has forced already stretched-thin independent libraries to meet community members’ needs for computers and internet hot spots, library directors said.
“I don’t think it’s gonna happen,” said Chris Sylvester, who has been asking state leaders when his western Kent County property will be connected by cabling for years. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re forgotten in rural Delaware for high-speed internet.”
Rural high-speed internet access has quadrupled nationally over the past decade, and 86% of rural households now have some form of broadband subscription, said Matt Dunne, founder of the Center on Rural Innovation, an organization that studies technology access in rural America.
In Delaware, by virtue of a small compact geography, the state already boasts roughly 98% connectivity.
But experts also say these numbers don’t tell the whole story. Some areas may be considered to have broadband access, but the cabling could already be outdated or rusting, and connection could be unaffordable to residents in an area.
“Not all broadband is created equal,” said Christopher Ali, a Penn State University professor who studies telecommunications.
Delaware initially began laying the groundwork for rural connectivity in 2015, when then-Gov. Jack Markell awarded a $1 million grant for the company Fibertech Networks to begin laying miles of fiber optic cables — widely considered the broadband option with the most longevity — in Sussex County.
In recent years, the state has mostly relied on the influx of federal funds to expand connectivity since the onset of the pandemic, said Connor Perry, executive director of the Delaware Broadband Office.
These federal funding sources together allowed the state to set up “middle mile infrastructure” closer to town centers and along roads like Routes 1 and 113 over the past decade, Perry said.
Now the state can focus on the “last mile” of harder-to-reach buildings, he added.
The initial plan for the BEAD program included only fiber optic technology. The Trump administration, however, changed the program to a combination of traditional copper cabling and fiber.
The program is planned to connect 425 new homes and businesses in New Castle County, 1,513 in Kent County and 2,790 in Sussex County by 2029, Perry said.
IQ Fiber, a Florida-based company funded largely by private equity, also announced this spring a $150 million project to lay more fiber connections down the length of the state, largely following the Route 1 corridor.
Perry said the state also received BEAD funding to create a census-block level map of high-speed internet rates across the state, in collaboration with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
A look at the most current version of the map, updated in December, indicates that virtually all of New Castle County has complete internet connectivity. The connection rate tends to decrease moving south, particularly toward Delaware’s western and southern borders with Maryland.
Areas where internet access is less than 25%, according to the map, include western Kent County near Felton and Harrington, the southwestern corner of the state between Laurel and Delmar, and the Georgetown-Millsboro region of central Sussex County.
In rural pockets of the state, some residents say they were connected to broadband through one of the recent expansion pushes. Others, however, have resigned to never getting wiring, instead turning to newer cable-less options like Starlink.
Rachel Culver used to live in a house just a couple of minutes west of Georgetown town limits, on what she described as “the rural side of town.”
Culver, who is also the director of the Georgetown Public Library, said she relied on the library’s resources, like the building’s WiFi and checking out one of the highly sought-after hot spots, in order to complete computer tasks.
“It kind of really felt like we were camping,” she said.
The area by her house was just starting the process of getting cable infrastructure when she moved out in 2022, Culver said.
Chris Sylvester lives and operates a flower farm in the Sandtown area of western Kent County, near the Maryland border. He has not had such luck with progress toward connectivity.
When Sylvester and his wife first launched their business in 2022, the lack of high-speed internet on their property forced him to drive to a coffee shop or public library to upload a single photo onto their website.
The problem? The nearest public place with internet connection was a 30-minute drive away.
“When you’re a business and trying to be as efficient as possible, it becomes challenging and frustrating,” he said.
As his family was trying to scale their business and his daughter was beginning elementary school, Sylvester began contacting state lawmakers, asking when broadband internet might reach his area.
Four years later, Sylvester said he still has not gotten an answer as to whether his area is part of planned future broadband expansions.
“I think I’ll be 60 or 70 years old, and I’ll still be that little spot out in western Kent County that doesn’t have internet,” he said. “I just don’t see how it’s going to work.”
Sylvester said his family was able to set up a Starlink satellite last year, which has given them at least a short-term connectivity solution.
Community leaders working at libraries and coffee shops say they try to be the space residents need to get reliable connectivity.
The challenge, though, is that Delawareans in sparsely populated areas where internet cables do not reach also tend to be further away from these community spaces, compounding the accessibility challenges.
Culver, the Georgetown Library director, said all the libraries were given hot spots and Chromebook computers from a 2022 state grant program.
Then, when she and her staff saw “such a need” for the hot spots, they applied for a grant to get more. Since then, however, the grant has run out, and the library’s tight financial position means residents are back to having to wait multiple weeks to check out a hot spot.
Directors at other rural libraries similarly said they have a constant daily stream of visitors using their WiFi and computers. Sometimes people sit in the parking lot after hours to connect to the building’s internet, they said.
Owners of coffee shops and coworking spaces say they also strive to serve as broadband resources.
Amity Coffee Roasters, a coffee shop in Greenwood, is bustling on many days with mothers doing homeschool work with their children, pastors without internet at their churches planning upcoming sermons and Delaware Technical Community College or Salisbury University students completing assignments.
Melody Slaubaugh, Amity’s co-owner, said she and her husband made a conscious choice to “pay a lot for very powerful internet.”
