"When we need medical care, we expect decisions about our treatment to be made by our doctors, not a tech company's algorithm," writes the EFF newsletter EFFector.
But in January America's federal government launched a program called WISeR that uses AI to evaluate authorization requests for certain procedures from America's federal health insurance program for seniors, Medicare. EFF sued for records and discovered "additional issues" with the program that they say "could jeopardize Medicare beneficiaries' access to care."
The records we received revealed that WISeR has resulted in widespread delays and denials of care, operational chaos, and reports of patient harm. Further documents obtained by EFF show a rushed and rocky rollout, highlighting the dangers that arise when governments treat AI like a silver bullet for complex problems.
EFF has now published hundreds of pages of documents obtained through our lawsuit, available here... The documents also highlight the need for more transparency about safeguards against inappropriate, AI-driven denials. EFF has long argued that AI has no place in consequential government decisions about peoples' rights or access to benefits, such as immigration enforcement and policing decisions. That's because using automated decision-making in these contexts risks decisions that violate people's rights or deprive them of benefits they're entitled to based on biased or inappropriate considerations and without proper due process or accountability if there is an error. By outsourcing decision-making to private AI companies without sufficient transparency, testing, or legal limits, WISeR jeopardizes seniors' access to medical care. Congress should step in to place greater legal limits on the use of automated decision-making in Medicare.
The new documents "show why we need stronger legal limits around government use of automated decision-making..." according to the newsletter. And another EFF page argues that the American public "still lacks the information needed to assess whether clinician review is providing meaningful oversight of AI systems and whether appropriate data is being used to evaluate prior authorization requests."
WISeR's payment structure gives vendors, as the government put it, "an incentive to deny as many claims as possible...." [One company] denied more requests than it approved in the first few months of the program, and CMS inquired about "denials that appear inaccurate or inconsistent with applicable criteria." Ultimately, the records obtained by EFF raise more questions than they answer about the safeguards used by WISeR vendors...
A growing body of scholarship points to the substantial limitations of "human in the loop" policies as guardrails for AI systems. AI-generated recommendations can unduly influence human decisions, leading reviewers to over-rely on automated judgements and rubber stamp them as correct. Even worse, at least one health insurance company actively pressured clinical reviewers to accept its AI systems' recommendations. Another company built a system that allowed clinical reviewers to reject claims without opening patient files; clinical reviewers using this system spent an average of just 1.2 seconds on each case..
As the government expands its use of automated decision-making, the potential for consequential mistakes increases rapidly. The records we've obtained so far raise questions about the rushed rollout and lack of guardrails for automated decision-making by the U.S. government. EFF urges transparency, oversight, and legal limits to protect people from the harms of automated decision-making in high risk systems.
Canadian lineman died Friday after medical incident
Three-star prospect committed to Georgia in June
High school postpones game as coach pays tribute
Marcellus Young Casario, an 18-year-old Canadian high school football player who had committed to Georgia, died Friday following what his school described as a medical emergency.
Casario, a senior defensive lineman at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School in northeast Georgia, was taken to hospital after an incident Friday morning. The school announced his death later that day but did not identify him until Saturday. No further details about the circumstances were released.
Dozens of people within a mile of the facility in Peoria were evacuated, and hours later law enforcement officers were still extensively searching the building.
This week's guests include Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, Democratic Rep. Jim Himes and Republican Rep. John Moolenaar.
Peoria officials said a bomb was found at BioUrja Renewables and later defused; FBI said it is investigating
Residents were ordered to evacuate parts of an Illinois community on Friday after the mayor there said authorities found a bomb at a local ethanol- and alcohol-production plant.
The discovery reported at BioUrja Renewables in Peoria triggered a mandatory evacuation over a one-mile evacuation zone encompassing sections of that city as well as the adjacent municipality of East Peoria. Officials ultimately lifted the evacuation zone at about 1.25pm local time on Saturday – but only after making it clear there had genuinely been a bomb found and ruling out the presence of any other explosives.
The Washington Post reports on something peculiar about support for Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang online after he'd told the world he'd been unfaithful to his wife (before reports of his second extramarital affair):
Joining the chorus online were voices of seemingly everyday people: a chef, a stock trader, a Hebrew teacher and several environmental activists. But at least 400 of them were fake, according to research from the nonprofit Midas Project, with links to a public relations firm involved in previous so-called "sockpuppet" campaigns... Many of the fake accounts, according to Midas Project executive director Tyler Johnston, replied to journalists, former U.S. officials and other prominent figures and backed not just Huang but Nvidia's push to sell its cutting-edge chips to Chinese firms.
Like other documented influence campaigns, the posts appeared to have limited reach; the most-viewed tweet garnered about 8,000 views and 32 likes. Still, some of the posts targeted lawmakers, including accounts for the [U.S.] House Select Committee on China, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts). "That's a place where you might not need a lot of views, but maybe the staffers who are running the lawmakers' account are paying attention to how their messages are received," said Johnston, whose group advocates for safe AI development...
There were other clues that helped identify accounts as being part of an apparently coordinated campaign, according to the Midas Project. Some of them were created minutes or hours apart, and had user names and profile photos refreshed at similar times. They also sometimes engaged on oddly specific issues ranging from Qatar to Nippon Steel's bid for U.S. Steel and a waste management plant in Oregon.... Any one one of the posts — often replies to other posts — might have not looked suspicious in isolation. But the various clues taken together, Johnston said, gave evidence that they were linked. Some of the accounts then rushed to delete posts after he posted his findings online, and at least 260 of them have been deactivated or suspended by X.
Republican House speaker not running for re-election contrasts sharply with president who avoids accountability
In his first interview since the midterm elections, the US House speaker, Mike Johnson, said that the Republican party’s crushing losses during the 3 November elections prompted his decision to step away from party leadership.
“Leaders have to take responsibility when things go wrong,” Johnson said on Fox News on Saturday.
A crisis communications expert looks at how the Trump administration handled the massive disruption to the nation’s air travel when all planes were grounded on Nov. 13, 2026.
Fires had broken out on a total of three oil tankers that struck mines in the Strait of Hormuz overnight and into the morning, Iran's military said Saturday.
Filipino entry, pop and rap song Sobra-Sobra, takes 19-year-old to victory at grand final in Bangkok
Carmelle Collado has won the first Eurovision song contest Asia, taking the Philippines’ entry, Sobra-Sobra, to victory in Bangkok on Saturday night, at the first regional edition of the contest to be staged outside Europe.
Eleven countries competed at the One Bangkok Forum in central Bangkok, and the show ran for two and a half hours including advertising.
"In August, Amazon announced it was expanding its airborne shipping to suburban areas in nearly 500 U.S. cities," reports the Chicago Sun-Times, "including the Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland and Boise, Idaho, metro areas." And on Tuesday Amazon cut the ribbon on its new drone delivery center Tuesday 24 miles south of Chicago.
But Amazon's drones are already servicing parts of Texas, notes the Houston Chronicle. And north of Houston, Theresa Gibbons complains "It was kind of cool and fascinating at first, but now it is driving me crazy."
Her home in the Bridgestone neighborhood is nestled right in the flight path of Amazon's drone service. Gibson said she hears roughly a dozen drones flying over her home each day. Noise pollution has become a frequent complaint in Texas neighborhoods where the service operates. Residents have compared the sound to everything from a massive beehive to a full-on air raid. "It does not sound like a [single] bumble bee. It sounds like a large swarm of bees at a much higher volume than a normal swarm of bees. And it's all day long," said Gibson.
Amazon's drone delivery service is currently operating in four Texas cities, including Houston, Waco, San Antonio and Richardson. The company announced major expansion plans in August, but growing complaints in pilot neighborhoods could foreshadow complications later down the line, with regions such as Harris County already taking legal action in response... So far, a group of fifteen states, plus Harris County, [Texas] have formed a coalition that has filed a petition in the US Court of Appeals challenging the Federal Aviation Administration's environmental review, citing that it failed to adequately address the effects of expanding drone deliveries.
And meanwhile near Boise, Idaho, local news station KTVB reports....
Less than two weeks after Amazon began delivering packages by drone in Nampa, the cities of Nampa and Meridian say they have received complaints over the noise and how often the drones fly... Amazon began Prime Air drone deliveries Oct. 30 from its East Franklin Road fulfillment center, making Nampa the company's first Idaho drone site...
How people feel about the drones depends on whom you ask. A Meridian man who has received drone deliveries says the noise doesn't bother him. Neighbors closest to the launch site say the drones fly from sunup to sundown and are disturbing their peace. Randy Nye, who has lived in Cherry Creek Estates for 17 years, compared it to living in a beehive. "It's just a constant presence," he said.... Nye, who works from home, said he and his neighbors who technically are just outside city limits had no idea this was coming. He said the city approved the drones in May, and they were never given written notice this was coming, despite living so close. He said they were shocked when deliveries started by drones just 12 days ago. Nye said he hopes something can change.
A few homes down, Kerri Wattier has started counting. On Wednesday with KTVB, she clicked a handheld counter each time a drone passed over her home. She started at 3:30 p.m. By 4:18 p.m., she had counted 39. "It sounds like lawnmowers and leaf blowers flying over our house," Wattier said.
"Amazon says it is evaluating changes, including adjusting flight paths," the article adds.
Ironically at that ribbon-cutting ceremony near Chicago, the speakers were occasionally drowned out by the roar of the drones, reports the Chicago Tribune, since they're "relatively loud when they are close to the ground." ("At the point of delivery they top out at 68 decibels," said Amazon economic development manager Sam Bailey, adding that "It's very brief exposure and it only occurs during daytime hours.")
But that site has been operational since October 12, and has "generally" hit its maximum capacity of 300 drone orders daily, Bailey told the Chicago Tribune, adding that scaling up is "something that we're always considering." And since October 12 they've already seen "thousands" of orders delivered by their 21 drones just across that 7.5-mile radius:
Bailey said customers should clear the area when a drone delivery is incoming. The drones drop packages from about 12 feet. If the drone detects movement in the area, he said, the delivery will be canceled. "You want your kids inside the house," Bailey said. "We will not drop a package in an unsafe location. People who want to stand below and try to catch it, don't do that."
The Chicago Sun-Times points out that Walmart already offers some drone deliveries from over 75 stores across Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Texas, and "earlier this year said it planned to expand drone delivery service to 150 more stores in partnership with Wing, a division of Google parent company Alphabet, giving it 270 drone delivery locations by 2027."
Abdullah Abu Zubaida’s family spent the first anniversary of the Gaza ceasefire last month in a shelter they built from the debris of their own home. Ne’man Abu Jarad and his five daughters spent it in tents, still displaced and with no clear way back. These families and millions of other Palestinians find themselves in a twilight state between war and peace: a zombie conflict in which a ceasefire has been announced while Israeli military control and attacks continue. The agreement risks making that condition permanent by leaving Palestinian governance and Israeli withdrawal dependent on decisions made largely by outside powers.
For these families, whose circumstances were reported by the Associated Press, and others in their position, the ceasefire that was supposed to end the war has brought little control over what happens next. Whether they can return home, rebuild, or resume anything resembling ordinary life remains subject to decisions made by outside authorities, whose hold on Gaza’s future may be further entrenched by the agreement itself.
While violations of the ceasefire warrant the attention they receive (and more), the agreement’s own terms demand scrutiny too, since arrangements negotiated to end wars also decide who holds power once the fighting stops. Christine Bell, a legal scholar specializing in peace accords, has shown how such agreements can perform constitutional functions. They determine who governs, over what territory, and subject to whose approval.
In Gaza, the conditions for Israeli withdrawal and Palestinian self-government give outside actors considerable power to determine when, and whether, the transition ends. The framework therefore threatens to turn the temporary administration of a devastated territory into a durable system of external control with no enforceable end, legitimized by the very agreement meant to bring peace.
A Long History of Outside Control
Gaza’s current predicament has a long history of displacement and outside control. In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a plan to partition Palestine (then under British rule) into Arab and Jewish states. While Jewish leadership accepted the plan, Arab leadership rejected it. During the war surrounding Israel’s establishment in 1948, approximately 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes. Many sought refuge in Gaza. The mass displacement and dispossession of the Nakba — Arabic for “catastrophe” — never ended.
Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1967. In 2005, it removed its settlements and withdrew its army from inside Gaza while retaining control over its airspace and maritime access and substantial authority over its borders and the movement of people and goods. In 2024, the International Court of Justice concluded that because Israel continued to exercise authority over Gaza’s borders and the movement of people and goods, the withdrawal had not entirely released it from its obligations under the law of occupation.
The current institution of Palestinian self-governance also began as a temporary arrangement intended to last no more than five years. The Oslo process of the 1990s provided for an interim Palestinian government in Gaza and the West Bank until a permanent settlement could be reached. That institution, the Palestinian Authority, remains central to proposals for Gaza’s future.
Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections and took control of Gaza in 2007 after armed conflict with Fatah, the rival Palestinian faction. Israel, citing security concerns, tightened its border restrictions into a blockade by land, sea, and air, restricting the movement of people into and out of Gaza and the entry of food, construction materials, and other necessities. Egypt restricted passage through its own border crossing. Years before the current war, the U.N.’s humanitarian office documented the effects: restrictions on movement and trade had undermined Gaza’s economy, increased its dependence on aid, and obstructed access to healthcare and education.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led groups attacked Israel, deliberately killing civilians and taking hostages; Human Rights Watch has documented these acts as crimes against humanity and war crimes. Israel’s subsequent military response devastated Gaza. By Oct. 21 of this year, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported 74,494 Palestinians killed and 175,604 injured. In an October 2026 report, the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israeli authorities and forces continued committing genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza after the ceasefire, with the intent to destroy the group in whole or in part. By September of this year, Israeli military control had expanded beyond the approximately 53 percent of Gaza envisioned under the ceasefire agreement to at least 60 percent.
By the ceasefire’s first anniversary, nearly two-thirds of housing units had been destroyed, many of the remaining buildings were unsafe, and large-scale reconstruction had yet to begin. With winter approaching, displaced families need immediate decisions about shelter. The Israeli authorities who control access to their homes and to building materials can postpone those decisions. Such delays favor whoever controls access, and waiting itself becomes a source of political leverage.
From Resolution 2735 to Resolution 2803
In June 2024, the U.N. Security Council endorsed a three-phase framework in Resolution 2735. An initial ceasefire and exchanges of hostages and prisoners were to lead, upon agreement, to a permanent end to hostilities and full Israeli withdrawal, followed by major reconstruction. The initial ceasefire was to continue for as long as negotiations over the second phase went on.
In November 2025, the Security Council adopted Resolution 2803, endorsing U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza conflict and authorizing international arrangements for its implementation. The framework retains the language of transition while placing Gaza’s administration and redevelopment under the oversight of a Board of Peace chaired by Trump. Palestinian Authority control would depend on completing a reform program and demonstrating the capacity to govern securely and effectively. The resolution refers to earlier proposals, including a Saudi and French initiative calling for reforms to governance, transparency, public finances, and service provision. Israeli withdrawal is tied to demilitarization milestones to be agreed among the Israeli military, an International Stabilization Force, the guarantor states, and the United States. The force’s mandate includes demilitarization and civilian protection. An Israeli military presence along Gaza’s perimeter could remain until the territory is judged secure against a renewed terrorist threat.
The plan endorsed by the resolution states that Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza, that no one will be forced to leave, and that full humanitarian aid will enter immediately. Continued attacks and restrictions on assistance must therefore be assessed against those obligations, but compliance with these provisions would still not resolve the deeper problem. The framework grants outside institutions concrete powers over Gaza while making the restoration of Palestinian political authority dependent on future conditions. It establishes who governs during the transition far more clearly than it establishes how the transition ends.
The resolution authorizes the international arrangements until Dec. 31, 2027, subject to further Security Council action, but it sets no deadline for full Israeli military withdrawal or the transfer of political authority to Palestinians.
Who Decides When Gaza Is Secure?
Israeli withdrawal depends on milestones agreed with Israel and other actors, but the criteria for determining when those milestones have been satisfied, and the consequences of disagreement, remain ill defined. Whoever can set the benchmarks, withhold agreement, or dispute compliance has considerable power over how long Gaza remains under outside supervision. This effectively means that the decision will be made in large part by Israel and institutions overseeing the transition, including Trump’s Board of Peace, which counts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a member.
No security arrangement can eliminate every future threat; clear benchmarks and a truly independent arbiter are essential if the ceasefire is to ever become a lasting peace.
The demand for protection against another attack is understandable. Hamas’s weapons, and its coercive power over Palestinians, are serious problems. But if the security conditions for withdrawal can be revised indefinitely, Palestinians cannot know when the promised transfer of authority will occur. The obligations of one armed faction should not determine whether an entire population has a political future.
Israel Policy Forum, a U.S. policy organization supporting a two-state solution, analyzed and supported the basic approach of the July 2026 road map. The proposal linked phased Hamas disarmament to incremental Israeli withdrawal and the creation of a new Palestinian civilian administration. The organization’s analysis described Israel’s refusal to accept that bargain, conflicting explanations of when withdrawal could proceed, and unresolved definitions and verification arrangements.
No security arrangement can eliminate every future threat; clear benchmarks and a truly independent arbiter are essential if the ceasefire is to ever become a lasting peace. Otherwise, the conditions for withdrawal could be extended indefinitely. If Hamas disarms and the promised withdrawal never comes, the disarmament stands while Israel’s commitment remains open to renegotiation. A single attack by a faction opposed to the agreement could then be invoked to suspend the political future of an entire population, allowing armed spoilers to trigger further delays in Palestinian self-government and giving Israel and the United States grounds to prolong those delays.
Palestinians have seen an interim arrangement outlast its deadline before. The 1993 Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization established a framework for interim Palestinian self-government and negotiations toward a permanent settlement. It envisioned a transitional period of no more than five years, with negotiations on permanent status to address the sovereignty and governance of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees since 1948, Israeli settlements, and state borders. More than three decades later, there is still no comprehensive settlement. The new plan follows the same design: concrete authority now, political rights later.
The Cost of Delay
In an Oct. 2 report, the UN’s humanitarian office identified 217 displacement sites at medium to high risk of flooding, hosting approximately 235,000 people. Nearly 44,000 people were sheltering in unsafe buildings that required full or partial demolition, the report said. Restrictions on land access and on the entry of supplies continued to hamper preparations for winter.
No later breakthrough can give back a lost winter, a child’s interrupted schooling, or a patient’s postponed treatment. The longer a household has to survive elsewhere, the harder it may become to rebuild the life it was forced to leave, and an agreement can keep promising recovery while the conditions for recovery disappear.
“The Trillion Dollar War Machine” by William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman. Available on Bookshop.org
Palestinians are also asked to prove they can govern before they are allowed to do so, and governing requires revenue. In the October report, the U.N. described how Israel’s withholding of approximately $6 billion in tax revenues it collected on the Palestinian Authority’s behalf was undermining that government body’s ability to provide services and pay salaries. The crisis extends beyond Gaza and exposes a circular test of readiness. An administration deprived of its own revenue struggles to deliver services, and those failures can then be invoked to justify continued outside supervision.
Blame works the same way: If a Palestinian administration is responsible for public services while other actors control access, security, and funding, residents may blame its officials for failures it could not prevent. The resulting loss of public trust would make representative government harder to build, and that weakness could in turn be cited as a reason for continued outside supervision.
Nathan J. Brown, a scholar of Palestinian politics, has argued that Gaza diplomacy is separating administrative functions from national political representation. A committee of technocrats can run clinics and restore water service, but deciding the political future of the people it serves requires authority grounded in their consent. An administration accountable primarily to a foreign board chaired by Trump lacks that democratic mandate.
The Role of Outside Powers
The United States helped broker the Gaza ceasefire, holds a central position in the system meant to implement it, and underwrites Israeli military power. According to the Congressional Research Service, the 2016 memorandum covering fiscal years 2019 through 2028 pledged $38 billion in military assistance, subject to congressional appropriation. Without credible American consequences for obstructing withdrawal, the material advantages of continued control may outweigh any incentive to implement the agreement.
Donors providing humanitarian aid may end up paying to keep civilians alive while decisive political control remains elsewhere. Each emergency would then produce another funding appeal, while the authority to lift the restrictions causing the emergency would remain in place. Humanitarian funding could consequently help sustain that arrangement. The proposed International Stabilization Force, tasked with demilitarization and civilian protection, would need the authority and backing to restrain abuses by all parties, including Israel.
Ceasefires Without Endings
Lebanon offers a warning. After the April truce in the Iran war, Pakistan’s prime minister said the ceasefire included Lebanon. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Washington had agreed to no such thing. Israeli attacks in Lebanon continued while the parties disputed what the agreement covered. Lebanese civilians were exposed to violence while governments argued over whether their country was protected at all. Whoever defines a ceasefire’s scope decides whose security it guarantees.
Gaza already displays the features of a zombie conflict, with an announced ceasefire, recurring military operations, and unresolved struggles over territory and power. The danger is that this condition becomes entrenched. Diplomats go on describing a transition, while people live under a system of control that survives one round of negotiations after another.
These conditions, though, are sustained by identifiable governments and institutions, through decisions they could make differently.
In a July 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice stated that the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination could not be made conditional by the occupying power, and it concluded that Israel must end its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as rapidly as possible. The Security Council’s Resolution 2803 places Palestinian statehood after reform and redevelopment, saying that the conditions for a credible pathway “may finally be in place” at that time. The political framework thus makes progress toward exercising an existing right dependent on conditions assessed by outside actors, while establishing their immediate authority much more clearly.
Every grant of outside authority under the ceasefire needs an expiration date: thresholds that can actually be met, independent assessors to judge them, and consequences for any party that blocks the next step. Without them, Israeli withdrawal and Palestinian self-government in Gaza will remain promises that outside actors renew indefinitely and never keep. For the families still displaced, another anniversary will mean another year in a tent or a ruined home, waiting for decisions they cannot make. Their ability to return, rebuild, and determine their own future remains subject to a political framework in which authority rests largely elsewhere. The Gaza ceasefire risks giving the structures of control that preceded the war a new institutional form, backed by the U.N. Security Council and administered indefinitely in the name of peace.
(The Center Square) – Although congressional Republicans have wrapped up their probes into Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and what some call the federal government's bungled release of the Epstein files, Democrats say the investigation isn’t over.
America's nationwide grounding of flights on Friday happened "amid growing scrutiny... of a new AI-powered air traffic management system" deployed by America's Federal Aviation Administration, reports Texas news station KXAN.
Ironically, the system is called SMART — but the outage happened "following warnings" from members of the U.S. Congress about this new AI system's safety, reliability and oversight:
In an Oct. 13 letter to the Government Accountability Office, more than 20 members of Congress requested an independent review of the FAA's development and implementation of its Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories system, known as SMART. The lawmakers questioned whether the technology was being deployed with adequate input from frontline air traffic controllers, sufficient training and appropriate safety evaluations... In their letter to the GAO, the lawmakers specifically questioned whether the FAA had adequately evaluated risks associated with SMART's artificial intelligence capabilities, including the potential for the technology to interfere with experienced controllers' decision-making or generate inaccurate safety-critical information. "The nation's frontline aviation safety workforce apparently had little to no input into SMART's development and have received limited training and information during the current deployment process," the lawmakers wrote. The letter also questioned the FAA's decision to initially pilot the technology in heavily congested airspace, including the National Capital Region.
"Our switches, our routers, actually got overloaded with data," U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged Friday.
But an article from The Hill.com notes that Duffy also said the new AI tool had nothing to do with the ground stop, and that he said the system "isn't plugged in."
"This is completely disconnected, and I love that some people have said this would be the root cause. By the way, if it was, I'll tell you that, but this is not even plugged in," he said. "So, there's no possible way SMART would have impacted."
Duffy also asked Congress for $50 billion to rebuild what he described as an "incredibly old" air traffic control system.
Duffy had posted the day before that the AI system had been at least partially rolled out and that it was already working (adding "Soon this technology is going NATIONWIDE")
And Friday CNN's aviation analyst said they believed that AI system could be connected to the nationwide outage, calling it "a tremendous amount of coincidence," according to a report from Mediaite:
CNN Aviation Analyst: "Many times in the past, what we have seen, and this has gone back decades, is that because air traffic control is this piecemeal, mishmash of a whole bunch of different systems... some going back to radio, telephones and floppy disks... when they put in new computer systems, they often have difficulty talking with, communicating with, or working with the much older systems. And I have to say, it's a tremendous amount of coincidence... If they're putting in new software now, this new SMART system to start managing that, and now we have a communications outage, I'm — we've seen this so many times in the past. I don't know if they're linked, but it's just too much coincidence that they were trying to start that moving today, and now we have problems with the en route system.
So if I was to guess — and we haven't heard any, you know, it's not that it's threats or criminals or terrorists. We haven't heard anything like that. So I am guessing that once again we have a problem with new air traffic control computer systems, AI — you know, modern systems trying to communicate with old systems. And we have just seen this so many times in the past, and it's a big problem... Our whole national airspace system is you know, pieces and parts. It's kind of a Franken-system. And that would be my guess, that they are having computer issues by putting the new software in with the old, just because today they announced that that were going to do this new system.
KXAN describes some of the complexity of the newly-launched AI system:
According to the FAA, the system consolidates approximately 200 data streams, including airline schedules, flight paths, weather patterns, airport capacity, airspace conditions and air traffic controller staffing metrics. The agency says SMART uses artificial intelligence to analyze that information, predict traffic flows, identify potential conflicts and recommend adjustments to flight routes and departure schedules before disruptions occur. The FAA describes the technology as a shift from a reactive approach to a predictive one, allowing aviation officials to identify congestion, weather-related restrictions and other operational problems hours, days or even weeks in advance...
The congressional letter raised questions about whether the FAA's implementation strategy was moving faster than its safety evaluations, workforce training and independent oversight could support.
Ironically, the article points out that the FAA promoted anticipated benefits from the technology including fewer delays and flight cancellations. (Other anticipated benefits included improved on-time performance and faster recovery from weather disruptions.) Although the FAA has realized one of the system's anticipated benefits: reduced fuel consumption.
Appeal for information comes after Brenda Raymond, 80, was set on fire outside her flat on Monday
The family of an elderly woman who was set on fire outside a block of flats in Watford have said they are “desperate for answers”.
Brenda Raymond, 80, was found set alight outside her flat on Caractacus Cottage View on Monday. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she is in critical condition.
Thousands of flights still canceled as officials blamed ageing air control system for nationwide grounding
The Trump administration says Friday’s four-hour nationwide Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ground stop that delayed or canceled thousands of flight stemmed from routine maintenance.
At a news briefing on Saturday, the US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said that the issues began when a contractor was performing “routine maintenance” at a remote FAA facility to “switch telecommunications lines” from copper wire to fiber optic cable.
Thousands of flights were canceled Saturday, a day after the nationwide outage. The FAA said flights should be back on schedule by the end of the weekend.
The Register writes that "The worst of the patchpocalypse may be behind us, according to Linus Torvalds." In his weekly kernel update post, Torvalds said Linux 7.4 rc2 was a big release partly because it contained code he'd left out of rc1 because he'd been busy and it was already the largest such release in kernel history.
But Torvalds said the other reason rc2 was big was "various AI fixes."
Such fixes are necessary because ever since Anthropic launched its Mythos bug-finding model in April, developers have been able to find more software flaws than was previously possible. Microsoft, for example, addressed a record 974 flaws in September — its third record fixing spree this year after it whacked 622 flaws in July and 206 in June. Oracle addressed 1,449 flaws in a single month. That's many more patches than IT teams are set up to handle, yet they must find ways to deal with bugs more quickly because attackers are increasingly targeting flaws found by AI.
Torvalds' post suggests that, perhaps, the worst of this is behind us. "This time around Alexei claims that on the bpf side at least the fixes are now coming in faster than the new reports, and that sounds lovely if true," he wrote. That's a reference to Alexei Starovoitov, co-creator and lead dev on the Extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF), the project that makes it possible to run sandboxed programs within the Linux kernel. "I think most other areas haven't reached that point yet, but it's at least a sign that we _may_ be starting to see the tide starting to turn," he added.
The patchpocalypse has already affected Linux kernel developer Lorenzo Stoakes, a principal software engineer at Arm, The Register reported Friday:
Earlier this week he posted an email to the Linux kernel mailing list to say that he was planning to drop some of his workload. He explained: "Given the current throughput in the kernel resulting from AI-generated series, I unfortunately lack the bandwidth to generally be able to offer review except in those areas I maintain. [...] Apologies for doing this, but given the current trends I'd like to do something to make my inbox a little more manageable."
Stoakes told The Register, "I just want my inbox to be less horrendous. And yeah, AI is part of the reason; in general, it's gone from 'once a week' to 'daily' to 'half of what I see in review'."
Exclusive: 2,850 more patients a month would need to be treated within 62 days to meet March 2027 goal, as experts warn of failure of leadership
Nearly 10,000 more cancer patients in England will not be treated on time because the government will fail to meet its targets, amid a failure of leadership, focus and resource, experts have warned.
The NHS set an interim target to treat 80% of cancer patients within 62 days of urgent referral or consultant upgrade by March 2027. But with little more than 100 days to go, the proportion of patients starting treatment on time in September was 70.7%, down from 71.9% in August, NHS figures show.
Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins’ victory means Democrats will now hold 30 US governorships after midterm blowout
Democrats have captured Alaska’s governor’s seat for the first time in nearly three decades, marking another major victory for their party in a midterm election period that has dramatically shifted political power across the US.
Former Alaska state legislator Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins defeated three Republican opponents, including a candidate backed by Donald Trump, becoming the first Democrat elected governor of Alaska since 1998.
UKHSA warns of threat to vulnerable people from frosty conditions expected to last until Thursday
More cold health alerts have been issued for parts of the UK on Sunday night and next week.
The alerts were issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) for the north-west, West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber, and will be in place from 9pm on Sunday until 9am on Thursday.
A Transportation Department news briefing Saturday morning about the nationwide ground stop a day earlier was derailed by tech issues. “This is our kind of, um, day,” Sean Duffy said.
Raising borrowing costs too far risks laying waste to whatever growth there is in the economy
A head of steam is building up behind the Bank of England raising interest rates again. With the latest forecasts by the central bank showing inflation rising to 5% next spring, another increase in the cost of borrowing seems inevitable, and may come as soon as next month.
A growing number of analysts predict the Bank’s policymakers will don Scrooge masks when they meet on 17 December to deliver a message of austerity and sacrifice.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a rare nationwide ground stop on Friday, halting all departures and landings across US airports for just over four hours. The stop marked the longest nationwide shutdown, and only the second nationwide ground stop of all departures, since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The US homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, and the US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, appeared to suggest that the cause of the outage was older technology becoming overwhelmed with data after new technology was introduced.
The 2026 Tower Hill Field Hockey team poses for a picture after winning the 2026 DIAA Division Two Field Hockey State Championship game. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti
The Tower Hill Hillers defeated the Caravel Buccaneers, 3-1, in the 2026 DIAA Division Two State Championship, earning the program’s 19th state title.
FREDERICA, Del. — Tower Hill junior Molly Gallagher stepped to the penalty spot with her team tied, 1-1, under a minute to play in the third quarter. Gallagher placed the ball down and readied to take her shot. The whistle blew and Gallagher didn’t waste a second.
Gallagher fired a quick shot toward the right of the cage. Caravel goalkeeper, Hartley Haynes, moved quickly and got in front of the shot. Haynes seemed to have stopped the shot with the pad on her left hand, but the ball deflected off the pad backwards and right behind her to the back of the cage.
Gallagher scored on a second penalty stroke opportunity in the fourth quarter helping Tower Hill defeat Caravel, 3-1, and earn the 2026 DIAA Division Two State title.
“It’s just such an amazing feeling. We’ve been working so hard all season,” Gallagher said postgame. “This was such like a team effort, it wasn’t just one person. We like, we passed so well, we moved the ball, we stuck to the gameplan. This is just like an unreal feeling.”
The Hillers and Buccaneers played a close game through frigid temperatures and strong winds, Friday night. The two teams battled for possession through most of the first quarter with only a pair of Caravel penalty corners presenting possible scoring chances. Midway through the second quarter the Hillers broke through.
The game’s opening goal was scored by Tower Hill senior Hailey Allen on the right of the cage. The play was initiated by Gallagher who dribbled through a pair of Buccaneer defenders at the top of the circle to create a bit of space for a pass to Charlotte Vanni a few yards away from the goal. Vanni quickly fired a backhand shot that was deflected by a Caravel defender, but landed right in front of Allen to knock in.
Tower Hill’s defense withstood three Caravel penalty corner attempts in the final five minutes of the quarter and closed out the half with a 1-0 lead.
The midfield battle continued into the second half until Caravel worked the ball into its offensive zone with just under six minutes to play in the third quarter. The Buccaneers breached the circle and fired a pair of shots at the goal to no avail. One of the shot attempts drew a foul call on the Hiller defense and resulted in a penalty stroke opportunity for Buccaneer sophomore, Allie Sweeney. Sweeney fired a low shot to the left of the cage to tie the game, 1-1.
Gallagher’s first penalty stroke followed about four minutes later and her success returned the advantage back to the Hillers before the fourth quarter.
Caravel’s offense put together a couple strong attempts at an equalizer, but the Hillers’ defense stood strong and didn’t allow another score. Gallagher added a second goal to her ledger with a score on a second penalty stroke opportunity and Tower Hill protected the lead until the final buzzer rang out. Gallagher finished the game with two goals on two successful penalty stroke attempts.
“It’s such an honor, like, it’s so much pressure but I know they believe in me and that just gives me the strength to keep going,” Gallagher said about being the one to take the penalty shots while a group of Tower Hill fans shouted MVP chants in the background.
The 2026 Hiller team finished the season with a 17-1 overall record and the program’s first state championship since 2008. Tower Hill head coach Lindsay Goeller graduated from the school a year before that title but won three before that as a player under former Hiller head coach Robin Adair. Adair led the Hillers to ten state championship victories over her career, winning four straight titles multiple times.
Goeller said her staff is filled with alumni that span across three decades of Hiller field hockey and that passion and investment for the school and program make this state championship special.
“As a staff we’re so invested in this program, in Tower Hill, in the culture of field hockey and its so special to bring a state championship back to Tower Hill,” Goeller said. “We’re so proud and you can feel the tradition, you can feel what it means to our program to have the trophy back.”
Caravel finished the season with a 13-5 overall record and the program’s first state championship appearance since 2020.
PM accuses Tories of burning ‘all our bridges’ and says deal he is pursuing with EU will ‘get food prices down’
Andy Burnham has said the UK has “lost more than we gained” since leaving the EU, the prime minister’s latest in a string of comments criticising Brexit.
Outlining his desire to form closer ties with Brussels, Burnham accused the Conservative party of having “burned all our bridges” with the bloc after Brexit and said a new deal he hopes to secure with the EU next week will “get food prices down” and put more money in the pockets of British exporters.
PC Gamer reports:
The Australian STEM Videogame Challenge, a "free national videogame development competition for students," has confirmed that the rise of generative AI means this year's event will be the last...
Speculation as to the cause of the program's cancellation focused primarily on the presence of AI in entries: Another self-proclaimed judge said the problem wasn't merely the use of AI in itself but that "some students just completely generate their games with AI...."
[T]he Australian Council for Educational Research has confirmed that the cancellation was in fact due to AI.... "making it harder to judge what students made themselves, and moving the program away from its original purpose."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader neoRUR for sharing the news.
Incoming lawmakers have more in common with each other than they have divisions, even across ideological factions
Democrats who won in the midterms, including those in places previously considered off the blue map and those in Democratic strongholds, crafted their campaigns around economic populism and accountability.
Lawmakers in the anti-establishment incoming congressional class have more in common with each other than divisions, even across ideological factions. Voters sent a resounding message to work on affordability and rein in the Trump administration, and Democrats across the party have many more shared goals than Republicans, who face a more existential level of discord.
James ‘Fergie’ Chambers, a Cox Enterprises heir, faced a two-hour hearing about alleged support for Hamas
A two-hour hearing in Spain’s high court Friday on the US extradition request of wealthy leftwing activist and philanthropist James “Fergie” Chambers turned out to be a study in contrasts.
Chambers’s defense took most of the session to query the US citizen and detail irregularities in the Trump administration’s extradition request – several of which the Guardian has reported on – as well as the figures of Spanish law that would lead the three-judge panel to deny the request; while the prosecutor sped through his case, head down, asking Chambers no questions at all.
In region where migrants have settled to work at abattoirs and feedyards, harsh raids pushed people to vote Democrat
José Del Real looked over the crowd from the stage in a park, at hundreds of his neighbors with furious signs tucked under their arms, voicing their anger at immigration agents who had descended on their town and started rounding up their friends and family. His daughters, in the front row, were crying.
Del Real, an army veteran who served two tours in Iraq, hadn’t voted in a decade. He thought it would not matter in this ruby red corner of Kansas. But the midterm election was weeks away. He draped an American flag over his shoulders, put on his Iraq veteran cap and ended his speech with a message: “None of this matters if you do not vote. Let’s go vote.”
The rare nationwide ground stop lasted about five hours on Friday. An update to the network connecting the air traffic control system caused a reboot, crash and outage, sources told CBS News.
‘We have further to go,’ says Huw Pill after increase to 4% this month as Bank seeks to tackle rising inflation
The Bank of England will probably need to raise interest rates next month and again in early 2027 to combat rising inflation, its chief economist has said.
Signalling a sharp rise in mortgage payments for an estimated 2.3 million homeowners who will have to refinance their loans next year, Huw Pill said that while the decision to nudge interest rates from 3.75% to 4% earlier this month was a “significant step” towards getting monetary policy into a better place, “we have further to go”.
Authorities declined to file charges against napping woman whose truck accelerated on to field during youth game
A soccer mom napping in her pickup truck when it suddenly accelerated on to the field at a Kansas youth tournament where her child was playing, killing two people, won’t face criminal charges, a prosecutor has said.
Investigators believe the 34-year-old woman had failed to put the Chevrolet 1500 in park and likely put her foot on the gas pedal while sleeping at the Stryker Sports Complex in Wichita on 17 October. They conducted multiple interviews and even ran a test in the same parking spot with a similar vehicle.
Wayne State players (from left) Mattie Kamery, Anna Borner, Delaney Miller, Molly Romano and Chloe Hanel celebrate a point during Friday’s Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament semifinal against St. Cloud State in Wayne.
Undercover ITV report also shows inadequate welfare checks at ex-military base run by firm of asylum camp billionaire Graham King
Asylum seekers accommodated at a controversial military base in East Sussex have been subjected to inadequate welfare checks, and torture survivors may have been placed there unlawfully, an undercover documentary for ITV has revealed.
Mass accommodation sites are central to the government’s plan to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers. For the documentary, Inside The Asylum Camp, ITV’s undercover reporter got a job as a welfare officer at Crowborough and covertly filmed inside the former military training camp. The documentary claims that poor screening and welfare checks are having serious consequences for some of the asylum seekers.
The coach’s tenure with the USMNT brought a whiplash of highs and lows. He met some goals but also left many with the impression he never truly bought in
It did not take US men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino very long to take his first big swing.
He’d just taken the reins of the program after a disastrous performance at the 2024 Copa América cost his predecessor his job, with the first home World Cup in three decades looming on the horizon. The federation introduced him in New York City, on the 24th floor of a building overlooking the Hudson River. In short order, he was asked about the culture surrounding the program. In his answer, he invoked the four-time World Cup champion US women.
Two centuries after the expedition, Indigenous students are conducting a new wildlife survey along the route
In 1804, when Thomas Jefferson dispatched Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their Corps of Discovery to explore the newly acquired land west of the Mississippi, the president’s primary aim was political: Americans needed to establish presence, power and trade routes in these territories before the Europeans beat them to it.
But Jefferson, an ardent naturalist, had a secondary agenda. He ordered that the expedition also survey the flora and fauna of these landscapes. On their two-year jaunt across the western half of the country, Lewis and Clark kept meticulous journals of the animals and plants they encountered: bison, horned lizards, sage grouse, prairie dogs, wild licorice and catfish, among them. These observations were pivotal in shaping an early understanding of North American biodiversity.
As part of our Holiday Office Hours from the the Labs video series, I pitted four pairs of earbuds against each other on the noisy streets of New York.
Nothing says holiday cheer quite like panic-browsing websites in pursuit of the perfect gift, toggling between 47 open tabs, eyes straining against your screen’s harsh blue light. But finding an item that elicits a squeal of delight from its recipient is one of the best parts of this time of year, when you have a little help.
So we’ve curated 143 presents to reclaim holiday shopping as a joyous activity.
Our seasoned writers and shopping experts got into the holiday spirit early, vetting gifts across kitchen, home, tech and 10 more categories. For months, we cooked, ate, traveled, hiked, ran, showered and slept with test products by our side. And we roped in our mothers, cats, dogs and the kids in our lives to make sure these gifts really work for the people (and pets!) they are meant for.
Choosing dinner can feel like one more task. These 13 home-cooked soups and stews bring beef and chicken favorites, slow cooker options, creamy chowders, and hearty vegetarian chili to the table for an easier evening.The post 13 home-cooked soups and…
People around the world have contended with unprecedented weather events and their fatal effects caused by the climate catastrophe
After the world’s hottest summer since records began in 1850, the death toll from extreme weather in 2026 is already in the high tens of thousands. That is a conservative estimate and is certain to rise much higher.
As Cop31 continues and scientists warn that climate breakdown may be accelerating, the Guardian looks back at a year of droughts, fires and floods as a reminder that, unless the world takes urgent action to cut emissions, this disastrous year will be one of the best of the rest of our lives.
House members have responded to legitimate criticism with cynicism. Let’s not have another ‘Bernie bros’ moment
Before we get started, some ground rules. You are, of course, completely free to disagree with everything I have to say here. However, doing so might mean that you’re racist, homophobic and/or sexist. (Not to boast, but I have a lot of oppression cards to play.) So, you might want to tread carefully, OK?
That might sound ridiculous, but I don’t make the rules: I’m just taking a page from the corporate Democrat playbook. From Haley Stevens to Hakeem Jeffries, cynically weaponizing identity politics to ward off reasonable criticism seems to be all the rage.
Members of Congress and advocates warn that returning people to their home countries could be a death sentence
Dozens of Afghans who are currently in the US but fear being deported back to Afghanistan along with a larger group and possibly killed by the Taliban are experiencing “fragile relief” this weekend after it appeared that the Trump administration had put on hold plans to remove them within days.
Members of Congress and advocates have repeatedly warned that the deportations could effectively be a death sentence.
Questions remain about reason for leak, safety of drinking water and where salt can be sourced for roads during winter
When water last month began gushing through a crack in the ceiling of a Morton Salt mine in Ohio, the company had only one option: shut the mine down for good.
For locals in and around Fairport Harbor, it means the loss of 77 jobs; but for the wider region, which depends on its salt reserves to keep roads ice- and snow-free every winter, it could mean travel chaos.
When cold sidelines make tailgating a no-go, these 15 game day snacks move the fun indoors with dips, sliders, pizza, fritters, and bite-sized picks for passing around during kickoff.The post 15 game day snacks to lay out at home when…
Busy holiday week? These 17 copycat recipes offer turkey-free dinner options, from noodles and saucy chicken to burgers, tacos, pasta, and rice. Pick a familiar takeout-style meal that fits your evening.The post 17 copycat recipes for the turkey-free nights of…
Experts warn of risks of platforms hosting bets tied to US public health – including vaccine mandates and drug trials
The sign was pasted on a construction fence next to an elementary school in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. “Vaccines,” it proclaimed in bold capital letters against a blue star-spangled background – appearing, at first glance, to be like any other public health message on the importance of getting vaccinated.
But at the bottom of the sign, in smaller letters, it read: “Will any state end vaccine markets?” It was accompanied by the logo for Polymarket, an online prediction market where users can log in to wager on the outcomes of nearly any event – including, now, public health.
City has failed to build infrastructure that could reduce threat, and saw 400 fires, 83 injuries and 12 deaths this year
Fires from lithium-ion batteries, which power ebikes and scooters, have become regular occurrences in New York, causing deaths and fear among residents, but the city has failed to build infrastructure that could reduce the threat.
New York has seen a dramatic uptick this year in fires from the batteries. In 2025, there were 292 fires, 51 injuries and one death, according to the New York fire department (FDNY). This year, there have already been more than 400 fires, 83 injuries and 12 deaths.
Tech company says operations restored to all customers and regions affected by one of worst IT failures in years
Microsoft has said its service has been fully restored after a massive outage that resulted in widespread disruption to governments, businesses and public services around the world.
The technology company said on Saturday morning it had restored service to the remaining customers affected by one of the worst IT failures in years. On its Microsoft 365 status page, the US-based firm said: “We have completed our efforts to address the underlying issue of the incident and restored service to the remaining impacted customers and regions.
Prime ministerial hopeful calls Arab minority ‘an integral part of the Israeli story’ as he seeks to form government
Israeli prime ministerial hopeful Gadi Eisenkot condemned a “racist and aggressive campaign of delegitimisation” against the country’s Arab citizens, after the caretaker prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused Arab parties of electoral fraud without evidence.
Netanyahu has repeatedly targeted Arab parties and Palestinian citizens of Israel after his party received a disappointing electoral showing, accusing them of manipulating the election and being linked to Hamas. Israeli electoral authorities have rejected these claims as not being backed by evidence.
Throttling of Elon Musk’s military-grade satellite system affecting whole frontline, says Ukraine’s president
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused SpaceX of not telling the truth over restrictions to Ukraine’s Starshield satellite system, saying the decision to impose speed limits appears to be “political” rather than “technical”.
Speaking on Friday, Ukraine’s president said the restrictions affecting Ukrainian drones had been in place for five days. They could no longer fly at speeds of more than 161km/h (100mph), he said, with connections at higher speeds lost.
(The Center Square) – State and federal officials evacuated people within a mile of an ethanol production plant in Peoria Friday night after finding a pipe bomb inside the plant.
Activists dumped rocks off Norfolk coast on site of Burnham-backed project in protest against seabed trawling
The giant offshore windfarms backed by Andy Burnham this week may face unexpected stumbling blocks after Greenpeace activists unwittingly dumped about 15 tonnes of boulders on to the site as part of a campaign against seabed trawling in the North Sea.
Greenpeace created the “boulder barrier” to safeguard harbour porpoises off the Norfolk coast by dropping giant stone blocks, each weighing up to 2 tonnes, on to the sea floor to prevent a method of fishing known as bottom trawling.
US military has killed nearly 250 people in attack on ‘narco-terrorism’, and on 17 March, sank the 16 plaintiffs’ boat, leaving two with serious burns
More than a dozen Ecuadorian fishermen are suing the US government after they survived a military drone attack in the Pacific ocean earlier this year that sank their boat and left two of them with serious burns from the explosions.
The 17 March attack on the La Negra Francesca Duarte II was part of the Trump administration’s Operation Southern Spear campaign, announced in November 2025 ostensibly to counter “narco-terrorists” it said operated in the Caribbean and Pacific.
At party’s ‘What’s Next’ conference, consensus is they need to act quickly, but over affordability or accountability is the question
What’s next for Democrats?
It’s the question thousands of Democrats, including lawmakers, strategists, pollsters, creators, organizers, staffers and 2028 presidential hopefuls are trying to answer at a three-day gathering in Denver, after a sweeping victory in the 2026 midterm elections.
The reprimand the defense secretary endured at US military’s most sacred shrine epitomizes his disrepute
The sentinel who bawled out Pete Hegseth for apparent disrespect at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider seemed to be speaking for more than just himself.
Nothing quite epitomizes the disrepute into which the US defense secretary has fallen than the reprimand delivered to Hegseth and his party after they conversed and laughed loudly while visiting Arlington national cemetery on Wednesday to mark Veterans’ Day.
Midterm elections have defanged the US president – leaving critics to worry about his next move in his ‘fat Elvis’ stage
It was just before 3am when Donald Trump entered a crowded Manhattan ballroom, greeted by chants of “USA! USA” and theme music from the Hollywood film Air Force One. On stage, two red “Make America great again” (Maga) caps were mounted in glass cases like holy relics.
That was the scene 10 years ago this week when Trump, a businessman and reality TV star, stunned the world by beating Hillary Clinton to the White House. A decade later an unlikely president is serving an unlikely second term. But in the wake of a humiliating vote of no confidence in last week’s midterm elections, he now enters an endgame wracked with uncertainty.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang misled several of the company's leaders, including general counsel Tim Teter and chief marketing officer Alison Wagonfeld, about the nature of his relationship with Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang, with whom he had an affair, according to two people familiar with the matter and internal correspondence reviewed by Reuters. [...] During the autumn of 2025 and in October 2026, in response to press queries that drew some Nvidia leaders' attention to his relationship with Megaspeed and Alice Huang, Huang at both times described their interactions as appropriate, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Reuters only reviewed messages from the exchanges in October, not the ones from 2025. In two separate messages in October, Huang told Nvidia leaders, including Teter and Wagonfeld, that the interactions reflected standard business dealings with customers. In other messages, Huang affirmed the routine nature of his interactions with Megaspeed.
Nvidia's Huang also discussed taking legal action against the New York Times after it published an article in October of last year that drew attention to his meetings in public with Alice Huang, the people said. That article had prompted Jensen Huang to communicate with some Nvidia leaders in 2025 about their interactions, which he did not describe as an affair, the people said. Ultimately, neither Nvidia nor Huang filed a lawsuit against the paper. A spokesperson for the New York Times said the paper received no legal demand. It is unclear when his relationship with Alice Huang became intimate. Photos posted online and verified by Reuters show them together in the US, China and elsewhere, dating as far back as December 2023.
The 2026 Cape Henlopen Field Hockey team poses for a team photo following their win in the 2026 DIAA Division One Field Hockey State Championship game. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti
The Cape Henlopen Vikings defeated the Milford Buccaneers, 7-0, earning the program’s 15th championship title.
FREDERICA, Del. — The Cape Henlopen field hockey program and the DIAA Division One Field Hockey State Championship game have become synonymous over the past nine seasons. The Vikings have won or played in every state championship game since the sport was split into two divisions and have won seven of those games.
Friday night at DE Turf the Vikings increased that championship tally to eight.
Cape Henlopen field hockey defeated Milford, 7-0, in the DIAA Division One Field Hockey State Championship on November 13, earning the program’s 15th state title.
The Vikings started the championship game with strong play in the midfield that allowed them to get out on a breakaway opportunity early in the game. The scoring chance was broken up by the Milford defense, but the play forced a penalty corner opportunity. One of ten the Vikings generated throughout the game.
“In our midfield, we know that the opposite team had a really strong center forward [Molly Matsen] so our gameplan was to use the outside thirds and really focus on our one on one defense,” Atia Sabbagh said postgame.
The initial corner didn’t reap any results, but kept the possession on their offensive end. A minute later the Vikings turned the offensive pressure into a point.
Sabbagh wound up for a shot while standing just within the circle near the right of the cage. Sabbagh fired a strong shot toward the Milford goalkeeper and the Milford goalie, Sophia Daniels, stuck her right foot out to deflect the shot. The ball grazed Daniels’ foot and hit the stick of Teagan Baker who lunged her stick out just in time to deflect the ball into the air and to the back of the cage.
Kailey McMahon scored the Vikings’ other two goals in the first half starting with a short shot in front of an empty cage. Freshman Brynn Evick drew out the Milford goalkeeper and delivered a tough pass for McMahon to tap in and earned an assist for her effort. Senior Emily Wells assisted on McMahon’s second goal delivering a pass between two Milford defenders for McMahon to finish with a backhand shot to the back right of the cage.
McMahon’s goal gave the Vikings a 3-0 lead at halftime. The lead doubled in the first seven minutes of the third quarter.
Two of the Vikings’ three third quarter goals were scored on a pair of penalty corner conversions by Baker and senior Mairead Rishko. Rishko scored the first penalty corner less than two minutes into the half on a pass from Baker that Rishko redirected to the far left of the cage. Baker scored her penalty corner after the initial inbound pass from senior Grace Heers, sending a strong shot through the legs of Daniels in goal. The scores bookended a solo effort by Wells where the senior dribbled the ball through the circle and to the front right of the cage for a backhand shot that hit the back of the goal.
Wells added a second goal to her total in the fourth quarter which completed Cape Henlopen’s scoring. The Vikings’ seven goals are the most by a division one winner since the two division system was introduced before the 2017 season. It’s the most goals scored in a championship game since Delmar won the division two title, 7-1, in 2022.
“I feel like what was working the best was hitting the ball into space and then moving the defense,” Wells said about Cape Henlopen’s offensive attack. “We really had to work on that big pull right where we pulled back and then around because the pull left wasn’t there and they were doubling us. So, just getting there before the double and shooting.”
Cape Henlopen’s win is the program’s eighth state championship win over the past ten seasons and the 11th for head coach Kate Austin. Austin’s 2026 team finished the year 19-0 and allowed just a single goal all season.
“Just how light they’re able to keep it while playing at a high level. I mean I haven’t seen anything like it before,” Austin said about the traits that made this iteration of Cape Henlopen field hockey special. “It’s just impressive and to be able to play at a high level while having fun and while enjoying what you’re doing. And that’s what we preach.”
“It feels amazing,” Wells said postgame about being state champions. “I got my best friends from this team and I’ll probably be best friends [with] them for the rest of my life and we have a great coaching staff. Everyday I come to practice with a smile.”
Comedian regrets ‘inappropriate’ jokes he made with Brand during work pair did together in the 2000s
The Great British Bake Off presenter Noel Fielding has said he was “horrified and deeply disturbed to learn of Russell Brand’s crimes” and has had no contact with his fellow comedian “for many years”.
In the early 2000s, Fielding often worked with Brand, who was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison on Monday for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others.
ProPublica reporter Jake Pearson tests DraftKings’ guardrails at a Manhattan bar this spring. After a ProPublica investigation published this fall, the company closed Pearson’s account. Gerardo del Valle/ProPublica
Late last month, I was getting dinner on the table when an email hit my inbox with some bad news.
“Upon review your account has been closed at DraftKings’ discretion,” the message read. “We understand that this is not the decision that you were hoping for but this decision is final.”
I hadn’t bet on sports in months and had withdrawn all but a few cents of my balance. Why, I wondered, would my account even be under review? Was it something I’d said?
In September, I’d published an investigation into how online sports betting companies like DraftKings court customers — and whether the internal guardrails they’ve put in place to stop their users from spiraling out of control are firm enough. For that piece, I’d intentionally bet like a problem gambler, recklessly escalating my betting behavior over 10 weeks. My wagering had been informed by a panel of professional sports bettors, recovering addicts and addiction specialists.
As I flagrantly waved the red flags, DraftKings made me a VIP and assigned me my very own personal host. My recklessness was being rewarded. It just took three weeks and about $6,000 of losses.
If you’ve bet on sports with FanDuel or DraftKings, you can help ProPublica understand how these apps work. Use our browser extension to download your betting history, then upload your files.
The company, like the rest of the industry, says it doesn’t want to profit off of addiction, and has invested heavily in a system of tools and in-app prompts designed to help bettors put conditions on their gambling and slow them down. But my experiment raised serious questions about the effectiveness of this system, what’s known as “responsible gaming.”
So on one hand, I could understand how a story like mine, which scrutinized a core business function, might rankle company executives. But on the other hand, DraftKings had been downplaying the significance of my story for weeks.
In an interview for the piece, the company’s chief responsible gaming officer, Lori Kalani, had told me that the system “worked the way it was supposed to” in my case by feeding me some 30 responsible gaming messages over the course of my 10-week betting spree. And on Oct. 22, about a month after publication, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins doubled down, telling a CNBC journalist that he had “personally looked” at my entire betting history and was “pretty proud of how we handled it.” (He also made false claims about my reporting, but I’ve already addressed that on X.)
So as I read the notice of my account closure, I wondered: What changed, exactly?
DraftKings didn’t respond when I asked. All I got was a check in the mail for 94 cents, the remainder of my balance. But what was clear was that my investigation was reaching more and more people — including state regulators and federal lawmakers. Since publication, it had gone viral. A 27-minute, behind-the-scenes documentary of our work that we posted on YouTube on Oct. 10 had been viewed more than 6 million times in just three weeks.
Watch: Inside Our $22K Sports Betting Experiment
Lisa Seville and Nadia Sussman/ProPublica
The video offered viewers who may not be familiar with ProPublica (or perhaps not inclined to read 4,000-word stories) a way to learn about the reporting in the venue where so much sports betting content lives. Most of our viewers were young men — the prime sports betting demographic. And boy did they engage, leaving 3,500 comments on YouTube and flooding my inbox with messages about the same features and VIP perks detailed in my story.
Regulators from across the country were citing my investigation when announcing that they were going to take a look for themselves at how DraftKings and its ilk incentivize users to keep betting. Federal and state officials were also demanding answers about how the company lures in its customers and keeps them in the action. In Ohio, regulators were even proposing a rule to restrict the apps’ marketing practices that spoke directly to one of the findings in my piece.
That evening is when the unsigned notice from DraftKings Support about my account closure appeared in my inbox. Two hours later, the company sent me a formal response to my questions, writing, in part, that “regular conversations and check-ins with regulators are normal course of business” and denying that the company improperly targets losing gamblers.
I may no longer be able to access my account, but I’m still reporting on DraftKings and the online gambling industry.
In fact, right now, we’re collecting wagering data from bettors to better understand how the major operators handle problem gambling. You can help by submitting your data here. If you’ve got a tip, you can also reach me directly at 917-512-0276 and jake.pearson@propublica.org.
A proposed “buffer zone” around religious facilities across the country — touted as protecting the right to worship — is alarming free-speech advocates who say the Trump administration could use it to crack down on protests.
The new bill, a national version of a controversial law passed in smaller jurisdictions, could hamper demonstrations against illegal sales of land in the West Bank to Jewish settlers that occur inside U.S. synagogues, the advocates say.
The bipartisan legislation could face another layer of opposition from a surprise corner, however, in the form of reproductive rights groups worried it would undermine an existing law that protects abortion clinics.
“Protecting religious freedom must not come at the expense of other Constitutional rights.”
Called the Right to Worship Act, the bill cosponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., will be the subject of a Tuesday hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The bill has drawn backing from Christian, Jewish, and minority religious leaders who say it could be used to prevent hate crimes. Major Muslim groups, however, have been notably absent from supporter lists.
That isn’t just because Cruz regularly demonizes Muslims. Muslim leaders also worry that while in theory the law would be used to promote religious freedom, in practice it would be used to punish non-violent, pro-Palestine protesters, said Dahlia Taha, the director of the First Amendment Center at the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
“Protecting religious freedom must not come at the expense of other Constitutional rights,” she said. “We believe that this can have very detrimental and long-term impacts. And under this administration, specifically, we’re concerned about those long-term implications.”
Slotkin and Cruz’s offices did not respond to requests for comment.
Land Sales as “Religious Services”?
Under the bill, the Department of Justice could seek civil fines or injunctions against anyone who engages in a “course of conduct” that disrupts religious services, or disrupts access to them, within 100 feet of a church, mosque, synagogue, or other religious facility. Worshippers and state attorneys general could also file lawsuits.
Numerous states have already passed similar legislation creating “buffer zones” around religious buildings. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoed a buffer zone for protests near schools and colleges, while allowing another one for religious institutions to pass.
Supporters of the federal bill argue that it is needed to protect worshippers from harassment or worse.
“Attacks on synagogues, mosques, churches, and other houses of worship are unfortunately on the rise in Michigan, and across the country,” Slotkin said in an August press release. “No one should ever fear going to their house of worship. Period.”
The law’s authors tout it as a narrowly tailored guardrail, but critics say that the “course of conduct” subject to fines and lawsuits is so ill-defined that the Trump administration could use it to target peaceful protesters.
“There is no relationship between this legislation and the prevention of violent acts at synagogues, mosques, or churches.”
One of critics’ top fears is the “religious services” protected by the law could be defined to include real-estate pitches for land illegally seized from Palestinian people in the West Bank. In a press release, the Anti-Defamation League cited two West bank land-sale protests in New York City as examples of the need for the legislation, along with the March ramming attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
When it comes to violent attacks, argued Eli Williams-Szenes, the director of advocacy and political affairs at the progressive Jewish group Bend the Arc, synagogues are better protected by an existing federal law called the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The FACE Act makes a federal crime out of force, threats, or physical obstruction near both religious institutions and abortion clinics.
“There is no relationship between this legislation and the prevention of violent acts at synagogues, mosques, or churches,” Williams-Szenes said of the new bill. “The idea that telling someone that if they wave a pamphlet 97 feet from the entrance to a synagogue, they’ll get a $10,000 fine would be the reason that someone didn’t try to drive a car into Temple Israel is crazy.”
Abortion Rights Angle
The Right to Worship Act faces long odds in the final weeks of the Republican-controlled Congress. Still, Williams-Szenes said he is concerned that even a hearing could set the stage for eventual passage.
Abortion rights groups are also worried. They fear that if the Right to Worship Act passes, Republicans will be inclined to repeal or weaken the FACE Act because of its protections for abortion clinics.
One of President Donald Trump’s first actions upon taking office last year was to pardon anti-abortion rights protesters convicted of blockading a clinic under the FACE Act.
“The Right to Worship Act is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Kelsey Ryland, a policy counsel at the National Abortion Federation, said in a statement. “The impact of this policy could become a backdoor FACE Act repeal, weakening enforcement against violent disruptors at abortion clinics.”
Gina Hinojosa said she agrees with President Donald Trump on the need for border security but vows to fight “chaotic and dangerous” immigration enforcement in major cities.
Nationwide flight shutdown disrupts team travel in US
Mississippi v Oklahoma football game moved to Sunday
Cavaliers face tight turnaround after Miami travel delay
The Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to ground all flights nationwide for several hours on Friday threw the US sports world into disarray, leaving NBA, NHL and college teams scrambling to reach their destinations in time for a packed weekend of games.
Transportation officials cited “extraordinary circumstances” caused by communications issues at regional air traffic control centers for the stoppage. Some teams were left searching for hotel rooms, others rescheduled flights, leagues adjusted start times and several college football programs took the unusual step of chartering buses rather than waiting for the ground stop to end.
Eurotunnel owner Getlink wants to replicate ‘airport experience’ at Folkestone and Calais, without making people get out of cars
Airport-style passport and fingerprinting controls are to be introduced at Eurotunnel in an attempt to prevent “short-term and long-term chaos” in Folkestone and Calais.
In a breakthrough for travellers, the European Commission has agreed to a new system in which an “eagle eye” camera system, already used in Rome and Paris airports to supervise fingerprinting and facial imaging, will be used at the border between the UK and France.
Amazon is considering a "World Product Graph" that would index information about products sold across the internet in an effort to keep shoppers and AI agents from turning to Google, Reddit or other sources for product research. The proposed database could also improve Amazon's AI shopping assistant by addressing inaccurate or incomplete answers and allowing it to use cheaper models.
"Amazon cannot be the go-destination for every shopping mission if customers must leave to research product relationships on Google, brand websites, and review sites," according to an internal Amazon document. "These answers exist, but the only way to find them has been to leave Amazon for painstaking research on brand websites, third party review sites and tech forums." Reuters could not determine if or when this plan may be implemented, though the document, written like a press release, has an aspirational future release date of October 1, 2027.
Amazon said in a statement: "Draft, outdated documents often paint an incomplete picture and the existence of a brainstorming document such as this one doesn't necessarily reflect our current plans. We're constantly working on new ideas and technologies to make Amazon's product catalog comprehensive, accurate, and helpful for customers."
JUNEAU, ALASKA — Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins has won Alaska’s governor’s race, becoming the state’s youngest governor-elect and the first Democrat elected to the office since 1998.
Kreiss-Tomkins, 37, defeated three Republicans, including Trump-endorsed business owner Bernadette Wilson, former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson and former Attorney General Treg Taylor. With roughly 96% of ballots counted, he had 50.8% of first-choice votes — more than his three opponents combined — meaning ranked-choice tabulation would not be necessary if that margin holds through certification.
The former state representative from Sitka campaigned as a pragmatic centrist, describing himself as a “man of the middle” and promising a bipartisan administration. He was endorsed by Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and three former Alaska governors representing Democratic, Republican and independent backgrounds.
Kreiss-Tomkins will succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and take office Dec. 7. His priorities include increasing public-school funding, addressing high energy and living costs, improving basic government services and pursuing tighter limits on withdrawals from Alaska’s Permanent Fund.
His victory also expands Democrats’ national footprint. Democrats will hold 30 governorships next year, up from 24 before the 2026 election.
Alaska voters also rejected an effort to repeal the state’s ranked-choice voting system, preserving the election method used in this year’s contest.
Prospect of partial return to Budapest by Central European University suggests confidence in Hungary’s future
A university that Viktor Orbán tried to chase out of Hungary is open to expanding its presence in Budapest, in a mark of confidence in the country’s democratic future.
Carsten Q Schneider, the interim president and rector of Central European University (CEU), said it was interested in increasing its programmes in Budapest, as long as this did not damage the student experience.
The finding follows a resurgence that began with a major outbreak in West Texas in January 2025 and was followed by sustained outbreaks in Utah, Arizona and other states.
Condition is prevalent in rugby and American football
Scientists are optimistic of significant breakthrough
Scientists have moved a step closer to diagnosing the degenerative brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy in living people, after a study found a blood biomarker that identifies an advanced form of the disease.
As things stand CTE, which is caused by repeated trauma to the head and is especially prevalent in collision and contact sports such as American football, rugby and football, can be diagnosed only after death by examining brain tissue.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Nightmare Eclipse, the pseudonym of a researcher with an ongoing, very public beef with Microsoft, has dropped yet another Windows zero-day. On Tuesday, Nightmare Eclipse disclosed SignDrop, a vulnerability that gives local users full System rights on some versions of Windows. The vulnerability resides in the Common Log File System, which Microsoft describes as a "general-purpose logging service used by software clients running in user-mode or kernel-mode." By forcing a privileged process such as Windows Defender to open a crafted CLFS container, an attacker with ordinary user rights can abuse the privileged file creation to elevate privileges to System.
[...] Researcher Will Dormann said in an interview that he has been able to reproduce the exploit and that it works as described, but not on all versions of Windows 11. But there's a catch, he said. "The requirements are important in that it seems to require Windows 26H2, and one that has existed for more than 90 days, it seems," he explained. "That is, you can't just take a new 26H2 system and install updates and have it work." For a system to be vulnerable, Dormann said, the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CLFS\Authentication\Mode
value must be 0 or 1." Of the many machines Dormann uses, only a single one met this requirement. Microsoft said in a statement that it was investigating the vulnerability and had no evidence it was being exploited in the wild. The company also said Defender blocks potential exploitation attempts.
No passengers or crew killed or critically hurt after tanker collides with river cruise ship on Mississippi, officials say
In what the city’s mayor declared a “miracle on the Mississippi”, all passengers were accounted for – with none killed or critically hurt – after a tanker collided with a river cruise ship docked on the Mississippi River in New Orleans on Friday afternoon.
Thirty-two people were taken to local hospitals after the Atlantic Asphalt tanker struck American Cruise Lines’s American Heritage at about 12.30pm – but none of their injuries were considered critical, New Orleans’s mayor, Helena Moreno, said at a news conference.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Incoming House Oversight Chairman Robert Garcia is accusing Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Trump administration of attempting to intimidate Democrats before they take control of Congress and begin investigations into the executive branch.
The clash escalated after Blanche declined to rule out criminal investigations of Democratic lawmakers over what the administration describes as threats against Trump officials and Republican donors. Blanche acknowledged Congress has constitutional oversight authority but argued some rhetoric and investigative tactics could cross legal lines.
Garcia rejected that argument, saying congressional oversight comes from Article I of the Constitution and warning that the Justice Department cannot use potential criminal investigations to deter lawmakers from issuing subpoenas or demanding testimony.
Democrats have already outlined plans to investigate immigration enforcement, administration spending, alleged corruption, Trump’s business interests and the Epstein files when they assume the House majority in January. Garcia has publicly told administration officials to “lawyer up,” while insisting the phrase refers to lawful congressional scrutiny rather than criminal threats.
The dispute follows a broader confrontation between the White House and Congress. White House Counsel Will Scharf separately warned Garcia that investigations designed merely to intimidate officials could potentially warrant further scrutiny.
Blanche has not said whether the Justice Department has opened any investigation of Garcia or other Democratic lawmakers. DOJ says any action would depend on evidence and applicable law.
The confrontation sets up a major separation-of-powers battle as Democrats prepare to exercise subpoena power over an administration that is already warning some oversight could become criminal conduct.
Travelers and crew feeling ‘pissed’ or ‘lucky’ depending on level of upset amid nationwide ground stop
The decision to ground all flights on Friday by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) threw airports and travel plans into chaos across the country, as passengers on planes and in airport terminals were suddenly thrust into limbo.
At New York’s John F Kennedy airport, passengers found their travel plans abruptly canceled – some even after they had boarded their planes.
Banana Man began popping up around Linton, Indiana, a few months ago. Videos that also began circulating on social media appeared to show a boy biking all over town in a banana suit.
