The Trump administration is unlikely to scale back its aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration following the results of the midterm elections, multiple U.S. officials told CBS News, citing the elevation of Stephen Miller as White House chief of staff.

The U.S. did not say whether any military action would be involved in preventing weapons technology or sanctioned items from entering Iran.

"Aaron Swartz would have turned forty this year," writes FSF deputy director Sean O'Brien. "November 8 is Aaron Swartz Day, when we remember a pioneer of free software and information sharing whose contributions helped shape the modern internet." The Internet Archive will host a hackathon Sunday in San Francisco celebrating Aaron's Swartz's life "and the projects he worked on, many of which are still going strong today," including SecureDrop, OpenLibrary, and Creative Commons. "We are also spreading the word about projects he inspired," including OnionPress and the EFF's Atlas of Surveillancedocumenting police tech use through open source research, now a collaborative effort with volunteers, the University of Nevada, Reno, and the Reynolds School of Journalism. The event is also supported by Free Law Project, and organizers are asking attendees to "bring a color print out of your favorite photos of Aaron for a huge collaborative collage." From the Internet Archive's blog: Aaron was also a co-founder of Creative Commons, where he worked with Lisa Rein developing the RSS-enhanced HTML code that sits behind Creative Commons licenses, much of which is still in use today. The "Quantifying the Commons" project was designed to help measure open-licensed and public-domain works worldwide, and is one of the projects participants can work on. Aaron loved Tor and created tools such as "Tor2web" (with Virgil Griffith) to help more people publish Tor-accessible websites. Onion Press is a Tor-based publishing system designed for decentralized, censorship-resistant publishing, and participants can work on the code base... We also encourage you to have a hackathon in your own town using our materials — or materials of your own. Please let us know if you plan to do this (although it's not required!). If you do let us know, we can include you on our website and help you spread the word about your event. So far, there is an event in Portland sponsored by Portland Civic Lab where they will be screening The Internet's Own Boy and celebrating Aaron's life. "EFF was proud to call Aaron a friend and ally," the digital rights organization posted this week. And the FSF's deputy director writes "It is particularly striking that some of the world's largest companies now rely on technology Swartz helped to develop." One of Swartz's most important technical contributions was his collaboration with John Gruber on Markdown, the simple text formatting system introduced in 2004. Markdown allows users to create structured documents using ordinary text, without requiring proprietary software. More than twenty years later, Markdown has become one of the most popular formats for documentation and publishing, and is widely used in community websites such as forums and wikis. This is not a minor contribution. Companies developing LLMs use Markdown extensively in their products and development tools. OpenAI, for example, recommends Markdown for organizing instructions and communicating structure to its ChatGPT models... Swartz also developed web.py, a public domain framework for building Python applications, and contributed to RSS 1.0, a public internet standard for distributing news and other information between websites. Swartz developed web.py while rewriting the software running Reddit after Reddit acquired Swartz's company Infogami. Reddit recently licensed its content to AI companies, and the FSF's deputy director notes "the enormous scale of the alleged 'piracy' by giant technology corporations" while Aaron himself had "faced criminal prosecution for downloading academic research that he wanted to distribute with no monetary gain." In 2011, federal prosecutors charged Swartz with computer fraud and related offenses after he downloaded millions of academic articles from the JSTOR collection through MIT's university network... Although he was not charged with copyright infringement, he faced aggressive federal prosecution and the possibility of decades in prison before he tragically died by suicide in January 2013, at just twenty-six years old... Swartz helped build tools that made the internet more useful and accessible, and his contributions continue to shape a world he never lived to see. On Aaron Swartz Day, we should remember his achievements and the access-to-knowledge principles that guided them. The companies benefiting from his legacy should respect those same principles by giving users true freedom and control, rather than imposing more restrictions on us all.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

When the evenings turn cold and the daylight slips away, these 13 slow cooker recipes bring pork roasts, chicken, beef stews, soups, and meatballs to dinner with the crock pot doing most of the work.The post 13 easy slow cooker…

Election results appear to have turbo-charged an already growing social, political and financial market rethink about AI

• ‘AI clog’: UK battles onslaught of chatbot-generated complaints

• Editorial: the AI backlash – Silicon Valley’s political power is cracking

Last week’s midterms may not have cowed Donald Trump, but they should be a wake-up call for the grinning tech broligarchs who lined up at his inauguration two chaotic years ago.

Clearly, the cost of living squeeze unleashed by Trump’s war in Iran was a big driver of the Democrat wave. But AI was also on the ballot – in many places, literally.

See My World, an event highlighting the pan-African thought via film, poetry and dance, builds on momentum sparked by local activists and creatives

African philosophies including exploring how lessons from the past can shape the present and near future have inspired a film festival coming to Manchester.

See My World, a day dedicated to independent creators from across the African diaspora in the north of England, will take place at the Contact theatre on 21 November.

The once-bearded New York mayor has downsized his facial hair. Does it work?

I’ve battled with facial hair almost my entire adult life.

I started growing it early, turning me into a pubescent villain from a spaghetti western. I was told by my parents not to shave it off, lest it grow back more furious than before. I just had to walk around high school looking like a hungover bond trader, which did nothing for my popularity.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

More people recognize opioid overdoses, but education about stimulant overdoses hasn’t been as clear-cut

Overdoses involving stimulants are on the rise in many parts of the country, according to recently available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but experts say recognizing and responding to them is more complex when compared with opioid overdoses.

“The rate of overdose decline was not nearly what we expected” in California, said Dr Taylor Nichols, an emergency and addiction medicine physician based in Sacramento.

Midterms success gives party potent leverage over Trump – expect tough campaigns of investigating and lawmaking

“Costs, chaos, corruption”: after almost two years spent relentlessly criticizing Donald Trump for failing to address those three, broad political concerns, Democrats won a monumental return to power in Tuesday’s midterm elections that will give them potent new leverage over the president.

Now the question becomes: what will they do with it?

The blue wave, while a rebuke of Trump’s policies, was also a referendum on the party’s status quo

On election night I stood in a crowd at Harlem Tavern, a restaurant in New York City, at the electoral party for Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member and congresswoman-elect from New York’s 13th congressional district. The crowd cheered as what came to be called the “blunami” rolled in: Iowa blue, Kansas blue, Talarico in Texas, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, House, Senate, gubernatorial races overwhelmingly going for the Democratic party.

The victories were a clear rebuke of Trump’s politics, but also a referendum on the Democratic party’s own centrism that is complicit in the violence of masked men hunting immigrants, the funding of a genocide and the denial of healthcare to citizens of the world’s wealthiest country.

Heba Gowayed is an associate professor of sociology at CUNY Hunter College and Graduate Center and author of the book Refuge: How the State Shapes Human Potential.

By: John Sides and Frances Lee

An optimistic political scientist says she wasn’t optimistic enough.

The post What the midterm showed about American democracy appeared first on Good Authority.

Officials say suspect holds far-right views and three people found dead at his home were his parents and sister

Polish prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation after a 24-year-old man opened fire in a busy market square in Kraków, killing six people including a Briton and injuring 17, in an attack that authorities said was probably inspired by far-right ideologies.

Police confirmed on Sunday that three people found dead at the gunman’s home after the attack on Saturday afternoon were his father, 53, mother, 52, and sister, 21.

What are the relationships and dominant interests in play, as the summit kicks off after a bitter row over its hosting?

Hosting Cop was a key pledge from Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese in 2021, while in opposition, before his successful election campaign. But arcane rules meant the country had to wait its turn to bid and was then embroiled in an angry row with Turkey over the hosting. The final compromise put Australia in charge of the negotiations which will take place in the Turkish city of Antalya. The bitter taste left by the row lingers and Australia has seemed to some a rather half-hearted host. The country’s media has been much quieter on Cop than previous host countries, and although Albanese will speak at the opening of the leaders’ segment, he is unlikely to stay long.

Ukraine has been bracing for Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure ahead of winter.

Margaret Parkes and her husband, in their 80s, want Allan Grimson to reveal location of their son Simon’s remains

The mother of a teenage Royal Navy sailor who vanished 40 years ago has called for a “serial killer” suspected of murdering him to finally reveal where her son’s body is hidden.

Speaking as Simon Parkes’ suspected murderer, the former navy petty officer Allan Grimson, was sentenced for sexual offences against four boys and men, Margaret Parkes, 80, said time was running out for her and her 84-year-old husband, David, to find out what happened to their son.

Luc Corlouër made ‘deal’ with Prix Goncourt winner Philippe Jaenada over his research into model Louise Cansot, murdered in Paris in 1949

For almost eight decades the artists’ model Louise Cansot, the subject of the novel winning France’s most prestigious literary prize this year, was one of Paris’s forgotten murder victims.

After her body was found near the Seine in September 1949, city police wrote off the young woman, immortalised as “the girl of 100 portraits”, as loose, libertine and – worse – an unmarried mother. They closed their investigation after just four months having made little effort to find her killer.

Delegates from more than 190 countries are gathering in Turkey for climate talks, but the US will be absent

As the planet faces unprecedented human-caused global heating, heads of government are meeting for the next fortnight for the latest round of climate talks. We ask why it matters and what is likely to be achieved.

On paper, the second-largest city in the country has its first democratic socialist mayor. 

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman declared victory on Thursday over the embattled incumbent Karen Bass, joining a list of socialist mayors who have risen to power in recent years, including Zohran Mamdani in New York; Seattle’s Katie Wilson; and most recently Janeese Lewis George in Washington, D.C., who won in a landslide this week. 

Raman, however, did not campaign unabashedly as a socialist. Though she ran as an endorsed member of the Democratic Socialists of America’s Los Angeles chapter, the national DSA threatened to override the local chapter and rescind the endorsement over concerns around her stances on Israel and Palestine. 

Unlike her counterpart in New York, to whom she draws most comparisons, Raman did not make sweeping socialist promises, such as free public transit, universal childcare, or taxing the rich. Instead, she focused on what’s wrong with the city. Riding a wave of resentment for Bass’s alleged mismanagements of the Palisades fire and the Lineage Logistics warehouse fire in Boyle Heights, Raman talked about filling potholes, fixing street lights, and making roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

In addition to DSA-LA support, she earned the endorsements of popular anti-corruption City Controller Kenneth Mejia and Unite Here 11, a major local hospitality workers union, whose large membership canvassed for her in the general. But she lacked endorsements from most key labor groups and social justice nonprofits, and the organizing base they provide. Her fellow DSA members on the Los Angeles City Council all pulled for Bass, forcing Raman to battle back the perception that she struggles to build coalitions.

While Mamdani, 10 months into his term, now finds himself under pressure from New York’s left for refusing to fire NYPD’s police commissioner, his massive base of organizer support offers a buffer to criticism. Raman won over the city’s voters, but it’s not clear how much time that will buy her to tackle the city’s most vexing problems once she takes office.

“Folks in New York are willing to cut Mamdani more slack on the movement side, because he was one of them on a bunch of issues,” said David Levitus, executive director of LA Forward, a progressive nonprofit that endorsed Raman in the general election.
”I think Nithya” — who did not come from the ranks of DSA organizing like Mamdani — “has more skepticism from parts of the left because of that.”

Raman will face scrutiny from LA’s progressive left on a host of issues: bloated police department spending amounting to roughly a quarter of the city’s nearly $15 billion budget; fear of collaboration between ICE and law enforcement agencies; the 2028 Olympics prompting an expansion of surveillance; rising homelessness; and failing infrastructure.

Weeks before the November election, Raman seemed less concerned with movement-based allegiances or ideological labels, saying she is “a capitalist and I’m also a democratic socialist.” Before the primary in June, she said she was “one of the most independent voices in City Hall” when asked about her membership with DSA. The statements and her votes in city council have prompted intense debate among DSA-LA’s members over whether Raman holds up to democratic socialist ideals.

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The Los Angeles Left Is at War With Itself Over the Mayor’s Race

While most Angelenos do not care about such fine distinctions, Raman’s measured embrace of socialist mantle has created among some activists the perception of a more responsive audience in city hall compared to previous administrations. Yet to others on LA’s progressive left, Raman’s ideological elusiveness reads as political unreliability.

“I don’t think Nithya Raman is accountable to anyone in the movement,” said Kris Rehl, an activist who volunteered for Raman during her 2020 city council run and now runs the mutual aid group LA Street Care. “If you do not subscribe to any ideology, you can’t be held accountable to it.” 

Rehl, who advocates for abolishing anti-camping bans that criminalize homeless encampments near schools and daycares, expressed dismay over Raman’s previous votes on expanding the police department despite running on defunding the police in 2020.

Others like Tal Levy, a member of DSA-LA’s electoral politics committee, remain more optimistic about what Raman can deliver as mayor. While DSA-LA is pushing for reallocating funds from the police budget into social services, Levy sees the value of Raman’s pledge to support LA Forward’s initiative of citywide expansion of unarmed crisis response teams, which divert certain 911 calls to teams of social workers and clinicians, rather than police.

“Even if Nithya were a fire-breathing abolitionist, it would still be a long fight to make those changes,” said Levy, who has been organizing with DSA-LA for nearly a decade. “But I believe there is plenty of room for us to make material wins in the short term.”

Room to Push

While there is debate over how much power DSA-LA has within LA’s political landscape, the group provided Raman additional attention and credibility among leftist voters, which was only bolstered by the successes of other DSA-endorsed candidates in New York and in congressional races across the nation.

The DSA’s National Political Committee, however, spurred one of the biggest public rifts during Raman’s campaign. The committee held a vote to un-endorse Raman over her perceived lack of support for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which hadn’t been included by the DSA-LA on its endorsement questionnaire. After a week of debate and dueling resolutions, and an email from Raman, in which she wrote, “the best way for working Angelenos to stand in solidarity with Gaza is through non-violent protest, legislative action, and diplomatic pressure, including BDS,” the national committee decided against rescinding its endorsement of Raman by a narrow margin.

Frances Gill, one of three DSA-LA members on the DSA national political committee, voted against rescinding the group’s endorsement. She opposed the idea of alienating the organization’s second largest chapter as “bad organizing and bad leadership,” especially in a high-profile race when the stakes for the regional and national chapters were so closely intertwined.

“The public ties us to one another,” Gill said of the DSA and Raman, “and there’s not a lot of other key players who have also played such a critical role in her being able to win. So I think that gives us an outsized seat at the table.”

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She was a part of the faction among national leadership that instead called for a long-term pressure campaign on Raman on the issue of Israel and Palestine. The group is planning to push Raman on what she can do as mayor to halt the transportation of military hardware that makes its way through the Los Angeles International Airport to Israel. Organizers also plan to call for an end to real estate events in LA facilitating the sale of housing illegally built in the occupied West Bank. They will also examine whether the city itself is invested in companies that are profiting off Israel’s genocide in Gaza and apartheid rule of Palestinians.

“I think there is room to push,” Gill said.

Another major public spat between progressives and Raman took place in January before she announced her candidacy for mayor. 

Catching housing advocates by surprise, Raman introduced a motion to reform the city’s “mansion tax” to make exemptions for developers. Raman claimed that the tax, known as Measure ULA, was inadvertently preventing construction of new multi-family housing. Organizers opposed the idea, since the tax generates funds for services to support existing affordable housing and keep people housed, and that carveouts for developers would only fuel displacement of low-income renters, possibly pushing more people to the streets.

LA Forward was among those blindsided by the motion, which she eventually withdrew. Before endorsing Raman, Levitus and the group met with the candidate alongside organizers in an activist’s home. 

“She talked about, ‘The times when I’ve succeeded, it’s because I built a coalition, the times when I failed, it’s because I didn’t, and I didn’t bring people along,’” Levitus recalled from the July meeting. “She really owned her mistake. I don’t know how much her mind has changed intellectually about the policy, but think clearly she recognizes that she needed to do something different — and that might lead to her pushing for a policy that is different from what she had pushed for before.”

Police Chief Dilemma

Among Raman’s early tests progressives will be watching for is how she fulfills her pledge to fire LAPD police chief Jim McDonnell. Raman was among the councilmembers who approved his appointment in 2024, despite concerns around his track record of collaborating with ICE as LA County sheriff. She has since said she would fire McDonnell over his response to the ICE raids and his refusal to enforce a state law that banned federal agents from wearing masks.

Yet the pledge to replace McDonnell may present a political quagmire for Raman, given that the mayor in LA cannot unilaterally force out a police chief. The city’s police commission, consisting of five civilians appointed by the mayor, must make that decision. Raman first will need to assemble her own commission, but that process also requires approval from a city council that remains largely supportive of the police department. 

William Gude, a vocal police accountability advocate who supported Raman in the election, said he planned to push the mayor to circumvent the process by asking McDonnell to resign. “I’m putting pressure on her from day one,” he said. “There’s some promises that she made, and those promises need to be kept.”

In her first press conference as mayor-elect, Raman sidestepped a question about whether she still planned to fire McDonnell, amid public threats from the police union warning of “Armageddon.” “Public safety is the most important service the city is delivering to its people,” said Raman, noting the chief was one of her first phone calls after winning. 

Activist pressure could be a burden for Raman — or a tool she could use to force legislation through a city council she knows well, according to Gude. “Does she want to have activists coming after her, also while battling 15 council members?” said Gude, who goes by @FilmthePoliceLA on social media. “Or would she rather have the activist base going after the council members that are coming after her, to create a buffer, to do a lot of her heavy lifting? It’s a choice she has to make.”

Hamid Khan, who heads the Stop Spying LAPD Coalition, is among those who is closely watching who Raman appoints to her police commission. But he sees Raman’s pledge of firing McDonnell as “a band-aid” for the more glaring structural issues of the department. While crediting Raman’s opposition to automated license plate readers from Flock Safety and Axon, Khan also pointed to Raman’s historic support for expanding the police department.

While in city council, Raman voted to expand LAPD’s budget three times: in 2021, 2022, and 2023. But she also voted against police raises in 2023, and this year, she opposed a plan by Bass to hire 170 more officers. She has said on the campaign trail she does not wish to expand the police budget, but also said she would not cut into it either.

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In the span of her time in city council, the LAPD has expanded its surveillance reach, Khan said. The department is slowly unrolling its Real-Time Crime Centers, which meld automated license plate reader technology, social media monitoring software, and CCTV cameras into a constant surveillance tool. He warned such a technology, while marketed to curb retail theft, will disproportionately harm Black and brown Angelenos. 

“We have to situate the people’s expectations in Los Angeles that they’re not based upon the comment, ‘I’m gonna fire Jim McDonald,’” said Khan, who advocates for abolishing the budding police outposts. “What does that do? The fundamentals still remain the same.”

A True Outsider

There is a notion among some on the left that Raman is very much a part of the political machine that bred some of LA’s ongoing problems. She has served on city council for five years and was an ally to Bass, having endorsed Bass just weeks before jumping in the race herself. Yet Raman, a Harvard-educated urban planner and former entertainment director of Time’s Up, is in many respects an outsider to the political establishment. 

Former City Councilmember Mike Bonin called Raman’s victory a “reordering of the governing class in Los Angeles.” For the past several decades, LA politics has been run by establishment Democrats, such as Bass or her predecessor, Eric Garcetti, son of a former LA County district attorney; the chambers of commerce; lobbyists; longtime city hall staffers; all riding the influence of homeowners.

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For Lex Steppling, an organizer with Los Angeles Community Action Network and a critic of Raman’s time in city council, the “political recalibration” with her victory in city hall was a welcome sight.

Steppling grew up in a generation of LA political activists who got their start organizing with Community Coalition, which Bass founded in 1990 and for a long time was the only progressive organization in the city offering paid political work. He watched as his peers grew to leading campaigns on issues such as policing and mass incarceration, then began running for elected office. They brought with them their organizing chops, but also their relationships with the organizations that gave them their start. Steppling described this as a “relational ecosystem,” in which movements would be co-opted into electoral politics — in which scoring political points became more important than addressing the issues.

He blamed the lack of gains on policing and mass incarceration since the 2020 George Floyd uprising on such a relational ecosystem. A victory for Raman could mark a reset to such an establishment, and he hopes activists will capitalize on the opening.

“The right kind of openings to do the right kind of work will reemerge,” said Steppling, who helped lead a successful anti-incarceration measure in 2020. “It’s gonna once again start to be about the demands.”

Raman’s election evoked for Bonin memories of the last time an LA incumbent mayor was ousted. In 2005, then-state Assembly member Antonio Villaraigosa beat James Hahn, becoming the city’s first Latino mayor. Villaraigosa, previously director of Southern California ACLU, was seen as a progressive candidate at the time. That’s not how he governed. An early sign of his establishment politics was hiring a longtime political insider as his chief of staff.

Raman will also signal her governing priorities with the hires for her transition team and cabinet. 

Some organizers were encouraged to see progressive figures added to her campaign, such as Faizah Malik, a civil rights attorney and former city council candidate also endorsed by DSA-LA, and Jamie York, an advocate for greater transparency in city politics whose high-profile rejection by the city council as an ethics commission appointee drew public scrutiny. It remains unclear what if any role they would play in city hall. 

The LA Times reported that Rick Cole, former deputy mayor, is expected to supervise Raman’s transition team alongside Andrea Conant, Raman’s chief of staff in city council.

“How big is the table,” Bonin said, “and how much of the activist community is at the table?”

The post The Pressure on LA’s First Socialist Mayor appeared first on The Intercept.

A coal miner’s daughter. A mother’s life lesson. Intimate obituaries, in 150 words or less.

A picture of the pylon at Delaware Stadium during the Fightin’ Blue Hens first game of the 2026 season against Merrimack. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder.

The Kennesaw State Owls (3-6, 2-3 CUSA) defeated the Fightin’ Blue Hens (4-5, 2-3 CUSA), 42-40, on November 7, making the Blue Hens chance at a CUSA title improbable.

Delaware quarterback Nick Minicucci received the shotgun snap and took his drop while surveying the Kennesaw State defense. Minicucci kept his eyes downfield on fourth and six, but felt the Owl pass rush closing in. The Owl’s outside pass rushers forced Minicucci to step up in the pocket where their interior teammates awaited the senior’s arrival. 

Minicucci tried to navigate himself out of the pocket, but all the Owl pass rushers converged on him as he attempted to escape. Linebacker Tywon Christopher was the player to take him down, giving the ball back to the Kennesaw State offense with over four minutes to play in the third quarter.

Christopher’s third quarter sack was one of three sacks the Kennesaw defense accumulated throughout the game in the Owls’ 42-40 victory over UD, Saturday evening.

The Delaware offensive line struggled against the Kennesaw front seven throughout the night allowing the three sacks along with nine quarterback hurries. Minicucci seemed like he was scrambling on many of his dropbacks and the running game never gained any momentum, rushing for 85 total yards. 

Despite the struggles up front, UD still had a chance to come away with a win. 

Following the turnover on downs, Conference USA (CUSA) interception leader, George Mullins, picked off Owl quarterback Landon Varnes and returned it into Owl territory. The interception led to a Tucker Smack field goal that put the Blue Hens ahead, 34-33, near the end of the third quarter.

Varnes and the Kennesaw offense immediately bounced back, scoring 42 seconds into the fourth quarter on a 63-yard touchdown pass to Reed Jesiolowski. Jesiolowski was wide open running down the numbers on the left side of the field behind the Delaware secondary when Varnes hit him in stride for the long touchdown. The Owls attempted a two-point conversion, but the try was intercepted by Blue Hen defensive back Kevin Moore. 

A Delaware punt followed the Kennesaw State scoring drive and the Owls added a field goal on their next possession, increasing their advantage to eight with 8:25 left to play. 

Delaware’s offense continued to struggle after the field goal and ended their next two drives with a lost fumble and punt. The Blue Hen defense made key stops down the stretch and forced the Owls to punt the ball away late in the fourth quarter. The Delaware defense gave the offense one last shot to tie the game with a minute and 47 seconds remaining and 82 yards of field to traverse. 

Delaware’s offense capitalized on the opportunity and marched down the field to the Kennesaw State 17 yard line with thirty seconds remaining in the game. Minicucci attempted a pass on first down, but the throw was hurried and fell incomplete. Delaware’s signal caller attempted a second pass on second down and connected with receiver Bryson Graves running across the middle of the field. Graves out ran the Owl defense and crossed into the endzone with 24 seconds remaining in the game.

BRYSON GRAVES pic.twitter.com/qp0TEYZezv

— Delaware Football (@Delaware_FB) November 7, 2026

The Blue Hens lined up for the two-point conversion and schemed up a play that seemed designed for Graves to sneak out into the left flat out of a condensed formation. Graves slipped as he started his route and Minicucci quickly pivoted his focus from Graves to the Owl pass rush bearing down on him. Minicucci scrambled to his right and threw on the run to Donovan Lewis in the back right of the endzone. Lewis made a diving effort for the throw, but was unable to come up with the catch.

Delaware’s onside kick attempt was recovered by the Owls and Kennesaw State went into victory formation to secure the win. 

The Blue Hens finished the game with 493 total yards of offense with 408 of those yards coming from the passing game. Minicucci finished with 35 completions on 54 attempts and two throwing touchdowns putting him two away from second place on Delaware’s all-time passing touchdowns list. Graves finished the game with a team-high seven catches and 125 receiving yards (both are career highs) notching his first career game of over 100 receiving yards. Jo Silver led the running back room with 39 yards on the ground. 

The Owls offense finished with similar totals with 446 total yards, 309 of which through the air. Kennesaw State did out rush the Blue Hens, 137 to 85, accumulating 107 of those rush yards in the second quarter. 

The Owls scored 17 points in the second quarter with both of their touchdowns coming via the run game and running back Boogie Woods III. Woods finished the game with 90 rushing yards on 15 carries to go along with the two scores. 

Blue Hen running back Viron Ellison Jr. also finished the first half with a pair of touchdowns, scoring one in the first quarter and his second in the second quarter.  

The first quarter got off to an explosive start after the Owls scored in the first 20 seconds of action. Redshirt senior Davis Bryson fielded the game’s opening kick-off and found a hole near the left side of Delaware’s kick coverage. Bryson took advantage of the opening and streaked down the left sideline passing the lone defender in his way, kicker Tucker Smack, en route to a 99-yard return touchdown. 

The Blue Hens answered with a methodical drive that lasted nearly seven minutes and ended with the first of Ellison’s two touchdowns. The Delaware defense followed with defensive tackle Trace Scott III’s first career interception and touchdown, giving the Blue Hens a 15-6 lead with a little less than seven minutes to play in the quarter.

Pick six pic.twitter.com/cw34QGpFEz

— Delaware Football (@Delaware_FB) November 7, 2026

The Owls bounced back from the turnover and cut the lead to two with a drive that ended in a Rickie Collins eight-yard touchdown run along the right sideline. Originally called out of bounds before the score, the play was reviewed and deemed a touchdown due to Collins’ ability to reach the ball out past the pylon as his body was pushed out of bounds. 

That was the last snap Collins played in the game. Collins was on the sideline with ice on his right shoulder and his pads off when the Owls’ offense took the field at the start of the second quarter. Junior Landon Varnes took over under center and played the rest of the game finishing with 254 passing yards and a quarterback rating of 112.5.

The Owls’ win keeps them in the hunt for a bowl game with their overall record sitting at 3-6 with three games remaining on their schedule. 

The Blue Hens’ loss makes it very improbable they end the season with a chance at the CUSA title. 

Delaware sits behind Jacksonville State, Liberty, Middle Tennessee and is tied with New Mexico State in the CUSA standings. Delaware has already lost to Liberty and Middle Tennessee this season and will play New Mexico State and Jax State within the next three weeks. The Blue Hens would need to win out and hope for a pair of losses from Middle Tennessee and three straight losses from Jax State to have a shot at playing in the CUSA championship game.

Delaware is also a couple wins away from being bowl eligible. The Blue Hens will need to win two of their next three games to play in their second bowl game in just their second season at the FBS level. 

The Blue Hens’ next game is against FIU at home on Saturday, November 14. Kick-off will be at 3:00 p.m.

The emergency room was a mile from their Texas home. Stephanie and Eric Biesenbach took comfort in that when their newborn daughter, Gwen, wouldn’t stop bleeding from her belly button. They buckled Gwen into her car seat and made the drive over. 

Medical records from that warm August evening in 2023 described her condition as a “generic problem” of a bleeding umbilical cord stump. The doctor on duty, Nicole Malouf, had treated plenty of those as an emergency room specialist. She covered Gwen’s oozing belly button with a special gauze to stanch the flow, and when it appeared to stop, she sent Stephanie, Eric and Gwen on their way. 

They made it as far as the parking lot before they noticed Gwen had bled through her footed pajamas. Eric slid his arm under the car seat handle and lifted his 11-day-old daughter out of the car. They walked back toward the glaring lights of the Lonestar 24HR ER, a freestanding emergency department in New Braunfels next to a car wash, a McDonald’s and a deli.

Stephanie told Malouf that Gwen had been bleeding a bit after the scab that replaced her umbilical cord stump fell off. The amount of blood they saw that night worried them. She ticked through Gwen’s history. No fever. No vomiting. Exclusively breastfed. She mentioned that she and Eric had declined a vitamin K shot when Gwen was born and instead had been giving Gwen oral vitamin K drops, which they trusted would protect her. 

Malouf tried another type of pretreated gauze. When that didn’t work, medical records show, she turned to silver nitrate, a chemical applied to the tip of a long matchlike stick that cauterizes blood vessels. Malouf rotated one stick after another inside Gwen’s belly button. 

Since the 1960s, the vast majority of newborns in the United States have received a vitamin K shot. The injection virtually eliminated vitamin K deficiency bleeding, a rare condition that can cause catastrophic bleeding and even death. 

But a shift in recent years has threatened to upend the unwavering protection that many doctors and hospitals had taken for granted. Families — mistrustful of medical interventions, misled by social media and devoted to a birth experience they deem natural — have begun to shun the vitamin K shot. 

A pair of studies published last week, both of which involved millions of births, found that babies who didn’t get the vitamin K shot had an increased risk of bleeding. One of the studies found that between 2017 and 2025, the rate of vitamin K deficiency bleeding increased a staggering 347%.

Without the single, inexpensive shot — which is not a vaccine — babies are dying. Autopsies reveal how babies’ systems shut down without warning and well-meaning parents who declined the vitamin K shot were left mourning the loss of their children.

Malouf kept trying to stop the bleeding. Over the course of nearly three hours, she used seven methods. At one point, she applied so much pressure to a bandage that, Stephanie said, Gwen threw up. The remedies essentially treated the symptoms and not the cause, like putting a cover on a leaking faucet. 

Malouf said she called her husband, who’s also a doctor, as well as a nurse at a local hospital, to see if she was missing something. They, too, were at a loss. The nurse’s only suggestions were the ones that Malouf had already tried. 

Malouf decided to transfer Gwen to a small, local hospital, which at least had pediatric specialists and a neonatal intensive care unit. But while she waited for a call back to confirm the hospital would accept Gwen, Stephanie walked out of the room to tell her that Gwen had bled through the latest dressing. Malouf, according to the records, quickly checked to see how long it was taking her blood vessels to refill. It was slower than when she arrived. 

Gwen’s condition was growing more dire, and Malouf had reached the limits of what she could do. What followed also wouldn’t be enough.

Stephanie had given birth to Gwen without complications in an inflatable tub in their living room. She was perfect, with doelike eyes and a full head of brown hair that, when the light hit it, hinted at the red of her father’s beard. 

Her older brothers and sisters fussed over her like a birthday present. Her aunts from California and Louisiana came in to meet her. When the house quieted, Gwen fell asleep to the calming rhythm of Stephanie’s chest rising and falling. 

Stephanie marveled at the way Gwen seemed to study the faces of everyone who carried her. She wasn’t two weeks yet, but the corners of her mouth constantly turned up to form what her parents insisted were smiles. Even when her siblings passed her around, she rarely cried in protest. 

Stephanie and Eric met in 2010, when they both worked at Chili’s. Texas natives, they had just returned home after spending time in Florida, where Stephanie spent a semester interning at Walt Disney World Resort. 

“I was doing lawn care work and maintenance on restaurants,” Eric said before Stephanie interjected. “He moved there for a girl,” she said as the two erupted in laughter.

He proposed to Stephanie on Christmas Eve. They married at a vineyard on Halloween. The venue capped off the night with fireworks. 

Life moved quickly after that. They had a daughter and two sons, then adopted the daughter of a relative who was too young to care for the child herself. Just when they thought their family was complete, Stephanie got pregnant with Gwen. 

Overjoyed, they decided to name her after Stephanie’s grandmother, Gwendolyn, who passed down her flowered baby blanket with “Gwen” embroidered in the corner. 

There were no signs something could be wrong with Gwen until the day her parents took her to the ER. Stephanie had texted her midwife first. 

“So sorry to bother you,” she typed into her phone, writing that Gwen’s belly button had been bleeding most of the day and they couldn’t get it to stop. 

“How much blood is too much blood,” she asked. 

The midwife told her to send a photo. Stephanie sent two, one of dried blood on Gwen’s stomach and the other of a pile of bloodied tissues. The midwife instructed Stephanie to tape some gauze over Gwen’s belly button. About 90 minutes later, just before going to bed, she checked on Gwen again. She snapped another picture, this one with bright red blood soaking through the gauze and diaper, and texted it to the midwife. “Are you sure this is fine?”

The midwife told her to go to the emergency room. 

In many states, all emergency rooms are in hospitals, where patients can be transferred to other units for more care. Not so in Texas, where more than 200 ERs are freestanding, separate and distinct from a hospital. At the ER, Gwen grew increasingly pale. Her heart raced at 177 beats a minute. Around 1:40 a.m., Stephanie and Eric received their first piece of good news: Malouf was transferring Gwen. She had scrapped her plan to send Gwen to the local hospital and would instead transfer her to North Central Baptist, a larger hospital in nearby San Antonio with more specialists. North Central was only about half an hour away, and it was sending a NICU transport team to get Gwen. 

Eric’s eyes fixated on the large clock hanging in the room. Ten minutes passed, then 20, then 30, then an hour. He couldn’t understand what was taking so long. He stepped into the hallway and asked if he could just drive Gwen to the hospital. 

But, he said, Malouf told him he couldn’t because it would be too dangerous. Malouf, however, said she told him that if he did leave, he would have to sign paperwork acknowledging he was doing so against medical advice. The transport team, she told him, would have blood and IVs. Besides, she said, Gwen was stable. Malouf called to check on the status of the ambulance; she was told they were on their way. 

Stephanie and Eric said that was the last time they spoke to Malouf that night. 

By the time the ambulance arrived, it had been nearly two hours since Malouf had requested it. One of the team’s first questions was whether Gwen had received a vitamin K shot. 

The ER nurse told them they didn’t have the shot on hand.

It was the first time since walking into the ER, Stephanie said, that anyone suggested that vitamin K may be the culprit — and the cure. 

At 3:45 a.m., within minutes of the ambulance team’s arrival, they gave Gwen a vitamin K shot in her left thigh. They spent the next two hours at her bedside, hooking her up to an IV, drawing blood for lab tests and giving her antibiotics — all things that, the records show, hadn’t been done yet. Malouf didn’t respond to questions about why not.

Stephanie and Eric observed the ambulance team as they worked, bantering, discussing another call that had come in and, just as they were about to leave, waiting for one of them to go to the bathroom. Between what they viewed as the team’s laidback pace and Malouf’s reassurances that Gwen was stable, Stephanie and Eric were encouraged enough to split up. Eric went home to the kids, who had been with his mom all night, to get them ready for their first day of school. Stephanie stayed and planned to ride with Gwen in the ambulance.

“Grab me a change of clothes and coffee,” Stephanie called to him as he was leaving. 

The team transferred Gwen to a temperature-controlled enclosed incubator. As they packed up to leave, Gwen began to whimper. With each breath, Stephanie said, she let out a weak, high-pitched sound. It was unnatural. Stephanie reached through the incubator’s opening and ran her hands back and forth across her daughter’s chest.

The team loaded Gwen onto the ambulance and flipped on the sirens and lights. At 5:55 a.m., they headed down Interstate 35. It had been seven hours since Gwen was first admitted to the ER.

Stephanie appreciated the importance of vitamin K. All of her other children got the vitamin K shot shortly after they were born. But over the years, she and her husband had grown wary of medical intervention. When their youngest son was nearly 2, they fell behind on his vaccines. After getting several vaccines at one appointment, they said, he developed a high fever and suddenly stopped talking for about a year. He was later diagnosed with autism.

“I think that they just gave him too much at once,” Eric said.

Research studies from numerous sources have found that multiple vaccines taken at once do not overwhelm or weaken a child’s immune system. They also do not increase the risk of serious or long-term adverse effects. 

Still, seeing their son struggle to speak, Stephanie and Eric were convinced there was a connection. They stopped vaccinating their children after that. 

Before Gwen’s birth, Stephanie’s midwife gave her a five-page handout on newborn vitamin K. It covered why babies need vitamin K to help their blood clot and cautioned that babies who don’t have enough of it can start to bleed without warning.

The handout compared the pros and cons of the vitamin K shot with oral vitamin K drops, noting that the drawbacks of the drops are that some babies may not be able to absorb them or may spit them up. They also don’t eliminate the risk of bleeding entirely. Stephanie initially signed the document agreeing to the shot, but as her due date neared, she and Eric changed their minds. If both are effective, they reasoned, why not go for the option that didn’t involve sticking their baby with a needle? 

“We did our own research. I don’t remember feeling like there were red flags,” Stephanie said. “I felt like the information we had was sufficient.”

She doesn’t recall exactly what sources she consulted, but she read articles online and spoke to some people who worked in the medical field. No one, she said, warned her against the drops. But she didn’t ask her mother, Lauren Hoel, a longtime family nurse practitioner. Stephanie knew exactly what her mom would say. 

Many medical experts consider the drops inferior for several reasons, including those mentioned in the handout. There are also concerns about harried parents of a newborn forgetting a dose and the fact that cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding have been reported even when drops are used. 

Only limited data exists about vitamin K drops, and much of it is from Europe, where the drops are more common. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration does not provide oversight of the drops. Instead, parents can simply add them to their Amazon carts without any verification of what’s in them, or whether they’re safe or effective.

A single vitamin K shot acts quickly, and then the liver stores the rest of the vitamin K to slowly release into the baby’s system over months. 

For decades, the recommendation from doctors, hospitals and medical organizations has been the shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization call for giving the shot to all newborns. 

“While some countries outside of the U.S. sometimes administer vitamin K orally, it has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration,” the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote in May, reiterating its longstanding position, “and it is less effective than an intramuscular injection.”

Stephanie and Eric’s choice to opt for the drops reflects a broader trend. Vaccine skepticism grew after the COVID-19 pandemic, and under the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a fierce vaccine critic and champion of the Make America Healthy Again movement, the federal government has fed those doubts. Stephanie and Eric, who voted for President Donald Trump and are ardent supporters of both Kennedy and MAHA, welcomed the change. 

In December, the CDC stopped recommending that all newborns get the hepatitis B vaccine. In January, the agency revised its childhood vaccination schedule, reducing the number of routinely recommended shots by six. A federal judge temporarily blocked that move in March, but the CDC’s decisions appear to have caused a ripple effect beyond vaccines. 

After the January change to the vaccine schedule, an analysis of more than a million newborns found a rise in the rate of babies not receiving the vitamin K shot so sharp that it resembled a hockey stick. Between January and June of this year, the analysis found, the rate jumped from 5.2% to 8.1%. Despite being asked multiple times at a congressional hearing to assure parents that the vitamin K shot is safe, Kennedy responded by declaring that he has not said anything publicly about the shot. An HHS spokesperson did not answer ProPublica’s questions but said that the CDC recommends that parents give newborns the vitamin K shot within six hours of their birth to prevent vitamin K deficiency bleeding.

In the ambulance, Gwen’s blood pressure dropped.

“Infant looks much more lethargic,” the team wrote in their notes. 

They placed a mask on Gwen to increase her oxygen and gave her an infusion of saline in hopes of improving her blood volume. 

Gwen’s condition continued to deteriorate. Almost immediately after they arrived at the hospital, her heart stopped. Doctors inserted a breathing tube then began pressing down on her chest with two fingers to manually pump blood through her body. They pushed epinephrine into her IV to stimulate her heart. That appeared to work. 

Stephanie couldn’t comprehend what was happening. All night, she said, no one had acted like Gwen’s life was in danger. Suddenly, her daughter was covered in tubes and doctors were performing CPR. 

Stephanie said she heard someone yelling into a phone, “Where is the blood?”

She texted her family. “I need you to pray for Gwen like her life depends on it,” she wrote.

She called Eric. “You need to get here now,” she told him. 

Eric pressed on the gas pedal of Stephanie’s Honda and sped to the hospital. There, he pushed through a clutch of doctors to find Stephanie crying in the corner of the room. The same wave of shock that had washed over his wife minutes earlier crashed over him. For the first time, he worried he might lose his daughter. 

They prayed together, and the chaplain stopped by the room to check on them. He noted, according to records, that they were anxious but hopeful.

Less than two hours after she was admitted, Gwen crashed again. The medical team called a code blue. Doctors performed CPR for the next 34 minutes. They gave her epinephrine four more times. She had lost so much blood. Her heart was barely pumping. Doctors told Stephanie and Eric that they could keep trying to resuscitate Gwen or they could take her off the machines for her parents to hold her.  