She added that some of the design choices they made with the café, such as providing an outlet connector next to each table, were specifically to make it conducive to internet users.
The Mill in Seaford, a co-working space slated to open this year, is another place where developer Rob Herrera said he aims to focus on the community’s need for connectivity.
Herrera said in the process of creating the coworking space, he has heard from many Seaford-area residents who do not have high speed internet options, or their only option is “old copper and cabling lines,” so having a coworking space with fiber connectivity is appealing.
Some state lawmakers say they have been frustrated by the speed at which broadband internet access has expanded to their rural districts. Some view the emergence of Starlink satellites as a more cost-effective and accessible option.
Rep. Rich Collins (R-Millsboro) said the number of calls he has been getting from constituents about lack of internet access has steeply declined since the advent of Starlink a few years ago.
“If you really want broadband, it’s a way to have that,” Collins said.
Experts, though, say the efficacy of broadband options is a spectrum. While Starlink and the BEAD program’s cabling infrastructure are effective in the short-term, experts say they will not be a permanent solution, like a fiber optic network would be.
“Fiber to the home is the most future-proof,” said Dunne, the Center for Rural Innovation director. “As broadband speeds can be increased and the demand for them to be increased goes up, they’re able to scale with it.”
The problem, Dunne said, is that each installation of fiber is more expensive than traditional cabling. It is difficult to incentivize companies to invest in a fiber network in more rural areas, where they will reach fewer potential customers.
Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.
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If Eric Murphy loses his primary election on June 9, he believes he already knows one reason why.
Last year, the North Dakota state representative, a Republican, tried to expand the window of pregnancy in which women could access abortion. The state legislature had banned it for almost everyone from the moment of conception.
Tied up in court, the ban hadn’t yet gone into effect. But Murphy wanted to lock in a less restrictive law, making abortion accessible up to 15 weeks and even later for women whose doctors deemed it a medical necessity.
To convince his fellow legislators, he read out loud from two ProPublica stories about women in Texas who died without lifesaving care. “Physicians felt compelled to follow the law,” he said in a hearing, “and both women died so that an inane law could be followed.”
A conservative colleague had warned him not to file the bill, Murphy told ProPublica, recalling the man’s words: “I can no longer protect you from who’s going to come after you.”
There was some truth to that sentiment.
At least four Republican state lawmakers who challenged severe abortion restrictions lost support from anti-abortion groups and key party allies and went on to lose primary elections, ProPublica found.
The blueprint in those races was remarkably similar. Opponents either embraced stricter abortion policies or avoided the issue altogether. Anti-abortion organizations campaigned against the incumbents, party endorsements shifted to their opponents and activists worked to turn out voters in low-participation primary elections.
In some of the races ProPublica examined, lawmakers who replaced abortion-ban reformers went on to support even stricter abortion legislation. In South Carolina, for instance, two new senators supported a bill to eliminate almost all exceptions to the state’s abortion ban. One provision of the bill would send women convicted of illegally terminating their pregnancies to jail.
Murphy is one of at least two Republican state lawmakers now facing a contested primary after trying to modify their states’ abortion restrictions. Richard Briggs, a state senator from Tennessee, is also fighting to keep his seat. In 2019, Briggs voted for the state’s so-called trigger law — a ban that would snap into place if the federal right to abortion was ever overturned.
But he had second thoughts after that actually happened. A cardiothoracic surgeon, Briggs realized the newly activated law didn’t provide adequate protections for patients having medical complications. “As a medical doctor, I drew the line,” he said in an interview. He introduced bills for a clearer medical exception and protection for doctors who intervened in cases where a fatal fetal anomaly risked the mother’s health.
The latter bill failed and now serves as ammunition for the challenger vying for his seat in the state’s Aug. 6 primary. “My opponent consistently works to weaken Tennessee’s pro life laws,” Kent Morrell says on his campaign website, noting that Tennessee Right to Life had revoked its endorsement of Briggs.
Murphy, who teaches biomedical sciences at the University of North Dakota’s medical school, ultimately did not succeed at reforming the state’s ban. His bill failed 87-6, and the state Supreme Court later reinstated the original ban, which forbids abortion from conception, with exceptions for rape and incest up to six weeks and to save the life of the mother.
The first time Murphy ran for election, his county’s Republican Party had endorsed him. Not this time. Instead, the party endorsed his two challengers, including Jill Chandler, the executive director of a “crisis pregnancy center” who believes abortion should be banned from conception.
She told ProPublica she happened to be present in the committee room when Murphy made the case for his bill. “To know that he was an endorsed Republican candidate from my district and one that I had voted for because of that endorsement was eye-opening,” she said. “I remember thinking, ‘This can never happen again.’”
It was not the first time either Briggs or Murphy had taken positions that aggravated members of their parties in legislatures that have taken sharp turns to the right. Murphy voted against book bans and private school vouchers. Briggs had urged the public to get COVID-19 shots and has said that medical expertise should trump politics in decisions that involve public health.
Briggs expressed confidence in his election chances; he feels that voters agree with the decisions he’s made and noted that his Republican colleague, Sen. Becky Duncan Massey, survived a primary challenge over her support for abortion-ban exceptions.
Murphy believes the “silent majority” supports the intent of his abortion bill, but primary races historically have low turnout. It could come down to a handful of votes, he said.
“I might lose an election over this,” Murphy said, “but would I rather win an election by not doing the right thing?”