Flights in the US have slowly started resuming after being grounded for several hours on Friday due to a major communications outage, but authorities have warned that a return to normal operations will take time.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a nationwide ground stop about four hours after it was declared on Friday afternoon, delaying or canceling more than 11,000 US flights, according to aviation tracker FlightAware, and throwing airports into sudden chaos.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration has eliminated a Biden-era requirement that larger Head Start programs raise teacher salaries to levels comparable with local public preschool educators, arguing the mandate threatened access to the early-childhood program.
The Department of Health and Human Services finalized the rollback Friday. The 2024 rule would have required larger Head Start programs to gradually increase pay by 2031, with HHS estimating the mandate would cost roughly $2.1 billion annually once fully implemented.
Administration officials said eliminating the requirement restores flexibility to local providers and could prevent the loss of approximately 106,000 Head Start slots. HHS has separately argued that increasing regulatory costs have contributed to declining enrollment capacity across the program.
Critics counter that low wages are already making it difficult to recruit and retain qualified teachers. Head Start educators with bachelor’s degrees earned less than $50,000 on average in 2026, while those with master’s degrees earned under $60,000. Public school teachers averaged more than $75,000.
The National Association for the Education of Young Children rejected the administration’s framing that programs must choose between teacher compensation and serving more children, arguing that classroom slots are meaningless without qualified staff.
Head Start currently serves more than 700,000 children, primarily from low-income families. The administration is also pursuing broader changes that would loosen federal requirements involving staffing ratios, qualifications and other program standards.
The global HPC community will descend upon Chicago, Illinois next week for SC26, the 39th annual event since the supercomputing conference series started back in 1988. More than 18,000 people could potentially attend the six-day event at McCormick Place, making it one of the biggest SCs ever. With so much happening in the world of supercomputing today, SC26 is gearing up to be an inflection point that could impact the future of many different paths in supercomputing.
By the numbers, SC26 looks to be an impressive show. Starting on Sunday November 15 and concluding on Friday November 20, the event will host hundreds of sessions, including papers, invited talks, plenaries, workshops, interactive events, and community events. You can check the full schedule at the SC26 website.
Estimated attendance for next week’s conference, which is run by ACM SIGHPC and the IEEE Computer Society, is expected to be in the range of 14,000 to 18,000, with upwards of 635 exhibitors and sponsors. Those numbers look healthy compared to SC25 in St. Louis, Missouri, which attracted about 16,500 attendees and about 520 exhibitors. However, SC25 took place immediately after a federal government shutdown, which depressed attendance.
SC26 could be the biggest SC ever. However, the national ground stop ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday afternoon threatens to throw a wrench into millions of people’s travel plans over the weekend. It’s unclear how long the ground stop will last, and whether it will impact SC26.
But on the bright side, there will be something for every HPC professional at SC26, from the seasoned pro who’s been in the game for 30 years to first timers who have never attended. Here’s a quick look at the week’s highlights to help you plan your show:
Sunday November 15
The first day of SC26 is composed primarily of tutorials and workshops, some of which last all day. For instance, if you’re interested in Kokkos, a C++ library for parallel computing, then you will want to attend a tutorial on that topic. There is also a First-Timers Orientation session on Sunday for folks attending SC for the first time.
Monday November 16
The second day of SC26 also brings more tutorials and workshops, including the Women in HPC group, which is holding an all-day workshop. The start of the second portion of SC26 kicks off Monday evening at 5:30 Central Time, with the HPC Unites Plenary, which will have a panel including DOE Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil and Satoshi Matsuoka, the head of the Center for Computational Science at RIKEN in Japan. Following this panel discussion, there will be a Grand Opening Gala Reception in the exhibit hall, which is always an exciting experience.
Tuesday November 17
The third day of SC26 brings lots of papers, panels, keynotes, invited talks, and awards on a whole host of topics. Caltech’s Animashree Anandkumar gives a keynote address titled “The Next Scaling Law After LLMs: AI That Understands the Physical World” at 8:30 a.m. CT. The ACM Gordon Bell finalists will be making presentations on Tuesday. There will also be plenty of Birds of Feather sessions on an array of fascinating topics, including the future of AI acceleration beyond the GPU, HPC ethics, and Julia in HPC. The latest TOP500 list will be presented by Erich Strohmaier, Jack Dongarra, Horst Simon, and Christine Harvey at 5:15 p.m. CT. Will there be a new supercomputer near the top of the list, perhaps the new Sugon 8000 exascale machine that the Chinese recently unveiled? We’ll have to wait to find out.
Wednesday November 18
The fourth day brings plenty of meaty topics, including a panel discussion on emerging storage, HPC cooling and lifespans, and the regional quantum hub. Birds of a feather (BOFs) will be meeting in the middle of the day, providing insight into a range of topics, from understanding modern Fortran to the future of HPC education in a world where AI writes the code. The student cluster competition will be in full swing this day, and there will also be a career fair that runs from 10:30 to 3:00 p.m. CT.
Thursday November 19
The end of SC26 comes into view on the fifth day, which has some great sessions, including a presentation on wafer-scale systems, a panel on HPC-quantum integration, and a BOF on AI-assisted engineering in HPC. The student cluster competition winds down, and the award ceremony takes place in the afternoon. The exhibit hall closes on this day.
Friday November 20
The final day of SC26 brings a smattering of panels, but the schedule is primarily dominated by workshops. The show ends at about noon CT.
Longtime Slashdot readers cold fjord and sinij share news that the FAA grounded flights nationwide after a communications failure disrupted air traffic control centers across the country. By Friday evening, the outage had resulted in nearly 5,000 flight cancellations and roughly 10,000 delays, with no timeline for restoring normal operations. Rumors are swirling that this could be related to the FAA's newly deployed SMART AI system or Microsoft's recent global outage, but both the agency and Microsoft said they had no indication that their technology was responsible. Business Insider reports: US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said just after 4:15 pm. Eastern time that the nationwide flight traffic halt came "following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers." "FAA technicians are investigating the issue," he said in a post on X. The outage comes the same week as the FAA deployed SMART, a new AI tool to help air traffic control. ASI, the company that makes the SMART system for the FAA, said that Friday's issues weren't "based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA and ATC."
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a press conference Friday, when asked if the AI system might be related to the outage: "That's what we're looking at." Microsoft, which faced massive issues across its services this week, also said that it had "no indication" the ground stop was related to any Microsoft services. Meanwhile, the FAA said that the ground stop was due to "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety." UPDATE 1:33 UTC: Secretary Mullin and Secretary Duffy are currently briefing members of the press on the issue.
UPDATE 1:46 UTC: The FAA has lifted the nationwide ground stop after more than four hours. Officials said the disruption appears to have stemmed from a network router issue that cascaded nationwide, with no evidence of a cyberattack or connection to Microsoft's recent outage. Airlines warned that disruptions could continue in Saturday.
Rick Stevens wants to talk about AI for science. Whether it’s on a webinar with Google Cloud an interview with HPCwire–or presumably in an Uber on the way to the McCormick Center in downtown Chicago–the Argonne National Laboratory associate lab director has a lot to say about the potential to drive scientific progress forward using AI.
Stevens has a lot to say about AI for science, because there is a lot going on in that arena right now. As possibly the most visible–and arguably the most vocal–proponent of the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission project at the national lab level, Stevens has honed himself into the pointy end of the AI-for-science spear. Even before Genesis Mission started 51 weeks ago, Argonne National Lab was the starting point for the Trillion Parameter Consortium, and Stevens was the tireless engine that got TPC off the ground.
During a webinar with Google Cloud’s Jay Boisseau in early November, Stevens laid out the ambitious goals of the Genesis Mission, using no uncertain terms.
“The high-level goal that we have is to build what we would call a scientific superintelligence,” he said. “Think of this as agentic-driven science that can do pretty much everything needed to automate the science process. Agents that can design and run tests. They can design and deploy instruments. They can direct robotic facilities. They can run simulations. And we want to have sufficient capability that we can create not only new scientific knowledge, but we can originate new theories and validate them against observations and experiments.”
(JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock)
Stevens, who’s formal title at Argonne is associate laboratory director for Computing, Environment and Life Sciences (CELS), has accomplished many things over his long and distinguished career at Argonne. He has been involved in using HPC to solve a range of problems, particularly in biomedicine. He was the driving force behind getting the Aurora system stood up at the Argonne Leadership Class Facility (ALCF). He’s also a professor of computer science at the University of Chicago.
But once gets the sense that meeting the goals of Genesis Mission and actually achieving scientific superintelligence would be the zenith of Stevens’ storied 44-year Argonne career.
The thing is, we may actually be much further along the road to achieving scientific superintelligence than is commonly known, Stevens said. It’s been proven that AI can boost the productivity of scientists and engineers by an order of magnitude or more, he said. But the AI-powered productivity dividends are not widely distributed, at least at the moment.
During his time at SC26 next week, Stevens will be spreading the word about how far and fast AI for science and the Genesis Mission have actually come, and what the HPC community needs to do to accelerate it even more.
“To the a degree that maybe you and us and some of our other colleagues are aligned around the AI for science direction, I think the broader SC community is lagging on that a bit,” Stevens told HPCwire in an interview. “I mean, they know, because we’ve talked about the terms, and they kind of know about Genesis and so on.
“But I think it’s hard for people to appreciate how much has changed in the last year-and-a-half or two years, that almost everything people are doing now–whether it’s coding or running on big machines or analyzing data from runs–is all being done with agents,” he said.
Stevens is not just a spokesman for AI-powered science; he’s also one of the biggest customers. At the TPC26 conference in Baltimore, Maryland in June, Stevens shared what his own agents, Ollie and Kukla, are capable of. During his Google presentation, Stevens said he has added nine more.
“So I now have 11 persistent agents that are running 24/7. They are all hosted on resources that I control myself, but they have access to the supercomputers, they have access to GPU clusters, Sparks and so forth,” he said. “With this collection of agents, we’ve replicated about 1,000 papers in the last five or six months as a way of collecting data on what agents have to be able to do to make headway in science.”
Rick Stevens’ agentic fleet
Stevens is heading up the Transformational AI Models Consortium (ModCon), the core Genesis Mission project to develop AI models for science and engineering. He’s intrinsically involved in using, rating, and adopting a range of foundation models (FMs) for use in science and engineering. He’s also involved in building the harnesses that allow agents to leverage these highly capable proprietary and open FMs to get useful scientific work done, which is no easy task.
“We have to have models that are far better than humans at doing reasoning or mathematics, or have deep knowledge across the scientific areas,” Stevens said on the Google webinar. “And of course, with the frontier models, we’re already kind of approaching that. We need to have a very powerful agent harnesses that models are plugged into that allow them to use tools and have long term memory and status, and can run for many days or weeks and are plugged into the infrastructure.”
Currently, the goal is for the 17 National Labs to have 100,000 persistent agents running on DOE infrastructure by 2029, Stevens said. It’s unclear how many the labs have running now, but it’s safe to say that it’s nowhere close to that.
The hardware ramp up to support these agents in the coming years will be intense. That doesn’t even count the new supercomputers that will be required to run the traditional modeling and simulation workloads that are needed to generate data for the AI models. In some cases, surrogate AI models will be able to take the place of traditional physics-based models, Stevens said. Surrogate AI models can run 10 to 1,000 times more efficiently than traditional models with the same precision and accuracy, which may alleviate the hardware crunch.
But beyond the hardware requirements, scaling up the use of agents in science will require other improvements. In particular, Stevens is concerned about the need to train scientists how to effectively use agents. As with many technological transitions, the user interface can be a big stumbling block.
“My sense is that, for folks that know what they’re doing, it’s no problem to get 10X productivity boost,” Stevens told us. “Engineers and scientists doing AI research are seeing like a 12X productivity boost on their own personal productivity.
“But they know what they’re doing,” Stevens continued. “The average user of Claude doesn’t know what they’re doing, or the average user of Codex doesn’t know what they’re doing. So the question is, how do we get people to know what they’re doing faster, and so that they can get this productivity?”
That is the trillion-dollar question that Stevens will be asking at SC26.
Despite some progress in diversifying its ranks, HPC continues to be a male-dominated field. That’s one of the reasons it’s important to have groups like Women in HPC, which works to advocate for women in the profession. WHPC is giving the opportunity for several of its Rising Stars to experience SC26 by sponsoring their travel to the conference.
Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC) was founded at the EPCC at the University of Edinburgh in 2014 with the goal of encouraging women to participate in the HPC community. The group does this by providing fellowship, education, and support for women, as well as providing support for organizations that hire women for HPC roles. Today, the group has 20 chapters around the world.
Twice a year, for the SC and ISC conferences, WHPC names a group of Rising Stars. The organization announced 12 Rising Stars for the SC26 cohort last week. All 12 receive some funding to help them travel to SC26, while four of them will receive full travel support to attend the conference.
Being named a WHPC Rising Star is a competitive process, says Elsa Gonsiorowski, a director with WHPC and a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
“It’s a two-part submission,” she tells HPCwire. “The first part is talking about their research. They do a short abstract on their technical research. And then the second part is a personal statement, talking about how going to SC would impact them would impact their career.”
Fewer than half of the applicants for the Rising Star program make the final cut, Gonsiorowski says, and this year’s SC26 cohort has some excellent individuals. “We really had some far and away outstanding candidates,” she says. “That it was really nice.”
Thanks to generous contributions from sponsors like AWS, AMD, and Google, WHPC is able to sponsor full travel (airfare, hotel, and registration) for four Rising Stars to SC26. The Rising Stars will provide a lightning talk during the WHPC workshop taking place on Monday November 16 at SC26.
The WHPC workshop also gives the Rising Stars a chance to learn from more senior women in HPC, including the keynote speaker Becky Springmeyer, who is the Division Leader for Livermore Computing and the Director of LLNL’s Multiprogrammatic & Institutional Computing Program. They will also hear from Fernanda Foertter, the executive director of the High Performance Computing and Data Center at the University of Alabama; Wendy Wilhelm, a senior engineering director with HPE; and Rebecca Hartman-Baker, a user engagement group lead with the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC).
“We find that this is a really great way to get our audience and people in the HPC community to interact directly with our Rising Stars,” Gonsiorowski says.
HPCwire was given the opportunity to interview three of the Rising Stars. Here is what they had to say:
Emma Urquhart
One of the Rising Stars travelling to SC26 is Emma Urquhart, a third-year PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Cambridge. Urquhart’s research focuses on accelerating unstructured scientific methods on wafer-scale hardware.
Emma Urquhart
Urquhart’s journey into HPC started with an effort to accelerate cryptographic workloads on novel hardware. But over time, it has morphed, and today she is working out how to squeeze the most performance out of the big chips made by Cerebras.
“The Cerebras Wafer Scale Engine is quite radically different to what we’re used to seeing in CPUs and GPUs and how they’re built,” Urquhart tells HPCwire. “And so this brings a lot of opportunities, but also some challenges. To run efficiently on this, we really need to rethink the algorithms from the bottom up. That’s kind of what my PhD is focusing on.”
WHPC recently opened a chapter at the University of Cambridge, which Urquhart joined. She saw advertisements for travel opportunities for SC26, and thought that would be a great opportunity not only to further her research, but to meet other women at various stages of their HPC careers.
“This is my first opportunity to engage with the Women in HPC community directly,” she says. “And I’m really excited about that, because in general, the people I’ve worked with have been men. Honestly, they’ve been great help to me. But visibility is very important in this field. And I think just generally it’s more encouraging to stay in that field when you can see somebody a few steps ahead of you, who is kind of like yourself, or maybe had a similar path.”
Urquhart is particularly excited to get an opportunity to hear from female professionals who are mid-career at SC26. She attended the Reach Emerging Architectures in Computing Horizons conference in London last week, and met Dong Ping Zhang, a distinguished engineer with Cerebras. “She’s involved in designing the next generation of that hardware, so that’s quite inspiring to see,” Urquhart says.
If the computer science industry as a whole lacks proportional representation of females, then the low-level world of performance optimization and working in assembly is practically devoid of it. This doesn’t seem in the slightest to bother Urquhart, who is laser-focused on solving the (quite challenging) task at hand.
“Sometimes it would be nice to have a bit more of a network of people I can just even casually discuss these things with,” she says. “But in general, my female friends in computer science are all working in quite different areas and they wouldn’t really even have much context for what I’m working on at all.”
Yuqian Huo
Yuqian “Claire” Huo is a PhD student in Computer Science at Rice University. She is advised by Tirthak Patel in the Positive Technology Lab, where her research focuses on improving the performance, reliability, and security of quantum computing systems.
Yuqian “Claire” Huo
Huo says she is very grateful for the opportunity to travel to SC26, to share her work in quantum, and be recognized for it.
“I’m truly grateful and honored to have been selected,” she says. “It means a lot to me to see my research being recognized, and it motivates me to continue exploring new ideas and making meaningful contributions to the field.”
Huo credits her advisor with introducing her to quantum computing. Prior to meeting Patel, her research primarily focused on classical computer security. She was afraid that would be a dealbreaker, but it wasn’t for Patel.
“When we started our first project, I had very little background in quantum computing. I was initially worried about whether I could contribute effectively,” Huo says. “But Dr. Patel was incredibly supportive. He recommended relevant papers, helped me identify research directions, and guided me through the process step by step. He has always been patient and willing to answer my questions, which helped me gain confidence as I transitioned into quantum computing.”
Patel has also helped Huo build connections within the research community. He introduced Huo to the Women in HPC (WHPC) community and connected her with Janki Bhimani, an associate professor at Florida International University, with whom she has collaborated on several papers over the past year.
Huo is grateful for the opportunities that have been afforded to her. She’s looking forward at SC26 to being around other women in what is a very male-dominated subfield (quantum) of an otherwise male-dominated industry (computer science).
“While there are more women in computer science today, quantum computing and HPC remain relatively male-dominated fields,” she says. “I’m excited about the opportunity to meet more women researchers, exchange ideas, and build connections at SC26.”
Suné Toerien
Suné Toerien
Suné Toerien holds a Bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and is currently enrolled as a fourth-year student in the Information Engineering program, where she’s studying computational methods, HPC performance, and applications in biomedicine.
Toerien’s journey into HPC originated from the biomedical side, specifically a paper on skeletal muscle oxygen tension in COVID-19. More recently she has been involved in a collaborative HPC study on the productivity-to-energy trade-off via DVFS, core scaling, and C-state control.
Earlier this year, she attended her first HPC conference, the PASC26 Conference in Switzerland, where she presented an ACM Student Research Competition poster that finished in second place. Her advisor, Bryan Johnston, sent her an article about Women in HPC sponsoring travel to SC26. Toerien jumped at the chance.
“Now, mind you, this was two days before the deadline,” Toerien says. “So I had to hop on it quick and start writing.”
Her paper made an impression, and now she’s one of the 12 Rising Stars headed to Chicago for SC26. Toerien is looking forward to her first trip to the United States, and meeting other women in her SC26 Rising Star cohort.
“I’m very grateful for Women in HPC,” she says. “I do enjoy actually having a woman in industry and speaking to them.”
She credits her advisor, Paige Kinsley, the education outreach lead for the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), with helping her get ready for SC26. Kinsley provided her with some practical advice on how to survive the five-day adventure.
“I asked her, what should I wear? She told me, wear layers. We are indoors, but it’s cold outdoors,” Toerien recalls. “She told me to mark things on your calendar that you want to attend and definitely look at the map beforehand just to get a feel for where things are. You won’t get to everything on your calendar, but make sure you do more of what you’re interested in.”
Toerien is happy to network with other women and HPC professionals at the conference, and build potential friendships. She is looking forward to connecting with Elizabeth Leake’s STEM-Trek organization, which is also helping her with travel to the US. She’s eager to help pave the way and network with other Africans, who she says are behind their European and American counterparts.
“It would be nice to see a woman from those countries and those circumstances coming and going into HPC,” she says. “I would like to see someone do some very nichey research there. It would inspire me.”
SpaceX's 15th Starship test flight successfully reached orbit Friday, but its historic attempt to catch both stages at the launch tower was derailed when the Super Heavy booster malfunctioned, forcing controllers to abort its return before it exploded after splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico. The upper-stage Starship did, however, successfully deploy 26 Starlink satellites and is scheduled to complete 15 orbits before attempting an unprecedented tower catch on Saturday. If successful, it would mark the first time a spacecraft has returned from orbit to land vertically at a launch tower. The Bakersfield Californian reports: The original goal was to retrieve every single piece of the rocket for the purpose of future recycling, something yet to be achieved anywhere in the world. Musk sees this leading to the kind of fast and consistent launch rates necessary for building moon bases and sending people to Mars. Shortly after reaching orbit, Starship dropped off 26 of the company's most advanced Starlink satellites. The plan is for Starship to complete 15 laps around the world at an altitude of around 170 miles (275 kilometers) before heading back to the launch site for Saturday's grand finale.
SpaceX had already made three booster grabs at the company's sprawling Starbase near the U.S.-Mexico border. That made Friday's miss all the more surprising. "Well, that certainly isn't the news that we had hoped to hear for today," observed SpaceX launch commentator Kate Tice, adding that it was in line with the many rigorous safety checks to protect the pad. No explanation was provided for what went wrong. This was the first attempt to capture the upgraded version of the booster that stretches 236 feet (72 meters) -- the production model for moon and Mars expeditions. It will also be the first time the company attempts to catch the spacecraft, which spans 171 feet (52 meters). Together, they form the world's biggest and most powerful rocket -- an astounding 407 feet (124 meters) in height.
The spacecraft portion of the 14 previous Starships ended up in the ocean, either by design at flight's end or by accident in a stream of flaming wreckage. During the first full-scale test flight in 2023, multiple engines failed to ignite and the tumbling rocket's self-destruct system was activated. The last test, in September, was the first to reach orbit, but SpaceX did not try to recover any of the rocket stages. You can watch a recorded livestream of the launch on YouTube.
Sean Duffy says technicians from Federal Aviation Administration are investigating; Trump’s homeland security secretary says ‘no indication as of yet’ of cyberattack
In other tech-related news, the Microsoft outage is still going. The longest in the company’s history. My colleagues are covering the latest and how it’s affecting millions and pretty much every industry …
As I noted earlier, the calls for Howard Lutnick to appear before lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been answered.
Flight15 expected to orbit Earth about 14 times over 22 hours, before company catches it at Starbase, Texas
SpaceX’s Starship megarocket blasted off from Texas on Friday afternoon as the aerospace company sought to make history with a double catch of its reusable rocket.
Starship, the world’s largest rocket, standing at 407ft, is expected to orbit Earth about 14 times over the course of 22 hours, before the company catches the rocket at its launchpad at Starbase in south Texas.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the nationwide halt to departures and delays to landings at all US airports that began at about 4pm ET on Friday was caused by “a temporary telecommunications outage”.
“Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis,” the FAA added.
New York City mayor says deal will allow bodegas and convenience stores across the country more time to comply
Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, has struck a deal with Donald Trump to secure a 90-day delay on new rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), so that bodegas and corner stores across the country have time to comply.
The extension, Mamdani said, starts Friday as a result of conversations he had with Trump and Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary.
A video circulating around social media shows a different angle during the moment the ship was falling on its side into the water. Passengers can be seen climbing onto the balconies’ railing to avoid sliding into the river as the ship turned horizontally. Several uniformed people can be seen running away from the scene, likely to gather equipment that would help rescue efforts.
Martin J Davies, a maritime expert at Tulane University, told local news outlet Fox 8 that he suspected the incident was caused by either steerage failure or engine failure.
MenuetOS, the operating system written in x86-64 assembly, has seen a few new releases since we last looked at it, delivering some welcome improvements. Secure network connections are now faster, there’s a TrueType font demo, and, of course, the usual bugfixes and smaller improvements. The game Wizord EXL100 has been ported, and a few drivers have been improved as well.
After being roasted by the sun all summer, the return of fall has brought what I believe to be the perfect weather. I have been waiting impatiently for that sweet spot where the air is brisk but not biting and I can wear a sweater and skirt or blouse and jeans.
I adore all fall activities: going apple picking with my girls, getting hay stuck all over me on bumpy hayrides and spending an unreasonable amount of time perfecting my carved pumpkin. However, my favorite autumn activity might just be snuggling with a blanket and hot chai while reading a spooky book.
Although I am a sucker for a fun, lighthearted beach read (my favorite of which is actually “Beach Read” by Emily Henry), my true love lies with the cozy, dark and complicated books. I always find myself pulling out dark academia staples or intriguing thrillers with a hint of Southern Gothic when October hits.
If you are looking for the perfect fall read to curl up with after your classes, search no further. Here are several of my favorites I would recommend you read this season.
1. “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
This one is a fall staple for me. Silvia Moreno-Garcia has a distinct and compelling way of luring you into the story and establishing a blissful sense of haziness before everything goes insane. The book follows Noemí Taboada as she receives a troubling letter from her cousin and sets off to a decaying manor to retrieve her. The typical haunted mansion and creepy family trope is made so much better by the subtle and intriguing references to Mexican folklore and imagery. So good and so disturbing.
2. “The River Has Roots” by Amal El-Mohtar
You might have heard of Amal El-Mohtar’s popular science fiction novel “This is How You Lose the Time War,” which was praised for its abstract and masterful language combined with a satisfying twist. “The River Has Roots” features similarly beautiful language and tells the story of two sisters and their encounter with the river Liss, which holds secrets about speech and connection. The “roots” refer to the core power of words, which El-Mohtar utilizes to explore ideas of camaraderie, grief and the question of whose voices should be heard. I absolutely loved the depiction of grammar and communication as its own kind of magic.
3. “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner
If you’re low on time but still looking to get into the spooky mindset, definitely look into this short story. I first encountered this in my sophomore year of high school during our “Southern Gothic” unit and have read it every year since. The tale begins at the funeral of the reclusive Emily Grierson and sheds light on her lonely and haunting life. Grotesque and surprising, this story takes you on a wild ride with twists and turns in just six pages.
4. “Hungerstone” by Kat Dunn
This reimagining of the Irish Gothic classic “Carmilla” features stunning language and intriguing twists. Kat Dunn depicts queerness and the connection between Carmilla and Lenore, the young wife of a powerful man, with a refreshing perspective. Set during the Industrial Revolution, “Hungerstone” explores ideas of corruption, power dynamics and the rage of the oppressed. Young Lenore’s upbringing and marriage will make you wonder who the real monster is and you may just find yourself rooting for Lenore’s violent “hunger” to get the better of her.
5. “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore
My personal goal this autumn is to re-read this immersive thriller. I absolutely loved Liz Moore’s novel about a young girl disappearing from her Adirondack summer camp. It follows several perspectives, jumping back 14 years to tell the story of a young boy vanishing before shifting back to the present to describe the disappearance of his younger sister. This novel is a masterclass in covering themes of child loss and different kinds of grief while exploring an elite family and the secrets found on the vast land they own.
In the next few months, I hope you will feel inspired to find a nice spot on the Green and pick up one of these spooky fall staples. I have found that opening a book can help take my mind off the stressful buzz of classes and exams, even if it is just for a few minutes. Happy reading!
LEGO's BrickLink marketplace is back online after a week-long outage caused by what the company described as a "cyber incident," during which an unauthorized third party accessed some user data. Details about exactly what data was accessed remain unclear. The site went offline on November 5 and remained unavailable until November 12, preventing users from buying or selling LEGO sets and parts during the busy holiday shopping season. According to Brick Fanatics, LEGO initially described the outage as "necessary work" before confirming that the platform had suffered a security incident.
In an email to users, LEGO acknowledged that "some of the information associated with your account was accessed and disclosed by an unauthorized party," including potentially usernames and IP addresses. However, the company insisted that "your password, postal address, and financial information were not disclosed." Those assurances have since come under scrutiny following reports of convincing phishing emails containing detailed personal and purchase information.
The outage also dealt a significant blow to independent sellers who rely on BrickLink for income. Simon Webster, who operates stores on both BrickLink and rival marketplace Brick Owl, reported that his overall sales revenue fell 52% over a four-day period, even as sales through Brick Owl rose 79%. "Their comms are amateur at the best of times, but surely they should be able to send an email to let sellers and buyers alike know what is happening and what they're doing to rectify it," Webster said. "But no, we're all left in the dark."
The incident has renewed concerns about BrickLink's aging infrastructure. Founded in 2000 and acquired by LEGO in 2019, the marketplace reportedly runs on a complex collection of interconnected systems that makes modernization difficult. The Brick Fanatics report questions whether the 25-year-old platform remains fit for purpose and whether prolonged outages and security concerns could push sellers toward competing marketplaces like Brick Owl.
Anti-corruption agency carried out searches as part of investigation into Orbán-era minister accused of taking bribes
Hungary’s anti-corruption agency said on Friday it had seized cash worth $19.5m (£14.8m) buried in forests and hidden elsewhere while investigating an ex-minister of nationalist former leader Viktor Orbán’s cabinet.
Miklós Seszták, Hungary’s minister of national development between 2014 and 2018, is accused of taking bribes in a scheme involving the state transport company, purchasing secondhand buses at inflated prices.
Validated reuse of prior-generation DDR4 provides performance, cost savings, and an alternative path to procuring memory for AI infrastructure buildouts
FREMONT, Calif., Nov. 13, 2026 — Penguin Solutions, Inc. has introduced the SMART CXL-8F2W-D4, an eight-DIMM DDR4 Compute Express Link (CXL) memory add-in card that enables organizations to adapt DDR4 memory for use in AI systems. Using DDR4 as an alternative to newer-generation DDR5 memory provides an innovative approach offering performance, sourcing, and economic benefits for the buildout of AI infrastructure.
According to TechInsights, Inc., AI data centers account for 34% of DRAM demand in 2026, a figure expected to climb to nearly 50% by 2029. This rapid growth is driving up memory costs and putting increasing pressure on infrastructure budgets. For organizations deploying new servers, whether as part of a technology refresh or a new data center buildout, the rising cost of memory presents a significant challenge, underscoring the need for more cost-effective ways to expand memory capacity.
“As AI inference workloads accelerate, rising memory costs are creating new challenges for organizations building and scaling AI data centers,” said Satya Iyer, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Integrated Memory at Penguin Solutions. “Many organizations already have significant investments in DDR4 memory that can be leveraged to address growing memory demands. By combining CXL technology with our proven memory screening and validation expertise, we’re helping customers maximize the value of existing memory investments, reduce infrastructure costs, and meet the performance and reliability requirements of production AI environments.”
Penguin’s SMART CXL-8F2W-D4 utilizes the Marvell StructeraX CXL controller and supports up to eight DDR4 RDIMMs, making that memory available to compatible servers as additional system capacity. This helps IT teams address memory limitations for AI inference, in-memory databases, and other memory-intensive workloads.
With DDR4 memory available from previous-generation servers and data centers, Penguin Solutions has launched a program to recover memory during technology refresh cycles or source it through resellers. The program enables organizations to repurpose existing DDR4 inventory to address immediate memory needs.
To help customers deploy reused memory with confidence, Penguin Solutions combines the SMART CXL-8F2W-D4 with its Zefr ultra-high reliability memory screening process. The process simulates strenuous real-world conditions to validate DDR4 for production environments. Customer-owned DDR4 memory undergoes inspection, testing, and qualification before installation, and each populated card is validated in a compatible host system prior to shipment.
By repurposing existing DDR4 memory, organizations can potentially reduce the cost of expanding system memory capacity, extend the useful life of existing components, and maximize previous investments while addressing evolving workload requirements and the reliability and compatibility considerations associated with reused components.
The SMART CXL-8F2W-D4 is available for qualified customer opportunities on compatible CXL 2.0 platforms. To learn more, visit PenguinSolutions.com.
About Penguin Solutions
Penguin Solutions is the AI Factory Platform Company. We design, build, and manage next-generation data centers for enterprises, sovereign AI initiatives, and neocloud providers.
With deep design expertise at the intersection of data center AI infrastructure and memory solutions, our Full-Stack AI Factory Platform combines differentiated infrastructure software, advanced memory, compute systems, end-to-end services, and industry-leading partner technologies to help customers accelerate deployment, optimize token economics, and maximize the return on their AI investments.
U.S. authorities have seized or restrained more than $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency stolen during Binance's $6 billion October hack, which the FBI attributes to North Korean military-linked hackers known as "TraderTraitor." The DOJ also said it disrupted infrastructure behind the "FaceStealer" deepfake scam, blamed for stealing more than $400 million in cryptocurrency. CNBC reports: Collective efforts between the U.S. government and private sector have resulted in more than $2.7 billion of that amount being frozen. [...] The DOJ said it was taking coordinated action against what it called the North Korean government's "schemes to fund its regime through the massive theft of cryptocurrency." That includes "the court-authorized seizure and restraint of more than $1.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency recently stolen from Binance," it said. DOJ units, law enforcement partners and virtual asset service providers have been working to intercept the stolen assets. But efforts to track and freeze the assets are ongoing, as TraderTraitor actors continue to launder them through various cryptocurrency channels.
Authorities have also seized cloud-based infrastructure used in a massive identity impersonation scam known as "FaceStealer," which has seen more than $400 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen over 18 months, the DOJ said. The scheme sees hackers set up fake video meetings using stolen accounts and recordings of people known to the target by using AI-generated deepfakes. The hackers then say a technical problem requires a fix, install malware on a computer and take over the victim's communications, steal their cryptocurrency and target their contacts -- sometimes months or more than a year after the initial compromise.
Colorado Democrat Eileen Laubacher has defeated incumbent Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert to represent the 4th Congressional District, CBS News projects.
Americans set tournament record with 85 shots on goal
Harvey and Winn score twice each in 14-0 rout
Canada edge Czechs 3-2 to set up Sweden semi-final
Defending champions the United States marched into the semi-finals of the women’s ice hockey world championship with a crushing 14-0 victory over hosts Denmark on Friday.
The Americans stormed out of the blocks, racing into a 5-0 lead inside eight minutes before stretching their advantage to 10-0 by the end of the second period in the first-ever meeting between the teams.
The Campaign Legal Center is calling for an investigation into whether Alicia Jackson, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, violated ethics laws. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health
A nonpartisan ethics watchdog group has asked for an investigation into whether a top Department of Health and Human Services official violated ethics laws after a recent ProPublica investigation revealed actions experts called “alarming” and an “obvious conflict of interest.”
Alicia Jackson, who heads the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, publicly endorsed a change to federal health policy on hormone replacement therapies while owning stock in a company that provides access to menopause treatments.
In a letter to the department’s inspector general, the Campaign Legal Center also questioned whether Jackson properly identified up to $400 million in underlying assets held by her husband’s investment firm. The center’s review identified an additional potential conflict — investments in a second firm that provides hormone treatments for menopause.
Jackson, who heads the HHS agency that invests taxpayer money in medical technology and research, was recently placed on administrative leave, though health officials have not publicly explained why.
At the time, Jackson owned at least $115,000 in stock and an unknown amount of stock options in Evernow, a company she founded that connects women to hormone replacement treatments, according to her financial disclosures.
It’s unclear what role, if any, Jackson played in the decision to drop the requirement to display a black box warning, the most serious type of federal safety warning. The Food and Drug Administration regulates drugs. And an FDA panel of experts had recommended ending the requirement months before Jackson became her agency’s director in October 2025.
Still, ethics experts noted that federal law prohibits government employees from participating “personally and substantially” in matters that could influence their personal finances — even making statements at a press conference or in a news release.
The Campaign Legal Center asked the inspector general to examine whether Jackson broke federal ethics laws by failing to recuse herself. Neither Jackson nor the HHS will say whether she obtained a conflict-of-interest waiver before participating in the policy announcement.
“Americans have a right to know that government decisions are not being made to benefit a federal employee’s financial interests,” the organization wrote.
The center also asked the inspector general to determine if Jackson failed to fully and accurately disclose her and her spouse’s financial interests in private investment funds.
ProPublica’s investigation found that Jackson reported she and her husband owned more than 60 venture capital and private equity funds that she said do not disclose their holdings to investors. These include at least 13 funds managed by 137 Ventures, a venture capital firm co-founded by her husband, Alex Jacobson. The company invests in a wide range of industries, including healthcare, digital health and medical device companies.
Ethics experts said the funds could pose a serious conflict of interest if the underlying businesses received grants or contracts from her agency.
137 Ventures founders Alex Jacobson, left, and Justin Fishner-WolfsonKimberly White/Getty Images for 137 Ventures
The Campaign Legal Center’s review of Jackson’s disclosures identified one of those funds — 137 Ventures IV LP — as an investor in Thirty Madison Inc., a virtual healthcare company. Thirty Madison owns a subsidiary that provides hormone replacement treatments for women experiencing menopause symptoms. Jackson’s disclosures do not show her divesting from the fund before the black box warning announcement, the center said.
Under federal law, financial disclosure forms filed by federal officials like Jackson must then be certified by ethics staff as complying with the law. But Jackson’s two financial disclosures — filed last October and two months ago — remain uncertified.
HHS’ inspector general’s office would not confirm or deny whether it is investigating Jackson. The inspector general, T. March Bell, was one of nearly 100 appointees confirmed by the Senate in a December 2025 party-line vote. President Donald Trump fired the previous inspector general just days into the president’s second term.
ProPublica also requested responses from HHS, Jackson, Jacobson and 137 Ventures, but none commented. In a statement to ProPublica last month, an HHS spokesperson said that while Jackson was on leave the agency would “assess the facts before determining any change in her status. HHS requires all officials to comply with federal ethics laws, regulations, and policies.”
Jackson was appointed by Trump as her agency’s second director and sworn in on Oct. 20, 2025. The agency, created three years earlier to spur revolutionary biomedical research and technologies, has a $1.5 billion budget. It has issued numerous contracts and grants, including $160 million for genetic medicines combating rare diseases and $144 million to study existing treatments for age-related illnesses.
Jackson’s disclosures are among 2,400 added last month to ProPublica’s Trump Team Financials database, a searchable tool launched in March. The records detail the finances of more than 2,300 officials appointed by Trump. Since last year, we’ve requested disclosure records from 127 federal agencies and the White House. Disclosures from roughly 1,500 appointees remain unreleased.
Giant screens along a highway in Tel Aviv, Israel, display a combination of the United States and Israeli national flags on March 4, 2026.Photo: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
After President Biden’s unrelenting support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza helped pave the way for President Trump’s reelection in 2024, Trump’s own foolish decision to launch an Israel-backed war against Iran played a large role in putting Democrats back in control of both chambers of Congress — a fact Vice President JD Vance diagnosed in no uncertain terms.
Now Democrats and Republicans alike have the opportunity to demonstrate they’ve finally learned the lesson voters have tried to deliver to both parties over the last three years: The American people do not want to be entangled and complicit in Israel’s aggression and atrocities. Their first opportunity to heed that call is arriving sooner than one might expect.
Right now, the House Armed Services Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee are engaged in an informal but highly consequential conference to finalize the text of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets policy for the Pentagon. A disturbing provision in current versions of the texts passed by the House and Senate committees would integrate Israeli weapons companies into the Pentagon procurement process at an unprecedented level — opening a back door to almost untraceably send billions of taxpayer dollars to Israeli weapons makers without congressional oversight. The House bill would create a new “executive agent” position within the Pentagon to steer this integration—a level of amalgamation that exceeds collaboration with nations in NATO.
Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are opposing this provision. On Tuesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen and nine other Democratic senators, plus independent Bernie Sanders, demanded it be removed. In the House, Democrat Ro Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie have made clear they will also try to strip the NDAA of this measure. In doing so, they are representing what the vast majority of Americans want—and their colleagues should take note.
In our August polling with Data for Progress, 75 percent of Democratic voters oppose this provision, as do 58 percent of independents and 42 percent of Republicans. In addition, polling shows a majority of Americans now want to see taxpayer funding to Israel reduced or ended. Passing the NDAA with this measure would mean that even if Congress zeroed out annual weapons funding to Israel, currently at $3.3 billion per year, in the State Department budget — earlier this year, 103 Democratic representatives joined Massie in a move to do just that — there could still be a major increase in actual dollars flowing to Israeli companies that the American people never hear about.
The negative repercussions extend beyond funding Israeli weapons makers (some of which are government-owned) with our tax dollars. This sort of integration could allow for Israeli weapons and surveillance technology that have been tested on Palestinians to be used in the U.S. to advance the Trump administration’s cruel mass deportation program. Israeli weapons maker Elbit Systems’s U.S. subsidiary is expected to install more than 300 surveillance towers along the U.S.-Mexico border, developed from its technology deployed along portions of Israel’s apartheid wall in the West Bank.
Melding Israel into our government procurement process should also set off alarm bells in the U.S. national security world. The Washington Post reported earlier this year that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vetoed Biden’s decision to send U.S.-Israeli co-produced missile systems to Ukraine three years ago for Ukraine’s war against Russia, even though the missiles were paid for by American taxpayers. The integration measure proposed in the NDAA would massively expand the scope of weapons over which the Israeli government could exercise a unilateral veto.
Congress should be unwinding intelligence cooperation with Israel, not only on the moral grounds that no part of the U.S. national security apparatus should assist in genocide, but also because Pentagon officials raised the threat of Israeli spying to its highest possible level earlier this year. But instead of diminishing our intelligence sharing with Israel, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s FY27 Intelligence Authorization Act, which is typically incorporated into the final NDAA version, includes a provision (Sec. 618) actually mandating the president engage in even more intelligence cooperation.
This should give us pause because of the faulty nature of Israeli intelligence and the way Israel used this intelligence to build a case for dragging the United States into war. It was reportedly Israeli intelligence that claimed the Iranian government could be overthrown within weeks, if not days, of Trump launching the war. Instead, Trump and Netanyahu are now stuck in a quagmire, and the war has imposed a terrible cost on the American people, U.S. servicemembers, and people across Iran and the region. Energy prices around the world have skyrocketed, the cost of the war has already exceeded $2,000 per U.S. household on average, and the U.S. is running low on interceptor missiles that will take years to replenish.
None of this seems to concern the main backers of U.S.-Israel military and intelligence integration, like Foundation for Defense of Democracies President Mark Dubowitz. In a column published in Israel Hayom, the right-wing newspaper owned by the Israeli-American GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson, Dubowitz said: “Israel and the United States should deepen their military, technological, intelligence, and economic integration to such an extent that inflicting financial harm on Israel would also carry a significant cost for Washington.”
In an interview, Dubowitz added that the U.S. and Israel should be so intertwined that any accountability measure against Israel, such as sanctions being enacted by American allies in Europe, would “impose costs on the U.S. itself.” In no uncertain terms, advocates for the integration envisioned in the NDAA want to try to make it impossible for the U.S. to disentangle itself from a regime that is increasingly perceived by many as a rogue actor.
The NDAA is usually considered a “must pass” bill in Congress — in fact, Congress has passed annual defense authorizations for 65 consecutive years. But Congress is under no statutory obligation to pass it this year, and doing so without stripping these provisions to become even more entrenched with supporting Israel would be an immediate betrayal of the will of voters. At a time when even Republicans are openly admitting the midterm election was a referendum on U.S. support for Israel, it would be an unforgivable choice for Congress to pass an NDAA with these integration provisions. If Republicans use their committee majorities to force their inclusion in the bill’s final text, Democrats have every bit of leverage to filibuster and block the bill’s passage in the Senate, which requires 60 votes.
Saying no to bringing the U.S. into a closer relationship with Israel in just about the most expensive, opaque, and dangerous way imaginable should be the easiest political decision Congress makes during its current lame-duck session.
Exclusive: Report says restricting cars and freeing up pavement space could be a cheap way to bring shoppers back
The long decline of the high street is a problem that has gripped British governments for years. But what if there was a solution no one had considered before – doing it all on the cheap?
Spending less money is, admittedly, just one element of a report led by the urban thinktank Create Streets. But it does argue that rather than multimillion-pound revamps, a better answer could be smaller changes aimed at making town and city centres more appealing.
(The Center Square) – All flights in the United States were grounded late Friday afternoon by the Federal Aviation Administration, just the second time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
This is not a personality contest. This is a debate about the future of the Democratic party
The election for Democratic Senate leader between Chuck Schumer and Chris Van Hollen must be understood for what it is.
This is not a personality contest. This is a debate about the future of the Democratic party. It is a debate about whether the Democratic party remains a top-down party dominated by billionaire campaign contributors, inside-the-beltway consultants and 30-second TV ads, or whether we can transform it into a grassroots party of, by and for the working families of our country.
(The Center Square) – Twenty-five years after 9/11, most commercial airlines haven’t installed secondary cockpit barriers as an added measure of security. Airline security experts argue it’s needed when federal immigration and national security policies fail.
The Microsoft Outlook outage has shaken up companies and local governments across the US that use its suite of email, calendar, video conferencing and cloud storage systems.
Even as Outlook started to resume normal operations Friday morning, local leaders from across the country, including in Miami, Maryland and Los Angeles, warned residents that certain staff or services were still unavailable due to the outage that started around 1pm ET on Thursday.
Ever since Donald Trump returned to the White House, Democratic officeholders and voters alike have been divided over whether their leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, is up to the task of taking the president on.
That debate intensified on Thursday, when the Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen announced he will challenge Schumer for the post of Democratic Senate leader, which will become one of the most powerful jobs in Washington when the party takes control of Congress’s upper chamber next year.
(The Center Square) – Some Democratic senators want the next government funding bill to restrict spending on the Iran War, and some worry it will cause a government shutdown that could delay pay for federal aviation workers.
Mozilla is shutting down Solo, its AI-powered website builder and hosting service, on November 30. A notice on the Soloist.ai homepage reads: "We've made the difficult decision to close Solo. We have appreciated all of your support building and growing this product, and the feedback we've received from all of you. Solo will cease operations on Nov 30, 2026." The Register reports: Mozilla launched Solo in December 2023 as a "Mozilla Innovation Project," aimed at helping sole traders to build themselves a webpage for their services. Some 54,000 people used its LLM to build pages, and relied on Mozilla to host them -- complete with custom domain names. Users now have just over two weeks left to find a new home for their pages, although Mozilla says it first notified them on October 1. According to the support FAQ, users can download a ZIP containing an HTML export, contact form and newsletter submissions, and a CSV linking to their images. The images themselves must be downloaded separately. Domains purchased through Solo Domains must also be moved to Name.com, with Mozilla handling the transfer after users create an account and supply its code.
Move deals blow to government’s plans to release thousands of prisoners early to tackle prison overcrowding
The government’s plans to release thousands of prisoners early were dealt a blow on Friday after probation officers across England and Wales voted to strike over pay and excessive workloads.
Members of the union, Napo, backed overtime restrictions and other forms of action short of a strike, which is likely to start on 23 November. Plans are being made for strike action to follow at a later stage.
From holiday traditions and family entertainment to community fundraisers, concerts, writing day and charity walks, here’s what’s happening across Delaware and nearby communities Nov. 14–15
Editor’s Note: Delaware LIVE covered each of these stories over the past several weeks. Click through and read more about each of these events as Delaware LIVE continues to expand editorial coverage of the best things about living in our community.
By George D. Rotsch, Delaware LIVE
DELAWARE — The holiday season is beginning to take shape across the First State, and this weekend offers plenty of ways to get out, have fun, and support local organizations.
The Festival of Trees returns to Wilmington, model trains begin rolling at the Brandywine Museum of Art, and Ebenezer Scrooge takes the stage in Middletown. Meanwhile, community fundraisers, live music, health screenings and historical programs offer something for nearly every interest.
Delaware LIVE News and Town Square LIVE have featured many of these events in recent weeks. We’ve gathered them into one weekend guide, complete with dates, times, and links to the original stories.
Holiday traditions begin
Delaware Hospice Festival of Trees — Wilmington
One of Delaware’s longtime holiday traditions returns this weekend as Delaware Hospice celebrates its 39th annual Festival of Trees at Brantwyn Estate, 600 Rockland Road.
The three-day event, running Friday through Sunday, features decorated Christmas trees, holiday shopping, musical entertainment and opportunities to support Delaware Hospice’s programs and services.
The festival has become a community tradition through the efforts of volunteers, businesses and families who return year after year. Visitors can also purchase remembrance ornaments honoring loved ones.
A second Festival of Trees celebration is scheduled for Dec. 4–6 in Selbyville.
Brandywine Railroad opens for the holidays — Chadds Ford
The trains begin rolling Saturday at the Brandywine Museum of Art as its popular Brandywine Railroad display opens for another holiday season.
A favorite for generations of families, the exhibition includes approximately 2,000 feet of track and more than 1,000 pieces, including locomotives, freight cars and trolleys traveling through miniature villages, farms, factories and a carnival.
Interactive buttons and foot pedals allow visitors to activate features throughout the display.
The railroad will remain on view through Jan. 10, 2027, with additional holiday activities planned throughout the season.
Ebenezer Scrooge arrives in Middletown ahead of Thanksgiving as God’s Power & Light Company presents A Christmas Carol: The Musical at the historic Everett Theatre.
The production brings Charles Dickens’ familiar story of generosity, redemption and second chances to the stage.
Saturday’s 2 p.m. performance includes American Sign Language interpretation, providing an additional opportunity for theatergoers to enjoy the show.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $14 for children and students ages 3–17.
Delaware lawyers take the stage for charity — Wilmington and Dover
Delaware’s legal community will trade courtroom appearances for stage performances with an original musical comedy called Flifferschmeep: Another Example of What Happens When You Get Lawyers Involved.
Presented by Profundo Bono, the production features judges, attorneys and other legal professionals performing to benefit the Combined Campaign for Justice, which supports civil legal services for Delawareans who cannot afford them.
Saturday’s performance begins at 7:30 p.m. at Tatnall School in Wilmington. Sunday’s show begins at 2 p.m. at Delaware State University in Dover.
The Brandywine Valley Symphony continues its season Sunday with a 3 p.m. Masterworks concert at the Mendenhall Inn, just across the Delaware border in Pennsylvania.
Artistic Director Michael Hall will guide the audience through Georges Bizet’s Symphony No. 1, combining the performance with stories and musical examples intended to make classical music accessible and enjoyable.
Frawley Stadium will become a campground Saturday night as Sam’s KIDS celebrates the 10th anniversary of Camping Out for Coats.
The fundraiser supports Operation Warm, providing new winter coats to elementary school children throughout Delaware.
A kickoff celebration from 4 to 9 p.m. features live music, games, bonfires, refreshments and a silent auction. Registered participants can spend the night camping on the stadium field.
Since the event began in 2017, organizers say it has helped provide more than 17,000 coats to students at 37 elementary schools. This year’s goal is to raise enough money for another 2,000 coats.
The Spread Good Karma Foundation will hold its inaugural Good KARMA 5K and one-mile walk Sunday morning at Conaty Park in Wilmington’s Trolley Square neighborhood.
Both events begin at 9 a.m., with race-day registration and bib pickup from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m.
The fundraiser supports free and donation-based wellness activities throughout Delaware, including yoga, Pilates, fitness classes, meditation and community walking groups.
Organizers hope to raise $25,000 to help keep those programs accessible to residents.
Southern Delaware Walk to End Alzheimer’s — Rehoboth Beach
Families, caregivers and supporters of the Alzheimer’s Association will gather Saturday at Grove Park in Rehoboth Beach for the Southern Delaware Walk to End Alzheimer’s.
Originally scheduled for September, the event was postponed because of severe weather.
Participants raise money for Alzheimer’s research, education and services while recognizing families affected by dementia.
The event is part of the Alzheimer’s Association’s national fundraising initiative. Participants should confirm the start time with organizers.
ChristianaCare offers lung cancer screenings — Newark and Wilmington
ChristianaCare will offer low-dose CT lung cancer screenings Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute in Newark and Wilmington Hospital.
The screenings are intended for eligible adults with a history of smoking and are designed to detect lung cancer before symptoms appear.
Appointments are encouraged, but walk-ins will be accepted. Residents can call 302-623-0552 for information about eligibility and scheduling.
Christopher VanSant, a retired Delta Force soldier and Caesar Rodney High School graduate, will speak Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Milford Public Library.
VanSant, who served in 11 combat deployments, will discuss his military experiences, injury and recovery, and the challenges of returning to civilian life.
The program is sponsored by the Milford Museum and Milford Public Library and offers an opportunity to continue recognizing veterans following Veterans Day.
Hagley Museum offers daily cannon demonstrations — Wilmington
Visitors to Hagley Museum and Library can experience a new daily tradition as the museum fires its historic signal cannon at 1 p.m. each day it is open, weather permitting.
The demonstrations, which began Nov. 7, include an explanation of how signal cannons were used for communication during the 19th century.
The cannon firing takes place in Hagley’s historic powder yards, where the DuPont Co. manufactured black powder from 1802 to 1921.
A weekend to enjoy Delaware and support your neighbors
From the holiday trains at the Brandywine Museum and the Festival of Trees to community races, live theater and nonprofit fundraisers, this weekend offers plenty of opportunities to explore Delaware.
Many of these events also demonstrate how much local organizations contribute to the communities they serve, whether through entertainment, education, health programs or direct assistance to families.
And while the holiday season is just beginning, these events provide an early reminder that some of Delaware’s strongest traditions are built around people coming together.
Readers can follow the links to Delaware LIVE News and Town Square LIVE’s original stories for additional information, registration details and ticket links.
Event schedules and availability are subject to change. Check with organizers before attending.
There are plenty of essential services that remain unaffected by the outage, which is largely impacting email systems.
The Australian Medical Association said it has so far not received any reports that hospitals or clinics are impacted.
Impact is largely restricted to the sending and receiving of email.
Western Australia, along with jurisdictions around the world, is being impacted by a global Microsoft outage.
We are receiving updates from the Commonwealth who are working with Microsoft at the most senior levels to resolve. Microsoft are prioritising life, safety and Government services.
Democrats won control of the House by flipping more than 40 Republican-held seats, picking up perennial swing districts and seats that were once considered deep red.
Seven Americans on their hopes for Colom, 43, Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction
Democrat Scott Colom made history this month, becoming Mississippi’s first Black senator since the Reconstruction era after defeating incumbent Republican senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.
The 43-year-old’s win also contributed to a Democratic majority of at least 55 seats in the Senate – the party’s largest midterm gains since 1986.
(The Center Square) – U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is facing a challenger for the position of chamber leader in the upcoming 120th Congress.
Kai Wright of the Guardian podcast Stateside will speak with author and environmentalist Bill McKibben – and we’d like to hear your questions
Was the climate crisis one of your top political priorities during the midterm elections? We want to hear from you: what do you want political leaders to do about it in 2027?
Democrats will control the House and Senate in the new year, and they have a long list of priorities ahead of them. But it remains to be seen just how much they will focus on one of the most pressing issues of our times: the climate crisis. The UN declared this summer that, despite some progress, it is now “unavoidable” that the globe will heat past the point that scientists say will threaten human health. Despite these terrifying predictions, the US remains absent from global efforts to limit the impacts of the climate crisis.
Thank you community for this Guide! I was able to use this on my first VESC project and got the float wheel xrv kit going with the stock battery. I just received my new only amps JP30 tabless 15s battery and I am wondering if there is anything different that should be done? or just toss the new battery in and rip? Than you
As AI Workloads Outgrow Single-rack Memory and Bandwidth, Marvell Demonstrates Interconnect and Memory Technologies Engineered to Scale Together
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 13, 2026 — Marvell Technology, Inc., a leader in data infrastructure semiconductor solutions, today announced its participation in Supercomputing 2026 (SC26), the International Conference for High-performance Computing (HPC), Networking, Storage and Analysis, taking place Nov. 15-20 at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago.
As AI and HPC workloads grow, more compute and memory-intensive infrastructure is encountering both connectivity and memory bottlenecks that are causing significant underutilization. As a leader in connectivity and memory innovation, Marvell is addressing connectivity challenges with advances in switch and interconnect technologies, and memory challenges with innovations in CXL memory expansion and acceleration. Additionally, Marvell is pioneering technologies to unify these domains and scale memory and interconnect as a single system.
AI Infrastructure at SC26
At SC26, booth #4003, Marvell will showcase the technologies enabling the next generation of AI Infrastructure across scale-up, scale-out and scale-across architectures. Optical interconnect technologies allow memory and compute to scale together across multiple racks, growing the size of the scale-up domain. Scale-out networks require switching, pluggable optics and next-generation electrical interconnects and Marvell is continuing to advance all three. In the scale-across domain, Marvell coherent pluggables are addressing the needs for both frontend and backend connections between data centers. Demonstrations at the Marvell booth include:
Marvell Photonic Fabric memory module
CXL memory solutions including Marvell Structera add-in card, near-memory compute and expansion/compression solutions
Partner memory demonstrations with Structera X memory expansion controllers featuring both DDR4 and DDR5 memory
Marvell Bravera SSD controllers
Marvell OCTEON DPU-based storage solutions
Multipath reliable connection (MRC) with Marvell Teralynx 10 switch silicon
Data center simulator with Marvell Teralynx T100 switch silicon
Marvell Alaska A AEC DSP-based 1.6T and 800G active electrical cables
Marvell will participate in the Birds of a Feather panel, “Photonics for AI & HPC Clusters: Breaking the Bandwidth and Power Barrier,” featuring Preet Virk, SVP and GM of the Photonic Fabric Business Unit at Marvell, on Wednesday, November 18 from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. in Room W184bcd.
About Marvell
To deliver the data infrastructure technology that connects the world, Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) is building solutions on the most powerful foundation: our partnerships with our customers. Trusted by the world’s leading technology companies for over 30 years, we move, store, process and secure the world’s data with semiconductor solutions designed for our customers’ current needs and future ambitions. Through a process of deep collaboration and transparency, we’re ultimately changing the way tomorrow’s enterprise, cloud and carrier architectures transform—for the better.
US congresswoman, who has been caught up in repeated controversies, loses re-election bid to Democrat Eileen Laubacher
Lauren Boebert, the firebrand conservative Republican Colorado representative whose three terms in Congress have been marred by multiple controversies, was defeated in her re-election bid.
The gun rights advocate, born-again Christian and one-time QAnon fan lost to Democrat Eileen Laubacher by a less than 1% margin, according to the Associated Press.
Authorities conclude search for victims in wreckage of the building and release the names of the eight victims
The New York City police department and New York City fire department have concluded the search for victims in the wreckage of the collapsed building in Brooklyn and released the names of the eight people who died.
A further 18 people were injured, with one still in critical condition on Friday morning, after the disaster on a residential street on Wednesday that saw six men, a boy and a girl among those killed, amid demands for accountability.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A global outage taking down a wide range of Microsoft 365 services remains ongoing Friday morning. The outage started midday Thursday, impacting users of Microsoft email, cloud, and AI services. Microsoft has documented the full list of services impacted by the error, while moving early Friday morning to protect customers around the world from losing emails during the extended disruptions. "Recovery actions are ongoing," the Microsoft 365 Status account confirmed on X. "To help preserve delayed mail during this event, we've extended email timeout to 48 hours."
Similar to recent world-shaking outages of widely used tech like Amazon Web Services and CrowdStrike, the Microsoft disruption looks like "one of the biggest outages of all time," Ciaran Martin, the former head of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, told NBC News. Possibly even "worse," he suggested.
Businesses, hospitals, police departments, and schools were among those scrambling to work around the outage. In Japan, it disrupted government IT infrastructure, according to deputy chief cabinet secretary Masanao Ozaki. NBC's report documented various harms, noting that "few public bodies were immune from the outage." In some cases, doctors couldn't send patients "important" updates on medication changes or follow-up care. The financial sector suffered, too, with people blocked from making bank transfers since they couldn't receive verification codes.
Justice systems were also hobbled. The Supreme Court in the Philippines saw its legal work derailed, NBC reported. And one US sheriff's office in Colorado reported that the outage made it difficult for people to post bond for prisoners' immediate release. It's unclear how many users were affected, but Microsoft estimated in January that the total number of paid Microsoft 365 commercial subscriptions exceeded 450 million. Microsoft's most recent updates confirmed that it's seeing "broader improvements in North America, sustained improvements across much of Europe, and encouraging recovery signals in Asia Pacific."
"Some users may still experience intermittent access issues or delayed email delivery as mitigation continues across remaining affected infrastructure," Microsoft said. "Our focus remains on stabilizing recovered infrastructure, completing mitigation in remaining impacted areas, and reducing delayed email queues and backlogs while we validate service consistency across connection methods."
The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, is facing growing pressure over his apparent lack of action over the Nvidia spying scandal as other Trump administration officials publicly raise questions over his decisions.
Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, blamed Lutnick’s commerce department for the fact the US had not imposed export restrictions on certain Nvidia chips to China.
Throughout Israel’s war on Palestine, doctors Thaer Ahmad and Feroze Sidhwa spent months at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where they provided care as volunteers and survived a raid and an airstrike on the complex. On Wednesday evening, they were in an Uber in New York headed to a screening of their film about their time in Gaza when they realized Nasser was the target of another Israeli airstrike.
“They just hit Nasser again,” Ahmad said, turning from the front seat toward Sidhwa. “I think Rizk is dead.”
He was referring to Dr. Rizk Abu Shaaira, an experienced surgeon and fixture of the Palestinian medical community whom both had worked alongside at the hospital and who appears in their film “American Doctor.” When Israel attacked Nasser Hospital on Wednesday — for at least the seventh time since the genocide escalated in 2023 — Abu Shaaira was one of the six people killed.
As the doctors arrived at a theater in Westchester for their screening, they received a flood of messages, photos, and video from their colleagues at Nasser, showing smoke-filled departments and wrecked operating rooms. The attack forced the closure of the hospital’s emergency, surgery, radiology and laboratory departments, hospital officials said.
Six people were killed in the airstrike, according to Gaza health officials, and 52 others were wounded, said Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders. Israel said it had used a precision-guided missile to target a Hamas commander.
One video showed a body bag holding Abu Shaaira, who had been working a night shift in the surgical ward, one of several floors severely damaged in the airstrike. Sidhwa, who worked directly with Abu Shaaira during his time volunteering at Nasser, described the 52-year-old father as a colleague who was “enthusiastic about everything” and “loved surgery.”
Another image showed unexploded ordnance launched at the hospital that medical workers had placed atop a stretcher, bearing the label “GBU-39/B” – a model of guided missiles manufactured by U.S. company Boeing. Israel purchases this precise missile model using funds from the U.S. State Department.
“That’s not complicity,” said Feroze when asked about the U.S.-made missiles used in the attack. “That’s active participation in the murder of physicians and other healthcare workers.”
Wednesday’s attack on Nasser Hospital, which serves a population of about 1.3 million people, is the fourth Israeli strike on a hospital since the so-called ceasefire agreement in October 2025. It is the seventh on the Nasser complex, including a double-tap strike in August 2025 when Israeli warplanes struck the hospital twice within minutes, killing first responders and journalists. Sidhwa had been volunteering at Nasser during an earlier airstrike on the complex in March 2025 violating an earlier ceasefire. That strike killed multiple people, including a 16-year-old boy.
“Under international humanitarian law, hospitals must be respected and protected.”
When Ahmad volunteered at Nasser in early 2024, a part of the hospital’s pediatric ward was still damaged from an Israeli tank shell that flew through a window, killing Donia Abu Mohsen, 12, while she received care from a previous airstrike that killed her family. During his stint, Israeli soldiers raided the complex and detained several doctors with whom he worked; they remain imprisoned without charge. Ahmad said his colleagues at Nasser told him that upon hearing the first booms on Wednesday, they knew immediately, due to familiarity, that they had been hit by an Israeli attack.
“Something that has troubled us so much is how normalized the targeting of these hospitals has become for Palestinians serving their communities,” Ahmad said. “They knew what was going on right away.”
People look at remnants of an Israeli projectile after an overnight airstrike hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. Photo: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Since returning from their time treating patients in Gaza, both Ahmad and Sidhwa have lobbied members of Congress to support the Block the Bombs Act, a House bill that seeks to prohibit the sale of certain arms to Israel that are tied to violations of U.S. and international human rights law. Among the weapons subject to the ban is Boeing’s 250-pound GBU-39. With a new Congress soon to be controlled by Democrats, many of whom ran campaigns touting support for the bill, both Ahmad and Sidhwa called on lawmakers to act.
“If our Congress upheld international humanitarian law, as well as U.S. domestic law, Dr. Rizik would still be alive,” Ahmad said, “and there wouldn’t be a surgeon who lost both of his legs in this bombing.”
The Israeli military claimed in a series of statements posted to social media that it had targeted a senior Hamas commander and other Hamas members who were “hiding” in the hospital and that the strike was meant to “eliminate the threat they posed.” The military did not specify the actual threat nor address the killing of Rizk, patients, and other civilians by “precision-guided missiles” it claims to have deployed to mitigate civilian harm. Israel alleged Hamas was operating out of the hospital’s second floor, but provided no evidence beyond a computer-rendered video. At least six Israelis have been killed in Gaza since the start of the so-called ceasefire, the Israeli military has said. Israel has killed more than 1,400 Palestinians in that time, according to Gaza health officials. The United Nations said that among those reported dead are at least 340 children.
In a statement to The Intercept, the Israeli military repeated its claim that Wednesday’s strike was targeting a Hamas commander, but it declined to confirm whether the alleged target of their strike was killed or comment on the civilians killed in the attack.
President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, tasked with rebuilding Gaza, called Wednesday’s attack a “tragic loss of life” but went on to repeat the Israeli allegation that Hamas carries out “continued exploitation of hospitals and other critical civilian infrastructure for military purposes.”
Sidhwa called the Board of Peace statement on Hamas’ alleged embedding in hospitals “bullshit,” adding that he has seen no evidence of Hamas embedding its fighters within any hospital in Gaza, a recurring observation by international doctors who volunteer in the strip.
“Show me one example,” Sidhwa said. “I would love to see a single photo, a single video, a single testimony from a Palestinian. Literally anything. It’s just completely absurd.”
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders said in a statement that it was “appalled and outraged” by Israel’s attack, adding that its doctors had to operate on two of their colleagues and another patient injured in the strike. The group referred to its earlier decision in January to temporarily halt its teams’ operations at Nasser, citing reports of “armed men in different areas of the large compound of the hospital,” and said similar incidents have taken place more recently. Even so, the group said, this does not justify Israel’s attack.
“Under international humanitarian law, hospitals must be respected and protected,” the group said. “In no conceivable circumstances can attacks on functioning hospitals in Gaza be treated as normal or acceptable.”
The strike came days after the board issued a rare condemnation of the Israeli government for its blockade of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza in the aftermath of a storm that wiped out thousands of tents, killing four people. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed the criticism and blamed Hamas for not disarming. Israel, meanwhile, continues to occupy about 70% of the Gaza strip, extending beyond the yellow line, a border drawn in the ceasefire agreement that is meant to mark where Israel can operate its military, and launches attacks on the strip on a weekly basis, all violations of the agreement.
“The same military who’s blocking the necessary supplies, as a middle finger to you, decides that they’re going to bomb a hospital,” Ahmad said. “I’m sure behind closed doors everybody is fuming and reeling, but unless people are ready to actually hold the Israelis accountable, actually use their leverage, nothing is going to change.”
Barrister say law does not adequately recognise power imbalance between young people and much older adults
Allegations against Russell Brand and, separately, David Walliams, which he denies, have led to calls for greater legal protection for 16- and 17-year-olds from sexual exploitation by older adults.
A staggered consent law is one route favoured by campaigners, supported by some Labour MPs. Claire Waxman, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, has called for “serious conversations” on the potential for legislative change.
Jensen Huang’s resignation from the AI chipmaker Nvidia has sent shockwaves through the global economy. Huang resigned after reported affairs with an Nvidia executive and a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy. The fallout is not over yet, with criticism mounting over the apparent lack of action from the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s global technology reporter, Aisha Down
The case involving President Trump's directives suspending access to the asylum system is the latest involving the president's second-term immigration agenda.
OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Wallet, a feature that lets its Dots AI agents help users choose products and complete purchases on their behalf. TechCrunch reports: The option will initially be available to a limited number of U.S. ChatGPT Pro subscribers, ages 18 and up, with a U.S.-issued Visa, Mastercard, or American Express. OpenAI says that users are fully in control of the purchases, as they're able to review the items, the total, and the payment card that will be used to complete the transaction before the checkout occurs. In addition, users will approve the purchases directly with a security check like Face ID or a fingerprint, which creates a record of their transaction. [...] The company notes that customers who shop via their dots will still be able to earn their credit card rewards and be able to take advantage of protections that typically come with cards, like being able to dispute transactions.
None of what this series has covered happens without electricity: not the frontier models, the chips, the robots, or the sensors. It is the least discussed part of the story and may be the most decisive, because compute at scale is physically a contest in electricity.
In a new paper for the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Columbia Business School’s Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh estimates that the 188 gigawatts of US data center capacity expected by 2032 would, at high utilization, use about as much electricity each year as the entire US residential sector uses today. Of the generation sources available, nuclear is the one that is carbon-free, runs around the clock in any weather, and is dense enough to sit beside a gigawatt-scale data center without rebuilding a regional grid around it. Those of us who stood reactor watches in the Navy learned what that means in practice: a well-run plant keeps running, day and night, for decades. Whoever builds nuclear capacity fastest is laying the foundation the rest of the race sits on.
