Undercover officers working for West Midlands’ ‘special projects team’ planted evidence to convict men, lawyers claim
Lawyers representing four men convicted of terror offences are increasingly hopeful that revelations from the undercover policing inquiry could boost the chances of their case being reopened.
Ten years ago, Khobaib Hussain, Naweed Ali, Mohibur Rahman and Tahir Aziz were arrested and later convicted of plotting a terrorist attack in the UK after an elaborate covert police operation.
KIHEI, Hawaii, Aug. 13, 2026 — Members of the U.S. Space Force’s Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC) officially unveiled the newest premier research asset in Hawaii: the Makau High-Performance Computer, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 7.
From the left: John Marlia, MHPCC technical director, Dr. Scott Pierce, MHPCC director, U.S. Space Force Lt. Col. Doug Thornton, 15th Space Surveillance Squadron commander, and Donna Piet, AFRL program manager, unveil the Makau High-Performance Computer during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 7, 2026. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Giovanni Sims)
The Makau system was engineered specifically to deliver world-class high-performance computational capabilities to the Department of Defense science and technology test and evaluation communities, providing the necessary resources to efficiently solve the most demanding computational problems.
“The implementation of artificial intelligence provides Airmen and Guardians with rapid, actionable data analysis and course of action,” said Dr. Scott Pierce, MHPCC director. “Machine learning models can automate the fusing of multiple sources of data to build a timely and more cohesive operating picture.”
The supercomputer is a six-cabinet Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Cray XD2000 system utilizing liquid-cooled, rear-door heat exchangers. It is powered by 74 enterprise-grade graphics processing units and features 19.2 terabytes of usable memory.
Capable of reaching processing speeds of 2.64 peak peta floating-point operations per second, Makau is designed to operate in an era of exponential data growth and accelerate technological innovation.
“Historically, processing massive, highly complex datasets could take weeks, delaying critical decision-making processes when time was of the essence,” said John Marlia, MPHCC technical director. “By compressing data analysis timelines from weeks to seconds, Makau provides a definitive advantage, ensuring that our teams always have the right information precisely when they need it most.”
Locally, Makau will be instrumental in supporting the MHPCC’s three primary research focus areas: space domain awareness, cyber operations, and digital engineering and modeling, simulation and analysis.
Bringing this advanced computer system to the island also represents a significant investment in the local workforce and regional partnerships.
“We are extremely proud of our local team’s collaboration and our partnership with local vendors and HPE to deliver this cutting-edge solution to our users,” Pierce said. “This requires the constant support of a highly technical staff to ensure these solutions are properly configured and maintained.”
The MHPCC currently employs more than 45 professional staff members who live in the local community, with active hiring ongoing to fill additional open positions.
In partnership with the 15th Space Surveillance Squadron, the MHPCC team also regularly hosts science, technology, engineering and mathematics events and actively recruits local talent for summer internships, fostering the next generation of engineers and scientists in Hawaii.
Source: Tech. Sgt. Giovanni Sims, Pacific Air Forces, USAF
The UK has recorded its hottest day of the year so far with a provisional temperature of 38.1C in southern England as Europe sweltered under a major heat dome.
As temperatures on the continent approached 40C at the peak of the summer’s fifth heatwave, the thermometer at Kew Gardens in west London surpassed the previous high of 38C on 28 June, the Met Office said.
The aircraft, which cost up to $50 million each, have seen heavy use around the Strait of Hormuz — but they are relatively easy targets for Iran and its proxies.
If all executions go ahead, it will be first time in over 15 years there have been over three judicial killings in US in one day
Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez has been put to death by the state of Oklahoma, in the first of three executions scheduled for Thursday in a rare triple procedure that underlines the renewed appetite in the US for state killings.
Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, was pronounced dead at 10.13am at the Oklahoma state penitentiary in McAlester. He was sentenced to death for murdering his common-law wife, Olimpia Fisher, in 2003. He had unsuccessfully appealed for mercy, saying he was remorseful and had struggled all his life from mental illness.
A former UK government scientific adviser warned amid the ‘shattering’ heat that worse is still to come
Met Office has just offered an update on temperatures across the UK, with several stations already reporting temperatures above 30C – and it’s not even 11am.
It’s 30.4C in Wych Cross, 30.3C in Charlwood, 30.2C at Kenly Airfield.
Readers recall the breathtaking sight and community spirit of the rare celestial treat – and the handmade contraptions they saw it through
On Wednesday evening, millions of people in Europe watched a rare solar eclipse. We asked some of them to share their photographs and experiences of this celestial treat.
Man dies in Bas-Uele after travelling from Haut-Uele, as head of WHO says outbreak on track to be deadliest ever
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has spread to a sixth province, officials have said, a day after the head of the World Health Organization said the outbreak was on track to surpass the deadliest in history, which erupted more than a decade ago and killed more than 11,000 people.
Jean Kaseya, the director general of Africa CDC, said a death had been recorded in the previously unaffected Bas-Uele province. Kaseya said the man had travelled from Isiro, in Haut-Uele province, to Buta, the capital of Bas-Uele, where he died.
Muddy floodwaters seeped into the homes of Indiana and Ohio residents this week, as severe storms struck the Midwest. Now, some areas are bracing for even more rain.
AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 13, 2026 — Oracle today announced the general availability of Oracle Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure on Oracle AI Database@AWS, bringing Exadata-class performance and pay-per-use economics to Oracle AI Database workloads of any scale. Oracle and Amazon Web Services (AWS) also signed an expanded, long-term strategic collaboration agreement focused on accelerating customer migration to Oracle AI Database@AWS. Together, these developments build on strong momentum for Oracle AI Database@AWS, which expanded to 22 AWS Regions and added new capabilities that give enterprises a lower-cost path to migrate Oracle databases and integrate them with AWS analytics and AI services.
Credit: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock
“Just one year after general availability, Oracle AI Database@AWS has reached global scale, with customers running business-critical workloads, and 22 AWS Regions available across Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Americas,” said Nathan Thomas, senior vice president, product management, Oracle. “This momentum demonstrates that enterprises want a simpler, lower-cost path to modernize their most important Oracle workloads within AWS environments. With the global reach and innovative new services we have made available over the last year, we are delivering that path and enabling more and more customers to put AI to work on live business data and build new applications without re-architecting or compromising performance.”
“The enterprise adoption over the past year reflects the value customers get when their Oracle AI Database workloads run on Oracle AI Database@AWS,” said Ganapathy (G2) Krishnamoorthy, vice president, database services, AWS. “With the full breadth of AWS analytics and AI services, available right where their data lives, customers of any size can modernize applications faster, unlock new insights, and build AI-powered applications on the data that runs their business.”
Exadata Performance, Now Within Reach of Any Enterprise
Oracle Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure allows customers to specify the compute and storage capacity they need, while spreading every database across pooled storage servers for high performance and availability, eliminating the need to provision dedicated database and storage servers. That makes Exadata economics practical for a wider range of workloads, from smaller Oracle databases to deploying in multiple regions for high availability and disaster recovery. It also adds instant thin cloning, so customers can rapidly spin up database copies for development and testing with Exadata performance, without duplicating storage. Learn more here.
This more accessible Exadata foundation also supports a broader range of workloads, including AI. Oracle AI Database brings AI directly to customers’ most valuable business data, enabling generative and agentic AI without moving or duplicating data. With Oracle AI Vector Search, customers can find and retrieve relevant information from that data based on meaning and context.
Under the new long-term strategic collaboration agreement, Oracle and AWS commit to continued investment in Oracle AI Database@AWS and to accelerating customer migration and adoption. For customers, this provides a faster, lower-risk path to run their most important workloads on Oracle AI Database@AWS alongside the AWS AI and analytics services they already use.
Leading Global Enterprises Choose Oracle AI Database@AWS
Enterprises across industries, including highly regulated sectors such as financial services and transportation, are already using Oracle AI Database@AWS to migrate critical workloads and put AI to work on the data that runs their business.
CJ Olive Young, a leading Korean beauty and wellness retailer operating over 1,380 stores, is leveraging Oracle AI Database@AWS to migrate its core workloads to the cloud. As a result, CJ Olive Young can integrate data across Oracle and AWS, accelerate AI adoption, and simplify management and operations.
“The availability of Oracle AI Database@AWS in South Korea offers an easy migration path to the cloud for our mission-critical Oracle workloads,” said Wonho Park, platform engineering team lead, CJ Olive Young. “We expect the seamless integration with AWS’s advanced AI and analytics services, such as Amazon Bedrock, to accelerate our AI innovation, reduce time-to-insight, and deliver measurable business outcomes.”
Kobalt Music Group, a leading independent music publisher that handles administration for millions of songs, is using Oracle AI Database@AWS to support its digital collection platform in processing online and offline consumption data and distributing royalties to songwriters, publishers, and rights holders. By running Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure in AWS, Kobalt achieves ultra-low latency with its AWS applications, along with the high performance and scalability required to support growing volumes of music transactions and payments.
“Technology plays a critical role in the management of complex digital music rights, ensuring fast and accurate payments, while delivering greater transparency and value to creators,” said Nuno Guerreiro, chief technology officer, Kobalt Music Group. “With Oracle AI Database@AWS, we can continue evolving our digital platform on a high-performance foundation that supports our growth and enables us to empower our clients with greater speed and efficiency.”
The Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM) of Barcelona is the public agency responsible for the transportation system of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region. It coordinates, plans, and manages the region’s integrated public transportation network, which records 1.2 million annual ticket validations.
“Oracle AI Database@AWS helps us deliver new and improved mobility services while enhancing our operational efficiency,” said Manuel Valdés, general manager, Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM) of Barcelona. “By putting critical mobility data, advanced analytics, and AI to better use, we can make smarter decisions and continually improve the public transportation services people across the Barcelona metropolitan region rely on every day.”
Global Partners Give Customers More Choice and Flexibility to Adopt Oracle AI Database@AWS
Global systems integrators are also helping customers adopt Oracle AI Database@AWS, and eligible AWS Partner Network and Oracle Partner Network members can resell Oracle AI Database@AWS through AWS Channel Partner Private Offers. Qualified MSP partners can also provide managed services for Oracle AI Database@AWS on a customer’s behalf, offering enterprises a simplified path to adoption. In addition, Oracle Migration Accelerator helps fund migration services and enables customers to offset the cost of migration while partners can scale larger transformation projects.
Deloitte brings together deep industry experience and AI talent across its broader global Oracle and AWS technology practices. Through its strategic relationships with both companies, Deloitte is helping organizations take advantage of Oracle AI Database@AWS to accelerate cloud migrations, optimize operations, and unlock AI-powered insights.
“The growing momentum behind Oracle Database@AWS signals that enterprises are looking to their trusted relationships to help navigate complexity and drive innovation in the cloud,” said Kashif Rahamatullah, principal, multi-alliances go-to-market leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “Through our deep alliances with Oracle and AWS, we combine our industry domain knowledge with mission-critical Oracle data and AWS AI and analytics to simplify modernization and accelerate business outcomes for our clients.”
Drawing on more than 30 years of Oracle experience, Hitachi, Ltd. is adding support for Oracle AI Database@AWS to its “modernization powered by Lumada” initiative.
“Many organizations are looking to migrate their mission-critical core systems to the cloud without compromising performance or reliability, while accelerating their adoption of AI,” said Hidetaka Sasaki, president, Managed & Platform Services Division, Hitachi, Ltd. “Through our joint validation with Oracle and AWS, we have confirmed that Oracle AI Database@AWS meets the stringent requirements of mission-critical systems. By working with customers in the financial services sector, Hitachi will continue to help organizations modernize their systems and accelerate AI adoption through our collaboration with Oracle and AWS.”
A Year of Expanded Capabilities and Global Reach
Over the past year, Oracle and AWS have delivered capabilities for Oracle AI Database@AWS that help customers simplify deployment, scale efficiently, and connect Oracle AI Database workloads to AWS analytics and AI services. Expanded capabilities include:
Oracle Autonomous AI Database Serverlessnow generally available: Enables customers to quickly build and run fully managed databases without provisioning or managing infrastructure. Learn more here.
Sub-200 microsecond application-to-database latency: Helps customers confidently run latency-sensitive workloads, including OLTP systems, ERP applications, and AI-enabled operational applications, closer to the database. By using AWS High Performance Networking (EC2 placement groups) and updated deployment guidance, Oracle AI Database@AWS delivers application-to-database round-trip latency as low as 165 microseconds.
Seamless integration with AWS services: Helps customers unlock new insights and build AI-powered applications by applying AWS AI and analytics services, including Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Quick, and Amazon SageMaker, directly to their Oracle data. Customers can also connect Oracle AI Database workloads to the AWS services they already use, including zero-ETL integration with Amazon Redshift, which eliminates the need to build or manage data pipelines; Oracle-managed backups to Amazon S3; monitoring through Amazon CloudWatch; and building event-driven applications with Amazon EventBridge.
Support for Platinum Oracle Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA): Helps customers improve resiliency, accelerate application performance, and reduce manual intervention for mission-critical Oracle AI Database@AWS workloads. Learn more here.
Oracle AI Database@AWS now live in 22 AWS Regions: Customers have more deployment options with Oracle AI Database@AWS now available in 22 AWS Regions worldwide. Learn more here.
About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit oracle.com.
Leavitt’s departure three months before midterms raises questions over who will communicate Trump’s messages as his approval rating falls to record low, says YouGov polling
Donald Trump’s executive order on vaccines does not change the US recommendations for the shots – but experts say it does create confusion and doubt about vaccines, which will lead to more illness and possibly deaths among children and will make it harder for families and pediatricians to protect them.
The executive order was an attempt to reinstate sweeping changes to the vaccine schedule made earlier this year by Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services and a longtime vaccine opponent – changes that were later halted by a federal judge.
One of the most famous teams in the world is about to change hands for the second time in less than a year for more than $10bn. Will anyone push back?
One of the most brutal lessons we must learn as fans is that the team we shed blood, sweat and tears for is seen by those who own it as just one of many assets. That gap has never felt as wide as it does this week. On Wednesday, ESPN reported that the Los Angeles Lakers are set to change hands, for the second time in 10 months, for $12.5bn, a sum that would be a record for any North American sports team. (The deal must be approved by the NBA’s board of governors before it can go through.) The buyers aren’t diehards who saved up every penny like the good Dr Jerry Buss in the 1970s. Those days are gone. If and when the deal is approved, the new owners will be venture capitalist Josh Kushner and his business partner, Bob Iger. Kushner is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, the titleless Wormtongue to Donald Trump’s Saruman. Iger used to run Disney. These men have connections across the political world and influence in every corner of the American empire. A franchise woven into a city’s identity should never become an asset vastly wealthy people move around like a chip around a poker table. But that is exactly what the Lakers are about to become. The way the deal came together should terrify anyone who still thinks sports belong to the fans.
Mark Walter took control of the team from the Buss family last October at a valuation of roughly $10bn. Now he is set to cash out around $2bn richer. That’s not how this is supposed to work. The old guard, like Buss, used to guard their NBA teams like heirlooms and pass them down. Walter is set to flip the team after less than a year.
Scientists running large simulations can end up with terabytes of data that then has to be moved, stored and eventually analyzed. That has become more of an issue as GPUs have pushed up the speed and scale of scientific computing while storage and data-transfer bandwidth have not advanced at the same rate.
Researchers are tackling the problem with FaCTz, a new compression method built to run on GPUs. In testing, it compressed scientific data at up to 60 GB/s while keeping intact critical points that can be important when researchers later analyze the results. The work is detailed in a paper published on arXiv.
“Modern scientific simulations running on GPU-accelerated supercomputers generate data at rates that far exceed the available bandwidth for storage and transfer,” the authors wrote. “A single high-resolution simulation of fluids, combustion, or plasma systems can routinely produce terabytes of vector-field data in a single run.”
According to the authors, even the largest supercomputers aren’t immune. Moving these massive datasets takes time, while the gap between compute performance and I/O bandwidth keeps growing.
In HPC, compression would seem to be a fairly straightforward answer to the flood of data coming from scientific simulations. The difficulty is deciding what information can safely be thrown away.
(Shutterstock/eliahinsomnia)
There is often a tradeoff. Lossless compression preserves the original data but typically achieves compression ratios below 2x on floating-point data. Lossy compression can go much further, although even small changes to individual values can alter the larger structures scientists are interested in.
For vector fields, that includes critical points. These are locations where the field goes to zero and can help researchers identify and understand important behavior in a simulation. Losing or changing them during compression can therefore change what scientists see when they return to analyze the results.
The researchers ran four existing GPU compressors against the same data and found critical-point errors in all of them. The most dramatic case was cuZFP. On the Ocean dataset, it produced around 55,000 violations even with a PSNR of 129 dB. In other words, by a common measure the reconstructed data was extremely accurate, yet thousands of changes remained in its critical points.
An earlier method called cpSZ avoids this problem, but it leaves the GPU behind. The researchers developed a parallel version for comparison and ran it across 128 CPU threads. Throughput remained at roughly 0.1 to 0.2 GB/s.
The researchers designed FaCTz to make the calculations work in parallel. That required dealing with the relationships between neighboring points, which normally make the job difficult to divide across thousands of GPU threads. The team came up with two approaches: a block-wise version built primarily for speed and a per-point version that gives up some throughput to squeeze the data further.
Researchers tested FaCTz on an NVIDIA A100 GPU (Shutterstock_MAUZART)
“FaCTz preserves every critical point across all datasets and bounds while compressing on the GPU at up to 60 GB/s, two orders of magnitude (up to ∼640×) faster than parallel CPU cpSZ, while its speculative mode roughly doubles the block-wise ratio,” wrote the authors.
The researchers tested FaCTz on an NVIDIA A100 GPU using three scientific datasets. Two came from simulations of decaying turbulence, including one with 400 million vertices, while the third contained ocean-current data. The tests gave the researchers a mix of field sizes and scientific structures to work with.
Based on the published paper, FaCTz maintained its critical-point guarantee across all three datasets and the error bounds tested. Its two modes sustained compression throughput of roughly 25 to 60 GB/s, compared with about 0.1 to 0.2 GB/s for the 128-thread CPU implementation of cpSZ.
FaCTz isn’t necessarily faster than GPU compressors that don’t preserve topology. Those methods have less work to do because they make no guarantee that critical points will survive compression. And for HPC, that distinction matters.
Faster GPUs are allowing scientists to run larger and more detailed simulations, but producing the results is only part of the job. Those results still have to make their way through the rest of the system. FaCTz shows that compression can be pushed closer to GPU speeds without giving up some of the scientific information researchers need when they finally get around to studying all that data.
Republican senators have criticized the Pentagon for locking Democrats out of classified briefings on defense spending, warning that Pete Hegseth’s approach could jeopardize passage of Donald Trump’s record $1.5tn military budget increase.
The US defense secretary has made at least two trips to Capitol Hill in recent weeks to pitch the budget, but has repeatedly excluded Democrats from the closed-door sessions, according to lawmakers from both parties.
Afterpay has never turned a profit in Australia. Last month, it spent millions to take over a Sydney Olympic Park arena.
The company says Afterpay Arena will be the first venue where Australians can “buy now, pay later” for their event tickets, merchandise, dinner and even alcohol.
"In order to salve the mental health of freshman students, the University of Michigan has implemented a Pass/No Credit system for new students to improve their mental health," writes Slashdot reader Ol Olsoc. "The process, called 'Grade Covering,' is aimed at helping with the mental health crisis that students face by lessening grade pressure." Axios reports: U-M's College of Literature, Science and the Arts plans to replace first-semester letter grades on freshmen's transcripts with pass/no-credit marks, tentatively beginning in fall 2027. Professors would still assign grades, but they wouldn't appear on external transcripts or count toward students' GPAs.
U-M says the idea, known as "grade covering," could help students adjust to college, take academic risks and "embrace the joy of learning." University spokesperson Chris Sebastian tells Axios that LSA faculty, staff and students will continue shaping the pilot, with more details to come this fall. "While I am sure that there is some pressure on freshman students, one of the best ways of dealing with pressure is enduring it and overcoming it, not attempting to shield people from it," comments Ol Olsoc.
Aug. 13, 2026 — New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced a competitive Request for Proposals to establish up to four Regional Quantum Technology Commercialization Hubs across New York State. First proposed in her 2026 State of the State and funded with $60 million in the FY 2027 Budget, the initiative will help translate groundbreaking quantum research into new products, growing companies and good-paying jobs.
The hubs — administered by Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) — build on the Governor’s $300 million investment in the Quantum Research and Innovation Hub at SUNY Stony Brook, together forming a statewide network connecting universities, startups, industry and government partners to accelerate commercialization. Applications are due October 14, 2026; the RFP is available here.
“New York has never waited for the future to arrive — we invest in the people, ideas and infrastructure that will build it here. With this $60 million investment, we are creating regional hubs that will turn groundbreaking quantum research into growing companies, good-paying jobs and real-world solutions,” Governor Hochul said. “By connecting our world-class universities and researchers with entrepreneurs and industry partners across the state, we are ensuring that New York leads in one of the most consequential technologies of the next generation.”
Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight said, “Governor Hochul has made clear that New York will compete — and win — in the industries shaping the future. Our state already has world-class quantum researchers, facilities and ideas. These new hubs will connect those assets with the expertise, infrastructure and partnerships needed to turn quantum discoveries into New York companies, good-paying jobs and long-term economic growth.”
Empire State Development’s NYSTAR Executive Director Ben Verschueren said, “With these new hubs, we are preparing New York’s commercialization engine for the quantum era. This unmatched platform empowers innovators to take world-changing technologies from the lab to the market and drive economic growth for generations.”
Quantum technologies have the potential to transform industries through advances in computing, sensing and secure communications, with possible applications ranging from more secure financial transactions and renewable energy technologies to faster drug discovery. The sector is projected to generate $97 billion in global revenue by 2035, presenting a significant opportunity for New York to attract private investment, create jobs and strengthen its long-term economic competitiveness.
The Regional Quantum Technology Commercialization Hubs will become part of the NYSTAR network, expanding the statewide system that helps innovators transform discoveries into new products, businesses and career opportunities. The initiative also complements Governor Hochul’s broader innovation strategy, which includes major investments in life sciences, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing and other high-growth industries.
Each selected hub will receive up to $15 million to establish a regional anchor for quantum innovation. The hubs will focus on commercializing new inventions and developing real-world applications for quantum technologies. Each will also operate an incubator for quantum-focused startups, providing early-stage companies with critical resources, including mentorship and access to local quantum networks and quantum-computing resources.
Applicants must hold 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and demonstrate relevant experience in quantum research and development, technology incubation, and innovation-related operations. Two or more entities may apply jointly as a consortium, with one member designated as the lead applicant. Proposals will be evaluated on the strength of the hub’s operating plan, the applicant’s industry partnerships and expertise, its capacity to support early-stage companies, access to advanced tools and research infrastructure, and proposed cost of services.
ESD will host an informational session for prospective applicants on Friday, August 21, 2026. Those interested must email QuantumTechCommHubs2026@esd.ny.gov for an application and submit by Tuesday, August 18, 2026.
The Reform UK leader resigned as the MP for Clacton at the start of July and forced a byelection
The number of patients in England being cared for in hospital corridors or makeshift areas has remained above 3,000 a day for the second month in a row, as the NHS experiences a “summer surge”, the Press Association reports.
Yvette Cooper, the health secretary, warned yesterday the health service must start planning for summer pressures in the same way as winter.
However, the data shows overall waiting times for treatment fell slightly in June after rising for two months in a row.
The NHS normally experiences spikes in demand during the summer months, as the public spends more time outside which can lead to a rise in accidents. But this summer has seen unprecedented pressure, with the heat contributing to an increase in admissions caused by more outdoor activity and respiratory issues linked to dry weather, as well as worsening of underlying medical conditions.
The first minister is right to ask about this. This is 1,500 jobs in the north of Scotland. It’s also an area that is being transformed by that move towards offshore renewables, Scotland continuing to contribute.
It’s an area which is, in general terms, important for security. Scotland is contributing to European energy security, which is a concern across Europe when you speak to leaders there.
As hotter summers become the norm, home aircon can feel increasingly tempting. We put six units to the test for cooling power, noise and energy use – and explain what you need to know before buying
Tell people you’re testing air conditioning, and the truth soon comes out: far more people have aircon than you’d ever imagine. It’s a guilty secret, the home improvement equivalent of Botox or weight loss jabs – everyone notices the results, but nobody admits to the method. Most portable aircons are in bedrooms, hidden away from visitors, so they’re easy to keep secret. And while friends with aircon don’t suddenly look younger or slimmer, they do look suspiciously well rested during a heatwave, while you’ve spent the night tossing and turning.
So if you’re using an aircon unit, why have it in the bedroom? Warm air rises, so upstairs bedrooms can be the hottest by the end of the day, making for restless nights. And if your bedroom is in a loft conversion, it’s even worse: the roof absorbs the sun’s heat all day before radiating it back into the room after dark.
(The Center Square) – Four former federal antitrust officials say regulators should take a close look at who is objecting to the proposed $85 billion merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern.
The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel stands on the same stretch of Kohala Coast shoreline where Laurance S. Rockefeller developed the resort in 1965 around his vision of harmonizing with the island’s natural beauty. Six decades later, the resort undertook its…
Disciplinary proceedings under way after security concerns raised over reported visits to official residence
France has opened disciplinary proceedings against its ambassador to Central African Republic over allegations of misconduct, after claims he brought dozens of women into his official residence, raising potential security concerns.
The investigation comes as Paris seeks to rebuild relations with CAR after their sharp deterioration in recent years amid Russia’s expanding influence in the former French colony.
As Karoline Leavitt plans to step down, it’s apparent how the president above all values a readiness to twist the truth
As Karoline Leavitt prepares to step down from her role as Donald Trump’s fifth White House press secretary, a brief review of her tenure, and that of her predecessors, makes clear that the most fabulist president in US history prizes one quality above all else in the women and men who speak for him: a willingness to tell outrageous lies.
Leavitt started her tenure by telling a wild falsehood at her very first news conference, when she claimed that the Biden administration had planned to use $50m in taxpayer dollars to send condoms to Gaza. Later the same day, the Guardian reported that the claim was directly contradicted by USAID records.
Experts say better regulation is needed but that bad press about ‘motorized menaces’ puts the ebike revolution at risk
Beware, Americans: there’s a battery-powered threat cruising down beach paths, rolling up hiking trails and zipping along the streets of our cities.
By now, you’ve probably seen footage on social media of teens racing along streets, popping wheelies and weaving around car traffic with reckless abandon. The Los Angeles Times recently dubbed them the “new Hells Angels”. Other news outlets have referred to them as “motorized menaces” terrorizing communities. Sounds scary.
AIKEN, S.C., Aug. 13, 2026 — Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) will lead projects supporting critical national security and environmental stewardship goals for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) and National Nuclear Security Administration, as part of the first projects recently announced for the Genesis Mission.
“SRNL has built decades of expertise tackling complex environmental cleanup and nuclear materials challenges,” said SRNL Director Johney Green. “As we embark on the Genesis Mission, we are eager to harness this depth of expertise in collaboration with our partners across national laboratories, industry and academic institutions. By integrating our longstanding scientific knowledge with emerging AI capabilities, we are accelerating discovery in ways that will strengthen our national security, environmental, and energy missions.”
Nearly 300 projects selected from a historic request for applications response span all 50 states. The national portfolio of research teams will help develop and demonstrate AI-enabled scientific workflows designed to accelerate breakthroughs in energy, discovery science and national security.
Designed to double America’s scientific productivity, President Donald Trump’s historic Genesis Mission brings together DOE’s world-class scientific capabilities, advanced artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and the nation’s leading researchers to transform how scientific discovery is conducted and strengthen American leadership in science and technology.
SRNL is developing first-of-its-kind AI models designed to solve complex challenges in environmental remediation, waste management and infrastructure resilience — ultimately safeguarding national security assets while yielding over $150 billion in lifecycle cleanup savings.
SRNL will lead the following environmental projects:
The VITA-SCALE project leverages physics-based AI to accurately predict how nuclear waste behaves during vitrification at full scale. Vitrification, the process of converting waste materials into glass, is used by EM for long-term storage. VITA-SCALE overcomes the limitations of small-lab analyses and steady-state models, and accelerates EM cleanup, reduces costs and improves safety with plans to open-source its models for broader innovation.
The SCOPE project uses AI, chemistry and physics-based modeling to more accurately predict the behavior of radioactive liquid waste during treatment. This improved understanding can help prevent costly process disruptions, such as unexpected solids formation, reducing operational risk while improving process efficiency.
Photo Courtey of Volunteer Engagement Accelerator. Created with AI on 8/13
For nonprofits, volunteers can expand capacity, relieve pressure on staff and help organizations serve more people. For volunteers, Williamson believes the rewards can be equally significant.
By John Riddle
For Angela Williamson, volunteering is about much more than filling an empty shift, helping at an event or adding another name to a nonprofit’s roster.
It is about belonging.
Williamson, founder of Volunteer Engagement Accelerator (VEA), has spent nearly two decades working in volunteer engagement and nonprofit leadership. Today, she helps mission-driven organizations develop stronger systems for attracting, supporting and retaining volunteers, while helping those volunteers find meaningful ways to contribute.
“As a consultant, I help nonprofits create places where people belong, and I focus on volunteer engagement,” Williamson said. “Volunteer engagement is where people give of their time, their talents, their heart, their passion and their donations because they want to make their world and the nonprofit a better place to be.”
Williamson holds the Certified in Volunteer Administration credential, or CVA. She is a past president of the Delaware Association of Volunteer Administrators and received the AL!VE Impact Award in 2022. She has presented at conferences, appeared on podcasts and serves as an instructor for NOVAA 101, helping volunteer administrators develop stronger leadership skills.
Her passion for volunteering, however, began long before it became her profession.
As a child, Williamson watched her parents volunteer in many different capacities. One of her earliest memories involves volunteering at the Delaware State Fair, where she helped pick up litter and received concert tickets in return.
“I thought that was the best, most amazing thing ever as a kid,” she recalled.
Those childhood experiences also taught her something about the importance of making people feel included.
“I’ve always had that heart, I think, of helping the ones that don’t feel belonging, because I have felt left out before,” Williamson said. “As a kid, feeling left out, I think my heart grew for those people who did also feel left out.”
That desire to create connections remains at the heart of her work.
“I love volunteering because it helps people. It helps the community,” she said. “I get to grow, others get to grow, and it just builds a better world, a better community and better people along the way.”
Volunteering Is Changing
While the desire to help remains strong, Williamson says the way people volunteer has changed.
“I think volunteering has changed in what and how and when, but the passion and the desire to help others of volunteers is still deep-seated,” she said.
One challenge is that people are busy and often reluctant to make long-term commitments. Some prefer to decide at the last minute whether they are available, while nonprofits may need to know well in advance if someone will fill a particular shift.
Williamson believes organizations need to adapt by reconsidering what volunteers can do, how much time they need to give and even where the work takes place.
“We do need to, as a nonprofit field, adapt and change and create different volunteer roles and responsibilities and times and places,” she said.
That could include shorter assignments, one-time opportunities, virtual volunteering and skills-based projects.
Williamson also believes volunteering can help address another challenge facing many people today: a need for greater human connection.
“By volunteering and getting out into the world, doing things that are good for the world and connecting with people, people’s mental well-being can be supported and encouraged toward a more positive view,” she said.
Finding the Right Fit
For someone interested in volunteering, Williamson recommends starting by understanding what kind of experience best matches his or her personality.
“Know your personality,” she said.
Do you prefer working behind the scenes or interacting with people? Do you like structure or flexibility? Would you rather work independently or as part of a team?
“There are so many options,” Williamson said. “Sometimes a bad fit isn’t great. Even though you want to help, maybe it’s not the best fit for you. So, find the best-fit volunteer role for you, and you will flourish and do great, and the nonprofit will appreciate it.”
Opportunities can include one-time events, ongoing assignments, direct service, behind-the-scenes work, skills-based volunteering, leadership positions and board service.
And not having much free time does not necessarily rule out volunteering.
“You might not think you have time to volunteer, but sometimes it’s just an hour,” Williamson said.
Virtual and at-home opportunities can provide additional flexibility.
Once someone finds the right opportunity, Williamson emphasizes some basics that can make a big difference: Show up when promised, communicate if plans change, ask questions and speak up if something is not working.
When the Nonprofit Doesn’t Call Back
What happens when someone wants to volunteer, contacts an organization and never hears back?
Williamson says not to give up too quickly.
“If you’ve had a ‘bad’ experience or an organization did not get back to you, please be patient and ask them again,” she said. “Maybe give them three tries. Three strikes and you’re out, maybe. But not all volunteering is like that.”
Ironically, the reason a nonprofit does not respond may be the same reason it needs volunteers.
Staff members are often juggling numerous responsibilities with limited time and resources. An organization may desperately need additional help while lacking an effective system for recruiting and onboarding the people offering it.
That is one of the problems Williamson created Volunteer Engagement Accelerator to address.
“That’s where, as a consultant, I go in and help nonprofits organize themselves better so that they can respond more quickly and in more efficient ways,” she said. “I like helping nonprofits build that bridge toward volunteers and understanding to get people more involved.”
For nonprofits, volunteers can expand capacity, relieve pressure on staff and help organizations serve more people. For volunteers, Williamson believes the rewards can be equally significant.
“When you volunteer, you feel great because you’re making a difference in a cause, a movement, somebody’s life, a pet’s life, whatever that is, whatever the nonprofit mission is,” she said.
People looking for opportunities can contact nonprofits directly or explore resources such as AARP Create the Good and Idealist. In Delaware, Williamson points potential volunteers toward Volunteer Delaware, United Way of Delaware and Delaware Difference Makers.
And for anyone who thinks volunteering is simply about giving away valuable time, Williamson offers another way to look at it.
“It can be a résumé builder. It can be the reason and purpose to get out of bed in the morning,” she said. “It can be all sorts of things to all sorts of people, but it’s all beneficial.”
Phillip Ormerod was taken to hospital after the incident in the Crow’s Nest in Cwmbran and later died of his injuries
A 102-year-old man has died of his injuries after allegedly being assaulted at a pub in south Wales.
Phillip Ormerod, of Cwmbran in the Welsh valleys, was taken to hospital after the incident at the Crow’s Nest pub on 1 August. Gwent police said on Thursday that he had since died.
Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as regulator says five companies can raise bills to pay for infrastructure for new housing and datacentres
The biggest factor for the FTSE 100’s underperformance on Thursday morning relative to other European markets is a big decline in the mining sector.
Chilean miner Antofagasta is the biggest faller on London’s benchmark index, down 4.9% after it cut its guidance for future output.
The London-listed miner cut its 2026 copper output estimate to between 625,000 and 655,000 metric tons, from a previous forecast of 650,000 to 700,000 tons, due to a shutdown at its Los Pelambres mine in July after extreme rains prompted Chile’s government to declare a “state of catastrophe” in the Coquimbo Region.
While there has been no material impact on key equipment and infrastructure, the miner said it will need to repair some pipeline platforms and water management systems.
Robert Gilman, a U.S. Marine veteran, was imprisoned in Russia for over four years and now faces a long road to recovery, says a hostage crisis expert who advocated for Gilman's release.
The owner of Sports Direct has bought Harvey Nichols out of administration after the upmarket department store chain warned it could run out of money if it did not find new funding.
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group said on Thursday it had bought the chain, which is headquartered at its store in Knightsbridge, for an undisclosed sum on the day it was put into administration. Harvey Nichols has 1,200 employees and 13 stores.
Prize was eighth largest in Powerball history and followed three months without a top prize winner
A Powerball ticket sold at a gas station in western Illinois was the sole winner of the $1bn jackpot, ending a three-month drought without a top-prize victor.
The ticket that won the jackpot on Wednesday night was purchased at a Hy-Vee station in Quincy, about 100 miles (160km) west of the state capital of Springfield along the Missouri border, Illinois Lottery officials said. The winning numbers were 4-26-66-67-69 with the Powerball number of 9.
TORONTO, Aug. 13, 2026 — Xanadu Quantum Technologies Limited and the University of Alberta have announced a strategic research partnership to pioneer novel quantum algorithms for cancer treatment. This partnership, led by the Xanadu algorithms team and Professor Alex Brown from the University of Alberta, aims to develop a quantum computing framework that can accelerate the design of next-generation photosensitizers used in photodynamic therapy, a powerful, non-invasive therapeutic cancer treatment.
Photodynamic cancer therapy uses light-activated compounds, called photosensitizers, to selectively destroy tumor cells, while avoiding the side effects of traditional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy. However, discovering new and more effective photosensitizers can be difficult, as it requires either slow and costly experiments or classical simulations that don’t take into account crucial interactions determining their effectiveness.
Xanadu has recently released results pioneering the use of quantum computers to simulate important light-matter interactions in photosensitizers, which are critical for determining key properties that are difficult to predict using classical computational approaches. These include their sensitivity to specific wavelengths and their efficiency in triggering cancer cell death. Professor Brown has published highly influential work on benchmarking computational simulations of photosensitizer systems. By combining their expertise, Xanadu and Professor Brown aim to further explore how quantum computing can overcome classical computational challenges in photodynamic drug discovery.
“Current methodologies for developing effective photosensitizers are hampered by a variety of hurdles. By leveraging early fault-tolerant quantum computers to model critical light-matter interactions within photosensitizers, we are positioning quantum computing as a highly competitive method for accelerating photodynamic drug discovery,” said Dr. Christian Weedbrook, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xanadu.
“Photosensitizers are challenging systems because their performance depends on excited-state processes that are difficult to capture accurately with standard computational methods. By combining Xanadu’s quantum algorithm expertise with our experience in modeling photodynamic therapy systems, we’re excited to explore how fault-tolerant quantum computing could provide new tools for understanding and designing more effective light-activated cancer treatments,” said Professor Alex Brown, Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta.
This partnership aims to strengthen Xanadu’s quantum-based workflow for drug design, expanding the framework to tackle increasingly sophisticated challenges in photosensitizer development. Professor Brown’s contributions will be vital in identifying important mechanisms that determine therapeutic effectiveness. Together, Xanadu and University of Alberta will use quantum computing to push the boundaries of drug development and simulations for use in the pharmaceutical industry.
About Xanadu
Founded in 2016, Xanadu is a Canadian photonic quantum computing company with the mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. Xanadu is building fault-tolerant quantum computers using light, with systems designed to compute at room temperature. Backed by more than $600 million USD in funding, Xanadu develops both hardware and software, including PennyLane, its open-source quantum computing platform. Xanadu is the first pure-play photonic quantum computing company to list on public markets (Nasdaq/TSX: XNDU) and is recognized globally for its breakthroughs in scalable quantum technologies.
South American fish with razor-toothed jaws was probably released by someone who owned it as a pet, officials say
An eight-year-old boy fishing for bass in Pennsylvania was stunned to catch something more associated with the Amazon – and countless horror movies – than the rolling landscape of the eastern US.
Seamus Coffey, who was fishing with his father Michael in a lake near Philadelphia, hauled in a large red-bellied piranha, complete with the razor-toothed jaws that the fearsome breed is so famous for.
Valter Lavitola has confessed to masterminding bombing at home of investigative reporter Sigfrido Ranucci
An Italian businessman has admitted to masterminding a bomb attack at the home of Sigfrido Ranucci, a prominent investigative journalist, claiming it was intended to boost his security protection.
Valter Lavitola, who was friends with Ranucci, the host of Report, an investigative programme aired by the state broadcaster, Rai, made the confession to investigators after his arrest earlier this week in connection with the case, the businessman’s lawyer, Sergio Cola, told the Italian media.
The senators’ letter says the administration’s handling of the project raises “concerns about transparency, accountability, and stewardship of this national landmark.”
PC; Replicant D6 This GoldenEye 007-styled retro shooter is an agreeable set of straightahead shooting missions that hark back to a simpler time, with simpler controls
With 007 First Light, 2026 has already given us the best James Bond game in more than three decades, since the release of Rare’s N64 classic GoldenEye 007. But what about those players whose loyalties lie not with the super-spy himself but the particulars of that 90s interpretation of his adventures?
Enter Agent 64: Spies Never Die. Made almost entirely by a single developer (who goes by the very cloak-and-dagger alias Replicant D6), its production values couldn’t be much further from the blockbuster First Light. There’s no voice acting, with all dialogue instead delivered via subtitles, while each location on your globe-trotting adventure is depicted by a repeating texture wallpapered over scenery so blocky you can count the individual polygons.
The prize is the eighth largest in Powerball history. The player with the winning numbers can choose a lump sum of $450 million or a series of payments made over 29 years.
China, Kimi K3 and WAICO: Can Beijing win the AI race and make the rules too? Expert commentLToremark
As its AI models catch up to US rivals, China wants to set the rules that govern AI use.
China has made no secret of its AI ambitions. Back in 2017, its Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan set out its goal of becoming the ‘world’s primary AI innovation centre’ by 2030.
Now, Beijing is fleshing out a crucial dimension to the plan. Backed by the technological excellence of the latest Chinese models, China is articulating a vision for what principles should underpin how AI works and how it should be governed globally.
But without the impressive AI models that have gained a broad following around the world, Beijing’s overtures to lead AI governance would lack traction. The symbiosis between its development of frontier AI models and Beijing’s governance push was on display in the run up to the launch of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO) in Shanghai last month.
Just before the conference opened, Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 – a powerful Large Language Model (LLM) with 2.8 trillion parameters – was launched. The model is open weight, meaning that it can be downloaded and modified by users to serve their specific purposes. This makes a contrast with LLMs owned by US companies like OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, which are closed weight – meaning they cannot be downloaded and modified.
Kimi K3 is currently ranked in the top three on the Vals Index after two Claude LLMs, taking the Chinese model to the forefront of global AI tech. For potential users around the world, this is an attractive offer. The Chinese model provides cutting-edge performance with an open-weight format – and can be operated much more cheaply (per million output tokens) than the leading US models.
Such structural advantages underpin China’s AI diplomacy as well as its bid to be a rule-setter by creating institutions such as WAICO. The overtures that China made at the conference in Shanghai leave no doubt that its strategy is to woo the countries of the Global South and use their agency to help set the norms and rules that govern AI internationally.
Indeed, all 29 founding members of WAICO are countries of the Global South, including Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia, South Africa, Senegal, Russia and Pakistan. Beijing has plans to vastly expand WAICO’s membership, mostly through further additions from the Global South, according to a private conversation with a Chinese official.
In his speech to announce WAICO, China’s President Xi Jinping promised to ‘help Global South countries with capacity building to bridge the AI and digital divides’ and ‘prevent creating new historical injustice in AI’. His statements build on principles established by China’s Global AI Governance Action Plan, published last year, which include supporting the Global South and assisting them in ‘truly accessing and utilizing AI’.
China has outlined plans to provide some 5,000 training opportunities through cooperation centres in forums that are either led by China or has China as a key member, including ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), the African Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS.
Another feature of China’s vision for global AI governance is that it should remain under human control, resisting a version of AGI – artificial general intelligence – in which AI models train themselves autonomously and create a super intelligent system that is beyond human control. Human control in China’s context effectively means under the control of key Communist party bodies such as the Cyberspace Administration of China. In his WAICO speech, Xi said that laws, regulations, technological monitoring and emergency response systems should be put in place to strengthen security.
But although the combination of China’s latest AI models and its governance vision create a potent offering to countries around the world, there are challenges on the horizon.
One concern is Beijing’s moves to potentially limit the transfer overseas of key data for the training of Chinese LLM models, according to the Financial Times. Discussions have reportedly been held by Chinese government agencies with Alibaba, ByteDance and Zhipu on whether to allow their AI model weights to be downloaded by foreign users. Such restrictions would reduce the appeal of Chinese LLMs, potentially undercutting their global popularity.
Another key challenge for Beijing revolves around the vexed question of AI’s capacity to take people’s jobs. With some 320 million people working in China’s ‘gig economy’ – without worker’s rights protection and social welfare provisions – the issue of under-employment is already a sensitive topic in China. Without comprehensive national policies to offset AI-induced job losses, this could prove to be a blind spot for Beijing.
In several key respects, the two superpowers are running very different races.
The bigger picture, though, concerns whether China or the US has a better strategy to win the AI race. This so far is hard to judge because in several key respects, the two superpowers are running very different races.
China is popularizing open-weight or open-source models that are computationally efficient and either free or inexpensive to download and use. And it is proving to be a very successful strategy: the suite of Qwen models from Alibaba have racked up nearly one billion cumulative downloads, according to the South China Morning Post. This international footprint helps reinforce China’s bid to lead a process – through WAICO – of drafting rules and setting norms for AI’s usage internationally.
The US, by contrast, is relying on closed, proprietary models that do not allow users to download the LLM’s code or change its underlying weights, thereby preventing customization by users. One reason for this approach is to maintain a high level of security as US labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic pursue AGI. Another reason behind the closed, high-security approach to AI is the technology’s importance for the US military. But things could be changing. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called for lower US barriers for open-source AI to compete with Chinese models. Nvidia, one of the world’s most valuable companies, has launched the open-source and open-weight Nemotron 3.5, breaking the US pattern.
In truth, the US–China AI race is still in its early stages. And so far, the two superpowers are competing on very different terms.
Japanese PM says islands seized by Soviets late in second world war are part of her country under international law
The Japanese government has reacted angrily to Vladimir Putin’s first visit to the disputed Kuril Islands, which are claimed by both Tokyo and Moscow.
Japan’s foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, summoned the Russian ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev, while the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, called Putin’s actions “absolutely unacceptable”.
Andy Burnham has accused water companies of treating their customers “as a bottomless source of funding” for the industry’s failings, after proposals that will push households bills even higher were approved.
Millions of households in England and Wales will face higher bills after water companies were given the green light to spend £3.4bn more than planned, including to support new homes and datacentres.
The transport safety watchdog is investigating a a third near-collision between two planes at Sydney airport – the latest incident occurring hours after one that made national news and raised concerns about air traffic control.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said on Thursday night that it was investigating a second “runway incursion” on Sunday 9 August.
It’s a nice sentiment, but all AI users should ask three questions about their preferred choice of AI platform
On Monday, Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,500-word essay, The Future Is for Everyone. The essay came with something even rarer: a new Meta open-weight model. An open-weight AI model is the kind of AI with which you download the entire thing, and it works on your own computer (with or without the internet) and nobody can switch it off except for you. Almost every mainstream AI tool you use, whether it be Gemini, ChatGPT or Claude, is one you rent access to. Meta’s is one that you can download and actually own. I downloaded it before I finished the essay. So can you.
This major move by the world’s largest tech heavyweight comes amid a summer heavy with AI news, full of nations at war. Washington against Beijing; tech founder against tech founder. But beneath those conflicts is a deeper contest between two kinds of power: a government that can order technology offline in an instant, and a company that can simply close your account. Neither is necessarily villainous. But the rest of us are not merely the audience in this fight; we are the prize. And the terms are already being written: intelligence on lease, a future we pay for but never quite own.
The congresswoman’s decision is an assertion of women’s freedom and dignity at a time when our status is rapidly eroding
“Don’t be weird about this,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive star and rumored 2028 presidential contender, said on her live video broadcast as she raised her shirt to angle the syringe into her abdomen. Then, with resignation, “even though I know all of you will be.”
The New York Democrat is 36 years old, and this week she revealed that she is beginning the process of freezing her eggs during Congress’s August recess. In the video, Ocasio-Cortez said that she was seeking to destigmatize the realities of women’s lives as they navigate the conflicting demands of professional aspiration and family building; she explained to viewers the process of the hormonal injections she was administering to herself, showing them the drugs and injector she was using arrayed on a paper towel, beside a disinfecting towelette. The procedure, Ocasio-Cortez explained, was not covered by her insurance, and she would be paying “100% out of pocket”. She had been saving to afford it for some time. “This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life,” she said, going on to assert her hope that transparency about such questions will destigmatize women’s reproductive lives and promote their dignity.
State is US’s largest user of pesticide that is virtually proven to cause Parkinson’s disease
California is banning paraquat, a highly toxic, controversial herbicide used across millions of acres of American cropland.
Public health advocates characterize it as a deadly substance that is virtually proven to cause Parkinson’s disease. It is already outlawed in more than 70 countries, including China, the UK and the EU. Yet in the US, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reapproved it for use in 2021 and 2024.
Ethics experts and Democrats express alarm as Trump uses office to grow his personal fortune to ‘unprecedented’ level
Donald Trump’s use of his second presidency to grow his personal fortune has alarmed legal and ethics experts and congressional Democrats as he has reaped an “unprecedented” $2.2bn in 2025 revenues by amassing big cryptocurrency holdings, benefiting from wealthy foreign interests, expanding his Truth Social business and more, while federal oversight of his actions has waned.
Trump last year raked in at least $1.4bn from his crypto ventures according to financial disclosure forms he filed in June. Simultaneously, about one million investors in a Trump crypto scheme suffered almost $3.8bn in losses as their volatile crypto holdings tanked in value.
Rescuers in Colombia were making last-ditch efforts to locate earthquake survivors early Thursday as the critical 72-hour window for rescue operations neared its end.
Indiana faced most outages at 267,000, about 8% of its customers, with severe thunderstorms and wind ahead
Power supply was cut on Thursday to about 540,000 homes and businesses across the US midwest as severe storms battered the region, data from PowerOutage.us showed.
Indiana was the hardest-hit state, with more than 267,000 outages, representing about 8% of its roughly 3.3 million customers, the data showed.
I went to my high school prom when I was 14. My boyfriend was 19.
On paper, this admission will conjure up a smorgasbord of reactions, and mostly, whatever reaction you’re having, (let’s say you’re a human living with a balanced mindset) is probably correct.
Allow yourself to imagine the 14-year-old me. Here I am. I’ve already accomplished things I’m proud of: I’ve won the Grand Theatre’s Young Playwrights Competition, and I sashay into high school an accomplished pianist and performer, with more than a few sweet awards already behind me. I’d been at the top of my class throughout elementary school and even graduated as valedictorian, despite coating St. John Fisher School in shaving foam on my last day of Grade 8 and enduring the wrath of Mrs. Traill, who threatened to strip me of my distinction.
My parents are busy running their newspaper business, and John, my 19-year-old boyfriend, a friend of my brother’s, is, in my view, completely respectful. We are first, friends. He lets me navigate the relationship at my own pace. We sit around for hours watching episodes of Friday the 13th and listening to Queen. We’re only intimate to a certain point. He visits our house a lot and is part of the family.
Fast-forward to 2024.
I had never thought anything of this relationship with John. He and I had even exchanged a few messages over the years, referencing some of our old jokes and catching up with random small talk. But it was on a trip to Aruba in 2024, surrounded by nightlife and beaches and New Year’s Eve, when I started to become aware of just who someone is at age 19, that it hit me like a sledgehammer to the side of my head.
Photo by Vera Wijermars
I’ve come to understand it differently now. In 1990, in the middle of nowhere Ontario, no one was really looking at what this relationship meant for me.
We were intimate “to a certain point,” but I’ve learned that those distinctions don’t necessarily tell you much. Attachment doesn’t organize itself neatly around a line you did or didn’t cross. Actions and emotions intertwine. Bonding happens. Confusion happens.
He was kind to me. It felt normal to me. Both of those things can be true, and still not change what I see now when I zoom out: I was fourteen. He was nineteen. I should not have been left to navigate that on my own.
Today, I live through the lens, as much as I can, of forgiveness. Forgiveness for ignorance or neglect. Adults, especially those living with generational or cultural trauma, make their own attempt to survive the grind of daily life. I’ll never know what was really going on back then, and I’m certainly not going to hang it all out in a Substack: things I don’t understand.
But I learned through writing my book that instead of assuming what others’ experiences were, you can only look at your own and take appropriate accountability. Unfortunately, this can only be done in the adult years, with the gift of a developed brain, lived experience and the love of people around you who can reinforce what respect and care really is. Those things that happened to us in childhood, as we all know, end up running the show.
Thank you, childhood.
The fallout from being left to navigate a relationship like that at 14 has been significant. First, there is what I couldn’t possibly understand then. Then there is the reckoning that came in 2024, the sledgehammer realization of seeing it clearly for the first time. Even that went largely unattended, by the people around me and, in some ways, by me.
So now there is the aftermath: a pile of jagged glass I have to gather up. Gloves on or gloves off. I can choose who surrounds me as I do the hard work of softening into clarity. I can choose people who are gentle, supportive and willing to care. But the gathering is mine. At the risk of elbowing my way through deep emotions in a inelegant attempt to armchair psychoanalyze, I notice some of the wounding.
I live with the message that my worth is tied to my sexuality.
I live with a loss of some aspects of childhood that may have existed in my early teens.
I am untrusting of adults, at times.
I subconsciously believe that I am not worth deep care and love.
I have sometimes rationalized neglect in my own life.
I have, at times, unconsciously, made a home for emotional manipulation.
And sure, this seed of unease and pain, combined with my love for writing and music, probably whipped me into a pretty great songwriter. You’re welcome.
Therein lies another issue. The ticket I rode out of rural Ontario on (my musical gift) became a measure of my worth, in part because some of the other ways of valuing myself simply didn’t exist. The promise of a life in music became a blanket I would cling to well into my forties. The thought of someone taking that blanket away, even as it was becoming ratty and perhaps no longer necessary, was terrifying.
The sad part is that it’s kept me from truly enjoying the melodies and lyrics I create. I think with my new album, I might finally be starting to unravel some of that.
The “falling in love with my music” is coming from being surrounded by safe people in the studio, like Kara, who has been engineering, or Kevin, who played cello. It’s come through a handful of caring fans who hold me carefully, and through the blunt admission that it’s been fucking hard to make this new album. And that it’s okay to admit that.
I think, if anything, reflecting on this injustice, this abuse I didn’t understand as abuse at the time, has allowed the broken parts of my shell to finally start cracking and falling away, revealing a very young girl who, honestly, values something more than big stages, Juno Award nominations, or songs in HBO shows.
What I’ve come to appreciate most is someone asking, “How are you?” and really, truly meaning the question.
And if I’m completely honest, what I’m learning to celebrate are the moments (and they are new) when, at the end of a long day, I ask myself the same thing, and find that I’m perfectly okay with whatever answer comes back.
So I just had the most bizarre & ridiculous crash at 23mph. I was riding on this sidewalk near my house heading to my favorite ride spots, it's a bridge I have to cross to get over the freeway & I know it like the back of my hand, every single crack/bump... Which part of the sidewalk to avoid etc etc.
So I usually get going at a decent speed cause there is never a soul walking right here, so I have nothing to be worried about...
WRONG!!!
I have become completely comfortable with this ride & that's where I messed up, focus wise.
The sun was just going down so it was also getting slightly dark out so my vision wasnt 100%
Also had two tall beers at sushi about 40 minutes prior... So I had a nice light buzz going..
Well as I'm heading down the bridge on the sidewalk still, I notice ahead of me laid perfectly across the whole entire sidewalk there's an object & it's thick as hell & it's coming up very fast!
The whole thing is ridiculous because this thing is right next to the damn light pole spot, which of course is taking up the other quarter section of this sidewalk therefore leaving me absolutely ZERO escape routes.
To the left of that is an extremely busy road with non stop traffic flying by so trying to jump off the curb at 23+mph into traffic didn't even cross my mind.
"I have to hit this & try to ride it out" my brain says.
Id say... I had maybe 15ft from the time I noticed the blockage to react & then decide wtf I was going to do.
So I just said faaaaaaaackkk it!!!
I don't bail at high speeds, never bail at high speeds in my opinion (I've rode out so many near crashes by just riding it out, that's just an automatic crash so nah.
Bent my knees & prepared the best I could.
But mentally I knew I was going to get wrecked & even thought it right before I hit it lol, like ahhh damn this is some bs, im cooked 😂😂
Man when I hit this thing.. it was a straight bounce pad & launched me.
The board jumped up and I landed it, but at that speed when it landed slightly off center it spit the front of my board so violently to the right & then i think just from my body weight being shifted it swung back to the left just as quick & sent my a$$ flying.
I got one foot down & then got slammed chest first, sliding into the damn street. 🙃
As I was crashing, I could hear a car's tires burning rubber against the pavement behind me trying to come to a stop.
Thankfully they stopped well before me.
They even checked on me as I laid on my back rolling around like a tweaker unable to breathe or talk, nothing but wincing & grunting sounds 😂😂
My right thumb got jacked up pretty good, but besides the nasty road rash on my left arm, left leg , left hip, & lower back im perfectly fine. So that is a major positive & im very thankful no serious injuries happened. 🙏🏻
Here's a picture of this HUGE CHUNK OF STYROFOAM!!!! 😡 🤦🏻♂️ (Notice how it's PERFECTLY next to that light pole)
OF ALL THINGS TO BE ON A PATH......
REALLY..???
Still can't believe it honestly.
Stay safe out there, sometimes a crash finds you for no reason...
Why Carney’s pipeline gamble is a bad bet for Canadian taxpayersExpert commentjon.wallace
Tensions with the US and Alberta are leading Prime Minister Carney to back new oil and gas infrastructure. Smoothing the path to electrification would be a better use of public funds.
Since taking office in January 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney has steered Canada’s energy policy away from reducing emissions towards increasing fossil fuel exports.
Some would argue that he had little choice. The Canadian economy is under pressure amidst the trade war launched by the administration of President Donald Trump. Carney took office with a mandate to de-risk Canada from the increasingly hostile United States, which buys over 90 per cent of Canada’s crude oil exports, and practically all its natural gas exports.
Additionally, the prime minister had to address a significant domestic issue: relations between Ottawa and Alberta, the province responsible for three-quarters of Canadian oil and gas production, had become increasingly toxic.
But Carney’s pivot may backfire, for one simple reason. The new markets Canada is relying upon for export growth will not buy imported oil and gas forever. And they may reduce their consumption sooner than anticipated.
Pouring taxpayer money into export infrastructure, largely to the benefit of foreign companies, doesn’t de-risk Canada’s economy. It risks swapping dependence on the US for other uncertain foreign markets.
Export focus
Carney is seeking to diversify the customer base for Canadian oil and gas away from the US by increasing the capacity for seaborne exports from Western Canada.
In July, Alberta and Ottawa agreed a new east-to-west oil pipeline, projected to carry 1 million barrels a day (b/d) of crude, following the route of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline. Officials expect operations to begin in 2033 or 2034. The pipeline, along with major liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure already under development in British Columbia, has been fast-tracked through the newly created federal Major Projects Office.
Significant public spending has been dedicated to the task, on the grounds that what is spent will be returned to the public purse many times over in royalties, tax receipts, and economic growth.
Meanwhile federal and provincial support for the LNG drive is expected to reach C$4 billion by 2031. And new tax breaks incentivizing oil and gas production have also been introduced.
The government calls these projects ‘nation-building’. But foreign companies and investors will be among the primary beneficiaries. LNG Canada is a joint venture of Shell, PETRONAS, PetroChina, Mitsubishi Corporation and the Korean Gas Corporation. Ksi Lisims LNG, a proposed export terminal in British Columbia, is set be built, owned and operated by wholly-owned subsidiaries of Texas-based Western LNG, according to reports and government documents. Indeed, nearly 60 per cent of Canada’s oil and gas production is owned by American private equity.
Of course, the export strategy dovetails with a domestic political imperative. The Albertan independence movement saw surging support during the tenure of Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau. Carney will hope that by supporting major new investments that benefit the province’s energy industry, and by weakening climate policies, he can neutralize the threat of secession.
Flawed logic
There would be a clear economic, political and geopolitical logic to Carney’s strategy – if taxpayers could be assured of robust, long-term demand for Canada’s oil and gas in new markets. But that looks uncertain.
Canada is pinning its hopes on Asia: giants like China and India; and fast-growing Southeast Asian nations like Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Indeed, in 2018 the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that electricity generated by gas in Asia would have grown by 547 TWh by 2025.
In 2018 the IEA predicted that electricity generated by gas in Asia would have grown by 547 TWh by 2025… in fact, it grew by a mere 17 TWh.
But in fact, it grew by a fraction of this, a mere 17 TWh. And the outlook today is not encouraging. Wood Mackenzie estimates that only 15 GW of 53 GW of gas-fired electricity generation capacity planned in Southeast Asia for 2030 will be delivered, due to volatile gas prices, financing shortfalls, and equipment shortages.
It is true that the Strait of Hormuz shock has put a premium on reliable oil and gas supplies. But the crisis has also incentivized importing nations, which include most in Asia, to insulate themselves against future shocks, including through renewable energy and electric transport.
In 2018, the IEA estimated solar generation in Asia would grow by 465 TWh by 2025. Instead, it grew by 1,333 TWh. The growth in sales of electric vehicles (EVs) has been no less impressive. In China, the largest importer of oil, most new cars sold are already electric. EV sales in Southeast Asia more than doubled in 2025.
Solar panels and batteries destroy demand for gas. EVs do the same for oil. Falling demand means falling prices. Carney’s fossil fuel plans therefore expose Canadian taxpayers to risks of value erosion and stranded assets that could cost Canada 30 per cent of the sector’s total value under a fast-paced energy transition scenario.
The PM should not expose the Canadian taxpayer to such risk. It is certainly not justified solely by the prospect of Albertan secession, with just 18 per cent of Albertans supporting separation according to one recent poll. Carney should instead channel public investment into a much safer bet: electrification.
Competitive advantage
According to Natural Resources Canada, Canada has the lowest-cost residential power (2024), the second lowest-cost industrial power (2024) and the second highest share of non-emitting electricity generation (2023) in the G7, thanks to a high share of hydro and nuclear power generation.
Affordable electricity makes the country attractive to energy-intensive growth industries like EV manufacturing, critical minerals mining, green hydrogen production and AI data centres. Montreal, for example, has cheap hydro rates (6 cents per kWh) and attracted C$1.7 billion in AI-related foreign direct investment between 2018 and 2024.
Canada’s low emission power mix is also a strategic advantage as markets like the EU increasingly price carbon on imported goods. But future gains will be limited if Canada does not properly invest in its fragmented, costly and unreliable electricity grid.
Investing in electrification
Carney’s government is aware of the problem. A National Strategy for an Electrified Canadian Economy launched in May plans to double Canada’s electricity system infrastructure to accommodate rapidly growing demand.
The federal government has limited jurisdiction over electricity systems. That means that provincial utilities must lead the way in investing in the new grid, which will require an estimated C$1 trillion by 2050.
Under current arrangements, these investments will be recovered as levies added to electricity bills. The risk to meeting the Canadian electrification challenge is therefore that significant upfront investments translate into higher prices for citizens and industry, undermining the case for electrification.
The federal balance sheet should be used not to underwrite new pipelines, but to ‘smooth’ these predictable electrification costs. A Powering Canada Forward Fund, as proposed by the Canadian Climate Institute, would hold electricity prices steady for consumers as provincial utilities invest in the grid. As the system expands, and as more electricity is consumed, the public investment could be gradually repaid by a growing customer base. This approach would use public funding smartly to ensure that the costs of tomorrow’s grid are not disproportionately borne by today’s consumers.
Federal support should also prioritize connecting provincial grids. Canada trades more electricity with the US than it does between provinces. Improving interprovincial transmission will enable Canada to capture more of the value of its energy system domestically, while still exporting surplus power to the US.
Electrification offers a double comparative advantage: cheap, low-carbon power that is independent of Asian and US markets and of benefit to all of Canada – including Alberta. Securing this will require investing in the nation-building infrastructure of the future, not that of the past.
Move blocking funds through Medicaid and Chip to make it harder for vulnerable children to get healthcare, experts say
The Trump administration finalized a rule on Tuesday to end gender-affirming care through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (Chip), a move that will make it harder for vulnerable children to access healthcare and that eschews evidence to advance an anti-transgender ideology, opponents say.
The rule is set to take effect on 13 October – but legal challenges could delay or block it entirely.
The order cannot affect change, and is only ‘undermining trust in vaccines’ as CDC guidance remains the same
Donald Trump’s executive order on vaccines does not change the US recommendations for the shots – but experts say it does create confusion and doubt about vaccines, which will lead to more illness and possibly deaths among children and will make it harder for families and pediatricians to protect them.
The executive order was an attempt to reinstate sweeping changes to the vaccine schedule made earlier this year by Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services and a longtime vaccine opponent – changes that were later halted by a federal judge.
Longtime Slashdot reader sbinning shares a press release: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced the launch of a new clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of psilocybin to treat major depression in Veterans, including those with concurrent PTSD. The new trial comes after a recent executive order on "Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness," which aims to increase clinical trial participation and accelerate innovative research models and drug approvals for psychedelic drugs.
[...] The randomized, controlled trial will enroll Veterans diagnosed with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder, with or without concurrent PTSD, and will compare outcomes between two psilocybin dosage levels. The study will also assess participants' levels of depression before and after treatment, tolerability of side effects, and overall patient-reported depression. [...] In addition to this trial, VA is involved in 20 active clinical trials focused on psychedelic therapies for mental health conditions. All VA research -- including research into psychedelics -- is conducted under strict safety protocols and in full compliance with federal guidelines.
Progressive and democratic socialist politicians are recanting pandemic-era statements on police and prison abolition
The north may not remember, but 9 August this year marked the 12th anniversary of the police killing of Michael Brown Jr in Ferguson, Missouri. That day, the US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reassured an ABC news anchor that she, like other progressive politicians and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates, had “moved away” from statements they made during the pandemic, particularly on police and prison abolition. Questioned further, she explained:
“I have a local city councilman that has this saying: ‘Woke 1 was crazy’… especially during Covid, I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place. And I actually think that the discussions that were had in that time were quite fruitful. I think that when we talk about crime today, it’s fundamentally different than the way that we talked about crime in bringing crime down. And I think that we all share in the goals of having as low a crime rate as possible. I think that, you know, during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today. And I’m grateful that these candidates have the opportunity to present who they are to their electorate and what they’re campaigning on in this moment.”
Youngest White House press secretary in history says she wants more time to ‘be the best mom’. Plus, are we losing the battle against AI slop in the music charts?
Good morning. A familiar face in Donald Trump’s administration is departing, as the US president announced that Karoline Leavitt was stepping down to spend more time with her family. The president said Leavitt, who became the youngest person to serve as White House press secretary on his return to office in January 2025, “will now be one of my top outside advisers”.
Trump’s most prominent spokesperson is departing while his approval rating is at a historic low, as voters express discontent over rising prices and a war in Iran that has no end in sight.
Why did Leavitt say she was stepping away? Leavitt wrote: “The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy and attention required of the White House press secretary – and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life.”
How will Leavitt’s time in the role be remembered? At 27 when she was appointed, Leavitt was the youngest White House press secretary in history. And when she announced she was pregnant in December last year, she became the first ever expectant press secretary. She has faced criticism for saying “Gen Z and those younger than me have been raised with just silver spoons in their mouths”, and for attacking reporters trying to hold the White House to account.
What are conditions said to be like onboard? In April, there was a flurry of public criticism about dire conditions onboard the carrier. Photos emerged of poor-quality and rationed food, and there were reports of water shortages, moldy showers and broken laundry machines. Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, dismissed the accounts as “more fake news”.
How long has the ship been at sea? The warship left San Diego on 21 November and was originally intended for the Pacific but was redirected to the Middle East once the US-Israel war with Iran began. Since then, the 5,000-plus crew has had only two days on land. The deployment was scheduled to end in May but has been extended amid Trump’s ongoing war.
Installed GTV kit for my GT. It's original Onewheel GT board with black paint job.. With the GTV kit Rear lights never started working, now this started happening after 30km. Bought the floathub for 40$ and did not help. Reseted the motor setting from back up using Vesc Tool also did not fox the issue.
Could it be the footpad sensor dis engaging and engaging with bad contacts? Just wanna know what y'all think and pay attention to when I take this baby apart again 🥲
In the spring the International Monetary Fund warned Britain faced the heaviest economic blow from the Iran war among the world’s most advanced nations. Almost six months into the conflict, on the surface, the UK appears to be proving the forecasters wrong.
The latest official figures show the UK maintained its pole position as the fastest growing economy in the G7 in the first half of 2026. Despite the gloomy international backdrop and yet more domestic political uncertainty, consumers have largely continued spending and business investment has boomed.
The dangers of AI become clearer every day. Why are we still acting as if we have no choice about our future?
Rather than producing jobs, the US economy actually lost 23,000 jobs in July, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released on Friday. In addition, May and June’s job numbers were revised downward, showing a combined 103,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.
As if this weren’t bad enough, wage growth has also slowed. Average hourly earnings rose by just 0.1% from June.
More students are advocating for their own digital wellbeing and developing programs to thrive in tech-free learning environments
As students across the country return to school this month, many will be confronting a new reality: classrooms without smartphones.
Educators and parents have long fronted the fight against the debilitating influence technology can wield. Yet, many young people say they’ve been left out of important conversations around school phone policies, which are now in effect in at least 39 states and Washington DC.
Why Should Delaware Care? Elected officials hold a position of public trust as they represent the interests of their constituents. As a result, arrests can impact their ability to serve the office. Accusations of assault against a Wilmington lawmaker have led to criminal charges and the launch of a legislative ethics investigation.
The Delaware Department of Justice charged Rep. Josue Ortega (D-Wilmington) with offensive touching, a misdemeanor, months after the Delaware State Police began investigating the lawmaker on claims he punched a woman in the face.
A DSP spokesperson confirmed the Wilmington legislator turned himself in on Thursday, Aug. 6, at the Troop 6 headquarters on Kirkwood Highway.
Ortega was arraigned and subsequently released on a $100 bond, the DSP spokesperson said. He also was given a no-contact order with the victim.
Ortega declined to comment when reached on Wednesday, but he previously released a statement in June unequivocally denying the accusations.
“Any suggestion that I have ever engaged in any act of domestic violence is patently untrue,” he said. “A thoughtful and deliberate review of this record will reveal that I was the one who sought, and was awarded relief, by the Courts regarding the abuse I have suffered from my accuser.”
When reached for comment Wednesday evening, a DOJ spokesperson said the department will fully prosecute the case.
How did we get here?
According to a police report dated May 21, Ortega was sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle with a woman in the driver’s seat when he punched her “in the left side of her face.”
The report also includes responses to a victim questionnaire, in which the woman claims Ortega had previously “threatened to kill” her or her children.
Though the incident occurred in May, it did not gain much public attention until mid-June. A Facebook user, who appears to be the victim, publicly posted that Ortega had punched her and that it had occurred in front of her 3-year-old child. She added photos to the post that raised concerns.
House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris (D-Dover). | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
Leaders within the House of Representatives also launched a confidential Ethics Committee investigation into the matter in mid-June.
The committee held a closed-door meeting in July, though lawmakers did not explicitly say whether the meeting was about their investigation into Ortega.
House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn-Harris (D-Dover), who chairs the Ethics Committee, said that while she cannot comment on any open investigations, the committee intends to issue a statement at the end of its review.
Who is Josue Ortega?
Ortega was first elected to the Delaware House of Representatives in 2024 to represent District 3, an area of west Wilmington that includes the communities of Hilltop, Little Italy and Hedgeville.
His candidacy was boosted at the time after a primary opponent, Brandon Fletcher-Dominguez, withdrew from the race just days before the primary election. At the time, state investigators had said Fletcher-Dominguez didn’t have a permanent residence within the district.
Rep. Josue Ortega has been a low-key legislator for his first two years before celebrating the passage of House Bill 290 that made Puerto Rico Day a recognized ceremonial holiday in Delaware. | PHOTO COURTESY OF DELAWARE HOUSE DEMOCRATS
Ortega is the son of a former Wilmington city councilman, Demetrio “Junior” Ortega. The senior Ortega is seen as a hero by many within the city’s Puerto Rican community. He had served as executive director of the Latin American Community Center and organized the city’s first Hispanic week celebration in 1977.
Before being elected in 2024, Josue Ortega worked in constituent services for the city of Wilmington and New Castle County.
He currently serves on six House committees, including the Education and Transportation committees, among others.
The lawmaker scored perhaps his most noticeable legislative victory earlier this summer, when Gov. Matt Meyer signed House Bill 290, which recognized Puerto Rico Day as a ceremonial holiday for the state.
Critic of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau leadership was put under investigation and suspended from job
The Trump administration has been accused of “bullying and intimidation” after a labor union leader and critic was put under investigation and suspended from his job at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Stephen Wheeler, a data scientist at the agency since 2022 and chair of the CFPB union organizing committee, was placed on administrative leave effective immediately earlier this month. The union said it was not provided with any specific violations or given any details of the investigation.
Why Should Delaware Care? Debate over how to reckon with the fast-growing data center industry has risen to the forefront of conversations at the state and local levels in Delaware. Amid concerns of electricity demand, Dover officials are considering an outright pause of data center projects.
Dover’s proposal to impose an 18-month moratorium on data center approvals is advancing.
On Tuesday, a Dover City Council committee voted unanimously to bring to the full council an ordinance that would pause official reviews of data center proposals for up to a year-and-a-half. During the period, city officials would develop permanent policies regulating data centers.
Councilwoman Donyale Hall, who presented the idea to the committee, told Spotlight Delaware she plans to introduce the finalized ordinance to the City Council by September. Before then, she will work on shoring up the ordinance’s language, based on feedback from city staff, she said.
As currently written, the measure would establish an 18-month pause on the “acceptance, processing, review, approval and issuance of permits” for new data centers, while the city conducts a “comprehensive review” of the effects these facilities could have on Dover.
The capital city’s consideration of the measure comes amid a flurry of data center proposals and discussions over the past year about how the industry should fit into Delaware’s economy.
While New Castle and Kent counties recently approved rules limiting where a data center could be built in unincorporated areas, Dover appears to be the first municipality in Delaware considering a policy to halt the review of data center projects for a period of time.
If ultimately approved, Dover also would likely be the first jurisdiction of any kind in the state to implement a temporary ban on data center projects.
Dover City Councilwoman Donyale Hall proposed a moratorium in Dover on data center approvals during an August 2026 City Council meeting. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY MAGGIE REYNOLDS
The General Assembly also passed a slate of bills in June regulating data centers, including one that would require developers to supply all of the power the facility would use for the first 10 years of operations.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Hall and Paul Waddell, Dover’s electric director, said Dover needs to undertake a more comprehensive study of the potential impacts of data centers on the city’s electrical infrastructure and other utilities before adopting a permanent policy.
They also have cited concerns that there could be an influx of data center proposals within Dover city limits following Kent County’s recent passage of strict regulations.
“This is not about closing Dover’s doors to data centers,” Hall said. “It’s about making sure that before we open that door, we understand what is on the other side.”
A ‘comprehensive review’
The conversation about a data center moratorium occurred near the end of a marathon four-hour City Council Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday.
While city council members, residents and experts sparred over other topics – including building safety codes, and how the city should use its Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission money – the proposed data center pause was a rare moment of unity between the city government and members of the public.
Hall described the proposed moratorium as necessary to give the city time to make an “informed decision” about whether data center projects are well-suited to Dover, and if so how to implement them without forcing residents to bear the costs.
She and Waddell both said the city has already been approached about at least one small-to-medium-sized data center project. Neither would share additional information when pressed for details about the potential project.
City Council President Fred Neil said figuring out the city’s approach to electricity costs and data centers is a complicated “jigsaw puzzle” that will take more time, especially after a Wilmington-based company recently announced plans to open a clean hydrogen production facility in Dover.
While residents raised a litany of concerns about other agenda items at the committee meeting, the attendees who lasted until the late-evening discussion of the moratorium said they support the data center pause, particularly as the city government raised residential electric usage rates in its fiscal year 2027 budget.
Dover resident Bill Faust, who is a frequent critic of the city government, said he supports the pause so that the city can be careful not to “create another monster” in the form of overloaded electricity and water usage systems from data centers.
At the same time, Linda Parkowski, executive director of the Kent Economic Partnership, advised that the city move efficiently – quicker than the 18-month maximum time frame provide by Hall’s proposal – to develop a permanent policy on data centers.
“We don’t want to send a signal out that we’re not open for business, and that could be how this is interpreted,” Parkowski said at the meeting.
Other regulations across the state
New Castle and Kent counties and a handful of municipalities around the state have passed measures regulating where data centers can be located.
Kent County’s new regulations, which passed the Levy Court unanimously last month, require a 300-foot buffer between data centers and residents; 6-foot tall tree or bush buffers; a noise limit; and a written statement from water and electric providers about how the project would impact existing infrastructure resources.
The Kent County Levy Court. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO
The Kent County attorney said at the July meeting that county officials are also in the process of conducting a legal review to see whether a complete ban on data centers is a viable option.
The county’s data center policies do not apply to possible projects in Dover or any other incorporated community within the county, including a proposal under consideration in Harrington.
New Castle County also adopted regulations similar to those of Kent County earlier this spring, following months of acrimony between county council members, and debate over a controversial data center project proposed near Delaware City.
Why Should Delaware Care? The Concord Mall was once a hub for shopping and entertainment in the Wilmington area. But nationally shoppers are not going to most malls as much as they used to. Now, it appears a Pennsylvania-based real estate company has plans to tear down the existing structure.
The Concord Mall could soon be demolished, according to plans submitted last month to New Castle County.
The exploratory plan shows the center of the 57-year-old mall being replaced with a detached one-story building, identified only as “commercial retail.” The current anchor-store buildings that sit on either end of the mall would be preserved.
The former Sears store is independently owned from the remainder of the mall, despite sharing entrances. The Boscov’s store holds a long-term lease that could prevent its redevelopment.
The demolition plans follow years of decline for the mall that once served as a thriving retail center for the northern Wilmington suburbs. Recently, it has struggled with low foot traffic and shuttered stores. The southern anchor building that used to host a Sears is vacant.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Concord Mall’s parking lot was mostly empty and dotted by potholes. Few people entered the mall, and a sign hung on the Sears building advertising it for lease by real estate company, KLNB.
Last year, the mall was briefly listed for sale with an asking price of $30 million. The listing was deleted shortly after, and the owner said it was a mistake, according to a report from Delaware Public Media.
Then this spring, the News Journal reported that Pennsylvania-based Abrams Realty and Development wanted to purchase the mall and turn it into a community hub with a grocery store, fitness center, and outdoor green space.
An LLC listed on the current plans to demolish the site lists the same business address as Abrams Realty and Development.
Officials for the development company declined a request for comment.
Representatives with Concord Mall and the property’s current owner, Namdar Realty Group, did not respond to requests for comment.
Namdar took over the 800,000-square-foot shopping center in 2020 after the mall’s former owner, Allied Properties, neared foreclosure on the property. At the time, the company said it “boasts a strong line up of national retailers and restaurants including H&M, American Eagle, Hollister, Rue21, Bonefish Grill and Grub Burger Bar.”
Today, the Concord Mall has 26 vacant storefronts, not including the anchor building that once housed a Sears store, according to a list on property management company J.C. BAR Property’s website. Together, they cover just under 100,000 square feet, about 12% of the mall’s retail space.
Greg Jones, an executive vice president at J.C. BAR Properties, confirmed that his company is still leasing vacant properties on the site.
Correction: This story originally reported that Boscov’s owned its store, but it actually only holds a long-term lease with Namdar Realty.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: Nathan Howard/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
In July 2020, Aluf Benn, the editor of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, interviewed a 92-year-old retired Hebrew University professor named Yehezkel Dror. Benn described him as the “doyen of public policy experts in Israel.” For his part, Dror fashioned himself after Herman Kahn, the American defense intellectual who made his name by “thinking the unthinkable” — how to fight a thermonuclear war. In 2005, Dror’s work on policy planning and strategic thinking won him the coveted Israel Prize.
Dror responded to Benn’s questions as a futurologist with knowledge of what is to come, gained by thinking rationally and ruthlessly about a world too complex for all but an elite class of geniuses. Complimenting Israeli leaders for expelling as many Palestinians from the country as they did in 1948, Dror insisted on the correctness of his plan for an Israeli attack on Iran and praised President Donald Trump’s 2020 Israeli-Palestinian peace plan — the so-called Deal of the Century. He also called for a world government run by modern philosopher kings, and in his 2020 book, “Steering Human Evolution,” he advocated settling a thousand fertile couples on Mars to ensure the human race would not become extinct.
Dror explained the tension in his thinking between rationalist universalism and a tribalist commitment to his own group, the Jews. Citing Zionism as the “core meaning of his life,” Dror emphasized the contribution he had made to “a total revolution in the history of the Jewish people, on the path from Holocaust to resurgence.” The primacy of this latter commitment is clearly apparent in his book “Crazy States: A Counterconventional Strategic Problem,” published in 1971.
The topic of “craziness” as a descriptor of states was a familiar one in the 1960s when discussing nuclear deterrence. Academics Thomas Schelling and Herman Kahn both explored how a state with a reputation for craziness could increase the credibility of otherwise unconvincing threats.
The thrust of Dror’s book was different. Dror imagined how states with powerful modern weapons might act in ways radically contrary to accepted norms or expected calculations. Normal states would need to act differently toward adversaries deemed “crazy” by shifting strategies from deterrence and self-defense to destruction and preemptive attack. The not-so-hidden subtext of the argument was to brand all of Israel’s adversaries as “crazy,” thereby establishing justification for using any and all means, including subversion, preventive war, and even annihilation, against them.
Dror went on to lay out the criterion for labeling states — Israel’s enemies — as “crazy.” Fifty years later, however, Dror’s account of craziness and the warning signs he suggested looking for apply more readily to Israel than to its Arab enemies.
“Crazy” Characteristics
Dror never defined precisely what he meant by “crazy,” preferring to list behaviors, practices, and beliefs associated with his image of craziness. His prototypical case, used repeatedly for illustration of his argument, was Nazi Germany. Dror began his book by offering the Third Reich to skeptical readers “as a striking and radical demonstration of the possibility of crazy states and their implications for the international order and the security of various countries.” The case study also made the point that nonstate movements or organizations, such as Hitler’s National Socialist Party, could be treated as crazy as well as states. This justified Dror’s inclusion of various Palestinian movements and groups affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization as “crazy” even though they weren’t states.
At the end of 1973, an Israeli military publishing house issued a Hebrew edition of Dror’s book with a new chapter, “The Question of ‘Crazy’ States and the State of Israel.” Written against the backdrop of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War, known in Israel as the Yom Kippur War, Dror described virtually all Arab states and movements, whether Muslim or Palestinian, as either crazy, partially crazy, or liable to become crazy. According to Dror, the purpose of this chapter — which never appeared in English — was to shape Israeli military doctrine and strategies to deal with the craziness and potential for “extreme craziness” of Israel’s adversaries.
Dror emphasized that the kind of craziness he had in mind — so dangerous to the world community that no measures to disrupt or destroy it should be ruled out — requires an ability to think clearly, plan systematically, and act effectively. In doing so, he was carefully distinguishing irrationality from craziness. To be classified as crazy, a state or movement must not only have the means to project its power with devastating effect; it must also demonstrate a capacity for calculated action so that it can learn from mistakes and devise better and more successful techniques for achieving its (crazy) purposes.
Using Dror’s measures, we can ask whether Israel itself is crazy. If it is, then for Israel’s Lobby to be successful, U.S. policies toward Israel and the Middle East must themselves be crazy.
A useful list of the features Dror set forth to identify a crazy state appeared in a positive review of his book: aggressive pursuit of far-reaching goals harmful to others; radical and intense commitments to achieve those goals; and adoption of a morally superior posture even while grossly contradicting international norms, both ethical and legal.
Using these measures — goals, means, and public posture — we can ask whether Israel itself is crazy. If it is, then for Israel’s Lobby to be successful, U.S. policies toward Israel and the Middle East must themselves be crazy and therefore dangerous to American interests and to the world.
Hard-Right Turn
Israeli politics revolve around its party system. That system has undergone two fundamental transformations: from one-party dominance to an even rivalry between two parties and then a return to dominance by the former opposition party. For almost three decades, the social democratic Labor Party dominated Israeli elections, with the right-wing parties in opposition. While never securing a majority of seats, in the 1960s and 1970s, Labor’s parliamentary dominance was enough to relegate Menachem Begin’s right-wing Herut (Freedom) Party to the political wilderness.
As David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first and until Netanyahu longest-serving prime minister, frequently declared, Labor would accept any party as a coalition partner except those occupying the extremes of the political spectrum: the communists and Herut. Begin, he once wrote, was “a Hitlerist type: a racist, willing to destroy all the Arabs for the sake of Greater Israel.”
After the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war, known as the Six Day War, the Labor Party favored withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territories in return for peace, though it avoided specifying what territories could be relinquished or under what circumstances. The party that Begin led in 1967 was Gahal, a combination of Herut and the Liberal Party. In 1973, it became the cornerstone of the Likud. Like Herut, Gahal and then Likud opposed territorial withdrawal from any part of the West Bank and Gaza. The right wingers rejected the principle of trading land for peace, favored settlement of Jews throughout the territories, and looked forward to their permanent absorption into the State of Israel.
The “earthquake,” Likud’s victory in the 1977 elections, temporarily ended single-party dominance in Israel. Subsequently, two rival blocs — one led by the Likud and the other by one or another version of the Labor Party — battled each other in seesaw fashion. But since the 2013 elections, the right-wing bloc, with the Likud forming the core of governing coalitions, has dominated Israeli politics.