Mary DuBuisson, a former state Republican representative in a suburb outside of New Orleans, considers herself passionately “pro-life.” Like Briggs, she voted for her state’s near-total abortion ban in 2019. Three years later, just before Louisiana’s trigger law was implemented, it came before the legislature again.
Recognizing that women would now have to live under the restriction, DuBuisson wanted to make sure victims of rape and incest could terminate their pregnancies. When her colleagues refused to include those exceptions, she became the only Republican to vote against the ban.
A year later, she caused a stir when she sponsored a bill that would have allowed women whose pregnancies were not viable to end them. “To force a woman to carry to term with zero chance of survival is heartless and cruel,” she said at the time.
She didn’t feel it would be controversial. Other Republican women in the House told her she was doing the right thing. But when it was time to vote, another female Republican state lawmaker made a motion that ultimately succeeded at killing the bill in committee. “I mean, I just couldn’t understand,” she said of all her colleagues. “What if this was you, your daughter or granddaughter?”
When she came up for reelection, her primary opponent latched onto her record. Brian Glorioso was an attorney she had handily defeated in 2018. He called her proposed legislation a leftist attempt to circumvent the state’s abortion ban and said any “pro-abortion” doctor would falsely deem a pregnancy nonviable in records just to perform the procedure.
She beat him in the Oct. 14, 2023, primary by 384 votes — not enough to avoid a runoff.
Then, he got some extra support.
On Oct. 16, Louisiana Right to Life told its followers this runoff was key. Glorioso was expected to have a 100% “pro-life” voting record, while DuBuisson’s was 77%.
On Oct. 27, the state’s new governor-elect, Republican Jeff Landry, endorsed him, citing issues other than abortion; he wouldn’t tell ProPublica whether DuBuisson’s record on it played a role. But Landry, who had defended the state’s ban as attorney general, made clear during his campaign that he was “an unwavering defender of life, especially in the face of adversity,” citing his 100% rating from a national anti-abortion group.
“I think it partially cost me my election,” DuBuisson said of her attempts to reform the ban.
History repeated itself the following year, this time in South Carolina.
Three state senators — all Republicans who consider themselves “pro-life” — worked across party lines to defeat an abortion bill that essentially banned the procedure from conception and eliminated rape and incest exceptions. At the time, the state allowed abortion up to 20 weeks.
Sens. Sandy Senn and Penry Gustafson spoke out against limitations on abortion access for victims of rape and incest. Sen. Katrina Shealy, who had the longest tenure for a woman in the state legislature, pushed for making abortion accessible up to 12 weeks and later for exceptions in cases involving rape, incest and fatal fetal anomalies. Ultimately, a six-week window with rape, incest and fatal fetal exceptions became law.
Amid the Statehouse showdown, they were nicknamed the “Sister Senators.” All lost their county GOP’s endorsement to their male opponents.
But the bigger repercussions came from anti-abortion groups that mobilized a multifront grassroots campaign against them. Students for Life Action announced that it generated “37,000 pieces of mail, almost 130,000 personal text messages, more than 51,000 phone calls and thousands of doors knocked” to unseat the trio.
“All three of them got voted out — every single one of them lost because of that decision,” said Dr. Matthew Clark, the executive director of Personhood South Carolina, which believes abortion shouldn’t exist at all and that women who have them should be prosecuted for murder.
Clark, an allergist and Presbyterian pastor, said his group’s desired legislation has a better chance to advance now that the Sister Senators have been replaced.
Matt Leber, who beat Senn, previously co-sponsored a bill as a member of the state House that would make abortion a crime equivalent to homicide. It failed to advance, and Leber withdrew his name as a co-sponsor amid a controversy surrounding it in 2023.
This legislative session, Leber and Carlisle Kennedy, who beat Shealy, supported a bill that carries misdemeanor criminal penalties for women seeking abortions, with jail time up to two years. Senate Bill 1095 passed with supermajority support out of a committee Leber sits on.
The bill died before the session, but watchers of abortion restrictions noticed it got further than any other similarly repressive legislation ever has.
The outcomes do not neatly match public polling. Surveys in states such as South Carolina and Louisiana have found that many Republican voters support at least some exceptions to abortion bans, including in cases of rape or threats to a woman’s health.
But primary elections often draw only a small share of eligible voters, giving outsized influence to highly engaged activists and organized interest groups.
DuBuisson’s runoff drew about one-third of registered voters. Participation in the South Carolina primaries was lower still. Some races were decided on tiny margins; Senn lost hers by 33 votes.
The North Dakota GOP has moved further to the right on abortion in recent years, even as polling suggested the state’s restrictions were losing support from Republican voters. At its 2026 convention, the party passed a resolution rejecting any policies that “normalize” abortion.
North Dakota is one of the few states with a multimember system, where two representatives and one senator govern together in the same district. District 43, which Murphy currently represents, is one of the only purple districts in an otherwise deeply red state. It includes part of Grand Forks, a growing college town home to the University of North Dakota.
Murphy’s fellow representative, Democrat Zac Ista, told ProPublica he hadn’t been able to make a dent in this legislature. He announced he wouldn’t be seeking reelection, opening up an opportunity for a Republican takeover of the district.