Where the US Started
The Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia. Image courtesy: Southern-Nuclear)
The starting position was not always lopsided. The United States built the largest nuclear fleet in the world, currently 94 operating reactors with roughly 97 gigawatts of capacity, still the largest national fleet on Earth. It was built almost entirely between the 1960s and the late 1980s, and then the country largely stopped. Watts Bar Unit 1 in Tennessee, begun in 1973, was the last of that era when it entered service in 1996. Since then the US has brought three new reactors online: Watts Bar Unit 2, also begun in 1973 and finished by TVA in 2016, more than four decades later, and Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Georgia, completed in 2023 and 2024. Vogtle 3 and 4 cost about $35 billion in total, including payments by Westinghouse to the owners, against an original budget of about $14 billion, and finished about seven years late.
Where China Stands
China’s nuclear fleet was a fraction of the US fleet as recently as 2016. Between 2016 and 2024 its generating capacity grew 76 percent, adding roughly 24 gigawatts in eight years. According to the US Energy Information Administration, as of May 2026 China operates 60 reactors totaling about 59 gigawatts, with 36 more under construction, about half of all nuclear construction in the world. The International Energy Agency counts nine of the ten nuclear construction starts worldwide in 2025 in China. China builds in standardized batches using largely domestic components. EIA puts its average build time from 2012 to 2021 at about six years, against a global average of about nine, and MIT Technology Review notes the two most recent American reactors took about fifteen.
On July 31, 2026, China’s State Council approved eight more reactors across four projects in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Liaoning, and Shandong, at an estimated cost of more than 160 billion yuan, about $24 billion. Six use the domestically developed Hualong One design and two the Guohe One. The approval fits an official goal of about 110 gigawatts of installed nuclear capacity by 2030, and the China Nuclear Energy Association projects 150 gigawatts by 2035. MIT Technology Review’s analysis concludes China is on course to pass both the United States and the European Union in installed nuclear capacity by 2030, a little over three years away.
The US Answer: Build the AP1000 Fleet at Scale
The American picture has changed this year. The two AP1000 reactors at Vogtle gave the country a proof of concept. They are the only fully designed, fully licensed large advanced commercial reactors operating in the United States, which makes them the foundation for the next phase. In May 2025, Executive Order 14302, Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base, set a national target of 10 new large reactors with complete designs under construction by 2030. In October 2025 the Department of Commerce struck a partnership with Westinghouse’s owners, Cameco and Brookfield, centered on at least $80 billion of new AP1000 reactors, with the government arranging financing and permitting support and, once construction commitments are in place, receiving 20 percent of Westinghouse cash distributions above $17.5 billion.
China National Energy Group’s thermal and nuclear power plant (Humphery/Shutterstock)
On June 23, 2026, the Department of Energy conditionally committed up to $17.5 billion in loans for the long-lead equipment, the heavy forgings, pressure vessels, turbines, and generators that take longest to manufacture, for 10 new AP1000 units at up to five two-reactor sites. Each project is to be jointly owned by Westinghouse and a utility partner, each committing $500 million in equity, and Westinghouse has signed letters of intent with seven potential partners with identified sites. Buying the long-lead equipment early is expected to shorten timelines by up to three years, which targets one of the largest reasons Vogtle ran long.
Two more steps came in October. On October 1, Commerce outlined a framework with South Korea to build six Westinghouse AP1000s and two KEPCO APR1400s in the United States, valued at $120 billion including contingency, with a $10 billion advance payment due by year-end, mainly for long-lead items. Commerce counts the eight units toward the 10-reactor goal. Sites are not yet named, though Cameco says they would go on federal land, starting with two AP1000s. On October 14, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the AP1000 design certification through 2066, folding in roughly 200 amendments from the Vogtle experience. The certified design now reflects how Vogtle 3 and 4 were actually built and operated, so future applicants can reference it without seeking separate approval for changes the NRC has already reviewed. Chairman Ho Nieh described the aim as moving the US “from building individual reactors to deploying them at scale.” The certification does not authorize any particular site, and each project still needs its own approvals.
The comparison with China is still lopsided in speed. China approved eight reactors in a single meeting. The American program has funding, a certified design, a supply-chain loan, and an international financing framework, and it has not yet announced a site or a construction start. Small modular reactors remain a promising complementary path where a full 1.1-gigawatt unit is not the right fit, and Meta’s January 2026 agreement with TerraPower, which could support up to eight reactors, shows the AI industry moving that direction. The AP1000 buildout is the proven, licensed backbone that the SMR wave can build alongside.
Nuclear power cannot be treated as an energy-policy conversation running parallel to the AI conversation. It sits upstream of it. A frontier model, a robotics fleet, and a national data-center grid all depend on reliable, scalable, carbon-free power. Closing the gap with a Chinese buildout that has a multi-year head start is one of the two or three inputs that will decide this competition.
Who Pays for It
How to power AI data centers has become a strategically important national conversation (AI generated/Shutterstock)
The financing question matters because it decides who carries the bill. In March 2026, seven large technology companies, including Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, signed the administration’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge. In July it was expanded to utilities, data center developers, and states, and the White House list now shows more than 280 signatories and 23 states. Signatories commit to add or buy new power supply, bear the full cost of the infrastructure needed to deliver it, pay agreed rates whether or not they use the power, and work with grid operators on resilience. The White House says the pledge covers about 80 percent of the power delivered to US homes and businesses. It is voluntary and not enforceable at the federal level, and some analysts have called it symbolic.
Policy is moving on two other tracks. On June 18, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered the six regional grid operators under its jurisdiction to revise or justify how large loads such as data centers connect, with study timelines of 60 to 90 days, and to address cost shifting and co-location with generation. And as Part 1 described, the Ratepayer Protection Act passed the House 417 to 3, then fell short in the Senate over whether its requirements should be voluntary or mandatory. Both parties have said data centers should cover their own costs; the open question is the mechanism. The evidence so far is mixed by region. Nationally, EPRI found that from 2015 to 2024 data-center growth modestly lowered average residential rates by spreading fixed grid costs, while in PJM, the grid serving Virginia and much of the Mid-Atlantic, data-center load drove roughly half of recent capacity-price increases. Structured well, new nuclear and generation capacity means the companies using the power carry the cost of building it, and the family down the street does not. Part 5 returns to that financing question.
From Controversial to Critical
None of this buildout was possible until opinion on nuclear power shifted, and the shift is recent. For decades nuclear sat outside most people’s definition of clean energy. The word brought to mind Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima before it brought to mind zero emissions, and parts of the environmental movement opposed it in favor of solar and wind. That has changed quickly. Formerly skeptical climate activists and scientists have spent recent years re-evaluating nuclear’s role in decarbonization. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act created a production tax credit for existing nuclear plants and made new nuclear eligible for the technology-neutral clean-electricity credits, and in its high case the International Atomic Energy Agency projects global nuclear capacity at about 2.6 times its 2024 level by 2050. Years of explaining that a modern reactor produces essentially zero operating emissions, that newer designs carry passive safety features, and that past waste and safety fears were serious but manageable are a large part of why the AP1000 buildout is politically possible today.
Part 5, the final installment, explains why the federal government has started describing this whole competition, chips, models, sensors, and reactors, in national-security terms, what to watch in the coming months, and what it all means for how the US builds.
About the Author: Larry Patterson works where high-performance computing, AI, and energy meet. A former Navy reactor operator aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65), he founded and led Gulfstream Aerospace’s Scientific Research and Innovation SuperComputing Center from 2005 to 2020, where power, cooling, and cloud strategy were daily decisions. He has worked with the nuclear division of Continuum Dynamics. He is founder and CEO of HEAT Holdings, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business developing patent-pending ways to finance nuclear power and AI compute together, with every source of data behind each deal rated for quality.
(The Center Square) – U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claims that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement broke records this past year deporting and arresting the most illegal foreign nationals in U.S. history.
(The Center Square) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a case challenging President Trump's order banning asylum claims at the U.S.-Mexico border.
High-profile presence of BSC at the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis
Nov. 13, 2026 — The Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) returns to SC, the world’s leading conference on high-performance computing, networking, storage and analysis. Over six days, BSC researchers will lead a tutorial, organize and chair workshops, present papers and posters, and run Birds of a Feather sessions. The BSC booth is #4259.
Their work covers programming models, SmartNICs and accelerators, scientific workflows, AI and large language models for science, climate and Earth sciences, memory systems, quantum computing and RISC-V. Most sessions will be livestreamed.
Parents take action while several independent bookshops say they had already stopped stocking his titles
In Sarah’s house, David Walliams has been a bedtime staple for years. Her children, aged eight, six and four, have dressed up as his characters for World Book Day – they love the over-the-top, unusual names and illustrations.
Now, all the books are going. “I’ll probably take them away and replace them with other authors,” says Sarah, a mother in west London. “Sooner rather than later, so they don’t realise.” If any of her children ask why, she will tell them “that his choices aren’t great and that I think we should be reading other books”.
Met police say allegations are separate from those made by multiple women in Guardian and ITV investigation
The Metropolitan police have launched a criminal investigation into David Walliams over alleged serious sexual offences.
Walliams, 55, was accused in reports by ITV and the Guardian this week of using his power and celebrity status to prey on young women and teenagers for sex. He has denied any wrongdoing, being a sexual predator or breaking the law.
Mauricio Pochettino gave an emotional press conference after his appointment as Michael Carrick’s successor at Manchester United was confirmed
Barney Ronay was at Wembley on Thursday night to celebrate Happy Harry Kane day.
“And as the teams lined up there was a surprise appearance from the real star of this stage, the Ballon d’Or itself, wreathed in event glamour and star-flash. Kane drew the ballon from its stone in Arthurian fashion, then held it a little sheepishly in one hand. Prince William walked out and gave him a massive framed shirt, which seemed weird in the moment, like the chief area sales manager presenting the prize from the Christmas raffle. Has Prince William ever been asked to carry anything before?”
Head coach Bob Chesney of the UCLA Bruins looks on before a college football game against the Nevada Wolf Pack on October 31, 2026 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
On a rainy May Thursday, my brother was born; a minute later, I followed. My brother had all but 60 seconds to enjoy his life as an only child before I would arrive and shatter any moments of peace his life could have consisted of. Dramatic, but regardless if my brother remembers it or not, I’m sure he would describe that minute similarly.
Much of who I am is that I am a twin. It serves as my favorite icebreaker and has given me a lifelong best friend and confidant. We’ve seen each other through every stage, including the ones we would most certainly like to forget about.
This year is the first time we haven’t gone to the same school. It’s a funny feeling telling people I’m a twin; I’ve never had to do that before. If you knew me, you knew my brother.
Our childhood consisted of shared rooms, shared clothes and similar clenched fists headed directly at each other’s faces. For 18 years, our lives moved in tandem. For college to abruptly alter that has left a degree of absence. We’ve been in the same place since we were born — what do I do now?
Besides my homesickness for my favorite faces, throughout this separation I’ve realized it can feel good not having another person attached to who I am. For the first time, someone knows me apart from my brother.
In many ways, I’ve never felt more connected and simultaneously disconnected from the twin label. I am slowly moving away from it by finding individuality in myself, but it is bittersweet. Growing up and finding my own people can make me feel guilty for enjoying the separation.
Staying stuck in the past has never done me any good, and although I would love to grasp on to our childhood longer, this change might be what is best for both of us. We’ve experienced a multitude of phases together; a phase apart may be long overdue.
Comparison comes easily being a twin, and it comes easily from others too. I felt unsure if I should be more like my brother, or deviate from him completely. In most cases, this would result in a weird middle feeling that was difficult to navigate. College has given me a space where those internal troubles are lessened, and I feel at ease with my abilities.
I will always love being a twin, but I’ve realized my sense of self in regard to being a twin was not beneficial to the individuality I was seeking — it didn’t have to represent all of me. We are two completely different people, and it gets old being treated as one.
At college, I’m no one’s twin; there’s something comforting about that. Coming into this world with another person by your side is a gift, but at times it has stunted me in my understanding of what I bring individually.
I find great joy in telling people about my brother and letting them in on this part of my life that, up until now, everyone already knew about. I get to introduce myself without already being perceived as someone’s sibling.
So far, my time at college has made me understand the importance of the individuality I possess and a deeper appreciation for being a twin. It will always be a part of me, and I always want it to be. I’m at a place of ease with who I am and who I want to be. Being a twin is a unique relationship that only some understand. Regardless of its ups and downs, this new journey has made me grateful for everything.
I ride a Pint around the east side and the crowd timing matters more than I expected. My rule is to get out before I open any scores or headlines at all, because once I start reading I lose the window. The hard cutoff works better for me than pushing it to dusk, since the paths fill up and I talk myself out of going. I saw Lamar Jackson plans return from thumb surgery this season and that kind of story is exactly what eats 20 minutes. Still unsure if a set cutoff is too rigid on game days. How do you handle it when a big event runs long?
No 10 sources say PM wants party to refocus on Tories as electoral threat after prioritising Reform and Greens
Andy Burnham has instructed the Labour party to “rearm” to fight the Conservatives at the next election amid concern inside government that they must take the prospect of a Kemi Badenoch-led recovery seriously.
Downing Street sources said the prime minister wanted Labour headquarters to refocus on the Tories as an electoral threat after more than two years of prioritising Nigel Farage’s Reform and, on their left flank, the Greens.
New solutions improve storage economics for supercomputing and simplify liquid-cooled infrastructure management for HPC workloads
HOUSTON, Nov. 13, 2026 — HPE has introduced two new supercomputing and rack-scale innovations to help customers improve storage economics and enhance cooling efficiencies. New hybrid configurations of HPE Cray Supercomputing Storage Systems E2000 create the world’s fastest hybrid supercomputing storage, and the HPE Rack Management Controller improves cooling and power of high-density racks.
“When making long-term investments in environments where advanced workloads are rapidly evolving, our customers want scalable, dense, and flexible systems to help them address dynamic shifts in requirements,” said Trish Damkroger, senior vice president and general manager, HPC and AI Infrastructure Solutions, HPE. “Our comprehensive portfolio, which now includes a world-leading hybrid supercomputing storage option, delivers powerful capabilities to scale, while maximizing capacity and optimizing costs.”
HPE Delivers the World’s Fastest Hybrid Supercomputing Storage
As demand for data-intensive workloads increases, prices for large solid-state drives (SSDs) have increased. To meet the needs of research institutions and national laboratories, HPE is combining flash performance with high-capacity hard disk drives (HDD) to deliver new hybrid configurations that enable customers to spend less on storage and redirect infrastructure investment toward compute node purchases, while delivering up to 41% more data throughput per storage rack.
The new hybrid configurations of HPE Cray Supercomputing Storage Systems E2000 combine SSDs with new 32-terabyte SAS-4 HDD and new SAS-4 HDD enclosures, supporting 74 or 100 drives.
Purpose-engineered for supercomputing, the new configurations deliver:
Improved storage economics: Customers can match storage performance to processing requirements, while spending 82% less than they would on a comparable all-flash system.
More capacity, same data center footprint: Creating up to 32% more usable storage capacity per rack, helping customers support growing datasets without expanding rack space.
High read-and-write performance: Delivering up to 116 GB per second of read throughput and 92 GB per second of write throughput per rack, enabling storage to better match the needs of HPC.
New intelligent rack management for HPC and AI infrastructure growth
As HPC and AI infrastructure pushes power densities to new levels, cooling efficiency and operational visibility play a critical role in supporting customers’ goals for growth. In response, the HPE Rack Management Controller is designed to enable intelligent liquid cooling through real-time monitoring, leak detection, automated control and rack-level visibility. Engineered and informed by HPE’s five decades of liquid cooling innovation, the controller helps organizations optimize cooling efficiency and facilitate the growth of high-density HPC and AI infrastructure.
The controller supports platform-specific design variants tailored to the requirements of different rack-scale systems. HPE Rack Management Controller will initially support HPE Cray Supercomputing GX5000 systems, with future extensions for AMD and NVIDIA rack-scale systems.
The HPE Rack Management Controller integrates with the HPE Supercomputing Management Software suite, including Foundation for infrastructure management, Composable for resource sharing, and Observability for operational monitoring. The integration shares rack-level telemetry and control capabilities, improving visibility and making it easier to operate and expand large, liquid-cooled HPC and AI environments.
HPE continues to advance the infrastructure required for the world’s most demanding scientific, commercial, and HPC workloads. Through its proven expertise across supercomputing, storage, networking, cooling, and systems management, HPE delivers integrated platforms that help customers scale performance, improve efficiency, and accelerate innovation.
Availability
Availability for the new hybrid configurations of HPE Cray Supercomputing Storage Systems E2000 is planned for early 2027.
HPE Rack Management Controller for HPE Cray Supercomputing GX systems and the Supercomputing Management Software suite will be available in March 2027. Support for AMD and NVIDIA rack-scale systems will follow in June 2027.
About HPE
HPE (NYSE: HPE) is a leader in essential enterprise technology, bringing together the power of AI, cloud, and networking to help organizations achieve more. As pioneers of possibility, our innovation and expertise advance the way people live and work. We empower our customers across industries to optimize operational performance, transform data into foresight, and maximize their impact. Unlock your boldest ambitions with HPE.
From Cairo to Moscow to Washington, governments are turning up the pressure on media workers
Lina Attalah is an influential Egyptian journalist. Yet until last month, even she was unaware of a major and concerning piece of news: her own conviction. In 2024, a court issued her a one-year sentence for “spreading false news” and running a website without a licence – which she had repeatedly sought to obtain – after trying her in absentia, even though she was in the country. Ms Attalah learned of the case only after she was separately tried in October, resulting in a large fine and an order for the closure of the Mada Masr website. She faces retrial later this month.
Meanwhile, the entire newsroom of the fact-checking website Matsadash remain in detention weeks after authorities snatched the six journalists on charges including joining and financing a terrorist group and spreading false news. Their lawyers say that they have been tortured and forced to record fabricated confessions.
Formerly New Silicon Corporation (NSC), Staera builds LED optical links inside silicon chips, so AI systems can move data faster and scale further without adding power or heat
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 13, 2026 — Staera Semiconductor (Staera) has emerged from stealth with a technology that builds optical data links directly into silicon chips. It targets the problem that now limits how fast and how large AI systems can grow: moving data between chips. The company, formerly New Silicon Corporation (NSC), has raised US$4.6 million in pre-seed funding to launch its optical interconnect efforts, led by Openspace Capital with participation from SGInnovate, Black Kite Capital, 28 Holdings, In Group, and Decimus Technologies.
Staera makes its chips using standard fab steps, combining silicon CMOS, GaN and waveguide layers on a single wafer. Credit: Staera.
AI chips now compute faster than copper wiring can feed them. Copper’s electrical performance falls a thousandfold between one millimeter and one meter, the distances that connect chips, boards and racks. Staera’s first product, Lightwire, replaces those copper links with light generated inside the chip itself, made with the same process and on the same wafer as the chip’s circuits.
Why light, and why now
AI’s next limit is moving data, not computing it. The International Energy Agency expects data center electricity use to more than double, from about 415 terawatt-hours in 2024 to around 945 terawatt-hours by 2030, and copper wiring cannot carry more data further without burning more of that power. That is pushing the industry’s biggest buyers toward light: Nvidia, which said in 2025 it would “stay with copper for as long as [they] can,” now plans to use both copper and optics in its AI systems. Lightwire is built for that mix.
Light built in, not bolted on
Most optical links today are separate parts, lasers or LEDs made elsewhere and attached next to the chip. Staera fabricates the light source and every other part of a complete optical link inside commercial silicon wafers, making Lightwire the first and only optical interconnect built fully into the chip itself. The links are designed to be made in existing fabs and add no extra size, heat, or power. Staera has built GaN LEDs into silicon chips in commercial foundries since 2016 with processes that now run at 98 to 99 percent yield.
“AI’s bottleneck is no longer how fast chips compute, but how fast and far they can move data,” said Dr Andrew Kim, Chief Executive Officer of Staera. “Copper performance plummets over the millimeter-to-meter distances that matter most in AI accelerators, and bolt-on optics add power and complexity. We build the light into the chip, the entire optical link inside a chip, so the connection gets smaller, cooler and faster with each generation. This funding takes Lightwire from the lab to customers, and the Staera name marks that move.”
Lightwire is built inside the bridge or interposer chip that already connects processors and memory in today’s AI hardware, so it works with existing packaging. Staera designs it to move data using less than a tenth of the energy of today’s best optical links. Moving 24 terabytes of data a second would take under 50 watts with Lightwire, compared with nearly a kilowatt using co-packaged optics.
From lab to customers
The pre-seed round marks Staera’s shift from research to commercial product. The company will use the funding to advance its technology, expand its team, and deepen engagement with its customers and supply chain partners, targeting commercial release in 2030.
“Staera is addressing one of AI infrastructure’s most urgent challenges: moving vast amounts of data between chips without a corresponding rise in power, heat and complexity,” said Hian Goh, Co-Founder, Openspace Capital. “Its ability to build optical links directly into silicon offers a compelling path to faster, more efficient, and more scalable AI systems. We backed Staera because of the strength of its technology, the depth of its team and its potential to define a new category in semiconductor connectivity.”
Staera’s technology has already drawn industry recognition. In May 2026, the company won the 3rd ECTC Start-up Competition at the IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), themed “The Light Age: Strategic Investment in Photonics to Power the Next Computing Era.” The same month, it placed runner-up at the 2026 Lam Capital Venture Competition, run by Lam Research in Fremont, California.
Lightwire at a glance
4 to 8 Gbps per link, with more than 600 links per millimeter of chip edge
Designed for under 0.2 pJ/bit, against 5 pJ/bit for co-packaged optics
More than 100x the performance of electrical links across the millimeter-to-meter range
Reaches beyond 50 mm, against 2 mm for UCIe-A die-to-die links
Lightwire-based HBM designed to exceed 24 TB/s, against 2.8 TB/s per HBM4 stack today
About Staera Semiconductor
Staera Semiconductor designs the technology that lets modern hardware scale, by carrying data on light instead of electricity. Its LED-based optical interconnect is fabricated inside a single chip, giving AI compute systems the density to move data from millimeters to meters without trading off size, energy or performance. For more information, visit https://www.staera.ai.
On Sept. 21, the Newark City Council voted to overturn a decade-long ordinance of keeping live music out of restaurants, stores and venues.
In the late 1990s, “there was a lot of pushback on underage drinking and partying in Newark,” Tom Coleman, the Newark City Manager, said. “And city council took a pretty aggressive position restricting live music and drinking generally.”
Only a few restaurants in Newark that were established pre-ban were allowed to continue hosting live music, specifically Klondike Kate’s, Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen and Deer Park Tavern.
All newer restaurants or bars had to apply for a special use permit with the city, which if granted had restrictions: no cover charges, no amplified music and limiting live music to a single acoustic musician intended as background acoustics.
“So there had always been some requests from restaurants in particular,” Coleman said. “And then more recently, specifically after COVID, it’s a really difficult market right now for restaurants in particular, retail and just commercial space downtown generally.”
Upon hearing these requests, Coleman, who provides Newark City Council with policy recommendations, approached council members about lifting the music ban, which was well-received.
The ordinance to overturn the ban was then introduced on Aug. 31 and passed by city council on its second reading.
Now, restaurants or music venues must still apply for a special use permit, but once verified they will have broader control over their live music, allowing for musical performances.
This policy change prompted university alum and Wonderland Records owner, Demitri Theodoropoulos, to open his own music venue, Stella’s, named after his dog, a black lab border collie mix.
As a 1997 university grad, Theodoropoulos attended a variety of local music venues, including the Stone Balloon while in school. Having grown accustomed to live music in Newark, he wants to bring it back.
Previously, he hosted bands on the stage at Wonderland Records, but felt it did not live up to past venues, creating the need for a place like Stella’s. As a former mechanical engineer who specialized in acoustics, Theodoropoulos has clear plans for creating his own space.
“So the goal is to make it sound like this, like a studio,” Theodoropoulos said. “You know if the band’s really good, it’ll sound like they dropped the needle on a record.”
Stella’s will likely be located in Newark Shopping Center, in the space that previously held Empowered Yoga, but “we’re waiting on the permit, then the insurance,” he said. “And then they’ll turn the keys over to us.”
Theodoropoulos wants the venue to be accessible to everyone, regardless of age or music taste, and is planning to host a variety of band genres, open mic nights, Newark’s Got Talent and all-age nights.
“So that’s kind of what we want to do is bring this music community that’s in Newark, that’s been driven underground, bring it above ground, and give it a place to be,” Theodoropoulos said.
Besides music, the venue plans to offer canned alcoholic beverages, mocktails and water. While not offering in-house food, they will likely partner with local restaurants for on-site delivery.
“I’m trying to keep it so a student can go out in an evening and spend $25, and that’s it, and have a great time,” Theodoropoulos said. “But the goal is to give a reasonable cost evening out for, you know, students that want to go see live music and drink.”
While still in the early stages of development, Stella’s already has a general manager. Peter Jack Denesowicz, a former university student, is known for his involvement in an underground music venue, The Tire Shop and in a local band, Frogs in Milk.
Frogs in Milk recorded their first, soon-to-be-released album at Wonderland Studios, located within Wonderland Records, with Theodoropoulos. At the time, the ban was still in effect, but Denesowicz expressed his interest in being involved with Theodoropoulos’s music venue should it open.
When Stella’s became a reality, he was offered a position.
“I was like, oh my god, yeah, like absolutely, that’d be super tight,” Denesowicz said. Important for Denesowicz are the values that will guide Stella’s. “I can’t stress that enough: safety and inclusivity,” he said.
Stella’s is likely to open around the start of the spring semester, in mid-to-late February. The musical line-up for the opening weeks has not been selected, but Denesowicz and Theodoropoulos are scouting for local talent.
“It’s going to be the funnest place in Newark,” Theodoropoulos said. “We guarantee that.”
A coalition of online safety and consumer advocacy groups has sued five of the world's leading artificial intelligence companies, asking a California judge to halt the development and deployment of new AI models until the companies can address what the plaintiffs describe as potentially "catastrophic" risks. The lawsuit alleges the companies are violating California unfair competition law by endangering public health and computer systems, arguing that increasingly autonomous AI could ultimately escape human control. The Associated Press reports: The filing, first reported on by The Associated Press, asks a judge to stop Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI and SpaceXSI from developing or deploying new AI models, pointing to documented examples of cyberattacks and other harmful actions by AI systems and the companies' own alarming acknowledgments that their technology has the potential to someday destroy humanity. "No other industry is allowed to treat its own development of unsafe products -- much less ones that could kill us all -- as inevitable," reads the complaint from the Irreplaceable Education Fund, Public Citizen, Heat Initiative and the Alliance for Secure AI. "Plaintiffs bring this suit to stop Defendants from continuing their unlawful path to disaster."
[...] The plaintiffs, all nonprofits, allege that the companies named in the lawsuit have violated a California unfair competition law by endangering public health and interfering with the use of property such as computer systems. They claim they've had to divert resources away from other planned work to address the acute harms threatened by each of the companies' advancing AI models. They also warn that the companies' goals of creating AI systems that are broadly as smart as humans and can increasingly manage tasks and learn things autonomously could result in a permanent loss of control of the technology and heighten existential risks to humanity.
Running from January 2026 through December 2028, the mission, “Delivery of a 100+ Qubit Universal Quantum Computer,” brings together QuiX Quantum and several Dutch industrial and academic partners. Together they will develop and integrate twelve deliverables covering the quantum photonic stack, from low-loss chips and photon sources to detection, control electronics, packaging and manufacturing.
For QuiX Quantum, the award marks an important step in turning its technology roadmap into industrial reality, and the company is eager to start working with its partners.
From Universal to Fault Tolerant: Solving the Challenges of Scale Together
Earlier in 2026, QuiX Quantum delivered its Universal Photonic Quantum Computing hardware platform developed for the German Aerospace Center’s Quantum Computing Initiative (DLR QCI). Building on this achievement, the company is advancing its next-generation Fault Tolerant architecture, with the development and demonstration of loss-tolerant logical-qubit capabilities planned throughout 2028–2030, laying the foundation for commercially deployable fault-tolerant photonic quantum computers beyond 2030.
Reaching that goal requires progress on several technical fronts at once. The mission targets them directly:
Lower optical loss: ultra-low-loss silicon nitride waveguides and novel high-speed modulators (imec), and fibre-to-chip coupling at a target of 0.1 dB per facet (PHIX, MicroAlign)
Better photons: a quasi-deterministic single-photon source (University of Twente) and photon distillation with resource-state generation to operate below the error threshold (Eindhoven University of Technology)
Better detection: on-chip photon-number-resolving detectors (Leiden University) and integrated SPAD arrays (Eindhoven University of Technology)
Faster control: flip-chip control ASICs targeting latencies below 10 ns (Bruco-IC), compared with 150 ns for today’s feed-forward control
More robust, manufacturable chips: inverse design and post-fabrication tuning to improve tolerances and yield (Eindhoven University of Technology)
QuiX Quantum leads the mission, integrating the partner results at system level and tracking progress against a shared KPI and technology-readiness framework. The mission concludes with a manufacturing strategy for 100+ qubit systems, preparing the ground for the next phases of industrialization.
Strengthening the Netherlands and Europe’s Quantum Supply Chain
The mission connects scientific expertise, photonic chip manufacturing, packaging and assembly, control electronics and system integration within a single, vertically integrated consortium. It supports the NGF program’s goals of developing application technologies and industrializing integrated photonics, and helps build a resilient, internationally competitive quantum photonics supply chain in the Netherlands.
By strengthening local capabilities in fabrication, packaging, testing and integration, the mission helps ensure that more of the technological expertise, intellectual property and economic value generated by Dutch and European quantum research stays in Europe.
“This grant is a strong vote of confidence in the Dutch photonics ecosystem and in our roadmap,” said Stefan Hengesbach, CEO of QuiX Quantum. “Scalable, Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing cannot be built by one company alone. The challenges (loss, photon quality, detection, control speed and manufacturability) sit across the whole supply chain. We are very eager to work with our partners, and their expertise will help us overcome these technical challenges and bring Fault Tolerant architecture closer to reality.”
From a National Mission to Global Industrial Leadership
The mission’s timeline through December 2028 aligns with a critical phase in QuiX Quantum’s roadmap, as the company moves toward logical-qubit demonstrations between 2028 and 2030. The technologies and manufacturing strategy developed in the mission are intended to support the longer-term industrialization of increasingly complex photonic quantum systems.
By combining customer-driven development, European manufacturing partnerships and sustained industrial investment, QuiX Quantum aims to help translate the region’s scientific leadership into lasting technological sovereignty and global competitiveness.
This project has received funding from the PhotonDelta National Growth Fund program.
About QuiX Quantum
QuiX Quantum is a European photonic quantum computing company founded in Enschede, the Netherlands, in 2019. The company develops integrated photonic quantum computing hardware and describes its approach as full-stack and fabless, with systems designed for modularity, scalability, and compatibility with data center and HPC environments. QuiX Quantum has offices in the Netherlands and Germany and is developing universal photonic quantum computing systems based on its silicon nitride photonic technology.
About the Photonic Quantum Computing Mission
The Photonic Quantum Computing Mission is a three-year consortium project (Jan. 1, 2026 – Dec. 31, 2028), led by QuiX Quantum and funded under Phase II of the PhotonDelta National Growth Fund Integrated Photonics Programme. Partners: QuiX Quantum, imec, PHIX, MicroAlign, Bruco-IC, University of Twente, Leiden University, Eindhoven University of Technology.
FAU Will House Nation’s First University-Based Rydberg-Atom Quantum RF Sensing Technology
BOCA RATON, Fla., Nov. 13, 2026 — Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Connected Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence (CA-AI), within the College of Engineering and Computer Science, received a $3 million award from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Strengthening Institutions Program to develop a quantum-ready workforce in Florida through education and research training in quantum-enabled sensing and communications.
The project, “Building Florida’s Quantum-Ready Workforce: Quantum-Skilled Pathways in Integrated Sensing and Communications from Early College to Graduate Studies,” is led by George Sklivanitis, Ph.D., associate director of CA-AI, Charles E. Schmidt Associate Research Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and fellow of the Institute for Smarter Cities, Spaces, and Health; and Dimitris Pados, Ph.D., director of CA-AI, Charles E. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in Engineering, professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and fellow of the Institute for Smarter Cities, Spaces, and Health.
The initiative will establish educational pathways that introduce students to quantum technologies beginning at the early-college level and continuing through graduate education. The program will combine foundational quantum education with advanced coursework and hands-on research work and training in quantum sensing and communications, preparing students with skills applicable to emerging quantum technologies.
Working with Infleqtion Inc.’s Colorado Quantum Innovation Center in Louisville, Colorado, FAU plans to acquire Rydberg-atom quantum radio-frequency (RF) sensing and communications equipment paired with an optical atomic clock, making FAU the first university in the nation to house this technology. The equipment will support a new research and training program for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students.
CA-AI researchers will develop and deliver a new course in quantum sensing and communications, giving students direct experience with the new equipment and its applications. The educational program is expected to reach more than 100 students during the five-year grant period.
“Developing the workforce to support quantum technologies is just as important as investing in the technology itself,” said Stella Batalama, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “This $3 million award builds on the expertise we have established through CA-AI in advanced communications, sensing and artificial intelligence while preparing students to contribute to the rapidly evolving quantum landscape. This initiative is an important step in developing the highly skilled talent Florida will need to advance quantum technologies and strengthen its leadership in this emerging field.”
CA-AI conducts research spanning networked AI, robotics and autonomous systems, advanced wireless communications and sensing technologies. The new initiative builds on that expertise by extending the center’s work into quantum sensing and communications education and workforce development.
“Quantum technologies are changing the way we approach sensing, communications and information processing, and preparing the workforce requires more than introducing students to quantum theory,” said Pados. “By giving students direct access to emerging quantum sensing and communications technologies, we can connect fundamental concepts with hands-on engineering experience and prepare them to contribute to this rapidly developing field. With this grant, FAU completes the quantum trifecta: quantum computing, quantum sensing, and quantum communications research and training.”
The award comes as FAU continues to expand its capabilities in quantum science and engineering. The university is preparing to host a D-Wave Advantage2 quantum computer, providing faculty and students with on-site access to advanced quantum computing infrastructure and making FAU Florida’s first quantum university.
“Our goal is to connect quantum education directly to the engineering skills students will need as these technologies move from research environments into practical applications,” said Sklivanitis. “By creating a pathway that begins at the early-college level and continues through graduate education, we can help students build increasingly advanced knowledge and skills as they prepare to enter the quantum workforce.”
Infleqtion is a global leader in quantum technology, delivering neutral-atom solutions for quantum computing, networking, sensing and security.
“As a quantum technology company, building a quantum-ready workforce is essential, and that starts with getting the latest technology in the hands of future quantum innovators,” said Matthew Kinsella, CEO of Infleqtion. “By bringing our quantum RF sensing technology and Tiqker optical atomic clock to Florida Atlantic University, we’re giving students the opportunity to develop practical skills and explore new applications in quantum sensing. FAU is leading the way to help prepare the next generation of engineers and researchers to turn quantum capabilities into real-world solutions.”
The award is funded through the U.S. Department of Labor’s Strengthening Institutions Program (Title III, Part A of the Higher Education Act), which supports eligible institutions in strengthening academic quality, institutional management and fiscal stability. The five-year project runs from Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2031.
FAU continues to advance its position as Florida’s first quantum university, making strategic investments in research, education and infrastructure to drive innovation in next-generation computing. Through the FAU Center for Quantum Technologies, the university brings together faculty, students and industry partners to advance quantum research and prepare the workforce for the emerging quantum economy. FAU’s investment includes the installation of a D-Wave Advantage2 annealing quantum computer on its Boca Raton campus, giving researchers and students access to leading-edge quantum technology and helping position Florida at the forefront of this rapidly evolving field.
About Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University is one of the nation’s fastest-rising public research universities, serving more than 32,000 students in South Florida. Ranked among the Top 100 Public Universities by U.S. News & World Report, Florida Atlantic is also one of only 13 institutions nationwide to hold Carnegie Foundation designations for R1 research, opportunity and community engagement. Guided by its strategic plan, “2031FAU: Where Tomorrow Begins,” the university is focused on delivering career-ready education and experiential learning, driving scholarly inquiry that creates healthier, safer and more prosperous communities, strengthening institutional excellence, and elevating its impact across South Florida and beyond. Florida Atlantic continues to advance its position as Florida’s first quantum university, integrating research, education and industry partnerships around next-generation computing technologies. Through other signature strengths in neuroscience and healthy aging, environmental, ocean and coastal innovation, and national defense and autonomous systems, Florida Atlantic expands knowledge, fuels economic opportunity and fulfills its mission as South Florida’s hometown university.
Microsoft has said it is “deeply sorry” for a widespread outage that caused disruption to millions of users, organisations and businesses across the globe – and that it has “addressed the underlying issue”.
The company said the outage was a “technical issue” not related to cyber-attacks or AI agents, and that it continued to gradually restore services.
The Commerce Department had been investigating if Megaspeed, the company at the heart of former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s spy-sex scandal, breached U.S. export restrictions.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on November 12, 2026.Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Democrats rolled into Washington this week fresh off a generational sweep election on the promise of affordability for Americans and accountability for the Trump administration.
But on Tuesday night, Democrats in the House failed the first test of their incoming majority. An impeachment resolution introduced Monday by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., targeting Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, one of the main architects of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, provided Republicans with a chance to score an early victory.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the chamber’s Democratic leadership failed to take advantage, as 11 Democrats missed a critical vote that would have kept the resolution alive. The attempt failed by a slim margin, 211 to 204; Massie told The Intercept on Wednesday that even if the missing Democrats showed up he was sure House Speaker Mike Johnson could have rallied his members and made up the difference anyway. Until the new term begins, the chamber is still controlled by the GOP.
Nonetheless, the vote was a chance to send a message to the White House. One was sent: that of a disorganized, dysfunctional caucus. Other Democrats sought to take advantage of the misstep, noting that they were unwilling to miss the vote—Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas said she rerouted around traffic, and Rep. Pat Ryan of New York made it the day after back surgery.
“No matter what, I wasn’t going to allow traffic to keep me from that vote,” Crockett told MS NOW. “It was just that important to me.”
When asked about the absences, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was present for the vote, offered only “someone may have had a health issue” as an explanation.
House members who missed the vote blamed a number of factors for their absence, including traffic. On Wednesday, all of those same House Democrats save Rep. Haley Stevens (Mich.) began to offer explanations. Rep. Jonathan Jackson (Ill.) told TMZ DC that his “traffic jam”-related absence was “inexcusable.” He wasn’t the only one to blame traffic — Reps. Marilyn Strickland (Wa.) and Laura Gillen (N.Y.) also cited D.C. gridlock as the reason they missed the vote; Rep. Julia Brownley (Calif.) said she was “rushing” to the vote but missed it. Reps. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Lou Corea (Calif.), and Frederica Wilson (Fla.) were all out of town.
Momentum lost can’t be regained. If Jeffries doesn’t understand that, he’s not the man for the job.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (N.M.) offered a front-facing video apology to constituents. Rep. Steven Horsford (Nev.) took “full responsibility” in a floor speech. And Rep. Brittany Pettersen (Colo.) acknowledged that she was at a super PAC event and said there was “no excuse” for missing the vote.
Expressing regret is a good start. It shows these lawmakers are aware that their actions are antithetical to where their voters are at this moment and are adjusting accordingly. It’s not enough.
Leadership was asleep at the wheel. As whip, Rep. Katherine Clark should have kept the caucus in line. (It’s worth noting that Clark officially launched a bid for majority leader last week.) A number of reps who blamed traffic were previously at an event hosted by the group Elect Democratic Women, which receives some of its funding from AIPAC. The event overlapped with the impeachment resolution vote; Clark is a cofounder of the group.
“Republicans just blocked the House from impeaching Pete Hegseth,” Clark posted on X after the vote—failing to take responsibility for her party’s own lack of discipline.
Democrats missing a vote to hold one of the main figures in the war on Iran accountable so they could attend a fundraiser is so tailor-made for progressive complaints over the state of party leadership, it’s hard to believe.
Jeffries tried to spin the vote as only a temporary reprieve for Hegseth, but he didn’t telegraph much willingness about holding his caucus to account.
“I haven’t had a conversation with anyone on the floor team about what may or may not have happened in terms of the Hegseth resolution, but this is not the end of it. It’s just the beginning,” he told Politico. Most critically, he accepted no responsibility for the stunningly bad optics of having members of his caucus no-show, even if it likely wouldn’t have moved the needle.
This never should have happened in the first place. It was the result of a series of decisions by Jeffries and Clark about the vote that made clear it wasn’t important.
Momentum lost can’t be regained. If Jeffries doesn’t understand that, he’s not the man for the job purely on tactical grounds, and he should lay no claim to being a party standard-bearer to steer us through the next two years of Trump’s America.
Jeffries and his party seem doomed to repeat the past. In 2009, when President Barack Obama came into the White House on the back of a change election that gave Democrats huge majorities in Congress, including a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate, the party hobbled itself out of the gate by preemptively declining to pursue justice for the many crimes of eight straight years of George W. Bush.
“We need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards,” Obama told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos in January 2009, effectively ending any hope of accountability for the outgoing administration’s torture program and myriad other misdeeds. The ramifications of that decision arguably led to the war on Iran, a bipartisan immigration-deportation regime, and the end of Roe.
Democratic voters don’t want the party to rest on its laurels, they want blood.
Now, with a Republican president who is hated even more than W—something that would have seemed impossible to imagine almost 18 years ago—the Democratic Party’s establishment wing appears ready to repeat those failures. Taking on Trump and his corrupt, violent administration was one of the main messages that flipped House and Senate seats across the country but the party’s current leaders are allergic to action.
Entrenched Democrats also don’t seem interested in any sort of accountability. Stevens, the Michigan Democrat who broke ranks with her party and endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for Senate rather than back Abdul El-Sayed, was under pressure in the days before and after the election, with even establishment kingmaker Rep. Jim Clyburn signaling openness to expelling her from the caucus. By Tuesday morning, Pelosi — always in touch with party leadership — seemed to throw cold water on the idea: “I’m not supporting kicking her out…. Let’s focus on the very positive.”
This is such a complete misunderstanding of the mood of the electorate, one wonders if it’s intentionally obtuse. Democratic voters don’t want the party to rest on its laurels, they want blood. Anyone who’s been to a liberal rally since the start of the second Trump term can tell you that the signage is calling for, at minimum, accountability, not immediate compromise.
If Democrats rubber-stamp Jeffries as speaker and fail to adopt a more aggressive legislative and investigative approach, frustrations within the caucus and among the base will only continue to mount.
Jeffries is downplaying dissent, but this is more than just a battle between two wings of the Democratic Party. Democrats in New York have been looking to unseat the leader for years, frustrated with his closeness to AIPAC and financial institutions. He’s the kind of Democrat the base is fed up with, and that exasperation is widespread; polling shows just how deeply unpopular he is.
There is an alternative gaining steam: Rep. Ayanna Pressley, the Massachusetts progressive and member of the original “Squad” who were first elected in 2018. Pressley has an uphill battle and has not yet announced that she’s interested in the job. The left is interested.
Voters gave Democrats a clear mandate on Election Day for what they want to see in Washington. Holding this administration accountable should be one of the top priorities. If the party fails to do all it can to advance that goal, it will once again earn its reputation for preferring failure to action. We should all push the next Congress to act as the exception to that rule—and they can start by picking a new speaker to meet the moment.
Coy and Caty Smith are gainfully employed and have health insurance. But when illness struck, the bills piled up fast — here's how they found their way back to financial health.
The U.S. Coast Guard launched an investigation into a so-called "magic pipe" case, in which a ship transfers its oil discharge into its gray water system.
Sales of built units fell to 3.75m in October, down by 8.8% from last year, with mortgage rates at nearly three-year high
US existing home sales hit a 16-year low in October as buyers were driven away by high mortgage rates and rising inflation, according to new data released on Wednesday.
Sales of already built units dropped to 3.75m in October, down by 8.8% from last year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported. The median existing-home sales price increased slightly to $416,700. Declines in sales were seen in the midwest, south and west, though sales in the north-east held steady.
Singapore held Alice Huang's passport for 8 months and asked the U.S. to help investigate her firm's suspected Nvidia chip sales, but received little help, sources say.
Mohammed Alfatih rearrested over alleged plot to target Israelis in Europe while detained for attack on bailiff
A former Hamas bodyguard convicted of knife crime in the UK is wanted in Germany for allegedly plotting to murder Jewish people.
Details of the alleged plot can now be reported after Mohammed Alfatih, also known as Mohammed Naim, was found guilty on Friday of a knife attack on a bailiff outside his home in Birmingham.
Kaja Kallas says Moscow is trying to divert attention from its aggression by raising issue of European security
The EU’s foreign policy chief has warned against “walking into the traps that Russia is setting” as she said Moscow was trying to start a debate about European security in order to divert attention from its aggression.
“We have one aggressor and one victim, and the aggressor does not have security concerns,” Kaja Kallas said on arrival at an EU leaders’ summit in Dublin. “Nobody has ever attacked them. They have attacked others. I mean, keep the focus, people.”
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Some Nvidia employees are calling for Jensen Huang's return even after his multiple reported extramarital affairs and abrupt resignation, according to internal correspondence reviewed by WIRED. An internal "suggestion box" post submitted before Huang's resignation by a longtime engineer at Nvidia urged the company's board to take employee sentiment into consideration prior to taking any action. The submission has attracted more than 1,600 comments since then, with several asking board members to find a way to bring back Huang.
"If you believe in the mission, bring back THE boss," wrote one anonymous commenter. "We are all humans and can make mistakes. Jensen did so many good things and he needs a second chance," wrote another. One employee went as far as sending a companywide email demanding transparency into Huang's exit. "I stand by Jensen," the staffer wrote. "Not because I believe any person is infallible, but because I refuse to believe that standing for fairness must mean standing at a distance from someone whose leadership has meant so much to us."
[...] It's been business as usual inside the company throughout this week, but Huang's resignation left many employees stunned. In the hours after, about two dozen employees posted on LinkedIn in support of Huang, with one describing their faith in his leadership as unwavering. Over the same period, WIRED couldn't identify any posts from Nvidia employees in support of his resignation. One employee who has been at Nvidia for a couple of years and wasn't authorized to speak publicly says they perceive the desire for Huang's reinstatement as widespread. They worry the company will eventually suffer without its founder at the helm and say that the board must bring him back. "Nvidia is Nvidia because of Jensen," the employee tells WIRED.
Many employees had expected a board investigation to conclude before any big changes would occur. For instance, the suggestion-box post called on the board to share its findings with employees and formally solicit their sentiment "about Jensen's continuing as our CEO." Instead, Huang left just as the inquiry had begun. Staffers are seeking to better understand why. "If America fails the man who helped build its future," the employee in the companywide email stated, "then this world does not deserve Jensen Huang."
Coach was ‘transparent’ in dealings with club, federation
Pochettino had signed deal to stay with US through 2030
There were always going to be tears at Mauricio Pochettino’s news conference at US Soccer’s national training center on Friday. It was only a matter of when. Pochettino is famously emotional, and nobody in attendance had to wait long for the waterworks – they came during his introductory remarks, as he thanked the US Soccer executives flanking him for the opportunity to guide the US men. He grew emotional again as he addressed his impending departure for Manchester United, one announced just hours earlier.
“I think [the decision was],” Pochettino said, pausing to compose himself, “one of the most difficult decisions of our careers. Thank you guys. Thank you so much.”
The administration’s formal request last week for the Supreme Court to resolve the ongoing dispute over President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project could bring the case to the justices for arguments soon or end the dispute at the lower-court level.
On Aug. 31, 2026, the justices handed down a decision from its emergency docket in National Trust for Historic Preservation v. National Park Service. The majority per curiam unsigned opinion held that the National Trust, a private nonprofit originally chartered by Congress in 1949, lacked standing to challenge the ballroom project in court. The Supreme Court’s opinion in August stayed, or paused, a lower court decision, affirmed by a federal appeals court, that the White House lacked the ability to build the new ballroom on its own.
Now, Solicitor General John Sauer wants the issue resolved by the Supreme Court in one of two ways. In his petition to the Court, Sauer has asked the justices to summarily reverse the lower court decision or accept the case for full arguments at the Court, so the justices may consider the case on its merits.
The Case’s Path to the Supreme Court
The federal government started a project to replace the White House’s East Wing and build a large ballroom and facility to replace it in October 2025. The first part involved demolishing the former East Wing. In March 2026, the National Trust filed a lawsuit in federal district court challenging the project and seeking to stop the construction of a new building above ground on the site. The district court issued a preliminary injunction, but the appeals court stayed the injunction, allowing the project to continue into August 2026.
In an opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Judges Patricia Millett and Bradley Garcia affirmed the district court's preliminary injunction. They held that the administration could not build the privately funded, above-ground White House ballroom without congressional approval.
Judges Millett and Garcia also concluded that the “construction of the ballroom will inflict permanent and irreversible harm to the historic, architectural, and aesthetic interests of the National Trust’s members, as well as the design of President’s Park, the White House, and the surrounding area.”
In her dissent, Judge Naomi Rao countered that “the President has determined the ballroom is necessary for the overall security of the White House as well as to provide a secure space for hosting large presidential events.” Judge Rao said the ballroom project was also likely within the president’s authority to make improvements to the Executive Residence at the White House.
Rao also determined that the National Trust lacked standing to sue the administration. “The district court had no jurisdiction because the Trust has no standing to stop construction at the White House,” she held. “The district court elevated the aesthetic displeasure of a single passerby over the government’s security interests in the ballroom and the security risks of leaving an open construction site at the President’s home and office,” she noted.
The Supreme Court’s Emergency Docket Decision
The August emergency docket decision focused on the Article III concept of standing, where the National Trust needed to establish that it had suffered an injury in fact from the East Wing ballroom project; the injury was traceable to actions of the Trump administration; and the injury could be addressed by a judicial decision.
The Supreme Court majority said the National Trust failed those tests. “The government is likely to prevail in showing that the Trust lacks standing to challenge the East Wing project,” the majority determined. On Aug. 7, 2026, a divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia panel reached the opposite conclusion before the case was appealed to the Supreme Court’s emergency docket. The appeals court held that a Trust member, Alison K. Hoagland, had proven she was harmed by the ballroom’s construction, and that the National Trust had standing to sue on behalf of its members.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a dissenting opinion joined by Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Roberts said the ballroom project was likely unlawful because the project required congressional approval. “The ballroom is a building or structure being erected on federal park grounds—President’s Park—in the District of Columbia. Yet Congress has not passed any law resembling ‘express authority’ for the Executive’s construction of it,” he noted.
Roberts also said the Court’s majority incorrectly applied the standing test to the National Trust. “Given the distinctive nature of the White House and Hoagland’s focused and substantiated interest in viewing it in its traditional form, her aesthetic injury from the construction of the ballroom is concrete and particularized.”
The Solicitor General Wants the Issue Resolved
In his petition of certiorari to the Court, Solicitor General Sauer argues the emergency docket decision almost definitively decided presented question in his opinion. “In staying the district court’s preliminary injunction, and in issuing a detailed per curiam opinion ex-plaining the basis for that stay, this Court has all but answered the question presented,” he states. The question Sauer is presenting to the Court is “[w]hether the district court erred in enjoining the on-going renovation of the East Wing at the White House.”
“The Court held that the ‘government has established that it is likely to succeed on the merits of a significant legal question, that it would likely suffer irreparable harm without a stay, and that the balance of equities tips in its favor,’” Sauer notes. However, the case was not fully argued in front of the justices as part of the emergency or interim docket.
“To be sure, this Court’s stay decisions only involve a preliminary look at the merits and equities,” Sauer acknowledges, but he also believes a “full-blown merits review serves little purpose.” At a minimum, the Solicitor General wants the Court to accept the case to settle the question.
The National Trust has been asked by the Court to respond to the government position by Dec. 7, 2026. It will likely highlight Chief Justice Roberts’ dissenting opinion that the ballroom project needed congressional approval. In considering cases to be accepted by the Court, only four justices are needed at private conference to grant arguments.
Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.
Kurt Gödel left 1,009 pages of densely written text – much of it in an obsolete shorthand – which is now said to contain hundreds of proved theorems
The Austrian logician Kurt Gödel was one of the most original thinkers of the 20th century. His two incompleteness theorems, published in 1931, transformed mathematics and paved the way for the digital age.
After his seminal results of the 1930s, Gödel published only a few papers. His unpublished work, however, runs to tens of thousands of pages, and is of great interest to historians of science.
US senator Chris Van Hollen’s challenge to Chuck Schumer’s leadership of Senate Democrats presents an ideological and biographical contrast to the party as it takes control of Congress in two months.
Though only about eight years younger than Schumer, Van Hollen is seen as a more progressive senator who has drawn attention for his opposition to the Trump administration’s abusive immigration practices – visiting his constituent Kilmar Ábrego García after an unlawful deportation to El Salvador – as well as opposition to federal corruption and US support for the Israeli government’s war in Gaza.
Photo by George Rotsch, Image created by AI on 11/13/2026
Brantwyn Estate welcomes visitors Nov. 13-15 as Delaware Hospice celebrates 39 years of community support and Laura Robelen’s three decades of service
WILMINGTON — Delaware Hospice’s Festival of Trees opens Friday, Nov. 13, at Brantwyn Estate, inviting visitors to enjoy 63 decorated trees, shop for holiday gifts and treats, and support care for patients and families across the community.
Running through Sunday, Nov. 15, the festival features a holiday marketplace, bake shop, musical entertainment and remembrance displays honoring loved ones. Behind the holiday sparkle is a year-round volunteer effort — and one woman who has helped sustain it for three decades.
Honoring a Volunteer with 30 Years of Service
Laura Robelen, a Delaware Hospice trustee, has volunteered for 30 of the festival’s 39 years and served as chair for 22. At Thursday evening’s preview, the organization recognized her dedication to an event that brings neighbors together while raising money for hospice care and family support services.
“We could not further our mission without this,” Charles McDonough, Delaware Hospice’s president and CEO, told Robelen during the Nov. 12 gathering.
McDonough said her commitment extends throughout the year, with the next festival already on people’s minds the day after the previous one ends. He also thanked committee members, sponsors, friends and families for supporting care for people at their most vulnerable.
For visitors, the result of that commitment is a building filled with holiday creativity. Robelen said volunteers assembled this year’s 63 trees in just a day and a half, following months of preparation.
“That doesn’t happen without a fantastic group of volunteers, especially my Festival of Trees committee, who worked all year long to make things beautiful for you,” she said.
Her response to the recognition was to share the credit — with committee members, sponsors, community partners and decorators whose work gives visitors a festive outing with a purpose.
Robelen’s involvement reflects the sustained volunteer effort behind the event. In a retrospective following its 35th annual festival, Delaware Hospice reported that the celebration had raised more than $2 million for its programs over the years.
That account described more than 100 volunteers contributing thousands of hours to making decorations, coordinating tree designers, staffing the festival and matching finished trees with nonprofit organizations that could enjoy them after the event.
Another longstanding partner received recognition Thursday: Hopkins & Sons Moving and Storage, which has helped transport festival trees since 1991.
Robelen thanked the company for moving the festival into and out of its venues and delivering decorated trees to recipient facilities. She estimated that its crews had delivered more than 1,500 trees over the years.
Hopkins & Sons Donates
Photo by George Rotsch
Representing the company, Carly Sayers announced a $4,140 donation to Delaware Hospice from an anniversary fundraising campaign. Hopkins & Sons, founded in 1946, is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year.
“Every delivery carries a little joy while supporting such a meaningful mission,” Sayers said.
The Wilmington festival features trees sponsored and decorated by businesses and individuals, along with a marketplace, bake shop and musical entertainment. Specialty displays include Remembrance, Memorial Dove and New Hope trees.
The marketplace sells holiday decorations and gifts, with proceeds benefiting Delaware Hospice programs and services. For families missing someone during the holidays, remembrance ornaments offer a way to honor loved ones, with cards carrying personal messages.
The cause extends beyond end-of-life care. Delaware Hospice offers grief counseling, support groups and other resources to community members, including people whose loved ones did not receive care from the organization.
Its New Hope program serves grieving children and teens ages 6 to 17 through counseling, peer support and activities. Those services are available at no cost through donor support.
In Sussex County, Delaware Hospice is collaborating with the Selbyville Historical Society at a new festival location. A separate cocktail reception Dec. 5 will feature tree viewing, refreshments, entertainment, auction items and raffles. Tickets are $60.
To Go Box
What: Delaware Hospice’s 39th annual Festival of Trees.
Wilmington: Nov. 13-15, Brantwyn Estate, 600 Rockland Road. Noon to 4 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Selbyville: Dec. 4-6, Selbyville Historical Society, 11 S. Main St. Noon to 6 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Gunman killed one person and injured at least five others in and around condo building not far from the White House
More details were emerging on Friday about the previous morning’s shooting in north-west Washington DC, as a manager at the shooter’s residential building shared how he was angry over living conditions there and confessed to the killings.
The gunman killed one person and injured at least five others on Thursday in and around the condominium building in the Logan Circle neighborhood of the capital, not far from the White House, where he lived.
Majority of Los Alamos computing now runs on OpenCHAMI framework
Nov. 13, 2026 — Los Alamos National Laboratory reached a milestone recently with the completion of its move of most production computing to Open, Composable, Heterogenous, Adaptable, Management Infrastructure (OpenCHAMI). The OpenCHAMI framework offers modern systems-management methods with built-in flexibility for sites like Los Alamos to deploy their preferred tools. In total, seven Los Alamos production clusters totaling more than 11,000 compute nodes now run on OpenCHAMI.
Launched in 2023, the open community collaboration included as founding members Los Alamos, the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS), HPE and the University of Bristol; Dell joined the collaboration in 2024. The collaboration came together under an open governance model to build a framework that was faster, simpler and more flexible than a traditional system and that sites could control at scales to fit their needs. The cloud-native technology helps institutions leverage build-and-configure tools and actively manage operations and change.
“Building the framework and transitioning the Lab’s computing to the system demonstrates the value of OpenCHAMI for large-scale computing environments running hardware and software from multiple vendors,” said Markus Berndt, High Performance Computing division leader at Los Alamos. “With the framework in place at our site, we’ve already seen reduced downtime for upgrades, meaning we can spend more time with our resources focused on mission-relevant activities.”
An Adaptation for Challenging Applications
The high-performance computing (HPC) teams at Los Alamos and partnering institutions recognized the challenges of running sophisticated applications such as complex simulations, data analytics, AI applications and heterogenous workflows at scale in hybrid computing environments. Typically, computing centers tended toward installing, configuring systems, then resisting changes or embarking on upgrades complicated by legacy tools inherent in the infrastructure.
Two of the biggest HPC vendors in the United States, HPE and Dell, have partnered on the effort. The open-source basis of OpenCHAMI means that the framework can be deployed with both those ecosystems. OpenCHAMI also centers innovation and customization, including the deployment of site-appropriate micro-services, heterogeneous orchestration, self-discovery and healing, adaptability and composability — all tools that help accommodate different needs without sacrificing performance.
Importantly, the inherent flexibility of the OpenCHAMI framework benefits the mission-supporting modeling and simulation and artificial intelligence computing systems deployed at the Laboratory. OpenCHAMI provides the capability to perform tasks that are key to running AI systems; for instance, quickly changing over an operating system running on subset of nodes.
“HPE became a founding member of the OpenCHAMI project to advance secure, scalable and modern system management for high-performance computing and drive our commitment to open standards,” said Shawn T. Brown, PhD., senior director of engineering, HPC and AI Infrastructure Solutions at HPE. “OpenCHAMI gives our customers, like Los Alamos National Laboratory, the flexibility to use tools that best support their mission and systems.”
“Adopting OpenCHAMI has directly advanced the vision outlined in NERSC’s 10-year strategic plan, which prioritizes building an agile, composable and resilient high-performance computing ecosystem,” said NERSC Computational Systems Group Lead Eric Roman. “The OpenCHAMI framework plays a central role in preparing the systems management foundation for future architectures, including a close collaboration with Dell to deploy OpenCHAMI on NERSC’s next-generation Doudna system. By moving to a community-driven, cloud-native management stack, we also gain the agility to operate innovative hardware without being locked into proprietary toolsets. This flexibility enables rapid reconfiguration of compute nodes to support diverse scientific workloads — from massive simulations to experimental data workflows and [artificial] intelligence — while minimizing maintenance downtime for thousands of Department of Energy Office of Science researchers.”
FREMONT, Calif., Nov. 13, 2026 — Innodisk, a leading provider of industrial memory and storage solutions, today announced it is expanding its AI infrastructure portfolio with enterprise SSDs and server memory modules. Leveraging high-performance solutions, firmware customization, and long-term supply support, Innodisk addresses the data-intensive workloads of cloud service providers and neocloud operators across AI training, inference, and high-performance computing. Innodisk will showcase its data center portfolio at SC26 in Chicago, Nov. 16–19, at booth #6416.
Innodisk, a leading provider of industrial memory and storage solutions, today announced it is expanding its AI infrastructure portfolio with enterprise SSDs and server memory modules.
Enterprise SSDs for AI Data Center Storage
Innodisk has expanded its enterprise SSD portfolio to address a wide range of data center needs, from boot/OS drives that support essential system operations to those designed for local data storage. Innodisk’s PCIe Gen5 E1.S 5TS-P, PCIe Gen4 4TS2-P, and SATA III 3TS9-P boot/OS drives are designed to deliver reliable performance, protect critical data, and maintain system stability. Key features include customizable firmware, power-loss protection (PLP), and end-to-end data path protection. The E1.S 5TS-P also offers advanced self-monitoring and event logging capabilities to help organizations identify potential issues and improve overall system reliability.
For AI and latency-sensitive applications, local storage plays a critical role in providing fast access to AI model weights, databases, and inference datasets. Innodisk’s 5TS-P series delivers speeds of up to 14GB/s read and 10GB/s write. Its E1.S and U.2 models are OCP Inspired certified, helping simplify validation and accelerate deployment in data center environments.
“Originating in industrial embedded computing, Innodisk has developed deep expertise in high-reliability memory and storage technologies and is expanding its presence in the AI data center supply chain. Through reliable hardware, customized firmware, enhanced security, and system compatibility optimization, Innodisk helps customers accelerate deployment, reduce integration risks, and ensure infrastructure stability through long-term supply commitments,” said CC Wu, GM of Flash Division at Innodisk.
AI Memory Series for Modern Data Centers
As inference evolves toward long-context and agentic AI, AI servers require increasingly large memory capacities and lower latency to support demanding workloads. Innodisk’s AI Memory portfolio includes DDR5 12800 MRDIMM and DDR5 8000 RDIMM to support high-bandwidth AI server workloads.
To address memory bottlenecks, Innodisk’s CXL expansion modules provide 128GB per module and bandwidth of up to 32GB/s without requiring additional DIMM slots. CXL also enables memory pooling across multiple compute nodes, improving utilization of otherwise idle memory.
Product Availability
Innodisk’s data center SSD series (3TS9-P, 4TS2-P, and 5TS-P) are now available for sampling and system-specific customization. On the AI memory front, Innodisk offers its CXL series and will further introduce its DDR5 MRDIMM and 8000 RDIMM series.
Hardware, model and infrastructure leaders join SGLang’s maintainers to advance efficient inference for growing AI ecosystem
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 13, 2026 — LMSYS Org, the nonprofit behind the open-source AI engine SGLang, has launched the SGLang Consortium with founding members NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Google, Meta, Cloudflare, Modal and RadixArk, who will work with SGLang’s maintainers to help shape the project’s roadmap and advance open-source AI inference. The consortium was announced in the opening keynote of the inaugural SGLang Summit in San Francisco.
A Shared Forum for Open AI Inference
Inference is expected to account for roughly two-thirds of all AI compute in 2026, up from about half in 2025, according to Deloitte. The inference engine determines how fast and cost-effectively that compute runs on each company’s hardware. SGLang, the full-stack inference engine for frontier AI and part of the PyTorch ecosystem, runs on hundreds of thousands of GPUs and powers some of the largest production inference deployments in the world, for companies including Meta, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Thinking Machines Lab, Cloudflare, Reflection and Modal.
The consortium gives its members a standing forum to discuss emerging inference trends with SGLang’s maintainers and turn shared priorities into joint engineering work, focused on frontier model support, reasoning and multimodal workloads, distributed inference and hardware optimization. Each founding member will designate a technical representative and join two roadmap meetings a year, contributing through engineering expertise, deployment feedback, testing resources or joint development. Working groups may collaborate between meetings, with public updates on roadmap direction and progress. SGLang’s maintainers keep responsibility for technical decisions and code acceptance, and the project stays open to the entire community.
“The teams running SGLang at the largest scale see what inference needs next before anyone else does,” said Ying Sheng, co-author of the original SGLang paper and co-founder and CEO of RadixArk, on behalf of the SGLang team. “With the challenges in building new data centers, software approaches to improve AI efficiency will be incredibly important. These lessons will benefit every SGLang user and advance the AI ecosystem.”
“NVIDIA is proud to be a founding member of the SGLang Consortium and to work with the community to advance open inference software,” said Ian Buck, vice president of hyperscale and high-performance computing at NVIDIA. “Better software helps developers get more performance from NVIDIA compute. Open models enable them to build new applications and businesses. And lower inference costs make AI more accessible to organizations everywhere.”
Launched at the First SGLang Summit
The consortium was announced in the opening keynote of the inaugural SGLang Summit, the first conference dedicated to SGLang and its open-source community, held November 12–13 at the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture in San Francisco. More than 100 speakers from across AI hardware, models, infrastructure and applications are taking part. Sessions cover SGLang’s ecosystem across reinforcement learning, multimodal models and hardware platforms.
About LMSYS Org
LMSYS Org, the Large Model Systems Organization, is a nonprofit that develops open and scalable models and systems. Its projects have included SGLang, FastChat, Vicuna and Chatbot Arena. Learn more at lmsys.org and sglang.io.
About RadixArk
RadixArk is an AI infrastructure company founded by Ying Sheng and Banghua Zhu, whose team includes creators and core maintainers of SGLang and Miles. It develops managed infrastructure and tooling for inference and training. Learn more at radixark.com.
China is warning the U.S. against putting new export controls on semiconductors in the wake of the scandal surrounding AI chip giant Nvidia and its now-former CEO Jensen Huang.
JLR chief executive calls for EU and Britain to join forces amid competition from Chinese electric carmakers
Jaguar Land Rover has reported a £451m quarterly loss as it counts the cost of cutting 4,000 jobs, while its chief executive has called for the EU and Britain to work together in the face of competition from China.
Britain’s largest automotive employer reported revenues rising to £5.9bn between July and September, but it recorded £530m in costs from the job cuts announced near the end of that period amid tough trading conditions.
Paved path and boardwalk will link Main Beach with The Point as DNREC pursues bridge improvements, trail extensions and local recreation grants
LEWES, Del. — A new trail connecting Cape Henlopen State Park’s Main Beach area with The Point will add a dedicated walking and biking route to one of Delaware’s most popular outdoor destinations, part of a broader effort to expand and improve trails across the state.
DNREC’s Point Trail project will connect the Main Beach Bathhouse area with the northeast parking lot near The Point. State construction documents describe approximately 3,320 feet of trail, a little more than six-tenths of a mile, including a timber boardwalk section.
The plans specify a 10-foot-wide asphalt surface and approximately 480 feet of boardwalk measuring 11 feet, 5 inches wide. Work also includes new pavement where Prettyman Lane intersects Post Road. bidcondocs.delaware.gov
The Cape Gazette reported Nov. 6 that the project would cost $1.25 million, supported by statewide trails funding and the federal Recreational Trails Program. DNREC Parks and Recreation Director Matt Ritter told the newspaper the contract had been awarded and the contractor was waiting for materials, with completion targeted for the end of 2026 if work proceeds as planned.
The state’s procurement record lists an April 16 contract award. Bid documents allowed on-site work beginning Sept. 7 and called for completion before winter. The year-end target is not a confirmed opening date. mmp.delaware.gov
The new connection follows other Cape Henlopen trail work announced earlier this year. In March, DNREC outlined repairs to the Junction and Breakwater Trail, including fence replacement, edge grading and stone-dust resurfacing, followed by repairs to sections of the Gordons Pond Trail damaged by high tides. news.delaware.gov
Longer term, DNREC’s Cape Henlopen trail-planning page outlines 15.7 miles of additional trails beyond the park’s existing 19.3 miles. More than 12 miles of the proposed additions are west of the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal. Those figures describe a planning framework, rather than an immediate construction schedule. dnrec.delaware.gov
Other projects around the state
At White Clay Creek State Park near Newark, DNREC announced in August that it would replace Tweed’s Mill Bridge, an access point for hiking, nature programs and the park’s nature center area.
The approximately $1.5 million design and construction project will replace the bridge with a concrete structure intended to improve resilience. DNREC awarded the contract to A-Del Construction and projected an opening about six months after its August announcement.