Stephanie sobbed. Eric collapsed at her knees. She told him she couldn’t make the call. Eric said they wanted to spend the final moments with their daughter. The doctors unhooked Gwen from the beeping machines and handed her to him. Stephanie and Eric told Gwen how much they loved her and how much they were going to miss her. 

Shortly after 9 a.m., nearly 11 hours after they’d first brought her to the ER, Gwen took her last breath. The team ushered them to another room where families can mourn in private. They spent hours there. They gave Gwen a bath. Family stopped by. Stephanie’s sister picked up their kids from school so they could say goodbye to their baby sister. Two nurses came in to create molds of Gwen’s hands and feet. 

When Eric and Stephanie finally left the hospital, Gwen’s car seat was empty. Their two youngest children slept in their bed that night. At one point, Stephanie jolted awake. She turned to Eric. The look in his eyes told her that it hadn’t been a dream. Without making a sound that could wake their kids, they cried themselves back to sleep. 

Eric’s grief soon morphed into anger. His brother-in-law drove him to the Lonestar ER to ask for Gwen’s medical records. He didn’t trust himself to go in, so he asked his brother-in-law to retrieve them. 

The file was just 15 pages with the payment and registration forms. They searched for any clue that could explain what happened to their daughter. 

“I was constantly assured that it wasn’t that bad,” Eric said. “I can’t tell you how many times they said, ‘Don’t worry, babies are very resilient.’”

They planned Gwen’s funeral. When they couldn’t find a coffin small enough to fit her tiny 8-pound body, Eric’s brother, who makes custom cabinets, built one. They wrapped Gwen in the flowered baby blanket from Stephanie’s grandmother for the viewing.  

Stephanie and Eric operated on parallel tracks those next several months: mourning their daughter and trying to understand what led to her death. The family attended a grief camp put on by a local hospice group. They painted a garden pole with things that reminded them of Gwen. When Thanksgiving approached, they escaped to Stephanie’s sister’s house in Colorado to avoid questions about how they were doing. 

Eric got Gwen’s handprints tattooed on his chest, the last place he felt them before she died. Stephanie picked Gwen’s footprints, but the tattoo artist had to size them down to fit. 

“She had such big feet,” Eric said. “She was gonna be a tall girl.”

“Or clown,” Stephanie said, half laughing, half crying. “One of the two.”

They also reached out to Byron Miller, a medical malpractice attorney, who sought records from Malouf, the ER, the ambulance company and the hospital. Miller investigated whether negligence in Gwen’s care resulted in her death. But the medical expert hired to review the case homed in on Stephanie and Eric’s decision to give Gwen the vitamin K drops instead of the shot. Without an expert’s supporting opinion, which Miller said was a state requirement, his office was unable to continue pursuing a case. Miller recommended that Stephanie and Eric follow up with the Texas Medical Board.

The ER, the ambulance company and the hospital did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The nurse on duty at Lonestar that night also did not respond to requests for comment.

Stephanie had several conversations with her mother, who remembers learning in the 1980s, while in nursing school, that all babies need a vitamin K shot at birth. Hoel didn’t know that Stephanie and Eric didn’t get the vitamin K shot for Gwen. 

“It never occurred to me that people would refuse the vitamin K shot,” she said.

Even with that, Hoel couldn’t look past Malouf’s actions that night. 

“She should have said, ‘That’s a newborn. Take it to a NICU,’” Hoel said. “And by not doing that, the fate was sealed.”

That next December, Stephanie sat down at the kitchen table and pulled out her laptop. Someone, she said, had to hold Malouf accountable. She found the website for the Texas Medical Board and followed the instructions to file a complaint. 

“When Dr Malouf decided to provide medical care to our daughter, despite her lack of training in neonatal emergency care, and lack of appropriate monitoring equipment,” Stephanie wrote to the board, “Gwen was deprived of any potential life saving intervention.”

The seven hours they spent at the ER that night, she continued, could have been used to save Gwen’s life. And she stressed that the ER nurse said the facility didn’t carry the vitamin K injection.

“If Vitamin K was a vital part of the evening,” she wrote, “then we should have been pointed to another location that was fully equipped sooner.”

Malouf became the target of her anger and her anguish. She described how painful it was to drive by the Lonestar billboard with Malouf’s giant photo near her house every day. She wrote that Malouf failed to recognize that her daughter’s life was in danger. “I just don’t understand how it can go from a calm relaxed environment to all of a sudden your child is dead,” she wrote to the board. She recounted feeling intimidated when Eric asked if they could leave when Gwen’s color began to change and Malouf advised against it.

“To this date,” she wrote, “Dr Nicole Malouf does not even know that my daughter died under her care.”

After Gwen died, Malouf said, a doctor from the hospital called. The news, she said, came as a surprise.  

Sitting in her home office, her framed degrees hanging on the wall behind her, Malouf spoke to ProPublica for nearly three hours about what happened. Malouf and her husband have three daughters, for whom she is team mom for cheerleading and president of the Fine Arts Boosters. Racks of uniforms filled her home’s entryway in preparation for an upcoming sale. 

She said she repeatedly relived the details of that night with her therapist. The first few sessions, she said, were just the two of them crying. She said they discussed what was in her control and what wasn’t. Every life is precious, she said, but it’s one thing to lose a 95-year-old grandmother with a long list of medical problems. It’s another to lose a baby. 

“I still have my three daughters,” Malouf said, pushing back her long, dark hair, “and now she has lost hers.”

Malouf said the doctor who called said the hospital would conduct its own review. Malouf said the doctor mentioned that they had already identified some issues, including questions about the transport team. 

The hospital wasn’t the only one probing the night’s events. The state Medical Board also launched an investigation. The board subpoenaed records and reviewed the medical documents. 

In September 2025, the board held a virtual hearing, which was closed to the public. Stephanie and Eric appeared, as did Malouf and her attorney. The board staff attorney charged that Malouf did not meet the standard of care in her treatment of Gwen and that she failed to halt or limit Gwen’s bleeding. Her lack of timely care, the board’s attorney alleged, ultimately resulted in Gwen’s death. Citing confidentiality, the board would not release a recording or transcript of the hearing.

The next month, the board issued its decision. It found that Malouf failed to recognize that Gwen had a life-threatening vitamin K-dependent bleeding disorder. The ER did not have vitamin K shots on site, and Malouf failed to immediately transfer Gwen to a regional pediatric referral hospital better equipped to handle Gwen’s condition. Finally, the board found that Malouf had failed to quantify the amount of blood lost by Gwen.

The board required her to take 24 hours of continuing medical education; she said she completed her hours in courses on pediatric advanced life support, communicating with patients and vitamin K deficiency bleeding. She also had to inform her employers that she had been disciplined. Malouf neither admitted nor denied the allegations but agreed to abide by the board’s final order. 

A board spokesperson would not answer specific questions about Gwen’s case but said the board expects all licensees “to provide appropriate treatment and, if the necessary supplies are not available, to make arrangements for transport to a higher level of care.”

“I felt that I had done everything that I could with the resources I had,” Malouf told ProPublica.

She said she did know that Gwen had vitamin K deficiency bleeding, even though she did not immediately give Gwen a vitamin K shot. Malouf said she thinks the board didn’t believe that she knew because she didn’t act “in a panicked manner.” It remains unclear, even to her, whether the ER carried the vitamin K shot at the time or if it was just in a spot where the nurse couldn’t find it. But she said she asked the nurse for it. 

Either way, she believed that giving Gwen vitamin K at that point would just be to make her chart look good. 

“It’s really not even going to take effect at that stage,” Malouf said. “As soon as you give vitamin K, the earliest it’s even going to start working is 10 to 12 hours.”

But several doctors told ProPublica that vitamin K should be given immediately if there’s even a suspicion that a baby has vitamin K deficiency bleeding. It’s so vital to stopping the bleeding that they don’t even need to wait for a confirmation. There is no downside, they said, to giving it. Vitamin K, they said, may need to be followed up by blood or blood products, such as fresh frozen plasma, which is rich in the proteins that help the blood clot.

While vitamin K can quickly help to halt the bleeding, it can’t reverse the bleeding that’s already occurred. It also has to be given in time, and some babies need more than one dose of vitamin K to recover. Gwen, as one doctor who reviewed her medical records put it, needed vitamin K, blood and blood products much sooner than she got them. 

Malouf said she had learned about vitamin K deficiency bleeding in medical school and during her residency, but she doesn’t recall ever seeing it in practice. Nearly every medical student learns about the coagulation cascade, but not all doctors know or remember how to diagnose and treat an infant who shows up in an ER bleeding, often in the brain and invisible to the eye. Some completed their training at a time when vitamin K deficiency bleeding was still considered a historic condition, much like measles. 

The ER staff, Malouf said, has been subsequently trained on the importance of vitamin K, and the ER keeps it in stock. All ERs, she said, should carry vitamin K.

“I still gravely regret that the outcome was still the same,” she said, “even after again assuming that, ‘Hey, I’m putting this baby in y’all’s hands. You guys are the experts. Fix her.’”

Malouf doesn’t understand how the board found that her care that night fell short. She didn’t intentionally harm her patient. 

“I can state my whole case and literally one of the board members goes, ‘Well, I just don’t believe you,’” Malouf recalled. “I said, ‘Well, then I don’t know what more to tell you.’” 

In addition to working at the ER, she had a part-time job doing telehealth. The telehealth company that employed her, she said, fired her once she disclosed the board’s action. As of August, she was still working some shifts at Lonestar ER; the board’s decision didn’t affect her ability to practice. Following the interview with ProPublica, she declined further comment. 

“I feel like the only way to change the outcome is to go back to the beginning, that fork in the road,” Malouf said. “And go, ‘OK, well let’s give vitamin K after birth.”

Stephanie and Eric also have asked themselves what they would have done differently. They wished they had left the ER that night and driven Gwen to a hospital. 

“We were just trusting that the person who went to school their whole life for this would know more than us,” Eric said.

In their minds, the role of vitamin K has overshadowed the medical mistakes they believe are most responsible for their daughter’s death. By the time Gwen had arrived at the hospital, her organs were already starting to shut down. The autopsy found that she had tiny spots of bleeding in her kidneys and small intestine and a small scrape on her chest where doctors pushed down for CPR. The medical examiner noted Gwen’s precipitous decline and listed her cause of death as vitamin K deficiency bleeding.

If they could go back, both agreed they would get the vitamin K shot for Gwen. 

“I don’t trust a lot of things,” Stephanie said, “but get peace of mind and get the vitamin K shot.” 

A few months after Gwen’s death, Stephanie found out she was pregnant with a little girl. They were so ready to love a baby again. She gave birth to her in 2024. This summer, they welcomed another baby girl. 

Both got vitamin K shots.

The post An 11-Day-Old Baby Couldn’t Stop Bleeding. For Hours, the ER Didn’t Provide a Critical Vitamin Shot. appeared first on ProPublica.

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President claimed to have ushered in a ‘golden age’ even as prices soared and war dragged on – and midterm voters did not buy his looking-glass narrative

A new “golden age of America” is under way, Donald Trump repeatedly declared in his final pitch to voters before the US midterm elections.

The war in Iran was not really a war, because “we’ve done very little fighting”, the US president stressed. The stock market had hit 88 all-time highs. “They’re saying,” he said, that on his watch the US has become “the hottest country anywhere in the world”.

A lifestyle podcast or brief TV clip is less taxing than a full press conference – but No 10 insists the PM is not ducking accountability

In an interview this week Andy Burnham said he believed the traditional media was less relevant and the world was “not like that any more”. But some people are now asking: does this change in approach mean less scrutiny?

The question was in part prompted by Burnham’s decision to travel to the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) without the usual accompanying pack of reporters, instead bringing just one TV crew and a news agency journalist.

Mumbai facility is part of Reliance Industries, owner of world’s biggest oil refinery and funder of controversial mega-zoo

The Prince of Wales’s Earthshot prize will host its forthcoming annual awards ceremony at a venue owned by the billionaire Ambani family conglomerate, drawing criticism from conservationists over their fossil fuel businesses and their foundation’s controversial mega-zoo.

A spokesperson for the Earthshot prize, which awards £1m to five winners every year to invest in conservation work, confirmed to the Guardian and the news outlet Mongabay that this year’s ceremony will be held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai on 17 November.

As AI exposes flaws in IT systems and geopolitics plays out on the cyber frontline, some experts say the events of recent weeks could soon be a common occurrence

Alex Pearce was doing the morning rounds at his fruit and vegetable wholesale business in London on Monday last week when he noticed something odd.

The defrost light on refrigeration unit 2 was on, and the panel reading was 150C. Unit 4 was the same.

With the global tide turning against him, the US president’s lame duck status could still aggravate old tensions and spark new explosions

It was a victory for the world, too. People in the many countries that suffered pain, loss and cruel indignities at the hands of Donald Trump over the past two chaotic, fearful years celebrated a moment of glorious, shared redemption. The monster, like others of his kind, still lurks in his gilded White House lair; far-right authoritarianism still casts a dark shadow over many nations. But the power of this most destructive of presidents is shattered, his malignant spell broken. The triumphant roar of US midterm voters was a rallying cry of democratic defiance that, echoing the American revolution of 250 years ago, reverberated around the globe.

For Iranians, Trump’s electoral humiliation raised hopes, perhaps misplaced, that his murderous war of choice against Tehran’s oppressive regime may soon cease. In Israel, many among the majority who voted for change last week will welcome the humbling of the foremost supporter of Benjamin Netanyahu’s as-yet-unvanquished extremist coalition. Ukrainians voiced optimism that a Democratic-controlled Congress will curb the sickening appeasement of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. In Europe, the beginning of the end of the Trump era brought a sense of relief – and hope that toxic transatlantic relations can be drained of Maga poison.

• Carr throws for 319 yards and three TDs in 31-24 win

• No 4 Irish avenge loss that cost them playoff berth

• Miami comeback falls short after disputed late call

CJ Carr threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns as No 4 Notre Dame avenged their most damaging loss of last season, racing to a 21-point lead before holding on to beat top-ranked Miami 31-24 on Saturday night.

Micah Gilbert caught two of Carr’s touchdown passes, Jordan Faison had the other and Nolan James Jr added a rushing score for Notre Dame (8-1, No 11 College Football Playoff), who entered the game knowing another defeat to Miami could derail their national championship hopes.

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A New York City Department of Education employee is facing a murder charge in the stabbing death of a 28-year-old woman last week in Brooklyn, authorities announced Saturday.

A year ago, Henry County proved doubters wrong and earned the program’s first playoff victory in 15 years with a gritty 13-12 win over East Carter.

Jason Ray scored two touchdowns to help Henry County defeat Fleming County 20-12 in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs on Friday, Nov. 6.

Slashdot reader sandbagger brings news about the classic science ficdtion magazine Starlog. It's 33-year run from 1976 to 2009 is now available on the Internet Archive. And 17 years after publishing its final issue, Starlog is relaunching, publishing one issue a year starting November 13, according to The Hollywood Reporter: The magazine launched in 1976 and gained a fanbase for being one of the few places to get reliable news and interviews about geek culture. It launched with a cover focusing on Star Trek, one of its key areas of expertise, but the magazine's editors and writers also pioneered coverage of Star Wars. (The new issue chronicles some of the rumors it put out a year before the movie opened). In all, Starlog published 374 issues and more than 25,000 pages... In addition to the film and TV-focused features Starlog was known for, the new Starlog will also delve into futurism, as the cover from Gabriel Yeganyan highlights. The opening story of issue No. 1 looks at the viability of humans farming crops on planets outside of Earth, for example... The revival was announced earlier this year, and includes a podcast hosted by Jordan Hoffman, a veteran journalist who has contributed to The Hollywood Reporter.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Kayson McAllister completes a pass in a recent game for the Wildcats. He threw for 126 yards and a touchdown during Friday’s playoff win over Fleming County.

• Messi first to win consecutive MLS Golden Boots

• Inter Miami surrender 3-0 lead in dramatic draw

• Nashville set new league record with 77 points

Lionel Messi won his second consecutive MLS Golden Boot award on Saturday, but Inter Miami squandered a three-goal lead in a 3-3 draw with Charlotte on the final day of the regular season.

The Argentinian superstar failed to score but set up Miami’s first two goals from corners at Nu Stadium as the defending champions secured second place in the Eastern Conference and home-field advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs.

One person was killed and at least a dozen others injured when a driver suspected of being impaired struck a group of more than 40 cyclists in North Carolina, authorities said.

Activists fear Bangkok will give in to pressure from Beijing despite reports of torture and human rights abuses against the mostly muslim ethnic minority

The deportation of two more Uyghurs to China from Thailand would put their lives in grave danger, activists have said, with one of the men saying he would be “like a slave” if he was sent back.

Last year, Thai authorities forcibly deported 40 Uyghur men to China despite pleas from the men themselves and the UN.

The US and Canada had reportedly offered to resettle them, but Bangkok appeared to want to avoid upsetting Beijing. The UN has said the returnees’ whereabouts remain unknown.

DTC 2026 will be held under the theme “True Vision, AI in Motion” on November 13

MADISON, WISCONSIN — A 21-year-old Wisconsin State Patrol trooper has been released from federal immigration custody after ICE detained him at Dane County Regional Airport while he was preparing to board a domestic flight.

Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, a South African national, was arrested Thursday during what the Department of Homeland Security called a “targeted enforcement operation.” His attorney says Van Der Merwe came to the United States legally as a teenager, is included in his father’s pending asylum application and has federal work authorization valid through 2030.

DHS says Van Der Merwe entered legally in March 2019 but overstayed his authorized admission in September of that year. The agency emphasized that work authorization and a pending asylum application do not themselves confer lawful immigration status.

Van Der Merwe’s attorneys said ICE agents detained him despite his explanation that he had a valid work permit and unresolved asylum case. He was later released under an order of supervision requiring regular check-ins and electronic monitoring while his removal proceedings continue.

The Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association publicly backed Van Der Merwe, calling for fair treatment and due process. He has worked for the State Patrol since July 2025 and has no known criminal record.

Sources:

• The Hill – MBFC Rating

The post Wisconsin State Trooper Released After ICE Arrest at Madison Airport appeared first on News Facts Network.

The role of the White House press secretary has been largely vacant since Karoline Leavitt stepped aside ​in August.

President Trump is swapping out his chief of staff after Republicans' losses in the midterms, with more than 20 House races unresolved. Follow live updates.

National party will be largest in parliament but ultimate shape of next government won’t be settled for some time

New Zealand could be facing a weeks-long wait to know the shape of its next government, after its nail-biting election failed to hand a decisive victory to either the incumbent rightwing coalition or opposition left bloc.

On preliminary results, the centre-right National party, led by the prime minister, Christopher Luxon, managed to secure enough seats to govern alongside its traditional coalition partners, the libertarian Act and populist New Zealand First parties.

Lproven (Slashdot reader #6,030) shares his article about a new OS in the BSD family "combining NetBSD's kernel and libc with a port of the Alpine Linux userland" — and promising it won't use AI-generated code: AlpineBSD is so new that it barely exists yet. There are no installation media available, though it's possible to manually bootstrap an installation. What AlpineBSD does already have is an AI policy, and the plan is to avoid "the output of generative AI models (e.g. LLMs)" as far as possible: "Any software whose code, documentation, binaries, or other assets include, in any part, the output of a generative AI tool such as an LLM, is considered 'tainted' for our purposes...." Back in 2024, the NetBSD project made its position on AI plain. Its commit guidelines say that "code generated by a Large Language Model [...] is presumed to be tainted code...." AlpineBSD's ports repository and source code are hosted on Sourcehut, under the account of sircmpwn, better known as Drew DeVault... We will follow AlpineBSD with interest. There's strong appeal in the plan of combining perhaps the best-known, longest-established AI-free Unix-like kernel with the user-facing parts of pretty much the smallest and cleanest Linux distro there is. The AI advocates often warn LLM skeptics that they risk being left behind. Well, here's an OS for those who don't want to surf the AI wave. The article does acknowledge difficulty installing software using the pkgin package manager (an optional extra), explaining that since 1993 the NetBSD community has had "its own ideas about what is normal... Some folks on the mailing list told us that they never use binary packages anyway — they compile what they need from source code."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

White says he has meeting with Trump in Washington DC on Monday, without saying whether he will accept the job

Donald Trump has offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the president said in a social media post on Saturday.

Trump described White, who staged a cage-fighting spectacle at the White House to mark the president’s 80th birthday in June, as “a violent Fighter and Warrior”, credentials unlike any ever used to describe previous press secretaries.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — UFC CEO Dana White reportedly turned down President Donald Trump’s offer to become White House press secretary just hours after Trump publicly announced the proposal.

CNN reported Saturday that a source familiar with the matter said White declined the job. Earlier reports had suggested White planned to meet with Trump at the White House to discuss the position. White has not publicly explained his decision.

Trump announced the offer on Truth Social, describing White as a longtime ally and suggesting several UFC fighters could join him as assistants to help “defend us against the Lunatic Left.” White initially appeared to play along, sharing Trump’s post and publishing an image of himself behind the White House briefing-room podium.

The announcement also revived scrutiny of a 2022 incident in which White was recorded striking his wife during an altercation at a nightclub in Mexico. White later publicly acknowledged the incident and said there was “no excuse” for his actions.

The press secretary position has been vacant following a period of unusual turnover. Karoline Leavitt left the job in August, and Katie Zacharia reportedly lasted only five days in the role.

White’s refusal means Trump will need to continue searching for a permanent spokesperson as his administration reorganizes following Republicans’ sweeping midterm losses.

White and Trump have been close for years, with White repeatedly supporting Trump politically and Trump frequently attending UFC events.

Sources:

• Mediaite – MBFC Rating

The post Dana White Rejects Trump’s Unusual Press Secretary Offer Hours After Announcement appeared first on News Facts Network.

Windows 11 offered a PC-to-PC Migration feature that "moved files and settings directly between two PCs over Wi-Fi or Ethernet," reports Ghacks. But according to an updated Microsoft support page, the tool is no longer available. "Microsoft's support documentation now redirects users to Windows Backup, a tool that relies on OneDrive cloud storage instead of a direct connection between two computers..." Windows Backup works differently. It requires a personal Microsoft account and backs up supported folders (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos and Music) to OneDrive. Free OneDrive accounts include only 5GB of storage, and Microsoft's own promotional screenshot for Windows Backup shows 4.5GB of that allowance already in use. Years of photos, documents and downloads can exceed the free tier quickly. Windows Backup does carry some extras. It can remember installed apps, Wi-Fi networks, passwords and some settings to speed up setup on a new device. Apps still have to be reinstalled, and supported files are restored from the cloud. Thanks to Slashdot reader joshuark for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe immigrated to US at 14 and has been waiting seven years for asylum case to be heard

A Wisconsin state patrol trooper, whom federal immigration agents detained on Thursday at an airport, has been released from their custody.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents approached Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, a South African national, as he waited to board a domestic flight, according to his law firm Christopher & De León.

I won a medium fries by defeating a sinister robot that looked suspiciously similar to a McDonald’s french fry container.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk heads to the city after four women and two men are killed and more than a dozen people injured

Tom Rose, the US ambassador to Poland, wrote on X:

We are just learning details of the horrific mass shooting in Kraków, a savage and murderous attack that’s shattered the peace of Poland.

America stands with Poland at this dark hour as Poland stands with her beloved citizens of Kraków.

A terrible tragedy in Kraków’s Main Market Square.

I share the grief of the families and loved ones of the victims of this unimaginable tragedy. The perpetrator was injured and detained.

The former military chief has 28 days to build a coalition, with a possible extension of up to 14 more. If he fails, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to get his chance.

Rather than racing toward their net-zero targets, Amazon and other AI/cloud computing companies "are driving emissions sharply higher," reports the Washington Post: To support their data centers, tech firms are driving construction of a new generation of supersized, gas-fired power plants that could lock in hundreds of millions of tons of climate pollution for decades to come, according to corporate disclosures and an analysis conducted for The Post by a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Industry estimates show these projects have put the tech sector on course to grow from a modest driver of industrial carbon pollution into one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. Some anticipate that its share of global carbon emissions will increase as much as fivefold from 2020 to 2030. That would leave the tech industry churning out more than half the climate pollution created by global aviation or shipping — sectors long associated with driving warming... Already, Amazon's carbon footprint reached 80.85 million metric tons last year — 58% larger than when [Amazon CEO Jeff] Bezos pledged to shrink it. The company has veered far from the path laid out in the Paris agreement, which would have emissions falling steeply by now and dropping to 43% below 2019 levels by 2030. The tech companies say in corporate disclosures and public statements that they remain committed to their net zero targets, and they suggest the emissions surge is temporary — to be mitigated down the road, when new energy technologies enable the data centers to run cleaner and more efficiently. They also stress that they continue to invest in clean energy and rank as some of the world's biggest consumers of it. With some complicated accounting maneuvers and carbon credit purchases, their solar, wind and geothermal installations partly cancel out their gas emissions, according to corporate disclosures. A June report from international insurance/asset management Allianz found the world's data center emissions are on track to double to 643 million tons of CO2 annually between 2020 and 2030, the article points out. And they cite American data centers contributing to the problem: Just two gas projects Amazon signed on to for data centers planned in Texas and Pennsylvania "would produce more carbon pollution than the dirtiest facility in the country," an Alabama coal plant powering 1 million homes. Meta is building a nearly six-square-mile campus in Louisiana "that will consume as much electricity as three cities the size of New Orleans." "A sprawling Microsoft project in West Texas involving a giant gas plant built by Chevron and a Google project in Wyoming that would consume five times as much electricity as every household in that state would vastly expand the emissions associated with those companies." "A data center campus in Pike County, Ohio, that will support OpenAI's artificial intelligence operations will consume significantly more gas power, and, therefore, emit more carbon pollution, than the Microsoft and Google projects combined."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he offered UFC CEO Dana White the job of White House press secretary, continuing a post-midterm personnel shakeup that has already elevated Stephen Miller to chief of staff.

Trump announced the offer on Truth Social, calling White a “Fighter and Warrior” and suggesting he bring six current or former UFC champions as assistants, including Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes. Trump said the fighters could help “defend us against the Lunatic Left.”

White and Trump have known each other since the early 2000s, when Trump’s Atlantic City casino hosted UFC events. White later became an outspoken Trump supporter and appeared at Republican National Conventions on his behalf. Trump has also repeatedly attended UFC events, and the White House hosted a UFC card earlier this year.

The press secretary position has been vacant since Katie Zacharia left last month after serving less than a week. Karoline Leavitt had departed the role in August.

Despite Trump’s public offer, CNN reported that White declined the job, according to a source familiar with the matter. White and UFC parent company TKO had not publicly commented as of Saturday.

The offer comes one day after Trump named Miller as his new chief of staff following Republicans’ sweeping midterm losses.

Sources:

• Associated Press – MBFC Rating

The post Trump Says He Offered Dana White the White House Press Secretary Job appeared first on News Facts Network.

Krakow police said a man who had driven onto the square began firing at random people from his car.

The order follows an election Tuesday in which Democrats won every statewide office on the ballot and took control of the Texas House.

Some workplaces are holding mandatory AI training sessions, while others "are requiring employees to use a specific number of tokens," reports the Washington Post, "or log a certain amount of time on AI platforms." The article's headline? "Why mandating AI use in the workplace can backfire." [A] lot of employers are going about it the wrong way, said Arvind Karunakaran, an assistant professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University. "You can consume a lot of tokens without creating a lot of value," Karunakaran said.... The adoption of AI is happening faster than the adoption of the internet did, according to a new report from Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. And many users report that AI tools have really helped — whether saving time and costs or increasing innovation. The same report, though, found that one-third of organizations surveyed expected AI-related staff reductions in the coming year. Especially in that context, simply mandating usage won't spark excitement about the technology, Karunakaran said, and neither will insisting that employees use AI to cut turnaround times and ramp up productivity. "People start asking questions like 'What am I as an employee getting out of it?'" he said. The report he co-authored found that in the short-term, mandating AI tools may ramp up productivity. But in the long-to-medium term, employees tend to feel devalued and disengaged. From there, people find ways to mindlessly check the box. When employers present these tools and their use as an opportunity for employees to expand their skills and grow their careers, people are much likelier to use them, Karunakaran said. He suggests that rather than requiring employees use a specific number of tokens, companies should encourage workers to experiment and share their own use cases and success stories. Most workplaces are still shutting employees out of the conversation. More than half of employees said they have less of a say than they'd want on adopting new tech at work, according to a report from Gallup and Jobs for the Future, a work and education nonprofit. Any Slashdot readers want to share your own stories on how AI was introduced at your workplace?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief, ran against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but neither won a clear majority.

Known for sophisticated musical style in band that played significant role in emerging 1970s punk rock movement

Richard Lloyd, known for his sophisticated musical style as a founding member and guitarist for the influential punk band Television, has died at the age of 75.

His family confirmed that Lloyd died Saturday morning at his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “His loving wife Sheila and his dog Willie Mays were with him at the end,” his family said in a statement to Rolling Stone.

Systems provide 360-degree view of airport operations, but concerns have been raised about the technology

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that the first digital air traffic control towers in the US are officially operational, bringing new technology first to smaller airports in Florida and Alaska as the Trump administration presses ahead with updating the country’s ageing aviation infrastructure.

The systems are now online at the Bartow executive airport (KBOW) in Florida and the Kenai municipal airport (PAEN) in Alaska, with five additional regional airports slated to receive the technology next.

Knesset has been deadlocked since the election last month when Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition lost its majority

Israel’s president has ⁠chosen Gadi Eisenkot, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ⁠strongest rival, to ⁠try to ​form a new government, after a deadlocked election that left neither man ⁠with a clear path to power.

Isaac Herzog’s office said he had informed Eisenkot, the leader of the Yashar party, on Saturday night “of his intention to task him with forming a government”.

Ana Reyes wants to know whether federal officials lied about extent of renovation plans at East Potomac golf course

A federal judge said on Saturday that she intended to appoint an ex-top federal prosecutor who served during Donald Trump’s first term to investigate whether she was purposely misled by lawyers and administration officials over changes to a historic public golf course in Washington DC.

Jessie Liu, a former US attorney for the District of Columbia, would examine whether officials with the interior department and the National Park Service and attorneys with the Department of Justice violated ethics or misled US district judge Ana Reyes during the course of the civil case that was initiated with a lawsuit in February by the DC Preservation League and two golfers.

About five months after the previous release, the MorphOS team has released MorphOS 3.21. It brings the usual list of big fixes and smaller improvements, but there’s a few big ticket items in here as well.

MorphOS 3.21 introduces BasicWorks, an office suite made up of CellBasics and PageBasics. It offers document and spreadsheet authoring and loads and saves Microsoft Office and OpenOffice documents. Also new are NVMEMount, an auto-mounter for booting from and mounting NVMe partitions, and the Marbles and Cyber 3D blankers.

Graphics performance has been improved, with a faster Radeon driver on cards with little video memory thanks to GART backed bitmap transfers, quicker TinyGL texture copies, hardware accelerated antialiased text in TTEngine and much faster color SVG glyph rendering in Cairo. The Bcm43xx wireless driver has been substantially reworked, with automatic transmit rate selection, updated firmware and numerous connection fixes. PowerBook and iMac hotkeys are now fully configurable.

↫ MorphOS 3.21 release announcement

The BasicWorks office suite has been in the works for a while now, and more information on it can be found in a thread on the MorphZone forums and on the website for the spreadsheet component of the suite, CellBasics. The formula loaders and xlsx loaders are ports of open source projects, but the rest of the application is new code based on ObjectiveC++ and Cairo/Harfbuzz. It uses its own file format, but can import csv and xslsx files, so I’m assuming the same more or else applies to the word processor (but with docx, of course).

Alongside MorphOS 3.21 also comes a new release for Wayfarer, the web browser the Amiga-inspired operating system uses. Wayfarer 12.0 moves to WebKitGTK 2.52.5 (which was released in July of 2026, so it’s quite up to date), and now uses the Skia graphics library. R300-R500 Radeons will render websites with Skia-GL for some massive performance improvements, helped further along by a slew of additional performance optimisations. Adblocking has been improved as well, YouTube should work a lot better now, and much more.

The full release notes for MorphOS 3.21 give you all the details.

Ask any program to listen on port 0 and it will hand you a socket on port 47193…or 58037…or whatever the kernel felt like that day. Port 0 is not a port you can have. It is the number you pass when you want the operating system to pick one for you.

But a TCP header is just bytes. The destination port field is 16 bits wide, and 0x0000 fits in 16 bits as well as anything else does. Nothing on the wire stops a packet from being addressed to port 0. Your tools will refuse it, your browser will block it, and your scanner’s default port list skips it, because everyone agrees it isn’t a real port.

Which makes it a pretty good place to hide things, whether anyone meant to or not. So we did some TCP cowboy shit & port scanned the entire fucking internet for open ports on port 0, which uncovered some interesting unexpected findings.

↫ acidvegas

An awesome and entertaining read. Don’t skip this one.

A little tidbit of news regarding the nest major update to Windows, known as Windows 11 27H2. Apparently, it’s going to come with some more serious changes to the codebase, therefore necessitating a full operating system swap instead of a mere enablement package, much like Windows 11 24H2 was.

For those who need a refresher, Microsoft has long been rumored to be running on a three-year release cadence and for a while, it was even thought that the company would launch Windows 12 in 2H 2024. That evidently didn’t happen, as instead we got Windows 11 24H2, but it was a major upgrade, a full OS swap compared to Windows 11 23H2 and 22H2. Essentially, it looks like every three releases, Microsoft is performing a full swap with major changes in the underlying codebase, and it seems to line up with Windows 11 27H2 as well. At the moment it’s not known if system requirements will change or not.

↫ Sayan Sen at Neowin.net

Microsoft is currently testing adding support for Intel’s Advanced Performance Extensions, which should yield improved 64bit performance and reduced power consumption. It makes sense to assume this support will be coming with Windows 11 27H2, which should hopefully lead to tangible performance improvements across the board.

Also, there’s going to be a new default wallpaper. Be still my beating heart.

Ahead of Cop31, climate change minister dismisses concerns about whether Australia as a major producer can keep the world moving away from fossil fuels

• Listen to the podcast: Chris Bowen on how he’ll reach consensus at Cop31

• Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here

Australia has been urged to set aside support for its near US$100bn fossil fuel export industries and fight for a global agreement to move away from coal, gas and oil as its climate change minister, Chris Bowen, leads negotiations between nearly 200 countries at UN talks this week.

Delegates will gather in the Turkish Mediterranean resort city of Antalya on Monday for Cop31, two weeks of climate talks held amid geopolitical turmoil, with conflict in the Middle East driving an oil price crisis that has raised living costs across the globe.

"I didn't think a rock like this existed on Earth," a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Texas told the Washington Post. It looks like a polished rock, dark brown with a clay-colored stripe — but it's actually one of the oldest Mars meteorites ever found, blasted by an impact from the surface of Mars billions of years ago: Technically speaking it's a collection of eight rock fragments, the largest of which is about the size of a fist. Nearly two pounds of the meteorite was discovered in the Sahara in Mali in 2022, and most is now held by a museum in Maine. Within two years, an initial examination determined the meteorite hailed from Mars; scientists are now finally digging deeper, with stunning results. It offers records of "interactions of water and rock and maybe even an imprint of the Martian atmosphere as it was losing water," says Lee Saper, co-author of a new paper recently published in Science. "It was only after we started looking closely that we realized this meteorite is really unique," said Yang Liu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the lead author of a new paper published in Science. "One of the paper's reviewers called it a Rosetta Stone for Mars." Its mix of minerals "tells a story about how the planet's crust formed from cooling magma before it was eventually altered by subsurface water," NASA's JPL says in an announcement. The Washington Post reports: The story begins 4.1 billion years ago, when crystals of a mineral called zircon probably solidified out of molten magma on Mars. "That was a game changer," [said Yang Liu, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California], since scientists can date zircon very precisely, and it has been rare in other Mars meteorites. The date immediately put the Teghaza meteorite on special footing, alongside only two other Mars rocks known to have formed by 4 billion years ago... Perhaps most intriguingly, the researchers also saw signs that the rock had been exposed to water during its evolution, a find detailed in work published this summer in Science Advances.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This image was generated using AI

The 2026 DIAA Boys Soccer State Tournaments begin on November 10 with the first round of the division two state tournament. Salesianum earned the No. 1 seed in division one and Newark Charter earned the honor in division two. 

Delaware high schools’ sports postseason is underway with the 2026 DIAA Field Hockey and Volleyball State Tournaments already in the midst of competition. Boys soccer is joining the postseason calendar with the division two tournament beginning on Tuesday, November 10.

The top-seed in the division two tournament is the Newark Charter Patriots who finished the season with a 14-0-1 overall record. The Patriots one tie this season came in their game against the Charter School of Wilmington Forces. The Forces earned the fifth seed in the division one tournament.  

Salesianum claimed the top spot in the division one tournament with a record of 13-2. The Sals two losses were against out-of-state opponents from Kentucky and New Jersey. Salesianum won the state championship last season and have finished as state champions or the runner-ups the last 13 seasons. 

The division two state tournament will start with a first round played on November 10 and then be followed by the quarterfinal round on November 14. The top four seeds in the division two tournament earn a first round bye. Those teams are: Newark Charter, Tower Hill, St. Mark’s and St. Andrew’s. They’ll play their first games in the quarterfinal round. The division one tournament opens with the quarterfinal round played on November 12. All eight teams will participate in the quarterfinal round. 

Here’s a look at the upcoming boys soccer postseason schedule:

Division One

Quarterfinals: (All games played on November 12)

Salesianum boys soccer posing with the state championship banner after winning the 2025 DIAA Division One State Tournament. Photo credit: Ryan Colasanti

No. 1 Salesianum vs No. 8 Caesar Rodney: Sallies and Caesar Rodney will play each other for the second time this season in their quarterfinal matchup. The Sals beat the Riders, 9-0, earlier this season with a pair of goals apiece from senior Sawyer Valle and juniors Bryan Perez-Herrera and Brady Esser. The quarterfinal will be played at Abessinio Stadium at 5:30 p.m.

No. 2 Cape Henlopen vs No. 7 Sussex Central: The Vikings enter the state tournament with a 12 game winning streak that includes a win over Sussex Central on November 3. Viking junior Brooks Whaley scored two goals in the win and sophomore goalkeeper Kasen Adams earned eight saves preserving the shutout. The quarterfinal rematch will be played at Cape Henlopen at 6:00 p.m.

No. 3 Appoquinimink vs No. 6 Middletown: The Jaguars and Cavaliers renew a rivalry that spans across all athletic programs in their quarterfinal game which will be played at Appoquinimink at 6:00 p.m. The two teams played each other during the regular season with the Jaguars winning a close game, 1-0.   

No. 4 Delcastle vs No. 5 Charter School of Wilmington: This the lone quarterfinal matchup in which the two teams didn’t play each other during the regular season. The Forces enter the contest winners of three straight, shutting out their opponent in each win. Delcastle begins the postseason on a five game winning streak earning four shutout victories in that stretch. The game will be played at Abessinio Stadium at 7:30 p.m.

Division Two

Round One: (All games played on November 10, at 6:00 p.m.)

No. 5 Caravel vs No. 12 Glasgow: The Buccaneers and Dragons play each other for the first time this season when they match up at Caravel on Tuesday. This is the Dragons first playoff game since 2018 and the Buccaneers first since making it to the semi-final round in 2024.

No. 6 Woodbridge vs No. 11 Brandywine: The Blue Raiders and Bulldogs will play each other for the first time this season in round one. Woodbridge enters the game winners of three of its last five games. Brandywine has won four of its last five. This game will be played at Woodbridge.

No. 7 Concord vs No. 10 Lake Forest: This a rematch of both teams’ first game of the season. The Raiders and Spartans finished that September 9 game with a 0-0 tie where both defensive and goalkeeping units performed well. The Raiders and Spartans have since finished the season with 9-4-2 records. This game will be played at Odyssey Charter. 

No. 8 Sussex Academy vs No. 9 Delmar: The Seahawks and Wildcats will meet for the second time this season when they play at Sussex Academy in the first round. The Seahawks won the regular season matchup, 4-0, in late September with help from a two goal performance from senior Dominic Catlett. Junior Bodhin Williams and freshman Anderson Martin-Chilel also scored in the game.

Quarterfinals: (All games played on November 14)

No. 1 Newark Charter vs Winner of No. 8 Sussex Academy/No. 9 Delmar: This game will be played at 7:00 p.m. at Newark Charter.

No. 2 Tower Hill vs Winner of No. 7 Concord/No. 10 Lake Forest: This game will be played at Tower Hill at 6:00 p.m.

St. Mark’s Spartans boy’s soccer team taking a picture with the division two state championship banner after winning the 2025 state championship. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti

No. 3 St. Mark’s vs Winner of No. 6 Woodbridge/No. 11 Brandywine: This game will start at 6:00 p.m. and be played at St. Mark’s.

No. 4 St. Andrew’s vs Winner of No. 5 Caravel/No. 12 Glasgow: This game will be played at St. Andrew’s and begin at 1:00 p.m.

To see the full brackets click here.