Ista said the lack of support rallying around Murphy is due to his position on abortion, as well as culture-war legislation he refused to support. “I think it’s illustrative of that schism, where at this district level, Republicans are really trying to sort of press the most extreme conservative opinions,” Ista said.
Richard Glynn, the GOP county chair in Murphy’s district, had previously supported Murphy’s abortion bill. In written testimony, Glynn shared his experience hearing about young women performing illegal abortions when he was a freshman at the University of South Dakota in 1966. Four young women who were in sororities died from using metal hangers to terminate their pregnancies, he wrote.
“These deaths were viewed as preventable if these girls could have received competent care. Unfortunately, North Dakota is going down the same path with limited access to obstetric care that negatively impacts the health of the woman,” his letter said.
When reached by phone, Glynn said delegates in the county voted and Murphy had the least amount of votes, which is why he did not receive the county’s endorsement.
Glynn declined to answer more questions before hanging up on a reporter.
One of Murphy’s opponents, Mike Holmes, has drawn a lot of excitement — and an endorsement from Gov. Kelly Armstrong — for his expertise in energy technology and industrial development. The governor said Holmes understands “what it takes to keep North Dakota’s economy strong.” Holmes has been silent on abortion and didn’t respond to ProPublica’s requests for an interview.
Chandler, who touted her “respect for life” in a campaign mailer, is favored among anti-abortion groups. “It’s a pretty stark contrast,” said Bridget Turbide, executive director of North Dakota Right to Life, who called Murphy’s proposal “the most extreme pro-choice bill we’ve ever seen.”
Citizens Alliance of North Dakota, a conservative group that opposes abortion among other causes, paid for a mailer calling Chandler a “champion of family values.” The same group marked Murphy in “bad standing” in an online roster of legislators, questioning his alignment with North Dakota values.
Murphy’s third colleague who also represents District 43, Republican State Sen. Jeff Barta, campaigned alongside him in 2022 as part of a unified Republican ticket when the primary election was uncontested.
Asked about the upcoming race and the candidates, Barta pointed to Murphy’s proposal that would have expanded abortion access in North Dakota.
“Last session, he introduced House Bill 1488, which created a little divide there,” Barta said.
Barta said Murphy has also broken with the party on other issues.
“That probably opened the door for the third candidate to run,” Barta added. Had that not happened, Murphy would have made it to the general election without having to defend his spot on the ballot.
Before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, lawmakers taking such nuanced stands on abortion bans may not have risked a career death sentence, said abortion historian and law professor Mary Ziegler.
“The kind of incrementalism that Eric Murphy seems to be doing is something from a bygone era, where people were more pragmatic in the movement and not punished for it,” she said.
The post These Republican Lawmakers Challenged Abortion Bans. Then They Faced Backlash. appeared first on ProPublica.
As an Ebola outbreak continues to rage in Central Africa, the Trump administration keeps trying to blame the World Health Organization — revealing what experts say is a deep misunderstanding about global disease response.
In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local health workers have been battling the devastating virus without adequate supplies, testing materials, or international support. The outbreak is further complicated by the rare strain of the disease, known as Bundibugyo, that standard field tests often miss and for which there are no vaccines or therapeutics. At least 62 people in Congo and one in Uganda have died according to WHO, but experts say this is likely a significant undercount due to the outbreak emerging in a remote, war-torn region.
“The outbreak had a big head start, and we’re still behind, but under the leadership of the Government of DRC, we are catching up,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told journalists on Wednesday, after a visit to the epicenter of the outbreak. African health officials say that it might take nine months or more to get a handle on the outbreak.
Experts say Trump administration policies — like dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development and withdrawing from WHO — have undermined global health security and negatively impacted the response to the outbreak. The U.S. had been the largest provider of humanitarian assistance and health sector support to the Democratic Republic of Congo, funding more than 70 percent of humanitarian work there, according to a 2025 report from Physicians for Human Rights which noted the aid cuts have “severely harmed” public health and humanitarian efforts, including infectious disease control. The Trump administration has reportedly even barred some U.S. health officials from communicating with counterparts at WHO.
In the face of criticism of a U.S. failure to quickly respond to the Ebola outbreak, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott lashed out at WHO and heaped praise on his boss. “The security concerns in the area – which President Trump has taken unprecedented steps to address – and the WHO’s delay in informing the world of concerns until May 15 has had an impact,” he told The Intercept.
Public health experts say Piggot’s response exposes a fundamental confusion about how authorities combat infectious disease. “It reveals a lack of understanding about how international health regulations work and what a ‘public health emergency of international concern’ actually is,” Margaret Harris, a former senior WHO official and a medical doctor who responded to Ebola outbreaks in West Africa in the mid-2010s and Congo in the late 2010s, told The Intercept.
On May 5, WHO issued an alert of a high-mortality outbreak in Congo’s Ituri Province, which included deaths among healthcare workers. On May 14, blood samples were finally analyzed across the country, in the capital, Kinshasa. A day later, the analysis confirmed Bundibugyo virus disease, a strain of Ebola.
“We also need to remember that Ebola is only one health threat among many that these communities face.”
Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, explained that affected nations are the lead actors. “WHO does not declare. It’s the member states who declare,” he told The Intercept on Thursday. “On the 15th, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda declared. On the 16th, we declared the presence of Ebola, and on the 17th, Director-General Tedros declared this as a ‘public health emergency of international concern.’”