The bridge work accompanies construction of a new discovery center. DNREC said trail access could close during working hours but should remain available evenings and weekends. State of Delaware News
The governor’s recommended fiscal 2027 capital budget also identified the Buck Jersey Trail extension at Lums Pond State Park, connecting Howell School Road to Area 1, and the Wheelwright Trail at Brandywine Creek State Park as priorities. The recommendation describes projects being built in segments over several years; it does not establish opening dates for those trails. www.budget.delaware.gov
In Dover, DNREC proposes a small trailhead and 2.75 miles of trails at Fork Branch Nature Preserve. The project would provide access to the 236-acre Anne McClements Woods Tract, which DNREC describes as the largest forested area within city limits. The project page does not identify a construction start or opening date. dnrec.delaware.gov
Local governments also are receiving DNREC assistance. Grants announced in January included $190,000 for Milford’s Deep Branch Park, covering trail construction, an entrance road, parking and other improvements, and $83,250 for Milton to redesign the Federal Street rail-trail crossing with wider ramps, warning signs and a more perpendicular alignment. State of Delaware News
Where the money comes from
The projects draw on several public funding streams, with different arrangements for state park construction and local grants.
State park construction receives funding through the state’s capital budget, commonly called the Bond Bill, alongside federal grants. Capital appropriations are separate from the annual operating budget, although the capital bill can include General Fund cash as well as borrowing and other funds. A reference to Bond Bill funding does not establish how much of an individual project is financed by debt. legis.delaware.gov
DNREC specifically identifies Bond Bill funding and federal Recreational Trails Program assistance for the Tweed’s Mill Bridge replacement. State of Delaware News
The federal trails program represents a portion of motor fuel excise taxes attributable to off-highway recreational fuel use. It supports both motorized and nonmotorized recreation, including hiking and biking trails. fpi.omb.gov
Milford’s and Milton’s grants come through DNREC’s Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Trails program. DNREC says the program is funded entirely by income generated by a trust established with real estate transfer tax deposits. Local governments supply matching funds. State of Delaware News
Available project summaries do not provide a complete breakdown of state cash, borrowing and federal dollars for every trail project.
To Go Box
What: New Point Trail connection at Cape Henlopen State Park
Where: Between the Main Beach Bathhouse area and the northeast parking lot near The Point
Opening: Completion targeted for the end of 2026, according to the Cape Gazette’s Nov. 6 report; no confirmed opening date
Signing of agreement to smooth movement of food, plants and animals next week will not recoup huge sums firms were forced to spend
The removal of border checks and paperwork on plant imports will “dissolve” £60m of annual costs for the horticulture industry when the UK and EU’s new post-Brexit deal comes in, the environment secretary has said.
Before the UK-EU summit on 20 November, Angela Eagle said she hoped paperwork headaches for importers would “disappear” after the changes, although the move would not help businesses recoup the large sums they spent to deal with border controls.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Parents and teachers across the US are criticizing Google's announcement that schools choosing to block AI tools could also lose access to Google Search. Google announced last week a range of new AI tools for schools and classrooms, alongside options allowing teachers and administrators to restrict their use. The company said schools should have control over whether students use AI in the classroom, but that schools that choose to block Google's AI tools will also lose access to its search engine. [...] Parents and teachers across the country raised concerns to the Guardian about AI's potential to weaken students' critical-thinking skills and the growing influence of big tech in education. Some called on schools to consider alternative search engines, while others argued that students should be taught how to use AI responsibly rather than prevented from accessing it altogether.
Jen Atay, a 51-year-old teacher in Hawaii, lambasted Google's approach, saying: "When the software is free, you are the product, and it is inappropriate for Google to test or develop AI with minors. This should not be allowed at all." A 44-year-old father of two boys in Amissville, Virginia, said he worries that "AI will weaken people's ability to think critically. I use AI in my work, but it would not be effective if I did not have well over a decade of experience under my belt. Even the best models are often flat-out wrong in their responses." [...] Others questioned why schools should depend on Google at all. An 84-year-old retiree and mother in Maryland, said: "Google decided to follow the evil path to riches. When they started, they were great. Today they are simply evil money grubbers Schools should tell Google to go pound sand and simply have kids use DuckDuckGo or one of the other search engines There is nothing Google offers that is not available from some other source." [...]
Not everyone believes blocking AI is the answer. Some argued that schools should focus on teaching students how to use the technology responsibly. A 67-year-old emerging technology teacher in Texas said: "I do not blame Google. AI is not going away. I've been very frustrated this year trying to teach AI literacy with AI blocked. Schools need to teach how to properly use AI, not block it." A California resident echoed that view, arguing that schools could use Google's AI tools to teach students to question the information they receive. "Google Search has existed since the 90s and it's crazy of them to completely remove it instead of just removing Gemini. That being said, I would like to see schools actually permit the use of Gemini and use it as an opportunity to show students how its sources aren't always valid and you can't trust everything an AI tells you," they said.
Every sourdough baker who feeds a starter ends up with discard, the portion removed before each feeding. Many throw it out, yet many recipes list ... Read moreThe post Still making sourdough? The discard you’ve been tossing is worth keeping…
Dr. Harrison Hines takes charge of nearly 1,000 employees as Delaware links disease prevention with wider social conditions
DOVER, Del. — Delaware’s new public health director is a neurologist whose federal policy work examined how housing, food and transportation affect health. His arrival puts an experienced physician and policy adviser in charge of an agency whose decisions can affect patients, taxpayers and private businesses.
Dr. Harrison Hines became director of the Division of Public Health and state health officer Oct. 12, according to a formal appointment announcement issued Nov. 12. He oversees nearly 1,000 employees in the Department of Health and Social Services’ largest division.
The division’s responsibilities include communicable disease prevention, maternal and infant health, food and drinking-water safety, and public health emergency response.
“Our focus as public health professionals goes beyond disease prevention. My goal is to help individuals and communities flourish,” Hines said in the announcement. State of Delaware News
That broad outlook raises questions about how Delaware will coordinate health services and social policies, where authority will rest and how much room private providers, employers and community organizations will have to pursue their own approaches.
The appointment announcement does not describe a transfer of all health services or social policy to Hines. It also does not announce new regulatory powers or business mandates.
Hines previously served on the White House Domestic Policy Council, where he led an interagency team developing the U.S. Playbook to Address Social Determinants of Health. His professional biography places that work in 2022 and 2023 and describes subsequent senior leadership positions at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
He earned his medical degree at Stanford University and completed his neurology residency at the University of California, San Francisco. He also holds a master’s degree in theological studies from Duke Divinity School and undergraduate degrees in religion and chemistry from Duke University. astho.org
A broader structure already taking shape
Hines enters an existing public health office within a recently changed leadership structure.
Under the governor’s July order establishing the Office of the Surgeon General, the public health director reports to Surgeon General Dr. Neil Hockstein. Hockstein reports to the DHSS secretary and serves with the responsibilities of a deputy cabinet secretary.
The order directs the Surgeon General’s office to encourage collaboration across government and with health care organizations, employers and community groups. Its priorities include access to care, the health care workforce and social and environmental conditions affecting health.
The order preserves the DHSS secretary’s statutory authority. It also calls for the Surgeon General to identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary administrative burdens and eliminate barriers to care. State of Delaware
That creates a practical test: Will coordination simplify services and accountability, or add another layer of review for providers and businesses?
The public documents establish a chain of command. They do not establish that Hines controls every state program touching health, housing, food or transportation.
Authority with consequences for businesses
Public health leadership involves more than advice.
Delaware law gives DHSS authority over disease control, quarantine, drinking-water protection and public health nuisances. Lawfully issued departmental regulations and orders can have the force of law.
These are departmental powers whose exercise depends on the applicable law and delegation, rather than unrestricted personal authority attached to Hines’ title. delcode.delaware.gov
For food businesses, oversight can determine whether doors remain open. State guidance explains that an imminent health hazard can require immediate closure, while permit revocation based on inspections requires due process. dhss.delaware.gov
Such powers make consistency, clear standards, and timely review important to both consumer safety and business survival.
Where does the free market fit?
Hines’ background raises a policy question: How will the state weigh government programs against competition, consumer choice and voluntary partnerships when pursuing better health?
The federal initiative associated with his work promoted coordination between health and social services. An accompanying 2023 framework described housing and nutrition interventions for certain Medicaid beneficiaries. That history provides context for his experience; it does not establish a Delaware proposal. archives.hud.gov
Potential approaches deserve separate scrutiny. Contracting with a private transportation business to help patients reach appointments differs from requiring employers to provide transportation. Supporting a voluntary nutrition program differs from imposing new obligations on food retailers.
For Delaware, the questions include whether private practices, small businesses, faith-based organizations and independent nonprofits will have meaningful opportunities to participate — and whether administrative requirements will favor large institutions better equipped to handle them.
Another question is whether the state will examine barriers to competition and entry alongside proposals for additional spending or oversight.
Questions for the new leadership
The appointment announcement leaves several issues unresolved.
Which decisions will Hines make independently, and which require approval from the Surgeon General, DHSS secretary, governor or General Assembly?
What changes, if any, does he envision in the division’s work on housing, food access and transportation?
Would those changes involve voluntary partnerships, funding conditions, proposed regulations or requests for legislation?
How will the state assess effects on competition, patient choice, and small-business compliance costs?
What results will be published, and what would cause an ineffective program to be changed or discontinued?
How will Delaware distinguish temporary funding opportunities from commitments that require continuing state support?
Hines succeeds Steven Blessing after Dr. Tesha Quail served as interim director for more than three months. Quail returns to her position as deputy director and chief health equity officer.
His early priorities will provide the first indication of how Delaware’s broader health agenda translates into services, spending and expectations for the private sector.
China has the APEC stage. But Japan may have the momentumExpert commentjon.wallace
Tokyo cannot compete with Beijing’s economic firepower. But it offers Indo-Pacific countries a diplomatic and economic partner that delivers tangible gains without demanding allegiance in return.
The Asian Century is upon us with China as its visionary leader. That will be the message Beijing will hope to drive home when it hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on 18 to 19 November.
The summit is billed as a forum to address ‘building an Asia-Pacific community to prosper together’. But it will take place as the world’s most populous region grapples with challenges of energy insecurity, supply chain disruption, AI governance, and technological upheaval – and as growing geopolitical tensions are causing the realignment of international partnerships.
Beijing has not shied away from promoting itself as champion of the Global South. But for Indo-Pacific economies seeking a partner to build consensus and tackle the region’s most pressing challenges, the momentum may well be with Japan.
Low expectations
China’s history of lifting its people out of poverty at breathtaking speed has been nothing short of remarkable. Nevertheless, there is a trust deficit across the Indo-Pacific, where Beijing has established itself as the undisputed regional hegemon.
Its vision for growth, as outlined in in its latest Five-Year Plan, seeks to make China the global leader in advanced technology by 2030. But there are concerns among regional countries that this will mean Beijing further exploits its dominance and exacerbates global economic warfare.
Tokyo’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy has evolved to meet the new strategic reality.
Meanwhile expectations for gatherings such as APEC, and the ASEAN summit in the Philippines preceding it, are low. The possibility of a display of unity, let alone a collective action plan, seems remote, especially as China will continue to leverage its chokeholds on the global economy. Instead, more attention will be paid to meetings on the sidelines of the summits, including a likely trilateral between Presidents Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin.
Those talks are expected to focus on the Iran war and denuclearization. A breakthrough on the war would be greatly welcomed, given the economic pain caused by the resulting higher energy costs: Southeast and South Asian countries including Vietnam have been hard hit. But the underlying concern for regional countries will be that shifting relations between the US, China and Russia could further aggravate their existing challenges.
China will remain an indispensable relationship for all countries in the region. But it is Japan that may hold the key to a collaborative path to address the Indo-Pacific’s challenges – one that might allow the region to continue its upward economic trajectory.
An evolving strategy
There are three main reasons that Japan could play a key role as a driver of collaboration in the region.
First, Tokyo’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy has evolved to meet the new strategic reality. Originally FOIP championed a rules-based order, quickly becoming the foundation for the Indo-Pacific strategies of governments including the US and European Union. Its weakness, though, was the reluctance of South and Southeast Asian nations to embrace it. That, and the geopolitical reality of weakening commitment to a rules-based international order.
Tokyo has responded by developing the strategy around a pragmatic, results-oriented approach. In her May 2026 speech before the Vietnam National University, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi again stressed the need for a rules-based economic order. But she also set out how Japan intends to update the FOIP to reflect the immediate, practical needs of Vietnam and other countries across the Indo-Pacific.
That includes initiatives to build economic infrastructure ‘for the age of AI’, such as underwater sea cables and satellite communications, creating a ‘FOIP digital corridor’. It also means enhancing energy security for the long term, as outlined by the $10 billion Partnership on Wide Energy and Resource Resilience Asia (POWERR Asia), which Tokyo is expanding as it collaborates with the World Bank to advance regional energy resilience.
And it means boosting regional cooperation on artificial intelligence through an ASEAN-Japan Co-Creation Initiative for AI.
A trusted partner
Second, Japan has emerged as one of the most trusted and politically stable countries in the Indo-Pacific. In the latest State of Southeast Asia survey, Japan is ranked the most trusted major power by respondents in the 10 ASEAN nations for the eighth consecutive year. Nearly 66 per cent of respondents regard Japan as a responsible stakeholder that would do the right thing for global peace and prosperity. That puts it in a position to operate as a regional consensus-builder that can bring forward a roadmap for regional growth.
Granted, Tokyo has no interest in becoming a ‘superpower of the middle powers’. But it continues to embrace taking on a greater role in an increasingly unstable region that is facing growing economic risks. And it has shown an ability to overcome significant tensions and focus on results, for instance through its improved relations with Seoul – where pragmatism has generally prevailed as both Japan and South Korea have sought to cooperate over economic concerns, the increasing unpredictability of US policy, and shared regional security threats like North Korea.
Third, Japan has been committed to ensuring continued US engagement in the Indo-Pacific, including on trade. There has been growing discontent in the region about the economic damage caused by US foreign policy decisions, from tariffs to the war with Iran. But Tokyo has been resolute in promoting frameworks that would encourage the US to regain its position as a trusted economic power once again.
Granted, the likelihood of the US joining a multilateral trade framework such as the CPTPP is highly unlikely, even after a new Congress is sworn in under Democratic control. But the US remains the only country that has the advanced technology and financial capital to compete head-on with China. And Washington will remain a critical partner for economic security in the Indo-Pacific moving forward.
Japan cannot single-handedly reconcile the Indo-Pacific’s divergent interests, and there is domestic political debate about to what extent Japan should take on a leadership role, given its own fiscal constraints. It clearly cannot match China’s economic heft nor the technological and financial firepower of the US. Moreover, the trust that it enjoys in Southeast Asia does not necessarily translate into becoming a leader. Yet that may be to its advantage as the Indo-Pacific navigates the shifting global order and adopting to new geopolitical realities.
What Tokyo offers is a partner that delivers tangible results without demanding allegiance in return. Japan is positioning itself not as a regional leader, but as the convener the Indo-Pacific increasingly needs.
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Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally has said “people are seeking meaning, connection and hope in a turbulent world” as new statistics reveal Church of England attendances have grown for the fifth year in a row.
The number of regular attenders to C of E services grew to 1.03m in 2025, a 1.5% increase on the previous year.
Whether at morning prayer, a Sunday service, Evensong, a youth hub, a parent and toddler group - or any of the countless ways that the Church of England serves our communities in every parish - it is clear that people are seeking meaning, connection and hope in a turbulent world.
The government is considering stripping back legal protections that limit the costs community groups face when challenging planning decisions that threaten nature.
The Aarhus convention, an environmental treaty that was signed into law by the UK in 2005, guarantees the legal right to participate in democratic processes on environmental matters– such as sewage pollution, new roads or datacentre developments.
The Detroit Department of Transportation says video of two horses boarding a city bus raised safety concerns, and it plans to use the incident to retrain bus operators and educate residents.
Tower Hill and Archmere warm-up before their semifinal game. Tower Hill won the match, 3-1, to advance to the 2026 DIAA Girls Volleyball State Championship game. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti
The Tower Hill Hillers defeated the Archmere Auks and the St. Mark’s Spartans defeated the Middletown Cavaliers in the semifinals for a chance to compete for the 2026 DIAA Girls Volleyball State Championship title on November 16.
NEWARK, Del. — The 2026 DIAA Volleyball Championship matchup is set. The Tower Hill Hillers will take on the St. Mark’s Spartans for the state title on Monday, November 16, at 7:00 p.m. The Spartans and Hillers will meet at the Bob Carpenter Center with a state title on the line for the third season in a row.
Tower Hill defeated Archmere, 3-1
Tower Hill senior Sydney Fischer stood to the left of the back line as Archmere junior Olivia Borsello started her serve. The serve tipped off the top of the net and was handled by Tower Hill senior Parker Lewicki. Lewicki passed the ball to Skylar Donohue and the junior set the ball to the front left of the net where Fischer was waiting.
Fischer rose up and hit the ball hard, right at Borsello in the middle of the court. Borsello only had time to react as Fischer’s kill moved at a ferocious pace. The ball hit off Borsello’s hands and landed way behind the field of play.
Fischer recorded her third kill of the fourth set and increased the Hillers’ lead to 7-2, helping Tower Hill defeat Archmere and return to the state championship for the third season in a row.
“It’s so exciting,” Fischer said about moving onto the state championship game for the third straight season. “I really hope it goes well. Little nerve wracking again being in The Bob, but yeah I’m really excited.”
Fischer finished the game with 30 kills, with eight of them coming in the fourth set to go along with an ace that helped increase the Tower Hill total to 23. Hiller junior Cadence Davis scored the game winning kill on a strike from the left side after having to leave the game earlier due to an injury. The Hillers won the fourth set, 25-21.
“It was so cool,” Fischer said about Davis’ game winning play. “I think that’s exactly what we wanted. I mean in the huddle we told her like we all have her back, we’re all here for her even if she’s down or she’s hurting, like we have her, anything she needs she just needs to communicate with us and I think it really like spoke to how well our team culture is.”
With Davis’ short absence and the defense focused on limiting Fischer’s impact, the Hillers found an advantage in the middle with strong performances from senior Madison Squire and Jillian Truesdell. The pair combined for over 20 kills and three blocks in the semifinal.
“Seeing what they gave us and trying to just be aggressive especially when a key player like Cadence goes down,” Squire said. “I had to really step-up for my team and just be aggressive and just kind of take control of that front line.”
The Tower Hill versus Archmere matchup has been a staple in the past three DIAA tournaments. The Hillers won each of the last two matchups with sweeps of the Auks, but Archmere was able to win a set against Tower Hill in this year’s matchup, storming back from a seven point deficit to win, 26-24. It’s only the third set Tower Hill has lost this season.
St. Mark’s defeated Middletown, 3-0
Middletown junior Kaitlyn Haupt rose from the back line and hit the ball toward the St. Mark’s side of the court. The ball bounced off the hands of one Spartan then the hand of another before the kill fell to the ground past the back line. The score gave the Cavaliers a four point lead in the first set and forced a Spartan timeout to regroup.
The timeout proved to be well timed.
St. Mark’s scored ten of the next 12 points of the set turning a four point deficit into a four point lead within minutes. The Spartans never trailed again and won the first set, 25-21.
St. Mark’s carried the momentum from the first set win into the rest of the matchup, sweeping Middletown, to advance to the 2026 DIAA Volleyball Championship game.
“It feels so good, like me and my team have worked so hard to get here,” St. Mark’s junior Lina Clark said postgame. “There’s been a lot of pressure this whole season to just keep working hard and keep persevering and I feel like all of our hard work just really paid off and showed tonight.”
Clark played a big role in the Spartans closing out the victory with two kills and two blocks from her spot in the middle of the court. Freshman Anna Spofford led the Spartans with five kills in the third set including the game winner on a strike from the right side of the net that landed in the middle of the Cavalier defense. The Spartans’ sweep is their second in the tournament and 13th of the season.
A crucial part of the Spartans’ victory was their defensive play around the net. St. Marks finished the game with ten blocks, turning potential kills into points four times in both the first and final sets. Clark was a big part of that defensive effort accumulating four blocks in the game.
“We go over spots where people hit and how to get there. Me and Gia [Pezzullo] have really been working on pressing, being explosive and I feel like all of our training just came out tonight and it was great,” Clark said.
Pezzullo finished the game as the Spartans leading scorer with 14 kills and paced an offensive attack that featured multiple players with five or more kills.
The Spartans will need to take all their successes from this game along with the winning momentum into their battle against the reigning state champions. The Hillers and Spartans have met on this stage twice before in the same amount of years and the Spartans have come out as the runners-up each time without winning a set.
The trilogy of this recent rivalry is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the Bob Carpenter Center on Monday, November 16.
Amid concerns over the influence of the manosphere, our findings show that young men are concerned about caregiving
When young men helped propel Donald Trump into the White House in 2024, the administration doubled down on a brand of toxic masculinity popular in the so-called manosphere.
They touted high testosterone, male supremacy, and a “biblically-based family” where men work and provide, and deferential women stay home to bear children and care for others.
In July, three soldiers died in an enemy attack on an air base in Jordan, another died at an air base in Iraq and a Navy captain died during an emergency landing in the Arabian Sea.
Preview: In an interview airing on "CBS Sunday Morning" Nov. 15 and featured on the podcast "Alchemy with Anthony Mason," members of the legendary rock band discuss their collaborations as "nicely chaotic."
Nov. 13, 2026 — In a few days, Chicago’s scenic lakefront becomes the nexus for the people and technologies connecting science to discovery as the 38th annual International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, better known as SC26, convenes at McCormick Place on Nov. 15-20, 2026.
Special events, including last year’s “fireside chat” with Department of Energy (DOE) Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil (pictured center left), draw many to the DOE booth at SC, including Brookhaven Lab CDS Associate Laboratory Director, Nicholas D’Imperio, and CDS Deputy Director, Adolfy Hoisie, who are among the crowd. (Lillie Elliot/SC Photography)
As part of this annual convergence of global researchers, engineers, and industry leaders, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, including its Computing and Data Sciences directorate, will be on hand to showcase their cutting-edge computing research.
These contributions range from Artificial Intelligence (AI) efforts supported by DOE’s Genesis Mission to tools and methods for designing more efficient computing systems. Featured talks and demonstrations with Brookhaven Lab researchers also will be hosted at DOE Booth 4829 on the exhibition floor.
The following highlights Brookhaven Lab’s research and collaborations at SC26. All times are Central Standard Time (CST).
Brookhaven Lab@SC26
Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026
Fine-Tuning Foundation Models for Micro-CT Image Segmentation Using HPC Platforms
Session: XLOOP 2026: The 8th Annual Workshop on Extreme-Scale Experiment-in-the-Loop Computing
9:35 a.m. – 9:50 a.m. | Location: W179b
Brookhaven Lab co-authors: Daniel Allan and Nghia Vo
The team adapts foundation models to identify structures in three-dimensional X-ray images. The work combines specialized training methods with large computing resources to support near-real-time analysis of synchrotron datasets.
LightshowAI-Agent: An MCP-Based Agentic Framework for Real-Time and Reproducible X-Ray Absorption Spectral Analysis at Scientific User Facilities
Session: AI4S: 8th Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Scientific Applications
11:30 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. | Location: W183a
Brookhaven Lab co-authors: Ozgur O. Kilic, Sairam Sri Vatsavai, Anton Yanaky, Xiaohui Qu, Christopher Kelly, Chuntian Cao, Kari Barry, Daniel Allan, Lu Ma, Stuart Wilkins, Sara E. Mason, Meifeng Lin, Adolfy Hoisie, and Deyu Lu
LightshowAI-Agent coordinates the steps needed to interpret X-ray absorption measurements, connecting scientific databases, predictive models, and analysis records. The team will demonstrate the approach using data from the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven Lab.
Emblase: Using Tiled as an AI-Ready Data Access Service for Live Scientific Workflows
Session: XLOOP 2026: The 8th Annual Workshop on Extreme-Scale Experiment-in-the-Loop Computing
11:40 a.m. –11:55 a.m. | Location: W179b
Brookhaven Lab co-authors: Venkateswaran Shekar, Yevgen Matviychuk, Eliot Gann, and Daniel Allan
Emblase connects live experimental data with AI analysis and scientist-facing tools. Developed for an NSLS-II scattering workflow, it uses American Science Cloud (AmSC) computing resources, created under DOE’s Genesis Mission, while keeping data and analysis results accessible through Tiled, a common scientific data interface.
DMSim: Configurable Data Management Simulation Framework for Scientific Computing Grid
Session: PMBS26: The 17th International Workshop on Performance Modeling, Benchmarking, and Simulation of High Performance Computer Systems
3:50 p.m. – 4:10 p.m. | Location: W181a
Brookhaven Lab co-authors: Kuan-Chieh Hsu, Raees Ahmad Khan, Sairam Sri Vatsavai, Tasnuva Chowdhury, Ozgur O. Kilic, Sankha Dutta, David Park, Yihui Ren, Shinjae Yoo, Alexei Klimentov, and Adolfy Hoisie
DMSim allows researchers to test how data placement and transfer policies affect distributed scientific computing. Historical records from the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid help evaluate the framework’s treatment of data movement and delays.
Monday, Nov. 16, 2026
Workshops
HOLOS: A Gradient-Descent-Based Design-Space Exploration Framework for Hierarchical AI Accelerator Systems
Session: AI on HPC: Performance Engineering, Challenges and Opportunities
4:48 p.m. – 5 p.m. | Location: W183b
Brookhaven Lab co-authors: Sairam Sri Vatsavai, Lingda Li, and Adolfy Hoisie
HOLOS helps researchers explore hardware and software choices for accelerator systems. By modeling performance, area, and energy together, the framework narrows the search for efficient designs for large language models.
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026
Research Posters | 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. | Location: Skyline Ballroom North Pre-Function
A-OASIS: Building an AI-Coupled Atmosphere-Ocean Foundation Model
Brookhaven Lab co-authors: Nia Maheshwari, Guang Zhao, and Wei Xu
A-OASIS explores whether one foundation model can learn interactions among the atmosphere, ocean, and land. Initial results establish training feasibility, while validation of its forecasting capability remains a next step.
Characterizing GPU Performance in AI Inference with Power Metrics
Brookhaven Lab co-authors: Mohammad Atif, Sankha Dutta, and Meifeng Lin
The study examines how GPU hardware and software choices affect the speed and energy use of large language model inference. Its measurements can explain trade-offs between higher throughput and lower power consumption.
Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2026
DOE Featured Speaker
Unifying Experimental Facilities and Heterogeneous Computing via the American Science Cloud 10:45 a.m. | Location: DOE Booth 4829
Speaker: Meifeng Lin, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Lin will discuss Brookhaven Lab’s work connecting experimental facilities with computing through AmSC, part of DOE’s Genesis Mission. Video demonstrations will illustrate approaches to autonomous experimentation and coordinated scientific workflows.
American Science Cloud Scientific User Facilities Infrastructure Partnership 5 p.m. | Location: DOE Booth 4829, Demonstration Station 1
Brookhaven Lab team members include Daniel Allan, Meifeng Lin, and Yevgen Matviychuk (with collaborators from seven DOE National Laboratories).
The demonstration links experimental facilities with shared computing, data, and AI services for scientific workflows.
Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.
Source: Charity Plata, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Once the ultimate symbol of Hollywood rebellion, the former Nvidia chief’s signature look is now being mocked as a midlife crisis cliche
For nearly two decades a black leather jacket has been a key part of Jensen Huang’s look. Now it has become a punchline.
As the founder and chief executive of Nvidia resigned this week after reports of multiple affairs, his affinity for a leather jacket, an item of clothing typically associated with a man in midlife crisis mode, has become widely mocked.
After Tuesday’s election, ‘everyone must have a Wednesday agenda,’ experts say
The bright blue map that emerged on election night in the US was unthinkable two years ago. When Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, many Democratic voters curled up in bed and doomscrolled, fatigued and fearful about the direction of the country. Any desire to fight back was dampened by the enormity of the loss.
But the mood gradually shifted over the following two years, culminating in a generational shift on election day: Democrats flipped five governors’ seats and took control of the House and Senate by wide margins. Voters were angry about the rising cost of living, the war in Iran, masked immigration agents in their neighborhoods and datacenters rising in their backyards.
The Trump administration filed a lawsuit against the university in federal court earlier last month. The case, filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Oct. 1, is challenging the ability of noncitizen students who are Delaware residents to qualify for in-state tuition.
The case marks the 26th of 27 filed by the DOJ against similar policies at other higher education institutions across the country. It was the first case filed against an individual university rather than a state or municipal government, followed by a case filed against Penn State University last week.
In some states, the lawsuits have resulted in the cancellation of these policies. Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas have seen rulings in favor of the Trump administration, resulting in the cancellation of in-state tuition for more than 180,000 undocumented students, as reported by Inside Higher Ed. Florida self-canceled similar policies in February 2025, prior to any case being filed by the federal government.
Other states — Minnesota and Virginia — have successfully defended their policies. At least 220,000 undocumented students live in states where litigation is underway.
What is the legal dispute over?
The lawsuit claims that the university’s policy that offers in-state tuition to undocumented students, who might be lawfully present in the United States (U.S.) but do not have their full citizenship yet, violates a 1996 federal law — Section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA).
The DOJ argues that by offering in-state tuition to noncitizens who live in Delaware, the university is “favoring illegal aliens over U.S. citizens” who live out-of-state and pay full-rate tuition as a result.
However, the in-state tuition offer from the university is predicated on certain qualifications that must be met by noncitizens with in-state residence. They must have attended a Delaware high school for at least three years, graduated or received the equivalent of a high school diploma while residing with parents or a legal guardian, provide proof that they are actively seeking U.S. citizenship or permanent residency and must be enrolled in the university within 18 months of obtaining their high school diploma or equivalent.
The question of the case falls narrowly on the interpretation of the federal law in question, which reads: “an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State . . . for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit . . . without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.”
As described by professor in the political science department and director of the legal studies program at the university, Wayne Batchis, there are two ways a judge might interpret the statutory language.
“Is it understood to mean that all students in state and out of state have to be eligible for this benefit?” Batchis said. “Or is it read as meaning as long as there are some out-of-state students who are eligible for this benefit, that is sufficient?”
In Virginia and Massachusetts, the latter interpretation has prevailed.
The additional argument has been made in Minnesota that classifications for in-state tuition for noncitizens are not made by residency, and therefore do not violate the federal law.
“They’re saying the federal statute says you’re not allowed to give them in-state tuition based on their residency, and they’re saying very technically it’s not based on their residence; it’s based on whether they went to high school here,” Alan Garfield, professor of law at Widener University Delaware Law School, said.
Why is the DOJ filing the case?
The DOJ argued that this tuition policy will put U.S. citizens at a disadvantage when applying to the university. They also argue that by putting U.S. citizens at a disadvantage, the university is encouraging illegal immigration.
The DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs (OPA) released a press release about the lawsuit, which said that the university is discriminating against U.S. citizens who are not offered the same reduced tuition rate. An associate attorney general, Stanley Woodward Jr., stated that this tuition program offered by the university is a direct violation of federal law.
“This Department of Justice’s efforts will not cease until we have challenged every state law or university policy that gives preferential treatment to illegal aliens over our nation’s own citizens,” Woodward Jr. said. “Congress long ago made clear that states cannot give reduced tuition to illegal aliens not available to all Americans. When a state Attorney General allows her own state to violate federal law, this department must step in to enforce it.”
An assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Division, Brett Shumate, additionally commented on the lawsuit.
“This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Shumate said. “This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”
The series of cases by the Trump administration follows an immigration crackdown that has swept the country since taking office in January 2025.
What could this mean for students?
In states where noncitizen students have been disqualified from receiving in-state tuition, students have faced choices between dropping classes, transferring or otherwise accommodating increased tuition.
“The significance of this is quite clear for a lot of stakeholders,” Batchis said. “For the universities, it’s obviously quite important because at a time of challenges when it comes to enrollment, this might mean an enrollment decrease if they lose these challenges and they’re no longer able to provide in-state tuition to students who are often students who need it the most.
“In terms of the impact on those dreamers who are not citizens, often at no fault of their own, in-state tuition can be crucial to their ability to get an education.”
In a statement provided to The Review, the university said the following:
“The University of Delaware is aware of the complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, and we are reviewing it carefully. Because this is a pending legal matter, we will not comment further at this time,” the statement read.
First direct attack on US military installations for months was in response to US airstrike on communications tower
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has targeted and destroyed a US early-warning radar in Bahrain in response to a US airstrike on a communications tower in Sirik overlooking the strait of Hormuz. It is Iran’s first direct attack on US military installations for months.
“This is a serious warning to the aggressor enemy to end its aerial mischief and oil smuggling in the strait of Hormuz,” the IRGC said. “In the event of repeated violations and aggression, the IRGC aerospace force is on full alert to confront the enemy without constraint.”
Supplies outstripped demand by almost 2m barrels a day in October as market shows ‘tentative signs of rebalancing’
The world’s oil supply is swinging back to a surplus for the first time since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.
Oil supplies outstripped demand by almost 2m barrels a day in October, the Paris-based agency said, as “Gulf exports recovered much faster than global oil demand”.
Why Should Delaware Care? Tornadoes are particularly rare, especially in northern New Castle County where one touched down Thursday. While the storm caused some localized damage, no injuries have been reported.
Lori Seaman said storm warnings have become so frequent that she barely gives them pause anymore — but she will now after a rare New Castle County tornado potentially struck her home Thursday.
Seaman, who lives in the Salem Woods community off Old Baltimore Pike in the Bear area, was at home when she noticed the skies getting dark. When she heard the wind begin to pick up and the rain begin the pelt her home, she figured the day’s storm had arrived.
This enormous tree was toppled onto Lori Seaman’s Bear-area home Thursday during the tornado. | PHOTO COURTESY OF LORI SEAMAN
“But then it just got louder and louder to the point where the whole house was shaking, and I just started hearing things banging around,” she recalled Thursday afternoon. “And this huge boom as the trees came down on top of the house. It was just pretty wild.”
Seaman ran down into the basement to take cover, but after a few minutes of quiet she ventured outside to see what had occurred.
That’s when she saw the funnel cloud clear as day about a half mile away.
The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado did touch down in New Castle County, but its intensity and exact track is still being determined. Crews are expected to visit the county – as well as Burlington County, N.J., where another tornado struck – on Friday to assess the damage and make those determinations.
Seamen wasn’t alone, as many people captured video or photos of the funnel cloud that was visible for miles.
Crews will be assessing damage from the tornado is this area to determine the strength of the storm. | MAP COURTESY OF DEMA
Thankfully, no major injuries have been reported from the storm, despite it striking a heavily populated part of the state. Damage was particularly isolated – Seaman’s neighborhood, which boasts hundreds of homes, looked rather untouched in many areas – but included a hotel and ChristianaCare’s Newark Campus in the area.
In a statement, the healthcare system said its helipads and two helicopters sustained minor damage in the storm, but no one was injured and no patient care was impacted. According to photos by WDEL, at least one helicopter sustained a snapped rotor blade.
Over the next several days, ChristianaCare will stand up a temporary helipad and remove the damaged helicopters so they can be inspected and repaired.
Since when does New Castle County get tornadoes?
While Delaware may not be Kansas or Oklahoma, tornadoes are fairly common in the First State, occurring about once a year on average, but they typically occur in the spring or summer and in the lower counties.
One struck Dover in August, causing damaged to motels, warehouses and Little League fields.
Since 1950, New Castle County has averaged roughly one tornado every two to three years, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration storm records. A 2023 twister in the Middletown area tore up roofs in several neighborhoods.
The appearance of a tornado this late in the calendar year is particularly unexpected though. Only one other November tornado has ever been recorded by the National Weather Service since 1950 — and it occurred in 1989.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is under fire from critics asking whether his ties to Chinese companies and friendship with ex-Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang contributed to a lack of oversight over Nvidia AI chip sales.
Big tech has used misdirection, disinformation and jargon to obscure the harm the facilities can cause to communities
“Antifa”. “Commies”. “Chinese bots”. Everyone from tech leaders to the president has called datacenter resistance a “documented psyop” and a “Chinese PR thing”.
But why do they make these claims? Our new research finds that the datacenter industry uses propaganda, disinformation, and information control to mold public opinion and undermine community opposition.
Ministers consider banning under-16s from online marketplaces amid reported misuse of messaging functions and users’ photos
In June, Hannah* listed her seven-year-old daughter’s pink swimming costume for sale on Vinted, hoping other parents surfing the reselling site would snap up the £1 offer. Her inbox pinged.
“So a little girl wore this yh [yeah]?” wrote a user with a male handle.
Hospitals, GPs and police forces across the UK have been hit by the global Microsoft outage, which is also expected to disrupt schools, businesses and some travel.
Key public services battled to get systems back online amid “widespread” and “serious” disruption to NHS services, as staff resorted to using patient’s paper records after being unable to access email and other IT facilities used to deliver healthcare.
One company is proposing elongating the life of the dump, pungent smell and all, several more decades
As a visual representation of how New York is running out of places to put its waste, the largest active landfill in the state is a striking one. The hulking Seneca Meadows landfill is already the height of the Statue of Liberty and its operators are seeking to raise it even further, to the consternation of nearby residents.
The landfill, situated in the scenic Finger Lakes region in the northern reaches of New York state, has grown since the 1980s to now sprawl across 350 acres of deposited trash, mounded up to the height of around 300ft – roughly the same height of the Statue of Liberty.
Pochettino to take charge of two final USMNT matches
He has signed two-and-a-half-year United contract
Mauricio Pochettino’s switch from the US men’s national team to Manchester United has been confirmed. Pochettino will guide the US through a pair of Concacaf Nations League matches on Saturday and Tuesday before joining United, for whom his first game will come at Liverpool next Sunday.
The former Chelsea, Tottenham and Southampton manager has signed a two-and-a-half-year deal to replace Michael Carrick, who was sacked on Thursday after leading United to their worst start to a season in four decades. United have won one of their past 11 games and are in the Premier League’s relegation zone.
Users of Microsoft Teams and Outlook in businesses and public services reporting problems. Plus would you like to spend time as a helpful furry little post delivery service?
Good morning. A global outage of vital Microsoft systems has crippled businesses and public services around the world. The tech company said it was seeing “early signs of stabilisation” after the failure affected millions of users for more than 12 hours on Thursday and Friday.
Some but not all users were reporting problems with services including Microsoft Teams and Outlook email. More than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, and more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies use Copilot, Microsoft’s AI chatbot, according to the company. Microsoft said that there were no indications that the outage had been caused by a cyber-attack. We are covering the recovery efforts and continuing impact in this live blog.
The failed move could lead to a more robust effort against the defense secretary in the next Congress. Here’s how it could look
A traffic jam, combined with disorganization on the part of Democrats, enabled House Republicans to scuttle the representative Thomas Massie’s articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth on Wednesday.
While recriminations are now flying among Democrats, the fumble may have been a blessing in disguise. Democrats can now refocus the articles against the defense secretary, possibly to better effect.
The privacy issues over the company’s surveillance cameras have caused protests in schools all over the country
Angela Nguyen, a senior at Stanford University, has been on a mission to make sure her school doesn’t use automated license plate readers, like those made by Flock Safety, for mass surveillance. The 21-year-old computer science major helped collect hundreds of signatures earlier this year from students, faculty, alumni and residents to demand that Stanford drop its current Flock contract and codify safeguards for similar tech tools the school may use in the future. The fear, Nguyen says, is that these cameras, which show where a vehicle was at a certain point in time, can be exploited to victimize vulnerable people.
A light saber used by Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" movies "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" has sold for nearly $5 million in an auction.
Russia has attacked a hospital in the centre of Kyiv, close to several western embassies, after Volodymyr Zelenskyy said speed restrictions on SpaceX’s Starshield system had made it harder for Ukraine to shoot down enemy drones.
Three people were injured when a drone smashed into the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics at 3am, hitting the second floor of the hospital and an adjoining 19th-century building.
Police called to Huddersfield University on Tuesday after women reported being ‘approached and grabbed’
A 29-year-old man has been charged after seven women reported being sexually assaulted on the Huddersfield University campus over a 30 minute period.
West Yorkshire police said Sophan Akbash had been charged with nine counts of sexual assault and would appear at Leeds magistrates court on Friday. Security staff called officers to Huddersfield University on Tuesday evening after reports of a man approaching and sexually touching women on and near the campus, police said.
Unknown and Dishonored: How do a president’s century-old words illuminate the Defense Secretary’s bad behavior at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?
Leave Ayesha Out of It: Steph Curry calmly shuts down two ex-players who disparaged his wife’s acting career, and both quickly apologize.
Carlitos Combines Athletic Grace and Surgical Precision: Carlos Alcaraz shows he’s the most exciting player in pro tennis, and why the “New Two” may eventually surpass the Big Three.
Hot Links: Scott Colom’s midterm upset, another hospital strike in Gaza, a bad choice for Republican leadership, & how the Democrats blew Hegseth’s impeachment.
Mudbound, directed by Dee Rees: This drama about two returning WWII veterans in the segregated South is a hard but necessary watch after the Veterans Day parades end.
Edwin Starr, “War”: How a song Motown considered too risky became a number-one hit and an anti-war anthem, with two performances to compare.
Quote of the Day
“This American soldier went forth to battle with no hatred for any people in the world, but hating war and hating the purpose of every war for conquest. He cherished our national rights, and abhorred the threat of armed domination; and in the maelstrom of destruction and suffering and death he fired his shot for liberation of the captive conscience of the world. In advancing toward his objective was somewhere a thought of a world awakened; and we are here to testify undying gratitude and reverence for that thought of a wider freedom.”
—President Warren G. Harding (1865-1923) dedicating the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
President Warren G. Harding dedicates the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. (Library of Congress)
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery was dedicated on November 11, 1921, three years to the day after the armistice that marked the end of World War I. It held the remains of an unidentified American serviceman killed in the war but also honored all those who died in military service unknown, unclaimed by loved ones, and without their sacrifices adequately acknowledged. Heroes one and all. The monument was originally a simple slab of marble. The more elaborate white marble sarcophagus, featuring neoclassical sculptures representing Peace, Victory, and Valor, was completed in 1932. Its inscription reads, “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” In our secular nation, it is as close to a sacred national space as any place we have.
In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, formerly a five-star general who led the Allied forces in World War II, signed legislation expanding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to include servicemen from World War II and Korea. On May 30, 1958, he bestowed the Medal of Honor upon two unknown soldiers who were buried there that day. In 1984, a Vietnam War unknown was added to the tomb, but thanks to advances in DNA technology, he was later identified as Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Blassie, who had been shot down during a combat mission in 1972. In 1998, his remains were exhumed and reburied with his family in attendance at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, and the Vietnam crypt at the Tomb of the Unknowns remains empty, rededicated in tribute to all U.S. service members from that war who remain unidentified or missing.
Since 1937, the Tomb of the Unknowns has been guarded by soldiers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In 1948, a special unit called The Old Guard, drawn from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, was reassigned the duty of maintaining that watch, and it has never vacated its post. In 2012, when Hurricane Sandy struck, they stood through torrential rains and fierce winds. In the winter of 2016, when two feet of snow fell on Washington, D.C., The Old Guard cleared a path and continued their watch. In 2020, Arlington was closed to the public because of the COVID pandemic, but The Old Guard remained on duty.
Visiting Arlington and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a deeply somber and humbling experience. It is a reminder that we are here, both as individuals and a country, because of the sacrifices made by those who came before us and who wore the uniform of our country, who sacrificed their lives and, in some cases, even their names in order to protect the ideals laid out in our Constitution. It’s not a place for photo opportunities or jokes. Laughter is the last thing you would expect to hear.
But that’s exactly what was heard earlier this week, on Veterans Day, as our Defense Secretary, his wife, and several top Pentagon aides posed for photos, shared a private joke, and laughed loudly—a scene that was captured by news cameras and broadcast throughout the world. What came next was truly remarkable, as a junior enlisted man in full dress uniform reprimanded the Defense Secretary’s group: “All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times!” he shouted. Later in the day, in response to questions from the media, the Defense Department issued a statement saying that “a soldier correctly and respectfully reminded everyone to maintain decorum.” Correctly, yes. But there didn’t appear to be much deference in the soldier’s command, nor should there have been. His responsibility was to uphold the dignity of the place, not to indulge the rank of its visitors.
The Defense Secretary had just the day before barely survived an attempt at impeachment by members of Congress. You might have expected him to be chastened, but that would have been entirely out of character. He has tried to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, as if war itself was a more laudable goal than defending our country and our Constitution. He calls the men and women under his command warfighters, as if their greatest achievement would be fighting a war, rather than deterring one.
He tried to frame his potential impeachment as a condemnation of the men and women he is supposed to lead, rather than a condemnation of his misguided leadership: “On the eve of Veterans Day, these [impeachment] resolutions tell every one of them that their service was a crime.” That is patently ridiculous. The crimes were committed by a secretary who was confirmed to defend our nation, but who, rather than “hating war and hating the purpose of every war for conquest,” has used his powers to push us into unnecessary battles. His impeachment is long overdue.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland announced Thursday that he will challenge longtime Democratic leader Chuck Schumer for Senate majority leader, arguing that voters who handed Democrats control of Congress also demanded a break from the status quo.
“In this election, the American people called for change,” Van Hollen said, adding that Democrats need “new leadership” to respond to concerns about affordability, government accountability and working-class economic issues.
Schumer, who has led Senate Democrats since 2017, says he has the votes to remain leader. Democrats will enter the next Congress with at least 55 Senate seats, with Alaska still unresolved. The leadership election will be decided by a private caucus vote next month.
Van Hollen has already won support from more than 10 incoming Democratic caucus members, according to Reuters. Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, have publicly backed him.
Progressives have criticized Schumer as insufficiently aggressive toward President Donald Trump and too supportive of Israel. Van Hollen has taken more confrontational positions on Trump administration policies and has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Schumer’s allies point to Democrats’ unexpectedly large Senate gains as evidence his leadership strategy worked.
Eccentric and overhyped, Tesla’s Cybertruck became a stand-in for Elon Musk during his ascent in the Republican party. It will join the ranks of other vehicles symbolic of their eras – for better or for worse
Three days after a historic blue tsunami changed America’s political landscape, Elon Musk announced Tesla would end production of its hulking Cybertruck next year.
Was it a coincidence? Maybe. Musk said the move was “to make room for increased Cybercab production”, referring to Tesla’s Robotaxi. But the combined circumstances felt highly appropriate: it was the end of an era.
Progressives should be careful not to get comfortable. There is work to be done
Democrats had a great midterms result. Big wins in Ohio, Georgia, Iowa, Maine and Texas show the potential for a majority coalition that reaches well beyond traditional liberal strongholds. That’s a good sign for the party’s chances come 2028.
Not surprisingly, the story of the midterms was “affordability”. Surveys showed that the economy was the top issue for the election, with a third of voters citing cost-of-living concerns as their number one issue, and nearly 40% of voters claiming their personal financial situation has worsened over the past year. It’s clear that voters don’t approve of Donald Trump’s economic management.
The Georgia State Election Board meets in Marietta in March. Mauricio Rodriguez Pons/ProPublica
In the run-up to the midterms, members of Georgia’s State Election Board and much of its professional staff were coordinating with an activist group led by Cleta Mitchell, the conservative attorney who worked with President Donald Trump to try to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.
Recordings of private calls and events reviewed by ProPublica show current and former state board members working with the Election Integrity Network and allied organizations on shared priorities. Among them: advancing the use of a controversial, error-prone software tool known as ELLY to search voter rolls for purportedly suspicious voters.
The state board’s current vice chair, Janelle King, and her predecessor, Janice Johnston, have both attended meetings of EIN or VoterGA, an aligned organization whose membership and goals significantly overlap with EIN. Johnston retired in June but still plays an active role in state election matters behind the scenes.
At an August 2025 fundraiser for VoterGA, Mitchell declared she loved Johnston and King, who were both present. “You know, we’ve worked so hard together,” Mitchell said.
Janice Johnston and Janelle King at a March meeting of the State Election Board. Johnston resigned from the board in June.Mauricio Rodriguez Pons/ProPublica
At least three members of the state board’s eight-person professional staff have participated in EIN meetings, including people who handle allegations of voter fraud and misconduct by election officials.
The board’s executive director, James Mills, likewise has worked closely with members of the EIN, according to five sources with knowledge of these interactions, board documents and EIN communications shared with ProPublica.
EIN’s close ties to the board and its staff have given it extraordinary influence over how elections are run in Georgia, experts said. In particular, the group has been able to enlist the board’s help in getting counties to remove voters from their rolls based on information from ELLY.
“Trump allies captured the State Election Board to keep claims of a stolen 2020 election going and tilt Georgia elections toward Republicans,” said Max Flugrath, a director at Fair Fight Action, a voting advocacy nonprofit that has closely tracked the board’s and the network’s actions. “EIN was the behind-the-scenes driver spearheading these changes.”
The board’s chair, John Fervier, told ProPublica he had not known about EIN’s sway over the board or its staff, but said he’d long sensed that an outside force was shaping the board’s actions.
“The more I look into this, the more I’m realizing that the Election Integrity Network has been having an undue influence on the State Election Board, and that needs to cease,” he said in an interview, though he declined to go into specifics about personnel matters. “I’m looking forward to changes in how the election board operates.”
John Fervier has chaired the Georgia State Election Board since 2024.Mauricio Rodriguez Pons/ProPublica
In response, Garland Favorito, an EIN leader and head of VoterGA, called on social media for his followers to inundate state board members with messages defending Mills and other staffers associated with the group.
“There is a significant possibility that these members will vote to terminate the Executive Director, investigators or possibly even staff members, any of which would destroy the SEB as we now know it,” Favorito wrote on Wednesday, referring to the State Election Board. “As most of you know, the SEB staff has made remarkable historical progress this year in … accountability for election corruption and much more. The Executive Director and staff deserve raises for amazing performances, not threats of termination.”
In interviews in late September, Johnston did not directly answer questions about her relationship to EIN. “I’m all about election integrity, wherever it comes from,” she said. She acknowledged she had remained involved with board affairs after her retirement. “It gets in your blood,” she said. Two days later, she posted on social media that “Cleta Mitchell, Election Integrity expert has the right ideas” about how elections should be run.
Johnston did not answer detailed questions about her relationship with EIN and affiliated groups.
King was appointed to the board by the Republican-led Georgia House in 2024.Mauricio Rodriguez Pons/ProPublica
King acknowledged she spoke about election matters with activists from EIN and VoterGA, but said they did not influence her decisions. She also said she saw no problem with EIN activists working for the board, though the staff is supposed to be independent and nonpartisan.
“As long as they are representing the SEB well, fine,” she said in an interview. “If they choose to become members of an organization in their private time, that is their choice.”
When a reporter recounted instances in which staffers had worked to advance EIN goals in their official capacity, she said she was unaware of this. “That is the first I’ve heard about it,” she responded.
Mills declined to answer questions from ProPublica about his relationship to EIN.
Mitchell did not respond directly to ProPublica but, after receiving detailed questions, put a post on X celebrating EIN’s work with the election board. “An election integrity group is working with election officials to oversee elections,” she wrote. “Wow! What a discovery!!! Pulitzer anyone?”
Favorito called the idea that the board and its staff had been working secretly with the EIN and VoterGA a “patently false conspiracy theory.”
EIN has been deeply entwined with conservatives’ efforts to reshape Georgia elections since at least 2024.
In recent months, EIN’s allies and participants at the state board pushed counties to use ELLY, a tool developed by an EIN member, to search voter rolls for signs of fraud and purge suspect registrants.
ELLY aggregates public data from state voter files, federal change-of-address records, tax documents, obituaries, property websites like Zillow and other sources, but doesn’t have access to personal identifiers such as Social Security numbers or full dates of birth. As a result, voting rights groups have said, ELLY often erroneously flags legitimate voters.
Nonetheless, before the midterms, the State Election Board’s investigative staff pressured Chatham County, a Democratic stronghold, to purge more than 200 registered voters that the tool identified as questionable, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
After the election, a Forsyth County election board member who is also a member of EIN submitted ELLY data questioning the validity of over 60 ballots, including four cast by people who were supposedly dead. ProPublica found that all four were, in fact, alive. The board rejected the challenges.
The EIN’s connections to the board carry additional importance in light of last week’s election results, in which Democrats wrested control of all statewide offices and the state House from Republicans. The House appoints a member to the State Election Board, opening the door to change.
Gov.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms ran on a platform that promised a new approach to the election board.
“The State Election Board has become mired in political games, conspiracy theories, and partisan interference,” the platform stated. Bottoms’ platform pledged that she would “work with the General Assembly to eliminate the current State Election Board and replace it with a stronger, more independent election oversight structure that is insulated from partisan manipulation.”
Fervier is part of the board’s four-member Republican majority, but he has clashed repeatedly with Johnston, King and Mills and has effectively been relegated to a member of the minority at times.
State Election Board Executive Director James Mills, Fervier and King at a board meeting in Fayette County in AugustMauricio Rodriguez Pons/ProPublica
Emails and communications between board members and staff obtained by ProPublica via public records requests show that Fervier and other board members who oppose steps supported by the EIN have been excluded from some board hiring decisions.
Earlier this year, Fervier publicly accused Mills of going beyond what the board had authorized in calling for the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to intervene to assess the security of the state’s voting machines.
“Activists should not control the board,” he told ProPublica. “I’m really looking forward to this meeting because I think that we’re going to address some issues that should have been addressed awhile ago.”
The FAA is expanding its $875 million AI-powered SMART system to all 22 U.S. air traffic control centers across the country. Since being implemented over Washington, DC, on September 21, the system has helped reroute 180 flights, saving an average of 10 minutes and nearly 80 gallons of fuel per flight. Ars Technica reports: The FAA fact sheet describes SMART as a cloud-based system that combines information about "weather patterns, flight paths, traffic flow and controller staffing metrics" to predict air traffic patterns. It is designed to make scheduling recommendations, identify optimal flight routes, and determine the best order of arrivals for aircraft. However, a human team of FAA specialists based in DC is ultimately responsible for validating the SMART system recommendations before passing them along to air traffic control facilities across the country, according to the agency. Furthermore, the AI-powered SMART system "cannot be used to replace the critical role air traffic controllers play or take over control of an aircraft," the FAA clarified in the September 21 announcement about the initial deployment. Local air traffic controllers can decide whether or not to accept the SMART system recommendations.
[...] Following the initial deployment in airspace above DC, the FAA expanded the SMART system's coverage to air route traffic control centers in Atlanta along with Jacksonville and Miami in Florida, according to The Dallas Morning News. The FAA also shared an example with The Dallas Morning News about how SMART recommended a shorter and faster route for a cargo flight arriving at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, although the newspaper noted that the agency did not identify the flight involved and has not provided information about how SMART may have assisted passenger flight traffic.
“When change is real, it comes from below. It comes from you and me,” says Rage Against the Machine's Morello. “That’s what I've been singing about and screaming about in my songs for an entire career.”
A nonprofit from South Carolina guided the school district in Bend in best practices to deal with trauma after the deaths of three children and a teacher.
The FBI says it's seized more than $1.2 billion of cryptocurrency reported stolen last month from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Ministers will face a legal challenge over plans to convert a Ministry of Defence site near the Oxfordshire village of Piddington into accommodation for more than 1,200 detained asylum seekers.
It emerged on Thursday that Angela Rayner, the housing and communities secretary, had approved full planning permission, a decision welcomed by the Home Office, who want to end the use of asylum hotels.
Photo illustration: Mauricio Rodríguez Pons/ProPublica. Source images: Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian, courtesy of the Phillips family.
What if you had to pick between your deeply held faith and the life of your child? That’s the gutting choice that faced Marshall Phillips, an Oregon dad who was born into the Followers of Christ, a sect whose creed bars medical treatment. When his 11-year-old son was stricken with a dire health crisis, Phillips became caught between his faith, his family and the state of Oregon, which had begun cracking down on faith-healing parents who don’t seek medical help for their minor children. A decade later, Phillips was pulled into another one of his church’s life-or-death dramas when he was asked to care for a newborn whose twin had died because her parents had refused to seek medical attention.
To examine the power of faith-healing churches and the toll of their teachings, The Oregonian investigative reporter Noelle Crombie, senior staff photojournalist Beth Nakamura and videographer Samantha Swindler spent months with Phillips and his family, piecing together rare accounts from inside the deeply shuttered world of the Followers of Christ and of the state officials who fought to protect children who need medical treatment. The documentary, produced by The Oregonian’s managing producer of video, Teresa Mahoney, not only lays out in visceral detail the agonizing choices that families like the Phillips have to make, it also chronicles how they overcame the clash with their religious beliefs.
Why Should Delaware Care? The Delaware General Assembly is responsible for passing state laws that impact everyone in the state. Lawmaking usually involves debate from factions of legislators. But with a new supermajority for Democrats, the ability for Republicans to push back has been weakened. .
With Delaware Democrats’ decisive victories in the general election, Republicans in the legislature are now expressing fears that their voices could go unheard in Dover if lawmakers veer to the left.
When the 2027 legislative session begins in January, Democrats will have big enough supermajorities in both legislative chambers to pass amendments to the Delaware Constitution without Republican votes.
The outcome echoes results nationally from the November election, with Republicans now facing diminished power in statehouses across the country and in Congress.
In interviews with Spotlight Delaware, three Republican legislators and one outgoing member said they fear their Democratic colleagues could now change the Constitution along politically divisive issues, such as restricting gun rights and enshrining the right to abortion into the state’s highest law.
“I’m very concerned about what may happen,” Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford South) said.
Democratic leaders have not said they intend to pass amendments related to guns, but noted they do plan to change the Constitution with respect to voting and reproductive health.
In that process, Rep. Jeffrey Spiegelman (R-Clayton) said he fears that legitimate GOP concerns might not be considered because of his party’s weakened position.
“The smaller we become, the harder it is to hear our voice from all the way down here,” Spiegelman said.
Asked about the Republican fears, House Speaker Melissa Minor Brown (D-New Castle) acknowledged that Democrats do not have to ask the GOP for votes, but said her party will be “responsible lawmakers.”
House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris (D-Dover) told Spotlight Delaware that her party’s members intend to work with Republicans, like they have done so in past years when Democrats also controlled both chambers.
Harris also said she will continue to push a proposal to allow voters to approve constitutional amendments after they pass the legislature. If enacted, the change would diminish Democratic lawmaker’s ability to unilaterally change the constitution.
“I hope she’s extremely successful in overcoming the old adage about absolute power,” he said.
Spiegelman also noted that he has the “utmost respect” for the House Speaker.
How can Delaware Republicans move forward?
During the upcoming legislative session, the Delaware House of Representatives will be composed of 30 Democrats and 11 Republicans after the GOP lost three seats during the general election.
The Senate will have 15 Democrats and six Republicans, the same as last session.
While the results mean that Democrats can unilaterally change the Delaware Constitution, the party will still need Republican votes to pass the state’s annual capital budget – commonly called the Bond Bill — which requires a three-quarters supermajority.
In past years, Senate Republicans have used their leverage over the Bond Bill to negotiate for preferred legislation, including in 2025 when lawmakers struck a last-minute wind energy deal that released a hold on the budget.
Still, Shupe said he doesn’t want his party to hold up the Bond Bill as a negotiating tactic in the future, arguing instead for his caucus to “be more forceful about (the state’s) spending habits.”
He also argued for his colleagues to share alternative solutions when critiquing Democratic proposals.
Outgoing Rep. Rich Collins (R-Millsboro) also said the election results were less of a rebuke of Delaware Republicans and more of establishment Democrats, noting that many lost in September primaries to progressive challengers.
But he worries that more progressive lawmakers would be even less likely to listen to the Republican perspective. That could make the state less business-friendly, he said.
Delaware’s budget relies heavily on revenue from the fees and taxes generated by the 2 millions U.S. companies that maintain their legal home in the state.
Progressive Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton (D-Bear) speaks jovially with Republican members of the House, including Rep. Rich Collins (R-Millsboro) during a special session on Aug. 12. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY KARL BAKER
“I think there are going to be long-term consequences for the people of Delaware they are not aware of yet, that haven’t come to fruition yet,” Collins said.
Sen. Bryant Richardson (R-Seaford) said he thinks the Republican Party needs to focus on finding good candidates, communicating their party’s values to constituents and fundraising.
And like Collins, he also warned of a leftward tilt in Dover.
“They are always looking over their shoulder to make sure that they’re doing the right thing according to the will of the Working Families Party,” he said.
Despite all the advantages offenses have secured over the years, defenses are better at pressuring the QB than any other time in recent history
The Baltimore Ravens are preparing to start their fourth quarterback this year, Jacoby Brissett, against the beleaguered Los Angeles Chargers on Monday, because of injuries to Lamar Jackson, Tyler Huntley and Joe Fagnano. That puts them dangerously close to the NFL record of five within a single season (a record shared by the 1984 Bears and 2023 Browns when excluding the 1987 strike season).
Jackson, Huntley and Fagnano were all injured after taking hits in games. And if it seems like quarterbacks are taking punishment more often this year, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Through nine weeks, quarterbacks have been hit on 15.1% of their dropbacks, the most we’ve seen since 2006, when hits were first logged in official box scores.
The Vineyard Wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts in May Eleonora Bianchi/The New Bedford Light
On a hot July day in 2022, then-President Joe Biden gave a speech from the ruins of a coal-fired power plant on the southern coast of Massachusetts.
Standing where ships once delivered coal for combustion, he said the same dock would soon launch components for wind power out to sea.
He praised an Italian company’s plans to build a new factory there, set to create 250 jobs and supply American-made undersea power cables to what was then a line of offshore wind projects waiting to be built along the coast.
Four years later, weeds and tall grass have reclaimed the dirt lot on which Biden spoke.
The company never came.
Ben Berke/Ocean State MediaEleonora Bianchi/The New Bedford Light
Then-President Joe Biden gave a speech at Brayton Point in Somerset, Massachusetts, in 2022. Four years later, the promised factory has been canceled.
PrysmianCaleb Kenna for ProPublica
An architectural rendering of plans for an offshore wind cable factory on Brayton Point, compared with a 2026 photograph of the same area.
A 20-minute drive east, in New Bedford, hundreds of workers who helped assemble wind turbine parts from Canada and Europe over the last three years have given way to seagulls and geese. The birds shuffle along the now-empty pier the state of Massachusetts spent $140 million to build for offshore wind development.
In nearby Providence, Rhode Island, a newly built factory that manufactured offshore wind turbine foundation platforms has emptied out.
Ben Berke/Ocean State MediaEleonora Bianchi/The New Bedford Light
Union members worked for three years assembling turbines on New Bedford’s waterfront. The wind developer that planned to use the port facility next has instead delayed its project indefinitely.
Amid the Trump administration’s multifront war against offshore wind, the cost on the ground in New England, the launchpad of the country’s offshore wind industry, can be seen in empty warehouses, silent marine terminals and ledgers recording hundreds of millions of dollars of state investment that may not be recouped.
ProPublica partnered with Ocean State Media, The Connecticut Mirror and the New Bedford Light to document the consequences of the administration’s efforts.
James Estrin/The New York Times/ReduxEleonora Bianchi/The New Bedford Light
A factory that made turbine components on Providence’s waterfront is now sitting empty.
Many offshore wind projects faced a precarious future before President Donald Trump retook office. Rising construction costs driven by inflation and supply chain shortages forced some developers to back out of contracts to build wind farms and supply electricity to states. Various groups have also fought construction of projects saying they disrupt marine ecosystems and mar coastal views.
But last year, the administration temporarily forced five projects to stop construction, further clouding the horizon. Courts allowed the developers to proceed, but that has not eliminated the threat. Last month, the U.S. Department of the Interior asked a court for permission to reconsider a key permit for one of those five projects, Revolution Wind, which is already up and running and can power more than 350,000 New England homes at maximum capacity.
The administration also has frozen future development on all offshore wind farms, including a cluster of projects that haven’t been built but proposed to power up to 1.7 million New England homes. It has blocked or is seeking review of the permits that would allow these to be built. Meanwhile, the administration is paying other wind developers billions of dollars to sell back their leases and walk away.
At a press conference Monday, Trump said he supports a bipartisan bill that would accelerate U.S. energy development. When a reporter pointed out that the bill includes wind energy, Trump said he would not approve “wind turbines ’cause wind turbines are a major loser.”
The upheaval has had ripple effects. The cable company Biden touted decided not to build its factory, citing “long-term trends in the U.S. market.”
Port cities like New Bedford, Massachusetts, and New London, Connecticut, are left trying to hold onto the economic gains they have made building wind farms.
As recently as last winter, New Bedford, a historic whaling and textile manufacturing center, had hotels, offices and piers buzzing with offshore wind workers. Local businesses from caterers to cleaners to fuel suppliers landed new contracts servicing the wind industry.
In New London — another port once central to the whaling industry — officials worked with one of the world’s largest wind developers to pump more than $300 million of public and private funds into a state-owned pier. Despite significant cost overruns and some early construction challenges, the effort transformed the pier into a staging area for the wind industry.
Wind turbine components are stored at the State Pier in New London, waiting to be loaded onto installation vessels en route to Danish wind developer Ørsted’s offshore wind farms. The last of three consecutive projects is expected to be completed next year, but no others are fully permitted. Sarah Gordon/The Connecticut Mirror
Over the last four years, the pier has been a hive of activity. Hundreds of workers were employed loading and offloading turbine parts — with blades the length of a football field — from specially designed ships, some with names drawn from Greek mythology. Local companies also found work supporting the industry, including one that offered water rescue training for people working on construction sites offshore.
Before wind, Passero said that officials tried for years to attract different industries to the pier, which is overshadowed by larger port facilities in New York and Boston. It was often used to import and store large piles of road salt.
New London Mayor Michael Passero in front of the New London State Pier. Danish wind developer Ørsted is currently using the pier as a staging area for its offshore wind projects, but no tenants are lined up once that work is completed.Sarah Gordon/The Connecticut Mirror
The most recent wind project based at the pier is scheduled to finish work next year. Port officials have yet to find a tenant to occupy the space.
“They’ll be back to the old days of trying to lure cargo here,” Passero said.
Amid Trump’s war on wind, a frontline of union and nonunion workers watches opportunity disappear. One project alone, Vineyard Wind, directly employed a total of more than 3,700 full- and part-time workers — most of them from Massachusetts — over eight years of development and construction, according to the developer.
Sónia Brito, a New Bedford native, worked at the New Bedford terminal for at least two years. She is now taking classes through the Millwrights’ union in New Jersey, in hopes of staying in the wind industry. Geese and seagulls have reclaimed the space previously occupied by workers and turbine parts.Eleonora Bianchi/The New Bedford Light
During peak construction activity, as many as 300 union members worked onshore in southeastern Massachusetts for the project, the first large offshore wind farm fully permitted by the federal government. The wind farm was completed this year.
Longshoreman Onix Vazquez, 34, worked full-time tying up barges and moving turbine components on and off New Bedford’s wind pier. He grew up a few blocks away and said he had struggled to find lucrative work until Vineyard Wind began hiring from his union.
Onix Vazquez, a New Bedford longshoreman, said his hourly wage nearly doubled when he started working in the wind industry.Eleonora Bianchi/The New Bedford Light
Vazquez’s hourly wage of $50 was nearly double what he previously earned unloading occasional shipments of tangerines and juice concentrate. It allowed him and other members of his historically Black union to make down payments on houses, pay off medical bills and for the first time take their families on out-of-state vacations.
“Most of us have to get other jobs for now or collect unemployment,” said Kevin Rose, president of New Bedford’s longshoremen union, which put about two dozen members to work on the project.
The union had been planning to rebuild its nearby meeting hall, which was demolished a decade earlier when work grew scarce. But the next developer to lease New Bedford’s wind pier has delayed its project indefinitely. The union members have put the plans for their new hall on hold.
Vazquez said he now works a seasonal job in the cranberry industry for much lower pay.
“They don’t see that it affects us, the ones that work the projects,” he said.
Spinner PublicationsEleonora Bianchi/The New Bedford Light
The longshoremen’s union hall in New Bedford in 1985 and the empty lot that now stands in its place. New Bedford’s longshoremen planned to rebuild it after members found work in the offshore wind industry. They’ve since put those plans on hold.
In response to questions about the impact of the administration’s actions on American offshore wind workers, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of the Interior repeated criticisms of offshore wind as an expensive and unreliable source of energy.
“The reality is that the Biden administration lured companies into these projects with the promise of millions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies to make these offshore wind projects viable,” the spokesperson said in an email.
The view is more nuanced on the ground. New Bedford’s fishing industry is generally critical of wind farm development because fishermen worry about disruption to fishing grounds.
But fishing catch limits keep boats tied to docks for much of the year. Work for wind farms gets them out to sea and helps pay the bills.
Over the past few years of construction, Vineyard Wind paid about $11 million to 55 fishing vessels from New England and an estimated 60 to 70 fishermen, according to the developer. (The figure also covers fuel.) The fishermen look out for protected species, guard exposed underwater cable as it’s being laid and log information for the developer.