Despite the Trump administration's efforts to halt development on a $6.2 billion wind farm, it's now "completely up and running," reports the nonprofit energy news site Canary Media, delivering enough electricity to power the equivalent over 350,000 homes: On Thursday, the Danish energy giant Ørsted said its 704-megawatt wind farm near Connecticut and Rhode Island began "generating up to its full capacity" in October. Revolution Wind began producing smaller amounts of power in the spring, and the company installed the last of 65 turbines in September. The project is the third U.S. utility-scale offshore wind farm to reach full commercial operations, after South Fork Wind near New York and Vineyard Wind near Massachusetts. Before the start of Trump's second term, BloombergNEF projected America would build 39 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035 the article points out, but "Now, it expects just 5.9 GW to come online — an amount that reflects the handful of projects that were already completed or under construction at the start of last year." Despite the diminished pipeline, the carbon-free energy source is still expected to help keep household utility bills in check across the U.S. Northeast, experts say. Revolution Wind and the country's other completed projects have already played a key role in reducing grid stress during extreme weather events this year... Ørsted hit its power milestone despite being forced to halt construction twice last year. In August 2025, the Interior Department issued a stop-work order for Revolution Wind, due to unspecified national security threats. That order was tossed out by a federal judge one month later. But in late December, the administration issued new stop-work orders to all five offshore wind projects then under construction. Judges struck those orders down one by one — but not before developers had lost huge sums of money and nearly missed key project deadlines... Meanwhile, Ørsted said it's making progress on another offshore wind development, Sunrise Wind. The developer on Thursday said it has finished installing all of the wind-turbine foundations for the 924-MW project off the coast of Long Island, New York. That installation is expected to be fully operational in the second half of next year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Pope Leo XIV spoke about access to healthcare on his first stop in Uruguay during his 12-day Latin American tour.

Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, 20, was among nine people killed aboard a Learjet that crashed and exploded near West Palm Beach, Florida.

For more than two decades, Italy has dominated Virtuoso's annual Luxe Report. But the 2027 rankings have a new leader. Japan has overtaken the perennial favorite for the first time in the report's history, ending Italy's reign at the top…

The two skydivers collided at approximately 150 feet above the ground, Skydive Elsinore said.

Great things are gearing up in Great Falls as we head into the holiday season, from holiday shopping to a beard competition

Young female tourist taking a photo of the Osaka Castle, the popular destination in Osaka, Japan.

"AlmaLinux OS charted a new path in 2023 when Red Hat restricted source code access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux," remembers Linux Magazine. "Rather than pursue 1:1 compatibility with RHEL like other Enterprise Linux alternatives, the AlmaLinux OS Foundation chose application binary interface (ABI) compatibility, which guarantees that applications and kernel modules that work on RHEL will work on AlmaLinux OS." No longer constrained by the 1:1 promise, AlmaLinux can offer new features, or add back deprecated ones, while still remaining a stable, drop-in replacement for RHEL... The release of AlmaLinux OS 10.2 in May 2026 reveals just how far AlmaLinux has come.... When RHEL 10 increased the x86-64-v2 architecture baseline to x86-64-v3, many older server platforms (and some new ones) were left in the lurch. These older servers couldn't support the modern CPU feature sets in x86-64-v3, including AVX2 CPU instructions. AlmaLinux recognized that many community members employed older hardware that relied on x86-64-v2. While x86-64-v3 is enabled by default in AlmaLinux OS 10 and AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10, an additional x86-64-v2 build is also available. The x86-64-v2 build works best for environments that rely on standard OS packages or that can rebuild any additional packages required by x86-64-v2. For users with older hardware, the additional x86-64-v2 build allows continued use of current hardware, saving money and keeping servers from the landfill. AlmaLinux OS 10 is actively supported through 2030 with security support through 2035, significantly extending the life of older hardware.... Many legacy applications and containerized workloads still run on i686, a 32-bit computer processor architecture belonging to the Intel x86 family, including software that only ships as i686, CI pipelines that require a specific 32-bit glibc, and seemingly normal looking containers that require a 32-bit environment. RHEL 10 completely removed 32-bit application support and multilib libraries after deprecating support in earlier releases... AlmaLinux OS 10.2 has added package repos and official container images for 32-bit x86 (but not a 32-bit kernel or installer)... NVIDIA GPUs, ubiquitous in modern computing, have been a pain point for Linux users. Getting the closed-source NVIDIA drivers has required extra steps and manual installation. When NVIDIA released an open source version of their graphics driver, AlmaLinux integrated the drivers, along with the associated CUDA components, into the AlmaLinux repository starting with AlmaLinux OS 9 and 10. AlmaLinux also signs the open source drivers, allowing secure boot with the NVIDIA drivers they ship. Unlike RHEL users, AlmaLinux users now have native support, allowing them to skip manual installation. AlmaLinux users can now enjoy a fully integrated NVIDIA experience. In addition, "Thanks to ABI compatibility, AlmaLinux can sometimes deliver patches more quickly than RHEL," the article points out. And it lists other points where AlmaLinux OS 10.2 diverges from RHEL 10: Re-enabling frame pointers disabled by default in RHEL and CentOS Stream to provide system-wide, real-time tracing and profiling to diagnose and optimize code. Enabling both kernel and userspace components that allow installation of AlmaLinux on a Btrfs filesystem Adding SPICE support dropped in RHEL 9, allowing users to interact with a virtual machine's desktop remotely instead of just from the host server. Restoring support for older storage and network drivers disabled upstream, including Adaptec, Dell PERC, HP, Mellanox, QLogic, Emulex, LSI, and Broadcom.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Twelve midwife-led maternity units have closed in England since 2019 with six closing since Labour came to power in 2024

NHS officials are shutting growing numbers of birth centres in a “shocking” denial of a woman’s right to have a midwife rather than a doctor oversee their baby’s birth, say campaigners.

Twelve birth centres – midwife-led maternity units – have closed in England since 2019. Birth centres play a key role in ensuring that women can choose whether to have their baby at a unit in a hospital run by doctors, at one where midwives are in charge, or at home.

After helping Trump to victory in 2024, young voters swung decisively toward Democrats, helping deliver a wave of midterm victories

The 2026 blue tsunami owes a lot to the youth vote.

According to data from Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (Circle), which monitors youth civic engagement, early estimates show the second-highest youth turnout in a midterm election in 30 years, second only to 2018, when an estimated 31% of young voters turned out during Donald Trump’s first presidency.

Armed police attended the scene, which led to two nearby schools going into lockdown

Three teenagers have been arrested after a 17-year-old was injured in a suspected sword attack near a school in Gloucester.

Officers were called to Chalford Road, near St Peter’s high school, in Tuffley, shortly after 8.50am on Friday. It was reported that two people, one in possession of a sword, had been seen chasing two 17-year-olds. The suspects then fled the scene on foot.

Voters approved two measures to save the region’s financially distressed public transit agencies

Voters in the San Francisco Bay Area overwhelmingly approved two transit measures this week that advocates hope will save the region’s financially distressed public transit agencies from a potential death spiral that could have had massive repercussions for the area’s residents and its economy.

The Regional Transit Measure (RTM), a 0.5% sales tax across four Bay Area counties and a 1% sales tax in San Francisco, will generate approximately $1bn annually to fund the region’s four largest transit operators. It received a strong 62.2% support across all five counties that voted on the measure, winning with a landslide of 78.6% in San Francisco.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: A Chinese businesswoman who had a close relationship with the chief executive of one of the most important artificial intelligence companies in the United States was a spy for China's Ministry of State Security, Beijing's top intelligence agency, according to people briefed on U.S. surveillance. The businesswoman, Alice Huang, was recruited by the ministry to collect intelligence on Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, as part of a drive to learn more about American A.I. chips and potentially influence the company to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China, the people said. [...] The New York Times reported last week that Mr. Huang was a target of a Chinese intelligence operation, and that U.S. intelligence agencies were conducting electronic surveillance of Ms. Huang, a Chinese citizen, for at least a year. The Times reported that Mr. Trump had been briefed last year about Mr. Huang's relationship with her, but chose not to do anything about it. Ms. Huang speaks English well and has relationships with executives at the highest levels of the A.I. chip industry, including Mr. Huang and the leaders of Gigabyte, one of the top assemblers of Nvidia supercomputers, said people who have met her. She has attended industry conferences and private executive dinners. It is unclear when Ms. Huang first met Nvidia's leader. In 2024, around the time the two of them were photographed together at a bar in Taipei, her company, Megaspeed, began a multibillion-dollar purchase of advanced A.I. microchips. To many in the industry, the well-funded push by Megaspeed into A.I. appeared to come out of nowhere. Ms. Huang was connected to a network of companies and investors clustered around Shanghai and Zhejiang province that had used their ties to local officials in Shanghai to push aggressively from mobile video games into data centers, which provide the computing power behind artificial intelligence. Megaspeed has been building data centers in Southeast Asia and then renting their computing power to Alibaba, the giant Chinese internet firm, giving China a backdoor way of getting access to advanced Nvidia chips. Nvidia is restricted by the United States from selling those chips directly to China. Beyond its local connections, the network also has a financial link to the Chinese military establishment, through an investment in a cybersecurity subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group, one of the country's largest makers of military technology. Following the report, top Republican lawmakers have asked Jensen Huang to appear before Congress to answer questions. "Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the People's Republic of China's access to sensitive US technology and information," representatives John Moolenaar, Brian Mast, and Rick Crawford said. "The issue of PRC infiltration and access to cutting-edge US technology is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress. It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk," the lawmakers added.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Addressing the financial and personal aspects of aging proactively helps to ensure that you will receive the care you need – and want – as you age.

Hardline aide offers ‘unwavering commitment’ to president amid fears White House will double down on far-right immigration agenda

Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s most controversial aide and the architect of his sweeping immigration crackdown, has lavished praise on the president after his appointment as White House chief of staff.

In his first public remarks since the move was announced, Miller – who begins the role on Monday – pledged “total devotion” to Trump amid concern the administration is now poised to double down on its far-right, nativist immigration agenda.

Charity’s AGM decides overwhelmingly to begin tendering process amid criticism of Barclays’ fossil fuel investments

The National Trust has voted overwhelmingly to seek a new banking partner in a significant victory for members who have long argued that its relationship with Barclays was at odds with its commitment to protecting the natural world.

The resolution, passed at the charity’s annual general meeting on Saturday with the backing of its board of trustees, instructs the organisation to begin a competitive tendering process for its banking arrangements.

Statistics show that veterans die by suicide from firearms – a particularly lethal means of suicide – at a higher rate than in the general population.

Gympanzees near Bristol will be the first UK site of its type, catering for children unable to use regular playgrounds

It has been over a decade since Stephanie Wheen set out to create the UK’s first play and leisure centre specifically designed for disabled children.

Over the past 10 years, she and her team have raised millions of pounds, meticulously researched how to make the centre as inclusive as possible and spent years trialling sessions with disabled children. And soon, the doors to Gympanzees will open for the first time.

Charges against party members and off-piste remarks highlight problems brought about by rapid expansion

Speaking to reporters after unveiling his new defence spokesperson this week, Nigel Farage’s jovial and upbeat mood suddenly switched. Why, he was asked, was a Reform UK councillor who was arrested in January over multiple alleged sexual offences still in his role nearly 10 months later?

“I have no idea,” Farage replied icily. “I was told yesterday, and I wasn’t very happy.”

Democratic socialists won the mayorship, a US House seat and powerful positions in Los Angeles – and a large network of volunteers helped them do it

As a blue tsunami overtook US politics this week, Los Angeles saw a major shake-up of its own with a wave of democratic socialists elected to key offices.

Most notably, Nithya Raman, the first democratic socialist to serve on the Los Angeles city council, prevailed over incumbent Karen Bass to become the next mayor. Even in the deep blue city, Raman’s victory was hardly a given, and marked a stunning win for the progressive wing of the party. With her election, America’s two largest cities will now be run by democratic socialist mayors.

A city in South Florida where many residents fled a socialist strongman voted for a democratic socialist Senate candidate.

Both Christopher Luxon of the National Party and Chris Hipkins of the opposition Labour Party admitted it was not yet clear who New Zealand's next leader would be.

Negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. are to meet on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi for talks aimed at ending the war.

(The Center Square) - With Democrats taking control of Congress in 2027, leaders and advocates are calling for meaningful reforms to healthcare and policies that prioritize affordability.

Semi-retired professor Carolyn Marvin became a local celebrity facing down Philadelphia’s growing robot delivery army: ‘It’s my first amendment right to protest’

“One of you needs to be on the lookout for cops, while I block the robot, OK?”

It is a crisp fall morning in Philadelphia. Tucked away in a dingy alley, opposite a garage called Patriot Parking, 78-year-old Carolyn Marvin is laying out some ground rules for a robot-disrupting expedition. Once a suitable target is identified, we will follow it to a busy sidewalk and Marvin will stand in front of the robot, blocking its way. The photographer and I will take turns ensuring we’re not all carted off by the police.

Tech companies like the idea, as they largely eliminate community opposition, and could cut down on utility costs

While Elon Musk has often touted putting datacenters in space, reports suggest that another geographic area may soon become a widespread target: our lakes and oceans.

Two underwater datacenters are already in operation off the coast of China, and recent reports suggest that the Trump administration is considering plans for four proposed underwater, sealed-pod datacenters to be built off the shores of Maine and Alaska.

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday in a case to determine whether presidential administrations can issue financial damages against immigrant employers.

Fans of the Roku aquarium will need to find a new way to just keep swimming.

• This blog is closed, you can read our report on the New Zealand election here

Another update here with 8% of the vote counted.

National on 31.2%, Labour 28.4%, the Greens 12.9%, Act 11.2%, NZ First 9.6%, Opportunity 5.7% and Te Pāti Māori 0.4%.

On these numbers, we would have a right bloc coalition back in power. Long way to go.

https://pev.dev#p-6539-imu-filtering-1IMU filtering

I realized I haven’t addressed the IMU filtering levels in my post, so here we go.

The Accel/Gyro Filter setting (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH) selects low-pass filters inside the IMU. The cutoff frequencies you get from it depend on whether the IMU is polled or uses the data-ready interrupt. In the tables below, each cell shows the accelerometer and gyro cutoff in Hz.

When polled (all onboard IMUs except Z400), the IMU always runs at its maximum rate and the firmware reads the newest sample at the Sample Rate.

With the data-ready interrupt (Z400 onboard IMU), the IMU runs at the Sample Rate, rounded up to the next rate it supports, and the filters change with it. The imu_status terminal command shows the actual rate.

https://pev.dev#p-6539-lsm6ds3tr-c-2LSM6DS3TR-C

https://pev.dev#p-6539-polled-3Polled

https://pev.dev#p-6539-data-ready-interrupt-4Data-ready interrupt

https://pev.dev#p-6539-bmi160-5BMI160

The firmware doesn’t support the data-ready interrupt on this IMU, so it’s always polled.

https://pev.dev#p-6539-polled-6Polled

https://pev.dev#p-6539-lsm6dsv32x-7LSM6DSV32X

Note: These will hold from rflt-xtras-0.6 onwards, 0.5 has a bit different filtering, but assuming nobody runs rflt-xtras on LSM6DSV32X yet anyway.

https://pev.dev#p-6539-polled-8Polled

https://pev.dev#p-6539-data-ready-interrupt-9Data-ready interrupt

https://pev.dev#p-6539-configuration-guidelines-10Configuration guidelines

Both filter values need to stay below half your sampling rate with some headroom to preserve signal quality, so aim at filter values below one third of your sampling rate.

However, filtering adds delay and smears sharp attitude changes, so the goal is the least filtering (highest cutoffs) that still preserves signal quality.

• Polled: Your sampling rate is the Sample Rate.
• Data-ready interrupt: Your sampling rate is the Actual IMU rate from your IMU’s table above.

Example:
You’re running an LSM6DS3TR-C polled at a 900 Hz Sample Rate. A third of that is 300 Hz. LOW (400/351) is above it, so that’s pushing it. MEDIUM (133/237) is below it, so it’s the better choice.

Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who is set to take over the White House chief of staff role on Monday, has driven President Trump's most controversial immigration policies during both of his administrations.

This week's guests include Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Republican Rep. French Hill and Democratic Rep.-elect Nancy Lacore.

Moscow used 172 drones and 36 ballistic missiles in attacks on electricity substations and bridge over the Dnipro

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of trying to “plunge Kyiv and the entire country into a blackout”, after a major attack overnight on energy infrastructure in the capital and a bridge over the Dnipro River.

Ukraine’s president said Moscow’s preparations for peace talks next week involved pummelling a city of millions with ballistic missiles.

Richard Satin was in constant pain and couldn't eat. He was sure he was dying — until a surgeon found something unusual.

Department had claimed that being kidnapped for ransom was not exploitation of trafficking victims in case of Syrian man abducted in Libya

The court of appeal has rejected claims by the Home Office that being kidnapped for ransom is not exploitation of trafficking victims.

The ruling means that many people who have been kidnapped for ransom, whom officials have previously excluded from being victims of exploitation under trafficking rules, will now have to have these claims considered. They may be eligible for the support and recovery package trafficking victims are entitled to.

The ‘secretary of war’ and his shameful history are facing bipartisan scrutiny

Can you smell the schadenfreude in the air?

Watching some of the worst people in the world get their comeuppance this week has been deeply satisfying. And the show isn’t over yet. While the midterms have wrapped up, the blame game is only just getting started, with Republicans desperate to find scapegoats for their shellacking.

Arwa Mahadwi is a Guardian columnist

President spent weeks praising his favored candidates’ physiques, from their jawlines to their shoulders – but most of his hot guys lost

​It was either a last-ditch considered strategy to win votes, or the ramblings of an increasingly unhinged and increasingly amorous party leader.

Either way, it didn’t work.

I snapped some photos in a dreamy garden with these passport-size phones to see how their rear cameras stack up.

Architect of Trump’s far-right immigration agenda is now most powerful unelected figure in government – it suggests White House is moving to a war footing

Donald Trump just gave the middle finger to millions of American voters.

Any other president who suffered the kind of drubbing at the polls that Trump did this week might have felt at least a sliver of humility – and perhaps even an obligation to work with the new opposition in Congress.

When daylight fades and dinner remains, these 17 crock pot dishes offer pork roasts, chicken, soups, beef, and meatballs with little hands-on work. Start one early and sit down when the day winds down.The post 17 comforting crock pot dishes…

Still deciding what turkey to serve for Thanksgiving? These 13 recipes include a whole roast, slow-cooker breast, pot pie, casseroles, soups, sliders, and make-ahead pinwheels for meals before and after the holiday.The post 13 turkey recipes to write down before…

Fans trying to access latest releases are being priced out in a cut-throat market driven by crypto-like hype

The runaway demand for Pokemon cards is because they are being hyped “like crypto”, according to one young fan who had spent the night queueing outside a London store to make sure he did not miss out on the latest card release.

Before its 10am opening on Friday, the line outside the pop culture store Forbidden Planet in central London snaked past five others and, despite its strict sales policy, was probably “50/50” fans and resellers, said Kai, who had been there since 3am.

In a reversal of longstanding assumptions, strong criticism of Israel’s actions may have helped put candidates over the top

“You took a chance on the unlikeliest of candidates,” Abdul El-Sayed told a Detroit crowd on Wednesday, declaring victory in Michigan’s hard-fought, often ugly, Senate race. In what was predicted to be a squeaker, the Democrat beat his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, by a healthy seven points.

In some ways, El-Sayed was an unlikely candidate. At 34, in his first run for elected office, he set his sights almost cockily on a US Senate seat. He ran on what has become an uncontroversial affordability platform but also championed the socialist-adjacent Medicare for All.

Maga’s regret voters were all-in for Trump’s racism. Then they found out they couldn’t afford it

For the first time in a decade, election predictions far exceeded public expectations. What pollsters anticipated as a blue wave billowed into a blue tsunami. Wins that held ground for already blue seats eased nerves, and the flips of swing states like Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio energized the blue base. But red-belt-busting wins in Republican strongholds like Texas, South Carolina and Kansas alongside pending races in Alaska and Mississippi left mouths agape. The explanation was that Democrats turned out far more supporters than their regulars, and that the “regret voter” (both swing voters and partisan Republicans) expanded the wave across districts Trump previously won. Elation and sighs of relief rolled over consistently Democratic voters who suffered multiple sucker punches from recent years of Republican upsets. Regret voters, who run the gamut from gen Z men to Latinos, farmers and the white working class, hope a different party can deliver on the economy Trump promised them.

Blue voters look at the dismantling of democracy, multiple wars, mass deportations and Trump’s unchecked power in these last two years and see how it all could have been avoided. Regret voters, however, either co-signed or conceded to Trump’s naked racism and brutish bullying of marginalized people, but switched their votes as soon as the consequences hit their pockets. While some of the president’s backers may have been turned away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gunning down American citizens, the final straw for most wasn’t ICE’s brutality, but rather the price of eggs. Some may have been upset by the Tomahawk missile assault that killed 120 schoolgirls in Iran, but most fumed at the rocketing costs at the gas pump that followed. Few demanded answers for the nearly 60 deaths of innocent people detained in DHS detention centers since the start of 2024, but many felt scorned by lost immigrant labor that cut into owners’ profit margins. Maga’s regret voters were all-in for Trump’s racism. Then they found out they couldn’t afford it.

Sunshine state emerged as the lone flag bearer of the Maga agenda, but even there, the GOP finds itself on the defense

After the dust settled on Tuesday night’s near-annihilation of the Republican party nationwide, a single red flag fluttered defiantly in Florida, now a last bastion of the Maga movement that has dominated politics in the US for a decade.

Voters in the Sunshine state bucked the national trend, just barely, to elect two close allies of Donald Trump into office: congressman Byron Donalds as its first Black governor, and Ashley Moody to the US Senate.

Dinch, an allegedly ‘safe’ alternative, used in the EU and US also found to cause fetal development complications

Exposure to a new generation of allegedly “safe” plasticizers is linked to lower birth weight and fetal development complications, which could cause serious health problems later in life, a new peer-reviewed study found.

As the health risks in exposure to common phthalate plasticizers became clear over the last few decades, industry began switching to a new type of chemical, called Dinch, that it claimed was a “high safety”, nontoxic alternative. It is widely used in soft plastic food packaging in the United States and European Union, and is found in children’s toys, medical devices, some textiles, flooring and other consumer goods.

From North Carolina to Arizona, Democrats with almost no public profile were stunned at their election triumphs

One candidate had dropped out in September. One had no campaign staff. One was a 19-year-old and halfway through the fall college semester.

Across the US, Democratic candidates with almost no public profile and long odds of winning their midterm races were stunned to find they had outperformed their opponents on Tuesday. They were swept into Congress and statehouses in the blue wave that knocked out Republicans from seats considered untouchable in deep-red districts.

From corn pudding and cheesy pasta to beefy layers, breakfast bakes, and sweet potato sides, these 15 fall casseroles bring plenty to scoop and share. Several can be prepped ahead for easier suppers or brunches.The post 15 warm fall casserole…

Tech giant leaped to shore up relationship even as company was roiled by worker protest over its role in the war

A year into the war in Gaza, the networks of Israel’s military intelligence community were plagued with technical problems. There were major, multi-hour outages to their systems, and repeated crashes. Built-in debugging mechanisms failed.

The problems, which started as intelligence operations were undergoing updates to digital infrastructure, became so persistent as to undermine the “confidence” of Israeli intelligence agencies in one of their top network providers: the multinational tech conglomerate Cisco.

The GOP tried to dilute their power, but Black voters helped Democrats get elected in Alabama, Texas and Florida

Black voter turnout surged across US southern states where Republicans were accused of redrawing electoral maps to “diminish Black political power” in the wake of a seismic supreme court ruling.

Democrats flipped or held seats in Alabama, Texas and Florida with the support of this voting bloc, building on a decades-long, dedicated movement to protect and build Black political power in the region.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s vision for education was finally coming together. 

This year, the state launched a voucher program that allowed roughly 110,000 of Texas’ more than 5 million schoolchildren to get a private education using taxpayer dollars. Abbott’s loyal appointee at the Texas Education Agency, Commissioner Mike Morath, was leading the state’s largest takeover of public schools in recent history. And the Texas State Board of Education, with Abbott’s support, helped pass a controversial new social studies curriculum that required teaching Bible stories and shifted away from world history to focus on Texas and the United States.

On Tuesday night, as Democrats clinched nearly every office in the state, it all began to unravel. 

In a speech after denying Abbott a fourth term, Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa called for a reversal of his education agenda. She pledged to fire Morath and to end the public school takeovers. 

Perhaps most significantly, she doubled down on a campaign promise to erase one of Abbott’s biggest accomplishments: school vouchers. 

“We will work tirelessly to repair the damage of the Texas voucher scam,” said Hinojosa, who did not respond to requests for an interview.

It is not clear how Hinojosa will deliver on that promise. While Democrats have the ability to restrict parts of the program, eliminating it would require legislative action.  

But Hinojosa will have help. 

Democrat Sarah Eckhardt, a former state senator who voted against vouchers and will now lead the state office charged with running the program, has said she will push changes to increase accountability and transparency.

Eckhardt, however, acknowledged the limitations of her office, saying that any big overhaul must come from lawmakers.

Democrats won back the Texas House for the first time in 24 years, but Republicans retained a majority in the Senate. 

Rep. Diego Bernal, the Democratic vice chair of the House education committee, seemed confident that there is a path toward killing the program, at least as it now exists. 

Bernal, whose district is in San Antonio, said some Republican colleagues previously told him privately that they had reservations about the voucher program, but were limited in what they could do because of pressure from leaders who have now been ousted. 

“I guarantee that program is not going to be untouched, and it will be probably unrecognizable, if not extinct, by the time we’re done with it,” he said.

Rural Texas Pushes Back

Abbott spent years trying to pass a statewide voucher program. By 2024, he’d grown angry at rural Republicans who repeatedly blocked such legislation because, they argued, public schools were a vital part of their communities. So Abbott shelled out millions of dollars to oust them from office and elect pro-voucher Republicans instead. 

He succeeded. And the following year, those Republicans helped pass the $1 billion state voucher program. This week, at least 13 Republicans who Abbott had previously endorsed or helped fund as part of his voucher push lost to Democrats or were trailing in close races. 

Abbott’s office declined an interview request, referring ProPublica and The Texas Tribune to his campaign office, which did not respond. 

His bullishness on vouchers turned off some Republican voters in rural communities that have historically been strongholds for his party, education experts and politicians said.

A Texas Tribune analysis found Democrats made striking gains in rural and semirural parts of the state, where concern over vouchers, along with issues like data centers, ran high. In rural counties, Abbott’s margin over Hinojosa fell 16 percentage points from his 2022 margin over former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, and it fell 20 percentage points in exurban counties. 

Former state Rep. Dewayne Burns, an anti-voucher Republican from a mostly rural district south of Fort Worth who was defeated by an Abbott-backed primary challenger in 2024, said many of his constituents felt betrayed by the governor’s push for vouchers. “That’s the first time that I think rural Texans really kind of stepped back and said, ‘Are you guys really supporting us?’” he said. “I think they overestimated the loyalty that Texans, especially rural Texans, had to the governor.” 

Former state Rep. Steve Allison, who represented a suburban San Antonio district before he was unseated in the 2024 primary, said he remains convinced his constituents never wanted the voucher system. Pro-voucher groups targeted him in a series of ads that attacked him for issues like border security and property taxes but said little about school choice. Polls at the time showed Texans held complicated views on school choice, with one University of Houston poll showing that while two-thirds of Texans supported voucher legislation, an equal number believed that vouchers would funnel money away from already struggling public schools. 

“I know what I saw when my staff took very careful notice of what phone calls were coming in and what emails and texts and visits were coming in,” he said in an interview. “It was clear that the overall district was opposed to vouchers.”

Concerns about vouchers became key in several rural and suburban Texas districts this year where Abbott’s selected candidates had won two years ago. One of those races was for Allison’s old seat, which pro-voucher candidate Marc LaHood won in 2024 after Abbott spent at least $700,000 supporting him.

Another was in Bell County in Central Texas. There, the Abbott-backed incumbent, Rep. Hillary Hickland, conceded a close race Wednesday morning. She did not respond to a request for an interview. Her Democratic opponent, Amelia Rabroker, a former teacher, said the Republicans’ heavy-handed push for vouchers spurred her to challenge Hickland.

“A lot of money was pushed into her campaign to make that happen, and she delivered on those vouchers, and it was very upsetting to the people of Central Texas,” Rabroker said. “I think it was a huge concern. The biggest.”

Similarly, LaHood, who did not respond to requests for comment, faced a flurry of questions over his support of vouchers at a candidate forum for the District 121 race in October. His opponent, Democrat Zack Dunn, said vouchers and public education were second only to affordability in the minds of voters he met. On Tuesday night, Dunn defeated LaHood with 54% of vote.

“Across the board, overwhelmingly the sentiment was, ‘We need to fully fund our public schools,’” Dunn said in an interview. “The voucher scam, the voucher scheme, the voucher vote that was taken is hurting us. It’s hurting us definitely across the state, but it’s hurting us in 121. Yes, we heard that over and over and over again.”

What’s Next?

Dunn said he would support measures that ensure more transparency in how taxpayer dollars are used for private schools.

Ultimately, though, he wants to see the program repealed.

Some changes can come through administrative actions by Eckhardt, the new state comptroller. In a news conference the day after her election, Eckhardt said she planned to rigorously audit how taxpayer money is spent and to release more information about the program to the public.

Under her Republican predecessors, the comptroller’s office shielded information that included data detailing how much state funding certain private schools received and how many students most public schools lost to the program. The office argued that it was protecting student privacy.

“As the comptroller, my job is to vigorously follow the money and report back to the Legislature if their investment is not panning out,” Eckhardt said. She added, “That is part of the vigorous audit and performance evaluation of this program that any comptroller should be doing, and I certainly will be doing.”

One key supporter of vouchers in the Senate, the last Republican bulwark in the state, is taking a more measured approach on the program’s future.

Houston Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt, who led the effort to approve vouchers that had failed in prior years, said the Legislature will need to review the outcomes from the 2026-27 school year and assess the benefits and families’ concerns. He pointed to the fact that vouchers were returned by some parents whose children required special education services.

“I think that it has helped students in many other states,” Bettencourt said. “We need to look at what’s happened here with this first cohort, and we need to make sure that we’re debating not the emotionality prior to passage of a bill, but the facts of what happened after the passage of a bill.”

Scott Schneider, an attorney who represents private schools participating in the voucher program, said the midterm results shocked private school leaders. Some were counting on the state funding to support their business. He said private school leaders could start a lobbying effort to grandfather in the families already benefiting from the program, but schools are also planning for what they will do if the state funding goes away altogether.

“It’s going to be a hot mess,” Schneider said.

The post Texas’ School Voucher Program Could Be “Unrecognizable, If Not Extinct,” Says Democratic Lawmaker appeared first on ProPublica.

Socialists will soon govern three of the United States’ most influential cities: Los Angeles, New York City, and the District of Columbia.

Janeese Lewis George joins Zohran Mamdani and Nithya Raman as part of a new wave of socialist local executives. But unlike Mamdani and Raman, Lewis George will govern a city under federal rule.

D.C. is a “federal district,” subject to the whims and micromanagement of the president and Congress. If the federal government doesn’t like the city’s legislation, it can override it. This poses additional challenges if Lewis George wants to change how things are done in the nation’s capital.

Related

How Democrats Changed Everything

Lewis George, a current D.C. city councilmember, has promised to usher in sweeping reforms centered around affordability, including stronger tenant protections, investments in affordable childcare, and long-sought-after reforms on the city’s restrictive zoning laws. She rose to political prominence as the first socialist on the city council, winning her seat on a platform of defunding the police in the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor protests in 2020. (She has since called for hiring additional Metropolitan Police officers.)

For Lewis George to fulfill her campaign promises is “going to require Janeese to use her position and her longstanding reputation as an organizer to convince members of Congress that we can exercise Home Rule and that we deserve the dignity of any other collective body, like a state, in this country,” said Kurtis Hagans, chair of Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, which endorsed Lewis George in the primary. 

All local D.C. bills are required to go through a congressional review period of 30 working days for civil legislation and 60 working days for criminal bills. If Congress doesn’t like the bill, it can either decide to let that review period lapse, allowing the legislation to go into effect, or pass a joint disapproval resolution in both the House and the Senate. If they pass a disapproval resolution, it goes to the president’s desk, where they can choose to veto and let the new law stand or sign it and override the legislation. 

Speaking to The Intercept on Election Day, voters said they supported Lewis George because they wanted to elect someone who would fight for everyday Washingtonians. 

“I was certainly motivated by wanting really strong leadership for D.C. and people who are going to put D.C. first, in the sense of the residents and the community members and not solely as our role as the capital city,” said Izetta Mobley, a voter in Ward 4, where Lewis George serves as a councilmember.

For Mobley and other voters, that primarily means tackling issues of affordability. “Affordable housing and the rise in unhoused folks, and making sure that unhoused folks have support and city resources …those were very important to me,” said Mobley. 

Related

Abdul El-Sayed Won His Senate Seat With a Mandate on Palestine. Can He Deliver?

Although Democrats took both houses of Congress on Tuesday, paving a clearer path for the district to flex its autonomy, Lewis George will still have to contend with Democratic leaders like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, both moderates, who are likely to lead the Senate and the House next session. Schumer and Jeffries were often critical of Mamdani when he was running for mayor in their home state of New York, though they seized primarily on his stance on Israel.

Hagans pointed out that Lewis George has the longtime support of former at-large councilmember Robert White, who was elected as Washington’s non-voting delegate on Tuesday. But Hagans said the DC Metro DSA is also preparing to organize residents to put pressure on Congress, given ”the relative powerlessness of the district in the face of Congress.”

Governing Washington has other pitfalls. The district is hamstrung by the fact that the D.C. Council is required to pass a balanced budget and is prohibited from carrying it over into the following year. (Congress also gets to approve it.) The city is already struggling to close a $1.1 billion budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year — caused by Congress. 

In order to achieve her agenda, Lewis George has suggested raising taxes on businesses and the city’s wealthiest residents. For that, she’ll need the support of the city council. 

Lewis George is aided by the fact that Tuesday also ushered in a record number of socialists on the city council, adding two, Aparna Raj and Oye Owolewa. “A big part of the vision for the district is to have these organizers on the council as well as an organizer-in-chief at the executive level,” said Hagans.

Aside from bold economic policies, many voters who spoke to The Intercept said they want the new administration to prioritize resistance to the federal takeover of Washington, D.C., and ending the scourge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “We’ve seen ICE raids in our neighborhood, literally where our kids used to go to school,” said Jason Cherkis, another Ward 4 voter. “That’s one reason we voted for Janeese for mayor because she was out front and speaking about ICE in a way our current mayor never did.” 

Despite the restrictions placed on a D.C. mayor, immigrant advocacy and civil rights groups concerned about the incursion of ICE in the district are pushing for Lewis George to take a stand. 

“We want to see the next mayor doing everything possible to protect these most vulnerable communities from continued attacks,” said Peggy Ramin, policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia. “Whether that is legislation or the mayor ensuring that the administration’s agencies are well educated as to what that means in terms of limiting cooperation and even prohibiting cooperation.”

In particular, Ramin said that her organization is calling on the D.C. council and Lewis George to pass legislation that would allow residents to sue any officer — local or federal — who violates constitutional rights.

Ramin is aware of the challenges facing the district to pass this type of legislation without incurring interference from Congress or President Donald Trump — who has personally vowed to oppose Lewis George. 

“No matter what Congress ends up doing, whether it disapproves or passes a disapproval resolution or not, I think people here in D.C. are really demanding and asking our council to step up and pass this sort of legislation,” said Ramin. 

Related

There’s a New Democratic Machine. It’s Unabashedly Socialist.

Aside from federal immigration officials, residents also complained about the National Guard, whose presence was felt even on Election Day. “I have two boys, Black men,” said one voter, Tamika Jackson, “and the harassment is out of control.” 

As evidenced by the record number of socialists winning power across the country, Hagans says it’s clear both D.C. and the nation are looking for fighters. 

“Democrats have promised a lot for a long time, but they seem unwilling to stand up to Trumpism,” said Hagans. Voters are noticing “this new class of democratic socialists,” he said, concluding, “Maybe I don’t know what that means entirely, but let’s give it a shot.”

The post How a Socialist Can Govern a City Under the Thumb of the Trump Administration appeared first on The Intercept.

A UN-backed report warns that even temporarily overshooting the Paris agreement's 1.5C warming target could cause permanent and widespread losses of glaciers, snow and polar ice sheets. With Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets already melting about six times faster than in the 1990s, the report argues that global temperatures should ultimately be brought back below 1C. The Guardian reports: The report, which comes as world leaders and diplomats converge on Turkey for the 31st annual Cop climate conference, documented rapid and accelerating melting of the cryosphere and polar oceans, with damages that range from the loss of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, driving sea level rises that threaten hundreds of millions of people, to thawing permafrost, which releases more planet-heating gas. Glaciers, which are still responding to historical warming, would only preserve about 70% of their current volume over a timescale of centuries if long-term heating were brought back down to 0.8C, the report found. Meanwhile, the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, which are melting about six times faster today than in the 1990s, would continue to lose ice even in scenarios where overshoot is brief and temperature rise returns to 1.5C, the report found. The scientists said a safe, long-term temperature limit for polar ice sheets lies much closer to 1.0C of global heating, and possibly even lower. "Snow and ice respond rapidly to every fraction of a degree of warming," said [James Kirkham, a glaciologist at ICCI and the lead author of the report. "But most of these systems will take centuries or millennia to recover after overshoot, especially if tipping points are crossed that cause changes to become essentially irreversible." Last month, a UNEP report found the world must cut emissions by 18% by 2030 and by 45% by 2035 to have a good chance of keeping temperatures from rising 1.7C above preindustrial levels. It found there were "no good outcomes" of remaining above 1.5C. The cryosphere report found that current policies, which will result in 2.8C of global heating, would reduce the mass of glacier ice to below 10% in the Rockies, Alps, Iceland and Scandinavia. If warming was limited to 1.5C, about 20-35% of the mass would remain. In the Hindu Kush Himalayas, where glaciers are a source of water for nearly a quarter of humanity, current policies will leave just 41% of the ice mass. If warming was limited to 1.5C, 83% would remain.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Unlike Texas, the deep-red state held back Democratic challengers in its statewide races. The current governor thinks he knows why.

As the Democratic governor-elect targets vouchers and takeovers, new school officials may reverse policies that put religion in classrooms and cut diversity efforts.

Isabelle Garbani won rave reviews for telling visitors about America’s immigration history. The problem was dealing with the present.

Among the first generation of Black operatic stars, Arroyo has died at 90. She was known for her performances of Verdi.

There’s not much they can do over the next couple of years to alleviate angry voters’ stress over prices

It was the economy, again. Although Donald Trump largely ignored it, voters’ acute concerns over the rising cost of living fuelled a political upheaval for the ages that is likely to deliver the biggest swing toward Democrats since Watergate, granting them the largest House majority in nearly four decades alongside their biggest edge in the Senate since 2008.

Still, having come to power promising to restore affordability, the new crop of Democrats are soon to discover that there is not much they can do over the next couple of years to alleviate angry voters’ stress over pricey gas and groceries, exorbitant mortgages and unaffordable healthcare.

Eduardo Porter is a journalist focused on economics and politics. He writes the newsletter Being There on Substack

The president was placed under house arrest after being removed from office following the collapse of a bank linked to the government.

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — Democrat Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign sued Alaska election officials Friday seeking immediate access to records identifying rejected absentee ballots as her race against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan remains separated by roughly 600 votes.

The campaign says it requested the records under Alaska’s Public Records Act on Oct. 27 and again after Election Day but was denied immediate access. It wants the names of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected and the reasons for rejection, arguing that without the information it cannot determine whether lawful ballots were improperly excluded.

Alaska officials say the records are preliminary and historically treated as confidential while ballot processing continues. The state argues that releasing them now could burden election workers and interfere with counting.

Importantly, the lawsuit does not establish that any ballots were wrongly rejected. It seeks information that could allow the campaign to contact affected voters or challenge individual decisions if problems are found.

The dispute comes as Alaska continues accepting absentee ballots from remote communities through Nov. 18. If neither Peltola nor Sullivan reaches 50% of first-choice votes, the state will conduct its ranked-choice tabulation that day.

The race is one of only two unresolved U.S. Senate contests, alongside Mississippi.

Sources:

• Reuters – MBFC Rating

The post Peltola Campaign Sues Alaska for Records on Rejected Absentee Ballots appeared first on News Facts Network.

DataVita has revised plan for Chapelhall development to be wholly powered by 1GW of renewable energy

A datacentre company that said it would power a massive AI development near Glasgow with renewable energy has admitted that the scheme will be entirely served by the National Grid.

DataVita, a key plank of the UK’s AI strategy, had promised that the Lanarkshire project would draw 1GW – the equivalent output of a small nuclear reactor, or Britain’s largest windfarm – from green sources. But when the Guardian raised questions about the pledge, it said the arrangement was “subject to final commercial agreements, planning, grid and consenting processes”.

Power and water constraints are pressuring what seemed like a juggernaut of growth for the region just months ago

In early 2026, Thailand’s datacentre industry was on a roll. The country’s board of investment had recently announced approval of datacentre projects from Tiktok, a UAE-based Skyline datacentre and Singapore’s Bridge datacentres, totalling a planned investment of $27bn.