Dr. Marie Roseline Belizaire, WHO Africa’s Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, further explained that under the well-defined protocols, states have the obligation to declare an outbreak after which the WHO informs the rest of the world and begins providing support. “There is a clear, well-defined methodology and it is clearly outlined in the international health regulations,” she told The Intercept.
The response is markedly quicker than in some previous outbreaks. During the 2014–16 Ebola crisis in West Africa — when more than 28,000 people were infected and more than 11,000 died in the largest ever outbreak of the disease — WHO became aware that Ebola was spreading in Guinea in March 2014 but did not declare a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” until almost five months later.
Blame for any lag in response is not the fault of WHO, argued Harris, noting that USAID previously supported NGOs and healthcare workers in rural communities on the front lines of such outbreaks. “Dr. Tedros declared it without even calling the emergency committee together, so he wasted no time once they had information about the extent of the outbreak and the fact that clearly it had been running silently for a long time,” said Harris. “But the silence of the outbreak is not something you could lay at the feet of WHO. You lay that at the feet of a very fragile health system in the middle of a conflict that the rest of the world should be doing something to stop.”
The number of suspected Ebola cases in Congo has been reduced from over 1,000 last week to 116 as teams work through a backlog of tests. Experts say many suspected cases turned out to be malaria. This large number of people with untreated malaria demonstrates, they note, the chronic healthcare deficiencies in the region and a need for a comprehensive focus on public health there.
“We also need to remember that Ebola is only one health threat among many that these communities face,” said Tedros. “One of the things I heard from the community leaders is that they worry that the response to Ebola may take resources away from the health and humanitarian services they rely on for their many other needs.”
The Trump administration has faced scrutiny for pouring money into an Ebola quarantine and treatment center for infected Americans being built in Kenya, as a group of distinguished physicians, nurses, public health professionals, and humanitarian workers, including former top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called for Americans exposed to Ebola to be brought home for treatment. “We are deeply concerned by reports that the United States government is pursuing a policy under which American citizens with Ebola exposures requiring quarantine, isolation, or medical care would be transferred to a facility in Kenya,” they wrote in a letter to Congress, noting the “profound legal, ethical, and human rights concerns associated with preventing American citizens from returning home for care or diverting them to third-country facilities.”
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio doubled down on plans to bar Americans with Ebola from being treated in the U.S. “We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States,” he said.
“It really sends the wrong message — that it’s a terrifying thing that you can’t possibly allow to arrive at your borders,” said Harris. Kenya has never experienced an Ebola outbreak, making it a perplexing choice of location for a treatment facility.
The U.S. could have set up a facility in Congo, Harris said, which has the most experience and expertise, having stopped 16 previous outbreaks. Or it could bring its citizens home for treatment and quarantine.
“If you’re going to not treat U.S. citizens on-site in DRC, bring them back to the U.S.” said Harris. “You’ve got one of the best health systems in the world, and you’ve got some of the brightest and best in the world in your country. So why aren’t you mobilizing them and showing that America is truly great?”
The post Trump Administration Tries to Shift Blame for Ebola Response appeared first on The Intercept.
ALIYAH JACKSON
Contributing Reporter
On March 20, 2026, I got to see one of my favorite artists of all time and have been chasing that high ever since. Before I get into describing my amazing night filled with fun, high energy and great music, I have to introduce the man who made it all happen — Jordan Ward.
Jordan Ward is an alternative R&B and Hip Hop artist from St. Louis, Mo. He is known for his combination of intricate vocal performances and upbeat rapping, creating a widely-appealing and refreshing sound. At just 31 years old, he has worked very hard to make a name for himself and is steadily climbing the ranks of the music industry.
Interestingly, making music was not Ward’s initial focus. He actually began his career as a background dancer for some of the biggest names in the industry, including Justin Bieber, Usher, Janet Jackson, Prince and Beyoncé.
It wasn’t until years after I fell in love with his music that I watched Beyoncé’s “Homecoming” Coachella performance on Netflix and saw a younger Ward, with significantly shorter hair, dancing alongside her.
Despite his busy schedule as a touring dancer, Ward began to set time aside to focus on his own music career between dancing gigs. He released both his first single, “Tapas” and his first EP, “A Peak at the Summit,” in 2017. Although I still appreciate his earlier work, the songs that skyrocketed his career did not come out until the early 2020s.
His 2021 single, “Lil Baby Crush,” quickly became one of his most popular songs and launched him into the public eye. It was only up from there and Ward has been on a generational run ever since.
Between his 2023 release of what I would consider his most popular song, “WHITE CROCS (with Ryan Trey)” — which earned him a special shoutout from Tyler, The Creator — and the success of his debut album “FORWARD,” Ward quickly became a popular underdog in the music scene.
Now, we are in the midst of a new Jordan Ward era following the release of his latest album, “BACKWARD.” In my opinion, it’s the perfect continuation of the momentum he built with “FORWARD,” featuring tracks that range from upbeat hits perfect for dancing to ballads that’ll leave you teary-eyed.
While “FORWARD” broke down Ward’s roots and where he came from, “BACKWARD” allowed fans a glimpse into who he is at his core, including his insecurities, regrets and mistakes.