Some fishermen say they will work in offshore wind for as long as they can.
“The scallop boats need the extra revenue,” said Patrick Walsh, 37, a fifth-generation fisherman who plans to rejoin his father’s fishing business when wind work wraps up. “The worst thing for a boat is to sit. Those boats are made to work.”
Wind farm work made it possible for him to buy his first house, he said.
“Fishing would pay bills, and wind was going in the bank.”
Patrick Walsh is a fifth-generation fisherman who has pivoted to working on wind projects for the past few years.Eleonora Bianchi/The New Bedford Light
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth attends a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, to mark Veterans Day on November 11, 2026.Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Before the effort to impeach him failed Tuesday, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth lashed out at a group he despises even more than “beardos” and “weirdos”: the press. His security team threatened to physically remove journalists from a news briefing, Hegseth’s first in several months, if they didn’t maintain decorum.
It’s nothing new for Hegseth. He may want to pump soldiers up with testosterone, but he’s spent the last couple years trying to neuter the Fourth Estate. It’s unfortunate that his unconstitutional attacks on journalists were not part of the official case for removing him. Next time, they should be. And Congress should not stop with Hegseth.
The impeachment resolution Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., brought against Hegseth included eight articles, alleging that the so-called Secretary of War acted illegally in military campaigns in Iran, Venezuela, and the Caribbean, among other things. The resolution touched on free speech violations – Article VI is about Hegseth’s retaliation campaign against Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., for reminding troops of their right to refuse illegal orders – but it didn’t mention the press.
A recap is in order: In February of 2025, Hegseth’s Pentagon evicted the New York Times, NBC, Politico, and NPR from their dedicated workspaces in the building, replacing them largely with sycophantic right-wing outlets like Breitbart and One America News Network. Some elements of the fawning right-wing press were on full display during his Tuesday press conference: “How does it make you feel,” asked a reporter from an outlet called Real America’s Voice, “when our own politicians don’t support taking out the narco-traffickers that kill their own constituents?”
Months later, Hegseth concocted a requirement that journalists who wish to access the Pentagon pledge not to solicit unauthorized information from the government, under threat of losing their credentials. Dozens of reporters from outlets across the political spectrum turned in their access badges rather than comply. They were replaced, once again, by loyalists who could be counted on to treat Hegseth and his fragile ego with kid gloves.
A judge soon struck down the pledge policy as an unconstitutional effort to force out disfavored journalists. The Pentagon immediately issued new restrictions on unauthorized disclosures that were, in some ways, even worse than the originals. The judge rejected that policy too. Hegseth also imposed a requirement for reporters to be escorted around the Pentagon, which is still working its way through the courts.
Hegseth’s Pentagon cracked down on the military’s newspaper, Stars and Stripes, barring it from briefings and demanding it stop publishing “woke” content. After all, it used to run columns from that well-known leftist Ann Coulter. His Pentagon then fired key personnel and otherwise did everything it could think of to try to turn Stars and Stripes into a propaganda organ unrecognizable to its readership – mostly troops, veterans, and their families.
It gets even pettier: Hegseth’s staff barred press photographers from briefings after they published pictures of him that he found unflattering.
Hegseth’s illegal war on transparency has extended not just to reporters but also to their sources. He forced staff to take unreliable polygraph tests to identify leakers until the White House itself halted the effort after a Trump loyalist complained about being targeted. He’s formed a joint task force with the Justice Department to push for prosecution of leakers and adopted President Donald Trump’s alarming habit of equating national security reporting to “treason.”
There will almost certainly be another effort to impeach Hegseth in the next Congress, if not sooner. Censorship may not be the lede — alleged international war crimes understandably tend to take the spotlight over other infractions — but it also shouldn’t be an afterthought.
While Congress is at it, remove Brendan Carr too
And while they’re impeaching wartime censors, Congress shouldn’t forget about FCC Chair Brendan Carr. He has defied federal law, the First Amendment, and the FCC’s own rules and guidelines in his incessant efforts to turn the agency into Trump’s journalism police. And critical reporting on the Iran war – which the Republican party now apparently agrees deserved criticism all along – has been one of Carr’s most frequent targets.
At the beginning of the war, after Trump fumed at accurate coverage he disliked, Carr – who wears Trump’s gilded face as a lapel pin and sips from a mug depicting himself as Trump’s pit bull – promptly reposted the president’s attack. He warned that broadcasters airing “hoaxes and news distortions” should “correct course before their license renewals come up.”
An emboldened Trump responded the same night, posting that outlets spreading “fake news” about the war should “be brought up on Charges for TREASON,” adding that he was “thrilled” Carr was investigating the licenses of media outlets across the country.
Then, after April’s purported ceasefire, CNN reported a statement from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council claiming victory. Trump took to Truth Social to announce a purported investigation into whether CNN committed some unspecified crime by publishing the quote. Carr piled on, accusing CNN, which the FCC does not regulate, of pushing a “hoax headline” that “requires accountability,” implying that licensees who aired similar reporting would face his wrath. But the statement was real. Trump just would’ve preferred CNN air a different one.
Of course, Carr’s censorship campaigns are myriad and many have little to do with the war. But his arguably most egregious (and impeachable) offense did, albeit indirectly.
Last year, Carr inexplicably stalled the FCC’s consideration of then-CBS News parent Paramount’s merger with David Ellison’s Skydance until Paramount paid $16 million to settle Trump’s frivolous lawsuit over “60 Minutes’” editing of an interview with Kamala Harris. He approved the merger two days after Trump said he’d received his dirty money. Essentially, he aided Trump in laundering a bribe through the courts.
Carr – who knows better, having once written that editorial judgment “should be beyond the reach of any government official” – also used his leverage over the merger to give himself and his delegates a seat at CBS’s editors desk, extracting unconstitutional editorialconcessions from Ellison’s team. CBS has since been widely criticized for softening its coverage of Trump’s agenda, including (among other things) echoing administration narratives on the U.S. military operations like the war in Iran and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Facilitating likely bribery is the epitome of an impeachable offense. Republicans might not vote for impeachment, but after all the backlash Carr has received from the right, they also can’t credibly accuse Democrats of some kind of partisan witch hunt. Congress should not let the opportunity to hold Carr accountable pass them by.
Lawmakers need to acknowledge that the reporters the administration called traitors got it right all along, and that those who attempted to censor wartime journalism did a disservice to the Constitution and the American people. Hegseth and Carr should both be impeached, with the press they tried to muzzle freely reporting on every minute of the proceedings.
Why Should Delaware Care? The Democratic leadership in the Delaware Senate can determine which bills are considered by the full body and when. Those leaders also have outsize sway in caucus meetings when the majority party sets its priorities.
Delaware’s Senate Democrats opted for predictability in their caucus when voting Thursday to elevate three prominent members to new roles in leadership.
Those members then highlighted affordability and countering the Trump administration as among their legislative priorities.
Sens. Bryan Townsend (D-Newark), Stephanie Hansen (D-Middletown) and Marie Pinkney (D-Bear) will lead the chamber as the next president pro tempore, majority leader and majority whip, respectively.
The positions will be the first formal leadership roles for Hansen and Pinkney. Townsend most recently served as the Senate Majority Leader.
The new leaders will take over a Senate where Democrats maintain a supermajority that allows them to pass tax increases and constitutional amendments without Republican support.
In an interview following the vote, Townsend declined to disclose the vote totals or name the senators who ran for leadership positions but lost. He said only that there were “multiple members” who sought the roles.
Townsend further argued that the competition was a sign of strength within his caucus. And he contrasted it with a budding leadership fight playing out in the U.S. Congress, which he described as a referendum on the incumbent Democratic leadership there.
“Here, it’s more that there were vacancies, and so people sought the opportunity to serve in a position that was being vacated,” he said.
The Senate Democrats’ leadership changes come after outgoing Senate President Pro Tempore Dave Sokola (D-Newark) announced earlier this year that he would not seek reelection after more than 30 years in office.
Outgoing Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman (D-Wilmington) also chose to step away from a formal leadership role in the chamber this year.
Which bills will the new leaders try to pass?
Beyond discussing Thusday’s vote, Townsend also listed a string of potential bills centered on healthcare, public education, and energy as priorities for the Senate when it reconvenes in January, as part of the 154th General Assembly.
He said lawmakers should approve a plan to reform public school funding; should diversify the state’s energy production; and should ensure what he described as “productive competition in healthcare that brings prices down.”
His remarks about healthcare follow a contentious two-year fight between the state government and Delaware’s largest hospital system — ChristianaCare — about whether state regulators could veto hospital spending deemed to be excessive.
The veto authority was part of a broad hospital regulation bill, backed by Townsend, and passed by lawmakers in 2024. ChristianaCare sued the state shortly after the bill became law, and the two sides ultimately settled with an agreement to remove the veto authority.
Townsend said the state now needs to ensure that medical providers can grow “responsibly,” amid recent federal cuts in healthcare. And he referenced a national conversation around how states could best regulate hospitals’ capital spending.
“There’s a host of different things we need to continue to look at with regard to healthcare,” Townsend said
Another issue likely to come before the Senate this year involves proposed legislation that would create a new type of company to be controlled entirely by artificial intelligence bots – commonly called AI agents.
Asked about the measure, Townsend struck a cautious tone, saying he’s unconvinced the legislation “is ready for introduction and implementation.”
The measure has been promoted in recent months by Delaware Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez.
Townsend argued that Delaware officials must be especially careful when combining AI with the Delaware corporate franchise that provides the state government with a third of its revenue.
Hansen, the new majority leader, also has expressed reservations around the AI proposal. During a public meeting last month, she called for the state to move slowly and to hire a third-party contractor who could provide an independent assessment of the AI company idea.
She described AI as one of the “biggest issues of our time” and said the state must ensure it is being “deliberative and thoughtful with every step.”
Beyond AI, Hansen said in a statement following Thursday’s vote that lawmakers should address electricity costs and housing affordability when they reconvene in January.
Also in the statement, Pinkney indicated that her priorities center on maternal health and the cost of healthcare.
A growing number of Federal Reserve officials say the AI boom may mean higher interest rates for longer. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh has been slower to agree, arguing that AI would help tame prices.
CHICAGO, Nov. 13, 2026 — HyperAccel, a South Korean fabless AI semiconductor company specializing in high-efficiency large language model (LLM) inference, will showcase its LPU (LLM Processing Unit) technology at SC26 (Supercomputing 2026), taking place November 17–19 at McCormick Place in Chicago. The company will present an eight-LPU server system and conduct a live remote demonstration of LLM inference running on operational servers deployed in Korea.
Eight-LPU server system and live remote demonstration of LLM inference running on operational servers in Korea
At the exhibition, HyperAccel will showcase how its LPU technology operates as part of a server-level system, extending beyond individual semiconductor components to practical AI infrastructure. Through a live remote demonstration from its server environment in Korea, visitors will be able to see LLM inference running on operational hardware and gain insight into the technology’s potential for deployment in enterprise and data center environments.
According to HyperAccel’s internal benchmarks, a server equipped with HyperAccel LPU cards (250W per card) delivers more than 3.5x higher token throughput per watt and per dollar than a comparable system powered by NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs (600W per card) when running Qwen3-32B and Llama3-70B models. With support for even larger LLMs, including Kimi and GLM models, HyperAccel’s LPU demonstrates the potential to significantly improve the energy efficiency and economics of LLM inference, offering a compelling solution for enterprise AI infrastructure and data centers.
These efficiency gains stem from the HyperAccel LPU architecture, designed specifically for LLM inference. It pairs power-efficient LPDDR5X memory with HyperAccel’s Streamlined Dataflow architecture, which achieves approximately 90% memory bandwidth utilization, compared with 50 to 60% for GPUs, reducing power consumption and operating costs in large-scale inference environments.
In addition to its main exhibition, Joonyeon Kim, CFO of HyperAccel, will deliver a presentation titled “Redefining AI Infrastructure Through Token Efficiency” at Lablup Inc.’s booth (#4630) on November 18, from 2:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Central Time.
Through its participation in SC26, HyperAccel aims to expand its global presence and accelerate the adoption of LPU-based inference infrastructure. The company is seeking partnerships with global server manufacturers, cloud service providers, and AI infrastructure solution providers, focusing on server platform integration, technical validation, and business development opportunities in global data center markets.
“As AI adoption accelerates, the industry is shifting its focus from raw processor performance to the efficiency and economics of AI inference at scale,” said Joo-Young Kim, CEO of HyperAccel. “At SC26, we are excited to showcase how our purpose-built LPU architecture delivers superior token efficiency at the server level, reducing the cost and power consumption of AI inference. We also look forward to engaging with global infrastructure partners to bring more efficient and scalable AI solutions to market.”
Visitors can meet the HyperAccel team at the AI Semiconductor Korea Pavilion (Booth #1411) to learn more about its LPU technology, explore the eight-LPU server system, and watch the live remote LLM inference demonstration.
Event Information
Event: SC26 (Supercomputing 2026)
Date: November 17–19, 2026
Venue: McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois, USA
HyperAccel Booth: #1411, AI Semiconductor Korea Pavilion
Exhibition: Eight-LPU server system showcase and live remote LLM inference demonstration using operational servers in Korea
Presentation by Joonyeon Kim: November 18, 2:30–2:45 p.m. CT
Presentation Venue: Lablup Inc., Booth #4630
About HyperAccel
HyperAccel is a South Korean fabless AI semiconductor company founded in 2023. The company develops LPUs (LLM Processing Units), AI accelerators purpose-built for large language model inference. Its proprietary architecture leverages power-efficient LPDDR5X memory and Streamlined Dataflow technology to improve energy efficiency and cost competitiveness in AI inference.
Its product portfolio includes Bertha, an AI accelerator for data center and enterprise applications, and Bertha-Edge, designed for on-device AI. HyperAccel is also expanding its technology into edge computing and physical AI applications.
The company received the IEEE Micro Best Paper Award in 2025 and was named to the Forbes Asia 100 To Watch 2026 list, among other industry recognitions. Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, with a presence in Silicon Valley, HyperAccel is pursuing expansion in global AI semiconductor markets. Learn more at www.hyperaccel.ai.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — One of the Vietnam veterans suing to block President Donald Trump’s proposed 250-foot triumphal arch is rejecting Trump’s new claim that the monument would honor U.S. military veterans.
Michael Lemmon, who served as an Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam, told CNN that veterans challenging the project “continue to be gaslighted” by the administration. Trump said during a Veterans Day event at Arlington National Cemetery that the arch would be dedicated to “our great veterans and our great militaries.”
Lemmon, along with veterans Shaun Byrnes and Jon Gundersen and architectural historian Calder Loth, sued earlier this year to stop the project. They argue the administration lacks required congressional authorization and that the arch would disrupt the historic sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
Their lawsuit is part of a broader legal fight. Washington, D.C., Virginia and Arlington County have also challenged the project, citing environmental, historic-preservation, traffic and legal concerns. A federal judge has temporarily halted construction while those cases proceed.
The National Capital Planning Commission approved the arch 8-4 last week after hours of public testimony. The administration says the monument would commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary and argues it has authority to proceed.
Lemmon disputes that framing, calling the arch disrespectful to veterans and saying Trump’s latest explanation does not change his opposition.
The Trump administration quietly broadened its crackdown on campus pro-Palestine protests over the summer, moving to ensnare one of the largest unions in the country in a case revolving around alleged incidents of vandalism.
The subpoena against the AFT, which has not been previously reported and was obtained by The Intercept, shows the administration casting a wider net in its investigation into student protesters than was previously known.
“They’re using this language around conspiracy and trying to draw in all of these different organizations.”
The Graduate Employees’ Organization, or GEO, an AFT local at the university, also received a notice to provide information and testimony to a grand jury around the same time, according to a copy of the previously unreported subpoena obtained by The Intercept.
The effort to draw a powerful, liberal union into a case that revolves around spray-painting charges represents a dramatic escalation in Donald Trump’s war on the left.
“They’re using this language around conspiracy and trying to draw in all of these different organizations that are taking stances against fascism, against the government, and anything that’s counter to their ideology,” said Natalie Chen, who serves as GEO’s communications director. “This is perhaps another ‘in’ for them to broaden their attack
on labor.”
Subpoenas to Crush Dissent
As pro-Palestine protests swept campuses across the country in 2024 and widespread demonstration broke out against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement this year, the Trump administration has sought to paint left-of-center protest, nonprofit work, and labor organizing as a nefarious far-left conspiracy, even labeling some activists and groups as terrorists.
Critics of the administration’s crackdown on Palestine solidarity and protests against ICE see moves like the ones against AFT and GEO as part of an effort to silence dissent.
“Historically, federal grand jury subpoenas have been used against social movements and political dissent to gather information, to isolate individuals, and of course to try and prosecute people,” said Xavier de Janon, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild. “What is different in politicized cases is the extent of people and places that get subpoenaed, which many people see clearly goes way beyond what they’re supposedly trying to prosecute.”
Activists at the University of Michigan said the effort to extract information about students from the union was an attempt to further target pro-Palestine protesters and their relationships with labor organizers.
“What is different in politicized cases is the extent of people and places that get subpoenaed.”
The grand jury subpoenas came as part of a case that has seen a dozen protesters become caught up in serious federal charges against the students, dubbed “the Michigan 12.” They allege that protesters committed illegal acts like vandalism as part of a pressure campaign seeking to push university officials to divest school holdings tied to the Israeli genocide in Palestine.
The subpoenas against the GEO and AFT were requested by federal prosecutor Margaret Smith with assistance from FBI agent Kara Phipps — two federal officials deeply enmeshed in the investigation into the Michigan 12. (The Department of Justice declined to comment for this story.)
GEO Under Fire
The subpoenas were issued as the GEO was already reeling after its president, Hiab Teshome, was charged with felony embezzlement by local prosecutors working in conjunction with the University of Michigan Police Department.
Authorities alleged that Teshome, who was a bargaining team member in the middle of intense contract negotiations between the union and the school, misused organizational funds to purchase laptops for a campus club.
In a statement, the GEO called the charges meritless and characterized them as an attempt to limit protected union activity. Teshome was later cleared of any wrongdoing by the university’s student government, and the charges against her were thrown out by a judge.
Federal prosecutors issued the subpoenas the same day the charges against Teshome were dismissed, leaving activists little time to regroup.
Although GEO is not mentioned in the federal indictment against protesters, the AFT chapter is a prominent member of the Tahrir coalition, a pro-Palestine student collective that is referenced repeatedly in federal filings and characterized by prosecutors as having ties with defendants.
Broad in Scope
The scope of the information requested of the unions by the federal government is broad. GEO and AFT are being compelled, according to the subpoenas, to surrender information including complete membership rolls, payroll records on officers, reimbursement policies, audit reports, and all transcribed minutes on membership and executive board meetings of the University of Michigan local since January 2023.
The American Federation of Teachers has more than 1.7 million members and more than 3,000 local chapters.
After receiving the subpoena, GEO immediately obtained attorneys and filed a motion to quash the order. The national office of the AFT, however, has not publicly acknowledged receiving the directive or stated whether it intends to comply. (AFT did not respond to requests for comment about the subpoenas, including whether the union would be complying.)
Teshome, the GEO president, believes that the subpoena against the AFT may be an attempt by the federal government to circumvent the local union and force the national organization to comply.
“GEO has taken the stance that we will do everything in our power to protect the data and the information of our membership,” Teshome said. “I think that this is a strategy that the federal government is using in order to try to actually receive the information that they are trying to get by usurping us as a local union and going instead to AFT national.”
Additionally, Teshome likened the GEO’s case to similar surveillance activities conducted by federal agents against trade unionists in Minnesota as part of the Trump White House’s National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, a presidential directive that attempts to criminalize leftist political organizations.
“All of the repression we are seeing across the country is the federal government’s attack on anyone who has political thought,” Teshome said. “Michigan is no different than all of these other cases in that we are one of the testing grounds for NSPM-7 and how much oppression can be applied through the federal government in order to demobilize and disorganize.”
Heavy rain and strong winds have also caused disruption across British Columbia, Canada, over the last week
Storm Charles has brought destructive weather to the Iberian peninsula this week, particularly in Portugal and the far south of Spain. Heavy rain and strong south-westerly winds arrived first in the Portuguese island of Madeira, before the system headed towards the mainland on 11 November. A wind gust of 84.5mph (136 km/h) was recorded at Funchal airport, alongside rainfall totals reaching 355mm (13.97in) in 12 hours. In Lisbon, 183 flights were cancelled on Wednesday, about a third of its normal daily traffic, while Madrid Barajas airport had 155 cancellations.
After causing widespread flooding in Spain and Portugal, the system moved on a north-easterly track through southern France and then towards northern Italy. This resulted in significant flooding in parts of Cannes, some of which caused rock falls and led to the closure of roads along the French Riviera. The Italian weather service issued a red rainfall warning, its highest level, for the area extending from Tuscany to Venezia. Further heavy rain is expected to fall in Italy and the Balkans over the next few days, with the latest forecast models indicating an additional 100mm could accumulate widely, while totals close to 200mm are likely in more mountainous areas.
SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 13, 2026 — Torus, a U.S. manufacturer of distributed power and compute infrastructure, has launched Foundry, modular AI infrastructure designed to meet the fast-growing demand for inference compute. Torus Foundry packages power, storage, cooling, networking, and compute into a prefabricated system that delivers new capacity to existing sites in weeks, instead of the years it takes to build a traditional hyperscale campus. Additionally, Torus announced $500 million in growth capital led by Magnetar.
Foundry brings 1–20 megawatts of inference capacity per site in 12–16 weeks from contract to compute, using power the grid already has
Securing the power to meet AI demand is the biggest bottleneck today, and it is one Torus has spent years solving. That bottleneck is constrained power and capacity, not building new generation. Torus’s technology unlocks unused grid capacity that sits between substations and existing commercial and industrial buildings by using existing interconnections. Every Foundry is paired with Torus Reserve, the company’s energy storage and management product.
Reserve provides grid-enhancing technologies, including inertial-based firm power, grid flexibility with load curtailment capabilities, and ramp-rate support, all delivered through load-shaping recipes: predefined controls that govern how power is dispatched. These capabilities are important for AI compute infrastructure in shaping loads to manage demand, supporting grid stability, and ramping power in milliseconds. The result is distributed edge compute for the enterprise that takes advantage of existing grid interconnections and is online in 12–16 weeks from contract to token.
“The industry has been trying to solve AI’s power problem by building net-new infrastructure, which causes costs to potentially rise and takes years to bring compute online,” said Nate Walkingshaw, CEO and Founder of Torus. “Inference doesn’t have to wait. We’ve spent years learning how to make the grid more affordable, flexible, resilient, and intelligent, and Foundry applies that to compute: capacity in weeks, with power that’s already available. Most providers are bringing power to the chips. Foundry brings the chips to power.”
The result reflects a simple premise behind Torus’s work: much of America’s energy challenge is a capacity problem before it is a generation problem. The grid has unused capacity at many sites today, and Torus systems make that capacity usable.
Inference compute works differently. It runs continuously, serves users in real time, and benefits from being distributed closer to where demand is. This difference is pulling more compute toward on-premises and edge sites, and inference providers need capacity they can deploy, in more places, sooner. Foundry is built for that: distributed, smaller sites, deployed faster, on power that is already available. Enterprise customers want security, IP protection, and control over where their workloads run. Foundry’s design gives them that, in ways centralized capacity can be harder to match.
Foundry at-a-glance
From contract to running AI workloads in 12–16 weeks. Foundry is prefabricated and modular, at 1–20 MW per site, with no building construction required. The smallest system is roughly the size of a small cargo van.
No new grid infrastructure. Foundry is installed behind the meter, using available headroom, or available electricity, at individual transformers. It adds steady, high-load-factor demand without requiring infrastructure upgrades that often lead to rate increases, or affecting grid reliability.
Full stack, one provider. Fiber to site, chiller to coolant distribution unit, grid to rack: Torus vertically integrates the entire stack, from Torus Reserve for load shaping and redundancy, to Torus Foundry for inference compute, to Torus Protect for integrated networking and security. Every deployment is turnkey, with ongoing operations and maintenance provided by Torus.
Fastest path to token. Foundry units are prefabricated at GigaOne, Torus’s Salt Lake City manufacturing facility. Prefabrication accelerates the time to deploy by eliminating construction time at the deployment site. Site prep takes about a week, and installation and commissioning take one to two days.
More compute on the same interconnection. Integrated inertial flywheel and battery storage and management cover demand peaks so more compute fits on an existing interconnection. During grid outages, it provides backup power.
Made in Utah. Foundry is designed, engineered, and manufactured in Utah by Torus’s team of nearly 400 employees at GigaOne, with key components built in-house.
Multiple Ways to deploy Foundry
Torus is launching Foundry with its first customers, Hydra Host and another AI cloud provider. Foundry is available in the following three models:
Strategic: Powered shell includes power and enclosure, without GPUs.
Partner: Turnkey bare metal unit includes power, enclosure, and GPUs.
Direct: Sovereign inference capacity provided directly to enterprise customers. Single tenant hardware is allocated exclusively to a company’s workload.
Torus Foundry has thousands of GPUs deployed today, with plans to have more than 47,000 GPUs deployed in Foundry units by the end of 2027.
Capital to Accelerate Growth
The round was led by Magnetar, with participation from ICONIQ, Origin Ventures, Ridgeline Partners, and Trinity Capital. The capital will be used to fund the continued expansion of GigaOne, and Torus Reserve and Torus Foundry deployments across the United States.
“One of the biggest challenges in scaling AI infrastructure is access to power, and the solution isn’t simply generating more of it, but making better use of what’s already available,” said Dave Snyderman, Managing Partner and Global Head of Alternative Credit & Fixed Income at Magnetar. “Torus has spent years building the energy infrastructure and expertise to address this challenge. Foundry builds on that foundation by bringing compute to available power, helping unlock capacity within the existing grid. As demand for AI inference accelerates, we believe solutions like Foundry will become increasingly important, and we’re excited to continue supporting Nate and his team as they scale.”
US-Made Manufacturing
Foundry is designed, engineered, and manufactured at GigaOne, the company’s Salt Lake City-based 545,000 square-foot manufacturing facility. GigaOne opened its first production line in early 2026, and has opened a new production line every 21 days in 2026. The Foundry production line is online and will be capable of producing 500 MW of IT load, with plans to expand to 1GW in the near future.
Sustainable by Design
Torus built Foundry to be compute infrastructure that is friendly to communities and the environment. Its closed-loop cooling system is waterless, using 95 percent less water than evaporative coolers. Because it runs on existing grid capacity, it avoids the new transmission and generation buildout that large data centers often require. Each system also donates GPU time to medical research through Folding@home.
About Torus
Torus designs, engineers, and manufactures distributed mesh energy and modular AI infrastructure that delivers reliable power, reduces costs, improves resilience, and supports surging demand fueled by electrification and AI-driven load growth. Its full-stack technology integrates battery and inertial-based storage, modular AI infrastructure, AI-powered management, cybersecurity, and long-term operations and maintenance for utilities, data centers, manufacturers, and commercial and industrial facilities. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Torus has earned a TIME Best Invention award, a 2025 R&D 100 Award for innovation, a 2026 Energy Storage award from Reuters, the Next Best Thing in Tech 2026 from Fast Company, and the 2026 Battery Manufacturer of the Year from The Battery Show. Learn more at torus.co.
Company to highlight its NVIDIA ecosystem-aligned AI infrastructure capabilities, AI Token Platform and Asia-Pacific delivery expertise.
SINGAPORE, Nov. 13, 2026 — SuperX AI Technology Limited (SuperX) has announced its participation in SC26, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis, taking place November 17–19, 2026, in Chicago. Making its U.S. exhibition debut, SuperX will showcase its full-stack AI infrastructure solutions built around the NVIDIA accelerated computing ecosystem, alongside its AI Token Platform and regional deployment expertise.
As inference-intensive and agentic AI applications grow alongside model training, infrastructure requirements are becoming increasingly diverse. Bringing AI computing capacity into production involves more than GPU performance alone. It requires the integration of computing, networking, power, cooling and operational support to enable reliable, scalable AI environments.
As an AI infrastructure solutions provider, SuperX designs workload-driven solutions around NVIDIA accelerated computing technologies and ecosystem architectures. Combining system integration expertise with modular AIDC solutions and lifecycle services, the Company helps customers turn infrastructure requirements into deployable AI environments.
With an established supply chain and Global Services network across Asia-Pacific, SuperX has built a growing track record in regional AI infrastructure delivery, including completed AI server deliveries and ongoing customer projects across Asia Pacific regions including Japan and Australia.
At SC26, SuperX will demonstrate its AI Token Platform. The platform simplifies access to third-party AI model services through unified APIs, intelligent routing and centralized management. The showcase also highlights SuperX’s broader capabilities across AI computing infrastructure and model services, reflecting its expanding role in supporting AI inference workloads.
“As AI moves into production at scale, the competitive advantage will increasingly depend on how effectively advanced computing technologies can be translated into reliable, operational infrastructure. This requires more than individual products. It takes the right architecture, regional execution capabilities and sustained support. At SC26, we look forward to engaging with U.S. customers and partners on how SuperX can support their AI infrastructure ambitions across Asia-Pacific and beyond,” said Kenny Sng, CTO of SuperX.
Meet SuperX at SC26
SuperX invites U.S. enterprises, AI cloud providers, infrastructure operators and technology partners to visit Booth 4550 at McCormick Place, Chicago, November 17–19, to discuss their AI workload requirements, regional deployment plans and potential collaboration opportunities.
SuperX AI Technology Limited (NASDAQ: SUPX) is a full-stack AI infrastructure solutions provider headquartered in Singapore. Through its subsidiaries, the Company provides AI infrastructure solutions, including AI servers, related IT equipment and services, and AI cloud computing and AI model API services. For more information, please visit www.superx.sg.
BUTTE, Mont. — Checking your porch every day to see if that package has finally arrived can be tough. But as it turns out, getting that package shipped out in the first place may be even tougher, due to dwindling…
As the holiday season approaches, residents and businesses in Butte, Montana, face significant challenges due to recent UPS and FedEx store closures. Help Me Ben investigates the impact on local commerce, explores the dwindling shipping options available, and provides essential…
A lottery retailer in rural Australia, a dilapidated storefront in Kuala Lumpur, and a near-empty office in Singapore: the global facades of Megaspeed International, the company linked to the downfall of Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, form a puzzling corporate picture.
The company, which is registered in Singapore, has registered affiliates across the US, Asia and Australia, but individuals at its offices say they know nothing about the cloud computing firm at the centre of a global spy scandal.
The European Space Agency has released the largest dataset yet from its Euclid space telescope, containing 1.7 petabytes of observations covering more than 900 million galaxies. "The data unveiled on Thursday covered a survey of the sky equal to about 9,500 times the size of the moon as viewed from Earth," reports Reuters. "The mission's goal is to complete the "largest-ever three-dimensional atlas of the cosmos, spanning more than a third of the sky, in 2031." From the report: "It marks a major milestone for ESA's Euclid mission and for everyone involved," said astrophysicist Valeria Pettorino, ESA's Euclid project scientist. Euclid, launched from Florida in 2023, is gathering data on how the universe has expanded and how its structure has formed over time while amassing information about the nature of dark energy and dark matter and the role of gravity on large scales.
"Euclid will not just take images of galaxies in the sky, in two dimensions, but will also measure their distance, the third dimension. This will tell us where galaxies are in space and time, across 10 billion years, and in all directions beyond our galactic plane," Pettorino said. "Galaxies cluster along filaments, surrounded by empty space, and form a network that we call the cosmic web. Euclid will reconstruct the cosmic web and how it has grown over time. This is important because the exact configuration of the cosmic web, how many clusters or voids are there, how fast it changed, depend on the properties of dark energy and dark matter," Pettorino said.
[...] Previous Euclid data releases covered only a few days of observations. The newly released dataset includes more than a year of data and still spans only 14% of the total sky area Euclid is due to survey in visible and near-infrared light over six years. This data release will be completed next year with the first results on dark energy and dark matter.
This live blog is now closed – you can read our latest report here
Can the AI economy survive without its “central bank”? What does Jensen Huang’s fall mean for the world’s second-most valuable company, and what might a tremor in its fortunes mean for the world?
Nvidia’s sky-high valuation is based on the fact that it designs and sells the advanced AI chips, called graphics processing units (GPUs), that underpin the AI economy. Without these, AI models such as ChatGPT and Claude could not be trained and would not run.
Political prisoner Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani, one of seven athletes at risk of execution in Iran, given prestigious Magnitsky humanitarian award
A boxer and political prisoner on death row in Iran said he will “never surrender” as he accepted a prestigious human rights prize on behalf of “the generation that is paying the price of freedom with their lives”.
Research finds highest levels of cancer-related PAH pollutants in cities that have widespread wood heating
Children’s exposure to home wood-burning could be as significant as exposure to traffic exhaust, suggests new research across six European towns and cities.
Scientists measured the air in buildings where children spend much of their time; in schools, sports centres and homes. Specifically, they looked at polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a family of pollutants that are given off when fuels are burned.
From the US midterms to Brazil and Hungary, extremists are floundering yet the left still overestimates their power. Reality is on our side
From Brazil to Hungary and Britain to the US, why are so many people so surprised by the right’s election defeats? Flávio Bolsonaro, Viktor Orbán, Reform UK, the Tories and a vast array of Republican candidates have all been rejected in national or local contests this year, even in usually reliably conservative Mississippi. Apparently impregnable incumbents and populist insurgents alike have been beaten, often by big margins. The supposedlyascendant global right has been out-organised, out-thought, outmanoeuvred and outnumbered.
Yet each time this happens – which is more often than the usual gloomy narrative of our politics allows – many liberals and leftists absorb and share the good news almost with wonderment. Rightwing governments such as Donald Trump’s may have been struggling for many months, having made countless impossible or incompatible promises and strategic blunders, and opinion polls may have been consistently pointing towards a meltdown, but their actual election defeats are seen as miracles: unexpected moments of joy in the morning news, often followed over subsequent months by a creeping conviction that the right’s supremacy will inevitably return.
Defence minister says extent of sexual misconduct found by study is ‘unacceptable’, as military tries to attract more recruits
Germany’s defence minister has promised a “zero tolerance” approach to sexual abuse in the armed forces after a study found soldiers, particularly women, faced extensive harassment within the ranks.
The first comprehensive study of its kind into the Bundeswehr, conducted by the Centre for Military History and Social Sciences in Potsdam and released this week, comes as the military is trying to attract new recruits in response to global threats.
In just a few days’ time, U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin could be holding a three-way summit on the sidelines of next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Shenzhen, China. According to The Wall Street Journal, Putin floated the idea of a trialogue last month as an opportunity to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. No firm plan has yet been announced, but even the prospect of this meeting has provoked widespread consternation. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski warned against a repeat of the Yalta Conference of 1945, when U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill capitulated to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s push for the Soviet Union to dominate Eastern Europe. U.S. Senator Chris Coons posted on X that “there can be no talks about Ukraine’s future without Ukraine at the table, and there can be no real negotiations as long as Trump signals weakness and servitude to Xi and Putin at every opportunity.”
Jayden Daniels threw his third touchdown pass of the game, a 32-yarder to Stefon Diggs with 57 seconds left, and the Commanders rallied to defeat the New York Giants 24-21 on Thursday night in what was essentially a must-win game for Washington.
Daniels’ connection with Diggs in the final minute came after the quarterback had thrown his first two interceptions of the season to end the previous two drives. He was 23 of 33 for 249 yards and also had TD throws to Ben Sinnott and Antonio Williams.
TOPEKA, KANSAS — Democrat Cindy Holscher has won the Kansas governor’s race, defeating Republican Ty Masterson after a mandatory statewide audit confirmed her narrow lead.
Unofficial results from the Kansas Secretary of State showed Holscher ahead by 7,644 votes. Because the margin was under 1 percentage point, Kansas law required counties to hand-audit ballots from at least 10% of precincts. The Associated Press called the race Thursday after reviewing enough audit results to determine Masterson could not overcome the deficit. He conceded shortly afterward.
Holscher, a state senator from Overland Park, will succeed two-term Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly in January. Masterson, the longtime Republican state Senate president, acknowledged the difficult election environment for Republicans and congratulated Holscher.
The result is notable because Kansas remains a state where Republicans hold significant structural advantages in the Legislature and at the federal level. Holscher’s win means Democrats will retain the governorship for a third consecutive term.
Her running mate, Democratic state Rep. KC Ohaebosim, will become only the second Black Kansan elected to statewide office, and the first in roughly 140 years.
The result is not yet formally certified. County commissions are still reviewing provisional ballots, and statewide certification is scheduled for Dec. 1. Election officials, however, do not expect the remaining ballots to alter the outcome.
CEO behind the meteoric rise of Nvidia stepped down after it was revealed he had an affair with an alleged Chinese spy
Jensen Huang has stepped down as CEO of Nvidia, the company at the center of the AI boom, after leading it for more than 30 years.
Huang, an electrical engineer by education, stewarded the company from a $1bn firm when it went public in 1999 to a company valued at more than $4tn in 2026. But in a matter of days, after it was revealed he had an extramarital affair with a woman that US officials believe to be a Chinese spy, Huang managed to wipe more than $600bn from the company’s valuation.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Hill: Elon Musk's SpaceX plans to invest more than $74 billion into building two data centers in Texas and Arizona, the company announced Thursday, marketing them as projects that will boost local communities amid backlash surrounding such facilities. "These investments will expand local tax bases, generate substantial new revenue for schools and public services, and create economic opportunities that extend far beyond the facilities themselves," the company said in a release. SpaceX said it will put more than $24 billion into a new project in Texas's Rio Grande Valley, expanding the company's headquarters in Starbase -- a coastal town the tech giant established in 2025 in a previously unincorporated area of Cameron County. In Arizona, SpaceX will invest around $50 billion in Cochise County, a rural area east of Tucson bordering Mexico and New Mexico.
SpaceX pledged the new projects will be created cooperatively with the surrounding communities and will be environmentally conscious. The company said the project in Texas would generate its own power and invest $220 million to expand the water supply in nearby Brownsville. While in Arizona, it vowed to work with local electric cooperatives and "potentially" reduce electric bills, saying the site would use dry cooling without water consumption. "They require strong partnerships with local communities, responsible environmental stewardship, and stable, competitive policies that give companies the confidence to make long-term investments," the company said in a release. Both sites promise hundreds of permanent jobs even once construction is complete.
Perhaps you saw this ad from Scott Colom, who was just elected to serve as Mississippi’s first Democratic senator since 1989:
The New York Times spoke to Russ Hudson, the man who is grilling in the first part of the ad and uttered the “sheeeit” that has now become an emblem of Colom’s successful campaign. Here’s what he had to say, from the Times:
The lines, he said, felt natural. He left thinking maybe a couple thousand people would see it.
“I just did it like a Mississippian would,” Mr. Hudson said in an interview.
Pro-democracy activist Nathan Law and journalist Danny Vincent on the sentencing of the iconic Hong Kong campaigner Joshua Wong to another 10 years in prison. Send your comments and questions to tif.questions@theguardian.com
He has been leading protests since he was 14. Joshua Wong has been on the cover of Time magazine, the focus of a Netflix documentary and an icon for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
Wong has been leading the fight against a Chinese squeeze on freedoms in Hong Kong for the last 15 years. He will now spend more than 16 years in prison.
Maryland Democrat challenges party leader after midterms sweep, saying: ‘The American people called for change’
Chris Van Hollen, the Democratic senator of Maryland, announced on Thursday that he is challenging Chuck Schumer for the role of Senate majority leader when Democrats regain the chamber’s majority in January.
“In this election, the American people called for change. They called for a change from Donald Trump’s disastrous policies – but even bigger than that, a change from the status quo that isn’t working for working people,” Van Hollen said in a statement posted on social media.
Whoop has launched Humans, a social network built into its fitness app where every account is a real person with a "verified heartbeat." The wearable company claims its platform is "entirely human," unlike other social media platforms that are "saturated with artificial intelligence, automated accounts and bots, and manufactured content." The Verge reports: Starting Thursday, Whoop members can share their data from its wearables on the app's new Whoop Humans social network. Users can make their metrics, activities, and achievements visible to other Whoop wearers, post Story-like "Moments" with photos and captions, and add comments and reactions on other members' posts. [...]
In the Community tab in Whoop's app, users can scroll through Moments from people they're following, like tapping through your Stories feed on Instagram but with your friends' fitness tracker data. In one of Whoop's examples, swiping up on a user's Moments post with a photo from their run shows a map with their route and details like their pace and distance. The Community tab also shows cards for people in your "community" with their sleep, recovery, and strain scores.
Whoop says users choose which activities, achievements, and metrics they want to share on Humans, including Recovery, Strain, Sleep, HRV, and resting heart rate. Any activities marked as sensitive aren't shared by default. There's also an option to keep Moments posts private and a "Stealth Mode" for temporarily hiding health and performance data without changing your sharing settings.
Why Should Delaware Care? At the end of October, a fire shut down a Milford elementary school, leaving hundreds of students without classrooms or consistency. Those students have since found new classrooms in other district properties, but questions remain about rebuilding the school, and at what cost.
At a press conference outside the now condemned Lulu M. Ross Elementary School in Milford, district leaders and state fire investigators outlined the cause of the fire and how the community has come together in its aftermath.
B. Scott Bullock, the assistant state fire marshal and chief of investigations with the Office of the State Fire Marshal, said the nature of the fire was “accidental” and did not assign a monetary figure to the damages.
He said the fire started following an electrical failure in a “combustible display case” that was embedded into the wall. Bullock said one of the lighting fixtures at the top of the display case, which had fluorescent bulbs, failed, and the fire began to rise into the ceiling.
Wires, plumbing and other mechanical equipment typically run through the structural parts of a building or home, often in ceilings or behind walls. Bullock said these areas usually do not contain smoke or fire detection systems, and the fire raged on for 17 minutes in the ceiling space before any fire alarm went off inside the school.
Fire alarms were first tripped at 4:11 a.m., and firefighters put out the blaze a little more than three hours later. He said that since the fire and its smoke vented through the roof, many of the gases went into the atmosphere instead of getting trapped within the building.
But because of this venting, Bullock said there is extensive water damage in the school because the fire grew so large.
The principal of the elementary school, Kim Webb, said during the press conference that while the impact of the fire is “difficult to put into words,” the community has rallied to support the students.
She added the students have been the community’s “greatest reminder” of the “good in this world,” as they have navigated their new reality after the fire. But Webb also said Milford has a long road ahead as it plans the future of the school.
“There will be hard days ahead, and we will meet them with the same love and determination that have carried us thus far,” Webb said.
To rehab or rebuild?
Travis Moorman, the superintendent of the Milford School District, said 600 elementary students had been moved to other facilities across the district and would stay there until at least the end of the school year.
Lulu M. Ross Elementary School Principal Kim Webb said the Milford community has a long road ahead as it plans the future of the school, which was was destroyed by an electrical last month. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY NICK STONESIFER
Insurance adjusters are currently taking inventory of all the items in the school and assessing the damage, Moorman said. Once a monetary figure for how much was lost in the fire is determined, Moorman said district officials would work to figure out if it is cheaper to rehabilitate the school or demolish and rebuild on the same site.
If a district wants to build a new school, add an expansion, or complete a substantial renovation, its officials must seek state funding approvals from the Delaware Department of Education through a process known as a certificate of necessity, commonly referred to as a CN.
If the Department of Education approves a request, the state will fund a percentage of the project cost. The district would need to secure its local contribution through a referendum vote to raise residents’ property taxes, which Moorman said can take between two to three years.
Nearly all CN requests have been rejected in recent years.
This past summer, the Milford School District requested $80 million to complete major renovations and expansions to its high school. It was the fourth time the school district has submitted the request.
Delaware Department of Education spokesperson Alison May said the department understands the “emergency nature” of the situation for the Milford School District.
She also said there are emergency protocols and provisions to expedite construction needs under the insurance process. May also pointed to an “emergency process” when the Capital School District’s William Henry Middle School was impacted by a tornado in 2020.
More than $9 million was needed to repair William Henry Middle, as reported by Bay to Bay News. At the time, Capital School District officials credited legislators, the Delaware Department of Education and the state insurance office with securing funding for the repairs.
Julia Merola and Maddy Lauria contributed to this report.
Cubs star Crow-Armstrong hits 45 homers and steals 41
Astros slugger Alvarez wins AL honor after .316 season
Both players earn first MVP awards in unanimous votes
Pete Crow-Armstrong was unanimously named the National League’s Most Valuable Player on Thursday after the Chicago Cubs center fielder produced a spectacular all-around season.
Crow-Armstrong joined Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez as a first-time MVP winner. Alvarez was the unanimous American League winner after making a run at the Triple Crown, batting a career-high .316 with 42 home runs and 106 RBIs for the AL West champions.
Companies including Anthropic, Meta and OpenAI are knowingly building technology that poses catastrophic risks to humanity, nonprofit groups claim in a lawsuit.
Cummins says he believes there was a proper way to handle the sandpaper incident, pointing to the Cricket Australia investigation shortly afterwards.
There’s a very proper way to do things and improve. I think that investigation was a proper way to do it.
Everyone was asked in the circumstances about a game very quickly after. So that’s for CA. I think you can maybe argue whether the judgements were fair, but what can you do? I got asked all the questions, answered them all fairly.
That’s my story, so I think he’s wrong.
The details really matter in that difference. So perhaps there was conversations with Cameron Bancroft around taking sandpaper out and how to do it. That doesn’t mean that everyone in that dressing room knew what was going on.
The ReactOS project organised two hackfests this year, and the work done during those in-person sessions, combined with the ongoing regular progress, has led to some pretty significant breakthroughs and progress. More NT6+ syscalls have been added, ReactOS supports floppy disks now, NTFS support has been vastly improved, and much more. There’s also a new USB3/4 stack, which is now merged and offers basic support for these versions of USB.
One of the biggest additions is a new kernel shim engine which gives ReactOS the ability to work around buggy drivers and implement quirks, moreso than even Windows itself can. For instance, thanks to this new shim, XP-era NVIDIA drivers can run on NT6 ReactOS. The ongoing efforts to implement SMP are yielding results too: ReactOS can now run with SMP for days on end while doing tasks in the background, which is quite promising. The team is showing off Steam and the game Among Us running on ReactOS, which is definitely impressive.
After earning a first-round bye, 10-seed Ninety Six is preparing to hit the road for the second round of the South Carolina High School League (SCHSL) Class A Division 1 playoffs, traveling to face 7-seed Batesburg-Leesville.
Ann Lawani was taken from her home, sparking a huge outcry among students and faculty at her university
Nearly two months after ICE agents whisked a beloved California nurse and professor from her home in Lodi, her university has ramped up calls for her release.
“She needs to come home,” said Eileen Fry-Bowers, dean for the University of San Francisco’s nursing school,in reference to Ann Lawani, who was arrested by immigration agents in September and has since been shuffled between detention centers in California, Texas, and Louisiana, in a series of opaque transfers.
AMD shares MI430X GPU updates, reports leadership measured inference performance for MI455X on the AMD Helios rackscale solution and introduces MI450X on AMD Helios.
Nov. 12, 2026 — AMD is advancing the AMD Instinct MI400 Series GPU portfolio with updates spanning scientific computing and AI. AMD is sharing additional details on AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs for high-performance computing and AI for science, alongside new measured inference results for the AMD Instinct MI455X GPU on the AMD Helios rackscale solution. AMD is also introducing the AMD Instinct MI450X GPU, giving AMD Helios customers another option to match memory capacity with their AI workloads and deployment needs.
An illustration shows the expanded die components of an AMD Instinct MI455X graphics processing unit. AMD testing announced in November 2026 shows leadership inference performance on the Instinct MI455X GPU. Credit: AMD.
Scientific simulation, frontier AI and interactive inference place different demands on infrastructure. MI400 Series GPUs address those needs with native double-precision compute for scientific applications, high-capacity memory for demanding AI models and additional configuration choices.
“AMD Instinct MI400 Series GPUs bring leadership performance and new capabilities to AI and scientific computing,” said Andrew Dieckmann, corporate vice president and general manager, Data Center GPU Business, AMD. “With advances in high-precision compute, new milestones in AI inference performance and an expanded range of configurations, we’re giving customers more options to power their next generation of AI and HPC workloads.”
MI430X Supports Scientific Computing
The AMD Instinct MI430X GPU is designed for workloads that bring together high-precision simulation and AI. Its native FP64 capabilities support demanding scientific calculations, while 432 gigabytes (GB) of HBM4 memory and up to 23.3 terabytes per second of memory bandwidth help researchers work with larger simulations and datasets.
AMD is sharing a closer look at the role of native double precision in scientific computing. New AMD research examines 47 workload configurations across 11 applications and benchmarks, exploring where FP64 emulation can help and where scientific codes depend on native double-precision compute. The findings reinforce the focus on supporting the varied computational demands of HPC and AI for science with the AMD Instinct MI430X GPU.
MI455X: Advancing AI Performance
New AMD testing demonstrates leadership inference performance on MI455X powering AMD Helios delivering 21,333 tokens per second per GPU on DeepSeek-R1 using an MLPerf Inference Offline configuration – resulting in up to 30% higher throughput than the Nvidia Vera Rubin latest published MLPerf offline result.
AMD Helios further extends its infrastructure leadership with up to 20% higher HBM bandwidth and higher scale-up bandwidth than Nvidia Vera Rubin, enabling the inference performance demonstrated in these results.
More on the MI450X
AMD is expanding the AMD Instinct MI400 Series portfolio with the new AMD Instinct MI450X GPU, giving AMD Helios customers greater flexibility with an additional choice to match their AI workloads and deployment needs. MI450X offers 288 GB of HBM4 memory per GPU while delivering the same core compute, memory bandwidth and scale-up and scale-out connectivity capabilities as MI455X.
Built on the AMD flexible compute architecture and open foundation, MI450X illustrates how AMD quickly responds to evolving customer requirements while streamlining bring-up and integration for ecosystem partners.
For workloads that fit within its memory capacity, MI450X provides another option to meet throughput and response-time targets while optimizing operating expenses. For AMD Helios deployments, customers can select MI450X or MI455X GPUs, with both supported by the same open rack-scale architecture and AMD ROCm software foundation, while the MI455X GPU provides additional memory headroom for larger models, longer contexts or higher concurrency.
About AMD
AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) drives innovation in high-performance and AI computing to solve the world’s most important challenges. Today, AMD technology powers billions of experiences across cloud and AI infrastructure, embedded systems, AI PCs and gaming. With a broad portfolio of AI-optimized CPUs, GPUs, networking and software, AMD delivers full-stack AI solutions that provide the performance and scalability needed for a new era of intelligent computing. Learn more at www.amd.com.
MATE is probably the last X11-only holdout among the major desktop environments, but that’s about to change if Kerem Söke has anything to say about it.
Polo is a port of Marco’s behavior and window management policies to Wayland, built on libweston and written in Vala and C. It’s a window manager, compositor, and session authority for the MATE Wayland desktop. It takes over, step by step, what Marco, mate-session-manager and the compositor-facing parts of mate-settings-daemon do on X11.
MIAMI, FLORIDA — Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida is urging Elon Musk to move Tesla’s headquarters from Texas to Florida following Democrats’ sweeping victories in the Lone Star State.
In a letter to Musk, Gimenez argued that Florida offers lower regulation, a skilled technology workforce and a business-friendly environment. He warned that Texas’s incoming Democratic leadership could bring “excessive government interference” and politically motivated investigations.
Texas voters last week elected Democrat Gina Hinojosa governor, Vikki Goodwin lieutenant governor and Democrats to every statewide office on the ballot. Democrats also captured the Texas House for the first time since 2002, although Republicans retained control of the state Senate. Incoming Democratic leaders have publicly pledged bipartisan governance and have even appointed Republicans to help lead their transition teams.
Tesla moved its headquarters from California to Austin in 2021, and its Texas footprint has since grown substantially. The company’s Gigafactory Texas covers roughly 2,500 acres and more than 10 million square feet, producing the Model Y and Cybertruck. Tesla still officially lists Austin as its global headquarters.
Neither Musk nor Tesla has publicly indicated plans to accept Gimenez’s invitation.
Any headquarters move would be largely administrative compared with relocating Tesla’s massive Texas manufacturing operations, which represent billions of dollars in investment.
Chief financial officer Colette Kress to take over on interim basis but other names are in mix to be permanent successor
The hunt is on for a new Nvidia CEO. It comes after a whirlwind week, which saw the company head and co-founder, Jensen Huang, resign amid multiple allegations of extramarital affairs, including one that involved an alleged Chinese spy and two with company employees.
Nvidia immediately named Colette Kress, the company’s chief financial officer, as the interim CEO. It’s possible she could stay on permanently, but the company could also name another candidate for the full-time role. Names that have been floated include Ian Buck, who manages Nvidia’s AI hardware and software products, and Rene Haas, a former Nvidia employee and the current CEO of Arm Holdings, a UK-based chipmaker.
Ars Technica published a short write-up about changes to IBM’s quantum computing plans.
The changes greatly expand the scope of its next-generation Nighthawk general-use processors by adding a version with over 500 programmable qubits. At the same time, it’s stepping back a bit on its plan to link multiple Nighthawk processors together, dropping the intended number of linked systems from nine to two.
The total number of qubits planned for next year will remain the same; how the company is getting there, however, will be different.
Meanwhile, the company is touting the performance boost achieved via a major change that was made in the generation of Nighthawk processors released in September: hardware-based qubit resets.
I’m convinced quantum computing will eventually have a big impact in the areas its characteristics are presumed to be well-suited for. Also, it just looks and sounds incredibly cool, even if as the technology currently stands it’s not particularly useful yet.
Hidden bunker, entered via a hatch in a field, controlled a gun battery used to attack German ships in Channel
It has been kept secret for decades, buried four metres deep into the white cliffs of Dover. But from Friday, members of the public will finally be able to visit apioneering command bunker that was ordered by Winston Churchill and proved a vital defence during the second world war.
The Fan Bay plotting room, which is encased in concrete, housed the first land-based computer-aided targeting system. This acted as a “brain” for a gun battery that was used to defend Dover and attack German ships in the Channel, according to Jon Stewart, who led the excavation project for the National Trust.
Nov. 12, 2026 — NVIDIA Board of Directors announced today that Jensen Huang has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board, effective immediately.
Colette Kress, current Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NVIDIA, has agreed to serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer. Kress will continue to serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer while serving as Interim Chief Executive Officer until a permanent successor has been named. The Board is initiating a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer and will consider internal and external candidates.
Credit: NVIDIA
Kress has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NVIDIA since joining the company in September 2013. During her tenure, she has led the company’s finance organization and has played a key role in NVIDIA’s growth and evolution. Prior to joining NVIDIA, Kress spent nearly 25 years in finance roles at leading technology companies, including Cisco and Microsoft.
The Board of Directors appointed Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever Chair of the Board. Mr. Jones has been an entrepreneur, technology executive, and active venture investor for over 30 years, including serving as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of Synopsys.
“Colette has helped lead NVIDIA through a period of extraordinary growth and has a deep understanding of our business, customers, operations and financial position,” said Harvey Jones, Chair of the NVIDIA Board of Directors. “She is supported by an experienced leadership team that has been instrumental in executing NVIDIA’s strategy and advancing its technology roadmap. The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption.”
“NVIDIA’s strength has always come from its people, and together with our leadership team, I am committed to building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years,” said Colette Kress, Interim CEO and CFO, NVIDIA. “We will continue advancing the work that has made NVIDIA a leader in accelerated computing and AI, and execute on the opportunities ahead. Our focus remains on serving our customers, partners, developers and shareholders.”
Jensen’s contributions to NVIDIA are profound. NVIDIA is one of the most consequential technology companies in the world. The Board and the company thank Jensen for his immeasurable contributions to the company and the industry.
NVIDIA will report its third-quarter fiscal 2027 financial results on Tuesday, November 17, at approximately 1:20 p.m. PT, as previously scheduled, followed by its earnings call at 2 p.m. PT.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in AI and accelerated computing.
Third-generation architecture is designed to deliver the performance of a data center-grade server at a cost and power budget below an RTX6000 server, fitting in the racks enterprises and labs already own
EINDHOVEN, Netherlands, Nov. 12, 2026 — Axelera AI has unveiled the details behind Titania, its third-generation silicon architecture in a chiplet design. Titania is highly programmable and energy efficient and will deliver high performance at interactive speeds, all within the power and cooling limits of existing data centers, rather than the 100-kilowatt-plus liquid-cooled racks that today’s highest-density GPU systems require.
Axelera AI Titania Chiplet Architecture
Performance expectations for Titania are up to 7x the throughput per watt compared to the best data center grade servers available, and up to a 20x better TCO. Each Titania-based system-in-package (SiP) will contain two Titania chiplets which are then packaged in a range of form factors, including standard PCIe cards as well as OCP-compliant UBB baseboards with eight Titania OAM modules connected in a scale-up network. In support of over $300 million in confirmed Titania commitments, these form factors will be available via OEM partners in an inference server configuration in both air- and liquid-cooled configurations.
Titania builds on the programmability, performance and efficiency of its shipping predecessors, Metis and Europa, and further expands the product line from embedded, edge and enterprise AI into large-scale data center inference. Designed for interactive and highly variable AI workloads of enterprises, sovereign clouds, decentralized and modular data centers, telcos and AI factories, Titania combines Axelera AI’s high-performance, energy efficient Digital In-Memory Computing (D-IMC) architecture with a new chiplet-based design, high-capacity LPDDR6 memory, high bandwidth scale-up connectivity and programmable RISC-V compute in one package. Available in multiple form factors including industry standard PCIe cards as well as OCP-compliant boards, Titania offers customers the flexibility to solve for their inference needs. Supported through the Voyager toolchain, Titania deployments will support tensor, expert and pipeline parallelism, as well as speculative decoding, KV cache offloading and disaggregation out of the box. In practice, that means large models use every card in the servers, each user gets tokens faster and operators get more useful work per kilowatt from the rack they already own.
“The biggest challenge most organizations face as inference becomes the dominant AI workload is the tokenomics of their infrastructure,” said Fabrizio Del Maffeo, co-founder and CEO of Axelera AI. “For enterprises, it’s becoming impossible to own their own AI infrastructure due to high CAPEX expenditures including rebuilding their data center footprint. So they choose between a server that can only compute small or medium models and paying over one million dollars for a data center server that requires specialized infrastructure. Titania solves this problem and gives enterprises, neoclouds, telcos and sovereign clouds alike the opportunity to take advantage of owning and controlling their own inference infrastructure.”
Designed for the Infrastructure Customers Already Have
Titania builds on the D-IMC architecture first introduced with Axelera AI’s Metis platform and extended through Europa, enhanced with floating-point support, more and smaller cores, and better coordination of data movement to deliver exceptional performance for generative AI and data center scale.
The Titania architecture’s highly efficient data movement and compute engine enables it to use low-cost, readily available LPDDR6 memory rather than relying on scarce high-bandwidth memory (HBM). LPDDR6 gives each package 128 GB of capacity at lower memory power than HBM, while avoiding any dependence on HBM supply or packaging requirements. Sparse mixture-of-experts models are large in total parameters but small in active parameters, so memory capacity and effective utilization matter more than peak bandwidth if it goes unused. The result is a platform designed to deliver high-performance inference while reducing power, cooling, and infrastructure requirements.
Titania will scale from PCIe cards for standard servers and OAM modules to multi-accelerator servers and larger AI infrastructure deployments. An eight SiP accelerator Titania reference server (codenamed AX8) is designed to provide 20 PFLOPS of FP8 compute, 1 TB of accelerator memory, and 19.6 TB/s of memory bandwidth within a standard 4U, air-cooled server, at 5-6kW typical, enabling large AI models to run within existing data center power and cooling environments. One Axelera server will hold a 1.6 trillion-parameter model at FP4 with the headroom for KV cache, two fit within a legacy 15 kW rack and five fit within a 30 kW air-cooled rack.
“We don’t ask anyone to trust a simulator,” said Evangelos Eleftheriou, CTO and co-founder of Axelera AI. “The architecture behind Titania already turns 88 percent of its memory bandwidth into tokens on Europa silicon that is shipping today, and Titania builds on that capability as the third generation of our architecture. It’s not simply about maximizing peak compute. It’s about how efficiently we can turn power, memory, and infrastructure into useful AI performance at scale.”
One Architecture and Software Foundation from Edge to Data Center
Titania is Axelera AI’s third-generation AI acceleration technology, following Metis (optimized for performance and energy efficiency) and Europa, which extended the company’s architecture into enterprise AI infrastructure.
The same Voyager SDK and AxeleraScript (AxScript) software foundation extends across all three generations, allowing customers to develop and optimize AI applications on Axelera AI technology today and carry those workloads forward as the portfolio expands. The Titania PCIe card is designed as a drop-in replacement for the Axelera Server 250p (a FHFL four-chip Europa card), so models deployed on Europa today move to Titania in 2028 without re-porting.
One card serves LLMs, vision-language models, and video: on-chip 8K decode and 4K encode with H.265 and AV1 codecs remove the host-CPU cost of video pipelines, so a single Axelera AI system runs language, speech and vision models alongside live video.
Titania will be offered across multiple form factors, with OEM and ODM partners building the technology into servers and larger systems. Axelera AI’s Titania goes into production in Q3 2027 and already has customer deployment commitments through the beginning of 2028.
Designed in Europe, Trusted Globally
Designed in Europe with support from the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking’s DARE initiative, Titania extends Axelera AI’s mission to make high-performance, energy-efficient AI infrastructure more accessible to enterprises, cloud providers, governments and AI infrastructure operators globally.
Axelera AI will provide a deeper technical look at the Titania architecture during SC26, November 15–19, in Chicago, IL., at booth 3251 in McCormick Place. Book a meeting with Axelera here.
About Axelera AI
Axelera AI is the leading European AI semiconductor company developing next-generation AI acceleration hardware for edge computing and data center applications. With an efficiency-first architecture that addresses AI’s critical energy and cooling constraints, Axelera AI has deployed across more than 600 customers, including those in telecommunications, aerospace and enterprise sectors. The company’s Metis, Europa and Titania architecture-based platforms deliver high-performance AI inference solutions that enable deployment at scale within real-world power and thermal budgets. Through its Partner Accelerator Network and Voyager SDK, Axelera AI provides a comprehensive ecosystem approach that ensures accessibility and rapid deployment.
BEAVERTON, Ore., Nov. 12, 2026 — The OpenMP Architecture Review Board (ARB) is pleased to announce Version 6.1 of the OpenMP API specification, which brings substantial advancements to the OpenMP API ecosystem. This new version defines multidimensional execution spaces, enabling grid-based programming devices. It adds support for dynamic-lifetime data and expanded thread‑affinity controls allowing the use of fast memory and optimized parallel execution. Finally, this version features new loop transformations and provides better control over data locality on devices.
“While OpenMP API 6.1 is a minor release, it includes improvements to existing features such as the device model and support for affinity control and default data-mapping and data-sharing attributes,” said Bronis R. de Supinski, Chair of the OpenMP Language Committee. “Overall, this release provides greater control over device regions that will enable higher performance while indicating future directions that will capture all available performance for those regions.”
OpenMP API Development
OpenMP API 6.1 was jointly developed by the OpenMP ARB, a group of major computer hardware and software vendors, as well as users throughout the OpenMP community. See the list of OpenMP ARB members here.
OpenMP API 6.1 Features
In addition to several minor improvements, the updated specification includes the following key features:
Multidimensional execution spaces: Extensions to existing parallel constructs and a set of new multidimensional routines enable a grid-based view of OpenMP teams on a device.
Support for dynamic-lifetime data: The use of small, fast device memory for data with dynamic lifetimes is supported through the new dyn_groupprivate clause and corresponding supplementary API routines.
More loop transformations:
Coalescing of multiple nested loops into a single loop with the new flatten directive.
Fusing of all loops up to a specified depth using the fuse directive with the depth clause.
The sizes modifier was added to the sizes clause to specify the number of tiles.
More control over data locality:
A new variable category and a new modifier for the default and defaultmap clauses that facilitate selection of data-sharing and data-mapping attributes.
The attach modifier was added to the map clause to provide more control over pointer attachment for mapped data.
Expanded thread‑affinity controls:
Extensions to OMP_PLACES express hierarchical place groups and reserve structured places.
Spread-affinity behavior operates over this hierarchy.
Enhancements to OMP_PROC_BIND with the reset and noreset modifiers control whether a thread’s original affinity is restored after a parallel region.
Scalable SIMD support: To support the use of scalable SIMD instructions, the scaled modifier was added to the simdlen clause.
Improved device selection: The omp_get_device_distances routine was added to guide device selection for device constructs. The omp_default_device predefined identifier was added as a mnemonic device number.
Improved Fortran support: Support of the begin declare_variant directive was extended to Fortran.
Download the OpenMP API 6.1 specification from the OpenMP ARB website here.
“OpenMP API 6.1 begins the adoption of support for what Johannes Doerfert called ‘kernel language,’” said Michael Klemm, CEO of the OpenMP ARB. “It brings the grid-based programming style that many GPU developers know from CUDA and HIP to a portable, open standard. Multi-dimensional execution spaces will help exploit performance on accelerators while keeping code portable across vendors.”
About OpenMP
The OpenMP Architecture Review Board (ARB) standardizes high-level, directive-based, multi-language parallelism that is performant, productive, and portable. Jointly defined by a group of major computer hardware and software vendors and users, the OpenMP API is a portable, scalable model giving parallel programmers a simple, flexible interface for developing parallel applications for platforms ranging from embedded systems and accelerator devices to multicore systems and shared-memory systems. The OpenMP ARB owns the OpenMP brand, oversees the OpenMP specification, and produces and approves new versions of the specification. Further information can be found at https://www.openmp.org.
Allegations of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour made against ex-comedian who was jailed on Monday
Russell Brand has been accused of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour by a further six women, according to a report.
The comedian, 51, is accused of having sex with a woman without her consent and then apologising afterwards, an investigation by the Times and the Sunday Times said.
Project Quicksilver uses RAVEL Orchestrate AI to investigate distributed workload management, energy efficiency, infrastructure economics, and performance
SEATTLE, Nov. 12, 2026 — RAVEL today announced a research collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories on Project Quicksilver, a multi-phase initiative using RAVEL Orchestrate AI to investigate dynamic, power-aware orchestration of artificial intelligence (AI) workloads across geographically distributed computing environments. The research aims to inform more efficient, responsible, and cost-effective approaches to data center design and operations by examining how power availability, operational conditions, and workload requirements can guide scheduling and workload placement decisions to address energy, capacity, and cost constraints.
The race to expand AI infrastructure is creating a fundamental challenge: more computing capacity does not automatically translate into more productive capacity. As power availability, infrastructure costs, regulatory requirements, and workload demands increasingly shape AI infrastructure decisions, Project Quicksilver investigates how dynamic, power-aware orchestration can help organizations make more productive use of power and compute capacity across distributed environments.
“The next phase of AI infrastructure leadership won’t be won by simply building more. It will be determined by how efficiently and productively we use every megawatt, every GPU, and every dollar invested,” said Denise Muyco, CEO and Co-founder of RAVEL. “The United States has an opportunity to continue to lead and innovate not just in AI capacity, but in how intelligently that capacity is managed. Project Quicksilver will investigate how orchestration can help make AI infrastructure investments more productive while supporting more responsible energy use.”
Federated, Power-Aware Orchestration with RAVEL Orchestrate AI
RAVEL Orchestrate AI provides a federated orchestration layer for managing AI workloads across heterogeneous, geographically distributed computing resources. Rather than optimizing each environment in isolation, federation enables workloads to be managed across locations as part of a coordinated system, with scheduling and placement decisions informed by available power, cost, and performance requirements. The platform combines power-aware scheduling and policy-driven management to account for infrastructure conditions, workload requirements, and operational priorities.
“AI infrastructure can’t reach its full potential if every data center operates as an island,” said Philippa Carroll, Chief Product Officer at RAVEL. “As AI infrastructure becomes more distributed, the challenge is no longer just how much computing capacity we have, but how effectively we can use it. Project Quicksilver will investigate the trade-offs between power, cost and performance—and the role orchestration plays in ensuring we make better and more responsible infrastructure decisions.”
Informing Future AI Infrastructure Design and Operations
Project Quicksilver aims to generate evidence that could inform future AI infrastructure design and operations, including approaches to managing workloads across distributed computing environments.
Sandia serves as the initial research lead, with plans to expand Project Quicksilver to additional U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories and explore additional use cases for environmental and performance optimization.
Learn More at SC26
RAVEL and Sandia will discuss Project Quicksilver at SC26, November 15–20, 2026.
Project Quicksilver: Dynamic Power-Aware AI Orchestration Across Distributed Computing Environments
Tuesday, November 17, 2026 | 2:30 p.m. CST
U.S. Department of Energy Booth | SC26
The presentation will cover Project Quicksilver’s experimental approach, planned test phases, and anticipated research outputs.