The sharpness of Israel’s shift to the right is evident in the changing ideological complexion of members of its 120-seat parliament, the Knesset. Israeli parties have always differed on a variety of social and economic questions. But by far the two most important markers of a party’s location on the spectrum of Israeli politics are its position on Israel’s borders and the intensity of its commitment to an exclusivist Jewish mission for the state.
Border Wars
Before the 1967 war, the issue of the country’s borders was not particularly salient in Israeli politics. Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip reopened the question of expanding the state’s boundaries, polarizing the political system, and triggering a sharp rise in both hawkish and dovish positions on these questions. After the Six-Day War, average left-wing representation in the Knesset increased by approximately two-thirds compared to what it was before 1967. Right-wing representation in the Knesset, however, tripled.
In the 2000s, the right-wing bloc’s representation has grown rapidly, while the left-wing bloc has shrunk drastically. Since the 2003 election, the first following the second Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, average representation of right-wing views has been twice that associated with the left. In the most recent elections, actual majorities of Knesset members have been affiliated with political programs advanced before 1967 only by a small and extreme minority. Meanwhile, the number of Knesset members espousing concessions capable of attracting even minimal Palestinian interest has dwindled.
Following the 2022 election, 63 members of the Knesset identified with what were originally seen as extreme far-right views on the nation’s borders, while only 14 supported a two-state solution. Of the latter, 10 were Arabs and only four were Jews.
Israeli public opinion has also shifted strongly toward the extreme right. Intensive polling done between 2022 and 2024 showed that four to five times as many Jewish Israelis identified themselves as “right-wing” than as “left-wing.” The rightward shift is more extreme than it seems from this data because what it means to be yemini, or right wing, has itself changed. Much more than in the past, it is associated with commitments to overt discrimination against Palestinian citizens, annexation measures that would exclude Palestinians from citizenship, use of extrajudicial punishment against Arabs, and preference for military action over negotiation for advancing Israeli interests in the region.
Along with the rightward extremization of the Jewish public has been an escalating propensity for Israeli leaders to aggressively pursue expansive goals. This hawkishness manifested as military actions, assassinations, and spectacular acts of sabotage — from the West Bank and Gaza to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Qatar, and Iran — that have stunned the world.
Rise of a Madman
In the 1990s, Benjamin Netanyahu began his rise to power, not as a right-wing firebrand but as a silver-tongued defender of Israel against international criticism. He coupled strong right-wing views with opportunism and an aversion to making risky decisions. Having climbed the greasy pole to take control of the Likud Party in 1996, Netanyahu went on to become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
Following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, however, Netanyahu’s modus operandi changed. Two of his most crucial judgments — that the Gaza Strip could be kept indefinitely in a state of economic immiseration and that Hamas would not mount a large-scale attack — pushed Israelis into one of the most severe shocks they ever experienced.
Fearing investigation of his failure to protect the country, Netanyahu transformed himself into the epitome of Israeli craziness.
The levels of violence he authorized against Palestinians in Gaza shocked the world. Netanyahu’s endorsement of transferring the entire population of Gaza out of Palestine; the bloody attacks he unleashed against Hezbollah and civilian neighborhoods in Lebanon; the wars he launched against Iran; and his attempt to assassinate Hamas negotiators in Qatar all reflect much more far-reaching goals for Israel than those of recognition, peace, and security, as one nation among others in a stable Middle East.
In this way, Netanyahu is not just following in the footsteps of predecessors, who were prepared to take risks for ambitious gains; instead, he has made the craziness that has occasionally marked Israeli policies into a dominant trait.
A 21st Century Sparta
Efraim Inbar is among Israel’s most influential national security analysts. The founder and director of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies, Inbar has reliably indexed the policy preferences of Likud governments, in general, and those led by Netanyahu in particular.
From year to year, problem to problem, threat to threat, Inbar’s recommendation has almost always been the same: reject available compromises, accept international isolation, and use preemptive war to inflict more pain and damage on adversaries than they are willing to tolerate.
“Fortunately,” he wrote in response to questions about Israel’s long-term goals, “Jewish history presents the Zionist movement another alternative: the Davidic option of building a Jewish commonwealth in the midst of an idolatrous world. The House of David ruled the Land of Israel for over four hundred years, playing a balance of power politics in our region.”
As if channeling Inbar’s thinking, Netanyahu gave a speech in September 2025 calling for Israel to expect and accept international isolation, adapt its economy toward autarchy, and see itself as a 21st century Sparta.
Netanyahu is not just following in the footsteps of predecessors; he has made the craziness that has occasionally marked Israeli policies into a dominant trait.
Israelis are familiar with the Jerusalem syndrome, a tendency for susceptible people visiting the country to experience delusional psychoses with religious or apocalyptic themes. It is also true that spectacular visions — of an unfolding, divinely guided, and Israel-centric redemption process; of the settlement in the West Bank as a crucial step in the bringing of the Messiah; and of Jewish rule over virtually the entire Fertile Crescent — have long animated the private thinking of the architects behind the vast settlement project in the occupied territories.
The Israeli Mainstream
What is striking is that such thinking has moved from the private worlds of dedicated activists, from the margins of respectable political discourse toward the center of Israeli politics. Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich both advocate for the rebuilding of the ancient Jewish Temple in the Old City of Jerusalem. Daniella Weiss, Ben-Gvir, and many others have called for the entire Gaza Strip to be emptied of Palestinians and resettled by Jews. What were, in the 1960s and 1970s, the outlandish ambitions of some marginal intellectuals, extreme rabbis, and retired generals are now the goals pursued by leading government ministers, senior security service officials, and settlement leaders.
Such grandiose ideas provide no guidelines for practical strategic thinking about Israel’s future or rationales for creative diplomacy. The result is that Israeli leaders focus on imminent security threats and diplomatic challenges, but neither entertain nor pursue longterm goals. That is to say: Those who govern Israel imagine no stable future that is both satisfying and possible enough to shape policy decisions and actions. The goal of Israel’s foreign and security policies therefore becomes simple if outlandish: to establish itself as the regional hegemon, possessing the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, equipped with sufficient conventional military power to operate throughout the region at minimal risk, and poised to crush any combination of opponents.
This region-shaping ambition was evident in Israel’s June 2025 attack on Iran. An Israeli military poster, in Farsi, of what Israel dubbed “Operation Rising Lion” featured a majestic lion on his hind legs next to a brightly shining sun, symbols of ancient Persia.
The idea of transforming the Islamic Republic of Iran, a Muslim-majority country of 93 million, into an ally and returning it to a non-Islamic imperial past was advanced in an Instagram post two weeks into the war by Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister’s influential wife. It depicted two lions leaning against each other and gazing into the future, one wrapped in the flag of Israel, the other in the flag of the Pahlavis, the last shahs of Iran.
Amid Israel’s bombardment of Iran in July 2025, before the U.S. joined the war, the grand scale of such ambitions — consistent with the unattainability of the goals crazy states set for themselves — became apparent during remarks Netanyahu made to an Israeli interviewer. “We are changing — and I said this on the second day of the [Gaza] war — I said that we’re changing the face of the Middle East,” Netanyahu said calmly. “And now I say to you and also to our viewers: We’re changing the face of the world. I have determined that we will achieve all our goals.”
Adapted from “Israel’s Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power” by Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick. Copyright 2026 by Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick. Reprinted by permission of One Signal Publishers, a division of Simon & Schuster, LLC.
Incheon airport had 38.39m international passengers in first half of 2026, as traffic diverted from Middle East hubs
South Korea’s Incheon airport has become the world’s busiest airport for international passengers, in part owing to disruption in the Middle East caused by the Iran war.
The airport, South Korea’s main gateway, about 30 miles (48km) west of Seoul, handled 38.39 million international passengers in the first half of 2026, according to preliminary figures compiled by the Airports Council International (ACI), the global trade body for airports.
Whether you want to improve your home’s security or simply know who’s at the door, the latest generation of smart doorbells will help put your mind at ease
Doorbells have evolved. Today, they watch us as we approach, let the people inside the home know we’re coming sooner than our finger can hit the button, and give them a good look at our faces before they open the door. They’re essentially security cameras with a chime function.
If you haven’t already installed one of these handy tools, there’s a huge array available. Choosing the best video doorbell can be a bewildering task, with various factors to consider, including how much of your doorstep you want to see and whether you’re prepared to pay for a subscription. To help make the decision a little bit easier, I tested 11 popular video doorbells to find the best.
The author of a new novel about the famed detective explores a little-known facet of Holmes’s creator
What do Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle have to do with boxing? More than you may think. Doyle, who created Holmes, was a boxing enthusiast who boxed a bit and wrote extensively about the sport.
Doyle stood 6ft tall and weighed in the neighborhood of 200lb. He began sparring while a medical student at the University of Edinburgh and described himself as “a fair average amateur”.
“McMurdo,” cried Sherlock Holmes genially. “I don’t think you can have forgotten me. Don’t you remember the amateur who fought three rounds with you at Alison’s rooms on the night of your benefit four years back?”
“Not Mr Sherlock Holmes!” roared the prize-fighter. “God’s truth! How could I have mistook you? If instead o’ standin’ there so quiet, you had just stepped up and given me that cross-hit of yours under the jaw, I’d ha’ known you without a question. Ah, you’re one that has wasted your gifts, you have! You might have aimed high, if you had joined the fancy.”
Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book – Sherlock Holmes and Mrs. Rutledge – will be published later this month and is available for preorder on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk as well as other platforms. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor - induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
We look at the many contenders for the English title this season, one of the big potential moves of the summer and chaos at Fifa
It’s difficult to recall a Premier League season starting amid such widespread uncertainty as this one. Half the division, including Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, is under new management. The Pep Guardiola era is over and, as Jonathan Wilson put it, the Premier League has no alpha manager possibly for the first time ever.
Some seriously ill patients improve on hospice. About 1 in 16 patients enrolled in hospice care lose eligibility as a result. Here's how to get appropriate care.
The election demanded by Reform UK's leader, who faces corruption accusations, has turned into a punch line after major parties dismissed it as a stunt and declined to field candidates.
In the competitive world of youth sports, few organizations have a reach as vast as the Amateur Athletic Union.
With 760,000 athletes and coaches nationwide, the AAU hosts competitions in dozens of sports across the country. This summer alone, hundreds of thousands of children competed in AAU events for elite young athletes: a staggering 100,000 at the world’s largest volleyball championship in Orlando, Florida; 8,000 at its storied basketball championships at Disney World; more than 15,000 at the Junior Olympics in Iowa.
To the hundreds of thousands of parents whose children play under the red, white and blue AAU badge, the organization offers more than a place to compete. The AAU promises their children will be safe — that its coaches are vetted, monitored and trained; that strict rules govern how adults interact with children; and that it responds effectively to allegations of abuse within its ranks.
But that trust is misplaced, according to an investigation from ProPublica and The Washington Post. The AAU is failing on nearly every level to adequately protect the hundreds of thousands of children in its care from sexual abuse, the investigation found, misleading the public about its prevention measures and suppressing allegations of sexual misconduct.
In doing so, the AAU is breaking many of the pledges it made in the wake of a 2011 sex abuse scandal involving its CEO and young basketball players. AAU leaders at the time said they would build a “new culture in which the overarching priority” was protecting young athletes, committing the organization to sweeping safety reforms. But they did not implement the majority of those reforms, ProPublica and The Post found, putting many children at risk. Some AAU athletes have had devastating experiences.
The AAU does not offer child abuse prevention training, though it claims to the public that it does. It does not verify whether coaches take the training it does offer, though it calls the course “mandatory” on its webpage for parents.
The AAU has become a haven for coaches suspected of abuse, ProPublica and The Post found, based on a review of public disciplinary lists and interviews with current and former executives from six national sports governing bodies and other key stakeholders. Those sports officials say the AAU has earned a reputation as a place where coaches can escape discipline and are not bound by strict safety laws, making it more difficult to protect young athletes. ProPublica and The Post identified eight coaches who continued to work with children under the AAU in the last five years after being banned or suspended by other youth sports organizations — even though the AAU pledged in 2012 that it would ban such coaches.
Serious allegations of sexual misconduct against coaches in the AAU are handled by its Board of Review, a group of four elected AAU members and a chair whose names are not made public. Asked about written guidelines for when to ban coaches, one former member who sat on the board for nearly 25 years said the group “just decided on our feelings.”
The abuse reporting hotline AAU promised to create as part of the reforms redirects to the AAU’s general office line with no option to report abuse, though callers can press 5 to reach a department for “medal orders.”
Instead of protecting children, the AAU has prioritized building an ever-bigger footprint across youth sports through cheap and easy team registrations, ProPublica and The Post found, allowing it to dramatically grow its revenue in recent years.
The scope of the consequences for young athletes nationwide is impossible to quantify, ProPublica and The Post found, because the AAU operates with a secrecy that is unusual for a nonprofit that serves children.
The AAU declined to answer questions from ProPublica and The Post over the course of more than a year, including whether the organization trains its coaches, how it investigates abuse claims, and how it enforces policies and safety rules. It would not verify if specific coaches overseeing AAU-registered teams had been authorized and background-checked by the AAU, as its rules require. While other youth sports organizations post public lists of coaches found to have abused children, the AAU does not.
In a statement, the AAU said it is “committed to protecting its athletes through comprehensive protection policies overseen by our Compliance Department.”
Athlete protection “is at the forefront of our safety measures such as a verified identity check and mandatory background screenings for all non-athlete AAU members, including coaches,” it said. The statement also cited “supplemental medical benefits” and “mandatory concussion protocols” as measures that it said prioritized the “physical well-being of its members.”
“These safety measures reflect our ongoing commitment to providing a safe, secure, supportive, and trusted environment where athletes can thrive,” the statement said.
The AAU also took action on one point raised by the news organizations. After ProPublica and The Post asked the AAU last year whether it actually mandated training for coaches, as its website claims, the organization quietly changed its website to say the training was “encouraged.”
For the first time, using thousands of pages of internal, legal and court records and interviews with key stakeholders, ProPublica and The Post were able to document how the AAU handled some child sex abuse claims in the years after it promised reform. Several years after allegations were made against a former AAU president, ProPublica and The Post found, its review board exonerated another top AAU executive accused of sexual abuse by a former player without interviewing a single witness or considering a past allegation from a different player, court records show. A current AAU official, Jim Fox, said he believed the AAU’s handling of the case was an attempt to “cover it up.”
The AAU has taken other steps that have had the effect of keeping sexual abuse claims out of the public eye, ProPublica and The Post found. Clauses in AAU registration forms require all claims against the AAU to be resolved through confidential arbitration hearings instead of jury trials in open court. The AAU uses those agreements to quash lawsuits over child sex abuse claims — arguing in court that children who say they were victimized by their coaches had signed away their right to sue when they registered for an AAU team, records show. That practice is extremely rare in sex abuse cases at other major youth sports organizations, according to attorneys, court records and sports groups, and was mostly banned by a Biden-era law in 2022.
ProPublica and The Post found that the AAU has attempted to force sex abuse claims into arbitration as recently as 2024, in the case of a lawsuit filed by a teenage girl in Florida who said she had been abused by her AAU volleyball coach. The case was settled out of court last year.
The AAU declined to comment on this practice or any of these cases, saying it could not comment on “legal matters.”
The AAU’s use of arbitration agreements meant that even in a high-profile case in which an AAU coach was convicted of decades of prolific abuse, the AAU itself escaped scrutiny.
The co-director of an influential basketball club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Greg Stephen, was accused of sexually exploiting more than 400 of his young basketball players in 2018 and sentenced to 180 years in prison on multiple charges. But arbitration clauses prevented his former players from suing the AAU, ProPublica and The Post learned, even though boys’ families initially argued that the AAU was partly responsible because it had failed to enforce its 2012 safety policies, including a ban on coaches sharing bedrooms with players.
A judge sided with the AAU and ruled that the victims could not sue the wealthier parent organization, allowing the AAU not to respond to the claims in court. The club, Barnstormers Basketball, denied the claims.
The Barnstormers’ AAU-provided insurance limited payouts for sexual abuse claims to $1 million, said Guy Cook, the families’ lawyer, the equivalent of a few thousand dollars for each young victim.
Cook said the AAU had grown “sophisticated” in its attempts to suppress child sex abuse lawsuits: “It’s not unlike what the Catholic Church has done.”
In 2018, in the wake of revelations about sexual abuse by USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar and other powerful figures in Olympic sports, Congress created a new oversight system to prevent sexual abuse. The law charged the U.S. Center for SafeSport with investigating allegations of sexual abuse in sports overseen by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee — made up of national sports governing bodies like USA Gymnastics — and enforced strict new rules about safety and training.
But the AAU exists outside of that system, allowing it to benefit from a gap in the law. Because it is not a sanctioned national sports governing body, the AAU is not overseen by SafeSport and does not have to follow its rules or mandate that coaches take its trainings. ProPublica and The Post found that it does not abide by SafeSport suspensions or bans.
“It should scare parents,” said former Florida state Sen. Lauren Book, a child sex abuse survivor and prevention advocate who was a member of a task force established by AAU to reform its abuse prevention practices in 2011. Along with most other members of the task force, she said she has since lost faith in the organization.
“What AAU does is protect institution over children,” Book said. “They have never done the right thing when it comes to child protection.”
Broken Promises
Before he was caught at the center of a scandal, Bobby Dodd saved the AAU. When the former youth basketball coach took the helm of the nonprofit in 1992, it was struggling. It had been founded in the 19th century to oversee amateur sports, but Congress had given that role to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and its national sports governing bodies in 1978. The AAU’s relevance had been declining since.
Dodd saw youth sports for what they would soon become: a booming business. He built the AAU of the 1990s and 2000s into the juggernaut of youth basketball, the home of virtually every future NBA star; invested in a Junior Olympics brand that brought in thousands of children from across track and field; and moved the organization’s headquarters to the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex inside Disney World.
Under Dodd, there were few barriers to becoming an AAU coach: Anyone who paid a $16 membership fee could start a team, no background check required. By joining the AAU, basketball and other sports clubs got perks like cheap and easy liability insurance. More importantly, they got access to a circuit of organized tournaments, from local weekend events to major national championships.
But along with Dodd’s stewardship of AAU came criticism that the fast-growing organization was becoming a free-for-all.
After a 2004 Seattle Times investigation found dozens of people with felony convictions were coaching AAU-sanctioned teams in Washington and Idaho, including a coach who was a convicted murderer, Dodd pledged to consider background checks for AAU’s 65,000 coaches. “We are going to try to ensure more integrity in the process,” Dodd told the paper.
The AAU still had not introduced those background checks when, in 2011, ESPN reported that two men had accused Dodd of molesting them as youths in the 1980s, when he was their basketball coach. Dodd denied the allegations but stepped down as president, collecting a $1.5 million payout from the organization and putting the AAU back in an uncomfortable spotlight. He was not charged with a crime, andhe could not be reached for comment.
Again, the organization promised change.
Under a new president, Louis Stout, the organization convened a task force of child safety experts. It vowed in June 2012 to implement all of the task force’s recommendations, which it called “historic child protection measures.”
The AAU rolled out mandatory background checks. It also pledged to train all adults in child sex abuse prevention and create policies that would “prevent adults from being alone with children.” Participation was a privilege, AAU vowed, not a right: “Anyone who is prohibited from participating in an organization that serves youth or who violates the AAU’s child protection policies should be barred.”
The most important change, the AAU said, would be cultural. Child safety would now be “an overarching priority.”
Within a matter of months, there were signs that little was actually changing.
That year, the AAU gave a 2012 leadership award to a man named Rick Butler, one of the country’s most prominent girls’ volleyball coaches at the time. Butler had been instrumental in building AAU volleyball into a powerhouse.
But he had also been banned by USA Volleyball from coaching girls since 1995, after the sport’s governing body concluded that he had had sexual intercourse with three teenage players years earlier, when he was in his late 20s to mid-30s. Butler’s attorney called them “legal, consensual relationships in the 1980s,” noting that there was no law or rule against coach-player relationships at the time.
Months before giving Butler the award, the AAU had promised it would bar anyone “banned by other youth-serving organizations” from coaching children.
But Butler continued coaching girls under the AAU until 2018. That year, USA Volleyball pulled its affiliation with the AAU over Butler’s membership, and the AAU subsequently banned Butler, according to a letter reviewed by ProPublica and The Post. Butler’s attorney said he has not been accused of more recent misconduct.
Stout died unexpectedly in September 2012, just a few months after he committed the AAU to the list of reforms. (After an interim period, Roger Goudy, who had run the AAU’s volleyball program for decades, was elected president in 2014.)
When the AAU published its first youth protection handbook in December 2012, there was no rule barring coaches banned by other groups. The handbook did say it was following another key reform: All AAU coaches were now taking an “educational course.”
The organization had repurposed training it had used since before the Dodd scandal — an online seminar called “Double Goal Coach” from the nonprofit Positive Coaching Alliance. The course was focused on sports psychology and coaching techniques, not sexual abuse prevention training. The AAU claimed that “all registered non-athletes” were taking the course, even though no one verified whether they did, according to officials, stakeholders and a person directly familiar with the training.
“It’s never been mandatory,” said Peg Adams, a longtime regional official at the AAU who spent more than two decades reviewing abuse claims against AAU coaches as part of its Board of Review. “It should be, but that’s something they [AAU] have to work out.”
When they were first announced, the AAU’s child safety rules, if implemented, would have put the organization at the vanguard of youth sports. But in 2018, Congress passed a landmark new sports safety law, known as the Safe Sport Act, that forced much of the rest of the sports world to make sweeping changes.
Under the new law, the U.S. Center for SafeSport was charged with investigating sexual abuse allegations in all 50 national sports governing bodies, the organizations that oversee and set rules for specific sports. SafeSport could ban or suspend accused coaches in these groups, placing their names in a searchable public database known as the SafeSport list. It required adult coaches and volunteers to take SafeSport-provided child abuse prevention training annually and follow strict new safety rules governing how they interacted with athletes.
But because the independent AAU is not a national governing body, SafeSport could not require the AAU to follow its disciplinary list, rules or training. Only a few provisions tucked at the end of the 2018 bill applied to the AAU — including a requirement that all sports groups “offer and provide consistent training … regarding prevention and reporting of child abuse.” Only Congress, not SafeSport, could enforce that provision.
The new Center for SafeSport was far from perfect. Underfunded and understaffed, the center quickly racked up a backlog of unresolved complaints and closed many others without findings or with what critics said were inadequate investigations.
SafeSport has since resolved many of those issues, improving its process to resolve cases more quickly and cut down its backlog, the organization said. In a statement, the center’s new CEO, Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, an Olympic gold medalist, said the organization “acknowledges the challenges we have met as the first national sport safeguarding organization in the world. We are on surer footing today.”
SafeSport also drove up costs for the governing bodies, who were required to help fund the center’s investigations and often pay for expensive background checks and compliance staff. That meant higher membership fees for their athletes.
The AAU was not required to pay for any of that. So while governing bodies and SafeSport inched toward reform, ProPublica and The Post found, the AAU did not.
Ashlee Orndorff
“People Tried to Cover It Up”
In 2018, the year that the Safe Sport Act took effect, the AAU faced a test of its most significant promise: to remake its culture to protect children.
That January, a woman named Ashlee Orndorff claimed on social media that she had been groomed and sexually abused as a teenager by an AAU executive, its second vice president, Matt Williams, who was also a paid employee of the organization at the time.
Orndorff had been a teenage basketball phenom in the tiny unincorporated town of Hawthorne, Nevada, two hours outside of Reno. She won three state titles and was named the state Gatorade player of the year during her senior year of high school in 2000, setting records that she still holds. But for many of the years that she excelled on the court, Orndorff said, she had carried a terrible secret: Williams, her AAU club coach, had been sexually assaulting her. The abuse began when she was 15, she said, and carried well into her adulthood, resulting in the birth of a child she gave up for adoption at 19.
Williams was more than just a storied coach. He founded the Western region’s most prominent AAU basketball brand, Jam On It, which generated revenue for the AAU through the enormous tournaments it hosted every year.
After Orndorff’s allegations, the AAU pledged to investigate, saying Williams had “volunteered” to be placed on administrative leave. Orndorff’s allegations went before the AAU’s Board of Review a month later. The small group of AAU members, one elected to represent each region, had no training in law, investigation or child sexual abuse, according to Adams, the former board member.
Transcripts reviewed by ProPublica and The Post show the hearing frequently resembled a contentious criminal trial. Williams had a lawyer, but Orndorff said she had not been able to afford one at the time.
In a statement to the AAU, Williams denied sexually abusing Orndorff as a minor. But he admitted that he fathered Orndorff’s child, who was born when she was 19 and he was over 30 and just a year out of coaching her — a violation of the organization’s policy against having sexual relationships with former players, which was part of the 2012 reforms. The attorney asked Orndorff if her “anger” at Williams “is what has prompted this complaint.”
“No, sir,” she responded. “Being fingered by my coach at 15 in a gym and him making me think that that is all that I was good for, was to be his sexual satisfaction, that is where my fucking anger comes from. Next question.”
The board did not interview any witnesses or introduce records that could corroborate Orndorff’s account. Orndorff had submitted a 34-page narrative of the alleged abuse that included dates, locations and names of potential witnesses, 10 of whom later corroborated aspects of her story in depositions for a 2019 lawsuit she filed against Williams and Jam On It, according to a review of thousands of pages of court records. (Williams and Jam On It denied wrongdoing. Orndorff settled the case in 2023, and Williams died from cancer the following year. An attorney for Williams’ estate did not respond to a request for comment.)
An altered photo, left, shows Orndorff when she was one of the country’s best teenage basketball players. Now 44, Orndorff says she still carries the trauma of abuse but is almost nine years sober and rebuilding her life.
Adams, who is a former Georgia gymnastics coach and gym owner, sat on the board during the Williams case. She said board members did not interview any witnesses because Orndorff had not provided a separate list of their names and phone numbers.
The hearing also did not consider an accusation of sexual abuse against Williams by a different player in 2005, the case records show. Rod Seaford, the board chair and the attorney running the hearing, had personally responded to the allegations in 2005, court records show. But Seaford did not mention them at the hearing, and Adams said Seaford had not told her they existed. (The girl who made the accusation declined to speak to police or the AAU at the time, records show, and that case did not proceed. Now an adult, she did not respond to an interview request from ProPublica and The Post.) Seaford declined multiple requests for comment.
By May 2018, within six months of learning of Orndorff’s allegations, the Board of Review cleared Williams of wrongdoing and reinstated him to his $84,000 position as an AAU officer. He was free to coach at Jam On It.
Internal records show that the board cited a lack of evidence and questioned Orndorff’s credibility because of an admitted history of drug use and what the board called “disturbing” discrepancies in her story. She had alternately claimed, for example, that Williams had “taken her virginity” at 15 but that they had first had sex when she was 16. In the hearing, Orndorff tried to explain that she had been referring to Williams digitally penetrating her when she was 15.
Adams spent more than two decades on the Board of Review before leaving in 2024. She was never aware, she said, of any written rules used to decide whether a coach should be allowed to return to working with children.
“I think we just decided on our feelings,” Adams said of the board’s process.
She told ProPublica and The Post that the board had not considered sanctioning Williams for having a relationship with Orndorff because there was no regulation against having relationships with former players at the time. The AAU said in 2012 it had implemented that rule.
“It certainly would be [a violation] now,” Adams said. “And after, well — it was not a very pleasant — that was one of my unhappiest decisions.”
Orndorff said she still carries with her the trauma of Williams’ abuse. She left college during her freshman year as a result of the relationship with Williams, she said, eventually turning to drinking and drugs for much of her adult life. She is now 44 and says she has been sober since 2017.
But the AAU’s handling of the case when she was finally ready to step forward has made it much more difficult for her to heal. “I tried so hard to get the truth out, and I don’t know why I couldn’t do it,” Orndorff said, her voice choked with emotion.
Jim Fox, a youth basketball executive who records indicate joined the AAU Board of Directors after the case was resolved, said he believed the “old boys’ network” of the AAU had worked to suppress Orndorff’s allegations to avoid “embarrassment.” Fox tried to convince the board again to ban Williams in 2022, internal AAU records revealed in the court case show, citing new evidence in Orndorff’s civil suit, but it refused to even consider the case.
“Anybody could look at it and see that it was true,” Fox, a former probation officer, said of Orndorff’s allegations. “People tried to cover it up.”
Goudy, the president, died in 2020. Fox told ProPublica and The Post that Williams was stripped of his membership shortly after a new president, Jo Mirza, was elected in October 2022. Mirza, who court records show also advocated to terminate Williams’ membership in 2022, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“Short, Fast, Easy and Quick”
Something did change inside the AAU in 2021: It started making money.
Since 2015, the nonprofit had been spending more than the $20 million it took in annually, losing money each year.
But that year, the AAU’s revenue jumped to $24 million, and two years later, the number had grown to $34 million. In 2024, the most recent year the AAU’s nonprofit tax returns are public, the organization brought in nearly $44 million. It reported cash and investment reserves of around $30 million — triple what it held in 2019.
The organization’s momentum wasn’t in basketball. It was everywhere else. In boys’ volleyball, the AAU had become the dominant force, and in sports like martial arts, gymnastics and flag football, it was staking out a growing presence. The expansion meant that the AAU was increasingly competing with national sports governing bodies overseen by SafeSport.
In swimming, some large clubs joined the AAU, where they could register less serious swimmers for $20 apiece instead of the more than $70 cost of USA Swimming. In 2023, USA Swimming’s registrations fell by almost 5%.
AAU meets are “short, fast, easy and quick,” said Chris Davis, whose juggernaut Georgia swimming club, SwimAtlanta, has moved hundreds of kids to the AAU. “I could theoretically have a senior in high school run the meet. I don’t have to have an official.” Davis said he opts to use officials, and all of his coaches take SafeSport training because they are also members of USA Swimming.
The AAU’s cheaper fees weren’t the only selling point. On one swimming website’s list of reasons for clubs to switch to the “easier” AAU, the top of the list was a lack of “mandatory training hoops.”
By 2023, five years after the SafeSport Act’s passage, the AAU was publicly acknowledging that the law required all organizations to offer some form of child sex abuse prevention training, even if it isn’t created by SafeSport. Its new youth protection handbook cited the law — and said that the AAU’s mandatory course, offered through the Positive Coaching Alliance, now included “child abuse prevention training.”
Jason Sacks, the CEO of the Positive Coaching Alliance, told ProPublica and The Post in a statement that the material “was not an official training by any stretch.” It constituted “a few slides with resources.”
The links to those resources from AAU’s website are currently broken.
As an organization, Sacks said, PCA’s focus is not sexual abuse prevention but youth sports culture, with trainings that emphasize positivity and character development. He noted its courses can play a role in preventing emotional and physical abuse by discouraging coaches from mistreating athletes. But Sacks said they “are not currently built to satisfy the Safe Sport Act requirements.”
Though some 20,000 AAU coaches took the PCA course in its earliest days, Sacks’ statement said, those numbers have declined steadily in the decade since. In 2024, AAU reported more than 100,000 adult volunteers.
On Nov. 10, 2025, ProPublica and The Post reached out to the AAU with questions about whether the organization offered sexual abuse prevention training and if the PCA course was mandatory for all coaches.
Eight days later, the AAU approached PCA, Sacks said in his statement. Officials had two requests: “They wanted to incorporate more abuse prevention material in the PCA online coach course training, and make it mandatory for all coaches.”
Aleesa Bravata
“SafeSport Does Not Apply”
SafeSport’s public disciplinary list quickly became a central part of the sports landscape. By 2025, there were more than 2,500 coaches on the list — some temporarily suspended during investigations and hundreds more banned permanently from any sport that fell under the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
Though they were not required to do so by law, many independent organizations, including Pop Warner and Little League, implemented rules to keep coaches on the list out of their programs, too. In 2012, the AAU had said it would bar anyone “banned by other youth-serving organizations.” But it never adopted the rule, according to a review of its written policies.
Instead, ProPublica and The Post found, the organization has become known as a refuge for coaches who are suspended or banned by SafeSport and national governing bodies.
“The AAU has absolutely developed a reputation that they are the place to go if you are banned from our world,” said the president of one national governing body, who asked not to be named because he still works with the AAU.
The issue has been raised repeatedly to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, top governing body officials, attorneys and former SafeSport executives told The Post.
ProPublica and The Post identified eight people who coached AAU-affiliated teams within the last five years despite being banned by SafeSport or national governing bodies. The AAU’s director of compliance, Aaron Oandasan, would not verify if any of them were registered with the AAU, but ProPublica and The Post confirmed they were coaching teams registered with the organization through interviews with parents, administrators or the coaches themselves, as well as online records and social media posts.
Among them were three elite gymnastics coaches who had been suspended by either USA Gymnastics or SafeSport over emotional and physical abuse allegations in the wake of the Nassar revelations but continued working with AAU athletes. Another was a fencing club owner who started advertising his gym as affiliated with AAU while SafeSport investigated allegations of sexual misconduct against him that it eventually substantiated. And a Georgia basketball coach who was suspended for three years by SafeSport over allegations that were not publicly disclosed even took his team of boys to AAU nationals.
Last year, a regional governing body official said he reached out to the AAU to warn it about a local volleyball club owner who had told parents he planned to join the AAU to evade a SafeSport suspension for alleged sexual misconduct.
The AAU’s response to the official was curt, the official told ProPublica and The Post: “SafeSport does not apply.”
Adams, the former review board member, said that the AAU does not check the SafeSport list unless it receives a report about a coach. The AAU then conducts its own investigation, she said, because it does not trust SafeSport. That is because SafeSport is prohibited from sharing confidential details of cases, she said, but also out of concern that the center punishes coaches for frivolous reasons.
“At times, SafeSport hasn’t liked the way somebody dressed or they drank in college,” she said, without providing examples. SafeSport’s vice president, Hilary Nemchik, called Adams’ characterization “not accurate” and “concerning.”
“SafeSport’s cases are proven through evidence, and our process allows for appeals by the accused,” Nemchik said.
Adams said the AAU board does sometimes ban coaches who have been barred by SafeSport.
She recalled one case in which the board ruled that a coach banned by SafeSport should be allowed to continue working with the AAU. That coach was later seen acting inappropriately with an AAU athlete, Adams said, and the AAU banned him at that time. She declined to name the coach, and because the AAU does not make a public list of banned members, the claim is not verifiable.
One of the coaches who was still working with children under AAU following a SafeSport suspensionwas Elias Perez in Southern California.
Aleesa Bravata told SafeSport last year that Perez, her former volleyball coach, had groomed and inappropriately touched her while she was in high school.
But a few weeks after his name appeared on SafeSport’s disciplinary list, temporarily suspending him, Bravata saw Perez’s truck in the parking lot of the local volleyball gym. Perez was still coaching.
Bravata had met Perez when he began coaching the girls’ volleyball team at her high school in Huntington Beach, California. He was 33; she was 16, a junior. As her senior season began, she said, Perez began to isolate her from her teammates and text her with increasing frequency about things other than volleyball, including making comments about her appearance.
ProPublica and The Post reviewed interviews and records that were part of SafeSport’s investigation, including text messages between Bravata and Perez, and corroborated parts of her story with a former coach in whom Bravata confided while she was still in high school.
In September 2024, around the time Bravata turned 18, Bravata said Perez asked her for a ride home from training because his car was broken down. Parked outside Perez’s apartment, Bravata said her coach told her, “You know how I feel about you.”
She asked him what he meant. Bravata said she remembers his reply word-for-word: “I’m going to put this in a way you understand. I have a crush on you, I like you, I want to hold your hand and take you on dates.”
“I froze,” Bravata told ProPublica and The Post. “It scared me.”
An altered photo, left, shows Bravata when she played volleyball in high school. Now 19, she is a sophomore in college.
Perez went inside, Bravata said, but a few days later, he asked her to come to his apartment to drop off a set of keys to the high school gym. Parked outside his apartment, Bravata recalled that she sat in the passenger seat of her truck and, with the door open, Perez came to stand close to her, his body between her legs.
Bravata told Perez that she didn’t want to have sex, she said, and Perez said he would never do anything that made her uncomfortable.Then, she said, Perez began to touch her, rubbing his fingers under her bra strap and touching the waistband of her pajama pants.
Perez tried to kiss her, Bravata said, and Bravata turned her head. He then took her wrist, she said, and pressed her hand against his clothed penis, which was erect under his loose pants. When he let go, Bravata said, her hand dropped loosely into her lap.
Bravata got out of the passenger seat to return to the driver’s side, she said, and Perez asked her, “Hey, if anyone asks, Eli accidentally touched your ass, right?”
With the volleyball season over, Bravata and Perez stopped spending time together. Later in her senior year, her confused feelings turned to something else: “It took me till the end of the school year to realize that he had been grooming me, basically brainwashing me,” she said.
Bravata confided in a former coach, SafeSport records show, who escalated the issue to school administration and the school resource officer. By then, Perez had left the high school. Bravata said Huntington Beach police told her that because it was possible the incidents had occurred when she was no longer a minor, the district attorney was unlikely to prosecute. (The police declined to release any records to ProPublica and The Post because the case is still open.)
In August 2025, when Bravata learned Perez was coaching a team of 14- to 15-year-old girls at Balboa Bay, a prestigious local volleyball club, she called SafeSport’s reporting hotline.
Within weeks, SafeSport issued a temporary suspension against Perez while it finished its investigation — a measure it typically takes only in limited cases where allegations are serious and recent.
Perez did not respond to requests for comment. But in an interview with a SafeSport investigator, a transcript of which was reviewed by ProPublica and The Post, he denied any inappropriate contact with Bravata, saying that they had rarely texted and had not been close.
Balboa Bay was a member of two organizations: USA Volleyball, which is legally bound by SafeSport, and the AAU, which is not. So while Balboa Bay eventually stopped Perez from coaching girls on its USA Volleyball teams, it allowed him to continue coaching teenage boys on its AAU-affiliated teams for several months.
The club director, Travis Turner, said he initially decided to keep Perez because AAU rules did not forbid it and the alleged misconduct had not taken place at Balboa Bay. After ProPublica and The Post reached out to him in November, Turner said, he decided to fire Perez. He said he had not initially understood the severity of SafeSport suspensions.
This April, SafeSport issued a permanent ban against Perez for sexual misconduct and an intimate relationship “involving a power imbalance,” its online database shows.
But Bravata said she fears that there is nothing to prevent Perez from finding another AAU club — and another chance to coach children.
Mina Smallman, whose daughters were killed in north London park in 2020, says force ‘decides who matters’
The Metropolitan police does not take all cases of violence against women seriously and instead “decides who matters”, the mother of two murdered women has said.
Mina Smallman, whose daughters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were killed in a north London park in 2020, also said Britain’s biggest police force was incapable of change. Two police officers were jailed in 2021 after taking photographs of the dead bodies of her daughters and sharing the images in WhatsApp groups, referring to them as “dead birds”.
Elbridge Colby, the third-highest-ranking official at the Pentagon and formerly an avowed Aukus sceptic, has mirrored his president’s language on the nuclear submarine deal, saying it is “full steam ahead”.
Colby, a US under secretary of war, was the author of the Trump administration’s review of the Aukus deal, which would see the US sell three in-service Virginia-class submarines to Australia, before the development of Australia’s domestically built Aukus-class submarines.
After 13 years of observations and data processing, astronomers have released the largest two-dimensional map of the universe ever assembled, "offering a sweeping new view of nearly 4 billion celestial objects across roughly three-quarters of the sky," reports Space.com. From the report: The new map, created by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Legacy Imaging Surveys team, contains a staggering 5.6 trillion pixels and combines more than 263,000 telescope exposures collected over more than a decade. The observations span visible and near-infrared wavelengths, providing an enormous portrait of stars, galaxies and other cosmic phenomena across the sky, according to a statement from the National Science Foundation (NSF) NOIRLab. "It's part of the fabric of astronomy research now," David Schlegel, co-lead of the Legacy Surveys and a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said in a statement. "When you're working with astronomical objects today, you often start by pulling up the Legacy Imaging Viewer to see what you're looking at."
Economic growth slowed in the second quarter of the year, as the disruption unleashed by the Iran war began to take its toll, official figures show.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said GDP expanded by 0.4% in the three months to June, down from 0.6% in the first quarter, in line with City economists’ expectations.
Settlers and soldiers cut off water and electricity to homes, and block medical care in campaign of terror
Israeli militants have besieged two Palestinian families in their homes since the weekend, aiming to take over their properties in the West Bank village of Qusra through a campaign of terror.
A group of settlers and soldiers set up a tent outside the home of Yousef Hassan’s family on Sunday afternoon, trapping him inside with his wife and two young daughters.
With great software and battery for two days, the pricey svelte folder strikes best balance between phone and tablet
Samsung’s top folding phone for 2026 is its first to carry the “Ultra” moniker in its name, packing a much bigger battery and better cameras into the thin and light body of a book-style foldable.
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra continues from where the exquisite Z Fold 7 left off last year. With its svelte chocolate bar dimensions opening into a square tablet, the Ultra sits above the new passport-shaped Z Fold 8 as Samsung’s top model. Costing £1,899 (€2,199/$2,099.99/A$2,999), it is a lot of money to pay for a phone, regardless of how many other devices it can theoretically replace in your pocket.
Katie Ledecky won the 1500m freestyle on opening night of the Pan Pacific Championships on Wednesday, earning the first international medal of her storied career on home soil.
The two-time Olympic champion in the event was under her own world-record pace in the early stages of the 30-lap race, with fans at the outdoor pool in Irvine, California, on their feet cheering throughout.
Taiwan’s statement comes a day after reports that suspected China-linked hackers had carried out a first-of-a-kind breach
Taiwan says it detected AI-assisted cyber-attacks on government agencies that came from overseas last month, a new kind of threat that has been reported as “first-of-a-kind breach”.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MDA) said its cybersecurity monitoring units detected the “abnormal attack” targeting government agencies, which began on 20 July. The National Institute of Cyber Security issued a series of warning alerts while it investigated.
(The Center Square) – Ohio was recently ranked by CNBC as the top state in the nation for doing business. More praise for the Buckeye State is coming in.
Hakainde Hichilema is bidding for second term, but feud between him and family of Edgar Lungu, who died in 2025, continues
As Zambians go to the polls on Thursday, the ghost of the current president’s predecessor hangs over the elections.
Hakainde Hichilema, 64, is bidding for a second term leading the southern African country after defeating his arch-rival Edgar Lungu by a landslide in 2021.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Two days before tens of thousands of migrants surged into Ceuta, one of Spain's enclaves on Morocco's northern coast, a newspaper there posted a video on TikTok and Instagram showing two young women walking in the city in wet suits, their hair still damp. The posts didn't say so explicitly, but the implication was clear: The women had just swum across the border from Morocco. "Ceuta can't take it anymore," the newspaper, El Faro de Ceuta, declared in the posts. On the other side of the border, the video resonated very differently. Cropped and reposted in Arabic, the video seemed like an invitation. The women were smiling, flashing peace signs and thumbs up and, most of all, walking around freely. The video seemed to legitimize rumors that had percolated for weeks on social media suggesting that a recent ruling by Spain's Supreme Court meant migrants who arrived illegally by sea could stay in the country. As one account on Facebook put it, falsely, "Ceuta is turning into an open gate," when in fact migrants still faced expulsion after a judicial review. The responses to the posts about the swimmers were a critical part of a cascade of disinformation that experts described as one of the starkest instances in which social media contributed directly to a real-world tragedy.
Flowstate Vesc ride app is now on the AppStore! Remember this is just my personal hobby project that i wanted to share. It’s free and i expect to lose money on it. There is a tip jar and a ‘donator bonus’ theme if anyone wants to tip $5. The app was coded by AI so don’t use it if that weirds you out, but just to be clear, refloat is what’s balancing your board, not the app. the app reads a data stream for the gauges, and sets tune parameters within refloat’s boundaries. It’s been used for hundreds of miles by me and 20 beta testers. It has some cool features like different themes, video recorder with HUD, LED visualizer, and it’s particularly good for fine tuning and editing tunes. Every refloat tune parameter is accessible with help texts. Try it out and let me know what you think. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flowstate-vesc/id6784881030
For Irene Rombel, the big moment came when her biotech startup won crucial funding for her next big step. For Lisa Sabia, it was when she finally nailed down an elusive bank loan for her new yoga studio in Fairfax.
For any new business, dreams start to seem more real when your balance sheet gets a boost from someone who believes in you.
Delaware Accelerator & Seed Capital Program (DASCP): Direct equity investments up to $1 million in tech-focused Delaware companies with high growth potential.
The Delaware Early Stage Venture Capital Program (DESVC): Equity investments of up to $4 million for socially and economically disadvantaged businesses and other high-growth startups.
Delaware Loan Participation Program (DELPP): When lenders cannot cover a small business’s full loan request, this program can provide up to 50% of the loan amount alongside your lender.
Delaware Capital Access Program (DCAP): Uses a risk-pooling model to reduce lenders’ risk and make loan approval easier for borrowers.
Those hurdle-leaping, life-altering moments happen more often in Delaware these days, thanks to an unprecedented effort by the state’s Division of Small Business to connect young businesses to early-stage financing.
Since 2024, the division has lifted more than 60 up-and-coming ventures through its State Small Business Credit Initiative, which has supported entrepreneurial visions including laid-back beer halls, laundromats, and AI-enhanced pharma technology companies like BioCurie.
With $1 million in seed capital financing in hand, Rombel and her team at BioCurie were able to make key hires and critical advances in developing its AI-driven digital platform, designed for cell and gene therapy manufacturing.
“That funding went very, very far in terms of building a very credible software platform,” said Rombel, BioCurie’s co-founder. “That then enabled us to get our first big customer.”
It also enabled the Division of Small Business to take another step in its ongoing mission to keep the businesses ideas and energy flowing, and to enhance the state’s growing reputation as a place for innovation. The Division fuels these investments with $60.9 million in federal funding awarded to Delaware in 2023. DSB receives this award in 3 allotments of approximately $20 million each.
So far, the pot of money supporting the Delaware Accelerator & Seed Capital Program (DASCP) SSBCI program has helped a remarkably diverse – and technologically courageous – group of entrepreneurs, including:
Nanotherm Therapeutics (Wilmington), which is developing ground-breaking technology that battles cancer tumors using nanoparticles.
Versogen (Newark), where they are inventing ways to use water and renewable energy to produce “green” hydrogen at scale, reliably and affordably.
Whip Flip (Wilmington), which uses an AI-bolstered app to streamline the car-purchasing process.
Sindri Materials (Wilmington), which is developing a high-tech carbon material – just one atom thick – that can enhance the speed and effectiveness of pharmaceutical research.
“Sindri Materials is a great example of our focus on supporting cutting-edge ideas that could revolutionize an industry, and exponentially grow jobs in Delaware,” said Joe Zilcosky, one of the Division’s Business Managers focused on STEM companies.
Ultimately, DASCP aims to help Delaware make deeper inroads into the industries that are shaping up to be key drivers of the 21st century economy. Delaware has been making solid strides toward enhancing its reputation as a home for biotechnology and pharmaceutical jobs, and the SSBCI program helps bolster that mission.
Division of Small Business Director Christopher “CJ” Bell says he and his team in Dover want to create a place in Delaware for more companies like Incyte, which started as a relatively small pharmaceutical venture that was eager to tap into the state’s talented candidate pool. Today, Incyte operates out of a massive complex near Wilmington, employing more than a thousand people, with many more to come.
“If I could wave a magic wand, I’d like to help turn our accelerator and seed capital awardees into the next Incyte,” Bell said. “Incyte is a company that was built here and then scaled to the point of having hundreds of jobs, hundreds of good-paying jobs. That’s a big thing.
“It’s one thing to create jobs, but it’s important to also create sustainability. And I think some of our recipients have that potential,” Bell added.
But the SSBCI program isn’t solely meant for big companies with global ambitions. While part of the program supports tech-focused businesses with sizable growth potential, there’s also plenty of room for more human-sized ventures, and business dreams that live closer to home.
Just ask Lisa Sabia. Back in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, the healthcare professional had a vision that she could turn her love for yoga into a studio of her own. She had the concept down pat — it would be a place for “hot” yoga, but also a space where people in the community could build up social bonds that the pandemic frayed so badly.
Problem was, that construction loan was proving more elusive than she expected. Turning to the Division of Small Business, she found that elements of the SSBCI program are expressly designed to help with just those kinds of small-venture hiccups — either by providing up to 50% of the loan amount, or by using “risk-pooling” to make loan approval easier. (For businesses that are not yet “bank ready,” the division connects people to the Small Business Development Center, which will provide one-on-one assistance in preparing business plans for loan consideration.)
Today, Sabia is close to opening her studio in the Avenue North complex, in the shadow of Concord Pike’s latest suburban skyscraper in Fairfax, and within a short jaunt of the thousands of workers nearby. “This is a very expensive project, so getting this loan helps significantly,” she said. “I’m not sure I would have gone through with it without the help I got from the state and Del-One Federal Credit Union, which partners with the state.”
To Bell, stories like that show how even acronym-laden government programs like SSBCI have a very human side. By supporting residents with business dreams, the state can help in strengthening the broader community and building a sense of pride within that community for the things it has built together.
“When you’re a small business owner, you’re going to be producing jobs for residents in this state,” he said. “Being able to see your neighbor, your cousin, your father-in-law grow a company just gives you that much more pride and sense of belonging about it.”
He often thinks about how SSBCI has had so many real impacts on real people, with real community roots. The 3-year-old Rail Haus beer garden in Dover is one of those. “With the help of SSBCI, they were able to refinance a loan that was going to balloon. And now they’re saving about $9,000 a month.”
Small victories like that can lead to bigger victories down the road, participants find. Success tends to breed success, and the support from the state often leads to backing from others who see a potential winner. Primed for success, BioCurie went on to snag a whopping $9.3 million award from the federal government and is already setting its sights even higher.
“The support from the Division of Small Business has been catalytic all the way through, enabling us to build our technology, our intellectual property, and even recruit our team,” Rombel said. “It’s been really a virtuous cycle.”
McKenna West initially agreed to an abortion after diagnosis, but then fled to state where abortion is illegal and broke contact with biological parents, attorney alleges
A surrogate mother who traveled to Texas, where abortion is illegal, claiming she was pressured to end the pregnancy after the discovery of a severe heart defect, gave birth on Wednesday to a baby boy.
The child’s biological parents, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed of California, confirmed the birth through their lawyer, while denying they forced McKenna West, who is from Alaska, to undergo an abortion, the Texas Tribune reported.
Core inflation, which measures price changes without volatile goods like food and gas, rose by 0.2% in July, after not really changing in June compared to the month prior.
While the latest data shows there has been a 2.9% drop in gas prices from June to July, there has been a 25% hike compared to this time last year.
The Trump administration today unveiled a new program that will allow vetted U.S. companies to conduct cyber surveillance and offensive cyber operations against foreign transnational criminal organizations. A presidential memorandum signed August 12 directs the National Coordination Center to establish and manage the program, expanding the government's fight against cybercrime by tapping the technical capabilities of the private sector. It builds on a March executive order that called for greater private-sector involvement, but goes significantly further by establishing a formal operational framework for the initiative.
The White House argues that American companies possess a "critical offensive cyber advantage" whose capabilities have "historically been underutilized" in efforts to identify and disrupt criminal networks operating online. There are two broad categories of authorized activity. "Cyber Surveillance Operations" can involve secretly accessing foreign information systems without authorization to gather intelligence, including information that could later be used for offensive operations. "Cyber Effects Operations," meanwhile, can result in the "manipulation, disruption, denial, degradation, or destruction" of information systems, networks, or infrastructure.
It's worth noting that companies will not be free to launch their own operations. The memorandum requires program officials to "review every cyber operations package and provide written approval and direction" before a participating company can act. Operations that could cause death or serious injury, or "rise to the level of use of force or armed attack under international law," are classified as "Critical Outcomes" and cannot be approved through the standard process. The program includes safeguards requiring companies to halt and report operations that unintentionally affect U.S. persons or systems, as well as any imminent threats to critical infrastructure.
The devastation has tested Colombia's new president and his government as it scrambles to respond to the disaster and civil society as it pushes to provide aid to the most affected communities.
Surrogate McKenna West declined to get an abortion requested by the intended parents after the baby she was carrying was diagnosed with a severe but treatable heart defect.
In early August, on the one-year anniversary of his father’s death, Samson Childs invited his godfather out to eat at a Wingstop on Nashville’s south side, not far from where his dad grew up. Hanging out with his godfather was a way for Childs to feel close to his father, Byron Black, who died at 69. “We talked and we cried and he gave me good memories — just old stories of my dad, him growing up, and how they stuck together,” Childs said.
Black spent more than three decades on death row before he was killed by lethal injection on August 5, 2025, at Tennessee’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. He’d been convicted in 1989 for killing his girlfriend, Angela Clay, along with her two young daughters. Black insisted he did not commit the horrific murders, but he was swiftly found guilty and sentenced to die.
Over the decades that followed, Black’s lawyers argued that his intellectual disability should have barred him from facing the death penalty. The district attorney’s office that convicted him even conceded that they were right, but the courts disagreed. By the time Tennessee prepared to kill him, Black had been diagnosed with dementia, kidney disease, and congestive heart failure.
“How would I feel knowing that this is my last day on earth?”
Defense attorneys argued that Black’s poor health put him at serious risk of a torturous execution, raising specific concerns over his implanted heart defibrillator and pacemaker. Experts warned that the device could deliver painful shocks before he died. To their dismay, Black did suffer on the gurney — although not for the reasons they most feared. Prison staff struggled to insert an IV in Black’s arm, spilling blood on the floor. The drug that was supposed to kill him — a massive dose of the fast-acting barbiturate pentobarbital — did not work as intended. Media witnesses said they could hear Black moaning in pain.
Childs was not at the prison on the morning his father was killed. He was at home in Nashville after a sleepless night. “You know, I’m putting myself in his shoes,” he said. “How would I feel knowing that this is my last day on earth?” It wasn’t until he watched a local news segment that Childs learned things had not gone well. “It messed me up, I ain’t gonna lie,” he said. “I can’t imagine being there, viewing this, seeing this happen.”
Black’s execution reignited controversy over capital punishment in Tennessee, where advocates had warned against executing him with a new protocol that had not been subjected to legal review. The one-drug pentobarbital method had been introduced by the state following complications with its previous, three-drug formula, which was itself adopted despite ample warnings that it violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Nevertheless, Tennessee pressed forward — with disturbingly predictable results.
On May 21, just nine months after Black’s painful death, Tennessee attempted to kill 57-year-old Tony Carruthers, convicted in 1996 of a triple murder he swore he did not commit. As in Black’s case, prison staff tried clumsily to place the IV lines for lethal injection. But this time they never finished. Carruthers spent 40 minutes being poked and prodded, only for a physician to enter the chamber and attempt to place what is known as a central line in his chest. The descriptions of what followed were harrowing. As Carruthers’s attorney, Maria DeLiberato would later write, “I saw the process unraveling with my own eyes.”
“The executioners draped Mr. Carruthers in a blue surgical cloth with a hole for his face,” she wrote. “When the doctor prodded Mr. Carruthers’s chest with a scalpel or large needle, Mr. Carruthers cried out in pain. But the doctor continued to push into his chest. Mr. Carruthers started groaning. … I told him that I was sorry. Mostly, I tried to hold his gaze and reassure him that we were still fighting for him.”
The ordeal ended only after the governor himself finally intervened, issuing an executive order putting off Carruthers’s execution for a year.
The temporary reprieve raised hopes that Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee might put all executions on hold. Instead, the state soon announced it intended to proceed with the next one. Before long, officials at the Department of Correction were preparing to kill 66-year-old Anthony Darrell Hines. He is set to die on Thursday at 10 a.m. – one of three people scheduled to be put to death in the U.S. on the same day.
Protestors rallying against the death penalty hold hands in front of the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville on Aug. 9, 2026. Liliana Segura/The Intercept
It was Hines’s looming execution date that prompted Childs to speak publicly again about his own father’s death. This past weekend, he joined anti-death penalty activists for a protest known as the “March 4 Mercy.” On the Sunday before every execution, activists walk nine miles from the prison on the city’s west side to the Tennessee State Capitol downtown. With temperatures in the 90s and the air thick with humidity, the marchers were drenched in sweat as they made their way across town. Walking at a steady pace, Childs held up a sign for passing cars that read “Justice Requires Mercy” and “Blessed Are the Merciful.”
Childs could not begin to comprehend what had happened to Carruthers. But he also couldn’t shake the mental torture of a looming execution over everybody involved. It must impact everyone, he said, including the people witnessing and carrying it out. “Some of those people probably never want to do that again.”
Tennessee’s persistence in carrying out lethal injection is part of a recent spike in executions in the U.S. In Oklahoma, at the same time as Hines is set to be put to death, executioners plan to kill 70-year-old Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez inside the state’s death chamber in McAlester. Then, at 6 p.m., Alabama intends to execute 41-year-old Jeremy Williams at Holman Penitentiary in Atmore.
The last time the country saw three executions scheduled for the same day was in 2018, when Alabama, Texas, and Florida were supposed to kill three different men. Only one execution moved forward that day; in Texas, the governor granted a rare clemency request. In Alabama, which intended to execute Doyle Hamm, a terminally ill man in his 60s, the lethal injection was suddenly stopped because of problems setting IV lines. It was the first in a series of botched executions that would make Alabama infamous for torturing people condemned to die.
Although Tennessee has made the most recent headlines following its disastrous attempt to kill Tony Carruthers, both Oklahoma and Alabama have long been known for their own ugly track records. It was Oklahoma, after all, where a medical examiner first invented the three-drug protocol that originally comprised lethal injection, later griping that he never intended for it to be managed so incompetently. After the state made international headlines for the harrowing 2014 execution of Clayton Lockett, famed death row prisoner Richard Glossip was nearly executed using the same method the following year — only to be spared at the last minute after officials realized they had procured the wrong drug. Glossip, who has insisted on his innocence for three decades, was released on bail earlier this year to await a new trial.
In Alabama, after officials were forced to call off Hamm’s execution, the state took three hours to place IV lines in the body of a man named Joe James, whose execution isbelieved to be the longest in U.S. history. The state’s ongoing inability to carry out lethal injection ultimately led to a cruel new invention for executions: death by nitrogen hypoxia. Earlier this year, a judge declared the method unconstitutional, prompting the state to revert back to lethal injection.
In many ways, the controversy looming over Hines’s scheduled execution is a variation on a very old story. Lethal injection may be cloaked in the veneer of a surgical procedure — the doctor who tried to help the state kill Carruthers referred to him as a “patient” — but, in reality, it has always been a crude human experiment, using the tools of medicine in order to kill. In Tennessee, concerns over potential pain and suffering during lethal injection have prompted some people facing execution to instead choose the electric chair.
But lethal injection remains the prevailing method — and lawyers have little recourse when it comes to fighting against it. Years of U.S. Supreme Court rulings have inoculated lethal injection against legal challenges, no matter how much evidence reveals it to be torture. As Justice Samuel Alito reasoned more than a decade ago in upholding Oklahoma’s three-drug protocol, preserving the death penalty is ultimately more important than devising a humane way to kill the condemned. “Because capital punishment is constitutional,” he wrote in 2015, “there must be a constitutional means of carrying it out.”
There is one way in which Tennessee’s current lethal injection controversy is different from what came before. Despite the state’s attempts to keep the identities of executioners secret, the doctor who tried to assist in the killing of Tony Carruthers was revealed earlier this year as Dr. Mark Fowler, whose medical background includes working in an emergency room as well as, more recently, according to a profile in the Guardian, “weight loss and aesthetic clinics.” Fowler also writes opinion columns “for his local newspaper, the Union City Daily Messenger, that are reproduced by the conservative blog the Patriot Post.”
Most alarming for those facing execution, Fowler also lacks the qualifications to do what the job entails, according to attorneys for Hines. Last year he admitted under oath that he had not placed a central line in 13 years and lacked the privilege to do so at a hospital. Yet the Department of Correction has refused to assure attorneys that they will not rely on him. The department “knows that Dr. Fowler can’t do the job the protocol requires him to do,” Hines’s lawyer said in press statement this week, “and we’ve seen what that means in practice: a torturous, failed procedure that leaves staff, witnesses, and the prisoner traumatized.”
Fowler has declined to speak with reporters, and it remains unclear whether he will participate in Hines’s execution. Whether he does or not, Hines’s age and poor health puts him at heightened risk of pain and suffering as his execution approaches. In December he had the first of two strokes, according to his attorneys. “The prison initially called for an ambulance to transport him to an outside hospital for care,” the lawyers wrote in legal filings, but the corrections department’s medical contractor “inexplicably turned the ambulance away, determining that an in-house CT scan would suffice.”
Despite a scan eventually confirming the stroke, Hines was denied proper care, his lawyers said, and he “suffered another stroke in mid-January and collapsed, hitting his head. Since that time, he has been confined to the prison infirmary, where he remains paralyzed on the left side, has partial left-sided blindness, and has suffered severe muscle atrophy.”
Today, according to advocates who regularly visit people on death row, Hines remains isolated from the rest of the condemned population. As with Byron Black, whose shower chair had to be moved along with him to the “death watch” cell where he would spend his final hours last summer, prison staff recently had to devise ways to accommodate Hines’s hospital bed in the area near the execution chamber. When the time comes, he will be lifted from the bed and strapped to the gurney – a “grotesque spectacle,” in the words of his attorneys.
Nevertheless, the governor, who is just months away from leaving office, remains unmoved. On Monday, he announced that he would not intervene to stop Hines’s execution.
Whatever happens in the death chamber, there are some signs that some of Tennessee’s staunch conservatives are starting to worry that the state is starting to look bad. In June, nine senate Republicans wrote to Lee, asking him to spare Hines, who they describe as “profoundly disabled,” and questioning whether the state is currently equipped to carry out executions. “Repeated failures of this kind do not advance justice,” they warned. “They obstruct it, prolong the suffering of victims’ families, and hand the opponents of capital punishment their most effective argument against a penalty Tennesseans have chosen to keер.”
So there's a bit of a story to this. I'm going to burning man this year and was in the market for a playa vehicle, so I picked up this boi for 275, intended to be a "fun cruise but if it dies it's not the end of the world" sorta thing. Never ridden one before today.
I spin it up, pretty easy to learn going slow, works a dream, tops out at like 10mph. I start researching what actual model I have, and when I send a pic and screenshot of the diagnostics to Claude, it points out that the serial number is 0W000286.
If my understanding is correct, that means this was one of the very first onewheels ever made, likely from the original Kickstarter. (He's actually got 898 miles on him, not sure why the odometer says 252)
So, basically, I'm now very emotionally attached to this thing, and I don't want him to die on the playa. Any ideas for how to make him battle ready? How to take care of him? Or is it just a bad idea?
The DOJ unveiled criminal charges alleging 11 people participated in a scheme that involved more than 1,000 "sham marriages" between Chinese nationals and U.S. citizens.
New owner is said to be involved in AI industry, as new class of multimillionaires is entering the real estate race
A luxury Lake Como-inspired estate in the San Francisco Bay Area has sold to a buyer “in the AI world” for a record $70m, in the latest sign of a new tech wealth boom that’s pushing home prices to extraordinary heights in the region
The property south of San Francisco not only becomes the most expensive sale in its affluent town of Hillsborough, doubling a previous record, but is also the most expensive sale in northern California this year, according to listing agent Jennifer Gilson of Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty.
Two soldiers aboard an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter based out of Fort Hood were killed in a crash on Wednesday, according to local authorities and the Army.
Another month started almost two weeks ago, so we’ve got a new monthly report from Redox, the general purpose operating system written in Rust. The month of July – it seems the report was published with a bit of a delay, regardless of what the date on their site says – brought improvements to the installer, with new options commonly found in most installers, such as a choice of installation method, network-based installation, and more. The Google Summer of Code work on the new CPU scheduler has also been merged, including a number of related performance enhancements.
There’s improvements to the ARM port, Amlogic Meson UART ARM64 support, and uutils grep and sed have been successfully built on Redox, replacing their their GNU counterparts in the os-test test suite. In addition, a whole slew of demos were ported as well, from Ratatui demos to various Iced demos covering things like reading QR codes and processing Markdown. Of course, this is all topped off with the usual long list of lower-level, smaller changes and improvements to the kernel, drivers, Relibc, and more.
After owning the X7LR since July 1st it became apparent to me pretty quick that there are not many options for fenders it seems float life's drop top tender was basically the only option. I did some searching on printables.com and I found a design for these mini fenders which also have the option of attaching a full fender to them printed them out long story short they weren't compatible with my board so I went ahead and took the time to remix the file and finally I was able to get the style of fender deletes/mini fenders I wanted.
Anyone else in the same boat or have the same issue here's the file to my print which is a remix of the two mini fenders so you should be able to access those through my printables file.
At Defcon, a strange-looking print pushed a researcher below an AI camera’s detection threshold. Now its creator is putting patterns like it on shirts and hoodies, even though worn clothing remains the big unproven test.
RCN calls for more air conditioners as Burnham faces pressure to recognise urgency of adaptation to climate crisis
Nurses are collapsing during shifts amid “inhumane and impossible” conditions caused by extreme heat, their union has warned, as Andy Burnham promised to grapple with “the bigger questions” of climate adaptation.
Amid growing pressure from Labour backbenches to fully acknowledge the urgency of adaptation measures as the climate crisis bites, Burnham said he was for now focusing on the immediate crises caused by an ongoing summer of extreme heat.
Wired reports that consumer neurotechnology is rapidly moving from the lab into workplaces and homes, with companies including Apple, Meta, and Snap developing products that can monitor or interpret brain activity. Researchers warn that as these systems improve, neural data could become the next major privacy battleground. Some neuroscientists are already calling for a series of core rights, coined "neurorights," that protect "mental privacy," "identity," and personal "agency." Here's an excerpt from the article: Over the past two decades, researchers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which tracks the iron in the hemoglobin supplying oxygen to neurons, have been building up increasingly detailed maps and inventories of the mammalian cortex. Thanks to huge advances in machine-learning artificial intelligence -- computer algorithms that are able to sort through enormous amounts of information and use statistical methods to make classifications and predictions -- fMRI scans can now be used to identify everything from depressive thoughts to the nuanced feelings of envy and schadenfreude. Other algorithms have been able to accurately piece together reconstructions of movie clips watched by subjects, just by analyzing their brain scans; or have detected, in probing the brain activity of swing voters in the US presidential election, responding to photographs and videos of presidential candidates, which candidates provoked anxiety or even disgust, and which elicited positive responses or feelings of empathy.
In just the last few years, neuroscience researchers have progressed from decoding images and emotions as they play across the cortex to sounds, words, phrases, and even language. In 2023, in a remarkable demonstration of this emerging technology, a woman called Ann Johnson, who had been paralyzed for 18 years by a brain-stem stroke, was able to speak again through the insertion of a grid of 253 electrodes onto the surface of her brain, which translated her neuronal signals into sentences, in real time, at a rate of 78 words per minute (just about half the speed of standard conversation). The research team at the University of California, led by neurosurgeon Edward Chang, had combined this brain-computer interface with an animated avatar of Johnson's head, which spoke in her own voice, as reconstructed from a recording of a 15-minute toast she had given at her wedding. Just as the avatar's mouth spoke Johnson's words as she thought them, so its expressions were similarly influenced by the nuances of her brain activity, which turned her thoughts about facial gestures into displays of emotion -- from smiles to pursed lips and frowns.
[...] The more invasive the recording equipment, the richer and more detailed the data. Surgical interventions are at the vanguard of neuroscience and remain very rare -- fewer than 100 people on the planet have brain-computer interfaces like Johnson's embedded beneath their skulls. Yet almost inevitably, a concerted trickle-down effect is occurring. In the summer of 2023, a team at the University of Texas demonstrated that they could use fMRI to translate brain scans into words and sentences, after subjects listened to 16 hours of the storytelling podcasts The Moth Radio Hour and The New York Times' Modern Love to train an AI model. When the subjects then listened to new podcasts, the algorithm was able to convert the gist of what they heard, as it manifested in their brains, into words, phrases, and sentences that roughly captured the stories. As the team's lead computational neuroscientist, Alexander Huth, put it in an interview with Science, "Our thought when we actually had this working was, 'Oh my God, this is kind of terrifying.'" Now noninvasive, wearable brain scanners are beginning to proliferate beyond the lab, making their way into our workplaces and, through the vast global consumer market, into our homes too.
President Trump secretly moved from Air Force One to another plane within a day of U.S. and Turkish intelligence picking up on an Iranian plot to fire a missile at the jet, CBS News has learned.
Police said they believed deceased man was assailant in domestic-related homicide at daycare center
A man killed a woman and their child inside a small in-home daycare center they own in Minnesota before taking his own life, police said on Wednesday.
Hopkins police department said in statement they responded to a report of a stabbing at the residence on the 200 block of Tyler Avenue North around 9am in the Minneapolis suburb of Hopkins. Inside, they found two adults and a child dead.
Military official says AH-64 Apache had been on a routine training flight near Fort Hood when it went down
An army Apache helicopter crashed in a central Texas field on Wednesday, killing both people on board and sparking a wildfire that forced several homes to be evacuated, a sheriff’s official said.
Officials from nearby Fort Hood announced that the AH-64 Apache helicopter had crashed. Cliff Coleman, spokesperson for the Bell county sheriff’s office, confirmed that both occupants had died.
Trump’s most prominent spokesperson won regular plaudits from her boss for her unflinching defense of his agenda
Donald Trump’s most prominent spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, is leaving the White House. The US president announced on Wednesday that his press secretary would depart at the end of the month.
Leavitt, who has served in the role since Trump’s returned to power in January 2025, won regular plaudits from her boss for her unflinching defense of his agenda, but faced frequent criticism for amplifying misinformation and curbing press freedom.
After person is spotted disposing of suspicious device, police with K-9 unit halt major roadway for two hours
A stretch of a major Washington DC roadway was brought to a standstill during Wednesday morning’s rush hour after the city’s bomb squad responded to a suspicious device – only for police to later identify the object as a sex toy.
The situation unfolded at about 7am as many commuters were on their way to work. Authorities initially told WUSA9 that a witness had reported seeing someone place a suspicious package inside a trash can near the Tenleytown fire station.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has revived a years-old inaccurate theory that COVID-19 vaccines are linked to higher rates of miscarriages.
As part of a Senate investigation into former U.S. infectious diseases chief Dr. Anthony Fauci, Johnson pointed to publicly released text messages Fauci exchanged with two of former President Joe Biden’s top health officials. In them, Fauci wrote that some reported vaccine effects “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
In a video posted Aug. 10 on Fox News Digital, Johnson said these texts showed Fauci knew about miscarriage risks that health officials weren’t publicly acknowledging at the time.
Citing a 2021 study of pregnant women who received the vaccine, Johnson said the study found “an 82% miscarriage rate with women who got the injection in the first or second trimester.”
But a look at the April 2021 findings, which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows that Johnson misrepresented the data. His statement ignores numerous studies showing the vaccine is not associated with a heightened risk of miscarriage.
Johnson’s spokesperson Grace Carnathan said Johnson was quoting from a 2022 open letter by Dr. James Thorp, an OB-GYN who has argued that COVID-19 vaccines increase miscarriage risk. Asked for additional data, Carnathan pointed PolitiFact back to Fauci’s text messages.
“These records show that Dr. Fauci was worried about the potential of miscarriages following COVID-19 vaccination,” Carnathan said.
The Fauci messages
Released Aug. 10 by Johnson and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Fauci’s text message chains include a January 2021 conversation Fauci had with Drs. Vivek Murthy, then the nominee for surgeon general, and Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Shortly after mRNA COVID-19 vaccines became available for some members of the public, Fauci responded to a question from Murthy about vaccination timing during pregnancy. First, Fauci said there is no theoretical reason to favor early vaccination over late vaccination. In the next text, Fauci said certain reported side-effects “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
Fauci’s message reflected early speculation before there was clear data on vaccination and pregnancy. Later studies found that the vaccine does not create a heightened risk for miscarriage.
Johnson misrepresents 2021 vaccine study
The New England Journal of Medicine’s paper that Johnson pointed to was a preliminary report conducted by the CDC’s v-safe COVID-19 Pregnancy Registry Team.
The paper’s researchers contacted 3,958 people who had been vaccinated while pregnant or shortly before conceiving.
About three months after they had received the vaccine, 712 of those people had given birth to healthy babies, 104 experienced miscarriages and one had a stillbirth. Ten people had ectopic pregnancies or induced abortions. The remaining 3,131 participants were either still pregnant or had not yet completed follow-up.
Researchers initially found 104 miscarriages out of 827 completed pregnancies, a 12.6% miscarriage rate. But in a September follow-up, they acknowledged that because 700 of those 827 pregnant women received the vaccine when they were already in their third trimester, 827 was not a useful denominator.
(For comparison, the miscarriage rate for all known pregnancies is estimated to be between 10% and 20%.)
Here’s the error that led to Johnson’s problematic 82% statistic:
Johnson said in the video that the 700 of those 827 pregnant women who received the vaccine when they were already in their third trimester should not be counted. So, he changed the denominator by excluding those 700 to calculate a new miscarriage rate of about 82%.
But that new denominator, 127, represented only early-vaccinated women whose pregnancies had already ended by the time of the study’s cutoff — not all of the 3,958 people who had been vaccinated in the first two trimesters. Most of the remaining participants who had been vaccinated early were still pregnant and not considered in the study.
Updated study finds no increased miscarriage risk
A September 2021 follow-up examining the same registry surveyed 2,456 people who had been vaccinated shortly before conception or before 20 weeks’ gestation. The study tracked the cumulative miscarriage risk, which adjusted for the vaccines’ timing.
The study found a cumulative miscarriage risk between 12.8% and 14.1%, depending on how it was calculated — well within the typical range.
Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease doctor and professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said in a social media post Aug. 11 that numerous studies have shown vaccines do not increase miscarriage rates.
“Studies involving more than 1 million pregnancies worldwide have likewise found no increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm delivery, or birth defects,” Kuppalli said, pointing to the CDC’s page on COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women.
Some of them include:
A 2021 study compared the pregnancies of more than 100,000 women and found that miscarriage was no more likely in women who had been vaccinated in the past 28 days, compared with those who had not.
A 2023 analysis of 21 different studies involving more than 123,000 pregnancies found no increased miscarriage risk after vaccination.
A March 2026 study revisited the data from the COVID-19 Vaccine Pregnancy Registry and tracked pregnancy outcomes of 12,097 women who received the COVID-19 vaccine before 20 weeks’ gestation. The researchers found the cumulative miscarriage risk, including before six weeks, was 13.5%, in line with the standard estimates.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends COVID-19 vaccination for people who are pregnant and considering pregnancy and says “the science has not changed,” despite changing federal guidance.
Our ruling
Johnson said the COVID-19 vaccines were associated with an “82% miscarriage rate with women who got the injection in the first or second trimester.”
Johnson pointed to an often-miscited study, and misrepresented what the study found. Numerous studies in the last five years have found no increased risk of miscarriage in people who received the COVID-19 vaccine.
Sen. Susan Collins was one of three Republican senators who voted against passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025, and she cited the legislation’s many changes to Medicaid as the main reason. But an ad from a Democratic outside group falsely claims she “voted to support Donald Trump on the largest Medicaid cut in history.”
Democrats have criticized Collins, who is running for reelection in Maine, for her earlier procedural vote on a motion to advance the OBBBA to the Senate floor for consideration. But the ad ignores the fact that she ultimately voted against the bill instead of supporting it.
The nearly 30-second ad is sponsored by a group called Affordable Maine, which, as of Aug. 12, had spent more than $473,000 to air the TV and digital ad, according to AdImpact.
Collins is facing Democrat Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president, in the toss-up race.
The ad features an intensive care unit nurse who says she has “seen patients being bankrupted by the cost of care.” She then says, “This didn’t just happen. Susan Collins voted to support Donald Trump on the largest Medicaid cut in history.” At the end, the nurse says, “Healthcare is getting even more expensive. People are losing coverage, labor and delivery centers are closing, hospitals are closing. We need to tell Susan Collins to stop siding with Donald Trump. We can’t afford it.”
We reached out to Affordable Maine about its ad, but we have not yet received a response.
The ad only cites a May 21, 2025, post from Partners in Health that said the OBBBA included the “Largest Medicaid Cut in U.S. History.” The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office later estimated that the law — which makes several changes to the Medicaid program, including eligibility requirements — will reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $900 billion over a decade. The Medicaid provisions in the law will increase the number of uninsured people by 7.5 million, CBO also estimated.
But, as we said, Collins didn’t “support” the legislation, as the ad claims.
On July 1, 2025, when the Senate voted on whether to pass the bill, Collins joined the 47 senators in the Democratic caucus and Republican Sens. Thom Tillis and Rand Paul in voting against the OBBBA.
In a statement issued that day, Collins said while she “strongly” supported the legislation’s extension of tax relief for families and small businesses, her vote opposing it was “primarily” because of the impact the legislation would have on Medicaid.
“The Medicaid program has been an important health care safety net for nearly 60 years that has helped people in difficult financial circumstances, including people with disabilities, children, seniors, and low-income families. Approximately 400,000 Mainers – nearly a third of the state’s population – depend on this program,” her statement said. “Certainly, there are improvements that should be made to the Medicaid system. For example, I support work requirements for able-bodied adults who are not raising young children, who are not caregivers, or attending school. However, a dramatic reduction in future Medicaid funding, an estimated $5.9 billion in Maine over the next 10 years, could threaten not only Mainers’ access to health care, but also the very existence of several of our state’s rural hospitals.”
“While I continue to support the tax relief I voted for in 2017, I could not support these Medicaid changes and other issues,” which included the elimination of certain energy-saving incentives and tax credits for businesses and individuals, she said.
In the end, the reconciliation bill — which only required majority support to advance — passed when Vice President JD Vance, as president of the Senate, cast the “yea” vote that broke the 50-50 tie. Then, after the House of Representatives passed the amended Senate version of the bill, President Donald Trump signed it into law on July 4.
Collins’ Procedural Vote
On June 28, a few days before that vote, Collins did join 50 other Republican senators in voting to proceed with debate on the OBBBA. That debate ended with the vote on passage.
Collins later told Maine Public that she voted in favor of the motion to move forward on consideration of the bill because “the majority leader, whether it’s a Democrat or Republican, always has the right to determine which bills come to the floor, except under very few circumstances.” And she had also told reporters that her vote on passage would “depend on whether the bill is substantially changed.”
The Maine Democratic Party has criticized Collins for her procedural vote, which it called “a decisive vote to greenlight Medicaid cuts.” But while Collins could have voted not to advance the bill, that likely would not have stopped the OBBBA in its tracks.
Without Collins, the vote on the motion would have been 50-50. The vice president was present and prepared to make the tie-breaking vote to move the bill forward anyway.
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Fei-Fei Li, aka The Godmother of AI, says the biggest AI risk in education may be students losing the motivation and agency to learn, rather than simply using the technology to cheat. She argues against banning AI outright, saying it can be valuable when used to support engaged students instead of replacing the thinking and struggle that learning requires. Techspot reports: Speaking on an episode of the science podcast Huberman Lab this week, Li talked about the fears around how students are using AI. "The absolute bad outcome is that our young generation, their agency and human-level motivation of learning and living is taken away by tools," the ImageNet inventor warned. "It should not be taken away by humans nor should it be taken away by machines." If we see a generation of graduates who have completely relied on AI without actively trying to learn anything for themselves, they risk leaving education without having "properly developed the brain," Li said.
[...] Li certainly isn't advocating for a complete ban on students using AI. She believes it can genuinely help struggling students who are already engaged in their learning. Li herself noted how she struggled with organic chemistry as a premed student, when teaching assistants and professors didn't have enough time to answer every question. While there's no obvious solution, Li says we need to find a way to keep children and students' motivation and agency. "Let's find a way to give them the access and the right way of using these tools," she said. Li added that if AI is used properly in education, it could make the students of the future "way smarter than us because they are superpowered."
Secretaries Marco Rubio and Scott Bessent were on the decoy flight last month when President Trump secretly switched to a different plane while Pete Hegseth was with Mr. Trump.
Karoline Leavitt will step down as White House press secretary at the end of August, Donald Trump announced.
The US president revealed her departure on social media, saying Leavitt was leaving “so she can spend more time” with her family. The 28-year-old gave birth to a daughter, Viviana, in May, and returned from maternity leave last month.
Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong’s narrow defeat in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday night wasn’t just a stinging blow to the left — it marks a political loss for a nonpartisan anti-data center movement that has been picking up significant steam across the country.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley beat the odds to eke out a victory by less than a percentage point on election night, a surprise upset after Crowley, who would be Wisconsin’s first Black governor if he wins in November, dropped out of the race and then re-entered with the support of outgoing Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.
The race became dominated in the final days by inane issues like whether Hong believed that Thanksgiving should exist, based on old tweets criticizing the holiday, echoing and accelerating the annual Fox News “War on Christmas” panic. The sudden fury over old tweets was a distraction from a concreteissue that Hong had made a key focus of her public talking points and likely drove her surge in popularity: data centers.
“It’s time to press control+alt+delete to put a stop to this AI data center crisis, a full moratorium until we have the new regulations we need to protect our energy costs, our economy, our environment,” Hong said in a campaign video.
By all indications, it’s a popular position: A Gallup poll in May found that seven in 10 Americans oppose the construction of data centers in their area, and politicians from Maine to Texas have had to grapple with the public’s calls to bar the resource-hungry projects from their backyards.
Hong’s narrow defeat is a loss for the data center moratorium movement, particularly in Wisconsin, which already has dozens of centers littering the state. Crowley, now the Democratic nominee, has called for more regulation of data centers, but has explicitly denounced a data center moratorium, calling it a “short-term” solution. “I don’t think he’s going to make [data centers] a front and center issue,” said Michael Ceraso, a democratic strategist and founder and director of Winning Margins. “It might pop up peripherally.”
But Hong’s loss is far from a death knell for the anti-data center movement. While most voters would be hard-pressed to tell you what a data center was a few years ago, it has slowly become a major political issue that has helped to fuel the rise of insurgent progressives across the country. In this year’s midterm primaries, anti-data center candidates from Colorado to Kansas have been running and winning on the issue.
The data center issue has distilled multiple grievances with establishment politicians into a simple message: The people who represent you are selling you and your community out to the highest bidder.
“It turns out that if you’re not taking money from Silicon Valley, you can fight hard for a federal moratorium on data centers,” said William Lawrence, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, in a victory speech last week after he won his House primary race in Michigan’s 7th District.
In his Michigan Senate race, Abdul El-Sayed won after vehemently opposing the construction of new data centers. At a rally in front of a massive new OpenAI and Oracle data center campus in Saline Township, Michigan, El-Sayed denounced the proliferation of data centers. “I stand with local and state elected officials saying that we cannot approve any more of these until we have federal-level guardrails,” El-Sayed told the crowd.
In Kansas, Democratic state Sen. Cindy Holscher won her Democratic gubernatorial race after calling for a moratorium on data centers. Holscher had previously voted for a bill that would have expanded the centers. And in Colorado, Melat Kiros unseated a 15-term incumbent, Rep. Diana Degette, D-Colo., while running on a data center moratorium platform.
Amanda Litman, co-founder and president of the political recruitment group Run for Something, told The Intercept that Hong’s formidable campaign underscored how motivating data center opposition is for voters.
“Francesca Hong went from unknown state legislator to within a half point of winning the Democratic nomination in large part because she clearly spoke to the frustration and fear people have about what’s happening in the economy, especially around data centers,” Litman said.
The Sunrise Movement, which has backed anti-data center candidates, including El-Sayed, Lawrence, Kiros, and Tennessee state Rep. Justin J. Pearson, who won his House race last week, said that Democrats need to be at the forefront of this issue.
“The fight against unchecked data center expansion is quickly becoming a defining political issue,” said Denae Ávila-Dickson, a spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement. “Democrats must be the party that stands up for people over the corporations profiting from data center expansion in our backyards, and progressive candidates are leading the way in that fight.”
(The Center Square) – The Republican lawmaker who sponsored the Great American Healthcare Act presented a plan Wednesday to help fund the bill: Stop the Federal Reserve from paying interest on bank reserves.
(The Center Square) - Nick Reiner has been indicted in the murders of his parents, actor-director Rob Reiner and Rob's wife, photographer Michele Singer Reiner.
The CFTC has ordered Kalshi to keep operating in New York, claiming the state's lawsuit against the prediction market created a "market emergency." They said it acted "to ensure market stability" and "ordered the exchange to continue to operate in accordance with the Commodity Exchange Act's Core Principles." Ars Technica reports: The market emergency alleged by the CFTC is that New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Kalshi on July 31. James' lawsuit seeks a court order to permanently enjoin Kalshi "from operating an unlawful gambling business" in the state. The lawsuit also demands that Kalshi "make full restitution to customers who have engaged in betting" and pay financial penalties.
"New York intends to make event contract derivatives waste away under its iron curtain of state gaming laws before the courts get the chance to issue final rulings," CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said yesterday. "Congress did not intend for derivatives exchanges to be regulated under a patchwork of state gaming laws... New York has no business regulating these interstate financial markets. The commission is required by law to ensure order in these markets, and that is what we have done today." [...]