This brings me to his current tour — “THE APARTMENT TOUR.” The name comes from Ward aiming to make the show feel like he was inviting all of us into his apartment — a promise he definitely delivered on.
The stage was set up like a living room while Ward sang and danced around it all night like a little kid putting on a show for his family. From the minute he touched the stage to when the lights went up at the end, it truly felt like we were one big family.
The Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia provided the perfect intimate and cozy atmosphere to complement the homey feel of the show. Although I love my more well-known artists, I adore the closeness that comes with attending concerts held in theaters rather than arenas or stadiums.
The show was sold out and packed to the brim with attendees. The venue only offered standing and balcony options, so for less than $100 for two tickets, I got to spend my time in the pit, mere feet away from Ward with dozens of other fans.
I would say I enjoyed myself, but that would be an extreme understatement — I had one of the best nights I have had in a long time. He sounded amazing and his live vocals proved to be equally as good, if not better than his recorded ones.
His energy kept the crowd wrapped around his finger as we returned the same love we felt him pouring out to us throughout the night. Not to mention, he is probably the cutest 31-year-old man I’ve ever seen and is absolutely stunning, especially when he finally let his long dreadlocks fall out of the oversized striped beanie he wore for most of the show.
He even brought a few guests with him: his opener, Nali, whom I knew a few songs from and really enjoyed, along with surprise guest Destin Conrad, who performed his popular song, “KISSING IN PUBLIC,” as the crowd went absolutely wild.
My favorite songs of the night were “HIGH FUNCTIONING,” “Lil Baby Crush,” “TAKE-OUT,” “CHERIMOYA,” “WHITE CROCS,” “THEMSELVES,” “FAMJAM4000,” “CHAMPION SOUND” and “Y.”
Overall, Jordan Ward is an outstanding performer and puts on an amazing show. I had honestly forgotten just how much I love him and his music until he was standing right in front of me. My only regret was not getting meet-and-greet tickets when I had the chance, so that I could tell him just how much his music has helped me get through these four years of college. However, it’s definitely on my radar for next time.
I’m tempted to gatekeep so that I can keep him in my little bubble of niche artists forever, but as a huge music-lover, I can’t with a good conscience continue to let y’all miss out on such a wonderful artist. If you’re looking for a charismatic, handsome and versatile R&B artist to add to your playlist, Jordan Ward is your guy.
Beluga whales, which Marineland threatened to euthanize in 2025, will be moved to aquariums in Spain or across US
Canada and an embattled marine park have reached a tentative deal on the future of 30 beluga whales, ending a saga that has captivated the public and angered animal rights groups.
The federal fisheries ministry announced this week that all of Marineland’s belugas would be shipped to either Spain or one of four locations in the US, ending whale captivity in Canada.
Continue reading...As Iran war reshapes the Middle East, Turkey’s regional role looks set to expand Expert comment LToremark
Ankara’s deepening relations with Gulf countries and a potential rerouting of trade are among the factors likely to benefit Turkey.
The Iran war is fundamentally redefining politics in the Middle East and upending the regional status quo. It is also redefining Turkey’s role within the region, which presents both challenges and opportunities for Ankara.
For Turkey, the worst-case scenario was and is that Israel would seek to engineer state collapse in Iran, the fallout of which would consume both Iran and its neighbours for many years to come. It would pave the way for proxy conflicts, a refugee crisis and state fragmentation – and bring the Kurdish dimension of the war to the fore. This outcome would also further embolden Israel – with US backing – to continue its efforts to reshape the region on its own terms. But so far, Iran’s endurance has prevented Turkey’s worst fears from materializing.
At this stage, Turkey has two interrelated concerns. One, Turkey wants to prevent a return to war, but it is also worried about what it sees as Iran’s attempt to rewrite the rules of the game in the Gulf. For example, Iran’s new transit rules for the Strait of Hormuz could effectively give Iran significant influence over Gulf states’ security as well as their economy. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has called for a return to the pre-war status quo in Hormuz, warning the new regulation could become a ‘new source’ of conflict. Plus, Turkey believes that Iran’s actions here will push Gulf states closer to the US and Israel.
However, the war also presents Ankara with opportunities in the shape of an expanded regional role: in defence industry and security partnerships; in regional connectivity and trade route redesign; and through regional alignments.
This war has brought the question of security to the forefront of policy conversations and considerations in the Gulf and the wider region. Although there is not yet an alternative to the US security umbrella, it has failed to provide the security that Gulf states wanted. For many countries in the Middle East – not least those of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – the US is indispensable, but also unreliable and coercive at the same time. However, despite their mixed feelings and discontent, Gulf countries will have no choice but to double down on their relations with the US. This will only be reinforced by Iran’s actions and attempts to rewrite the rules of the game in the Gulf.
At the same time, Gulf states will also gradually seek to diversify their security partnerships and defence industry cooperation, as a hedging strategy against over-dependence on the US in this area. However, they will be cautious about engaging in such partnerships with US adversaries to avoid incurring the wrath of Washington. This is probably good news for Turkey, a country with a growing defence industry – and on good terms with the US and President Donald Trump – to further expand its security and defence industry cooperation with Gulf states. This cooperation is unlikely to be confined to purchases of Turkish weapons or drone systems; it will likely also include joint production agreements, joint investments, and technology and knowledge transfers.