As the year has passed, however, what once seemed like a new industrial juggernaut has ground to a halt. Thailand paused construction on 49 projects and approval decisions on 117 more in September 2026, amidst growing concern about the lack of sufficient details for regulation and monitoring. It is not alone in reconsidering datacentre projects. In neighbouring Indonesia, the governor of the country’s most populous province of West Java halted construction on a datacentre due to lack of permits and an incomplete environmental assessment process.

Democrats and Republicans blast promotion of ‘xenophobe’ who led administration’s immigration crackdown in wake of US midterm elections

Democratic lawmakers decried Stephen Miller as a “hatemonger”, a “xenophobe” and “vile” after Donald Trump appointed his most trusted adviser as White House chief of staff.

On Friday afternoon, the US president abruptly announced via his Truth Social platform that Miller – the architect of his sweeping immigration crackdown – would replace Susie Wiles, whom he confirmed had been ousted.

After losing an election, sneaking to Miami and proclaiming himself rightful president, Flávio Bolsonaro says in an interview that the U.S. is a refuge where “institutions still work.”

U.S. allies are not celebrating Trump's midterm defeat, viewing the election results instead as another worrisome sign of a fickle electorate and unreliable partner.

Carl B. Stokes defeated Seth Taft, scion of an Ohio political dynasty, in Cleveland to become the first Black person elected mayor of a major U.S. city.

Campaign group the3million lodges court papers after EU citizens told pre-settled status was an ‘error’

The Home Office is being sued for alleged breach of the Brexit withdrawal agreement after stripping almost 1,500 EU citizens of their full rights to live in the UK.

Campaign group the3million lodged papers at the high court on Friday after several cases emerged of EU citizens who were granted pre-settled status to remain in the country after Brexit but were told recently those decisions were an “error”.

Researchers say popular performers covertly market OnlyFans content and tell followers about wealthy lifestyle

TikTok is helping to promote and normalise the sex industry, allowing “sexfluencers” to post videos aimed at marketing pornographic content they have uploaded elsewhere on sites such as OnlyFans, a report indicates.

After studying non-explicit content posted on TikTok over the course of a year by some of OnlyFans’ most popular young female performers, researchers said the women buried coded references to pornography in “girly lifestyle content” that showed them shopping, playing with their pets, baking or offering skincare advice.

Senior British politicians and officials highlight potential to end Iran war but warn US president is not yet ‘a spent force’

Andy Burnham was having dinner at the Commonwealth summit in Antigua when the results of the US midterm elections started rolling in.

UK government officials in the Caribbean with the prime minister scrolled through their phones with growing incredulity as the scale of the Republicans’ defeat became clear.

Norcross' Drew Noelsaint (1) leaps for an interception against Duluth in high school football on November 6, 2026.

Duluth's Deandre Lowe (22) runs the football against Norcross on November 6, 2026.

Norcross' Tyler Ruffin (33) runs the football against Duluth on November 6, 2026.

Charities say situation exposes ‘fatal flaw’ in Andy Burnham’s plan to end rough sleeping in England by Christmas

In just four days James is facing the prospect of sleeping on the street. He was released from prison in August and given temporary probation accommodation in Somerset, but that is about to expire and he has nowhere to go.

“It is scary,” the 37-year-old said. “I am not asking for special treatment. But literally nowhere wants to help – I have contacted MPs, solicitors, probation and the council. I am quite tempted to just get myself recalled to prison because it is November. It is cold.”

Trump still considering new assault on Iran nuclear sites – though threats less credible after Vance remarks

Qatar, the lead mediator in the US-Iran conflict, is seeking to persuade Tehran to allow UN nuclear weapons inspectors to visit Iran’s bombed nuclear sites, including those housing the country’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Iran would not be required to make any commitment that the stockpile would be removed from the country, with other options on the table, including reducing the uranium content by down-blending it.

Samuel Gibbs doubted he could cut costs and still keep warm by putting tech in control. The results surprised him

Can smart thermostats and AI reduce your heating bills? Every manufacturer claims the answer is yes, quoting average savings in the 25%, or £180 a year range. But all of these promises are heavily caveated and, with energy costs changing regularly, it can be very difficult to tell what is having an impact.

To find out if technology can really help, I spent the last two years comparing my miserly manual control and basic heating schedule to an AI-governed system. The results surprised me.

Susan Lawrence, elected to Wolverhampton city council, sits on committee overseeing financial reporting of multimillion-pound budget

A woman who promoted a notorious cryptocurrency scam has been elected as a Reform UK councillor and now sits on the audit and risk committee of a major city council.

Susan Lawrence was one of the main UK promoters of the HyperVerse cryptocurrency scheme, which was named in US court documents as an alleged “pyramid and Ponzi scheme” that cheated investors worldwide out of a “staggering” $1.89bn (£1.41bn).

A vibrating mattress combined with two pills that release nitric oxide enhanced the brain's ability to clear an Alzheimer's-related protein. According to New Scientist, the experiment "caused the brain's blood vessels to swell and constrict more strongly, which enhanced the glymphatic system's clearance of [the protein]." From the report: [Kesa Kiviniemi at the University of Oulu in Finland] and his colleagues recruited 29 adults who hadn't been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or any other cognitive issues. The participants took a pill that dissolves when under the tongue, releasing nitric oxide. They then lay on a mattress that caused their bodies to gently vibrate for 40 minutes, taking another pill halfway through. Blood samples revealed that their levels of a type of protein called beta-amyloid 42 increased by 35 per cent, on average, after the intervention. This protein, which usually helps neurons signal and connect to each other, misfolds and form clumps in Alzheimer's disease. "The treatment seemed to enhance the glymphatic system's ability to clear beta-amyloid from the brain to the blood," says Kiviniemi. "A 35 per cent increase in circulating beta-amyloid 42 is a substantial and very interesting acute effect," says Tuomas Lilius at the University of Helsinki, who wasn't involved in the work. "It is certainly possible it could become biologically, and eventually clinically, relevant." Side effects were mild and minimal, with six of the participants experiencing issues such as nausea and headache. However, this could partly be due to the expectation of an effect from the nitric oxide pills. The researchers hope to overcome this in future work by including placebo pills. Brain scans suggest the treatment enhanced the flow of fluid along glymphatic channels, probably by widening the brain's blood vessels and making them pump more strongly, says Kiviniemi. But other mechanisms could also be at play, says Brown. For instance, this intervention may slow the breakdown of beta-amyloid 42 by the liver, leading to higher amounts in the bloodstream, he says. Future studies could get around this by injecting markers into cerebrospinal fluid, which moves through the glymphatic system, to more directly measure its flow, says Brown. Additional experiments by Kiviniemi and his colleagues tested either only the mattress vibrations or only the nitric oxide pills on the same participants, at least a week before or after they underwent the combined approach. Based on brain scans, these solo interventions seemed to have less than half the effect on the glymphatic system than when they were combined. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

DULUTH — The Norcross Blue Devils came out on top of one of the oldest football rivalries in Gwinnett County, beating Duluth 35-21 in their Region 7-AAAAAAA matchup on Friday.

The Republican party will regroup after their shellacking in the US midterm elections, but it won’t look the same

Walking by a tattoo studio and medical spa on the pretty main street of Round Rock, in Texas Hill Country, Tarik Bakir recalled voting for Barack Obama in 2008 and Donald Trump in 2024. But when it came to the 2026 midterm elections, he was firmly back in the Democrats’ column.

“I’m not happy with the Iran war,” said Bakir, 41, a financial adviser who served with the US military in Afghanistan. “The economy’s OK, but not great. This election was a rebuttal to Trump. This time people said they didn’t like him, or his policies.”

Democrats’ sweep could urge Israel’s divided opposition to join forces and remove prime minister closely allied with Trump

The Democrats’ sweep of Congress may make it easier for Israel’s splintered opposition to overcome deep internal divisions and form a coalition government, by increasing the urgency of unseating Benjamin Netanyahu, who has associated himself so closely with Donald Trump’s Republicans.

But as Israel took stock of the results, there was also a sense that the elections marked a longer-term shift in US politics that will make the job of any new Israeli leader far more difficult.

Go.AI has raised $85 million in Series A funding, bringing total funding to $90 million, to expand its private AI infrastructure platform for regulated industries and compliance-focused organizations.

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — California voters have rejected Proposition 40, the closely watched measure that would have imposed a one-time 5% tax on residents worth more than $1 billion, according to a projection from Decision Desk HQ.

With roughly three-quarters of ballots counted, about 54% opposed the measure and 46% supported it. The Associated Press had not yet called the race Friday, but Proposition 40 had consistently trailed by a substantial margin.

The proposal would have applied to roughly 250 California billionaires and generated tens of billions of dollars, according to state estimates. Ninety percent of the revenue would have gone toward healthcare, with the remainder funding food assistance and education programs.

Opponents dramatically outspent supporters. Billionaires and business groups poured more than $300 million into efforts opposing Proposition 40 and promoting competing measures that could have blocked it. Google co-founder Sergey Brin alone contributed more than $100 million.

Gov. Gavin Newsom also opposed the measure, arguing it could encourage wealthy residents to leave California and destabilize state revenues. Supporters, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and the California Democratic Party, argued billionaires should contribute more toward healthcare and social programs.

The defeat does not necessarily end the wealth-tax debate. Democratic leaders nationally have already indicated that taxing extremely wealthy Americans will remain part of their agenda.

Sources:

• Politico – MBFC Rating

The post California Billionaire Tax Falls After Opponents Spend More Than $300 Million appeared first on News Facts Network.

Its key temperature goal has been missed but experts say the agreement is still proving a vital moral compass for progress

It was a curious way of conducting negotiations. Ahead of the 2025 climate summit, in the Amazonian port of Belém last year, the Brazilian hosts had taken off the table the issue that most had assumed would be at its heart: concrete plans from each country laying out exactly what they would be doing to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

Brazil was insisting, instead, that these plans – the bedrock of the Paris agreement – were the business of national governments and not up for negotiation. “In that case, it will be a very short Cop,” one seasoned global south negotiator told the Guardian shortly before, reflecting a widespread unease. “There is nothing to negotiate.”

Acts of greyzone aggression aim to spread panic. Europe has to show the saboteurs that we are resilient

It was as though a ghostly hand had switched the settings on supermarket freezers across Europe from “freeze” to “defrost”. From Finland to Ireland, they suddenly began heating up, many reaching 50C and food worth millions of euros had to be thrown away. But no actual hand was needed to cause the meltdown. This was a cyber-attack, or rather a chain of attacks. Like pretty much everything else in 2026, supermarket freezers are digitally enabled. That makes them smarter and more efficient, but like everything else that is connected to the internet, it also makes them more vulnerable.

Russian hacktivists claimed they were behind some of the supermarket sabotage, but no one knows for sure. It could also be Iran, Iranian proxies, North Korea – or unaffiliated bedroom hackers. When Transport for London suffered a devastating hack two years ago, the culprits turned out to be two British teenagers. Governments regularly warn retailers and other companies about cyber-attacks and even provide cyber-defence training to businesses. The lessons of costly ransomware and cyber-attacks also mean many big organisations and retailers have become much better at keeping their payments and logistics systems safe.

Elisabeth Braw is a Swedish security expert and the author of The Undersea War: The International Battle for Supremacy at the Bottom of the World

WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries sharply condemned President Donald Trump’s promotion of Stephen Miller to White House chief of staff, calling the longtime immigration hardliner a “dangerous xenophobe” and demanding that Trump “fire him today.”

Jeffries also described Miller as a “reckless extremist,” arguing that elevating him after Republicans’ sweeping midterm defeat showed Trump was doubling down rather than changing course.

The criticism comes against a substantial public record. Miller was a principal architect of Trump’s first-term family-separation policy and travel restrictions targeting several Muslim-majority countries. In Trump’s second term, he has helped direct the administration’s mass-deportation strategy, pushed for thousands of daily immigration arrests and advocated broader use of executive power.

Miller has also repeatedly described immigration in stark terms, including portraying migration as an “invasion” and saying the country was being “conquered.” He has defended family separation and advocated suspending habeas corpus in some immigration cases.

Other Democrats joined Jeffries. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said Miller should be investigated rather than placed in charge of the White House, while Rep. Don Beyer accused Trump of continuing a politics of “hatred, lawlessness, and failure.”

Trump has defended Miller as one of his most trusted advisers. Miller is scheduled to replace Susie Wiles as chief of staff on Nov. 9.

Sources:

• The Hill – MBFC Rating

The post Jeffries Demands Trump Fire Stephen Miller, Calling Him a ‘Dangerous Xenophobe’ appeared first on News Facts Network.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: On Tuesday, Mexico's Senate approved (PDF) a reform of the Federal Copyright Law that ties ISP liability to having a policy to terminate repeat infringers. [This policy has to be published permanently on their website and in their terms of service, and it must include a basic way to notify users. In other words, what can be terminated is the Internet connection itself, not just an account. According to Mexican business outlet EL CEO, this means that access providers such as Telmex and Izzi will need such a policy.] The Senate approved the amendments with roughly two-thirds of the vote, as the opposition voted against. The Chamber of Deputies already approved the same text in October, so the decree now goes to President Claudia Sheinbaum. Her government proposed the changes in May to bring the law in line with the USMCA trade agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada. [...] Providers that don't comply risk facing liability. Under the new rules, any ISP that fails to meet its safe harbor conditions becomes liable for its users' infringements if it knowingly contributes to, induces, or causes the infringement. The same goes for an ISP that can control the infringing user and profits directly from the infringement. In both cases, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) can fine the provider up to roughly 4.7 million pesos (~$250,000), depending on the infringement. The law doesn't explicitly define the term repeat infringer, nor does it say how many piracy accusations it takes before a subscriber can be cut off. According to Aurora Lopez-Portillo, director of legal services at IP firm ClarkeModet, each provider has to decide its own threshold. She told EL CEO that ISPs should also check whether the accusations actually hold up, while giving users a chance to respond, even though the law doesn't require that. During Tuesday's Senate debate, some lawmakers in the opposition raised similar concerns. Senator Gabriel Elizondo warned that families can share a single connection, so the pirating activities of one person could leave an entire household offline. Previously, opposition lawmakers proposed requiring a court order before Internet service could be suspended, but that proposal was not adopted. [...] There, failing to meet the safe harbor conditions, including the repeat infringer policy, is the first requirement for liability. If an ISP also contributes to infringement with knowledge of it, or can control the infringer and directly profits from it, it can be held responsible. The new repeat infringer rules will take effect 180 days after their publication in Mexico's official gazette, which hasn't happened yet as far as we can see. How Mexican ISPs will define a repeat infringer, and how many accusations it takes, has yet to be seen.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The president’s announcement comes days after an earlier attack on Iran was made public, and as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have accelerated

Donald Trump has said the US military on Friday carried out a new round of limited strikes on Iran, targeting an air defence system, describing the action as “minor.”

Iranian state media reported the sound of two explosions in the Suza area of Qeshm Island, which is in the strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway for oil shipments that has been disrupted since the beginning of the US war on Iran in February.

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• Stephen Miller, architect of Trump’s immigration crackdown, to become White House chief of staff

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Donald Trump will begin the day in Washington today.

He has closed door meetings for much of the day, and will take part in a Diwali celebration at the White House at 1:30pm ET. While that’s currently not open to the press we’ll let you know if that opens up.

Al Sager, 65, and Susan Guc, 76, had both been happily single for decades. Then they met in the most surprising way, and everything changed.

Santiago Peña was detained minutes after he was impeached by Congress, as protesters took to the streets demanding answers after the suspension of the Ueno bank

Paraguay’s rightwing president has been placed under house arrest minutes after he was impeached by Congress, amid a severe crisis that left more than half the country’s population unable to access their bank accounts.

Santiago Peña is being investigated about allegations he used his political influence to favour a bank that expanded exponentially under his government and was suspended this week after irregularities.

• Warriors center, 31, announces decision on social media

• Latvian big man does not disclose nature of health issue

• Porziņģis leaves door open to return after long absence

Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porziņģis announced he is stepping away from basketball to prioritize his health due to an undisclosed matter in a social media post on Friday.

Porziņģis did not reveal the nature of the issue in a message posted on his X account, and the 31-year-old did not make clear whether he will resume playing.

The Justice Department moved to dismiss its own lawsuit that sought to stop California from counting roughly 20,000 ballots it alleged went to noncitizens.

US president confirms Susie Wiles, current chief of staff and first woman to serve in the role, will step down

Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s most controversial aide and the architect of his sweeping immigration crackdown, will become his new White House chief of staff days after Republicans lost control of the US Congress in US midterm elections.

The president announced the extraordinary appointment on Friday, confirming that Susie Wiles – his current chief of staff, and the first woman to serve in the role – had been ousted.

Ian Winter KC told Rosamund Urwin of the Sunday Times, whose investigation led to Brand’s victims coming forward: ‘I hope you are pleased with yourself’

Russell Brand’s barrister has reported himself to his professional regulator after being accused of launching a tirade at a journalist shortly after his client had been found guilty of rape.

Ian Winter KC “confronted” the Sunday Times journalist Rosamund Urwin, whose investigation led to Brand’s victims coming forward, telling her: “I hope you are pleased with yourself.”

Pope Leo, who is on a 12-day, three-country trip in Latin America, also said he credits God and doctors for his lung cancer surgery recovery.

President Trump announced that Stephen Miller would replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff just hours after he told 60 Minutes that he'd be shaking up his team.

Secret Service officers found three weapons in the vehicle of the suspect, who allegedly told officers he had heard voices in his head telling him to come to Washington and assassinate the president.

Nov. 6, 2026 — Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC) has announced its 12 Rising Stars for SC26. The program recognizes exceptional early-career researchers from underrepresented groups for their research contributions and individual excellence.

Applications for the Rising Star program undergo a competitive peer-review process, typically with an acceptance rate of less than 50%.

As part of both the ISC and SC programs, WHPC Rising Stars receive mentorship support, a lightning talk opportunity, eligibility for the best WHPC submission award, and eligibility for travel support. These up-and-coming researchers are the future of the HPC workforce, and bringing them to large conferences connects them to the HPC community.

WHPC is grateful to its sponsors for making it possible to offer funding to all 12 members of the SC26 Rising Stars cohort. Four of this year’s Rising Stars will receive full travel support to attend the conference.

SC26 Cohort

Ashwini Naik is a Computational Scientist and Visualization Laboratory Operations Lead at the Research Computing Center (RCC) at the University of Chicago, where she integrates scientific visualization, artificial intelligence, and high performance computing into collaborative research workflows spanning the physical sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

She holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Chicago, where she conducted research at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) in visual data science, immersive analytics, and human-computer interaction. Her doctoral work included designing and executing user studies, mentoring more than fifty students in AR/VR development and visualization, and publishing in venues including IEEE ISMAR and the Journal of Neuroscience Research.

At the RCC, Ashwini leads technical collaborations spanning AI-assisted biomedical image analysis using 3D Slicer and MONAI on NVIDIA A100 and V100 GPUs, immersive cultural heritage reconstruction deployed across display walls and Meta Quest Pro VR headsets from a single Unity pipeline, and an active digital twin initiative using XGRIDS PortalCam for spatial capture. She is currently developing a custom tool for stitching multi-capture Gaussian splat scans into unified, navigable environments. She has delivered workshops reaching more than 75 researchers across five sessions on topics including foundation models for biomedical imaging, AI-enhanced image analysis, and interactive data visualization.

Prior to her doctoral studies, she held engineering roles at Scientific Games, Olenick & Associates, and Birlasoft across the United States and India.

Olivia Maynard is a second year PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University, supervised by Dr. Suren Byna. Her work involves profiling I/O and data movement for scientific computing, particularly within scientific deep learning; she additionally has interests in architecture and security within scientific computing. Outside of her research, she is a passionate educator in engineering education and computer science, currently serving as the lead Graduate Teaching Associate for Ohio State’s first-year Engineering Foundations sequence in the Honors track. She graduated with her B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from Ohio State in 2025.

Eva Fernandez Amez is the Community Manager for Digital Research Infrastructure at Durham University. Her work focuses on developing training opportunities, fostering communities, and supporting the skills development of research technical professionals across the research computing landscape, with a particular focus on advanced and accelerated computing. She works closely with researchers, technical specialists, and community stakeholders to identify skills needs and create resources that support collaboration, knowledge exchange, and professional development. Alongside her community-building and training activities, she contributes to outreach and communications through website development, graphic design, video production, and science communication. She holds a degree in Physics and combines her scientific background with expertise in digital education and communication to make complex technical topics more accessible to diverse audiences.

Yuqian Huo is a PhD student in Computer Science at Rice University, advised by Dr. Tirthak Patel in the Positive Technology Lab. Her research focuses on making quantum computers more reliable and efficient through better system design, compilers, and performance optimization. She works with both superconducting and neutral atom quantum computers. She is also interested in quantum machine learning, as well as security and privacy in quantum computing.

Her research has been published at SIGMETRICS, ICCAD, AISTATS, and QCE. She also shares open-source code and tools with her papers so that other researchers can use and build on her work. She received the SandboxAQ Global Travel Scholarship in 2025 and was selected as a DAC Young Fellow in 2024.

Daria Godorozha is an MSc by Research student at the London School of Economics, where she founded the LSE Beavers HPC team. LSE has no STEM departments apart from statistics and mathematics. The team includes two women and members from a range of ethnic backgrounds, and finished 1st in one of two challenges and 3rd overall at the CIUK Cluster Challenge. It was also one of two student teams accepted onto an AMD/DIRAC UKRI funded residential research development programme, and received GPU and RSE support. She has spoken at Imperial College London HPC SIG on the topic of creating a successful HPC educational initiative. Previously, she completed an MSc in AI and Data Science with Distinction.

This year she has led research teams working on NLP and LLMs at the University of Oxford and ETH Zurich. She has also worked in medicine, health and life sciences, leading a research project at the Swansea University Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, where she engaged with the Welsh Parliament and is contributing to a health consultation. She presented “Compute Optimal Diffusion on Learned Conformer Manifolds” at the AIBIO BBSRC funded network conference and came 2nd at the Edinburgh BIOAI conference.

From September she will be a teaching assistant in data at Imperial College London further to her work on the QMUL Designing an Inclusive Curriculum project. Her interest in HPC includes its role in regional economic development, particularly in Wales and in its ability to empower diverse regional talent.

Elizabeth Koleva is an HPC software engineer at the Discoverer petascale supercomputer in Sofia, Bulgaria, and works on agentic AI workflow management and deployment at BRAIN++, the Bulgarian AI Factory under EuroHPC, where she is sole developer of the organisation’s internal platform.

She recently completed an MSc in Innovation and Research in Informatics, specialising in High Performance Computing, at the Facultat d’Informàtica de Barcelona, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – a double degree with Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski through EUMaster4HPC. Her thesis, “Predicting and Explaining Alzheimer Disease Using UK Biobank,” built a leakage-controlled, cost-sensitive machine learning pipeline that treats auditability as a primary result, supervised by Prof. Jordi Torres Viñals and Prof. Petia Radeva.

Her earlier work spans knowledge graphs, disinformation-prevention research, and fine-tuning NLP models for Bulgarian at the European Software Institute. She won the EuroHPC Summit Student Challenge 2025 in Kraków, placed second in the EUMaster4HPC Student Challenge 2025–2026 for benchmarking AI Factories on MeluXina, and received the Most Innovative Business Solution award at the AmCham Bulgaria Hackathon 2025.

Elizabeth serves as an HPC Student Ambassador Mentor for the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, having been an ambassador herself, and represents EUMaster4HPC at information sessions. She previously chaired the Supervisory Board of the Sofia University Students Council and sat on the Transform4Europe Student Council. She began her career teaching C++ to secondary school students and has taught computer graphics at Sofia University. She is preparing to begin a PhD at the intersection of HPC, explainable AI, and health research.

Emma Urquhart is a 3rd year PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on accelerating unstructured scientific methods on wafer-scale hardware. Her research interests include computer architecture, low-level software performance optimizations and scientific computing. Emma completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Galway, followed by the MPhil in Advanced Computer Science at the University of Cambridge, ranking first in her cohort.

Serena Ma is a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds working at the intersection of high-performance computing, compiler optimization, and quantum computing systems. Her research journey has spanned CPU-side compiler optimization, large-scale GPU and AI infrastructure, and emerging quantum computing. Her broader research goal is to develop software and compiler techniques that maximize the useful performance of emerging computing hardware. Her interests include HPC, compiler optimization, heterogeneous systems, reinforcement learning for systems, and quantum software systems.

Suné Toerien is a South African engineering student and high-performance computing (HPC) enthusiast based in Johannesburg. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering Science in Biomedical Engineering (BEngSc) from the University of the Witwatersrand and is currently a fourth-year Information Engineering student. Her interdisciplinary interests include computational methods, HPC performance, and applications in biomedical contexts. Suné’s earlier work includes a paper on skeletal muscle oxygen tension in COVID-19, exploring its potential as a disease severity marker. She also contributed to a collaborative HPC study on the productivity-to-energy trade-off via DVFS, core scaling, and C-state control. The work placed second in the ACM Student Research Competition at PASC26 in Switzerland and won Best Student Short Paper at PEARC26 in the USA.

Preetika Kaur is a final-year Ph.D. candidate in Civil Engineering (Hydrologic Sciences) at the University of Wyoming, where she works on snow remote sensing. Her dissertation asks where satellite radar can be trusted to measure mountain snowpack. She built the first feasibility map of L-band InSAR snow water equivalent retrieval for the western United States, published in Geophysical Research Letters, and runs the Fortran-based SnowModel system on Wyoming’s Medicine Bow HPC cluster to simulate snowpack liquid water content across large mountain domains. She is now quantifying snow density variability at Arctic tundra and boreal forest sites in Alaska. She came to computational hydrology sideways. After a B.S. in agricultural engineering at Punjab Agricultural University in India, she completed an M.S. at Auburn University using X-ray computed tomography to quantify how tillage and cover crops reshape soil pore networks, producing three first-author publications and Auburn’s outstanding master’s student and thesis awards. Her HPC and cloud computing skills were assembled through hackweeks and summer schools rather than coursework, an experience that shapes how she teaches. She helped organize a University of Washington eScience Institute hackweek and taught a hands-on Google Earth Engine workshop at Wyoming. She is Vice President of the Society of Women Engineers at Wyoming and secretary of both its ASPRS student chapter and Wyomingites in Math, Science and Engineering. She won second prize in Wyoming’s Three-Minute Thesis competition and a Boyd Scott graduate paper award from ASABE, and completes her Ph.D. in May 2027.

Nada Abdalgawad is a PhD candidate in the Computer Science and Engineering department at University of Michigan. Her current area of research is computer architecture with focus on memory architectures. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates in 2020.

Sonal Jha is a Ph.D. student in Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, where her research focuses on early and explainable health risk assessment through Graph AI and high performance computing (HPC). To improve the accuracy of risk assessment, Sonal developed graph-based methods that model clinically useful information from irregular and sparse clinical data. Her work has progressed from a graph-based approach using a single clinical variable to Graph AI methods for multivariable and multimodal clinical data. To improve the scalability, she studied bottlenecks in Graph AI training and developed distributed approaches for efficient multi-GPU training. On the professional front, Sonal serves as a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) with Virginia Tech’s Advanced Research Computing (ARC@VT), where she provides HPC and AI consulting to faculty, postdocs, and students across 26 departments. Her work spans migrating, profiling, optimizing, and scaling scientific workloads; debugging parallel and distributed jobs; managing large-scale data; installing scientific software; and helping researchers integrate AI workflows on ARC’s HPC systems. She has interned at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) as an HPC and AI Visiting Scholar and at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Data Science at Scale Intern.

WHPC SC26 Supporters

• Google Cloud
• AMD
• AWS
• HPE
• Viridien
• Quantum Motion
• VDURA
• Hammerspace
• Baskerville Supercomputing Centre
• MathWorks

Partner Organizations

• EPCC
• EuroHPC JU
• HPCwire
• Hyperion Research
• theCUBE
• Scientific Computing World

Source: WHPC

The post Women in HPC Introduces Its SC26 Rising Stars Cohort appeared first on HPCwire.

Ronny Yordrix Guanipa Chrinos arrested by secret service after telling officers voices told him to kill Donald Trump

The US secret service said a suspect has been taken into custody and charged after officers found him in a vehicle near the White House with multiple guns, claiming he heard voices in his head telling him to kill Donald Trump.

The arrest Thursday night happened after secret service officers approached a man “acting suspicious” in a parked car, according to a Homeland Security statement. US officials said the suspect – Ronny Yordrix Guanipa Chrinos – went on to describe voices in his head that were telling him to come to the nation’s capital and kill the Republican president.

President Donald Trump’s naming of deportation architect as his chief of staff unleashed anger, fear and astonishment among leaders of industries that depend on immigrant labor.

• Kolek calls singer’s courtside appearances ‘performative’

• McBride agrees as teammates question celebrity fandom

• Knicks give statement saying Swift is longtime supporter

Taylor Swift’s love story with the New York Knicks caught an unexpected stray after two players from last season’s NBA champions accused the singer of being a fair-weather fan.

The Knicks released a statement on Friday defending Swift after Tyler Kolek and Miles McBride questioned whether the pop superstar was a genuine supporter of the team.

Met police chief says ‘many more’ victims could come forward, as actor and comedian awaits sentencing

Police are bracing themselves for more victims of Russell Brand to come forward, with at least 10 more women suspected of having been attacked by the disgraced star.

Brand, 51, will be sentenced on Monday to what is expected to be a lengthy jail sentence for rape and sexual assaults after he abused his fame to become a “predator” targeting women, and got away with it for years.

(The Center Square) – The mood among the winners in the 48th State after Democrats gained back control of both chambers of Congress was a mix of optimism and responsibility.

The European Commission has preliminarily found that TikTok violates the Digital Services Act because its For You recommendation algorithm can create a "rabbit hole effect," repeatedly exposing users to potentially harmful content involving topics such as sadness, isolation and body image. TikTok must change the feed's design or potentially face fines of up to 6% of its global annual revenue. The Verge reports: The findings come months after the EU Commission declared that TikTok's design is too "addictive." While TikTok has implemented controls to mitigate the algorithm's "rabbit hole effect," the Commission says its preliminary findings suggest that they're not effective. TikTok must now change the design of its For You feed, or else face fines of up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover. The platform is also facing pressure in the US, with lawmakers and a wave of lawsuits raising concerns about child safety. "Every time a user scrolls or likes a video on TikTok, the algorithm serves more of the same leading users down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from," Henna Virkkunen, the EU Commission's executive vice president of tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, says in the press release. "Today's preliminary findings show again that TikTok needs to step up its efforts to protect users' well-being, including those of minors."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tech stocks have lost trillions while voters have rejected the industry’s political champions. The billionaire-led boom is facing a democratic reckoning

This week’s midterms showed that the political bill for the AI boom is falling due. The Democratic sweep intensified fears over runaway spending, mounting debt and resistance to datacentres, sending tech shares tumbling. On Thursday Wall Street suffered its worst day since the pandemic as $3.2tn was wiped from markets. Anthropic, developer of the Claude chatbot, is hoping to float within the next fortnight for $1.5tn (£1.1tn), but it may not now get even a trillion dollars. The dominant AI chipmaker Nvidia saw its value crash by more than $400bn. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, lost $113bn in two days.

While a few very rich people may be a little less wealthy, the sell-off may not be a bad thing. It brings a needed dose of reality to an industry whose spending plans and valuations depend on heroic expectations of future profits. That is a view held by many influential figures – from Goldman Sachs’ research boss to Nobel laureate Daron Acemoğlu. AI may transform the economy. That does not guarantee investors will earn back the sums being poured into it.

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.

The White House's page listing dozens of financial disclosure forms went offline without explanation, only to be restored after CBS News inquired about its removal.

Cornell University's Faculty Senate approved a resolution expressing no confidence in the university's administration, including Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff and other administrators.

The new 4:3 inner screen doesn’t play nicely with every app, but here’s some that work so far.

Major stock indexes in Asia and Europe fell Friday as investors worldwide processed the potential impact of U.S. election results on the AI boom.

Investors are worried that data center building will slow. If the AI industry’s investment math no longer works, the U.S. economy could take a hit.

PHOENIX, ARIZONA — Democrats have captured both chambers of the Arizona Legislature while Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs retained the governor’s office, giving the party complete control of state government for the first time in 60 years.

The Associated Press called enough remaining legislative races Friday to confirm Democratic majorities in both the state House and Senate. Republicans had controlled the Arizona House continuously for 60 years and the Senate since the early 1990s.

The victory dramatically changes the political environment for Hobbs. During her first term, she vetoed more than 540 measures passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, covering issues including immigration, elections, taxes and education.

Hobbs has said her next-term priorities include addressing water shortages and affordability while tightening oversight of Arizona’s expansive school-voucher program.

Arizona was part of a much broader Democratic surge at the state level. Democrats also secured full control of government in Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin, while winning the Texas House and governorship.

Nationally, Democrats also captured both chambers of Congress, making the 2026 election one of the largest shifts in political control since the Republican wave of 2010.

For Arizona, however, the result is especially historic: the state will enter 2027 with unified Democratic government for the first time since Lyndon Johnson was president.

Sources:

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The post Arizona Democrats Win House and Senate, Securing First Trifecta Since 1966 appeared first on News Facts Network.

Chainalysis says attackers exposed usernames, password hashes and live tokens for all of its customers. "While the company locked Chainalysis accounts as a precaution after discovering that some customers' passwords had been exposed and asked users to reset their passwords before signing in again, it has now taken the login portal offline, together with Reactor and Data Solutions, the Know-Your-Transaction (KYT) user interface and API, and address screening products, after discovering further abnormal activity," reports BleepingComputer. The company says it has no evidence that investigative data or blockchain attribution records were accessed or altered, but all users will be required to reset passwords and rotate API keys before regaining access. BleepingComputer reports: Chainalysis provides blockchain analysis tools to trace cryptocurrency transactions and investigate crimes such as fraud, ransomware, and money laundering. Its customer list includes law enforcement, government agencies, financial institutions, insurance companies, and cryptocurrency businesses worldwide. This follows the company's disclosure last Friday that attackers using AI tools accessed customers' names, email addresses, user IDs, and organizational role labels using what it described as "offensive agentic techniques." While it initially said the impact was limited and the breach affected only non-sensitive identity metadata, later updates revealed that usernames and password hashes for all customers were exposed in an "on-path attack" (more commonly known as a Man-in-the-Middle or MITM attack). However, the company found no evidence that the attackers accessed investigative graph data or altered its blockchain attribution repositories. [...] To ensure threat actors don't access affected accounts, Chainalysis asked customers to provide trusted IP addresses so they can regain access to the login portal once it is brought back online and reset their credentials.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Federal agents seized 78 items from California storage units, including slides, film negatives and books that contained suspected child sexual abuse material.

Wiles thanks president for ‘honor of a lifetime’ as departure leaves behind overwhelmingly male leadership team

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump on Friday said Susie Wiles, the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff, will leave her post, a major shake-up of his inner circle that comes amid a steady exodus of senior female officials from his administration.

The president announced her ouster – and her replacement, by the immigration hardliner Stephen Miller – in a post on Truth Social, days after a sweeping blue wave gave Democrats control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections. Wiles’s departure leaves behind an overwhelmingly male leadership team.

Father and daughter Andrés and Rebeca Gόmez stand outside Dominican Cafe, which has been in their family for over 40 years. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR

(The Center Square) – Amazon added Uber Eats restaurant delivery to Prime⁠.

Father of the Duchess of Sussex was taken into custody near Tampa, US prosecutors said

Thomas Markle, the father of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, was arrested by US federal agents in Florida on Friday and charged in connection with possession of child sexual abuse material, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Markle, 82, was taken into custody at a senior care facility in Polk county early on Friday, and made a brief initial appearance in federal court in Tampa on Friday afternoon, the Associated Press reported. He was later released with the condition that he be electronically monitored.

In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

More than 100 activists breached a Microsoft AI data center construction site in Amsterdam as part of coordinated protests against the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. "These data centres are destroying our world. It's becoming uninhabitable because of all the resources they consume. That's why we're here today," protester Sam van der Beek said. Reuters reports: Activist groups have announced actions in 16 countries on Friday and Saturday, according to the "Stop Dirty Data Centers" coalition, which is rallying environmental groups and digital rights campaigns behind calls to pause large-scale construction. In Amsterdam on Friday, more than 100 activists gathered at the construction site of a Microsoft AI data centre, marching arm in arm before breaking into the site, climbing cranes, hanging balloons and dancing while police stood by. Some carried placards with messages reading: "Screw your datacenter." Site owner Pure Data Centers, which plans to invest more than $1 billion and is backed by Brookfield-owned Oaktree, said it was committed to engagement with local stakeholders. "We respectfully ask those on site to leave safely and engage with us in dialogue about the development and any concerns they may have," it said. Other planned actions include a march in Dublin, a protest outside the parliament building in Warsaw, and a demonstration against a different Microsoft data centre in Denmark. [...] Stop Dirty Data Centers says it is not anti-progress or calling for existing data centers to be closed but that major construction should be halted until governments establish clearer rules.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

(The Center Square) - Days after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and justices on the highest courts in Texas were ousted and a Democrat was elected attorney general, Houston Mayor John Whitmire issued an executive order directing local police to not…

Faculty senate passed resolution expressing deep discontent with school’s response to alleged fraternity rape

Cornell University’s faculty senate approved a resolution on Friday declaring “no confidence” in the school’s top leaders, a symbolic gesture reflecting deep discontent on campus in the wake of a former student’s lawsuit saying she was gang-raped at a fraternity party in 2024.

The resolution passed 75-50, with five faculty senators abstaining and five others not voting, according to an email sent to members of the faculty senate on Friday afternoon.

Tundu Lissu was acquitted of treason charges in a trial that rights groups said was meant to silence opposition to Tanzania’s government.

Paul Nthenge Mackenzie encouraged his followers to starve themselves to death.

(The Center Square) - Advocates for the rights of homicide victims and legal professionals throughout California are continuing to express outrage over Gov. Gavin Newsom's decision to commute the death sentences of all 548 inmates on the state's death row.

(The Center Square) – A parental rights organization and other groups celebrated the victories from the 2026 midterm elections for protection of girls’ sports and private spaces in Arizona, Nebraska, Colorado and Washington. The groups said that protecting girls is…

Nov. 6, 2026 — The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has announced that bidders must recreate and resubmit tenders under its call for consortia to establish and operate AI gigafactories. A technical issue with the submission system affects all tenders for both lots, whether in draft or already submitted.

EuroHPC encourages bidders to pause work on current drafts and wait for instructions. It will announce new submission links for both lots in the coming days once the technical solution is in place. Only the submission links will change.

EuroHPC has extended the deadline for medium-scale AI gigafactories (Lot 1) to Feb. 4, 2027, to give member states time to complete their national budgetary procedures and submit their financial commitments. The deadline for large-scale AI gigafactories (Lot 2) is Dec. 3, 2026. Both deadlines are at 5 p.m. Central European Time.

About the Call

AIGFs should aim to provide a world-class sovereign AI computing infrastructure for European researchers, public authorities, entrepreneurs, industries, and SMEs. They shall strengthen the European industry, enable the development of entirely new AI solutions, strengthen the European AI value chains in both software and hardware, and ensure the EU’s competitiveness and sovereignty as an AI Continent. To achieve this, they will integrate massive AI computing power, together with energy-efficient data centers, and AI-driven automation to optimize AI model training, inference, and services deployment.

To qualify as an AIGF, each facility must integrate at least three to four times the number of the most advanced AI processors currently available in the most powerful European AI factories. In addition to computational scale, AIGFs must demonstrate adequate power capacity infrastructure and incorporate best practices in energy efficiency, water efficiency, and circularity principles in their design and operations.

Source: EuroHPC JU

The post EuroHPC Requires Bidders to Resubmit AI Gigafactory Proposals appeared first on HPCwire.

(The Center Square) – Despite broad bipartisan support of the U.S. Senate’s permitting reform bill, which aims to expedite energy projects and lower electricity costs, Democratic leadership in the House is now demanding more concessions.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has blamed high electricity prices in Democrat-led states on climate policies. Prices do tend to be higher in blue states than red states, but climate policies explain at most a modest portion of the price difference.

Longstanding structural and geographical factors — combined with more recent price increases from wildfires, extreme weather and, in certain areas, anticipated rapid load growth from data centers — have also contributed to high electricity prices in certain states and regions.

Wright’s recent comments have emphasized political differences between states while omitting many of these other factors, at times misleadingly blaming large price rises on climate policies.

“Electricity prices are almost 50% higher in states run by Democrats,” he said Oct. 1 on Fox News. “For 17 years since President Obama came to office, the Democrat position has been to constrict the growth of energy and drive the prices up so Americans could afford less and we would solve climate change.”

In other interviews, the secretary has suggested state-level requirements for adopting renewable energy — called renewable portfolio standards — are to blame for the price differential.

“Subsidizing and forcing wind and solar onto electricity grids around the country has been a disaster,” he said Oct. 28 on the Bloomberg show “Balance of Power.” “You can see it in the states with renewable portfolio standards that have forced wind and solar. They have 50% higher electricity prices than the states that don’t have those. I haven’t met anyone that wants their electrical bill to go up 50%.”