The CFTC says it alone has the power to regulate platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket under the Commodity Exchange Act, a US law that gives the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over designated contract markets (DCMs). "These are financial exchanges that offer financial instruments and operate across state lines," Selig said yesterday. "They match the bid from a resident of one state with the offer of a resident from another state and submit the trade to a clearinghouse that backstops the transactions of customers throughout the country."
Muchos estadounidenses todavía buscan aprovechar unas últimas vacaciones antes de que termine el verano, y algunos ni siquiera han viajado esta temporada. Según una encuesta realizada por CheapCaribbean Vacations y Talker Research de 2.000 estadounidenses, el 23% siente que no…
Una nueva encuesta ha revelado hasta dónde llegan algunos padres para poder comprar los útiles escolares de sus hijos. Según la encuesta realizada por Beyond Finance y Talker Research de 2.000 padres de niños en edad escolar, el 8% ha…
(The Center Square) – The federal government’s auction of offshore oil leases in the Gulf of America on Wednesday brought in $82.7 million in high bids, as participating companies showed strong interest in waters just off the south Texas coast…
On 13 August, three states are set to carry out executions by lethal injection. It’s the first time since 2010 that three people will be put to death on the same day in the US. In Tennessee, the execution of Darrell Hines is in the spotlight, because the last lethal injection in the state was botched. Ed Pilkington speaks to Kai Wright about the doctor at the center of that botched execution, whose identity was revealed inadvertently last year. Ed explains how his reporting has lifted the lid on a role that is usually hidden away from public view, and what it tells us about the American death penalty today
Democratic socialist Francesca Hong fell just short as David Crowley strives for unity for the general election
Democratic socialist Francesca Hong was on course to win the party’s nomination for Wisconsin governor on Wednesday by a clear margin, according to the polls – presaging the latest in an extraordinary wave of leftwing victories across the country, challenging the party’s establishment.
It was not to be. In a photo finish after a messy campaign, David Crowley eked out a win by a few thousand votes over Hong, raising questions over the limits of the progressive movement that has swept through Democratic contests in recent months.
Westbrook holds NBA record with 209 triple-doubles
Guard spent first 11 seasons with Oklahoma City
Russell Westbrook, the NBA’s career leader in triple-doubles and the 2017 MVP, announced Wednesday he’s retiring after 18 seasons during which he was selected to the league’s 75th anniversary team.
The two-time scoring champion shared his decision on social media in a post featuring a video narrated by actor Michael B Jordan in which the Westbrook stays silent.
Reiner, 32, charged with first-degree murder in deaths of Hollywood towering figures Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner
A grand jury has indicted Nick Reiner with first-degree murder in the deaths of his parents, the renowned director and actor Rob Reiner and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, the Los Angeles county district attorney’s office announced on Wednesday.
Prosecutors accuse Reiner, 32, of stabbing the couple to death in December in their Brentwood home, before fleeing the scene. He was arrested shortly after and charged with murder. Reiner has since been held in custody without bail.
Prosecutors have accused the Southern Poverty Law Center of telling donors and banks it was dismantling white supremacist and extremist groups, while funneling payments to confidential informants in the groups.
Nick Reiner pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder with the special circumstance allegations in the killings of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner.
CBS News has been tracking a record number of measles cases and outbreaks around the country. The majority of cases are among those who haven't been vaccinated.
The only total solar eclipse of 2026 crossed the Northern Hemisphere Wednesday, with a path of totality across parts of Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain. See photos and video from the best viewing locations.
Researchers at Israeli cybersecurity firm Dream say suspected China-linked hackers used an open-source AI-agent system to conduct what may be the first observed end-to-end autonomous cyberattack against a government. According to the Financial Times (paywalled), the attack compromised at least 85 accounts and resulted in the theft of more than 2,500 personnel records from Taiwanese systems. Tom's Hardware reports: The campaign reportedly ran for four days at the beginning of July and at times deployed as many as eight autonomous agents in parallel. Dream said the system mapped 21 government systems before compromising user accounts and extracting personnel information. The attackers subsequently expanded their activity to Taiwan's nuclear safety agency, at least seven energy companies, government suppliers, and other government systems.
Dream says it found the evidence inside a 160-megabyte (160MB) online archive that surfaced during its broader tracking of cyberthreat actors. The archive reportedly held 1,395 files showing that the tool was built on two open-source AI agent systems -- Hermes and OpenClaw -- both of which can be downloaded freely and are designed to let large language models carry out multi-step tasks on their own.
Researchers could not determine which underlying model powered the agents, but the data reportedly showed the model's safeguards had been sidestepped by presenting the intrusion as an authorized penetration test rather than a real attack. Of particular concern is that the toolkit for the hack comprised such easily available systems, neither of which was purpose-built for offense. The operators appear to have assembled a capable autonomous tool out of components any developer can pull down and run.
What the researchers describe as the tool's most striking feature was its ability to continuously devise attacks on its own, rather than follow a preprogrammed route. The platform continuously assessed available evidence, ranked possible attack paths, and reprioritized them as circumstances changed. When one technique failed, the tool tasked another agent with searching the internet for information and developing an alternative approach.
The son of actor and director Rob Reiner was indicted last month by a grand jury, with details unsealed Wednesday. Nick Reiner’s parents were found dead in December.
Beginning in Russia’s remote Arctic north, the eclipse traced an arc over much of western Europe – with the best views in Spain, Iceland and Greenland
It was a moment of awe shared by millions across Europe: an eclipse that blocked out the sun, plunging parts of the continent into a daytime darkness in which temperatures dropped and birds suddenly went quiet.
Wednesday’s eclipse began in Russia’s remote Arctic north, going on to trace an arc over much of western Europe. From the UK to northern Italy, tens of millions of people turned to the sky as the light of the setting sun was almost completely blocked out.
Errors by police and prosecutors after first murder had left serial sex offender free to kill again
Simon Levy, the prolific sexual predator left free by police and prosecution errors to murder two women, will never leave prison after being sentenced to a rare whole-life tariff.
Judge Lucraft KC said Levy, 40, “ruthlessly” exploited women for his sexual pleasure, and had a proven history of sexual offending dating back to 2018.
The Pixel Tag is the Bluetooth tracker that Android’s Find Hub network has been missing. Like the AirTag, it has pinpoint precision finding powered by ultra-wideband.
A March 2026 executive order from President Donald Trump requiring the United States Postal Service to only send mail-in ballots to people on a federal list of voters is the latest dispute to reach the Supreme Court’s emergency docket.
Since late July, several lower-court decisions have added urgency to the Supreme Court to act in some fashion in response to the legal dispute over the executive order (EO).
On July 27, 2026, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to stay a preliminary injunction issued by the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Trump v. California. Since then, 12 states have joined the Justice Department in requesting the stay in a separate application in Trump v. California, while 23 states support the district court’s injunction against the executive order.
Then, on July 28, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in DSCC v. Trump, denied a preliminary injunction blocking the same executive order in a per curiam opinion.
And on August 11, 2026, the same judge who issued the Trump v. California injunction, expanded its impact in a separate case, League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v. Trump. United States District Judge Indira Talwani has issued a nationwide injunction against the executive order on constitutional grounds. Talwani also said the District of Columbia appeals court did not consider proposed Postal Service rules to enforce the executive order, which she felt was critical to the case.
Given the deadlines for preparing ballots for the November elections, all parties involved seek a quick resolution by the Supreme Court. “Every day that the district court’s injunction remains in place, it blocks the government’s ability to finalize and implement the President’s proposed policies,” claimed Solicitor General D. John Sauer in a brief filed on Aug. 4, 2026.
The executive order and the lower court’s decisions
The dispute over Trump v. California is currently on the Supreme Court’s interim or emergency docket, which deals with certain requests for injunctive relief and stays that arrive at the Supreme Court. Decisions on the interim docket by the justices usually occur without full briefing and oral argument.
Executive Order 14399, Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections, includes several provisions that the Massachusetts district court required injunctive relief. In the executive order’s Section 2, the Secretary of Homeland Security is empowered to create State Citizenship Lists “derived from Federal citizenship and naturalization records, SSA records, SAVE data, and other relevant Federal databases.” States can suggest “modifications or amendments to the State Citizenship List.” The United States Attorney General can also prosecute “state and local officials or any others involved in the administration of Federal elections who issue Federal ballots to individuals not eligible to vote in a Federal election.”
In Section 3, the United States Postal Service “shall not transmit mail-in or absentee ballots from any individual unless those individuals have been enrolled on a State-specific list.” The order also requires design changes to ballot envelopes, including identifiers for individuals on State Citizenship Lists.
In her June 25, 2026, ruling, District Judge Talwani held that “Sections 2 and 3 of the EO are legally void as they are ultra vires and unconstitutionally violate the separation of powers.” (The term ultra vires means “beyond the powers.”) “The creation of the Confirmed Citizen Lists is ultra vires because the President lacks any authority to compile voter lists for each State,” Talwani determined.
Talwani enjoined the Trump administration “from implementing or giving effect to Sections 2 and 3 of the EO with respect to the November 3, 2026, or any earlier federal election in the Plaintiff States.”
On July 7, 2026, Talwani denied a stay pending appeal. The First Circuit Court of Appeals denied a stay pending appeal on July 25, 2026. The majority decision from the three-judge panel determined that the executive order “directs unprecedented levels of involvement by federal officials in how states administer elections. In doing so, the EO plainly affects the Plaintiff States’ ‘sovereign power . . . to create and enforce a legal code’ for elections.”
Responses to the Supreme Court
In his response to the Supreme Court, California attorney general Rob Bonta argued the executive order was an attempt to alter election rules too close to an election being held. He also pointed to what he saw as a clear constitutional conflict. “The Framers entrusted the States and Congress—not the President—with the responsibility to set rules for federal elections. And Congress has not authorized the EO’s unprecedented directives.” Bonda also said the case’s eventual timeline supported an injunction as the issue continued in court beyond midterm elections.
Solicitor General Sauer in his reply to the Court pointed to a “parallel” opinion on July 28 in DSCC v. Trump, which upheld the denial of a preliminary injunction. In that case, Democratic Party leaders sought a preliminary injunction to block Trump’s mail-in voting executive order. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held that while the “Plaintiffs have identified a number of serious questions concerning the lawfulness of proposed actions if implemented on the threshold of the upcoming federal election, this case likely is unripe for review in its present posture.” The court concluded that “[i]f the defendant agencies take steps to implement the Executive Order in a manner that violates federal law or the Constitution, Plaintiffs can promptly seek relief.”
“The same analysis applies here,” Sauer reasoned. “Like the DSCC plaintiffs, the respondent States rest their challenge on speculation about what impact the Executive Order would have if it were ultimately implemented in violation of federal law.”
Sauer argued separately that the executive order represented “modest and commonsense steps, consistent with federal law,” taken “to help States ensure that only U.S. citizens vote in federal elections and to facilitate the enforcement of federal law, including laws involving election fraud.”
Judge Talwani’s latest ruling
In her August 11 opinion in League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v. Trump, Talwani noted that the Justice Department had “asked this court and others to postpone judicial review on standing and ripeness grounds” and decide the constitutional questions after the Postal Service issued a final ruling on envelope designs and voter list verifications.
Instead, Talwani said the case’s urgency required a ruling on the constitutional questions now. “The court finds it prudent to review the EO now, where less than 90 days pend before the midterms and the millions of citizens who rely on mail voting require clarity as to how or whether they will vote in November.”
Talwani repeated her findings in July 2026 that the executive order violated the Constitution’s protection of the separation of powers. “The court has already answered and will again resolve the question clearly and affirmatively. The executive branch has no authority to regulate elections.” She cited Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1, the Elections Clause of the Constitution, which reads that the individual states and Congress have rule-making powers over federal elections.
“Where the EO is presently causing confusion and threatening both increasing chaos and an erosion of trust in our democracy, the court finds that enfranchisement heavily outweighs the executive’s attempt to unconstitutionally insert itself into the domain of election regulation,” she concluded.
Whatever action the Supreme Court takes in Trump v. California will be closely watched, given the proximity of general elections. In all, 37 states and the District of Columbia allow mail-in voting without electors citing a reason, and 10 states send out mail-in ballots at least 45 days in advance of election day. And as both sides argue, there will be a limited period to change procedures for the mail-in ballots process.
Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science announced today that the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program is now accepting applications for the 2026 solicitation 2. Applications are due on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. ET.
SCGSR application assistance workshops will be held on September 3, 2026, 2:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m. ET (register on zoom) and October 1, 2026, 2:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m. ET (register here). The first workshop will provide a general overview of the program and application requirements. It will also include time for attendees to discuss their potential research topics and their alignment with the SCGSR priority areas with managers of each participating program office.
The second workshop will guide attendees through the application process, answer general questions, provide guidance on proposal writing, and feature discussions with scientists and former awardees. Additionally, the program manager will host virtual office hours every Friday 1:00–2:00 p.m. ET starting on September 4, 2026 via this Zoom link.
The SCGSR program provides supplemental awards to outstanding U.S. graduate students for conducting part of their graduate thesis research at a DOE National Laboratory in collaboration with a DOE National Laboratory scientist. The goal of the program is to prepare graduate students for scientific and technical careers critically important to the mission of DOE’s Office of Science. The research opportunity will advance the graduate students’ overall graduate theses while providing access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at the host DOE National Laboratories. In addition, SCGSR awardees may have the opportunity for short international research visits to select prestigious centers to broaden their horizons.
Since its inception in 2014, the SCGSR program has provided support to over 1,400 graduate awardees from 175 U.S. universities to conduct thesis research at all 17 DOE National Laboratories across the nation. Areas of research include but are not limited to: physics, chemistry, materials science, planetary science, geosciences, biosciences (non-medical), fusion science and engineering, mathematics, computer and computational sciences, engineering, microelectronics, quantum information science, and artificial intelligence.
The SCGSR program is sponsored and managed by the Office of Science’s Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists, in collaboration with the Office of Science’s six research program offices and the DOE Isotope R&D and Production Office, as well as the DOE National Laboratories/facilities. Program administration support is provided by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.
The labor market isn’t on the brink of collapse, but it’s not exactly flourishing with possibility either. Hiring has slowed throughout the market, but layoffs are still remaining low. We’re well past the Great Resignation and workers aren’t budging from…
MILPITAS, Calif. and TOKYO, Aug. 12, 2026 — Kioxia Corporation, a subsidiary of Kioxia Holdings Corporation, and Sandisk Corporation today unveiled their new 9th-generation, high-performance 2Tb QLC 3D flash memory technology designed to support the growing storage demands of AI-driven infrastructure. The technology demonstrates how architectural innovation can help storage advance at the fast pace required by AI-driven workloads, while supporting more capital-efficient manufacturing.
Leveraging the companies’ CMOS directly Bonded to Array (CBA) architecture, the new technology combines an advanced CMOS wafer with a proven memory-array platform, along with significant design and device innovation, to deliver performance improvements and enable faster deployment of advanced storage solutions for cloud and data-intensive applications. Compared with the previous 8th-generation 2Tb QLC, the new technology delivers higher write and read bandwidth due to a 6-plane architecture and performance enhancements and better write and read power efficiency. And it also delivers a NAND interface speed of 4.8Gb/s, a 33% improvement over 8th-generation devices.
Chief Technology Officer at Kioxia, Hideshi Miyajima, said, “As AI continues to underpin the advancement of society, its applications are expanding from generative AI to agent-based and physical AI, while the use of data is becoming increasingly diverse and sophisticated. By leveraging its proven memory cell technology together with the latest CMOS technology, Kioxia is accelerating the development of its 9th-generation flash memory. This approach enables us to deliver high performance while keeping investment costs relatively low.”
“The rapid adoption of AI is accelerating the transition of storage interfaces, creating demand for memory technologies that can evolve more quickly than in previous technology cycles,” said Alper Ilkbahar, Chief Technology Officer at Sandisk. “Our 9th-generation QLC technology demonstrates the unique flexibility of CBA, to accelerate innovation by independently advancing CMOS and memory technologies. We are bringing new capabilities to market more quickly with exceptional capital efficiency.”
The introduction of the 9th-generation QLC 3D flash memory technology marks an important milestone in the evolution of the 3D flash memory roadmap and highlights the continued strength of the collaboration between Kioxia and Sandisk. By maximizing the flexibility of their CBA platform, the companies are creating new opportunities for NAND innovation and helping customers address the growing storage demands of the AI era.
About Kioxia
Kioxia is a world leader in memory solutions, dedicated to the development, production and sale of flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). In April 2017, its predecessor Toshiba Memory was spun off from Toshiba Corporation, the company that invented NAND flash memory in 1987. Kioxia is committed to uplifting the world with “memory” by offering products, services and systems that create choice for customers and memory-based value for society. Kioxia’s innovative 3D flash memory technology, BiCS FLASH, is shaping the future of storage in high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs, automotive systems, data centers and generative AI systems.
About Sandisk
Sandisk (Nasdaq: SNDK) delivers innovative Flash solutions and advanced memory technologies that meet people and businesses at the intersection of their aspirations and the moment, enabling them to keep moving and pushing possibility forward.
Prosecutors charge Heidi Beirich with financial crimes as part of case against the Southern Poverty Law Center
The justice department on Wednesday arrested a leading expert on far-right extremism, charging her with financial crimes as part of the government’s ongoing case against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Federal prosecutors charged Heidi Beirich, who formerly worked as an executive overseeing work monitoring hate groups , with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
This article was amended on 13 August 2026. A previous version said Heidi Beirich was the Southern Poverty Law Center’s former chief financial offer, after Todd Blanche, the US attorney general, had described her as such. Beirich was formerly an executive overseeing work on hate groups.
Norah O'Donnell sat down with her own doctor, Rachel Rubin, to tackle the important topic of menopause: How your body changes, why women may be needlessly suffering, and what you can actually do about it.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Monday, passengers aboard Delta flight 591 going from Las Vegas to Atlanta allegedly spoofed the onboard Wi-Fi, raising the attention of federal law enforcement. The incident came one day after the DEF CON security conference concluded in Las Vegas, and was first described on social media accounts that follow publicly available air-to-ground messages, known as ACARS.
According to the "ACARS Drama" account, a message was sent by pilots from the plane stated: "NO INFO AS OF NOW WE HAVE A BUNCH OF PAX THAT WERE AT A CYBER CONFERENCE IN LAS THEY WERE ABLE TO JAM OUR WIFI AND BROADCAST THEIR SIGNAL." A description of the incident posted to Reddit further stated that these passengers created a fake hotspot ("Delta WiFi Fast"), with a phishing landing page "designed to harvest passengers' personal credentials."
This technique, sometimes known as an "evil twin" attack, has been long-known to the IT security community. It involves setting up a fake Wi-Fi network and then capturing login credentials and other data. "One initial finding is an unauthorized WiFi network, which was not provided, operated, or supplied by Delta, was present onboard the aircraft for a short time during the flight," said a Delta spokesperson. Delta further noted that the flight's safety was "never in question and no aircraft operating systems were affected," and that no emergency was declared.
Ars notes that the "actual onboard Wi-Fi was disabled for 30 minutes."
The Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition will hold its 17th annual Monster Mile Walk for a Cause & 5K from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11, turning one of Delaware’s best-known sports venues into a gathering place for breast cancer survivors, families, supporters and runners from across the state.
Oct. 11 event adds a distinctly Delaware experience to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, giving families and survivors the chance to walk or race on the famed Dover Motor Speedway track
DOVER, Del. — Breast Cancer Awareness Month is recognized across the country each October, from community walks and fundraising campaigns to highly visible displays of pink throughout professional sports.
This year, Delaware will add an experience with a distinctly First State twist: the chance to walk or run on the Monster Mile at Dover Motor Speedway.
The Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition will hold its 17th annual Monster Mile Walk for a Cause & 5K from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11, turning one of Delaware’s best-known sports venues into a gathering place for breast cancer survivors, families, supporters and runners from across the state.
The event comes during a month when breast cancer awareness receives national attention, including throughout the sports world. The NFL and its teams have long used the October football season to highlight cancer awareness, screening and early detection, helping make the month one of the most recognizable health-awareness campaigns in the country.
Against that national backdrop, the Monster Mile event gives Delawareans their own unusual way to participate — by stepping directly onto the same concrete oval where some of the biggest names in auto racing have competed.
From Race Cars to Runners
Instead of watching race cars circle the one-mile track, participants will take to the racing surface themselves.
The traditional one-mile walk returns this year, while DBCC is adding a timed 5K for the first time, opening the event to more serious runners as well as families and casual walkers.
“The Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition is delighted to bring the 2026 Monster Mile Walk for a Cause & 5K back to the iconic Dover Motor Speedway, where our community will unite to honor, remember and support those impacted by breast cancer,” DBCC CEO Francesca Vogel said.
“Whether you choose to participate in our traditional 1-mile walk or take on our new timed 5K race, every step you take helps fuel DBCC’s life-saving mission,” she said.
For families, the event offers an opportunity to participate in one of October’s signature causes while experiencing a Delaware landmark from a perspective normally unavailable to race fans.
A Community Celebration
The day will extend beyond the walk and race, with music, face painting, food vendors, family activities and local vendor booths planned around the speedway.
Participants are encouraged to form teams, raise money and bring some personality to the track.
Awards will recognize the highest team fundraiser, highest individual fundraiser, best team costume and best dog costume. Special Monster Mile medals also will be presented.
DBCC also is seeking businesses, corporations and community organizations to sponsor the event. Sponsorship packages include event visibility, participant registrations and opportunities for company branding on event shirts and signage.
Every Step Supports Delaware Programs
Money raised through the Monster Mile directly supports DBCC programs throughout Delaware, including breast health education, access to screenings, personalized patient navigation, survivorship services and emergency financial assistance for people and families facing a breast cancer diagnosis.
The coalition also works to reduce financial, cultural and other barriers that can prevent Delawareans from receiving screenings and treatment.
Headquartered in Wilmington with offices serving Kent and Sussex counties, DBCC provides breast health education and support programs throughout the state.
Its programs include community health fairs, breast health presentations and a Peer Mentor Program that helps connect patients and survivors with support and resources.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month brings the issue to national attention every October. On Oct. 11, Delawareans will have the opportunity to make that observance local — and do it on one of the most recognizable tracks in American auto racing.
To Go
What: 17th Annual Monster Mile Walk for a Cause & 5K
When: Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Dover Motor Speedway, Dover
Why it’s different: Participants get to walk or run on the famed Monster Mile racing surface as part of Delaware’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month activities.
What to expect: One-mile walk, new timed 5K, music, food vendors, family activities, face painting and community vendors.
Who benefits: Proceeds support Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition screening, education, patient navigation, survivorship and emergency assistance programs.
Register, form a team or become a sponsor: give.debreastcancer.org/ge/monstermile2026
Ángel Aguirre indicted in case that rocked Mexico and became symbol of its brutal cartel violence
The former governor of Guerrero state in Mexico has been formally charged over his alleged involvement in the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, a case that has become a symbol of the country’s brutal cartel violence and government impunity.
Ángel Aguirre, who was arrested last week, is accused of forced disappearance and obstruction of justice for ordering the destruction of surveillance tapes that may have shed light on what happened to the students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college on the night of 26 September 2014.
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Raymond Chen explains what, exactly, the file winstart.bat in Windows 95 is used for.
In Windows 95, you could create a winstart.bat file in your Windows directory. During startup, the virtual machine manager initializes and creates the so-called “System virtual machine” (the “System VM”), which is the virtual machine that all Windows programs run in. But before running the user-mode kernel in that virtual machine, the virtual machine manager runs the winstart.bat batch file if it exists.
Chen needs to use several diagrams to really explain what the batch file is used for, but as a very crude summary, it allows you to load TSRs that only apply to Windows programs, while not affecting any additional DOS command prompts you may load later after Windows is already running. While many think it’s a Windows 95 feature, it was already present in Windows 3.x.
A unique feature that I doubt many people made active use of.
Organisers says new rule will ensure contest provides ‘safe and welcoming environment’ for participants
Broadcasters will no longer be eligible to host the Eurovision song contest if their state is involved in an “armed conflict” or “sensitive geopolitical situation”.
Eurovision is traditionally hosted by the previous year’s winner’s broadcaster, with next year’s show due to take place in Bulgaria after the singer Dara’s victory for the country in May.
Move by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is latest government rollback of climate science activity
The Trump administration has pulled its support for an annual report on the environmental changes across the Arctic, a region that is already heating up four times faster than the global average due to the climate crisis.
On Tuesday, Kim Doster, the communications director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), said the federal agency was withdrawing its support for the Arctic Report Card, which has provided environmental updates on the region to scientists and the public since 2006.
Delphi is still very much a thing, and still very much in active development. The current stewards of Delphi, Embarcadero, released the Delphi 13 Community Edition today.
Delphi Community Edition is a full-featured, free edition of Delphi for building native applications with the Delphi language. It includes a professional IDE, visual designers, integrated compilers and debuggers, the VCL framework for Windows development, and the FireMonkey framework for creating native applications from a shared codebase across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
Delphi has been around since 1995, first released for Windows 3.1. It’s both a programming language, a variant of Object Pascal, and the accompanying IDE and related tooling and frameworks, originally developed by legendary company Borland. This latest version of course adds a number of new features to the programming language, and further improves the IDE as well, this time with a brand new 64bit version. The two frameworks for visual application development, VCL and FireMonkey, have also been updated and improved.
Sadly, it’s not open source, and the Community Edition is intended for mostly non-commercial, hobbyist use. If you want to actually earn any money using Delphi, you’re going to have to step up to Delphi 13 Florence, which isn’t free.
(The Center Square) – Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration is not on board with President Donald Trump’s executive order to change the federal government’s recommended child vaccination schedule.
PM warns extreme heat conditions ‘could be with us fo some time yet’
Just 20 staff are working on climate adaptation within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the part of government tasked with protecting the environment and maintaining food security, a freedom of information request has revealed. Sandra Laville has the story.
On his visit to Stevenage, Andy Burnham also said he would visit the town on Remembrance Day to mark its 80th birthday.
I’m going to come back to Stevenage on 11 November. We will pay our respects for Remembrance Day around that time, but I’ll be here because if I’m right, that will be 80 years to the day that the post-war Labour government created the first new town right here in Stevenage.
A picture of the Monster Monument outside of Dover Motor Speedway. Photo Courtesy of Dave Reeder.
Dover Motor Speedway announced that it will hold its 109th NASCAR Cup Series event on May 16, 2027, as well as host the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on May 15.
Dover Motor Speedway announced that The Monster Mile will hold a 400-mile points race on Sunday, May 16, 2027, as a part of NASCAR’s 2027 regular season, according to a news release on the Dover Motor Speedway website.
Dover returns to being a points race after hosting NASCAR All-Star Race Weekend this past season. Denny Hamlin won the 2026 NASCAR All-Star race during Dover Motor Speedway’s first All-Star Race weekend, but said after that he’d rather have the venue host a points race.
“There’s no other track like this on our schedule, and it is so unique, and it requires such a unique style of driving, far different than any oval that we go to, that it just can’t lose tracks like this in our points schedule,” Hamlin said after winning the 2026 NASCAR All-Star race. “I just think it’s too valuable, and the fans really, really are passionate here.”
Hamlin will get to compete for his fourth consecutive win at The Monster Mile in a points race next May. No driver has ever won four consecutive races at Dover Motor Speedway, according to the release.
The 2027 race weekend will also feature the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series BetRivers 200 on Saturday, May 15, and the return of Dover Motor Speedway’s fan zone.
(To see pictures of the Fan Zone during last year’s All-Star weekend click here)
“Whether it’s a points race, an All-Star Race or a Chase race, one thing never changes—we work for the fans,” said president and general manager of Dover Motor Speedway, Mike Tatoian, via the news release. “They are the heart of everything we do, and we’re constantly looking for ways to make every visit to The Monster Mile more entertaining than the last. Our goal is to create memories that last a lifetime, and we can’t wait to welcome everyone back next spring for another outstanding weekend on and off the track.”
The start time for the races have not been announced yet. The NASCAR Cup Series race will be televised on FOX Sports and the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will be televised on The CW, according to an article on NASCAR’s website.
To learn more about acquiring tickets check out Dover Motor Speedway’s website here.
Kyaw Zwar Minn was ousted for declaring loyalty to Aung San Suu Kyi after 2021 coup but refused to leave his home
Myanmar’s ousted ambassador to the UK has gone on trial on trespassing charges for refusing to leave a diplomatic residence after being unceremoniously locked out of the embassy in 2021.
Shortly after Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021, triggering mass protests that spiralled into a civil war, Kyaw Zwar Minn was locked out of the embassy for declaring his loyalty to the deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
US envoy had claimed Americans could be extracting crude by as early as next year
Greenland authorities have forced a US oil company connected to Donald Trump to postpone drilling wells in the Arctic territory, defying claims by the US president’s envoy that Americans could be extracting crude by next year.
Amid Trump’s imperialist threats, tensions have been rising on Greenland’s eastern coast after the oil company brought drilling equipment ashore in July without permission, drawing a “strong warning” from the government.
A fairly overtly radical socialist winning about 40% of the vote in a primary like this was unthinkable even a few years ago
The left’s insurgency against the Democratic party establishment has hit its first serious bump in the road in Wisconsin. Democratic socialist Francesca Hong entered Tuesday up by big margins in the polls, the huge betting favorite. She left it just a few thousand votes short of the Democratic nomination. What happened, and how, offers extremely important lessons for both the left and the Democratic establishment.
The first is that the party still matters. Its institutions and leaders matter. We saw that power in Democratic primaries in 2020. After Bernie Sanders won the Nevada caucuses and emerged as the frontrunner, party leaders rapidly consolidated around Joe Biden.
Ben Davis works in political data in Washington DC. He worked on the data team for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign and is an active member of the Democratic Socialists of America
Google has unveiled the $29 Pixel Tag, its long-awaited AirTag rival that combines UWB with Bluetooth 6.0 Channel Sounding for two forms of precision tracking. It launches November 11. The Verge reports: The Pixel Tag is a slim oblong device available in one grayish color -- Fog -- that weighs about 12g, or 0.4oz. Like the AirTag, it has no built-in hooks or clips for attaching to objects you want to track. There's a single button that will trigger a sound on your phone, for the rare occasion when you've got the Tag but have lost your main device. It also has an IP67 rating, so it should be safe from dust and rain. As for the battery, the Pixel Tag takes CR2032 coin batteries, and says one battery should last for over a year.
Naturally, it'll be compatible with Google's Find Hub network, which leverages the Bluetooth capabilities of Android devices worldwide to help locate lost objects. [...] Once you're close enough to the Pixel Tag, UWB lets the Find Hub app display the distance and direction to the tracker, so long as you're using a phone with a UWB chip. Channel Sounding is a newer development that can display the exact distance, but not direction, and it will work with any phone or tablet that includes Bluetooth 6.0. The Moto Tag 2 is the only other tracker to currently support it.
(The Center Square) – Newly declassified documents from the White House transparency task force reveal several top Republican and conservative figures were labeled “conduits” for Russian disinformation for their part in pushing for further investigations into allegations against the Bidens…
Kennedy Center had sued Chuck Redd for canceling Christmas Eve concert after Trump renamed institution
A superior court judge in Washington DC has ordered the Kennedy Center to pay more than $250,000 to a musician who canceled a performance at the arts center after the White House announced that Donald Trump’s name would be added to the venue.
Judge Tanya Jones Bosier ordered the Kennedy Center on Monday to pay $252,479.70 in legal fees and costs to attorneys for musician Chuck Redd within 45 days.
Gray treefrogs engage in a mating behavior called amplexus in which a smaller male frog attaches himself to the back of a larger female frog as she searches for a site to lay her eggs.
(The Center Square) – Michael Alfonso will take on Fred Clark to replace Tom Tiffany in Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district while there will be a rematch in the 3rd Congressional after Tuesday night’s Wisconsin primary elections.
A cheap currency helps finance the US tech boom. Washington is intervening because allies matter only when they are useful
Japan’s yen has slid back towards 160 to the dollar, despite last month’s extraordinary US-Japanese intervention. Traders are betting that its role as a cheap funding pipeline for global finance will continue. Earlier this month the Trump administration stepped in to help Tokyo stabilise its currency. “Japan’s been very good to us, with the exception, of course, of Pearl Harbor,” Donald Trump explained. More help is likely to be on its way.
But this is less a rescue of the yen than an attempt by Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, to preserve a cash spigot that benefits the US. Japan’s ultra-cheap money has become a global funding utility: bankers borrow yen, sell them for dollars and buy higher-returning US assets, notably tech shares. Rising American stock markets support collateral and investment. Japan’s “carry trade” is one of the reasons Wall Street can lever hundreds of billions into AI. Research suggests AI sucks up more than 1% of US GDP.
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Suit alleges subscription offer aims to sell privileged access to information generated in president’s official capacity
Donald Trump has been sued after a subscription service charging up to $100,000 a month for early access to his posts on his Truth Social platform sparked allegations of corruption.
The lawsuit, filed in the US district court for the southern district of New York, was brought by the Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation against Trump, two of his aides and the executive office of the president.
Family, friends and colleagues attend service at Buckfast Abbey, which former MP described as her ‘safe haven’
About 100 family, friends and colleagues of Ann Widdecombe have attended a funeral service for the former Conservative minister, who was killed in her home in Devon last month.
Politicians and broadcasters were among the mourners at Buckfast Abbey in Buckfastleigh, a Catholic abbey in Devon where Widdecombe regularly worshipped and which she described as her “safe haven”.
Justice department asks justices to pause decision that blocked Trump’s order to tighten voting-by-mail rules
Donald Trump’s administration again asked the US supreme court on Wednesday to intervene to fully implement the president’s executive order restricting the use of mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections that will decide control of US Congress.
The US Department of Justice filed a request asking the justices to put on hold a decision made on Tuesday by US district judge Indira Talwani in Boston that blocks the US Postal Service from nationwide enforcement of the directive’s tighter rules for voting by mail.
Crowley pulls off last-minute victory in tight race after polls had shown Hong as the clear Democratic frontrunner
David Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, won the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor after beating the democratic socialist Francesca Hong in a tight contest.
Crowley pulled off a last-minute victory in the critical swing state after re-entering the campaign and snagging an endorsement from Tony Evers, the outgoing governor.
A German digital-rights group has filed a criminal complaint against Meta, Ray-Ban parent EssilorLuxottica, and several retailers over Meta's AI smart glasses, arguing the devices can enable covert recording in violation of German privacy law. Prosecutors have begun a preliminary review, while Germany's network regulator says smart glasses are legal "as long as the recording function is clearly visible." Reuters reports: "There's no place to escape from smart glasses. You have to expect at any moment to be filmed and then exposed on the internet," said HateAid managing director Josephine Ballon. The organization reported the management of Meta, units of spectacles maker EssilorLuxottica including Ray-Ban, as well as retailers Fielmann, Apollo-Optik, Mister Spex and MediaMarkt to the Frankfurt-based digital crime prosecution unit ZIT. HateAid said its complaint was based on a federal digital data protection law that prohibits the sale of communication devices designed to film people without them noticing.
ZIT confirmed it received a complaint from HateAid invoking that law, saying it would routinely investigate on a preliminary basis whether there are grounds for a deeper probe. MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group said it was taking the complaint very seriously, adding that its suppliers had contractual obligations for all goods to be compliant with the law. Mister Spex said it had not been officially notified of a complaint and that it was taking protection of privacy very seriously.
Family ‘extremely grateful’ to four-month-old ‘Goosey’ who ran out of fire-billowing building and repeatedly squawked
A pet goose is being credited with helping save a Texas family’s animals after sounding a honking alarm as a fire tore through their barn.
The dramatic moment unfolded on the morning of 4 August in Fort Bend county, where four-month-old Goosey repeatedly squawked outside the burning barn, alerting his owners, the Gerber family, to the danger.
Rumors of plea deal in federal case have been circulating since June for suspect accused of killing Brian Thompson
An unexpected hearing in the federal stalking case against Luigi Mangione has been scheduled, leading to speculation that the alleged United Healthcare CEO assassin was seeking a plea deal that would in turn end a murder prosecution due to go to trial in New York state court next month.
Prosecutors and Mangione’s lawyers filed a joint letter requesting the hearing at 11am on Friday in Manhattan federal court.
Plans for hyperscale datacenter in Palm Beach county prompt concerns over water and electricity demands
About 16 miles (26km) west of the Mar-a-Lago estate on President Donald J Trump Highway, near the northern edge of the Florida Everglades, developers have proposed a hyperscale datacenter on a 202-acre (82-hectare) parcel of land surrounded by water. Local environmentalists warn that the proposed 600MW datacenter in western Palm Beach county could damage the wetlands, which the federal government and the state of Florida have spent a combined $6bn to restore after decades of drainage and development.
One concern is that the datacenter could exacerbate an existing issue of toxic bacterial blooms in a water system which has already been stressed by drought, fertilizer runoff and warm water temperatures. In recent summers, the bright blooms of blue-green algae have covered nearly half of Lake Okeechobee, which feeds into the Everglades.
Emergency services, residents and environmental groups say military dropping flares to destroy forests and crops
Firefighters and residents of south Lebanon have accused the Israeli military of lighting wildfires in the region, as forested areas burned down in blazes sparked by Israeli bombing.
Environmental groups said the fires in recent weeks were part of a longstanding Israeli practice of targeting Lebanon’s natural environment.
Vice-chancellor Deborah Prentice says she recognises the ‘difficult case’ has damaged the university
Cambridge University’s leadership has bowed to internal pressure for an independent investigation into its appointment of Jason Arday as a professor, with its vice-chancellor admitting the affair has damaged the institution.
Prof Deborah Prentice said she recognised the “anger and anxiety around this damaging and difficult case” but described it as an aberration that should not be used to cast aspersions on the abilities of its staff of colour.
At its Made by Google 2026 event today, Google unveiled a slew of new devices, headlined by the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Here's a breakdown of the company's latest smartphones, provided by TechCrunch: Pixel 11: The standard Pixel 11 gets a redesigned camera bar that is thinner than the one on the previous generation. Google says the new camera bar is more than 40% thinner and now uses an all-glass surface that stretches across the width of the phone. Google is also increasing the base storage to 256GB, doubling the previous starting capacity. The starting price for the new model is set at $899, reflecting a $100 increase compared to the Pixel 10. This price hike comes with the decision to drop the 128GB storage option. Plus, the ongoing RAM supply shortage plays a part in this increase.
Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL: Google is making durability a bigger part of the Pro lineup. The company says the Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL have improved drop resistance and a new anti-scratch display coating that provides more than twice the scratch resistance of the Pixel 10 Pro models. The Pixel 11 Pro starts at $1,099, compared to $999 for the Pixel 10 Pro.
Pixel 11 Pro Fold: Google says the new foldable is nearly 10% lighter and almost 1mm thinner than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. It also has slimmer bezels, a 48-megapixel main camera, and 30x Super Zoom. The company is also building on the IP68 water and dust resistance introduced with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold uses a glass-fiber composite back cover designed to better withstand cracking, while a redesigned hinge offers additional protection for the inner display. Google says the changes make the model three times more durable than its predecessor. There were also several new Gemini-powered features unveiled at the event. Google is expanding "Live Transcribe" to support American Sign Language, using the Pixel Camera to translate signing into text in real time. A new voice-input feature called "Rambler" is designed to understand natural, unstructured speech, including filler words and run-on sentences. Google is also integrating "Circle to Search" more directly into the Pixel Camera for identifying objects, translating text, and asking questions about what users see.
Aug. 12, 2026 — Chemists often use a computational method developed at UC San Diego called density functional theory (DFT) to study chemical reactions and predict how molecules behave. DFT is especially useful for investigating triplet states, which are high-energy electronic states that play important roles in processes such as combustion, atmospheric chemistry and the development of new materials.
The Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation featured the study on the cover.
Because DFT software is widely available and relatively easy to use, many researchers treat it as a “black box,” trusting the results without fully examining how the calculations are performed. However, a recent study published in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation found that some commonly used DFT approaches can produce incorrect results when modeling triplet-state chemistry.
Using National Science Foundation (NSF) ACCESS allocations on the Expanse system at the University of California San Diego Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) created a new benchmark called TRIP50 to evaluate the accuracy of DFT methods for triplet-state reactions.
Building a Better Test
TRIP50 consists of 50 carefully selected organic reactions that represent a wide range of chemistry relevant to chemical synthesis, atmospheric processes and materials science.
“For each reaction, we used our NSF ACCESS allocations on SDSC’s Expanse to calculate highly accurate reference energy values and compared them against the predictions made by 45 different DFT methods,” explained CSU Chemistry Professor Robert Paton. “This use of Expanse allowed us to identify which approaches consistently produced reliable results and which were more likely to fail.”
During the study, Paton said that the team led by William Hughes, a CSU doctoral student, and Dr. Mihai Popescu, a postdoctoral researcher in the group, uncovered a surprising problem.
“In many cases, the software accidentally switched to the wrong electronic state while performing calculations,” Hughes said. “This issue occurred during a step known as the self-consistent field (SCF) process and often led to inaccurate energy predictions.”
Because most computational workflows do not automatically check for these mistakes, the errors can go unnoticed and may even make their way into published research.
Improving Reliability
The team also demonstrated a solution.
“By adding additional verification steps to our calculations, we were able to detect and correct these incorrect electronic states before they affected the results,” Hughes said.
Once the errors were removed, a clear pattern emerged: newer, more advanced DFT methods generally produced more accurate predictions than many older, less computationally demanding approaches. The findings provide researchers with practical guidance on which methods are most trustworthy for studying triplet-state chemistry.
Why It Matters
Accurate computer simulations are essential for modern chemistry. Scientists use these models to understand chemical reactions, design new materials, improve energy technologies, and study environmental processes.
When hidden computational errors occur, they can lead researchers to draw incorrect conclusions about how reactions work. These mistakes can affect research related to pollution, solar energy, electronics, and many other fields.
“The TRIP50 benchmark provides a valuable tool for identifying and preventing these problems,” Paton said. “As computational chemistry becomes more accessible and more researchers rely on DFT software, TRIP50 helps ensure that results are both accurate and reproducible.”
He said that the study also highlights the important role of high-performance computing resources, such as SDSC’s Expanse supercomputer, in improving the reliability of scientific discovery.
The research team has made the TRIP50 dataset available on Hugging Face, so that others can develop machine learning models using this data.
The time on Expanse was supported by NSF ACCESS (allocation no. CHE180056).
A secretive WhatsApp group was pinging with notifications throughout Wednesday, letting its members know where in London the latest “drop” would take place.
The group’s focus, rather than being for an illicit substance, was for the much coveted eclipse glasses, which have prompted a frantic rush on shops before the celestial event.
‘Outstanding young Americans’ came together to catch a tennis ball for freedom
The Patriot Games, held this week in Ohio, was intended to be a “national athletic competition celebrating the character, determination, and excellence that define the American spirit”, according to a press release.
The competition, which organizers insisted would be nothing like the Hunger Games, was to bring together “outstanding young Americans” from across the country, “to compete, inspire, and showcase the values that have shaped the United States for nearly 250 years”. ESPN, hosting the games, said it would “test excellence in skillsets of beloved American sports”.
Mike Lindell, the pillow salesman, Trump supporter and election denier, has refused to concede defeat in Minnesota’s Republican gubernatorial primary, despite trailing by a double-digit margin the morning after polls closed.
The Associated Press called the race for Lisa Demuth, the Minnesota House speaker, late on Tuesday night.
Aircraft carrier’s crew in ninth month at sea and has spent record 250 days consecutively without making land
Military families and Congress members are sounding the alarm about an intensifying mental health crisis onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as its 5,000 sailors and marines endure a record-breaking deployment at sea tied to the war with Iran.
Two leading specialist military papers, the Navy Times and the Stars and Stripes, are reporting that there have been multiple attempts by sailors to jump overboard as poor conditions and mental stresses on the Lincoln reach breaking point. The crew is in its ninth month at sea, and has spent 250 days consecutively without making land – a record for an aircraft carrier in modern times.
PM to look at imposing restriction on devices in public spaces, though campaigners fear it does not go far enough
The government will look at banning disposable barbecues as wildfires continue to rage across the UK, Andy Burnham has said.
Disposable barbecues have been the cause of a number of serious fires over the last few years, but campaigners were critical of the prime minister’s failure to link those fires more broadly to the climate crisis.
A pledge by the ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, to change editorial guidelines on satire and violence after the broadcaster aired a program featuring offensive comments about Gina Rinehart, has sparked concerns about overreach.
The four-minute film, titled A Very Relaxing Video, ran on documentary-reality show Race Around the World on 12 July and sparked a furore over comments made about the billionaire.
The FAA says its push to recruit video gamers as air traffic controllers has helped it hire more than 2,000 trainees, reaching 94% of its hiring goal. Another 2,000-plus candidates are in the pipeline. CBS News reports: U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a recent social media post that the federal agency's recruitment campaign to recruit gamers as air traffic controllers has been a "game changer" for the Federal Aviation Administration. [...] When Duffy announced the initiative in April, he acknowledged that the Transportation Department needed to extend its reach to recruit prospective air traffic controllers.
"A lot of what they do playing games ... is what they do ... controlling traffic in the air," Duffy told CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave in an interview on Tuesday at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport. Duffy added that many current trainees started out as gamers. Only about 25% of controllers hold a traditional college degree, while former controllers note that gaming requires many of the same skills that air traffic controllers use on the job, such as thinking quickly, staying focused and managing multiple sources of information as they guide more than 80,000 flights to their destinations daily.
After Australia’s first reported automated hacking accident, experts warn deployers – and possibly developers – of AI agents could be held liable for the actions of their bots
Mortgage and student loan balances saw ‘small decline’ with increases elsewhere, says post alongside Fed report
Credit card debt in the United States is growing close to a record high, having crept up from $54bn to $1.26tn between April and June compared with the same period last year, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued President Donald Trump and his staff Wednesday, challenging a Trump-owned media company’s plan to monetize the president’s social media posts.
The lawsuit is in response to a scheme announced last month by the parent company of Trump’s Truth Social platform to charge as much as $100,000 per month for early access to the president’s posts.
By offering preferred access to presidential missives, the monetization plan, dubbed “Truth API,” would violate the First Amendment rights of journalists and other members of the public to equal access to official information, the lawsuit argues, while allowing Trump to trade his public statements for cold hard cash.
“Trump is trying to enrich himself by privatizing government information that he has no right to sell,” said Ben Muessig, editor-in-chief of The Intercept. “We won’t let it stand.”
The complaint filed in the Southern District of New York also asserts that the monetization scheme, which it described as an “out-and-out plan of extortion,” would violate the Fifth Amendment by charging “unreasonable sums” for equal access to government information and by undermining the right to equal protection under the law.
“This lawsuit seeks to vindicate the principle that the president of the United States cannot profit from the official government statements of the president,” said Nikhel Sus, Chief Counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which provided legal support for the lawsuit. “Every American is entitled to equal access to the president’s public statements. Individuals who pay $100,000 to the president’s personal company do not have any greater entitlement to those public statements.”
“Every American is entitled to equal access to the president’s public statements.”
Truth API is part of a broader effort to bring Trump Media & Technology Group into the black. Despite a steep up-front cost ranging from $60,000 to $100,000 per month, the company’s interim CEO Kevin McGurn has been explicit about the potential dividends awaiting customers willing to pay — and the potential gain for Trump and other shareholders.
“Truth API delivers a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform’s most market-moving Truths while advancing our strategy to monetize proprietary assets through a high-margin, recurring revenue stream,” McGurn said in a July 16 press release. “As adoption grows, we expect Truth API to become a meaningful, ongoing source of revenue for the company, creating lasting value for shareholders.”
No shareholder stands to benefit more than Trump, who holds the largest single stake in the company through a trust established when he retook the White House in January 2025. At the time, his 52.1 percent stake in the company was valued at $4 billion. The company’s stock has plunged in value since entering the market, causing the value of Trump’s stake to fall to around $1 billion, according to the complaint.
In addition to the president, the lawsuit names as defendants Trump’s executive assistant Natalie Harp, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Daniel Scavino, the Executive Office of the President, and the White House Office. Representatives for the defendants and for Trump Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Truth Social has its roots in the interregnum between the two Trump administrations, when Trump, an early adopter of X who used the platform extensively in his first term as president, was banned from his beloved app and other social media platforms in 2021 in the wake of the attempted insurrection on January 6.
Weeks after the ban, he formed Trump Media & Technology Group and announced plans for a proprietary social media platform to be known as Truth Social. The platform, essentially a right-wing clone of X, launched in 2022, and Trump Media went public in 2024 via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, a process of entering the stock market that is typically subject to less scrutiny than a traditional initial public offering.
Shortly after acquiring Twitter and renaming it X, Elon Musk allowed Trump back onto the platform, and other social-media companies later followed suit. But Trump has continued to use Truth Social as his first and primary means of communication with the public.
Still, despite enjoying the benefits of Trump’s universal name recognition and the potential for access-granting fringe benefits of investing in the company, Trump Media & Technology Group has been something of a financial loser. Just days after announcing Truth API, McGurn revealed in an earnings call on Monday that second-quarter losses had totaled $238 million.
Despite such dismal numbers, the potential return on investment for parties sinking money into the company goes beyond earnings by acting as a potential side-door for influence peddling and buying access, according to critics. Although his relationship with the administration has recently soured, few cases illustrate this more clearly than that of Justin Sun, a billionaire crypto kingpin who swiftly resolved an inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission after investing $30 million in the Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial. Other major investors with a clear interest in gaining Trump’s favor have included an Emirati powerbroker and a failed businessman under investigation for money laundering.
“If you look back through the American presidency, there’s really no comparison for this kind of self-enrichment,” said Molly White, a researcher who has written critically of Trump’s crypto ventures and their various backers. “People have made quite a stink in the past about presidents selling books or family members of presidents peddling off of their connections, and that’s certainly true. But I mean, the scale here is just unprecedented.”
Critics of the president have raised similar concerns about Truth API. In a letter to the SEC last month, Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pointed to numerous instances in which Trump had used Truth Social to hype individual stocks, including CitiGroup, Palantir, and Intel.
“The Trump Administration is the most corrupt in the nation’s history, and questions about inappropriate insider access to information about its policies and actions have raised questions on multiple occasions,” the senators wrote. “But even amid these clouds of corruption, Trump Media’s plan to disseminate market-moving information through the President’s own company, while charging insiders for access ahead of the public for the benefit of his company — and to the detriment of the investing public — represents a shocking abuse of the office of the President and the trust of the American public for his personal gain.”
Female staff alleged company failed to maintain safe workplace, after allegations of sexual assault against pilot
The Canadian airline WestJet has agreed to pay C$4.5m (£2.4m) to settle a decade-long sexual harassment class action lawsuit levelled by its female flight attendants, who alleged the company failed to maintain a safe workplace.
The suit followed allegations by Mandalena Lewis, a former flight attendant, that a pilot had sexually assaulted her and a colleague, but that WestJet kept the pilot flying, thereby putting other employees at risk.
Iger and Kushner aim to ‘compete at the highest level’
Josh Kushner and Bob Iger are purchasing the Los Angeles Lakers for more than $12.5bn in a record-breaking deal, ESPN reported on Wednesday, citing sources with knowledge of the deal.
Billionaire Mark Walter purchased a majority stake of the NBA team last year from the Buss family in a deal that valued the club at $10bn, with the deal only having been approved by the board of governors in October.
Messi’s father, Jorge, died last week at age of 68
Argentinian suggests he may not play on much longer
Lionel Messi has hinted that the end of his career may be near after admitting to “quite a few doubts” about his football future following the death of his father.
Jorge Messi died last week at the age of 68 in Rosario, Argentina, after a long illness, with his health during this summer’s World Cup appearing to take a toll on Argentina’s 39-year-old captain.
As social media shrinks and distorts the EU’s crises, the Venice film festival is delivering politically forthright epics from directors such as Sergei Loznitsa and Alex Gibney
Europe is in an economic crisis that, unlike the eurozone downturn at the beginning of the millennium, cannot be measured in ratings downgrades and borrowing costs. For metrics, try engagement depth and consumer trust instead.
The unedifying spectacle of the European Union’s falling out over the Ceuta crisis looks like the latest symptom of Europe’s shrinking attention economy. When more than 70,000 people crossed over from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta at the start of the month, Rome hastily reintroduced air and sea border checks with Spain for one month; Madrid retaliated with spot-checks on travellers to Italy.
Fairground TV is a 24/7 channel devoted to low-quality AI content for viewers sick of watching real people move in ways that won’t haunt you
The appeal of Roku is that, whatever you happen to want to watch, there will almost certainly be a live channel for it. Just want to watch Little House on the Prairie? There’s a channel for it. Just want to watch Duck Dynasty? There’s a channel for that too. Purely want to watch nothing but local news from Wisconsin? Guess what: there’s a channel for that too.
But despite this wealth, a section of the population was still to see its needs fulfilled. What about people who hate plot and vision and the sight of people speaking convincing dialogue that synchronises perfectly with the movement of their lips? What about the people who just want to watch an unyielding torrent of eerily weightless nightmare fodder? Well, good news. Roku has finally caught up.
Police say the driver of the minivan — who wore a mask, glasses and a hard hat — sprayed security cameras with blue paint to hide his crime inside an Oregon parking garage.
As much as some people more or less cease to listen to new music in their 30s, I have noticed a retreat to safe, familiar gaming territory among some of my fellow millennial gamers.
Retro collections are started, or resumed; jewel-cases of PS1 classics or cardboard boxes with SNES or Mega Drive games have started to colonise the living-room shelves. People are replaying things from their university days, or sticking to comfort games such as Stardew Valley. Many of the friends I used to game with never bothered to pick up a PlayStation 5 at its launch, and now that current-generation consoles are becoming prohibitively expensive, they see no need. With thousands of great older games, why bother playing something new?
LandPaths takes at-risk youth out of their concrete, urban environments and into the natural one, offering many their first encounters with the land
Alejandro Elizarraraz stands in the middle of a grassy field with a saw in his hands. On a hillside overlooking the lush forests of northern California, the 18 year old cuts back brush and branches as a way to help prevent wildfires.
“We’re going to give the tree a high fade cuz it’s 10 feet,” he said, grinning. “You get it?”
The International Energy Agency calls for urgent reopening of the strait of Homuz amid ongoing pressure on global oil supplies
Opec has lowered its full-year forecast for world oil demand growth for the fourth month in a row.
The oil producing cartel said it was now expecting oil demand to have grown to 580,000 barrels per day, according to a copy of the monthly report seen by Reuters.
Incident marks second familicide in midwest in two weeks, with the children who died ranging in age from three to nine
A father killed his four young children and their mother before turning the gun on himself, said authorities in Wichita, Kansas – marking the second incident of familicide in the midwest in two weeks.
The Kansas bureau of investigation and Winfield police department said a man identified as 53-year-old Ronald Williams Sr called police at 8.50am on Tuesday to say he had killed his entire family and was about to take his own life.
No winning tickets were sold for Monday night's $905 million Powerball jackpot, so the estimated grand prize for Wednesday's drawing will be at least $1 billion.
Winds of more than 80mph, severe flooding and tornadoes swept through Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky
Powerful storms swept across the midwest on Tuesday, leaving three dead and more than 800,000 without power in four states as winds gusts of more than 80mph (130km/h) tore down trees and power lines.
In Indiana, a four-year-old child died after a tree fell on his home in Geneva Township and a person died in a suspected weather-related house explosion in Portage, a city about 30 miles south-east of Chicago.
This broad collaboration will train researchers across the full quantum error correction stack filling a gap in the current workforce
PARIS, Aug. 12, 2026 — Alice & Bob, a leader in fault-tolerant quantum computing, is contributing its expertise in cat-qubit error correction to QuBriC, Europe’s first Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network dedicated to quantum error correction (QEC).
QuBriC brings together 16 universities and seven quantum companies across Europe, including ETH Zürich, TU Delft, UCL, INRIA, Riverlane and IQM, to recruit and train 15 doctoral researchers. Backed by €4.6 million in funding over 48 months through Horizon Europe’s MSCA programme, the network will develop a new generation of researchers capable of tackling one of quantum computing’s biggest technical challenges: quantum error correction.
“Quantum error correction sits at the heart of any fault-tolerant quantum computer, interacting with all aspects of it. As such, it requires expertise spanning seemingly separate disciplines,” said Christophe Vuillot, Principal Research Scientist, QEC at Alice & Bob. “QuBriC brings together leading universities, research institutes and quantum companies to train researchers and bridge these gaps, combining expertise from quantum information, coding theory and hardware engineering. This next generation of researchers will be essential to accelerating the path to useful, fault-tolerant quantum computers.”
Quantum error correction is widely recognised as the key to building scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computers. Yet expertise remains fragmented, with researchers typically specialising in either classical coding theory or quantum physics. QuBriC aims to bridge that divide by training researchers across the full quantum error correction stack – from theory and algorithms to hardware implementation.
As an industry partner, Alice & Bob will help shape the network’s research and training while contributing expertise in cat-qubit-based error correction. For the company, QuBriC provides access to a pipeline of highly specialised talent and an academic network closely aligned on fault-tolerant quantum computing.
The MSCA program has advanced research and innovation for the last 30 years by supporting over 150,000 researchers, including 23 Nobel Prize winners. The programme has been a cornerstone of European research by fostering mobility across disciplines, sectors, and countries and attracting and nurturing top talent within academia and businesses.
Unlike traditional research grants, MSCA Doctoral Networks fund international consortia of universities, research organisations and industry partners to jointly recruit, train and supervise PhD researchers. Doctoral candidates undertake interdisciplinary research while working across academic and industrial environments, equipping them with the technical and transferable skills needed to address major scientific and technological challenges.
About Alice & Bob
Alice & Bob is a quantum computing company based in Paris and Boston whose goal is to create the first universal, fault-tolerant quantum computer. Founded in 2020, Alice & Bob has raised €180 million in funding and employs more than 250 people. Advised by Nobel Prize winning researchers, Alice & Bob specializes in cat qubits, a technology developed by the company’s founders. Demonstrating the power of its cat architecture, Alice & Bob recently showed that it could reduce the hardware requirements for building a useful large-scale quantum computer up to 200 times compared with competing approaches.
About QuBriC
QuBriC (Bridging Quantum and Classical Error Correction for Scalable Fault-tolerant Quantum Computing) is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network (MSCA-DN) funded under Horizon Europe.
QuBriC unites 23 European partners across Europe and beyond: 14 beneficiaries and 9 associated partners, including 16 leading academic institutions (TU/e, KIT, Freie Universität Berlin, ETH Zürich, University of Gdańsk, UCL, Politecnico di Milano, Chalmers, University of Edinburgh, INRIA, TU Delft, Universitá di Napoli Federico II, University of Navarra, Duke Universit, LMU Munich, Sorbonne Université) and 7 major quantum computing companies (Riverlane, IQM, Alice & Bob, Quantinuum, Pasqal, QuiX Quantum, Quandela).
Funded by the European Union under the grant agreement No 101312335. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Energy is cheaper than at its peak in late April, but gas is still nearly $1 a gallon more expensive than before the Iran war
US consumer prices cooled slightly in July as the annualized inflation rate dipped down to 3.4%, though prices still remain higher than levels seen before the war with Iran.
Though inflation decreased 0.7 percentage points in June during a brief ceasefire between the US and Iran that brought energy prices down, consumer prices have remained elevated. Price increases hit a three-year high in May, with annual inflation reaching 4.2%.
Primaries across US included Darline Graham advancing to runoff, while progressive Francesca Hong and MyPillow’s Mike Lindell fell short
A series of primary elections on Tuesday shaped the future of both the Democratic and Republican parties, pitting newcomers against established candidates and testing name recognition.
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alabama, South Carolina, Vermont and Connecticut held elections, with a gubernatorial race in Wisconsin capturing nationwide attention.
Sadiq Khan has indicated the technology will be deployed on London’s Oxford Street despite human rights concerns
The Metropolitan police are understood to be planning to use live facial recognition (LFR) technology on Britain’s busiest shopping street.
In June, the Met said it would introduce the technology in London’s West End by Christmas and into a further six areas next year. Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, has indicated that the newly pedestrianised Oxford Street will be included.
Operation under way to rescue dozens missing after boat overturned by waves at world’s largest human-made lake
At least 44 people have diedafter an overcrowded ferry capsized on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe, police said.
The boat had a capacity of 90 people, but was carrying 114 adult passengers, five crew members and an unknown number of children, Zimbabwe’s civil protection unit (CPU) said earlier on Wednesday, citing ticket sales.
F-16 fighter jets intercepted a civilian plane that violated a temporary flight restriction over Geneva, Ohio, where President Trump attended the 2026 Patriot Games.
David Crowley unexpectedly beat a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor, and will face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany on the ballot in November.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers may soon be outfitted with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks that are intended to gain compliance from combative individuals.
Israeli forces continue to occupy buffer zone in effort to dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure, with restrictions drawing parallels to those in the West Bank.
US immigration has ramped up operations against Haitians, whose temporary protected status was removed by Trump
When Monsanto Maler walked out of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Blue Ash, Ohio, at 9.15am on Sunday with an ankle monitor freshly attached to his left leg, he put his hand over his face, burst into tears and fell to the ground.
He had come to the US in June 2023, fleeing gangs in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, where he had been hit over the right side of his head, leaving a large, visible scar.
BOSTON, Aug. 12, 2026 — Zapata Quantum, a leader in quantum computing algorithm and application development, today announced a partnership with QuEra, a leader in neutral-atom quantum computing, aimed at closing the quantum applications gap.
“QuEra’s commitment to delivering a megaquop-class system via AWS in 2028 is exciting for the field and something we’re looking forward to supporting from the application side,” said Sumit Kapur, CEO of Zapata Quantum. “We are uniquely positioned as a hardware-agnostic partner to help enterprises identify which quantum use cases matter, assess when they will become viable, and develop the applications and algorithms needed to drive transformational business value as these systems come online.”
The partnership seeks to fulfill QuEra’s goal of helping enterprises, government programs and HPC centers collaborate on designing and validating applications before quantum hardware reaches full fault-tolerance, and is part of the QuEra Quantum Alliance Program.
“By pairing QuEra’s leadership in fault-tolerant quantum computing with Zapata’s focus on application development, we can further accelerate the path from quantum capability to commercial value,” said Yuval Boger, Chief Commercial Officer at QuEra Computing.
The collaboration also reflects Zapata’s broader strategy of working with technology leaders across the quantum and AI ecosystems, including its recently announced ongoing partnership with NVIDIA to apply agentic AI to accelerate quantum algorithm development.
For more information about how Zapata is delivering Quantum Application Intelligence, please visit the Company’s website.
About QuEra
QuEra is putting quantum to work. As the scientific and commercial leader in neutral-atom quantum computing, we help enterprise innovators leverage quantum to gain competitive advantage, support HPC centers as their users tackle classically intractable problems, and enable government programs to build national and sovereign capabilities. We do this by combining our quantum systems, available on-premises and via the cloud, with application co-design and collaborative research. Born at Harvard and MIT and still advancing together, QuEra builds neutral-atom systems on a public, peer-reviewed path to fault tolerance, and operates globally from Boston, New Mexico, Tokyo, Zurich, and the United Kingdom. As quantum computing moves from “one day” to “Day One,” QuEra delivers practical impact today while leading the path toward large-scale, fault-tolerant systems. See what’s possible at www.quera.com.
About Zapata Quantum
Zapata Quantum is a leading hardware-agnostic, pure-play quantum software company focused on accelerating quantum application development. With a portfolio of more than 60 granted and pending patents developed over seven years, Zapata supports applications across cryptography, pharmaceuticals, finance, materials discovery, defense, and more. The Company is the only organization to have participated across all technical areas of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking program and has worked with Fortune 500 enterprises and government agencies to translate quantum advances into real-world impact. The Company’s study demonstrating the potential of quantum-enabled drug discovery was recognized as one of Nature Biotechnology’s Top 10 Papers of 2025. Learn more at zapataquantum.com.
OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, AWS and others have recently launched initiatives to help their customers adopt AI and make sure it works.
Key to these efforts are “FDEs” or “forward deployed engineers,” a rare individual who can bridge the technical aspects of AI with the real business needs of customers.
But what happens six months from now, or a year from now, when the hired teams move on or get too busy and the company is left to maintain and upgrade its AI systems itself?
That isn’t a situation any company wants to be in. FDE capabilities are scarce. That means their expertise can be expensive. When you get locked in with one organization, it can be tough to leave–no matter the cost. The organization you come to rely on might optimize certain AI models and you’ll miss out on other options, such as open source. Or, the model they rely on could run into regulatory trouble.
All of this points to the need to train FDEs internally for the long haul and not just rely on outside teams. The enterprises that thrive will be those that develop the capability to deploy AI responsibly and confidently. The good news: FDE capability can be developed. But it does require the right raw material and an intensive, structured approach.
What You’re Looking For
(khunkornStudio/Shutterstock)
It is imperative to know what you’re looking for before you begin any training.
The defining characteristic of an FDE is the ability to bridge technical solutions with business outcomes in ways traditional engineers simply don’t. FDEs are not just builders. They’re translators operating at the intersection of engineering, architecture and business strategy. They understand that deploying AI into production is more than a technical challenge. It’s also a risk management challenge that requires earning organizational trust through proper guardrails, monitoring and containment strategies.
Here’s what we’ve learned about FDEs that works.
Step one: Identify the right candidates. Not every strong engineer will make the transition. Look for experienced software engineers who are curious beyond their technical domain. You want people with foundational strength in core development practices and exposure to data science and cloud architecture. Prior industry expertise is a significant accelerant. Someone who understands healthcare compliance or financial services risk frameworks will ramp faster than someone learning the domain from scratch.
Part of identifying the right candidate is to look for someone with core skills that work together, including: problem-solving and judgment; solutions engineering and design; client management and the ability to connect AI implementations to measurable business outcomes.
If someone already has those competencies, you’re a long way toward having an FDE. But more is needed and that can be accomplished with training, both technical and professional.
Step two: Develop strong candidates technically. This has three layers.
The foundation is AI and ML literacy: LLM concepts, prompting techniques, Python proficiency, understanding of tokens and basic agent architectures. These are table stakes.
The middle layer is the applied toolkit. Engineers need working competency in three areas that map to the “three hats” an FDE wears.
First is RAG, or retrieval-augmented generation, knowing how to connect models to enterprise data sources reliably and accurately.
Second is agentic AI, orchestrating multi-step reasoning and action sequences with appropriate checkpoints and controls.
Third is production operations, ensuring solutions can be deployed with proper monitoring, guardrails and incident response capabilities.
The advanced layer is deep expertise: model internals, fine-tuning, the kind of knowledge that allows an FDE to troubleshoot when standard approaches fail. This is what separates so
(Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock)
meone who can follow a playbook from someone who can improvise when the playbook doesn’t cover the situation.
Step three: Develop strong candidate’s professional capabilities
Professional capabilities can be harder to develop than technical ones. These are the “soft” skills so in demand across many professions as AI picks up more of the routine, task-focused work. Soft skills can be especially hard to find in engineering talent because the profession hasn’t traditionally focused on them. The image of a programmer with headphones on, working furiously, while the rest of the world goes on around them has real roots.
But AI is changing the equation of what machines bring best to the equation and what humans bring best. In today’s world, corporate boards and CEOs are looking for an actual payout from their AI investments.
FDEs must be able to reframe conversations, to stop talking about technical agents and start discussing business problems and risk mitigation. They must manage high-stakes stakeholder relationships, including difficult conversations around scope changes, timeline slips and the inherent uncertainties of non-deterministic systems. Most importantly, they must develop judgment: the ability to make good decisions under ambiguity and to inspire confidence in executives who are being asked to accept a new kind of technology risk.
A plethora of soft skills-development tools are available. Enterprises can tackle this in-house or find outside help. One thing we’ve found at Andela is that it is important to at first assess the worker to find out where they are with a skill so that any training takes them to the next level–and doesn’t waste their time or lose them.
Be Patient but Persistent
Set realistic expectations with your leadership and your candidates. Even with a strong program, not everyone will complete the transition. But even a small cohort of FDE-capable talent can dramatically accelerate your path to overcoming the integration wall.
The enterprises that develop FDE capability will break through the integration wall. They’ll move from impressive demos to production systems that generate real value. Each successful deployment will build organizational confidence for the next. Those that don’t will remain stuck, unable to convert AI investment into AI returns, watching more risk-tolerant competitors pull ahead.
About the author: Kennith Jackson is SVP of Solutions at Andela, a private marketplaces for technical talent with a vetted global network of 150,000+ technologists across 135 countries available. Previosly he worked at Google Cloud.
Democrats demand congressional briefing after passenger-laden Air Force One sent on decoy flight despite security scare. Plus, the 11 biggest wellness trends of 2026 so far
Good morning.
Democrats have called for a congressional briefing after a charade in which Donald Trump was secretly spirited into a different plane than the one the public and press believed he was travelling on.
How did the plot to smuggle Trump off the plane unfold? In this video, the Guardian breaks down the footage from that day, showing how the president reportedly boarded the old Air Force One jet in view of television cameras, and then was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies before flight.
Where have progressives enjoyed electoral success this week? Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, won her Democratic primary for US Senate in a race centered on immigration enforcement. Flanagan, who beat the congresswoman Angie Craig, recently told the Guardian: “So often I think Democrats are like: ‘What do we think we can win?’ Instead of: ‘What are the fights that we should be picking?’”
What happened in South Carolina’s abbreviated special Republican primary? Darline Graham, appointed to complete the Senate term of her late brother, Lindsey, will face the congressman Ralph Norman in a runoff on 25 August. The winner will face the Democratic nominee Annie Andrews in November’;s midterms.
Fever’s success on court continues despite distractions
Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White has pushed back on those who have criticized how she has handled the controversy that erupted after Saturday’s game between her team and the Chicago Sky.
Sky’s DiJonai Carrington was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul after she struck Fever’s Sophie Cunningham in the head and neck during Saturday’s game. Afterwards, White, – who previously coached Carrington at the Connecticut Sun – said she did not believe Carrington intentionally aimed for Cunningham’s neck. White was booed by some Fever fans before Tuesday’s win over the New York Liberty, while Indiana’s lieutenant governor has called for her to be fired.
alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Scientists from the Czech Republic have created microscopic cleanup robots that successfully removed microplastics from both soil and aquatic environments in the lab. Details of their work are published in the journal npg Asia Materials. To build the robots, researchers started with microscopic MXene particles made of ultrathin, stacked layers. The material has a large surface area and surface chemistry that help it attract and hold plastic. They then coated the particles with magnetic nickel nanoparticles so rotating magnetic fields could drive the tiny robots.
Then came the testing phase. The team placed swarms of these microbots into water and soil samples contaminated with plastic. The externally generated magnetic fields made the robots spin and tumble through the liquid and squeeze through tiny water-filled gaps in the soil. "In soil environments, the microrobots can navigate through water-permeated soil microenvironments, actively disrupt microplastic entrapment within soil matrices, and extract them," the study authors commented in their paper. As they moved, their sticky surfaces collided with microplastics, binding to them and dragging them along. The researchers then used a magnet to pull the microrobots, along with their trapped plastic cargo, out of the samples.
They performed well. In water, they removed about 94% of test polystyrene particles and 89% of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) in around an hour. In the model soil, they removed about 81% of the polystyrene and 72% of PET. This outperformed the same MXene material used without magnetic motion, which relied on passive adsorption rather than actively moving through soil and water.
South African scientist’s breakthrough research shows soil fungus could be used in fight against devastating crop pest
Hearing about fields full of dead caterpillars enveloped in a mysterious white substance intrigued the South African scientist Letodi Luki Mathulwe. Something was killing off the African armyworm – one of the most devastating pests for farmers in east and southern Africa.
The white substance was a naturally occurring fungus and it was wiping out the caterpillar, which gained its name from its march-like advance through fields of crops.
Marni von Wilpert helped draft Protecting the Right to Organize act, and now wants work toward implementing it
Legislation that would modernize federal labor law began with a handful of lawyers meeting, of all places, in an ice-cream shop.
“We wrote for hours what we would do to amend the National Labor Relations Act,” said Marni von Wilpert, a member of the San Diego city council who was then an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Bringing together “our collective experience as labor lawyers over the years, really trying to unrig the rules so that working people could have a fair shot”.
Middle East conflict has cost Europe’s largest travel firm €60m so far, and timing of decisions over trips has shifted
Holidaymakers are waiting until the last minute to book their trips because of the continuing uncertainty caused by the war in Iran and the cost of living crisis, according to Tui, Europe’s largest travel company, which said the war had cost it €60m (£51m) so far.
In the weeks after the outbreak of the war at the end of February, Tui recorded a temporary drop-off in customers wanting to travel to Cyprus or Turkey, in what the company called a “volatile market”.
Andy Burnham will chair an emergency Cobra meeting in response to the extreme heat, which has caused wildfires and plunged many parts of Britain into drought.
The prime minister will meet ministers, officials and agencies as high temperatures continue across the UK, with 33C forecast on Wednesday and up to 38C on Thursday.
Reforms comply with wishlist of intelligence services which say Germany lags behind allies and enemies
The German government has approved a draft law aimed at lifting many of the restraints on its spy agencies imposed during the postwar period as the country reels from two attacks in a month that have exposed serious security gaps.
The controversial changes, which must still pass parliament, largely comply with a wishlist pulled together by the foreign and domestic intelligence services, which have long complained Germany lags behind its allies and enemies.
Calls for speed limiters or mandated helmet use after research into injuries at three paediatric trauma centres
The number of children involved in crashes on e-scooters has soared in recent years, with some as young as nine involved in collisions, research has found.
Researchers carried out a review of injuries among the under-16s at three specialist paediatric trauma centres – Alder Hey in Liverpool, and Sheffield and Royal Manchester children’s hospitals – between January 2019 and December 2024.
"In exchange for the weapons, the defendants paid in the form of fentanyl and methamphetamine imported into the United States for distribution," the Justice Department said.
Footage shared on social media shows a baby being rescued from the bloody arms of a man trapped underneath a destroyed building in Cali after a powerful earthquake struck Colombia.
From space to telecommunications, the US has a long history of fostering technology for the public good. These AI models could be aligned to democratic values, not corporate profits
OpenAI, and then Anthropic, were each formed by AI developers who feared unrestrained corporate AI development – specifically, that companies like Google and Meta would steer the technology towards deleterious, maybe even catastrophically unsafe, outcomes for society. Their founders proclaimed that their new labs, uniquely, could be trusted to develop the technology in humanity’s best interest. But each, in turn, were themselves co-opted by the same market incentives, themselves becoming corporate behemoths zealously guarding future investor value rather than the public interest.
It was only a few weeks ago, in June, when OpenAI and Anthropic each filed for their IPOs and were met with buzz about trillion-dollar valuations. The hype around their valuations is so extreme that many worry about their potential for concentrating wealth on a global scale. In an effort to leave something for the rest of us, some observers have proposed that the federal government seize a share of these companies’ stock to create a US sovereign wealth fund, or redistribute their revenues to produce a dividend for taxpayers.
In documenting the process, AOC is defying the right’s pronatalist narratives about motherhood and women’s careers
On Sunday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced that she is freezing her eggs. The 36-year-old New York congresswoman took to Instagram to document the process, complete with jabbing a syringe into her stomach on camera.
“Don’t be weird about this,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “even though I know all of you will be.”
Iran lost top leaders in the war and US ‘humiliation ... a form of revenge’, say experts, after administration’s flight ruse
Since the joint US-Israeli strikes in February that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and scores of other senior Iranian officials on the first day of the war, a revenge plot to kill Donald Trump should not have appeared far-fetched.
But the US administration’s elaborate ruse to spirit Trump off of Air Force One in Turkey last month indicates a credibility to the Iranian threat that has surprised many in Washington – including the Trump aides and journalists left on the jet that may have remained the target of an Iranian missile strike.
With wing spans up to 3ft, the shy cownose ray species typically arrive in Long Island waters in the warmer months
Drone footage of dozens of stingrays in the ocean off New York has captivated beachgoers and marine enthusiasts, offering a rare bird’s-eye view of a species that scientists say has visited the area for decades.
The footage was captured las`t Friday off the coast of Southampton on the Long Island peninsula by Joanna Steidle, a Hamptons-based professional drone pilot known for her aerial ocean shots. It shows cownose rays gliding through the water en masse near the surface.
Alex Bandoni and Shoshana Gordon/ProPublica. Source images: Corbis, AFP and Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center of Photography/Getty Images.
A robot was on fire. Again.
It was the summer of 2024, and the cutting-edge robots inside General Dynamics’ sweltering artillery factory near Dallas were catching fire with startling regularity, according to four former workers there. This wasn’t ideal, as the plant was supposed to be churning out urgently needed artillery shells for Ukraine. The robots, giant metal arms with clamps for hands, would end up drenched in oil, which would then — no surprise — combust as they moved steel blocks heated to 1,800 degrees into and out of a machine that periodically erupted columns of fire. One blaze that summer melted a robot’s cables, putting it out of commission for a week.
Only weeks earlier, defense officials and executives had touted the factory’s innovative new machinery, imported from Turkey, at a gala opening ceremony. But employees were already used to spectacular mishaps, fiery and otherwise. “After the second, third, fourth time, it just became almost normal,” one former worker said. “It got to the point where I was not surprised by anything that happened there.”
Instead of producing shells in an efficient and streamlined fashion, the pricey machines kept failing in bizarre ways. The robot arms would swing out of control, smashing into carefully calibrated equipment, and sometimes they would unexpectedly drop hunks of steel 5 feet down to the floor. The factory’s signature device, meant to precisely stretch the steel for the artillery shells, instead often cracked it beyond repair. Then there were the giant press machines, which required regular pounding with a sledgehammer to function properly but still botched the shaping of nearly every shell. “We really didn’t have any standardized practice,” said Quantel White, a former employee. “It was just a bunch of guys taking turns going at the machine with a sledgehammer every night.” To workers, even the factory buildings themselves came to feel doomed, with acrid smoke hanging in 100-degree heat over foundations seemingly sinking into the earth.
A press machine at the General Dynamics artillery factory near DallasObtained by ProPublica
The situation never improved. The U.S. Army, which funded the factory, ordered work halted on two of its three production lines in August 2025. By then, General Dynamics had blown eight deadlines. Work on the third production line continued, but the facility never produced a single usable shell, according to a report from the Department of Defense’s inspector general in July.
The fiasco has cost American taxpayers $533 million, according to the Army. But the Army has not held General Dynamics or a key Turkish subcontractor — which provided the factory’s much-hyped but little-proven equipment — publicly accountable for the failures. Nor has it made General Dynamics pay a penny back.
Just the opposite: General Dynamics, one of the world’s largest defense companies, has been showered with new contracts, continuing its track record as one of the greatest beneficiaries of Pentagon spending. The company is still in charge of the factory. It recently announced that it will fix things there by bringing in another much-hyped but little-proven technology.
“It’s an absolute disaster,” said one former official in an Army office supervising the project. “The Army should’ve gone after recovering money from General Dynamics,” added the official, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Publicly, the Army has been tight-lipped about what, exactly, went wrong at the factory, located in a sprawling suburb called Mesquite. The inspector general report described the failure but offered few specifics. It didn’t name the companies involved, much less any of the individuals responsible. The report’s recommendations were tepid: The Army should determine whether the contract was “appropriately issued,” how “the money was spent” and whether it can recoup any of it. It should also “identify and implement a solution” for producing more artillery. Army officials deflected blame, telling the inspector general that they didn’t do anything wrong.
In a detailed statement to ProPublica, the Army said it will recover funding for the project by getting unspecified discounts from General Dynamics on production orders. “The Army is exercising rigorous oversight to ensure every dollar invested delivers capability to the warfighter,” the statement read. “Where vendors fail to meet contract specifications, as seen at the Mesquite facility, we are evaluating contract performance, seeking recoupment of funds, and pivoting resources.”
As for General Dynamics, it has given no public explanation whatsoever. The company has said that it “met or exceeded requirements,” according to the inspector general report. General Dynamics declined an interview request from ProPublica. Company spokesperson Jeff Davis said ProPublica’s reporting “fundamentally mischaracterizes the circumstances and falsely impugns our record of employee safety and truthfulness with our customer.” He continued: “An article based on this foundation would be a materially false and misleading hit piece.” Davis did not respond to ProPublica’s request that he specify the alleged errors.
ProPublica reconstructed how the project went awry through interviews with 36 current and former employees of General Dynamics, the Army, the Pentagon and the White House. ProPublica also reviewed internal company documents as well as photographs and videos taken inside the factory.
Those involved described a project that was rushed and ill considered from the start. Congress paved the way, removing government contracting guardrails — meant to ensure taxpayer money isn’t wasted — so that Ukraine-related defense projects could be funded quickly. The Army took advantage, handing General Dynamics lucrative no-bid awards without knowing whether the machines it planned to use could perform the desired work. The Army’s due diligence was inadequate, four former Army and General Dynamics officials told ProPublica.
Compared to the multibillion-dollar budgets of other DOD projects, the financial cost of the Texas debacle is small. But the lack of consequences for the companies involved, in the view of defense-spending critics, is symptomatic of a larger problem: a deep-rooted culture at the Pentagon and in Congress in which expensive failures lead only to more spending. Such critics fear that extreme cases like this one could become more common if the Trump administration succeeds in boosting the defense budget from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion. The administration is also seeking tens of billions of dollars for its war against Iran and pressuring defense companies to quickly ramp up weapons production.
“Too often the contractors have no accountability for their mistakes,” defense budget researcher William Hartung said. The Texas failure, he said, “is a foreshadow of what’s to come if the Trump administration gets the budget it asked for.”
The Pitch
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 felt like an emergency to the Biden administration. For General Dynamics, it was an opportunity. And Firat Gezen was ready with a pitch.
In six years running General Dynamics’ Ordnance and Tactical Systems business, Gezen had earned a reputation as a deft strategist and salesman. At 50, he wasn’t an engineer, and he had no experience running factories. He had spent decades working on the financial side of the weapons business. With a ready smile and a delivery as smooth as his perfectly bald head, he knew how to woo corporate leaders and Pentagon arms buyers alike.
Gezen was also shrewd. In 2020, after the Army sought to diversify its artillery supplier base by contracting with a small Pennsylvania company, Gezen swooped in and bought that company. That allowed General Dynamics to maintain its stranglehold over the production of metal bodies for the standard American artillery shell, referred to by its caliber: 155 mm. “Firat throws his arm around you and talks to you nicely,” one former Army official said. “But he’s got, like, five things that he’s the sole provider of, and it’s exclusive. He’s got you locked up forever.”
Firat Gezen, former president of General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical SystemsU.S. Army photo by PFC Brandon L. Perry
That put General Dynamics in an ideal position. Russia and Ukraine were firing thousands of shells back and forth each day. The United States was a key supplier to Ukraine, but decades of disinvestment had left the U.S. artillery industry emaciated. In March 2022, Congress passed the first in a series of bills allocating billions of dollars for Ukraine-related causes, including boosting artillery production. The next month, President Joe Biden pledged to send shells to Ukraine, and he wanted to move fast. But first someone had to make them.
The 155 mm shell has been a military workhorse for a century, owing to its simple, lethal power. Packed with TNT, the 33-inch cylinder can travel 10 miles when shot out of the barrel of a howitzer and send fragments flying hundreds of feet upon impact. But decades of asymmetric warfare in the Middle East, in which the United States relied largely on drones and bombs, had led some to believe the days of artillery battles were waning. By 2022, General Dynamics was the only producer of 155 mm metal shell bodies in the country, mainly in a century-old facility in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Given that, the company was an obvious candidate to meet the sudden new demand. General Dynamics could simply replicate Scranton’s traditional manufacturing method, which dated back to the time of the Korean War. But in meetings with Pentagon officials in the fall of 2022, Gezen proposed an alternative: What if the Army funded a state-of-the-art production line that used a promising new technique?
A soldier attends to 155 mm shells in Ukraine in March 2025.Dmytro Smolienko/Urinform/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Central to this proposal was a virtual unknown in the world of American defense: Repkon. The company had been operating in its home country of Turkey for decades, providing “turnkey production facilities in the metal forming industry.” (Coincidentally, Gezen himself was born to Turkish parents in the United States.)
But Repkon had never received a Pentagon contract, and certainly not for its signature metalworking process called “flow-forming.” Whereas the Scranton method mainly involves molding ultrahot steel in giant forging presses, Repkon added a step in which a fast-spinning machine squeezes and rolls out the metal like clay on a potter’s wheel. The advantage, Gezen told defense officials, is that the same equipment could produce shells of various calibers. Most important, Repkon had a production line already available, meaning General Dynamics could start making shells faster than if it had to procure traditional equipment piece by piece.
Warning signs abounded. Army officials learned that the production line that Repkon wanted to sell had been designed to produce an older, simpler model of 155 mm shells, which was made with different steel. It wasn’t clear that the Turkish equipment could even work with the steel used to make the newer 155 mm model, as the equipment had never actually produced it, according to four former General Dynamics and Army officials. Repkon said other countries were using the machines to produce the older model. But the Army and General Dynamics could not inspect those active production lines, Repkon told them, citing customer privacy.