Visit the DOE booth at SC26 to learn more about Project Quicksilver.
About RAVEL
RAVEL is redefining intelligent orchestration for IT operations. Through its Orchestrate AI platform, RAVEL empowers teams to scale innovation, reduce infrastructure friction, and unlock the full potential of AI—from research to production.
Four people were injured and one person died after a shooting in Northwest Washington DC on Thursday morning, local police said.
In a Thursday afternoon press conference, law enforcement identified the suspect as 55-year-old Matt Wade Lambert, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Companies to co-design infrastructure and advance hybrid quantum-classical applications
PALO ALTO, Calif. and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 12, 2026 — PsiQuantum and AMD today announced an expanded strategic partnership to co-design the computing infrastructure required to operate utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers and the hybrid applications that combine quantum, high-performance, and AI computing.
The collaboration builds on the companies’ existing work around AMD Versal FPGA technology—selected by PsiQuantum for the development of its fault-tolerant quantum computing platform—and expands it into a broader relationship spanning AMD Instinct GPUs, AMD EPYC CPUs, and the AMD ROCm software stack, combined with PsiQuantum’s silicon photonics platform and its fully integrated platform. As quantum systems scale toward practical use, PsiQuantum and AMD expect the integration of classical high-performance, AI, and photonic quantum computing technology to form the world’s most powerful hybrid computing fabric.
To reinforce its commitment to the partnership, AMD also plans to make an equity investment into PsiQuantum.
“Quantum computing will enable solving problems in healthcare, materials, energy, finance, and other domains that are out of reach today, working in concert with AI and high-performance computing,” said Victor Peng, Chief Executive Officer of PsiQuantum. “By bringing our teams and technologies together, PsiQuantum and AMD will advance the future of computing, from the infrastructure that supports utility-scale quantum systems to new approaches for networking with silicon photonics and scaling the foundations of next-gen AI.”
“AMD has a long track record of bringing together the compute technologies and deep engineering partnerships needed to build the world’s most powerful supercomputers and AI infrastructure,” said Mark Papermaster, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, AMD. “We see that same opportunity with quantum computing, where leadership in classical computing is essential to building systems at scale. Our work with PsiQuantum brings the breadth of AMD compute and software to this next frontier, combining our strengths to accelerate the path to utility-scale quantum computing.”
The collaboration aligns with the U.S. Department of Energy’s recently released Quantum Genesis Priority Applications, which identify a key set of scientific problems that fault-tolerant quantum computers will be expected to solve.
PsiQuantum’s proprietary computational chemistry methodologies are performing beyond state-of-the-art calculations on AMD hardware today, and the companies’ planned initial focus on drug discovery falls within biological modeling, an identified emerging application area for Quantum Genesis.
By leveraging PsiQuantum’s expertise in workflow and fault-tolerant algorithm development, these methodologies help elevate today’s GPU-based approaches beyond state-of-the-art while preparing critical industries for the arrival of fault-tolerant quantum computing. Working with AMD, PsiQuantum researchers have optimized a highly accurate machine-learning decoder—PRISM—for low-latency implementation on programmable hardware accelerators. The result combines speed and accuracy in a design for real-time error correction in utility-scale photonic quantum computers.
The combination of PsiQuantum’s workflows with AMD’s GPU expertise running large scale simulation has already delivered initial breakthrough results in simulation of covalent inhibitors, a class of molecules relevant in drug discovery for oncology. PsiQuantum plans to build on these results and explore integrated accelerated computing solutions for commercial applications, initially focusing on the broader pharmaceutical research and drug discovery space.
Both companies will also explore expanding their collaboration with a footprint at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) in Chicago, America’s largest quantum computing project, where PsiQuantum serves as the anchor tenant.
“Illinois is bringing together world-class researchers, a growing list of innovative companies, and a skilled workforce to build the industries of the future,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “AMD and PsiQuantum’s expanded partnership has the potential to advance that work at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park. Together, we’re laying the foundation to create new opportunities for Illinoisans.”
AMD and PsiQuantum will share more about their strategic partnership at SC26 (November 15-20) in Chicago.
About PsiQuantum
PsiQuantum was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company’s mission is to build and deploy the world’s first useful quantum computers. PsiQuantum’s photonic approach enables it to leverage high-volume semiconductor manufacturing, existing cryogenic infrastructure, and architectural flexibility to rapidly scale its systems. Learn more at www.psiquantum.com.
About AMD
AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) drives innovation in high-performance and AI computing to solve the world’s most important challenges. Today, AMD technology powers billions of experiences across cloud and AI infrastructure, embedded systems, AI PCs and gaming. With a broad portfolio of AI-optimized CPUs, GPUs, networking and software, AMD delivers full-stack AI solutions that provide the performance and scalability needed for a new era of intelligent computing. Learn more at www.amd.com.
A multi-institutional team leveraged ALCF’s Aurora and OLCF’s Frontier systems to perform exascale simulations of a liquid-metal fusion breeding blanket, demonstrating new modeling capabilities that could help advance the design of future fusion reactors.
Nov. 12, 2026 — Using two U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) exascale supercomputers devoted to open science, a multi-institutional team has carried out the largest and most detailed simulations to date of a critical component for fusion energy systems. The work has been named a finalist for the Association for Computing Machinery’s prestigious Gordon Bell Prize, which recognizes outstanding achievement in high-performance computing.
Close-up of the tritium breeding zone with the magnetic field switched off. This region exhibits a complex turbulent flow, with warmer colors indicating higher normalized flow speeds. Image: Rupert Eardley-Brunt, UK Atomic Energy Authority.
The simulations targeted a key part of many proposed fusion reactor designs: the breeding blanket. Located around the plasma in a fusion reactor, breeding blankets are designed to capture energy from fusion reactions, help shield reactor components from damage, and produce tritium, a scarce hydrogen isotope needed as fuel.
The team zeroed in on the water-cooled lead-lithium (WCLL) blanket design for ITER, the international fusion experiment under construction in France. Their simulations captured several processes interacting across the full blanket, including liquid-metal flow under strong magnetic fields, heat transfer, buoyancy, tritium transport and water cooling.
“We’re tackling a very challenging multiphysics, multiscale problem involving fluid systems with very different properties,” said project lead Elia Merzari, a professor of nuclear engineering and mechanical engineering at Pennsylvania State University with a joint appointment at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. “This is the first time a blanket has been modeled at this fidelity, including all the physics.”
Meeting that challenge required expertise in both fusion energy science and high-performance computing, along with access to two of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. The project brought together researchers from Argonne, Penn State, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
To carry out the massive simulations, the team used Aurora at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) and Frontier at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF). Both are exascale supercomputers capable of performing quintillions of calculations per second. The ALCF and OLCF are DOE Office of Science user facilities supported by DOE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program.
Multiphysics Across Multiple Scales
Fusion blankets are highly complex systems. In a WCLL blanket, liquid lead-lithium flows through breeding zones, where lithium interacts with neutrons to produce tritium. Separate water circuits remove heat. Because the liquid metal is electrically conductive, its flow is strongly affected by the powerful magnetic fields used to confine plasma in a reactor.
Interactions between the liquid metal and the magnetic field can create extremely thin boundary layers — regions where the flow changes sharply over a very short distance. Those tiny features exist within a blanket that spans roughly a meter, creating an enormous difference between the largest and smallest scales in the flow. At the same time, water can move through the system hundreds of times faster than the liquid metal, so the simulation must also account for processes occurring at very different rates. Capturing this wide range of spatial and temporal scales required a high-resolution multiscale model and exascale computing power.
With access to Aurora and Frontier, the team’s calculations used more than 2 billion spectral elements and 2 trillion grid points, making them the largest liquid-metal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations to date. Spectral elements divide the blanket model into smaller regions that represent its geometry. Grid points are locations within those regions where the model calculates conditions such as velocity and temperature.
“Modeling two trillion grid points is something you can only do with exascale computing,” Merzari said. “The need for that resolution is really driven by the physics. You need very high resolution to capture the thin boundary layers in the flow created by MHD.”
The simulations allowed the researchers to examine how these physical effects influence blanket behavior. One key finding was that MHD suppresses turbulence and reorganize the liquid-metal flow, affecting pressure, temperature and heat transfer. The team also observed that temperature differences in the liquid can drive buoyancy, further altering the flow, especially near the wall facing the plasma. Understanding these complex interactions can help researchers improve fusion blanket designs.
Snapshot of the normalized flow speed in the water-cooled lithium-lead tritium breeding blanket module (WCLL TBM), including magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effects. The magnetic field causes a sudden laminarization of the flow, producing smoother and more orderly motion. (Image: Rupert Eardley-Brunt, UK Atomic Energy Authority)
Cracking the Code for Exascale
Carrying out simulations at this scale required years of code development and validation. The team used NekRS, an open-source computational fluid dynamics code developed at Argonne, for the high-fidelity multiphysics simulations. NekRS builds on decades of advances in the Nek5000 code, which has supported past Gordon Bell Prize-winning research and demonstrated high performance and scalability for incompressible flow simulations on CPU-based supercomputers. NekRS extends that foundation by adapting and improving algorithms for GPUs. The team also used the open-source OpenMC code to calculate neutron transport, providing data on heating, tritium production and water activation as inputs to the NekRS simulations.
To prepare for the exascale runs, the researchers expanded NekRS to model MHD effects and optimized the code for simulations of this scale. This effort was led by Yu-Hsiang Lan, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He worked closely with two mentors and longtime NekRS developers, Paul Fischer of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Argonne, and Misun Min of Argonne.
“My role was to develop the solver that brings MHD into NekRS and validate it against similar problems in the literature to make sure everything was working correctly before we pushed it to larger scales,” Lan said.
Lan also implemented a capability known as global mesh refinement in NekRS. This allowed the team to start with a lower-resolution model and progressively add detail rather than building the largest model from the outset.
“In terms of workflow, this was a lifesaver,” Merzari said. “It really helped us get this work done in a fraction of the time.”
NekRS’s ability to run on different types of GPUs allowed the team to perform and scale the simulations on both Frontier and Aurora. Large-scale supercomputers are made up of thousands of interconnected computers, called nodes, that work together to perform complex calculations. The team ran simulations on more than 9,000 nodes on each system, using nearly the full capacity of both machines. They also demonstrated strong scaling on both systems, showing that increasing the number of nodes continued to reduce simulation time.
Frontier served as a primary platform for code development, testing and validation. The system also supported in-situ visualization using the open-source Ascent software. This capability allowed researchers to capture simulation data at high frequency as the calculations ran, enabling them to study transient flow behavior in greater detail and generate high-quality movies of the evolving flow.
The researchers turned to Aurora for their largest simulation, leveraging its substantial memory capacity to run the complete multiphysics model, including MHD, at a resolution of 2 trillion grid points.
From Simulation to Engineering Design
High-fidelity simulations provide a valuable complement to fusion experiments, allowing researchers to study and predict how fusion systems behave under extreme conditions.
“These types of experiments are very hard and also very expensive,” Lan said. “Simulation is an important tool for design and can help reduce the cost of actual experiments.”
The detailed data from these simulations can also help researchers develop and test new approaches to fusion engineering. One longer-term goal is to use simulations of different designs and operating conditions to develop faster models that require less computing power.
“Now that we’ve shown this is doable, people can use the results or the code as a tool to validate a low-fidelity model,” Lan said. “Then the low-fidelity model eventually can be used for things like AI design optimization or digital twins.”
Lan is already contributing to a separate Argonne-led project that is building on this work, using data from the blanket simulations to develop simplified system-analysis tools for fusion applications.
More broadly, the team’s exascale simulations mark another step forward for fusion modeling. Their scale and level of detail provide new insights that can help accelerate the path to practical fusion energy.
“There is such interesting physics in simulations at this scale and so much we can learn as we continue working to develop better fusion energy technologies,” Merzari said.
Project Team
This research is detailed in the paper “Exascale Multiphysics Simulations for Liquid Metal Fusion Blankets,” which will be presented Nov. 17 as part of the ACM Gordon Bell Finalists Presentations session at SC26. In addition to Elia Merzari and Yu-Hsiang Lan, the paper’s authors are Misun Min, Haomin Yuan, Patrick Shriwise, Stefan Kerkemeier, Kristopher Rowe and Ramesh Balakrishnan of Argonne National Laboratory; Paul Fischer of Argonne and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Tri Nguyen, Maximiliano Dalinger and Luiz Aldeia Machado of Penn State University; Ananias Tomboulides of Aristotle University; and Andrew Davis, Aleksander Dubas and Rupert Eardley-Brunt of the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
The team received computing time on Aurora and Frontier through DOE’s Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program, which is supported by the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research. Development of Nek5000 and NekRS was supported by ASCR’s Applied Mathematics program and DOE’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program.
Source: Jim Collins, ALCF, and Coury Turczyn, OLCF
During his time on death row, courts set nine different execution dates for Richard Glossip, and he came so close to being put to death that he ate three separate last meals.
Dollar-store chain’s settlement with FTC and state officials comes after Guardian exposé of its pricing practices
Discount store giant Family Dollar will pay $63m to settle claims by state and federal authorities that it frequently overcharged its customers for milk, diapers, batteries, toilet paper and other household goods.
The enforcement action announced Thursday by the Federal Trade Commission and 17 states followed a Guardian investigation that revealed Family Dollar and its larger rival, Dollar General, frequently charge more at checkout than the prices listed on their shelves. Family Dollar failed at least 2,100 price inspections in 20 states from 2022 to late 2025, the Guardian found.
Nintendo has issued four DMCA takedown notices targeting two Nintendo Switch emulators, Yuzu and Citron Neo, along with mod chip firmware such as Picofly, SX Core and HWFLY. As a result, 144 repositories containing firmware used to circumvent the console's copy protections have been removed by GitHub and replaced by a DMCA takedown notice. IGN reports: GitHub has posted Nintendo's November 6 DMCA notice, which says, "The Nintendo Switch console and video games contain technological protection measures ('TPMs') that permit the Nintendo Switch console to interact only with legitimate Nintendo video game files. This process protects Nintendo's copyright-protected video games, (...) by preventing users from playing pirated copies of Nintendo's video games on the Nintendo Switch console and by preventing users from unlawfully copying and playing Nintendo's video games on unauthorized devices."
However, while this takedown has effectively wiped out a ton of repositories with mod chip firmware, it seems like it's still being hosted elsewhere on the site, according to TorrentFreak. It's possible, though, that Nintendo isn't finished yet; back in 2024, Nintendo effectively took down 8,500 copies of Yuzu by issuing a takedown that targeted 12 different mirrors of the emulator. This particular takedown also comes a few days after emulators were able to run the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on PC, so this could be a sign that Nintendo is winding up its lawyers to crack down on emulation once again.
The incident is shifting from an active shooter response to a barricaded subject response, a federal law enforcement official has told NBC News.
It is believed there is no other individual there at scene so this is not considered a hostage situation, they said, adding that it has been about 90 minutes since the suspect fired at law enforcement, which did not strike anyone.
A new Digital Twin Technology Lab will combine digital twins, robotics and high-performance computing to prepare students for the factories of the future.
Nov. 12, 2026 — SMU has received a $4.2 million award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to enhance digital twin technology and high-performance computing (HPC), strengthening the university’s role in developing the technologies and workforce needed to support the future of American manufacturing.
The two-year project will put a particular focus on semiconductor manufacturing, a strategically important industry for U.S. technological innovation and economic security.
Led by Nader Jalili, a mechanical engineering professor at the SMU Lyle School of Engineering, the project will support a new laboratory where students and researchers can explore how AI, robotics and humans can work together to improve manufacturing processes.
“If we want to bring more manufacturing back to the United States, we have to prepare the people who will make it work,” said Jalili. “That is where I see an important role for SMU’s research mission. This lab will allow us to work on manufacturing problems with industry while giving students and working professionals hands-on experience with the same technologies.”
The project will expand capabilities at SMU’s Center for Digital and Human-Augmented Manufacturing (CDHAM) to include a Digital Twin Technology Lab developed in collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric.
Paired with SMU’s high-performance computing, the lab will connect physical manufacturing with virtual models of these systems to better prepare SMU students and researchers for increasingly automated factories, where robotics and assembly processes are essential. They’ll explore how digital models, AI, robotics and automation can work together to improve manufacturing processes.
“Human judgment and human connection cannot be replaced by AI,” Jalili said. “We are working on making the robot more responsive to the human presence.”
Jalili said the project reflects a shift toward manufacturing systems in which people and robots work together, rather than treating automation as a way to remove people from the process. By combining physical equipment with digital models, researchers can study how humans and robots can collaborate safely and efficiently.
Bridging the Digital and Physical Worlds
CDHAM specializes in digital twin technology, which creates a virtual representation of a physical system or component. With the help of SMU’s high-performance computing, including the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD, these digital twins allow researchers to simulate operations, monitor performance and evaluate potential changes before implementing them in a real-world environment. The team aims to use this approach to improve operational efficiency by 10% to 20% while reducing downtime and waste.
The new Digital Twin Technology Lab will have a five-cell modular automation system featuring interconnected robotic workstations, conveyors and inspection stations that mirror processes used in semiconductor fabrication facilities and other advanced manufacturing environments.
This will allow students to follow a component through steps such as handling, processing and inspection, while studying how robotic systems and people interact along the way. Rather than working only with individual pieces of equipment, students will see how the systems function together.
The lab will also support new digital twin courses, graduate research assistantships and industry-aligned training for the Dallas–Fort Worth semiconductor and advanced manufacturing workforce.
The lab’s digital twin will extend that experience beyond the physical line. Digital models can represent a larger factory environment, allowing students to explore systems and equipment that cannot all be housed in a university laboratory. Researchers can also use digital twins to examine manufacturing operations and test changes before applying them to physical equipment.
“This is a major change to what’s currently possible,” Jalili said.
Semiconductor Assembly and Automation Without a Cleanroom
The project takes a unique approach to semiconductor manufacturing education. The team will use aluminum wafers as lower-cost stand-ins for silicon wafers, allowing more students, researchers and trainees to work with manufacturing processes without the expense and specialized conditions of a semiconductor cleanroom. Researchers will also develop new ways to detect, diagnose and work around defects in chiplet-based advanced packaging to improve yield and reduce waste.
The project also will explore how robots can respond to people working nearby. Researchers aim to use information about a person’s attention and physiological state, along with task and environmental conditions, to help robotic systems adjust how they collaborate with a human worker. The broader objective is to improve safety and productivity while preserving the judgment and supervision people bring to complex tasks. In addition, the team will develop AI tools that turn plain-language instructions and camera images into robot action plans, checked against physical constraints and the digital twin before they run.
Jalili said this approach could help make manufacturing environments safer by enabling systems to anticipate potentially hazardous interactions and alert workers before an incident occurs.
Jalili, an ASME Fellow, focuses his research on intelligent manufacturing, AI-driven digital engineering, dynamics and control, and robotics. Helping Jalili create and run this two-year project are co-principal investigators Yildirim Hurmuzlu, Edmond Richer and Adel Alaeddini from SMU Mechanical Engineering and Jennifer Dworak from SMU Electrical and Computer Engineering. Their expertise spans control systems, robotics and automation, digital twin modeling, and semiconductor engineering.
This work was performed under the following financial assistance award 60NANB26D244 from U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology.
American saves three set points in second-set rally
Gauff wins six straight games to seal 6-4, 7-5 victory
World No 4 needs Noskova help to reach last four
Coco Gauff clawed out a 6-4, 7-5 round-robin victory over Marta Kostyuk on Thursday to keep her WTA Finals hopes alive in Indian Wells, California.
The world No 4 still needs help to reach the semi-finals of the elite season-ending event. If fifth-ranked compatriot Jessica Pegula beats Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova in Thursday’s final group match, Pegula will advance instead. Noskova has already qualified.
Amid demands for transparency, the State Department released a report detailing the oil funds received by the United States and disbursed back to Venezuela.
Kalshi announces ‘mutual decision’ as Democrats say they plan to investigate Trump family’s investments
Donald Trump Jr is no longer a paid adviser for Kalshi, the prediction market company said Thursday.
Kalshi described it as a mutual business decision between the two parties that followed a decision by Trump Jr’s investment firm, 1789 Capital, to increase its investment in Kalshi’s biggest competitor Polymarket.
Protesters with the Sunrise Movement youth climate group push for new Senate leadership and ending the filibuster
Dozens of protesters with the Sunrise Movement, a youth climate organization, were arrested after staging a sit-in inside Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer’s Washington DC office Thursday
According to the Sunrise Movement, 54 people were arrested, among a few hundred who joined the protest from across the country, including some from New York, which Schumer represents. On its Instagram, the group is fundraising $24,000 to cover the bail fees and any potential legal fees for those arrested.
Home Office sign-off also needed for site that would house 1,200 asylum seekers near Oxfordshire village that voted to leave UK
The communities secretary, Angela Rayner, has approved full planning permission for an asylum centre at a Ministry of Defence site near the village of Piddington in Oxfordshire.
The decision approves plans to go ahead with the refurbishment and redevelopment of the former barracks. The Home Office insists that final approval is still to be determined.
Shares of the chipmaker extended their losses after Nvidia said its longtime CEO is stepping down amid revelations of a relationship with a suspected Chinese spy.
Prime minister says reset could be a deal ‘like the Brexit people thought they were voting for in 2016’
Andy Burnham has said he believes a “win-win” deal could be done with the EU that could be “more like the Brexit that people thought they were voting for in 2016”.
The prime minister was meeting fellow leaders at the European Political Community summit in Dublin, ahead of a keenly anticipated EU-UK summit next week, where he hopes to bring Britain closer to Europe.
Decision disappoints experts hoping for world’s biggest emitter to take global lead on climate crisis
China has ruled out hosting the Cop33 UN climate summit in 2028 after months of deliberations, leaving the field open for other Asian countries to hold it, the Guardian understands.
Reuters reports that former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had an intimate relationship with a third woman (source paywalled; alternative source ), an unnamed Nvidia employee. The revelation follows reports of two other extramarital affairs: one with Nvidia VP Kimberly Powell and another with Alice Huang, whom U.S. intelligence reportedly suspects of being a Chinese spy. The latter relationship has also prompted a shareholder lawsuit alleging Nvidia misled investors about its ties to a company suspected of circumventing U.S. chip export restrictions. Jensen Huang has since resigned as Nvidia's CEO and stepped down from its board on Thursday. CFO Colette Kress has been appointed interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent successor.
New York mayor Zohran Mamdani says crews are working in ‘extremely dangerous conditions’ to find anyone trapped
Rescue crews have continued to search for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed building in Brooklyn, New York, as the death toll rose to eight.
Six people were found dead in the wreckage and two others died later from their injuries, according to city officials. Two of those killed were children and another two have been identified as construction workers from a nearby site.
Arena Physica will scale Heaviside on the Lux AI Supercomputer, powered by AMD hardware
NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2026 — Today, Arena Physica announced it will work with AMD to train the next generation of Heaviside, its foundation model for electromagnetism, on the Lux AI supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Heaviside-1, released in September, is a 350 million parameter model trained on 250,000 3D field simulations spanning 500 billion individual field samples. The first foundation model for electromagnetism, Heaviside learns from full-wave electromagnetic simulations. Each sample solves Maxwell’s equations across a detailed 3D model of a structure. Scaling model performance requires a significant amount of compute, both for generating this simulation data and for training the model itself, a challenge Arena Physica researchers wrote about in Practical Scaling Laws.
“As chips move to 3D packaging and SerDes speeds climb from 224 to 448 gigabits per second, electromagnetic behavior has become one of the hardest problems in semiconductor design,” said Kumaran Siva, Corporate Vice President of AI Enterprise Strategy at AMD. “Heaviside is exactly the type of ambitious work Lux was built for. With AMD Instinct GPUs and an open ecosystem, companies like Arena Physica can bring a new class of model to systems like Lux, and we’re excited to support them as they scale the first foundation model for electromagnetism.”
The next generations of Heaviside will extend to far-field radiation patterns, more complex geometries, and wider frequency ranges, scaling up to larger components and full systems. Applications include antenna design for 5G and 6G devices and satellite communications, RF sensing in automotive systems, and packaging and signal integrity in semiconductors, including high-speed SerDes design. Across these domains, Heaviside is designed to predict electromagnetic behavior orders of magnitude faster and cheaper than traditional solvers, and enables autonomous inverse design.
“Heaviside is a new class of foundation model that directly predicts electromagnetic fields. These fields are highly sensitive to the details of a design, from small local features to the structure as a whole. Capturing that complexity takes a lot of high-fidelity data and a purpose-built model architecture,” said Michael Frei, Chief Research Officer at Arena Physica. “That’s why we are excited to collaborate with AMD to train Heaviside with Lux. Lux brings physics, AI, and compute together, enabling us to push the frontier of physics foundation models and train at a far larger scale than was possible before.”
In the months ahead, Arena Physica will share results as training on Lux progresses.
Two teenagers have been arrested and charged in the Halloween night shooting on Main Street that injured seven, including a university student.
A 17-year-old boy from North East, Maryland was arrested at his residence on Friday. He remains in custody at a juvenile detention facility in Baltimore where he is awaiting extradition to Delaware.
An 18-year-old man from Wilmington was apprehended by the U.S. Marshals Service in Wilmington and awaits arraignment. Both have been indicted by a New Castle County Grand Jury on seven counts of first-degree attempted murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, conspiracy, reckless endangerment and carrying a concealed weapon. The 17-year-old is also charged with possession of a firearm by a person under the age of 21.
In an email sent to the university community, University President Laura Carlson made the following statement:
“Our deepest gratitude to the Newark Police Department, UDPD and all of the first responders who secured the scene, performed life-saving measures and worked tirelessly to investigate this case.”
On Halloween, shots were fired on the south sidewalk of East Main Street and Choate Street. Hundreds of Halloween-goers dressed in costumes crowded the downtown strip.
According to a press release from the Newark Police Department, the original conditions of the adult victims were as follows:
“A 19-year-old male who sustained a gunshot wound to his back. He remains hospitalized in serious condition. A 20-year-old male who sustained a gunshot wound resulting in a collapsed lung. He remains hospitalized in serious condition. A 21-year-old female who sustained a graze wound to her leg. She was treated and released from the hospital,” the press release stated.
The press release continued with three juvenile victims:
“A 15-year-old male who sustained a gunshot wound to his back. He remains hospitalized in critical condition. A 15-year-old male who sustained a gunshot wound to his foot. He remains hospitalized in serious condition. A 16-year-old male who sustained multiple gunshot wounds. This juvenile remains hospitalized in serious condition.”
The 20-year-old victim was revealed to be a student at the university, according to a follow up press release by Newark PD.
In response to the incident, the university suspended classes on Monday, Nov. 2.
“Our whole community is shaken by last night’s shooting on Main Street,” Carlson, Interim Provost William Farquhar and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Ellen Herbst wrote in an email to the university community.
“There will be no classes, in person or virtual, and no exams or assignments due Monday,” the email continued. “With the University closed Tuesday for Election Day, classes resume Wednesday, Nov. 4.”
Students have raised additional concern over racist sentiments surrounding the incident, including activity on anonymous social media apps such as YikYak. The university’s Black Student Union (BSU) released a statement in response.
“In the wake of a horrific shooting on Halloween night, individuals within the UD community chose to platform hate against Black individuals,” the statement read. “BSU will not stand for this.”
Additionally, a social media account with the handle @wsu_udel and titled “White Student Union at UD” was created on Nov. 2. The account has since been deactivated.
“Everybody was disappointed, but not surprised,” Heaven Brown, president of BSU, said. “Everyone is kind of jaded.”
“I am appalled that social media feeds are featuring racist and stereotyped comments and misinformation,” Carlson said in an additional email to the university community. “There is no place, ever, for this at UD.”
Huang does not enjoy the supercharged voting rights that are par for the course elsewhere – his shareholding is a plain vanilla 3.6%. On the other hand, Nvidia’s board does not appear to have spent much time worrying about succession planning and “key person risk” or other standard concerns of corporate governance wonks outside the US.
A humpback whale was spotted on Thursday swimming in New York’s Hudson River. Sightings of humpbacks in the New York, once rare, are becoming increasingly common. In 2018, 272 whales were spotted in the city’s waters, Gotham Whale told the Guardian, and the group has documented numerous glimpses since
Companies developing chiplet-based computers for HPC and AI applications will see a number of improvements with the new Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) 4.0 specification unveiled today, including a new memory expansion protocol that will deliver more memory bandwidth for demanding HPC and AI applications, as well as up to 80% better energy efficiency, among other enhancements.
UCIe is the established communization standard for computers that utilize chiplets, which are modular integrated circuits that performs certain functions, such as processing data or managing I/O. Chiplets are emerging as an economical alternative to large traditional systems on a chip (SoCs), which place a variety of circuits needed for computing on the same physical die.
As the AI boom has unfolded, memory has become a bottleneck. The UCIe consortium is addressing this with the new UCIe.mem protocol that’s part of the new UCIe 4.0 spec unveiled today. The new memory protocol establishes a way to connect compute chiplets to memory controllers across the same UCI fabric.
According to a white paper by Debendra Das Sharma, an Intel senior distinguished engineer and the chairman of the UCIe Consortium, this architecture enables memory subsystem disaggregation while preserving a standardized interface between compute and memory resources, including HBM, LPDDR, or other future memory technologies.
The new UCIe.mem protocol enables disaggregation of memory in chiplet architectures
“By separating memory control functions from the compute device while using a standardized die-to-die interconnect, UCIe.mem provides a scalable architecture for expanding memory bandwidth and capacity across heterogeneous chiplet-based systems,” Sharma writes in the white paper.
The new UCIe.mem protocol delivers 2.5 TBps of memory bandwidth per millimeter of chip shoreline at about a 94% efficiency, Sharma says. The disaggregation allows the memory to scale independently of the compute chiplet, while maintaining a fast, standardized connection between them.
Source: UCIe Consortium
“We are shoreline constrained and there is not enough bandwidth within that shoreline. And so in order to handle that, what we have done is we have mapped UCI standardized architecture for memory connectivity,” Sharma tells HPCwire in an interview. “We have unprecedented bandwidth density, both aerial density as well as shoreline bandwidth density, for our planar interconnect. We just mapped the memory protocol onto this to get the higher data density.”
The UCIe Consortium has also worked to boost bandwidth density and energy efficiency of the interconnect overall. Sharma says the UCIe 4.0 brings about a 20% improvement in total bandwidth density and about a 10% increase in area bandwidth density. Those number are for data rates at 48 GT/s and 64 GT/s with a common 1143 μm shoreline for UCIe-S (2D) and UCIe-A 2.5D).
At the end of the day, data movement costs energy, which costs money. So to drop the cost of data movement, the UCIe Consortium has worked to drive greater energy efficiency into the chiplet interconnect standard.
Acording to Sharma, UCIe 4.0 can reduce link power by anywhere from 30% to 80% for UCIe-S and UCIe-A connections, provided certain conditions are met. The consortium was able to deliver his power savings by using a variety of techniques, including QDR signaling, direct sampling, adaptive voltage and termination, low swing signaling, and enhanced timing tracking.
Source: UCIe Consortium
To get these power savings, users must be using similar aged hardware with power consumptions profiles, Sharma said. “It’s not like they’re going to have one chip that is in, let’s say two nanometer and the other one is going to be 10 years back,” he says. “So the voltage levels, common voltage rails and things of that nature, if you can make those assumptions–and especially if you say that it’s less than five millimeter away–you get tremendous amount of power improvement.”
UCIe 4.0 also brings enhancements to security with the introduction of the Trusted Reporting of Chiplet State (TRoCs) capability, which is a standardized framework for chiplet manufacturers to share information about security and the level of trust they have in the components (processor, memory, or I/O) they make.
“What it does is it standardizes the reporting of the chiplet identity,” Sharma says. “For example, hey, what chiplet you are? Are you the chiplet that you claim that you are? You will notice that there is something called a root of trust (RoT) here, right? So think of it as the security director of our the entire package.”
The RoT is responsible for querying other chiplets to determine what state their in. For instance, if you’re in test and debug mode, maybe your security level is lower than if you’re in production mode, Sharma says.
Delaware Association for Home and Community Care’s proposal calls for a 25.5% increase in private-duty nursing rates and a 10% increase in personal care service rates. Association Executive Director Sue Getman estimated the respective costs at $7.3 million and $19.3 million.
Providers and families say higher payments would help retain nurses and aides who support people receiving care at home
DOVER, Del. — Delaware home-care providers are asking the state to increase reimbursement rates in the next budget, saying higher payments would help keep nurses and aides with the families who depend on them.
The Delaware Association for Home and Community Care estimates the requested increases would cost the state $26.6 million, according to WMDT’s report on testimony at the Nov. 10 public budget hearing at the Delaware Public Archives in Dover.
The proposal calls for a 25.5% increase in private-duty nursing rates and a 10% increase in personal care service rates. Association Executive Director Sue Getman estimated the respective costs at $7.3 million and $19.3 million, WMDT reported.
Those amounts are the association’s estimates, rather than figures confirmed by the state. www.wmdt.com
The appeal comes as the Department of Health and Social Services develops its fiscal 2028 spending request. For providers, the issue is retaining workers. For families, it is maintaining dependable care that allows loved ones to remain at home.
Families describe the stakes
Providers, nurses, parents and disability advocates testified about the importance of consistent care and the disruption families face when a nurse leaves, according to WMDT.
Heather Holveck, the grandmother and legal guardian of a child with disabilities, described the uncertainty that comes with possible staff turnover.
“Knowing that there is a potential that even our current nurses could leave is terrifying for him because then we’re starting over,” Holveck told WMDT. www.wmdt.com
The testimony highlighted how reimbursement decisions can affect daily life for people who rely on in-home support. Retaining familiar caregivers can help families preserve established routines and relationships.
Different services, different rate histories
The providers’ appeal also raises questions about how Delaware has adjusted payments for different types of home care.
State records, however, describe more recent increases for some services.
In February 2024 testimony to the Joint Finance Committee, the Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance said it would implement personal care service increases retroactive to July 1, 2023. dhss.delaware.gov
That testimony does not establish whether the increases applied to every service or provider covered by the current request. The scope of the 18-year statement remains unconfirmed, and it cannot be applied broadly to all home-care payments based on the available records.
The association is seeking separate increases for private-duty nursing and personal care services, making the distinction between those payment categories important to evaluating the request.
State proposes additional funding
DHSS’ Nov. 10 budget presentation includes approximately $2.6 million for a first-phase home and community-based services rate increase among its discretionary requests for fiscal 2028.
The presentation does not explain how that proposal relates to the association’s request or which portions of the providers’ proposal it might address.
DHSS also identified improving services for people with complex needs and lowering health care costs among its priorities. budget.delaware.gov
The providers’ request will compete with other spending proposals as the governor and lawmakers develop the budget.
What happens next
The November public hearings help shape the governor’s recommended budget, which is released in January.
Joint Finance Committee hearings follow, with legislative budget work continuing through the spring and final budget bills considered in June. www.budget.delaware.gov
For families who testified, the request puts a personal question before budget writers: whether the payments supporting care at home are sufficient to keep the workers they rely on.
To Go Box
What: Proposed reimbursement increases for private-duty nursing and personal care services.
Request: A 25.5% increase for private-duty nursing and 10% for personal care, with an estimated $26.6 million state cost, according to the association’s figures reported by WMDT.
Less than a month before he was scheduled to stand trial a third time, accused of a murder he has always sworn he did not commit, Richard Glossip on Thursday agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge, a final step toward bringing his three-decade legal saga to an end.
Glossip, 63, was twice convicted and sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of his boss Barry Van Treese inside Room 102 of the rundown motel the Van Treese family owned on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. A 19-year-old maintenance man named Justin Sneed admitted to killing Van Treese, but he insisted Glossip put him up to it. Sneed, who is currently serving a life sentence, escaped the death penalty by becoming the star witness against Glossip.
During a brief hearing that was originally scheduled to address pretrial matters, Oklahoma County Court Judge Natalie Mai instead accepted a plea from Glossip to accessory after the fact and dismissed the murder charge against him. With members of Van Treese’s family looking on from their seats in the jury box, Glossip stood to answer a series of routine questions to confirm that his plea was voluntary. Mai did not ask any specific questions about the crime itself.
Under Oklahoma law in place at the time of the killing, the maximum punishment for accessory after the fact was 45 years. Taking into consideration the decades Glossip spent on death row and credits earned for good behavior, Glossip’s attorneys say he would have been eligible for full release in 2016 and should serve no more time behind bars. But defense lawyers did not reach an agreement with the state as to a proposed sentence. In a statement released after the hearing, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who once expressed deep concerns about the state’s case against Glossip, made clear that his office will be seeking additional prison time.
Ultimately it will be up to Mai to decide if Glossip should be sentenced to time served or if any additional punishment is warranted.
The contours of Glossip’s plea are remarkably similar to a behind-the-scenes agreement made in 2023 between Drummond and Glossip’s lead attorney Don Knight. At the time, Drummond told Knight that if a court were to overturn Glossip’s conviction, he would resolve the case by accepting a plea to accessory after the fact in exchange for time served — and a promise that Glossip would not sue Oklahoma for anything related to his arrest and incarceration.
“We believe Rich has more than paid his debt to society.”
But after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Glossip’s conviction in 2025, finding that it was rooted in false testimony and prosecutorial misconduct, Drummond, who by then was running for governor, did an abrupt about-face, announcing he would once again prosecute Glossip for first degree murder.
In the year and a half since then, it has become glaringly apparent that prosecutors from Drummond’s office are grossly ill-equipped to take Glossip’s case to trial. Since his original trial in 1998, the state has lost or destroyed evidence, numerous witnesses have died, and prosecutors have conceded that their own star witness — who has sought to recant his testimony multiple times — can’t actually be expected to remember what happened the night of the killing.
“For 30 years, Richard Glossip has maintained his innocence,” Knight said in a statement after the hearing. “After nearly executing him 9 times, the State of Oklahoma has now dismissed the murder charge against him. This morning, to finally put this matter to rest, Rich pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact. We believe Rich has more than paid his debt to society.”
Glossip had originally been charged as an accessory after the fact for initially failing to give police information about the killing. The night Van Treese was killed, Glossip said, Sneed woke him up around 4 a.m. by knocking on the wall of his apartment, which was adjacent to the motel’s office. Standing outside with a black eye, Sneed told Glossip he had chased off some drunks who had broken a window in one of the motel rooms. According to Glossip, he asked Sneed about his black eye, and Sneed flippantly replied, “I killed Barry.”
According to Glossip, it wasn’t until the next morning, when Van Treese was missing, that he realized Sneed might have been serious. Still, Glossip didn’t tell the cops right away; he said his girlfriend suggested waiting until they figured out what was going on.
But Sneed told police Glossip was the mastermind behind the plot to kill Van Treese, and, with no other evidence tying Glossip to the crime, Sneed’s statement became the basis of the state’s case. At Glossip’s 1998 trial, prosecutors said that he had taken advantage of the younger, more vulnerable Sneed, offering him money to kill their boss so that Glossip could take over the motel. “Glossip encouraged, aided and abetted and sent Mr. Sneed off to do his dirty work,” then-prosecutor Fern Smith told the jury.
But this story began falling apart not long after Glossip arrived on death row. A video of Sneed’s police interrogation cast serious doubt on the state’s version of events, revealing coercive questioning by Oklahoma City detectives who pressured Sneed into implicating Glossip.
Glossip’s defense failed to present the tape to the jury, which led an Oklahoma court to overturn Glossip’s first conviction based on ineffective assistance of counsel. Although a second jury convicted him and sent him to die in 2004, doubts over Glossip’s guilt continued to grow.
Glossip subsequently came close to execution many times and may well have been executed if Drummond hadn’t intervened upon taking office in 2023. He ordered an independent investigation into the case, which concluded that rampant prosecutorial misconduct had infected Glossip’s conviction. Drummond asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn the case. When that failed, joined Glossip in asking the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that Sneed – whom the state has described as its “indispensable witness” – had lied on the witness stand.
Drummond’s concessions about the flaws in the state’s case and his unprecedented advocacy on Glossip’s behalf made his announcement in June 2025 that he would seek to retry Glossip for murder all the more shocking. According to Glossip’s lawyers, the decision also betrayed the long-standing agreement with Drummond to resolve the case and set Glossip free.
After that, Drummond essentially washed his hands of the case to focus on his ultimately failed attempt to become Oklahoma’s next governor, handing off prosecutorial duties to other lawyers in his office. Prosecutors declared that they intended to use the same discredited evidence to try Glossip a third time and spent months fighting to keep him in jail. Despite those efforts, Mai ordered Glossip’s release.
With a December 2026 trial date looming, tensions between the two sides have ratcheted up. Glossip’s lawyers have complained about prosecutors failing to turn over evidence as required under the law. Prosecutors have tried to limit what the defense can present to jurors at trial regarding the history of the case – including asking Mai to bar any mention of Drummond’s previous advocacy on Glossip’s behalf.
Glossip’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 17.
Since his release, Glossip has “been living a peaceful and law-abiding life,” Knight said in his statement. “We look forward to an opportunity to show why returning him to custody would not serve the interests of justice, and to ending this nightmare for Rich and all concerned.”
After the hearing, Glossip and his wife, Lea, stood with Knight to address reporters. Glossip thanked Knight and Lea for their support. “It was a hard day,” Lea told The Intercept, “but Richard and I are both people of faith.” She expressed that “today marks a meaningful step toward finally bringing this case to an end. We are both deeply grateful for the tireless efforts of his legal team.”
Russian president says he would target any foreign troops sent to Ukraine and refuses to soften territorial demands
Vladimir Putin warned US negotiators that Russia would target any foreign troops deployed to Ukraine, in a series of hardline remarks that came as the Ukrainian military faced renewed disruptions to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service.
During the talks at the Kremlin with the US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff on Thursday, the Russian president refused to soften his territorial demands, insisting on full control over four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims to have annexed.
An X account associated with D.C. shooting suspect Matt Lambert was filled with complaints about mold, rodents and disrepair in his unit in the condo building.
(The Center Square) – Legal advocates sparred Thursday over immigration policy in the United States ahead of a Democratic led-Congress that could work alongside President Trump on the issue.
A new analysis of data from Florida found a higher risk of mortality in those receiving the Pfizer versus the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in the year after a first dose. It does not establish that the Pfizer vaccine was dangerous or caused deaths, contrary to suggestions by the state’s surgeon general or statements by online purveyors of vaccine misinformation.
The study did not compare outcomes to unvaccinated people, so it cannot say whether vaccination with either shot was associated with higher or lower mortality overall. The paper acknowledged that one possible reason for Pfizer’s higher relative mortality risk is that the Moderna vaccine was more effective against COVID-19 than the Pfizer shot.
The study was published on Nov. 4 in the journal Global Epidemiology and was mostly conducted by members of the Florida Department of Health using state data. It found that compared with a Moderna dose, adult Pfizer recipients had a 40% higher risk of dying from any cause within one year of a first dose. Relative to Moderna, the Pfizer vaccine was also associated with a 91% higher risk of dying from COVID-19, a 57% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 37% higher risk of dying from something other than COVID-19, as recorded on a death certificate.
Previous research hasnotfound that either vaccine increases mortality. Both vaccines have savedmanylives by preventing COVID-19 deaths.
Experts told us the study itself, which was upfront about its limitations, is not especially problematic. But some interpretations of it — including by some of the paper’s own authors — are.
“As I said in January 2024, no one should be taking mRNA COVID-19 vaccines because of their terrible safety profile,” Dr. Joseph Ladapo, a co-author and Florida’s surgeon general, wrote on X the day after publication. “But for those who had to take one, Florida’s public health data strongly implies that thousands of Floridians died as a result of receiving Pfizer instead of Moderna. The number of lives lost in the U.S. and internationally is staggering, based on this analysis.”
Jeffrey S. Morris, the director of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania who wrote a detailed critique on X of what the paper can and cannot say, told us that Ladapo’s comment goes beyond the evidence.
“That is like orders of magnitude beyond what his own paper showed,” he said.
Ladapo, who has a history of promoting flawed studies that argue the mRNA vaccines are dangerous, including one from the Florida Department of Health that claimed to identify a higher risk of cardiac death after vaccination in young men, cited unsubstantiated concerns when calling for a halt in the use of all mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in January 2024. That fall, the Florida Department of Health began advising all people — even older people at high risk of severe COVID-19 — to not get vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine. At the time, and still today, there is only one non-mRNA COVID-19 vaccine available in the U.S., the protein-based Novavax vaccine. No other state recommends against mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.
Speaking to Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit opposed to vaccines that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. previously led, Ladapo framed the results as indicative of a safety concern, saying the new study helps show that “our system for evaluating vaccine safety is broken.”
“The findings of this study should not be interpreted as establishing the overall safety of the Moderna vaccine,” he said, citing prior research that he claimed also raised safety concerns about the Moderna vaccine (we’ve written about that study, too).
“We reiterate our recommendation that, based on what is currently known about the safety of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, no one should receive them,” he added.
The Florida Department of Health did not respond to our inquiries asking about his interpretation of the study and whether the department shared his views.
Online, others made even more explicit claims about the new paper.
“This is an extremely important paper. It shows that the Pfizer vaccine was not safe. It killed people. There is no other way to interpret this data,” Steve Kirsch, a former tech entrepreneur who has long spread inaccurate information about the vaccines, said on X on Nov. 5.
“An official government study just confirmed that COVID shots resulted in a CATASTROPHIC loss of life,” Nicolas Hulscher, another prominent spreader of vaccine misinformation, wrote on X, sharing a video in which he further claimed that extrapolating the Florida findings to the U.S. would mean “you get a minimum of 330,000 American deaths from Pfizer alone.”
These claims are false.
Natalie Dean, an associate professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Emory University, told us the study isn’t evidence that either of the vaccines is killing people. “I don’t see how this is an indictment of the safety of these vaccines since it’s just a comparison of two different vaccines,” she said.
“The way the paper is getting talked about does not align with the actual evidence in the paper,” Morris, who is also a distinguished research fellow with our parent organization, the Annenberg Public Policy Center, said.
“The study legitimately demonstrates an association between vaccine brand and subsequent mortality in a selected matched Florida cohort,” he said in an X post. “It does not establish that these differences are causal, much less that they reflect vaccine-related harm.”
When asked for comment, a Pfizer spokesperson told us that medical experts and regulatory authorities around the globe have reviewed and approved or recommended the vaccine, and that it continues to be monitored for safety. “With billions of doses of the vaccine administered around the world, the safety profile for the vaccine for all authorized groups continues to be favorable,” the spokesperson said.
Study Limitations
In the Global Epidemiology paper, the authors attempted to identify similar individuals in the state who received a Pfizer versus a Moderna vaccine in the first eight months of the vaccine rollout. They then looked at death outcomes within a year of the first vaccine dose to estimate relative mortality risk.
To try to control for factors other than vaccine brand, the authors matched about 1 million individuals who received a Pfizer vaccine with 1 million who received a Moderna dose on seven different variables. These were age group; sex; race; ethnicity; calendar month of vaccination; type of vaccination site, such as private pharmacy or hospital; and census tract.
The authors also did other checks to try to show that this matching was largely successful, finding no statistical difference, for example, when the same pairings were assessed for cancer deaths or suicide or homicide.
The problem is that since this is an observational study, there is still concern that the mortality differences observed between the vaccines were not due to the vaccines themselves, but to other factors.
Photo by guteksk7 / stock.adobe.com.
A key issue Morris and Dean raised is that the vaccine recipients were not matched for medical frailty or underlying health status. If the Pfizer recipients were in poorer overall health or had more risk factors for COVID-19 or other diseases, that could explain a large part of why the Moderna recipients appear to have lower mortality, rather than suggesting anything about the vaccine itself.
Then, even if the mortality difference is due to the vaccines, Morris explained in an article on X, it does not necessarily mean that the Pfizer vaccine is causing harm. It may simply be that the Moderna vaccine is better at preventing harm, making the Pfizer vaccine look bad in comparison.
“You can see the better effectiveness of the Moderna vaccine in there,” Dean said of the study’s findings.
Severalstudieshave found that the Moderna vaccine was slightly more effective at preventing severe COVID-19 outcomes than Pfizer’s. Although quite similar, the original Moderna vaccine contained significantly more mRNA per dose than the Pfizer shot and the second dose was given an extra week apart.
Higher protection against COVID-19 could also spill over into the other mortality categories as well, particularly during Florida’s delta variant wave in 2021, Morris said. “Any deaths that were in fact due to COVID, but they didn’t formally get tested would not have been documented as COVID, so they would be in the non-COVID deaths,” he told us.
Studies havefoundthat severe COVID-19 infections raise the risk of cardiovascular events and death well after the infection.
In the paper, the authors were careful to note many of these caveats, and to say that the findings could be explained by a more protective Moderna vaccine, other factors the researchers were not able to control for, or what they term “non-specific effects” of the vaccines (or some combination thereof).
It is nevertheless clear that in public, some of the authors preferred to promote the latter idea, which could include the notion that the Pfizer vaccine has some kind of harmful effect.
In a post on X, Retsef Levi, the corresponding author, wrote, “This study adds to a growing evidence that the mRNA COVID vaccines of Moderna and Pfizer may have different non-specific effects.”
Levi is a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s business school who has long said that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines should not be used. He was one of Kennedy’s appointees to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee in June 2025 before a judge paused the appointments and temporarily blocked the group’s decisions in March.
In his X post, Levi also pointed to a recent nanoscience study that he said “showed significant differences in systemic persistence of nano-lipids and spike mRNA between Moderna and Pfizer mRNA COVID vaccines!”
The senior author of the nanoscience paper, immunologist Stephen Kent of the University of Melbourne, told us in an email that it is “inappropriate to refer to our paper supporting death from Pfizer” and that “it would not be scientifically appropriate to use our findings to draw conclusions about vaccine safety or mortality risks.” He, too, said the observed outcome in the Florida analysis could be related to Moderna protecting against COVID-19 better than Pfizer.
Putting the Study in Fuller Context
Another argument against jumping to the conclusion that the Pfizer vaccine is actively harming people through an unspecified mechanism is the larger body of research conducted on the COVID-19 vaccines.
In particular, there is a Veterans Affairs study published in December 2021 in the New England Journal of Medicine that also compared the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to one another using a matching approach similar to the one in the Florida analysis. (This study also did not match for health status or comorbidities, but unlike the Florida analysis, it did provide a table showing that the matched pairs did not substantially differ on those parameters.)
The study was smaller and over a shorter time period, but it found that the Moderna vaccine recipients had a lower risk of a variety of adverse COVID-19 outcomes. Although not statistically significant, Pfizer recipients were 11% more likely to die from COVID-19 than Moderna recipients. The study did not, however, find any other mortality differences between the vaccines. As a check on their main findings, the authors looked at non-COVID-19 deaths, finding virtually identical patterns of death in matched recipients of both vaccines (see figure S3).
“They found absolutely no difference in non-COVID deaths, like not even a trend,” Morris said.
A few otherstudies have identified a slightly higher all-cause mortality after vaccination with various Pfizer shots compared with Moderna, but nothing approaching 40% — and someresults have favored the Pfizer vaccine instead.
If the Florida study results “were really true and really driven by vaccine harm, we would expect them to be replicated elsewhere, but it doesn’t seem to be,” Morris said.
Notably, thestudiesthathave looked at all-cause mortality among vaccinated and unvaccinated people have consistently found much lower rates of death in vaccinated people.
A 2025 French study, for example, compared mortality over four years, finding about a 25% lower risk of death in vaccinated versus unvaccinated individuals (with a lower risk for Pfizer than Moderna).
Scientists don’t think the vaccines actually lowered death risk by that much because of something called the healthy vaccinee effect. People who choose to get vaccinated are generally healthier than those who don’t — especially closer to the vaccination date, since people near the end of their lives aren’t getting vaccinated. While studies try to adjust for this issue, and longer-running ones are less affected by it, it remains a concern when interpreting the results. Still, these findings do not support the notion that the vaccines are increasing the risk of death. The authors of the French study concluded that “a causal link between mRNA vaccination and excess long-term mortality appears highly unlikely.”
For both vaccines to have some kind of toxic effect, as some claim — and for the Pfizer vaccine to have a nearly 40% higher risk of death than Moderna, but not be detected in these sorts of studies — the healthy vaccinee effect would have to be “really enormous,” Morris said.
Dean noted that even if the Moderna vaccine is better at protecting against COVID-19, it was still important to have both vaccines as options. When the shots were first rolled out, not only was it not yet known how the two vaccines compare, but there weren’t enough shots of any single brand for all Americans.
Some datasuggest the Moderna vaccine caused more intense expected side effects, such as a fever, than the Pfizer shot. “For some people, Pfizer has been a better option” because of the milder side effects, she said. “I just don’t understand indicting things backwards.”
It’s worth noting that the originalversions of the Florida analysis, which were posted to preprint servers, made more sweeping statements more akin to how some authors have presented the paper online, with one preprint concluding that the results are “suggestive of differential non-specific effects” of the two vaccines “and potential concerning adverse effects on all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.” The published version lacks these statements.
Individuals can now point to a published document “that is going to be hard for people to understand because it’s very complex and there’s a lot of tables,” Dean said, and it can be used to “make more extreme claims.”
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
Move by Norway ‘a further tightening’ of current rules
Russians ‘have no business’ in Finland, says minister
Norway’s government announced that it would prevent Russian and Belarusian professional athletes from coming to Norway to compete, hours after neighbouring Finland announced a similar move.
The government said it intended to prevent athletes from these countries coming to Norway as long as the war in Ukraine continues. In a statement, it noted that while Norway already had strict rules for visas for Russian and Belarusian citizens, recent “relaxations introduced by international sports federations” meant that more athletes and support staff from the two countries may come to the Scandinavian nation to compete.
Singapore says U.S. authorities provided limited assistance in its investigation of Megaspeed, the company run by Alice Huang, the Chinese businesswoman whom U.S. intelligence suspects is a Chinese spy and whose relationship with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has drawn scrutiny. According to Singapore, authorities held Alice Huang's passport from June 2025 until February while investigating "potential false declarations," but ultimately released her with a "stern warning" and barred her from re-entering the country. The New York Times reports: The statement raises new questions about the response of the Trump administration to the case and why the U.S. government did not more forcefully intervene. According to the timeline in the statement, Singaporean authorities had been holding Ms. Huang's passport well after President Trump was briefed last fall about her relationship with Nvidia's chief executive and the belief that she was a Chinese intelligence asset. The New York Times has reported that Taiwan began monitoring Ms. Huang in 2024 at the guidance of the U.S. government.
In its statement, Singapore said that it had sought information from an American server maker and close Nvidia business partner, Supermicro, but that the company had provided "limited cooperation." Supermicro, a firm that packages Nvidia's A.I. chips onto servers that can be used in data centers, has been at the center of a number of chip smuggling investigations across the globe. Supermicro was a supplier to Megaspeed, a company incorporated in Singapore and run by Ms. Huang, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Singapore said in the statement its authorities raised Supermicro's "limited cooperation" with the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation in July 2025 and "requested their assistance in securing the company's cooperation." "Despite these repeated requests, Singapore has to date received limited information or assistance in respect of the company," the statement said.
Kayla Smith stabbed Chloe Watson Dransfield to death during planned fight over young man
An 18-year-old woman who stabbed a teenage girl to death during a planned fight over a young man has pleaded guilty to murder.
Chloe Watson Dransfield, 16, was attacked by Kayla Smith, 18, after going to the latter’s home with her boyfriend Blake Dowling in Leeds, West Yorkshire, a court heard.
Sightings of the species are becoming increasingly common as experts worry about danger posed by busy waterways
A humpback whale was spotted on Thursday swimming in New York’s Hudson River, sparking a social media frenzy.
Brad Hoylman-Sigal, president of Manhattan borough, was among those to share a photograph of the whale on Facebook, an image taken on Thursday morning and provided by Gotham Whale, a citizen science and education group that tracks marine mammals in New York’s waterways.
Florida is poised to break its execution record for the second year in a row. Three men formerly on death row asked Byron Donalds to avoid the possibility of killing other innocent men when he takes office.
Figures highlight spread of virus, officially declared eliminated in US in 2000, but CDC does not identify which states accounted for deaths
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported six measles-related deaths in the US this year, according to figures published on its website on Thursday, as the country faces its most severe resurgence of the disease in decades.
The newly reported total is twice the number of deaths recorded in 2025, highlighting the spread of the highly infectious virus, which was officially declared eliminated in the US in 2000.
Lance Oppenheim (left) and Nathan Fielder (right) speak onstage at the You Can See Everything Q&A during the 29th SCAD Savannah Film Festival on October 27, 2026 in Savannah, Georgia.
Microsoft is suffering a major Microsoft 365 outage that's disrupting Outlook, Teams, Copilot and SharePoint for users across the Americas, with more than 129,000 problem reports logged on Downdetector shortly after the disruption began. Microsoft blames the connectivity problems on an unexpectedly large number of unavailable servers that overloaded the remaining infrastructure. The company says it's redistributing traffic and restarting affected systems. From a report: Microsoft was not providing an estimated time by which it expects service to return. Both individual Outlook users and those on enterprise accounts experienced problems logging in to the service. The outage also affected other Microsoft services, including Microsoft Teams, the Copilot 365 AI service and SharePoint Online. "Users may be unable to connect to multiple Microsoft 365 services," the company said on its Service Health Status page.
UPDATE 11/12/26, 19:50 UTC: From Microsoft 365 Status: "We're testing a configuration change to address a problem that's causing servers to fail automated health checks and become unavailable. In parallel, we've initiated a restart of all affected servers and are monitoring health as they return to service. More info under EX1550543 and MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center, as well as http://status.cloud.microsoft if the admin center is not available to you."
UPDATE 11/12/26, 20:19 UTC: From Microsoft 365 Status: "We've not identified any recent change correlated with the start of impact; however, our investigation indicates the failed health checks may originate from a specific component that's responsible for processing server health. We've taken steps to prevent additional servers from being impacted while we work to return the affected servers to service. More info under EX1550543 and MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center, as well as http://status.cloud.microsoft if the admin center is not available to you.
UPDATE 11/12/26, 20:29 UTC: "According to https://downdetector.com/, much of the major services are down," writes Slashdot reader xocmot2. "AWS, Microsoft, Meta, on and on. Clearly not a Microsoft thing."
UPDATE 11/12/26, 6:17 UTC: Microsoft is still struggling to resolve the outage, which is confirmed to be global with disruptions reported across 74 countries and territories. The outage has disrupted businesses and government services in countries including Japan, Singapore, India, and Australia, while OpenAI and Anthropic have also reported related problems.
Microsoft says its recovery efforts have produced some improvements, but the fixes are not delivering "sustained recovery." Microsoft has ruled out a cybersecurity incident, and experts warn that the prolonged disruption could result in significant economic losses.
UPDATE 11/13/26: Microsoft's most recent updates confirmed that it's seeing "broader improvements in North America, sustained improvements across much of Europe, and encouraging recovery signals in Asia Pacific."
"Some users may still experience intermittent access issues or delayed email delivery as mitigation continues across remaining affected infrastructure," Microsoft said. "Our focus remains on stabilizing recovered infrastructure, completing mitigation in remaining impacted areas, and reducing delayed email queues and backlogs while we validate service consistency across connection methods."
Further reading: Microsoft's Global Outage May Be Worse Than Amazon's Or Crowdstrike's, Expert Says
Nov. 12, 2026 — Q-CTRL today announced a landmark Series C private fundraise of US$290 million (A$415 million), led by Salesforce Ventures. The round is headlined by significant participation from Bullhound Capital and Affinity Partners, and a global syndicate of new and existing investors.
From left: Robert Love, Chief Technology Officer; Michael Hush, Chief Scientist; and Michael Biercuk, founder and CEO. Credit: Q-CTRL.
The oversubscribed round mints the newest quantum-sector unicorn and places Q-CTRL among the best-capitalized quantum firms in private markets. The company’s Series C saw two expansions to meet investor demand and represents the largest quantum-sector fundraise for a software-focused business.
This success is underpinned by the company’s unique “AI for quantum” infrastructure software, which is critical to deploying quantum computers in data centers and integrating quantum sensors into real-world vehicles for autonomy and commercial aviation.
Quantum advantage represents the holy grail for the industry, and Q-CTRL’s AI-driven software has already made it a reality—delivering global firsts across both quantum computing and quantum sensing. The company’s marquee product, Ironstone Opal, is an unjammable, unspoofable, and undetectable quantum navigation system that works when GPS is unavailable or denied. The company’s proprietary software-ruggedization enables its highly sensitive quantum sensors to perform in the field 100 times better than the best alternative, and is being deployed on commercial aircraft and autonomous vehicles.
In this next phase of growth, Q-CTRL will double down on its software-first capabilities, cementing its market leadership at the intersection of AI and quantum. Concurrently, the company will scale globally to meet customer demand across sectors, from finance to energy, and continue to deliver on major autonomy and aerospace programs.
New investors supporting the company’s expansion include Affinity Partners, AMD Ventures, EDGE Group, MPower Partners, Australia’s National Reconstruction Fund Corporation, and SPARX Asset Management. Returning investors include Alpha Edison, Alumni Ventures, Bullhound Capital, DCVC, In-Q-Tel, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Main Sequence, Ridgeline, Salesforce Ventures, Salus Ventures, and Square Peg. Q-CTRL’s investors bring a mix of perspectives spanning strategic corporate venture, private equity, and growth-stage venture capital, and position the company to scale opportunities through joint sales, technology integration, and direct revenue generation.
“The investor syndicate we’ve assembled showcases the strength of our technology, revenue growth, and strategic alignment with some of the most important sectors today, from AI to aviation,” said Q-CTRL CEO and Founder Michael J. Biercuk. “At Q-CTRL, one of our core values is to Be Real, and that means a continued drive to deliver true customer value from quantum technology through our unique focus on infrastructure software. We’re excited to be able to deliver technical and commercial leadership as one of the largest and most successful privately held companies in the global quantum sector.”
“The hard problem in quantum is not building the machine, it is getting useful output from it. Q-CTRL solves that with AI-powered control software, and the proof is already public: a materials simulation on IBM hardware that any developer can now call directly from the IBM Quantum Platform, and the first quantum navigation system qualified for safety of flight. That software layer will decide whether quantum shows up in enterprise data centers this decade, and it is why Salesforce Ventures led this round,” said Robert Keith, Partner, Salesforce Ventures.
“Our investment in Q-CTRL reflects the company’s unique position at the forefront of quantum technology, combining technical leadership with strong commercial momentum,” said Luis Videgaray, Partner at Affinity Partners. “Mike and his team have demonstrated an exceptional ability to translate cutting-edge innovation into real-world applications, and we look forward to supporting their continued growth and success.”
“Q-CTRL is one of the few quantum companies with real customers and real revenue,” said Per Roman, Bullhound Capital Founding Partner and Q-CTRL board member. “Michael has executed on everything he told us he would and then some. We’re pleased to keep backing him.”
“We see Q-CTRL as more than a commercial leader; they are a strategic asset across the entire quantum industry,” said Tony Holt, Co-founder and Partner of Square Peg. “Q-CTRL’s contributions to aviation and autonomy through its leadership in GPS-free quantum navigation are already reshaping the future of commercial air travel and boosting passenger safety. We’re proud to renew and expand our commitment to Q-CTRL as we’ve seen their growth trajectory first-hand since 2019, and look forward to them becoming one of the defining global businesses of the quantum era.”
“Quantum technology only creates true value when it moves beyond the lab and performs reliably in the field—and Q-CTRL’s software-first approach proves that transition is already underway,” said Kathy Matsui, General Partner, and Kazuhiro Hosaka, Vice President, MPower Partners. “From enabling navigation where GPS fails to delivering the quantum-powered data center, Q-CTRL is solving mission-critical challenges across global industry and resilience. MPower Partners is thrilled to back Q-CTRL, and we look forward to expanding their footprint in Japan, where deep industrial demand and sovereign commitment make it a natural hub for quantum commercialization.”
About Q-CTRL
Q-CTRL is the pioneer in AI-powered infrastructure software for quantum technology, offering a hardware-agnostic software platform that makes quantum machines thousands of times more powerful. This opens many parallel market verticals in computing, sensing, and health, making Q-CTRL a ubiquitous quantum company based on a single unique technology.
New York City officials have confirmed at least eight casualties – six adults and two children – in the collapse
Flatbush Ave in Flatbush, New York, stood still and in shock after a three-storey apartment building collapsed on Wednesday afternoon near a construction site.
“The last time I saw something like this was when I went to work at 9/11,” Prudence Foster said.
Nov. 12, 2026 — AI infrastructure, in-memory databases, and HPC workloads continue to drive requirements for memory capacity, performance, and data resilience. At the CXL Pavilion at SC26 in Chicago, IL, Netlist will demonstrate three CXL memory proof-of-concept (POC) designs showing complementary approaches to intelligent memory tiering, data persistence, and memory expansion and reuse. SC26 runs November 15–20, 2026; the exhibit hall gala is November 16, and regular exhibits run November 17–19.
Target applications across the portfolio include AI infrastructure and KV-cache management, in-memory databases (IMDB), virtual machines (VMs), HPC, and other memory-intensive workloads. Together, the demos show how CXL can manage data across memory tiers, preserve critical data, and extend the life of existing memory assets.
NVvault-HM
NVvault-HM is a POC design for intelligent memory tiering that combines DRAM and NAND for high-capacity CXL memory expansion. The architecture uses DRAM as a high-speed cache for NAND-backed capacity, helping manage hot, warm, and cold data through tiering, telemetry, and data migration.
The design targets AI infrastructure and KV-cache management, databases, analytics, and other capacity-intensive workloads.
NVvault-PM
NVvault-PM is a CXL-attached non-volatile memory POC designed to combine DRAM-class performance with data persistence. Built on CXL Type 3 over PCIe Gen5, the architecture pairs low-latency DRAM with onboard NAND backup and an embedded energy source to protect DRAM-resident data during power loss.
The design targets persistent, cache-coherent memory expansion for applications such as KV-cache management, AI/ML checkpointing, and accelerated recovery in database and HPC environments.
NVvault-D4
NVvault-D4 is a CXL-attached DDR4 memory expansion POC designed to extend the value of existing DDR4 memory assets. The architecture makes DDR4 available as expanded host memory, increasing memory capacity and enabling DDR4 reuse.
The design targets in-memory databases, virtual machines, HPC, and other enterprise workloads.
CXL Pavilion at SC26
Together, the three POC designs illustrate how CXL can support memory tiering, persistent memory and DDR4 reuse. Each approach targets a different combination of capacity, performance, data persistence, and memory efficiency.
Visit the CXL Pavilion at SC26 (Booth no. 1218) to see how CXL-attached memory can support intelligent tiering across DRAM and NAND, protect DRAM-resident data through power loss, and extend the use of existing DDR4 memory.
Ace will offer vendor-agnostic Amalgamy.ai orchestration with its custom GPU systems and the companies will sell and support it together, giving government, academic and enterprise buyers a single source for hardware and governed orchestration
CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 2026 — ThisWay Global Inc. (TWG), a company focused on sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure and the developer of the Amalgamy.ai orchestration platform, today announced a strategic partnership with Ace Computers, a Chicago-area builder of custom computing systems since 1983. Under a reseller agreement, Ace will offer Amalgamy as a term license with the GPU systems it builds, and the two companies will jointly market and sell Amalgamy to government, academic and enterprise customers.
The partnership pairs Ace’s decades of systems engineering with TWG’s orchestration software. Ace will provide first-line support for Amalgamy on the systems it builds, backed by TWG for advanced technical support and software updates.
Research computing centers and agencies invest heavily in accelerators, yet much of that capacity goes unused even while schedulers report it as busy. TWG calls this the Utilization Illusion: allocation looks high, but in TWG’s analysis of research and enterprise clusters productive output often lands between 30 and 50 percent, largely because conventional schedulers are not designed to balance security, data requirements and available compute together. Amalgamy is built to close that gap, and it measures success in goodput: the useful work delivered per GPU dollar.
Amalgamy works with existing schedulers such as Slurm and Kubernetes. Users describe the work, and Amalgamy selects the accelerator, stages the data beside it and runs the job. It is designed to place each workload on the hardware that best fits its requirements, whether that calls for high precision, low precision or another specialized capability. As new accelerator generations arrive, customers can add them to the same fabric while earlier generations stay in productive use.
Amalgamy is vendor-agnostic and is designed to work with the hardware and tooling each operator selects, reducing the risk of vendor lock-in. Beyond scheduling, it supports policy administration, data-access controls, metering and evidence management. These capabilities work in coordination with TWG’s Sovereign Blueprint, an evidence-based framework designed to help organizations identify and document controls over their data, models, computing resources and access. Policy controls are designed to keep the right people on the right data and the right silicon across sites, including air-gapped deployments.
“Ace has built the systems government and research teams have depended on for more than 40 years,” said Angela Hood, Founder and Executive Chairman of ThisWay Global. “This partnership lets those customers buy Amalgamy with hardware they already trust, get more productive work from every accelerator they own, and show who controls their data, models and computing resources.”