“Half of the states have renewable portfolio [standards], half of them don’t,” Wright also said at a Sept. 23 event hosted by the New York Times. “Forty-five percent more expensive electricity in the states that have them. That’s not coincidence.”

Wright’s math approximately checks out when comparing average retail electricity prices in states with and without current renewable portfolio standards, or states with Republican versus Democratic governors as of fall 2026. But renewable portfolio standards have not on their own made electricity prices rise by 50%, experts told us, nor do all states with these policies have higher-than average prices. 

“The correlation is real, but this does not establish causality,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers Fischer J. Espiritu Argosino and Christopher R. Knittel told us in an email. Their 2025 working paper found that renewable portfolio standards aren’t a driver of electricity prices once other differences between states are accounted for. 

Other research has indicated a partial role for renewable portfolio standards in raising electricity rates in certain states, particularly if the standards are very strict. Still, “[m]ost of the electricity price differences between Democratic and Republican states are not attributable to RPS,” Devin Hartman, president of the Lighthouse Energy Institute, a newly founded energy policy nonprofit, told us.

The data also do not indicate a relationship between renewables in general and rising prices, despite Wright’s claim at the New York Times event that everywhere renewable energy has had “meaningful penetration has meaningfully higher electricity prices.”

“That’s just demonstrably false,” Paul Donohoo-Vallett, an independent energy consultant who previously worked for the Department of Energy, told us, pointing to Texas, Iowa, South Dakota and New Mexico as examples of places that added relatively high levels of wind and solar in recent years while maintaining relatively low prices. “There’s no inherent connection between more wind and solar and higher prices,” he said.

“Renewable portfolio standards or net-zero goals lead states to force reliable power sources, such as coal-fired power plants, to close, which drives up prices,” DOE spokesperson Ben Dietderich told us, in response to questions about the data supporting a link between the renewable portfolio standards and electricity prices.

As for the counterexamples of states with relatively low prices and high renewable energy penetration, they “still have strong reliance on coal, nuclear and/or natural gas power which prevents their electricity prices from being higher,” he said. “In that sense, penetration of wind and solar is not as meaningful there.”

Structural Reasons for Expensive Electricity

The high average electricity prices among blue states is driven largely by a few specific areas of the country: Hawaii, California and a group of states clustered in the Northeast. Electricity prices have been elevated in these areas for many decades. Experts pointed to several major factors that help explain why prices are higher in these states.

For Hawaii, a major underlying cause is geography. The island relies heavily on oil to produce electricity, which puts it at the whims of the global oil market. The state’s electricity prices have soared recently in part due to the war in Iran.

Similarly, isolation from the rest of the country and a large number of unconnected microgrids contribute to high prices in Alaska, a Republican-led state without renewable portfolio standards that nonetheless has high electricity prices.

Geography plays a role in the lower 48 states, too. “Utility-scale wind and solar resources are predominantly located in Republican-led Midwestern and Southwestern states, whereas Democrat-led Northeast states are highly reliant on pipeline-capacity-constrained natural gas,” Michelle Levinson, a senior manager at the nonprofit research organization World Resources Institute, told us.

“A large number of blue states are small geographic states that are all clustered in New England, which just happens to not have any natural gas production,” Donohoo-Vallett said. This leads these states to pay elevated prices for natural gas to be piped in via limited pipelines, he said. 

Price increases may in some cases be related to implicit climate policies, Hartman said. In the case of New England, “policy decisions that suppressed pipeline development” played into high regional natural gas costs, he said.

In California, wildfires have been the “big driver” of increasing costs, Hartman said. Wildfire risk has driven up transmission and distribution costs in the West, while also leading to liability costs, he said. Transmission lines carry electricity over long distances while distribution lines take it the rest of the way to customers.

“California stands out among all states with a massive 64% increase in rates since 2019 (30% after adjusting for inflation), driven by significant and unique wildfire-related expenses accounting for 40% of the rate increase at least through 2024,” an April 2026 report from the research firm the Rhodium Group concluded.

In 2018, Pacific Gas and Electric Company equipment started the deadliest fire in California’s history, the Camp Fire, one of a number of highly destructive fires in recent history in the state to be started by electrical equipment. 

In addition, a “big issue is transmission is old, so replacing that aging infrastructure is expensive, especially in New England,” Hartman said. New England has older transmission infrastructure than some other areas of the country, he said, and it is also relatively expensive there to upgrade infrastructure due to high land values, labor and taxes. California and the Northeast have also had relatively high distribution cost increases, Hartman said.

In some cases, the aging of equipment and wildfires or extreme weather come together to necessitate spending, said Donohoo-Vallett, who was the first author of the Rhodium Group report. Aging infrastructure is “colliding with increasing threats from extreme weather and climate change,” he explained. “That’s just accelerating the need to replace this stuff.”

For example, he said, the Camp Fire occurred after a metal hook holding up a century-old transmission line broke. “The power price had been low for a long time because we just weren’t paying for this stuff,” Donohoo-Vallett said.

Between 2019 and 2025, average residential electricity prices nationwide rose 33%, but only 5.6% above the rate of inflation, according to a July analysis from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to which Donohoo-Vallett contributed. LBNL is a government research center affiliated with the DOE. However, residential prices rose significantly more in California and some New England and mid-Atlantic states.

The LBNL researchers cited recovery and mitigation from wildfires and extreme weather, as well as the need to replace or improve aging distribution and transmission infrastructure, as top drivers of electricity price increases above inflation during this period.

Madalsa Singh, an energy researcher at Rochester Institute of Technology, also pointed out that tying average electricity prices to state-level policies ignores the wide variation within states in prices, which are set by utilities. 

Singh and her colleagues studied electricity prices in California from 2019 through 2023, finding that electricity prices were relatively flat in publicly owned utilities while investor-owned utilities had price increases that made them “some of the most expensive power providers in the United States.”

“Neighboring utilities in states — red or blue — can have different price trajectories,” Singh said.

Renewable Portfolio Standards and Prices

As we said, analyses have come to mixed conclusions on whether renewable portfolio standards have contributed to electricity price increases.

A 2025 working paper by economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tried to rigorously answer this question by comparing states to themselves over time between 1998 and 2023. The researchers found that even though having more stringent renewable portfolio standards shows a “clear, positive correlation” with higher electricity prices, the standards are not the cause of this pattern.

After controlling for both longstanding, fixed differences between states and national drivers of price increases during the period of the study, “the escalation of a state’s RPS has no detectable effect on residential electricity prices,” Knittel and Argosino told us.

Instead, they said, “states that already had high electricity prices were more likely to adopt an RPS in the first place … creating the correlation.” Further factors continued to raise electricity prices as more states adopted the standards and strengthened them. But again, this doesn’t mean the standards were the cause. Rather, “the big rate increases over the past two decades line up with waves of capital spending on transmission and distribution, not with renewable mandates,” the researchers said.

Other analyses have found that RPS does increase prices in certain circumstances – although not to the degree that Wright claims. 

Noah Kaufman, an economist and senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told us that “policies that mandate increases in renewables, regardless of costs, do tend to increase electricity prices,” but that such rules “have not been the main driver of increases in electricity prices in recent years.”

As of 2026, 27 states had standards mandating a certain level of renewables, according to LBNL, and most of those states are controlled by Democrats. (A larger number of states has had RPS at some point in the past, including some red states that have gone on to have robust levels of renewable energy outside of any requirements.)

Current policies vary, with states requiring anywhere from 9% to 67% renewable energy in a utility’s energy mix in 2026. States have various ways to allow utilities to comply with the policies, such as requiring them to have a certain number of renewable energy credits, which they can either obtain by acquiring or generating energy from renewables or simply buying the credits themselves.

Standards requiring a limited amount of renewable energy “generally don’t affect prices” because “market-driven renewables have exceeded” these requirements, Hartman said, but policies with very high levels “are becoming infeasible to meet” and can raise prices.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s July analysis of the drivers of electricity price increases between 2019 and 2025 concluded that renewable portfolio standards have “often increased prices” if they require renewable energy adoption beyond what would be driven by the market. However, the researchers found that the majority of wind and solar development during this timeframe — occurring outside of any RPS requirements — does not “appear to have driven price increases.”

The standards raised electricity prices approximately 1 cent per kilowatt hour in a few New England and mid-Atlantic states between 2019 and 2025, according to the LBNL analysis, with much lower impacts on average among states with these standards. For context, the price of electricity in Maine, one of the states with a 1-cent increase from RPS, rose more than 5 cents per kilowatt hour in total during this period.

A version of the LBNL analysis that looked at the drivers of rising rates between 2019 and 2024 concluded that RPS played a “medium” role in pushing up prices above the rate of inflation. For context, the researchers concluded that replacing or improving aging distribution and transmission infrastructure also played a medium role in increasing prices, but over a broader geographic area. Wildfires and extreme weather had a larger effect than renewable portfolio standards, over a similar geographic breadth.

Donohoo-Vallett said that the LBNL and MIT analyses came to different conclusions because they used different methods of estimating the impact of RPS. The LBNL work is based on calculating the costs of complying with renewable portfolio standards. But this does not fully measure what would have happened to prices if there weren’t renewable portfolio standards, he said, whereas the MIT work attempts to account for this counterfactual scenario.

The MIT paper found that utility-scale renewables adoption was associated with lower electricity prices. Investing in renewables can also mitigate costs from spikes in prices of other forms of energy, such as natural gas, Donohoo-Vallett said.

“On the substance, we largely agree,” Knittel and Argosino said of the LBNL analysis. “Neither analysis supports the claim that renewables or RPSs explain a 40 to 50 percent price gap.”

Exception for Some Versions of Rooftop Solar

While renewable energy adoption overall is not associated with rising electricity prices, both the MIT and LBNL analyses concluded that rooftop solar in some cases can increase prices. 

Knittel and Argosino explained that a method of compensating people with rooftop solar for the power they send back to the grid — called net metering — can drive up electricity prices for everyone else.

Under this system people are charged only for the net amount of electricity they pull from the grid — their use minus the amount they produced. But electricity rates are meant to cover the cost of maintaining the grid, not just the cost of the electricity itself. As people with rooftop solar pay for less power, they pay less to maintain the grid, and electricity rates rise. Net metering in effect “shifts the fixed costs of the grid onto households without solar,” the MIT researchers told us

Rooftop solar had a small effect on electricity prices in most states in recent years, the LBNL analysis concluded, and a higher effect in a few others, including Maine and California. 

These states have now made changes to lower how much they compensate people with solar panels to alleviate the problem.

Even in those states, the LBNL researchers found that rooftop solar and renewable portfolio standards were only responsible for a portion of the price increases. For Maine’s primary utility, net energy metering policies for rooftop solar contributed to an increase of 1 to 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour between 2019 and 2024. Winter storm recovery costs played a slightly bigger role in cost increases, at 1.6 cents per kilowatt hour, while distribution-related spending and renewable portfolio standards each contributed about a cent to the increase. 

For California’s largest three utilities, the researchers calculated that net-metered solar policies led electricity prices to increase by around 2.5 cents per kilowatt hour over this period — less of an impact than wildfire costs, at 4.3 cents per kilowatt hour, and inflation in distribution and transmission costs, at 3.7 cents per kilowatt hour. Renewable portfolio standards contributed to less than half a cent per kilowatt hour of the increase.

“California’s prices are high mainly because of wildfire costs, distribution spending, and rate design, not because it has a lot of solar on the grid,” Argosino and Knittel said.

Electricity Price Increases During the Trump Administration

Wright has often spoken about electricity prices in Democrat-led states as a response to questions about affordability or criticisms of electricity prices under Trump. At the Sept. 23 New York Times event, he responded to a question about rising electricity prices by suggesting Democratic policies were to blame for rising prices during the Trump administration.

“Electricity prices in red states that have followed the United States federal policy have not seen a rise in inflation-adjusted electricity prices during the Trump administration,” he said. “Electricity price rises that are well above inflation are all limited to states with aggressive climate policies. California, Massachusetts, New England — those are the places with the fastest rise and the most expensive electricity prices.”

Price rises, however, have not been limited to blue states and are not just due to climate policies. Nor have all blue states seen major increases. California, for example, saw its 2025 electricity prices rise more slowly than inflation.

Between 2024 and 2025, 39 states had electricity price increases above inflation and 26 had increases of 2% or more above inflation, according to data from the Energy Information Administration analyzed by the nonprofit Institute for Progress. The largest increases — between 7.1% and 11.9% above inflation — were in New Jersey, Maine, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois and New York, all states with renewable portfolio standards whose governorships and legislatures were at least partially controlled by Democrats as of fall 2026. 

However, Republican-controlled states without RPS also had some significant price hikes. Indiana, Louisiana and Utah, for example, had increases between 4.2% and 5.7% above inflation.

One driver of the cost increases was a 36% rise in the price of natural gas after hitting a low in 2024, according to the LBNL analysis. The greatest natural gas-related increases affected grid operators in New England and New York, followed by those in the mid-Atlantic and parts of the Midwest. “It’s not really about who’s leading the state,” Levinson said. “It’s about … your exposure to natural gas prices.”

Meanwhile, states in the region of the electric grid operated by PJM Interconnection — the largest grid operator in the country, stretching from the mid-Atlantic to Illinois — began in 2025 to see price increases due to the rapid growth of data centers. (To learn more, read “Data Centers and Electricity Prices: It’s Not as Simple as Voters May Think.”)

“PJM spans 13 states and DC, many of them red or purple states,” Singh said.

The LBNL report listed clean energy policy and wildfire costs as lesser contributors to price increases in 2025.

There has been more limited analysis on electricity prices in 2026 so far, but the available data continue to show price increases in both blue and red states.

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

The post Wright’s Misleading Claims About Electricity Prices in Red vs. Blue States appeared first on FactCheck.org.

Tesla says it will wind down its most notorious model at Gigafactory Texas to make room for its self-driving Cybercab.

To say that Americans were pissed off is an understatement.

On Tuesday, Democrats didn’t just seize control of both houses of Congress. They redrew the American political map, capturing offices that had remained reliably Republican for generations, from the Deep South to Kansas and Texas. The Lone Star State alone, with its 40 Electoral College votes, now raises the possibility of a seismic shift in the calculus of future presidential elections.

The sheer scale of the historic Democratic surge⁠ delivered an unmistakable rebuke to America’s supposedly populist president. The message was clear and simple: We do not like you.

Much of Americans’ rapid disillusionment with the Trump administration can be traced to a single word — Iran — and the cascading economic hardships Americans have endured as the war has dragged on.

For the GOP, the threat is existential. The war has gone from a Republican loyalty test to a political albatross for many of its former supporters, one that many Republicans are now jettisoning themselves away from to salvage their own political futures. 

By Wednesday, it had become the chief explanation for the party’s sweeping electoral defeat, with Vice President JD Vance declaring unequivocally on X that “the reason we lost is the war.”

“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest,” he wrote. “But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.” Coming from Trump’s own vice president, it was a striking about-face.

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The tirade also raised an awkward question ahead of the 2028 presidential race: How does a potential successor to the MAGA mantle campaign against a war waged by his own administration?

Trump, however, has not gone nearly as far as his VP. Although the president acknowledged the war hurt Republicans, he still defended it on its merits. Speaking with reporters Wednesday after expounding at length about his White House ballroom, Trump said, “The Iran thing we had to do, and we continue to do it.”

Where Did All the Warmongers Go?

But on the campaign trail, Republicans were not completely oblivious to Americans’ collective frustration with the Iran war. 

In September, ABC News identified 17 Republican lawmakers and candidates who had called for ending the war through public statements or votes. Much of the pressure came in competitive midterms races, as the conflict’s effects on oil, diesel, and fertilizer prices reached American households.

In Iowa, Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson called for a “successful and immediate end” to the war in September, warning that voters were paying the price at gas pumps and grocery stores. Yet she voted six times against House measures directing Trump to halt the attacks. During an October 25 ABC interview, Hinson said she would not rule out a post-election U.S. offensive and said she trusted Trump and the military to choose the right timetable. Despite the president praising her weight loss at a recent rally, tepidly breaking with Trump wasn’t enough to get Hinson over the line, and she lost to Democrat Josh Turek by 4.5 percentage points.

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Michigan also had its share of Iran backtrackers. Republican Senate hopeful Mike Rogers described Iran as an “imminent threat” when the bombing began on February 28. In May, he called the conflict a potential “win-win-win.” But with the midterms fast approaching, Rogers released a campaign ad declaring “the war with Iran needs to end” quickly and warned Michigan families could no longer afford the economic fallout.

Rep. John James, the Republican candidate for Michigan governor, likewise praised Trump’s use of force early in the war, saying the president “had the balls” to “assure the survival and success of liberty.” He voted against six House war-powers resolutions, including as recently as September. Days after that vote, he said the war needed to wrap up “quickly.” https://bridgemi.com/michigan-politics/fact-check-mike-rogers-john-james-shift-positions-on-iran-war/He went on to declare in an interview, “the position has always been, I hate war.”

Both Rogers and James lost their races.

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Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible contender in the Republican Party’s next presidential contest who could reportedly be up for Pete Hegseth’s job, warned Monday that the war was a “big, big drag” on his party. Trump, DeSantis pointed out, campaigned against another Middle Eastern war. Now voters are dealing with higher fuel costs, and Republicans who refuse to acknowledge the connection are “gaslighting” them. But back in spring, DeSantis defended the strikes on Iranian leadership, describing its government as “a fanatical, apocalyptic, militant Islamist regime.”

The polling helps explain the Republican panic. An Associated Press poll found roughly 6 in 10 voters believed the U.S. made a “wrong decision” in attacking Iran. And it’s not as though Republicans weren’t warned. A handful within their own ranks, including Thomas Massie and Rand Paul, opposed the war from its earliest days and backed efforts to rein it in. But those criticisms seemed to fall on deaf ears.

A Hasty Retreat 

With plenty of blame to go around, the criticism has gone beyond candidates and into the conservative media ecosystem. 

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During the network’s primetime Election Night coverage, Fox News host Sean Hannity told his colleague Bret Baier that the results would have been different without the Iran war. Conservative commentator Matt Walsh called the war a betrayal of America First principles, demanded new Republican leadership, and labeled the conflict a “catastrophically stupid decision.”

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called Trump breaking his promise not to start another foreign war his “biggest betrayal” and said “Americans are fed up with it.”

Other commentators placed the responsibility squarely on Trump himself for sucking his own party into a political quagmire. In The Federalist, senior editor John Daniel Davidson blamed the party’s collapse on Trump’s undermining of a GOP coalition built upon rejecting the interventionist politics of the George W. Bush era.

Some prominent Republican operatives are sure to be thrown under the bus by their own party in the retreat. The first to get the boot may be none other than Hegseth, America’s chief “warfighter,” who has been one of the war’s most enthusiastic, and public, cheerleaders. The defense secretary responded to the criticisms in a nearly six-minute-long video posted online on Thursday, in which he seemed to make the case for keeping his job, touting his elimination of the “Marxist ideology” of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and tarring transgender troops as having a “mental illness.” 

“Regardless of how people care about the war, which I believe is a courageous and historic effort that will ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, we need to continue, as President Trump did in his first term, to rebuild our military,” he said. “This is not about me, but of course, the other side, in case you noticed, they’re obsessed.”

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Already facing growing Republican dissatisfaction and a ballooning roster of disgruntled and ousted senior military officials, Hegseth now faces the prospect of investigations by a Democratic-controlled Congress and an impeachment effort led by Massie. And while Trump has so far publicly defended his defense secretary, he has also reportedly consulted allies about whether to hit the ejector seat on Pete.

But while Republicans and Democrats read polls and calculate the political currency of war and economic hardship, the human cost cannot be measured in votes. At least 3,636 people had been killed in Iran as of early April, including 1,701 civilians and 254 children, according to human rights monitors. More fighting has followed and likely driven that number far higher. 

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At least 23 American service members have died in operations connected to the war, with almost 900 wounded by enemy fire. But these are estimates, and the Trump administration has worked to actively obfuscate the true casualty rates of the war. These are not electoral statistics. They are lives lost, families shattered, and consequences that will endure long after administrations swap office spaces.

For Republicans now scrambling to distance themselves from a deeply unpopular war, the political consequences may be harder to escape than their own voting records. Tuesday’s results show voters are increasingly willing to hold politicians accountable for needless wars, and the suffering inherited from them.

The post Republicans Are Desperate to Pretend They Never Supported the War With Iran appeared first on The Intercept.

Men allegedly impersonated voices and images of executives to convince employees to send large payments

Three foreign nationals were arrested and charged with using AI to allegedly impersonate corporate CEOs and attorneys to steal over $100m, according to an indictment that was newly unsealed by the US Department of Justice.

According to a press release from the United States attorney’s office for the southern district of New York, three men – Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit – were arrested for using AI to alter and impersonate the voices and images of executives and attorneys at various companies in order to convince employees to send over large payments. Soall and Hazan were arrested in Spain over the summer, while Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom in September. The alleged fraud took place between 2024 and 2026.

Tech industry fears delays to its multi-trillion dollar infrastructure buildout meant to power artificial intelligence

Several newly elected Democrats and Senator Bernie Sanders have renewed calls for datacenter moratoriums in the days after the US midterm elections. The sweeping Democratic victory, which was buoyed in part by backlash to the tech industry, has added momentum to efforts to slow down the multi-trillion-dollar buildout of the controversial facilities.

On the social media platform X, Sanders posted a call for an immediate national datacenter moratorium this week. “Americans don’t want Big Tech oligarchs wrecking the environment, gutting jobs and threatening humanity’s future,” Sanders said on Wednesday.

• Bilka and Edwards score twice each in American rout

• Canada open with 5-1 win over Sweden as Eldridge shines

• Jersey dispute overshadows tournament’s Danish debut

The United States opened their defense of the women’s ice hockey world championship with a 7-0 victory over Switzerland on Friday in Esbjerg, Denmark.

Hannah Bilka and Laila Edwards scored twice each, while Kirsten Simms, Hilary Knight and Casey O’Brien also found the net as the Americans pulled away after a competitive opening period. Caroline Harvey contributed three assists.

Democrat James Talarico won a Senate seat in Texas, breaking a 38-year drought for his party in the Republican stronghold and delivering a stunning blow to Donald Trump. The race became one of the most expensive Senate contests in US history, with advertising spending topping $500m, according to estimates. GOP-aligned groups poured hundreds of millions of dollars into efforts to elect Ken Paxton, including substantial funding linked to multibillionaire Elon Musk, whom Talarico accused of trying to buy a Senate seat.

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The symbolic vote comes in the aftermath of sexual assault allegations made by a former student.

Asian and European markets follow US tech rout with many analysts predicting more waves of selling to come

European and Asian stock markets fell sharply on Friday after the Democrats’ decisive victory in the midterms triggered a rout in US tech stocks a day earlier.

A sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday was followed by sharp falls in Asian stock markets on Friday. The investor sentiment then reached London, where the market was, at one stage, poised for its worst day since March.

The Senate race in deep-red Mississippi remains unresolved, as Democrat Scott Colom has mounted a surprisingly competitive challenge to incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

"I wanted to make a change," President Trump said, explaining the major staffing shakeup.

Watch 60 Minutes on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and Paramount+.

Murphy's doctor said he expects the senator to "make a full recovery following rehabilitation."

In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Calley Means accused top administration aides and strategists of favoring powerful industries.

The grant will allow the UChicago team to build new AI weather forecasting frameworks.

CHICAGO, Nov. 6, 2026 — If you had the resources, how would you use AI to solve humanity’s hardest problems? That question is at the heart of a $10 million grant the Laude Institute awarded to a University of Chicago team building AI weather forecasting models and supporting a software platform for people who depend on them for their health and livelihoods.

The PI Team from left to right: Prof. Ian Foster, Prof. Rebecca Willett, Prof. Michael Kremer, and Prof. Pedram Hassanzadeh. Photo Credit: Victoria Smith.

In just two seasons, governments in South Asia and Africa have used AI forecasts developed with the UChicago team to give more than 50 million smallholder farmers life-changing information: when the rainy season will arrive. The Laude funding will make that process faster, simpler, and more accurate, and extend it to new regions and new weather phenomena.

For example, a farmer whose livelihood depends on knowing when the monsoon season will begin must decide whether to plant now or wait. However, farmers in tropical regions have had less accurate and less actionable forecasts. Wealthy nations developed modern, physics-based weather forecasting for mid-latitude climates, using dense observation networks and supercomputers that most tropical agencies lack. And forecasts are typically built to predict general conditions like temperature and precipitation, not the specific events, such as when the rains will arrive, that drive farmers’ decisions.

The UChicago team is led by scientific AI expert Prof. Rebecca Willett, Worah Family Professor of Statistics and Computer Science in the Wallman Society of Fellows; AI for atmospheric physics expert Prof. Pedram Hassanzadeh, Associate Professor in Geophysical Sciences; platform scaling expert Prof. Ian Foster, Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor of Computer Science; and development economics expert Prof. Michael Kremer, Nobel laureate and University Professor in Economics and the College and the Harris School of Public Policy.

This team is working to close the gap between mid-latitude and tropical forecasting abilities through AI-powered systems that work with sparse observational data and modest computing resources. Working at the frontier of AI weather modeling, the group has developed methods that take the best existing AI and physics-based forecasts, blend them, and tune them to the specific human-centered decisions that farmers, health officials, and emergency managers actually face. Over the last six months, the UChicago team and collaborators have cut the time needed to benchmark and adapt forecasting models from four to five months of expert labor to a single day of expert review.

Willett said, “The leading AI weather models are evaluated on whether they accurately predict global temperature and precipitation. That’s useful if you’re a meteorologist. But it tells you almost nothing about whether a model will correctly predict monsoon onset for a farmer in West Java or a dangerous heat wave for a public health official in Addis Ababa. We built our platform around a different question: not ‘how accurate is the model’ but ‘does this forecast help a specific person make a better decision in a specific place.’”

With Laude Institute support, the team will build new AI weather forecasting frameworks embedded in the UChicago–Laude AI Almanac, a free, open-source platform that will let any meteorological agency, government, or NGO generate, evaluate, and deploy AI weather forecasts tuned to their own geography, observations, decision needs, and knowledge of local weather dynamics without requiring specialized technical expertise, supercomputing infrastructure, or dense observational networks.

“This platform will significantly accelerate the translation of the AI-driven weather forecasting revolution into enhanced capabilities of the meteorological agencies that need it most, so they can give high-quality, actionable information to the people they serve,” said Hassanzadeh.

Scaling to Hundreds of Millions

Early deployments have already shown what’s possible using AI weather forecasts. From 2024 to 2026, the UChicago Human-Centered Weather Forecasts initiative supported government agricultural ministries in producing AI weather forecasts that were sent via text message to tens of millions of farmers in Africa and South Asia. Those AI forecasts correctly predicted an unusual stall in the seasonal rains, providing an early warning to farmers. Farmers who received the AI-powered forecast on their phones could make informed planting decisions, rather than planting too early and losing their crop. The Laude grant will help turn this work into a global platform covering many kinds of weather and climate hazards.

Development banks and philanthropies such as the OpenAI Foundation and the Gates Foundation are investing heavily in delivering accurate weather forecasts and decision-support tools to farmers, public health workers, and government officials in low- and middle-income countries, with a goal of reaching hundreds of millions of people within the next several years.

The UChicago team works closely with these organizations, as well as AIM for Scale, Precision Development, and UC Berkeley, on forecast delivery. The work supported by the Laude Institute will strengthen the AI and computational backbone behind those efforts with new AI methods, trusted evaluation focused on local community needs, and a scalable, open platform that expands access and increases forecast reliability, without major investments in computing infrastructure or software development. The platform will support not only agriculture but also public health and warnings of compound climate extremes.

“Reaching hundreds of millions of people requires infrastructure that can scale across countries, datasets, and weather hazards,” said Foster. “With Globus, a non-profit research data management platform, we have learned how to make large-scale research computing reliable and accessible. We will draw on that experience to help meteorological agencies adapt and deliver forecasts for their communities without having to build and maintain their own computing infrastructure.”

A companion AIM for Scale training program, co-led by UChicago and the United Arab Emirates’ Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, is already preparing government meteorologists from 14 countries to use these tools, with the goal of reaching 30 countries by 2027

“If this works for weather, it is a model for AI for public health, for education, and for many other areas where the people who need these tools most cannot pay for them,” said Kremer. “Philanthropy can step up where the market cannot. That is what makes this moment extraordinary.”

Built by and for impact researchers, the Laude Institute operates at the intersection of academia and industry to catalyze research that reaches people’s hands. It convenes, resources, and amplifies computer scientists who ship their research and impact the lives of billions. With carefully chosen targets, AI research has an opportunity to move all of humanity forward, and the UChicago-Laude AI Almanac aims to contribute significantly to that momentum.

The project team includes Adam Marchakitus, Dr. Alexander Wikner, Andrew Dennehy, Raphael Rossellini, Dr. Rajat Masiwal, Rathan Sudheer, Dr. Bo Dong, Dr. Casey Keel, Dr. Colin Aitken, Hayden Holbrook, Dr. Katie Kowal, Terrina Govender, Tiana Pyer-Pereira, and Dr. Victoria Flores.

Source: UChicago

The post UChicago Receives $10M Grant to Build Open-Source AI Weather Forecasting Platform appeared first on HPCwire.

Roku is removing its popular Aquatic Life fish tank screensaver on December 1 and automatically switching affected users to Roku City. According to Cord Cutters News, the creator pulled the license after Roku's sale to FOX was announced. Ars Technica reports: The screensaver has been an option for Roku OS users for 10 years. Roku has been licensing the animation, which is called the Marine Aquarium, from artist Jim Sachs through Prolific Publishing. Sachs is the creator and copyright holder of the Marine Aquarium. He developed the screensaver through his company SereneScreen. He tells Ars Technica that the licensing agreement with Roku is up for renewal every October and can be canceled by either party for any reason. A day after learning that Fox was planning to buy Roku, a deal that closed today, Sachs told Prolific that he wouldn't be renewing Roku's license. "I can't be part of the Fox world," he tells Ars, pointing to Fox News' controversial style of news and entertainment. Roku will automatically switch the Aquatic Life screensaver on affected devices to the Roku City screensaver, another popular animation that includes subtle advertisements, according to the user notice. The Aquatic Life screensaver provided an ad-free, relaxing display for years for some Roku users. Numerous people online have lamented the impending loss of the screensaver for Roku OS. [...] The decision to not renew the licensing contract has "major financial consequences," Sachs said. "Our needs are very small, with a high property tax bill being the only significant expense," he said. "We'll be okay but can't start any of the projects I had planned." According to Sachs, the licensing "agreement was $80,000 per year for exclusive rights to all set-top devices, or $60,000 per year for non-exclusive. They have always opted for exclusive." Ars asked Roku to confirm the details of the licensing agreement but didn't hear back ahead of publication. The licensing deal with Roku was Sachs' primary form of income, he told Ars, noting low sales of the version of the screensaver for computers. Marine Aquarium fans can still buy the screensaver for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, but it seems unlikely that it will return to the Roku platform.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The political backlash against data centers is intensifying, threatening to choke off a critical source of U.S. investment, according to economists.

A doctor performing a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) procedure to a patient in a control room.

Hayden is working to unite the high performance computing community, showcase Illinois research and highlight how computing can help address challenges that affect people’s lives.

Nov. 6, 2026 — For decades, Kevin Hayden, a senior network engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, has helped maintain the connections that allow computing systems to exchange information. His work supports high performance computing, or HPC, the technology behind research that tackles complex scientific and engineering problems.

Kevin Hayden. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory

Now, after years of supporting that technology and volunteering at supercomputing conferences, Hayden is bringing his experience to a new role as general chair of SC26, the 2026 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis. SC26 will take place Nov. 15-20 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. The annual conference comes to Chicago for the first time. Organizers expect more than 20,000 attendees from around the world.

HPC uses powerful computer systems to solve complex problems in fields such as science, medicine, engineering and super intelligence (also known as artificial intelligence). SC conferences bring together researchers, engineers, students and industry professionals to share their work, explore new technologies and build connections across the field.

Making that work possible requires more than computing power. Networks connect computers and storage systems, allowing researchers to move enormous amounts of data, access results and collaborate across distances. That behind-the-scenes infrastructure has been the focus of Hayden’s career.

Hayden began his career at Argonne in 1994 as an electronics fabrication technician before moving into networking, where he helps maintain the connections that allow computers and other devices to communicate and share data.

“I kind of fell into the networking group,” Hayden said.

Although Hayden is not an HPC researcher himself, his work supports the systems that make the research possible. Networking allows scientists to access computing resources, move data and share results across complex research projects.

“I always consider myself a HPC supporter,” Hayden said. ​“Without the networking, you can’t get the information from the computers to the users.”

Hayden started volunteering at SC conferences in 2005. He has served in a variety of roles, including SCinet chair for SC20. SCinet is the high-speed network built specifically for the conference to support technical demonstrations and presentations that require substantial network capacity.

Years of volunteering have given Hayden firsthand experience with the technical coordination and teamwork required to make SC successful. As SC26 general chair, he works with about 1,500 volunteers and oversees a network of contractors while helping guide the conference program and attendee experience.

“A conference of this size can’t be done by one person alone,” he said.

He hopes to use the conference to bring the HPC community together, showcase Illinois research and highlight how computing can help address challenges that affect people’s lives.

A key part of Hayden’s vision for SC26 is the Regional Tech Hub, a new, immersive space highlighting research and innovation across Illinois.

The hub will include researcher profiles, videos and hands-on displays. It will feature work from Argonne, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The hub will focus on four areas: super intelligence, quantum technologies, high-throughput computing and translational biomedical research.

“Illinois has incredible research happening across our institutions, and the Regional Technical Hub is about bringing people together to collaborate, share ideas and build on each other’s strengths. I want to make sure we’re connecting these communities and showcasing what we can accomplish together,” Hayden said.

The Regional Tech Hub will feature the work of Argonne researchers David Awschalom, who is also the director of UChicago’s Chicago Quantum Institute, and Laura Schulz in quantum and next-generation computing. It will also highlight the work of Nick Chia, Ravi Madduri and Arvind Ramanathan in high-throughput computing infrastructure and systems.

The hub reflects Hayden’s interest in connecting conference attendees with research happening in Illinois while giving local institutions a platform to share their work with an international audience.

He also wants to bring more attention to biomedical and cancer research at SC26, including panels featuring cancer researchers. The topic is personal for Hayden, who lost his first wife to cancer.

“Cancer will touch nearly all of our lives, whether through our own experiences or those of the people we love,” Hayden said. ​“The research itself is critically important, but so is understanding the human impact behind it. We wanted to highlight how advances in computing and scientific research can translate into meaningful progress in cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.”

These priorities align with this year’s conference theme, ​“HPC Unites.” For Hayden, the theme reflects his belief that HPC is a collective effort and that, as computing technology becomes more embedded in everyday life, it can help people work together to address shared challenges.

“We’re all part of a shared mission,” Hayden said. ​“By harnessing the power of HPC to address society’s most pressing challenges, we can accelerate discovery, drive meaningful innovation and create a lasting, positive impact on people’s lives.”

The theme also reflects the collaborative effort required to put on SC26, from maintaining the technical infrastructure to coordinating the volunteers and contractors who help bring the conference to life.

“As a sum, we’re a whole lot better than just one,” Hayden said. ​“So, let’s work together and make meaningful change.”

More from HPCwire

• HPC Unites: SC26 General Chair Welcomes All to His ‘Sweet Home Chicago’
• Argonne’s Kevin Hayden Named General Chair of SC26

Source: Phoebe Hodge, Argonne

The post Kevin Hayden: The Network Engineer Leading SC26 appeared first on HPCwire.

Making a few moves before the end of 2026 could help you secure more affordable car insurance coverage next year.

By: Christopher Federico

GOP collapse in the midterms.

The post Einstürzende Neubauten, ‘Kollaps’: The Week In One Song appeared first on Good Authority.

Monogramming or customizing takes gifts to the next level – and shows recipients that you know what they like and who they are

• The best beauty Advent calendars of 2026 in the US

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

A personalized gift is a special thing that says that you not only know what the recipient likes, but that you also know who they are. “Gift math” suggests you score extra points for offering a personalized gift, and it’s not hard to see why: monogramming or engraving, which takes time and effort, may feel more meaningful than, say, a last-minute grocery store bouquet of carnations.

When shopping for a loved one (or even the colleague on the other side of your cubicle), a personalized gift suggests foresight and consideration that is incredibly thoughtful without coming on too strong. To get you started on your quest for shopping for that perfect personalized gift this holiday season, we have sourced from ideas we’ve given, received and truly, truly love.

Just weeks after cancer surgery, Pope Leo XIV, who has arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay, will navigate the region’s tide of secularism, deep polarization — and high altitudes.

Level up your vocab with these tech phrases that’ll give you major rizz.

If you prefer a PC, there are still some non-Apple brands worth considering.

Nov. 6, 2026 — AWS has announced that Amazon FSx for Lustre now supports up to 192,000 metadata I/O operations per second (IOPS) on file systems that use the Intelligent-Tiering storage class, 16x higher than the previous maximum of 12,000 IOPS.

Credit: VGV MEDIA/Shutterstock

The FSx for Lustre Intelligent-Tiering storage class delivers the lowest-cost and only fully elastic Lustre file storage in the cloud. It is optimized for workloads that mix hot and cold data and do not require consistent SSD-level performance.

A file system’s metadata IOPS determine how many files and directories you can create, list, read, and delete per second. Today’s launch allows you to scale to even higher levels of performance, accelerate time-to-results, and optimize your storage costs for metadata-intensive machine learning research and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.

Higher metadata IOPS are available on new FSx for Lustre Intelligent-Tiering file systems in all AWS Regions where the Intelligent-Tiering storage class is available.

For more information about the file system metadata performance, see the Amazon FSx for Lustre User Guide.

About Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is guided by customer obsession, pace of innovation, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. By democratizing technology for nearly two decades and making cloud computing and generative AI accessible to organizations of every size and industry, AWS has built one of the fastest-growing enterprise technology businesses in history. Millions of customers trust AWS to accelerate innovation, transform their businesses, and shape the future. With the most comprehensive AI capabilities and global infrastructure footprint, AWS empowers builders to turn big ideas into reality.

Source: AWS

The post AWS Targets Metadata-Intensive HPC Workloads with FSx for Lustre Intelligent-Tiering Update appeared first on HPCwire.

OpenAI says its new GPT-6 Cyber model helped an automated system identify 1,724 security flaws in the Linux kernel and exploit 948 of them to gain administrator-level access during testing, including at least 10 previously unknown techniques. Axios reports: During testing, the system identified 1,724 security flaws and found ways to use 948 of them to gain administrator-level access to Linux systems for about $1.2 million in API credits. At least 10 of the techniques the model used were previously unknown, according to OpenAI. Human researchers reviewed the Linux findings before reporting vulnerabilities and proposed fixes to maintainers. The model also uncovered 81 previously unknown, high-severity flaws in Mozilla's Firefox browser.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Replacements for embattled War Secretary Pete Hegseth are increasingly being discussed at the Pentagon, according to current and former defense officials. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is at the top of many lists. Mike Waltz, the disgraced former national security adviser at the center of the 2025 Signalgate messaging scandal and currently U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has also been mentioned.

Those and other names have emerged as Hegseth is facing down a bipartisan impeachment effort as early as next week and is in a mad scramble to hold onto his job.

Officials acknowledged that both DeSantis and Waltz were dismal choices, but all who spoke with The Intercept said even the most problematic picks would be preferable to Hegseth, who has been excoriated at the Pentagon and beyond for Signal-gate, his purge of top military leaders, his inability to defeat Yemen’s Houthis in 2025 or win the Iran war in 2026, his campaign of extrajudicial killings in attacks on so-called drug boats, his efforts to weaken transparency and scuttle accountability, and his obsession with troops’ testosterone levels, among other distractions.

In the wake of an election rout that handed Democrats firm control of the House and the Senate, Hegseth is in the crosshairs of lawmakers whom he has treated with contempt for two years. “Dead man walking,” said one official in an exposé published by The Intercept Thursday. Hours after publication of that report, Hegseth launched a desperate bid to stave off his ouster, employing his Fox News-host-honed skills at fanning culture war flames to air his grievances and whip up the support of his boss and the MAGA faithful.

In a video posted on X, the self-styled secretary of war pulled out the stops: “He literally took a bullet for this nation,” Hegseth said amid obsequious flattery of Trump. “He shook his fist and said ‘fight, fight, fight,’ and so will we.”

Related

“Dead Man Walking”: Officials Say Hegseth Has to Go

The chief of what he recently called “the most powerful, most lethal and most prepared military on the planet,” Hegseth cast himself as a besieged victim and tied himself to Trump in a naked attempt to save his job. “A disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly, just like they tried against President Trump twice,” Hegseth carped in a video filmed outside the Pentagon.

Hegseth was referring to outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who said Wednesday that he plans to reintroduce articles of impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors when the House is back in session next week. Numerous Democrats have indicated a desire to join Massie’s effort to oust Hegseth since their midterm election landslide, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who is poised to be the next speaker.