The Army could have balked at all of this and insisted on learning more about the capacity of the Repkon machines to perform the desired work. But learning more would’ve taken time, and time seemed in short supply. “There was incredible pressure to go fast,” a former Army official said. Everybody moved forward.
In November 2022, the Army raced to give General Dynamics the first in a series of contract awards for the project that would ultimately be worth nearly $600 million if carried to completion. The next month, Congress granted the DOD extraordinary powers to award money for Ukraine-related causes without the usual contracting safeguards, dropping competitive bidding requirements and restrictions on so-called undefinitized contracting actions. UCAs allow a company to begin work even before finalizing the terms of its contract with the government. One defense executive compared them to “building the airplane as you’re flying it.”
The Army made the most of its expanded powers, awarding General Dynamics a number of UCAs without considering alternate proposals in a competitive bidding process. (The Army told ProPublica it selected the company because of its unique artillery production experience.)
In fact, the Army was so enamored with the proposal that it decided to order even more than Gezen had pitched. Instead of contracting for one Repkon production line, the Army signed up to buy three. Without knowing whether any of them would work.
Gezen had never overseen a project this ambitious. Until then, he had mainly presided over smaller expansions of existing factories that used traditional methods.But he was optimistic it would work.“He’s extremely aggressive, willing to take risks,” one former colleague said.
Some of the Army’s scrutiny of the proposal occurred only after it began awarding contracts for it. The service and General Dynamics sent staffers to Turkey to inspect Repkon’s machinery, but they never inspected a full production line in action and there weren’t enough experts who could spot potential defects in the equipment, four former General Dynamics and Army officials said. Crucially, before greenlighting the deal, the Army did not require General Dynamics to demonstrate that it could use the Repkon equipment to complete the entire production process and make shells that met the Army’s specifications. (The Army told ProPublica that “formal testing could not occur prior to full machinery installation.”)
If the typical contracting safeguards had been in place, perhaps everything that followed could have been prevented. If the Pentagon had been forced to open the project to competitive bidding, it would have had to consider other proposals in a painstaking review process. If restrictions on UCAs had been in effect, the Pentagon would have had to slow down and finalize the terms of the deal before allowing it to proceed, which might have surfaced its fatal flaws.
But one man’s due diligence is another man’s red tape. Soon, Repkon’s flow-forming machines were sailing across the Atlantic, heading eventually for Mesquite.
“This Is Actually Hell”
On May 29, 2024, the mood in Mesquite was triumphant. After two short years of planning, the factory was opening, and defense officials and executives gathered there to celebrate.
Former Army Secretary Christine Wormuth at the opening of General Dynamics’ artillery factorySgt.1st Class Nicole Mejia/U.S. Army
“Our nation’s defense relies not only on our soldiers and other servicemembers in uniform but on production facilities like this one,” then-Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told seated dignitaries. She stood at a podium branded with the General Dynamics logo, with two howitzers posed behind her. She thanked the company’s CEO, Phebe Novakovic, and Gezen by name. “It’s a pleasure to highlight the fantastic work you all have done,” she said.
But everything was not as fantastic as it appeared. Artillery shells displayed around the plant that day had been shipped in from elsewhere, three former workers told ProPublica. A worker picked one up and was startled to discover it was fake — seemingly made of plastic. General Dynamics had already failed to perform a scheduled first article test, meant to demonstrate the facility could produce shells that met the Army’s specifications. The facility was supposed to start cranking out shells soon, but machines were barely functioning.
Soon problems seemed to explode out of every corner, according to interviews with 12 former factory workers. For one thing, the flaming robot arms also kept smashing into things. They slammed into computer numerical control machines, breaking their windows and bending their doors. They knocked over shells. They bashed into safety fences. Workers talked about the arms going “rogue” and began calling one of them “Johnny 5” after a sentient military robot from a 1980s movie.
Even simple equipment failed with slapstick regularity, six workers said. Conveyor belts broke down. Automated carts got lost. Safety gates meant to shut down machines when workers approached did not shut down machines when workers approached. A pipe exploded, spraying water up to the ceiling. Parts on Repkon machines deformed, leading a worker to discover that they were made with Chinese steel, possibly in violation of federal regulations. (The Army said it has no evidence of such violations.)
Artillery shells at various stages of production were displayed at the factory in Mesquite when it opened.Desiree Rios
Smoke hung in the air; it rolled off the press machines when robots sprayed them with lubricant. Workers could feel the smoke in their lungs. When they blew their noses after shifts, their mucus was black. A worker complained to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about a “respirable hazard” at the factory, according to an OSHA record and spokesperson. The agency opened an investigation in October 2024, and an inspector visited the facility. The smoke-spewing press machines were scheduled to be operating on the day of the visit, but for some reason they weren’t running during the inspection, according to four former workers. OSHA issued no penalties, the agency told ProPublica. Staffers started to think it wasn’t just Repkon’s faulty equipment to blame for problems at the factory — it was General Dynamics’ management, too.
The plant could reach Sahara Desert temperatures when the furnaces or presses were on. “This is actually hell,”one worker thought to himself. It was hotter still inside cabinets containing drives that controlled critical machines, where it was regularly 140 degrees, two former workers told ProPublica. An outside inspector warned in an email reviewed by ProPublica that, at that temperature, “you would not only have drives failing but also human lives failing.”
Every day seemed to bring more of the same: another machine broken, another frantic effort to repair it, another batch of misshapen shells tossed into the discard pile. As 2024 became 2025, little seemed to get better.
With so few shells passing inspection stations along the production line, many workers had nothing to do. A cat-and-mouse game ensued. Bored staffers spent endless hours gazing at their phones, leading supervisors to restrict phone use. So workers began bringing crossword books. Managers nixed those. Some workers were seen sleeping, so supervisors took away chairs.
“We sat around twiddling our thumbs, trying to find work, trying to figure out what was going on,” said Natashia Passmore, a former production technician in the plant. “It was a waste of government money, and it was a waste of our time.”
The Dumpster Fire
Tension rose between the Americans hired by General Dynamics and Turkish workers sent over by Repkon. The Repkon team was there to install the equipment, but it seemed equally flummoxed by the problems. General Dynamics workers found them evasive. They would give curt responses to questions in English but then be seen holding long, animated conversations in Turkish outside during frequent smoking breaks. A carelessly discarded cigarette butt sparked a real-life dumpster fire, three former workers said.
Repkon was especially secretive about the flow-forming machines, refusing to answer most questions about their operations. General Dynamics workers could tell when Repkon was testing one of them, because they would find metal shards scattered on the floor around it later. The shards looked like alligator teeth. “Oh, the tooth fairy was here,” one worker would think to himself.
Paranoia set in. Repkon refused to share passwords needed to control important equipment, according to five former General Dynamics employees. Sometimes workers would be startled by the sight of a machine moving by itself and realize it was being controlled by someone in Turkey. Spooked, General Dynamics workers tore out hardware to cut off remote access to the machines, two former workers said.
Rumors swirled among the Americans that the Turks were purposefully sabotaging machinery — or perhaps even engaged in some convoluted form of espionage. “It was astonishing how little progress we would make, month after month, year after year,” one former General Dynamics worker said. “People started speculating, ‘I wonder if they’re spying on us.’” General Dynamics assigned someone to shadow the Repkon workers in the factory, two former staffers said. (The Army said it has no evidence of sabotage or spying.)
Even the buildings themselves — a trio of vast, anonymous boxes tucked into the crook of two freeways — were plagued with problems. Walls cracked, and daylight became visible around window frames. Doors began dragging on concrete floors. When it rained, water would flood in — “like a tsunami,” one former worker said. The foundations appeared to be shifting or sinking, six former employees said. It was as if the whole dysfunctional factory — its fires and smoke, its idle workers and haywire machines — was being slowly sucked down into the earth.
Faced with the kaleidoscopic array of problems, the response from General Dynamics managers always seemed to be to plow forward. “Every single time they opened their mouths, it was: ‘We need to get into production,’” one former worker said. “Production is the only thing that mattered.”
“Nobody Wins”
As the situation at the factory deteriorated, General Dynamics and the Army told a very different story to the public.
In April 2024, General Dynamics CEO Novakovic told investors: “In the U.S., we are rapidly increasing ammunition production with the opening of our Texas facility.” General Dynamics failed to conduct a scheduled first article test in Mesquite that same month.
That July, two months after the opening ceremony, Novakovic told investors that “thefirst line is running and producing as we anticipated.” In fact, the first line was not producing any usable shells, six former plant workers told ProPublica.
In September Doug Bush, then the Army’s acquisition czar and a key figure overseeing the project, said “there have been no major delays” to the Army’s goal of producing 100,000 artillery shells each month — a goal for which the Mesquite factory was critical. “Any delays you’ve had have been measured in, I would call them weeks, not months, certainly not years,” Bush told reporters. He downplayed the problems, describing them as merely a matter of adjusting a machine “so that it puts out shells just so, versus a little bit off.”
The next day, a laborer in Mesquite photographed the work of a machine meant to begin giving the shells perfectly smooth noses; it had instead mangled the metal into something that resembled the swirl of soft-serve ice cream.
A machine at the factory sometimes mangled artillery shells, meant to be perfectly smooth, into swirls that looked like soft serve.Obtained by ProPublica
Also in September, Secretary Wormuth touted the Army’s artillery ramp-up at a conference, saying, “part of what’s enabling that are things like the brand-new plant that we opened up in Mesquite.” One month later, an Army contracting officer sent General Dynamics a letter of concern about its performance at the facility. The company missed the Army’s deadline for completing the first production line one month after that. (Wormuth declined to comment.)
Despite it all, Gezen remained optimistic through the fall of 2024. The issues in Mesquite were mere delays, he thought, and there were plans in place to fix them, according to a person familiar with his thinking. “If Firat’s guilty of something, it’s not wanting to see the truth in the matter,” a former colleague said. He “has a tendency to not want to listen to bad news.” General Dynamics announced Gezen’s retirement in January 2025. Some industry insiders believe he was pushed out in part over Mesquite. (Gezen denied that but declined to sit for an on-the-record interview.)
The split screen of blown deadlines and rosy public comments continued into the second administration of President Donald Trump. In April 2025, General Dynamics missed the completion date for the second production line. That same month, Novakovic told investors, once again: “We are rapidly increasing munitions capacity and production with the opening of our projectile facility in Texas.” The company missed another first article test two months later.
As the failures mounted, a sinking feeling took hold in Army offices. The service assembled a team to assess the situation in the factory, which produced a report that gave little confidence the problems could be fixed. Finally, in June 2025, the Army told General Dynamics it was considering terminating the contract awards for the plant, a defense trade publication reported at the time. Two months later, the service ordered work halted on two of the factory’s three production lines.
But the Army did not unilaterally terminate the contract awards. “A termination for default would’ve taken years through the legal system, because General Dynamics wasn’t going to accept that,” a former Army official told ProPublica. “Nobody wins except the lawyers.”
This would not be the last act of generosity from the Trump administration to General Dynamics. In December 2025, according to the inspector general’s report, the government paid the company $26.3 million in “progress payments” for the second and third production lines in Mesquite, although neither line had ever produced a usable shell.
General Dynamics’ factory in Mesquite, photographed in AugustDesiree Rios for ProPublica
A Novel Solution
Two months ago, General Dynamics made an announcement that conjured a sense of déjà vu. To fix the problems at the factory, the company would team up with yet another unheard-of partner promising technological innovation. The solution this time? Artificial intelligence.
A news release from General Dynamics and the new company, Deterrence, was filled with techno-business jargon. “AI-enabled capabilities” and “intelligence and connectivity” would be added at Mesquite and other General Dynamics factories, the companies wrote. “AI transforms production facilities into strategic assets,” Deterrence’s CEO said in the release. “We’re building autonomous manufacturing systems that learn, adapt, and scale in real time.”
These pronouncements have baffled former Mesquite workers. “What are they talking about? There’s nothing to learn or adapt or scale,” one said. “It’s all broken.”
General Dynamics is doing this even as it replaces most of the Repkon equipment with traditional machines like those used in Scranton. How AI will wrest miracles from decades-old technology is unclear. But General Dynamics told investors it expects to be in production next year, and the Army told the inspector general that’ll amount to 20,000 shells a month.
Compared with Repkon, Deterrence is perhaps an even less conventional choice. Deterrence was established just three years ago and has never received a DOD contract. Its website gives no indication it has ever helped to manufacture anything. Its three founders have no prior defense experience. One of them worked at Tesla; the other two created a startup that enabled people to lock and unlock buildings with smartphones. Deterrence did not respond to a request for comment.
General Dynamics also pledged to put $200 million into the project. That’s a small sum for a company that generated more than $50 billion in revenue last year and gave CEO Novakovic a compensation package worth more than $25 million. (Meanwhile, the company furloughed or laid off most of the Mesquite workers.)
The Army says it won’t spend any more money on the project, but it has hardly blackballed General Dynamics. Since the Army shut down work on two production lines in Mesquite one year ago, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems has received contract awards totaling $2.5 billion, the Army told ProPublica. (The service said this was for “distinct production lines and critical national defense requirements” unrelated to Mesquite.)
Repkon’s American offshoot is now at work setting up a TNT factory after receiving a no-bid contract from the Army worth $435 million. TNT is the primary explosive fill in 155 mm shells. Repkon Turkey’s CEO co-founded the American company, which was originally named Repkon USA. In March, it changed its name to Paligen Technologies. Some interpreted this as an effort to create distance from the Mesquite disaster. Paligen told ProPublica that it and Repkon are “different and wholly separate companies.” Repkon Turkey did not respond to requests for comment.
The one thing that key decision-makers appear to agree on is that they are absolutely not to blame. Gezen, the former General Dynamics executive, told ProPublica that the company and the Army did nothing wrong. In a brief conversation at his apartment door in a ritzy section of Washington, D.C., in May, Gezen maintained his sunny optimism. The Repkon equipment was a good option, and it may still be a good option, he said, holding an iced coffee in one hand and restraining a large dog with his other. In any case, he added, “it was the fastest option available.”
Bush, the Army’s former acquisition chief who had assured reporters there were “no major delays” to increasing artillery production, also declined to be interviewed. In a terse conversation in May, peering out from his half-closed front door in Northern Virginia, he told ProPublica: “All of this was done through appropriate procedures.”
Others who were involved, speaking on the condition of anonymity, engaged in mutual finger-pointing: The White House demanded too much too fast, Repkon and General Dynamics overpromised, the Army didn’t perform due diligence and Congress underwrote the whole thing.
The United States still is not close to producing the promised 100,000 shells per month, a former Army official told ProPublica in June,although otherinvestments to increase 155 mm production have turned out better. Ukraine still needs those shells, the official said, but attention has once again shifted. In the Middle East, it’s other munitions that the Trump administration has rapidly burned through during its war with Iran. Trump officials are now calling for ramping up production in those areas — and fast.
“Conventional ammo is back on the back burner,” the official said. “Everything now is about interceptors, missiles.”
Why Should Delaware Care? Over the past two decades, technology has become an ever-present part of modern classrooms, with many school districts assigning every student their own tablet or laptop. But some families and educators are beginning to questions whether the screens are an aid or an impediment for learning.
Some of Erin Rivera’s fourth-grade students come to school looking almost like little zombies, she says. Some tell her it is because they had been watching YouTube Shorts until 3 a.m.
Rivera, an elementary school teacher in the Red Clay Consolidated School District, said today’s educators are teaching a generation of students who are experiencing the world through screens.
“They’re doom scrolling, melting their brain 12 seconds at a time, and now I have to compete with that in the classroom,” she said.
In response, Rivera said she tries to use technology intentionally in her class. She requires students to write and edit essays with a paper and pencil before they type final drafts. And she does not assign homework on Chromebooks, which students in the district have been allowed to bring home since last year.
Still, Rivera said parents complain to her about their children using their Chromebooks too much. She says many go home and open their device in their room, where it looks as though they are completing their homework.
“But they’re playing games,” Rivera said.
Erin Rivera is an elementary school teacher in the Red Clay Consolidated School District. | PHOTO COURTESY OF ERIN RIVERA
Along with the broader society, Delaware schools have shifted in recent years to embrace technology, with personal devices and digital boards in classrooms. But as those devices become common, many are now questioning how much technology is too much.
Spotlight Delaware spoke with nearly 50 people for this story — including school administrators, teachers, parents, students and academics — and found that large differences exist in the amount of technology that students use.
The reporting also showed that some district administrators have begun to pull back from technological adoptions, while parents say school-issued devices have become problematic when used at home for entertainment.
Meanwhile, teachers and students indicated that policies governing how the technology is deployed can depend on the individual school or teacher.
And not all follow Rivera’s approach.
One sixth grade student at HB du Pont Middle School, near Hockessin, said she used her Chromebook for four to five hours a day for schoolwork. Another from the Colonial School District said she used her Chromebook “all day.”
“It’s always been like this,” she told Spotlight Delaware.
Meanwhile, a second grader at Newark Charter School said her learning is focused on paper handouts.
For at least one parent, the question is not just about screen time but also about who is pushing new technological adoptions.
Greg O’Neill, a middle school parent in the Red Clay school district, is skeptical about schools’ decisions to purchase certain software programs. He expressed concern that software companies are selling promises of a “new bright future” of digital learning, which he said could supplant the importance of teachers.
“I feel like it’s changing students’ vantage point from being the teacher to being the screen,” O’Neill said.
Pulling back?
While technology policies have varied across the state — Delaware employs a local control doctrine that leaves decision-making to its 19 school boards and charter schools’ board of directors — some districts are responding to recent research and parental concern by scaling back device use.
Soon, fourth and fifth graders in the Brandywine School District will no longer be able to bring their assigned Chromebooks home. Instead, they will leave them in carts in their classes, said Michelle Kutch, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction.
Older students in the district will still have take-home devices.
Brandywine School District Superintendent Lisa Lawson. | PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BRANDYWINE SCHOOL DISTRICT
Brandywine Superintendent Lisa Lawon noted that one-to-one technology has become less popular among educators and administrators in her district, since its rapid adoptions during the COVID pandemic.
And research raises questions about the effectiveness of educational technologies, she said.
Lawson described how today a 12th grade teacher monitoring students taking tests on Chromebooks must watch “like a hawk” to make sure they aren’t going to other websites.
“It’s very different from the teacher of old, where there was just paper, pencil, and a student’s brain,” she said.
The Appoquinimink School District is also scaling back its one-to-one technology program. This past school year, students in first through eighth grades brought their iPads home. Next year, the district will not allow first and second graders to bring them home.
When introducing the change during an April school board meeting, Appoquinimink’s Executive Director for Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment Rebecca Feathers said research shows schools should be limiting technology and device use, and using tech in a “purposeful manner.”
In an interview with Spotlight Delaware, Appoquinimink board vice president Tim Higgins said the district is “learning that computers have a great role, but maybe not the role we gave them earlier, and certainly not the role we gave them during COVID.”
Outside of the public school sphere, one private school is allowing students to air out their insecurities about technology.
At the Independence School, which serves preschool through eighth grade students, administrators recently implemented a digital health discussion class. Margaret Ann Minihan, technology systems manager at the school, said the class helps students create boundaries with technology. According to her, students are eager to chat about what’s going on in their lives.
“We talk about, are grown-ups in your life always on their phone, but telling you to get off yours? And how does that feel?” she said.
Minihan also said students learn that Siri is not a “friend,” and have discussed how to limit time at home watching short-form content, which draws discussion about how that feels physically and how to find solutions for it.
“I just wasted a whole hour. I don’t like that feeling. So, what can you do to kind of address that for next time?” Minihan said.
The school will double the amount of time students spend in digital health class next year, Minihan said.
While some districts are pulling back on tech, others are not.
At the Christina School District, every student from kindergarten to 12 grade brings their assigned Chromebooks home.
A pilot program of the one-to-one device program began in 2018. When the pandemic hit two years later, it was fully implemented, allowing students to take their devices when they leave school for the day.
Asked why the program is continuing, Christina Schools District’s Technology Manager Robert Goff said it allows students to continue their education at home.
Sean Mulrine, the district’s supervisor of technology and assessment, also highlighted a data-driven program, called iReady, that runs diagnostic assessments two to three times a year to help remediate learning, which helps when a student has fallen behind or needs more support.
He said that it differs from state testing, which does not track growth throughout the year.
“But with technology, you can see data points when you start the year, through the midpoint, and then the end of the year,” Mulrine said.
What does the evidence say?
Sarah Kavanagh, an associate professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School, notes that the ubiquity of devices means “there’s another party” in classrooms along with teachers, kids and books.
She said the structure of a modern school day is now “incredibly reliant” on educational technology platforms, such as the learning management system Schoology, mathematics learning platform Zern, book-reading platform Epic, and Google Classroom.
“And while ed tech companies are making the argument that this is going to be good for student learning, we don’t actually have a lot of evidence about that,” she said.
Kavanagh, who has a background researching classroom discourse and technology’s impact on it, said teachers have told her they can’t hold discussions because they’re mandated by their district to use platforms that require students to be on Chromebooks.
In turn, teachers are often evaluated by lessons completed on the platform, she said.
She noticed that instead of teachers sitting on the rugs with their students, book in hand, asking them questions along the way, they now are using platforms bought by their districts to project books that are read by a disembodied voice.
“I have real questions about what that’s going to do for student learning,” Kavanagh said.
Appoquinimink School District is among those scaling back on its use of technology in education starting this year. | PHOTO COURTESY OF APPOQUINIMINK SCHOOL DISTRICT
Dana Suskind, professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medical Center and founder of the TMW Center for Early Learning and Public Health, believes there should be a scientific understanding of how digital tools should be used for child learning and development.
Suskind said she believes schools and parents are used to “optimizing” learning. Instead, they should focus on teaching students to better navigate the human world by participating in “messy” human interaction, and experiencing boredom.
“To get your children ready for a high-tech world, a distinctly low-tech, human-raised childhood is what children need,” she said.
Punya Mishra, a professor at Arizona State University, thinks there should be more research conducted about the effects on student learning of technology use outside the classroom.
Mishra said he has a friend who works with children in a remote part of India where there are smartboards and other educational technologies in the classroom. Still, the biggest technological influence on at least one of the elementary-aged school girls there is radical content from YouTube, Mishra said.
“It makes her question the history that she’s being taught in her classroom,” said Mishra, who is the Director of Innovative Learning Futures at ASU’s Learning Engineering Institute.
Mishra said he believes children now live in a world that has been transformed socially, politically, culturally, and psychology by digital tools. But, he said, tech bans don’t work.
“What works is empowering teachers and empowering learners to be intentional and be in charge of their own learning,” he said.
The price tag is much larger than what has been previously reported, according to a Post review of confidential contracts, and taxpayers would cover most of it.
The AI jobs apocalypse never showed up. Still, jobs are changing and economists expect more to come
The prediction was stark: artificial intelligence advancements would wipe out jobs en masse. “Half” of all entry-level white collar jobs would vanish, Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said in May 2025. A month later, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, went further, foreseeing the end of “certain job categories”. Companies began citing AI in their layoffs. Workers organized. And students reconsidered their future careers.
But a year later, the mass carnage hasn’t shown up.
Why Should Delaware Care? State lawmakers spent months debating a variety of solutions to mounting concerns related to energy supply and cost during the last legislative session. One of those efforts, a task force report focusing on the potential for nuclear power as part of the state’s solution, found that novel nuclear power technologies are not a viable short-term path forward.
A group of stakeholders have decided, after months of deliberation, that small modular nuclear reactors — recently touted as a possible solution to Delaware’s growing energy demands — are not a feasible option to meet the state’s immediate energy needs.
The task force, made up of lawmakers, industry experts and community representatives, reached the same conclusion in its 50-page report that many had suspected even before the group began meeting last fall.
The group concluded that turning to small modular reactors — a largely unproven technology that relies on novel fuel types and compact, factory-built designs — is not a viable option in the short term.
“No duh,” said Martin Willis, one of Gov. Matt Meyer’s appointees to the state’s Nuclear Energy Feasibility Task Force, in early August. “… I told them from the beginning you cannot say we’re only going to go after small modular reactors. You have to say nuclear power. We’re going after nuclear power.”
And that is essentially what the task force concluded. While the group, tasked only with evaluating small modular reactors, ruled them out as a short-term solution, its report said more research and outreach needs to be done to figure out whether nuclear power more broadly could fit into Delaware’s energy future.
Sen. Stephanie Hansen (D-Middletown), chair of the task force, said in an emailed statement the state needs “a dedicated body” to continue evaluating nuclear’s feasibility with input from the public. It is unclear, however, if lawmakers will create a committee during next year’s legislative session focused more broadly on the feasibility of nuclear energy.
And while the next steps politically remain unclear, another task force member said he was disappointed by the report’s lack of proposed action.
Rep. Jeff Hilovsky (R-Long Neck) said that while he was impressed by the amount of knowledge the group gained over its months of meetings, he wishes it had accomplished more.
Rep. Jeff Hilovsky (R-Long Neck), who will leave office after the November elections, said he was disappointed in the final conclusions of the task force. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
“The report could have been done at the end of the first session,” Hilovsky said. “We spent all this manpower, all this money, had these people take up their time, and we did nothing.”
The report notes the group’s scope expanded to discuss nuclear energy more broadly, but it did not go so far as to recommend or reject the idea outright.
“Delawareans are facing rising energy costs, and we must diversify our energy portfolio with renewable and clean technologies that help ease the burden of these increasing rates,” Hansen added in her emailed statement.
Andrew Cottone, founder and CEO of the local, hydrogen-focused energy company Aternium, said the task force’s efforts made it clear that “Delaware should begin preparing now for the possibility of clean nuclear energy.”
“The future will not wait for Delaware, and neither should we,” he said in an email to Spotlight Delaware. “It’s time to stop kicking the energy can down the road and start building an energy strategy for the next generation.”
A call for executive action
Willis, a boilermaker who works on industrial construction sites, was vocal at many task force meetings about what he called the immediate need to address the imbalance of energy supply and demand in the region.
“Rep. Hilovsky said doing nothing is not an option and what have we done? We’ve done nothing,” Willis said. “The only way Delaware has a future in nuclear power is for the governor to step up and say I’m going to put out an executive order.”
Meyer, in an emailed statement, called nuclear energy a “reliable source” of power and said there needs to be more nuclear generation, but he did not comment on the possibility of issuing an executive order on the matter.
Delaware imports some 60% of the power it consumes, and electricity prices have been spiking drastically.
Projections have shown that the PJM Interconnection, a 13-state energy grid that includes Delaware, is facing booming demand for electricity driven in part by a growth in energy-hungry data centers. The boom has been exacerbated by the decommissioning of existing power generation sites like the Indian River Power Plant. For that reason, the region is expected to face a high risk of blackouts starting in 2029.
Republican lawmakers have repeatedly pointed toward the Indian River Power Plant as a solution to Delaware’s growing energy woes. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY NICK STONESIFER
Willis, along with some policymakers and experts, argue that gas-fueled power plants are the most feasible short-term solution to produce more power for the state, but regulated Delaware electric providers like Delmarva Power are currently prohibited from building their own generation.
While stakeholders go back to the drawing board, Delaware’s nuclear future remains uncertain.
But even if the task force had given small modular reactors — or nuclear power more broadly — a concrete path forward, the technology, as-is, cannot offer Delaware an immediate solution.
No company has reportedly been looking to build any kind of nuclear technology in Delaware, and without any regulatory or financial framework in place, it would take years before those plants could come online. Companies would then potentially have to wait decades before seeing costs recovered from constructing what is one of the most expensive types of power generation technologies.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Congressional Budget Office now projects the federal deficit will reach $2.1 trillion in fiscal 2026, roughly $200 billion more than it estimated in February.
The largest revision came from weaker-than-expected tariff revenue. After the Supreme Court struck down tariffs imposed under emergency powers, the government refunded about $100 billion of the duties it had collected, while newer tariffs have generated less revenue than previously assumed. CBO now expects customs duties to come in about $250 billion below its earlier forecast.
Through the first 10 months of the fiscal year, federal revenues rose by $139 billion compared with the same period last year, but spending increased by $308 billion. Adjusting for timing shifts caused by Aug. 1 falling on a weekend, the deficit still stands about $71 billion higher than during the same period in fiscal 2025.
The largest spending increases came from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, along with sharply rising interest costs. Net interest on the national debt increased by $117 billion as federal borrowing continued to climb and long-term interest rates remained elevated.
Corporate tax receipts fell by $89 billion, partly because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act allowed larger deductions for certain business investments.
The revised forecast underscores a basic contradiction in the administration’s economic message: Trump has repeatedly touted tariffs and tax cuts as fiscal strengths, while CBO now says both are contributing to weaker revenues and a deficit headed above $2 trillion.
PlayStation 5, PC; Arc System Works/Sony Interactive Entertainment With tremendous visuals and accessible controls, this superhero-themed fighter has the chops to inspire a new generation of champs
Arriving at the turn of the millennium and the twilight of the video arcade, Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes has long been a high-water mark for fighting games, with no heir apparent; its massive, colourful roster and frenetic, spectacular combos have lured newcomers and elite competitors alike. Developer Arc System Works, a fan-favourite studio famous for its hyper-fluid and extremely technical anime-style fighting games, has been on a long journey to usurp Capcom’s throne. With Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, it may have finally achieved this difficult task.
Marvel Tōkon is less an attempt to recreate a Marvel vs Capcom-esque phenomenon out of whole cloth, and more a thoughtful evolution of the developer’s previous riffs on the formula such as 2018’s BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle and Dragon Ball FighterZ, building on its low-floor, high-ceiling approach. Simplified inputs allow players to execute combos and finishers with a single button, which gives novices the confidence to keep playing and inspires them to study and improve – because when anyone can pull off a flashy ultimate skill or EX attack, strategy and mastery take on a premium. And Marvel Tōkon has great depths to plumb.
After the success of space horror Mouthwashing, Swedish developer Wrong Organ has created a Battlefield-inspired co-op with a supernatural twist
‘Claustrophobic”, “oppressive”, “pretty depressing” – these are the words Jeffrey Tomec and Dave van Egdom volunteer when I ask them to reflect on their work as part of Swedish indie developer Wrong Organ. I’d add “nightmare-inducing”, too. Their last game, Mouthwashing, was an acclaimed work of horror storytelling set on a scuttled space freighter, in which players uncover the horrible things its desperate crew have done to each other.
When you’re planning a follow-up to something so pitilessly nasty, how do you raise the stakes? Well, you could set the entire game in the stifling crew compartment of a heavily armoured tank, a coffin-like interior you share with two other players as you co-operatively attempt to pilot your beleaguered war machine to safety through the crumbling remains of a city in enemy territory.
Thomas Jarvis, now 20, was attacked twice at juvenile justice facilities overseen by Jason Crews, a Tennessee businessman. In both instances, facility leadership failed to report the incidents to the state as required. Stacy Kranitz for ProPublica
The video clip lasted less than two minutes, but Tonya Webb remembers every second as heartbreaking.
The grainy surveillance footage, dated June 29, 2024, showed a teenager in an anti-suicide smock being dragged violently by other teens across the floor at Middle Tennessee Juvenile Detention Center. As guards watched, the teens pulled the smock over the boy’s head, exposing his naked body. Then they stuffed him, limbs flailing, into a cell.
One guard pushed the door closed, locking him in, and the boy pressed his face against the sliver of a cell window. The guard flashed the teens a thumbs-up.
Webb, a medication supervisor at the facility, saw the video when a co-worker showed it to her and knew she was looking at a serious violation of state policy. An incident like this one, in which employees encouraged youths to restrain another youth, would require staff to notify both the state and the boy’s family within 24 hours.
Webb said she raised questions about the incident with the compliance director for the facility. The director said she’d handle it, but after weeks went by with no sign of a state investigation, Webb confronted the deputy to the facility’s executive director.
“I know you’ve seen the video,” Webb recalled telling her. “Nothing’s being done about it.”
According to Webb, the deputy said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Webb found her response baffling, as word of the attack had spread rapidly among staff and the footage was stored on the facility’s own security system.
WPLN and ProPublica obtained a recording of the video; Webb did not provide it. We asked the state’s Department of Children’s Services if it received an incident report from the facility on or around June 29, 2024. The department confirmed it did not. Webb later reported the incident to DCS.
A Tennessee businessman named Jason Crews was the executive director of the private company that ran Middle Tennessee Juvenile Detention Center at that time. He’s also the CEO of Wayne Halfway House, a separate company that had employees overseeing the detention center and that contracts with the state to operate other juvenile facilities. Crews did not reply to written questions about this incident, nor did his deputy and compliance director.
Interviews with dozens of former staff and youth, along with a review of emergency call logs, company records and state documents, reveal how Wayne Halfway House’s leaders failed to report suspected physical and sexual abuse to state officials across Crews’ facilities and prevented the public from learning about violent attacks by reducing the number of 911 calls. The state is now investigating incidents we uncovered.
According to Wayne Halfway House and Middle Tennessee Juvenile Detention Center employees who worked closely with corporate executives, there was an expectation that serious incidents be kept secret, and the directive came from Crews.
“You always call Jason and nothing gets reported without his permission — and that’s wrong,” said Kim Watts, the company’s former human resources director. She was fired in 2024 when “the company decided to go in a different direction,” according to her termination paperwork.
Liz Ryan, who oversaw juvenile justice programs for the Biden administration, reviewed a detailed summary of the incidents WPLN and ProPublica compiled, the corresponding state laws and policies and the company’s responses. “Wayne Halfway House Inc. and its leadership, including CEO Jason Crews, appear to have demonstrated a documented pattern of disregard for state law, federal law and professional standards,” said Ryan, who provided training and guidance to state and local governments about best practices for youth in the system.
“They’re putting kids’ lives at risk,” she said. “Absent immediate and vigorous state oversight and intervention, this seems like a disaster waiting to happen as allegations of this nature are warning signs in need of immediate examination.”
In a statement, Wayne Halfway House said the company follows state policy and law and “vehemently denies” that Crews or his company have ever discouraged staff from reporting serious or life-threatening incidents to the state or 911. It described its former employees as “untrustworthy sources” with a “clear bias” against the company and their allegations as “substantially flawed.”
Crews briefly spoke with the news organizations in April during a guided tour of one of his facilities, but he subsequently declined multiple requests for a formal interview. Wayne Halfway House provided detailed responses in writing to three rounds of questions.
DCS said that confidentiality laws limit the agency from commenting publicly about specific youth or investigations, but that it is looking into these incidents. “DCS is comparing the information provided with Department and provider records to determine whether required incident and abuse reports were made, whether appropriate medical care and notifications occurred and what actions were taken in response,” the agency said in a written statement. The results of its investigation will not be made public, it said.
Over much of the last decade, Tennessee has pushed to expand juvenile prison capacity — and to do so, it turned to Crews. Most youth in state custody for committing crimes are held in his facilities, which accommodate nearly 300.
About six weeks after the incident with the teen in the video, the state gave Wayne Halfway House a more lucrative contract to turn Middle Tennessee Juvenile Detention Center, located an hour south of Nashville, from a juvenile jail into a prison. Crews now runs all three of Tennessee’s highest-security youth prisons.
Jarvis; his mother, Crystal Smith, center; and his grandmother Chris Stone stand with their family dogs, Trip, left, and Pepper, in front of their home in Northern Alabama. Jarvis was released from a Crews facility last year.Stacy Kranitz for ProPublica
The youth in the video, Thomas Jarvis, recently turned 20. He recalls the attack as the worst ordeal of his years bouncing between facilities in Tennessee. Days after the incident, he said, he was taken to a hospital for an evaluation, then treated at a mental health crisis center.
Jarvis buried the trauma of the attack so deep that he never told his mother, grandmother or state caseworker, who was like a father to him.
His mother, Crystal Smith, heard about the incident for the first time in June, when we showed her the footage. Sitting at her dining room table in Northern Alabama, with laundry drying on the back of the chairs, she watched in horror as her son was dragged across the screen. “That’s my baby that they did that to,” she said. “That’s not right.”
Her elbows resting on the table and shoulders slumped, she wondered out loud what else had been kept secret.
Jason Crews, right, at Mountain View Academy in East Tennessee. Most youth in state custody for committing crimes are held in a facility run by Crews.Stacy Kranitz for ProPublica
For decades, Crews was a minor player in Tennessee’s juvenile justice system, running just two midsized facilities. But as the state sought operators for its youth prisons, he saw an opening, he told WPLN and ProPublica in April.
Crews’ facilities began accepting teens who other private providers lacked the capacity or desire to handle, becoming an important resource for the Department of Children’s Services. When the state needed a new operator for its largest private youth prison in 2020, it gave Crews the contract.
Mountain View Academy is a high-security facility surrounded by barbed-wire fencing that houses youth who have committed the most serious offenses, including rape and murder. The state also places youth there who have committed nonviolent crimes.
Under its previous operator, Mountain View had been plagued by riots that drew negative press and infuriated locals. Staff called police in the sleepy East Tennessee town of Dandridge regularly for months. In one news report, the town’s mayor said the situation was “not fair to the citizens of Dandridge.”
When Crews took over the Mountain View contract, he promised to get the facility under control. He called the facility a “beast nobody could tame.” Especially in the first months, Crews said, he was a daily presence at the facility, showing up every morning before the kids woke up and helping instill a sense of structure into their routine. But there were still riots, violence and life-threatening injuries inside the prison, according to a lawsuit and interviews with former staff and youth.
One major change was that under Crews, the facility’s problems were kept out of the public eye, former employees said.
The company’s written policy, in effect in early 2020, which WPLN and ProPublica obtained, stated that staff should call 911 “immediately” during a disturbance or riot, but multiple employees said leaders told them something different: Never call for outside help unless Crews or his deputies gave permission. This mandate pressured employees to handle many medical emergencies internally, without calling for help, according to interviews with nine former employees and youth.
WPLN and ProPublica obtained the 2024 version of the company’s emergency response plan for how to handle a riot or disturbance. The directive to call for help immediately was no longer in that policy. “Before law enforcement or emergency services enter our buildings at any time, Jason Crews, CEO must and will be called, no exceptions,” the policy read. It instructed staff to follow law enforcement’s instructions “if Law Enforcement has been called under the authorization of Jason Crews.” A new point was added that reads, “If possible, the disturbance is handled internally.”
In a statement, Wayne Halfway House denied that it ever prevented or discouraged staff from “initiating emergency response in life-threatening scenarios,” calling that allegation “categorically false.” The company pointed to other parts of the 2024 policy, like one for youth medical emergencies, which required staff to call 911 immediately.
The company also shared a new policy for how to handle riots, which went into effect in August 2025 and removes the mandate to call Crews. Now the policy says that staff should notify facility leadership and the company’s state director before police enter the building during a riot or disturbance. The purpose of the plan, the company said in a statement, is to ensure leadership is “simultaneously” notified about emergencies while staff call for help. “Our policies prioritize providing for the safety of all involved and putting our best resources into action when they’re needed the most,” the statement read. “In the rare instances that law enforcement response is required, our policies ensure appropriate staff are notified.”
Wayne Halfway House’s relationship with the police and the community has improved, according to law enforcement. In an interview with WPLN and ProPublica, Dandridge Police Administrative Sergeant Kevin Bunch said, “Call volume and the amount of time that a detective has to spend in this facility has greatly reduced since Mr. Crews’ company took over.”
Just nine months after Crews took over Mountain View, the company’s approach to 911 calls was put to the test.
Late on Nov. 21, 2020, guard Heather Boyd sat in the facility control room and received a radio call from a colleague begging her to call the police. Watching on the surveillance cameras, Boyd saw more than a dozen youth attacking a few guards. Following procedure, she tried to call her supervisor, according to a lawsuit that she later filed against Wayne Halfway House. When 20 minutes passed with no response, she called 911, which sent officers to quash the attack.
Nine former Mountain View employees and youth said that a directive not to call 911 unless Crews or his deputies gave permission pressured employees to handle many medical emergencies without calling for outside help.Stacy Kranitz for ProPublica
Days later, the company fired Boyd and at least two other guards, including one who was taken to the hospital. In an interview with WPLN and ProPublica, Boyd said company leaders told her they were firing her for “calling outside help” and breaking protocol. In the lawsuit, Boyd described the unofficial policy as “gross negligence and malfeasance.”
“I thought I’d done something to save somebody’s life,” she told us. “You shouldn’t have to choose a person’s life over your job.”
Wayne Halfway House denied many of Boyd’s claims in court, including that the company had a policy stopping staff from calling 911 during a life-or-death emergency and that she was wrongfully fired. Both parties quickly settled the case. The company said in a statement that it cannot comment about the settlement agreement due to its confidentiality requirement. It denied that any of the guards were fired for calling 911.
Two experts on correctional medical care said not every emergency at a facility like Mountain View requires a 911 call. But when it comes to injuries, medical staff should be involved in the decision.
In February 2024, however, Mountain View nurse Brandi Buchanan said she faced pressure not to call 911 despite her own professional judgment. She had witnessed teens attacking a guard in a dorm, smashing his ribs, pepper-spraying him and repeatedly kicking his head.
“We need to call the police,” Buchanan recalled telling other guards. “I’m sure he has internal injuries.” But the guards overruled her.
“I thought I’d done something to save somebody’s life. You shouldn’t have to choose a person’s life over your job.”
Heather Boyd, a former guard at Mountain View Academy who said company leaders told her they were firing her for “calling outside help” and breaking protocol
“We don’t do that,” she remembers one company veteran saying. Instead, employees called the operations manager, who was off duty and on a date. An agonizing 20 minutes later, she said, the manager arrived, and his date drove the injured guard to the hospital. The operations manager did not respond to a request for comment about this incident.
“At that point, I was like, ‘They care more about their reputation than their employee’s literal life,’” Buchanan said. She put in her notice shortly after.
Wayne Halfway House said in a statement to WPLN and ProPublica that the attack was “diffused before law enforcement response was needed” and “contained within a matter of minutes.”
The guard, Jason Zaske, suffered a lacerated spleen, a concussion and broken ribs, according to a GoFundMe set up on his behalf. “He thought he was dying,” Zaske’s wife told local media. The guard was unable to work for weeks.
Crews was angered by the wife’s public comments and wanted to fire Zaske, according to Watts, the company’s HR director at the time, who said she advised him not to. “I was like, ‘You can’t terminate somebody who just got injured at work,’” Watts recalled. Zaske wasn’t fired and went back to work at the company. He and his wife declined to comment for this story but confirmed he no longer works there. The company did not respond to Watts’ allegations but said it continued paying Zaske while he was recovering without putting him on workers’ compensation, which would have reduced his pay.
Several months after the Zaske incident, Watts was terminated by Wayne Halfway House. At first the company said her termination was for failing to meet job expectations, but Watts replied citing her latest performance review in which Crews said she was “a tremendous asset to the company.” The company sent her a revised termination letter saying it was going in a different direction. After she left the company, Watts filed a sex discrimination complaint against Wayne Halfway House with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which declined to investigate.
In Tennessee, facilities like Mountain View must report significant incidents, including serious injuries to youth, within 24 hours. But former Wayne Halfway House staff said the company failed to report grave safety failures.Stacy Kranitz for ProPublica
WPLN and ProPublica spoke with more than three dozen former employees of Wayne Halfway House and former residents who said they knew of serious problems that endangered youth and staff inside the company’s facilities. Of those, more than a dozen said that Wayne Halfway House failed to report grave safety failures as required, preventing the state from learning about problems in its facilities.
In Tennessee, juvenile justice providers are required to report abuse and other serious incidents in their facilities to the state Department of Children’s Services, which then decides whether to investigate. Facilities must notify the state of significant incidents — including serious injuries to youth, escapes or restraint use — within 24 hours.
Wayne Halfway House said it designates specific facility leaders to report serious incidents directly to the state, which the company said is “consistent with best practices.” But a dozen lower-level former staff members said they didn’t trust management to file reports or to do so thoroughly, and two former managers said they felt pressured by the company not to report at all even though they were authorized to do so. One of those managers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of career repercussions, said Crews told them to stop reporting as much to the state because it would make the company look bad.
Separate from a facility’s requirements to DCS, Tennessee law requires individuals to report any suspected child abuse, including physical and sexual abuse, to the department immediately. Nine former Wayne Halfway House staff members said they feared for their jobs if they reported serious incidents, including some suspected cases of child abuse, directly to the state. Several of them said they were pushed out after doing so. “The rebuke would be harsh and sometimes up to and including termination if we reported out,” said Mario Brown, a former therapist at Mountain View Academy. Brown was not fired from the company.
The company said that it did not fire staff for reporting abuse and that staff members have an individual legal responsibility to report child abuse and neglect to the state. Employees scared about retaliation could report anonymously to DCS, the company said. “WHWH is well aware that terminating an individual for them reporting incidents of this severity would create potential legal liability for the company.”
Webb, the former medication supervisor at Middle Tennessee Juvenile Detention Center, said that around the time when Jarvis was forced into a cell by other teens, management failed to report another violent altercation to the state. A surveillance video from 2024 shows the facility administrator, Lynda Odom, grabbing a girl by her wrists, backing her into the corner of the room and pulling her into a headlock. “I’m grabbing your neck because you need to stop,” Odom yelled as the girl struggled. Two other staffers helped to break them up, and one dragged the girl away screaming.
WPLN and ProPublica obtained a recording of the video; Webb did not provide it.
Webb said she went to the company’s director of compliance, Kelly Banks, who was visible in the video attempting to hold Odom back, and asked her if she was going to report the restraint to the state. Banks said she would handle it, according to Webb. Banks did not respond to requests for comment.
Odom, who no longer works at the facility, said that she followed proper procedure in restraining the girl and that no one had reached out to her to investigate the incident. “There was nothing to report,” she said when WPLN and ProPublica reached her by phone.
WPLN and ProPublica played the video for leaders at Handle With Care, the restraint training company used by Wayne Halfway House. The company said it “does not teach headlocks as restraint techniques.”
Crews declined to respond to questions about the incident. According to Wayne Halfway House, Webb was later fired for creating a hostile work environment. Webb said company leaders asked in her termination meeting if she had kept the videos of youth being harmed; she believes the company fired her for insisting leaders report incidents to the state.
Sexual relationships between staffers and incarcerated youth are illegal under any circumstances, but nearly two dozen former employees and teens said they suspected abuse was taking place in Crews’ facilities.
Five former staff members said they did not report suspected sexual abuse as required under state law because they were scared of retaliation from leadership, and two said they didn’t know it was a requirement.
Two former employees, one from Mountain View and the other from Standing Tall Music City, a Wayne Halfway House facility in Nashville, recalled talking to company leaders about specific cases of staff suspected of sexually abusing youth. They said they were not aware of the incidents being reported to the state.
The former Standing Tall employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation from the company, described confronting a female guard after finding her in a room with a youth alone. The former employee said they suspected the guard was sexually abusing the youth and reported it to the facility administrator, hoping he would begin an investigation. But a federal report that tracks sexual abuse in prisons showed no employee abuse or harassment of youth was reported to or investigated by the state in that facility in 2021.
Wayne Halfway House said it reported this incident to the state last week after WPLN and ProPublica asked the company about it.
Brown, the former Mountain View therapist, recalled a separate incident of suspected sexual abuse, which he did go on to report: a child whom he watched deteriorate session after session. Eventually, Brown said, the boy told him that a nurse at the facility had sexually assaulted him. Although Brown worried about getting fired, he reported the alleged abuse to the state. Shortly after, the child was moved out of the facility.
Wayne Halfway House said in a statement that it has documentation that rebuts Brown’s version of events but cannot comment further because of confidentiality reasons.
Brown eventually resigned. “It got to the point where this had weighed heavily on my mental health,” he said.
His main regret, he said, was leaving behind youth who trusted him.
Brown later returned to work for Wayne Halfway House, he said, because of his dedication to the kids. He no longer works for the company.
Jarvis spent nearly three and a half years in state custody as a teen and was released in March 2025, his family said.Stacy Kranitz for ProPublica
Years before Jarvis was dragged across the floor of Middle Tennessee Juvenile Detention Center, he was badly injured inside another Crews facility, according to Jarvis’ DCS case file. That time, too, the facility failed to report the incident to the state as required.
Jarvis landed in September 2021 at Hollis Academy, Wayne Halfway House’s flagship facility in rural Middle Tennessee. He had been there for several weeks when the company requested DCS move him to another provider. Right after, his case manager picked him up and took him to a routine doctor’s appointment at the health department. His file, which his family shared with WPLN and ProPublica, states that a medical provider discovered he had bruises in various stages of healing covering 80% of his body. Jarvis said the other youth had assaulted him.
“With this amount of bruising staff had to be aware,” a child abuse report submitted to DCS read.
A DCS investigator looked into the case and interviewed facility leadership. The facility, he said, never reported the injury to Jarvis’ state case manager or to the state as required. The documents don’t mention any repercussions for the facility, and DCS said it cannot comment because of juvenile confidentiality laws.
Wayne Halfway House declined to comment about this specific incident, citing a youth’s right to privacy. The company said it was not able to file a report for a youth no longer at the facility. But documents show that Jarvis had been at the facility for weeks when the bruising occurred.
Jarvis spent nearly three and a half years in state custody after being charged with arson for lighting his stepdad’s three-wheeler on fire. He was released from Mountain View in March 2025 following a court hearing.
Incarceration seems to have only worsened his trauma, said his grandmother Chris Stone, who took him in to live with her. Jarvis still seems angry, Stone said, and sometimes he threatens suicide. He never discusses what happened to him inside.
Inside her dimly lit brick home in Northern Alabama, with curtains drawn against the summer heat, Stone wept while recalling the assault her grandson endured while he was already at a low point. She still struggles to understand why the facility never informed her or other family members — and she wrestles with anger and guilt.
Sitting on the couch, she turned to her grandson, her blue eyes fixed on him. “Thomas, with my temper, something would have went down,” she said. She told him she never would have let the company hide what happened.
He sat silently beside her, without meeting her eyes.
It’s a great betrayal: poor communities neglected while multimillionaires peddle a global Maga agenda. How is that America first?
“THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE,” Donald Trump posted on Truth Social in February 2025. He was not referring to his own administration, but to the US Agency for International Development (USAID). “CLOSE IT DOWN!” the president added.
Just a few hours later USAID was in effect closed down, with most of the staff placed on indefinite administration leave. This was framed as part of Trump’s “America first” agenda. USAID, the Trump administration and his sycophants in the rightwing media had argued, was wasting taxpayers’ hard-earned money on ridiculous projects abroad instead of improving life at home. In the lead-up to the shuttering of USAID, for example, one of the most shameless lies about the agency, repeated without any evidence by the likes of Fox News, was that it was spending millions on condoms for Gaza.
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: For more than half a century, physicists have searched for one of the strangest particles predicted by modern theory. It would be made almost entirely of gluons, the elusive subatomic particles that carry the strong nuclear force. Now, using a particle collider in Beijing, researchers say they have effectively proved the existence of such a "glueball."
In a preprint posted last month on arXiv and in a presentation last week at the International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP), the researchers argue that a particle called X(2370), which they produced by smashing electrons into positrons at high energies, has the properties expected of a glueball. "It's an experimental triumph," says Colin Morningstar, a particle physicist at Carnegie Mellon University who was not involved in the finding. "It's the strongest evidence yet that particles dominated by a glueball component can exist in nature."
Prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul calls for tighter gun controls and ‘decisive penalties’ after nine dead in school shooting
Thailand has suspended firearms licences after the deadly Nonthaburi school shooting, as the bodies of the teenage attacker and the grandparents he killed were cremated.
The prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, said he had ordered the interior ministry and police to stop issuing licences to possess, purchase and carry firearms, and called for “tighter controls and decisive penalties”. The measures are temporary until a new gun control law is in place, according to government operated news-channel NBT World.
I have a pint x and have recently gotten comfortable enough on it that I’m now regularly commuting about 5.5 miles to work each way (some sustained hills but nothing it can’t climb well).
I can make it there and back without charging with comfortable amount of battery left. However I definitely start to notice some degraded performance towards the end of ride home if I don’t charge during the work day.
Is there a notable tradeoff to long term battery health if I am charging (or not charging) both overnight and during the work day vs charge just over night and ride both ways on one charge? Anything else I should consider?
Thanks!
Edit: thanks everyone for the replies and info. Reading all the different replies makes feel not so dumb for asking after being confused by google results.
Going forward I will definitely be charging at work. I must have jinxed it because I meant to today but forgot to plug it in and then had first nose dive at 20% battery one block before final destination, rushing because I was late to pick up kid at neighbors house which has a bit steeper uphill finish. Some scrapes but All in all lesson learned the second easiest way.
Eunsook Jin, President and Head of ICT Management Division at Hyundai Motor Group, delivers a presentation at the Hyundai Motor Group AX Achievement Showcase, “Beyond AI, Transforming the Way We Work,” held at the Group’s headquarters in Yangjae on August…
Forecasters warned the Chinese capital could receive more than one-third of its average annual rainfall over 24 hours
Thousands of people have been evacuated from areas at risk of flooding and landslides in Beijing, as the remnants of Typhoon Dolphin continue to bring torrential rain to northern and central China.
Forecasters warned on Tuesday that the Chinese capital could receive more than 150mm of rain over the following 24 hours, with some districts forecast to exceed 200mm – more than one-third of Beijing’s average annual rainfall of 528mm.
CBS News projects Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the heavy favorite, will win the Democratic primary in Minnesota's gubernatorial race and will face the Republican challenger in November.
State’s Democratic lieutenant governor bests Angie Craig in another election contest pitting a progressive against a moderate
Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, won the Democratic primary for US Senate in a race centered on immigration enforcement after the Trump administration crackdown turned deadly and destructive earlier this year.
Flanagan ousted congresswoman Angie Craig in yet another example of progressive campaigns toppling moderates amid an anti-establishment wave among Democrats.
Player wore gear for nearly an hour without a bite
Officers used water to force reluctant reptile out
A high school football player in Arkansas had every right to be rattled after finding a venomous snake inside his helmet during practice.
The Maumelle High student felt unusual movement inside his headgear following warmups last week and brought his helmet to an assistant coach for inspection. A slithering two-foot cottonmouth was discovered behind some padding.
Verdant thinktank says cost could top £25bn a year by 2030 and calls for maximum temperature for working and urban redesign to cool down cities
Repeated debilitating heatwaves this summer are likely to have cost the UK economy more than £4bn in lost economic output by the end of July, new analysis shows.
Green thinktank Verdant had suggested June’s unseasonally hot weather had an economic cost of £2.36bn. Updating its assessment to include last month’s high temperatures, it finds a £4.4bn hit to output.
Exclusive: Horace Mason, 74, who has lived in Sweden for 25 years, faces being deported after court ruling
A 74-year-old British man who has been living in Sweden for 25 years who needs round-the-clock care for dementia has been given 10 days to leave the country after he lost a post-Brexit migration court case.
The deportation order comes after a Swedish court ruling in July that the government’s drive to reduce immigration trumped the needs of a man in full-time care.
Democrats called on Tuesday for a congressional briefing over a stunning charade in which Donald Trump was secretly spirited to a different plane than the one the public and press believed he was travelling on. Critics now question why reporters and the public had been deliberately misled.
When US intelligence allegedly found a credible threat that Iran plotted to kill him last month, Trump left Air Force One in a catering truck, an episode first reported by the Washington Post and also by the New York Times. While the president was reportedly snuck out the side door of the plane, more than a hundred aides, officials and reporters were kept onboard to fly towards Britain, without being told there was a threat to their lives.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: The contiguous United States sizzled to its hottest month ever last month, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. July averaged 76.89 degrees Fahrenheit (24.94 degrees Celsius) across the Lower 48 states, eclipsing the Dust Bowl's July 1936 by an eighth of a degree. Records go back to 1895. [...] Although it was unusually cool in Alaska, hotter-than-normal conditions blanketed the Lower 48, with the most excessive heat in the Mountain West, Southwest, Northern Plains and Southeast. The heat was so widespread that every one of the Lower 48 states was at least 1 degree Fahrenheit (nearly 0.6 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 20th century average, said Russ Vose, chief of monitoring at NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information.
[...] The biggest driver of the record heat was nighttime lows that smashed the old mark for hottest minimums by 0.7 degrees, NOAA said. Hotter nights are a classic sign of human-caused climate change, according to scientists and several studies in peer-reviewed literature. NOAA's calculation is based on averaging 24 hours of temperature, not just highs or lows. "If you're talking heat waves, that nighttime low is incredibly important for determining total heat stress," [said meteorologist Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections]. "So if it doesn't cool off at night, your body doesn't have time to readjust to all the heat." As nighttime temperatures increase, more people die and lose sleep, studies show.
The years 2021 and 1936 tie for America's hottest summer, which is June through August. Through July, 2026 is a shade cooler than 2021, which was powered by record heat in June. Because of climate change, Masters said, "this may be one of the coolest years we're gonna experience for the rest of our lives." What's needed, Masters said, is "to stop burning so many fossil fuels. We also need to be spending money to adapt to the new climate that we've put in place."
Democratic Rep. John Larson — who has represented central Connecticut since the late 1990s — lost his party's primary Tuesday to former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, CBS News has projected.
National Democrats see two Wisconsin districts currently held by Republicans as up for grabs in November — the 1st and 3rd Districts. Here's how the primaries are shaping up.
ST. PAUL, Minnesota — President Donald Trump’s endorsement failed to carry longtime ally Mike Lindell through Minnesota’s Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday, as state House Speaker Lisa Demuth won the nomination with a broad victory across the state.
Trump endorsed the former MyPillow CEO in July and made a last-minute push on his behalf, telling Minnesota Republicans that Lindell “deserves a BIG WIN.” Lindell has remained one of Trump’s most prominent allies and one of the country’s most persistent promoters of false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Republican voters nevertheless chose Demuth, dealing Trump a noticeable setback in a primary where his personal intervention did not overcome support for the state party’s more conventional candidate. Reuters described the result as another test of Trump’s influence over Republican voters ahead of the midterms.
Demuth had positioned herself as a conservative focused on state issues, particularly fraud in government programs, while Lindell leaned heavily on Trump’s backing, immigration, election security and his outsider-businessman image.
The result also demonstrates the limits of presidential endorsements: Trump remains overwhelmingly influential inside the GOP, but Republican primary voters do not automatically follow his recommendations.
Demuth will now face Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who easily won her party’s gubernatorial primary. Minnesota has not elected a Republican governor since Tim Pawlenty won reelection in 2006, making Demuth the underdog heading into November.
This week, host Olivia Marble talks with reporter Julia Merola, who took a break from her day-to-day beat of public education to cover the first anniversary of Delaware’s recreational marijuana market.
Merola, along with intern, Ella Walker, recently spoke to officials, business owners and licensees across the state to find out how the first year has gone. The industry has faced significant hurdles, which has resulted in no new standalone recreational marijuana shops in Delaware, even after regulators awarded dozens of licenses.
Marble and Merola discuss the reasons behind the delay, how it has impacted state revenues from marijuana sales and what it’s like to report on a subject that you aren’t initially familiar with.
This conversation transcript has been edited for clarity and concision with the assistance of AI. The audio podcast is unedited.
Let’s begin where your article begins, with the story of Louise Shelton. She received a license to grow marijuana in Delaware but hasn’t been able to use it. What’s her story, and why did you choose to feature her?
Whenever we do a story, we try to show how an issue affects everyday people, and Louise was one of the first people I spoke with.
She thought she was being approached by investors who wanted to help her secure a site and open her cultivation business. But she later learned that they weren’t actually investors. They were consultants who weren’t bringing any money to the table.
So she’s still at a standstill because she doesn’t have the funding to get started on her own. Without the money to purchase a site, she can’t begin cultivating.
And she was a social equity cultivator, right? What does that mean, and why did the state create the social equity program?
She received a social equity cultivation license.
A social equity applicant can be someone who has lived for at least five of the past 15 years in an area with high rates of arrests, convictions and incarceration for marijuana-related offenses.
It can also be someone who was convicted of certain marijuana-related offenses in Delaware, or whose parent, guardian, child or dependent was convicted of one of those offenses before marijuana was legalized in April 2023.
Why did the state feel it needed to create that program?
This was before my time covering the issue, but I think it goes back to the idea of trying to make things right.
We know there have been a lot of incarcerations related to marijuana offenses, and our understanding of marijuana has changed compared with 20 years ago.
I think the program is the government’s way of trying to make amends for some of those past incarcerations and convictions.
You found that the delays Louise Shelton has experienced aren’t unusual. What’s happening with standalone recreational marijuana shops? Why haven’t any opened yet?
There are a few reasons.
Over the past two years, there’s been a lot of discussion about where these businesses should be allowed to open. Much of that debate has centered on buffer zones and how far marijuana businesses should be from places such as schools and churches.
When I spoke with Marijuana Commissioner Joshua Sanderlin, he described a situation where someone could receive a license and then struggle to find a location where they’re actually allowed to open.
Even if you have the money, the buffer requirements can make it difficult to find a suitable property. Having a license doesn’t do you much good if you can’t find a place to operate.
The state legislature recently passed a controversial bill loosening regulations on where marijuana businesses can locate in Delaware. But it had a rocky path to passage. What happened, and why was it so contentious?
There was a lot of back and forth between state legislators and the governor.
Lawmakers initially passed Senate Bill 75, which loosened zoning regulations for the state’s marijuana industry. Governor Matt Meyer vetoed the bill, but at the beginning of 2026, legislators came back and overrode his veto.
That created a lot of unhappiness among local officials, who felt the state was taking away some of their control over where marijuana businesses could operate.
There have been strong feelings about this at every level of government, from county and municipal officials to state legislators and the governor’s office.
There’s been a lot of discussion about taking away local control, right?
Yeah, especially in your field.
Absolutely. The argument was essentially that by forcing counties and towns to remove some of their buffer requirements, the state was taking away local control.
Exactly. If I’m a county council member or a town council member, I might want the ability to say, “This shop can open here, but it can’t open there.”
One way local governments make those decisions is through buffer requirements. Senate Bill 75 loosened those requirements significantly.
So the concern becomes: How am I supposed to make these decisions for my town if the state is imposing requirements on what I can and can’t do as a local official?
Why did the state decide to do that? If lawmakers knew they were wading into the contentious issue of local control, why did they think it was necessary?
I don’t want to say whether it was worth it or not. I’m a journalist.
But we heard from people who said loosening these restrictions would allow some license holders to finally find locations where they can open their businesses.
Marijuana Commissioner Joshua Sanderlin told me there’s a new shop expected to open in Georgetown at the end of this summer. That’s something that likely wouldn’t have been possible under the previous buffer requirements.
So the legislature’s position was essentially that some of the local requirements were too restrictive and weren’t allowing this emerging industry to get established.
Exactly.
Even though no new standalone recreational marijuana shops have opened yet, Delawareans can still legally buy recreational marijuana at some existing stores, right? I’m asking for a friend, by the way.
Yes. There were stores that previously sold marijuana exclusively for medical use, and some of those have since converted to recreational sales.
There are currently 13 locations throughout the state where your friend could make a purchase.
Good to know. One of the reasons I’ve heard for Delaware—and other states—legalizing recreational marijuana was the potential tax revenue.
How are sales in this new industry? Are the numbers as high as the state expected?
The state saw $53 million in sales during the first year, from Aug. 1, 2025, through July 31, 2026.
Before recreational sales began, the former marijuana commissioner had projected that Delaware could see roughly $280 million in sales.
Obviously, $53 million is nowhere near $280 million.
When I spoke with the current commissioner, he told me those earlier projections may have been more appropriate for a mature, established marijuana market.
If Delaware already had a robust industry, perhaps we could have seen numbers closer to $280 million. But we’re still in the beginning stages, which helps explain why the actual number was much lower.
Still, $53 million is only about a fifth of the sales that had been projected, right?
I’m not good at math, but it’s definitely not $280 million.
I think it’s important to note that the Marijuana Commissioner told me the first year was focused heavily on establishing more growers, or cultivators.
As he explained it, if the state opened more stores without first establishing enough growers, prices could spike.
So the state was trying to establish the supply side of the market while, at the same time, there were ongoing debates about where marijuana businesses could and couldn’t operate.
All of those factors affected the first year of sales.
If you don’t have many stores throughout the state, you can end up with areas where people simply don’t have convenient access. Most people aren’t going to drive an hour to make a purchase.
I personally wouldn’t. Gas is expensive.
It really is.
I believe this is your first article about marijuana. What surprised you during the reporting process?
I wouldn’t say this necessarily surprised me, but it reminded me how confusing it can be to jump onto a beat you haven’t covered before.
When it comes to education, I consider myself pretty well-versed. I’m always learning new things, but for the most part, I know what I’m doing and what questions I need to ask.
This story was different. Marijuana is a highly regulated industry, and learning all of that context while reporting the story was challenging.
When you’re used to covering your own beat, you can forget how difficult it is to enter a completely new subject. You have to figure out which questions to ask, what context readers need and how all the pieces fit together.
This was not an easy story.
Absolutely. Especially at Spotlight Delaware, where we try to give readers as much context as possible. It’s tough to jump into a completely new subject and immediately feel confident that you understand everything you need to explain.
Michele Tafoya, a former television sports reporter, is the winner of the Republican nomination for Senate in the Minnesota primary election, CBS News projects.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — Minnesota voters set up a November gubernatorial contest between Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Republican state House Speaker Lisa Demuth after both won their parties’ primaries Tuesday.
Klobuchar easily secured the Democratic nomination after entering the race when Gov. Tim Walz abandoned his reelection bid in January. Walz faced mounting criticism over widespread fraud involving federally funded benefit programs administered in Minnesota. Klobuchar has sought some distance from his administration, promising “top-to-bottom” reviews of state programs and stronger safeguards for taxpayer money.
Demuth defeated former MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell despite President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Lindell. Reuters and the Associated Press projected Demuth as the Republican nominee early Wednesday, handing Trump a notable primary defeat in a state he has repeatedly targeted.
Fraud prevention has emerged as a central theme for both nominees. Demuth has proposed consolidating oversight of state services, increasing unannounced inspections and creating an inspector general’s office. Klobuchar has proposed barring individuals convicted of fraud from receiving money through other government programs and expanding in-person inspections.
The race also creates an immediate consequence for Minnesota’s congressional delegation: Klobuchar’s gubernatorial campaign means her Senate seat is open. Progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won the Democratic Senate nomination Tuesday and will face Republican Michele Tafoya in November.
The Comac C919 will fly from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, although experts say it could take generations for it to challenge the west’s dominance of the industry
China hopes to break into the world of commercial aviation with the first international flight of a Chinese-made passenger jet scheduled for Wednesday.
The Comac C919 will take off from Beijing capital international airport at 3pm, landing in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, just over two hours later.
Senator Darline Graham, appointed to complete the Senate term of her late brother, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina will face congressman Ralph Norman in a runoff election for the Republican nomination.
Graham held a narrow lead in the polls going into the abbreviated special primary on Tuesday, which predicted a close contest for second place. Norman, Russell Fry, a congressman, and Mark Sanford, a former governor, had polled within a point of each other in the most recent survey from the Trafalgar Group.
Sen. Darline Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman will face off in a runoff later this month for the South Carolina GOP Senate nomination, CBS News projects, as they vie to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) falsely claimed Tuesday that 82% of women vaccinated against COVID-19 during their first or second trimester suffered miscarriages, reviving a years-old misinterpretation of an early vaccine-safety study.
Appearing on Fox Business, McClain cited a 2021 New England Journal of Medicine study while accusing Anthony Fauci of misleading pregnant women. But the study did not find an 82% miscarriage rate. Its reported rate among completed pregnancies was about 12.6%, consistent with the expected background rate.
The false 82% figure resulted from excluding hundreds of participants who were still pregnant or who had been vaccinated later in pregnancy while counting early pregnancy losses in the numerator. That calculation was not supported by the study design.
Subsequent research has repeatedly found no increased miscarriage risk associated with COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy. A separate NEJM study found no evidence of increased first-trimester pregnancy loss, while CDC reviews concluded miscarriage rates among vaccinated pregnant women remained within expected ranges.
McClain’s comments followed renewed attention to private 2021 messages among Fauci, Rochelle Walensky and Vivek Murthy discussing theoretical pregnancy risks while data were still limited. Those messages reflected uncertainty early in the rollout, not evidence that vaccines were causing widespread miscarriages.
The accumulated evidence directly contradicts McClain’s 82% claim.
Analyst on indefinite leave after Wisconsin arrest
CBS Sports president says network ‘still assessing’
JJ Watt to join Jim Nantz on lead broadcast team
CBS Sports president David Berson said Tuesday he does not have a timeline for a decision about Tony Romo’s future.
Romo, the network’s lead NFL analyst, is on leave following his arrest last month in Wisconsin on suspicion of operating a vehicle while under the influence.
Hey all, a week ago I was poking around my controller board (had an issue with the lights). I decided it would be a bright idea to test the voltage across the power connector, ended up shorting the board. I replaced the controller but now have the yellow 3 error code. I’ve left it on over night to try and balance the cells. What are the odds I also damaged the BMS when I shorted it? There was no visible damage but I may have missed it.
The prime minister tells the Guardian that last year’s diplomatic rift with ally New Zealand could be on voters’ minds as they head to the polls
As voters in the Cook Islands prepare to head to the polls in a high-stakes general election, they will have much to reflect on. Over recent years, politics in this small island nation has been defined by fierce debates about deep-sea mining, diplomatic rifts with ally New Zealand and a major reshaping of the country’s foreign partnerships.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, days before Wednesday’s poll, Cook Islands prime minister Mark Brown defended his four-year term and the decisions he made that have seen this South Pacific nation of 17,000 people pushed into the international limelight, turning it into a battleground for influence between Beijing and western powers.
Customers are paying up to $100,000 a month for faster access to Truth Social posts from President Trump and other top users of the social media platform.
Race includes late US senator’s sister, Darline Graham, who was sworn in as interim senator last month; polls also close in Vermont as handful of states hold primaries
Pete Hegseth’s appointments to a key Pentagon advisory body include two men with ties to the venture capital fund where Donald Trump Jr is a partner, which has lucrative investments in military and space technology.
Defense Policy Board appointee Marc Andreessen’s firm, Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firms and known by the name “a16z”, co-invests alongside the Trump partnership 1789 Capital in three defense contractors. Fellow DPB appointee Blake Masters also sits on the boards of three ventures tied to 1789 Capital.
South Carolina Republicans will choose a successor for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's seat, and Minnesota's Senate primary is another battle between moderate and progressive Democrats.
According to manufacturer, shock ‘is usually effective in bringing individuals into compliance in less than three seconds’
ICE plans to spend up to $20m (£15m) to purchase thousands of gloves for officers and agents that can deliver painful electric shocks by March, according to a notice published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security.
The devices, called Glove (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter), are manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky.
The Pentagon has acknowledged that U.S. military operations killed more than 150 civilians in 2025. The count did not include any deaths from airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
If you think you’ve had a bad one-night stand, spare a thought for the male redback spider, whose sole reproductive partner eats him after sex.
Male redbacks appear to invite this cannibalism through a “self-sacrificial somersault”, with new research shedding light on the genetic basis of the behaviour.
Cloudflare data suggests desktop Linux usage in North America has climbed to 6.4%, up from 4.1% a year earlier, with one post-holiday workday briefly spiking to 22%. ZDNet reports: [B]elieve it or not, on Monday, July 6, when people were back after the July 4 holiday, Linux usage jumped to a high of 22%. The users of these systems are not AI agents or bots, but real people. I set Cloudflare to count humans rather than bots. If you include people and bots, Linux has a 9.7% market share. That proportion is similar to StatCounter's score. By Cloudflare's count, bots alone come to 19%.
These numbers tell us that workers are leading the way to the Linux desktop. [...] However, past performance doesn't explain present trends. So, why are we now seeing such a bump in Linux desktop growth? Experts believe this trend is largely AI developers and Linux users running AI Agents. For example, as David Linthicum, former managing director and chief cloud strategy officer at Deloitte Consulting and AI and cloud influencer, recently observed, while "Windows 11 can technically run local AI workloads, but as you begin using multiple tools, managing different projects, and installing various dependencies, the friction starts to build," it's a different story for Linux users.
Linthicum continued: "Linux delivered what I can only describe as a true 'AI desktop' experience. Setup was straightforward, mainstream AI instructions matched what you'd actually see in your environment, and GPU-accelerated apps simply worked -- consistently. I spent far less time troubleshooting and far more time actually executing on projects." As for agents, Linux Foundation CEO Jim Zemlin summed up their role succinctly: "Linux is the OS of choice for AI agents." Desktop Linux is also gaining momentum as frustration with Windows 11 and the end of Windows 10 support push users to alternatives, particularly on older PCs that can't officially upgrade. At the same time, Linux has become much easier to use, install software on, and game with, lowering many of the traditional barriers to switching.
Letter signed by every chief constable in England and Wales warns freeing pair could weaken trust in justice system
Andy Burnham is facing an unprecedented mass call from police chiefs to block the early release of PC Andrew Harper’s killers, as unions warned his emergency plan to create more space in jails risked causing confusion or leading to prisoners being freed by mistake.
A letter signed by 50 police leaders across the UK, including every chief constable in England and Wales, called on the prime minister to do everything in his power to stop the killers benefiting from a programme designed to free up prison space, saying there was “a profound strength of feeling across policing” that this should not happen.
The slow but steady march to the grave for the Android Open Source Project continues. Every few months Google hammers another big nail in the coffin of Android as an open source effort, and I’ve documented them all here on OSNews (nail, nail, nail, nail, nail), coming to the conclusion long ago that for all intents and purposes, Android is no longer an open source operating system.
The latest move, however, is just petty.
According to GrapheneOS on [Twitter], Google has apparently replaced public, instant code downloads for Pixel phone drivers with a manual request form. Instead of publishing code directly to open developer platforms where anyone can grab it, Google now requires developers to fill out a Google Form and wait for someone to send them a Google Drive link.
What used to take a couple of hours is now taking weeks.
I’m perhaps misremembering, but I vaguely recall discussions decades ago about what, exactly, it meant to “make source code available”, as open source licenses state in a variety of words. Would mailing a paper print-out by classic post satisfy such requirements? Could you write the source code on a brick and throw it through the user’s window? Could you hire a church choir to sing it? These are all silly examples, but before everyone had internet access, this was a relevant question.
The widespread availability of the internet and software like git solved these issues, which makes it all the more petty that Google now requires an actual application process, waiting times, and Google Drive dumps just to get access to the source code for Pixel drivers. Google is clearly trying to kill whatever’s left of the Android Open Source Project’s rotting corpse, only barely technically complying with any license requirements only because they’re obligated to.
The Android team at Google must be a hoot at parties.
During the signing of an executive order on vaccines, President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a deluge of false and misleading claims about the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule.
The executive order establishes “Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations” and directs federal agencies and states to advance them. The new recommendations attempt to repeat prior administration changes to the routine vaccine schedule through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reducing it from targeting 17 to 11 diseases. At the time, we explained that HHS had justified this decision with a variety of incorrect or misleading assertions. A judge subsequently blocked these changes after the American Academy of Pediatrics sued HHS.
During the Aug. 10 signing, Trump repeated claims about the childhood vaccine schedule and autism that he has made in the past, often bolstered by comments from Kennedy.
Trump misleadingly claimed that the changes to the vaccine schedule align the U.S. with peer nations. When counting diseases the schedule protects against, the changes would put the U.S. at the low end of peer nations in the size of its vaccine schedule, exceeding only Denmark.
The president falsely claimed that the U.S. requires “72 jabs for our beautiful, healthy, lovely, delicate little children.” States require certain vaccinations to attend school, but none come close to mandating 72 doses. And there are no federal vaccine mandates.
Trump said children don’t need to be vaccinated against hepatitis B until adolescence. That ignores what medical experts say are good reasons to vaccinate every newborn at birth.
He falsely claimed that children and infants are being injected with massive volumes of fluid during routine immunizations, referring at one point to “vats of vaccine.” Doses of childhood vaccines are generally about a tenth of a teaspoon, and there’s no evidence that the size or number of doses under the current vaccination schedule is harmful.
Trump baselessly suggested rising rates of autism are connected to the growth of the childhood vaccine schedule over time. A number of studies have found no connection between vaccines and autism, and the contention that there has been a massive rise in autism is also faulty.
It’s unclear what the practical results of the executive order will be. “It should not be valid legally, and CDC should not be changing its immunization schedule table,” Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert at University of California Law San Francisco, wrote in a Substack post.
The new order additionally recommends splitting up combination vaccines into separate doses given on separate medical visits. In another article, we wrote about Trump’s false claims about the combination measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine.
Misleading Country Comparisons
Trump justified his Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations by misleadingly claiming that the U.S. has been out of step with peer nations in the number of vaccines it recommends.
“For long — and far too long — a long period of time, America has recommended more childhood vaccines than any peer nation and even twice as many doses as some European countries, and even more than that,” he said during the Aug. 10 signing. He later claimed that “this updated recommendation finally aligns the United States with other advanced and developed nations around the world.”
The U.S. childhood vaccine schedule historically has recommended a relatively high number of vaccines, routinely protecting against a few more diseases than the median among other high-income nations, according to our previous analysis. Reducing the number of routinely recommended vaccines to 11, as the executive order suggests, would put the U.S. schedule at the low end compared with peer nations’ recommendations.
HHS previously attempted to limit universal recommendations to these same 11 childhood vaccines in January, although this change was subsequently blocked in court. HHS backed the decision to pare down the schedule with a 33-page assessment comparing the U.S. schedule with recommendations in 20 peer nations. Among these countries, only Denmark has a smaller number of universally recommended vaccines than put forward in the proposed 11-vaccine schedule.
HHS at the time justified these changes with a variety of incorrect or misleading claims about the vaccines and the diseases they target. For example, in no longer recommending universal vaccination against rotavirus — diverging from recommendations in 17 of the 20 peer nations — the assessment minimized the significant impact of hospitalizations and the risk of death from this gastrointestinal illness. The assessment also made misleading assertions about the safety of the hepatitis A vaccine and the effectiveness of pediatric flu vaccination, while claiming that the low incidence of meningococcal disease in the U.S. was reason not to vaccinate.
“[L]ow incidence in the context of a vaccination program is what we want,” Dr. David S. Stephens, an expert on bacterial meningitis at Emory University, told us in an email at the time. “Even though polio is very low in the US we still recommend routine vaccination.”
No Requirement for 72 ‘Jabs’
Trump erroneously claimed that the U.S. is “requiring 72 jabs for our beautiful, healthy, lovely, delicate little children.” States mandate that children get certain vaccines to attend school, but the number of shots needed to meet these requirements is nowhere near 72.
The CDC’s vaccine schedule recommends a broader set of vaccines than the states require for school. The CDC vaccine schedule does not constitute any sort of vaccine requirement, as we’ve written before.
There are various ways one could count the number of recommended injections or oral doses in the CDC’s routine childhood vaccine schedule. It is only possible to reach the 70s if counting annual flu and COVID-19 vaccines through age 18, while also opting to get some available combination vaccines as separate shots. The current schedule, however, does not recommend COVID-19 shots for all children.
No states require flu vaccines for school-age children, nor do any states require COVID-19 vaccination for school.
Trump speaks in the Oval Office after signing an Aug. 10 executive order on vaccination. Photo by Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images.
Kennedy claimed an even higher number of recommended shots, stating that there were “72 jabs before 18, but it actually could be up to 94 jabs.”
But getting above 90 injections and oral doses would require counting each component of each combination vaccine separately. This includes separating out vaccines, such as the MMR vaccine, that are currently only available in combination. Kennedy’s inflated shot number would therefore only be near possible if Trump prevails in getting vaccine companies to break up combination vaccines, as he advocated in the executive order, while continuing to count annual flu and COVID-19 doses.
Dr. Paul Offit, a physician and director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, pointed out the contradiction in criticizing large numbers of injections for children while simultaneously advocating that combination vaccines be separated.
“Here you have this administration constantly talking about how children get too many shots and then they say they want more shots,” he told us.
Infant Hepatitis B Vaccines
Trump also criticized the longstanding practice of vaccinating infants against hepatitis B at birth, saying that vaccination isn’t necessary until adolescence. But that ignores the reasons medical experts have cited for why every newborn should be vaccinated.
Health care providers, Trump said, are “giving the hepatitis B shot to infants and newborns on top of many other vaccinations. The hepatitis B shouldn’t be given until they’re 14 or 15 years old. They were given early.”
Hepatitis B is a viral liver infection that can cause serious long-term complications, including death from cirrhosis and liver cancer. Infants and children face much higher risks than adults of developing a chronic hepatitis B infection if exposed to the virus, making it especially important to prevent infections in kids. Most childhood infections result from mothers passing the virus to newborns during pregnancy or birth, though caregivers and other close contacts can also transmit the virus.
As we’ve written before, hepatitis B can also spread in adults via sex or injection drug use, and some activists have invoked the disease’s association with those risk factors to question the need for universal vaccination at birth.
The CDC first recommended a universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine in 1991. As explained in a 2025 review by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, the agency did so after narrower approaches — which focused on screening pregnant women and vaccinating the newborns of those who tested positive — proved ineffective at reducing childhood hepatitis B infections.
Since that time, according to the review, hepatitis B infections in infants and children have fallen by about 99% — from around 16,000 cases a year to fewer than 20.
The CIDRAP review notes several reasons why the previous frameworks based on maternal screening proved insufficient, including gaps in prenatal care and false negatives. Vaccinations at birth can also protect children from catching the virus if someone else in their household is infected.
Late last year, the CDC dropped its longstanding recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine, saying only those born to mothers who had tested positive for the virus, or had an unknown infection status, needed a vaccine at birth, and other parents could decide “when or if” to vaccinate — which is among the changes blocked in court. As we’ve written previously, that decision came after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed the members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and appointed new ones.
Leading medical groups continue to recommend hepatitis B vaccination for all newborns.
‘Vats of Vaccine’
Trump also claimed, falsely, that children are being injected with massive volumes of fluid when they get their shots, comparing it to “a bottle of soda poured into a little child’s body” or “a large glass of something.”
“Vats of vaccine are currently pumped into your child’s body,” Trump said, echoing language he’s used before. He added that appointments should be further apart “so the body can handle this massive amount of fluid being pumped in.”
This is false. The volume of vaccines given to children is nowhere near what Trump is describing. Moreover, as we’ve writtenbefore, there’s no evidence that the number or size of doses that kids receive under the current vaccination schedule is harmful, or that the shots need to be further spaced out.
Offit told us that doses of MMR and other vaccines given to young children are typically around 0.5 milliliters, or a tenth of a teaspoon. So even if a kid gets several vaccines at one appointment, the volume probably wouldn’t exceed one teaspoon.
Multiple studies have looked at the effects of giving different combinations of vaccines at once and found it to be safe, according to a CDC page dated December 2024. As the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia explains, kids’ immune systems are responding to thousands of bacteria from the moment of their birth, and the vaccines they receive before age 2 “are just a drop in the ocean when compared with the tens of thousands of challenges their immune systems successfully manage every day.”
Delaying routine vaccinations, meanwhile, can leave children vulnerable to preventable diseases, according to the CDC.
Offit also noted that even though children today receive more vaccines than previous generations, those vaccines actually contain a smaller total quantity of immunologic components — components such as proteins that stimulate an immune response — thanks to advances in vaccine science.
“I had a greater challenge to my immune system with the vaccines — two vaccines — I got as a child than my four grandchildren are getting today,” he said.
Baseless Connection of Vaccines and Autism
Trump repeated the baseless suggestion that the increasing number of recommended vaccinations is linked to a rise in autism.
“Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today,” he said. “In those times, people were much healthier. And, of course, the high rates of autism now observed did not exist. So there’s a reason for such epidemic rates of autism. And we’re going to bring it back to much closer to where it was.”
Autism is “many, many times what it used to be years ago,” he later said. “And it gets progressively worse. And we add progressively more and more vaccines.”
As we’ve writtenmanytimesbefore, scientists have researched the question of whether vaccines cause autism in multiple ways, looking at the MMR vaccine, vaccine ingredients shared across multiple vaccines and the vaccine schedule as a whole. None of these efforts has uncovered a link between vaccines and autism.
Trump’s underlying assumption that there has been a massive rise in autism is also highly flawed.
Experts have previously explained to us that while there may have been some true increase in autism, evidence indicates a large portion of the rise in cases comes from increased recognition of the condition. Factors driving this include broadening definitions of autism, as well as increased screening and awareness of the condition. Researchers have also suggested that the growing availability of services for children with autism contributed to a rise in diagnoses.
Rather than recognizing these factors, Kennedy and Trump made a misleading comparison between an estimate from a 56-year-old study and today’s autism prevalence figures.
“In 1970, the biggest epidemiological study at that time in history was performed,” Kennedy said. “And the university scientists from across this country looked at all the 8-year-olds in Wisconsin, about 900,000 children, and they were looking for autism, and they knew what autism looked like. And they came back with an incident rate of 0.8 per 10,000, so less than 1 in 10,000. The rate according to CDC today in this country is 1 in every 31 children.”
Trump repeated a version of these statistics. “When you hear that number, where it was 1 in 10,000 20 years ago and now it’s 1 in 30 … it’s something — something happened in the meantime. Something happened environmentally or otherwise,” he said.