The Hormuz crisis has brought the question of rerouting trade corridors and redesigning connectivity to the top of regional and international agendas. Turkey is well-positioned to benefit from such shifts. The wider Middle East and beyond have seen an increasing number of connectivity projects aimed at rerouting trade and redesigning supply chains, such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) – whose prospects are dimming following the Gaza and Iran wars – and the now-defunct Eastern Mediterranean Pipeline project. Turkey already plays a central role in two such projects: the Iraq Development Road project and the Middle Corridor. These strategic connectivity projects are not only redesigning supply-chains and rerouting trade, but they also redefine the geopolitics of the concerned regions.
Turkey and its partners should consider ways to further boost the prospects of Ankara-supported connectivity projects. For example, bringing Syria on board with the Iraq Development Road project would provide an even shorter route to the Mediterranean, while bringing Armenia on board with the Middle Corridor would strengthen the ongoing normalization process between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia. In the post-Iran war era, Turkey and regional states are likely to engage in even more dialogue on trade corridors and transport connectivity. For example, the Hejaz Railway project – a prospective land corridor between the Gulf and Europe, which will connect Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, – is already attracting interest.
The Iran war is also triggering or accelerating the formation of new regional alignments and groupings. The quartet comprising Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt is a case in point, although it is more of a platform than a pact. Ankara wants it to remain open to including more countries to avoid counter-alignment groups from forming, which can lead to more regional rivalries and fragmentation. Although individual members of this group, such as Pakistan and Turkey, have assumed active roles to find a diplomatic settlement to end the war, the quartet itself is primarily designed to address post-war regional geopolitics and security.
With the departure of University of Delaware students, Newark’s streets and parking lots are less crowded, and soon residents will be able to enjoy free weekend parking downtown.
No state has taken over as many local public school districts as Texas. Just since 2020, the Texas Education Agency has installed its own hand-picked leaders in eight districts. Four of those came this spring. At least another 10 are at risk of takeover, including, as of last week, the Austin Independent School District.
And to lead some of these districts, Texas is turning to a cadre of officials with ties to Mike Miles, the man the education agency chose in 2023 to oversee the Houston school district, the state’s largest. Miles is also a close ally of Mike Morath, Texas’ powerful education commissioner.
Already, at least two of these new district leaders have started to adopt policies similar to the contentious reforms Miles has pursued in Houston. He has touted improved test scores under his charge. Houston ISD had no F-rated campuses and fewer D-rated campuses in the state’s latest ratings compared with previous years. But Miles has also sparked widespread protests in response to the district’s rigid adherence to scripted lessons and repetitive testing, the firing of principals and teachers, mass school closures, and the conversion of schools into charters.
Miles did not respond to requests for comment from the Texas Observer. Houston ISD officials, in a statement to the Observer, said the district did not achieve better ratings by maintaining the status quo but “made difficult decisions” to improve academic performance, noting the majority of its campuses are now rated A or B.
These school districts whose new leaders have connections to Miles should prepare for “upheaval and chaos,” warned an elected Houston school board member.
“If anything doesn’t align with improving test scores, it will be taken away,” said Maria Benzon, who was elected in November to the Houston ISD board but is not permitted to serve under the ongoing state takeover. Under Miles, for example, Houston ISD eliminated librarian positions and turned some libraries into what Benzon called “detention centers,” because they are being used, in part, for students with behavioral issues. Morath, the TEA commissioner, has said the centers are used for more than just punishment.
Texas law allows the TEA to take control of districts with multiple failing school ratings or governance issues and to replace their superintendent and elected boards.
The recent takeovers include Beaumont, Lake Worth and Connally independent school districts, whose new superintendents worked under Miles when he was superintendent in Dallas ISD; two of them also worked for him in Houston. In Fort Worth ISD, one of the state’s largest districts, the new state-appointed superintendent chose Daniel Soliz as his second-in-command, another person who worked under Miles in Houston ISD. Soliz did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
At least two of the state’s new superintendent appointees — Sandi Massey, who now helms Beaumont ISD in southeast Texas, and Ena Meyers, TEA’s appointee for Lake Worth ISD, a small district near Fort Worth — also worked for the controversial Colorado-based charter network Third Future Schools, which Miles led prior to becoming superintendent in Houston. In April, the Observer revealed that Miles had an ongoing $120,000 annual consulting contract with the charter network, an arrangement that likely violated a new statewide ban on public school administrators’ moonlighting. After questions from the news organization, Miles canceled the contract. The district said Miles “remains fully focused on leading Houston ISD and delivering results for students.”
Third Future’s charter network is expanding around the state as districts turn campuses over to the nonprofit’s Texas subsidiary, often as a means to delay possible state takeover. The nonprofit did not respond to the Observer’s request for comment.
School district takeovers often involve layoffs, school closures and an increase in charter schools, as has happened in Houston, said Domingo Morel, an associate professor of political science and public service at New York University, who found Texas has had more district takeovers than any other state since 1989.
What’s unique to Texas, Morel said, is that the low bar required to take control has led to more takeovers. Since 2015, five consecutive failing state ratings at just one school can trigger a takeover, as occurred in Houston, which has 273 campuses.
Texas has also made it harder for districts to appeal these seizures. The Legislature passed a law in 2021 that barred districts from using public funds to challenge the education commissioner’s “final and unappealable” decision to take them over. The threshold that defines a failing school was also lowered. Then, in 2025, the state passed another law restricting districts from using public funds to sue the state when challenging its accountability ratings.