Hegseth’s missive to Trump hit many hot-button issues that Americans seemingly repudiated in Tuesday’s electoral landslide. He boasted about driving “the weird and the woke” out of the military and took aim at his and Trump’s enemies. “Why do the Democrats and the deep state radicals really hate us? Because we tore down their sacred cows one by one and without apology,” said Hegseth, who rattled off a list of things he has torn down, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; military efforts to combat climate change; the rechristening of military bases named for Confederate leaders; and the rights of trans service members.

Hegseth’s video rant was part of a doomsday plan coordinated by chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, first reported by CNN and corroborated by a defense official who spoke with The Intercept. It was accompanied by a coordinated campaign of social media posts by Pentagon underlings trying to tie Hegseth’s fortunes to the president, consisting of photos of the war secretary posturing accompanied by the text, “STAND. FIGHT. DEFEND THE REPUBLIC.”

While it was a brazen attempt to cast any future effort by Trump to cut him loose as an enormous defeat for the president, officials said Parnell’s Hail Mary could succeed. “It’s sad. But it may work because Trump is so easy to manipulate,” said one defense official. “Hegseth knows he is dealing with a president with the mind of a three-year-old.”

During the Pentagon’s Thursday afternoon social media blitz, one of those Hegseth underlings messaged this reporter a clip from the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s stockbroker character pivots mid-way through announcing his resignation and a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission, declaring: “I’m not fucking leaving! … They’re gonna need a fuckin’ wrecking ball to take me outta here!”

The House has only impeached two Cabinet secretaries: William Belknap, the secretary of war, in 1876; and Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, in 2024. In neither case did the Senate vote to convict. Should Massie’s lame-duck impeachment measure succeed in the House, it would likely languish in the Senate where Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., would have little incentive to bring it to a vote, said a congressional staffer for a member on the Armed Services Committee. Still, some pundits predict Hegseth may not survive the weekend, much less the month or the year.

If and when Hegseth is ousted, there will be no shortage of people jockeying to take his place. In addition to DeSantis and Waltz, other names bandied about at the Pentagon or on Capitol Hill include Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a retired military officer who chose not to run for reelection this year, as well as failed Republican Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers, who was defeated by Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. Some of those names were mentioned in a Thursday post on X by James Stavridis, a retired four-star Navy admiral, former supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and partner and vice chair of Carlyle, a global investment firm with deep Pentagon ties. Stavridis also named Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state.

While DeSantis and Trump had been bitter rivals during the 2024 Republican presidential primary campaign, the outgoing Florida governor and assumed 2028 GOP presidential hopeful has since vocally supported Trump’s crackpot initiatives. To advance Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, DeSantis hastily constructed (and then quickly shuttered) “Alligator Alcatraz,” a detention hellhole that the Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog found did not comply with a slew of federal and state standards. The Florida governor was also the first official to use Trump’s renamed “Gulf of America” for the Gulf of Mexico, in an official document.

Related

Anti-Trans Panic Couldn’t Save Republicans in Deep-Red Texas

Amid the rubble of a devastated Republican Party, DeSantis — a longtime culture warrior who rode what he called what he called “woke gender ideology” to national prominence — quickly pivoted. “The ground shifts and the emphasis, then, is on different things,” he said on Wednesday. “Four years ago, we were in that peak woke era. … Now, the issues are different and Republicans, it seemed like, in some of the ads I was seeing, with how much money they were spending, they really were fighting yesterday’s battle.”

DeSantis also has a troubling military background. As a lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps — a role akin to that of a first-year associate at a law firm — he served at the notorious American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He also served in the failed forever war in Iraq, as a senior legal adviser to the commander of SEAL Team One in Fallujah.

Asked about DeSantis’s standing within the Pentagon, an official said: “Anything is better than Hegseth.”

The post Pentagon Officials Float Names of Hegseth’s Replacement appeared first on The Intercept.

Amazon’s bots are the latest AI agents trying to do your shopping for you. Should you let them?

Ukrainian, Russian and American delegations will meet in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 10 and 11 for the first trilateral talks since February.

Rapper called out ‘intimidation, manipulation and suppression’ in a social media post, claiming major arenas refused to host him after the Ed Sheeran controversy

Macklemore says that nine major US arenas have refused to host his Free Palestine fundraising tour, calling out “intimidation, manipulation and suppression” tactics.

In an Instagram post, the rapper says that he hoped to bring the tour to the US, but nine major arenas refused to host the event, including New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Los Angeles’s Crypto.com arena and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

New lawmakers from Annie Andrews and Adam Hamilton to Abdul El-Sayed indicate they will not support him

Incoming Democratic senators want someone other than Chuck Schumer to become the next majority leader in the US Senate, although Schumer likely still has enough votes in his caucus to remain the top Democrat.

Annie Andrews, the Democratic senator-elect from South Carolina, told Fox News’s Bret Baier on Thursday that the Democratic party needs new leadership. When asked whether she would support Schumer’s leadership bid, she replied: “I still very much believe it’s time for generational change on both sides of the aisle.”

A military person preparing her belongings into a camouflage backpack before leaving the house.

Mayor said only immigrants that ‘pose a danger’ would be referred to ICE, after Democrats gain control of governor’s seat

The mayor of Houston on Friday said the city would limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, heralding “a new model” of immigration enforcement after Democrats won power in Texas for the first time in decades.

Houston’s mayor, John Whitmire, said the city would go after immigrants “that pose a danger, not those that are going about their family business, work and education”.

Comparing car insurance quotes online could lead to savings, but there are a few things to know before you buy.

The Chilean film-maker, whose films starred Florence Pugh, Julianne Moore and Rachel Weisz, died at his home in Santiago

Chilean film-maker Sebastián Lelio has died at the age of 52.

He was best known for the Oscar-winning trans drama A Fantastic Woman and his English-language films included Gloria Bell and The Wonder.

Big majorities of 2026 election voters opposed the building of data centers in their community.

A jury in Massachusetts is deliberating the fate of former police officer Matthew Farwell, who is charged in the 2021 death of 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump announced Friday that longtime adviser Stephen Miller will become White House chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles in the administration’s first major personnel shakeup since Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterm elections.

Trump said Miller, currently deputy chief of staff for policy, will take over Monday. Wiles will move to Trump’s political operation rather than leave his orbit entirely. Trump praised both aides, calling Miller one of his most trusted advisers.

The move comes just three weeks after Trump publicly insisted there was “zero chance” he would replace Wiles and said she would remain “for a long time.”

Miller has been one of the administration’s most influential figures, particularly on immigration. He has played a central role in designing Trump’s mass-deportation strategy and has also been involved in planning how the White House could rely more heavily on executive authority once Democrats take control of Congress in January.

Republicans have been openly debating changes after their sweeping midterm defeat. Reuters reported that some GOP officials urged Trump to overhaul his staff and reconsider policies including the Iran war, tariffs and immigration enforcement.

Miller’s promotion suggests Trump is responding to the electoral setback not by moderating his agenda, but by elevating one of its principal architects.

Sources:

• The Hill – MBFC Rating

The post Trump Replaces Susie Wiles With Stephen Miller as White House Chief of Staff appeared first on News Facts Network.

New Wilmington community center combines education, health care and recreation in a major public-private investment. Its long-term success will be measured by opportunities created for families and lasting neighborhood improvements.

By George Rotsch, Delaware LIVE

WILMINGTON, Del. — A new chapter in Wilmington’s Riverside neighborhood began Friday, Nov. 6, with the opening of the $56 million Kingswood Community Center, an investment designed to expand educational opportunities, improve access to health care and help families build more prosperous futures.

The two-story, 81,000-square-foot facility is nearly five times the size of its predecessor, which served Riverside residents for generations. The new center brings together services for children, families and seniors while serving as a cornerstone of a broader effort to revitalize one of Wilmington’s historically underserved neighborhoods.

For residents, the new building represents an opportunity for greater neighborhood stability and access to services. For taxpayers, donors and community leaders, it also raises an important long-term question: Will the investment deliver measurable improvements in education, employment, family well-being and economic independence?

The answer will ultimately be determined not by the size of the building but by the opportunities it creates for the people who use it.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Gov. Matt Meyer, Attorney General Kathleen Jennings, Wilmington Mayor John Carney and City Council Member Zanthia Oliver joined community leaders for Friday’s opening ceremony.

Building opportunities for families

The expanded Kingswood Community Center brings several important services together under one roof, making it easier for residents to access programs that support education, health, recreation and family stability.

Among its features are:

• A gymnasium accommodating more than 600 basketball spectators or up to 1,500 people for community gatherings.

• A Nemours pediatric care center providing access to children’s health services.

• The Ernest L. Webster Montessori Academy, expanding early childhood educational opportunities.

• An expanded Jimmy Jenkins Senior Center in a separate building, serving older residents.

• A commercial kitchen and dining room supporting food programs and community activities.

• Flexible meeting and event spaces for neighborhood organizations and families.

The services could have practical economic benefits beyond their immediate purposes.

Reliable early childhood education can help working parents maintain employment. Accessible health care can reduce the time and transportation challenges families face when seeking treatment. Recreational and educational programs can provide young people with constructive activities and opportunities to develop skills.

Together, these services are intended to help address barriers that have limited economic opportunity for some Riverside families.

Public and private partners share the investment

The Kingswood project illustrates how government agencies, nonprofit organizations, financial institutions and private partners can combine resources to address longstanding community needs.

The project received substantial government support, including state funding and federal resources. The state described Kingswood as a $56 million development when construction began in August 2024.

Its financing also involved New Markets Tax Credits, private financial institutions and philanthropic support, demonstrating an approach that extends beyond traditional government-funded community programs.

One notable partner is Nemours Children’s Health, which provided an eight-figure, low-interest community impact loan to help advance the project’s construction.

In a September 2026 account of the partnership, Nemours President and CEO R. Lawrence Moss said the loan helped unlock additional financing and was repaid in full ahead of schedule.

Nemours is also establishing a pediatric care center at Kingswood and working with community partners to connect neighborhood residents with skilled employment opportunities at its hospital.

The arrangement demonstrates how private institutional investment can support neighborhood development while connecting residents to health care and potential careers.

It also highlights the importance of financial planning and responsible stewardship in projects involving both public and private resources.

An 80-year commitment to Riverside

The opening comes as Kingswood celebrates 80 years of serving Wilmington residents.

Founded in 1946, the original community center became a gathering place and support system for generations of Riverside families, offering youth development, educational programs and services for older adults.

“The Kingswood Community Center had an amazing 80-year run rooted in humble beginnings,” said Logan Herring, CEO of the WRK Group, which includes Kingswood Community Center, REACH Riverside and The Warehouse.

Herring credited generations of community leaders and volunteers for adapting Kingswood’s programs to meet changing neighborhood needs.

“The new Kingswood Community Center builds on all of this. It will continue that same legacy of rising to meet the needs of Riverside by providing the community with more resources, support and opportunity,” he said.

The new building provides significantly more space, but the organization’s challenge remains much the same: helping residents strengthen families, develop skills and build better lives.

Connecting education, employment and economic mobility

The new center is part of the WRK Group’s larger effort to transform Riverside through a coordinated approach involving housing, education, health care and economic opportunity.

Other investments include Imani Village, a mixed-income residential development that began opening in 2022; The Warehouse, which provides programs for Wilmington teenagers; and expanded STEM educational opportunities at EastSide Charter School.

The strategy recognizes that improvements in one area often depend on progress in others.

Children are better positioned to succeed academically when they have stable housing, access to medical care and strong educational support. Parents are better able to pursue employment when reliable child care and other family resources are available.

The new Kingswood Center is intended to bring many of those resources within easier reach of Riverside residents.

Of particular importance is the potential to connect young people and adults to workforce development programs, employers and career opportunities.

The WRK Group has described economic mobility and self-sufficiency as central goals of its Riverside redevelopment effort.

Success in those areas could help create a stronger local economy, greater household financial stability and an environment more attractive to private investment.

Measuring the return on investment

The opening of Kingswood marks a significant construction and fundraising achievement. The larger challenge will be sustaining the facility and demonstrating its impact over time.

The building will require ongoing expenditures for staffing, maintenance, utilities, security and programming. Long-term financial planning will be essential to maintaining services without placing unsustainable demands on government or philanthropic resources.

Equally important will be demonstrating whether the programs achieve their intended results.

Potential measures of success include the number of children benefiting from early education, improvements in school readiness, participation in job training, employment outcomes, health care access and residents’ progress toward greater economic independence.

The redevelopment also presents an important question for longtime Riverside residents: Will neighborhood improvements create opportunities for existing families to remain, prosper and participate in the area’s changing economy?

New housing, improved community facilities and expanded services are important signs of progress. But lasting revitalization also depends on stable neighborhoods, family advancement, employment and a growing base of private economic activity.

Public reporting on program outcomes, operating expenses and funding sources would help residents, donors and taxpayers evaluate the results.

Those measures will become increasingly important as the Riverside transformation moves from major construction projects to the long-term operation of its facilities and programs.

A new chapter, with work still ahead

For Herring, the opening is both a tribute to Kingswood’s history and a commitment to future generations.

“We are opening a new chapter, opening new doors to space built to serve generations to come,” he said.

The grand opening also reflects years of collaboration among Riverside residents, nonprofit leaders, government officials, businesses and philanthropic organizations.

With the center completed, the focus now turns to making the most of its expanded capabilities.

For Riverside families, the opportunity is immediate: improved access to education, health care, recreation and community support.

For Wilmington, the larger opportunity is to demonstrate that a combination of public investment, private participation and strong community institutions can help produce lasting neighborhood improvements.

The new Kingswood Community Center provides the facilities and resources to pursue that goal.

The next chapter will be measured by what Riverside residents accomplish with them.

Community invited to celebrate Saturday

The WRK Group will continue its grand-opening weekend Saturday, Nov. 7, with Kingswood Community Day, a free celebration offering residents and visitors an opportunity to explore the new center.

Activities will include building tours, family entertainment, youth activities and opportunities to learn more about the educational, recreational and community programs available.

The celebration also recognizes Kingswood’s 80-year history and the generations of residents, volunteers and community leaders who helped make the institution an important part of Riverside.

TO GO: Kingswood Community Day

• What: Grand-opening community celebration and open house.
• When: Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Where: Kingswood Community Center, 2500 Rosemont Ave., Wilmington.
• Admission: Free; advance registration requested.
• Activities: Building tours, family entertainment, educational activities and information about community services.
• Register: CelebrateKingswood.org
• Learn more: Kingswood Community Center

The most enjoyable conversations strike a balance between exploring a topic and pulling in fresh ideas, study finds

As an early stab at rules for conversation, Cicero did a fine job: watch your tone, never look bored, never lose your temper and never ramble on, particularly about yourself, he advised.

Now scientists have followed in the great orator’s footsteps and discovered a telltale signature of an enjoyable chinwag. The secret of a mutually satisfying exchange is a healthy dose of pink noise, they say.

Officials in Kyiv hope Democrats will restore funding that eroded under the Trump administration. But they also know foreign policy is still in the hands of the president.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Top Republican lawmakers have asked Jensen Huang to appear before Congress to answer questions after it was reported that US intelligence officials believe Nvidia's chief executive has been targeted by a Chinese spying operation. The chairs of the House committees on China, foreign affairs, and intelligence wrote to Huang this week asking him to appear before a joint closed-door briefing for their committees on November 18. "Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the People's Republic of China's access to sensitive US technology and information," representatives John Moolenaar, Brian Mast, and Rick Crawford wrote. "The issue of PRC infiltration and access to cutting-edge US technology is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress. It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk," the lawmakers added. The New York Times last week wrote that US intelligence officials believed Huang had been the target of a Chinese spy operation. The concerns center on a Chinese woman named Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based cloud company that has bought billions of dollars of Nvidia's chips. Nvidia has rejected the claims and on Thursday would not say if Huang would appear before Congress. "Meetings with customers are part of a CEO's job. Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year," the company said. "Our regional cloud customers receive ordinary business information -- not sensitive Nvidia trade secrets -- and zero information relevant to national security," it added. The lawmakers said they wanted Huang to discuss the security protocols Nvidia had in place to protect against "foreign adversary espionage." The company said its chief executive had an "outstanding security team" that travels with him. The New York Times said Huang had not received a "defensive briefing," which the intelligence community usually, but not always, provides potential espionage targets to warn them about the activity. Nvidia said it was confident that the US government would have let the company know if it thought a person was a threat to US industry and that it often receives updates from Washington about people of concern.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Group including Doreen Lawrence and Elton John face £50m bill after losing claims over alleged unlawful information gathering

Prince Harry and five other prominent figures have launched a legal challenge against a judge’s verdict in their unsuccessful claims against the Daily Mail’s publisher, Associated Newspapers.

Harry, Doreen Lawrence, the mother of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, the singer Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, and the actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost faced a legal bill of more than £50m after losing their case claiming that Mail journalists used unlawful methods to source stories.

Ash Hegarty with the giant carp he caught at Euro Aqua Lake in Hungary in a catch hailed as a world record. (Courtesy of Ash Hegarty via SWNS)

Separate actions also take place outside fence and across Europe in backlash against impact of AI boom

Activists have stormed the site of a Microsoft datacentre being built in Amsterdam, as the backlash to the social and environmental harms of the AI boom spreads across Europe.

Protesters from Geef Tegengas, a Dutch direct action group, clashed with police while breaking into a construction site at Westpoort, Amsterdam, where some members climbed a crane, lit flares and tied helium balloons to equipment.

Democratic and Republican lawyers and groups trade sharp legal letters about procedures for counting ballots in tight race

• Where Trump and Republicans lost the midterms – a visual analysis of the key states

Democrat Scott Colom is on the verge of winning a Senate seat in Mississippi in a stunning upset, but ballots are still being counted in a close race where Colom holds a lead of just under 2,000 votes over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith. Losing ruby-red Mississippi would be the final straw for Republicans after a midterm sweep by Democrats that turned Texas and South Carolina blue.

A possible legal fight is also brewing, as both sides trade sharp legal letters about the procedures for counting remaining ballots. National voting groups and attorneys have descended upon the magnolia state, joining the local groups that worked to mobilize voters. Democratic and Republican groups, including Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and Democratic election attorneys from the Elias Law Group, have deployed hundreds of volunteers and lawyers to all the state’s 82 counties to oversee the final rounds of counting.

Colorado and Washington joined the ranks of states banning trans girls from girls sports teams, while Arizona and Nebraska strengthened their bans.

Jason Reding Quiñones led investigation into whether Trump’s rights were violated during 2020 election inquiry

A US attorney overseeing the so-called “grand conspiracy” investigation into Donald Trump’s rivals announced on Friday he is leaving the Department of Justice, one of several officials to leave the department in recent days after sweeping Democratic wins in the midterm elections.

Jason Reding Quiñones, the US attorney for the southern district of Florida, and John Eisenberg, who led the justice department’s national security division, are both leaving. Democrats have pledged to use their majorities in the US House and Senate to conduct aggressive oversight of the justice department, among other agencies.

Jacob Hawk leaned over the plastic fencing to get Vivek Ramaswamy’s attention as the Republican candidate for Ohio governor moved down the line shaking hands at the Ohio University branch campus in Chillicothe, six days before the midterm elections. Hawk held onto Ramaswamy’s hand and started trying to tell him everything he was dealing with, everything he wanted the Republican candidates gathered there to help him with.

Hawk, 39, told him that he was a self-employed landscaper who was having a hard time with the high cost of fuel. He told him that he was raising three young kids from two different moms, mostly on his own. He told him of his worries for his 9-year-old son, who was autistic and underweight and suffered from a two-year delay in brain development.

Ramaswamy, a biotech billionaire, nodded and offered some token reassurance and moved down the line, toward the arena where he would soon be appearing with President Donald Trump and Sen. Jon Husted and the rest of the Republican slate in a state that Trump had won by 11 percentage points two years ago, and which the party had dominated during the era of Trump. I had been at many Republican events in the state over that time, including a rally in an airplane hangar outside Dayton in March 2016, where a giant crowd had roared as Trump’s jet had rolled into view and where he had declared that he had come to save Ohio. “Our jobs are being sucked away,” he said then. “It’s unbelievable what’s happening.”

This event was different. Ten years had passed, and gone was the fierce bravado of Trump the conquering hero, bristling with retribution and promises. This rally was populated largely by the same sort of voters who had been particularly drawn to Trump all along, working-class Midwesterners who had not been engaged in politics before he came on the scene. But there were fewer of them — the campaign had chosen an arena that held only 2,000 — and their devotion had been subsumed by uncertainty. They were still with Trump, but they weren’t sure how to reconcile their own difficulties with the fact that he was the president during this trying time.

Take gas prices, which “are beating the hell out of me,” Hawk told me. He was trying his best not to hold them against Trump and his decision to go to war against Iran, instead faulting Congress for limiting domestic oil drilling. “The president has to go find oil in another country because Congress won’t let him find it in our country,” he said, overlooking the fact that Trump’s party has controlled both houses of Congress during his second term.

Nearby, Debbie Shock, a 57-year-old mail carrier, blamed the high fuel costs on “the stock exchange, the markets — they’re the ones that control it.” “We have oil right here in the U.S.,” she said. “Why are we buying it from other countries to begin with?”

Shock fit a profile I had gotten to know well in 2016: an Obama-Trump voter. She was loyal to Trump — “I like the man. Nobody’s perfect, you know what I mean?” — and told me she would never go back to Democrats now. Why not? I asked. “They’re covering up the child molestation,” she said. What did she mean by that? “I’ve heard stories about the sex trafficking. The Clintons are involved in it, Disney World, you know, all that.”

It would be easy to ridicule such murky talk, yet it was not much less coherent than what soon emerged on the arena stage, which was streamed on a large screen for the few hundred of us who were out on the lawn outside the arena. Trump has never been known for structured oratory, but it is hard to overstate the extent to which his digressive style has advanced since 2016, and to convey how surreal it is to experience firsthand, as the reality of what presidential communication has come to in 2026.

The rally opened with the customary introductory video of late-era Trump, an explicitly messianic framing: “God said, ‘I need someone who will be strong and courageous,’” the voice-over intones. “So God made Trump.”

Thus introduced, Trump opened his remarks with a lengthy disquisition on Husted’s body, which had newly become part of his routine. “I looked at Jon and studied his physique,” he cooed, after referring to his recent comments on Husted’s “ass.” “I studied the feet, the legs, the shoulders. I tapped him on the shoulder, and it was like hitting a piece of steel.”

When a protester inside the arena started shouting something — those of us outside couldn’t hear what — and was removed, Trump bid him good riddance: “Now he goes home and his boyfriend gets upset with him.”

There were protesters outside, too, and things were starting to heat up between them and the supporters. “What are you talking about, ‘boyfriend?’” shouted one protester, a young man. “He was just talking about Jon Husted’s ass! That’s not gay??”

A supporter in front of me, a bearded man in his 50s, stewed as he watched the protesters. “You’re going to see someone dropping like a bad habit,” he growled, as he started to move toward them, before being held back by the woman who was with him.

A moment later, Trump had moved on to Jeffrey Epstein, saying that the Democrats had protected him for years. “I threw Jeffrey Epstein the hell out of Mar-a-Lago,” he declared. “I was the one who was totally exonerated from him. But they use it, because that’s what they do. They’re sick, weak people.”

This set off a new round of shouting outside, as cries of “pedophiles!” flew back and forth.

Suddenly, one Trump supporter near me rushed hard at a protester and knocked him to the ground, his head landing with such a thud on the blacktop that I initially thought it might be a suppressed gunshot. Dozens of officers swarmed to the spot. Cameras flashed.

A few moments later, a couple other protesters, also young men, began railing against the war against Iran. “We’re going to be the ones sent off to die for Israel,” one shouted. “‘America First,’ and you want me to die in the Middle East?”

Trump touched on the war — “they’re getting beaten very badly” — but spent far more time on his home renovations. “The White House has to be beautiful outside, it needs that exterior plaster. The bricks were falling, the stone was broken, the monuments were coming off, the beautiful windows were cracked, it looked terrible, and I fixed it very inexpensively, and now it’s more beautiful than ever,” he said. “And President Obama, who doesn’t understand cleanliness, who doesn’t understand broken cracked stone and sidewalks, who doesn’t understand that having asphalt going to your main entrance is not the right thing, we’d like to have granite and marble we’d like to have it look nice, you don’t use asphalt, you use asphalt for your streets. …”

On the ramble went. To the Haitians in nearby Springfield: “The town went from no crime to high crime,” but “they’re being moved out.” To a riff on Ramaswamy’s ad featuring his opponent Amy Acton’s mother calling her a liar, in apparent reference to Acton’s having accused her stepfather of raping her when she was 12, as he was subsequently charged with doing. The ad had met with widespread opprobrium, but Trump defended Ramaswamy. “The mother said that Amy Acton, the daughter, is a liar, that she is no good. … How the hell is that his problem?” To “O Canada, which has been ripping us off for years,” and Somalia, “which isn’t even a country,” and “transgender mutilization,” and his plan to rename the Strait of Hormuz for himself.

Finally, Trump ceded the stage to Husted and Ramaswamy. But by then, the lawn had emptied out as people drifted home, Jacob Hawk among them. A vendor was shouting out discount prices on his MAGA merchandise. “$10 special on hats! All the hats are $10! These are normally $25 hats. That’s a good hat for $10.”

The next day, the full Republican slate of statewide candidates appeared, sans Trump, at a small pep rally inside a former Delphi auto-parts factory in Vandalia, outside Dayton. It is an enormous building that employed more than 100 prior to its closing in 2009 and is now being used as a warehouse by a company that sells air conditioners, employing only 10 or so; Delphi announcements still remained on the bulletin boards, adding a ghostly feel.

The setting was an unintentional reminder of what Ohio has been through. Between 2000 and 2025, the state lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs, a devastation that had made it highly susceptible to Trump’s message in 2016. But Republicans have been in charge of the state since 2010, and so it was the task of the candidates gathered there, with an audience of just a few dozen, to cast the state as being on an upswing. Complicating this challenge is the fact that so much of the state’s recent growth has been concentrated in the Columbus area: countless data centers, defense contractor Anduril, a massive Intel plant under construction.

The bigger challenge, though, was the nationwide pall that hung over the event: the reality of stubbornly high inflation and high gas prices, the latter a direct consequence of Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran. He had stood against costly foreign entanglements when he ran in 2016, in opposition to his party’s recent record, and carried that same banner again in 2024. But another aspect of his political persona had prevailed: a heedless swagger that, in this case, had been fanned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It had led him into this drawn-out conflict that has already cost U.S. taxpayers more than $47 billion.

And it had left a long row of Republican candidates standing in this giant building stacked high with made-in-China air conditioners all but pleading the small assemblage to save them from the political climate. “You can’t give up,” Husted said. “This is a Republican state, and the only way Democrats can win is if Republicans don’t vote.”  

Five days later, I was in York County, Pennsylvania, which Trump had won by 25 points in 2024, and which was home to one of four Republican-held House districts targeted by Democrats. I chose to go to a precinct on the outskirts of York, thinking it would offer a diverse cross-section, in between more Democratic York proper and more Republican rural areas. But over 90 minutes of conversations, I didn’t encounter a Republican voter until I was about to call it a day.

The first person I spoke with, Bill, a 52-year-old state government employee who asked that I not use his last name for fear of losing his job, had voted for Trump three times. He hardly considered himself MAGA but was drawn in 2016 to Trump’s “drain the swamp” rhetoric and his disavowal of the war in Iraq. He voted for him again in 2020 and 2024 because he didn’t think much of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

But on this day, Bill was coming to vote against his Republican representative, Scott Perry, because he was too “Trump adjacent.” Bill had finally had enough of Trump, especially when it came to all the revelations of self-dealing involving his family and cronies. “I will not be falling for him again,” he told me. “Drain the swamp, no wars. … It was all a lie.”

He said he couldn’t understand how Trump had gone from America First to seemingly letting the country’s foreign policy be dictated by Israel. He said that he was voting for the Democrats mainly just for the sake of “gridlock,” as deliberate blockage. “Someone’s got to stop this,” he said. “It’s getting out of control.”

Each Democratic voter I spoke with after that was coming with their own motivation for voting against the Republican slate, like the cast of “Murder on the Orient Express.”

For Annie (who also asked that I not use her last name), it was for Trump’s social-welfare cuts, which had cost her and her disabled husband $300 per month in SNAP benefits and nearly cost them their Medicaid coverage.

For Desiree Edmonds, an elementary school teacher, it was high inflation, which was translating into anxiety among the working-class children in her classroom.

For Mark Castillo, a 19-year-old ironworker, it was for the sky-high cost of diesel.

For Jacqueline Jimenez, a native Puerto Rican who worked as a home-health aide, it was for the excessive harshness of ICE arrests.

For Shiri Kramer, a warehouse worker, it was for the general meanness emanating from the administration, which made her think of her grandfather, a Jewish American who had extended mercy to German POWs during World War II. “My grandfather would be writhing right now,” she said. “Nothing happening in our country is OK.” 

By night’s end, Republicans had lost this Pennsylvania district by 10 points, as well as the other three in the state and more than 40 nationwide. They had lost at least seven Senate seats, even in states where Democrats hadn’t prevailed in decades — Kansas, Texas, South Carolina. Incredibly, even Mississippi was on the verge. In Ohio, Republicans lost the race for Senate and governor — only one of the seven statewide candidates on stage at the warehouse emerged a victor — as well as two Republican-held House seats, a stark reversal in a state that had seemed to be trending away from Democrats for good. In all, Democrats flipped five governorships and up to 12 state legislative chambers. The Democratic popular-vote margin in congressional races nationwide was 13 percentage points — nearly double the Republican margin in their own wave years of 2010 and 1994, and approaching the scale of the historic Democratic rout in the post-Watergate election of 1974.

The particularly stunning loss of the South Carolina seat brought to mind a warning issued in May 2016 by Lindsey Graham, whose death this July left the seat vacant. “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it,” Graham tweeted in 2016. For years, the Republican Party had avoided the catastrophic reckoning he warned of — through Trump’s narrow win in 2016, through the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, through Biden’s fateful insistence on running for reelection at age 81 in 2024. Along the way, much of the party, including Graham himself, had accommodated itself to Trump. One way of looking at the 2026 results was that the warning had finally come true. The reckoning had been delayed by a decade, but it had gathered more force over time, like a boulder rolling downhill.

There was a hint of such a reckoning in the words that Bill, the three-time Trump voter, left me with in York. After he returned from voting, he bade me farewell with a parting regret.

“You see what’s going on,” he said, “and you’re like, ‘What the hell did I do?’”

The post On the Ground in the Final Days Before Trump’s Midterm Debacle appeared first on ProPublica.

Severe storms brought heavy rain across the border between Georgia and Tennessee on 4 November, flooding communities and forcing dozens of rescues

Here are three AI product drops you might’ve missed this week.

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 6, 2026 — Smartbird, Inc. has announced a collaboration with Supermicro to deliver dedicated, fully managed AI infrastructure tailored to enterprise workloads. Combining Supermicro’s broad portfolio of computing platforms and rack-scale solutions with Smartbird’s infrastructure capabilities, the collaboration aims to support customers with varying processor, capacity, performance, and deployment requirements, from targeted AI applications to large-scale computing environments.

The collaboration advances Smartbird’s strategy to build a network of leading technology partners, working to integrate proven technologies into purpose-built AI infrastructure solutions. Smartbird will draw on Supermicro’s expertise in high-performance computing and integrated infrastructure to design, deploy, and operate dedicated AI clusters optimized for each customer’s requirements. For Supermicro, the collaboration creates additional opportunities to bring its advanced computing technologies to enterprise customers through fully integrated, managed AI infrastructure solutions.

Bringing Enterprise AI to Production Scale

As enterprises move from AI experimentation to production, infrastructure requirements are becoming increasingly complex. Large-scale inference, model training, and agentic AI applications demand more than GPUs. They require integrated compute, storage, networking, power, cooling, and specialized operational expertise.

These requirements vary significantly across organizations and workloads. Different applications demand different processor architectures, computing capacities, and infrastructure configurations. For organizations in regulated industries, these demands are compounded by requirements for data security, infrastructure control, and sovereignty.

Smartbird addresses these challenges by delivering dedicated, sovereign-by-design AI infrastructure as a fully managed service. Through its collaboration with Supermicro, Smartbird can incorporate a broad range of computing technologies and rack-scale infrastructure solutions, enabling customers to select architectures suited to their workloads without building and operating the underlying infrastructure themselves.

The collaboration brings together complementary capabilities:

• Flexible, AI-optimized computing: Supermicro’s portfolio of GPU-accelerated and other processor platforms supports diverse AI workloads, including training, fine-tuning, and inference, with configurations matched to customer requirements.
• Scalable, integrated infrastructure: Supermicro’s rack-scale expertise enables coordinated compute, storage, networking, power, and cooling designs, supporting deployments of varying sizes and complexity.
• Fully managed, end-to-end delivery: Smartbird oversees infrastructure design, procurement, integration, deployment, and ongoing operations, providing customers with a single accountable partner.
• Sovereign-by-design infrastructure: Dedicated, single-tenant clusters deployed on-premises or in colocation environments support customer requirements for data isolation, security, and operational control.

Infrastructure Designed Around Customer Requirements

The collaboration is intended to support a broad range of enterprise AI infrastructure needs, from dedicated systems optimized for specific applications to large-scale, high-density computing environments.

“The challenge for enterprises isn’t simply acquiring compute. It’s bringing together the right technologies and operating them reliably at scale,” said Dr. Nadia Carlsten, president and CEO of Smartbird. “Our collaboration with Supermicro strengthens our ability to deliver complete AI infrastructure tailored to each customer’s workloads, regardless of the scale or computing architecture required. This is central to Smartbird’s strategy: combining the best technologies in the market with the expertise to deploy and operate them as a fully managed service.”

“Enterprises need secure, compliant AI infrastructure that delivers performance, flexibility, and scalability,” said Ray Pang, senior vice president, Technology Enablement, Supermicro. “Our collaboration with Smartbird combines Supermicro’s Data Center Building Block Solutions (DCBBS), application-optimized platforms, and rack-scale expertise with Smartbird’s managed infrastructure model, enabling enterprises to rapidly deploy and scale AI environments tailored to their specific needs.”

Launched in June 2026, Smartbird designs, builds, and operates dedicated AI infrastructure tailored to enterprise workloads. The collaboration with Supermicro expands Smartbird’s partner network and reinforces its commitment to delivering production-ready AI infrastructure through proven technologies and end-to-end managed operations.

Availability

To learn more about Smartbird’s enterprise AI infrastructure solutions, visit www.smartbird.ai. For more information about Supermicro, visit www.supermicro.com.

About Smartbird

Smartbird, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIRD) is an AI infrastructure company focused on making enterprise AI deployment simpler, more secure, and more cost-effective. Smartbird designs, deploys, and operates dedicated, fully managed AI infrastructure tailored to customers’ workloads and business requirements. With flexible deployment and ownership models, Smartbird enables enterprises, governments, and research organizations to run AI at production scale while maintaining control over their infrastructure, data, and costs.

Source: Smartbird

The post Smartbird Expands Enterprise AI Infrastructure Partner Network with Supermicro appeared first on HPCwire.

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

Elon Musk says Tesla will be "winding down" Cybertruck production at its Texas Gigafactory around mid-2027 to free up capacity for increased production of its Cybercab robotaxi. CNBC reports: The Cybertruck is exclusively produced at the company's plant in Texas alongside the Tesla Model Y and two-seat Cybercab, which Musk has touted as a crucial product for the automaker moving forward. Musk did not say whether the company would produce the Cybertruck at a different facility, but he later responded to a user on X who called the update an "end of an era" and said the Cybertruck was the "best vehicle Tesla has ever made." "True, but the Cybertruck fleet will be around for a long time," Musk said. The Cybertruck and its polarizing design gained a niche following, but it did not achieve mass-market sales, despite Musk's pre-launch prediction that annual sales would eventually total 250,000. "Trucks have been the same for a very long time," Musk said when the truck was unveiled in 2019. "Like 100 years. Trucks have been basically the same. We want to try something different." While Tesla does not break out its sales by model or region, Cox Automotive estimated sales of the Cybertruck last year at 20,237 units in the U.S., down 48% from 38,965 in 2024. Thank you Slashdot reader Dan Posluns for sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Concern over AI and misgivings about data center construction​ helped drive votes​ for change in the midterms — and fueled volatility on the stock market that experts say is likely to continue.

Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg stepped down Friday, Attorney General Todd Blanche announced.

After midterm wins, Democratics plan comeback for when new Congress is sworn in, including pushback against Trump and his policies

Donald Trump will be blocked from putting a “rightwinger” on the US supreme court, according to Chuck Schumer, the soon-to-be Senate majority leader, in remarks that were a preview of how Democrats intend to wield their power come January.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Schumer said Democrats would not confirm “any crappy nominees” to the supreme court, lower courts or Trump’s cabinet.

Media organisations in Ireland and UK also affected as apparently coordinated effort to cause chaos continues

A fresh wave of bomb threats disrupted air traffic across Europe on Friday but the affected aircraft landed safely and searches revealed no explosive devices.

The latest alerts affected at least 18 flights to or from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania and the UK.

The race for 2028 is already starting, and progressives are all asking one question: Who will take up the left’s mantle in the next presidential election? 

An obvious first choice for many self-described leftists, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has said she is seriously considering a run. Ocasio-Cortez laid the groundwork for a potential presidential bid rooted in economic populism and “fighting oligarchy” while campaigning alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for midterm candidates around the country this cycle. 

Democratic strategists, however, have pointed out it would be far easier for Ocasio-Cortez to run for Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer’s seat in 2028; and it’s even possible the 75-year-old presumptive majority leader will retire.

There isn’t a clear pick for another Democratic candidate with star power who could mount a truly progressive campaign — presenting the left with the threat of losing the momentum that fueled a democratic socialist wave during the primaries and animated campaigns across the ideological spectrum on Tuesday. 

That, said her former spokesperson Lauren Hitt, is not Ocasio-Cortez’s problem.

“I think the wrong reason to run would be because nobody else is running in the progressive lane,” said Hitt, who now advises progressive and moderate candidates. “She has made a lot of good investments in the midterms and in helping build up the progressive bench, but it was not her job to make sure we had another person to run.”

(Representatives for Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

So if Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t run from the left, who will?

The Field So Far

Candidates exploring potential presidential bids include a few newer faces alongside a very similar cast of moderates who campaigned for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 and 2020 primaries.

Names like New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and even the party’s former nominee Kamala Harris are making the rounds; Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., has also laid the groundwork for a run. The recently reelected Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has long been viewed as a potential contender, as has Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, though he said last month he’s not planning on a run.

None of them are people you would necessarily liken to someone like Ocasio-Cortez or the grandfather of the movement behind her, Sanders himself.

Related

Armed Israeli Settlers Detained Ro Khanna. He Wants Their Illegal Outposts Demolished.

Rep. Ro Khanna of California is so far the most “progressive” person openly considering a run. Khanna served as national co-chair of Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, and he’s long been a voice for an anti-interventionist foreign policy. He drew the ire of tech billionaires for supporting a wealth tax in California. 

Yet there’s a palpable skepticism around Khanna among leftists, even if they can’t quite put their finger on why. Some weren’t impressed when he defended his support for funding Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system after publicizing an arrest in the West Bank earlier this year. (Khanna later came out against funding the Iron Dome). And as a multimillionaire, he’s also drawn criticism from the right and the left for his personal wealth.

Like Ocasio-Cortez, Khanna has said he will back Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., for House Speaker despite pledges from other candidates to withhold their support for either Jeffries or Schumer, both moderates, for leadership positions next session. 

Leveraging Economic Populism

It’s still incredibly early, but there’s one unifying theme emerging from Tuesday’s results for whichever candidate decides to try to court the progressive vote.

“All I know is that the populist lane is wide open for someone to seize it,” said Ravi Mangla, the spokesperson for the Working Families Party. 

Related

Abdul El-Sayed Won His Senate Seat With a Mandate on Palestine. Can He Deliver?

Victories over the past two years, from Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York City to the clutch of democratic socialists and progressives heading to Congress in January, show that Democrats can marshal discontent with Donald Trump and the far right to elect candidates running on progressive policies.

”Voters were very clear: People are very, very angry,” said Greg Krieg, a progressive Democratic strategist who works with Slingshot Strategies and is the spokesperson for the pro-Palestine super PAC American Priorities. “There is a focus on economic populism that transcends the ideological splits in the party.”

With the rising cost of living, and candidates tapping into that populism, the question for progressives is how to best wield the blue version of economic populism against the right-wing version that powered Trump’s rise. 

“Right-wing populism didn’t really defeat left-wing populism, it just ran against a kind of corporate slop for many years,” Krieg said. 

This era’s new “kitchen table” issues are a constellation of economic woes that voters are increasingly connecting to the forces concentrating wealth and political power in the hands of the few. Democrats should respond to that by fighting, visibly, against the things that take money out of people’s pockets, corruption and price-gouging among them, Krieg said. 

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Lesson From Lansing: To Win in Swing Districts, Fight Data Centers

“I think that the American people, if they are presented a choice of right-wing populism and left-wing populism, will opt for the left-wing populism,” Krieg said. “And I think that’s quadruply true now that we’ve done the right-wing populism experiment and it’s been such a fiasco — so let’s give them that option.” 

The factors influencing how Democrats approach 2028 are taking shape now. They include the debate over who will lead the party in the House and Senate, though any effort to stop Schumer or Jeffries from leading roles would face long odds. And how Democrats fare in the next presidential race will depend in large part on what they do with their control of Congress during the last two years of Trump’s final term in office.