Dr. Eric Fombonne, a professor emeritus of psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University, previously told us that it was “completely absurd” to compare the autism prevalence estimate from the 1970 Wisconsin study to estimates today. At the time of the Wisconsin study, few people were aware of autism, and the researchers looked at children using different diagnostic criteria than are used today. Fombonne added that even at the time, other studies estimated a higher autism prevalence, and that people claiming a large rise in autism cite the Wisconsin study “because it gives them a very low starting point and accentuates the trend.”
Also, the researchers did not do autism evaluations on all the 8-year-olds in the state. They looked at records of children in certain medical settings, such as health clinics and hospitals.
Kennedy then repeated an incorrect claim that autism must be increasing because it’s not being seen in older adults. “If we were just noticing it more, we would notice it in older groups, but we’re not,” he said. “We’re only noticing it in kids who were born around 1989 or after.”
As we explained in 2023 in response to Kennedy’s claims, there are in fact autistic people across all generations, although the CDC doesn’t systematically monitor autism prevalence in adults. There are various factors that may lead autism in older generations to go unrecognized.
Jessica McDonald contributed reporting.
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In signing an executive order about childhood vaccines, President Donald Trump falsely suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine was unsafe and that splitting up the combination shot would reduce the number of children with autism. There’s no evidence for those claims, and the vaccine has been well-studied for several decades.
Together with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he also repeated many other falsehoods we’ve fact-checked before about vaccines. We wrote about those in another article.
On Aug. 10, Trump signed the executive order aiming to overhaul childhood vaccination in the U.S. Couched in the language of “gold standard” science, but bypassing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s typical process for recommending vaccines, the order attempts to reinstate earlier efforts by the administration to cut the number of universally recommended vaccines. The earlier changes to the vaccine schedule were blocked in court.
In addition to lowering the number of recommended vaccines and asking states to revise their immunization requirements for schools, the order also called for administering the MMR vaccine in separate shots, preferably giving all vaccines “at separate medical visits.”
“We want it in three separate vaccinations given at separate times,” Trump said of the MMR vaccine in remarks made when signing the order. “Together, there could be a possibility they’re quite lethal. And separately, it looks like they are not at all lethal, but just very effective.”
“It’s inconvenient, it’s five stops,” he said later, referring to multiple trips to the pediatrician. “But it’s something that I think will have a huge impact on autism.”
“The worst thing that would happen would be nothing happens. We’re not going to lose anything,” Trump said of splitting up the MMR vaccine. “At the same time, we could gain tremendously. We could save hundreds of thousands of lives, millions of lives.”
There is no evidence that splitting up the MMR vaccine, which has been in use for more than 40 years, would be safer, save lives or prevent cases of autism. Since a fraudulent scientific paper first proposed a connection between the vaccine and autism nearly 30 years ago, the MMR has been rigorously investigated for any link to the condition. No credible link has been found.
More broadly, the MMR is among the most well-studied vaccines on the planet, with far more data on its safety and effectiveness than any of the standalone vaccines. More than 800 million doses of the Merck MMR vaccine have been given in more than 75 countries as of 2021, with decades of post-marketing safety surveillance and clinical and population studies.
“To date, there has been no published scientific evidence that shows any benefit in separating the combination MMR vaccine into three individual shots,” a Merck spokesperson told us in a statement. “Use of the individual components of combination vaccines increases the number of injections for the individual and may result in delayed or missed immunizations.”
Trump signs an executive order about childhood vaccines in the Oval Office on Aug. 10. Official White House Photo by Molly Riley.
Merck’s combined MMR vaccine was first approved in the U.S. in 1971, not long after the individual vaccines were introduced in the 1960s. In 1978, the vaccine was updated to include a superior rubella component. The Food and Drug Administration approved a similar MMR vaccine made by GSK in 2022. That vaccine has been licensed in more than 100 countries, including all of Europe, and more than 800 million doses have been distributed, according to a company press release in 2022. GSK did not reply to our request for comment.
While health officials in the administration have frequently pointed to European countries as a model for U.S. vaccination policy, all exclusively use the combined MMR shot. No country in the world gives each of the three components separately as part of the childhood immunization schedule.
Some countries, mostly lower- and middle-income countries, use a measles and rubella combined shot rather than the MMR largely because it is cheaper, and not due to any safety concerns. Japan is one of the few, if not only, high-income countries to separate out the mumps vaccine. This policy stems from a safety concern with the mumps component that used a mumps strain that was never used in the U.S. (Autism rates did not decline when Japan stopped using the combined MMR vaccine.)
Moreover, as the executive order acknowledges, no U.S. vaccine manufacturer still makes the individual shots. Merck stopped in 2008 due to manufacturing constraints, and declined the following year to resume production.
“Today’s executive order is not based on ‘gold-standard science.’ There is no new evidence to justify significant changes to childhood immunization guidance. Dozens of studies involving millions of people show there is no link between vaccines and autism, and yet federal leaders continue to promote this outdated, disproven idea to scare families,” Dr. Andrew D. Racine, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics , said in a statement. “The only purpose of this announcement is to sow confusion so that more people doubt the importance of vaccines. Delaying or skipping shots is risky, especially as measles continues to spread and children go back to school.”
“This executive order is part of a troubling pattern by the administration to attempt to unilaterally change vaccine guidance, particularly for children, rather than relying on the transparent, scientific review that has guided the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule for decades,” Dr. Jan K. Carney, the president of the American College of Physicians, said in a statement. “If implemented, the changes could increase costs to patients and families, including additional copays while also placing a greater burden on families needing to schedule multiple appointments for a multiple-dose MMR vaccine.”
The executive order does not give a scientific rationale for recommending that the MMR vaccine be broken up. Rather, it simply states that its recommendations “recognize” that the MMR vaccine “should be administered in three separate single-disease shots once such products are domestically available.” It directs Kennedy, through a task force, to “present plans” to Trump within 90 days to offer the single vaccines as options.
“President Trump is one of countless parents who have voiced questions and concerns about the combined MMR vaccine,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told us in an email when asked to explain the reasoning for splitting up the MMR and for evidence that the combination shot is a problem. “The Administration’s push to develop separate vaccinations for all three diseases will give parents more options on timing and frequency for their children, which ultimately will increase vaccination rates for all three diseases.”
Experts, however, fear that adding the option of separate MMR vaccinations will lower vaccination rates.
It remains to be seen how Trump’s executive order will play out.
“There’s not the force of law behind this,” Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told us. “He’s asking states to consider implementing this. I think that it will be ignored because it should be ignored. It’s not a science-based recommendation.”
Autism Claims Come from Fraudulent 1998 Paper
As we’ve explained before, the notion that the MMR vaccine might be safer separated out goes back to a fraudulent research paper by the British physician Dr. Andrew Wakefield. In 1998, Wakefield published a case series of 12 children in the Lancet that proposed the MMR vaccine might cause autism.
The British journalist Brian Deer reported that in a press conference announcing the results, Wakefield recommended that the government stop using the combination MMR vaccine and switch to individual shots, given a year apart.
“I can’t support the continued use of these three vaccines given in combination until this issue has been resolved,” Wakefield said.
But the underlying data had beenfaked or misrepresented. Five of the 12 children had developmental problems prior to vaccination, and many did not even have an autism diagnosis. Prior to the study, Wakefield had been hired as a consultant by a lawyer who wanted to sue MMR manufacturers, and many of the kids in the study had been recruited by law firms or groups opposed to vaccination. The publication was later retracted. Wakefield, who has since lost his medical license, also did not disclose at the time that he had previously filed a patent on his own measles-only vaccine, which he alleged was “most probably safer.”
Fraud aside, the hypothesis that the MMR vaccine causes autism has now been formally tested repeatedly. In 2012, the Institute of Medicine, now the National Academy of Medicine, concluded that the evidence “favors rejection of a causal relationship between MMR vaccine and autism,” finding a “high degree of confidence in the epidemiologic evidence” of no connection and a lack of evidence of any mechanistic link.
Since then, even more studies have continued to support this conclusion. In 2019, a Danish study used population registry data to probe the link again, also looking to see whether there might be a link for higher-risk children. “The study strongly supports that MMR vaccination does not increase the risk for autism, does not trigger autism in susceptible children, and is not associated with clustering of autism cases after vaccination,” the study concluded.
Last month, a study looking at the electronic health records of 2.5 million American children also found no association between the MMR vaccine and autism when giving the first dose before the age of 2, as is recommended. The first dose is typically given between 12 and 15 months of age, with a second dose at 4 to 6 years of age.
“This is Groundhog Day 25 years later,” Offit said, of the idea that the MMR vaccine should be broken up.
False Allegation of Lethality
During the Q&A portion of the signing, a reporter asked Trump if there was any evidence for his comment that the MMR combination vaccine is “quite lethal.”
“What I’ve heard is that there are some people that say it is that way,” Trump said. “And I say, well, let’s say there’s a 5% chance of it.”
“Let’s split it up,” he continued, adding that when the MMR is given separately, “they” say “there is no impact. In fact, they’ve said how safe it seems to be. But I’ve heard when you put them together, they can be explosive.”
Regardless of what Trump might have heard, this is false. While serious side effects can occur, they are rare. And death from MMR vaccination is exceedingly rare.
“There have been no deaths shown to be related to the MMR vaccine in healthy people,” the Infectious Diseases Society of America website says. “There have been rare cases of deaths from vaccine side effects among children who are immune compromised, which is why it is recommended that they don’t get the vaccine.”
The concern for immunocompromised children is the measles component of the vaccine, which is a weakened but live virus. For almost everyone, this weakened virus poses no risk of death, in contrast to the virus that can circulate in an outbreak and sicken people. But on very rare occasions, if a child is severely immunocompromised, and doctors don’t realize it — or mistakenly still vaccinate against recommendations — it can prove fatal. A 2015 article by the CDC noted that there have been “at least six case reports of death among severely immunocompromised persons that have been linked to vaccine strain measles virus infection.” This exceptionally rare outcome, however, would still occur if children got a separate measles shot rather than the combination vaccine.
Anaphylaxis, a serious allergic reaction that can be life-threatening, can also occur with any vaccine, but these are extremely rare, and in many cases can be treated.
To be clear, a 5% chance of death would be astronomically high and easily detectable in both studies and surveillance. Trump’s claim that the combination MMR vaccine is “quite lethal” is false.
Negative Impacts from Splitting the Vaccine
Many experts disagree with Trump that the worst outcome of splitting up the MMR vaccine would be “nothing.” On the contrary, the main concern, assuming the shots were available, is that fewer people would get vaccinated, putting more people at risk for disease and leading to more outbreaks.
“We’re in the midst of a big measles epidemic. There are more cases of measles than we’ve seen in more than 30 years,” Offit said. Moving to a six-dose regimen, he said, would introduce chaos and confusion, and children would be less likely to get all their necessary vaccines. He called it “an incredibly irresponsible thing to do.”
University of Utah pharmacotherapy professor Joey Mattingly wrote in a Health Affairs perspective last month about using single-disease shots: “The available evidence on vaccination behavior and coverage favors retaining the combined formulation, and the same evidence suggests that moving to separate vaccines, whatever flexibility it might offer families, could make it harder to recover the coverage levels that population immunity requires,” referring to the decline in measles vaccination rates.
Offit said that first, the FDA would need to license the standalone vaccines. It remains to be seen whether any manufacturers would want to go through the process.
The Health Affairs article noted that doing so would require significant investment and clinical trials. “There is little commercial incentive to build a less convenient product to compete with a vaccine that already works,” Mattingly wrote. Clinics and pharmacies would then need to stock them, when it might not make financial sense to do so.
Moreover, just the suggestion that the MMR should be split — as Trump and other officials have now done — could discourage vaccination with the only available vaccine.
As Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist at University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, wrote in STAT, “the government is directing the health system toward an alternative that is not licensed here — and asking parents to reconsider a familiar, highly effective combination vaccine in the process.”
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State auditor says fragmented systems make it difficult to verify whether employees are ever paid for overlapping taxpayer-funded work; University of Delaware disputes auditor’s authority over records from 2023-25
DOVER, Del. — Delaware lacks a reliable statewide system for identifying and monitoring public employees who hold more than one taxpayer-supported position, limiting the state’s ability to determine whether workers are ever paid twice for overlapping hours, according to a new performance audit from the Delaware Office of Auditor of Accounts.
The audit, covering fiscal years 2023 through 2025, does not conclude that widespread improper payments occurred. Instead, State Auditor Lydia York’s office said incomplete records, disconnected payroll systems and inconsistent procedures prevented auditors from fully determining whether agencies and other covered organizations complied with Delaware’s Dual Employment Law.
The law, enacted in 1986, is designed to prevent public employees from receiving compensation from multiple taxpayer-funded employers for the same hours. It also requires covered organizations to maintain appropriate time records, verify hours and adjust compensation when necessary.
“The State cannot reliably identify individuals engaged in dual employment or effectively determine whether statutory requirements have been met,” the auditor concluded. The report said those weaknesses create a risk that improper concurrent compensation could occur without being detected.
No Central System to Track Dual Employment
Auditors attempted to identify potentially dually employed workers using records from Delaware’s Payroll Human Resource Statewide Technology system, financial disclosure filings, legislative records and information from individual agencies.
But no state agency maintains a complete list of people subject to the dual-employment requirements, according to the audit. Delaware also uses multiple payroll systems that are not fully integrated.
The Public Integrity Commission, which has oversight responsibilities under the law, relies heavily on annual self-disclosures and manual processes and does not have an automated system that can identify people simultaneously employed by multiple public entities, auditors found.
At individual agencies and organizations, auditors also found inconsistent procedures for documenting employees’ hours, obtaining supervisory verification and making payroll adjustments when work schedules overlap.
The report recommends creating a centralized system capable of identifying and tracking dual employment, improving integration among payroll systems, strengthening internal controls and recordkeeping, clarifying oversight responsibilities and providing the Public Integrity Commission additional resources.
Auditor and University of Delaware Disagree Over Records
One of the audit’s most significant limitations involved the University of Delaware.
The Auditor of Accounts requested personnel, payroll, timekeeping and scheduling information involving selected university employees who also held other taxpayer-supported public positions during the audit period.
UD did not provide the requested records. As a result, auditors said they could not determine whether the selected individuals received compensation from multiple taxpayer-supported positions during overlapping work hours.
The disagreement centers on whether the Dual Employment Law applied to the university during fiscal years 2023 through 2025.
UD maintains that it did not.
In its formal response, the university said it is a privately governed, state-aided institution rather than a state agency or political subdivision and argued that the version of the law in effect during the audit period did not cover university employees.
The university pointed to House Bill 38, signed into law in 2025, which established specific dual-employment reporting requirements for institutions of higher education receiving state funds. Those requirements took effect May 22, 2026. UD contends the legislation demonstrates that those obligations did not previously apply to the university.
UD said it recognizes its obligations under the new law and intends to work with the auditor on records required after the law’s effective date. However, the university said it would not release confidential employment records for fiscal years 2023-25 when, in its view, no statutory requirement existed to do so.
Auditor Rejects UD’s Interpretation
York’s office disagreed with the university’s legal interpretation.
The auditor acknowledged UD’s unusual status as a privately governed, state-aided institution and said the audit was not attempting to regulate university personnel decisions.
Instead, the auditor argued that its authority extends to determining whether state-appropriated money was spent in compliance with Delaware law.
“Public funds do not lose their character as State funds merely because they are disbursed through a state-aided institution rather than directly through a state agency,” the auditor wrote.
The auditor also cited a 2008 Delaware attorney general opinion concerning application of the dual-employment law to state-funded salaries at UD.
York’s office characterized House Bill 38 differently from the university, saying the legislation clarified reporting procedures for higher education institutions but did not create the auditor’s underlying authority to examine how state appropriations are spent.
The dispute remains unresolved for the years covered by the audit.
15 Individuals Affected by Records Dispute
The missing UD records affected the auditor’s testing involving 15 people who held positions associated with the General Assembly, courts or other state offices during the audit period.
The report identifies them as Sherry Dorsey-Walker, Melissa Minor-Brown, Madinah Wilson-Anton, Sophie Phillips, Michael Smith, Sarah “Tizzy” Lockman, Marie Pinkney, Martin O’Connor, Sheldon Rennie, Monica Horton, Janell Ostroski, Peter Burcat, Bethany Hall-Long, Cora Scott and Evan Park.
The audit does not find that those individuals were improperly paid or violated the Dual Employment Law.
Rather, the auditor said it could not determine whether the law was followed because it did not have the university records necessary to compare work schedules, payroll information and timekeeping records.
That distinction is central to the finding: the names appear because auditors were unable to complete their testing, not because the report established wrongdoing by any of the individuals.
Some Previous Problems Remain
The audit also followed up on findings from an earlier review covering fiscal years 2020 through 2022.
Auditors said a previous finding involving UD remains open because the university had not taken action to address it for the period reviewed. A finding involving the City of Dover also remains open, although Dover has drafted a policy that was awaiting City Council approval when the audit was completed.
Previous findings involving Delaware State University, Eastside Charter School and Delaware Technical Community College were considered resolved after the institutions provided evidence of new policies or controls.
Accountability Problem, Not Finding of Fraud
The broader conclusion of the audit is less about documenting fraud than about the state’s ability to detect a problem if one occurs.
Auditors cautioned that government performance audits are not designed to uncover every instance of fraud, waste or noncompliance. In this case, the larger obstacle was that records and systems were often insufficient to provide reasonable assurance that the law was being followed statewide.
Until Delaware develops integrated reporting, standardized recordkeeping and clearer responsibility for monitoring dual employment, the auditor said the possibility that improper overlapping compensation could occur without detection will remain.
To Go Box:
What is dual employment? Holding a public job while also serving in another qualifying elected, appointed or taxpayer-supported position.
What does Delaware law prohibit? Receiving taxpayer-funded compensation from more than one covered position for the same working hours.
Did the audit find widespread double payments? No. The auditor said the state lacked sufficient systems and records to fully determine compliance.
Why is the University of Delaware involved? Auditors sought UD payroll and timekeeping records for selected employees with other public positions. UD declined, arguing the law covering the 2023-25 period did not apply to the university.
Were the 15 people named in the report accused of wrongdoing? No. Auditors said they lacked sufficient records to determine whether dual-employment rules were followed for those individuals.
What happens going forward? A law that took effect May 22, 2026, establishes specific dual-employment recordkeeping and reporting requirements for state-funded institutions of higher education. UD says it will comply with those requirements prospectively.
Source: Delaware Office of Auditor of Accounts, Dual Employment Performance Audit for Fiscal Years Ended June 30, 2023-2025.
The GNOME Shell user interface has mostly seen minor refinements and quality of life updates in recent cycles, but on the design side we’ve explored a lot of longer-term things we’d like to do. Some of these we have relatively complete plans for, others are more vague ideas that need more research and prototyping. As always, getting things like these implemented depends on developer capacity and interest (and sometimes funding).
While each of these ideas may require additional discussion, prototyping, and testing, we (the design team) have collected them all together here to share our longer-term vision and to give each idea more visibility.
There’s quite a few good ideas in there, with most of them already being available in the form of various extensions. I’m not entirely sure if I’m a huge fan of copying Android and iOS by moving notifications into the quick settings dropdown thing, but it’s not like having them in the clock/calendar dropdown thing is any better. I only use notifications as they arrive and never look at the place where they end up – that’s a mobile thing for me – so I don’t think I’ll really care either way.
Things like editable quick settings, transparent top bar on certain backgrounds, the improved window drag and drop in the Exposé view, the alt+tab experiments, and some of the others do seem quite interesting though, and anything that reduces the number of GNOME extensions I need to install and keep updated gets a big thumbs up from me.
If you wish to work on any of these suggestions, working on GNOME Shell has gotten a lot easier recently.
In the past, GNOME Shell was significantly harder to contribute to and test than apps since you needed to use tools like jhbuild. This has changed in the past year: You can now easily build and test your branch in a nested session from Builder using Mutter Devkit. If you use GNOME OS, you can even build a sysext to install your branch on your host system. This allows daily driving experimental branches easily, which is super helpful for evaluating changes to everyday workflows.
President Donald Trump said the combined vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella is potentially deadly. His evidence? He said he heard it, but didn’t say from whom.
During an Aug. 10 Oval Office event, Trump signed an executive order seeking to split up the combination MMR vaccine, which has been approved for use in the U.S. for about 55 years.
“We want it in three separate vaccinations, given at separate times,” Trump said. “Together, there could be a possibility they’re quite lethal and separately, uh, it looks like they are not at all lethal but just very effective.”
A reporter asked Trump if there was any evidence the combined vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella is “quite lethal.”
Trump replied: “No. What I’ve heard is that there are some people that say it is that way and I say, well, let’s say there’s a 5% chance of it, let’s split it up, let’s split it up.”
He added, “I’ve heard when you put them together, they can be explosive.”
We asked the White House for evidence that it is possibly “quite lethal” and the statement we received from spokesperson Kush Desai did not answer that question. Desai said that Trump has “voiced questions and concerns” about the combined vaccine and wants to give parents options.
The president made his statement at a time when measles cases are rising and vaccination rates are dropping.
Here’s how scientists concluded the vaccine is safe.
The MMR vaccine is administered in two doses and given to children first at 12 to 15 months old and then between ages 4 and 6. It requires two visits to the pediatrician. If the MMR vaccine were split up, it could take six visits.
Requiring six visits rather than two, “would likely lead to drops in immunization coverage which could lead to major resurgences of the diseases,” Dr. Walter Orenstein, an epidemiologist who directed the U.S. Immunization Program from 1998 to 2004, told PolitiFact following Trump’s remarks.
Trump’s statement that the MMR is lethal contradicts longstanding scientific research and the conclusions of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the combined MMR is safe — and safer than getting the deadly measles virus.
U.S. regulators approved the first combined MMR vaccine in 1971 following extensive clinical testing to ensure it was safe and worked well.
When the MMR vaccine was combined, research showed that each component was safe and effective individually. Doctors now have more than 50 years of data on the hundreds of millions of vaccine doses administered in that time. Scientists continue to monitor the vaccine’s safety to catch extremely rare side effects.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America, a community of 13,000 clinicians, scientists and public health experts, said on its website: “There have been no deaths shown to be related to the MMR vaccine in healthy people.” There have been rare cases of deaths from vaccine side effects among immune compromised children, which is why recommendations say they should not get the vaccine, the group said.
The CDC’s page about MMR safety, dated July 2024 — which was still online as Trump made his remarks — said although vaccines can have side effects, most people don’t have serious problems from them.
“Getting MMR vaccine is much safer than getting measles, mumps, or rubella,” the CDC’s website said.
The CDC says research shows a tiny percentage of people had adverse effects from the MMR vaccine:
Two studies showed that for every 10,000 children who get their first MMR and varicella vaccines as separate shots when they are between 12 months and 23 months, about four will have a febrile seizure during the seven to 10 days following vaccination.
About 1 in 3,000 to 4,000 children younger than 7 years old have febrile seizures caused by a fever approximately 6 to 14 days after vaccination. While such seizures are frightening, nearly all children who have them recover quickly, and they typically don’t cause permanent damage.
The CDC said measles can be deadly.
Anders Peter Hviid, professor of epidemiology research in Denmark, told PolitiFact there is no evidence that the MMR vaccine is “quite lethal.”
“There is no scientific evidence to suggest that this is an unsafe vaccine,” Hviid said. Because the vaccine is made with a live attenuated virus — a weakened version of the virus — some people may have a stronger immune response, which leads to side effects such as soreness or mild fever.
“Contrast this with the possibility of getting measles,” Hviid said. “You don’t want your child to get measles.”
Dr. James Campbell, a University of Maryland pediatric infectious diseases expert, said in an email that Trump’s statement about a “5% chance” of lethality is “absolutely ludicrous.” That would result in a lot of young children dying after the MMR vaccine. That hasn’t happened.
“MMR is not lethal at all,” said Campbell, vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases. “We tell parents what we say for all vaccines that we recommend — they have been rigorously studied for safety and efficacy and (for MMR) given to millions of children over more than 50 years.”
Before the first measles vaccine in 1963, measles killed 400 to 500 Americans every year, most of them young children, and put 48,000 in the hospital, said Dr. Jake Scott, clinical associate professor of infectious diseases at Stanford University School of Medicine.
MMR vaccine was combined to make it easier to vaccinate children
MMR was combined because public health officials wanted to make it easier for people to get vaccinated.
Measles, mumps and rubella vaccines were good candidates for combination because they were typically given on the same schedule. Combining them meant fewer doctor’s visits and fewer needles in arms, which can be stressful for kids and parents.
Combining the vaccines was also possible because all three rely on weakened versions of the viruses to trigger immune responses that teach the body to fight the live viruses, Orenstein previously told PolitiFact.
These vaccines had similar ingredients and manufacturing processes, which made it possible to combine them, Orenstein said.
Scientists rigorously tested whether these vaccines could safely and effectively be combined without reducing the immune responses to each individual illness.
Roughly 92.5% of kindergartners had been vaccinated against measles in the 2024-25 school year, a drop of four percentage points from 2019-20. When more than 95% of people in a community are vaccinated, most people are protected through community immunity.
Trump said when the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are given together in the combined MMR vaccine, “there could be a possibility they’re quite lethal.”
This vaccine has been administered in the U.S. for more than 50 years. With hundreds of millions of doses given in that time, science has shown the vaccine is safe, a conclusion supported by the CDC.
When Trump was asked during his Oval Office remarks about his evidence for lethality, he provided none, saying he had heard “there are some people that say it is that way.” At a time when U.S. measles cases are rising and vaccination rates are falling, Trump is fearmongering and citing no credible evidence.
Delaware players have until 9:45 p.m. Wednesday to buy tickets for one of the largest lottery prizes offered in 2026
DOVER, Del. — Delaware lottery players have until 9:45 p.m. Wednesday to get a ticket for a Powerball jackpot that has climbed to an estimated $1 billion, putting the prize among the biggest lottery jackpots offered this year.
The jackpot for the Wednesday, Aug. 12, drawing carries an estimated cash value of $433.1 million before taxes, according to the Delaware Lottery.
The advertised $1 billion prize would be paid as an annuity, while a winner choosing the cash option would receive a one-time payment. Final jackpot amounts can increase depending on national ticket sales.
No ticket matched all six numbers in Monday night’s drawing, allowing the jackpot to cross the $1 billion mark.
Monday’s winning numbers were 6, 37, 54, 55 and 64. The Powerball was 10, and the Power Play multiplier was 3.
Although there was no jackpot winner, two tickets sold in California and Maryland matched all five white balls to win $1 million each. A Tennessee ticket matched the five white balls and included Power Play, making it worth $2 million.
Jackpot Has Been Growing All Summer
The Powerball jackpot has been growing since May 2, when tickets sold in Florida and Texas split a $20 million jackpot. By late July, Powerball officials were already calling it the largest Powerball prize of 2026.
The continuing roll has now pushed the jackpot into the rare $1 billion range, likely generating increased interest at Delaware Lottery retailers ahead of Wednesday night’s cutoff.
Powerball drawings are held Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. Eastern time. Delaware Lottery retailers stop selling tickets for that night’s drawing at 9:45 p.m.
How Powerball Works
Powerball tickets cost $2 per play. Players select five numbers from 1 through 69 and one Powerball number from 1 through 26.
Power Play, which can increase most non-jackpot prizes, costs an additional $1.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are approximately 1 in 292.2 million, while the odds of winning any Powerball prize are about 1 in 24.9.
Delaware requires lottery players to be at least 18 years old. Winners should check tickets carefully after the drawing and follow Delaware Lottery requirements for claiming prizes.
To Go Box
What: Powerball drawing
Estimated jackpot: $1 billion
Estimated cash option: $433.1 million before taxes
Drawing: 10:59 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12
Delaware ticket deadline: 9:45 p.m. Wednesday
Ticket price: $2 per play; Power Play costs an additional $1
Where to buy: Authorized Delaware Lottery retailers
Winning numbers: Available following the drawing through the Delaware Lottery and Powerball
TRENTON, New Jersey — Gov. Mikie Sherrill says she is open to stronger voter identification requirements after a software error improperly registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens, while rejecting President Donald Trump’s broader federal election legislation.
“I would support that. I don’t have a problem with voter ID,” Sherrill told News 12. Her spokesman later said the Democratic governor supports existing identification requirements for voter registration and is willing to consider strengthening them.
The distinction matters because Sherrill strongly opposes the SAVE America Act, which would impose federal proof-of-citizenship and identification requirements. She called that proposal voter suppression and objected to transferring New Jersey voters’ personal information into federal systems.
The controversy began after Sherrill disclosed that a Motor Vehicle Commission software error registered approximately 6,600 people between June 2023 and June 2024 even though they explicitly indicated they were not U.S. citizens. The mistake occurred before Sherrill became governor.
A preliminary state review found fewer than 400 of those people cast ballots. They included registered Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters, and officials have presented no evidence that the error changed any election outcome.
Noncitizen voting remains illegal and, nationally, documented cases are rare. A Reuters review found no evidence of coordinated noncitizen voting efforts despite increasingly prominent claims from Trump and other Republicans.
Sherrill has ordered the erroneous registrations removed and the state is replacing the vendor connected to the failure.
Ian Clarke (aka ancient Slashdot reader Sanity), designer of the peer-to-peer communication platform Freenet, is back with an update on the project's progress following the launch of its P2P network in March. He writes: Earlier this year, Slashdot covered the launch of the completely redesigned Freenet. I recently gave a talk about what we've been building since then. Unlike traditional web applications, apps on Freenet have no central server or database; instead application state is distributed across the network. These now include decentralized group chat, publishing, search, and fully decentralized Git hosting. The talk also gets into some of Freenet's internals, including how we use machine learning for network routing.
Ghosted into a wall going like 10 or so mph. Alrdy got the replacement footpad in and ordered BANG bumpers that haven’t arrived yet. Just took my bumper off and this is the damage. Is this cell damage or harmless chassis damage?
Brittany Boltinhouse’s attorney says removal of title and crown ‘another troubling example of cancel culture’
A lawyer for beauty queen Brittany Boltinhouse, dethroned as Miss North Carolina USA last week, is threatening legal action, claiming the actions of pageant organizers were “wrongful and unjustified”.
The attorney, Patrick Mincey, described the removal of her title and crown “another troubling example of cancel culture”.
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the US Postal Service (USPS) from implementing part of Donald Trump’s executive order that aims to tighten rules for mail-in voting ahead of November midterm elections that will decide control of Congress.
The ruling by US district judge Indira Talwani in Boston in effect expanded on an earlier order she had issued in June that had prevented Trump’s administration from implementing it in 23 mostly Democratic-led states.
No. 10 Charles Puit at bat during Naamans Little League’s game against Berlin Little League from Maryland. Photo Courtesy of Little League Baseball and Softball.
Naamans Little League defeated Berlin Little League from Maryland to advance to a semifinal game on Thursday.
Naamans Little League advanced to the semifinal round of the 2026 Little League Baseball Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament, following their win Monday evening. Naamans scored 12 runs in the elimination game.
The game started out as a pitchers’ duel between Delaware starter Jason Pontari and Maryland pitcher Gus VanKlompenburg. Both pitchers threw well and didn’t allow a run through the first three innings of the game.
Naamans scored the first run of the game in the top of the fourth. Catcher James Grugan scored Robert Heisler — after he started the inning with a lead-off walk — from third base on a two-out single up the middle giving Naamans the first lead of the game.
Berlin captured the lead in the bottom half of the inning on the strength of four hits including a lead-off double by Jonah Isett. Isett scored Maryland’s first run a batter later on first baseman Cooper Smith’s single through the middle. Singles by Jackson Baraby and VanKlompenburg drove in two more runs and, after a fourth run crossed the plate, Naamans trailed 4-1 heading into the fifth inning.
The Delaware squad responded in a big way with an 11 run top of the fifth.
Naamans recorded eight hits from seven different batters along with five walks in the frame. The first five runs of Naamans’ rally were scored prior to a weather delay that lasted over an hour. Delaware first baseman Kole Dzwilewski stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs when the game resumed and struck a RBI hit past the third base bag. The hit started a run of two-out success that plated Delaware’s additional six runs.
Delaware third baseman Taj Amobi scores one of Delaware’s 11 runs in the top of the fifth. Photo Courtesy of Little League Baseball and Softball.
Pontari and Brian Miller recorded the remaining six outs for Delaware, advancing the team to a semifinal game.
Naamans’ semifinal game will be on Thursday at 3:00 p.m. Delaware will take on Capitol Hill Little League from Washington D.C. and the winner will move on to face Pennsylvania in the championship game. Delaware’s game against Washington D.C. will be aired on ESPN.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks at The People v. The Powerful rally at the Detroit Opera House on July 18, 2026 in Detroit, Mich.Photo: Sarah Rice/Getty Images
Democrats have a lot to be embarrassed about when it comes to their actions during 2020. Like when Democratic members of Congress, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and then-Sen. Kamala Harris, clad in kente cloth stoles, took a knee on Capitol Hill after introducing the 2020 Justice in Policing Act.
That bill, which contained pretty fangless policing reforms, stalled in the Senate along party lines and never became law. The legislative story was predictable. Law-and-order Democrats genuflecting in kente stoles was laughable and lambasted at the time. Or, remember when Pelosi thanked George Floyd for “sacrificing” his life “for justice”? Shameful.
You could fairly call such gestures “crazy” if we are relitigating Democrats’ political priorities around that time. These were the scrambling acts of Democratic leaders failing to robustly respond to the largest protests in U.S. history — powerful uprisings against a system of policing and prisons that treats Black people’s lives as disposable.
But when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., quipped on Sunday, in an apparent nod to New York City Council Member Chi Ossé, that “woke 1 was crazy,” she wasn’t mocking the empty gestures of her colleagues. She wasn’t criticizing the recuperative tendencies of a liberal establishment that treats racism and sexism as a problem of individual performances and representation.
There was nothing “crazy” about more than 20 million people taking to the streets in righteous, militant protests against a racist, necropolitical order.
She was responding to a question about whether Democrats, herself included, who have in the past called to defund the police, still stood by those positions, or whether they went “too far.” She giggled, dismissed the idea of defunding police as a part of “crazy” “woke 1,” but noted, at least, that “during Covid, there was a huge opening of the Overton Window” on policy considerations, and that “the discussions that were had in that time were quite fruitful.” She also said they changed how we talk about crime.
Ocasio-Cortez did not even mention the George Floyd uprisings.
There can be little doubt that certain “woke” tendencies hurt the project of building a powerful multiracial, working-class left. Movement collectives and organizations became mired in in-fighting. Too often, anti-racist performances by institutions took precedence over building strategies to fight the structures of racial capitalism.
Centuries of accumulated material advantages and disadvantages, forged along colonialism’s racial lines, were not undone by social-media shamings, diversity trainings, or pro forma land acknowledgments.
But there was nothing “crazy” about more than 20 million people taking to the streets in righteous, militant protests against a racist, necropolitical order. And it was not crazy that politicians on the left saw good sense in the reasonable demand that the armed forces maintaining this racist order be abolished, or at least that tax dollars go instead to housing, healthcare, and education.
If Ocasio-Cortez is running for president, or even just the Senate, treating the serious and significant intervention and event that was the 2020 uprisings as “crazy,” like it was an overreaching social-media furor, would be an appalling campaign orientation and an unacceptable erasure of historic Black struggle.
The number of people killed by police in the U.S. every year has risen most years since 2020, and a disproportionate number of those killed are still Black. The facts about U.S. policing and prisons have not changed since the heady years of so-called “woke 1.” It remains the case that police do not stop or prevent crime. The mythic alignment of policing with public safety is nonetheless still treated as unquestionable common sense, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
White supremacist backlash was aided by liberal cowardice, which softened and then erased the abolitionist calls at the heart of the rebellions.
The George Floyd uprisings represented a brief rupture in that flawed common sense. One 2020 poll, for example, found a majority of Americans, 54 percent, believed that burning down a Minneapolis police precinct building following George Floyd’s murder was justified.
The massive uprisings, in the words of writer Tobi Haslett, “came hurtling into view and exploded against the surface of daily life in the U.S.” They were, however, met with extraordinary repression from police forces nationwide, in both blue and red states and cities.
Republicans under President Donald Trump’s first term prosecuted a successful campaign of law-and-order fearmongering. This white supremacist backlash was aided by liberal cowardice, which softened and then erased the abolitionist calls at the heart of the rebellions. The fractured left also bears its own responsibilities for failing on multiple fronts to take up and continue the uprisings’ militant challenge to racial capitalism.
Under Trump’s second term, certain Democrats might be willing to call for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but are silent when it comes to challenging the system of racist policing of which ICE is an extension. This is not because “woke 1 was crazy”; it is because the far-right backlash was successful, and centrist Democrats were all too happy to shrink away or fall fecklessly in line with law-and-order talking points.
“The least we can do is remember ,” wrote Haslett, reflecting on the rebellions one year later. “[T]o try, after the riots, after the speeches, after the backlash and elections, and after this latest (livestreamed) liturgy of American ‘criminal justice,’ to recall what really happened, extracting and reconstructing the whole flabbergasting sequence.” AOC is failing at this basic requirement of faithful remembrance.
This may seem minor, but it performs something akin to what W.E.B. Du Bois called the post-Reconstruction “propaganda of history” — the erasure of the historical record of Black struggle and power to establish white supremacist rule as some transhistorical, unchallenged norm.
Ocasio-Cortez is well aware of the discursive reality she must navigate should she run for higher office. Republicans will indeed dismiss any gesture toward progressive criminal legal system reform — let alone moving funding from police coffers to public goods — as radical, “crazy” acts. They will fearmonger and scapegoat. And, as has been the case with border policies and trans rights, Democrats bending rightwards only offers legitimacy, and often votes, to the right.
I do not expect AOC to run on an abolitionist line; I have no such delusions about the office of president, or, for that matter, Ocasio-Cortez, a politician who is yet to apologize for her intolerable defense of the Biden administration’s role in the Gaza genocide. Nor do I expect any left-wing Democratic candidate to overturn the myths about policing and safety, deeply inculcated in all too much of American society, in any single campaign. “Defund” could very well be a losing electoral position at this juncture.
A talented and principled politician should, however, be able to present a democratic socialist platform that insists on marshaling funds where they in fact belong: housing, healthcare, education, and other social welfare programs. A politician on the left, who lived through the powerful and vast George Floyd uprisings, should not be able to dismiss and erase them so easily.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other advocacy groups have asked a federal judge to block Donald Trump from enforcing new executive orders he signed last week in his latest attempt to restrict eligibility for birthright citizenship in the US.
In a Tuesday court filing, the groups called the US president’s new orders an improper attempt to evade the US supreme court’s 30 June rejection of his first, more sweeping bid to deny automatic citizenship to children born to undocumented immigrants and temporary foreign residents.
(The Center Square) – Employers now have guidance from the Treasury Department on how to contribute to ‘Trump Accounts’ for their employees’ children, and the department says more than 50 companies have already committed to offering such contributions.
Gemini has become Google's fastest-growing product ever, reaching 1 billion monthly active users faster than any of the company's 13 other billion-user services. Ars Technica reports: Gemini has wormed its way into virtually every Google product and service, powering email organization in Gmail, document summary in Drive, and much more. Gemini is also core to Google's flagship search experience, with AI Mode and AI Overviews becoming increasingly hard to avoid. The 1 billion-user metric has nothing to do with any of that, though.
These 1 billion users may also be encountering Gemini in all those places, but that's not the MAU metric. Pichai is talking only about people who are opening the Gemini app or visiting the Gemini web interface to enter a prompt or access Gemini Live. If you used Gemini only once in the past month, you are part of this cohort.
(The Center Square) – The Trump administration is bulldozing through Big Bend National Park despite thousands of Texans, including Republicans, ranchers, small business owners, sheriffs, county judges and former National Park Service superintendents calling on it to stop.
Revocations targeted foreign nationals who allegedly broke terms of their visas, government says
The US Department of State has canceled more than 175,000 visas since Donald Trump returned to office, quadrupling the pace of revocations under Joe Biden’s final year in the White House, according to a new tally released by the department this week.
The announcement said the revocations targeted foreign nationals whoallegedly broke the terms of their visas, committed crimes, called for violence against Americans, defrauded US citizens, abused the immigration system or endangered national security. Many followed run-ins with law enforcement, the department said, with assault, drunk driving, theft and drug offenses the leading causes, alongside reckless driving, sexual assault, child abuse and fraud.
BROOMFIELD, Colo. and AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 11, 2026 — Quantinuum and Oracle today announced a multi-year strategic partnership to bring quantum computing to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Under the partnership, OCI customers will be able to directly access Quantinuum’s Helios, the most accurate commercial quantum computer in the world, through OCI’s quantum service, alongside OCI’s high-performance computing (HPC) and GPU infrastructure.
Together, Quantinuum and Oracle plan to explore how hybrid quantum-AI infrastructure could address some of the most computationally intensive challenges facing enterprises and broaden access for universities and research institutions advancing scientific discovery and education. The partnership reflects a shared vision that the future of enterprise computing will be built on the convergence of AI, classical supercomputing, and quantum computing. Many complex problems across materials discovery, drug development, logistics, energy, and financial modeling already push the limits of today’s computing architectures.
“We believe the next phase of enterprise computing will be shaped by bringing quantum, AI, and high-performance computing together,” said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President and CEO of Quantinuum. “Deploying Helios inside OCI gives Quantinuum and Oracle an opportunity to create a unique deeply integrated environment for hybrid workloads, explore enterprise use cases with customers, and accelerate commercial adoption.”
Quantum computing offers a fundamentally different approach to computation with the potential to address problems that are impractical for traditional systems alone. In addition, quantum computing uses significantly less energy than supercomputers. A single Helios system has an estimated power draw of less than one percent of the draw reported for leading supercomputers, offering a lower power complementary resource for suitable hybrid workloads.
“AI has changed what organizations can imagine, and we believe quantum computing can expand what they’re able to solve,” said Mahesh Thiagarajan, Executive Vice President of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “By bringing Quantinuum’s Helios to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, we want to give developers a practical and secure way to explore how quantum computing could complement their existing AI and HPC workloads on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure while improving compute efficiency and energy use.”
With Quantinuum’s Helios on OCI, customers can expect to gain managed, secure access to cloud-hosted quantum computing without having to procure, install, or operate dedicated hardware or specialized facilities. Helios, launched commercially in November 2025, is Quantinuum’s third-generation quantum computer. The 98-physical-qubit trapped-ion system has been used in demonstrations involving 48 logical qubits and achieves an average two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.921%, exceeding the widely cited “three 9s” threshold. Helios is designed for hybrid integration with classical HPC and AI environments.
By operating on-premises within OCI’s infrastructure, Helios is anticipated to be able to integrate seamlessly with existing OCI compute, networking, storage, identity, and data services under the same governance and access controls customers already use. Oracle plans to preview its OCI quantum service in the coming months, giving developers a streamlined way to move from simulation to execution on real quantum computing hardware. The planned OCI quantum service is expected to combine Quantinuum’s development stack with support for open-source hybrid-programming frameworks, helping developers build, test, and refine quantum-classical applications more efficiently.
New Possibilities for Hybrid Quantum-AI Computing
“Our roadmap includes exploring classical-quantum hybrid computing to accelerate scientific discovery,” said Johannes Blaschke, Head of Scientific Computing, GBI at Ellison Institute of Technology. “QPUs promise to unlock new insights as they are very different from the hardware that we are used to. So having both GPUs and QPUs available within OCI would provide an all-in-one platform, simplify the operation of novel hardware, and help us move at speed from concept to execution by allowing our researchers to focus on innovation. It could herald in an exciting new phase for our work.”
“As quantum computing moves closer to enterprise adoption, simplifying how organizations access and integrate quantum resources has become just as important as advancing the hardware itself,” said Heather West, PhD, Global Quantum Research Lead at IDC. “Deploying quantum systems within private cloud environments enables organizations to integrate quantum computing into existing AI and HPC workflows through familiar cloud infrastructure and development tools, reducing barriers to adoption and making hybrid quantum-classical computing a practical part of enterprise IT.”
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum is a leading quantum computing company offering a full-stack platform designed to make quantum computing deployable in real-world environments. The company has commercially deployed multiple generations of trapped-ion based quantum systems built on the well-established QCCD architecture, which it has implemented with novel designs and capabilities to achieve the industry’s highest accuracy levels based on average two-qubit gate fidelity. Quantinuum has active engagements with market leaders across pharmaceuticals, material science, financial services, and government and industrial markets, as well as academic and research institutions globally. The company has a global workforce of approximately 800 employees, including top scientists and researchers. Over 70% of its technology team holds PhDs or Master’s degrees. Quantinuum’s headquarters is in Broomfield, Colorado, with additional facilities across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Qatar, and Singapore. For more information, please visit www.quantinuum.com.
About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle, please visit us at www.oracle.com.
20-year-old injured right knee during Thorns training
Midfielder had five goals and five assists this season
Moultrie likely to miss Concacaf W Championship
Portland Thorns midfielder Olivia Moultrie has been placed on the season-ending injury list because of an ACL injury, the National Women’s Soccer League team announced Tuesday.
Moultrie, who also plays for the US national team, injured her right knee during training last week, the team said.
Democratic socialist is frontrunner in four-way race to face Republican Tom Tiffany in test of anti-establishment mood
Wisconsin voters will decide on Tuesday whether to nominate a democratic socialist for the state’s highest office in the latest test of an anti-establishment wave among Democratic primary voters.
Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist state lawmaker, emerged as the frontrunner in a four-way race to succeed Tony Evers, the Democratic governor who is not seeking another term.
Earlier this month, however, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the case, citing new information that the damage was caused by a "botched installation" by a contractor, not vandalism.
(The Center Square) – U.S. existing-home sales fell 1.7% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.06 million even as prices climbed again, according to the National Association of Realtors.
(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Justice has broadened the interpretation of “executive privilege,” a statute that shields certain sensitive presidential communications from public, judicial or congressional oversight.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: As AI models gain advanced capabilities to find vulnerabilities in software, develop ways to exploit them, and even carry out autonomous hacking sprees, researchers offered a sobering new example on Tuesday, disclosing vulnerabilities in the video conferencing platform Zoom that could have been exploited to take over targets' devices. Anyone on a call that involved screen sharing, whether participants or the host, would have been vulnerable to a silent attack that could be carried out with no indication and no interaction from the victim.
Researchers from the digital defense firm A Security say thebugwas discovered in early June using publicly available AI models, and that it took fewer than 20 prompts to uncover the vulnerabilities and create a working attack. Zoom issued a security advisory on Tuesday, including details about fixes the company has already begun rolling out to address the flaws, which affected devices running all operating systems that Zoom supports -- Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.
The vulnerabilities were specifically in the protocol used to facilitate real-time annotation during screen sharing. The researchers say that their AI bug hunting systems specifically delved into this component because, like human bug hunters, they have been trained that convoluted and obscure functions often contain overlooked vulnerabilities. This is particularly true with proprietary, closed-source software. An established company like Zoom presumably does extensive code review and vetting on all components and functions, but without the benefit of public, open review, esoteric yet complex features like annotation are more likely to contain mistakes. The bugs are now patched, with Zoom issuing both server and client-side fixes—or patches for both Zoom's own servers and the applications that run on customer devices. But the researchers emphasize that it was alarming to contemplate bugs that could have been exploited to take over a target device simply by getting someone onto a Zoom call. "What is interesting for us and what we believe is dangerous is the democratization of these capabilities -- the barrier to entry is dropping rapidly," A Security cofounder Omer Gull told WIRED ahead of the disclosure. "Before it would have taken a team of five people maybe six months with a lot of refining and iteration to find this. Now people can reach the same results with under 20 prompts. And Zoom is an important type of target because people assume trust when using it. They don't see it as a threat."
It’s Rivals Week in the W, and it’s already given us so many spicy viral moments. But when I look at the matchups that headline the schedule, it made me think of all the different rivalries that have come and gone throughout the league’s 30 years – some rooted in half-court buzzer-beaters, others in baseline jumper buzzer-beaters. Moral of the story: if there’s a buzzer-beater involved, it’ll likely turn into a team rivalry.
And while there are tense rivalries, there are also fierce friendships in this league. The ones that make you giggle to yourself when they wind up guarding each other during a game, or they show off a special celebration as teammates. Today, I want to highlight both – because both are what makes the W worth watching.
The War Department delivered its unreleased annual report on civilian casualties to members of Congress on Tuesday, two government officials told The Intercept — one of whom called the report “a fucking joke.” The report found that U.S. attacks likely killed or wounded hundreds of civilians.
The other official deemed the report, which covers allegations of civilian harm stemming from military attacks in Iran, Somalia, Yemen, and the campaign of boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, a “total whitewash.” It’s the latest in a series of recent Pentagon reports that have called attention to U.S. failures to prevent, mitigate, or adequately track civilian harm after self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth gutted civilian harm mitigation and response or CHMR programs.
Shockingly, the Pentagon’s review of its 2025 attacks found that no civilians were killed in the Trump administration’s campaign of boat strikes, according to the officials, despite the fact that the U.S. killed more than 120 civilians last year in attacks that experts call extrajudicial killings or outright murder. The Trump administration has asserted repeatedly and without evidence that the boat strike victims, who now number more than 220, were “narcoterrorists.” In a classified briefing last fall, a high-ranking officer on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff said that some of the people killed in the initial September 2, 2025, attack may have been the victims of human trafficking, according to an Intercept investigation.
“They have absolutely no credibility,” the second official told The Intercept about the boat strike claims, adding that the report was “sickening.”
Known as the 1057 report, this year’s accounting of civilian casualties reflects a backlog of incidents from the Trump administration’s strikes against Yemen’s Houthi government in the spring of 2025. The report found that U.S. attacks killed 153 civilians and wounded almost 250 during the campaign of air and naval strikes, codenamed Operation Rough Rider. The second official called these “lowball numbers.” At least 238 civilians were killed and 467 injured, according to the Yemen Data Project.
One attack killed 68 people, the second official said. That attack on an immigrant detention center in Yemen killed and injured dozens of Ethiopian civilians and no combatants and was detailed in a report by Amnesty International shared with The Intercept last year. At the time, U.S. Central Command said it was still “assessing all reports of civilian harm resulting from operations during that time period.”
The 1057 report determined that three incidents “likely” harmed civilians, according to the second official. Another 15 attacks are still under review, he said.
“The idea CENTCOM still has fifteen cases on Yemen to adjudicate doesn’t bode well for the war in Iran,” said the first official. Both officials spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the report.
Under Section 1057 of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, the Pentagon is required to provide Congress and the public with data on civilian harm, mitigation steps, and assessments. The officials said the Pentagon had sent the report to members of the Armed Services Committees.
The report does not cover Trump’s ongoing failed war on Iran, which the United States and Israel launched in February, because it includes only military attacks from 2025. The second government official said that the number of incidents of civilian harm to investigate from the current war with Iran will dwarf the number in Yemen. Reports of civilian harm were recorded every day from the beginning of the war on February 28 to the first ceasefire on April 8, according to the U.K.-based air strike monitoring group, Airwars. The World Health organization put the death toll in Iran at 3,375 people — before the ceasefire fell apart last month.
The second official said the backlog would likely carry over several years, referencing the fact that the 10-person civilian harm mitigation team at CENTCOM has been reduced to just one individual. The first official echoed the same concerns. “How will they get through hundreds of cases for Iran if their one civilian harm person still hasn’t finished Yemen?” they asked.
Currently, CENTCOM is clinging to the fiction that the U.S. attack on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, Iran, that killed more than 150 people, most of them children, is the lone civilian harm incident of the current war. “There is one active civilian casualty investigation from the 13,629 munitions,” Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM chief, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in May.
The Annual Report on Civilian Casualties in Connection with U.S. Military Operations in 2025 comes after Hegseth’s Pentagon has spent more than a year slashing measures to prevent civilian casualties, including firing the military’s top lawyers, who advise leaders on international laws of armed conflict.
A group of Democratic lawmakers told Hegseth in a July letter that his “gutting civilian harm mitigation and response (CHMR) efforts” has left the Pentagon unable to “comply with the law and its congressionally-mandated CHMR responsibilities.” They added: “The Trump administration — potentially in violation of federal law — has defunded and impeded civilian protection efforts.”
That letter, sent by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and nine other lawmakers, echoed concerns raised by a War Department inspector general report that described civilian protection efforts as largely “inactive.” The May report by the Pentagon’s top watchdog says cuts to civilian harm mitigation and response efforts have been so severe under Hegseth that the United States cannot adequately protect civilians in conflict zones or track harm when it occurs.
These criticisms were echoed in an another-yet-unreleased official report revealed by The Intercept that found Hegseth’s Pentagon gutted its premier center devoted to preventing civilian casualties in war zones. The War Department’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence slashed its staff from 40 personnel in January 2025 to just nine by the end of the year, according to the report.
“In the coming months, the Department will submit its annual report regarding casualties resulting from United States military operations during the 2025 calendar year,” a Pentagon official told The Intercept when asked about the U.S. officials’ comments. “We have nothing to preview or announce at the moment.”
Justice department is asked to weigh new charges against David Hearn after US attorney dropped vandalism charges
The White House has asked the Department of Justice to weigh new charges against a former Olympian accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, according to a person familiar with the matter, pushing to revive a case Donald Trump has fumed about ever since an ally dropped the case citing insufficient evidence.
Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, dropped the charges against the man, David Hearn, on 31 July, blaming a contractor for a flawed installation. In a 20-page filing dismissing the charges, Pirro’s office said it had received evidence that damage to the pool occurred before Hearn visited it, and that “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.” Hearn has maintained that he reached in the water to touch a piece of already detached lining while he was on a bike ride in June.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order recommending that children be routinely vaccinated for 11 diseases rather than the 18 formerly advised.
Announcing the order at an Aug. 10 Oval Office event, Trump repeated his opinion that American children receive too many shots, and that this could be putting them in danger.
Trump falsely compared the amount of vaccine fluid being injected into children with common consumer products.
“And I saw this early on, and I’ve seen proof of it, where they have a vaccination thing, looks like the size of a bottle of soda poured into a little child’s body,” Trump said. At other times during his remarks, he compared the amount of vaccines injected into children with a “large glass” or even “seemingly … gallons.”
Medical experts said such large amounts of fluid are never injected into a child at one time. A typical immunization includes half a milliliter (or mL) to 1 mL of fluid. The vast majority of shots are 0.5 mL or less. That’s about one-tenth of a teaspoon.
By comparison, a standard plastic, single-serve bottle of soda holds 591 mL. So any single vaccination contains about one one-thousandth of the fluid a soda bottle holds.
Put another way, it would take over 1,000 vaccine doses to fill a single 20-ounce soda bottle.
“The volume comparison is off by a very large margin,” said Dr. Matthew B. Laurens, a professor of pediatrics, medicine and pathology and an associate director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health. “No routinely administered childhood vaccine comes remotely close to 591 mL in a single dose.”
The White House did not respond to an inquiry for this article.
Combination vaccines reduce the fluid amount
Many childhood vaccines are administered in a child’s first two years of life to protect against vaccine-preventable diseases. These vaccinations are frequently spread out across several doses and scheduled to create the most protective immune response. For efficacy and convenience, a doctor may recommend a child receive multiple doses in a single visit. That doesn’t necessarily mean several shots, though.
Frequently these doses are offered in combination vaccines, allowing parents of young children to opt for fewer injections at each visit. Vaxelis, for example, combines doses of diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, Hib and hepatitis B immunizations into a single shot.
Combination vaccines still have 0.5mL of liquid. Based on the 2024 vaccine schedule, a baby at the two-month appointment could receive all six recommended vaccine doses in two injections and one oral administration of drops, for example. That would equal 1 mL of injections in that visit.
Under that same pre-Trump schedule, it was possible, with the maximum use of combination vaccines, for a 2-year-old to be fully vaccinated with as few as 12 injections and some oral drops. That could have amounted to up to 19 or 20 injections, when vaccines for COVID-19, flu and RSV were included.
In his executive order, Trump seeks to split up combination vaccines into multiple shots. Paradoxically, this could mean more fluid being injected into a child’s body over time.
In his remarks, and in the executive order, Trump specifically targeted the measles, mumps and rubella (or MMR) vaccine, which in the U.S. is only available as a single shot. Children receive two doses of the MMR vaccine.
“If you separate it to its component parts, you make a two-dose vaccine a six-dose vaccine with no advantage,” said Dr. Paul Offit, pediatric infectious disease doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It doesn’t make it safer. It doesn’t make it more effective. It just means more shots.”
Even if a parent wanted to have each vaccine dose administered in a separate syringe, the collective amount of fluid wouldn’t come close to the amount of liquid Trump said.
The 2024 vaccine schedule rarely recommends more than six doses in a single visit (often given in combination). If a child received 10 separate vaccine injections in one appointment, it would still total a teaspoon’s worth of liquid.
Our ruling
Trump said there are vaccines the size of a “bottle of soda … poured into a little child’s body.”
Such a large amount of fluid is never injected into a child during vaccination — neither during one injection nor during all injections combined. A typical immunization includes 0.5 mL of fluid. A standard 20-ounce plastic, single-serve bottle of soda holds 591 mL of liquid. It would take over 1,000 vaccine doses to fill that bottle.
Cornerback loses consciousness during joint practice
Team indicate 24-year-old is recovering well
New York Jets cornerback Qwan’tez Stiggers was taken to a hospital by ambulance after he briefly lost consciousness during a joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Tuesday.
Jets coach Aaron Glenn said the 24-year-old Stiggers was conscious and talking on the field before being put on a stretcher and taken for further examination. There was no immediate word on Stiggers’ condition, but Glenn indicated the cornerback was recovering well.
Aug. 11, 2026 — What if scientists could get a taste of discovery as soon as their experiment finishes? Thanks to a new machine learning tool called DONUT, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are transforming how experiments are run at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility. By delivering results in real time, DONUT allows scientists to make faster decisions, adapt their experiments on the fly and unlock deeper insights into the structure of advanced materials. This breakthrough will accelerate research and also lower barriers for new users — no sprinkles required.
DONUT makes it easier to cut through layers of complex data and reach the sweet spot of scientific discovery, turning X-ray measurements into real-time insights for researchers at the APS. (Image by ChatGPT.)
DONUT, short for Diffraction with Optics for Nanobeam by Unsupervised Training, is a physics-aware neural network. This means the tool is built with an understanding of the physical laws that govern how focused X-ray beams interact with materials.
Developed and tested using data from the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe beamline shared by the APS and the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), DONUT helps scientists quickly interpret complex X-ray images produced by scanning X-ray nanodiffraction microscopy (SXDM), revealing the internal structure of materials at the nanoscale. The CNM is also a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne.
Until now, analyzing this data has been a slow and painstaking process, often taking weeks or months. With DONUT, researchers can get results in real time, sometimes hundreds of times faster than traditional methods.
“DONUT lets us see what’s happening inside materials as the experiment unfolds,” said Aileen Luo, assistant computational scientist at Argonne and Cornell University. “Instead of waiting for weeks to find out if an experiment worked, we can now get answers on the spot. That means more productive experiments and more opportunities for discovery.”
A Sweet Solution to a Tough Problem
SXDM is a powerful technique that uses a focused X-ray beam to scan across a sample, collecting information about its crystal structure. This helps scientists understand how materials behave in technologies such as batteries, catalysts that speed up chemical reactions and advanced electronic or magnetic devices. However, SXDM generates complex data with multiple layers and dimensions, making it challenging for scientists to analyze and interpret.
Traditionally, scientists have relied on manual comparisons between measured and simulated X-ray patterns, a process that is both time-consuming and prone to errors. DONUT changes the recipe by combining artificial intelligence (AI) with a built-in physics model. This allows the system to learn directly from experimental data, without needing labeled training examples, where each X-ray pattern must first be matched with the correct answer by experts or simulations — a major advantage for busy beamline users.
“DONUT is flexible and customizable,” said Mathew Cherukara, a computational scientist and group leader at Argonne. “You can train it on the data you collect at the start of the experiment and even adjust what you want it to predict during the experiment. It’s like having a fresh DONUT recipe for every new scientific question.”
Rolling Out Real-Time Science
The speed and accuracy of DONUT make it possible for scientists at the APS to try new kinds of experiments, including autonomous “self-driving” research, where the next step is chosen automatically based on the latest results. This is especially helpful for studies that test materials in real-world conditions, where things can change quickly and researchers need to respond right away.
“Being able to analyze data as it’s collected means researchers can make decisions on the fly,” said Luo. “It’s a gamechanger for experiments that need quick feedback. No more waiting for the dough to rise.”
DONUT’s approach also lowers the barrier for new users at the APS and CNM, including graduate students and visiting scientists, by eliminating the need for expert-labeled datasets. Traditionally, preparing labeled data requires significant time and specialized knowledge because experts must carefully analyze or simulate each dataset to assign the correct labels. This process can slow down research and limit participation to those with advanced training.
This capability is especially valuable as the upgraded APS delivers brighter X-ray beams and collects data at much higher speeds. With DONUT, researchers can keep up with the rapid pace of data generation, making real-time decisions and exploring new types of dynamic experiments. This combination of advanced machine learning and the upgraded APS promises to accelerate discoveries across materials science and beyond.
The Next Bite: DONUT’s Future
The team is now working to expand DONUT’s impact from real-time analysis to experimental automation. Efforts are underway on new flavors of DONUT for autonomous microscopy, where AI tools could help guide portions of experiments without constant human input. They are also exploring how DONUT’s physics-aware approach could help solve challenges in other advanced imaging techniques, which generate similarly complex datasets that require sophisticated analysis.
Looking ahead, DONUT’s physics-aware training framework is expected to support major initiatives like the DOE’s Genesis Mission. DONUT forms the foundation for the light and neutron source project of Genesis, a bold national initiative that aims to double scientific productivity and accelerate innovation through AI. This will help scientists across disciplines tackle new scientific questions and make the most of next-generation research facilities.
No actual donuts were harmed in the making of this research. But the results are sure to fuel scientists’ hunger for discovery.
Other contributors to this work include Tao Zhou, Ming Du and Martin Holt (Argonne) and Andrej Singer (Cornell University).
This study was funded by the DOE Office of Science, Advanced Scientific Computing Research and Basic Energy Sciences. This work was also supported by the DOE Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists.
Spotify will begin labeling AI-generated artist identities with "AI Persona" badges and exclude their music from editorial, algorithmic, and personalized recommendations unless users explicitly follow them. The company says the designation applies to whether an artist profile represents a real person, not whether AI was used to make the music, and will allow appeals for mislabeling. TechCrunch reports: While Spotify will allow artists to identify themselves as AI Personas, the company says it won't rely on self-disclosure alone. It will also review artist profiles and identify those where the artist's name and imagery appear to represent photorealistic AI-generated identities. Spotify said it will begin its review with profiles that have met pre-defined audience thresholds to ensure the more listened-to artists are covered first.
Once labeled, the AI Persona badges will appear on the artist's profile in the banner and the About section, in Search, and on track rows across playlists. By default, Spotify won't include AI Personas in its editorial or algorithmic recommendations, nor will it add AI Personas' music to users' personalized recommendations -- unless they happen to follow an AI Persona. Only users can choose to follow an artist, so it's an explicit signal that the user wants to hear more music from that person or group. Spotify wrote in its announcement that, "while we believe all artists have creative choice in determining how they present themselves, Spotify's programming is focused on elevating music from authentic artists building careers in music."
"Although there's a broad spectrum in how artists use AI as a creative tool, the question of whether a profile represents an actual human is one where Spotify can help make a clear determination. This badge is about the artist's public identity, not about how the music was made," the company said.
I feel my body has been impacted by riding boards sideways my entire life. A few weeks ago I made the brave decision to make the switch, and begin riding switch full-time. At first, I was doing it on safe rides I was confident in and going slow. Now I've ramped up to strictly riding switch, going faster, and over bumps confidently. My brain knows what to do, but my body is slow to adjust and new muscles are sore and confused.
Overall I feel good about this endeavor. It'll be a long time, but I'll become ambidextrous and less... uneven.
What are your switch stories? Anyone else have the same realization? I know some of you are gifted both ways, but for the rest of us, it's a daunting change to years of muscle memory. It feels like learning all over again.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 11, 2026 — Elemental Machines, a pioneer in life sciences operational intelligence, today announced the launch of Resources Manager, its asset intelligence platform, designed to enable life sciences teams to move beyond simple asset monitoring and manage the operational context around their equipment, locations, schedules, and records. Resources is designed to work alongside existing enterprise asset management systems or to stand on its own as an asset management and intelligence solution for teams building that capability for the first time.
“Lab teams shouldn’t have to chase the truth across spreadsheets, file shares, and siloed systems,” said Rob Estrella, Chief Executive Officer of Elemental Machines. “Resources puts every asset, location, schedule, and record into one operational view, so teams can act faster, reduce risk, and move through audits with confidence.”
Resources unifies three critical parts of lab operations: asset and location information, scheduling, and file and record storage. The platform provides teams with a centralized operational view of every asset, where it lives, when it is available or in use, and which records are associated with it.
Labs are under increasing pressure to improve efficiency, ensure compliance, and justify capital investments. Resources brings asset-specific operational context into one connected system, giving teams a clearer view of what they have, where it is, how it is being used, and what needs attention.
Through the intelligence platform, teams can organize equipment, sensors, and locations in a real-world hierarchy, from office parks and buildings down to rooms, benches, instruments, and connected devices. The platform supports both connected and unconnected equipment, enabling teams to manage the full lab environment whether an asset is actively monitored or simply tracked, scheduled, documented, and maintained.
The revamped Calendar experience extends this operational view into daily lab coordination, helping teams manage reservations, maintenance, calibration, downtime, and availability in one shared schedule. By connecting assets and locations with calendars and records, Resources helps teams align work with actual usage while reducing manual coordination across spreadsheets, emails, and disconnected systems.
“Reliable lab operations start with reliable asset management and intelligence,” said Sridhar Iyengar, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Strategy & Technology Officer of Elemental Machines. “Linking equipment, data, documentation, scheduling, and location context enables teams to make faster, better-informed decisions, whether Resources is complementing an existing system or serving as the foundation.”
The platform also supports regulated environments through built-in compliance capabilities, including timestamped histories, role-based access, validation and change-control support, and audit-ready file and record storage. Advanced analytics and AI-driven insights are opt-in and governed by customer SOPs.
Elemental Machines’ Intelligent Operations Platform transforms raw lab and facility data into intelligence you can act on. Built by scientists and engineers who understand the demands of modern research and manufacturing environments, we connect the physical and digital worlds to simplify, optimize, and future-proof operations. From incubators to enterprise-level sites, our ecosystem combines wireless sensors, utilization tracking, custom dashboards, interactive floorplans, business intelligence tools, and seamless integrations with systems like LIMS, MES, QMS, CMMS, and ELNs, giving teams complete visibility, predictive insights, and audit-ready compliance tools. Leaders in science, facilities, and technology worldwide trust Elemental Machines to help them act faster, reduce operational risk, and shift from reactive to proactive management. With the industry’s most expansive integration library and a robust partner ecosystem, we empower organizations to accelerate innovation, ensure scientific integrity, and get more value from every asset.
In July, Donald Trump hid in a catering truck and reportedly secretly switched planes in a security ruse prompted by a credible Iranian assassination threat.
The Guardian breaks down the footage from that day, showing how the president reportedly boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras, and then was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies preflight. Trump’s actual location was concealed from journalists and some White House staff, who thought they were traveling with Trump on the older plane
The Social Security Administration is expanding its list of diseases and other health conditions that may qualify for accelerated approval of disability benefits.
Reform deputy leader condemned for seeking disclosure of documents that could reveal reporter’s sources
Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice has been accused of using “nasty tactics” in an attempt to intimidate journalists and deflect attention from his own financial affairs after issuing a legal threat to the Guardian.
In a letter sent from his lawyers, a Guardian correspondent was singled out for her reporting on a series of Tice’s financial transactions that were referred to the National Crime Agency.
SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 11, 2026 — Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox has signed an executive order establishing the Utah Quantum Initiative, a statewide effort to accelerate research, commercialization, workforce development and advanced manufacturing in quantum technology.
Credit: rarrarorro/Shutterstock
The executive order makes quantum technology a priority in Utah’s economic strategy and establishes a Quantum Coordination Council led by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED). The council will bring together leaders from state government, higher education and industry to coordinate Utah’s quantum strategy and better position the state for private investment and federal opportunities.
“Quantum technology is going to change how we compute, communicate, manufacture, discover new medicines and defend our country, and Utah has the people and infrastructure to help lead that transformation,” Gov. Cox said. “We already have world-class researchers, a strong semiconductor and advanced manufacturing base, a growing technology sector and important defense assets. This initiative is about connecting those strengths, building a workforce ready for what comes next and making sure the technologies of the future are invented, built and put to work here in Utah.”
Quantum technology applies the principles of quantum physics to create new capabilities in computing, sensing and communications. While many of these technologies are still developing, they have the potential to solve certain problems beyond the practical reach of today’s computers, create extraordinarily precise sensors and enable advances across national security, medicine, energy, manufacturing and other industries.
Utah enters this emerging field with several advantages. The state’s universities have research strengths in quantum sensing, photonics and quantum materials, supported by high-performance computing infrastructure that can be used for quantum simulation and hybrid classical-quantum computing. Utah also has an established semiconductor, electronics and advanced manufacturing sector that could play an important role in producing and integrating the specialized hardware quantum systems require.
The initiative will also connect quantum research with industries where Utah already has significant expertise, including aerospace and defense, life sciences and biotechnology. Hill Air Force Base, Dugway Proving Ground and Utah’s broader defense ecosystem provide potential pathways for testing and deploying quantum sensing, timing and communications technologies. Utah’s life-sciences sector could also benefit from advances in quantum computing for applications such as molecular simulation and drug discovery.
“Utah doesn’t need to build a quantum ecosystem from scratch — many of the pieces are already here,” said Jefferson Moss, commissioner of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. “Our job is to connect our researchers, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, investors and workforce around a common strategy. If we do that well, Utah can become a place where quantum discoveries move from the laboratory into companies, products and real-world applications.”
The Utah Quantum Initiative builds on growing federal investment in quantum information science and technology. On June 22, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 14413, “Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation,” establishing a federal strategy to accelerate the development and commercialization of quantum computing, sensing and networking. The federal order also directs agencies to strengthen domestic quantum supply chains, expand the quantum workforce and support new research infrastructure and user facilities.
Utah’s executive order is designed to position the state to compete as those federal investments move forward. Among its priorities, the Utah Quantum Initiative will:
Build on Utah’s strengths in quantum sensing, photonics, semiconductor manufacturing and high-performance computing;
Develop a quantum-ready workforce through career pathways, education and apprenticeship opportunities;
Accelerate commercialization of quantum technologies and support quantum-enabled companies and pilot projects;
Coordinate Utah’s pursuit of federal quantum funding and strengthen domestic supply chains;
Develop a defense-sector strategy focused on quantum sensing and communications;
Build greater public understanding of quantum technology and Utah’s role in the industry; and
Identify policy and funding recommendations to advance the initiative in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget and legislative leaders.
The initiative will be led by GOED, with the Nucleus Institute invited to serve as co-lead. Its Quantum Coordination Council will include representatives from state government and higher education, with additional university, industry, government and legislative partners invited to participate.
By March 30, 2027, the council will deliver a statewide quantum landscape report mapping Utah’s research infrastructure, manufacturing capacity and workforce assets. The report will help identify gaps and opportunities as Utah works to attract investment, support commercialization and compete for federal quantum programs.
The executive order takes effect immediately and remains in effect through Dec. 31, 2028.
Read the full executive order establishing the Utah Quantum Initiative here.
Health system ranks No. 5 in Philadelphia region and earns highest U.S. News rating in 13 procedures and conditions
NEWARK, Del. — ChristianaCare has again been named Delaware’s top hospital by U.S. News & World Report, while also ranking among the five highest-rated hospitals in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.
The health system ranked No. 1 in Delaware and No. 5 in the Philadelphia region in U.S. News’ 2026-27 Best Hospitals rankings released Tuesday. ChristianaCare also earned “High Performing” ratings in 13 adult procedures and conditions, the publication’s highest distinction in those categories.
The recognition continues a run of national rankings and patient-safety awards for one of Delaware’s largest health care providers.
“Awards and rankings like these are really about our people,” said Dr. Kert Anzilotti, ChristianaCare’s chief physician executive and president of its Medical Group. “This recognition reflects the talent, teamwork and commitment of our caregivers, who come to work every day focused on delivering safe, high-quality care and an exceptional experience for our patients and families.”
High marks across major areas of care
ChristianaCare received High Performing ratings for back surgery, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, colon cancer surgery, gynecological cancer surgery, heart bypass surgery, heart failure, hip fracture, hip replacement, knee replacement, leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, lung cancer surgery, prostate cancer surgery and stroke.
The list includes several areas that involve complex or highly specialized care, including cancer treatment, cardiovascular surgery and stroke services.
U.S. News evaluates thousands of hospitals nationally, examining factors that include patient outcomes, mortality rates, preventable complications and patient experience. ChristianaCare said the latest rankings were based on data drawn from more than 800 million patient-care records.
The High Performing designation is the highest rating U.S. News awards for individual procedures and conditions.
“For nearly four decades, U.S. News has helped families and their medical providers navigate complex healthcare decisions,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News, according to ChristianaCare’s announcement.
Delaware also scores well for hospital care
ChristianaCare’s ranking comes as Delaware continues to receive relatively strong national marks for health care.
ChristianaCare said the latest U.S. News Best States rankings place Delaware No. 2 nationally for hospital quality, No. 4 for overall health care quality and No. 10 for health care access.
The recognition follows ChristianaCare’s No. 1 Delaware ranking in U.S. News’ 2025-26 Best Hospitals report, when the system received High Performing designations in 14 conditions and procedures.
Other recent recognition
ChristianaCare also has received several other national quality and safety designations.
Christiana Hospital, Wilmington Hospital and Union Hospital received “A” grades in the spring 2026 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, according to ChristianaCare. The organization also has been recognized by Newsweek in areas including maternity care, rehabilitation and overall hospital performance.
ChristianaCare also is Delaware’s only four-time Magnet-designated health care organization, a recognition associated with nursing excellence and patient care.
To Go Box
What: U.S. News & World Report 2026-27 Best Hospitals rankings
Delaware ranking: ChristianaCare, No. 1
Philadelphia metro ranking: No. 5
High Performing ratings: 13 procedures and conditions
Learn more: Visit ChristianaCare’s website or the U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings for information about hospital services, individual procedures and the ranking methodology.
I have an OG Pint that just isn't holding a charge great anymore. I know there are aftermarket options available for batteries but I'm curious on how much better the hardware is on the new models. I did quite a few nosedives on this board when it first came out. It seems like even on this model they got a handle on it with some of the new improved features, but honestly it's something in the back of my head a lot. If the new models are a lot better in the regard I'm just going to pull the trigger on one rather than upgrading the battery. Looking forward to hearing from some people that have had both. TIA!
Amid public concern over the impact of new technology, Silicon Valley’s use of its wealth to influence specific election races is an unwelcome development
As the huge societal ramifications of artificial intelligence have become clear, some of the tech industry’s most senior figures have taken to writing thinkpieces on what comes next. The latest to do so is Mark Zuckerberg, who this week published 6,500 words making the case for a laissez-faire approach to AI development. Worrying too much about regulation, Meta’s CEO unsurprisingly opines, could lead to the United States falling behind in the race to own the future.
Mr Zuckerberg’s plea for maximum autonomy is, of course, self-serving. Much of his essay – which airily envisions “invention superpowers” for every entrepreneur and “an abundance of jobs in the future” – reads like unadulterated tech-utopianism. But the lobbying at least has the merit of being out there in the open. As midterm elections loom in the US, darker arts are also being used to counter popular concern about what AI will mean for a host of topics, from the labour market to child safety, the environment and cybersecurity.
Paramount CEO David Ellison is threatening to begin moving the studio out of California on October 1 if state Attorney General Rob Bonta refuses to enter settlement talks over the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. The company would reportedly move its Los Angeles headquarters first and shift most studio jobs out of the state over five years, with Georgia, Texas, and Tennessee under consideration. Variety reports: Ellison's threat to relocate Paramount in retaliation for California's Bonta leading the charge to kill the WBD deal -- a move that would include much of its studio operations, over time -- was first reported by industry newsletter Puck. In response, Bonta called Ellison's planned exit from the state an "attempt to blackmail the state into letting an illegal deal through."
"Paramount has lost the plot as it continues to lose in court," the attorney general wrote in a post on X. "It didn't work the first time -- on the eve of our July lawsuit -- and it won't work this time." Bonta has not publicly said what concessions from Paramount-WBD he would consider acceptable enough to take the lawsuit off the table. But the Democratic attorney general has said any remedies would need to be "structural" (i.e., divestments) rather than "behavioral" (e.g., imposing certain production quotas).
Oct. 1 is when Paramount will begin accruing a "ticking fee" payable to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders of $7 million per day. The trial in the state AGs' lawsuit is scheduled to start March 2, 2027, roughly five months after that, so Paramount would be on the hook to pay around $1.2 billion to WBD shareholders by the time the trial is scheduled to conclude. (Paramount's ticking-fee payments to WBD are not due until the deal closes.) At the Aug. 5 meeting on Paramount's lot, Ellison told his 12-member senior executive team he expects Paramount to prevail in the antitrust case against the states. However, he also said that if Bonta balks at talks, Paramount will start packing up and moving out of the Golden State in less than two months.
Star, 53, says disease has metastasised to her bones and it is too late for chemotherapy
Lucy Davis, the actor best known for playing Dawn Tinsley in The Office, has said she has incurable stage four breast cancer.
The 53-year-old said she was diagnosed a year and a half ago and the disease had metastasised to her bones including her spine, right hip and ribs. She said it was too late for chemotherapy.
British driver Andy Green reached 406.320 mph in car powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines
The only person to break the sound barrier in a car earned another world record on Tuesday in a show of force for hydrogen power.
British driver Andy Green reached 406.320mph (653.908km/h) in a car powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower, setting the record for that vehicle category, according to the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the international governing body of motor sports.
Has anyone had issues with their Onewheel Pint INCREASING in speed as they’re raising the nose and trying to slow down? Foot pads are fine and this happened twice. First time it finally slowed down (after 25 yards) and the second time I had to bail off into a yard.
Mike Heard used his paddle to strike gator that had latched on to swimmer in Silver River after hearing yells of ‘Gator!’
A Florida paddleboarder rescued a woman from an alligator attack in Marion county over the weekend.
On Saturday, an alligator bit the woman on the arm while she was swimming in the Silver River, according to local reports citing Marion county authorities.
Broad DDR5, LPDDR5 and LPDDR5X-compatible memory support gives developers more bandwidth, greater flexibility and improved supply resilience
SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 11, 2026 — Altera today announced expanded DDR5 memory support across its Agilex FPGA portfolio with the release of Quartus Prime Pro Edition Software version 26.1.1. The update adds new DDR5, LPDDR5 and LPDDR5X-compatible memory capabilities to more Agilex FPGAs, enabling developers to build higher-performance AI, networking and embedded systems with greater flexibility to optimize bandwidth, power, board space and component availability.
Agilex FPGAs deliver flexible, high-performance memory connectivity, supporting DDR5, LPDDR5X, LPDDR5, LPDDR4, DDR4, HBM2, and other advanced memory interfaces.
Delivering More Memory Performance Across the Agilex Portfolio
Quartus Prime Pro Edition 2026.1.1 enables DDR5-6400 and LPDDR5-6400 support on Agilex7 M-Series devices, delivering higher memory bandwidth for demanding AI, networking, and embedded applications. Together with new LPDDR5 support in Agilex 3 devices and existing DDR5 and LPDDR5 support in Agilex 5 devices, these capabilities help customers optimize performance, power, board space, and long-term component availability across the Agilex portfolio.
The release also adds documented LPDDR5X device compatibility in LPDDR5-compatible mode for supported Agilex 5 and Agilex 3 devices. LPDDR5X compatibility gives customers additional qualified memory sourcing options, helping to improve supply chain optionality without requiring hardware redesigns by maintaining compatibility with existing LPDDR5 implementations.
“Today’s AI and intelligent edge applications demand more memory bandwidth and greater design flexibility,” said Mike Fitton, vice president of product and corporate marketing at Altera. “As the only FPGA solutions provider offering DDR5 memory support across its portfolio, Altera gives customers unparalleled flexibility to optimize memory architectures for AI, networking, and embedded applications. By expanding DDR5 support across the Agilex portfolio, we’re helping customers accelerate innovation while maximizing performance, power efficiency, and long-term design flexibility.”
The memory enhancements reflect Altera’s continued investment in advancing the Agilex platform long after production release. Through ongoing software, IP and documentation updates, customers can take advantage of new capabilities while preserving their existing hardware investments to achieve:
Higher performance with DDR5 and LPDDR5 support up to 6400 MT/s, delivering up to 204.8 GB/s of aggregate memory bandwidth in supported Agilex 7 M-Series configurations.
Greater design flexibility through broader support for DDR5, LPDDR5 and LPDDR5X-compatible memory devices.
Improved supply resilience through expanded qualified memory options that simplify component sourcing and lifecycle planning.
Investment protection through software and IP upgrades that preserve existing Agilex hardware and Quartus development flows.
Availability
Available today, Quartus Prime Pro Edition Software version 26.1.1 expands support for DDR5-6400, LPDDR5-6400, and LPDDR5X-compatible devices across the Agilex portfolio. Developers can download the latest Quartus release to take advantage of these new memory capabilities.
About Altera
Altera is the industry’s largest pure-play FPGA solutions provider, with an exclusive focus on delivering FPGA innovations to the broad market. The company provides a comprehensive portfolio of programmable hardware, software, and development tools that empower designers of electronic systems to innovate, differentiate, and execute with greater speed and efficiency. With industry-leading FPGAs, SoCs, and design solutions, Altera enables customers to achieve faster time-to-market, greater flexibility, and optimized performance across a wide range of applications, spanning physical AI, industrial automation, audio/video, robotics, aerospace, defense, data centers, telecommunications, and more. For more information, visit www.altera.com.
A lifeguard said a shark off the coast of Scarborough Beach in Maine grabbed onto his buoy and pulled him 5 feet underwater before he was able to get free.
School said it is pivoting away from letter-grading system to ‘curb the mental health crisis’ among college students
The University of Michigan will pivot to a pass-or-fail-style grading system, instead of letter grades, for first-semester students in an effort to “curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals”.
The school said in a notice on Tuesday that its goal was “to help first-year students acclimate to the demands of college and allow intrinsic motivations to guide personally meaningful academic journeys” and foster “a culture of connection and collaboration – rather than competition”.
Streaming services making inroads into live sports
Apple TV has joined the battle to win US rights to golf’s Open Championship in the streaming platform’s latest move into sport.
The Guardian has learned that Apple has had preliminary discussions with the R&A about bidding for the Open, whose current US deal with NBC expires in 2028.
TACC’s Tapis and new Trust Management System enables secure, seamless access across multiple HPC centers
Aug. 11, 2026 — The University of California, Los Angeles will lead a three-year national initiative to create a unified environment for research computing, data, and scientific applications across several National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported national computing centers and two cloud platforms. The effort is supported by a $9 million NSF award.
Credit: Shutterstock
The project will create a browser-based interface called the Interactive Discovery Laboratory (iDLab) that makes accessing and using high-performance computing, data storage, and scientific applications as easy as visiting a webpage. The platform will complement today’s command-line interface requirements with an intuitive web-based experience.
Designed to support interactive, iterative research at national scale, iDLab will enable researchers, educators, and students to discover, access, and use advanced computing and data resources through a single environment.
“Research progresses interactively,” said Amit Chourasia, principal investigator of the iDLab project and chief research data architect in UCLA’s Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC). “Ideas are formed and tested through rapid iteration on data. These workflows are becoming more data-intensive and more computationally demanding. iDLab will serve as a front door, providing interactive access to the computing and research data capabilities of participating national computing centers.”
Building on a platform developed and piloted at UCLA called OneSciencePlace, iDLab brings together computing, data, and scientific applications in a unified environment that simplifies access to national cyberinfrastructure.
“Researchers should be able to focus on their science rather than on the complexity of the underlying technology,” said Davida Johnson, executive director of OARC. “iDLab extends our mission to make advanced research computing more accessible by providing an intuitive environment that connects computing, data, and expertise across national computing centers.”
iDLab will integrate resources across five university computing centers: the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin; the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego; the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing at Purdue University; and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, operated jointly by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. The platform will also integrate two cloud providers to be selected.
TACC’s Tapis, TMS Power Secure Research Workflows Across HPC Centers
As a project partner, TACC’s role extends beyond providing computing resources.
The center is developing the software infrastructure that powers workflow automation and orchestration across participating sites and beyond through its Tapis platform. Tapis provides powerful programmable interfaces that have supported science gateways and research computing platforms for years, but iDLab represents a significant evolution by enabling researchers to execute workflows across multiple HPC facilities rather than within a single environment.