“Our customers want systems that deliver results,” said John Samborski, Chief Executive Officer of Ace Computers. “Partnering with ThisWay Global lets us offer Amalgamy with our GPU systems, so customers can run multiple accelerator generations as one fleet and get more work from the hardware they already own.”
Availability. Proof-of-concept engagements are available now through Ace and TWG, with general availability of Amalgamy v1.0 planned for Q1 2027.TWG also plans to deploy Amalgamy at the Reveille AI Compute Center (RACC), which TWG is developing at the Texas A&M RELLIS campus in Bryan, Texas.
SC26 attendees can see Amalgamy running on Ace systems at the companies’ shared booth #2534 at McCormick Place. Information on Amalgamy and the Sovereign Blueprint is available at www.thiswayglobal.com; information on Ace is available at www.acecomputers.com.
About ThisWay Global
Founded in 2016, ThisWay Global is a certified woman-owned business based in Austin, Texas. With roots in R&D at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, TWG works with governments, enterprises, universities and research institutions on governed AI and high-performance computing infrastructure. TWG developed the Sovereign Blueprint, an evidence-based framework for evaluating and documenting controls over data, models, computing resources and access, and Amalgamy.ai, vendor-agnostic software that orchestrates mixed accelerator fleets across NVIDIA, AMD and Intel hardware. For more information, visit www.thiswayglobal.com.
About Ace Computers
Founded in 1983, Ace Computers is a family-owned builder of GPU servers, AI workstations and HPC clusters headquartered in the Chicago area. Ace builds TAA-compliant systems under ISO 9001 quality processes for federal, state and local government, academic and enterprise customers. Its contract vehicles include [NASA SEWP V and VI, GSA, ITES-4H, ADMC-3, NASPO and NCPA]. In 2025, Ace earned the EPEAT Climate+ designation for select computers and displays.
LightSolver to present its Boeing corrosion-simulation work and join Birds of a Feather (BoF) session on analog computing at the supercomputing conference in Chicago
Rehovot, Israel, Nov. 12, 2026 — CollPlant Biotechnologies Ltd. has announced that its subsidiary LightSolver Ltd., a pioneer of pure photonic computing and developer of the Laser Processing Unit (LPU), will unveil the LPU capabilities in a first public demonstration at SC26, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, taking place November 15-20, 2026 in Chicago. The demonstration will be presented at LightSolver’s booth #5102 during the exhibition, November 16-19.
The LPU is a photonic computer designed to process and solve mathematical problems using light itself, through interacting laser beams, rather than conventional electronic computation. In this first public demonstration of an all-optical computer, LightSolver will showcase live how the LPU solves real mathematical and computational problems – including systems of linear equations, differential equations, and complex optimization problems – using only interacting light.
The LPU is designed to operate alongside conventional GPUs, with the potential to significantly accelerate certain computationally intensive workloads while offering the potential for reductions in energy consumption. These capabilities build on previously published, peer-reviewed research conducted in collaboration with the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS), as well as ongoing paid collaboration programs with leading industrial partners, including Boeing and others.
Boeing Corrosion Simulation at the Exhibitor Forum
LightSolver will present its work with Boeing on PDE-based corrosion simulation at the SC26 Exhibitor Forum. The presentation will set out the engineering problem and present comparative benchmark results against existing solvers. The work is part of a paid, multi-year development program with Boeing, announced in April 2026.
Analog Computing with the HPC Research Community
LightSolver will also take part in a Birds of a Feather session informed by the U.S. Department of Energy report “Analog Computing for Science: From Emerging Technologies to a Shared Research Agenda,” alongside researchers from HLRS, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), TU Dresden and other institutions. Dr. Talya Vaknin, Head of Research at LightSolver, will present the company’s perspective on the advantages of keeping most of the computation in the optical domain.
“The first public demonstration of an entirely new type of computer — one that uses light itself to perform computation — marks a major milestone for LightSolver as we work to move from a working prototype toward a commercial product,” said Dr. Ruti Ben Shlomi, Co-Founder and CEO of LightSolver. “It is an exciting moment for our company and everyone involved in building this new computing paradigm. We see this as an important step toward our long-term vision of photonic computing in data centers, which we believe has the potential to perform computational workloads at significantly higher speeds while reducing energy consumption. And there is no better place to showcase this technology than at a leading supercomputing event, where the world’s experts, researchers, industry leaders, and innovators in high-performance computing come together. It is the ideal stage to introduce this new computing paradigm to the community that will help shape the future of computing. We believe that computing with light has the potential to fundamentally transform the future of computing infrastructure.”
Investors and analysts interested in meeting LightSolver management in Chicago during SC26, or in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, may contact investors@lightsolver.com to arrange a meeting.
Subject to shareholder approval, CollPlant intends to change its name to OptiPhi Computing Ltd. and, subject to Nasdaq confirmation, its Nasdaq ticker symbol from “CLGN” to “OPHI.”
About CollPlant
CollPlant (Nasdaq: CLGN) is an innovative technology company operating at the intersection of deep-tech photonic computing and advanced biotechnology. Through its subsidiary LightSolver, CollPlant is advancing the development of proprietary all-optical laser-based computing architectures designed to resolve the world’s most demanding computational bottlenecks across artificial intelligence, aerospace, financial engineering, and high-performance computing. CollPlant also retains its proprietary plant-derived recombinant human collagen (rhCollagen) and bio-ink assets, for 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs and medical aesthetics. For more information about CollPlant, visit www.collplant.com.
Even before the 2026 World Cup, the US Soccer Federation projected an air of confidence in its ability to, someday, replace Mauricio Pochettino.
“We have a process of, on a regular basis, always reviewing sort of succession planning for all of our key roles at US Soccer,” JT Batson, the federation CEO, told ESPN in April. “We’re ready when anything happens, whether it’s CFO, whether it’s a head coach or anything in between.”
Donald Trump has said that the US is no longer seeking a deal to end the war with Iran and ordered JD Vance, who had spearheaded recent efforts to restart negotiations with Iran, to focus on domestic politics instead.
In a post to his social media site on Thursday, Trump said he was redirecting the vice-president to focus his “complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States throughout the U.S”.
Mississippi has elected the Democrat Scott Colom in a historic race in the traditionally deep-red state, making him its first Black senator since shortly after the US civil war. The closely contested race was called more than a week after the US midterms, with Colom running against the Republican incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith. How did Colom’s grassroots campaign win despite limited early backing from national Democrats? Lucy Hough speaks to politics and democracy reporter George Chidi
Google is launching its first Gemini-powered smart glasses, with Samsung supplying the computing hardware. Given their built-in 12-megapixel camera, Google is emphasizing privacy protections, including a tamper-resistant recording light, automatic face redaction, and restrictions on real-time facial recognition and livestreaming. The company also promises not to use captured photos or videos for AI training or targeted advertising. Ars Technica reports: Google says the frames all weigh about 41 grams, which is not terrible but is definitely near the top for glasses generally. They will, naturally, weigh much more when you account for lenses. That will also determine the final pricing. So far, we only have the starting prices for these devices, including non-prescription lenses.
The setup here is similar to the Ray-Ban Meta glasses we've seen for a few years. There are no screens in the lenses, but you can interact with the AI system via voice or by activating the integrated camera. The experience should be similar to using Gemini Live on your phone, but it will be a lot easier to fire up the AI. You can say "Hey Gemini" or tap a touch-sensitive area of the frame to start interacting with the robot.
Since this is the same chatbot that operates across the Google ecosystem, it has access to your data and preferences. You can ask questions and get personalized answers, have Google Maps guide you by voice, or just talk with the AI to kill time. The glasses use custom open-ear speakers to limit distractions for those around you. Google notes the directional microphones should not pick up speech from other people, either.
Adding the camera feed is where things get interesting. When the AI can see what you see, it has the potential to do more work on your behalf. Google suggests asking Gemini for recommendations when looking at a bookshelf or glancing at an event poster to have the AI add it to your calendar. The glasses will also support Gemini Guided Vision, which provides conversational audio descriptions for people who are visually impaired. The new frames are available for preorder today starting at $395.
Donalds is governor-elect in state that leads the US in the number of executions, with its 20th this year taking place next week
Three exonerated former death row prisoners in Florida have called on incoming governor Byron Donalds to halt the state’s record run of executions and review the cases of all 235 prisoners who are now condemned.
At a press conference in Tallahassee on Thursday hosted by the advocacy group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP), the men said they were seeking a roundtable discussion with Donalds, a Republican, as well as the state’s new legislative leaders in pursuit of a moratorium.
CEO was viewed as ‘irreplaceable’, but recklessness of affair with a woman regarded by US officials as a Chinese spy made him a political liability
Half the tech world made up its mind before the facts could be assessed properly. Jensen Huang was “irreplaceable”, said the chorus at the start of this week. Nvidia would melt without the co-founder’s brilliance, apparently. The chipmaker’s board had to find a way to save its genius for the sake of corporate America and the entire AI universe.
It was always nonsense because, after the passage of only a few days since his confession of infidelity, Huang looked less like a towering corporate titan and more like a political liability.
Government considers further curbs on non-disclosure agreements after Guardian investigation of TV personality
Ministers are looking at ways to change the law quickly to expand protections that stop non-disclosure agreements being used to cover up harassment or discrimination in the wake of the allegations about David Walliams.
This could involve extending measures that mean an NDA cannot be used this way to silence an employee so that it also applies to others, such as freelancers or volunteers.
DNA testing showed that a mother bear and her three cubs attacked and killed Jennifer Balcarras and Selah Reed in British Columbia last week, authorities said.
Many hemp companies are shipping their remaining inventory to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Tennessee, which have different regulations
At midnight this morning in Illinois, hemp-derived THC drinks transformed from grocery store commodities into illegal narcotics, and manufacturers have been rushing to sell their inventory or ship it out of state.
The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on Thursday awarded a Joint Service Commendation Medal to the soldier who called out him and members of his staff after some in the group were heard laughing and talking near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during a Veterans Day visit.
“We love soldiers. We love standards. Well done, Specialist,” Hegseth wrote in a social media post. “Carry on Patriots.” The post included a series of photos of Hegseth with the soldier.
The Warriors superstar’s forceful defense of his wife over an on-screen kiss has exposed the ugly double standards and fragile masculinity of sports’ manosphere
If Steph Curry is leading with his full government name, know that he means business. In a 90-second video released on Wednesday, from the Instagram account of “Wardell Curry”, he put the internet trolls who have been attacking his wife for years on notice. “Usually the noise doesn’t bother me, doesn’t bother Ayesha,” the four-time NBA champion and Paris Olympic knockout artist said. “But when you’re trying to step on the accomplishments of my wife, and feel the need to have to jump in and give an opinion on something that you really don’t know about, [it] kind of speaks to the bigger conversation on how you view women in this world and what they’re allowed and what they’re not allowed to do.”
Posterity will remember this as the NBA’s Oscar slap moment, but without the unnecessary violence. A bizarre turn in the parasocial compact when the restless fanboys pressured a superstar into publicly defending his wife. On this occasion, Curry had to defend his wife for the heinous crime of being the leading lady in a Christmas romcom: a Hallmark knockoff called Second Chance Holiday in which Ayesha Curry plays a dating expert with bad holiday luck and shares a kiss with a man who is not Wardell Stephen Curry II – her husband of 15 years and father to their four children. That apparently was a bridge too far for some of Curry’s former NBA peers.
Scott Malfitano, whose appointment was announced Nov. 9, will oversee construction, supply chains, staffing and daily operations. He also serves on the company’s board of directors and brings nearly 35 years of construction and corporate operating experience, according to Aternium.
Planned hydrogen and heavy water facility would bring about 50 permanent jobs and hundreds of construction jobs to Garrison Oak
WILMINGTON — Aternium has named longtime Delaware business and civic leader Scott Malfitano chief operating officer as it develops a proposed $380 million hydrogen and heavy water production facility in Dover.
Malfitano, whose appointment was announced Nov. 9, will oversee construction, supply chains, staffing and daily operations. He also serves on the company’s board of directors and brings nearly 35 years of construction and corporate operating experience, according to Aternium.
His appointment follows Gov. Matt Meyer’s Oct. 30 announcement that the planned facility at Garrison Oak Business and Technology Park had been accepted into Delaware’s JobsFirst Permitting Accelerator.
Together, the announcements outline the company’s next steps: building its operating leadership and coordinating the government reviews needed before construction can begin.
“We are building something unprecedented at Aternium, and Scott’s arrival strengthens our ability to turn vision into execution,” said Andrew Cottone, Aternium’s founder and CEO.
The proposed Dover facility would produce high-purity hydrogen for Mid-Atlantic customers and heavy water, also known as deuterium oxide, for industries including pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, defense and advanced technology.
According to the governor’s office, the project is expected to create about 50 permanent technical, engineering, operations and manufacturing jobs with salaries in the low six figures, along with hundreds of construction jobs.
The state said the United States relies on imported heavy water and that domestic production could help strengthen supply chains for advanced manufacturing, research and emerging technologies.
“America needs a reliable domestic supply of heavy water, and Aternium is bringing that production back to the U.S. – starting in Delaware,” Cottone said in the Oct. 30 announcement.
The project remains a proposed development. As of the state’s Oct. 30 announcement, it was in the planning phase, and local, state and third-party approvals had not yet begun.
Construction is projected to start in late November 2027 and take about 18 months.
Admission to the JobsFirst program does not constitute approval to build. Established through Executive Order 18, the accelerator provides participating projects with a single point of contact and coordinates permitting reviews across state agencies.
The program targets completion of complex state permitting reviews within 120 business days while retaining environmental, public safety and regulatory standards, according to the governor’s office. That target applies to state permitting reviews, rather than the project’s full development or construction schedule.
“When a company chooses Delaware, our job is to make sure government helps them succeed instead of standing in their way,” Meyer said in the Oct. 30 announcement.
The accelerator’s involvement follows earlier state financial support. In September 2025, the Delaware Division of Small Business awarded Aternium $1 million through the State Small Business Credit Initiative’s Delaware Accelerator and Seed Capital Program to support expansion of its clean hydrogen production capabilities.
Malfitano’s background includes more than three decades in leadership roles at CSC. His work there included managing development and construction of the company’s global headquarters and launching CSC Station, a coworking and innovation hub in Wilmington.
According to Aternium, he also helped develop CSC’s electronic recording services, launched its business license and permit business and helped pioneer its online incorporation services.
Malfitano began his government career with the New York State Comptroller’s Office. He chairs the Delaware Workforce Development Board, according to the Department of Labor’s current board roster.
His civic involvement has included service with the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, the B+ Foundation and Nativity Prep School. Aternium also credits him with founding the Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation and Intern Delaware.
“I’ve spent my career helping organizations scale, innovate, and build lasting value,” Malfitano said in the Nov. 9 announcement. “As Aternium advances America’s critical supply chains, strengthens energy security, and expands advanced manufacturing, it is creating capabilities that are vital to the nation’s future.”
To Go Box
What: Aternium’s proposed $380 million hydrogen and heavy water production facility.
Where: Garrison Oak Business and Technology Park, Dover.
Projected jobs: About 50 permanent positions with salaries in the low six figures, plus hundreds of construction jobs, according to the state.
Timeline: Construction is projected to begin in late November 2027 and take about 18 months, subject to approvals.
Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton said on Wednesday that Israel must allow aid trucks into Gaza, a day after he visited the Rafah border crossing in Egypt.
Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, arrived in El Arish on Tuesday, where he was briefed on how aid is prepared and coordinated before it is sent into Gaza, as he toured the Rafah crossing and the Egyptian Red Crescent’s aid warehouses.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Conversation: On April 10 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration revealed the first picture of a black hole. The object is at the centre of a galaxy known as M87, about 55 million light-years away. The iconic ring structure instantly became one of the most recognized scientific images of the modern era. It showed a black hole "shadow" outlined by light from swirling hot gas -- just as predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. The result supported the long-standing idea that the centers of galaxies house supermassive black holes. However, scientists have since had some disagreements on whether the details and structure of the ring in the original publication were accurate. Our new research, published today in Nature, used new techniques to investigate the original datasets. Not only do our results validate the original work, but they also provide a fresh perspective on the ring structure. Our independent results enhance confidence in one of the most significant modern scientific results. And we bring the image of a black hole millions of light-years away back into focus.
[...] When compared directly to images from the EHT collaboration, our result is consistent in diameter and overall orientation. Naturally, there are some differences in the fine details of ring width and surface brightness along the circumference, but the overall structure matches. This provides a fresh perspective on the iconic black hole ring while also resolving previous discrepancies. To prove this success didn't depend solely on advanced machine learning, we also developed a complementary imaging method based on traditional statistical techniques. This entirely different method also validated our structure using the new closure invariant data we produced. Overall, our work delivers a strong independent validation of the supermassive black hole structure at the centre of galaxy M87. And it could do more in the future. Our technique could also be useful in other situations where data from multiple sensors are combined to map unknown structures -- such as medical imaging or mapping earthquakes.
On the Today programme this morning, the Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a prominent leftwinger, indicated she might vote against legislation to implement the Alan Milburn proposals. She said she was concerned by the idea that the cuts would apply to people already getting sickness and disability benefits, and she said it appeared to be a breach of a promise given last year that people already getting Pip (the personal independence payment) would not lose it.
She said:
I just don’t think that you get a disabled young person into work by taking away the money that helps them to get into work.
The cuts seem to land on young disabled people, and many of them are in college already or already in work. So I don’t see how you fix the first by punishing the second.
Milburn said he concluded fundamental change was needed. He said:
The whole system needs to be changed, because the system is geared to keeping people inactive when, for young people in particular, it’s all about how can you make them active, get them earning, learning, so that they can rely on a wage rather than on a benefit. So, this is not about cutting one benefit, it’s about rebuilding the system from scratch.
He said that he decided existing claimants should be covered by the changes, not just new changes.
It’s a big rewriting of the welfare system. And obviously one of the conundrums was, ‘Should this apply to only new claimants?’
I came to the conclusion that wouldn’t be right, not least because you’ve got hundreds of thousands of young people stuck in a benefit system that is trapping them in poverty, giving them no prospect of prosperity or a job.
Milburn admitted this meant the plans would not be “pain-free”.
I’m not saying that any of this will be easy or that it will be pain-free because it won’t. You know, candidly, it could mean that some people will get less financial support at the beginning of their benefit claim than under the current system.
He said he wanted the system to prioritise improving people’s life chances in the long term over easing their financial hardship in the short term.
Actually for young people there’s a different debate that we’ve got to resolve, which is whether the priority is their longer-term life chances or just their immediate shorter-term finances.
I think what the current system does, it prioritises the latter over the former. I believe that’s the wrong choice and it needs to be the other way around.
He said, alongside the cuts to benefits he is proposing (see 11.56am), he wanted to improve employment support for young people.
We need to make sure people have the opportunities to get an apprenticeship, a job, a work placement, a pre-apprenticeship, a college place.
The menu of opportunities has got to increase. They’ll have a personal adviser, they’ll be coached all the way through. The adviser will stick with them until they have found a job or an apprenticeship or college place.
They will get immediate access to support if that’s what they need, if that’s the thing that is holding them back from being in education or training.
He admitted that offering better employment support and mental health support would mean his plans would initially cost money. According to the Times, he did not did not deny claims the whole package could cost £6bn. But, in the long run, there would be savings, he said.
Obviously this costs money. And frankly it’s a better use of money, both from the point of view of the young person and the taxpayer, to spend that money getting them into work rather than spending that money keeping them on benefits.
This is the sort of fatuous thing about this debate. You’ve got to invest upfront in order to get savings out of the back end. Cost-free is fatuous. So we’ve got to be candid about that. It will need significant investment.
To get a return on investment will take time … the only way of cutting the benefits bill sustainably is by getting young people into work, paying their taxes and being less reliant on benefits. Unless you are prepared to put the investment upfront it will never be possible.
He said he was “confident” that Andy Burnham was full-square behind the changes that are needed.”
CEO’s affair and resignation has brought company’s murky corporate contracts and supply chains into sharp focus
Can the AI economy survive without its “central bank”? What does Jensen Huang’s fall mean for the world’s second-most valuable company, and what might a tremor in its fortunes mean for the world?
Nvidia’s sky-high valuation is based on the fact that it designs and sells the advanced AI chips, called graphics processing units (GPUs), that underpin the AI economy. Without these, AI models such as ChatGPT and Claude could not be trained and would not run.
The Trump administration is preparing to kick nearly 80,000 people, about half of them children, off federal housing assistance over their family’s immigration status, threatening to drive thousands into homelessness.
On Thursday, the Department of Housing and Urban Development published a final rule that’s on track to effectively bar families of mixed immigration status from receiving most federal housing assistance, which allow people to receive housing vouchers to reside in privately owned rental homes or in government-owned or -assisted public housing units.
As it stands, undocumented immigrants and temporary non-residents in the United States already are barred from personally receiving most forms of federal housing assistance. But if some members of the family are eligible, the eligible members can receive prorated assistance to help cover their housing, and the non-eligible family member can live with them.
The new rule, which goes into effect in mid-December, would disqualify an entire family if one member is ineligible after a temporary grace period, forcing them to choose between separation and eviction.
Families are “going to be faced with the impossible choice of deciding whether they want to split up so that some people can stay housed, or to stay together and risk homelessness and eviction,” said Marie Claire Tran-Leung, Evictions Initiative Project director at the National Housing Law Project.
Children will bear a disproportionate burden, Tran-Leung said. Of the nearly 80,000 people who could be affected, according to estimates from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, nearly 37,000 are children.
Of the nearly 80,000 people who could be affected, nearly 37,000 are children.
Many families have one parent who doesn’t qualify, one parent who’s a citizen or otherwise eligible immigrant — i.e. a permanent resident — and kids who hold U.S. citizenship. According to Tran-Leung, the typical mixed-status family in HUD housing is a family of four that fits that profile.
This rule is “going to tear families apart and take adults away from their children,” said Deborah Thrope, chief program officer at the National Housing Law Project.
Beyond potentially leaving tens of thousands of families and children homeless or separated, the change could cost the already beleaguered federal housing agency hundreds of millions of dollars, housing experts told The Intercept. This would likely worsen conditions across the board for the roughly 9 million people in federal housing, who would now be subject to onerous documentation requirements.
“The impacts are not just limited to mixed-status families,” said Renee Williams, senior advisor for public policy at the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
This rule is “going to tear families apart and take adults away from their children.”
Currently, both U.S. citizens and non-citizens are required to submit a declaration under penalty of perjury attesting that their citizenship or immigration status makes them eligible for housing assistance. Non-citizens under age 62 must submit a document that proves their immigration status. And additional documentation can be requested by local housing agencies or landlords.
The rule change would upend the current system. U.S. citizens would have to go through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, also known as SAVE, to verify their eligibility status.
“It’s a system that hasn’t been used to verify citizenship before but now is because of the work that DHS and DOGE did together on a very expedited timeline at the beginning of the Trump administration,” said Tran-Leung. “This causes a lot of concern for us about the very significant risks of residents who are citizens being caught up in verification issues and potentially losing their housing.”
If SAVE cannot verify someone’s eligibility, the new rule requires the person to provide documentation proving their status. The rule would give families 30 days to obtain evidence of immigration status, in addition to the initial 30-day grace period where families can receive pro-rated assistance before having to go through verification.
Tran-Leung and other experts worry that the new documentation requirements could make it harder for low-income tenants — particularly older immigrants over the age of 62, who were previously exempted from verification requirements — to access the program.
Older people, low-income people, and people who’ve experienced homelessness are far more likely to lack access to proof of citizenship such as a passport, valid photo ID, or birth certificate. That means an untold number of the millions of eligible people in federal housing programs could lose assistance just for lack of documentation.
“For folks who may not have easy documentation accessible, who may not have access to a birth certificate, who may not have access to a passport, we’re really worried,” said Williams.
The changes would also burden housing agencies financially by requiring their staff to review documents that were previously not required by federal law.
It is unclear just how expensive these additional administrative costs will be for HUD. But an analysis from HUD itself found that because mixed-status families receive assistance prorated, it would cost the federal government $300 million in additional funds to serve the same number of families as it does now.
For example, a family of four with one ineligible member currently receives 75% of a full household subsidy. A family of four that is not mixed status receives 100% of the subsidy, making it more expensive for the agency to house the non-mixed-status family even though the two families have the same number of people.
“At the same time, HUD is requesting fewer funds from Congress to end homelessness,” said Kayla Blackwell, senior housing policy analyst at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. President Donald Trump recently proposed cutting $3.8 billion from the agency’s affordable housing, homelessness, and community development programs.
HUD Secretary Scott Turner has justified the rule by claiming that mixed-status families are “pushing aside hardworking U.S. citizens” for housing. But experts said the changes will make the system worse for everyone.
“This is scapegoating immigrant families, and HUD is doing less,” said Blackwell.
For the families who either are forced out of the program or leave willingly due to fears around their status, the road ahead is difficult. The majority of mixed-status families live in California, Texas, and New York, where the cost of living can be incredibly high.
“It’s going to be really difficult, I think, for families to be able to stay in their communities and not be displaced if they lose their access to HUD assistance,” said Blackwell.
‘I must now listen to my body and my doctors’, says Taylor, who was one of the earliest members of the new wave hit-makers
The drummer for Duran Duran, Roger Taylor, is to step down from the band due to worsening tinnitus.
In a statement, Taylor said: “This is one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. Playing drums in this band has been the joy of my life, and I’ll never be able to properly thank the fans for the love they’ve shown us over the years. But the truth is that my tinnitus has been getting steadily worse, and I’ve reached the point where I must now listen to my body and my doctors.”
Luxembourg’s PM Luc Frieden looks to be absolutely chuffed to be representing all three Benelux countries at today’s summit, as his Belgian and Dutch colleagues are too busy to attend as they face domestic crises.
“I have the privilege of representing 30 millions citizens today,” he said on arrival to Dublin, with a massive smile on his face.
Exclusive: Former health secretary wants to ‘tear up the old approach’, and end ongoing payments to certain under-25s
Some young people with disabilities will lose their personal independence payments but will be able to apply to a local fund for short-term expenses and equipment, Alan Milburn’s review will recommend.
While those with the most severe needs’ entitlement will be protected, others will be asked to apply for money for specific purposes rather than an ongoing payment.
Large numbers of police in tactical gear arrived in downtown Washington DC where an active shooter incident at a gym 'resulted in a barricade situation in the 1500 block of 15th Street, Northwest', DC police said
Mostafa Sepahvand and Farhad Javadi Manesh carried out surveillance in an effort to inflict violence on targets
Two men of Iranian origin who were hired through social media as part of a plan to “eliminate” journalists in the UK have been found guilty of assisting Tehran’s intelligence services.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, carried out surveillance and reconnaissance between August 2024 and March last year in an attempt to inflict violence on “subjects” in the UK.
At a time when individual men wield massive power, the ramifications of the Nvidia CEO’s affair could be enormous
One of the reasons you want to distribute power and responsibility in powerful organizations and high-stakes enterprises is so that the narcissism or myopia of one man do not come to carry outsized consequences.
When power is spread out across multiple people, it matters less if one of those people is prone to flattery, or in the midst of a midlife crisis, or perhaps just a bit stupid; the limits on his power become limits on the fallout of his character flaws.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported record immigration enforcement numbers Thursday, saying it deported 483,200 people and arrested 474,850 during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 — the highest totals in the agency’s 23-year history.
The deportation total was 9% higher than the previous record of 442,640 and 78% above the 271,480 removals recorded in 2024. Arrests nearly doubled from the prior year’s 239,890 and were more than four times the 113,430 arrests in 2024.
The new ICE release did not provide a breakdown showing how many people arrested had criminal convictions, unlike reports issued under previous administrations.
Earlier enforcement data, however, complicates the administration’s repeated description of those targeted as the “worst of the worst.” AP reported that more than half of ICE arrests in July involved people with neither criminal convictions nor pending charges, while fewer than one-quarter had criminal convictions.
Separate TRAC data showed that 70.6% of people held in ICE detention on July 11 had no criminal conviction, although some detainees could still have pending charges or immigration violations.
ICE said monthly arrests exceeded 48,000 in September after reaching a record 50,925 in August.
The record numbers come as President Donald Trump has acknowledged that portions of his deportation policy may have been “too tough,” while incoming congressional Democrats are preparing increased scrutiny of ICE enforcement and spending.
A critical flaw in Apache HTTP Server's HTTP/2 module could allow unauthenticated attackers to remotely execute code and potentially take control of affected server processes. Tracked as CVE-2026-119618, the vulnerability affects Apache HTTP Server 2.4.55 through 2.4.70 when HTTP/2 is enabled and is fixed in version 2.4.71. The Hacker News reports: The vendor's assessment, published yesterday, also says "public research has demonstrated a reliable exploit" against a server in its default configuration with mod_http2 enabled. It does not name or link that research. Security company Wiz said later that day that no exploit was available and that no exploitation in the wild had been reported.
HTTP/2 runs only where the Protocols directive turns it on, as the module documentation explains. The directive uses h2 for HTTP/2 over TLS and h2c for HTTP/2 over plain TCP. It can be set for the whole server or for a single virtual host, so admins should check the server-wide setting and every virtual host.
Standalone builds of the module, released on GitHub as mod_h2, are affected from version 2.0.8 through 2.0.42. Admins who run the Apache HTTP Server project's own releases should move to version 2.4.71, the fixed release named in its security advisory. That release also fixes a crash in mod_md, rated important, and a one-byte overwrite of stack memory in mod_vhost_alias, rated low.
The president suggested Thursday that he was dialing back diplomatic efforts to end the conflict with Iran and ending a dealmaking effort by the vice president.
Nigel Farage appeared on Russell Brand’s US podcast nine months after the comedian was investigated by police over allegations of sexual assault, the Guardian has learned.
Swedish activist criticised world governments for their failure to prevent environmental breakdown
The planet is “not dying, it is being killed and we know by who”, said Greta Thunberg, who excoriated world governments for their failure to prevent environmental breakdown in her first appearance at the annual UN climate talks in five years.
Thunberg, 23, the Swedish activist who became famous for heading the school climate strike movement, delivered her stark message to those gathered at the Cop31 summit in Antalya, Turkey, amid the ongoing failure by countries to adequately address the climate crisis.
XPerf’s ClusterBeacon forecasts GPU failures 10–30 minutes ahead, and ClusterMarshal suggests where, when and how each job runs. See both at SC26, booth 5617
ROUND ROCK, Texas, Nov. 12, 2026 — XPerf Inc., an AI infrastructure software company building the control plane for heterogeneous data centers, today announced two product milestones ahead of SC26: ClusterBeacon, an AI cluster failure prevention and resolution software, is now available for commercial deployment, while ClusterMarshal, a scheduler for AI workloads on heterogeneous hardware, is opening for pilot deployments. Together with ClusterReady, XPerf’s AI rack validation platform, the three products address the full AI cluster lifecycle.
XPerf will demonstrate its portfolio at SC26 in Chicago, Nov. 17–19, at booth 5617, shared with Infraeo.
More Output from the GPUs Already Installed
With power limiting how quickly new data center capacity can be built, more output has to come from the GPUs already in service. In one published study of a 4,704-GPU cluster, GPUs read 97–99% busy while doing useful compute only about 40% of the time (Hu et al., NSDI 2024).
“Power limits and stricter regulation are making it harder to build new data centers. Meanwhile, GPU utilization is often below 50%. It’s time to get more from the GPUs already installed, and to put every job on the most cost-effective, efficient GPU that meets its demand,” said Alex Carter, Ph.D., Co-Founder & CEO, XPerf Inc.
ClusterReady: Validate, Proven with Partners
ClusterReady validates AI racks and clusters under AI training and inference workloads before they go live. A validation run takes 65 minutes to 8 hours, typically 3–4 hours, compared with 2–6 weeks for conventional L11/L12 testing. Each rack gets a tokens-per-second performance baseline, and every issue found comes with its root cause and remediation suggestions.
With MiTAC Computing, ClusterReady showed an AMD Instinct MI325X rack performing 20% above AMD’s published FLUX.1-dev benchmark results in the tested configuration, with 95.8% scaling efficiency from one to four nodes on Llama 3.1 8B pre-training.
With Akash Systems, ClusterReady documented the energy and thermal effect of Diamond Cooling on AMD Instinct MI350X servers under AI workloads.
With AMD, XPerf operated MLPerf Training v6.0 submissions on AMD Instinct platforms in May 2026, on behalf of Akash Systems and MiTAC Computing.
With a tier-1 ODM, XPerf finds the root cause of defective racks in minutes.
“XPerf gave us AI-workload performance evidence that demonstrates what our Diamond Cooling technology does in practice. We’re glad to keep working with XPerf because of the speed and quality of their work,” said Pamit Surana, Co-Founder & CCO, Akash Systems.
ClusterBeacon: Operate, Now Available for Commercial Deployment
ClusterBeacon learns each node’s safe operating envelope under load, then forecasts GPU cluster failures 10–30 minutes ahead, with recommended preventive actions. When something fails, it traces the incident to an evidence-cited root cause in minutes, where manual investigation typically takes hours to days. Engineers approve most changes, and ClusterBeacon verifies the fix with telemetry. It runs on-premises on NVIDIA and AMD GPU clusters, including in air-gapped data centers, and keeps all data on site.
ClusterMarshal: Maximize, Ready for Pilot Deployment
ClusterMarshal decides where, when and how each GPU job runs. It starts with operator input and moves toward fully autonomous placement.
Today a user describes a job: a training script or an inference model with a request rate and latency target. ClusterMarshal proposes two to four ways to run it, each with GPUs, start time, run time and cost. The user chooses one, and ClusterMarshal submits it as that user to the cluster’s existing scheduler. If it does not respond in time, the scheduler places the job as usual. Pilots begin in shadow mode: ClusterMarshal recommends alongside the scheduler without affecting placement, so operators can compare its predicted run times and costs with what actually ran. Once operators trust the results, they enable submission for a queue or an entire cluster.
From there, ClusterMarshal makes the placement selection itself, submitting jobs without waiting for a person. Operators set the policies and limits, and the scheduler continues to execute each placement.
ClusterMarshal launches with Kubernetes support, with Slurm to follow. It runs on an XPerf-supplied appliance or customer-supplied hardware, including air-gapped environments; cloud deployment is also available. XPerf will demonstrate ClusterMarshal at SC26.
Availability
ClusterReady and ClusterBeacon are available for commercial deployment. ClusterMarshal is available for pilot deployments, starting in shadow mode. Meet the XPerf team at SC26, booth 5617, Nov. 17–19. To book a meeting, contact Alex Carter at alex.carter@xperf.ai.
About XPerf Inc.
Founded by ex-Intel engineers with deep experience deploying and managing GPU and ASIC clusters at scale, XPerf Inc. is an AI infrastructure software company building the control plane for heterogeneous data centers. Its products cover the full AI cluster lifecycle: the ClusterReady platform validates AI racks and clusters 10× faster than L11/L12 workflows; ClusterBeacon software predicts, prevents and resolves GPU cluster failures on-premises; and the ClusterMarshal scheduler helps teams choose where, when and how each GPU job runs. XPerf Inc. is a member of NVIDIA Inception, CNCF, the gBETA accelerator program, and the Endless Frontier Labs accelerator program.
The UK car industry is preparing to push for a two-year delay to Brexit tariffs on electric cars traded with the EU, after an initial European proposal suggested a shorter delay.
Tariffs are due to kick in on 1 January for the majority of electric cars traded between the EU and UK unless the two sides can come to an agreement to delay for a second time the implementation of “rules of origin” on batteries.
Government proposal aims to reduce number of children in custody in England and Wales and boost youth employment
Children found guilty of robbery, dealing drugs to other children or violent disorder will no longer have to disclose their criminal records to prospective employers under sweeping government proposals to change the youth justice system.
People in England and Wales will not have to share records of crimes committed when they were under 18 for the rest of their lives under the proposals, which ministers say will boost youth employment and make life fairer for people from disadvantaged backgrounds in particular.
Anyone who assumed they had already missed their best shot at the northern lights this cycle was wrong. The sun crossed its most active point ... Read moreThe post Arctic destinations from Norway to Alaska still deliver strong northern lights…
Jensen Huang has stepped down as CEO of Nvidia after 33 years leading the company, with CFO Colette Kress taking over as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent replacement.
"The Board has full confidence in Colette and the leadership team, and we expect the company's operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption," said board chair Harvey Jones in a release announcing the news.
The abrupt departure follows revelations about Huang's affairs, including one with a woman U.S. intelligence reportedly believes was a Chinese spy. CNBC reports: Huang, 63, apologized on Sunday for being "unfaithful to my wife," though he provided no details about the affair with businesswoman Alice Huang, who has worked for a Chinese company and Nvidia customer called Megaspeed. Late Wednesday, The New York Times reported that the Nvidia CEO also had a separate affair, this one with Kimberly Powell, vice president of health care at the chipmaker. Later that afternoon The Times and other outlets reported that Nvidia's board met to discuss the company's future.
Jensen Huang denied allegations that he had compromised national security or Nvidia secrets after reports of the Alice Huang affair. The news sparked concerns that Nvidia knew companies based in Singapore and Malaysia had been evading U.S. export controls in accessing its technology. The board said on Tuesday that it had hired Wachtell Lipton to investigate the intelligence allegations.
A person holding a TV remote control in front of a smart television displaying various streaming and broadcast apps, alongside a green coffee mug on a wooden table.
Ron DeSantis signed law prompting the city of Delray Beach to announce it was scrapping its popular Irish celebration
A Florida mayor is working to salvage his city’s St Patrick’s Day parade after it was canceled to comply with a new Republican law banning municipalities from hosting events deemed to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
The state’s hard right governor Ron DeSantis signed the law in April that takes effect on 1 January, prompting the city of Delray Beach, near Fort Lauderdale, to announce it was scrapping next year’s popular Irish celebration that regularly attracts tens of thousands of visitors, and also its Pride event.
The historic SS United States ocean liner has marked the end of its journey at sea, as it was sunk off the coast of Florida to become the 'world's largest artificial reef', according to Okaloosa county. Once the fastest ocean liner in the world, the ship took around five hours to sink. It will rest on the seafloor at a depth of approximately 180ft, with the ship’s upper decks sitting about 55ft below the surface
Exclusive: Ron Wyden, citing Guardian report, is launching inquiry into whether health secretary lied about Samoa trip during confirmation hearings
A top Democratic senator has launched an investigation into evidence that Robert F Kennedy Jr “unlawfully lied” in his 2025 confirmation hearings to become the US health secretary, citing a report by the Guardian.
Ron Wyden of Oregon, the incoming chair of the powerful Senate finance committee, is seeking extensive records from Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the non-profit anti-vaccine group Kennedy has used as a vehicle to fuel his political rise, including all documents related to a 2019 trip Kennedy took to Samoa.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Thursday that Vice President JD Vance will focus his attention on alleged corruption and crime in Democratic-run cities and states, escalating his administration’s scrutiny of political opponents after Republicans’ midterm losses.
Trump singled out Minnesota, California and Illinois, calling Democratic-led jurisdictions “poorly run, corrupt disasters” and claiming that “billions of dollars” are being stolen every month. He provided no evidence supporting that sweeping figure.
The directive expands an anti-fraud effort Trump launched earlier this year under Vance. Federal authorities have pursued legitimate fraud cases in several states, including Minnesota and California, but Trump has repeatedly framed the initiative in explicitly partisan terms, emphasizing Democratic-controlled jurisdictions.
The president’s statement comes days after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress and several major statewide races. Incoming House Democrats are themselves preparing investigations into Trump administration spending, immigration enforcement and potential conflicts of interest.
Trump separately threatened to double tariffs on Mexico if migrant caravans traveling north are not stopped. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded Thursday that no migrant caravan has reached the U.S. border since January 2025 and said a recent group in southern Mexico was already dispersing.
The combination of partisan fraud investigations and threatened congressional probes sets up a potentially intense confrontation between the White House and the incoming Democratic Congress.
SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 12, 2026 — KIOXIA America, Inc. has announced a new storage-density milestone in supporting modern AI and data lake workloads. In collaboration with Dell Technologies, the company’s 245.76 TB KIOXIA LC9 Series SSDs are used to create the world’s first 157 PB object storage solution in a single industry-standard 42U server rack. The solution is designed to improve data center efficiency through a smaller storage footprint, higher TB/W and lower cooling requirements compared with HDDs or lower capacity SSDs at the same capacity.
The solution is built with software-defined Dell ObjectScale running on 16 PowerEdge R7725xd servers and configured with 640 KIOXIA LC9 Series 245.76 TB SSDs to deliver 157 PB of raw flash capacity in an industry-standard 42U rack.
Dell ObjectScale is an enterprise-grade, cloud-scale object storage platform designed for unstructured data workloads, including AI training, big data analytics and modern cloud-native applications.
AI is Reshaping Infrastructure Requirements
As AI workloads drive continued growth in unstructured data, organizations need storage that can deliver higher capacity without a corresponding increase in data center floor/rack space, power consumption or cooling requirements. High-capacity NVMe SSDs can help address these demands by consolidating more data into a smaller, more efficient infrastructure footprint.
Together, Dell Technologies and Kioxia have a long history of enabling scalable infrastructure for data-driven applications. This latest milestone underscores a shared commitment to advancing high-density architectures that improve performance, reduce energy consumption and maximize data center efficiency. Last summer, Kioxia announced the industry’s first 245.76 TB NVMe SSD, highlighting its value for generative AI, large-scale datasets, vector databases and other data-intensive environments. Dell Technologies published a blog on high-density object storage for AI-era data environments using KIOXIA 245.76 TB SSDs.
“AI is driving unprecedented growth in unstructured data, and customers need to scale capacity without scaling their data center footprint and power consumption,” said George Papadopoulos, SVP, Product & Engineering, Dell Technologies. “With Dell ObjectScale and KIOXIA’s 245.76 TB SSDs, customers can consolidate more data into fewer systems and racks while reducing cabling, power and cooling requirements. This collaboration helps deliver a more efficient, scalable foundation for AI and data-intensive workloads.”
Key features of the KIOXIA LC9 Series include:
Built with KIOXIA BiCS FLAS generation 8 3D QLC technology and 32-die stack architecture, enabling industry-leading density
Up to 245.76 TB in an E3.L form factor
Up to 122.88 TB available in 2.5-inch and E3.S form factors
Flash die failure protection
Mean time to failure (MTTF): 2.5 million hours (over 285 years)
Compliant with PCIe 5.0, NVMe 2.0 and NVMe-MI 1.2c specifications
Open Compute Project (OCP) Datacenter NVMe SSD specification v2.5 support (not all requirements)
Flexible Data Placement (FDP) support to minimize write amplification and extend SSD lifespan
Security options including SIE, SED and FIPS 140-3 validation
CNSA 2.0 firmware-signing support
“KIOXIA’s 245.76 TB LC9 Series SSDs enable Dell Technologies to deliver a new level of storage density for AI and data-intensive workloads – helping customers consolidate massive data footprints into fewer systems while improving data center efficiency and scalability,” said Faraz Velani, Head of Go-to-Market, SSD business unit at KIOXIA America, Inc. “Together, KIOXIA and Dell are redefining what’s possible with high-capacity flash storage.”
About KIOXIA America, Inc.
KIOXIA America, Inc. is the U.S.-based subsidiary of Kioxia Corporation, a leading worldwide supplier of flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). From the invention of flash memory to today’s breakthrough BiCS FLASH 3D technology, Kioxia continues to pioneer innovative memory, SSD and software solutions that enrich people’s lives and expand society’s horizons. The company’s innovative 3D flash memory technology, BiCS FLASH, is shaping the future of storage in high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs, automotive systems, data centers and generative AI systems. For more information, please visit Kioxia.com.
As governments adopt AI, workers are gaining ground in how it’s used and securing safeguards against its harms
In the shadow of Silicon Valley, workers for the city of Oakland, California, worry the region will deploy AI systems that could increase surveillance and inaccurately evaluate their performance. Pushing for protections to ensure workers won’t be laid off or disciplined by AI, their union overwhelmingly voted on 22 October to authorize a strike, with 94.1% in favor.
“We just want the city administration to really be intentional about how it’s engaging with AI products,” said Julian Ware, an Oakland spatial data administrator and member of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21. “Sometimes with a fancy new toy, it actually costs more, it’s more difficult to implement and the results are not as good.”
Mauricio Pochettino will lead the US men’s national team through the remainder of this international window, a source with direct knowledge of US Soccer’s plans told the Guardian on Thursday.
Pochettino has emerged as the leading candidate to replace Michael Carrick, who was sacked as Manchester United manager on Thursday. The Guardian previously reported that the framework of a deal had been agreed between Pochettino and United. The Athletic was first to report news of Pochettino’s plans for the upcoming US matches.
Fall enrollment rises nearly 12%; university reports its largest class of Delaware freshmen and a 56% increase in high school students earning college credit
DOVER — Delaware State University’s fall enrollment has reached a record 7,407 students, with returning students, graduate programs and international partnerships helping push the total up nearly 12% from last year.
The university announced Nov. 10 that its certified fall 2026 enrollment increased by 784 students from 6,623 a year earlier. Enrollment at the historically Black university has grown more than 47% since 2020, when it enrolled 5,027 students.
The total includes 5,959 students attending the university’s two Dover campuses or studying through its online programs, an increase of 7.8% from 5,528 last fall. Another 1,448 students are enrolled through international partnership programs in the Caribbean, Asia and Africa.
University officials attributed the growth partly to students continuing their studies and increased demand for graduate programs.
“This year’s growth came from a more intentional emphasis on students who were already here and decided to keep going, a central part of our work — and from a graduate school that working adults in Delaware and across the country are choosing in record numbers,” university President Tony Allen said in the announcement.
Delaware students and tuition support
The university reported its largest in-state freshman class, with more than 80% of new Delaware freshmen enrolled full time receiving INSPIRE Scholarships.
The four-year, full-tuition scholarship supports qualifying Delaware high school graduates who enter Delaware State the fall after graduation. The university said the program has brought more than 2,500 Delawareans to campus since its creation.
In-state undergraduate enrollment increased 8.4%, compared with 4.5% growth among out-of-state undergraduates. The incoming freshman class had an average high school GPA of 3.13.
The scholarship can make a significant difference for families weighing college costs, although full tuition does not mean all college expenses are covered. Prospective students should review eligibility requirements and costs beyond tuition with the university’s financial aid office.
Graduate programs lead growth
Graduate enrollment increased 27.1%, making it the university’s fastest-growing enrollment category. The number of continuing graduate students rose 34.1%, while online graduate enrollment increased 46.1%.
Gwendolyn Scott-Jones, dean of the School of Graduate, Adult and Extended Studies, said the programs are designed to serve students balancing education with other responsibilities.
“They are choosing Delaware State because our programs are built for people who are working, raising families and serving their communities while they earn the credential that moves them forward,” Scott-Jones said in the announcement.
High school students earn college credit
Dual enrollment — allowing high school students to take university courses for college credit — increased 56% to 684 students. That total includes 482 Delaware students and 199 students at HBCU Early College Prep in Queens, New York.
The university identified the Williams School as an important part of that pipeline. The early college school was dedicated in September in honor of former university President Harry L. Williams and Robin S. Williams.
Roughly two-thirds of the school’s graduates go on to Delaware State, according to the university.
Connecting enrollment to careers
The enrollment announcement also highlighted programs intended to help students complete degrees and prepare for employment.
More than 1,000 Delaware State students have completed the Braven Accelerator, a three-credit career preparation course taken during sophomore year. The university announced in October that it would expand that partnership through a Center for Economic Mobility intended to reach every undergraduate.
Its College of Business also hosted 720 students at its largest DEEP Day, while the College of Agriculture, Science and Technology welcomed 213 first-year pre-health students at a Sept. 29 White Coat Ceremony.
The final enrollment count exceeded an October projection that the university was approaching 7,000 students. Officials said additional online sessions and international semester starts were included before the Oct. 31 census.
WAYNE, Pa., Nov. 12, 2026 — Cornelis today announced the Cornelis CN6000 family, its next-generation 800G networking platform engineered to address the demanding communication requirements of AI and high-performance computing (HPC). Drawing on Cornelis’ HPC networking heritage, CN6000 is designed to reduce networking bottlenecks in parallel workloads, from large-scale scientific simulation to AI training and disaggregated inference, helping organizations make better use of their compute investments. With CN6000, Cornelis takes the fabric technology proven in leadership-class supercomputers to the standards-based Ethernet that runs mainstream AI. OEM and system partners across the AI and HPC ecosystem are planning validation and support for CN6000.
The CN6000 family supports Omni-Path and RoCEv2 Ethernet SuperNICs, along with the CN6000 Omni-Path switch. With 800G connectivity and a choice of networking fabrics, customers can select the infrastructure that best fits their workloads and existing environments. Omni-Path delivers Cornelis’ highest performance, and the Ethernet SuperNIC gives Ethernet-first customers a standards-based option. CN6000 is Cornelis’ second consecutive product generation to achieve first-silicon-to-production success, bringing SuperNICs and switches to customers for evaluation today and to partner systems in Q1 2027.
“Every minute an accelerator waits on the network is capacity our customers paid for and didn’t use,” said Lisa Spelman, CEO of Cornelis. “We built CN6000 for the communication patterns that make parallel AI and HPC workloads so demanding. Omni-Path delivers the highest message rate in the industry with lossless delivery at scale, and our new Ethernet SuperNIC brings that same parallel computing expertise to the standards-based fabrics where most AI infrastructure runs. That combination of performance and choice is what our customers need as they scale training, inference, and scientific computing.”
Designed for Demanding AI and HPC
CN6000 is built to keep accelerators working. The Omni-Path SuperNIC doubles the bandwidth of CN5000 to 800G and delivers 1.6 billion messages per second, the industry’s highest. Its sub-microsecond MPI latency is 21% lower than NVIDIA InfiniBand XDR at the same 800G speed. For tightly coupled HPC codes that exchange millions of small messages, that gap shortens every communication step. The SuperNIC’s multi-plane and multi-rail support lets customers build fabrics that isolate traffic and stay up through link failures. In fabrics built with the CN6000 Omni-Path switch, adaptive routing spreads traffic across every available path to reduce congestion and keep data moving efficiently as workloads scale. For Ethernet environments, the new Ethernet SuperNIC brings low-latency RoCEv2 to industry-standard Ethernet switches. Ultra Ethernet support will follow through software updates.
The CN6000 Family
The new CN6000 family includes:
Omni-Path SuperNIC: 800G connectivity, 1.6 billion messages per second, sub-microsecond MPI latency, multi-plane and multi-rail support, and credit-based lossless delivery. A dedicated hardware Root of Trust with SPDM 1.4 attestation and post-quantum (ML-DSA) signatures verifies firmware before the SuperNIC joins the system.
CN6000 Omni-Path switch: A 1U switch completes the 800G fabric with 48 ports of 800G, adaptive routing and native multi-plane support.
Ethernet SuperNIC: Low-latency RoCEv2 connectivity with industry-standard Ethernet switches, plus Ultra Ethernet support through software updates.
Open software ecosystem: Support for NCCL, RCCL, libfabric, MPI, and OpenSHMEM on Omni-Path, using the same software and host driver as CN5000.
Broad Ecosystem Momentum
AI and HPC system partners across the industry support Cornelis networking today. CN6000 supports AMD, Arm-based, and Intel CPU platforms and AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm accelerators. OEM and system partners planning validation and support include Dell Technologies, Hyve Solutions, Lenovo, NEC, Penguin Solutions, Supermicro and more.
AMD
This week, Cornelis announced expanded collaboration with AMD to help HPC and AI for Science customers design, validate and deploy systems pairing AMD EPYC CPUs and AMD Instinct GPUs with Cornelis networking. The program combines AMD compute platforms and engineering with the Cornelis fabric, so customers get more choice in compute, systems validated on their own applications, and a direct path to buy and deploy through the OEMs and system integrators they already use. Cornelis is validating CN6000 with AMD EPYC 9006 Series CPUs and next-generation AMD Instinct GPU platforms, with OEM systems expected beginning in Q1 2027.
Intel
Intel and Cornelis continue to validate and optimize Xeon platforms with Omni-Path for AI and HPC customers. Systems built on that work run in production today at leading national labs and institutions, including the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). The companies are now extending that collaboration to CN6000 and next-generation Xeon platforms.
“Intel Xeon and Cornelis Omni-Path have run together in production HPC systems for years, and our joint customer labs and workload optimization work show up in the results those systems deliver,” said Jeff McVeigh, Vice President & GM of Data Center Strategic Programs, Intel. “CN6000 brings an 800G fabric to Xeon 6 platforms over PCIe Gen6 and supports Ethernet and Omni-Path. It fits the open, standards-based infrastructure Intel is building and will give our customers performance and deployment flexibility. We’re proud to partner with Cornelis to deliver exceptional performance on our customers’ most demanding workloads.”
Lenovo
Cornelis and Lenovo have an established partnership across AI and HPC. CN5000 is qualified across Lenovo ThinkSystem V3 and V4 servers and supported in Lenovo EveryScale, with joint reference architectures for CAE and multi-node HPC on Neptune liquid-cooled systems. Lenovo is now qualifying Cornelis with its new AMD EPYC-powered Lenovo ThinkSystem servers to support networking for demanding AI and HPC workloads.
“AI and HPC are converging around increasingly large, distributed workloads that demand the right combination of compute, networking and energy efficiency,” said Martin Hiegl, Executive Director, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Lenovo. “Lenovo is bringing these technologies together to help customers build high-performance AI and HPC environments that can scale from advanced simulation to AI-driven research and discovery. Lenovo ThinkSystem infrastructure provides a high-performance foundation for the compute, storage and networking capabilities customers need to accelerate time to insight while maximizing infrastructure efficiency.”
Penguin Solutions
Penguin Solutions designs, builds, and operates AI and HPC solutions for commercial, research, and government customers. The company plans to validate and support CN6000 in those systems.
“The network largely determines how much of their compute investment our customers put to work,” said Phil Pokorny, Chief Technology Officer at Penguin Solutions. “As AI and HPC workloads continue to evolve, high-performance, low-latency networking is essential to maximizing infrastructure performance and utilization. At Penguin Solutions, we design and build complex AI and HPC environments that bring together compute, networking, storage and software to meet demanding workload requirements. Innovations like Cornelis’ CN6000 help us deliver the performance, scalability and reliability our customers need to maximize the value of their infrastructure investments.”
Supermicro
Supermicro has validated Cornelis CN5000 across its FlexTwin, BigTwin and Hyper platforms and plans to extend that work to CN6000.
Availability
The Cornelis CN6000 family, including SuperNICs, switches and software is available from Cornelis today for evaluation and early deployments, with systems from OEM and system partners beginning in Q1 2027. Cornelis will demonstrate the CN6000 family at SC26 in Chicago, Nov. 15–20, at booth #1419.
Cornelis delivers high-performance, scale-out and scale-up networking solutions that accelerate AI and HPC workloads. Cornelis technology enables lossless, congestion-free networking that reduces training time, improves inference, and maximizes compute utilization. From foundation model training to complex climate modeling and real-time analytics, Cornelis solutions power the most demanding workloads across commercial, academic, government, and cloud environments. With a focus on performance, scalability, and efficiency, Cornelis helps organizations achieve faster insights and greater return on infrastructure investments. Learn more at www.cornelis.com.
Suzan Jackson’s book, Finding a New Normal: Living Your Best Life with Chronic Illness, brings together lessons learned through writing, raising children and navigating a condition that transformed her family’s life.
A New Chapter, a New Normal: Hockessin Author Finds Joy Beyond Illness
By John Riddle
Suzan Jackson’s audiobook recording studio was her son’s bedroom closet. Her writing desk might be a recliner or, on difficult days, a couch where she works lying flat.
The surroundings change. Her purpose remains steady: helping people with chronic illness build lives that include joy, connection and meaning.
For the longtime Hockessin resident, that message comes from experience. Her book, Finding a New Normal: Living Your Best Life with Chronic Illness, brings together lessons learned through writing, raising children and navigating a condition that transformed her family’s life.
Originally from Rochester, New York, Jackson met her husband while both were working as chemical engineers for DuPont in New Orleans. Marriage and a transfer brought them to the Wilmington area 36 years ago. They have lived in their Hockessin home for 32 years.
“We never expected to stay,” Jackson said.
Then, on March 1, 2002, her life changed abruptly.
“I suddenly became very ill with what felt like a severe flu … but it never went away,” she said.
A year later, Jackson received a diagnosis of myalgia encephalomyelitis, commonly called ME/CFS. She describes an illness that severely restricts her energy and stamina, with even modest activity potentially bringing prolonged symptoms.
Two years after she became ill, both sons developed the condition, too. Their experiences would eventually help shape her writing and her work supporting other families.
Jackson’s publishing career began before her illness. Her first book, The ISO 14001 Implementation Guide: Creating an Integrated Management System, was traditionally published in 1997 through Wiley.
Freelance writing later offered work she could do from home when consulting and corporate training became impossible. She wrote about chronic illness, family, travel, outdoor experiences and books, while developing her blog, Live with ME/CFS.
Around 2018, she began gathering articles into a book for readers facing many kinds of chronic health conditions.
Professional editing proved essential.
“I edited it myself several times and thought it was in good shape,” Jackson said. After hiring an editor, she discovered the manuscript still needed substantial work.
Independent publishing brought another education. Jackson researched distribution, hired help and learned unfamiliar production tasks. When a formatter quit after saying her requests were impossible, Jackson figured out the formatting herself.
Throughout the process, she had to respect her physical limits.
“Any kind of work, including writing, has to be done in tiny increments over a long period of time,” she said.
Her book addresses emotional coping, daily living and relationships. It draws on her family’s experiences and lessons shared through support groups she has established.
“The emphasis in this book is on LIVING your life, not just enduring it,” Jackson said.
Making that message accessible inspired an audiobook edition. Knowing some readers depend on listening, Jackson learned recording and audio editing, narrated the book herself and eventually hired a professional to polish the recordings.
The closet studio became another example of adapting a goal to the circumstances.
Her advice to aspiring authors includes investing in professional editing, preparing for ongoing marketing and understanding distribution beyond Amazon.
“While it is now easy for anyone to upload a book to KDP, quality still matters,” she said.
Jackson also runs a local support group for people with ME/CFS, long COVID and related conditions, along with caregivers. Meetings mostly take place through Zoom.
Across her books, blogs and support work, she returns to the possibility of finding a new normal: accepting today’s limits while leaving room for hope.
For Jackson, helping readers recognize that possibility gives her writing purpose. Each completed page offers another chance to share what her family and fellow patients have learned.
We would like to hear your reaction to Colom’s election win and your hopes for his leadership
Democrat Scott Colom has unseated Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent Republican senator, to become the first Black senator in Mississippi elected since Reconstruction.
Colom had been written off by pundits as having no chance of winning when he announced his campaign last year. But his viral campaign ads created memorable slogans, while he made efforts to engage Mississippians where they were – from driving a truck that offered free tacos, to talking to students and alums at college homecomings, to chatting with voters queued to see Donald Trump.
Just 28% of 18- and 19-year-olds have received their first dose in one-off campaign, UKHSA says
The clock is ticking for young people in the UK to receive vaccinations to protect against meningitis B, experts have said, as figures reveal fewer than one in three eligible in a one-off campaign have received their first dose.
Earlier this year, an unprecedented outbreak of meningitis B in Kent and clusters of cases in Dorset and Berkshire caused three deaths, as well as lifelong health consequences among some of those who survived.
Caravel and Newark Charter field hockey during their semifinal game on November 11. Caravel won and advanced to the 2026 DIAA Division Two Field Hockey State Championship game. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti
The Tower Hill Hillers defeated the Indian River Indians and the Caravel Buccaneers defeated the Newark Charter Patriots to earn a chance at a state championship in the 2026 DIAA Division Two Field Hockey State Championship game, November 13.
FREDERICA, Del. — The teams for the 2026 DIAA Division Two Field Hockey State Championship game are set. The Tower Hill Hillers and Caravel Buccaneers will play each other for the division two state title on Friday, November 13, at DE Turf Sports Complex. It’s the first championship meeting between the two programs since 2003.
No. 1 Tower Hill defeated No. 5 Indian River, 2-0
The game was scoreless in the fourth quarter when Tower Hill junior, Charlotte Flynn, got set to pass the ball into play and initiate the Hiller’s penalty corner. Flynn passed the ball from the goal line to junior Molly Gallagher at the top of the circle. Gallagher passed to her right for senior Charlotte Vanni and Vanni settled the pass for what looked like a shot attempt. Instead, Vanni passed to the right side of the goal where Maisie Carr was waiting.
Carr stood near the right post ready for Vanni’s pass that had a bit of pace to it. Carr never stopped the pass’ momentum, but redirected the ball with a backhand shot that guided the ball past the Indian goalkeeper for the game’s first score.
Carr’s goal with just over nine minutes remaining in the game helped Tower Hill defeat the Indians, 2-0, Wednesday night.
“I am not a scorer on the field hockey team. I always joke in corners, it’s my sprints at practice like I just to get to the post,” Carr said postgame. “I just put my stick out and it went in and I literally blacked out in that moment.”
Vanni was the first to congratulate her after the goal which Carr said made her realize the shot went in. Vanni was credited with the assist and added to her night with the Hillers’ second goal of the fourth quarter.
Vanni’s goal came on nearly the exact same play as Carr’s. Flynn initiated the action with a pass to Gallagher at the top of the circle and Gallagher moved the ball along to Vanni. Vanni dribbled a little then settled for her shot and rocketed the ball to the back right of the cage for a goal that doubled the Hiller lead with less than six minutes remaining in the game.
“I kind of thought the same thing, I was like the angle [is] there again. They kind of left that side really open and it worked the first time,” Vanni said after the game. “If it’s not broke don’t fix it.”
The Hillers are now set for the program’s first championship game appearance since 2017 with hopes of becoming the first Hiller team since 2008 to win the state title. Hiller head coach Lindsay Goeller said making it to the state championship is something the group has worked toward since the first day of preseason led by the team’s seniors.
“We got together as a group of seniors and privately said that this was the goal and it took a little while to realize that we were going to be here, but we’ve kept the course all year and we’re really proud of the team and the girls and the effort they’ve put in to earn a spot back in the championship game,” Goeller said.
“Just getting to be with them for all this time through the highs and lows, especially the highs, feels really good, but I just love them all so much and just getting to play with them two more days just means the world to me,” Vanni said.
No. 3 Caravel defeated No. 2 Newark Charter, 3-1
Caravel freshman Jordan Hirschey stepped up to the ball on a restart and blasted a pass between a pair of Patriot defenders getting the ball to sophomore Samantha Sweeney along the right side of the field. Sweeney passed the ball along to senior Dalaney Mumford. The pass evaded two Newark Charter defenders before reaching Mumford racing toward the circle, leaving Mumford and sophomore Paige Losten with only the goalkeeper to beat.
Mumford passed the ball to Losten after the duo breached the circle and forced the goalkeeper out of the cage to fend off Losten’s shot. Mumford fielded the rebound on the right side of the cage and patiently waited as junior Carly Milhorn — who was trailing the play — settled in front of the goal. Mumford made one more pass and Milhorn guided the ball in giving the Buccaneers a two-score lead right out of halftime.
Caravel scored once more in the second half to defeat Newark Charter, 3-1, Wednesday night and earn its first championship game appearance since 2020.
“I was making sure to look up the field to see if any of my teammates were there and I was just thinking to myself hustle, hustle, hustle, get that ball,” Mumford said about the breakaway opportunity postgame.
Mumford finished the game with one assist and one goal which came in the second quarter on one of Caravel’s two first half penalty corner chances. Mumford was positioned at the top left of the circle when Milhorn fired a shot toward the cage. The ball ricocheted off senior Karly Estes’ save right to Mumford who fired a shot toward the cage without hesitation. The goal put Caravel ahead with less than four minutes remaining before halftime.
“It was just pure joy,” Mumford said. “All I saw was joy and I saw my teammates running at me and it was just the most amazing feeling ever and I would do anything to relive that again.”
The Patriots broke through in the fourth quarter with a goal from senior Genevieve Walch that cut the Buccaneer lead in half, but the score was answered minutes later on a penalty stroke goal from sophomore Allie Sweeney. The Patriots offensive aggressiveness continued to put pressure on the Caravel defense, but the Buccaneers remained stout and finished the game without allowing another point. Sophomore goalkeeper Hartley Haynes finished the game with four saves.
“Just strong communication,” Haynes said about what allowed the Caravel defense to have success throughout the game. “Really knowing where everyone is on the field. I think that really helped clearing it out of the backfield.”
The Buccaneers will play the Hillers on Friday with a chance to become the program’s first state championship winning team. Caravel already overcame one hurdle with its win over Newark Charter — the Patriots defeated the Buccaneers in the semifinals last season — and will try to overcome another in the championship game against Tower Hill who beat the Buccaneers in a tight game earlier this season.
“It’s amazing,” Caravel head coach Sarah Broehl said. “We started off the season 0-3 with three really tough teams, but we kind of never lost the belief. We just stuck to the plan, we knew we would battle back. We’re very young. The development in our younger girls from August until now has just been tremendous. We could just see it, we could see it happening, things started clicking, they work together so well it’s not just, you know, one or two kids taking over the game. It was a huge team effort.”
The division two state championship game will be held at DE Turf on Friday, November 13, at 6:30 p.m.
DAEJEON, South Korea, Nov. 12, 2026 — Qunova Computing, a world leader in quantum computations for advanced chemistry, today announced that its HI-VQE algorithm has become the first quantum algorithm to reach chemical accuracy (a level of precision required for practical use) at 80 qubits. It did so while simulating the 4Fe-4S iron-sulfur cubane cluster in a quantum/classical supercompute workflow using an IBM Quantum System Two quantum computer at RIKEN, along with RIKEN’s classical supercomputer Fugaku. This result represents the most accurate quantum computation of the molecule to date.
Qunova’s extrapolation of the cluster’s ground-state energy, −327.2482 ± 0.0007 Hartree, is consistent within chemical accuracy regarding the leading classical reference calculated using the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) method (−327.2471 Hartree). This result is more accurate than the latest extrapolated Trimmed Configuration Interaction (TrimCI) results. This places a quantum-based approach on equal footing, in terms of accuracy, with the strongest classical methods available today for one of the most demanding problems in chemistry.
“4Fe-4S has long been a proving ground where only the very best classical methods could compete, and today a quantum algorithm has reached that standard,” said Kevin Rhee, CEO and founder of Qunova Computing. “Our ground-state energy estimate is within chemical accuracy with respect to the classical benchmark DMRG, making HI-VQE the first quantum approach to achieve this type of result at this scale. We are also very encouraged that our method points to a slightly lower estimate of the groundstate energy estimate of the true ground state. Our next goal is to identify additional industrial use cases where HI-VQE consistently delivers better results than the best classical methods. We believe this result shows we are on the right path.”
For chemical, pharmaceutical, and materials companies, the significance is confidence. For the first time, a quantum-based workflow has produced results for an industrially relevant molecule that stand alongside the best that classical computing can offer. Reaching this level of accuracy, reproducibly, is the prerequisite for quantum-enhanced chemistry to move from a capability demonstrated by a handful of institutions toward one which industrial users can apply to real design questions.
The result marks a significant step forward among quantum approaches. Compared with previously published sample-based quantum diagonalization (SQD) result for 4Fe-4S, HI-VQE reached a lower ground-state energy of −326.9821 Ha by the second iteration using only 2,518 Fugaku node-hours, which represents a ~300x reduction in computational cost.
Mitsuhisa Sato, Division Director of Quantum-HPC Hybrid Platform Division from RIKEN Center for Computational Science, said “One of the principal reasons we have built our world-class JHPC-quantum QC-HPC hybrid computing platform is so that we can enable forward thinking innovators to test and prove their theories in practice for advanced QC-HPC hybrid applications. We are therefore pleased to see that Qunova’s HI-VQE is delivering highly accurate results to complex problems far faster than alternative approaches. It is important in this way that we can continue to enhance the value that quantum computing brings to industrial users around the world.”
The result shows how HI-VQE is directly relevant to industrial users working in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and materials science. Iron-sulfur clusters serve as the catalytic and electron-transfer cores of a large class of metalloproteins, including ferredoxins, hydrogenases, nitrogenase, and numerous respiratory and photosynthetic enzymes. Computing their electronic structure correctly underpins the understanding of biological nitrogen fixation, hydrogen production, and electron transport. The molecule is also among the most computationally demanding systems known in chemistry, beyond exact solution by any method, and a recognized proving ground for new approaches.
“Qunova has demonstrated an impressive ‘quantum plus HPC’ workflow on a highly challenging chemistry problem, using IBM quantum computers and Fugaku, which has shown promising efficiency compared with selected-CI approaches,” said Jay Gambetta, Director, IBM Research and IBM Fellow.