DSA Endorsement?

Then there is the group that helped power the rise of Ocasio-Cortez, Mamdani, the next mayors of Washington and Los Angeles, and the largest incoming bloc of socialist members of Congress in history: the Democratic Socialists of America.

Any candidate that gets buy-in from DSA will have to support policies like Medicare for All, taxing the rich, a Green New Deal, and an embargo on U.S. arms to Israel. DSA, which endorsed both Sanders’s 2016 and 2020 primary bids, is running a presidential exploratory committee that will eventually vote to endorse a candidate after collecting input from its members. 

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There’s a New Democratic Machine. It’s Unabashedly Socialist.

DSA passed a resolution to explore a 2028 endorsement at its national convention last year. And there isn’t necessarily a consensus among its members — more than 125,000 people across 130 chapters in 43 states — on whether or not they want to see Ocasio-Cortez run, said Ella Teevan, who chairs the group’s presidential exploratory group and sits on its National Political Committee.

“The Bernie case feels just a little bit different because I think the membership was a little bit more united around Bernie, although by no means unanimously,” Teevan said. “If and when we do consider an AOC endorsement, hers will be a little bit more contentious. But like I said, that’s the beauty of DSA.”

Though Ocasio-Cortez is no shoo-in, DSA members haven’t coalesced around any other candidate — and it’s not clear they will. 

“I know that there are other quote-unquote progressives who might be considering a presidential run in 2028, but I think it’s really clear for us that they need to support DSA’s core demands that most people in the United States support,” Teevan said. 

“If a candidate were to come along who supported those policies, I think a considerable portion of membership would think about whether we should endorse them,” she said. “But yeah, I don’t think that there’s a natural other person with name recognition in the field that, at least, I can think of right now.”

And there may yet be candidates who enter the race who aren’t yet on the radar, said Hitt, Ocasio-Cortez’s former spokesperson: “It’s totally possible there’s a progressive champion who could fill that lane that we aren’t even thinking of yet.”

The post Is There a Left Candidate for President? appeared first on The Intercept.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the electric car maker will halt production of its Cybertruck next year and prioritize self-driving taxis.

Democrats won sizable House and Senate majorities in the 2026 midterm elections, but the exact margins are unclear because some races haven't been projected yet. Here's where the results stand.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq edged up in early trading after a Thursday rout driven by concerns about a potential slowdown in data center construction.

Jason Reding Quiñones, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, abruptly resigned, marking another high-profile departure from a DOJ inquiry plagued by internal disputes.

It was reported in October that Meghan's estranged father, Thomas Markle, was under investigation by authorities in the Philippines for alleged possession of child sexual abuse materials.

A look at the features for this week's broadcast of the Emmy-winning program, hosted by Jane Pauley.

Global tech stocks have plunged after the Democrats’ victory in the US midterm elections, with fears of a slowdown in AI development. Major tech corporations including Apple, Tesla and Nvidia shed about $1tn in a single trading session. Is this stock market jitters, or a sign the AI bubble might be about to burst? Lucy Hough speaks to senior economics correspondent Richard Partington

Vogue asked on Instagram whether followers knew the Iowa governor-elect once modeled for Prada. A verified account for Sand, who was previously elected to the Iowa state auditor's office, replied affirmatively in the comments.

Nevada Pierre drew national media attention last month when organizers at a youth soccer game called 911 and body camera footage from the incident went viral.

Britain plans to require employers to disclose salaries in job advertisements. "Whether you're a young person starting out or a parent trying to support your family, you should know what a job pays before spending your time and effort applying for it," Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in a statement. Reuters reports: The government said requiring companies to disclose pay in job ads would help young people applying for their first jobs, while boosting pay transparency and helping tackle disparities that can disadvantage women. Just over two in five employers always publish salary ranges, while fewer than one in five always disclose specific salaries, Burnham's office said, citing estimates from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. The government will soon introduce legislation to parliament making salary disclosures mandatory, Burnham's office said, although it did not provide a timeline. Nearly one million, or 13%, of 16 to 24 year-olds in Britain are not in employment, education or training, one of the highest shares in Europe. A government review into youth inactivity is due to be published later in November.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lisa Nandy calls for whistleblowers to be protected and highlights bravery of women who came forward in case

Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has warned that Russell Brand’s conviction for rape and sexual assault must be a “wake-up call” to the media world and beyond, after widespread concerns over the failures to confront his behaviour.

With renewed calls from TV insiders for a new examination of how Brand’s treatment of women was tolerated for so long, Nandy said the case was a “defining moment for our country”.

Prime minister says ‘root and branch review of childhood’ needed and does not rule out cutting some benefits

The government is aiming for “quite radical change” in the way young people are supported, Andy Burnham has said, indicating this could include tougher rules for benefits as well as notably more help with everything from finding work to mental health.

In media interviews before the release of the second report by the former minister Alan Milburn on reducing the numbers of young people not in work, education or training, Burnham said his mission was “rethinking childhood” from the early years onwards.

European and Asia-Pacific markets slide after Wall Street rout, while latest US jobs report beats forecasts

Despite the sharp losses suffered on global stock markets around the world, most indices are still up for the year.

The Nasdaq Composite index, for example, is still up 4.6% since the start of January – even though it’s more than 10% below its peak.

“The tech sell-off has intensified, with the pain of the brutal sell-off on Wall Street carried straight through to Asia and knocking sentiment in Europe.

Big worries are colliding – the build-out of data centres looks set to slow, which risks shredding the spending spree underpinning the boom, right at the time that investors have become super nervous about returns on this massive investment.

The Hollywood icon was seen in the two-piece Hinchman Indianapolis racing suit in the 1971 film about the famous endurance race.

(Heritage Auctions via SWNS)

London’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said police were investigating “two more rape allegations” against the actor and comedian.

Plus, score the newest Fire streaming stick and a solid pair of Anker earbuds for $25 each.

Freshways lowers price paid to producers by 7p a litre, prompting warnings confidence in the sector is ‘at rock bottom’

“Milk is leaving the farm at a loss,” says dairy farmer Ian Harvey, as he warns confidence in the sector is “at rock bottom”.

Most of the UK’s dairy producers were already being paid less for their milk than it costs to produce it after a year of volatile farmgate milk prices, combined with the impact of the summer’s drought and soaring costs of vital fuel and fertiliser triggered by the conflict in Iran.

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

A Romanian airline Tarom flight from Prague to Bucharest is the latest believed to be affected by today’s bomb threats.

The aircraft, operating flight number ROT226M, sent a squawk code of 7700 – general emergency – before landing safely in Bucharest. The threat was later confirmed to be unproven.

The curious critter was discovered with a nasty injury after getting a little too adventurous during an ill-advised fishing trip.

The first two parts looked at where the US and China stand and what the AI race is a contest over. This installment turns to fronts that get less attention and matter just as much: What comes after the chatbot era, the security risk that rides along with every supply chain, and the engineering answers to the water, noise, and land objections behind so much of the backlash against data centers.

Robotics and Physical AI

The public debate stays fixed on chatbots and benchmark leaderboards, while many capable people are already building the next thing: physical AI. At CES in January, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the ChatGPT moment for robotics is here, meaning the point where machines that perceive, reason, and act in the physical world move from research demo to product category. Humanoid robots are shipping in limited production. Autonomous vehicle stacks are trained end to end, from raw camera input to steering and braking. Manufacturing plants are being redesigned as, in the industry’s phrase, gigantic robots, with AI optimizing scheduling, quality control, and predictive maintenance across a whole facility.

Who wins the physical AI and robotics race may matte as much as who builds the biggest supercomputers (metamorworks/Shutterstock)

This wave runs on a different kind of chip than the one dominating headlines. Frontier training wants the largest, most power-hungry accelerators available, clustered by the tens of thousands. Physical AI wants the opposite: small, low-power, low-latency chips that run inference locally, because a robot cannot wait half a second on a round trip to a distant data center to decide whether to stop. Whoever builds the best inexpensive, efficient, mass-producible edge-inference chip may matter as much to national competitiveness over the next decade as whoever owns the fastest training supercomputer today. That makes physical AI a second front running in parallel to the frontier-model race, and no single leaderboard settles it.

Cybersecurity and the Supply Chain

Part of this competition has nothing to do with who trains the larger model or builds the faster chip. Western intelligence assessments and US government reports have documented a long pattern of state-linked intellectual property theft and data exfiltration targeting research and corporate data. AI raises the stakes, because training data, model weights, and chip designs are now among the most valuable intellectual property in the world.

The practical implication is that hardware provenance matters. A chip, board, or piece of networking equipment sourced through a compromised supply chain gives an adversary a foothold. That is a case for treating supply-chain security as a first-order engineering requirement for critical AI infrastructure, on the same level as power availability and cooling capacity, and for designing it in from the start. Nations and companies that build that discipline early will hold a durable advantage that has nothing to do with chip speed. The same applies to data. A model is only as trustworthy as what it was trained on, and that favors the narrow, verified, domain-specific systems described in Part 2.

The Hearing Room Argument

This brings us back to the hearing rooms where residents raise noise, water, and land. Their concerns are legitimate, and recent incidents explain the anger.

Opposition to data centers is growing across the U.S. (AI generated/Shutterstock)

On September 11, a fuel tank at an Equinix data center in Secaucus, New Jersey, leaked more than 5,000 gallons of diesel, some of it into Anderson Creek; state officials said it did not reach the Hackensack River, and the mayor attributed it to a computer glitch. In May, reporting revealed that a QTS facility in Fayette County, Georgia, had run more than 29 million gallons of water through connections that were not being billed, while nearby residents had complained of low water pressure. The county back-billed the company about $147,000 and described it as a metering problem, and no causal link to the pressure complaints has been established.

Dismissing those concerns as uninformed is wrong and counterproductive. The local benefits can be large too. Loudoun County, Virginia, which says it has the highest concentration of data centers in the world, about 233 buildings for some 450,000 residents, or one for every 2,000 people, now draws 38 percent of its general-fund revenue from them and has cut its property-tax rate every year for a decade, from $1.145 to $0.805 per $100 of assessed value. In Quincy, Washington, data-center tax base made a new high school and hospital affordable. Most of the residents’ concerns also have engineering answers already in commercial use.

The Water Question

The image behind much of the alarm is the traditional evaporative cooling tower. Nvidia puts conventional cooling-tower water use at roughly 2.6 million gallons per megawatt per year, a significant amount at data-center scale. It is no longer the only option, and the right choice depends on how much heat each rack produces. Cooling works like a ladder. Air alone handles ordinary racks: the Uptime Institute puts the typical enterprise rack at about 11 kilowatts and considers air impractical above roughly 50. Rear-door heat exchangers, water-cooled radiators mounted on the back of the cabinet, stretch air cooling further, with standard units rated around 50 kilowatts and the newest up to 120. Past that, water goes into the rack itself, then directly to the chip through cold plates mounted on each GPU or CPU, and at the top of the ladder to immersion, with servers sitting in a bath of dielectric fluid.

The liquid-cooling system of LLNL’s exascale supercomputer El Capitan (Graphic: Dan Herchek/LLNL)

We watched this climb from inside a production supercomputing center. In the Sandy Bridge era, our dense blade racks ran hot enough to bake CPUs off their motherboards, and we had to step back from blades altogether. Without water cooling, we could not reach the density those racks would otherwise have allowed, and going past about 65 kilowatts meant liquid. Air and rear-door cooling have come a long way since then, but AI racks sit at the top of the ladder by design. An Nvidia GB200 NVL72 rack draws about 120 kilowatts and a GB300 up to about 142. Nvidia’s Vera Rubin racks, in production since June, are reported at 190 to 230 kilowatts, and its Kyber design planned for 2027 at roughly 600. A full rack of current AI accelerators produces more heat than air can carry away, so liquid to the rack or to the chip is the starting point.

That liquid runs in a sealed loop and is not consumed. A coolant distribution unit passes the heat from the rack’s loop to the building’s water loop, which carries it outdoors to dry coolers, chillers, or cooling towers, and only cooling towers evaporate water. When the heat leaves through dry coolers, evaporative water use can fall to a small fraction of a cooling-tower design, at some cost in energy on the hottest days.

These designs are in service today at gigawatt scale in the United States. Some data centers still use a great deal of water. The better framing is that the technology to build with a small fraction of the water older facilities needed is commercially available and should be the baseline expectation for any new large build.

The Noise Question

What neighbors hear comes mostly from outside the building. Server and air-handler fans are loud inside, but walls contain much of that. Outside sit chillers and their compressors, dry coolers and cooling-tower fans, transformers whose steady low-frequency hum carries farther than higher-pitched sound, ventilation louvers on switchgear rooms, and the loudest source of all, diesel backup generators during their weekly tests. Loudoun County caps noise at 55 dBA at residential property lines and is drafting rules for low-frequency noise. Liquid cooling helps on both sides of the wall. Inside, water carries the heat, so far fewer fans are needed.

xAI’s new Colussus 2 data center in Memphis will house 1 billion GPUs (Image courtesy SELC)

Outside, warm-water loops can reject heat through dry coolers without chiller compressors for much of the year, and the fans that remain can run slower. Add enclosures and sound walls around transformers and generators, low-noise fans, equipment placed away from property lines, and daytime generator testing, and a facility designed for quiet from the start is far quieter than one built around legacy air handling.

The Land and Siting Question

Siting is the third answer. Below-grade and berm-integrated construction, building into a hillside or underground, has clear advantages. The surrounding earth acts as passive thermal insulation and lowers cooling load before any mechanical system runs. It cuts visual footprint and surface noise. And it lets the land above and around the facility stay in productive or natural use. West Virginia’s mine-land geography is a strong candidate for this approach: land already disturbed by industry, often already connected to grid and rail, and well suited to below-grade construction in a way flat greenfield sites are not.

The Bottom Line On the Environmental Case

The residents raising these objections are right that data centers as historically built carry environmental costs. The costs follow from design choices in cooling architecture, siting, and grid integration, and the industry is already changing them. Public policy and public pressure that push the change faster support the buildout, because they make it sustainable enough to carry through the larger competition this series describes.

Part 4 turns to power, the input none of this works without, and the gap between how fast the US and China are building nuclear capacity to supply it.

About the Author: Larry Patterson works where high-performance computing, AI, and energy meet. A former Navy reactor operator aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65), he founded and led Gulfstream Aerospace’s Scientific Research and Innovation SuperComputing Center from 2005 to 2020, where power, cooling, and cloud strategy were daily decisions. He has   worked with the nuclear division of Continuum Dynamics. He is founder and CEO of HEAT Holdings, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business developing patent-pending ways to finance nuclear power and AI compute together, with every source of data behind each deal rated for quality.

Related Item:

The Race We’re Actually Running, Part 1: Twenty Years, Traded Places

The Race We’re Actually Running, Part 2: Good Enough at a Fraction of the Price

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views of HPCwire.

The post The Race We’re Actually Running, Part 3: Beyond the Chatbot appeared first on HPCwire.

There are more than 100,000 words and phrases that the tech giant has restricted its predictive text from completing, research shows

“Australia is a very bad place to question your sexuality on MDMA with NSA spies” might be a text you would wish to send to your friends, if you have had an extraordinarily complicated night out in Sydney.

But your iPhone won’t help you spell any of it if you try to swipe-type it – that is, by gliding a finger across a keyboard as opposed to pecking out a word.

The tiny bird’s adventure ended when a passing motorist spotted her hopping down into a roadside drain.

Luna the budgie.

After Thursday’s share price plunge on Wall Street, could the volatility be the start of a huge market meltdown?

Global financial markets have been thrown into a tailspin as investors bet on an AI slowdown after the US midterm elections.

This is not the first time stock markets have wobbled in recent months due to concerns over a tech bubble. But could this volatility be the start of a huge market meltdown?

Settling your debt can offer financial relief, but it may also create unexpected tax obligations.

Nov. 6, 2026 — The National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) are delighted to announce the winners of the 2026 STFC Cross Cluster Proof of Concept: SparQ Quantum Computing call, delivered in partnership with the NQCC’s SparQ program, with funding awarded to 13 projects exploring how quantum computing can address real-world challenges across the UK’s public, private and charitable sectors.

What Is NQCC’s SparQ POC call?

The NQCC’s SparQ Proof of Concept (POC) call supports industry-led, collaborative R&D projects that bring together end-user organizations and quantum technology providers to explore, develop and demonstrate practical applications of quantum computing. Through NQCC-funded grants, supported by industry match funding, the call enables organizations to investigate relevant use cases, undertake application discovery and assess the potential value of quantum computing in addressing real-world challenges.

Delivered through the NQCC’s SparQ program, projects can access support including Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS) and specialist application engineering expertise, where requested, to help develop and test applications, build organizational capability and progress towards a quantum-ready environment.

By combining targeted funding, industry collaboration and access to quantum computing resources and application engineering expertise, the POC call aims to accelerate early adoption, inform business planning and position UK organizations to realize the future economic and societal benefits of quantum computing.

SparQ POC and POC+ Calls

For 2026, two tracks were introduced:

POC (standard three-month program) and POC+ (new six-month option, designed to build on early-stage Proof-of-Concept projects). The SparQ POC+ projects have evolved to better accommodate applicants’ growing ambition to explore the possibilities of quantum computing in greater depth. The POC+ projects will allow participants to take a deeper dive – exploring scalability, tailoring previous solutions using real-world data and gaining a better understanding of practical applications alongside end-users.

Winners of the 2026 POC and POC+ calls

• POC Project 1: QuIP’D (Quantum-Inspired Plasma Dynamics)
  Project Lead: Aegiq
  Sector: Science and Engineering
• POC Project 2: Quantum-Enhanced Capital Allocation and Risk Management for Banks
  Project Lead: Applied Quantum Computing
  Sector: Financial
• POC Project 3: Benchmarking Hybrid Classical-Quantum Machine Learning for Antigen Processing and HLA Binding Prediction in Neoantigen Vaccine Design
  Project Lead: Curenetics
  Sector: Healthcare
• POC Project 4: Quantum-enhanced standby crew allocation for resilient airline operations
  Project Lead: IonQ (previously, Oxford Ionics)
  Sector: Transport/Logistics
• POC Project 5: Photonic Quantum Computing for Resilient Routing in Optical Networks
  Project Lead: ORCA Computing
  Sector: Telecoms
• POC Project 6: Resource estimation of Quantum Monte Carlo for VaR calculations
  Project Lead: Oxford Quantum Circuits
  Sector: Financial
• POC Project 7: Qorrosion POC
  Project Lead: PsiQuantum
  Sector: Infrastructure Maintenance
• POC Project 8: Scaling Quantum-Enhanced Optimisation for Energy Grid Resilience
  Project Lead: Qoro
  Sector: Energy Trading
• POC+ Project 1: Quantum-Accelerated Integrated Logistics: Routing, Consolidation and Loading
  Project Lead: 4 Colors
  Sector: Transport/Logistics
• POC+ Project 2: Arriving at Quantum Advantage for Analysing High Throughput Experimental Diffraction Data
  Project Lead: Finden
  Sector: Cross-sectorial
• POC+ Project 3: Scalable Wind Farm Optimisation through Hybrid Quantum Computing
  Project Lead: Fraser Nash
  Sector: Renewables
• POC+ Project 4: Harnessing Quantum-Enabled Calculations for Single-Atom Catalysis
  Project Lead: Q-CTRL
  Sector: Clean Energy
• POC+ Project 5: QResolve: Quantum Optimisation for Difficult Genomic Assembly Graphs in Regulatory Genomics
  Project Lead: Quantum Genomics
  Sector: Healthcare

Source: NQCC

The post NQCC and STFC Select 13 Projects for UK Quantum Computing Grants appeared first on HPCwire.

Researchers found that with training, volunteer dog-handler teams could locate invasive species in the wild with 75% accuracy.

A volunteer with her detection dog in training is starting a practical test in the search for Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera).

Delmarva Power photo.

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI — The unresolved Mississippi Senate race has turned into a legal and procedural fight over thousands of affidavit ballots that could determine whether Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith keeps her seat or Democrat Scott Colom pulls off a historic upset.

As of Friday, Colom held a razor-thin lead of roughly 49.0% to Hyde-Smith’s 48.8%, with 12,000 to 20,000 affidavit ballots still awaiting eligibility review, according to Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson.

Hyde-Smith’s attorneys have asked election officials in all 82 counties to preserve and separately handle those ballots while challenges are considered. Colom’s campaign argues that request is not authorized by state law and could result in inconsistent treatment from county to county.

Affidavit ballots are cast when a voter’s eligibility cannot immediately be confirmed and require additional verification before they are counted. They are not automatically invalid.

The stakes are unusually high. Mississippi does not provide an automatic recount for statewide races, though candidates can challenge ballots in court. Counties must certify their results by Nov. 13.

The Associated Press has not called the contest. If elected, Colom would become Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction-era Republican Blanche Bruce left office in 1881.

With Democrats already controlling the Senate, the Mississippi result could further expand their majority.

Sources:

• The Hill – MBFC Rating

The post Mississippi Senate Fight Intensifies as GOP Seeks Special Handling of Affidavit Ballots appeared first on News Facts Network.

Historians and political scientists say that framing the wins as ‘Ohio’s working class has come home’ is too simple

At its peak, the Mahoning valley was once the beating heart of the US’s steel economy – a hardscrabble, heavily unionized Democratic bastion in north-eastern Ohio. But de-industrialization, sparked by the mass closure of steel mills in the late 1970s, transformed the region.

Tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs disappeared. Populations declined. And support for Democrats slowly, but surely, faded. In 2020, Mahoning county voted for its first Republican presidential candidate – Donald Trump – in a generation.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Sony has brought back the MDR-3-series headphones that debuted in 1979 alongside the Walkman TPS-L2 cassette player. [...] The new MDR-3R (originally called the "MDR-3L2") headphones look just like the originals and come with orange and blue ear cushions. New headphones are often wireless these days, but the MDR-3R continues the wired tradition of the MDR-3, with an essential twist: a USB-C connector. For better or worse, the new headphones also use "the same 23 mm driver units as the MDR-3 to reproduce sound quality close to the original," per Sony. Audiophiles will prefer something more advanced, perhaps with additional acoustic features. In addition to the USB-C connector, the MDR-3R also adds an in-line remote control and an integrated microphone. They are available for $60.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tech critics say that real change will depend on newly elected officials keeping their campaign promises.

Cash and Target gift cards collected through Dec. 7 will help local children shop for gifts, clothing and other necessities

DOVER, Del. — The Dover Police Department is asking residents and businesses to help make the holidays brighter for local children by supporting its 14th annual Holiday Heroes program.

The department is accepting cash and Target gift cards through Monday, Dec. 7, for the annual shopping event, which pairs Dover police officers and department staff with children selected with the help of Capital School District teachers and counselors.

The children are taken on a shopping trip to the Dover Target, where they can choose gifts for family members and themselves while also purchasing everyday necessities such as winter coats, shoes and hygiene products.

The amount raised will help determine how many children are able to participate.

Community support drives program

Holiday Heroes is supported by donations from residents, local businesses and Target, a longtime partner in the program.

The goal is to give children from families facing financial challenges an opportunity to enjoy the experience of holiday shopping while also helping meet practical needs.

Dover Police said the program has become an annual tradition connecting officers and department employees with children and families in the community.

Donation rules changed this year

People who have donated by check in previous years should note that updated purchasing policies mean the department can accept only cash or Target gift cards for the 2026 program.

Target eGiftCards also may be purchased online and emailed directly to the department.

TO GO

• What: Dover Police Department’s 14th annual Holiday Heroes program
• Deadline: Monday, Dec. 7, 2026
• Donate in person: Cash or Target gift cards may be dropped off at the Dover Police Department, 400 S. Queen St., Dover. Identify the donation as a Holiday Heroes contribution.
• Donate by mail: Send Target gift cards to Dover Police Department, Attn: Holiday Heroes, 400 S. Queen St., Dover, DE 19904. Mailed donations should arrive by Dec. 7.
• Donate electronically: Purchase a Target eGiftCard at Target.com and have it delivered to contact@doverpolice.org.
• Accepted donations: Cash and Target gift cards only.
• Learn more: doverpolice.org/holidayheroes

The 10-day general firearm deer season runs Friday, Nov. 11 through Sunday, Nov. 22, and typically accounts for about 40% of Delaware’s annual deer harvest, according to the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Image created on 11/6 using AI.

Hunters in parts of Sussex County face mandatory check stations as state responds to first confirmed cases of chronic wasting disease

DOVER, Del. — Delaware’s most popular deer hunting season opens Friday, Nov. 13, but this year hunters will head into the woods under new rules designed to contain chronic wasting disease after the fatal wildlife disease was detected in the state for the first time.

The 10-day general firearm deer season runs through Sunday, Nov. 22, and typically accounts for about 40% of Delaware’s annual deer harvest, according to the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

The biggest change affects hunters in Wildlife Management Zones 11, 14 and 16 in Sussex County, which DNREC has designated as Delaware’s Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zone.

Any deer harvested in those zones during the general firearm season must be brought to a DNREC check station, where wildlife officials will collect samples for CWD testing.

Delaware has confirmed three cases of chronic wasting disease in wild white-tailed deer this year. The first, announced in April, was also the first confirmed case on the Delmarva Peninsula. A third case announced in September prompted DNREC to expand its management zone to include Wildlife Management Zone 11.

Why CWD matters

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disease affecting deer, elk, moose and other members of the deer family.

It is caused by abnormal proteins known as prions that can spread through saliva, blood, urine, feces and contaminated soil, food or water. There is no treatment or vaccine, and infected deer ultimately die from the disease.

No transmission of CWD to humans has been documented. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that hunters in areas where CWD is present have deer tested before eating the meat and not consume meat from animals that test positive.

Delaware had tested deer for CWD for more than two decades before detecting its first case this year. DNREC says it has tested nearly 13,000 samples since surveillance began in 2003.

Mandatory check stations

Hunters who take deer in Wildlife Management Zones 11, 14 or 16 during the Nov. 13-22 firearm season must report to one of three check stations:

• Delaware Solid Waste Authority Jones Crossroads Landfill, 28560 Landfill Lane, Georgetown
• Gumboro Community Center, 36849 Millsboro Highway, Millsboro

Redden State Forest Jester Tract parking lot, Redden Road, Kings Crossroads

The stations will operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day of the firearm season.

Hunters should bring their deer registration information, including the new QR code generated during registration. Hunters without the QR code can still have their deer sampled.

Deer harvested outside the management zone may also be voluntarily submitted for testing. Hunters can drop deer heads at designated Delaware Hunters Against Hunger locations, and DNREC staff also plan to collect samples at selected deer processors in Middletown, Camden and Milton.

Movement and bait restrictions

DNREC has also imposed restrictions intended to reduce opportunities for CWD to spread.

Baiting and feeding deer are prohibited within the management zone, and natural urine-based deer attractants are prohibited statewide. Hunters moving deer harvested inside the management zone to other parts of Delaware also face special transportation and disposal requirements.

DNREC adopted emergency regulations after the first CWD cases were discovered and expanded the management area following the third confirmed case in September.

Other hunting rules changed this year

CWD is not the only change hunters will notice during the 2026-27 season.

Delaware expanded Sunday hunting to all game species, broadened the types of straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles and muzzleloaders that can be used and eliminated the minimum-age requirement for DNREC special youth hunts.

State law also now allows 16- and 17-year-olds who have completed basic hunter education to hunt and practice shooting without direct adult supervision if they have permission from a parent or guardian.

DNREC has published an addendum to its 2026-27 Hunting and Trapping Guide outlining the CWD rules and other regulatory changes.

Hunters part of the response

Wildlife officials say the concentrated firearm season gives Delaware an opportunity to collect a large number of samples in a short period and better determine how widely the disease has spread.

DNREC Wildlife Section Administrator Joe Rogerson said information gathered during the season will help officials assess the disease’s distribution and prevalence and shape Delaware’s approach for the 2027-28 hunting season.

That makes this year’s deer harvest about more than recreation.

Thousands of hunters heading into Delaware’s woods this month will also provide wildlife managers with information that could influence how the state manages its deer population for years to come.

To Go

• What: Delaware general firearm deer season
• When: Friday, Nov. 13, through Sunday, Nov. 22
• CWD requirement: Deer harvested in Wildlife Management Zones 11, 14 and 16 must be brought to a DNREC check station during the firearm season.
• Check station hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily
• Learn more: DNREC’s Chronic Wasting Disease page and the 2026-27 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide contain regulations, maps, testing information and updates.

Borrowers are taking different approaches to tackling debt right now, but some strategies may have big trade-offs.

Multiple arrests, emergency services targeted and police van set alight while disorder also erupts in north-east England

A police chief has condemned the “unacceptable and terrifying” Bonfire Night disorder that resulted in seven arrests, a police van being torched and an officer and a paramedic being injured in Scotland.

Ch Supt David Robertson of Police Scotland said there had been significant reduction in problems overall, compared with 2025, after the force deployed its largest number of officers since Donald Trump’s visit last year.

The celebrated actress' latest book – conversations with friend and fellow actor Brendan O'Hea – revisits an extraordinary career and a remarkable life, from Shakespeare to Bond.

After two titles won as the lowest seed in the playoffs, the New Jersey club sought consistency in 2026. It’s arrived, but what’s next?

By the time Gotham FC had won their second NWSL Championship in three seasons, Yael Averbuch West had already determined what was going to change.

Some of that is the nature of her job; the general manager of a perennial contender can’t rest on laurels. Before every postseason, Gotham finalize tough looming personnel decisions, assessing the roster and staff alike with clear eyes.

Regulator’s initial ruling says algorithm ‘can be harmful’ and led young and vulnerable viewers ‘down rabbit holes they can’t easily escape’

TikTok has been charged by the European Commission with failing to protect users’ mental health by exposing them to a relentless stream of content that risks worsening eating disorders and anxiety in a case that strikes at its business model.

Issuing a preliminary ruling on Friday, the EU regulator said TikTok’s algorithm “can be harmful” and was leading young and vulnerable users “down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from”.

By: Sara Ademi and Elizabeth N. Saunders

In part II, we take a closer look at two other subfields: international relations and comparative politics.

The post Chalkboard Politics: What do political scientists actually do, continued? �� appeared first on Good Authority.

Paul Mackenzie convicted over deaths of children and one adult after followers were ordered to starve themselves and their families

The leader of a Kenyan doomsday sect has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for the murders of 190 children and one adult in one of the world’s worst cult disasters in recent history.

The sentence, comprising 100 years for murder by starvation and 100 years by direct homicide, came two weeks after the court in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa found the cult leader guilty of the crimes.

Jay Rockefeller, who served as West Virginia governor and senator and was the last member of his family's political dynasty, has died at the age of 89.

From Polaroid cameras to skincare, loungewear to gaming accessories, here are the presents teenage boys and girls told us they rate for 2026

• Homemade Christmas gifts anyone can make

Because there is no doubt your teen thinks they know better than you, we took them at their word and asked what they think makes the perfect gift for Christmas (or other religious festival they celebrate).

To ensure the selection was truly tried and tested, we asked them only about presents they have already received, love and use constantly. We also made sure to ask a broad range of teens – from book lovers to tech fiends and plenty in between – to try to represent the myriad tastes of this age group.

Jonathan Freedland hosts a live panel to look at what happens next – for Donald Trump, the Republicans who might want to succeed him, and for Democrats looking ahead to 2028. He is joined by the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, David Smith; Tara Setmayer, a co-founder and CEO of the Seneca project; the Guardian’s global editor, Devika Bhat; Adam Smith, a professor of US politics and political history at the University of Oxford; and the clinical psychologist, author and political commentator Mary Trump

With the master Apple Intelligence toggle gone, opting out in iOS 27 means turning off Siri AI, Writing Tools, Image Playground and other features separately.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 6, 2026 — Kihan, a new technology company developing Constitutional Computing, has announced its formation and the introduction of a mathematically based architecture designed to make artificial intelligence governance enforceable at the point of execution. Constitutional Computing is designed to prevent unauthorized AI agent actions before they can affect enterprise systems.

As AI agents move beyond answering questions to independently executing transactions, modifying production systems and accessing sensitive corporate information, a serious security problem is emerging. Research published by the Cloud Security Alliance in April 2026 found that 53% of surveyed organizations reported AI agents exceeding their intended permissions, while 47% experienced an AI-agent security incident in the preceding year.

Kihan was founded to address this critical problem at its source: the difference between an AI agent’s ability to perform an action and its actual authority to do so. Constitutional Computing takes its name from governance, not model training: authority is written down, signed and enforced outside the AI.

Unlike conventional AI guardrails, which frequently rely on instructions to the model, Kihan’s Constitutional Computing architecture establishes an independent authorization system outside the AI itself. Each consequential action is evaluated against governing authority before execution, with a cryptographically verifiable permit bound to the specific operation and its parameters. The executing tool verifies that permit before acting. On protected execution paths, no valid permit means no execution.

The architecture combines independent authority checks, execution permits bound to exact operations, and tool-side verification, with tamper-evident records of what was authorized, refused or referred for human approval.

“AI agents are becoming extraordinarily capable, but no system, however capable, should be trusted to enforce its own limits,” said Jonathan Hirshon, co-founder and CEO of Kihan. “A system that can transfer $50 million, modify a production database or release confidential information shouldn’t be allowed to do so simply because it has access to the necessary tools. Telling an AI to behave itself isn’t security. Authorization has to be independent of the AI, verifiable and enforceable before anything consequential happens. That’s why we founded Kihan. I’m privileged to work alongside a team with extraordinary experience building critical infrastructure at scale. Together, we have the expertise to deliver these safeguards at a pivotal moment for AI.”

The research underlying Kihan’s architecture has been accepted for publication as a two-part feature in IEEE Computer, the flagship publication of the IEEE Computer Society. The first article, “Checking LLM Outputs Before They Become State: The Problem and the Admission Gate,” is scheduled for the magazine’s December 2026 special issue on AI Governance, followed in January 2027 by “Checking LLM Outputs Before They Become State: Prompt Framing Across Four Models.”

Kihan’s first product, Inktomi, is being developed to bring Constitutional Computing to enterprise AI environments, including agents built on models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, agent frameworks such as Hermes Agent, and tool ecosystems using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Its decision engine, already operational, evaluates specific actions against signed rules, determines whether to permit, refuse or escalate a request, and preserves a verifiable decision record. Production enforcement integrations are under development, with initial enterprise evaluations targeted for December 2026.

Designed to operate on customers’ own infrastructure, Inktomi complements existing identity management, cybersecurity and AI governance technologies rather than requiring their replacement. Kihan is initially targeting financial services, insurance, healthcare, legal services and other regulated industries where unauthorized AI actions can have substantial financial, operational or legal consequences.

Kihan is also exploring integration with leading enterprise technologies, including the NVIDIA OpenShell runtime and the IBM watsonx.governance platform. The Inktomi architecture is designed for deployment across modern computing environments, with compliance-oriented capabilities addressing requirements associated with GDPR, HIPAA and other regulatory frameworks.

Kihan co-founder and CEO Jonathan Hirshon is the founding architect of ATHENA, the formal foundation of the company’s Constitutional Computing architecture, and author of the forthcoming two-part IEEE Computer feature. A technology industry veteran, Hirshon has nearly four decades of experience working with leading technology companies, including Apple, Sony and Silicon Graphics.

Enterprise organizations interested in Constitutional Computing and arranging a live demonstration of Inktomi can visit www.kihan.ai.

About Kihan

Kihan, Incorporated, headquartered in San Francisco, is pioneering Constitutional Computing, a mathematically based architecture for independent authorization and enforcement of AI agent actions. Its first product, Inktomi, is designed to ensure consequential AI actions receive explicit authorization before execution, preserving verifiable evidence of every decision. Kihan’s founding principle is simple: Authority Before Commitment. Additional information is available at www.kihan.ai.

Source: Kihan

The post Kihan Launches Constitutional Computing to Bring Enforceable Authority to Enterprise AI Agents appeared first on HPCwire.

Archmere senior Grace Mahoney rises up for a kill in the Auks first round game against Charter School of Wilmington in the 2026 DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder

The first round of the 2026 DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament is complete with all the higher seeds moving on to the second round.

CLAYMONT, Del. — The Archmere Auks defeated the Charter School of Wilmington Forces, 3-0, in the first round of the 2026 DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament on November 5.

The Auks took control of the match early in set one scoring six straight points to take a 8-3 lead at the start of the set. The Forces fought back to cut the Auk lead to three near the middle of the frame, but the Auks rattled off another run of five straight points to spring ahead by six. The final point of that run came on a Caroline Hahn kill after a couple diving efforts from Archmere’s back line players — including senior Madeline Frampton — kept the possession alive garnering cheers from the Archmere contingent of fans. The Auks won the first set, 25-16.

“Most importantly what I saw tonight was the ability to keep the ball in play,” Archmere head coach Jerry McCarthy said postgame. “Our back row with Michaela [Iacono] and Maddie and Olivia [Borsello] and then the setters in and out, you know, what do you say? They kept the ball in play and they gave us the ability to terminate and get the point.”

Archmere held Charter School of Wilmington to 13 points in the second set and won the frame, 25-13. Six different Auks recorded a kill in the set and the team was paced by senior Grace Mahoney and junior Brooke Maddox who each had four kills in the set. 

The Auks won the final set getting significant contributions from their serving unit. The Auks recorded seven aces in the set from Frampton and fellow senior Michaela Iacono. 

“Tonight they were 100 percent focused and they wanted to move on,” McCarthy said. “I think the serving can make us dangerous throughout the tournament.”

Archmere junior Vivienne Govatos sets the ball for a teammate during the Auks first round game against the Forces. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder

Mahoney led the team with four kills in the frame and freshman Elise Shahan earned the game winning kill with a hit to the back left corner of the court.  

Shahan’s score secured the Auks’ their fifth straight second round appearance in the DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament and an upcoming battle with No. 8 Sussex Central. Archmere and Sussex Central will play their second round game on Saturday, November 7, at 6:00 p.m.    

More First Round Games:

No. 10 Lake Forest defeated No. 23 Sussex Academy, 3-0: Spartan junior, Coryn Louder, led the team with 13 kills, helping Lake Forest defeat Sussex Academy for the second time this season. The Spartans will play No. 7 Dover on Friday, November 6.

No. 11 St. Georges defeated No. 22 Delmarva Christian Academy, 3-0: Sophomores Jocelyn Ball and Lena Garland combined for 29 kills in the Hawks first round win. The Hawks are advancing to the second round for the second time in the last three seasons. St. Georges will play No. 6 Saint Mark’s on Friday, November 6.

No. 12 Appoquinimink defeated No. 21 Wilmington Friends, 3-0: Four Jaguar players recorded five or more kills in their win over the Quakers, Thursday night. Appoquinimink senior Julia Sobczynski led the team with ten kills and juniors Riley Robino and Bridget Archer contributed to the win with 22 assists and 16 digs, respectively. The Jaguars face No. 5 Tower Hill in the second round.

No. 13 Caravel defeated No. 20 Concord, 3-0: The Buccaneers earned their first win against the Raiders this season and held Concord to 15 points or less in each set. Caravel will face No. 4 Newark Charter on Friday, November 6.

No. 14 Cape Henlopen defeated No. 19 Sanford, 3-0: Six different Vikings recorded a kill in Cape Henlopen’s opening round victory. The Vikings are moving on to the second round of the DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament for the third season in a row and will face No. 3 Padua in the next round. Senior Camilla Willis led the Vikings with eight kills in the game.

No. 14 Smyrna defeated No. 18 Mount Pleasant, 3-1: The Eagles continued their strong run of play earning their fifth straight victory and a ticket to the second round of the 2026 DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament. Smyrna has made it to the second round in every season since 2020 and won the state championship in 2023. Smyrna will move on to play No. 2 Middletown on Saturday.   

Smyrna senior Emma Mayew keeps a ball in play during one of Smyrna’s regular season games. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder

No. 16 Conrad defeated No. 17 Delaware Military Academy, 3-1: Similarly to these two teams’ first game in early October, this matchup was close throughout. Conrad sophomore Delani Camilli led the way for the Red Wolves with 19 kills and one ace. Junior setter Payton Singleton contributed 24 assists and three Red Wolves each had three aces, helping Conrad reach the second round of the DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament for the first time since 2019. 

To see the updated bracket click here.

Nov. 6, 2026 — When a disaster strikes outdoors, first responders are able to capture data from a variety of sources to adequately prepare their response. Satellite imagery, GIS, GPS, and drones all provide the ability to gather information about the scene. However, when a disaster happens indoors, none of those capabilities carry over. The available data becomes 2D, typically a blueprint if it exists, and does not include standpipes, shutoffs, alarm panels, or AEDs.

Credit: NIST CTL

These missing elements are necessary for a safe and timely response by first responders. Without indoor spatial intelligence, responders must make high stakes and high-risk decisions with incomplete information. Fixing the issue requires data that cannot be produced at scale and currently relies on manual documentation. NIST’s Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL) Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Innovation Lab is tackling indoor mapping to address this issue.