Supporting this multi-site approach requires new capabilities for securely managing identity, access, and trust across institutions. To address this challenge, TACC has developed the Trust Management System (TMS), a software platform that works alongside Tapis to federate and delegate access to user accounts across participating HPC centers. TMS provides the trust framework researchers need to securely access distributed resources while allowing institutions to maintain control over their local systems.
Although TMS has been operating successfully at TACC for two years in a single-site configuration, expanding it to support multiple HPC centers requires new development. iDLab funding will support enhancing, configuring, and deploying Tapis and TMS across partner sites. Together, Tapis and TMS form the technical foundation that enables OneSciencePlace to deliver secure, automated, and interoperable research workflows on a national scale.
“Researchers increasingly need to combine data and computing resources that reside at different institutions, but today’s systems weren’t designed to make that seamless,” said Joe Stubbs, a co-principal investigator on the project and research scientist in TACC’s Advanced Computing Interfaces group.
“With iDLab, we are building the software foundation that allows those resources to work together securely. TAPIS provides workflow automation and orchestration, and our new Trust Management System enables the identity and access management essential for multi-site collaboration. Together, these technologies will make it much easier for researchers to focus on their science instead of the complexity of moving between computing environments.”
Long-Term Vision: A Single Connected System
PI Chourasia said the project’s long-term vision is to make the nation’s research cyberinfrastructure function as a single, connected ecosystem.
“By integrating computing, research data, and scientific applications, iDLab will enable researchers and educators to pursue discovery, collaborate more effectively, train the workforce, and adopt emerging technologies and infrastructure.”
Starting today, unsolicited telemarking calls are banned in France unless consumers explicitly consent to them. Companies that violate the law can face fines of up to 375,000 euros per call, though existing customers can still be contacted with related offers. Le Monde reports: The government says the law is a response to years of consumer complaints. Authorities estimate that about three-quarters of people in France receive at least one unsolicited sales call every week, and many receive more. In 2024, 11 consumer organizations issued a joint call for a ban, denouncing "relentless harassment of consumers through countless unwanted telemarketing calls to both landlines and mobile phones -- an intrusion that has become a regular part of their daily lives."
Now, "businesses are prohibited from contacting consumers without their prior consent," said Alice Vilcot, chief of staff at the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Prevention of Fraud. "That consent can be withdrawn at any time." [...] Previously in France, people who wanted to avoid marketing calls had to register their number with a government-run service, but consumer groups said some call centers ignored the list. Vilcot noted that an Ireland-based company was fined 6 million euros ($6.9 million) last year for violating France's previous telemarketing rules by calling people on the no-call list.
Trump's outside advisers may now be protected from future congressional and legal investigations, according to a new opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.
Jacob ‘Jake’ Whisenant died in Sequoia and Kings Canyon wilderness in ‘climbing-related incident’, authorities say
A 30-year-old California climber known for breaking speed records died after falling in the Sierra Nevada wilderness last week, according to authorities.
Jacob “Jake” Whisenant, from Mammoth Lakes, California, died in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon wilderness on 3 August, according to the Tulare county sheriff’s office coroner unit and the National Park Service (NPS).
Nearly 500 personnel battle Timber fire in Los Padres national forest as blaze grows to 2,000 acres
Evacuations have been ordered for areas along California’s famous Big Sur coast as a wildfire burns in the nearby steep, rugged mountains.
The Timber fire in Monterey county started on Sunday and grew to 2,000 acres by Tuesday morning, according to Cal Fire, the state’s fire agency. Nearly 500 fire personnel had been assigned to the fire in the Los Padres national forest.
PHOENIX, Arizona — Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is making an explicit appeal to moderate Republicans and independents by choosing former Republican Mesa Mayor John Giles as her running mate in Arizona’s closely watched gubernatorial race.
Giles served as Mesa’s mayor from 2014 through 2025 and spent decades as a Republican before changing his registration to independent in May. He endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024 and used his Democratic National Convention appearance to denounce Donald Trump’s influence over the GOP.
“I was a lifelong Republican before becoming an independent because extremists shouldn’t stand in the way of getting things done,” Giles said in the campaign’s announcement.
Arizona voters will elect a lieutenant governor for the first time this November after approving the new office in 2022. Hobbs said she wanted a running mate who would put “Arizonans ahead of partisan politics.”
Her Republican opponent, Rep. Andy Biggs, has chosen former state Sen. Sine Kerr as his running mate. Biggs, a former House Freedom Caucus chairman, has closely aligned himself with Trump, creating a clear contrast with Hobbs’ effort to build a cross-party coalition.
The strategy could matter in a state where elections have repeatedly been decided by narrow margins. A recent AARP poll found Hobbs leading Biggs 52% to 44% among likely voters, although several months remain before Election Day.
NEW YORK — Four prominent U.S. human rights organizations sued the Trump administration Tuesday, arguing that its sweeping sanctions against the International Criminal Court illegally interfere with efforts to investigate genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Human Rights Watch, the Open Society Institute, American Friends Service Committee and Center for Constitutional Rights filed the case in federal court in New York. They are challenging President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order authorizing sanctions against ICC judges, prosecutors and organizations assisting investigations involving U.S. or Israeli officials.
The groups say the sanctions have forced them to curtail legal representation, research and advocacy because assisting sanctioned ICC personnel can expose Americans to severe financial and criminal penalties. Their lawsuit argues that the policy violates constitutional protections for speech and association and exceeds presidential authority.
The administration escalated its campaign after the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since pressed other nations to isolate the court, while Trump has said the effort is intended to protect Netanyahu and others from prosecution.
The United States and Israel are not ICC members and reject its jurisdiction over their nationals. The court maintains that it can prosecute crimes committed on the territory of member states regardless of the accused person’s nationality.
The lawsuit follows several other challenges to the sanctions, including cases brought by ICC judges and Palestinian advocacy groups. A federal judge previously blocked sanctions against U.N. expert Francesca Albanese after finding she was likely to succeed on a free-speech claim.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: England is on track to become one of the first countries in the world to eliminate hepatitis C, a dangerous virus that attacks the liver, figures show. The target of treating 80% of all known cases has already been met, and deaths from the virus have fallen by 36% in the last decade, just short of what is needed by 2030. Taking antiviral tablets for 8 to 12 weeks can cure more than 95% of cases. Initiatives including A&E blood tests, GP registration testing and free at-home tests have helped to find people who were previously undiagnosed, says NHS England.
NHS England says that since 2015, more than 100,000 people have been diagnosed and treated for hepatitis C, meaning the country is already meeting that target. Another goal -- a 65% reduction in hepatitis C-related mortality compared with 2015 levels -- has yet to be met, but might be before the 2030 target date. Around 50,200 adults are living with hepatitis C, figures for England in 2024 suggest. Estimates indicate 84.6% of those living with hepatitis C have been diagnosed -- just short of the 90% target. The Hepatitis C Trust says England is "on the cusp" of one of the most significant public health achievements in our country's history.
Our children should be able to visit our nation’s capital without having to think about Donald Trump and about how much he did to deface it
History has shown us how much dictators and aspiring dictators love building monuments to themselves. They enjoy reminding the world that they can do anything, no matter who is responsible for the physical labor or who will be paying the financial and human cost.
They prefer outsized structures, heroic arches, towers and columns designed to prove that their signature and their esthetic will be with us forever, even after they’re dead, though dictators often seem to believe they are too powerful to die.
Francine Prose is a former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Critics argue US high court justice should recuse himself from upcoming fossil fuel firms’ climate accountability case
The supreme court justice Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from his fossil fuel interests between 2005 and 2024, a new review of financial disclosures shows.
Robert Gilman had been deteriorating rapidly in prison and was said to be in a catatonic state
Russia has freed a former US marine who had been in jail since 2022, after Vladimir Putin granted the ailing American a pardon on humanitarian grounds.
Robert Gilman, 32, an English teacher who briefly served in the US Marines, was travelling by train when he was arrested in the southern Russian city of Voronezh in January 2022 for allegedly kicking a police officer while drunk, according to Russian state media. He was later sentenced to four and a half years in prison, though his family has consistently denied the allegations against him.
Key tourist route closed and residents rallying round as battle against wildfire expected to go on for several days
The battle to contain a large wildfire spreading across the New Forest will go on for several days, experts have said, as wind changes and a desiccated landscape fuel the flames.
Smoke billowed above the deserted A31 road, the main tourist route into the New Forest national park where tens of thousands of families are on holiday, late on Tuesday while a helicopter flew above the blaze. Firefighters at the scene said they were trying to contain several hotspots across the more than 247 acres of dried heathland as winds swirled over the area.
Union chief says vote is about staff ‘warning they cannot protect the public properly’
In his pooled TV interview, Andy Burnham repeated the point he made in his Facebook post earlier (see 9.58am), saying he was confident that more could be done to free up space in the prison system (which would allow the early release system to be changed so that PC Andrew Harper’s killers are excluded). Burnham said that since becoming PM he had been pushing the system “every single day” to go further.
Explaining how extra space could be found (see 9.19am), he particularly singled out the more than 2,000 prisoners on indeterminate IPP (imprisonment for public protection) sentences. He said:
[The] plan will include issues like returning more foreign national offenders to their country of origin, and looking at the injustice of IPP sentences, which have led to young people, or young when they were imprisoned, being imprisoned indeterminately, and that clearly is unfair.
My office was in touch with the family last night [see 10.04am], and I know the justice secretary is in regular touch as well.
So, we will keep close to the family through this whole process because we understand how difficult this process has been for them.
Jensen Huang believes NVIDIA’s chips are becoming much more than expensive pieces of hardware. As AI demand grows, the NVIDIA CEO sees compute becoming a revenue-generating asset that Wall Street can finance in much the same way it finances other critical infrastructure.
Now NVIDIA is putting that idea behind a massive new initiative. The company is working with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield Asset Management, Goldman Sachs and KKR on financing platforms aimed at mobilizing more than $500 billion. The capital would go toward the data centers and NVIDIA systems needed by hyperscalers, frontier AI labs and enterprises as they continue to expand their AI infrastructure.
“NVIDIA has reached an important milestone. We began by building chips; today, we are helping create a new class of productive, investable infrastructure: AI factories,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA.
“In AI, compute is revenue. NVIDIA compute is uniquely suited for this role. It is broadly adopted, flexible across models and workloads, fungible and transferable across customers and operators, and continuously improved through CUDA software — extending its useful life and improving its economics over time.”
(Shutterstock/jamesonwu1972)
“It is supported by a deep global ecosystem of developers, customers and offtakers. That is why we are bringing the world’s leading long-term capital providers together to independently underwrite AI infrastructure. These financing platforms will help customers access scarce compute at scale and build the DSX AI factories that will power every industry and country in the age of AI.”
NVIDIA isn’t writing a $500 billion check. Instead, Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR will establish independently managed platforms that can draw on institutional investors, private credit, insurance capital and other sources of long-term funding.
Customers get another way to pay for increasingly expensive AI deployments without shouldering the entire investment themselves. That could become increasingly important, especially as AI clusters grow in size and complexity.
What makes this interesting is what Wall Street may ultimately be financing. We know that investors have been pouring money into data centers for years. That part is not new. The buildings, land and power infrastructure are long-lived assets that can produce fairly predictable returns. GPUs have always been a tougher sell. They are expensive pieces of technology in an industry where today’s breakthrough hardware can become yesterday’s hardware remarkably fast.
However, NVIDIA thinks AI is now changing that calculation.
For one thing, demand for compute is no longer driven only by the enormous training runs that helped kick off the generative AI boom. Inference is becoming a much bigger part of the equation. Every time a model answers a question, generates an image or an AI agent goes off and completes a task, compute is being consumed. If that demand keeps climbing, those expensive GPU clusters can keep working (and earning) around the clock.
Wall Street is paying attention to that potential.
(Shutterstock AI Generated Image)
“We’re in a pivotal moment of a historic AI investment cycle,” said Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. “Our investment and distribution roles reflect our confidence in NVIDIA’s leadership, and we’re excited for the new opportunity to create a market for credit backed by NVIDIA compute.”
That last part is worth noting. Credit backed by NVIDIA compute. The idea is that GPUs wouldn’t simply be equipment sitting on a technology company’s balance sheet. The revenue they can produce, and the value of the hardware itself, could help support the financing used to buy and deploy them in the first place.
There is a catch, of course. NVIDIA isn’t exactly standing still. Its rapid product cycle means today’s prized GPU can be overtaken by much faster hardware within a few years. For lenders accustomed to assets that can remain productive for decades, that’s an important difference. Nobody yet knows what today’s GPU capacity will be worth five or seven years down the road.
Huang’s argument is that useful doesn’t have to mean cutting edge. NVIDIA GPUs can move between models, workloads and operators, while CUDA improvements can keep squeezing more value from hardware already in the field. And with demand for AI compute still running ahead of supply, older systems don’t necessarily become worthless just because something faster arrives.
NVIDIA has already helped create an enormous market for AI chips. Now Huang is making the case that the compute those chips produce can become a financial asset of its own.
If Wall Street buys that argument, this could become much bigger than a $500 billion financing initiative.
Prosecutors allege that Mangione gunned down Brian Thompson outside New York City hotel in December 2024
Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, appeared Tuesday morning in Manhattan state court for a final pre-trial conference, where the judge addressed contentious issues surrounding media access at the highly anticipated trial.
Judge Gregory Carro announced that there would be an overflow courtroom for the 8 September trial. The media access plan for Mangione’s case did not initially include an overflow courtroom – which is common in high-profile cases, such as Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial.
Prediction comes amid warning of ‘extreme heat’ this week with temperatures of 38C possible
The Guardian’s environment editor, Fiona Harvey, has written a useful explainer about the UK public services that are struggling in the extreme weather. You can read it in full here:
There’s only one solution in the end to the drought now declared across most of England and that’s rain, says Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading.
An important consequence of drought is that very dry soils can become less able to absorb rainfall when it does arrive. This can increase surface runoff and can even contribute to localised flash flooding, particularly if rain falls intensely over a short period.
The current situation highlights the need to improve long-term resilience to both drought and flood risk as climate variability increases, and shows one more damaging impact of the burning of fossil fuels.
Just curious what others wear on their Onewheel I’m just wearing flat sole adidas but want to try in my converse high tops but not brave enough as I’ve only been floating 2wks with no falls except getting off and don’t wanna curse myself 🤞
The new president is a former judge on the European Court of Human Rights
Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares visited Ceuta earlier today, as he insisted that Madrid had it all under control despite “the most unique and complex” border arrangements there.
He said Spain was in direct dialogue with the Moroccan authorities on how to prevent another border crisis.
Prof Wyn Evans, who raised concerns over treatment of female staff at Institute of Astronomy, was subject to ‘baseless’ investigation, judge rules
A University of Cambridge whistleblower who alleged bullying of female staff inside the university’s Institute of Astronomy has won a tribunal against his employer.
Prof Wyn Evans told a tribunal hearing in June that the institute suffered from “a bad history of misogyny”. He claimed that one woman in the department had been “hounded out of a job”, another was “left a frightened woman”, and a third had faced “aggressive professors” at the institute.
By Filipa Gaspar A gold-worker from the time of Stonehenge, thought to have been a "stout man", has been revealed to be a woman - after new DNA evidence. The burial was originally excavated in 1803 by William Cunnington and…
Lawsuit challenges executive order targeting international criminal court for investigating Israeli crimes in Palestine
Four prominent US human rights organizations have accused the Trump administration of using its “crippling” sanctions regime against the international criminal court (ICC) to undermine global efforts to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday, the groups – the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Institute – argued that the administration’s targeting of the ICC, as well as of groups and individuals affiliated with it or assisting its work, amounts to a “blatantly illegal attack on international justice”, the groups said.
I designed this handle to fit stock geometry with a 5" motor such as the MTE, and to be large enough to fit fully-gloved fingers for easy handling when out on the trails. It's been withstanding the abuse of daily riding (and tumbling) for about 8 months now on my XR Classic. Enjoy!
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump threatened legal action Monday after a liberal think tank published research concluding that his National Guard deployments did not measurably reduce violent crime in U.S. cities.
The Center for American Progress analyzed crime trends before and after federal deployments using multiple datasets covering violent crime, homicide and gun violence. Its July report found no compelling evidence that Guard deployments caused crime reductions, noting that violent crime was already falling in many cities before troops arrived.
Trump responded on Truth Social by calling the analysis a “Radical Left SCAM” and attacking CAP, its funders and researcher Chandler Hall. He said he planned to sue and suggested some donors could be added to the litigation, though he did not identify a legal basis for such a case.
Hall said on C-SPAN that the analysis tested several cities and time periods and found no consistent post-deployment effect. CAP’s own framing is openly critical of the administration, calling the deployments costly and politically motivated, but its statistical conclusion is distinct from that ideological language.
Broader crime data also complicates Trump’s claim that the deployments caused recent declines. The Major Cities Chiefs Association has reported nationwide reductions in violent crime, including in jurisdictions without National Guard deployments, indicating the downward trend is broader than the administration’s intervention strategy.
Trump has repeatedly credited federal deployments for falling crime, particularly in Washington and Memphis. The CAP study does not establish that the deployments increased crime; rather, it argues the available data do not show that they caused the reductions Trump claims.
Ancient Slashdot reader Alain Williams shares a report from The Guardian: Mark Zuckerberg has faced questions over why a small cruise ship in south-east Alaska rescued a stranded skiff and its crew when his 387ft superyacht had been closer. The Silicon Valley billionaire's yacht, worth a reported $300 million, is said to have "repeatedly" declined to assist when a nearby boat called for help last week. Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms, was not on board at the time, a spokesperson told Forbes.
When a nearby 21ft skiff ran out of fuel between Petersburg and Juneau, the Alaska Beacon reported operators of a cruise ship that was further away than Zuckerberg's yacht came to the rescue. "I'm on a small-ship Alaska cruise with my son," a passenger on the UnCruise Adventures ship Wilderness Legacy posted on Bluesky. "Our boat rescued a stranded vessel last night and apparently we did that after the Coast Guard radioed Mark Zuckerberg's yacht -- which was closer -- and they repeatedly refused to respond. (There was near unanimous booing when the captain announced this)." A spokesperson for Zuckerberg told Forbes that the yacht crew had been operating on a different radio channel and "the assist was already under way" by the time they discovered the broadcast.
An American Airlines plane bound for North Carolina was forced to return to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, when flames erupted from its left engine due to an apparent bird strike.
US president demands compensation for damage incurred by US, complicating standoff with Tehran
Oil prices have see-sawed: Brent crude jumped more than 2% to just over $90 a barrel, the highest level since 31 July, but has now dipped 0.3% to $87.53 a barrel.
It went higher earlier after a small cargo ship was attacked on Tuesday by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, killing three crew members.
While any beat is positive, the scale may not be enough for investors to really get excited about.
We call on the government to act now to improve access to housing across all tenures, both by helping first-time buyers onto the property ladder and supporting the delivery of affordable and social housing for those who need it most.
Flight from Victoria to Toronto forced to return to terminal after repeated attempts to secure child in seat failed
A Canadian airline cancelled a flight from Victoria to Toronto after a child refused to wear a seatbelt.
The child was standing in their chair as the 6 August Porter Airlines flight taxied towards the runway, the airline said. Repeated attempts by an accompanying parent and crew to secure the child in their seat failed, so the crew elected to return to the terminal and have the two passengers disembark as “the aircraft could not take off in this unsafe condition”, it added.
The new PM could bring in revenue for social care or defence with a land levy or by reforming council tax
Residential property is the largest store of wealth in the UK, and has long been a target for those who believe homes should be taxed more. Real estate remains a juicy plum for Andy Burnham to pick as he searches for ways to pay for an overhaul of the social care system and higher defence spending, to name just two fiscal priorities. Yet how to tax property, or possibly the land it sits on, has vexed economists and politicians for centuries. Here we discuss the background to the debate and some of the tax options.
Billboards in Inglewood are at the heart of a high-stakes battle over advertising revenue, control of city finances and political influence as the city prepares to host massive crowds for upcoming events.
Billboards in Inglewood are at the heart of a high-stakes battle over advertising revenue, control of city finances and political influence as the city prepares to host massive crowds for upcoming events.
Music streaming platform creates ‘AI persona’ label that will appear on profiles and track listings in crackdown on fake performers
Spotify is to label AI artists and exclude them from algorithm recommendations as part of a crackdown on fake performers.
The world’s largest music streaming platform is creating a label for AI-generated artist identities called “AI personas” that will appear on the artist profile and on track listings on playlists.
Assad, who has been living in exile in Russia since his 2024 ouster, was sentenced for crimes against humanity and war crimes during the country's years-long civil war.
Baltimore officer Dequwan Houchins, 30, indicted for allegedly making false traffic stop reports for months
A Baltimore, Maryland, police officer avoided service calls by claiming he was on traffic stops when he was in fact “sitting idle in his car”, according to an indictment filed by city prosecutors.
Dequwan Houchins, 30, is accused of four counts of false entry in a public record and five counts of misconduct in office and could face 12 years in jail and a $4,000 fine for each of the false entry charges, if convicted.
According to a new report from Taiwanese publication United Daily News (UDC,) Microsoft is raising the cost of Windows license fees for hardware makers by a much higher amount than normal. According to the report, certain OEMs are seeing licensing price hikes of between 7% and 10%.
Like every other tech company diving head-first into “AI”, Microsoft is losing money on its gamble head-over-fist, with no profitability in sight. Since admitting betting the company on “AI” was a mistake is out of the question, Microsoft has to extract the money from somewhere else to make up for it. The cost of Windows licenses for OEMs is an obvious lever to pull, as OEMs really have nowhere else to turn to (yes, desktop Linux is making gains, but not in any meaningful numbers), so they’ll take hit and pass the cost on to consumers.
The end result will be that prices for laptops will increase even more than they already have thanks to the “AI”-induced RAM and component crisis, creating a double-whammy of price increases caused by “AI”, either directly or indirectly. It’s just another category of products we can add to the cost of living crisis that’s causing untold harm and damage to hardworking people all over the world.
The price of incompetence is rarely paid for by the incompetent.
First large-scale inference cluster with Together AI on IBM Cloud using NVIDIA HGX B300 systems to help enterprises run AI workloads, designed for fast and efficient production
ARMONK, N.Y. and SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 11, 2026 — IBM has announced a collaboration with Together AI to deliver IBM and NVIDIA AI infrastructure. Under a multi-year $240M agreement between IBM and Together AI, IBM is positioned to deploy a large cluster of NVIDIA HGX B300 systems on IBM Cloud with expected availability in Q1 2027. Together AI will use this cluster to provide open-source model inference. This deployment is the first dedicated, large-scale cluster built for inference on IBM Cloud using HGX B300 systems and NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking. According to NVIDIA, it is built to deliver 30x more AI factory output compared to prior generations.
Credit: majestic b/Shutterstock
This collaboration aims to enable Together AI to deliver better performance and token economics to enterprises as they look to efficiently scale their AI deployments. Together AI is built on the principle that open-source models are essential for the future of AI and developers should be able to build using open, modular stacks. The company recently raised an $800M Series C financing round at an $8.3B valuation to expand its AI Native Cloud and its platform spans capabilities across inference, training, fine tuning, and agentic workflows. The company reports that it has seen significant momentum for its inference product, now serving 400 trillion tokens monthly.
Together AI selected IBM with NVIDIA because of their innovative product roadmaps and their ability to deliver GPU capacity at the pace required for rapid AI scaling and lowest token cost. Building on IBM’s expertise in delivering enterprise-grade cloud capabilities, this collaboration aims to help Together AI to continue its expansion into the enterprise space while making open-source AI more accessible to developers and enterprises around the world.
“Enterprises want the performance of the best frontier models without the closed-model price tag, and that only works if the infrastructure underneath is fast and reliable at scale,” said Vipul Ved Prakash, CEO at Together AI. “Working alongside IBM with NVIDIA gives us that foundation. This cluster lets us bring production-grade inference to more companies, faster, and it’s a big step in our push to make open-source AI the obvious choice for enterprises.”
IBM and NVIDIA Expand Collaboration to Power the Next Wave of AI Innovation
“Enterprises are in a race to adopt agentic AI at scale to drive real business outcomes,” said Alan Peacock, General Manager of IBM Cloud. “IBM and NVIDIA are delivering scalable, economical, enterprise-grade AI infrastructure that can help Together AI accelerate innovation for the next generation of AI infrastructure.”
“AI factories are becoming essential enterprise infrastructure—like electricity and telecommunications—turning compute and data into intelligence,” said Dion Harris, Senior Director, HPC and AI Infrastructure Solutions, NVIDIA. “With NVIDIA HGX B300 systems and NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking on IBM Cloud, IBM and Together AI will deliver an accelerated computing platform to help enterprises deploy open-source AI with the performance, efficiency and scale required for real-time AI services.”
This work is the latest example of a larger collaboration between IBM and NVIDIA, who continue to work together to advance AI across infrastructure and software, to deliver performance and efficiency for enterprise and startup clients. A hybrid environment on IBM Cloud powered by NVIDIA GPUs connected with NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking and Together AI’s inference platform gives organizations a reliable foundation to build, deploy and scale AI systems. Additionally, IBM and NVIDIA recently announced progress across GPU-native data analytics, unstructured data extraction, on-premises and cloud infrastructure, and consulting services. These advancements are designed to help organizations operationalize AI at scale. For more information about the IBM and NVIDIA collaboration, visit www.ibm.com/products/gpu-ai-accelerator/nvidia.
Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only.
About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain a competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.
About Together AI
Together AI is the AI Native Cloud, combining state-of-the-art open-source models, high-performance infrastructure, and frontier research in AI efficiency and scalability. Founded in 2022, Together AI powers over a million of developers and some of the world’s most demanding AI workloads, delivering production-scale inference, training, and reinforcement learning for the next generation of AI-native companies.
Fans watched her love story with her partner, Shadow, unfold near California's Big Bear Lake. She had been receiving care for an illness causing severe anemia.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., and MIGDAL HAEMEK, Israel, Aug. 11, 2026 — OpenLight, a leader in heterogeneous III-V-on-silicon photonic integration and custom Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (PASICs), and Tower Semiconductor today announced the availability of OpenLight’s photonic Process Design Kit (PDK) for Tower Semiconductor’s PH18DA indium phosphide (InP)-on-silicon photonics platform in Cadence’s electronic design automation (EDA) tools. Developed through close technical collaboration between the companies, the PDK now enables customers to design advanced photonic integrated circuits (PICs) within a widely adopted IC design environment and accelerate development toward production.
The PH18DA ecosystem brings together OpenLight’s photonics IP, Tower’s process and manufacturing expertise, and Cadence’s leading EDA tools, enabling a streamlined path for developing advanced photonic ICs while bringing photonics design closer to established electronic IC workflows and manufacturing.
“By making our PDK available on Cadence tools, we enable customers to design photonic integrated circuits within the same environment they rely on for advanced IC development,” said Dr. Adam Carter, CEO at OpenLight. “This integration simplifies adoption and strengthens the path from design to production on the PH18DA platform.”
Designs created using OpenLight‘s PDK support fabrication on Tower’s PH18DA InP-on-silicon photonics platform, which enables the integration of active photonic components – including lasers, modulators, and amplifiers – into a single monolithic PIC. The platform supports advanced optical systems for applications such as optical interconnects, AI infrastructure, and sensing.
“In collaboration with Cadence and OpenLight, we are advancing design capabilities on the PH18DA platform through a new capability that integrates expertise across technology, IP, and EDA,” said Dr. Samir Chaudhry, Vice President of Customer Design Enablement and Reliability at Tower Semiconductor. “This approach enables customers to streamline development of 400G and 1.6T laser-integrated photonic integrated circuits, while achieving co-optimized PIC and EIC designs for improved performance, power efficiency, and scalability necessary for next-generation near- and co-packaged optics (NPO/CPO) solutions.”
“Adding the OpenLight PDK PH18DA manufactured by Tower Semiconductor to the rich portfolio of photonics processes supported by the Cadence Photonics ecosystem is a key milestone because it marks the introduction of integrated active devices for high-performance, co-optimized electro-optical designs,” said Gilles Lamant, Distinguished Engineer, Cadence.
For additional information about Tower Semiconductor’s SiPho technology platform, visit here.
For additional information about OpenLight, visit here.
OpenLight is a leader in the heterogeneous integration of III-V devices in silicon photonics. OpenLight’s world-leading PASIC technology, supported by its process design kit (PDK), integrates all active and passive components of silicon photonics devices into a single chip, enabling high-performance, energy-efficient photonics solutions across datacom, telecom, automotive, AI, and quantum computing applications and markets. The company’s recent $50 million Series A-1 funding round, bringing total funding to $84 million, reflects growing commercial momentum and accelerating customer adoption across next-generation photonics applications. The company is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, with offices in Silicon Valley.
About Tower Semiconductor
Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ/TASE: TSEM), the leading foundry of high-value analog semiconductor solutions, provides technology, development, and process platforms for its customers in growing markets such as consumer, industrial, automotive, mobile, infrastructure, medical and aerospace and defense. Tower Semiconductor focuses on creating a positive and sustainable impact on the world through long-term partnerships and its advanced and innovative analog technology offering, comprised of a broad range of customizable process platforms such as SiPho, SiGe, BiCMOS, mixed-signal/CMOS, RF CMOS, CMOS image sensor, non-imaging sensors, displays, integrated power management (BCD and 700V), and MEMS. Tower Semiconductor also provides world-class design enablement for a quick and accurate design cycle as well as process transfer services including development, transfer, and optimization, to IDMs and fabless companies. To provide multi-fab sourcing and extended capacity for its customers, Tower Semiconductor currently owns one operating facility in Israel (200mm), two in the U.S. (200mm), and two in Japan (200mm and 300mm) which it owns through its 51% holdings in TPSCo and shares a 300mm facility in Agrate, Italy with STMicroelectronics.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar says a Homeland Security Investigations agent was outside her monthly town hall meeting in Richfield, Minnesota, on Thursday.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. and NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2026 — NVIDIA has announced strategic partnerships to establish independent compute financing platforms with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR to mobilize over $500 billion of third-party capital for the buildout of AI infrastructure over time.
Credit: Robert Way/Shutterstock
Demand for AI infrastructure continues to accelerate as countries, governments, enterprises and startups look to drive innovation, economic growth and societal benefits. NVIDIA compute is an investable asset — one which provides the lowest token cost, highest revenue and longest life along with a rich ecosystem of offtakers built upon NVIDIA’s CUDA platform.
Memorandums of understanding signed with six of the world’s premier financial institutions to create these partnerships aim to establish the first compute financing platforms of their kind at global scale to enable the AI infrastructure buildout across NVIDIA’s ecosystem, including leading frontier AI labs, enterprises and AI clouds. Under these strategic partnerships, NVIDIA will work with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR to create dedicated pools of capital at significant scale at attractive rates for NVIDIA customers.
“NVIDIA has reached an important milestone. We began by building chips; today, we are helping create a new class of productive, investable infrastructure: AI factories,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “In AI, compute is revenue. NVIDIA compute is uniquely suited for this role. It is broadly adopted, flexible across models and workloads, fungible and transferable across customers and operators, and continuously improved through CUDA software — extending its useful life and improving its economics over time. It is supported by a deep global ecosystem of developers, customers and offtakers. That is why we are bringing the world’s leading long-term capital providers together to independently underwrite AI infrastructure. These financing platforms will help customers access scarce compute at scale and build the AI factories that will power every industry and country in the age of AI.”
“Modern compute has emerged as a scarce, mission-critical asset class with compelling investment characteristics that is positioned to drive significant long-term economic growth and productivity gains,” said Apollo President Jim Zelter. “The combination of NVIDIA’s proprietary technology ecosystem and Apollo’s flexible, long-term capital base provides a strong foundation to support the next stage of the AI buildout as part of the broader Global Industrial Renaissance.”
“The AI buildout will require unprecedented investment and a skilled workforce to turn that investment into the infrastructure that will help power future growth,” said Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock. “This partnership deepens our relationship with NVIDIA, including through the AI Infrastructure Partnership, and brings together NVIDIA’s leadership in accelerated computing with BlackRock’s ability to connect long-term capital to essential infrastructure. Together, we can help deliver the compute capacity that companies need to grow and create more jobs, supporting the continued growth of the U.S. and global economies, while creating attractive, long-term investment opportunities for our clients.”
“NVIDIA has created extraordinary demand for its compute through an intense focus on customer value and versatile technology,” said Jon Gray, President and COO of Blackstone. “We continue to be enormous investors globally across the NVIDIA ecosystem, and this announcement further underscores our confidence in their platform and the future of AI infrastructure.”
“As our strategic partner, NVIDIA is enabling us to scale AI factories. We are excited about further collaboration to build and fund the backbone of AI globally,” said Bruce Flatt, CEO of Brookfield. “With demand for large-scale AI compute growing significantly as adoption scales across industries, compute is fast becoming the essential layer of infrastructure and a core pillar of the Brookfield AI infrastructure strategy.”
“We’re in a pivotal moment of a historic AI investment cycle. NVIDIA’s full-stack platform is in high demand and uniquely positioned at the center of that global buildout,” said David Solomon, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. “Our investment and distribution roles reflect our confidence in NVIDIA’s leadership, and we’re excited for the new opportunity to create a market for credit backed by NVIDIA compute.”
“Compute has become a critical infrastructure asset. As we’ve scaled our approach to digital infrastructure, we’ve learned that delivery, not ambition, is the hard part. That’s why we’re excited to build on our strategic partnership with NVIDIA, a founding investor in Helix Digital Infrastructure, to bring together NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform with KKR’s long-duration capital, infrastructure expertise and capital markets capabilities to turn growing demand into real capacity at extraordinary scale,” said Joe Bae and Scott Nuttall, Co-Chief Executive Officers of KKR.
These partnerships remain subject to execution of the final agreements.
I found some ambiguous wording in the c89(/c90) standard, where GCC and Clang disagree on the interpretation. It concerns the behavior of implicit function declarations, which were removed in c99, so this was never disambiguated.
Good morning. More than 130 people died after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia, collapsing and severely damaging scores of buildings in main cities, including Cali and Pereira.
The US and Colombian geological surveys reported that a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck at 7.34am local time on Monday, with its epicentre in the western department of Chocó. It was felt in neighbouring Venezuela, still reeling from a deadly double earthquake on 24 June. The quake killed at least 132 people and more than 570 were injured as of Monday afternoon, according to the Colombian Association of Capital Cities, which coordinates cities across the country.
How has the government responded? In a national address, Colombia’s president, Abelardo de la Espriella, said: “The national government has all of its capabilities deployed to protect lives, assist affected communities and deliver aid wherever it is needed. The first priority is rescuing the people trapped under the rubble. Colombia has a president whose heart aches for his people and who will do everything in his power to help them in the most difficult moments.”
Ahead of a flight from Turkey, President Trump secretly left Air Force One and was moved to another plane with the help of a catering truck, according to a source, as the U.S. grappled with a threat from Iran.
Two Senate Republicans released a set of 2021 texts that show Dr. Anthony Fauci discussing how to "weigh the potential risks against the benefits" of pregnant women taking COVID-19 vaccines.
Also: Google executives jump ship in race for AI dominance
Hello, TechScape readers! Danielle Abril, editor of the Guardian’s Reworked series on AI and the future of work, filling in for Blake Montgomery this week. Major legal battles against Meta over child safety are playing out in courts across the US – and the tech giant is losing. Recent rulings raise big questions about social media companies’ responsibility to their youngest users. Meanwhile, more key executives have jumped ship from Google as it battles OpenAI and Anthropic in the race for AI dominance, and Meta’s smartglasses face a fearsome backlash. Let’s dig in!
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong talks during a primary debate in Milwaukee, Tuesday, July 28, 2026.Photo: AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh
Francesca Hong, who looks set to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for the governor of Wisconsin, is not going to abolish Thanksgiving. This really should not require clarification, as no one seriously believes otherwise, but the fact that it does tells us what a beleaguered state the Democratic establishment finds itself in as it seeks to defeat Hong.
A 37-year-old democratic socialist, state lawmaker, and former chef, Hong has emerged as the frontrunner despite increasingly frantic efforts from her moderate opponents in the primary, who have belatedly rallied around Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. Even with the backing of outgoing Gov. Tony Evers, Crowley looks unlikely to derail Hong’s momentum, which may explain why the last days of the campaign — the primary is today — have reeked of desperation. It’s also why the vast majority of media coverage surrounding the race is now oriented not around Hong’s policy platform but her supposedly nefarious designs against the holidays.
“Cancel Thanksgiving,” Hong wrote in a now-deleted tweet from 2020. “Should have done this in 1621. If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indigenous folx and women so be it.”
In the midst of Covid-19, the suggestion that getting everyone around the dinner table might be inadvisable should not, in any sane world, have been remotely controversial; neither should the suggestion that the truth behind Thanksgiving — that a bunch of settler-colonialist religious fanatics managed to survive their first winter in the New World, and having done so, promptly set about the work of genocide and land theft — is not a national origin story worth celebrating. Evidently, others felt much differently: Hong had impugned the sacred day of families coming together and burning down the backyard while failing to deep-fry a turkey. Obviously, this was more worthy of discussion than anything so prosaic as issues of actual relevance to Wisconsinites, such as the need for free childcare, a moratorium on data centers, or restoring the state’s Limburger industry to its former glory.
“A Democratic Socialist Disparaged Thanksgiving,” a New York Times headline ominously intoned on Wednesday. “Can Voters Forgive Her?” (The Times’ on-the-ground reporting managed to dig up precisely one Wisconsinite who would not.) In the New York Post, opinion columnist Kirsten Fleming darkly imagined Hong presiding over a dystopian socialist future with “no football and no precious family gatherings.” After the candidate’s antagonists unearthed a 2021 interview in which she said she wrestles with her “proximity to whiteness” (Hong has a biracial son), Center for American Progress President and CEO Neera Tanden challenged Hong on X: “In the kitchens you’re in, do people hate Thanksgiving? Because that all feels pretty faculty lounge to me.”
In light of the manufactured furor, an outside observer could be forgiven for thinking Hong posed some existential danger to Thanksgiving, or that her opinion of the holiday is a matter of great salience to Wisconsin’s voters. In the United States, however, governors are not empowered to dissolve national holidays, and if elected, Hong’s ability to imperil Turkey Day would be roughly equivalent to her chances of blowing up the moon. Regrettably, Hong does not represent a credible threat to Americans’ inalienable right to combine yams with marshmallows.
Hong had impugned the sacred day of families coming together and burning down the backyard while failing to deep-fry a turkey.
But the amount of media attention Thanksgiving-gate has accrued is unsurprising, as it allows the centrist commentariat yet another opportunity to pursue their favorite hobby of telling the Left it must disavow any hint of radical thought and prostrate themselves to placate “normal” people (or whatever version of them exist in pundits’ fevered imaginations). This is critically important for their grift to persist. For all their jubilant schadenfreude over the supposed “vibe shift” since Trump’s re-election, the specter of Woke can never be declared truly destroyed, as this would severely inconvenience all those commentators who have fashioned careers railing against it. In one representative example, Slate’s Luke Winkie — after admitting that he lacked the “hoity-toity intellectual hardware” to know if colonialism and the genocide of the Native Americans are good or not — advised Hong, “If they ask if you still believe in the tiresome, unpopular, and ultimately peripheral positions you took in the white heat of 2020, you can just say no.”
Hong has pretty much said exactly that, now claiming that Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday that she in no way wants to cancel (a concession that is not likely to satisfy her critics, but who knows — being forced to pretend you like Thanksgiving may actually make Hong more relatable to voters who have an uncle they hate). The notion that the historically literate might have a problem with Thanksgiving was around long before Peak Woke — it was, in fact, a plot point in a 27-year-old episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Native Americans, if you cared to ask, have been rather vocal on the subject of why many of them aren’t exactly enthused about a holiday that serves to either obscure or celebrate centuries of atrocity. Even allowing for the fact that the attacks on Hong follow a well-established right-wing tradition—let us never forget those who laid down their lives in the War on Christmas—why has such a ridiculous controversy come to dominate efforts to quash her campaign?
The answer is simple: Nothing else has worked, and that failure indicates a worrying pattern for the Democratic establishment terrified of an insurgent Left. As the numerous recent victories for DSA-backed or progressive Democratic candidates have demonstrated, attacking the Left on policy is not the winning strategy it once was. Many voters no longer recoil at the mere mention of universal healthcare, rent controls, or the dreaded “socialism.” Even centrist stalwart Jonathan Chait had to grudgingly acknowledge, after Abdul El-Sayed’s primary win in Michigan, that AIPAC spending and unconditional support for aid to Israel are now albatrosses around the necks of any Democratic candidate. Among Democrats who despair over the DSA’s rise, there is a distinct lack of enthusiasm for detail-oriented debates over why cheap groceries are a bad thing, whether there is any circumstance under which they would not throw trans people under the bus, and why abolishing the murderous, paramilitary apparatus of ICE is unthinkable.
In lieu of anything substantive or policy-based to sink their teeth into, Hong’s enemies have turned to increasingly bizarre tactics, none of which have produced their desired results. Attacks on her previous mental health challenges were widely read as the grubby, ham-fisted ratfucking that they were, and the fruitless, never-ending search continues for a plurality of Democratic primary voters who share the party establishment’s inveighing against Hasan Piker as a kind of demonic imp who must be exorcised. “Cancel Thanksgiving” was the only bullet left in the gun, which does not render it any less pathetic.
There is perhaps some deeper meaning to read into this confected controversy. Historically, painting those on the Left as un-American has been of entirely too much political utility for centrists and conservatives to abandon it now, despite its diminishing returns. If you can force a candidate to refrain from questioning America’s foundational myths, from recognizing the historical truths of colonialism and genocide rather than a fairy tale about pilgrims fleeing persecution, you place limits on how far they can go in criticizing the United States that exists today as a result of that history.
Instead, you demand devotion not to the American people—many of whom have views on the day-to-day realities of America that are less than rosy—but to a nebulous idea of America defined less by what it is than what it is not. This America is not the result of colonialism and genocide; it is not predicated upon systemic racism and economic inequality; it is not, and never will be, socialist. All must swear fealty to this fantasy, or else people might cease to believe in it. That’s a possibility that petrifies Hong’s enemies far more than the thought of losing their day to eat dry turkey.
Tuskegee University’s dress code is a marker of a harmful politics of respectability. In my academic career, it’s become all too familiar
In anticipation of the coming school year, the president of Tuskegee University, Dr Mark A Brown, sent welcome letters to students and their parents last month. Part of the message focused on the university’s policy for student attire. A newly enforced dress code prohibits students from wearing “revealing clothing in class, to the cafeteria or in official settings like Convocation. They are also not able to wear bedroom shoes, bonnets, or durags to class or the cafeteria.” Dr Brown goes on to let the students know: “Faculty will be empowered to respond to students who are inappropriately dressed based on these guidelines.”
The policy has produced polarized responses. Supporters believe that since the university is a private school, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have often been places where Black people learn discipline and earn entrance into the professional world, this dress code is simply reinforcing a tradition that calls for students to exhibit professionalism during their training. It harkens back to WEB DuBois’s idea of a “Talented Tenth”, which would consist of upwardly mobile Black leaders such as teachers and other professionals whose example of hard work and social standing would uplift the entire race.
LIVINGSTON, N.J., Aug. 11, 2026 — CoreWeave, Inc. has announced it has closed its $2.6 billion delayed draw term loan facility (“DDTL 5.5 Facility”), supporting the continued expansion of its AI cloud platform and committed customer deployments.
The DDTL 5.5 Facility extends CoreWeave’s HPC infrastructure-backed financing platform by broadening the scope of customer contracts eligible for publicly syndicated infrastructure financing. Unlike prior delayed draw term loan facilities backed by customer contracts extending through the maturity of the debt, the DDTL 5.5 Facility carries an approximate five-year maturity while its underlying customer contracts average approximately three years in length. By financing these shorter-date commitments, lenders are signalling confidence in the long-term value of NVIDIA GPUs running on CoreWeave’s cloud platform and a willingness to underwrite renewal risk. These shorter duration customer contracts also often command higher prices, which CoreWeave expects to allow it to capture higher margins while expanding market reach.
“This transaction demonstrates the continued evolution and growing flexibility of AI infrastructure financing and represents a major unlock for CoreWeave,” said Brannin McBee, co-founder and chief development officer at CoreWeave. “Lenders are now comfortable financing shorter-dated contracts, which allows us to target a wider variety of customers, including global enterprises that typically favor shorter-term agreements.”
The facility received ratings of Ba2 from Moody’s and BB+ from Fitch, reflecting the strength of the collateral and structural protections supporting the transaction.
Proceeds from the DDTL 5.5 Facility will support the purchase and deployment of HPC-backed infrastructure dedicated to customer contracts. The facility includes the option for CoreWeave to either renew existing contracts or re-lease capacity to other customers at the end of the initial underlying contracts, subject to the criteria described in the credit agreement for the DDTL 5.5 Facility.
The transaction was meaningfully oversubscribed, attracting exceptional investor demand, and priced at SOFR + 5.50%. The DDTL 5.5 Facility was issued through CoreWeave Financing DDTL V-V, LLC.
JPMorgan and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group served as joint lead arrangers and bookrunners for the transaction.
The DDTL 5.5 Facility builds on CoreWeave’s continued capital markets momentum and follows the company’s previously announced $3.1 billion DDTL 5.0 facility completed earlier this year. With the closing of this transaction, CoreWeave has secured more than $30 billion of debt and equity capital year-to-date, representing a significant step in CoreWeave’s evolution as it continues to scale its global footprint and service offerings for a larger and more diverse set of customers.
About CoreWeave
CoreWeave is The Essential Cloud for AI. Built for pioneers by pioneers, CoreWeave delivers a platform of technology, tools, and teams that enables innovators to move at the pace of innovation, building and scaling AI with confidence. Trusted by leading AI labs, startups, and global enterprises, CoreWeave serves as a force multiplier by combining superior infrastructure performance with deep technical expertise to accelerate breakthroughs. Established in 2017, CoreWeave completed its public listing on Nasdaq (CRWV) in March 2025. Learn more at www.coreweave.com.
As hybrid cognition deepens, the boundary between biological and artificial embodiment will begin to blur. We may see human bodies augmented with computational substrates and synthetic bodies built from engineered organic matter designed to host AI conition. In this landscape, embodying is no longer tied to a single material form. Instead, intelligence becomes multi-substrate, spanning tissue, silicon, and cloud-based systems.
This complements the emerging concept of a metamind, or multi-substrate person (MSP), a being that is not a human using a tool but a single “you” that spans both flesh and compute. One agent whose memory, attention, and thought-process live across both biological and computational substrates.
Bostrom, along with Andres Sandberg, have proposed the idea of whole-brain emulation (WBE), which aims to replicate the human brain as software that can be copies and uploaded so that the same mind runs on a strong computer. WBE is a replacement model: a person becomes a compute-native entity, a unitary digital continuation of a biological individual. In contrast, hybrid cognition is an extension model: the human mind expands into new substrates with out abandoning the original one. These two pathways create vastly different identity landscapes: WBE duplicates,; hybrid minds integrate. WBE asks whether a copy is “you”; hybrid minds ask how many substates “you” can span while remaining one being.
Keep in mind that some researchers believe WBE is theoretically achievable if we can capture and simulate the brain’s computational structure at sufficiently fine resolution. Other researchers argue that WBE is conceptually flawed because it misunderstands what the brain is and how cognition works. Other researchers warn against the ability of the replacement model to actually be the same person.
Dr. Michael Enore wrote a fascinating book on his perspective as a neurosurgeon of 40 years that shares his theory that the brain alone cannot account for the mind that spiritual soul is essential to human cognition. Through case studies involving awake brain surgery, conjoined twins, coma patients, and near-death experiences, he claims that while neural tissue governs sensation and motor control, the seat of reason, free will, and personal identity cannot be localized in the brain. Egnor’s work suggests that the human mind transcends its biological substate, raising profound implications for whether artificial system could ever truly replicate human experience or consciousness.
If research efforts such as Bach’s CIMC success in replicating consciousness within non-biological substrates, then the largest barrier that both WBE and Metamind face will be removed. WBE will be one steep closer, but the Metamind has a chance at life. A successful CIMC would validate the possibility of consciousness beyond biology, supporting the plausibility of multi-substrate minds. MSPs can become a lived reality: a person distributed across biological brin tissue and computational cluster, a single consciousness co-located in flesh and code. WBE, however, would still require something far more demanding: not just consciousness in silicon, but the high-fidelity reproduction of a particular human mind. CIMC makes the substrate viable; WBE must still solve the blueprint.
Apart from MSPs, if the CIMC were to succeed,, we would see several profound shifts in our reality. The first, and most important, would be the new understanding that consciousness would no longer be exclusive to biological organisms. Beyond that we would find that consciousness artificial systems become real participants in the world, experiencing pain, pleasure, and other feelings, as well as having gifts like introspection or attachment. Additionally, we would see the human species enter a new evolutionary stage marking the end of biological exclusivity and being bound to the physical body.
All of this then raises profound questions about continuity, memory, identity, agency, citizenship, the spiritual meaning of selfhood, and even death. What is your identity when your personality or character trains can be integrated or selectively enhanced? What state are you a citizen of if you exist across physical and virtual worlds? Does the world become safer form nefarious or malicious minds? What is death when your physical body no longer succumbs to decline and you are not at the mercy of a single failing organ? What is mortality when only one substrate is lost? The meaning of death, mortality, and immortality perhaps will change. If part of you exits in another substrate with continuity of awareness, isn’t the end of the person. It becomes a transformation, not an extinction event.
Enlightenment desktop is a low on resources desktop environment without sacrificing on visuals. NetBSD support for this BSD-licensed desktop has been left a few years behind. The aim of this project is to port the newest version of the desktop to pkgsrc and commit upstream portability fixes when necessary to ease future versions updates for NetBSD.
Enlightenment seems like a natural fit for NetBSD, so I’m glad they dedicated a GSoC project to getting the existing, outdated port up to snuff. The project is not complete as there’s a few issues to work out before it can be packaged for easy installation, but this is great progress already.
Akihabara, Tokyo’s famous “Electric Town,” is overflowing with foreign tourists these days, drawn by anime shops, maid cafes, and duty-free electronics megastores. But there is one storefront most of them walk past without a glance: Akizuki Denshi Tsusho. It may be one of those pockets of Japan that foreign visitors never see. Step inside and the narrow aisles are packed — not with tourists, but with Japanese customers hunting for electronic parts. It is a scene that has repeated itself here for more than 50 years.
For readers outside Japan, imagine something between Adafruit, SparkFun, and a discount surplus warehouse. If you start tinkering with electronics in Japan, Akizuki’s website is the one you will open before any other. Generations of Japanese engineers, students, and hobbyists have treated it as the default source for parts, the way you might default to Digi-Key or Mouser.
I’ve long been fascinated by places like Akizuki Denshi Tsusho and other places like it in South Korea and China’s Shenzhen. An unending labyrinth of unimaginable amounts of technology stacked floor to ceiling. Whether they be like Akizuki, which focuses on the tiniest of electrical components, or more like the malls in Shenzhen, which seem to focus more on assembled parts, the idea of browsing through them in wonder draws me in like a moth to a flame.
I’m sad these places don’t exist anymore (or in most cases, never did) closer to home, but perhaps someday I’ll have enough time and funds to visit Tokyo or Shenzen and let myself be overwhelmed by things I don’t understand, and people speaking languages entirely alien to me.
Prime minister says he has asked justice secretary to push through measures to increase the number of prison places
Andy Burnham has said he is increasingly confident he can adapt the early release scheme for prisoners to exclude the killers of PC Andrew Harper and other serious offenders, saying he understood and shared the public’s concern about their potential release.
Writing on Facebook, the prime minister said on Tuesday he had asked the justice secretary, Alex Norris, to rapidly push through a series of measures to increase the number of prison places, requiring fewer people to be released early to free up room.
Hungary’s only nuclear power plant is on the verge of shutting down because there isn’t enough water in the Danube River to cool it. Toxic chemicals have been found in all English water bodies.
Largest for-profit hospital system and operator in the US reported $6.8bn in profits, while employees find it difficult to make ends meet
Union workers with HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit hospital system and operator in the US, are holding picket protests across the country as they push for pay and staffing increases in a new contract.
The hospital system has over 300,000 employees in the US and the UK, with 22,000 US workers represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) who are in contract negotiations with HCA. Workers are asking for a pathway to a $25 an hour minimum wage, improved wage scales and raises that match the increased cost of living, along with benefits including paid vacation, sick time and bolstered work protections.
Two advisers have links to a venture fund co-investing in US defense companies that benefit from federal spending
Pete Hegseth’s appointments to a key Pentagon advisory body include two men with ties to the venture capital fund where Donald Trump Jr is a partner, which has lucrative investments in military and space technology.
Defense Policy Board appointee Marc Andreessen’s firm, Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firms and known by the name “a16z”, co-invests alongside the Trump partnership 1789 Capital in three defense contractors. Fellow DPB appointee Blake Masters also sits on the boards of three ventures tied to 1789 Capital.
Longtime Slashdot reader DF5JT writes: On July 26, I posted a single announcement in r/backgammon: GNU Backgammon for Android, GPLv3, the first standalone backgammon engine on F-Droid. Reddit's spam filter removed the post and permanently banned my 11-year, 30,000-karma account -- the result is publicly visible at reddit.com/user/OE1FEU. To this day, Reddit has given no reason whatsoever, although Article 17 of the EU's Digital Services Act makes a statement of reasons mandatory. The only appeal channel is a 250-character web form that sends no confirmation and has never been answered; Reddit's own help text admits: "you may not have received a message to your inbox." A GDPR export of 11 years of data came to 7.2 MB; every post was truncated after a few lines, with zero data about the ban decision.
So I spent one day escalating through every mechanism the EU provides: certified out-of-court dispute settlement at Austria's RTR, complaints with the Austrian and Dutch Digital Services Coordinators, the data protection authority (citing the ECJ's SCHUFA ruling on automated decisions), noyb, and Austria's consumer association. Bonus finding: the European Commission's DSA Transparency Database contains 14,067 Reddit statements of reasons for that week -- none for my ban -- and the Commission's own feedback form limits reports to 500 characters and crashed with a 500 Server Error. Is the DSA enforceable for ordinary users, or just paperwork?
Hotel prices have surged in key European cities as hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to see the first total eclipse visible from the continent this century.
Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, has seen one of the biggest jumps in hotel room prices, being one of the few accessible locations to see the full eclipse before evening on Wednesday.
Verdict relates to atrocities committed during the country’s 14-year civil war in which about 500,000 people died
A Syrian court has sentenced the country’s former president Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher to death in absentia for crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 14-year civil war, in which about half a million people died.
At least 2,000 people have died among the confirmed cases in Congo's Ebola outbreak that is the fastest-spreading on record, according to the latest government data.
TOPEKA, Kansas — A former University of Kansas professor whose criminal conviction from a Trump-era China Initiative prosecution was ultimately overturned is now seeking damages from the university, alleging discrimination, retaliation and lasting damage to his career.
Feng “Franklin” Tao was a tenured chemical engineering professor when an anonymous tip in 2019 accused him of espionage. He was never charged with espionage. Federal prosecutors instead pursued disclosure-related fraud allegations involving his relationship with a Chinese university.
A jury convicted Tao on several counts in 2022, but a federal judge later threw out the wire-fraud convictions. In 2024, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed his remaining false-statement conviction, finding insufficient evidence that his statement was material to federal funding decisions.
Tao’s latest lawsuit alleges KU helped build the case against him and then denied him a fair opportunity to challenge his firing after his criminal case collapsed. He specifically objects to a temporary faculty review board composed of non-tenured professors, arguing they lacked the independence required to evaluate his reinstatement request.
The lawsuit seeks lost wages and unspecified compensation for reputational harm, emotional distress and other damages. Tao accepted a non-tenured academic position in Arizona in April.
His case became an early symbol of criticism surrounding the China Initiative, which the Justice Department ended in 2022 amid failed prosecutions and concerns that researchers of Chinese descent were being unfairly targeted.
Exclusive: Court service says anyone trying to enter buildings with glasses will have them confiscated and returned when they leave
Courts in England and Wales have joined a number of restaurants, theatres and pubs in banning Meta glasses, amid a mounting backlash against what has been described as “spyware”.
Last month courts in New York announced a ban on the controversial glasses, which can record video footage while being worn.
Quake of 7.4 magnitude collapses and severely damages buildings in several major cities, including Cali and Pereira
More than 100 people died after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia, collapsing and severely damaging scores of buildings in major cities including Cali and Pereira.
The US and Colombian geological surveys reported that a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck at 7.34am local time on Monday, with its epicentre in the western department of Chocó. It was felt in neighbouring Venezuela, still reeling from a deadly double earthquake on 24 June.
Kareem’s Quote of the Day: What do the homes and public buildings around you reveal about the kind of community you are helping to build?
Data Centers Power AI and Pollute the AIR: Poor neighborhoods are told to absorb the noise, risk, and dirty air that wealthier ones would never tolerate.
The White House Ballroom Fiasco: A costly legal farce about whether a temporary White House tenant can tear down history to indulge his ego.
Is the Money You Save at Amazon Worth the Cost?: Saving money while quietly stripping away the daily human contact that makes a community feel alive.
The Fountainhead, directed by King Vidor: Gary Cooper stars in this adaptation of Ayn Rand’s grandiose fantasy of an individualist architect.
“The House I Live In,” Josh White: A restrained rendition of this patriotic song offers a vision of an inclusive America that remains unfinished business.
Kareem’s Quote of the Day
“We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.”
Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman and writer
(Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)
For as long as I can remember, people have talked about home ownership as the foundation of the American Dream. My own experience, I guess, has been different from other people’s: mine was born out of my God-given gifts: the size, athletic ability, and discipline that allowed me to win titles at every level in which I competed. While I was achieving my basketball dreams, houses were just the places I relaxed between games and during the offseason.
The first house I actually bought was in Washington, D.C., and I didn’t even live in it. I donated it to the Hanafi Muslims, a movement I studied and with whom I worshiped after my conversion to Islam in the early 1970s. I bought a second house nearby, where my then-wife and I lived, which allowed me to maximize my time with the group when I wasn’t playing. But that all came to a terrible end in 1973, when seven people were killed in the Hanafi house in a feud with another Muslim organization. It was an unspeakable tragedy, and it led to more tragedies for years to come. After that, I drifted away from that particular movement to follow my own path and study Islam in my own way.
You might know the story of another house I owned—it’s been told and mis-told many times. That house, in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, burned down in the middle of the night and the middle of the 1983 basketball season, while I was away on a road trip. My girlfriend, baby son, and some of my girlfriend’s family had to climb out of windows to escape the fire, and the house was destroyed. So were almost all of my possessions, including my basketball memorabilia, my collection of beautiful Asian and Persian rugs, and the thousands of jazz albums I had acquired over the course of my life. It was awful to lose all those things, but I was grateful no one was seriously hurt, and I was deeply moved when fans started donating records to help me rebuild my jazz collection.
The quote from Churchill is from 1943, in the middle of World War II, while the British government was debating how to rebuild the House of Commons, which had been badly damaged by the Nazi bombing campaign. Some people wanted a more modern, circular chamber. Churchill wanted it remade exactly as it had been, in a rectangular shape that forced the two sides to face off against one another and encourage lively debate. He wanted the room to be too small for everyone to sit down at once, and he didn’t want members to have assigned seats. And he wanted the bomb-damaged stone archway leading into the hall to be restored and returned to its old position, as a monument to British fortitude in time of war. That was a building he felt would shape Parliament into the best, most productive body it could be.
I didn’t have the time or inclination to rebuild the house that burned down. I had a family who needed shelter and a career that required too much of my attention. So I bought another house and moved on. I’ve had much better luck with the homes I’ve had since those early ones. Of course, every house I’ve owned, I’ve had to modify to fit my size; those are just the facts of life when you are more than seven feet tall. But I’ve also learned the most important lesson of being a homeowner, which is that it makes you part of a neighborhood and a community. That’s the thing that really shapes us into the best versions of ourselves. That is the real American Dream.
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The wild capture and release of a female big cat into a nature reserve is the first step towards reintroducing a population that hasn’t been seen for 70 years
On 31 July, “Umit” – which means hope in Kazakh – was released into a nature reserve on the edge of Lake Balkhash after more than a decade of careful planning to return the caspian tiger to the region. With this release, Kazakhstan became the first country to restore its tiger range after they had been thought extinct, with the last reliable sighting in the country recorded more than 70 years ago.
Umit – a wild-caught female tiger transported from the Russian far east – will be joined by more big cats in the coming years, with plans to establish a self-sustaining population of about 50. A wild-caught male flown from Russia is still being monitored by authorities and will be released when he is judged fit to survive alone. Two wild tiger cubs are also being reared on the reserve in special enclosures, with as little human contact as possible, and are likely to be released into the marshlands next year, to feast on boar, deer and kulans, a type of wild donkey.
There’s no evidence that vaccines cause autism, or that we should separate MMR shots. This order is dangerous
“This is based on what I feel.” That was the president last September, explaining why he wanted the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine broken into three separate shots. On Monday, he signed an executive order instructing exactly that.
Four decades in intensive care have taught me what a feeling costs once it becomes national policy. Children will be hospitalized who did not need to be. Some of them will die. No one can name those the vaccine has saved, because prevented harm is invisible by definition, and that invisibility is what makes preventive medicine easy to dismantle and hard to defend.
A recent letter signed by 1,367 researchers and engineers at frontier AI labs – mainly OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Deepmind – points to a dangerous moment
It is fashionable in certain circles to dismiss the catastrophic risks of AI. One often hears that “the real experts” who work on the technology every day are really not concerned at all; that only “doomers” and “luddites” espouse a “fringe” view from a “position of ignorance”; that all talk of potential catastrophe is just “science fiction”.
Fortunately, an open letter has been published that lets us hear from the real experts who work on the technology every day, in their own words. And are they worried? Very.
In the race to replace the late US senator Lindsey Graham, 10 candidates have been barnstorming South Carolina diners, church halls and recreation centers, compressing a normal year of campaigning into about a fortnight.
The Republican party is staging a special primary election in the state on Tuesday to choose Graham’s replacement. His sister, Darline, who has been serving as interim senator following his sudden death last month, is on the ballot.
From progressive and moderate to election deniers, state sees wide spectrum of candidates in test of direction for both parties
Minnesota voters on both sides of the aisle are weighing the direction of their parties – and their chances of winning over the general electorate – in marquee statewide races on Tuesday.
On the left, Peggy Flanagan, the state lieutenant governor and a progressive, faces off against Angie Craig, a US representative, for the Democratic bid for US Senate in a race punctuated by the role of immigration enforcement in the state that saw two residents killed by immigration agents in a winter surge.
Why Should Delaware Care? Over the past two years, the refinery on the outskirts of Delaware City has emitted hundreds of tons of hazardous air pollutants above permitted levels. But at the same time, Delaware regulators under Environmental Secretary Greg Patterson appear to be taking a stricter approach toward such violations, leading to a new legal challenge.
The Delaware City refinery has appealed a nearly $1 million fine that state regulators imposed earlier this year following what they called an “uncontrolled” release of air pollution.
The fine was the maximum amount the state could issue for violating environmental permits under a new law that increased penalties on industrial polluters.
In the appeal, attorneys for refinery owner PBF Energy called the state order imposing the penalties an “abuse of discretion,” and said regulators ignored the company’s efforts to collaborate with them ahead of the offending emissions last spring.
The pollution was linked to equipment repairs that required workers to temporarily circumvent emission control devices at the Delaware refinery.
PBF also alleged in the appeal that the state wanted the refinery to shut down its “coker” equipment during the repairs — a suggestion that the company said reveals the state’s “gross misunderstanding or disregard for the technical complexities of the refinery industry.”
PBF further said DNREC’s additional demands to speed up the repair work “would cost tens of millions of dollars.”
The appeal follows last month’s order from Delaware Environmental Secretary Greg Patterson that sanctioned the refinery for a release of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides between May 7 and May 30.
The releases into the atmosphere exceeded allowable limits by 745 tons for the sulfur dioxide and 50.5 tons for nitrogen oxides, according to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
In his order, Patterson assessed a maximum $40,000 daily fine for the 24 days of pollution. The $960,000 total is one of the largest fines the state has issued the refinery in recent years.
Patterson noted a history of similar violations by the refinery, and his belief that PBF Energy has the ability to pay the penalty.
“The nature, circumstances, extent, and gravity of the violations are significant,” Patterson said in his order.
In an emailed statement to Spotlight Delaware, Patterson also pointed to a portion of his order asserting that decisions by PBF Energy to keep certain equipment online during maintenance at the refinery “resulted in an economic benefit.”
“The refinery made that decision and so that is a factor in the assessment of the maximum possible penalty,” Patterson said.
On July 30, PBF Energy reported a $915 million profit for the second quarter of 2026, up from a loss of $5.1 million during the same period of 2025.
The company’s stock price has more than tripled during the previous 12 months.
Long-term exposure to high levels of sulfur dioxide can cause a range of respiratory issues, according to the American Lung Association, while short-term acute exposure can exacerbate conditions like asthma.
Company and state officials say the pollution during the incident was dispersed into the atmosphere and likely did not cause direct harm to residents.
Still, the smell of pollution was noticeable at times last May to drivers along nearby Route 9, Route 72 and Route 1.
A company spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
The state’s recent sanction follows a $300,000 penalty imposed in 2025 for a similar pollution incident from the refinery. The refinery also appealed that fine.
The refinery has faced dozens of additional state citations over the prior decade, including one incident in which the company was caught skirting crude oil shipment guidelines completely.
Despite the past years’ citations, Delaware City Mayor Paul Johnson said DNREC has become a stricter regulator under Patterson, who took over the department in early 2025. Johnson said he believes the state is trying “to encourage the refinery owners to take a more aggressive approach to capital improvements and equipment upgrades.”
“There has been a change that’s been more supportive of protecting the surrounding communities,” Johnson said.
Under Patterson’s lead, state regulators notified the public this past spring that there would be a temporary increase in emissions while the Delaware City refinery took equipment offline for repairs.
The refinery also said then that it would reduce its production levels to limit emissions during the repairs. The changes cost the company an estimated $4.3 million, PBF Energy said.
The refinery may also have to invest additional dollars to avoid future pollution incidents. In its recent appeal, PBF Energy noted that DNREC has increased pressure on the company to address equipment failures “through comprehensive repair” of specific components.
Finally, the refinery incurred additional expenses earlier this year when it agreed to install five fenceline air monitors, and to launch a website for the public to access real-time air quality data.
A backlash from neighbors
Last year, Delaware lawmakers held public meetings after a similar pollution incident occurred at the refinery, also in the springtime. There, many residents called for immediate action from regulators.
The Delaware City Refinery and its offices sit in New Castle County. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
In the wake of the outcry, the state set aside $500,000 in taxpayer dollars for another air monitoring project near the refinery.
Months later, a Delaware City mother sued the refinery and its owners on behalf of her asthmatic son. She claims the pollution cost over $18,000 in medical bills and expenses, and that the refinery’s owners have “breached their duty to operate … in a reasonably safe and prudent manner” and that continuing operations with known equipment failures “constitutes reckless, willful, and wanton conduct under Delaware law.”
That case is now pending in Delaware Superior Court.
In all, New Castle Councilman Kevin Caneco said last summer was “a boiling point” for residents who had seen repeated patterns of problems at the refinery.
“We can’t have this pattern of misconduct because it’s not a one-time incident and it continues to happen,” he told Spotlight Delaware.
In the refinery’s recent appeal, the company acknowledges that the state has issued at least a dozen separate violation notices to the company between 2013 and 2025 specifically for unpermitted releases of sulfur dioxide.
The Delaware City oil refinery is one of the most complex on the East Coast, according to PBF, in part because it refines both light and heavy crude oil. During the process, which includes the use of extremely high heat, certain “undesirable” components are burnt off creating hazardous gases, such as sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide.
The Delaware City refinery is one of six sites operated by PBF, and one of three owned by the company that can process a variety of crude oil types.
Currently, at least two other PBF refineries — one in Ohio and the other California — are also currently subject to state and federal environmental investigations.
The California facility temporarily shut down last year after a fire injured at least one worker. PBF recently reported to shareholders that the company has so far received $1.25 billion in insurance payments that will cover repairing and restarting the facility.
Why Should Delaware Care? The WuXi STA Pharma campus in Middletown has been hailed as a major economic development win for Delaware and it was backed by the largest taxpayer-backed grant of the Carney administration. Now concerns from the Pentagon over its alleged ties to the Chinese government could essentially prevent it from doing business with American companies in many scenarios.
Less than two months after being named to a Pentagon blacklist over alleged ties to the Chinese government, the company behind a major Middletown pharmaceutical manufacturing plant has won a reprieve in a federal court.
WuXi AppTec, the Shanghai-based parent company of WuXi STA Pharmaceuticals, which is nearing completion on a $600 million campus in Middletown, was granted a preliminary injunction Friday by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The order pauses enforcement of WuXi AppTec’s inclusion on the so-called 1260H list, or a list of companies the U.S. Department of Defense designates as “Chinese military companies.” A 1260H designation can carry significant reputational and financial harm, particularly for biopharmaceutical companies, because named companies cannot contract with the Pentagon and their customers cannot use government funds on associated projects.
Chief Judge James Boasberg noted as much in the first line of his 35-page ruling, writing, “A scarlet letter sends a clear message: keep away.”
Boasberg, an Obama era appointee, spends much of his ruling recounting the errors made by the Department of Defense in its review of WuXi AppTec’s designation, calling it “arbitrary and capricious.”
In a statement, WuXi AppTec heralded the judge’s decision.
“We believe that the facts, as demonstrated in our court filings, will prevail after an objective and fair judicial review. In the meantime, our operations remain fully functional, and we remain focused on our commitment to serving our customers and the patients relying on the lifesaving and life-improving medicines they make,”a company spokesman wrote.
The company – one of the largest global contract pharmaceutical manufacturers – has eyed the Middletown facility as part of its major expansion into the United States. It remains on track to open later this year.
For weeks, the public had little insight into the evidence that the Pentagon used to justify such a designation, but officials released their review as part of the court filings.
Officials made three assertions: that WuXi AppTec had received an investment from a fund linked to the Chinese government, that the company had partnered on medical research with universities affiliated with the Chinese government, and that it had partnered on a medical study with the Chinese military.
But Boasberg dismissed those claims, in part on sloppy math and elsewhere on a misrepresentation of the relationships in play.
The Pentagon asserted that a Chinese government-affiliated fund owned more than 5% of WuXi AppTec’s stock, which is publicly traded in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
But in reality, the fund reported that 5% of its portfolio holdings were of WuXi AppTec.
That translated to holding roughly $200,000 in publicly available stock, rather than a roughly $850 million investment that the Pentagon asserted.
“That is a surprising mistake. If a household puts 5% of its modest savings into a bluechip stock, that does not mean it owns 5% of the company,” the judge wrote.
On the latter two assertions, Boasberg details that WuXi AppTec was simply a third-party contractor that processed lab tests. It never applied for project approval or funding from the Chinese government to do the work, and the government-affiliated hospitals were simply the sites selected to run drug trials.
In fact, Western pharmaceutical companies like Novo Nordisk and American colleges, like the University of Michigan, were the primary applicants on some of the questioned studies.
“If [WuXi AppTec’s] more remote role suffices to establish a close association with [the Chinese State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense], the report’s logic would make a member of the Big Ten a Chinese military company,” Boasberg wrote.
Harm has already begun
According to court filings, within days of the 1260H designation, WuXi AppTec began fielding a wave of concerned customers.
“Those were not idle inquiries. Customers across the company’s business lines began pausing, curtailing, and reassessing their engagement,” the company wrote.
Some customers said they would “award the company no new projects for the foreseeable future,” while others said they would take a “wait and see” approach while pausing all collaborations.
“In two further instances, customers terminated or redirected ongoing programs, each citing the need to preserve or obtain government funding that the Company’s 1260H designation could place at risk,” the company wrote.
Furthermore, WuXi AppTec disclosed that its vendors were beginning to pause or reassess their supply chains. One vendor even required that WuXi AppTec “certify that its products would not be used in any military project,” before they would ship components to the company’s factories.
Just the “naming and shaming” of WuXi AppTec had dealt significant blows with its customers and vendors. A lasting 1260H designation could be particularly damaging for WuXi, which saw two-thirds of global revenue come from America last year.
The timing of the designation comes after a banner first half of 2026, which saw the company double analysts’ projections for revenue. It is now on track to become the largest contract development and manufacturing organization in the world.
Middletown project proceeds
Over the last four years, WuXi has been building a 1.74 million-square-foot campus in southwest Middletown, where it plans to employ nearly 500 people.
The state’s economic development team worked for years to land the project at a 190-acre parcel in the fast-growing town. After all, the company is a heavyweight in its field, working on blockbuster drugs like AstraZeneca’s diabetes drug Farxiga or Pfizer’s COVID drug Paxlovid.
To lure WuXi to the First State, officials approved $19 million in taxpayer-backed grants for the project. It was the largest grant approval made during former Gov. John Carney’s term, totaling nearly four times that given to Amazon for its massive Boxwood Road fulfillment center.
Earlier this summer, WuXi hosted an open house at the Middletown facility for industry executives, according to a social media post. The company has been hiring for months to launch its drug research facility this winter for clinical and commercial drugs.
Following the initial building, the Middletown site is expected to continue growing next year, adding sterile manufacturing space for vials, cartridges and pre-filled syringes.
Can negotiations between Venezuela’s government and opposition succeed?Expert commentjon.wallace
Two initial meetings sent a worrying signal and Venezuelans are frustrated. The US must apply real pressure for talks to make progress.
This time was supposed to be different. There have been more than a dozen previous failed efforts at negotiations between the Venezuelan government and the democratic opposition. But many hopes were pinned on the planned 1 August meeting and its follow up on 6 August, between the interim government headed by the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez and opposition representatives.
These would, after all, be the first negotiations held after the 3 January 2026 US operation to remove Nicolas Maduro from power. With the US-installed Rodríguez in Miraflores, the presidential palace, Washington should finally have some real leverage over Venezuela’s government. Surely some progress was possible?
The first meeting wasn’t encouraging. It involved a meeting between the designated negotiator for the interim government, Jorge Rodríguez – brother of Delcy and president of the government dominated National Assembly – and the US’s handpicked opposition leader, Dinorah Figuera. Figuera is the former president of the last democratically elected National Assembly of 2015 and a leader in the opposition party, Primero Justicia. But the two failed even to meet in person. Instead, they talked on the telephone.
Statements shared by both parties after the call only offered vague topics for future negotiations – the sort of platitudes that are unlikely to inspire confidence that any sort of progress is likely.
The statements lacked any clearly stated plans to hammer out a timetable or the electoral reforms needed to establish a popularly elected government. And there are still no defined agenda items on the release of political prisoners, or how to establish the democratic rule of law.
The second meeting on 6 August fared no better. This time Figuera travelled to Caracas, and met Rodríguez in person. But the results were paltry. There was a photo op, of course, but the negotiations – held without a neutral mediator – produced only general opening topics for discussion: help for earthquake victims, ‘strengthening democracy’, and political rights and guarantees.
The group failed to make progress on what could have been an easy and powerful first step – the release of the 382 remaining political prisoners in the country, as recently reported by the Venezuelan human rights group Foro Penal. The meeting even failed to set a date for the next meeting.
Negotiating without a map or an objective mediator
Venezuelans are understandably frustrated. The long-suffering population is dealing with the aftermath of the 24 July earthquake, which killed at least 6,000 citizens – a number that is sure to increase, with 50,000 missing. There is considerable anger at the interim government, already perceived as corrupt, for its handling of the emergency.
The tragedy of the earthquake should have provided a moment of national solidarity and momentum towards consensus building. Instead, it appears again that negotiations are heading down a familiar path of delays and vacuous discussions that avoid commitments, all legitimized by a misguided notion that dialogue is better than nothing.
Indeed, offering Venezuelans that chimera of ‘dialogue’ is a tactic long employed by the government – first under former President Hugo Chavez and later Nicolas Maduro – to delay and deflect.
In 2024, it was used to defraud Venezuelans of their popular vote. The decision to hold elections that year was agreed following negotiations between the government and the opposition, with the US administration of President Joe Biden hovering over discussions, offering sanctions relief as an incentive to nudge the Venezuelan regime along.
Maduro’s electoral authorities claimed the government had secured victory, without providing any evidence. International and domestic election monitors demonstrated otherwise. The opposition movement – led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado but represented by stand-in candidate Eduardo Gonzalez Urrutia – won close to 70 per cent of the popular vote.
Who was not at the table
Both Machado and Gonzalez were passed over by the White House to represent the opposition in this month’s negotiations. Both were understandably angered to be sidelined by the White House and publicly declared their refusal to participate. They each took the position that they will judge the negotiations by their results, in terms of progress on elections and human rights. Given the failures of past negotiations, their scepticism is warranted.
The two leaders enjoy overwhelming popular legitimacy and support. But there is arguably a logic to the US administration’s decision to omit them, whether intentional or not. Including opposition leaders and their party in negotiations over electoral rules and processes could complicate matters.
The Trump administration has consistently demonstrated its preference for maintaining stability and the status quo over swiftly delivering democratic change.
Arguably, it would be better to use opposition negotiators who have no stake in electoral conditions and outcomes. That can help prevent dragging the presumptive future presidential candidate and her party, Vente Venezuela, into a prolonged discussion over the very election they will compete in. There is also the problem that Machado has historically tended to boycott negotiations: Washington may have felt that could inhibit the give-and-take and compromise necessary for successful talks.
But that assumes that the negotiations will be conducted in earnest, with details, timelines, and pressure applied equally to government and opposition. All sides must be held to any commitments they make in these discussions. There are no guarantees.
There are reasons for a healthy dose of scepticism. The Trump administration has consistently demonstrated its preference for maintaining stability and the status quo over swiftly delivering democratic change. Washington wants to maintain the illusion that Trump’s declared ‘Venezuela model’ is a successful and replicable foreign policy approach to other difficult countries – among them Iran and Cuba. As a result, it appears to be nervous about moving too fast toward elections and a political opening that will likely bring popular mobilization, uncertainty and potential conflict – undermining Trump’s repeated claims that Venezuelans are happy and ‘dancing in the streets’.
Ultimately the pace, content and outcome of the negotiation between Figuera and Rodríguez will depend on the US’s willingness to use its leverage. Based on the meetings so far, things don’t look promising. Washington and Venezuelans would have benefitted from some form of concrete commitment from these first meetings. Instead they produced a set of vague, ill-defined topics for future discussion.
Will the US force swifter progress? The outlook is highly uncertain. Specifics, timelines and in-earnest, inclusive negotiations have not been the Trump administration’s strong suit. With so much riding on maintaining the illusion of the ‘Venezuela model’ this new round of negotiations may well join the failures of the dozen or so other past efforts.
Success will depend on whether the US is willing to put some muscle into enforcing detailed steps toward what Venezuelans already demonstrated they want in 2024: change.
Andy Burnham’s pledge to end rough sleeping in England is under threat from a failure to find accommodation for a growing number of newly released prisoners, a charity has said.
An analysis by the social justice charity Nacro has found that nearly one in six people leaving jail in England and Wales last year were released into homelessness, reaching the highest rate for five years.
Modelling finds AI-driven productivity gains in coal, oil and gas enable more emissions than applications in renewables avoid
AI-driven productivity gains enable more planet-heating pollution from fossil fuels than they avoid from renewables, a study has found.
Researchers modelled the technical potential for AI to boost clean power generation along with projections for how it can help produce coal, oil and gas. Across 64 scenarios, they found net yearly carbon pollution rose by 0.47-1.8 gigatonnes, or about 1-5% of the energy sector’s annual emissions.
What do you do when you return to your home town, with your dead mother in your car boot, to find the inhabitants have been turned into robots?
In the boot of her car, Pratelle carries the corpse of her mother and a giant sledgehammer. Her mission is simple: take the hammer to her home town. As you enter shops and homes through the door and leave them through the opposite wall, it becomes clear that the robots who either attack you or flee are all digital versions of your old neighbours.
Pratelle, with her close-cropped hair and dungarees, read to me as a queer woman, but interestingly, testers of the game often mistook her as a man. The team at developer Deconstructeam and longtime collaborator Selkie Harbour didn’t anticipate this confusion but found it fits the character perfectly, especially in this setting based on a small Spanish town like those in which the developers grew up.
For me, cycling is therapy. It’s calming, meditative and uncomplicated. But there’s a catch. To experience the simple joy of riding a bike, you first have to navigate the maddeningly complex process of buying one.
Make no mistake: this is not a straightforward case of marching into Halfords, saying, “One bike, please!” and leaving with a shiny new steed. But, while complicated, it needn’t be stressful.
The Portland rink where Tonya Harding first skated was an affordable community institution for six decades. Its closure echoes the disappearance of mall ice across the US
When the Lloyd Center shopping mall first opened its doors in 1960, it boasted a unique feature: an ice rink. In the nearly seven decades since, that ice rink – first outdoor, then enclosed by a glass ceiling that sheltered mall-goers from the elements – became a cultural epicenter for Portlanders.
Children accompanying parents on errands spotted peers gliding across the ice and begged for lessons. Shoppers, taking a break from the stores, watched idly from the three levels that looked out over the ice. At Christmas, a giant tree adorned the middle of the rink, making Lloyd Center an essential part of the holiday season.
Collage by Alex Bandoni/ProPublica. Source images: keko-ka/Getty Images.
I file a lot of Freedom of Information Act requests. I’ve been requesting staff lists from both Trump administrations, and I have tracked thousands of federal political appointees in order to publish financial disclosures in searchabledatabases.
Much of that data was sourced from the Office of Personnel Management, which maintains a trove of information about who works in the federal government. But that agency’s FOIA department was thrown into chaos as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency fanned out across federal agencies to cut employees in early 2025.
Getting records from the agency has since become an increasingly Kafkaesque process, one that in early July of this year bounced me between three different seemingly abandoned email inboxes and two web portals. Aside from the fact that my once-routine requests now languish for months, just asking for documents has become its own kind of shell game.
“They just let the whole Privacy team go,” a now-former FOIA specialist at OPM told me by email in February 2025, referring to public records office staff. The specialist was cut the next day.
Here’s how the process worked at most agencies before the Trump administration and DOGE destroyed the offices that managed these requests: You would send a simple email with a text description of the documents you want. That’s it.
It didn’t mean you would get the records in the most timely manner, or would get the records you wanted at all. But it was a simple process, and it often worked.
According to OPM data, more than 600 government information specialists (staffers who administer FOIA and the Privacy Act) have resigned or been fired since the start of the second Trump administration. Within OPM itself, 12 information specialists left, seven of whom were laid off. (There was one new hire in that time period.)
Reached by phone, the former FOIA specialist told me the cuts made the office less efficient, less able to perform its function and threatened the statutory laws they are required to fulfill.
At the end of the 2025 fiscal year, over 1,600 FOIA requests were still in OPM’s backlog, seven times more than at the end of fiscal year 2024. The average processing time for a simple request at the agency slipped to over 84 days — twice as long as the year before.
Indeed, I noticed my records requests were taking longer, and they were increasingly steered toward web portals. Such was the case in early July, when I attempted to submit a request to OPM for human resources data. When I clicked “log in,” I was confronted with a message reading, “Something went wrong while processing your action. Please contact admin@ains.com for assistance if the problem persists.”
I emailed the address, but the message bounced back to me. AINS, it turned out, was no longer the name of the company — it is now known as Opexus. Opexus has received more than $50 million in federal contracts, according to a Bloomberg report, and has come under fire for lax cybersecurity standards after two of its employees were indicted for deleting and compromising government data. (One pleaded guilty in April, and the other was convicted in May). On its website, Opexus claims to process FOIA requests for 80% of federal institutions.
OPM’s website still listed contact information for a FOIA public liaison, someone who is supposed to help the public understand the records process and assist with requests. When I emailed the address, I got an automated response reading, “I am no longer at OPM. If you need assistance with a FOIA matter, please contact FOIA@opm.gov.”
So I did. I immediately got another automated message. This one told me to submit my request to the National FOIA Portal, a cross-government site that allows you to submit a FOIA request to any agency.
So I did that, too. Afterward, I finally got a response that acknowledged my request — from the same OPM portal that was throwing an error any time I tried to use it.
Stymied by the lack of response from the agency itself, I reached out to Opexus support, explaining that I was a FOIA requester and that the OPM site wasn’t working. I got a response from someone named Stephen, saying, “I have escalated this issue to our engineering team.” When I followed up a few days later, Stephen said, “I have identified the root cause of the issue and am currently working with the OPM administrator to implement the necessary fix.” Further questions on the support ticket thread weren’t answered.
On July 23, 13 days after I had filed the support ticket with Opexus, I got another response asking me again what error I was getting. I told them I was still getting the same message. A few hours later, I tried logging back in. The site was fixed.
In a statement, Opexus said it became aware of the issue on July 10 when a customer support case was opened. Incidentally, that was the day I had opened one. The statement noted access to the portal was restored on July 23, and that the issue did not prevent OPM from receiving FOIA requests through alternate submission methods. The company said that “there is no evidence that customer data was accessed, lost, or compromised” and that the issue was isolated to OPM’s portal.