The state “is the player, the referee, the coach, the scorekeeper,” when it comes to rating schools and deciding when to seize control, said Steven Nelson, an associate professor of education policy and leadership at the University of Nevada who’s been studying school takeovers for more than a decade. He said he suspects the TEA-appointed leaders connected to Miles will also focus on standardized testing, which will result in “a narrow curriculum when all is said and done.”
The acceleration of takeovers, and the state’s increasingly stringent rating system, comes just as Texas rolls out a school voucher program that will, in most cases, award parents $10,000 in state funds to send their children to private schools. State accountability standards do not apply to private schools, where students don’t have to take the standardized tests required in Texas public schools.
TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky said the agency does not expect the four school districts that have recently been taken over to adopt the same reforms that Miles implemented in Houston. “During an intervention, state law requires the agency to appoint a new superintendent and a board of managers. All other staffing and operational decisions are made locally by the district,” Kobersky said.
But last August, Morath told lawmakers other districts “should be copying the changes that we see in Houston.”
Massey, the new superintendent in Beaumont, has also cited the changes in Houston ISD as a blueprint.
“The model that we are implementing here is a very similar model to Houston. And why? Because of the success that Houston has had,” Massey said at a May 21 board meeting, referring to her time working with Miles at Houston ISD, where he selected her to be chief of schools.
Under Massey, the newly appointed board of managers voted at their first meeting to temporarily suspend a number of policies related to governance and hiring practices, including employees’ rights to present grievances to the board and principals’ ability to approve new hires without district permission. Board of managers member Jeff Wheeler said at the meeting, “We are requesting that they be suspended until the board can move, can more fully evaluate our local policies.”
The board has taken other steps that mirror what happened in Houston after the takeover there: On May 14, the district announced it was cutting 34 positions that support student mental health, and on May 21, it announced a high school would close.
Massey did not respond to the Observer’s requests for comment about whether she’s following the Houston playbook. Jackie Simien, a spokesperson for Beaumont ISD said, “Massey has worked alongside successful educational leaders with demonstrated results in improving systems, instruction, and student performance.”
Benzon, the elected Houston ISD board member, said Miles is sidelining parent and teacher voices in her district, and they are leaving in droves as a result. “They are trying to escape the New Education System and Miles’ bad policies,” Benzon added, referring to a program Miles transplanted from his former charter school network that is characterized by scripted lessons and repetitive testing. The Houston Chronicle reported the district “is losing students at an accelerated pace” under the takeover, spurring the district to shutter 12 schools ahead of the next school year.
In its statement to the Observer, Houston ISD cited a survey of families reporting a “favorable perception” of the district and said it retained many exemplary teachers.
Nelson and Morel said they believe the ultimate objective of any takeover is to disenfranchise local communities. Black and Hispanic students make up the majority of the population at all four of the districts now headed by Miles’ associates.
“It all begins at the school board level to then completely disempower the community,” Morel said.
On April 23, Houston ISD moved to fire a veteran teacher and president of the Houston Education Association teachers union after she protested requirements to comply with Miles’ New Education System.
Meyers, the new Lake Worth superintendent who at the time was Houston ISD’s deputy chief of strategic initiatives, testified in favor of the teacher’s termination.
“We do not allow our staff to make decisions about curriculum in a New Education System school or in Houston ISD,” Meyers said, according to a transcript of the hearing. “If they are not following expectations, we would not allow them to stay in HISD as an employee.”
Since taking over in Lake Worth, Meyers and the board of managers have temporarily suspended board policies related to governance procedures, hiring and employee assignments and schedules, similar to what Massey and her board did in Beaumont.
In response to the Observer’s inquiries about replicating Houston ISD’s reforms in her new role, Meyers wrote in an email that “Lake Worth ISD is very different from Houston ISD. We are a district of five schools serving a much smaller community, so our approach must reflect the unique needs of our students, staff, and families.”
Her email continued, “I believe educators should learn from successful practices wherever they exist.”
As in Beaumont and Lake Worth, the takeover in Fort Worth ISD has been characterized by swift changes. After less than a month under the new leadership, the 68,000-student district has suspended local board governance and hiring policies and has cut dozens of staff positions, including those supporting English-language learners.
Parent organizer Zach Leonard said a new instructional model Fort Worth ISD is rolling out in 19 schools, called “Elevate,” is essentially the same as what Miles has done in Houston, an assertion district spokesperson Tierney Tinnin refuted.
Leonard, along with other parents with his organization, notes the similarities between the programs: “scripted slide-by-slide lessons, rigid timed instruction, and ‘demonstrations of learning’ reduced to data points.”
“This isn’t education reform,” Leonard said, referring to Miles’ model of learning being transported to Fort Worth. “It’s a franchise being handed to our children without a vote.”
The post Texas State Takeover of Local School Districts Expands, Raising Concerns appeared first on ProPublica.
A child of immigrants, Jessica Liu knows what it’s like for a student to feel like he or she doesn’t fit in at school.
The Food Bank of Delaware is inviting community members to enjoy fresh, locally grown produce this summer while supporting hunger relief efforts statewide through its 2026 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
A new statue has hatched on the campus of the University of Delaware.
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