The Gap and the Mandate

Indoor mapping is difficult for three specific reasons:

• No Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Signal: Building materials attenuate satellite signals, limiting access to internal mapping, and resulting in limited information during pre-incident planning stages.
• No Aerial Access: Drones and satellites provide fast and broad mapping capabilities from above, but interiors must be surveyed room by room, with heavy occlusion from walls, furniture, and debris, resulting in slower, incomplete, and more dangerous reconnaissance.
• Low Resolution 2D Records: Current records (when they exist) are schematic, can be outdated, and carry no reliable geometry for ceiling height, vertical connections, or clutter, meaning first responders cannot judge traversability, hose or ladder reach, or crawl space availability from the data provided.

NFPA 1660 and NFPA 950, safety rulebooks published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), require fire departments and first responders to have detailed, interoperable pre-incident data available; but departments currently have no way to produce it at scale, and this data must be produced manually. Compliance continues to stall as coverage remains limited and selective.

Applicable Changes

PSCR is addressing this issue by testing an automated pipeline, called INSIGHT (Indoor Scene Intelligence from Geometric-Semantic Hierarchy Transfer), that turns building scans into structured data that can support pre-incident planning, incident command, navigation, and scene documentation. While current work focuses strictly on the pre-incident phase of indoor disaster response, future phases of the work include live tracking and command applications. Implementing automation lowers the overall cost of an existing requirement and produces faster results. The pipeline remains compliant with the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (RMF) by keeping a human reviewer in the loop to correct a generated graph produced by the automation, which is exponentially less work and timelier than labeling and producing the data from scratch.

Safety fixtures, such as exit signs, alarm panels, and AEDs, are small, visually varied, and rare in existing training data. Purpose built 3D models score near zero in these classes. PSCR measured this directly in the 2025 cross dataset analysis. Foundation models recognize these features without task specific training. Registered depth places them in 3D, so a building gets labeled without being manually annotated. Geometry supports navigation while semantics support intelligence and planning.

Building Trustworthy Results

Without proper verification, results could endanger first responders by providing inaccurate scene understanding. The NIST AI RMF requires explainable and accountable automation use in high risk and high consequence settings and is directly applicable to the work PSCR is doing in this space. Independent detection paths within the pipeline cross check each other and disagreement between the paths is flagged for human review. The available building code provides data and boundaries for any implausible results while a human reviewer stays in the loop to verify and ensure accuracy. These boundaries help strike the balance in providing quick results that don’t sacrifice the accuracy of the location data.

Practical Application

Pre-incident planning is an immediate application as the pipeline runs on data collected ahead of time, and the output structure can be adapted given the mission at hand, controlling what crews see and supporting additional analytics and measurements. The resulting information reaches responders in a matter of seconds over existing broadband infrastructure, providing a level of detail suited to knowing what a space contains and how to navigate it. The pipeline is built on a public dataset and open-sources tools, creating a reproducible approach not tied to proprietary systems and readily available for application. An additional feature allowing role filtering at query time serves dispatch, incident command, and discipline specific views, allowing responders to select which view is most relevant.

NIST Contributions

One major contributor to this research is PSCR funded Point Cloud City, one of the few indoor 3D datasets with public safety features rather than general scene categories. The 2025 cross dataset analysis used data from Point Cloud City to measure where existing 3D methods fail, finding near zero performance on small safety fixtures (i.e. exit signs, AEDs, alarm panels). PSCR’s INSIGHT responds to that measured gap by producing labeled 3D data and scene graphs without requiring manual documentation and annotation of the target building.

The output is reproducible, following ISO 19164, IndoorGML, and IFC naming rather than a proprietary format in addition to providing the source code and dataset documentation through publication. The NIST AI RMF shapes the design with a second detection path that can be inspected at every stage and human review before using the outputs. PSCR plans to extend work in this space to include live tracking and command applications, providing additional resources to first responders, and creating more accurate and timely data applications to minimize risk and increase safety for first responders.

Source: NIST

The post NIST Tests AI Tool to Map Building Interiors for First Responders appeared first on HPCwire.

Image: The contributions of veterans extend far beyond the battlefield. Generations of Americans have served to defend the nation, protect its constitutional system and preserve the freedoms that shape everyday life — from voting and speaking freely to building businesses, raising families and pursuing individual dreams. Created with AI on 11/6

Parades, ceremonies, free meals and opportunities to volunteer offer Delawareans ways to recognize military service and the freedoms veterans have helped preserve.

DOVER, Del. — Delawareans will honor the men and women who served in the U.S. Armed Forces with parades, ceremonies, community events and special offers as the state prepares to observe Veterans Day on Wednesday, Nov. 11.

Events begin Saturday with a parade in Dover and a veterans luncheon in Georgetown. Additional observances are scheduled in Wilmington, New Castle and Milford.

Businesses and public agencies will also offer free meals, transportation and other benefits to veterans. For residents looking to participate, organizations throughout Delaware provide opportunities to volunteer and support veterans year-round.

Why Veterans Day matters

Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, marking the end of fighting in World War I on Nov. 11, 1918. In 1954, the holiday was renamed Veterans Day to recognize Americans who served in the military during war and peacetime.

Unlike Memorial Day, which specifically honors those who died while serving, Veterans Day recognizes all who have worn the nation’s uniform, living and deceased.

The contributions of veterans extend far beyond the battlefield. Generations of Americans have served to defend the nation, protect its constitutional system and preserve the freedoms that shape everyday life — from voting and speaking freely to building businesses, raising families and pursuing individual dreams.

That service often comes with considerable personal sacrifice, including time away from families, physical injuries and challenges that can continue long after military service ends.

Many veterans also continue contributing to their communities as teachers, business owners, first responders, volunteers and civic leaders.

Veterans Day is an opportunity to remember that the security, freedoms and opportunities Americans enjoy have been protected through generations of military service.

Attend: Veterans Day events in Delaware

Saturday, Nov. 7 — Dover Veterans Day Parade and Festival

Dover’s Veterans Day parade begins at 11 a.m., celebrating military service and America’s 250th anniversary.

The parade starts at Jerusalem Way and Forrest Street, travels through downtown and concludes at Water Street. A community celebration featuring speakers and veterans organizations will take place near Legislative Hall. Admission is free.

Saturday, Nov. 7 — Veterans Luncheon in Georgetown

A free luncheon and ceremony honoring veterans will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at 40 Ingramtown Road in Georgetown.

Veterans and guests are invited. RSVP by calling 302-856-4551.

Nov. 7-10 — Free Admission at Hagley Museum

Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington will offer veterans free general admission Saturday through Tuesday.

Beginning Nov. 7, the museum will also conduct daily signal cannon demonstrations at 1 p.m., weather permitting.

Wednesday, Nov. 11 — Veterans Breakfast in Wilmington

Delaware Technical Community College will host a Veterans Day breakfast from 8 to 9:15 a.m. at its Wilmington campus, 300 N. Orange St.

A continental breakfast will be served. Information: 302-571-5305.

Wednesday, Nov. 11 — Delaware Memorial Bridge Ceremony

The Delaware Commission of Veterans Affairs will hold its annual ceremony from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at War Memorial Plaza, 163 Cherry Lane, New Castle.

The event is hosted by the Delaware River and Bay Authority.

Wednesday, Nov. 11 — Veterans Ceremony in Dover

Kent County Veterans Memorial Park will host a ceremony from 2 to 4 p.m. recognizing 250 years of American military service.

Retired Brig. Gen. Karen A. Berry, Delaware’s first secretary of Veterans Affairs, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address.

The park is located at 760-816 S. Little Creek Road in Dover.

Saturday, Nov. 14 — Special Forces Veteran Speaks in Milford

Christopher VanSant, a retired Delta Force soldier and Caesar Rodney High School graduate, will speak at 1 p.m. at the Milford Public Library, 11 S.E. Front St.

VanSant served in 11 combat deployments and will discuss his military experiences, the challenges of injury and recovery, and his transition to civilian life.

The program is sponsored by the Milford Museum and Milford Public Library.

Veterans offers: Free meals, transportation and discounts

Veterans and active-duty military personnel can take advantage of special promotions on Nov. 11. Most require proof of service, and participation varies by location.

DART Offers Free Rides Statewide

DART First State will provide free rides on its statewide bus services to veterans presenting qualifying military identification or a DD Form 214. Certain spouses and partners with qualifying identification are also eligible.

Information: DART First State.

Restaurants Offer Free Meals

Several national restaurant chains are advertising Veterans Day promotions:

• Applebee’s: Free entrée from a special Veterans Day menu.
• Chili’s: Free meal from a select menu.
• Denny’s: Free Original Grand Slam breakfast, 5 a.m. to noon.
• Red Lobster: Free Shrimp & Chips.
• Red Robin: Free Red’s Big Tavern Burger and bottomless fries.
• Golden Corral: Free buffet during its Military Appreciation Night.
• Wendy’s: Free Dave’s Single at participating Flynn Group-operated restaurants.
• Starbucks: Free 12-ounce brewed coffee for eligible veterans, service members and military spouses.

Great Clips and Sport Clips are also advertising haircut promotions, while participating national parks will waive entrance fees Nov. 11.

Veterans should confirm offers before visiting. Promotions may be limited to participating locations, and identification, dine-in or other conditions may apply.

For additional offers, visit the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Day offers guide.

Give back: Supporting Delaware veterans year-round

Veterans Day is an opportunity to express appreciation, but the needs of veterans and their families continue long after the ceremonies end.

Volunteer at the Delaware Veterans Home

The Delaware Veterans Home in Milford welcomes community support through donations and volunteer activities, including reading, music, arts, gardening and special events.

Learn more: Delaware Veterans Home.

Support the Wilmington VA

The Wilmington VA Medical Center offers volunteer opportunities assisting patients, providing transportation support and helping with hospital programs.

Learn more: Wilmington VA Volunteer Services.

Recognize Veterans in Your Community

Residents can honor veterans by inviting them to speak at schools or civic organizations, writing letters of appreciation, supporting local veterans groups or helping preserve veterans’ personal histories.

Churches, Scout units, businesses and neighborhood organizations can organize activities that continue throughout the year.

Remembering those who served

The Wilmington VA recently recognized World War II Marine Corps veteran Robert Leroy James Quinn with its 2026 Wall of Honor award.

Quinn, a Purple Heart recipient who fought in the Pacific campaign, died in 2025 shortly before his 101st birthday.

His daughter, Karen Quinn, encouraged veterans to share their stories with their children and families.

Her message reflects the broader meaning of Veterans Day: preserving the experiences of those who served while recognizing the sacrifices made by veterans and their families.

For Delawareans, Veterans Day is more than a single day of remembrance. It is an opportunity to recognize that the freedoms, security and opportunities of American life have been preserved through generations of military service.

Attending a ceremony, listening to a veteran’s story or offering meaningful support are ways to ensure that service is never taken for granted.

TO GO: Veterans Day events at a glance

More information: Delaware Office of Veterans Services Events Calendar.

Editor’s note: Event details and Veterans Day promotions are subject to change. Readers should confirm information with organizers or participating businesses before attending.

Hiring across the U.S. surged last month and unemployment dipped, a sign the job market is picking up speed.

Ohio Gov.-elect Amy Acton called a campaign ad featuring her estranged mother that was run by Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign "terrible and despicable."

The labor market continues to add jobs across a number of industries, showing new signs of strength.

EIC-supported project demonstrates ceramic data storage within established object-storage workflows

MUNICH, Nov. 6, 2026 — Cerabyte, a pioneer of ceramic-based data storage solutions, has announced successful S3 integration testing of its ceramic data storage technology in collaboration with CERN openlab, CERN’s public-private partnership for accelerating computing innovation for science. Supported by the European Innovation Council’s EIC Accelerator program, the results provide an independent, third-party proof point for Cerabyte’s technology in one of the world’s most data-intensive research environments.

The S3 interface has become the de facto standard for object storage across cloud, hyperscale and research data centers. By validating full S3 integration, Cerabyte demonstrated that its ceramic storage technology is ready to integrate into today’s large scale and enterprise data storage infrastructure enabling applications to write, store and retrieve data using the same industry-standard commands and tools already deployed at scale, without changes to existing workflows.

CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, is helping scientists explore the universe’s smallest building blocks. This groundbreaking research generates vast amounts of scientific data whose value can extend far beyond the experiments themselves, making long-term preservation critical. CERN’s history also demonstrates how fundamental research can have an impact far beyond the scientific community. From advancing the understanding of the Higgs boson to being the birthplace of the World Wide Web, CERN has shown that discoveries driven by scientific exploration can ultimately benefit the world at large.

“Preserving CERN’s knowledge for the long-term also means keeping a close eye on new storage technologies,” said Vladimir Bahyl, CERN Tape Archive Manager. “Seeing a new storage medium work with standard S3 tools is a valuable step in assessing its potential. We wrote a cross-section of CERN’s story to Cerabyte’s ceramic storage: articles and a book on six decades of discoveries, a video on the 2012 Higgs boson discovery, sample CMS physics data with Higgs candidate events, and our annual reports for 2012 and 2025. The results are encouraging, and we look forward to continuing the evaluation.”

The challenge of preserving CERN’s scientific data reflects a much broader need to keep critical information accessible, intact and affordable for decades. Advances in long-term storage developed for environments like CERN could benefit applications ranging from medical records and cultural heritage to AI data and archives. Cerabyte’s ceramic-on-glass technology is designed for long-term, power-free data retention, reducing the need for ongoing media replacement and data migration.

“A fundamentally new storage medium should not require a fundamentally different infrastructure,” said Christian Pflaum, CEO of Cerabyte. “These tests show that ceramic storage can work with familiar S3 tools and workflows. That brings permanent, immutable storage closer to practical adoption, not just for science, but for any organization managing data that must outlast the systems that created it.”

Permanent data storage aims to change how knowledge travels across generations. Connecting durable ceramic media with established access methods is a step toward preserving today’s digital information without passing on an endless burden of replacement.

More from HPCwire: Cerabyte Joins CERN openlab, Bringing New Data Storage Tech for Scientific Research

About Cerabyte

Cerabyte is at the forefront of developing sustainable, accessible, permanent data storage technology. Our innovative ceramic-based technology utilizes advanced laser-matrix writing and high-speed microscope reading technologies, forming the cornerstone of a system capable of storing immense amounts of data virtually forever with no data migration required and retrieval within seconds. Our cost-effective, immutable data storage features virtually unlimited media life while being fully recyclable, helping to reduce environmental and carbon footprint. Leveraging semiconductor manufacturing tool technology, we scale density and speed and are uniquely positioned to pave the way to the yottabyte era, leading the emergence of the industry’s newest storage tier. Learn more at www.cerabyte.com.

Source: Cerabyte

The post Cerabyte Completes S3 Integration Testing in Collaboration with CERN openlab appeared first on HPCwire.

After years of outrage or numbness being the main options for dealing with politics, Tuesday’s results were permission to be optimistic

• This was originally published in the Stakes 2026, a newsletter about the midterm elections. Sign up to get it in your inbox

We shed some tears this midterm cycle.

US politics always makes people emotional, but I heard from friends and colleagues many times this year that speeches, campaigns and underdog success stories moved people in unexpected ways, whether it was this ad of Michigan senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed doing bedtime, a photo of newly elected Texas Democrats James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa at a Whataburger, or Georgia’s Keisha Lance Bottoms becoming the first Black female governor in the entire country.

US judge issues 14-day block on construction on DC monument after it was approved by planning commission

A federal judge in the early hours of Friday blocked any construction work from beginning on Donald Trump’s towering triumphal arch for 14 days, a major setback for one of the president’s most prominent projects in his vision to remake the nation’s capital.

The temporary restraining order was issued by US district judge Tanya Chutkan in a Washington DC court that has regularly proved to be a thorn in the US president’s side, such as in previous cases involving election subversion and the January 6 insurrection by Trump supporters.

The Warriors’ freshman has spent his first weeks in the NBA antagonizing superstars, speaking his mind and emerging as one of the league’s most compelling personalities

If a screen-addled pickup basketball player teleported into the body of a high-level athlete, they might resemble Yaxel Lendeborg. The most commonly cited fact about Lendeborg is that he used to spend 12 to 14 hours a day gaming, and didn’t debut on his high school basketball team until he was an upperclassman. Professional athletes often have origin stories that resemble the superhero more than the mortal, but Lendeborg really was just like us at one point. Lendeborg has also said that prior to entering the NBA, he didn’t really watch it, either. The Puerto Rican forward racked up more than enough accolades in college to qualify for the NBA, including helming Michigan to their first national championship in 37 years, but still. Any of you reading this could smoke the man who may be this season’s rookie of the year in trivia about his profession.

The 24-year-old Lendeborg is a forward on the Golden State Warriors, a team caught between the ancient, gleaming remnants of the most fearsome dynasty of the 2010s and its future. The balance didn’t work out last season, as the Warriors produced flashes of old greatness to win one play-in game before flaming out in the next. Such results are a frustrating waste of Stephen Curry’s wonderful form even at 38 years old. Lendeborg is the best hope in a while to help maximize it. But even more importantly, Lendeborg is the character of the season so far. He’s spent its first two weeks antagonizing superstars, firing off unselfconscious takes in the press and vacuuming up the spotlight from his blander peers. What a joy to bear witness to an athlete who probably didn’t even hear the words “media training” until college.

While there’s no evidence linking AI to mass layoffs, the tech has already ‘changed worker psychology’

When artificial intelligence researcher Mrinank Sharma quit his job at Anthropic earlier this year, the news rippled across the internet. In his resignation letter, posted on X and viewed 15.3m times, Sharma warned of a world “in peril” from the technology he had helped build.

“It is clear to me the time has come to move on,” he wrote. His next move: a poetry degree.

In a Guardian article in 2010, the Oxford Rhodes scholar said UK democracy had the ‘upper hand’ over the US

• US politics live – latest updates

In the tense final hours before his dramatic election as senator for Michigan in this week’s midterms, Abdul El-Sayed had a heated encounter with a British TV journalist that rapidly went viral.

As James Matthews, of Sky News, tried to ask him a question, El-Sayed bit back. “Why would I care to have a conversation with you?” he demanded of Matthews, placing both hands on the reporter’s shoulders in a gesture of emphasis.

Nov. 6, 2026 — The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM will present its latest developments in high-performance computing at SC26 in Chicago. Together with co-exhibitors ThinkParQ GmbH, featuring BeeGFS, and Swiss deep-tech startup Qambria AG, the institute will showcase solutions for heterogeneous HPC systems, agent-based AI, storage technologies, energy-adaptive data centers and quantum computing at booth 2516.

The international HPC community will gather at SC26 in Chicago from Nov. 15 to 20, 2026. The exhibition will run from Nov. 17 to 19 at McCormick Place. Fraunhofer ITWM draws on its expertise in mathematical modeling, simulation and optimization to develop solutions for demanding applications in industry and science.

The institute’s exhibit will focus on three key challenges in high-performance computing: the efficient use of energy and data, the intelligent automation of complex computational processes, and the integration of new computing architectures. To address these challenges, Fraunhofer ITWM considers not just individual components, but the entire HPC system.

“In the future, high-performance computing will not be determined solely by fast processors. Intelligent software, efficient data utilization, mindful energy management, and the ability to seamlessly integrate new technologies such as quantum computing are crucial. This is precisely the combination we are working on at Fraunhofer ITWM,” said Dr. Jens Krüger, head of the Analytics and Computing division.

An Overview of the Entire HPC-System

Modern HPC systems combine different processors, memory technologies and computing architectures. For applications to make efficient use of such heterogeneous infrastructure, numerous components must be coordinated with one another. Fraunhofer ITWM develops solutions across the entire computing stack: from algorithms and application modeling to processors, memory and high-speed data connections, through to data center operations.

Computing performance alone is not enough. Fast data access, scalable applications and resilient operation are equally important. The institute develops customized solutions and supports companies and research institutions with vendor-neutral benchmarking and consulting services for the deployment and operation of HPC systems.

Agent-Based AI Automates Simulation Workflows

A key feature of the exhibit will be agent-based AI. AI agents can independently support, coordinate and link individual steps in complex simulation and analysis processes. Fraunhofer ITWM’s approaches range from configuring and running simulations to analyzing and presenting the results. This shortens the path from computer-aided experimentation to actionable insights.

Locally deployable solutions play a significant role in this process. Companies and research institutions can deploy agent-based AI directly within their own IT and HPC infrastructure without having to transfer sensitive data to external cloud services. This creates transparent AI workflows that maintain data sovereignty for industrial or scientific applications.

Efficient Memory Management for Data-Intensive Applications

As computing power increases, so do the demands placed on storage technologies. Storage resources are becoming more expensive and increasingly influence the cost and performance of modern HPC systems. In data-intensive applications, performance therefore depends not only on processors, but also on how quickly and efficiently systems store, retrieve and process data.

With Memory Centric Storage (MCS), Fraunhofer ITWM is developing a European open-source toolbox for scalable, application-specific storage management. Applications access different storage technologies through a unified interface. Zero-copy data transfer avoids unnecessary copy operations, while task offloading shifts computational tasks closer to where the data is generated. This reduces data movement, makes resource usage more transparent and improves the performance of data-intensive applications.

FlexLab Explores Data Centers’ Role in the Energy System

The energy needs of data centers are also receiving greater attention. In the FlexLab project, Fraunhofer ITWM is developing new concepts for energy-efficient and flexible data centers. Researchers are investigating how computing power can be intelligently adapted to the available energy supply.

The aim is for computing operations and technical infrastructure to respond more dynamically to conditions in the energy system. As a result, data centers could also contribute to the integration of renewable energy and the stabilization of power grids. The project combines energy efficiency and energy flexibility with the goal of strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty.

A Bridge Between High-Performance Computing and Quantum Computing

Another topic at the exhibition will be the integration of quantum processors into classical HPC infrastructure. Together with Qambria AG, Fraunhofer ITWM will demonstrate how these two computing environments can be connected. Qambria is developing a vendor- and modality-neutral software and control layer to integrate quantum processors into classical HPC environments.

Qambria will exhibit alongside Fraunhofer ITWM for the first time at SC26. Its presentation will include solutions for the real-time control of quantum processors and error correction. These are key prerequisites for the reliable deployment of future quantum computers.

Under the title “Quantum Hybrid3,” Fraunhofer ITWM will also showcase approaches to hybrid quantum AI. Quantum hybrid AI combines the computing power of quantum processors with the reliability and scalability of classical supercomputers and graphics processing units. Depending on the task, calculations can be performed on the most suitable hardware.

“Quantum computers will not replace classical HPC systems, but rather complement them in specific ways. That is why we are developing technologies that bridge the two worlds and enable the practical use of hybrid applications,” said Krüger.

Automatically Discovering and Optimizing Quantum Architectures

Which quantum circuit is best suited to a specific task? Fraunhofer ITWM addresses this question with Quantum Architecture Search (QAS). The technology automatically searches for and optimizes suitable quantum architectures, taking into account both the accuracy of the results and the resources required. Circuit structures and input encodings are learned directly from sample data.

This allows new quantum applications to be developed more efficiently and adapted to different types of quantum hardware.

QUALLE Supports Transparent Quantum AI Benchmarking

Fraunhofer ITWM will also introduce QUALLE, a new product for benchmarking quantum AI methods. The goal is to evaluate the performance of quantum machine learning applications systematically and transparently, with results that are easy to interpret. This enables researchers to assess which tasks quantum methods already offer value for and how they compare with classical solutions.

The institute’s research ranges from quantum machine learning and the optimization of quantum circuits to agent-based circuit generation and benchmarking.

New GPI-2 Release Improves Communication in Large HPC Systems

With GPI-2 release 1.8.0, Fraunhofer ITWM will present an updated version of its programming model for efficient and scalable HPC applications at SC26. GPI-2 enables communication and computation to run largely in parallel, allowing even large distributed simulations to be processed efficiently. The new version supports additional network technologies and improves the launch of large computing jobs with many processes.

Another new feature is a runtime analysis function: applications can be analyzed during execution without first recompiling the program code. The results can be evaluated directly using common visualization tools. This makes it easier to identify performance bottlenecks in large HPC applications and make targeted optimizations.

GaspiLS Speeds Up Time-Dependent Simulations

The GaspiLS solver library, developed at Fraunhofer ITWM, has also been further refined. In time-dependent simulations, similar systems of equations must be solved over many consecutive computational steps, for example in flow or reservoir simulations. GaspiLS takes advantage of this similarity by reusing previously calculated structures in subsequent computational steps.

This reduces the computational effort and, in particular, shortens the time-consuming preparation of individual solution steps.

In a reservoir simulation benchmark involving approximately one million cells, GaspiLS ran up to twice as fast as the comparison methods across the process counts tested. For complex transient simulations, this offers the potential to use computational resources more efficiently and deliver results more quickly.

In addition to these areas, Fraunhofer ITWM will provide further insights at SC26 into current developments for high-performance, scalable HPC systems, including the STX processor. The technologies on display will demonstrate how algorithms, software, communication, memory and hardware can be coordinated to make efficient use of heterogeneous HPC systems.

Together with co-exhibitors ThinkParQ GmbH and Qambria AG, Fraunhofer ITWM will provide an overview of current and future computing architectures at booth 2516. The exhibit will cover topics ranging from high-performance storage and simulation solutions to locally deployable AI agents, energy-adaptive data centers and the integration of quantum processors into classical supercomputers.

Source: Fraunhofer ITWM

The post Fraunhofer ITWM at SC26: HPC Is Becoming Smarter and More Energy-Efficient appeared first on HPCwire.

‘Low-hire, low-fire’ labor market shows sluggish growth but few layoffs, with an interest rate hike expected in December

The US added 165,000 jobs to the economy in October, a sign of resilience in the labor market amid ongoing war in the Middle East and inflation, according to new data released on Friday.

Economists had said the labor market has been stuck in a “low-hire, low-fire” state, in which job growth is sluggish but layoffs also remain low, but October’s data surpassed economist expectations. The unemployment rate went down slightly to 4.1%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported.

Help us crown the most trusted anti virus, VPNs and security tools of 2026.

The Bluetooth Group has announced a new standard. Here’s how it works and when you can expect to benefit from it.

Far-right politician addresses Conservative Political Action Conference and makes unsubstantiated claims about election fraud

Flávio Bolsonaro, the far-right politician who lost Brazil’s presidential election last month, has insisted his defeat is not “the end for Brazil” as he battles to maintain political relevance after fleeing to the US.

Bolsonaro absconded early last week shortly after losing the 25 October election to the leftwing incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by more than 4m votes.

The National Capital Planning Commission voted Thursday to approve plans for President Trump's 250-foot triumphal arch. A judge quickly blocked any construction from starting.

When our writer found himself among the hundreds on Oxford Street hoping to get their hands on early copies and collectibles, it was a heartwarming reminder of the shared experience of fandom

• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time review – a dream come true

It is Thursday night and I am sat blurry-eyed and runny nosed outside the Argos on Oxford Street. Incredibly, I am far from alone. This is not some strange protest against the popular retailer. When the clock strikes midnight, the lavish 4K Switch 2 remake of beloved N64 classic The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will be released, and I have joined a lengthy queue of about 500 fans desperate to snag early copies. There are similar events taking place across the world, from Melbourne to Mexico City; at key locations, Nintendo has senior executives waiting at the tills.

These days, of course, most video games are bought as digital copies that download straight to your PC or console on the day of release. You don’t even have to get out of bed to start playing. But in a bygone era, when we used to go to shops to buy games, midnight launches offered a space for likeminded enthusiasts to gather and celebrate their fandom. Every Call of Duty, Halo or Grand Theft Auto release would have fans queueing outside branches of Game or Electronics Boutique, many dressed as favourite characters.

A decade of political misery does terrible things to the mind. Tuesday’s wins came with a sense of unreality

Late on Tuesday night, the comedian Alex Edelman asked a poignant question on social media: “I know we’ve never had to ask this before tonight, but what’s the opposite of doomscrolling?”

I don’t have a definitive answer to that, though I did offer the term “boomscrolling”, accompanied by a gif of the social media sensation and Costco enthusiast Big Boom AJ.

October drop of 0.6% leaves average price of property at £296,285, says Lloyds, as high mortgage rates hit market

• Business live – latest updates

UK house prices fell at the steepest rate in more than three years in October, marking the fourth consecutive monthly decline, as high mortgage rates hit the housing market.

The average price of a typical UK property stood at £296,285 last month as prices unexpectedly dropped 0.6% compared with September, the steepest fall since the lender Lloyds recorded a 1.6% drop in August 2023.

Former liberation movement’s share of national vote almost 14 percentage points below 2021 result

The African National Congress is on course to suffer a bruising defeat in South Africa’s local elections, with the once dominant party of Nelson Mandela falling to under a third of the vote nationally with more than 80% of ballots counted.

Wednesday’s fragmented vote marks another stage in the decline of the ANC, which has led national governments since the end of white minority apartheid rule in 1994. High unemployment, crime, corruption and poor local service delivery have all contributed to voters turning away from the party.

The successful Democratic contender for a Michigan Senate seat parried the many insinuations lobbed by Republicans

• What happens after the ‘blue wave’? Ask your midterm election results questions

Abdul El-Sayed said he did not expect to be “a main character of this midterms”, but the first Muslim elected to the US Senate in history will take his seat in January after a vitriolic campaign that cast him as the central villain of the president and his party.

By October he told the Associated Press he was “not shying away” from those rightwing fixations. “What are you implying?” El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, replied when a town hall attender asked if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, in a now-viral exchange.

The executions came the same day California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said he would move to commute the sentences of all 548 state death row prisoners to life in prison.

The oil fortune heir was elected to five terms in the Senate, where he became known for championing and defending society’s most vulnerable.

A California appeals court has found that "ER" and "The Pitt" have enough similarity that a lawsuit brought by the widow and estate of "ER" creator Michael Crichton alleging "The Pitt" is an unauthorized reboot can move forward.

Decision made in order for factory in Texas to be used for Cybercab, the carmaker’s self-driving taxi

Elon Musk has announced that Tesla will wind down production of its Cybertruck, marking the end of a failed effort to take a chunk of the lucrative market for pickups in the US.

The billionaire chief executive said production of the car would stop in about the middle of next year at the company’s factory in Texas in order to use the plant for the Cybercab, its self-driving taxi.

Health secretary Yvette Cooper has faced calls to axe US tech firm’s contract to deliver the flagship government AI system, report says

Andy Burnham has joked that he was a bad driver after getting a quiz for primary-age children about braking distance wrong.

During a visit to Siemens Rail Technology Centre in Chippenham on Friday, the prime minister was invited to take part in a lesson hosted by TV presenter Maddie Moate with year five and six pupils from the town.

The imperative of ambition in a new Congress.

YouGov survey finds support for tree planting and emissions taxes but opposition to air travel and fuel levies

• Europe live – latest updates

Europeans believe human-made climate change is real, a survey has shown, with most feeling action must be taken soon – as long as they do not have to sacrifice too much to achieve it.

The YouGov poll of six European countries showed between 69% (Germany) and 80% (France) of respondents believed the climate was changing, with few (1%-4%) denying it and 14-20% believing it was changing, but not as a result of human activity.

Cabin upgrade comes as airlines compete for wealthy customers in race to the top of luxury travel

Singapore Airlines has said it will offer the “largest double bed in the sky” as part of a S$2bn (£1.2bn) cabin upgrade as super-rich passengers demand ever greater levels of luxury travel.

The first-class premium cabins will feature what the airline claims is “the largest double bed in commercial aviation”.

Brand has been supported by Tony Lyons, who runs Maha Action, and has appeared on stage with Mehmet Oz

Weeks before Russell Brand’s conviction for rape and sexual assault by a court in the UK, he appeared as a featured speaker on a video call for Maha Action, an American group closely allied with the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

It was a reflection on the warm embrace Brand, a comedian and actor, has received from prominent Trump administration officials and other leaders in Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” (Maha) movement, where Brand has used his star status to criticize vaccines and vaccine mandates, junk food, and pharmaceutical companies. He has also heaped praise on Kennedy and other members of the Trump administration.

Democrats won over rural voters from Maga in the midterms by focusing more on working people and less on culture wars

Long before Jamie Ager entered politics, he was making a name for himself in a very different place: the meat counter of a grocery store in Boone, North Carolina.

It was the early 2000s, and Ager owned and operated Hickory Nut Gap, a regenerative farm near Asheville. Over the next 20 years, he helped build a regional food system that delivered healthier food to thousands of people, improved land stewardship and made farming a bit more profitable.

Wildlife advocates incensed as documents show state paid out $2,000 per kill in effort to shrink state’s wolf population

Idaho officials paid hunters thousands of dollars for killing a dozen newborn wolf pups this spring, including what appears to be at least one full litter killed in or near its den, according to state records shared with the Guardian and Public Domain.

The wolf pup killings have incensed wildlife advocates in Idaho, where state wildlife officials have been ordered to take extraordinary measures to shrink the state’s re-introduced wolf population amid complaints from the livestock industry and big game hunting outfitters.

Exclusive: Meta says it removes content that could cause imminent physical harm – but nearly half a million members have joined a group that regularly promotes misinformation

As a measles outbreak spread through Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in August, a parent turned to a massive public Facebook group, Crunchy Moms, for advice. They were considering getting their three-year-old vaccinated, in part to protect their six-month-old.

“I’m nervous for my baby,” the parent wrote.

Anticipation that Democrats’ ‘blue wave’ will lead to tighter rules on AI and datacenters sends tech stock plunging. Plus a big eight-legged surprise for customs officials in Peru

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Good morning. Stock markets around the world have fallen sharply as a rout in US tech stocks spread across the Atlantic after the Democrats’ midterms victory led to fears of a slowdown in the AI industry. A sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday was followed by sharp falls in Asian stock markets on Friday morning. The dip in investor sentiment has also reached London.

Susannah Streeter, the chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: “The tech sell-off has intensified. Big worries are colliding – the build-out of datacenters looks set to slow, which risks shredding the spending spree underpinning the boom, right at the time that investors have become super nervous about returns on this massive investment.”

What happened to the Nasdaq? The Nasdaq share index had its worst day in 19 months after slumping 5.5% on Thursday amid growing signs that the AI industry will face tougher regulation.

Yes, the Republicans suffered humiliating defeat. But the fact that a Trump presidency was even possible means something like it could happen again

He’s down, but not quite out. Barring divine or other intervention, Donald Trump will remain in the Oval Office for a further two years and 10 weeks. Or, as the White House put it in a plaintive social media post brimming with neediness: “PSA [Public Service Announcement]: Trump is still your president.” But that’s not the only reason why the global celebrations that greeted the Democratic tidal wave that swept Republicans out of even their deepest heartlands should be tempered, if only a tad.

Don’t get me wrong, the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections are cause for genuine international jubilation. The defeats of Trump allies in Serbia and Brazil were delicious appetisers, but this was the feast. No mere electoral setback in line with midterm tradition, this was a thorough repudiation of the second Trump presidency and of Trumpism. The 16% swing to Democrats in the popular vote for the House of Representatives was greater even than the 11.2% swing recorded in the Watergate midterms of November 1974, following the resignation in disgrace of Richard Nixon. Trump had worked hard for many months to undermine these elections, either by gerrymandering districts in his favour or preparing the ground for a later claim the vote was rigged, but to no avail: the democratic system proved too resilient, and the American public too determined to have their say. And have it they did, in a voice loud and clear.

US midterms: The beginning of the end for Trumpism? Audio sseth.drupal@c… 6 November 2026

On this week’s episode of Independent Thinking, our experts discuss the result of the US midterms and what it means for US foreign and domestic policy.

American voters inflicted a crushing defeat on the Republican Party in the US midterm elections, signalling clear dissatisfaction with President Trump’s agenda. Now many issues in US politics are up in the air – from the use of tariffs to policy on Iran, Ukraine and beyond.

How will the Democrats use their new powers? What will the result mean for Trump’s war on Iran and the stability of global energy supplies? And how will the repudiation of Trump’s second term echo around the world?

Bronwen Maddox is joined by Laurel Rapp, Lindsay Newman and Andrew Payne of Chatham House’s US and North America Programme to make sense of a seismic week.

About Independent Thinking

Independent Thinking is a weekly international affairs podcast hosted by our director Bronwen Maddox, in conversation with leading policymakers, journalists and Chatham House experts providing insight on the latest international issues.

More ways to listen: Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Explore our other Chatham House podcasts.

Three people accused of using artificial intelligence to impersonate corporate executives and attorneys to steal about $129 million have been indicted, prosecutors say.

The delay in finding the remains of the two women was complicated by difficult terrain and the grizzly bear's behavior.

RMT union calls eight 24-hour strikes on London Underground in opposition to plans for four-day week

Tube train drivers in the RMT union have called eight 24-hour strikes running over 16 days – including six in the lead-up to Christmas – that threaten to bring transport chaos to the capital.

The drivers will start another series of 24-hour strikes in late November in opposition to plans for a four-day week – a proposal that has been warmly welcomed by the majority of London Underground drivers represented by the Aslef union.

UN conference this month seen as key moment after years of discussions on filling gap in governance of AI systems

Plans to fill a gap in the global governance of autonomous weapons are in jeopardy as a group of nations led by Russia and the US move to use a UN conference this month to block proposals to negotiate a legally binding set of rules.

The scale of the opposition will become clear at a diplomatic retreat starting on Friday before the seventh review conference on “certain conventional weapons” in Geneva due to be attended by 128 countries from 16 to 20 November.

What I’m Discussing Today

• Kareem’s Quote of the Day: What will you do with this renewed hope to help build the country you voted for?

• The Blue Tsunami: It shows what voters can accomplish when even Republican money and redrawn maps cannot buy their approval.

• The End of the Line: Trump asked Republicans to vote as though he were on the ballot, then took refuge in his ballroom when they did.

• Between Iran and a Hard Place: Vance blames the war for Republican losses but leaves out both Trump’s character and his own responsibility for supporting him.

• The Speaker’s Last Words: After years of flattering Trump, Mike Johnson is leaving House Republicans to choose between Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan.

• The Great Debaters, directed by Denzel Washington: A familiar underdog story from the actor-director, with an uplifting script and an exciting young cast.

• Mavis Staples, “Anthem”: At 86, Mavis Staples makes Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” sound like instructions to stop waiting for perfection and get to work.

  ---

Kareem’s Quote of the Day

“Hope is the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be.”

― Barack Obama (born 1961), 44th President of the United States

It’s 75 degrees and sunny today in Southern California, an easy day to feel optimistic. The results of the election are in, and that certainly helps. It feels like a fever has broken, or a heatwave has ended. Two years ago, the American people looked at their country and said they’d rather be led by Donald Trump and a compliant Republican Congress than by Kamala Harris and a Congress that would challenge her to prove she was worthy to lead. Tuesday, they reconsidered that decision.

It’s too soon to evict President Trump from the White House, but the voters did all they could to tell him to stop treating it like a royal palace and start using it as a workplace. They reminded him that they are not his subjects, but his employers. I can’t say I expect Donald Trump to take that message to heart, but I do expect the new Congress to be on hand to remind him every time he strays from that mission, using every tool they have in their power: laws, budgets, hearings, subpoenas, investigations, and even, if necessary, the threat of impeachment.

There’s every reason to believe the next two years will be better than the last two, and that is cause for optimism. But as President Obama said, our “destiny will not be written for us, but by us.” The voters’ message was clear: we will not “settle for the world as it is”; we want to “remake the world as it should be,” and we have elected you—our Congress and yes, our President—to lead us on that mission.

That mission needs to be forward-looking. If we spend the next two years relitigating the last two years, we risk wasting a chance at progress for the cheap satisfaction of revenge. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of impeachments, particularly for people like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and FBI Director Kash Patel, whose combination of incompetence and lawlessness presents an ongoing danger to the safety of the American people and our constitutional order. But we need to recognize the high bar for conviction in the Senate, and if it’s not viable, resist the temptation to spend the time and money on show trials. As for President Trump himself, he’s already been impeached twice, and unless removal seems genuinely possible, better to work with him than against him. Better, that is, for the American people.

Our priorities are what they’ve always been. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Safe neighborhoods and safe borders. Affordable food and gas. Healthcare for our families and neighbors. A level playing field. A White House where the dominant color is white, not gold. A population with no dominant color, no dominant religion, no dominant gender or sexuality. A country where the idea of domination is left to the athletes, and an ethos of cooperation is encouraged everywhere else. A nation that honors the hopes and dreams of the American people, not those of an octogenarian with autocrat-envy and a fixation on a nonexistent past in which America was somehow greater than it is today. An America that is greater tomorrow than it was yesterday.

For myself and many of the people I know, the last two years have been a time of almost overwhelming pessimism, and pessimism can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. But so too can optimism. It’s 75 degrees and sunny outside, perfect weather to take a walk, play catch, work on a house or do some gardening, or just sit on a park bench and dream of a better future. If the weather’s not as nice where you are as it is here, there’s still plenty you can do. But time is passing. Let’s get to work.

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Mild autumn temperatures causing premature flowering and raising concerns for pollinators, say experts

Trees are experiencing an “early spring” because of mild UK temperatures this autumn, with experts warning this could cause long-term harm to pollinators.

Last month was warmer than average across all parts of the UK, with October marking the ninth consecutive month with above-average mean temperatures.

• Buffalo Thunderbolts would enter league in 2028

• League could expand in time for 2031 World Cup

Major League Rugby will play with just five teams in 2027 but has signed a letter of intent with the Buffalo Thunderbolts regarding a bid for entry in 2028 and is in discussions with 17 groups regarding future expansion.