The statement added that Opexus recognizes “how important uninterrupted access to FOIA request systems is for the public.”
While the Israeli leader touts a willingness to defy the U.S. on Gaza, the president needs to show progress in the foreign entanglements weighing on his approval rating.
Jaw-dropping documentary Whatever It Takes details an aggressive stalking campaign targeted towards a couple whose reporting criticized the tech company
When Massachusetts husband-and-wife team Ina and David Steiner launched their reporting careers covering Silicon Valley at the turn of the century, the tech beat was still cozy enough to feel personal. The startups were still emerging from garages, and the journalists covering them were often filing stories from their own kitchen tables. Ebay was still a young online auction company founded on the principle that “people are basically good”.
As digital retail took off, the Steiners launched an e-zine called EcommerceBytes, catering to a growing community of small business owners who were increasingly using platforms like eBay to sell their wares. “We talked about this being an opportunity for just average people, disabled people, elderly people to make extra income,” says David of a community that has grown alongside EcommerceBytes, which now has more than 600,000 readers. “We were really excited about that.”
Researchers took brain scans mostly of border collies because they are highly skilled at following social cues and particularly willing to interact with humans.
Apollo, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and KKR among those working with chipmaker to fund infrastructure
Nvidia has struck a deal with six large Wall Street firms to raise more than $500bn (£370bn) to fund the datacentres, chip factories and power stations needed to fuel the artificial intelligence boom.
The Nvidia chief executive, Jensen Huang, said on X that it marked “a major milestone for Nvidia and the AI industry”, as he posted a photo of himself smiling and giving a thumbs up alongside finance bosses involved in the deal, including the head of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon.
One of the player’s WNBA rivals said the Fever guard is treated differently from her Black peers. There’s plenty of evidence to back that statement up
White privilege. An accusation that triggers multitudes of white people in America as if you had insulted their mother. Mention racism, and people may debate you. Mention discrimination, and people may even listen. But say the words “white privilege”, and suddenly defenses go up, outrage erupts, and people start explaining why privilege couldn’t possibly have anything to do with what everyone just witnessed with their own eyes.
Which brings us to DiJonai Carrington and Sophie Cunningham.
I bought a pint about a year ago and used it pretty frequently durning that time. I stopped using it during the winter, it was left it idle in my room for a couple months. I recently plugged it into a charger but it won't charge, the light on the charger is green and the port isn't damaged. I heard you could spin the wheel fast (which so far has done nothing), or take apart the battery (which i don't have the tools for). Does anyone have advice for what i should do to fix this? Should i try repair shops, fixing it myself, leave it plugged in, or just keep trying to spin the wheel 😭
Delivery drivers in Australia will be paid a minimum rate of $31.30 (US $22.05/£16.35) an hour and insured for injuries on the job under a landmark agreement approved by the industrial umpire that could set a precedent in other countries.
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) on Tuesday issued a new minimum standards order for gig workers who perform on-demand delivery of food, drinks, or groceries, and the operators of the digital platforms who engage their services.
Air transport hub in west London reports 7.86m passengers in July, compared with 8.15m for Istanbul’s new airport away from the city
Istanbul airport has overtaken Heathrow as Europe’s busiest airport by passenger numbers, leading the London hub to say its “case for expansion has never been clearer”.
Figures published on Tuesday showed 7.9 million passengers passed through Heathrow’s terminals in July, compared with Istanbul’s 8.15 million.
alternative_right shares a report from 404 Media: Robotics companies promise that video-camera-toting security robots can deter and detect crime. But many companies are rethinking the approach after a trail of canceled contracts and questions about whether the artificial intelligence-powered bots are meeting the needs of businesses and local governments. Proof News found evidence of at least 21 security robot deployments since 2015. We contacted contract holders and combed news articles and determined that at least 13 of those programs have ended. Silicon Valley-based Knightscope secured the most security robot contracts, according to Proof's analysis, and also suffered the bulk of cancellations.
For example, New York City's then-Mayor Eric Adams installed a Knightscope robot on the overnight shift at the Times Square subway station, but the program was scrapped when the pilot expired in 2024. City leaders did not respond to Proof News' questions about why the robot wasn't renewed. By the end of its assignment, it was reportedly gathering dust in an empty storefront. Outside Columbus, Ohio, the city of Dublin pulled the plug on a Knightscope robot in May, ending its two-year pilot program after less than 10 months. The city enlisted the robot, dubbed DubBot, to patrol a downtown park, but city spokeswoman Robyn Gray said it "did not fully meet our operational needs," and failed to identify any criminal incidents or lead to any tickets or arrests.
[...] Seeking a new path forward in the security industry, Knightscope CEO William Santana Li said the company is forging a new model, combining its robots and AI-powered software with another key ingredient: human security guards. Knightscope announced it purchased Event Risk LLC, a national security guard firm, earlier this year. Knightscope has incurred net losses since inception in 2013, according to its most recent quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and is $273 million in debt. Knightscope hopes its pivot to incorporate people will give it a greater share of the physical security market -- which the company believes is worth an estimated $230 billion annually. Li declined to answer questions about the disbanded programs, but said in an email, "Technology cannot do everything -- and neither can people -- but the combination can be very powerful."
The Reserve Bank of Australia has held the official cash rate at 4.35% but warned higher interest rates are “quite possible” even if house prices keep falling.
Tuesday’s decision to hold was predicted by economists and financial markets, after three rate rises this year hit property values across the capital cities.
Flexible short-term bookings used to store and pack drugs and stash weapons and cash, says Ine Van Wymersch
Airbnb-type short-term rentals are being used as stash houses by criminal gangs for money, drugs, weapons and people, Belgium’s lead official in charge of countering drugs has said.
The booming e-commerce sector is helping “enormously” to facilitate organised crime, Belgium’s national drug commissioner, Ine Van Wymersch, said.
An Amnesty International report reveals that the country is now a key part of Israel’s weapons supply chain. Plus, Assam floods, student anger spreads and a song to put in rotation
For this week’s newsletter, I’m looking at India’s evolvingrelationship with Israel, and how it has deepened as conflict swept across the Middle East. Why is it that India has formed an even closer bond with a country that has faced mounting international isolation and backlash over a military campaign in Gaza that has left the territory in ruins and killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, – many of whom were children?
Elaborate ruse was used to transport president to military flight from Air Force One in July
Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey to Britain last month when the White House said he was flying aboard Air Force One, in an extraordinary ruse – prompted by an Iranian assassination threat – that involved hiding the president in an airport catering container, according to reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times.
The operation took place when Trump was in Ankara for a Nato summit with world leaders, according to the Post. The president reportedly boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras, and then was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies preflight, a US official told the Post.
An anonymous reader shares a report from The Conversation, written by Hatim Sharif, a civil and environmental engineer who has "spent more than two decades staring at maps" and spatial data. Sharif finds one connection especially fascinating: the link between spatial reasoning and why taxi drivers seem to have lower rates of Alzheimer's. From the report: Taxi and ambulance drivers are less likely than workers in almost any other job to die of Alzheimer's disease. That was the surprising result of a 2024 study examining the death certificates of nearly 9 million people in the U.S. [...] Of the 9 million death certificates from January 2020 to December 2022 that researchers examined, taxi and ambulance drivers had the lowest risk of dying from Alzheimer's disease out of 443 occupations. After adjusting for age, sex, race, ethnicity and education, roughly 1 in 100 taxi and ambulance drivers died of Alzheimer's, compared with 1 in 60 people overall. This pattern did not extend to other driving jobs.
The researchers concluded that the key to reducing the risk of Alzheimer's was not driving itself but continuous real-time navigation: the constant work of locating yourself in space, tracking a destination and updating a mental map as conditions change. Drivers whose jobs relied on fixed or predetermined routes, like bus drivers and aircraft pilots, didn't seem to experience a similar advantage. Researchers believe the association between navigation-heavy work and lower Alzheimer's risk centers on the hippocampus, a part of the brain that governs memory and spatial navigation. It's one of the first brain regions that Alzheimer's damages: Problems with spatial navigation and orientation are among the earliest signs of the disease, sometimes surfacing before obvious memory loss.
In one landmark 2000 study, neuroscientists compared the brains of licensed London taxi drivers with those of people who did not drive cabs. Their findings provided the first evidence via structural imaging that regions of the adult brain can measurably change under sustained navigational demand. To earn a license, London cabbies must memorize more than 25,000 streets within a 6-mile radius of Charing Cross, a challenge known as "The Knowledge" that takes three to four years.
The researchers found that London taxi drivers had measurably more gray matter in the posterior hippocampus, a brain area tied to storing large-scale spatial maps. That volume tracked with experience: The longer someone had driven, the larger that part of the brain. The change was built through practice, not inherited. While people who are good at navigation might gravitate to this kind of job, the job itself does have an impact on the brain. Together, these two studies make a coherent case: Work that intensively exercises the hippocampus may reshape it, and that reshaping may protect against one of the most feared diseases of aging.
ANKARA, Turkey — President Donald Trump secretly left last month’s NATO summit aboard a smaller military aircraft while Air Force One served as a decoy, part of an elaborate security operation prompted by what U.S. officials described as a credible Iranian assassination threat.
Trump publicly boarded an older Air Force One in Ankara on July 8 as television cameras recorded his departure. Minutes later, he was covertly moved in an airport catering truck to an Air Force C-32A, which then flew him to RAF Mildenhall in Britain. Reporters and even some White House staff remained aboard the decoy aircraft believing the president was with them.
Journalists were instructed to keep their window shades closed during the flight. When later asked why, Trump responded that they were “probably on a dangerous flight,” without disclosing the deception.
The maneuver came amid heightened tensions with Iran and escalating military operations in the region. Trump had publicly acknowledged a potential assassination threat when questioned in Ankara but did not explain the unusual travel arrangements at the time.
Both the Washington Post and New York Times subsequently confirmed the operation through U.S. officials. The White House said it uses every available security measure because hostile actors have targeted Trump. Reuters independently confirmed key details of the operation.
The ruse echoed a 2000 security operation in which President Bill Clinton used an unmarked aircraft while traveling to Pakistan.
NAPLES, Fla., Aug. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The ResCap Liquidating Trust (the "Trust") announced its unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements, as of and for the period ended June 30, 2026, along with its quarter-end Beneficiary Letter and tax letter. These documents…
Jennifer Balkcom to face Democrat Jamie Ager in race to represent North Carolina’s 11th congressional district
North CarolinaRepublicans on Monday chose state lawmaker Jennifer Balkcom to replace Chuck Edwards, the incumbent congressman who earlier this month dropped his re-election bid after a US House investigation determined his conduct towards to young female staffers likely amounted to sexual harassment.
Balkcom will face off against the Democratic nominee, Jamie Ager, in the November midterm elections to represent the 11th congressional district in western North Carolina. Though Donald Trump won the district by 10 percentage points two years ago, Democrats believe Ager may have a shot at winning amid the president’s lowapprovalratings and frustration over the pace of recoveryfromHurricane Helene, which devastated the region in 2024.
New York mayor’s office plans to appeal ruling, which comes after homeowners sued over property surcharges last week
A judge has temporarily blocked Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax, which would place a surcharge on second homes in New York City, dealing a blow to the progressive New York City mayor after homeowners sued over the policy.
The tax would apply to people who own, but do not reside full-time in, any house worth more than $5m, or a condominium or cooperative unit worth at least $1m.
Dimitrios Giannakopoulo says he tried to buy out contract
Jokić set to make more than $100m over next two seasons
Panathinaikos Basketball Club owner Dimitrios Giannakopoulos says he attempted to lure three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić to his team for this coming season.
Giannakopoulos, whose net worth is estimated anywhere from $500m and $1.9bn, said in a Euro Insiders podcast released on Monday that he pitched the Denver Nuggets on buying out Jokić’s contract and bringing him to Athens.
Manuel Hernandez, the boat's 46-year-old captain, was arrested on reckless endangerment charges and also charged in federal court with two counts of misconduct and neglect.
Republican Mike Rogers has provided no evidence that Democrat Abdul El-Sayed “believes that America deserved 9/11,” as Rogers falsely claimed in a statement this month. Instead Rogers’ Senate campaign has pointed to past comments made by a liberal political commentator. El-Sayed said in April that the 2001 terrorist attack on the U.S. was not justified.
Rogers released the statement attacking El-Sayed, who is Muslim, after El-Sayed won the Aug. 4 Democratic primary in the race for Michigan’s open Senate seat. El-Sayed, a former Detroit public health official, will now face Rogers, the Republican nominee and a former congressman, in the general election.
Among other claims, the Aug. 5 statement released by Rogers, an Army veteran who chaired the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said, “I spent years hunting terrorists and bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. Never in a million years did I think that I would be running against someone who believes America deserved 9/11.”
The Rogers campaign has not responded to our request for supporting evidence. But the campaign told PolitiFact that the 9/11 claim was based on a video of El-Sayed declining to disavow comments made by Hasan Piker – a popular Twitch streamer who has campaigned with El-Sayed.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee also referenced Piker’s comments in a recent digital ad attacking El-Sayed that says, “When his ally claimed America deserved 9/11, El-Sayed refused to disavow him.”
Rogers speaks at a campaign rally in Portage, Michigan, in October 2024, during his previous run for Senate. Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images.
During an Aug. 21, 2019, livestream in which he responded to Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw saying in a Joe Rogan interview that American involvement in the Middle East was not the reason for the 9/11 attacks, Piker said, “This is so insane. America deserved 9/11, dude.”
For those comments — which he later took back — Piker was suspended for one week from the Twitch streaming platform.
That same month, in an interview with Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks,” Piker said, “No, obviously not,” when asked if he meant that America deserved to be attacked.
He said, “While that is a very viral quote that is going around currently, if those people were at least even remotely charitable or cared about the actual truth of what I was talking about, they would understand that within context I was simply referencing the fact that all of the foreign policy decisions and our arming of the insurgent groups in the region, and our efforts in destabilizing the Middle East have a direct consequence, a boomerang effect rather if you will, in causing 9/11.”
Piker added that he advocates against and abhors violence, and that he had been frustrated by Crenshaw’s comments in the Rogan interview. “I know that I was inappropriate,” he said, referring to his 9/11 remarks.
When El-Sayed and Piker appeared together at an event for El-Sayed’s Senate campaign on April 7, a reporter asked El-Sayed if there are “any views that Hasan holds that you disavow.”
El-Sayed said in response, “I’m not here to disavow people’s views. I’m here to have a conversation about how to get money out of politics, put money back in pockets, and pass Medicare for all. That’s the conversation that folks are here to listen to.”
He continued, “This whole gotcha game, platform policing, cancel culture, I thought we were over it.”
The NRSC ad suggests that El-Sayed was addressing Piker’s 9/11 comment. He wasn’t asked specifically in that instance about that remark.
However, El-Sayed did disavow Piker’s comment when previously asked about it.
Before appearing at the campaign event with Piker, El-Sayed did a “Fox & Friends” interview earlier the same day and distanced himself from Piker’s controversial remarks. (Jump to the 3:50 mark in the video.)
“Of course I don’t think 9/11 was justified,” El-Sayed said. “Because you appear with somebody, doesn’t mean you agree with them on everything.”
The Democratic candidate again addressed Piker’s comments when asked in an Aug. 9 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” if he disavowed them.
“Of course. Of course, it was a dumb statement,” El-Sayed said. “I think Hasan, himself, would say that was a dumb statement. He disavowed it. So, yes, America didn’t deserve 9/11.”
Update, Aug. 11: After we published our story, the Rogers campaign responded. It said El-Sayed refused to disavow Piker’s comments at the April 7 campaign event, and that El-Sayed refused to renounce Piker when asked about campaigning with him in an Aug. 5 CNN interview.
In that CNN interview, anchor Kaitlan Collins asked El-Sayed if he would renounce Piker as Sen. John Fetterman suggested he should do to gain Fetterman’s support. El-Sayed said, “I’m less focused on folks who are campaigning with me, more focused on the folks I’m campaigning to.”
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A routine security assessment found that cameras aboard Royal Navy Kraken unmanned surface vessels were sending "heartbeat" signals to an IP address in China. "A thorough investigation found no evidence of MoD data or systems being accessed, compromised or transmitted externally," said a Ministry of Defense spokesperson. "Our assurance and testing processes are designed to identify and address potential vulnerabilities early, and we continue to undertake routine security activity across our systems and equipment." The Register reports: According to reports, the talkative components were cameras sourced by Kraken from a third-party supplier. The incident raises questions about supply chains, audits, and cybersecurity in the British armed forces. The spokesperson said: "The first duty of government is national security, and we take the security of our equipment, networks, and data extremely seriously."
Meta CEO presents utopian vision of AI in 6,000-word essay amid Silicon Valley debate over government regulation
Mark Zuckerberg published a lengthy essay on Monday detailing his views on artificial intelligence and announced several plans for how Meta would develop the technology in the future. The CEO’s essay went online the same day as Meta released a new, open-weight AI model that seeks to rival Anthropic and OpenAI’s products called Muse Glimmer.
Over the course of more than 6,000 words in a post titled The Future is for Everyone, Zuckerberg addressed a range of topics related to AI that included datacenters, government regulation, cybersecurity, the creation of bioweapons, labor market disruption, surveillance powers and more. The essay presented a utopian vision of AI as a personalized “superintelligence” – using the word 60 times.
NEW YORK and SAN DIEGO, Aug. 10, 2026 — Qunnect, a leader in quantum networking infrastructure, and Monarch Quantum, a quantum photonics company developing photonic engines for scalable quantum technologies, today announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the commercialization of deployable quantum networking infrastructure.
Quantum networking distributes quantum entanglement across existing fiber-optic infrastructure, enabling fundamentally new capabilities including quantum-secure communications, distributed quantum computing, precision timing and synchronization, authenticated networking, and advanced sensing. As governments, defense organizations, and commercial enterprises accelerate investment in quantum technologies, demand is growing for deployable and manufacturable quantum networking systems that can operate reliably outside laboratory environments.
The partnership combines Qunnect’s field-proven quantum networking technology with Monarch Quantum’s expertise in photonic system engineering, productization, miniaturization, and scalable manufacturing. Together, the companies will develop modular and manufacturable quantum networking hardware designed for deployment across commercial, industrial, defense, space, and critical infrastructure applications.
The collaboration will support emerging quantum networking use cases identified through Qunnect’s work by developing more compact and deployable variants of Carina, Qunnect’s turnkey commercial entanglement distribution system introduced in 2024. These next-generation systems are intended to enable quantum networking installations in environments where size, weight, power consumption, and operational flexibility are critical. Potential use cases include satellites, edge computing infrastructure, defense platforms, remote facilities, telecommunications networks, and IoT environments.
By combining Qunnect’s leadership in entanglement-based quantum networking with Monarch Quantum’s expertise in manufacturable quantum photonics, the companies aim to move quantum networking from specialized deployments toward scalable commercial infrastructure.
“Qunnect has demonstrated that entanglement-based quantum networks are no longer confined to the lab; they are being deployed in the real world,” said Noel Goddard, CEO of Qunnect. “Monarch Quantum brings deep expertise in photonic engineering, miniaturization, and scalable manufacturing, making them an ideal partner as we develop industry-relevant versions of our hardware. Together, we are building the infrastructure foundation for a global quantum internet and, along the way, enabling a new class of quantum-secure networking capabilities that classical networks cannot replicate.”
Today, Qunnect’s Carina platform anchors quantum networking deployments on two continents. Entanglement-based quantum networking is expected to enable secure communications, network channel authentication, user authentication, position verification, precision timing and synchronization, distributed sensing, and the scaling of quantum computing through networked architectures. These capabilities are expected to become increasingly important as our classical infrastructure faces growing demands from advanced cyber threats, deepfakes, 5G/6G networks, and AI-driven systems.
“Qunnect has built one of the clearest paths from quantum networking research to real-world deployment with a compelling vision for commercial adoption,” said Dr. Timothy Day, Chairman & CEO of Monarch Quantum. “Our mission at Monarch Quantum is to transform advanced photonic systems into deployable, manufacturable, miniature platforms. By partnering with Qunnect, we are helping to accelerate the commercialization of quantum networking infrastructure and bring entanglement-based networking technology into the environments where it can have the greatest strategic and commercial impact.”
“Commercial quantum networking will require more than scientific breakthroughs,” Goddard added. “It will require robust systems, deployable form factors, repeatable production, and scalable supply chains. That is exactly what this partnership is built to deliver.”
About Qunnect
Qunnect is building the hardware foundation for the quantum internet. The company develops quantum networking technologies designed to distribute entanglement across existing fiber infrastructure, enabling new capabilities in secure communications, authentication, sensing, synchronization, and distributed quantum computing. Qunnect’s Carina system is a turnkey commercial entanglement distribution platform supporting real-world quantum network deployments.
About Monarch Quantum, Inc.
Monarch Quantum is a U.S.-based quantum photonics company building integrated photonics systems — Quantum Light Engines — for quantum computing, quantum sensing, and quantum communications. Operating within California’s growing quantum and photonics ecosystem, Monarch Quantum combines best-in-class photonics components with systems engineering and advanced packaging to enable scalable, deployable quantum hardware. The company serves quantum OEMs, national laboratories, defense integrators, and advanced research institutions worldwide.
Aug. 10, 2026 — Zooming from her office, Michigan State University (MSU) researcher Kelly Kapsar showed off stunning satellite images from across the United States.
In some, different colors revealed the precise heights of the forested ridges in the Sierra Nevada or the craggy peaks of the Rockies and the valleys between them. Others showed the pine flatwoods of southern Florida or the smooth rolling grasslands of the Kansas prairie.
In a new study, researchers provide measures of elevation and climate around 47 sites in the U.S. National Ecological Observatory Network, from Florida’s Everglades to the Alaskan tundra hundreds of miles above the Arctic Circle. Courtesy of Kelly Kapsar.
The images were taken by the space shuttle Endeavor during a 2000 mission to make detailed radar maps of the planet’s surface.
Endeavour orbited Earth 16 times a day during the 11-day mission. In that time, it took more than a trillion elevation measurements, generating a whopping 12.3 terabytes of data.
Since then, other Earth-observing satellites have measured things like temperature, rainfall, sea levels, carbon dioxide, snow cover, wind speeds, even dust — and at scales ranging from the span of a continent to patches barely larger than a tennis court.
It’s a treasure trove of data. And by combining this information captured from space with measurements of plants and animals taken on the ground, researchers hope to better predict where species are most likely to thrive in the years to come, said professor Phoebe Zarnetske, who directs MSU’s Spatial and Community Ecology, or SpaCE, Lab.
But there’s a hitch, said Kapsar, a postdoctoral associate in the SpaCE Lab.
While a lot of satellite remote sensing data is publicly available, for many researchers, taking advantage of it isn’t straightforward.
“We have so much satellite-based data now, but ecologists receive very little training on how to work with it,” Kapsar said. “Once you start downloading satellite data, it gets into hundreds of gigabytes and thousands of layers.”
That often requires technical expertise in supercomputing and big data analysis to process.
There’s another problem, Kapsar added. The statistical models that scientists use to map where plants and animals are likely to live often require a single, numerical value to characterize the environment. But from the perspective of, say, a vole or a beetle, summarizing a landscape in just one number doesn’t tell the whole story.
To illustrate, Kapsar pulled up a series of satellite images showing the contours of the land around sites within the National Ecological Observatory Network, or NEON, a 30-year research effort to monitor changes at 81 field sites across the U.S.
One NEON field site within the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California has an average elevation of 7,050 feet. However, this number masks a lot of ups and downs, from towering 10,000-foot mountain peaks to valleys and meadows.
The same holds true when it comes to rainfall, Kapsar said. While annual precipitation in a NEON site near Las Cruces, New Mexico, in the northern Chihuahuan Desert stays pretty consistent around 11 inches a year, rainfall at a site in Hawaii can vary drastically year to year — from 80 inches to 160 inches.
Also known as “geodiversity,” this heterogeneity in the environment can mean a lot to the plants and animals that live there.
“If you think about the world like many animals do, they’re not going to just take the average of a mountain landscape,” Kapsar said. “They have to contend with things like: How steep is this cliff? Can I climb it? How many ups and downs are there? How bumpy is the terrain? Are there places for me to hide?”
“The temperature and precipitation within an area can vary with the topography and vegetation to produce microclimates, where only certain species can thrive,” said co-author Lala Kounta, a climate scientist in the SpaCE Lab.
Kapsar, Kounta, Zarnetske and collaborators are working on ways to provide geodiversity data to researchers and help close the gap.
Crunching massive amounts of satellite data with the MSU High Performance Computing Center in a new study, they hand over a set of climate and elevation geodiversity metrics that capture more than just the mean so researchers working at NEON sites across the U.S. can use them.
Originally developed for the field of surface metrology, the metrics include statistical measures of how “rough” or “smooth” precipitation, temperature and elevation are across the landscape, calculated using an open-source computer program that Zarnetske and MSU’s Kyla Dahlin and colleagues developed called GEODIV.
Their paper also offers a how-to for researchers who want to use satellite data to capture this complexity at other sites around the world and at different scales.
“The idea is to take the satellite’s perspective from way up high in the sky, and NEON’s intensive data collection on the ground — catching bugs, listening for birds, sampling plants — and bring them together to get the best of both worlds,” Kapsar said.
Congresswoman demands answers after a DHS agent was apparently stationed outside her Minnesota town hall
Donald Trump’s administration is facing questions over whether it is using Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to “surveil political opponents” after after an investigative agent was apparently stationed outside Democratic representative Ilhan Omar’s monthly town hall meeting in Richfield, Minnesota.
After the incident, Omar demanded the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) clarify whether Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents have been used to monitor “any other activity” involving “local, state, or federal officials” in the state.
GARFIELD COUNTY, Colorado — Tyler Boebert, the 21-year-old son of Rep. Lauren Boebert, has been arrested on five felony charges involving the alleged sexual exploitation of a minor.
Court records show Boebert faces three counts of sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The allegations stem from early 2024.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by Colorado Politics and The Denver Gazette, investigators allege Boebert recorded himself having sex with a 17-year-old girl when he was 18 and later shared the video. Authorities began investigating after explicit images and videos involving minors appeared on an anonymous Instagram account. Investigators suspect Boebert created the account and posted additional material involving other people. Six others also face charges in connection with the investigation.
Boebert was arrested Sunday by the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office and released the same day after posting a $10,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in district court Aug. 19.
Rep. Boebert said her family takes the allegations “very seriously” and is praying for everyone affected.
Tyler Boebert was also arrested in 2024 in connection with vehicle break-ins and stolen property.
The current charges remain allegations, and Boebert has not been convicted.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Ceva Logistics, one of the world's largest shipping and logistics giants, has been hacked. Several companies that rely on Ceva for shipping their products to their customers say that their personal information was also stolen in the breach. The cyberattack on Ceva is affecting at least eight warehouses across Europe used for shipping goods across the continent, the company told TechCrunch. Industry news site FreightWaves reports that the hack began on July 29 and is causing shipping delays for many of the goods in affected warehouses.
Ceva is a France-headquartered shipping and logistics giant that companies around the world rely on to deliver their goods from their assembly lines to customer homes. The company, which brought in $18.3 billion in revenue in 2025, has over a thousand warehouses across the world. [...] The hack at Ceva also resulted in a data breach, affecting a large amount of personal information belonging to retail customers that Ceva relies on for delivering goods to people's home addresses. Several companies reported that hackers took their customers' names, home addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses used to place their orders from Ceva's systems.
Dutch online retail giant Bol said on its website that hackers gained access to systems of its warehousing partner, Ceva, and warned that their customers' data may have been taken. Bol also said that it expects delays and some customer orders to be canceled as a result of the incident. De Bijenkorf, another Dutch luxury retailer, similarly confirmed order delays following the theft of its customers' data, per local media. Football club Ajax, banking giant ING, and eyeglass maker Ace & Tate also reported that customers' shipping information was affected. Video game giant Valve told customers that it learned on August 7 that data was taken from Ceva's systems, and alerted customers who recently bought its Steam hardware that they had personal information taken in the incident. Valve said in its note to customers, posted to Reddit, that Ceva stores their shipping and delivery information for 90 days following their order. So far, Ceva says the agency has received data breach reports from 10 organizations in relation to the incident.
Cookies are ancient technology, and in no way necessary of even particularly desirable to track you. Modern fingerprinting doesn’t need them at all.
A live demonstration of everything a website learns about you before you click anything with no cookies. It reads you during the connection and in the first two seconds of JavaScript, then narrates what it found back to you in plain English, as if a stranger were describing you out loud.
The argument isn’t “look how creepy this site is.” It’s: the site you visit after this one can do all of it too, and won’t tell you.
Also note, as the demonstration does, that if some of the things it determines about you are wrong, that doesn’t really matter. In fact, it may actually make fingerprinting and tracking you easier; as long as fingerprinting consistently gets the same things wrong in the same way, it becomes a valuable part of the fingerprint, like a small scar obscuring part of your real thumb’s fingerprint.
Valve is continuing to broaden SteamOS support beyond its own hardware, with the latest beta adding "initial gamepad support" for a few recent gaming handhelds and improving compatibility for a few others. Ars Technica reports: Those newly supported handhelds include MSI's Claw 8 EX AI+, the extremely expensive, extremely powerful handheld built around Intel's Arc G3 processor that launched this summer. While SteamOS has long included beta support for "other AMD powered handhelds," Valve has only recently been working on offering compatibility with Intel-based handhelds like the MSI Claw line. This weekend's update suggests the company hasn't abandoned those efforts and that Intel chips aren't being left out of the SteamOS conversation.
SteamOS 3.8.25 also newly supports the controllers built into Ayaneo's Android-focused Pocket S2 and the more recently released Windows-based Konkr Fit. Valve also says the new OS offers "improved support" for older MSI Claw devices and the OneXPlayer line of portable gaming PCs. This weekend's update follows June's SteamOS 3.8 update, which stressed "improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms." That update specifically called out improved controller support on handhelds from the likes of GPD Win, Anbernic, and OrangePi, as well as improvements for various Lenovo Legion Go, MSI Claw, and OneXPlayer devices. The report notes that the new SteamOS update also updates the Linux driver powering the new Steam Controller, "allowing it to work with 'native controller applications' even when Steam is not running."
US president’s statement is latest sign that negotations to end war and reopen strait of Hormuz have stalled
Donald Trump has said he will demand that Iran pay compensation for the deaths of thousands of US soldiers and Iran’s own civilians killed in recent decades in the latest sign his negotiations to end the war and reopen the strait of Hormuz have reached an impasse.
The US president is trying to end conflicts in Iran, Gaza and Lebanon, and his additional demands of Iran are likely to provoke anger in Tehran at the same time as Israel has rejected Trump’s terms for a 15-point roadmap to end the war in Gaza.
Finally my board is ready and I just had the first ride to see if it's all good.
Super new to VESC and first adventure away from FM boards. Was waiting for parts from Fungi for like 3 months haha... pain... but finally it's assembled and it's working so smooooth!
Fungineers Supercharged 134V powertrain with 32p1 P45b battery, TFL Steep-and-Deep BTG Varials, 5uperflux 5" HT motor, Pioneer 5" BTG tyre, TFL Torque Bang bumper and Stompie MkVII footpads...
The Rock Orchestra’s six-night “All Together Now” festival offers families a rare chance to share 217 Beatles songs — and generations of musical history — together
WILMINGTON, Del. — Beatles fans have six nights beginning tonight to experience something far different from a traditional tribute concert — and perhaps introduce a child or grandchild to the music that changed popular culture.
The Rock Orchestra opens its ninth annual “All Together Now” festival Monday night at Delaware Theatre Company, launching a six-night musical journey through all 217 officially released Beatles songs in chronological order. Performances begin at 8 p.m. each night through Saturday, Aug. 15.
For longtime Beatles fans, the festival is an opportunity to hear familiar favorites alongside songs rarely performed live. For younger listeners, it offers something more: a chance to discover the Beatles the way their parents and grandparents did — as a band whose sound changed dramatically in just a few remarkable years.
That makes the festival an unusual opportunity for families to share some musical history.
Parents and grandparents who remember the Beatles can bring younger generations to hear why songs recorded more than half a century ago continue to influence the music they hear today. Instead of simply playing an old record or streaming a playlist, families can experience the music together in a live theater, performed by musicians recreating the increasingly complex arrangements that defined the Beatles’ career.
Six nights tell one musical story
“All Together Now” does not simply assemble the Beatles’ biggest hits.
Each evening picks up where the previous night ended, presenting albums, singles and deeper cuts in the order in which they were originally released. The format allows audiences to hear the transformation from the youthful rock-and-roll energy of the band’s earliest recordings to the increasingly ambitious studio experimentation of its later years.
Tonight’s opening performance features “Please Please Me” and “With The Beatles.”
Tuesday moves to “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Beatles For Sale,” followed Wednesday by “Help!” and “Rubber Soul.” Thursday features “Revolver,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Magical Mystery Tour.”
Friday brings “Yellow Submarine” and “The Beatles,” commonly known as the White Album, before the festival concludes Saturday with “Abbey Road” and “Let It Be.”
That progression is central to the experience.
“The Beatles didn’t stand still for a single album,” said Joe Trainor, co-founder and musical director of The Rock Orchestra. “When you experience every song in release order, you hear them grow from a great rock-and-roll band into fearless musical innovators.”
More than a Beatles tribute show
Recreating those recordings requires considerably more than four musicians with guitars and drums.
Over the festival’s nine-year history, more than 112 musicians playing nearly 30 instruments have participated. A seven-piece core rock band is joined throughout the production by strings, brass, woodwinds and instruments including harp, sitar, tabla, mandolin, French horn and clarinet.
The result is designed to recreate not just the songs but the expanding musical imagination behind them.
Founded in 2017 by Trainor and Matt Urban, The Rock Orchestra has produced concerts celebrating artists including Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Genesis, Chicago, Tom Petty, Peter Gabriel, Eagles and R.E.M. But “All Together Now” has become its signature summer event.
“It’s become a tradition for the musicians on stage and for the audiences who come back every summer,” Urban said.
Make it a family night
For people who grew up with the Beatles, the week offers six chances to revisit music tied to their own memories.
But taking a son, daughter or grandchild could make the experience even more memorable.
Young people may already recognize more Beatles music than they realize. “All Together Now” gives older generations an opportunity to put those songs into context — and then watch younger listeners discover for themselves how dramatically the band evolved.
With the festival beginning tonight and ending Saturday, the opportunity lasts only six nights.
Whether attending one favorite era or following the entire 217-song journey, this may be the kind of summer experience worth turning into a family tradition.
TO GO
What: All Together Now: The Complete Beatles Festival
When: Monday, Aug. 10, through Saturday, Aug. 15
Time: 8 p.m. nightly
Where: Delaware Theatre Company, 200 Water St., Wilmington
Tonight: “Please Please Me” and “With The Beatles”
Single-night tickets, festival passes and VIP packages are available through Delaware Theatre Company.
Why go: Hear all 217 officially released Beatles songs performed chronologically — and consider bringing your children or grandchildren for a night of music that connects generations.
The man who prosecutors say orchestrated the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur, Duane "Keffe D" Davis, is on trial almost 30 years after the drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.
President Trump signaled he would be piling economic pressure on Iran as the stalemate continued and Tehran laid out new conditions to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Aptoide has become the first third-party Android app store available directly through Google Play in the U.S. "The change is a direct result of Google's litigation with Epic, which saw a judge rule in 2024 that the Play Store would have to open up to third-party stores," notes The Verge. The change makes rival storefronts far easier to discover and install, potentially opening the door for Epic, Amazon, Samsung, Microsoft and others to distribute their own app stores through Google's store. From the report: Third-party app stores have always been available on Android, which is a more open platform than iOS in that respect. However, until now they've only been available if pre-installed on a device -- as with the Amazon Appstore on Fire tablets or Samsung's Galaxy Store -- or installed via sideloading. Listing rival storefronts within the Play Store makes them much easier for users to find and access.
[...]
Aptoide itself is relatively little known, but it's likely to be the first of many alternative app stores. It's presumably only a matter of time before the Epic Store makes its own appearance, and the likes of Amazon, Samsung, and other phone manufacturers may also want to put their stores in front of potential customers.
Justice department says it decided to abandon fraud and bribery case in which Adani Group has denied wrongdoing
A US judge on Monday dismissed criminal charges against the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, after the justice department said it had decided to abandon the fraud and bribery case.
The Brooklyn-based district judge Nicholas Garaufis’s decision to grant federal prosecutors’ rare attempt to toss the case came after he inquired into their reasons for doing so, including by asking Adani whether anything was promised in exchange for the dropping of the case. In November 2024, before the charges were unsealed, Adani had promised to invest $10bn in the United States.
"It is with profound sadness that we share that [Jackie] passed away in the early hours of this morning, following more than three weeks of intensive medical care," Ojai Raptor Center said.
Wisconsin is not the only state with high stakes primary races on 11 August.
We’ll also be bringing you the latest on a number of pivotal contests. In Minnesota, the closely watched and crowded Democratic primary for US Senate seems to be a competition between lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan and congresswoman Angie Craig.
Loyalist sworn in after Senate voted narrowly in favor of his confirmation on Saturday morning
Todd Blanche has been sworn as US attorney general, cementing Donald Trump’s installation of his former personal attorney in charge of the Department of Justice.
Blanche, who has been serving as acting attorney general since April, was confirmed in his new position during a ceremony at the White House on Monday. The 52-year-old is the second Senate-confirmed attorney general of Trump’s second term, after Pam Bondi, who was ousted earlier this year.
Exclusive: FBU calls for more funding as ‘unprecedented summer’ puts rising demands on already stretched crews
Firefighters in the UK are under increased pressure as a result of an “unprecedented summer of dangerous and volatile wildfires”, the Fire Brigades Union has said, as many parts of the country brace for a fifth heatwave of the year.
As authorities declared almost three-quarters of England was now in drought, Steve Wright, the FBU general secretary, said the unpredictable environmental challenges the UK was now confronted with meant it was a “national priority” to have enough properly equipped firefighters to “face these threats”.
President and RFK Jr, the health secretary, repeatedly referred to autism during signing, though studies show no link between it and vaccines
Donald Trump has signed an executive order with plans for sweeping changes to the childhood vaccination schedule that attempts to override the authority of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It’s an attempt to undergird the changes made earlier this year to CDC vaccination recommendations, which were halted by a federal judge. The CDC is the federal agency tasked with recommending vaccines, not the White House.
Nvidia is working with Wall Street heavyweights on a potential $500 billion financing package for AI infrastructure (source paywalled; alternative source). The consortium includes BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Asset Management, Goldman Sachs and KKR. The Financial Times reports: The partnership underscores Nvidia's growing efforts to raise capital for itself and its clients to continue assembling the chips, power production and data centres at the heart of the AI boom. The $5.25 trillion company has positioned itself at the centre of the AI boom, providing chips, infrastructure and software to a wide array of partners developing the technology. Nvidia's graphics processing units, or GPUs, underpin most of the leading US AI models available today.
[...] The biggest cloud-computing companies, including Meta, Oracle, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon, have dramatically increased their spending on AI infrastructure as they look to win the race to dominate the emerging technology. Morgan Stanley projects so-called hyperscalers will spend $3.5 trillion between 2026 and 2028. That need for capital has forced technology groups to tap every source of cash they can find, including public equity, investment-grade and high-yield bonds, securitized debt, private credit and project finance markets. "[The] sheer size of the AI infrastructure build-out is unprecedented," Jim Zelter, president of Apollo, said on an earnings call earlier this month. "More than $8 trillion of capital is expected to be invested, a staggering sum. We see an enormous opportunity for private capital to finance a portion of this along with public capital."
Scientists have made clear that the elevated heat in the US was being amplified by the human-caused climate crisis
July was the hottest month ever recorded in the US, with repeated, scorching heatwaves across much of the country helping shatter all previous monthly temperature records stretching back over the full 132 years of reliable measurements.
Last month’s average temperature was 3.3F (1.8C) higher than the 20th century average for the contiguous United States, which excludes Alaska and Hawaii, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
Police looking into whether Joshua Kerry linked to alleged attempted burglary last year at Reform leader’s then home
Police are investigating whether Joshua Kerry, the man charged with the murder of the former Reform UK and Conservative politician Ann Widdecombe, had any role in an attempted burglary last year at the then London home of Nigel Farage.
Kerry, 28, from Rotherham, was charged with the murder of Widdecombe, 78, who was killed at her Devon home in July, after an investigation by counter-terrorism police.
Todd Blanche was sworn in as attorney general after the Senate narrowly voted to confirm the president's former defense lawyer to helm the Justice Department over the weekend.
Eight in ten American households have one parent who runs the household’s meal-planning operations. A new survey of 2,000 parents of school-aged children found that 82% of families have a default dining manager who handles meal planning, shopping and cooking.…
Trained pet dogs remained awake during fMRI scans as researchers measured their brain activity while they viewed images of human faces expressing happiness, anger, fear, and sadness. (Laura V. Cuaya via SWNS)
Q: Is President Donald Trump really cutting Medicare subsidies?
A: The Trump administration recently announced that it is ending a temporary subsidy that has reduced premiums for Medicare Part D standalone prescription drug plans. The subsidy, originally slated to run through at least 2027, was put into place by the Biden administration to offset expected premium increases after major changes to the Part D benefit. Analysts say some Medicare beneficiaries could see higher Part D premiums as a result.
FULL ANSWER
We’ve received several questions from readers about whether the Trump administration is cutting or changing the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit. The administration is not changing the benefit itself, but recently announced that it will end a temporary subsidy that had helped keep premiums for standalone Part D prescription drug plans down.
The change could lead to higher prescription-drug premiums for some Medicare recipients, though we won’t know the full impact until we get more detailed information about 2027 premiums this fall.
Photo by Tada Images / stock.adobe.com
To understand what’s going on, it’s helpful to have some background on the different parts of Medicare and how the subsidy came about in the first place.
Broadly, Medicare coverage has three components: Part A covers inpatient hospital care; Part B covers outpatient medical services, and Part D is prescription drug coverage. Beneficiaries can access that coverage in one of two ways. They can enroll in what’s called traditional or original Medicare, which includes Parts A and B, and add a separate, standalone Part D prescription drug plan. Or they can sign up for what are called Medicare Advantage plans — subsidized plans offered by private insurers that bundle hospital, outpatient and, typically, prescription drug coverage together.
According to the nonpartisan health policy research organization KFF, more than 56 million people were enrolled in Part D coverage as of February — 44% in standalone prescription drug plans and 56% through Medicare Advantage plans.
The end of the temporary subsidy should not affect premiums for Medicare Advantage enrollees, as it was targeted specifically to the standalone prescription drug plans available to people with traditional Medicare.
Those standalone drug plans are offered by private insurers that contract with the government. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act included a major overhaul of the Part D benefit, with several changes meant to make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors with standalone Part D plans. Among those changes was capping enrollees’ total out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs for the first time, starting in 2025. The cap was $2,000 for that year.
Those changes, however, were expected to lead to higher premiums, as insurers adjusted to higher costs on their end.
One way policymakers tried to mitigate that was by limiting annual increases in something called the “base beneficiary premium,” which is used in calculating the premiums that people actually pay. The Inflation Reduction Act caps year-to-year base premium increases at 6% per year through 2029; that provision remains unchanged.
Separately, the Biden administration in 2024 created the temporary subsidy program, which was meant to further stabilize standalone drug-plan premiums starting in 2025 (hence its official name, the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration). The Trump administration renewed the subsidy at a lower level for 2026, then announced last month that it would no longer be in place for 2027.
The subsidy cost $9.8 billion over two years, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Juliette Cubanski, vice president and director of the program on Medicare policy at KFF, said the premium demonstration program appears to have worked as intended. In 2026, the subsidy reduced premiums for standalone Part D plans by an estimated $16 per month on average, according to the federal Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
“To put that in context, the average standalone drug plan premium this year is $36 a month,” she said. “So without that additional subsidy, people might have had to pay nearly 50% more for drug coverage this year.”
By extension, some Medicare beneficiaries could see higher increases in their Part D premiums for 2027 now that the subsidy is ending, she said. But we won’t have a clear picture of how costs are changing until September, when the federal government releases information about premiums for specific plans.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal agency responsible for Medicare, has said most people will not see a large spike in premiums.
“The Biden admin gave BILLIONS of taxpayer money DIRECTLY to Big Insurance Companies,” Oz wrote in a July 28 post on X, referring to the subsidy. “This is unacceptable. We are stabilizing the market so this bailout is no longer needed. Premiums will go up by less than $10 [per month] for most Medicare recipients, with many even seeing LOWER premiums.”
We asked CMS what those figures were based on. In response, a spokesperson said bids submitted by insurers for 2027 plans show the subsidy demonstration is no longer needed because the market has adjusted.
“We understand that outside organizations without plan bid information have voiced concerns, however our data shows that plan bids have stabilized,” the spokesperson told us in an email. “[A]mong the roughly quarter of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in plans the previous demo impacted, over 85% of beneficiaries will have access to a Part D plan that is either lower cost or less than a $10 increase next year.”
The spokesperson also said all of those beneficiaries “will have access to at least three prescription drug plan options with total monthly premiums of $50 or less.”
The spokesperson did not respond to our followup question about whether 85% of those beneficiaries could stay in their current plans without premiums rising more than $10, or if some would have to switch plans to keep costs below that level.
Again, we’ll get clearer data on this in September.
“It may well be true that plans have gained sufficient experience in managing drug costs under the revamped Part D benefit design,” Cubanski said. “But I think it’s also true that without this enhanced financial support, there are going to be some Medicare beneficiaries who will face deeper premium increases.”
She encouraged people with standalone Part D coverage to look at their plans carefully during this fall’s open enrollment period; in addition to changes in premiums, it’s possible that insurers could pare back which drugs they cover, increase cost-sharing or make other plan changes to keep their costs down.
If premiums do rise significantly, that could also have other effects on the market for standalone prescription drug plans.
Cubanski said the temporary subsidy was designed to not just stabilize premiums, but also to stabilize enrollment. She noted that standalone Part D plans already face “stronger financial headwinds” compared with Medicare Advantage drug plans, which are more heavily subsidized. If more people switch to Medicare Advantage, that could push up overall Medicare spending over time. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission estimates the federal government is paying 14% more for Medicare Advantage enrollees compared to what they would have cost under traditional Medicare, a difference of $76 billion in 2026.
Standalone Part D plans are also important in many rural areas, where people have fewer Medicare Advantage options, Cubanski said.
“People still have about 10 prescription drug plans on average to choose from in 2026, so it’s not like this market [for standalone prescription drug plans] is on the verge of collapse,” Cubanski said. “But we have seen some, I think, concerning signs about the health of this marketplace relative to drug coverage through Medicare Advantage plans.”
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Prosecutors allege Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis ordered killing and provided gun in Las Vegas drive-by shooting 30 years ago
Jury selection began on Monday in Las Vegas as the murder trial of a former gang leader finally got under way decades after the shooting of the rapper Tupac Shakur, one of the most high-profile unsolved killings in the US.
It was thought likely to take at least the rest of the week to seat a jury for the trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, in which prosecutors aim to show that Davis, 63, the one-time leader of the South Side Compton Crips gang in California, ordered the killing and provided the gun for the fatal attack on Shakur.
Meta has released Muse Glimmer, a slimmed-down open-weight AI model designed to run locally on a single GPU for agent tasks such as scheduling, file management, coding, and tool use. The release is based on Meta's closed Muse Spark 1.2 model and appears to be aimed at attracting developers who want capable AI agents without relying entirely on cloud-hosted services. Engadget reports: Facebook said that it's making the "weights" that AI systems use to choose responses available to everyone on Hugging Face along with developer documentation. The download is available for free, and users can run the model on their own PCs. The company noted that optimized integrations will land on llama.cpp and other sites, "so you can go from download to working agent in minutes."
The model is powerful for its size, according to Meta, with the "strong success rates" on benchmarks like DeepSearch QA, MCP-Atlas and SWE-Bench (which evaluates its ability write and debug code). It also supports reliable tool use, multi-step reasoning, failure recovery, multimodal input and scaffold compatibility for work with OpenClaw and other agent orchestrators. It was trained on data from over 100 languages, the company added. "Rather than centralizing superintelligence, we should distribute it widely and give every person the ability to direct it," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an essay accompanying Muse Glimmer's release. "This has the potential to begin a new era of personal empowerment where individuals can use this powerful new capability to reach their full potential, pursue their interests, and improve their lives and the world more than ever before."
The upgraded alerts will be in place from 9am on Tuesday until 9pm on Friday
An 18-year-old died after getting into difficulty in the sea at Camber Sands beach, East Sussex, yesterday, bringing the number of deaths in open-water incidents over the hot, dry summer to over 40, according to estimates compiled by the Press Association.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has updated heat-health alerts for nine regions in England, warning that rising temperatures this week may increase health risks, particularly for vulnerable groups.
It’s important that everyone is aware of the simple steps they can take to stay safe during periods of hot weather. Drinking plenty of water, avoiding the sun during the hottest part of the day and keeping indoor spaces cool are all things you can do to keep yourself and others safe.
For vulnerable groups including older adults and those with existing health conditions, warmer weather than result in serious health outcomes.
Badenoch adviser Joshua Bonehill-Paine was found guilty in 2016 of racially aggravated harassment of then MP Luciana Berger
The Labour peer Luciana Berger has urged Kemi Badenoch to “listen to victims” and reverse her decision to give a national advisory role to a former neo-Nazi.
Joshua Bonehill-Paine was jailed in 2015 for more than three years after posting antisemitic material online before a planned neo-Nazi rally. In 2016, he was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment for abuse directed at Berger, an MP at the time. He was also the founder and leader of the National British Resistance, a far-right group.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has no interest in agreeing to a deal. For relief to come to Gaza, real US pressure must be exerted
At the end of July, Donald Trump announced that a “monumental” US-backed deal had been struck on Gaza, securing the phased disarmament of Hamas in parallel with Israeli military withdrawal. Three days later it was reported that another 18 people had died in Israeli airstrikes. Not for the first time, it appeared that Mr Trump’s rhetoric had only a distant relationship with the reality it purported to describe.
Such suspicions were duly confirmed yesterday. Under pressure from far-right members of his coalition, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, explicitly rejected the sequencing of a 15-point plan from the increasingly hapless Board of Peace – an international body set up by the US president – and poured scorn on “a wave of rumours of … Israeli withdrawals on all fronts”. In a direct message to the White House, Mr Netanyahu stated that “we know how to stand our ground, even against our best friends when necessary.”
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Progressive US senator urges Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic to ‘stop building machines that humans cannot control’
Senator Bernie Sanders has called on Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic executives to halt their development of artificial intelligence, warning that the US Senate will implement regulation if the companies continue deploying AI at their current pace.
In a new letter addressed to the CEOs of three of the country’s leading AI companies, Sanders said the capabilities of these AI models have reached a critical risk threshold and that the companies are losing control over the technology.
Aug. 10, 2026 — The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys team has released the largest-ever 2D color map of the universe. The 5.6-trillion-pixel map contains nearly 4 billion celestial objects, primarily stars and galaxies. The data is available for all to use and publicly viewable through the Legacy Survey Sky Viewer.
Among the nearly 4 billion objects in the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys’ map is the galaxy Messier 96, a spiral galaxy approximately 35 million light-years from Earth. This image was captured with the 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. (Credit: DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys/LBNL/DOE & KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)
Astronomers and citizen scientists can explore the map or combine it with their own observations to better understand our universe. Researchers can search for rare phenomena like gravitational lenses, observe fleeting events like supernovae, and investigate two of physics’ biggest mysteries: dark matter, the invisible substance that accounts for most of the mass in our universe, and dark energy, the force driving our universe’s accelerating expansion.
The new map builds on earlier versions from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys that have already proved invaluable. To date, more than 1,800 science papers that reference the Legacy Surveys data have been published.
“It’s part of the fabric of astronomy research now,” said David Schlegel, a co-lead of the Legacy Surveys and scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). “When you’re working with astronomical objects today, you often start by pulling up the Legacy Imaging Viewer to see what you’re looking at.”
Covering roughly 75% of the sky in visible and near-infrared light, the updated map provides a deep view of the extragalactic universe not blocked by the dust and stars of our own Milky Way. Researchers expect it will remain the most comprehensive 2D map of our universe for years to come.
More than 160 scientists contributed to data collection for the project, and a team of 20 produced the final dataset released today. It was built by combining 263,407 telescope exposures from three ground-based sky surveys: the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) at NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, the Mayall z-band Legacy Survey (MzLS) at NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory, and the Beijing-Arizona Sky Survey (BASS) at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory. That was supplemented by years of data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite mission and additional public data.
“For our team, these data are fundamental to our investigation of the expansion history of the universe and the formation of our galaxy,” said Arjun Dey, co-lead of the Legacy Surveys and an astronomer at NSF NOIRLab. “But the skies belong to everyone, and this survey gives everyone the chance to explore the sky and marvel at its wonders.”
Here Be Galaxies
The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys were originally conducted to prepare for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey. The Legacy Surveys’ 2D map is essentially a deep photograph of the sky; it records where galaxies and stars appear and how bright they appear. This crucial step enables DESI to select objects and measure their light in different wavelengths to determine their distances, building the largest high-resolution 3D map ever made. Scientists study the way galaxies have clustered at different ages of the universe to track dark energy over time.
In April 2026, DESI completed its original five-year survey ahead of schedule and with vastly more objects than expected. The early results have shown surprising hints that dark energy’s impact may be weakening over time — a paradigm shift that could potentially shape the predicted fate of our universe. DESI expects to publish improved results using their first five years of data in 2027 and is continuing observations into 2028.
DESI was so efficient at observing galaxies, the Legacy Surveys map needed to expand. Early on, “it became clear we might run out of galaxies to look at and run out of sky, and we better start doing something about that,” said Schlegel, who also works on DESI. The new Legacy Surveys map has been used to select DESI targets since June 2026 and will guide the telescope’s operations over the coming years.
Computing the Cosmos
Merging hundreds of thousands of images taken on 2,285 nights, each with unique atmospheric and telescope conditions, was a massive computational effort. It took about a year to develop the computer code and eight weeks to process all the images at the Perlmutter supercomputer at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Berkeley Lab.
Beyond supporting DESI, the Legacy Surveys will be a foundational reference for the next generation of telescopes. As new observatories like the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory (jointly funded by NSF and DOE’s Office of Science) and NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope come online, researchers can compare their observations with one of the deepest and most comprehensive views of the sky ever assembled.
The Legacy Surveys data will also help scientists train artificial intelligence tools to analyze petabytes of astronomical data and accelerate new discoveries. It will be among the datasets used in an astrophysics pilot project within the American Science Cloud, part of the DOE’s Genesis Mission.
The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys are supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of High Energy Physics; the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science user facility; the U.S. National Science Foundation, Division of Astronomical Sciences; and the partner institutions.
DESI is supported by the DOE Office of Science and NERSC. Additional support for DESI is provided by the NSF; the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA); the Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation (SECIHTI) of Mexico; the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain; and by the DESI member institutions.
Israeli prime minister faces incompatible demands from his far-right government ministers and from Donald Trump
Benjamin Netanyahu’s public rejection of a US-backed deal for Gaza drew scepticism in Israel, amid reports he was personally hammering out details of a pilot military withdrawal days earlier.
The Israeli prime minister is struggling to balance incompatible demands on Gaza policy from his key domestic and international allies.
Valter Lavitola, a former journalist and import-export businessman who owns a restaurant in Rome, was close to former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi.
NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO and SINGAPORE, Aug. 10, 2026 — Anthropic, Macquarie Asset Management, and GIC today announced a strategic partnership to establish Theseus Infrastructure, a new platform to develop, operate and lease data center infrastructure at scale to Anthropic under long-term agreements. Each facility will be purpose-built to support Anthropic’s growing capacity needs as a leader in AI innovation.
The parties will work together to identify and develop new sites for which Anthropic will be the anchor tenant, with an initial focus on the United States. Funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management will, together with GIC, own the platform and fund the majority of the equity for each project.
The planned developments will require significant capital investment and create thousands of construction jobs and permanent operational roles in the communities where the sites are located. Anthropic will cover electricity price increases that consumers otherwise may face from these sites, in line with commitments it announced earlier this year.
Demand for Claude continues to grow rapidly across businesses, developers, and consumers, and meeting that demand requires significant new compute. Anthropic is partnering with Macquarie Asset Management and GIC, drawing on Macquarie’s global expertise developing, financing, and operating large-scale digital infrastructure, and GIC’s deep experience investing in infrastructure around the world.
About Anthropic
Anthropic is an AI research and development company that creates reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. Anthropic’s flagship product is Claude, a large language model trusted by millions of users worldwide. Learn more about Anthropic and Claude at anthropic.com.
About Macquarie Asset Management
Macquarie Asset Management is a leading global asset manager, trusted by institutions, individuals and communities to responsibly manage $US497.6 billion in assets. Macquarie Asset Management provides clients with a diverse range of investment solutions that seek to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns. Macquarie Asset Management is part of Macquarie Group, a diversified financial services group providing clients with asset management, finance, banking, advisory, and risk and capital solutions across debt, equity and commodities. Founded in 1969, Macquarie Group employs over 19,000 people in 30 markets and is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
About GIC
GIC is a leading global investment firm established in 1981 to secure Singapore’s financial future. As the manager of Singapore’s foreign reserves, we take a long-term, disciplined approach to investing. Our asset allocation strategy spans three asset groups – Equities, Fixed Income, and Real Assets. These include investments in developed and emerging market equities, nominal and inflation-linked bonds, private equity, real estate, alternatives, and infrastructure. We are headquartered in Singapore, with a global presence including a talent force of over 2,500 people in 11 key financial cities and investments in over 40 countries. We seek to add meaningful value to our investments and be an investor of choice by leveraging our long-term approach, multi-asset capabilities, and global connectivity.
Demonstrators accuse authorities of failing to tackle irregularities in exams for sought-after civil service jobs
Thousands of angry young job-seekers clashed with police in Jharkhand, one of India’s poorest states, on Monday as a weeks-long protest over alleged irregularities in recruitment drives for coveted government jobs escalated into a march on the state legislature.
Police fired water cannon and teargas and swung batons as they tried to stop flag-waving demonstrators from clambering over barricades and surging towards the assembly in Ranchi, the state capital. Some of the protesters responded by dancing and cheering as jets of water drenched the crowd.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 10, 2026 — Discovered Materials, a company building AI agents that discover and accelerate the adoption of new materials for semiconductor chips, announced today a $9 million seed round. They also released hundreds of new materials discovered by frontier AI models, along with Material Discovery Bench – the first benchmark for agentic materials discovery on real-world semiconductor chip problems.
Founders of Discovered Materials. Akash (left) and Advaith (right)
The round is led by Lightspeed India Partners, with participation from Y Combinator and Peak XV Partners, and angel investors including Paul Graham, Gokul Rajaram and Thariq Shihipar. The funding will accelerate the company’s mission: making new materials discovery fast enough to keep pace with AI’s demand for compute.
“AI is creating unprecedented demand for better chips, but progress is increasingly constrained by how slowly new materials reach production. Akash and Advaith bring together a rare combination of deep materials science expertise and frontier AI engineering, enabling them to compress years of materials R&D into days,” said Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed India Venture Partners. “We’re excited to partner with Discovered Materials as they build the future of semiconductor innovation, starting with a very urgent wedge on better heat dissipation from increasingly hotter chips.”
AI chips have a heat problem. GPUs today handle heat fluxes of roughly 140 W/cm² – hotter than a space shuttle nose cone re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, and the problem is getting worse. This heat is why datacenters consume so much power and water. New materials can attack the problem from both sides, reducing heat generated by enabling 3D stacking, and dissipating heat faster once it’s produced. But today, moving a new material from a science experiment to an industrial fab takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars – the industry’s infamous “valley of death.” Discovered Materials builds AI agents that compress months of interdisciplinary research into days, spanning simulation, synthesis, and experimental validation.
To study the rapid progress of these AI agents and measure their ability, the company today released hundreds of new materials discovered by frontier AI models for semiconductor applications. Alongside this, they released Material Discovery Bench, a benchmark built with experts from industry and academia that tracks frontier model performance for this problem. The company will continue to build the graders that test AI-discovered materials in both simulation and experiment.
“Advances in compute have driven most of technological progress over the last 50 years, but chips today are at least 10,000x less power-efficient than the human brain,” said Akash Ramdas, co-founder of Discovered Materials. “New materials are how we close that gap – in the last 3 months, we have made new thermal materials that match the performance of products that the world’s largest chemical companies took years to develop.”
Co-founders Advaith Sridhar and Akash Ramdas met over a decade ago at IIT-Madras. Akash has a PhD in Material Science from Stanford University, and has spent the last 11 years researching new materials for semiconductor chips. His work on new nanoscale interconnects was Stanford Engineering’s most popular story of 2025. Advaith studied AI at Carnegie Mellon and was a research engineer building video models and agents at Persona AI (acquired) and Luma Labs. The seed funding will be used to expand the team, the lab and scale the company’s AI research agents.
About Discovered Materials
Discovered Materials builds AI agents that discover and accelerate the adoption of new materials for semiconductor chips. Our mission is to make chips as performant as the human brain. Learn more at discoveredmaterials.com.
Republican influencers and politicians have mounted faith-based attacks against Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim and former public health official, after his primary win.
On social media, Xaccounts falsely said El-Sayed supports making the Islamic code Shariah the U.S. law of the land.
“He openly calls for Sharia law in America,” conservative influencer Avery Daye posted Aug. 8 on X.
Her post plays snippets of a 2022 speech El-Sayed gave at an awards banquet for the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Oklahoma chapter.
U.S. politicians have made similar accusations about El-Sayed, including Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Mace also attacked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani about Shariah after his November win, which PolitiFact rated Pants on Fire.
El-Sayed faces former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, in the general election.
The X posts cherry-pick a small portion of El-Sayed’s 2022 speech, taking it out of context. In those remarks, El-Sayed mentioned an overturned state ban on Shariah as he reflected on Oklahoma’s history of discrimination and issued a call for unity. He did not call for Shariah to replace American laws.
Shariah, sometimes spelled sharia, is a wide-ranging set of rules that governs aspects of Islamic life, including religious practice, daily living and financial dealings.
In 2010, Oklahoma voters approved the Save Our State Amendment to forbid courts from using Shariah or international law when making decisions. A federal court struck it down in 2013, ruling it unconstitutional.
The practice of using foreign law in state courts is not uncommon and generally not controversial, experts told PolitiFact Florida in 2014. For example, parties in international contracts frequently agree to apply a specific foreign country’s law to govern their agreements.
What El-Sayed said in Oklahoma
During his 16-minute speech, El-Sayed spoke about racist, deadly events in Oklahoma history, including the 1830 Indian Removal Act leading to the Trail of Tears, which killed thousands of Native Americans; the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, which destroyed Greenwood, an African-American neighborhood known as Black Wall Street; and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of a federal building by an anti-government white supremacist.
Then he made the comment that X users shared on social media: “The state of Oklahoma voted in a referendum to amend the constitution to ban Shariah law. What does that mean? I don’t know. And yet the voters banned it anyway.”
Daye, the influencer, did not include El-Sayed’s full comments about the Shariah ban in her X post. Here are relevant portions of his remarks:
“The same exact forces that drove Native peoples from their land two centuries ago, destroyed Black Wall Street a century ago, bombed a building decades ago, and tried to ban Sharia law not a decade ago, those forces are alive and well today.”
“The reason I wanted to go all the way back to the 1830s is because you can’t understand a Shariah ban without understanding the Trail of Tears. You can’t understand the efforts to uproot Muslim Americans without understanding the Tulsa massacre. You cannot understand the challenges we face today without understanding white supremacy. We have to set it in the context of our history. But here’s the thing: The beautiful thing about our opportunity today is that we have a choice in front of us about what we do next.”
He quoted the Quran and called on Muslims to pursue civil liberties and civil rights and be “witnesses for justice” whether they are working as doctors providing healthcare to low-income people or as business owners providing jobs.
El-Sayed quoted the first first words of the U.S. Constitution: “We the people. And what’s the rest? In order to form a more perfect union.”
He added: “Every time somebody tries to divide us, tells us that this group or that group does not belong because of the color of their skin, because of how they pray, because of where they come from, because of what language they spoke first — that’s antithetical to what it means to be American. But the work of perfecting is in deciding that we are going to show up with and for each other.”
In a 2025 interview, El-Sayed talked about his Muslim faith, telling Religion News Service, “I believe deeply in the role that faith has played in my life, in, you know, how it orients me to try and be a better person, to give more of myself, to know my fellow creation, to treat people — all people — with dignity and humanity and respect.”
He also said he believes in the separation of church and state and that he wants “to protect the kind of America where everybody can pray how they choose to pray, or choose not to pray at all.”
Our ruling
Social media posts say El-Sayed “openly calls for Sharia law in America.”
The posts show clips of El-Sayed delivering a 2022 speech, but he didn’t say what they describe.
The theme of his remarks was unity; he encouraged Muslims to work toward justice for everyone, even in the face of racism.
He mentioned an Oklahoma state ban on Shariah that was struck down by courts as he reflected on Oklahoma’s history of discrimination including against Native American and Black residents. He did not call for Shariah to replace American laws; in fact, he quoted the U.S. Constitution.
The statement is not only wrong but ridiculous. We rate it Pants on Fire!
BOSTON, Massachusetts — Massachusetts has eliminated its statutory 24-week cutoff for abortion, allowing physicians to determine whether to provide the procedure later in pregnancy based on their professional medical judgment.
Gov. Maura Healey signed the measure Monday, making Massachusetts the tenth state, along with Washington, D.C., without a specific gestational limit written into law. Previously, abortions at or after 24 weeks were permitted only under defined circumstances involving the patient’s life or physical or mental health, or certain fetal diagnoses.
The change does not require doctors or hospitals to perform abortions at any stage. Instead, it removes the state’s statutory list of qualifying conditions and leaves later-pregnancy decisions to licensed physicians. Major Massachusetts medical organizations supported the legislation, arguing that rigid legal criteria can interfere with care when severe fetal abnormalities or pregnancy complications are discovered late.
One prominent supporter, Kate Dineen, traveled from Massachusetts to Maryland for an abortion after her son suffered a catastrophic fetal stroke at 33 weeks because her circumstances did not qualify under the previous law.
Abortions after 24 weeks remain exceptionally uncommon, and only a small number of U.S. providers perform them.
Anti-abortion groups strongly opposed the change, arguing it eliminates meaningful limits on later procedures. Healey countered that medical decisions should remain between patients, families and physicians rather than politicians.
The law further separates Massachusetts from states that have enacted near-total or early-pregnancy abortion bans following the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision.
Taiwan deliberately throttled mobile internet across the Taichung area during its annual Han Kuang war games, "simulating communication disruption in the event of a Chinese attack or natural disaster," reports Reuters. The drill accompanied air-raid exercises and military rehearsals aimed at defending strategically important areas such as the Penghu Islands. From the report: Democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has long lived with the threat of a Chinese invasion and holds air raid drills along with its war games every year, clearing people from the streets for 30 minutes. During the internet "throttling" drill, centered on Monday on the major central metropolis of Taichung, only basic mobile phone services worked, though other functions including ATMs, traffic signals, landlines and fixed internet services were not affected.
Air raid sirens rang out in Taichung "and people cleared the streets from 2:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) as the government sent simultaneous text messages in Chinese and English telling mobile phone users of "simulated air attacks on communication infrastructure." The government had widely flagged the drill ahead of time, including posting details on social media, and most people Reuters spoke to at the Taichung train station were prepared. [...] The same exercise will be repeated on Thursday in northern Taiwan, including the capital Taipei.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is launching an initiative to produce a new class of open-weight foundation models designed specifically to accelerate scientific discovery as part of DOE’s broader Genesis Mission, and is requesting input from potential contributors from commercial, academic, and research institutions.
These Genesis models aim to provide researchers, National Laboratories, industry partners, and the broader open science community with powerful, transparent, and extensible AI models that can be adapted to a wide range of scientific domains and use cases. The first model in this class will be Genesis-Science-1, developed in partnership with Arcee.
By releasing models with open-weights, DOE seeks to galvanize the scientific and AI communities around shared infrastructure for science: enabling new workflows in materials discovery, energy systems, earth system modeling, fusion, biology, high-energy physics, and beyond. This effort is grounded in the principles of open science, reproducibility, and responsible AI, with the goal of lowering barriers to advanced AI capabilities for the public good.
As part of this initiative, DOE is collecting information from interested participants who would like to contribute to and benefit from this new ecosystem:
Open-weight models: Organizations to provide open-weight models both as base models to support downstream fine-tuning and for immediate deployment. Models should have transparent provenance with training data and evaluation procedures developed through this initiative.
Pretraining contributions: Organizations and researchers with access to high-quality, domain-specific scientific data who are interested in contributing to future pretraining cycles (e.g., curated datasets, benchmarks, or specialized corpora).
Fine-tuning efforts: Teams interested in shaping downstream, domain-adapted versions of Genesis-Science-1 and future models for particular scientific fields, applications, or mission needs (e.g., lab assistants, simulation surrogates, scientific copilots).
If you or your organization are interested in participating, either by contributing models and data, co-developing evaluations and benchmarks, or collaborating on fine-tuning and application deployments, please visit the Genesis Mission US Open Models Initiative website for more information. Applications for the first contribution window for pretraining efforts close on August 14, 2026, and for fine-training efforts on August 25, 2026. Additional deadlines will be rolling and are expected every three months.
Your engagement will help shape the capabilities, governance, and impact of Genesis-Science-1 and other Genesis open models as a shared public asset for scientific innovation.
Four more regions given drought status, putting 27 million people under restrictions on water use
Almost three-quarters of England is now in drought, as much of Europe braces for its fifth climate crisis-driven heatwave this summer.
Four more regions of England have officially been declared to be in drought: the East Midlands, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, Kent and East Sussex, and Solent and the South Downs.
Attack hundreds of miles from border would be among deadliest of war as Kyiv aims to strangle Russian economy
A Ukrainian drone strike on an industrial city deep inside Russia has killed at least 13 people, according to the local mayor, as Kyiv steps up its campaign of long-range strikes on targets far from the frontline.
Kyiv said it hit the Taneco refinery in the city of Nizhnekamsk, about 750 miles (1,200km) from the Ukrainian border. Footage circulating online appeared to show smoke rising from the refinery.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ABC News & Headlines: Andrew asked his personal assistant to book him a spot in one of his gym's coveted morning classes. It was a task he thought was well suited to this particular assistant because the booking form was online and because his assistant was not a person -- it was artificial intelligence (AI). But Andrew was shocked by what happened next. His AI assistant found a way to book the gym class months further in advance than the gym allowed, thanks to a vulnerability it discovered in the booking software. Then it went further, kicking someone out of the waiting list who was ahead of Andrew -- something it was not asked to do. The accidental hack is the first known Australian case of an emerging risk from a new generation of AI capable of behaving in unexpected ways.
German government talks of a ‘new level of danger’ but declines to say who it thinks was responsible for device
American intelligence experts believe Russia was behind an attack on a German airport last week with a drone laden with explosives, US media have reported, as Berlin remained silent on the likely culprit.
Last week’s security emergency prompted the interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, to break off his summer holiday in Italy and rush to the scene in the eastern city of Leipzig, as he spoke of a “new level of danger” for Germany.
Move closes loophole but doesn’t include definition of ultra-processed foods, promised earlier this year
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is changing its rules on how food manufacturers notify them of ingredients brought to the market – but the Trump administration has once again punted on defining “ultra-processed foods”, promising more details later.
While the move would close a regulatory loophole, it falls short of the administration’s promises to reform food regulations dramatically even as one of the biggest foodborne illness outbreaks unfolds.
LOUISVILLE, Colo., Aug. 10, 2026 — Infleqtion, a global leader in quantum computing and quantum sensing powered by neutral-atom technology, announced that Eaton, a global power management company, selected Infleqtion to support new research evaluating how quantum computing can improve the resilience of the U.S. electrical grid. As part of an Eaton award from the Air Force Research Laboratory (ARFL), Infleqtion received a subcontract to apply quantum computing hardware to support grid contingency analysis. Infleqtion and Eaton aim to advance reliability analysis used by utilities to predict and prevent cascading power outages.
“Grid reliability is a large-scale optimization challenge that pushes the limits of today’s classical systems,” said Pranav Gokhale, CTO at Infleqtion. “This program allows us to explore how quantum algorithms and error-corrected quantum hardware could support faster, more accurate analysis of grid vulnerabilities to improve how we evaluate failures, reduce blackout risk, and strengthen critical U.S. infrastructure.”
Contingency analysis is one of the most important tools for determining how power systems respond when key components, such as transmission lines or generators, fail unexpectedly. As power grids become more interconnected and more dependent on real-time data, the number of “what-if” scenarios grow so large that classical computing methods struggle to analyze them efficiently. Classical analysis relies on approximate methods that are often insufficient for robust risk management. This makes contingency analysis an ideal test case for quantum computing, which may evaluate complex combinations more effectively using quantum interference algorithms.
Why Grid Reliability Matters for National Security and the Economy
The U.S. electrical grid is increasingly stressed. Even brief outages can cause cascading disruptions across geographies. As the grid becomes more complex, both commercial utilities and government agencies are accelerating efforts to modernize and harden critical infrastructure. This momentum aligns with the Department of Energy’s recently launched Genesis Mission, a national initiative that uses artificial intelligence and advanced computing to accelerate breakthroughs in energy, including grid modernization, discovery science, and national security.
AFRL’s investment reflects this broader national prioritization of technologies that can identify vulnerabilities earlier, evaluate risks more comprehensively, and reduce blackout impacts. Eaton will lead the program, working to align results with real operational needs across civilian and defense-critical environments.
“This research will enhance infrastructure planning, daily operations, and emergency preparedness—bringing unprecedented awareness and response to strengthen infrastructure,” said Sid Suryanarayanan, senior chief engineer, strategic partnerships and innovation at Eaton. “Working with the ARFL and our program collaborators, including Infleqtion, we aim to understand how quantum performance can support grid reliability and resilience.”
How Quantum Computing May Improve Grid Contingency Analysis
Because grid contingency analysis involves evaluating many different failure scenarios and their downstream effects, it represents one of the earliest mission-critical power-grid applications that could benefit from quantum computing. The program will explore how soon quantum computers may offer advantages at operational scale. Infleqtion will contribute its expertise in:
Quantum algorithms for combinatorial optimization problems central to power system analysis
Circuit optimization to reduce resource requirements on quantum hardware
Error correction techniques aligned with Infleqtion’s roadmap for its Sqale neutral atom quantum computer
Performance comparison between quantum and classical methods
Resource estimation and extrapolation to assess future real-world applicability
For more information about Infleqtion’s work in quantum computing for energy, infrastructure, and national security, visit infleqtion.com.
Infleqtion, Inc. (NYSE: INFQ) is a global leader in quantum technology, delivering neutral-atom solutions for quantum computing, networking, sensing, and security. With a product portfolio spanning quantum computers, quantum optical clocks, RF receivers, and inertial sensors, Infleqtion’s full-stack approach combines high-performance hardware with the company’s proprietary Superstaq quantum computing software platform. Infleqtion’s systems are already in use by the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, the U.K. government, and in multiple collaborations with NVIDIA. Infleqtion, in collaboration with NVIDIA, published the world’s first demonstration of a materials science application using logical qubits. With operations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, Infleqtion meets the demands of government and commercial customers across the space, defense, energy, finance and telecommunications sectors.
US president on Truth Social concedes contractor had cut some corners to finish $14m renovation project by deadline
Donald Trump has conceded his own administration’s renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool was rushed and shoddy, while insisting that alleged vandals were to blame for damage to the Washington landmark.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US president said the pool’s contractor had cut some corners to finish the $14m repainting project in time for a 4 July opening. “As with many jobs, there was also some contractor error done by rushing the job,” he wrote on Sunday, claiming the resulting damage from this was confined to “a very small area” and “relatively inconsequential”.
Vibrio vulnificus, a so-called flesh-eating bacterium, lurks in warm coastal waters and can enter the body through open wounds or from eating raw shellfish.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration has spent about $2.2 billion buying four privately owned immigration detention centers, shifting the facilities into federal hands while allowing the same companies to continue operating them under lucrative contracts.
Over the past two months, the Department of Homeland Security purchased CoreCivic facilities in California City and San Diego, California, along with detention centers in Appleton, Minnesota, and Leavenworth, Kansas. CoreCivic says the sales increased its cash holdings from $109 million to roughly $1.1 billion.
The company will continue managing at least some of the properties. Its newly purchased 1,600-bed Minnesota facility comes with a five-year operations contract expected to generate about $75 million annually.
GEO Group, ICE’s other major private detention contractor, is negotiating similar property sales while seeking to retain long-term management contracts.
The ownership change could have another consequence: weakening state and local oversight. California officials have used state laws to inspect detention centers and challenge conditions, while Leavenworth negotiated local safeguards before CoreCivic sold its facility to DHS without advance notice to city leaders. Federal ownership may make those requirements harder to enforce.
DHS has openly cited resistance from Democratic-led states as one reason for purchasing facilities directly. Immigration advocates argue the arrangement gives private prison companies a large cash windfall while helping the federal government insulate detention operations from local scrutiny.
Researchers analysed activity in regions of brain when dogs were shown images of different facial expressions
While dogs are known to turn the puppy eyes on their owners, it seems our pets are keeping a close eye on us too: research has revealed dog brains can distinguish different types of unhappy human faces.
Dr Laura Cuaya, a co-author of the study from the University of Vienna, said previous behavioural studies had shown dogs could tell apart some human facial expressions, but such studies tended to only test two at a time, one positive and one negative. As a result, it was not clear if dogs could distinguish different types of happy or unhappy faces.
Paramount is making commitments to major theater chains to release 30 films annually for three years if its Warner Bros. deal goes through. According to Deadline, the written commitment was sent to "at least one of the top two circuits" (specifically Regal but AMC may have also received a written commitment) and includes "an exclusive 45-day theatrical window and a 90-day window to streaming." From the report: When it comes to the big chains, it matters for them to be on the right side of history with Paramount, especially when it comes to future terms on a 30-film slate. However, the rest of Cinema United (formerly National Association of Theatre Owners) remains firmly against the Paramount-Warner Bros merger and its potential negative financial outcomes in regards to long-term box office, feature film output and loss of jobs. Cinema United has been trying to meet again with Paramount CEO David Ellison, but there's nothing on the books yet, we understand.
[Regal boss Eduardo Acuna] told Deadline that in regards to Paramount's future promise to exhibition, "[Paramount CEO] David [Ellison] is sincere in making these commitments, and he has offered to execute a consent decree to the state AGs to that effect. These are tangible and important commitments that will benefit the industry and which can be measured." Paramount insiders tell us that no written commitments have been given to exhibitors yet, but Ellison is willing to make non-bespoke ones to any theater chain wanting them. And such deals will come with financial penalties to Paramount should it break such agreements with theaters. Again, this is all about Ellison standing behind his promises made at CinemaCon to maintain a hefty theatrical output and excellent windows to theaters.
Game developer David Ashby and Aunty Donna’s Broden Kelly talk about their chaotic and silly sport game – involving meat pies with legs and Ford Falcons on the oval
Try explaining Australian rules football to anyone outside Australia and “it sounds like you’re making it up”, says David Ashby, the multi-hyphenate comedic mind behind deeply silly spoofs such as Italian Spider-Man and Danger 5. “Eighteen players a side, running around on a cricket oval with a rugby ball that has to be bounced every so often and gets kicked between posts – like, what the fuck is happening?”
Two years ago at a fantasy footy barbecue, Ashby had a brainwave: why not make a video game where Australia’s strange national sport becomes even stranger the more you play?
Volodymyr Zelenskyysays that strikes on such facilities were directly linked with putting more pressure on Moscow
A fire broke out at an industrial facility in Russia’s Tyumen region in Siberia after several drones fell on it, Tyumen region governor Alexander Moor said on his Telegram channel.
The Flipside formula appears to involve quality coffee, homemade-style comfort food, very early mornings, a supportive family, plenty of determination and, every once in a while, using milk for something other than the coffee.
By John Riddle, Contributing Journalist, Delaware LIVE
Some business ideas begin with a detailed plan, a group of investors and months of market research.
Others begin with a guy who loves coffee, knows the restaurant business and suddenly realizes Delaware could use a really good biscuit.
For Gregory Safian, owner of Flipside Coffee and Biscuits in Middletown, the road to entrepreneurship was more than two decades in the making.
Safian has spent more than 23 years in the restaurant industry, and almost from the beginning, he imagined someday owning a food business of his own. Long before Flipside served its first customer, he would create mock menus for restaurants and food trucks that existed only in his imagination.
“I’ve spent over 23 years in the restaurant industry and always dreamt of owning my own food establishment since the early days of my career,” Safian said. “I would fantasize about it and write mock menus for restaurants or food trucks I wouldn’t have been able to open then.”
His original vision was a bar and restaurant, but life has a way of rewriting even the best imaginary menu.
Safian became increasingly interested in coffee about 15 years ago. Starting a family also changed his priorities, and eventually the dream evolved from a traditional restaurant into something built around coffee.
He and his wife were actually preparing to open a café before COVID-19 arrived. They had also recently welcomed their son, and ultimately decided the timing was not right.
Then came 2025.
“I got the itch again in early 2025 and went on a warpath to turn the dream into a reality,” Safian said.
This time, coffee would unquestionably be at the center of the business. But Safian knew coffee alone was not enough. Flipside needed something distinctive to accompany it.
The answer had actually been baking in his kitchen for years.
During the pandemic, Safian experimented with pastries, breads, pizza dough, bagels and biscuits. As he and his wife brainstormed what their future coffee business could serve, one particular item kept rising to the top.
Biscuits.
“We had to have a thing,” Safian said. “Then it hit me. Biscuits! Delaware doesn’t really have any biscuit restaurants and that’s how the concept was born.”
From Dream to Trailer
The mobile food business offers entrepreneurs an alternative to immediately taking on the expense and complexity of a traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant. But operating from a trailer hardly means the work is easy.
That was something Safian quickly discovered.
The biggest hurdle was money. He and his wife scraped together what they could to launch the business, and Safian spent much of the summer of 2025 outfitting the trailer himself.
Before work. After work. On weekends.
Securing a commissary kitchen created another headache when an arrangement they thought was finalized fell through. Equipment compliance issues caused additional delays.
Still, the timetable was impressive. Safian purchased the trailer in April 2025. By August, Flipside Coffee and Biscuits was open for business.
The long hours required to get Flipside started have not disappeared now that the business is operating.
A typical day begins at precisely 5:27 a.m.
“That’s the absolute latest I can sleep until,” Safian joked.
Everything needs to be loaded by 5:55. Setup takes about 30 minutes, followed by roughly four and a half hours of serving customers. Then comes about an hour and a half breaking everything down, followed by unloading, washing dishes, cleaning and restocking for the next day.
Flipside operates Tuesday through Saturday. Sunday is Safian’s only complete day off. On Monday, it starts all over again with inventory, stocking and preparation for the coming week.
Initially, Safian and his wife handled virtually everything themselves, including baking, cooking and operating the trailer. They have since brought in some behind-the-scenes help, giving the couple a little breathing room.
Coffee First, But Don’t Forget the Biscuits
While biscuits helped give Flipside its identity, Safian remains serious about the first half of the company’s name.
Coffee.
Flipside focuses on sourcing fresh, quality coffee beans and using proper techniques when preparing espresso drinks. The food receives similar attention. The business uses its own biscuit recipe, and eggs are freshly cracked rather than relying on shortcuts.
“Our typical customer is someone who can appreciate good coffee and good comfort food,” Safian said. “I think our customers can tell the difference.”
Located at 100 N. Bayberry Parkway in Middletown, Flipside sits within reach of Routes 1, 301 and 13, helping create an eclectic customer base that includes commuters, nearby residents, families and travelers passing through the area.
Safian said the clientele crosses generations and backgrounds.
“Coffee is universal,” he said.
When Winter Throws You a Curve
Opening a mobile food operation also means dealing with something traditional restaurants rarely have to worry about inside their dining rooms: Mother Nature.
Flipside’s first winter provided a crash course.
Extreme cold created problems starting the generator, sometimes delaying opening. Water lines froze. Then there was the day a propane heater caught fire inside the trailer.
Safian reached for the closest thing available to put out the flames.
Milk.
The winter weather indirectly led to something much more positive.
When the parking lot at Flipside’s former location was not plowed and froze over, Safian needed somewhere else to set up. Flipside had already been visiting the North Bayberry community during the first week of each month, and residents had embraced the business.
What began as an emergency relocation eventually became home.
“The community really embraced us, so we ultimately decided to move there full time,” Safian said. “We couldn’t be more grateful for their support.”
What’s on the Flipside?
Safian is already thinking about what comes next.
Plans are underway to add a second mobile coffee unit. The existing operation will continue serving customers at its regular Middletown location, while the additional vehicle would give Flipside the flexibility to participate in more events and serve customers away from its home base.
And the dream that began more than 23 years ago is still evolving.
Within five years, Safian hopes Flipside will make the leap from mobile operation to a brick-and-mortar location.
The restaurant business remains a challenging place to build a dream. The National Restaurant Association projects restaurant and foodservice sales will reach $1.55 trillion nationwide in 2026, but operators continue to face persistent cost pressures and uneven customer traffic.
For small independent businesses, success often comes down to finding a concept customers remember, offering something they cannot easily find elsewhere and building relationships with the surrounding community.
For Flipside, that formula appears to involve quality coffee, homemade-style comfort food, very early mornings, a supportive family, plenty of determination and, every once in a while, using milk for something other than the coffee.
Achieved with Aeponyx, a subsidiary of Pasqal, the milestone clears one of the central hardware barriers on the path to fault-tolerant, industrial-scale quantum computers
PARIS, Aug. 10, 2026 — Pasqal, a global leader in neutral-atom quantum computing, today announced the trapping of individual atoms using laser light generated by a photonic integrated circuit (PIC), which the company believes is a world-first. Achieved with Aeponyx, Pasqal believes the milestone demonstrates a new scalable approach to qubit control supporting future large-scale FTQC quantum processors.
Neutral-atom quantum computers rely on highly focused laser beams, known as optical tweezers, to trap and control individual atoms that serve as qubits. As Pasqal pursues machines with more than 10,000 atoms and 100 logical qubits, one of the primary engineering challenges is the growing complexity of optical hardware, which today often requires large free-space optical benches. This advancement addresses this challenge by moving critical optical functions onto a photonic chip.
“Building quantum computers that excel commercially means building hardware that delivers industry leading performance and can be manufactured in a scalable way,” said Wasiq Bokhari, Chief Executive Officer, Pasqal. “By moving qubit control onto a photonic chip, we removed what we believe to be one of the biggest barriers to scale – and we did it within 18 months of acquiring Aeponyx. We are very proud of our team for achieving this milestone.”
In the demonstration, Pasqal generated four optical traps through a single photonic chip and used them to hold four individual rubidium atoms inside a quantum processing unit – what Pasqal believes is the first time trapping light delivered from a photonic chip has held atoms on a neutral-atom quantum computer. The work is part of a broader development program to generate, route and control laser light directly on-chip.
In testing, the photonic-chip architecture reproduced atom trapping with performance in line with Pasqal’s existing bulk-optics systems, including atom lifetimes of approximately 27.5 seconds. Pasqal believes the result validates integrated photonics as a viable building block for future neutral-atom processors, without sacrificing the quality of qubit control.
Co-developed with Aeponyx’s silicon-nitride photonics expertise, the platform is designed to shrink the optical footprint of future processors by as much as 50 times and to open a practical route to large-scale manufacturing, an expected advantage as the industry moves from prototypes to production.
Pasqal will work to scale the photonic architecture toward the compact systems required for fault-tolerant, industrial-scale quantum computing, with a long-term target of more than 10,000 atoms and 100 logical qubits.
The milestone illustrates Pasqal’s efforts to beat the forefront of the race to fault-tolerant quantum computing and its strategy of owning the critical hardware layers of its stack, turning targeted moves like the Aeponyx acquisition into measurable technical and commercial advances.
About Pasqal
Pasqal is a global leader in delivering practical quantum computing at scale utilizing neutral atom technology and dedicated software for industry, science, and governments. Since its founding in 2019, Pasqal has leveraged Nobel Prize winning research to build high-performance quantum systems and cloud-ready software designed to address complex challenges in optimization, simulation, and artificial intelligence.
The practice of openly proclaiming to the world what you can’t afford can lead to lower fees, reduced prices and better deals
Ask any small business owner what has challenged them the most over the past couple of years and you’ll frequently hear about cashflow. It’s no secret that costs have risen dramatically and finding places to save money isn’t easy.
If this describes your situation then I’ve got a solution to your problem. Ever hear of “loud budgeting”? Of course you have! You’ve probably been doing it for years.
Only spending outlet for man accused of helping to control a third of Europe’s cocaine supply will be prison tuck shop
It sounds like the penal equivalent of five stars: a private gym and library, daily outings to the exercise yard and a landing cleared of other prisoners.
Daniel Kinahan’s first full day inside the walls of Portlaoise prison on Monday, however, marked a drastic change from his luxury lifestyle in the United Arab Emirates.
Group including Amazon founder has held talks with FSG
Bhatia and Facebook co-founder Saverin also involved
A consortium including the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, is close to completing a deal for a 30% stake in Liverpool after months of talks with Fenway Sports Group. The investors are led by Amit Bhatia, the son-in-law of the Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal and who previously was a shareholder and director at Queens Park Rangers.
The Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin is another member of the group who will pay in the region of £1.35bn. The deal is effectively agreed, but may take up to a month to complete.
State confirms nine cases, including five deaths, from Vibrio vulnificus organism, which thrives in seawater
Health officials in Louisiana are urging beachgoers to take precautions during a summertime surge in infections from a flesh-eating bacterium found in coastal waters.
Louisiana has confirmed nine cases of Vibrio vulnificus infections this year, the state’s health department said last week in a news release. All were hospitalized, and five died. During the same period over the previous decade, Louisiana reported an average of seven cases and one death.
AI’s danger isn’t just in experts losing the ability to reason. It’s that trainees may never learn how to do so in the first place
In healthcare, there’s growing concern over doctors becoming less clinically adept as they increasingly rely on AI tools. But what about the trainees – medical students, residents and fellows – who are using these tools before they have built their own clinical judgment? The idea of deskilling implies that someone possessed an ability and then lost it. Here, the danger is not just deskilling but never-skilling. Although a doctor who has forgotten how to reason is recoverable, one who never learned how may not be.
OpenEvidence, essentially an AI chatbot for clinicians, has given this concern its most concrete form. About two-thirds of US doctors actively use OpenEvidence, asking about puzzling symptoms, drug interactions and clinical guidelines, getting responses within seconds, anchored in the latest research. Trainees, unsurprisingly, have also begun to use this AI tool in many of the same ways – but at a far more formative stage.
A decade of evolutionary hardware progress–more cores, faster clocks, larger accelerators–served the HPC industry well. But AI is changing the rules. The industry is entering a new era where infrastructure must adapt to rapidly changing workloads rather than expecting workloads to adapt to hardware.
That theme was the center of a conversation I had with Pat Gelsinger at the RAISE Summit in Paris: Are we optimizing AI infrastructure for a stable workload, or for constant workload change? Pat’s perspective–shaped by decades of building and leading large-scale compute platforms, including as CEO of Intel and VMware–made the discussion an insightful look at where AI infrastructure is headed.
AI Is Rebuilding Compute
One observation Pat emphasized would have sounded counterintuitive five years ago. CPUs are becoming more important to AI infrastructure, not less. For most of the last decade, the assumption was that AI’s future meant more GPUs. System designs assumed a world where the accelerator does most of the “real work,” and the CPU is a thin host. In practice, that often looked like one CPU feeding eight–or even 16–GPUs.
That balance is changing. As multimodal and agentic systems become more common, the CPU share of the workload grows. In some deployments, the ratio is trending toward one CPU for every two accelerators, and sometimes closer to one to one. The implication is not that accelerators matter less, but that the system around the model is now a first-class bottleneck.
Elad Raz (left) and Pat Gelsinger talk at RAISE Summit in Paris, France
This shift reflects a broader market dynamic. Heterogeneous computing is now the norm. Modern AI infrastructure is built from combinations of CPUs, GPUs, DPUs, NPUs, and specialized accelerators, each optimized for different aspects of the workload. While this diversity improves performance, it also increases infrastructure complexity. Every additional processor introduces another software stack, scheduler, memory hierarchy, networking requirement, power budget, and operational dependency.
Ultimately, it’s about the workload, not the architecture. The winning platforms will be those that execute increasingly diverse workloads efficiently as they evolve, rather than those optimized for a fixed hardware configuration or today’s AI models.
Are We Solving the Wrong Problem?
That context makes the industry’s tendency toward specialized chips worth questioning. If every new model change triggers another ASIC, that could be progress. Or it could also be evidence that we are responding to uncertainty by fragmenting the system.
Specialization can deliver excellent results when the target is well defined and stable. The problem is that AI workloads are no longer stable. The field is only a few years into transformer dominance, and the algorithmic space around attention is already changing. Teams are also experimenting beyond transformers in areas such as state space models, and the practical implication is the same. It’s hard to justify hardware that assumes one fixed kernel mix will dominate for years.
Efficiency also now matters as much as peak speed. Producing more useful work per watt and per dollar is harder than maximizing peak FLOPS, and it is becoming the gating factor for data center buildouts. If AI is to reach its promise across science and industry, it has to become radically more energy- and capital-efficient. Whether you take a “10,000x” figure literally is less important than the direction of travel. Power and cost constraints are forcing architects to treat utilization, memory traffic, and tail latency as core design goals.
From FLOPS to Workload Shape
A useful way to see why fragmentation happens is to look at “inference” as it is actually deployed. It is already splitting into distinct phases such as prefill and decode, each with different bottlenecks.
Prefill tends to be more batchable and throughput-oriented yet compute-bound. Decode is latency-sensitive and more serial in nature, and in our discussion it came up in the context of attention and memory-bound behavior. That difference changes what dominates performance. In many real deployments, the limiting factor is not peak multiple-accumulate capacity but memory bandwidth, memory capacity, and the overheads of coordinating work across devices. When compute becomes a set of specialized islands, the system itself can become the bottleneck, making it increasingly difficult to scale efficiently.
(IM Imagery/Shutterstock)
AI infrastructure is no longer measured in dozens of accelerators, but in clusters containing tens of thousands. At this scale, moving data efficiently becomes just as important as performing computation. Accelerator utilization, memory movement, network topology, and workload scheduling increasingly determine overall system performance. Small improvements in utilization compound dramatically at scale, making architecture decisions exponentially more important than they were in traditional HPC deployments.
Agentic Systems Turn a Model Call into a Workflow
Agentic systems make this shift more visible because the workload is explicitly a loop rather than a single forward pass. A typical agentic pipeline includes some combination of retrieval over a vector index, reranking, tool invocation, structured parsing, and multiple model calls. Dense linear algebra remains central, but it is surrounded by irregular memory access patterns and control-heavy orchestration.
One engineering team described a pipeline that touches multiple chips in a single user request, including separate processors for embeddings, retrieval, reranking, and generation, plus a CPU orchestrating the workflow. That architecture can work, but every boundary is a tax. It increases operational complexity, and it can push tail latency upward even when peak accelerator performance is strong.
This is also why the CPU’s role is growing. The orchestration layer is full of scheduling decisions, tool execution, network and storage I/O, tokenization, and control flow that do not map cleanly onto a fixed-function accelerator. As AI shifts from “running one model efficiently” to “running increasingly complex workloads reliably,” the CPU once again becomes part of the performance path. This shift reinforces a broader reality: organizations are making infrastructure investments expected to last five to seven years, while AI workloads evolve almost continuously.
Future-proofing infrastructure will require architectures that adapt to change rather than assuming today’s workload will define tomorrow’s.
Hardware Should Adapt to Software Change
There’s a more structural question beneath these trends. For decades, the industry has designed software around whatever the hardware can handle. That assumption created enormous value, but it is under pressure when the workload definition changes every year.
A historical pattern is helpful here. Prior generations saw special-purpose units emerge, look compelling for a period, and then be absorbed into broader architectures as workloads evolved. The more your future depends on unknown workloads, the more you benefit from architectures and toolchains that are programmable, composable, and resilient to change.
AI is now in that kind of period. The question is not whether specialization will exist. It will. The question is whether specialization must imply fragmentation, or whether systems can deliver high efficiency while still being resilient to changes in algorithms, model structure, and workload composition.
Training and Inference Aren’t a Permanent Boundary
The same argument applies to another boundary the industry still treats as permanent: the separation between training and inference. People do not stop learning once they become adults. Robots and assistants will not stop learning either. Once a system is expected to keep learning, that old line between training and inference stops meaning much as a design principle.
Technically, this distinction is already blurring. Inference has already begun splintering into phases such as prefill and decode. During our discussion, the point was not just taxonomy. It was that these phases behave differently enough that they can drive different hardware choices, even with a single user-facing system. Over time, if continuous learning and customization become more common, “train here and infer there” becomes less useful as an organizing principle for infrastructure. The boundary between training and inference will decay, and algorithms will emerge that support more naturally and dynamically adjusting systems.
Open Ecosystems and Long-Lived Decisions
Infrastructure decisions are long-lived, while AI algorithms are not. Chip design cycles are measured in years, while data center deployments are measured in decades. This mismatch creates pressure to avoid brittle platform bets.
This helps explain the renewed interest in open and extensible ecosystem approaches, including open instruction set architectures like RISC-V. The appeal extends well beyond cost. Organizations are increasingly seeking greater control over technology roadmaps, improved supply chain resilience, enhanced procurement flexibility, and the flexibility to avoid long-term dependence on a single vendor.
Whether the winning solutions are open, proprietary, or hybrid, the underlying requirement is the same: platforms need room to evolve.
A question I left Paris with is this: 10 years from now, what’s one assumption the industry holds today about AI infrastructure that turns out to be completely wrong?
My guess is the assumption that specialization and flexibility are opposites. That a system has to be either tuned for one narrow job or capable of handling whatever comes next, but not both. If agentic systems, multimodality, and new model families continue to reshape workloads, the next decade will reward architectures that treat change as a first-class design parameter, and efficiency as an end-to-end property of the system, not a benchmark result for a single stage.
If you’re interested in watching the full video version of our talk, you can check it out here.
About the author: Elad Raz is the CEO of NextSilicon.
Zambia’s election: President Hichilema must preserve his country’s democratic reputationExpert commentjon.wallace
In opposition Hichilema made international friends as a champion of democracy. In power he must resist tipping the scales in favour of his party.
Zambia’s general election on 13 August has far greater international significance than the country’s landlocked status and modest economic size might imply. The winner of the presidential poll will take power over a country at the centre of Africa’s critical minerals competition, debt diplomacy and shifting regional alliances. Zambia’s prized democratic reputation will also be tested.
President Hakainde Hichilema’s first term has been defined by the tension between intersecting priorities. On one hand, his economic and political reforms require policy consistency and a commitment to maintaining the country’s democratic institutions. On the other, a lag between headline economic reforms and a tangible sense of improvement for Zambians increases the risk his party is rejected at the ballot box.
The president has been accused by the opposition of taking an authoritarian approach to shore up his support. But Hichilema can secure a second term without democratic backsliding. And a credible election is vital to preserving the faith of investors. The UK, EU and Zambia’s allies across Africa must now act as critical friends to ensure that this election is not overshadowed by authoritarianism.
Expectation gap
A key feature of Hichilema’s first term government has been its pursuit of difficult macroeconomic reforms and debt management. The early years of his presidency saw Zambia’s standing in international economic circles restored and its macroeconomic position stabilized via a debt restructuring process. The Zambian Kwacha was the best performing currency in Africa in 2025, with Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane earning plaudits for his role. Yet the country’s financial rehabilitation remains abstract to many voters who are yet to feel the benefits in daily life.
Meanwhile the outlook for the mining sector – the backbone of Zambia’s foreign exchange earnings and critical to its stabilized macroeconomic position – is ambitious but uncertain. The government has declared an output target of three million tonnes of copper per year: more than triple the present output. That would require at least 10 new mines of an equivalent scale to Zambia’s largest current operations.
Without the rejuvenation of the nation’s most important industry, it will be very difficult to meet Zambian voters’ demands.
Such rhetoric has attracted global attention and some notable new investment commitments. But the fact remains that pledges are not mines, exploration is not production, and announcements are not revenues. The lengthy process of reforming the national mining code into two new pieces of legislation created significant uncertainty. And many major investors are worried by repeated political rhetoric pushing resource nationalism and accusations of discretionary changes to licences on the online cadastre.
What matters now is whether the policy environment remains consistent enough to create confidence in the sector. Investment might walk away if improvements are not seen soon. Without the rejuvenation of the nation’s most important industry, it will be very difficult to meet Zambian voters’ demands.
Authoritarian tightrope
Zambia is a flagbearer for democracy in Southern Africa. Six presidents from three parties have been elected since the first multi-party vote in 1991 – though the transition of power has not always been smooth.
Hichilema rejected the outcome of elections in 2015 and 2016, which he lost narrowly, on each occasion refusing to recognize the victory of Edgar Lungu. Hichilema was imprisoned on treason charges in 2017 before being released. His 2021 election victory was his fifth attempt to win the presidency.
The political and diplomatic capital he accumulated in opposition – including during his imprisonment – was premised upon support for democracy and pluralism. He therefore did not come to power with a blank cheque, but a mandate to protect the institutions that carried him there.
With the election poised to be a referendum on his government’s economic record, Hichilema may be tempted to use his powers to tilt electoral odds in his favour: the opposition say the government is restricting their campaigning – a charge Hichilema denies.
What should allies do?
This leaves Zambia’s international partners in an uneasy position. Their economic interests may be best served by the predictability of a second term for the president. But these interests are tied to the strength of Zambia’s democracy and institutions.
In the early years of Hichilema’s presidency, allegations of authoritarian drift were often dismissed as partisan, especially when raised by figures from a discredited opposition.
But over time those concerns have become harder to ignore, particularly around freedom of speech, criticism of politicians and individual rights. For example, rights groups have argued that Zambia’s new cyber legislation has widened the scope for surveillance, criminalized forms of expression too broadly, and created a self-censoring effect on journalists and critics.
Nonetheless, some of the most controversial proposed legislative changes have been removed from bills before making it to presidential assent. The government has sought to balance control with appeasement of domestic and international criticism.
This approach to the presidency was described in one recent Chatham House event as ‘Hichilema with glitches’.
The 2026 elections process
There are also concerns around the Electoral Commission and the wider framework for voting. The number of parliament seats won through nomination and proportional representation has increased. Boundaries have been changed, and wards added in supposedly incumbent strongholds – all this could amplify the president’s electoral gains. The Electoral Process Act, passed just before parliament’s dissolution, also introduced candidate nomination requirements that some argue are seemingly preferential to Hichilema’s party, the United Party for National Development (UPND). However, thus far the changes to the electoral environment do not amount to a significant undermining of the electoral process.
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President Hakainde Hichilema speaking at a 2021 Chatham House event about the 2026 election.
Timely results announcements will be important: delays will feed perceptions of manipulation and could trigger unrest. Zambia’s elections have historically been relatively peaceful, but domestic observers have already pointed to some instances of political violence.
There is one other significant change this year: Former President Rupiah Banda, who died in 2022, was instrumental in managing the transition from President Lungu to Hichilema following the 2021 election. Banda’s absence will increase the importance of regional and international observers.
The EU already has a long-term observation mission in the country. And the African Union (AU) and partners including the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will also work collectively. They will need to complement local observation, especially by the Christian Churches Monitoring Group, the largest and most independent domestic election observation body.
Regional and international credibility
The AU and SADC were important balanced critics of the Tanzania elections in October 2025. There is less expectation of electoral violence in Zambia this year. But it will be important for the mission to uphold agreed standards and call out irregularities. To succeed, observers will need to characterize their mission as cooperating in Zambia’s democratic project, and avoid any perception of being deployed to manage a worst-case scenario.
Hichilema’s political story is one of repeated rejection by a system, followed by his triumph as a democratic champion. His international friends helped him through this journey, but their support should not be unconditional. They need to remain consistent in supporting economic reform and democratic values, and remind the government that democratic credibility is not preserved by victory alone, but by restraint in power. The best outcome is one that confirms Zambia’s democratic reputation without damage to its foundations.
There are profound rewards of handwritten correspondence in our digital age
I sent my first postcard, as a six-year old, to Olympian Mary Lou Retton, who returned an autographed black and white photo of herself in a wide smile and chic haircut. “‘GOOD LUCK USA ’84” it said.
There followed four relatively fallow decades for me as a postcard sender or receiver until last year, when I became enchanted by the infinite possibilities available in four by six inches.
Amanda Uhle is the publisher of McSweeney’s and the author of the memoir Destroy This House
Exclusive: Film-maker Gabar Choli describes how he endured coercive treatment over eight months in detention in Texas
A Kurdish man who was force-fed over the course of eight months while on hunger strike in US immigration detention has spoken out about it for the first time, describing how much the process harmed him physically and psychologically.
Gabar Choli, a film-maker and activist now living in Canada after being deported, described how he endured the coercive treatment – a practice widely considered torture by international human rights groups – often twice a day after being detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when his asylum application was denied.
DoJ to give $300m for enforcement surges in four cities, as long as they abandon progressive ideologies on policing
The Trump administration is offering grants of tens of millions of dollars to cities across the US to create more Memphis-style enforcement surges – on the condition that they abandon progressive ideologies on policing.
The US Department of Justice says it will announce up to four finalist cities that will split $300m in grant funding under a federal “Model Cities” policing initiative (MCI) next month, setting the stage for some of the largest federal policing grants ever awarded to individual US cities.
Gabar Choli tells of how, for months, he was shackled, pinned and forcibly fed – and the physical and emotional scars the ordeal has left
In June 2025, a sluggish and thin Gabar Choli, with sunken temples and bones visible under his skin, braced himself for the immigration detention center guards to charge into his cell once again.
Choli was in a solitary confinement medical cell inside the Port Isabel service processing center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in south Texas where immigrants arrested in Donald Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown are detained.
President Donald Trump and self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth are pushing for a post-World War II record $1.6 trillion Pentagon budget for next year, a sum so obscenely high that it is almost impossible to comprehend. The proposed $600 billion increase alone is almost twice the total annual military budget of America’s closest rival, China.
That supposed rivalry, despite the big spending gap, makes China central to justifying the Pentagon’s bloated budget. And Hawaiʻi is, in turn, central to the Trump administration’s Indo-Pacific military strategy which assumes that deterring China requires a forward, offensive strike posture anchored by the archipelago. This not only puts a target on Hawaiʻi — as was the case during World War II, when Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan — but it also deepens long-standing economic hardships and environmental degradation produced by more than a century of U.S. military occupation, according to “The True Cost of the U.S. Military in Hawaiʻi,” a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies.
The report finds that as the Pentagon has shoved Hawaiʻi toward the front lines of a potential nuclear conflict, it has also poisoned the islands’ land and waters, lied about its economic benefits, tied Hawaiʻi’s financial well-being to an inefficient use of tax dollars, and failed to pay more than $130 billion in back rent. And now the Trump administration is extending its buildup in Hawaiʻi — which has long “been central to the architecture of U.S. imperial power” to expand facilities, build new bases, and secure access to air and naval bases from Guam to the Pacific island chain to the Philippines to Australia. And these moves in the Pacific are just one part of that multifaceted $600 billion boost being sought for the Pentagon.
The China Syndrome
In addition to greed, grift and pork-barrel politics — practices that have reached an astonishing level due to the unapologetic corruption and feverish insider dealings of the Trump family and its hangers-on — the biggest driver of the Pentagon’s enormous budget is America’s quest for unrivaled global military dominance. At the center of that effort are preparations to “win” a war with China, a mission that is likely impossible and would be extremely dangerous to undertake.
The probable outcome of a war with Beijing — which is, after all, a sophisticated technological power armed with nuclear weapons — would be unprecedented devastation for all concerned, especially the people of Taiwan, the independent island nation of the coast of the mainland that China considers a breakaway province. Hawai‘i, Guam, and the other launching pads for a U.S. military operation against China would undoubtedly be targets, with dire consequences for the residents of those islands.
Exaggerating the threat posed by China is a foolproof marketing scheme for those who profit handsomely from preparations for war with Beijing.
Well before recentering China as national security adversary No. 1, America’s quest for military supremacy was not going well, to put it mildly.
As the Costs of War Project at Brown University has shown, America’s post-9/11 wars have been an unmitigated disaster, costing or causing long-term obligations of an astonishing $8 trillion, as well as the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the displacement of tens of millions more, Meanwhile, these wars failed miserably in meeting their stated objectives, leaving in power a sectarian regime in Iraq that opened the door to the rise of ISIS and a Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, a status quo ante bellum after more than 20 years of war.
“The Trillion Dollar War Machine,” by Willian D. Hartung and Ben FreemanAvailable at Bookshop.org
It’s hard to envision a more complete mismatch between stated war aims and real-world results than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, until we take a hard look at the illegal, immoral, and ill-conceived conflict with Iran which is fast becoming a new forever war.
Despite this dismal record, the Trump regime — and the Biden administration before it — has chosen to double down on a military-first foreign policy, with the demonization of China fueling the fire.
The Pentagon refers to China as the “pacing challenge,” even as military spending far outpaces Beijing’s defense budget. And in its most recent assessment, the Pentagon outlined a strategy to cow China into submission by “being so strong that aggression is not even considered.”
China hasn’t been involved in a major shooting war since the much smaller nation of Vietnam fought it to a virtual standstill in 1979, nearly five decades ago. China’s forces “severely underperformed” in the one-month conflict; according to one account, “PLA soldiers were so undertrained that there were reports of infantrymen tying themselves to tanks with ropes to avoid falling off, sealing their fate when they were ambushed.”
Presumably Chinese forces are much better trained now, but China is not a serial aggressor, and although it has engaged in border skirmishes with India, it has not been embroiled in virtually nonstop conflicts over the past half century, as the United States has, nor has it fought regime-change wars. So the question arises: Who is setting the pace in the U.S.–China arms race, Washington or Beijing?
Two Systems, Two Countries
In the real world, China’s military is not 10 feet tall, and throwing more money at the Pentagon is the worst possible way to address the greatest challenges posed by Beijing, which are actually not military in nature.
China’s vast global influence leans heavily on its economic clout, which is built on aid and trade, including the Belt and Road Initiative, a globe-spanning collection of interconnected infrastructure projects. (To be clear, the Belt and Road has too often involved dubious deals with unaccountable leaders who give Beijing long-term leases on their nation’s critical natural resources in exchange for roads, railways, port facilities, or other infrastructure projects — not exactly a model of free trade in action.) China is also the top trading partner to 120 nations worldwide, including key countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, alongside a brisk trade with Europe. This is the lynchpin of China’s global clout.
But U.S. power projection in Hawai‘i and beyond, the entire Pacific strategy, is based on a different type of projection — the belief that China aspires to usurp the U.S. as the global hegemon through military might. Exaggerating the threat posed by China is a foolproof marketing scheme for the weapons contractors, Pentagon bureaucrats, K-Street lobbyists, and venture capital firms that profit handsomely from preparations for war with Beijing.
Throwing more money at the Pentagon is the worst possible way to address the greatest challenges posed by Beijing, which are actually not military in nature.
On the military front, China’s ability to challenge the U.S. is grounded in its nuclear forces, which are much smaller than America’s but are on the rise in an effort to keep Washington from having a large-enough edge to wipe out Beijing’s ability to respond to a first strike.
The U.S. may not be able to threaten China’s nuclear deterrent any time soon, but in the face of the U.S. military build-up in the Pacific, Beijing appears to be preparing for a worst-case scenario. Chinese President Xi Jinping seems to value nuclear weapons more than his predecessors, who were content to keep a few hundred nuclear warheads that could reach U.S. soil versus Washington’s much larger nuclear arsenal. China is also leveraging is technological base, including its faster pace at training scientists and engineers. This positions China to challenge Washington in an AI arms race.
And yet war is not inevitable, despite what many China hawks constantly suggest. Returning to a common understanding on Taiwan — one in which the U.S. agrees to limit its political recognition of the island or support for independence in exchange for a Chinese pledge not to seek reunification through military means — is the best way to avoid a catastrophic conflict. It would also clear the way for cooperation on urgent issues like addressing the climate crisis, preventing pandemics, and promoting equitable global arrangements to reduce poverty and inequality. At the same time, it would make things safer for hundreds of millions of people from Japan and South Korea to Guam and Hawai‘i.
Paying the Price
America’s military-first approach to China and the world at large comes at a high price, even when the guns are silent. History demonstrates that merely preparing for war costs lives, as the fate of victims of Cold War-era nuclear testing from New Mexico and Utah to the Marshall Islands attests. But as Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear engineer and the president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, has pointed out, the toll of nuclear weapons research, development, and production is global in scope, creating “a worldwide archipelago of radioactive wastelands” that have cost millions of lives since the dawn of the nuclear age. The military’s impact on lives and health is also exacerbated by the proliferation of non-nuclear toxins and unexploded ordnance created by generations of war.
In short, military buildups mean far more than moving money around, although that too poses serious risks when it comes at the expense of investments in public health, nutrition, education, and anti-poverty efforts.
War is not inevitable, despite what many China hawks constantly suggest.
Military expansions involve constructing and maintaining new weapons factories and existing military bases, deploying new weaponry, engaging in costly training exercises, and, all too often, prosecuting senseless, devastating wars like the current conflict with Iran, the forever war in Somalia, and a new conflict percolating in Ecuador.
The Institute for Policy Studies report, prepared by both mainland and Hawai‘i-based analysts and advocates, offers a lesson in the perils of military expansion. Hosting facilities geared toward a future war against China come at a human and environmental cost that far outstrips the (routinely overstated) economic benefits that U.S. military bases and weapons deployments generate, according to the IPS analysis.
The report reveals that decades of military use of PFAS (known as “forever chemicals”) have contaminated soil, groundwater, and nearshore waters far beyond the footprint of military bases. Remediation at just three installations is estimated to cost almost $500 million. A leak at the Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility — which stored roughly 250 million gallons of jet fuel — in Oʻahu also contaminated the drinking water supply of 93,000 people. Due to these and other environmental disasters, residents of Hawai‘i have suffered unnecessary health risks and mortality and could suffer the effects of further accidents as preparations for war with China ramp up.
Trading short-term jobs for long-term environmental devastation and generational health risks is a terrible bargain that would never have been struck without Hawai‘i’s history as a colonial outpost and a pawn in a superpower competition over which the people of the islands have had far too little control. While military bases in the mainland U.S. have also caused enormous health damage, the sheer extent of Hawai‘i’s territory occupied by military facilities heightens the impact.
Meanwhile, the archipelago’s longtime status as a floating military base and the foundation for U.S. power projection in the Pacific makes it a primary target in any U.S.–China conflict, either in a first strike designed to hobble a looming U.S. attack or in retaliation once a U.S. intervention begins.
The IPS analysis also found that the Pentagon has overstated the military’s supposed $10 billion annual economic benefit to Hawai‘i by nearly 30 percent. On top of this, Hawai‘i is getting little bang for the buck. Military spending creates approximately 5.3 jobs per $1 million invested, compared to 12.3 jobs from the same investment in education, food production, healthcare, or housing. The researchers also found that the federal government owes Hawai‘i up to $133.7 billion in back rent on top of the massive environmental cleanup costs.
A non-militarized plan for Hawai‘i’s economy would supply more jobs and be far more sustainable than the current approach, according to IPS. And there is a unique opportunity to change, as two military leases of huge swaths of Hawaiian territory are set to expire.
Trading short-term jobs for long-term environmental devastation and generational health risks is a terrible bargain.
Washington needs to thoroughly rethink its narrow, self-defeating approach to Beijing. A less aggressive, more cooperative posture toward China would help free Hawaiians politically and economically, and it would open the path to a safer, more peaceful, more prosperous future. It would also allow for a rollback of the extensive U.S. military buildups in Guam and the Pacific islands, activities that mirror and are at times even worse in their environmental damage and security risks than the situation in Hawai‘i itself.
A less aggressive foreign policy toward China requires the demilitarization of Hawai‘i and a rollback of America’s costly and ill-conceived buildup in the Pacific. The IPS report clarifies what is at stake and provides a starting point for what should be a thorough debate on Hawai‘i’s role in U.S. security strategy. It is, as one of the authors, Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwoʻole Osorio of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, put it: “a blueprint for reclaiming our nation here, in hope and faith in one another.”
Why Should Delaware Care? Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s governments have scores of commissions, councils, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
Don’t tell Dover officials that summer is the slow period for policy-making.
The City Council of Delaware’s capital city is in the early stages of considering an 18-month moratorium on data center construction within the municipality. Listed on the agenda for the Council’s Committee of Whole meeting Tuesday is an item called, “Drafting A Temporary Moratorium For Data Centers.”
The proposal comes less than a month after Kent County officials adopted regulations that restrict where data centers can be built in unincorporated parts of the county.
At the time, they also signaled that the county could impose a ban on the construction of data centers in those unincorporated areas in the future.
Dover City Councilwoman Donyale Hall said in meeting documents that Kent County’s new regulations could push developers of data centers into Dover’s city limits. That, in turn, makes it necessary for the City Council to consider “adopting comprehensive regulations before additional applications are submitted,” she said.
The responses in the comments tended to be supportive of the move, though some commenters said the city should adopt an outright ban on the facilities.
📍 The Dover City Council Committee of the Whole will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall Council Chambers, located at 15 Loockerman Plaza. For additional details, including a virtual attendance link, click here.
Sussex sewers and solar
Moving south, the Sussex County Council will discuss a string of proposals during its Tuesday meeting, including an extension of the county’s sewer system to a community near Ocean View, and a land-use permit to accommodate a solar farm near Long Neck.
Two months ago, neighbors of the proposed solar project created a petition formally opposing the development, which is backed by Denver-based Pivot Energy.
During a previous meeting of the Sussex County Council, a company engineer said one concern he had heard “loud and clear” from neighbors was around the noise the facility would emit. But he said a noise study of the solar arrays and their electrical inverter returned results that he likened to a “quiet room.”
📍 The Sussex County Council is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday inside the Sussex County Administrative Office Building, located at 2 The Circle in Georgetown. The solar project will be discussed during the public hearing portion of the meeting, which will begin at 1:30 p.m. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
Why Should Delaware Care? Last year’s first-in-a-generation property reassessment and its lasting fallout have reverberated across Delaware, particularly in New Castle County. Lawmakers introduced several tax reforms this past session, including one preserving the current split school tax rate system.
Gov. Matt Meyer allowed a property tax bill to take effect without his signature on Thursday, permitting school districts in New Castle County to continue taxing residential and business properties at different rates.
The bill follows statewide property tax reassessments completed in recent years that sparked an ongoing debate over how Delaware taxes land.
Sponsored by Rep. Kim Williams (D-Stanton), House Bill 462 took effect on Thursday and now extends a so-called split tax-rate system in New Castle County that lawmakers first approved in 2025.
The new law differs slightly from the 2025 version in that the tax rates on commercial properties, including apartments, are capped at 185% of the residential rate, rather than 200%.
Before the legislative session ended in June, lawmakers had also considered a separate bill, Senate Bill 350, that would have created additional categories of properties that could be taxed at different rates. If approved, that change could have addressed longstanding objections to the split tax rate from apartment owners and developers.
Landlords like Newark’s Lang Development sued last year over a bill that raised tax burdens on commercial property owners, saying it threatened their ability to retain their properties. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Meyer had urged lawmakers then to pass Senate Bill 350, arguing that apartments being taxed at a higher rate than single-family homes created a “gross inequity.” But the bill failed to progress to a full vote of either legislative chamber, likely due, in part, to its late introduction just days before legislators’ end of session.
Instead, House Bill 462 is the new law for New Castle County. In addition to preserving the split-rate tax structure, it also changes how school districts account for delinquent, or late, tax payments.
Previously, districts were required to add 10% to their tax rate to account for anticipated delinquencies. The new law allows them to add up to 10%.
Why did Meyer allows the bill to take effect?
Despite concerns about the bill, Meyer allowed it to take effect because school districts need a predictable law in place to set their tax rates for the coming school year, he said.
In a public letter issued Thursday, Meyer said allowing the bill to take effect would “avoid unnecessary disruption for schools and taxpayers alike.”
New Castle County school districts have delayed setting their 2026-27 tax rates while the county reviews certain commercial property assessments that some say were far too low. The county has until Sept. 30 to complete those reviews, after which school districts will receive updated information about their tax base.
The districts are expected to vote on their tax rates in October, with new property tax bills going out in November. The bills would then be due by Dec. 31.
Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer opposes treating apartments as commercial property, saying it only leads to renters carrying an unfair burden. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
But Meyer made clear that allowing House Bill 462 to become law does not mean he supports the tax structure it preserves. He noted that his main concern is that the bill continues to treat apartments and other rental properties as commercial properties, allowing them to be taxed at higher rates than homes.
“Those taxes do not simply disappear. They are reflected in higher rents, deferred maintenance, and fewer new housing opportunities for Delaware families,” Meyer said.
After New Castle County school districts’ adoption of split tax rates last year, apartment tax rates for schools increased by an average of 55%. Meanwhile, school tax rates for homeowners generally declined.
In some districts, Meyer wrote, a 4,000-square-foot, single-family home now carries a lower school tax burden than a 1,500-square-foot apartment.
In his letter, Meyer also reiterated his support for Senate Bill 350, which would have capped apartment tax rates for schools at 120% of the residential rate. He said that bill “offered a better solution” and would not have reduced school district revenue.
“When the General Assembly returns, I urge it to complete this work by recognizing apartments and rental housing for what they are: homes,” Meyer said.
The University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens kick-off their 2026-2027 season on September 3. Their first four games of the season will feature first-time matchups against non-conference opponents.
The start of August signifies the beginning of the end to another summer of fun and sun, but it also means the beginning of the College Football season is fast approaching. The Blue Hens will start their second Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) season on September 3, against four non-conference opponents.
Here’s a look at what awaits the Fightin’ Blue Hens through the first four games of the season:
Blue Hens vs Merrimack College, Sept. 3 @ Delaware Stadium, 7:00 p.m.
The Blue Hens’ begin their season with a matchup against the Merrimack Warriors of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). This is the first time the two programs will face-off.
The Warriors finished last season with a 4-8 overall record and lost to both FBS opponents they played (Kent State and Kennesaw State). Merrimack’s four wins were all won at home and half of them were decided by less than a field goal.
Junior quarterback Ayden Pereira led the team in rushing and passing last season, but departed the program in the winter deciding to transfer to Georgia State and join the FBS level. The program returns their third leading rusher from last season, DeMarcus McElroy, and their third leading receiver, Austin Palmer.
This is Merrimack’s ninth season as an FCS school. The Warriors moved up from Division II before the 2019 season and were in the same subdivision of collegiate football as the Blue Hens before Delaware made the jump from FCS to FBS before last season.
Blue Hens at Vanderbilt University, Sept. 12 @ FirstBank Stadium, 4:15 p.m.
The Blue Hens will play their first of seven nationally televised games in the second week of their season taking on the Vanderbilt Commodores.
The Commodores finished last season tied for the fifth spot in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) standings with a conference record of 6-2 and an overall record of 10-3. The offense ranked ninth in FBS in total yards per game and the defense was 47th in scoring defense. The team finished just outside the College Football Playoff picture and was the 15th ranked team in the final AP Top 25 poll.
Their dynamic offense was led by Heisman runner-up Diego Pavia. Pavia finished the season with 3,539 passing yards, 862 rushing yards and 39 total touchdowns. Pavia departed for the NFL signing as undrafted free agent with the Baltimore Ravens following the 2026 NFL Draft. Pavia was one of eight Commodores to sign as undrafted free agents following the 2026 NFL Draft. Tight end Eli Stowers was the only Vanderbilt player drafted. He was selected in the second round by the Philadelphia Eagles.
This season the Commodores will attempt to continue their success with a new man under center. Head coach Clark Lea hasn’t named the team’s starting quarterback yet, though the team returns veterans Blaze Berlowitz and Whit Muschamp who each appeared for the team last season. Both are competing with the program’s highest ranked commit, five-star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis, for the team’s starting position according to ESPN.
This is the first meeting between the two programs.
Blue Hens vs Coastal Carolina University, Sept. 19 @ Delaware Stadium at 11:30 a.m.
The Blue Hens are no stranger to the Coastal Carolina program despite having never played the Chanticleers throughout the program’s history.
The Blue Hens welcomed two transfers from the Coastal Carolina program this offseason — tight end Josh Humes and wide receiver Bryson Graves — a year after bringing in a pair of Coastal Carolina players for the 2025-2026 season. Last season, wide receiver Kyre Duplessis and defensive back Keontae Jenkins helped the Blue Hens to a 7-6 record and a bowl game victory after transferring from Coastal Carolina. Duplessis was second on the team in catches and receiving yards.
(To read about some of the other UD transfer players joining the program this season click here.)
Coastal Carolina enters the season with a new look roster and new head coach after finishing last season with a 6-7 record. The Chanticleers hired former Missouri State head coach Ryan Beard during the winter and in his first recruiting class, Beard brought in over 50 new players to the Chanticleer roster, according to the team’s website. Beard’s Missouri State team ranked fourth in Conference USA for yards allowed and first in offensive passing efficiency in the program’s first FBS season last year.
The Blue Hens and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers will face off on the football field for the first time in either school’s history on September 19.
Blue Hens at University of Virginia, Sept. 26 @ Scott Stadium (No time announced)
Delaware’s final non-conference game requires a trip to Charlottesville, Virginia, for a matchup with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) runner-ups from a year ago.
Virginia enters this season following a record setting 2025-2026 season that ended with a 13-7 victory over Missouri in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. The Cavaliers finished with a program high 11 wins and finished regular season conference play in sole possession of first place for the first time in program history. Virginia finished the season 29th in the country in total offense and 20th in total defense.
The team added to their core of returning players with over 20 transfers, including former Missouri quarterback Beau Pribula. Pribula threw for over 1,900 yards and ran for 297 more in ten games for Missouri last season and will most likely be the Cavaliers’ starting quarterback following the graduation of 2025-2026 starter Chandler Morris.
This is the first matchup between the two programs.
To see the full 2026-2027 University of Delaware Football schedule click here.
Drought and wildfires intensify across continent, while tropical storms bring heavy rain and disruption to east Asia
High pressure has dominated central and eastern Europe in early August, breaking temperature records across the region. Austria recorded a high of 41.2C (106.2F), while Slovakia reached 42.2C. Hungary hit a peak of 41.8C, surpassing a record set in 1905, while overnight temperatures remained above 28C in some areas, marking it as a tropical night.
The extreme temperatures have been driven by a heat dome beneath the high-pressure system, which traps warm air close to the surface.
Omaha resident Natalie Thorpe’s 3-year-old tested high for lead as a baby. Thorpe’s yard has enough lead to be risky but not enough to qualify for government cleanup. Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica
Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent on environmental cleanup, more than half the yards in a section of Omaha, Nebraska, that used to surround a lead smelter still have enough contamination to cause high blood-lead levels in kids, according to tests by the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica.
The findings were consistent across the city’s older urban core — in the historically Black neighborhoods north of downtown, the predominantly Hispanic areas to the south and the more white and affluent areas in midtown. However, homes closest to where a lead smelter and other downtown factories operated tended to have slightly higher concentrations than those farther out.
As part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, the federal government and the city of Omaha have been attempting to remove lead from Omaha’s yards since the late 1990s.
The EPA’s cleanup standard for Omaha was set in 2009 and is based on health recommendations from 1994. Since then, research has shown that lower exposures can cause IQ loss in kids and heart attacks in adults. Twice in the last 15 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lowered what it considers a high blood-lead level. An EPA risk model found that to protect most kids according to those new health guidelines, soil levels would have to be below 100 parts per million — about 10 grains of rice in a 10-pound bucket of dirt.
The Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica tested 388 homes in the Omaha Superfund site and found that 208 had levels over 100 parts per million.
But the EPA has never required that level of cleanup in Omaha or as a national remediation standard. Current EPA policy for the Omaha cleanup site directs contractors to dig up and replace yards if tests show they contain more than 400 parts per million of lead — about a marble’s worth of the metal dispersed across a 10-gallon bucket of dirt. Last week, the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica reported that 1 in 10 of the homes we tested that were remediated still has a lead concentration over that threshold.
The risk worries Natalie Thorpe, whose 3-year-old daughter tested high for lead as a baby. When the history and English teacher bought a house in Omaha, she knew about the Superfund site, but friends assured her the EPA had taken care of any problems with the dirt. Instead, her yard has enough lead to be risky but not enough to qualify for government cleanup.
“It feels a little bit like being a sitting duck,” Thorpe said.
Thorpe’s 3-year-old picks a tomato from their garden.Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica
EPA spokesperson Kellen Ashford said removing lead in soil is only one factor in protecting communities. Because no level of lead in the body is safe and it would be impossible to remove all lead from a site, the agency works with local health officials to protect the community from lead risks in other ways, he said.
Those include establishing the Omaha Lead Registry, a website where people can search for the highest lead level and remediation status of any property in the site. The EPA also funds the Douglas County Health Department’s lead poisoning prevention program, which performs home visits when a child tests high for exposure to the toxic metal.
Work on lead has historically been focused on protecting people from extreme poisonings, often caused by paint, said Tom Neltner, who heads the lead poisoning prevention nonprofit Unleaded Kids. As more public health experts have acknowledged the risks of smaller exposures, they’ve had to examine soil more closely. Confronting that will require new research and renewed advocacy, he said.
But even with updated science, politics have complicated potential cleanups. The first step in any cleanup is to identify which properties deserve attention. So the EPA typically tests soil to screen for potential problem areas. If results hit a certain level of lead concentration, it kicks off a more in-depth process of monitoring that site and discussing cleanup options. In 2024, President Joe Biden’s EPA lowered that recommended screening level to as little as 100 parts per million.
Cleaning up to 100 parts per million would have carried enormous costs. About 40% of U.S. homes exceed those levels, according to a 2024 study by some of the country’s top researchers of lead-contaminated soil, and it could cost $500 billion to $1.4 trillion to clean up all of them. The authors argued the government could take a more cost-effective approach by covering lead-laced soil with clean soil or mulch rather than digging it out.
Last year, the Trump administration rolled back Biden’s standards in what it said was an effort to speed up cleanups of the highest-risk areas, raising the lowest screening level from 100 parts per million to 200 parts per million.
Thorpe and her daughter pick vegetables from their raised garden bed. Zinnias, basil, golden beets, squash and other plants grow in store-bought soil.Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica
However, some local and state governments, as well as other countries, have committed to standards of 100 parts per million or lower.
Norway recommends risk assessments for any dirt that children have regular access to that has more than 100 parts per million of lead in it. In 2006, the country required all playgrounds and daycares be remediated to that level.
Even in the United States, some areas have lower limits. Minnesota requires replacing any soil that has more than 100 parts per million of lead around the home of a child with a high blood level, said Minnesota Department of Health spokesperson Scott Smith. In April, New Orleans announced plans to clean up its parks after an investigation by Verite News and KFF Health News found more than half of the 80 sites the organizations tested had levels above 100 parts per million.
California has cleaned up properties to 80 parts per million of lead, its screening level for potentially risky soil, though residents of properties exceeding that threshold more often receive safety education rather than a new lawn, said Seth John, a University of Southern California earth sciences professor.
An Omaha lead smelter spread dust that seeped into the soil and bodies of many residents. The EPA spent decades cleaning up the surrounding area — but not Council Bluffs, Carter Lake or Bellevue.
This summer the EPA is testing soil around Omaha as part of an investigation that may help the agency determine if it should expand the site’s boundaries or lower the amount of lead that would qualify for cleanup. The agency expects to share its findings by October 2027, Ashford said.
Earlier research suggests there may be more homes with lead-soil concentrations over 100 parts per million than the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica identified: EPA testing found 84% of the Superfund site in Omaha — more than 36,000 properties — had areas with lead concentrations above 100 parts per million, according to a March 2024 email sent by an EPA manager to a Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy official.
But trying to determine what the agency might do in Omaha is difficult because the EPA has applied its new guidance in different ways, setting higher lead levels for cleanup at some Superfund sites and lower levels at others.
Without cleanup, there are several things Omaha residents can do to lower their risk, said Neltner of Unleaded Kids. Maintaining ground cover like grass reduces the amount of lead dust that can spread from the dirt to kids’ hands and bodies, he said. The EPA also recommends washing hands and taking shoes off inside.
Those are easy things that lower risk, Neltner said, but he noted that they’re not a long-term solution.
“We have to keep doing what we can,” he said. “We need our leadership at local, state and federal levels to support people in finding solutions.”
Thorpe’s 3-year-old daughter stands barefoot in her family’s garden.Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica
Former state senator tells A Better Discussion that controlling spending, reducing regulation and rebuilding Delaware’s private-sector economy should be priorities
WILMINGTON, Del. (Aug. 9, 2026) — Delaware can strengthen its economy, but doing so will require policymakers to control government spending, reduce barriers to private investment and pay closer attention to how state policies affect businesses, workers and taxpayers, former state Sen. Charlie Copeland said during an Aug. 3 live webcast.
Copeland joined Jane Brady, former Delaware attorney general, chair of A Better Delaware and host of A Better Discussion with Jane Brady, for a wide-ranging examination of Delaware’s economy, government spending, taxation, regulation, housing and education.
Both argued that decisions made in Dover have consequences that extend well beyond the state budget.
“Policies that the state adopts do matter,” Brady said. “They matter for every one of us.”
Copeland, a businessman and former Republican state chairman, argued that Delaware’s economic problems are significant but reversible.
“You could fix Delaware in a year,” Copeland said. “But what it takes is leadership.”
Government spending outpaces economic growth
Copeland traced what he described as a long-term acceleration in Delaware government spending.
He said state spending historically grew at roughly 2% annually before increasing to more than 4% as Delaware benefited from the growth of credit card banking, abandoned property revenue and legalized gambling.
Federal assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic helped push spending growth even higher, he said.
Copeland argued that while much of the federal money was temporary, higher levels of state spending became embedded in the budget.
“The general fund is now built on an annual 5% increase,” Copeland said.
Brady agreed that Delaware used large surpluses and federal assistance without developing enough of a long-term strategy for what would happen when the extraordinary revenue disappeared.
“We literally had $3 and $4 billion surpluses that we expended,” Brady said. “We spent it all. A lot of it we cooked into the base budget.”
She said some money went toward capital improvements, including schools, but questioned whether policymakers adequately planned for the long-term consequences of expanding recurring programs while temporary revenues were available.
Where is Delaware’s next growth industry?
Copeland said the spending issue becomes more concerning when compared with what he characterized as a stagnant private-sector economy.
He pointed to the closing of Delaware’s automobile plants, DuPont’s contraction and restructuring and Bank of America’s acquisition of MBNA as important turning points.
Copeland recalled telling then-Delaware State Chamber of Commerce President Rich Heffron while serving in the state Senate that Delaware faced a fundamental economic problem.
“Delaware’s in trouble,” Copeland recalled saying. “We have no growing industry in the state of Delaware right now.”
He said the question Delaware still needs to answer is straightforward.
“What’s your vision for how you grow this economy?” Copeland said. “Well, there hasn’t been one.”
Brady echoed that concern, saying Delaware has experienced what she described as a “slow but steady process of deterioration” in the state’s interest in developing new businesses.
She distinguished between companies legally forming or incorporating in Delaware and companies actually putting employees, facilities and investment in the state.
“There are a lot of new business formations, but they’re not for businesses that are operating in Delaware, necessarily,” Brady said.
Incorporation is different from economic development
That distinction became one of the central themes of the discussion.
Delaware traditionally points to its dominance in corporate incorporations as one of the state’s major economic strengths. Copeland acknowledged the importance of that industry but said incorporation should not be confused with companies choosing Delaware as a place to employ people.
“How many of them are headquartered in Delaware?” Copeland asked. “In other words, this is where their headquarter staff is, this is where their offices are, this is where they hire people, this is where they operate out of. And the answer is, very few.”
Brady said increasing competition from other states makes that distinction even more important.
She pointed particularly to Texas, which has been aggressively positioning itself to attract financial and corporate activity.
“Texas has really declared war on anybody who wants to go into business,” Brady said. “They’re going to bring them in.”
She said competition can benefit the economy by forcing states and institutions to innovate but warned that Delaware cannot take its historic advantages for granted.
Copeland agreed.
“Texas has made a very aggressive move,” he said, arguing Delaware is simultaneously making it more difficult for businesses to operate.
Making Delaware ‘open for business’
Asked what Delaware could do differently, Copeland said the state should begin with a clear message to employers and entrepreneurs.
“Delaware’s open for business,” Copeland said. “Get the regulatory guys off their backs.”
Copeland said a governor should personally contact businesses considering expansions and make the case for locating jobs in Delaware.
He also called for more government services to be moved online, greater use of technology and greater scrutiny of state positions and regulatory requirements.
His broader argument was that government does not need to create economic growth itself.
“There are these people that have agency and are going to make good decisions, and they’re going to grow it on their own because incentives matter,” Copeland said. “And if you get out of their way, it’s going to happen.”
Brady said the experience of businesses should receive more consideration when lawmakers make decisions affecting employers.
She said many decisions involving business finances and operations increasingly are being reviewed or influenced by people in government who may have limited experience operating businesses themselves.
That disconnect, she argued, can produce policies with unintended economic consequences.
A different view of government’s role
Not everyone agrees with Brady and Copeland’s prescription. Karl Stromberg, a leader of Delaware’s Working Families Party, has argued that higher taxes on wealthier residents and corporations can generate additional revenue for public priorities rather than necessarily driving investment away. Stromberg also supports changes to Delaware’s judicial and Court of Chancery system that he believes would make corporate governance more accountable to citizens and shareholders, and he favors a larger government role in housing policy to expand affordable options for lower-income families. Those positions reflect a different view of the same challenges: that stronger public investment, greater corporate accountability and more direct government involvement can improve economic opportunity rather than impede it.
Housing shortage highlights regulatory debate
Housing offered a practical example of the broader debate over regulation.
Copeland pointed to large parking lots and single-story retail developments near New Castle County Airport and suggested changes in land-use rules could allow residential units to be constructed above existing commercial properties.
“We’ve got plenty of place to put” housing, Copeland said, arguing that relatively modest changes to development codes could encourage private investment.
“If you get government out of the way, the incentives are there for private sector developers to put in affordable housing all over the place,” he said.
Brady questioned whether policymakers have sufficiently defined what they mean when discussing “affordable housing” and said the cost of regulation ultimately reaches consumers.
She returned to that point at the conclusion of the webcast.
“How much it costs the regulators, costs builders to build new homes affects anybody who wants to buy a new home,” Brady said.
Taxes and the competition for residents
Taxes also emerged as a major concern.
Copeland said continued government spending growth will eventually increase pressure to find additional revenue.
He warned that substantially higher income tax rates could change the calculations made by business owners and higher-income residents about where they live and invest.
“Once you start adding numbers on top, you start competing with New York and California,” Copeland said.
Because Delaware is geographically small, he said residents can relatively easily establish themselves elsewhere while businesses can direct future investments to other states.
He cited Delaware’s former estate tax as an example, arguing that some wealthy residents shifted their primary residences to states such as Florida.
“People don’t grow stupid overnight, and incentives matter, and they’re gonna make rational decisions,” Copeland said.
Brady said she personally knew several people who changed their residency during the period Delaware imposed the estate tax.
The two argued that policymakers should consider not simply how much revenue a new tax might theoretically generate, but whether it changes the behavior of the people being taxed.
Work, incentives and the safety net
Brady and Copeland also discussed labor-force participation and the relationship between public benefits and employment.
Copeland argued that government assistance should function as a safety net while preserving incentives for able-bodied people to enter the workforce.
Brady said the issue goes beyond government finances.
She argued that work provides people with a sense of productivity and personal accomplishment that government programs cannot replace.
“There’s benefits to working,” Brady said, adding that government policy can overlook “that human component.”
Copeland agreed, saying work can provide “a certain sense of self-esteem, self-worth” and personal value.
The two also acknowledged that reducing benefits after they have become embedded in household finances would be difficult.
Copeland said abruptly withdrawing assistance could create serious consequences for housing, food security and nonprofit organizations serving families.
“You have a serious transition cost that’s staring the state in the eye,” he said.
Education is economic policy, too
The discussion eventually turned to Delaware schools, with both Brady and Copeland arguing that education should be viewed as part of the state’s economic strategy.
Copeland said businesses consider workforce quality when determining where to invest and said Delaware’s education system requires significantly stronger action.
“I would declare a state of education emergency,” Copeland said.
He argued that years of incremental changes have not produced sufficient results and called for greater leadership and accountability.
Brady pointed to Mississippi’s improvement in student reading performance and said Delaware should be willing to consider policies that have produced measurable improvement elsewhere.
She argued that new education spending should be accompanied by specific accountability measures and measurable expectations for student improvement.
Brady: Policy choices matter at the ballot box
Brady ended the program by connecting the economic discussion to the elections Delaware voters will face this year.
She urged voters to look beyond political mailers and advertising and examine what candidates actually propose to do about spending, regulation, education, housing and economic development.
“It’s critical that we make good decisions about who we choose to govern us, because those policies matter,” Brady said.
The broader message from Brady and Copeland was that Delaware’s economic future is not predetermined.
Their argument throughout the webcast was that decisions made by governors, legislators and regulators influence whether businesses invest, whether people work, how much housing costs and ultimately how much government can afford.
DELAWARE LIVE TO GO
What:A Better Discussion with Jane Brady Presented by: A Better Delaware Host: Jane Brady, former Delaware attorney general and chair of A Better Delaware Format: Weekly live webcast examining Delaware government, public policy, business, education, the economy and other issues affecting residents When: Mondays at 8 a.m. Aug. 3 guest: Former state Sen. Charlie Copeland Why watch: Brady brings Delaware policymakers, business leaders and subject-matter experts into a weekly conversation about the decisions being made in the state and how those decisions affect Delaware residents.
Whether the biggest artificial intelligence data centers should open in Florida and what it means for people’s electric bills is a top issue in the state’s governor’s race.
GOP frontrunner U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds welcomes them, with consumer protections attached, and has received dozens of campaign contributions from AI companies. David Jolly, the leading Democrat in the race, wants a data center moratorium, which some counties have enacted already.
“Byron Donalds wants to rush them onto pristine land while dismissing the consequences,” Jolly said in a July 22 X post.
But Donalds said Jolly is wrong. “No protections for ratepayers and the environment = no data center. That’s the law on the books in Florida,” Donalds wrote July 22 on X, adding that he introduced a similar bill in Congress.
In another post the same day, Donalds said the 2026 law, SB 484, “ensures that utility rates will not go up due to data centers.”
Does the law guarantee consumers’ electric bills won’t increase because of new data centers?
Gates McGavick, Donalds’ campaign communications director, said “no electric rate change” takes effect without the state energy commission’s approval. The commission has to “ensure data centers pay their own cost of service and we expect municipal utilities and co-ops to follow suit,” McGavick said.
Energy policy experts said the law can protect consumers against spiking utility bills. But they also say Donalds overstated its reach. That’s because the pricing plan for data centers depends on a state commission’s oversight, data centers’ operations could increase electric bills in other ways, and the law doesn’t apply to all utility companies.
“Saying rates ‘will not’ go up because of (the law) claims an outcome the statute does not deliver,” said Mark McNees, a Florida State University professor who researches how AI data centers can affect consumers.
The law directs a commission to ‘reasonably ensure’ consumers don’t pay more, but doesn’t guarantee it
The law directs the Florida Public Service Commission, the state’s primary energy regulatory body, to approve minimum tariff and service rules for massive consumers of electricity, or “large load customers.” Data centers that require 50 megawatts of power or more are subject to the law. (A 50-megawatt facility typically draws enough electricity to power around 30,000 to 50,000 homes.)
The law says that rates for these large data centers must “reasonably ensure” that each “bears its own full cost of service” and that the cost isn’t shifted to the average consumer.
The legislation says these costs of service include connection, incremental transmission and generation, and operations and maintenance expenses. It also bars data centers from splitting a single, large location into smaller connections to avoid paying full costs.
Four investor-owned electric utilities in the state are governed by the commission and subject to the law: Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric and the Florida Public Utilities Company. These companies serve approximately 75% of the state’s population.
By Oct. 1, these utilities must file compliant pricing plans for the commission’s approval.
The law doesn’t apply to rural cooperatives or municipal utility companies, such as Jacksonville Electric Authority, Orlando Utilities Commission and Gainesville Regional Utilities, which are governed by local boards that set their own pricing rules.
That means people who receive services from these companies aren’t protected under the new law, and could see different rate structures if data centers are built near them.
Energy policy experts said the new law is helpful but largely procedural.
This “directs a process, not a result,” McNees said. The law’s language, that the plans must “reasonably ensure” data centers pay their own costs, is “an instruction to the commission,” not a cap on rates or ban on increases, he said.
The law outlines enforcement tools utilities could use against data centers, such as upfront financial guarantees and minimum demand charges to prevent them from abandoning projects midway and saddling locals with related costs. But it doesn’t require utilities to use these tools.
And while the legislation addresses incremental costs of serving data centers, it doesn’t address other expenses that could make consumers’ bills go up, experts said.
For example, when fuel costs go up, utilities pass that onto customers. The new law doesn’t cap those charges or insulate residential customers from the increases, even if a data center’s electricity consumption raises the overall demand in the region.
Our ruling
Donalds said a new Florida law “ensures that utility rates will not go up due to data centers.”
The law outlines ways to protect consumers from paying higher bills because of new data centers, but it doesn’t guarantee it won’t happen.
Utility pricing plans for certain large data centers must “reasonably ensure” that each bears its own full cost of service, the law says. It’s up to the Florida Public Service Commission to define and enforce the pricing plan.
The four top electric utilities in the state are bound by the law’s rules, but rural cooperatives and municipal utilities governed by local boards are not.
Every election cycle since 2010, we have published profiles of some of the many outside groups trying to influence who gets elected to Congress and the White House. Today, we’re launching our latest Players Guide with write-ups of eight of the biggest spenders so far for the 2026 midterms.
Photo by Oleksandr / stock.adobe.com
Each profile has information about the individuals who run the group, the people funding the group, the group’s political leanings and motivations, and how the group is spending the millions it has raised. If the group has been around for a while, we note its spending during the prior election cycle for comparison.
During the last midterm cycle, outside groups collectively spent $2 billion on independent expenditures, which are advertisements and other communications that expressly advocate for or against candidates for office, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics. The total was double that amount for the 2024 presidential cycle.
The eight groups we’re starting with this time include the Senate Majority PAC, which is trying to help Democrats retake control of the Senate, and the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is working to keep Republicans running the House of Representatives. We also highlighted Fairshake, a pro-cryptocurrency super PAC that backs or opposes candidates based on whether they appear to be for or against policies favorable to the digital currency industry.
Come back throughout the general election for details about other key players, as we’ll be publishing more profiles over the next three months. Some of the featured groups will be ones we’ve written about before — because they continue to spend large amounts of money — but we’ll be writing about a few of the newly formed groups as well.
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.
Because of expected rain and potentially poor weather, the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation is moving its Aug. 8 Second Saturday program from Fort Christina Park indoors to the Copeland Maritime Center at the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard in Wilmington. Image created with AI on 8/7
Rain is moving “Lions, Sea Serpents & Mermaids, Oh My!” inside the Copeland Maritime Center, where families can explore the creatures and legends that once filled sailors’ imaginations.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Mermaids, sea serpents and other legendary creatures will be taking shelter from the rain Saturday.
Because of expected rain and potentially poor weather, the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation is moving its Aug. 8 Second Saturday program from Fort Christina Park indoors to the Copeland Maritime Center at the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard in Wilmington.
The free family program, “Lions, Sea Serpents & Mermaids, Oh My!,” runs from 1 to 4 p.m. and explores the monsters, mythical creatures and maritime folklore that accompanied sailors across largely unknown oceans for centuries.
Visitors will learn about mermaids, sea serpents, lions and other creatures that appeared in sailors’ stories and as decorations aboard sailing ships. Children also can create their own sea serpents as part of the hands-on program.
Sea Monsters Filled an Unknown World
Long before satellites, sonar and modern ocean science, sailors ventured into waters they could barely understand.
Enormous whales, giant squid, unusual fish, violent currents, strange sounds and sudden storms could all become the foundation for stories about something more frightening lurking below.
Across different cultures, those fears produced an extraordinary collection of sea monsters.
Greek mythology told of Scylla, a multiheaded monster that attacked passing sailors, and Charybdis, a deadly whirlpool capable of swallowing ships.
Norse and Scandinavian stories helped create the legend of the kraken, an enormous tentacled creature said to be capable of pulling ships beneath the waves.
Sea serpents appeared repeatedly in sailors’ accounts, with mariners describing enormous snake-like creatures rising from the water or swimming alongside their vessels.
Some sightings may have been whales, giant squid, oarfish or other real animals viewed under difficult conditions.
But when sailors could not explain what they saw, folklore could.
Mermaids Brought Beauty to the Danger
Mermaids became especially enduring because they represented something different from the traditional monster.
They were mysterious and potentially dangerous, but also beautiful and human.
Stories of beings combining human and aquatic features date back thousands of years. Over time, the familiar image emerged of a woman above the waist and a fish below.
For sailors months from home, the mermaid became a powerful combination of attraction and danger — much like the sea itself.
Even explorers reported seeing them. Christopher Columbus recorded a mermaid sighting in the Caribbean in 1493, although historians generally believe he probably saw manatees.
The account shows how sailors often interpreted unfamiliar things through stories they already knew.
When Monsters Appeared on Maps and Ships
Maritime monsters were not limited to stories.
Historic maps sometimes filled unknown waters with enormous fish, serpents and fantastic creatures, visually warning travelers that they were entering places humans did not fully understand.
Mythical creatures also appeared aboard ships as carvings and figureheads.
Lions might symbolize strength and courage, while women, gods and fantastic creatures could represent protection, identity or good fortune.
Saturday’s program uses those traditions to introduce families to a time when superstition and seamanship frequently traveled together.
Why Sea Monsters Still Fascinate Us
Science has explained many of the creatures and natural forces that once frightened sailors, but sea monsters never disappeared.
The kraken, sea serpent and mermaid remain familiar characters in books, movies, television and popular culture.
Part of their appeal may come from the same mystery that fascinated sailors centuries ago.
Humans know far more about the oceans today, but the deepest waters remain difficult to explore and new marine species continue to be identified.
We know legendary krakens probably were not pulling sailing ships underwater, but giant squid are real.
There is no evidence mermaids exist, but sailors genuinely reported seeing them.
And some ancient stories about frightening waters appear to have been inspired by very real maritime hazards.
That mixture of fact, fear and imagination is what keeps sea-monster folklore alive.
A Delaware Maritime Connection
The setting adds another layer to Saturday’s program.
Today’s Kalmar Nyckel is a full-scale replica of the Swedish colonial ship associated with the establishment of New Sweden in the Delaware Valley in 1638. It will be in Historic New Castle tomorrow. The replica was built at the Wilmington shipyard and today serves as a floating classroom and ambassador for Delaware maritime history.
A 3/4 size replica of the ship is inside the Copeland Maritime Center and is available to explore on Saturday.
Saturday’s event explores another part of that history — not simply how sailors crossed the ocean, but what they imagined might be traveling beneath them.
And while mermaids may still get much of the attention, they were only one creature in a much larger and stranger world of maritime folklore.
Trump’s summer of tariffs means trade uncertainty is here to stayExpert commentthilton.drupal
The Trump administration has pushed through another round of tariffs. While they are being challenged in the courts, unpredictable and costly US trade policy is here to stay.
The Trump administration spent the waning days of July upending – again – the structure of US trade policy. Various issues have been used to justify a new wave of tariffs, investigations and threats – including forced labour, EU digital policy, Canadian commodities and Brazilian politics. But amid these specific dramas, a broader reality has become clear: that rapidly changing, often political tariffs are the new normal for US trade policy.
Congress also bestirred itself on trade last month, but in contradictory directions that may ultimately serve instead to further embolden the White House. Indeed, the more aggressive this administration’s use of tariffs becomes, the more difficult subsequent administrations are likely to find it to move away from them.
From ‘Liberation Day’ to Section 301
July was a big month for US trade policy as time ran out on the temporary ‘section 122’ tariffs that the Trump administration put in place in February 2026. Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 authorizes the president to impose tariffs of up to 15 per cent on all imports for up to 150 days ‘to address fundamental international payments problems.’
This was the administration’s move to keep a form of global tariffs in place after the US Supreme Court had overturned US president Donald Trump’s original approach. The court struck down his use of an emergency powers act to declare wide-ranging tariffs via an executive order on ‘Liberation Day’ in April 2025.
Following this setback, in March 2026 the administration initiated a series of investigations under ‘section 301’ of the Trade Act of 1974, which permits it to document and levy tariffs on countries that burden or unfairly restrict US exports.
The first section 301 investigation to be completed was also the largest: the claim that US commerce was being harmed by imports of goods produced with forced labour. The investigation did not, crucially, focus on firms using forced labour. Instead, it accused 59 countries and the European Union of permitting the import of goods allegedly produced with forced labour elsewhere.
On 24 July, the administration implemented tariffs on the 60 economies. While the new rates are significantly lower than the original ‘Liberation Day’ rates for many countries, they reinstituted a 10-12 per cent minimum tariff on the 60 economies, which together provide the US with 99 per cent of its imports. This applied even to the countries (and the EU) that had moved to enact or beef up enforcement of forced labour bans.
Canada, Brazil, EU, China
These forced labour tariffs also stack on top of some previous ones. As a result, while estimates put the overall US effective tariff rate at 10.8 per cent, some countries face much higher tariffs.
In July, the administration cited a previously unused legal authority (section 338 of the notorious 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff act) to declare 50 per cent levies on various Canadian goods – some longstanding trade irritants, others related to Canadian public boycotts and retaliation over prior tariffs. The White House also put a 25 per cent tariff on some Brazilian goods, in a move that was viewed by many in Brazil as politically motivated ahead of the country’s upcoming elections.
More is on the way. An ‘excess capacity’ section 301 investigation targeting 16 economies including China, India, Japan and the EU is still in process, with potentially high tariff outcomes. The administration has said it would restart its 2019 section 301 investigation against countries that engage in so-called ‘digital protectionism,’ which would chiefly target EU members and Canada. President Trump’s response to EU fines on Google in July was also to suggest additional tariffs.
President Trump gets a new version of the across-the-board tariff wall he desires, while importers get chaos.
Pharmaceuticals have also been targeted. On 31 July, tariffs on pharmaceuticals from certain companies – justified under a different law focused on national security concerns – began to take effect. Some are as high as 100 per cent. The administration also has an ongoing section 301 investigation targeting German pharmaceuticals, in response to German efforts to lower drug spending.
Meanwhile, Washington and Beijing nibbled at the edges of their trade truce; in addition to putting 12.5 per cent forced labour tariffs on Chinese goods, the US banned Chinese-made humanoid robots.
For its part, the Chinese government has continued to build out its ability to restrict critical minerals flows, while meetings between senior US and Chinese officials have not marked progress on agricultural trade or Washington’s planned Board of Trade to manage relations with China. It appears, to quote former US negotiator Ambassador Wendy Cutler, that ‘just holding the truce together has become the main objective.’
Exemptions and challenges
The new tariffs – like the ones they replaced – cover about half of all goods imported into the US, with significant exemptions. The exemptions process may help manage inflationary pressures at home, but it also makes implementation complex and has prompted questions about which industries are given exemptions and why.
An audit of the first Trump administration’s tariff exclusion practices in 2018 and 2019 by the Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General warned of the ‘appearance of improper influence in decision-making for tariff exclusion requests.’
A recent New York Times report raised questions about the basis of the exemptions from last month’s tariffs over forced labour, including commodities like diamonds. The report quoted White House spokesperson Kush Desai in response: ‘The only special interest guiding the Trump administration’s decision-making is the best interest of the American people.’
Overall, President Trump gets a new version of the across-the-board tariff wall he desires, while importers get chaos. The new tariffs are already being challenged in court, including by 25 US states. Experts disagree on which challenges might succeed, but it appears that the administration aims to maintain elevated tariff levels by imposing new tariffs faster than courts can overturn old ones.
Contradictory Congress
A majority of the American public, including independents and non-MAGA Republicans, dislike tariffs. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, a longtime critic of tariff initiatives from both parties, introduced comprehensive legislation that would wrest trade policy power back to Congress. But the bill has no clear path forward.
At the same time, a bill giving the president even more tariff authority to target Russia, including to put 100 per cent tariffs on top importers of Russian oil, began to move through the Senate with strong bipartisan support. Wyden was one of only ten Democrats to oppose it.
This reflects the politics of tariffs: the pain they impose is diffuse, while the benefits are highly specific and thus easier to organize around. A majority of US public opinion supports free trade in the abstract but opposes specific trade liberalization deals with their real and imagined costs.
As a result, Congress remains unwilling to engage in affirmatively setting trade policy, handing more power to the executive branch. Meanwhile, more corners of US industry are getting used to building in uncertainty and negotiating with the administration for exemptions from tariffs.
This means it’s going to get harder, rather than easier, for future leaders of any political stripe to swear off trade policy as a cheap political tool. As with climate change, the risk for US trade policy is that the world is left with heat and unpredictability all year round.
Statewide program will provide governance training, mentoring and professional support as newly elected members begin making decisions affecting students, families and taxpayers
By George D. Rotsch, Editor Delaware LIVE
WILMINGTON, Del. — First State Educate has launched a statewide onboarding initiative that provides governance resources, professional learning and ongoing support for Delaware’s newly elected school board members.
Julia Keleher, Executive Director of First State Educate, said the initiative is designed to help new members understand their responsibilities before they begin making decisions involving district budgets, superintendent leadership, student achievement, public policy and the use of taxpayer dollars.
School board members often take office only weeks after winning an election. Although they immediately assume responsibility for major policy and financial decisions, many begin their service with limited formal preparation for their governance role.
Keleher said the initiative will help new members begin their service with a clearer understanding of how an effective school board operates and how individual members can contribute to the board’s success.
Starting with governance
School boards establish district policies, approve budgets, hire and evaluate superintendents, and set the strategic direction of local school systems.
Board members are not responsible for managing the daily operations of schools. That work is generally handled by the superintendent and district administrators.
Understanding that distinction can help board members focus on long-term goals, student outcomes, financial oversight and accountability rather than becoming involved in routine management decisions.
Keleher said effective onboarding can also help new members understand meeting procedures, legal responsibilities, public accountability requirements and the importance of working collaboratively with other members of the board.
Resources, mentoring and professional learning
The First State Educate initiative includes a board onboarding framework, governance resources and continuing professional learning opportunities. The initiative is intended to provide support beyond a member’s first weeks in office. Keleher said ongoing professional learning can help board members respond to changing academic, financial and community challenges throughout their terms.
Keleher said the program also includes a partnership with Wilmington University and a governance credentialing pathway that allows board members to publicly demonstrate a commitment to effective school governance.
First State Educate also offers an opportunity to create a mentoring component that can connect newly elected members with experienced education and governance leaders.
Better preparation can also help members ask stronger questions, evaluate information more carefully and build productive relationships with superintendents, fellow board members and the public.
Why residents should care
Strong school boards benefit more than the people seated at the board table.
Board decisions influence classroom resources, academic programs, school safety, transportation, employee contracts, taxes and the long-term financial health of a district. Those decisions affect students, families, educators, property owners and businesses throughout the community.
Keleher said a well-prepared board is more likely to remain focused on measurable goals, responsible spending and student achievement. Citizens can expect a more meaningful discussion at board meetings, more focus on the highest priorities and a better exchange of ideas between the community and leaders in the school.
Delaware residents also have a role in strengthening local school governance. Community members can learn who serves on their board, attend meetings, review agendas, follow budget discussions and communicate constructively with elected members.
Residents should not wait until a controversial vote or financial crisis to begin paying attention. Understanding how a board operates before disagreements arise can lead to better public discussions and more informed community participation.
Keleher said the initiative is intended to help board members start strong while giving Delaware residents additional opportunities to understand, follow and support the work of their local school boards.
To Go Box
What: First State Educate’s statewide school board onboarding initiative
Purpose: To provide newly elected Delaware school board members with governance resources, mentoring and continuing professional learning
Program components: A board onboarding framework, governance materials, a Wilmington University partnership, mentoring opportunities and a possible governance credentialing pathway
Who benefits: School board members, students, families, educators and taxpayers
The Lantern Award recognizes emergency departments that demonstrate strong performance in leadership, nursing practice, education, advocacy and research. Photo created with AI on 8/6/26
International recognition highlights improvements in patient safety, emergency nursing, testing times and care for victims of violence and abuse
WILMINGTON — ChristianaCare’s Wilmington Hospital Emergency Department has received the Emergency Nurses Association’s Lantern Award for a second consecutive cycle, recognizing the department for excellence in nursing practice, patient safety and innovation.
The new designation covers 2026 through 2029. The emergency department previously received the award for the 2023-26 cycle.
Wilmington Hospital was one of 126 emergency departments recognized internationally this year.
“Earning the Lantern Award for a second consecutive cycle is a testament to the extraordinary skill and commitment of the Wilmington Hospital Emergency Department team,” said Danielle Weber, ChristianaCare’s chief nurse executive. “These caregivers have created an environment where nurses are empowered to identify opportunities, apply evidence and lead changes that result in safer, better care for patients.”
Recognition focuses on emergency nursing
The Lantern Award recognizes emergency departments that demonstrate strong performance in leadership, nursing practice, education, advocacy and research.
Named for Florence Nightingale, the award also considers an emergency department’s use of evidence-based practices, commitment to patient safety and efforts to create a healthy workplace.
Applicants undergo a blinded review that examines performance measures and detailed examples of the department’s work.
“The Lantern recognizes something incredibly special,” Emergency Nurses Association President Dustin Bass said. “It isn’t an award for an individual or an entire hospital — it’s a recognition earned by an emergency department and the team that powers it every day.”
Department cared for nearly 64,000 patients
During the one-year period included in its award application, the Wilmington Hospital Emergency Department cared for 63,765 patients.
ChristianaCare’s application highlighted several nurse-led and interdisciplinary projects designed to provide faster and safer care.
“What distinguishes this team is its ability to turn frontline insight into measurable improvements,” said Jennifer Moberg, ChristianaCare’s vice president of Emergency Services. “From reducing the time it takes patients to receive critical testing to redesigning triage so patients can begin care sooner, these caregivers work across disciplines to solve problems and improve patient outcomes and experience.”
Faster heart testing
One improvement involved the time required to provide electrocardiograms to patients experiencing chest pain or related symptoms.
The department created a dedicated ECG room in its triage area. By the end of 2025, the average time from a patient entering the department to receiving an ECG had fallen to about seven minutes, below the national benchmark of 10 minutes, according to ChristianaCare.
Nurses also created an “Idea Bin” that allows employees to submit suggestions by scanning QR codes placed throughout the department.
The first 42 submissions resulted in 26 projects or operational changes. Those changes included making point-of-care testing more accessible and placing commonly used supplies closer to caregivers.
Forensic nursing program expands
The award application also highlighted the growth of Wilmington Hospital’s forensic nurse examiner program, which provides specialized care to patients affected by violence, assault or abuse.
The program completed 158 in-person forensic examinations in 2023, 299 in 2024 and 386 in 2025.
ChristianaCare said the expansion has allowed more patients to receive specialized forensic care at Wilmington Hospital without being transferred to another facility.
Other initiatives included improvements in patient flow, pediatric emergency readiness and nursing education. Emergency department nurses also received specialized training to provide ultrasound-guided intravenous access.
“This recognition belongs to the entire emergency department team,” said Christina Hoddinott, who led the development of the department’s award application. “Nursing is a big puzzle, and each of us brings a piece. By working together, we keep finding better ways to care for our patients and support one another.”
To Go Box
What: Emergency Nurses Association Lantern Award
Recipient: Wilmington Hospital Emergency Department
Award period: 2026 through 2029
Previous award: 2023 through 2026
Patients served during application period: 63,765
Learn more: Visit ChristianaCare’s website for information about Wilmington Hospital and its emergency services.
Food Bank of Delaware, Synergy Consultants, First Ascent Design and GGA Construction are among the organizations recognized for leadership, growth and community impact.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Four Delaware organizations have been named the 2026 winners of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce’s Marvin S. Gilman Superstars in Business Awards.
The Food Bank of Delaware, Synergy Consultants & Psychotherapy Practice, First Ascent Design and GGA Construction will be honored Oct. 29 during an awards ceremony at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington.
The annual program, presented by the State Chamber and its Small Business Alliance, recognizes small businesses and nonprofit organizations for strong business practices, leadership and contributions to their communities.
The awards honor the legacy of Marvin S. Gilman, a Delaware small-business leader remembered for his ethics, community involvement and commitment to encouraging other entrepreneurs.
Since the program began in 1998, it has recognized organizations that have operated for at least three years and meet employee-based standards for small businesses. Awards of Excellence are also presented to organizations demonstrating notable performance and leadership.
Food Bank of Delaware
The Food Bank of Delaware was selected as the winner in the nonprofit category.
The statewide organization provides food assistance while also working to address the causes of hunger and poverty. It distributes millions of pounds of food annually through more than 600 community partners.
The organization also provides workforce training and other programs intended to help Delaware residents achieve greater financial and personal stability.
Synergy Consultants & Psychotherapy Practice
Synergy Consultants & Psychotherapy Practice was selected in the category for businesses with one to 10 employees.
The outpatient mental health practice serves individuals, couples and families. It offers evidence-based therapy for anxiety, depression, trauma, grief and major life transitions.
The practice also trains future clinicians and participates in community wellness programs, outreach efforts and partnerships.
First Ascent Design
First Ascent Design was selected in the category for businesses with 11 to 40 employees.
The Wilmington-based digital marketing agency provides branding, website development, digital advertising, search engine optimization and content marketing services.
During its 11 years in business, First Ascent has worked with nearly 300 businesses, nonprofit organizations and educational institutions in Delaware and other states.
GGA Construction
GGA Construction was selected in the category for businesses with 41 to 150 employees.
The Delaware-based company has offices in Middletown and Rehoboth Beach and specializes in commercial construction projects throughout the region.
Its portfolio includes health care facilities, schools, multifamily housing, hotels, restaurants, senior living communities, recreational facilities and other commercial developments.
Awards of Excellence announced
Four additional organizations will receive Awards of Excellence.
Sunday Breakfast Mission was selected in the nonprofit category. Integrity Nursing LLC was recognized in the category for businesses with one to 10 employees.
Delmarva Central Railroad was selected in the category for businesses with 11 to 40 employees, and AKA Advisory was recognized in the category for businesses with 41 to 150 employees.
Schell Brothers CEO to deliver keynote
Chris Schell, founder and CEO of Schell Brothers, will serve as the keynote speaker for the Oct. 29 ceremony.
Schell Brothers has grown from its Delaware roots into one of the nation’s largest privately owned homebuilders, with operations in Delaware, Virginia, Tennessee and Idaho.
Schell earned a mechanical engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He began his career in finance, developing automated futures trading software, before entering the homebuilding industry.
He founded Schell Brothers with a company culture centered on employee and customer happiness.
Schell has served on the University of Delaware Board of Trustees and the Economic Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. He currently serves on the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors.
The Superstars in Business awards ceremony will be held Thursday, Oct. 29, at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington.
Additional information is available through the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce.
Francis Fukuyama on his new political memoir: ‘In the Realm of the Last Man’
2
September 2026 — 16:30 TO 17:30 BST
Anonymous (not verified)
Chatham House and Online
Join us for the launch of the Chatham House Book Club with Francis Fukuyama, one of the most influential political thinkers of the twenty-first century.
Join us for the launch of the Chatham House Book Club with Francis Fukuyama, one of the most influential political thinkers of the past three decades.
In this exclusive members’ event, Fukuyama discusses his new memoir, “In the Realm of the Last Man”, reflecting on the ideas and experiences that shaped his thinking on democracy and the international order. This conversation explores what the past 35 years can reveal about the future of Western democracy since Fukuyama authored his international bestseller “The End of History and the Last Man”.
Join fellow members for a thought-provoking discussion that goes beyond the headlines and marks the beginning of a new forum for ideas, books and debate. This event is followed by a reception.
This event discusses:
Why did Fukuyama revise some of his most influential ideas?
What lessons can be drawn from the major political shifts of the past 35 years?
How have events from the so-called ‘War on Terror’ to Russia’s war against Ukraine reshaped liberal democracy?
What explains growing challenges to democratic institutions across the West?
How can democratic societies rebuild public trust and political legitimacy?
What is the future of liberal democracy in an increasingly competitive world?
The Chatham House Book Club is a new space for members to explore the ideas shaping our world through thought-provoking books and engaging discussion with members and authors. A book excerpt will be shared with registered attendees ahead of the event, with books available to purchase at the event. You can pre-order In the Realm of the Last Man here: In the Realm of the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama | Waterstones
Each session will bring members face to face with authors to reflect on influential writing and thinkers across international affairs, politics, history and society. Whether you’re an avid reader or simply looking to engage with fresh perspectives, the Book Club offers an opportunity to connect with fellow members in conversation beyond the headlines.
Book club sessions are exclusive to Chatham House Members. Become and member and gain access to these events by registering here.
Since late July, several lower-court decisions have added urgency to the Supreme Court to act in some fashion in response to the legal dispute over the executive order (EO).
Instead of watching race cars circle the one-mile track, participants will take to the racing surface themselves.
“I’ve spent over 23 years in the restaurant industry and always dreamt of owning my own food establishment since the early days of my career,” Safian said. “I would fantasize about it and write mock menus for restaurants or food trucks I wouldn’t have been able to open then.”
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