Qunova’s findings also indicate that even better results may be possible, and processing between 500 million and 3 billion unique states puts the next accuracy milestone within reach. Additional functionalities such as orbital rotation and orbital optimization will be added to HI-VQE over the coming months to unlock this added performance, and Qunova is now working to identify the systems where HIVQE consistently outperforms other methods. Furthermore, because HI-VQE assumes neither linearity nor locality, the same solver applies to catalysts, electrode materials, and drug targets. This represents a crucial area where HI-VQE delivers the accuracy required to create value for industrial users of quantum computing.
Research Support
This research is supported by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), an organization under the jurisdiction of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)’s “Research and Development of Quantum-Supercomputers Hybrid Platform for Exploration of Uncharted Computable Capabilities” (Project Leader: Mitsuhisa Sato) as part of the “Project for Research and Development of Enhanced Infrastructures for Post 5G Information and Communications Systems (JPNP20017).”
About Qunova Computing
Founded in 2021, Qunova Computing builds algorithms designed to deliver practical value from quantum computing to its early adopters. These algorithms have been tested with leading quantum hardware companies and research institutes, and results indicate Qunova’s algorithms can deliver highly accurate results for users, even using Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum computers (NISQ). By using a hybrid approach and algorithms which provide a high level of accuracy, the company is unlocking the tremendous potential of quantum computing for industrial users, by reducing the large number of trials required to develop new materials with specific properties. This will allow users to significantly reduce the time and expense related to industrial R&D processes, enabling them to bring new products to market more quickly and at a lower cost. For additional insight into our groundbreaking work, please visit qunovacomputing.com.
Nov. 12, 2026 — The Danish Centre for AI Innovation (DCAI), the company behind Denmark’s AI supercomputer Gefion, is expanding its ownership as Netcompany joins current owners, EIFO and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Together, the three partners are investing an additional DKK 500 million in DCAI aimed at strengthening Denmark’s AI infrastructure and expanding access to sovereign AI for businesses, public institutions and researchers.
Credit: DCAI
With Gefion, Denmark has already established a world-class foundation for AI. Now, the ambition is to take the next step: extending access to that capability across a much broader part of Danish society and helping organisations move from AI experimentation to real-world adoption.
As part of a new investment into DCAI totaling DKK 500 million, Netcompany is investing DKK 325 million, while EIFO adds another 150 million. The Novo Nordisk Foundation tops up their investment to maintain a majority stake, while also leaving room for the new ownership. Following closing of the new investments, DCAI is to be owned 52.6% by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, 23.7% by EIFO and 23.7% by Netcompany.
Together, the partners aim to strengthen a shared sovereign national AI platform that reduces barriers for advanced AI adoption, particularly for public institutions, regulated industries and smaller businesses. The partnership brings together DCAI’s advanced AI infrastructure with Netcompany’s experience in developing and operating some of Europe’s most complex and society-critical digital systems.
The investment also supports Denmark’s ambition, as set out in the 2026 government platform, to become a frontrunner in the development and responsible application of AI. The government intends to provide DKK 150 million to increase public commitment through EIFO.
“Denmark must be among the countries shaping the direction of tomorrow’s technology. With Gefion, we are investing in Europe’s digital sovereignty and its ability to compete in a world where access to computing power, data and artificial intelligence is crucial. Now Gefion is strengthened with DKK 500 million. This will give Danish companies and researchers greater computing power to turn good ideas into new solutions, businesses and jobs. At the same time, it will strengthen our competitiveness and help ensure that ownership of tomorrow’s technology is not left to others,” says Martin Lidegaard, Minister for Business and Competitiveness.
“The computing power of AI supercomputers is a vital resource for our researchers and businesses. Europe must be able to do much more on its own, and Denmark must contribute to European technological sovereignty – not least so that we can regulate and develop technology based on democratic values. That is why it is fantastic news that we continue to pool resources in a public-private partnership and ramp up the capacity of Gefion – and give even more muscle to the most powerful Danish AI supercomputer,” says Christina Egelund, Minister for Research, Higher Education and Digital Affairs.
Strengthening Denmark’s AI sovereignty
The growing demand for secure and sovereign AI infrastructure across Denmark and Europe, creates significant commercial opportunity and a need for additional capacity.
“The real value of Gefion will not be measured in computing power alone. It will be measured by what Denmark and Europe are able to build with it. Together with the Novo Nordisk Foundation and EIFO, we want to transform this technological foundation into a national AI capability that enables businesses, researchers and public institutions to develop and deploy AI securely, responsibly and at scale. This is about strengthening Denmark’s and Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and digital sovereignty, and ensuring that we do not simply participate in the AI revolution, but that we are shaping it,” says André Rogaczewski, CEO of Netcompany.
Demand for secure and sovereign AI infrastructure is already growing rapidly across Denmark and Europe. Gefion already serves users in defence, research, academia, healthcare and industry. Market analysis points to an addressable market many times DCAI’s current scale, highlighting the opportunity for further capacity expansion.
“Gefion is approaching full capacity, making timing right for bringing on board additional capital and competencies to accelerate DCAI as a platform for sovereign and secure AI. We are seeing a shift in AI from training models to deploying and running them at scale, driving demand for more capacity and new capabilities. With today’s announcement, we are evolving DCAI as a strong, sovereign Danish platform, ready to capture this opportunity,”says Nana Bule, Chairperson of DCAI.
“When Gefion was inaugurated in 2024, the main task was to train large AI models. Today, companies and public organisations are building AI into their products and workflows, and a new generation of AI agents is taking on more complex tasks. DCAI will now be able to build modern AI capacity that public institutions and businesses can trust and adopt, not least where data is sensitive or regulated,” says Martin Svensson, CEO of DCAI.
Turning AI potential into progress for Denmark and Europe
Building on the foundation set by EIFO and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, DCAI’s ambition can now be further raised to give Danish innovation the power to grow, Danish research the capacity to lead and businesses of all sizes access to world-class AI capabilities on competitive terms.
“AI is fundamentally changing our economy and society, and within only five years, we expect the demand for AI capacity in Denmark to increase at least sixfold. Danish access to a strong and sovereign AI-infrastructure is therefore essential. By investing further in DCAI, we are building on what we have already created and quickly securing more AI capacity anchored in Denmark – and with perspectives that extend into Europe,” says Peder Lundquist, CEO, EIFO.
“We are proud to have co-created DCAI from the very beginning and to see how Gefion has developed since its launch. As a key shareholder, we remain committed to its continued development to become the trusted backbone for regulated AI in Denmark. Netcompany brings valuable expertise to the partnership, and by welcoming them as co-owner, we can cooperate at the scale needed to undertake that mission,” says Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, CEO, Novo Nordisk Foundation.
Netcompany will be represented on DCAI’s board of directors and will have usual minority shareholder rights. DCAI was founded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and EIFO.
About DCAI
Danish Centre for AI Innovation (DCAI) is a company established to run and operate Gefion, Denmark’s first AI supercomputer. Our mission is to lower the barrier to access the most advanced computing capabilities, and we work with customers from academia, startups, and enterprise to accelerate AI research and innovation.
About Netcompany
Netcompany is Europe’s trusted technology partner for digital transformation in the most complex and regulated environments, serving governments, critical industries and enterprises that cannot afford to fail. Building on proven products and platforms, Netcompany own the full journey – from strategy and development to daily operations. As Europe’s leader in sovereign AI with the Feniks AI stack, we keep data, infrastructure, and control within European borders – delivering world-class technology on Europe’s own terms: open to collaboration, never dependent on it.
About EIFO
EIFO works to help Danish companies grow and do business in Denmark and around the world. We open doors to global opportunities, drive the green transition, support innovative technologies, and contribute to Denmark’s security.
As Denmark’s national promotional bank, official export credit agency and largest venture investor, EIFO provides loans, guarantees and investments to companies ranging from startups to global corporations. With a total exposure of more than 24 billion euro, we are active in more than 100 countries.
About the Novo Nordisk Foundation
Established in Denmark in 1924, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is an enterprise foundation with philanthropic objectives. The vision of the Foundation is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet. The Foundation’s mission is to progress research and innovation in the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic and infectious diseases as well as to advance knowledge and solutions to support a green transformation of society.
Order a Diet Coke or invade Iran – that’s the choice facing the US president in one of several satirical games, as designers turn the gamification of politics back on the White House
In early September, the Trump White House announced a surprising new addition to its official website. Named simply Arcade, it is a collection of browser games based on classic titles such as Flappy Bird, Snake, and Tetris, but re-tuned as flagrant works of political propaganda. Designed to court reactionary gamers, they push the administration’s policies on immigration and other hot-button issues, while dehumanising their targets. There have recently been some new additions: a Temple Run clone named Red Scare about crossing the “ration market” and escaping the Democratic Socialists of America, and another simple item-matching game about the threat of socialism. In the midst of increasing fuel, utility and grocery prices thanks to the Iran war, these were naked attempts to distract voters by appealing to their video game nostalgia.
After an explosion of news coverage, Arcade caught the attention of the games industry. The Tetris Company warned on social media that it “took copyright infringement very seriously.” Days later, the game was removed from the White House site. However, aside from a March 2026 statement from the Pokémon Company condemning the White House for using its characters in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) propaganda, major video game companies have been relatively silent in the face of the administration’s widespread usage of their IP.
Some advocates say it no longer makes sense for their movement to be so intertwined with the Republican party
After the Democrats’ huge wins in the US midterm elections last week, gun rights advocates are updating their strategies in an attempt to cross the aisle and find allies on the left.
While most of the biggest and most visible gun rights groups,such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), are already signaling that they will challenge any gun safety legislation brought by the new Democratic Congress, others say it no longer makes sense for their movement to be so deeply intertwined with the Republican party.
Warby Parker’s and Gentle Monster’s Google and Samsung-created smart glasses have cameras like Meta’s, but these have some subtle differences when it comes to AI.
Poundland’s owner has said it is “taking due care” to consider if one of three bidders had enough funds to ensure its survival after the troubled budget retail chain secured two more weeks to find a deal.
The management of Poundland, which employs approximately 12,000 people and operates 600 stores in the UK and Ireland, won approval from the high court for an extension of legal protection from creditors on Thursday morning.
What AI’s nightmare November means for politics, power and businessAudiosseth.drupal@c…
In this week’s episode of Independent Thinking, our experts assess the impact of US voter discontent, scandal and market setbacks for the tech sector.
American voters’ aversion to data centres and suspicion of AI’s potential to destroy jobs played a major role in the Republican Party’s losses in the US midterms.
Then the tech-heavy US stock market tumbled as investors became concerned that a Democrat-controlled congress might be less accommodating of hyperscalers. Recovery has been shaky, and the resignation of NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang following his affair with an alleged Chinese spy is likely to make things worse.
Bronwen Maddox is joined by David Lubin from our Global Economy and Finance Programme, and Alex Krasodomski, director of our Digital Society Programme.
About Independent Thinking
Independent Thinking is a weekly international affairs podcast hosted by our director Bronwen Maddox, in conversation with leading policymakers, journalists and Chatham House experts providing insight on the latest international issues.
Defeating Cindy Hyde-Smith makes the 43-year-old district attorney the first Black Mississippi senator elected since Reconstruction. Plus, the South Korean scarf vendor who has gone viral for telling people not to buy
Good morning. In a stunning upset after more than a week of vote counting in one of the country’s most reliably red states, the Democrat Scott Colom has defeated Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent Republican senator, in Mississippi. He becomes the first Black senator elected in the state since Reconstruction.
Colom’s election capped a national wave of anger at Donald Trump’s administration, sweeping away Republicans in places where Democrats had not been competitive in decades. With the addition of Colom, Democrats will hold at least 55 seats in the Senate, the party’s largest midterm gain since 1986.
What did Colom say about his victory? Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, said there had been times when his long-shot campaign felt defeated but “I had to have faith”. He told supporters: “My commitment to you, each and every one of you, is that first I’m going to treat your children like I want my children to be treated. I’m going to treat your parents the way I want my parents to be treated. I’m gonna treat your future the way I want my future to be.”
How have Democrats responded to a White House threat? Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the oversight committee in the House of Representatives said it appeared Donald Trump had “something to hide” after the White House threatened criminal investigations over the party’s planned scrutiny of the administration. Garcia said in a statement that Congress’s authority came from article I of the constitution, “not from the permission of the White House”.
Actor and race car driver Frankie Muniz has been released from a Florida hospital after a crash during a practice lap at Daytona International Speedway.
After a month-long investigation it was concluded that Kundizeza’s story The Blue Fighter, which won the £10,000 Caine prize, was ‘human-written’
The Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Kundizeza has been cleared of using AI to write a prize-winning short story, after the prestigious Caine prize for African writers concluded that his entry was “human-written” after a month-long investigation.
Kundizeza’s story The Blue Fighter, which charts the declining fortunes of a family after the father invests in fish tanks, was announced as the winner of the £10,000 prize on 6 October.
The forecasters were clear when John Healey became chancellor in July: Britain’s resilience to the war in the Middle East would not last. The global economic headwinds were too strong, inflation was beginning to rise and growth would slow to a trickle.
Four months into the job, the economy is continuing to defy expectations after growing by 0.7% in the third quarter – the fastest expansion in two and a half years. It puts the UK on course to be the second-fastest growing G7 economy this year.
An Israeli airstrike targeting the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza killed six people and wounded at least a dozen more, Gaza's Hamas-controlled Health Ministry said.
Pope Leo declared Peru his "homeland" as he arrived in Lima at the start of his historic visit, returning to the place that taught him how to be a pastor.
China has fined a company what amounts to about $120,000 over an ad it created for Dove chocolate featuring a woman in a "situationship," saying it promoted the "wrong views on marriage and relationships."
Shares up 7% after announcement as Jaime Gilinski Bacal seeks exit three years after helping to rescue bank
Metro Bank is putting itself up for sale three years after its near-collapse, in a move that could hand a £420m windfall to its Colombian billionaire investor, Jaime Gilinski Bacal.
Metro Bank made the rare decision to publicly announce it was open to bids on Thursday, paving the way for a wider pool of suitors. The announcement pushed the share price up by 7% by mid-morning, valuing the bank at about £1.3bn.
Kevin Durant scored 20 points, Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson added 19 and the Houston Rockets snapped Golden State’s eight-game winning streak with a 115-108 victory on Wednesday night.
The Warriors played most of the game without Stephen Curry after the star left in the first quarter with right abdominal soreness and didn’t return. He was due to get an MRI on the injury.
CEO says ‘democratic approach’ has helped brand outperform tough market, with big rises in China and US
Burberry has returned to profit as its back-to-basics strategy drove strong sales of the British brand’s coats, jackets and handbags over the summer.
Joshua Schulman, the chief executive, said the luxury brand had outperformed a “challenging luxury market” to achieve sales growth of 6%, helped by strong online and wholesale sales particularly in China and the US. “Our strategy is working,” he said.
Hospital director says 28 wounded in attack on one of few remaining medical facilities in the strip
An Israeli airstrike on Nasser hospital in southern Gaza killed six people, including a surgeon and a disabled man, and wounded 28 others, according to the hospital director.
The Israeli military carried out the attack on the hospital, in Khan Younis, early on Thursday saying in a statement it had struck a Hamas commander and other fighters there, without providing evidence.
As the Trump administration seeks to manage Venezuela’s oil industry, residents are protesting at a pace not seen in years, mainly about the failing power grid.
Complaints about banks and other financial players keep rising as Trump officials squelch enforcement actions at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
This story was supported and co-published by the journalism
The American Cancer Society’s first update to prostate cancer screening guidance in more than a decade endorsed regular PSA tests for certain older men.
Members of Democratic Socialists of America have a unique opportunity to fulfill campaign promises and group’s ideals
As progressive candidates scored wins across the country last week, a historic number of socialists swept into power – in Congress, in state legislatures and at the helm of American cities.
Democratic Socialists of America members Nithya Raman and Janeese Lewis George were elected to lead the second largest US city – Los Angeles – and the capital – Washington DC respectively. Two other young DSA members, David Morales and Yousef Rabhi, were elected mayors of Providence, Rhode Island, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. They will join a handful of socialist mayors in smaller cities, including Burlington, Vermont, and Irvine, California – as well as Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist mayor of New York, the largest city in the US.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair must be the costliest fling in human history – and a preview of what awaits when the tech bubble bursts
One thing we all know about the tech billionaires is they are super-smart. We know this largely because they never stop telling us. The “cognitive elite”, to use their favoured phrase, are entitled to shape our future without our say-so. When Elon Musk goes hiring, he wants “super-high-IQ small-government revolutionaries”. Long before they got private jets, what fuelled these boys was faith in their own brainpower. As a teenager, Jensen Huang wooed his future wife, Lori, thus: “If you do homework with me every Sunday, I promise you you’ll get straight As.”
Unprecedented view of cosmos provided by Euclid mission throws up many more cases of gravitational lensing
A mission to create the largest ever 3D map of the universe has revealed more than 900m galaxies in its first major data release together with about 15,000 potential cases of a phenomenon that could help unlock the secrets of the “dark universe”.
Launched in July 2023, the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission promised to create the largest cosmic map ever made, encompassing a third of the sky and more than 10bn years of cosmic history.
It is built of wood, resembles an Ikea and its power is totally renewable. Plus, it was built with the local community in mind. Is this facility in Falun the best datacentre in the world?
‘It was pretty cool, when they were building it. It looked like a very large Ikea,” says John Wernvik, of EcoDataCenter. He is giving me a tour of their facility in Falun, Sweden, which could lay claim to being the world’s greenest datacentre – although to many, that is a contradiction in terms.
One difference is immediately visible: this datacentre is made out of wood. Huge panels of cross-laminated timber arrived at the site pre-cut, and were assembled by crane according to instructions, like flatpack furniture. Aesthetically, this section of the datacentre is more like an Ikea before the fit-out, a cavernous, echoey, immaculately clean hangar. The wood is not EcoDataCenter’s only claim to sustainability; it is more than just cosmetic, says Wernvik, the company’s chief external relations and sustainability officer. “Compared with a traditional datacentre built with steel and concrete, we lower the embodied carbon of the full structure by three times.” With a complex the size of a football pitch, that is a lot of wood, but, says Wernvik, “the amount of timber one of our datacentres uses takes the Swedish forest about 10 to 15 minutes to grow back”.
Exclusive: The Guardian revealed 29 hospital trusts were not or hardly using the controversial patient data tech
NHS England has deleted a claim from its website stating 137 hospital trusts are benefiting from Palantir’s AI health data system after the Guardian revealed 29 of them were not using all or most of the controversial technology.
Health bosses had published a list of all the NHS bodies “live” with and “realising benefits” from the AI-powered federated data platform (FDP), a system set up to improve patient outcomes, boost operating theatre efficiency and speed up bed discharges. But after 29 trusts said it was either not live or they were not using any of its applications, the original list of hospitals appears to have been taken down.
Voters remembered Trump’s many promises to avoid the same kind of regime-change wars started by his predecessors
For much of his political career, Donald Trump ranted at past US presidents who got the US entangled in endless foreign conflicts. He used it as a cudgel to belittle his predecessors, calling George W Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 “the worst single mistake ever made in the history of our country”. Trump also regularly derided the occupation of Afghanistan as “a total disaster”.
Then Trump decided to launch his own disastrous war against Iran eight months ago. And that conflict may well have cost Republicans control of Congress in last week’s midterm elections.
Kerry decries president for ceding clean-energy dominance to China and says climate crisis still a key issue for voters
Donald Trump is the “biggest loser we’ve seen in a long time” for scrapping action on the climate crisis and ceding the clean energy race to China, former US secretary of state John Kerry has said.
Kerry, speaking at the Cop31 climate summit in Turkey, criticized Trump for withdrawing the US from the international climate process and axing measures that reduced planet-heating emissions. Unlike almost all other countries in the world, the Trump administration has sent no delegation to the resort city of Antalya for the annual UN climate talks, which started on Monday.
As public mood has shifted on Israel-Gaza and the Iran war, so has the manosphere’s devotion to the US president
Earlier this week, Donald Trump announced that the UFC president, Dana White, was to become his press secretary. The US president hoped the creator of Power Slap, a face-slapping league which one of the world’s leading neurologists called “a sport inconsistent with the intelligence of humans”, might be the right man to deliver his daily rebuttals to the media.
Trump later backtracked on the appointment, saying he was “only kidding”, yet it is easy to understand why he might be pining for White’s muscles, trash talk and thirst for athleticviolence. White is representative of the way Trump transcended politics in 2024 to become a celebrated figure in the manosphere, the loosely defined cluster of male content creators who have a direct line to America’s bored and aggrieved young men. On the night of the 2024 election, White stood at the victory podium reading out “thank yous” to the formerly heterodox podcast bros who came out for Trump: “the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin’ With The Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan”. Trump ended up winning 63% of young white men that night, unheard of for a Republican politician.
Tim Peters, one of Python's earliest and most influential contributors, died on July 15 at age 74. Known as Python's second real user, Peters created the Zen of Python and Timsort sorting algorithm while contributing to numerous core components. He also served as a Python Software Foundation director from 2001 to 2014. Adafruit remembers Peters in a blog post: He's best known for the Zen of Python, PEP 20, still printed by typing import this. In 2002, he gave Python Timsort, the sorting algorithm he designed for lists, later adopted by Java and Android. He also polished the cyclic garbage collector and the pymalloc allocator, worked on the dict implementation, the float object, the math module and Karatsuba multiplication in longobject, and wrote the first version of doctest, plus difflib, pickletools and tabnanny.
He was a director of the Python Software Foundation from 2001 to 2014. Before Python, he wrote compilers at Cray Research and speech-to-text software at Dragon Systems. The thread is full of recollections from core developers about his patient, detailed answers on the mailing lists, signed with his trademark . Python creator Guido van Rossum also paid tribute to Peters in a post on discuss.python.org, writing: "It's hard to overestimate Tim's influence on Python. He's probably best known for writing the Zen of Python (PEP 20), but to me he was a mentor and language co-designer long before that..."
Further discussions can be found on Hacker News and Reddit.
A bipartisan bill making its way through Congress aims to smooth the transition into college and to help students qualify for accommodations without additional testing.
With Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth temporarily safe from impeachment, a dozen humanitarian groups are calling on Congress to investigate one of the eight shelved charges lodged against him: his role in the deaths of hundreds of people during the “unauthorized war in Yemen.”
“We urge members of Congress to conduct robust oversight into Operation Rough Rider and the resulting human toll,” reads a new letter shared exclusively with The Intercept, using the Pentagon’s term for its war against Yemen’s Houthi government. The 12 groups — including Airwars, Amnesty International USA, the Center for Civilians in Conflict, and Mwatana for Human Rights — seize on civilian harm prevention efforts that Hegseth’s War Department slashed, demanding “more information about how and why civilian harm incidents occurred, what lessons the Department learned from these operations, and the status of ongoing civilian harm assessments and investigations.”
The push for accountability follows last week’s electoral rout of the GOP and immediate calls by top Democrats for scrutiny of war powers abuses by the Trump administration. But with Democrats taking the gavel in both chambers next year, a defense official told The Intercept that the Trump administration’s failed 2025 conflict in Yemen risks becoming a “forgotten war” amid a push for accountability focused on higher profile conflicts.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the House Armed Services Committee’s incoming chair, announced last week that the committee’s “top priority will be to conduct vigorous oversight of the Department of Defense and the Trump Administration,” specifically singling out “the illegal war against Iran” and “unauthorized military strikes in the Caribbean and Latin America.” Smith did not mention Yemen, and his office did not respond to repeated queries about whether Yemen would also be a priority. The office of Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who is slated to head the Senate Armed Services Committee, also did not immediately respond to questions about whether oversight of Rough Rider would be a focus.
Over just 52 days, from March to May 2025, Rough Rider caused “extraordinarily high numbers of civilian casualties,” the groups noted. As The Intercept first reported in August, the Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on civilian harm acknowledged almost 400 civilian casualties — 153 deaths and 243 injuries — from just three attacks in Yemen: a strike in Sanaa on April 6, a strike on the Ras Isa Port on April 17, and a strike on a migrant detention center in Saada on April 28.
Amnesty, one of the signatories, spoke with five survivors of the strike in Saada who cannot work because of their injuries. “If I don’t take a painkiller, I feel hopeless and wish to die,” said a 22-year-old Ethiopian man who sustained a serious arm injury in the U.S. attack. “I think about how at such a young age I can’t even support myself and still rely on help from others. The metal rod inside me is very painful and uncomfortable. It drives you insane.”
A U.S. official called the Pentagon’s civilian casualty count “lowball numbers.” According to the Yemen Data Project, the estimated toll was higher: at least 238 civilians killed and 467 injured.
“It’s striking that the Department acknowledged nearly 400 civilian casualties from just three incidents — a staggeringly high rate — without any explanation whatsoever about what happened and why, how they’ll respond to victims and their families, and how they’ll prevent it from happening again,” Annie Shiel, the U.S. director of Center for Civilians in Conflict, told The Intercept.
“How will they get through hundreds of cases for Iran if their one civilian harm person still hasn’t finished Yemen?”
More than a year after Operation Rough Rider ended, 15 additional attacks were still under assessment, according to the civilian harm report. One official told The Intercept in August that the backlog would likely carry over several years. Under Hegseth, the 10-person civilian harm mitigation team at Central Command, or CENTCOM, has been reduced to just one individual.
This lack of attention doesn’t bode well for understanding civilian harm in Hegseth’s longer-running and even more destructive war efforts, officials said.
“How will they get through hundreds of cases for Iran if their one civilian harm person still hasn’t finished Yemen?” a U.S. official asked in August.
At present, CENTCOM claims that the U.S. attack on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, Iran – that killed more than 150 people, most of them children — is the lone civilian harm incident of that burgeoning forever war. For months, CENTCOM has failed to answer questions about that attack and additional Iranian civilian casualties, including eight members of a family — the youngest, a 20-day-old infant — killed in a strike documented in an investigation by The Intercept.
Shiel highlighted the connections between the civilian casualties during Rough Rider and those in Iran.
“There is a through-line here from Yemen. We’ll never know if the devastation of Minab would have been prevented through a fully staffed civilian protection program and a more robust inquiry into what happened in Yemen, but it’s clear that important reckoning didn’t happen,” she said. “This is part of a broader trend of focusing on ‘lethality’ over civilian lives, ignoring hard-learned lessons in the process.”
A group of Democratic lawmakers told Hegseth in a July letter that his “gutting” of Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response efforts has left the Pentagon unable to “comply with the law and its congressionally-mandated CHMR responsibilities.” Sent by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and nine other lawmakers, the letter echoed concerns raised by a War Department inspector general report that described civilian protection efforts as largely “inactive.” The May missive by the Pentagon’s top watchdog says cuts to civilian harm mitigation and response efforts have been so severe under Hegseth that the United States cannot adequately protect civilians in conflict zones or track harm when it occurs.
These criticisms were echoed in an another report, first revealed by The Intercept in July, that found Hegseth’s Pentagon gutted its premier center devoted to preventing civilian casualties in war zones. The War Department’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence slashed its staff from 40 personnel in January 2025 to just nine by the end of the year, according to the report.
Last week, The Intercept published an exposé quoting six current and former defense officials under Hegseth who called for his ouster, including a former senior adviser at that center. “He is conducting state terrorism. He is 100 percent a war criminal. He needs to be prosecuted,” said Wes J. Bryant, who was pushed out of his job for blowing the whistle on Hegseth’s efforts to undermine protections for civilians.
The 12 humanitarian groups called on Congress to “fully restore” the Pentagon’s civilian harm mitigation program, “including by mandating minimum staffing levels and earmarking funding in annual appropriations and maintaining robust oversight over DoD implementation of congressionally-mandated policies.” The groups also specifically requested the release of the Civilian Protection Center’s lessons-learned study on Operation Rough Rider, which has been bottled up for months.
During a rare Pentagon press conference on Tuesday, ahead of the impeachment vote, Hegseth celebrated Rough Rider, claiming the Houthis “cried uncle.” But a post-mortem of the operation in the CTC Sentinel — published by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point — said that because of Rough Rider, the Houthi leadership “will have the confidence that, like the Taliban in Afghanistan, it can simply outlast the United States.”
The U.S. has, to date, failed to come to the aid of its staunch ally Saudi Arabia as the Houthis have battered that country’s airports and energy infrastructure for weeks. On Monday, an attack on the financial district in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, damaged an office of Aramco, the state oil giant.
The White House failed to respond to questions about the Yemen war from The Intercept. CENTCOM did not reply to a request for information on the status of civilian harm assessments or formal investigations stemming from Rough Rider.
Shiel was emphatic about the necessity of accountability, telling The Intercept, “Congress needs to step in and force that reckoning through oversight over civilian harm incidents and by mandating and funding the restoration of the civilian harm mitigation program.”
In their letter, the 12 humanitarian organizations urged the U.S. to make amends to survivors and the families of victims.
“The Department’s 2025 report also stated that ex gratia or condolence payments to victims and survivors were ‘determined to not be appropriate’ in the three Yemen incidents. This decision is premature and seemingly arbitrary,” they wrote. “Rather than dismissing amends out of hand, the Department should undertake a good-faith effort to understand families’ needs and preferences for responses.”
Rallies are planned at more than US 40 campuses as workers seeking better pay and conditions decry stalled talks
Starbucks baristas, students, elected officials and allies are planning rallies at over 40 college campuses across the US on Thursday to support the Starbucks Workers United boycott campaign as the union nears five years of deadlock with the company over contract negotiations.
Starbucks Workers United is seeking better pay and stronger staffing levels, including a $17 an hour minimum wage for baristas and a minimum staffing of three workers per store. It has called on the public to boycott Starbucks until its first contract is reached.
Progress of bill to reinstate struck-off doctors hinged on support from far right figure Roberto Vannacci, whose rise is shaping politics before 2027 elections
Antonio Cremasco contracted Covid at a dinner party on 6 March 2020. Four days later, as Italy became the first European country to go into nationwide lockdown, he was fighting for his life. “I spent 20 days in intensive care, followed by another 20 days in a hospital ward,” said Cremasco, from Bassano del Grappa in the northern Italian Veneto region.
After leaving hospital, he needed oxygen therapy for another six months. Cremasco’s ordeal was such that when Covid vaccines became available in Italy in early 2021, he had no qualms about being vaccinated, and he believes the decision saved his life once again.
There are many problems in this world – some big, some small, some so minute nobody ought to put them to paper at all. The problem I’m going to highlight here is even smaller than that. This literally – the actual literally – does not matter and absolutely nobody should care about it, let alone put any work into changing it or addressing it some other way.
I want to talk about the iconography GNOME’s Disks utility uses to symbolise “mount” and “unmount”. No, I’m not descending into madness.
GNOME’s Disks utility uses the “play” symbol on the mount button, and the “stop” symbol on the unmount button. Inexplicably, considering the state of the world in general and the rapidly deteriorating quality of software specifically, this bothers me. Out in the real world, built on decades of consistent use, these symbols have gained clearly defined meanings, and mounting and unmounting disks definitely isn’t one of them.
In fact, the meaning of these symbols isn’t mere convention; they’re defined in a variety of international standards for symbols for use in software and on equipment, such as ISO/IEC 18035 (which you need to buy to read; my copy fell of a truck):
ISO/IEC 18035:2002 defines a consistent set of icons and related functions that are represented by multimedia applications on a computer screen and that users interact with to control such applications. It describes controls applying to such functions as: Play, Pause, Stop, Rewind, Scan forward, Scan backward, Replay backward, Loop, Go to beginning, Go to previous, Go to next, Go to end, Set volume and Mute.
↫ ISO/IEC 18035:2003
They’re also part of ISO 7000/IEC 60417, a much larger, more encompassing standard that also contains things like the various symbols used on laundry machines, tumble dryers, in cars, and so on. The symbols themselves are much older than the standards, of course, with many of them dating back to the 1960s and possibly even 1950s. The point remains, though: the play and stop symbols have clearly defined meanings, and I don’t think they are at all a good fit for mount and unmount.
The function of the “play” symbol according to ISO/IEC 18035:
To enable the user to start the presentation of dynamic media, except where the task requires automatic playing of that media.
↫ ISO/IEC 18035:2003
And of the “stop” symbol:
To enable the user to stop the presentation of dynamic media.
↫ ISO/IEC 18035:2003
Neither of these descriptions match what mounting and unmounting mean or do. Mounting a drive or partition doesn’t present any media at all; it merely makes the drive or partition in question accessible. Unmounting also doesn’t eject anything; it merely makes the drive or partition inaccessible. I would argue that play and pause act upon contents of a drive or volume, and not upon the drive or volume itself. As it stands right now, you “play” a drive” to “play” a video stored on said drive.
Madness.
I already know what you’re thinking, and yes, I agree that the Disks utility is a tool aimed at more advanced use cases and users, and most normal, average users will never even know it exists, let alone open it at all. Very few people get to see these symbols, and those that do already know full well what mounting and unmounting mean, reducing the importance of said symbols considerably. But now it’s time for the big surprise, the twist in the story that turns this entire thing on its head.
Files, GNOME’s file manager, uses an entirely different symbol for unmounting! Instead of the “stop” symbol, Files uses the “eject” symbol. You may think this is a more accurate visual representation of what unmounting means, but I strongly disagree. Let’s turn to ISO/IEC 18035:2003 once again:
To enable the user to eject the current physical media from the appropriate drive.
↫ ISO/IEC 18035:2003
Unmounting doesn’t eject anything! If you unmount a USB stick, the stick doesn’t get fired out of the USB port. If you unmount a volume, it doesn’t get removed from the SSD. Hell, if you unmount a CD-ROM, it doesn’t even eject it! Ejecting a CD-ROM – opening the drive’s tray or spitting the CD-ROM out of a slot-loader – is an entirely different act! Are we really “ejecting” a CD-ROM twice? Are we “mounting” a CD-ROM when we merely close the tray? No!
Madness!
The real underlying problem here is, of course, that mounting and unmounting are deeply weird and confusing concepts, bordering on the esoteric, that simply do not have physical equivalents to fall back on. Using symbols and iconography designed in the 1960s explicitly for playing music or stopping a video or ejecting a cassette tape are not a good fit for something as difficult to explain to most people as mounting and unmounting. It’s like putting an eject symbol on a car’s door handle or a play symbol on a soap dispenser.
Should GNOME developers waste any time or resources to address this? No, of course not, that would be stupid. Nobody should care about this but me. I should suffer in silence, every time I need to mount or unmount something, forced to look for an eject or stop symbol in whatever user interface I happen to be using. Every time, I should die a little inside. Please, don’t be like me and waste precious resources thinking about this.
I’m not descending into madness. I just want mount and unmount symbols that make sense.
Nintendo Switch/2, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/series X/S, PC; Denkiworks/Inpleron Limited This gentle game of fixing and fetching, in which you play as a furry post office worker on a BMX, has a slow, calming magic that delights in routine and restoration
Arriving alongside November’s blue wave, Tanuki: Pon’s Summer is a game of quiet restoration that feels perfectly suited to the current moment. Tasked with repairing an ancient shrine in the weeks leading up to a local festival, you’ll find yourself cleaning out trash, mending broken arches and slowly bringing a small rural community back together.
It sounds a bit like JL Carr’s compact but enchanting novel A Month in the Country, except instead of shell-shocked veterans of the first world war you’re left exploring the rich inner life of a Japanese racoon dog who can ride a BMX. Even so, the mixture of steady progress and general low stakes proves intoxicating. This is a short game, but it’s hard not to linger over it.
A Long Shadow: Postwar Japan Through the Lens will be the first show of Japanese photography in more than three decades at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibit brings together 15 intergenerational artists as well as photographic prints, including more than 25 books and magazines and a video installation, all combining to show how photographers in Japan documented the country in the decades after the second world war. The exhibition runs until 2 May 2027
The Department of Homeland Security says it’s not detaining Americans.
In written statements, it has said that “allegations that ICE is arresting and deporting U.S. citizens is FALSE.”
It has said that “when individuals are briefly questioned under ‘reasonable suspicion’ and are found to be U.S. citizens, they are immediately released.” And it has said that “U.S. citizen agitators are only held while they actively remain a safety threat to our officers and the public.”
But ProPublica has identified more than 500 citizens detained since President Donald Trump returned to office.
They are not just numbers.
Among them is an elderly car wash owner whom agents repeatedly knocked to the ground as they detained several of his workers. A 6-year-old whose mother says still has nightmares after agents pointed guns at him and his siblings. A high school senior who was detained after she tried to stop officers from questioning her autistic younger brother. A dad who was held for several days and missed his daughter’s third birthday.
Over the past year, several of these people shared the lingering effects of what happened to them with ProPublica.
Ana Michelle Ramirez Sanan
In their own neighborhood
Photographed at their home in a Boston suburb
“We have so much trauma just from the 30 minutes we were held.”
Ana Michelle Ramirez Sanan
In September 2025, Ana Michelle Ramirez Sanan learned that ICE agents had intercepted members of her family as they drove one of her uncles to a court hearing. Ramirez Sanan, then 17, said she rushed to the scene and discovered agents had broken the car windows and pulled her two uncles, her mother and her younger brother out. Video of the incident showed agents kicking and slamming Ramirez Sanan’s mother to the ground and then twisting her arms to handcuff her. Ramirez Sanan said she saw other agents questioning her brother against a fence, threatening to arrest him if he couldn’t prove he had legal status.
Both she and her brother are citizens.
“Him being a 13-year-old with autism, he doesn’t understand these things like we do. He didn’t know what ‘a legal status’ is. He’s not able to tell them: ‘Yes, I have a legal status. I’m born here,’” Ramirez Sanan said. She said that when she rushed toward her mom and brother, begging agents to let them go, they detained her. “It was really scary thinking that they might have taken us and deported us to Guatemala, where we don’t have anything.”
DHS said that its agents intercepted the car in order to detain the uncle who was going to court that day, and that they “used the appropriate force necessary.” He was facing charges of sexual assault on a child and remains in ICE custody. He has pleaded not guilty.
As for Ramirez Sanan, her mother and her brother, they were released the day of the incident. Her mother, who has lived in the United States for 20 years and has a green card, was treated at a hospital for a concussion, bruising and nerve damage in one of her arms.
DHS denies that they were ever detained.
“We have so much trauma just from the 30 minutes we were held,” said Ramirez Sanan, who struggled with anxiety and depression after the incident. “I lost my whole senior year fighting this. My brother isn’t the same either.”
Andrea Velez
On her way to work
Photographed in Los Angeles
In June 2025, Andrea Velez was dropped off at work at a shoe company in downtown Los Angeles and inadvertently walked into an immigration raid on street vendors. She said one of the masked agents rushed toward her, grabbed her and slammed her to the pavement. Velez said she attempted to shield herself with her work bag.
“Throughout the whole time, I kept saying I was a U.S. citizen,” Velez recalled, saying that agents called her an “alleged U.S. citizen” even after they checked her ID. “They kept saying how many ‘bodies they got’ that day.”
Velez said that she was detained for two days, and that she was denied an opportunity to call family or a lawyer for most of that time. The government charged Velez with assault. DHS said she “made physical contact” with agents and tried to impede them. A judge ultimately dismissed the case.
After her arrest, Velez said she was so afraid of being detained again that she worked remotely and avoided going outside.
Quentin Williams
At the end of his school day as a teaching assistant
Photographed in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota
In January, not long after immigration agents in Minneapolis had shot and killed an American woman named Renee Good, Quentin Williams, a teaching assistant at nearby Roosevelt High School, was guiding students toward buses when more agents arrived outside his building.
Williams said that agents began confronting students and staff. At some point during the commotion, he said, the agents threw him to the ground and choked him so hard he couldn’t breathe.
“They didn’t even know what they were doing — just kind of being reckless [with] assault rifles out and pepper-spraying staff after they took me down,” Williams recalled.
Agents drove Williams to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, where they detained him for several hours.
Later, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi published his photo on her social media accounts, describing him as a “Minnesota rioter.” Federal authorities issued a warrant for his arrest for assaulting officers. The charges against him were eventually dismissed, and he’s filed a claim against the government for damages over his arrest.
Williams said he’s still haunted by the idea that he came close to meeting the same fates as Good and George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. “I didn’t leave the house for at least up to a week,” he said. “I felt lucky to be alive.”
Anabel Romero, John Carter, Juana Rodriguez and their children
Attending a horse race
In October 2025, some 200 federal agents and local police officers in armored vehicles, a helicopter and on horseback conducted a raid on a racetrack in Wilder, Idaho, and detained hundreds of people, including dozens of children. Among them ProPublica identified at least 30 U.S. citizens.
Photographed at a park in Meridian, Idaho
Anabel Romero had left her kids eating in the car while she went to look at the horses. They were on opposite sides of the track when the raid began.
Romero said the agents wore camouflage and had their guns drawn. She had no idea who they were. So she ran and tried to hide. “They didn’t identify themselves,” Romero said. “I didn’t know who they were.”
She said unidentified officers tackled her, zip-tied her and threatened to “fucking blow your head off.”
On the other side of the track, Romero’s 14-year-old daughter, SueHey Tello, said officers surrounded their car, pointing guns at her brother, 6, and sister, 8. When Tello refused to exit the car without her younger siblings, agents pulled her so roughly out of the car that she fell, leaving bruises. She said agents zip-tied her hands.
Romero and Tello said the agents refused to remove the zip ties for hours, despite Tello’s age. The teenager said the incident has affected her view of law enforcement. Her mother says that the 6-year-old still has nightmares. Officers are meant “to keep us safe,” Tello said. “But yet they treated all of us like that.”
Photographed outside of La Catedral Arena in Wilder, Idaho, where they were detained
John Carter was working security at the track when the raid started. He had brought his girlfriend and his two children along with him. He recalls officers throwing a flash-bang near him and his son, and then the officers detained them. “They cinched the zip ties down as tight as they could,” Carter said. He said the officers also zip-tied his 14-year-old daughter but removed the restraints when he complained.
Carter explained that he is active in the local Republican Party and a strong supporter of law enforcement. But he said that what he saw officers doing that day was wrong.
“Things are supposed to be done humanely and correctly,” he said. “This wasn’t.”
Photographed at her home in Caldwell, Idaho
The agents also detained Juana Rodriguez, who attended the event with her family. She said that she was zip-tied beside her 3-year-old son, which left her unable to pick him up and comfort him during the long hours they waited to prove their citizenship. “He wanted me to hug him, to hold him,” Rodriguez said. She and her son are both U.S. citizens and lead plaintiffs in an ACLU of Idaho lawsuit alleging the raid illegally targeted Latinos. ICE, the FBI and several Idaho agencies have denied the charge and asked that the lawsuit be dismissed.
DHS did not respond to any specific allegations made by Rodriguez, Romero, Carter or their families. Instead, a spokesperson wrote in an email statement that the raid successfully helped dismantle an illegal gambling operation, and that ICE officers “didn’t zip tie, restrain or arrest any children.” The FBI declined to comment to ProPublica but told local media no “young children” were zip-tied. DHS, the FBI and multiple Idaho law enforcement agencies have refused to share the number of U.S. citizens held that day.
Amanda Trebach
Monitoring ICE operations
Photographed outside Terminal Island in Los Angeles, where she was detained
“I didn’t want to walk to my apartment by myself; I didn’t want to be out in the dark by myself.”
Amanda Trebach
In August 2025, Amanda Trebach, a nurse and volunteer with an immigrant advocacy organization, said she was monitoring ICE activities outside a facility that the agency was using to stage operations when agents grabbed her and pinned her to the ground, kneeling on her neck and back. They shoved her into the back of a van and held her for several hours until taking her to a federal detention facility in Los Angeles. She was not given the opportunity to speak with an attorney during the 33 hours that she was in custody. She said agents took her phone and never returned it.
DHS said Trebach was detained because she attempted to physically impede its agents’ operations by jumping in front of moving vehicles, hitting their cars with her protest signs and shouting obscenities at agents. She denies this.
She said that after the incident she felt paranoid that she was being followed.
“I didn’t want to walk to my apartment by myself; I didn’t want to be out in the dark by myself,” she said. “I didn’t know if they were going to come get me.”
George Retes
Driving to work
Photographed in Carpinteria, California, where he was detained
George Retes, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq, was driving into work at a cannabis farm in July 2025 and arrived to find the place being raided by immigration agents. Protesters had gathered outside the farm. He found himself trapped between the agents and the protesters. The agents broke his car window, pepper-sprayed him and pulled him out onto the ground. He was detained for three days, missing his daughter’s third birthday. Retes said, agents refused to explain why he’d been detained or to let him call relatives or a lawyer.
When ProPublica published Retes’ story last year, he said agents knew he was a citizen.
“They didn’t care,” he recalled. “They still sent me away to jail.”
DHS officials made statements claiming Retes had assaulted their agents. But he was never charged.
Javier Ramirez
Working at his auto shop
Photographed at his auto shop in Montebello, California, where he was detained
In June 2025, immigration agents conducted a raid on an auto shop owned by Javier Ramirez and his family. He said agents swept him up as they were detaining his workers. He recalled hearing one of the agents yell: “Hey, just get him! He’s Mexican.” He said agents tackled him and one of them put a knee on his face. He recalled hearing the agents boasting about the numbers of immigrants they were detaining across the city that day, saying: “How many did you get? I got 10, I got 15.” According to a lawsuit that Ramirez filed against DHS, he said he was held in federal custody for four days and was denied medication he needs for diabetes. DHS has not filed a response to the lawsuit, but previously the agency said that Ramirez was arrested for obstructing law enforcement, and that it never denied him medication.
Jeane Wong
Monitoring ICE operations
Photographed at her home daycare center in San Diego
When Jeane “Bleu” Wong, an operator of a daycare center and activist, heard in July 2025 that ICE agents had arrived at a nearby apartment complex, she rushed to the scene to provide assistance to people who were being detained. Agents detained her when she tried to remove one of their masks.
She was held in the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the largest and busiest land border crossing in the Western Hemisphere, and later moved to a federal prison. Wong said that during her time in custody she was strip-searched and shackled in chains that restricted her from using the restroom. Federal authorities charged Wong with assaulting a federal agent. She eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
A little over a year later, Wong received a notice from the California Department of Social Services that her license to care for children had been revoked because of the assault. She and her wife are selling their home and relocating outside of Southern California.
“We could totally fight, and I’d probably win,” she said. “But we don’t have the money, time, energy.”
Rafie Ollah Shouhed
Working at his car wash
Photographed at his home in Tarzana, California
“I was begging them, ‘Just let me breathe!’”
Rafie Ollah Shouhed
Rafie Ollah Shouhed, 79, was born in Iran, moved to Los Angeles after the Islamic Revolution and became a U.S. citizen. On Sept. 9, 2025, Shouhed, owner of Valley Car Wash, watched with alarm as immigration agents stormed into his business and attempted to detain his employees. He rushed outside to see what was going on. Security video of the incident shows agents knocked Shouhed to the ground repeatedly. He told agents that he had just had heart surgery. “They were sitting on me,” he recalled. “I was begging them, ‘Just let me breathe!’” He said in an ongoing lawsuit that the agents kept him handcuffed for 12 hours and left him with injuries to his arm, elbows and ribs. Shouhed said that he’s still receiving treatment for his injuries, and that he has quit working. DHS said Shouhed was arrested for interfering with and assaulting officers and did not answer questions about his lawsuit. He was released without charges.
Leonardo Garcia Venegas
Working construction
Photographed at a construction site in Foley, Alabama
Leonardo Garcia Venegas was laying concrete with his construction crew in Alabama in May 2025 when immigration agents arrived at the site without a warrant and began detaining his co-workers, including his brother. Garcia Venegas pulled out his phone to film the agents. Videos he and other workers recorded show agents approaching to arrest Garcia Venegas while he filmed, tackling and arresting him while he yelled that he was a U.S. citizen. Garcia Venegas said that he told the agents he had his REAL ID on him, but that they dismissed the document as fake. They held him in handcuffs for an hour before finally releasing him without charges. DHS said he was impeding officers. After that first incident, immigration agents detained Garcia Venegas two more times, each time ignoring statements and identification documents that prove he is a U.S. citizen.
Garcia Venegas filed a lawsuit against DHS over its warrantless raids on construction sites. DHS responded to the lawsuit, saying that its agents didn’t need warrants to operate at construction sites because they’re open to the public. The agency also said that brief stops like Garcia Venegas’ were “reasonable.” Until the case is resolved, a judge ordered a temporary halt to the operations.
Photographed in Minneapolis near the location she was detained
“Nobody ever asked me for ID, my name or my citizenship.”
Aliya Rahman
Aliya Rahman, who is autistic and disabled, was driving to a doctor’s appointment in January when she reached an intersection where protesters were confronting immigration officers. She said several agents swarmed her car and yelled at her to move out of the way. They broke her window and pulled her from the car.
“Nobody ever asked me for ID, my name or my citizenship,” Rahman said.
DHS said agents detained Rahman because she ignored their instructions. She denied that, saying that she was confused and saw no way to move without hitting someone.
She said agents then shackled her feet and held her in a detention cell at the federal building. She passed out and awoke in a hospital room. She was released without charges later that day.
Jeyli Salguero
Sleeping in her bedroom
Photographed at her house in Oakdale, Minnesota, where she was detained
In January, Jeyli Salguero awoke when she heard someone banging on her door and then the sound of the door breaking open. Federal agents, their guns drawn, rushed inside and told her family they were looking for her brother.
“We told them yes he lived here, but he doesn’t live here anymore,” Salguero said she told the agents. “They started getting a bit more angry and were like, ‘Since you’re not collaborating, we’re gonna start checking your status.’” An agent grabbed Salguero’s phone and ordered Salguero to face a wall. In an ongoing lawsuit, Salguero has said that the agents entered the home without a valid warrant. DHS said that agents were searching for a fugitive, and that it has suspended the policy of entering homes without a judicial warrant.
Her father has temporary protected status but had not received paperwork showing that his status had been renewed. He was handcuffed and then detained for a month. Salguero’s older sister, who was undocumented, was handcuffed and deported to El Salvador. The rest of her family is now planning to sell their home and move to El Salvador. “It’s been a mental toll — a very big mental toll on all of us.”
Juan Muñoz
Protesting the Broadview ICE Detention CenteR
Photographed in Oak Park, Illinois
Juan Muñoz, an elected member of the Board of Trustees that governs Oak Park Township outside of Chicago, was participating in an October protest outside the Broadview ICE Detention Center when he said that he was knocked to the ground by the commander of the Border Patrol. “When I looked up,” Muñoz recalled, “it was Commander Greg Bovino who was standing over me.” In depositions, Bovino denied tackling Muñoz, saying videos of the arrests showed no “reportable uses of force.”
Muñoz said agents knocked away his phone and zip-tied his hands. “Every agent that I encountered, I told the same thing, ‘I’m an elected official.’ No response.”
Muñoz was held inside of the detention center for eight hours before agents dropped him off at a gas station, without explaining why he’d been held. “They were over capacity, keeping people for way longer than that facility was intended for,” he recalled about the detention center. “It was filthy. They don’t have proper hygiene products or are able to feed people properly,” Muñoz said. DHS did not comment on his specific detention. But, referring to Muñoz and other protesters detained with him, it posted a comment on social media, saying, “We will NOT allow violent activists to lay hands on our law enforcement.”
Jessie Fuentes
Responding to ICE in a hospital
Photographed at her office in Chicago
In October 2025, Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes said she rushed to a local emergency room because she’d been told that ICE agents had been spotted inside. She identified herself to the agents as an elected official and began asking them whether they’d obtained a warrant. Video taken of the incident shows that agents grabbed and handcuffed her. Fuentes was held for 15 minutes, during which time members of her staff posted the video online and her supporters gathered outside the hospital to demand her release. DHS, in a written statement, told ProPublica that Fuentes was put in “handcuffs but NEVER placed under arrest.”
“These individuals are operating above the law,” Fuentes said. “They’re operating with impunity.”
Caitlin Arwen
Monitoring ICE operations
Photographed in Maple Park, Illinois, where she was detained
Caitlin Arwen was scrolling through a Facebook group for moms in October when she noticed a shared post that said immigration agents were detaining people in her town, which is about an hour’s drive outside of Chicago. Later that day she saw some of the vehicles that had been posted on Facebook and began following them, honking her horn to alert residents of their presence. One of the vehicles slammed on its brakes. U.S. marshals who were working with ICE surrounded her car, broke her window and pulled her out.
“They threw me on the broken glass, and they were all on top of me. I couldn’t breathe,” she recalled. Arwen estimates she was kept handcuffed face down on broken glass for roughly 35 minutes. “They taunted me, took photos of me, called me names, berated me and acted like I was somehow deserving of this.” DHS referred questions about Arwen’s arrest to the U.S. Marshals Service. A spokesperson for the service said Arwen’s arrest was a “task force arrest” and declined further comment.
Arwen was taken to a hospital, where marshals handcuffed her to the bed. After she was discharged, agents shackled her and moved her to a DHS detention facility, where she was not allowed to contact a lawyer or anyone else for help. “I didn’t have access to water or food the whole time,” said Arwen, adding that she was held for several hours. “Nobody showed me their badge all day. No one identified themselves. No one once read me my Miranda rights.”
Though federal officials declined to prosecute Arwen, state authorities charged her with traffic violations and obstruction of law enforcement. She has pleaded not guilty.
Meta gave its new AI agent a cuddly mascot, but security researchers and privacy advocates say its data-harvesting practices are anything but friendly.
Much of the questionable opioid settlement spending in 2025 occurred at the county and city level, where decision-makers often have no background in addiction policy.
As a lawyer on President Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection bid, Gary Lawkowski filed a complaint against the Washington Post for supposedly making an in-kind contribution to the Kamala Harris campaign by buying social media advertising for its articles.
In the White House, he played a pivotal role in the pardons process that rewarded Trump cronies and donors.
Now, Lawkowski could serve in an obscure but crucial role within the nation’s top intelligence agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. On Monday, Trump nominated Lawkowski to serve as general counsel of ODNI.
It is unclear when Lawkowski will appear before a confirmation hearing or whether Democrats will look favorably upon him when they take control of the Senate in January. His nomination is already drawing pushback, however, from a progressive group that says it represents another attempt to politicize the ODNI after Trump’s bid to install loyalist Bill Pulte as its director fizzled.
“Lawkowski has been a key player in Trump’s corrupt pardon scheme and his nomination tells us that the administration is trying to stack the intelligence community with cronies so they can further weaponize it against their perceived political opponents and innocent Americans,” Hajar Hammado, senior policy adviser at Demand Progress, said in a statement. “Senators must oppose his nomination.”
The ODNI is a relatively small agency, and it doesn’t hoover up its own raw data. As the only intelligence body operating at the Cabinet level, however, it is tasked with coordinating and overseeing intelligence collection and analysis at other spy agencies like the CIA and National Security Agency.
The general counsel plays an important role in interpreting spying law — meaning that Lawkowski could either facilitate or block intelligence community abuses.
In recent months, Trump has displayed an unusual interest in the ODNI, installing housing czar Pulte to replace Gabbard before bipartisan pushback forced him to tap former prosecutor Jay Clayton as a permanent replacement.
In his current role at the White House, Lawkowski serves as deputy assistant and deputy counsel to the president, according to his most recent ethics disclosure, and it is unclear whether he has relevant national security experience.
There is ample evidence that he is a loyalist to Trump. As a lawyer on the Trump campaign, he blasted off a complaint to the Federal Election Commission claiming that the Washington Post’s online advertisements about stories on Trump represented an in-kind contribution to Harris’s campaign. Campaign finance law experts said the claim was baseless. Lawkowski also represented Trump in litigation over the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
In the White House, he has helped decide who does and does not receive pardons, according to reporting last year in the New York Times. Under Trump, the White House has asserted authority over a pardons process that traditionally flowed through the Department of Justice.
Trump’s blanket clemency for January 6, 2021, insurrectionists preceded a parade of pardons for people who donated to his campaign or causes, or Republican officials who had been convicted of corruption, drawing widespread criticism.
One of the many who received a Trump pardon was former Tennessee state senator Brian Kelsey, who had been represented by Lawkowski before the lawyer went to the White House. Lawkowski did not respond to a request for comment on whether he recused himself from that pardon.
It is unclear whether Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., will push to have Lawkowski confirmed before the next Senate is sworn in on January 3. The Senate is dealing with a cramped calendar before the end of the year. (Cotton’s office declined to comment.)
The likely incoming intelligence chair, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., was harshly critical of Trump’s temporary appointment of Pulte at the ODNI. He ultimately voted against Clayton’s nomination after touting him as a more acceptable alternative to Pulte. (Warner’s office did not respond to a request for comment.)
Lawkowski was tapped to replace John “Jack” Dever, who was confirmed by the Senate to serve as general counsel a little over a year ago. Dever joined the government-backed mortgage finance company Freddie Mac as its executive counsel and vice president in September, according to its website. (Dever left the ODNI with Director Jay Clayton’s blessing and remains well-respected at the agency, an ODNI spokesperson said.)
Dever’s resume included extensive work in the national security realm as a Korean linguist for the U.S. Army, an assistance general counsel at the FBI, and a counter-terror prosecutor in Illinois.
Weekend Spotlight is a round-up of the five best events to check out in Delaware over the coming weekend, curated by Arts + Culture Editor Cannon Taylor. This edition covers Nov. 13-15, 2026. What should be on our radar for future editions? Let us know!
Our Delaware
Cultural festival offers global dance, music, food
Sunday, Nov. 15, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. University of Delaware, Arsht Hall. 2700 Pennsylvania Ave., Wilmington, DE 19806. Tickets: $10 adults, free for kids 12 and under.
Delaware is home to countless cultural organizations, from the Latin American Community Center to St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church, and on Sunday, a handful of these organizations will share some of their arts, food and culture during Spotlight Delaware’s second Our Delaware Cultural Festival in Wilmington.
Come enjoy dance, music and poetry, from Nanticoke dance to African drums, while enjoying eats from vendors like Mojo Loco 302, Mitch’s Mo’Better Chicken and Tia Erika’s Cafe. The event will also feature face painting, balloon art and henna, free for all attendees.
Artist John Donato will participate in the Southeastern Delaware Artists Studio Tour on Nov. 15. | PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN DONATO
Saturday, Nov. 14, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Thirteen locations in Bethany Beach, Ocean View, Frankford and Dagsboro, DE (see website). Free.
Founded in 1995, the Southeastern Delaware Artists Studio Tour began as a way to showcase the creatives the region had to offer.
For this year’s free, self-guided tour, 13 artists from Dagsboro to Bethany Beach will open their doors to show off their practices. You’ll find the whimsical, multi-colored angler fish and cats by painter John Donato one moment, and get a glimpse of metalsmithing from jeweler Dawn Pierro the next.
If you’re so inclined, you can participate in an art raffle. Proceeds will go to art education programs in the Indian River School District, for which the Southeastern Delaware Artists Studio Tour has raised over $70,000 since its inception.
Steven Dow, right, and Steven Perry, left, rehearse for “She Loves Me,” showing at Possum Point Players Nov. 13-22. | PHOTO BY JORDAN GERDES, COURTESY OF POSSUM POINT PLAYERS
Friday-Sunday, Nov. 13-15 and Nov. 20-22. 7:30 p.m. on Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. on Sun. Possum Point Players. 441 Old Laurel Road, Georgetown, DE 19947. Tickets: $30.
Imagine: your least favorite co-worker turns out to be your anonymous pen pal you’ve fallen in love with.
This concept, originating in the 1937 play “Parfumerie,” has been iterated on many times, most recently in the 1998 rom-com “You’ve Got Mail,” starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
Georgetown’s Possum Point Players are bringing the 1963 Broadway musical version of the tale, “She Loves Me,” to the stage. Like the original play, this version is set in a Budapest parfumerie in the 1930s.
Fans of the “enemies-to-lovers” trope, this one will make you swoon.
KOSU Art Club comes to the Dover Art League Nov. 15. | FLYER BY @MOSHISHARKI, COURTESY OF KOSU ART CLUB
Sunday, Nov. 15, noon-4 p.m. Dover Art League. 21 W. Loockerman St., Dover, DE 19904. Free. 21+.
If you’re a young, Delawarean artist wondering where the heck your people are, that’s what artist Talia Brown, also known as Sharkmouth, was wondering when she moved from New York City to Delaware.
So, she started the KOSU Art Club. KOSU stands for Killing Our Silent Universe, a nod to its mission of fighting social isolation in the art-making process.
These drop-in gatherings of up-and-coming creatives are the perfect place to make some crafts and some friends. This month, the club will meet at the Dover Art League to learn the art of collage.
Friday-Saturday, Nov. 13-14 at Laird Performing Arts Center (1501 Barley Mill Road, Wilmington, DE 19807) and Sunday, Nov. 15 at Delaware State University (1200 N. Dupont Highway, Dover, DE 19901). Tickets: $25.
Every other year since 2002, Profundo Bono, a theater company made up of Delaware attorneys, judges and other legal professionals, has staged a musical to fundraise for the Combined Campaign for Justice, which funds civil legal aid for Delawareans.
This year, the theater company is staging its first completely original script: “Flifferschmeep: Another Example of What Happens When You Get Lawyers Involved.” The script follows a man given a single wish by a genie. But when word spreads about his wish, the man is bombarded with requests about how to use it.
The show features puppetry, 25 rapid-fire musical parodies and much more. But what does “Flifferschmeep” mean? You’ll just have to see the show to find out.
Why Should Delaware Care? Healthcare in Delaware is among some of the most expensive in the country. As cuts to federally funded programs like Medicaid are set to go into effect later this year and commercial insurance rates rise, Delaware is looking to reinvent its healthcare ecosystem with a federal grant.
Delaware is set to receive another hundred-million-dollar sum to continue building out the state’s rural healthcare infrastructure over the next four years.
Earlier this week, state officials announced Delaware would receive $160.3 million in its second year of funding from the federal Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), a provision of the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that earmarks $50 billion for states to improve their rural health care infrastructure.
The program doled out its first award last year, and Delaware received $157 million.
The program was created to court Republican senators hesitant to support more than $900 billion in cuts to Medicaid, which could disproportionately impact rural communities and their healthcare facilities.
And as Delaware’s second-year award will soon enter the state, a question looms over one of its hallmark projects: Who will be dean of its new medical school? Delaware officials announced in June the state’s first medical school will be run by Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University.
Jefferson beat out three other bidders — the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM), Puerto Rico-based Ponce Health Sciences University and consulting giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers — to win the medical school contract.
Delaware officials will likely announce the inaugural dean before the end of the year.
State leaders also hope to fund 13 additional programs, including additional preventative care, financial assistance for medical students that commit to working in Delaware for five years after graduation, and robust nutritional education.
Gov. Matt Meyer said in a press release earlier this week the funds have already been at work. The state is building out programs to bolster the state’s healthcare workforce and lower costs for patients, he said.
“A Delawarean’s ZIP code should never determine whether they can afford to see a doctor or get the care they need,” Meyer said in the release.
The three Delaware medical centers will receive nearly $23 million this year, as state officials look to invest deeply into primary care options for Delawareans and shift how the state pays for its medical services.
Three Delaware medical centers are poised to receive nearly $23 million this year as the state looks to invest hundreds of millions of federal dollars meant to bolster rural healthcare. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY NICK STONESIFER
State officials met outside of La Red Health Center in Georgetown in September to make the announcement, where they hope these funds will help to modernize the federally qualified health center’s preventative care capabilities.
Federally qualified health centers, also known as FQHCs, are community-based clinics that typically offer primary care services in medically underserved areas.
The $22.7 million injection into the state’s three primary FQHCs represents Delaware’s effort to reframe its healthcare ecosystem: keep people healthier on the front end so they are able to avoid costly emergency room visits.
Leaders from Delaware’s primary FQHCs — La Red, Wilmington’s Henrietta Johnson Medical Center and Westside Family Health Care, which has locations in Kent and New Castle County — gathered in September to discuss how the awards would help to modernize their operations.
The CEO of Westside Family Health Care, Chris Fraser, said the funds would support modernization efforts that have often been out of reach for the smaller health centers.
Additionally, he said incoming reductions to Medicaid, set to go into effect at the end of December, will stretch the health centers financially.
“Some of us are doing well, and some of us are really challenged operationally to make ends meet,” Fraser said. “So the coming Medicaid cuts are going to, unfortunately, make that worse.”
“I don’t know when we’ve owed a debt of gratitude to any animal as much as we do to that raccoon,” said Faye Prichard, Hanover County board supervisor.
Millions from recent legal settlements are being spent on homelessness and housing, raising questions about whether the funds are staying focused on addiction.
Why Should Delaware Care? For 80 years, Kingswood Community Center has provided education and family services in one of Wilmington’s most vulnerable communities. Despite the challenges, the center has given residents access to services many would otherwise have to look elsewhere to find. Now in a new building, the organization hopes to expands its mission.
The Kingswood Community Center in Wilmington is completing its 80th anniversary year with a newly constructed $56 million facility.
The new building — built with a mix of public and private dollars — officially opened last week with a ceremony held in its new gymnasium and attended by more than 200 staff, community members, and elected officials, including Gov. Matt Meyer.
During the ceremony, Logan Herring, who leads the nonprofit that runs the facility, said it exists to benefit the broader Riverside neighborhood, which for years had suffered as an isolated, low-income Black community.
“This is a $60 million investment in the Riverside neighborhood, a neighborhood that is so worthy of this investment,” Herring said, noting the cost of the $56 million facility as well as dollars spent on an early learning academy, a health center, and technology.
Of the total, more than $45 million came from state and federal governments.
Herring said the return on the investment will be ten-fold, as his goal is to help families work toward self-sufficiency and be able to pay for services the center provides.
“When those families are self-sufficient and … no longer need those subsidies, that’s another thing to boost our economy in a tide-to-lift-all-boats,” he said.
The two-story center on Rosemont Avenue is nearly five times the size of Kingwood’s former home that has sat along nearby Bowers Street since 1958.
The new facility also serves as the home for Kingswood’s Montessori school, case-management program for families, a Nemours Children’s Health clinic and recreational activities.
Herring said his team also is working to phase in public access to the facility in 2027, which would include open hours to its fitness room, gymnasium and outdoor courts. The access would be available with the purchase of a membership, he said.
The construction of the facility occurred alongside broader efforts to revitalize Riverside by a coalition of nonprofits – called the WRK Group – which includes Kingswood, The Warehouse teen center and the redevelopment entity, REACH Riverside.
As part of those efforts, REACH Riverside has built over 600 new homes.
Herring has called the REACH Riverside redevelopment work a $600 million-plus effort.
A clinic, a school, and a rec center
The northeast Wilmington center traces its roots to 1946, when Kingswood Methodist United Church opened its doors to neighborhood youth for recreational activities. Kingswood grew to become a supportive arm for locals in an area long affected by crime and poverty, providing childcare, senior care and social services.
“We wanted this to be a one-stop shop,” Herring said.
Logan Herring, CEO of the WRK Group, speaks at the opening of the new Kingswood Community Center in November, 2026. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
The new center houses the Ernest L. Webster Montessori Academy, named after the man known as “Mr. Kingswood,” the center’s first Black employee who worked at the center for more than 40 years. Herring said the academy will serve roughly 150 to 200 children, infants through pre-K, along with before- and after-school care and summer camp.
At the Nov. 6 ceremony, the Rev. Theressa Holmes, a board member of Kingswood and Webster’s daughter, said her father knew Kingswood was never about “physical walls. It was about the people.”
Herring noted that the school does now use a tiered tuition system, based on income and family circumstances — a change as the school used to be free of charge.
Additionally, Nemours Children’s Health has taken over 15,000 square feet of the building for a pediatric health center. It will offer primary care along with specialty services the community asked for, including dental, vision, and pulmonary care.
The building also houses Kingswood’s Empower program, a team of coaches who work with families on goals toward self-sufficiency, including workforce and access to services.
There is also a new full-size gymnasium and an outdoor court. Herring said that when such spaces become open to the public, he anticipates a nominal fee membership based on individual circumstances.
The gym can seat 600 people for games or 1,500 as an auditorium, according to the EDiS Company – the construction company that built the new space. The building also includes a commercial kitchen and dining hall.
Herring said the new Kingswood center also hopes to provide food next year for its 100 employees and for those who live in the neighborhood.
People gather for the opening of the Kingswood Community Center’s new facility. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
On Wednesday, Spotlight Delaware also spoke to a handful of Northeast Wilmington residents, asking for their thoughts on the community center. Some had mixed feelings.
One resident, who lives near Nemours’ previous clinic along Jessup Street, was taking her children to see a doctor at the new Kingswood facility. She said she was surprised when Nemours doctors told her they had moved to the new center.
And she also believes the money could have been better spent on housing.
“Y’all put a doctor’s office inside of a community center with a bunch of kids. Why would y’all do that?” said the resident, who provided her name as India G.
Another resident, who lives nearby Kingswood with his two daughters, said he believes the investment is worthwhile, but noted that he misses the old Riverside housing projects because they remind him of growing up in the neighborhood.
“I just feel that if it’s for the kids, it’s the most important thing,” the resident, Victor Harmon, said.
Other residents echoed the sentiment that the new facility is an asset. One, who only provided her first name as Carmen, said she currently utilizes the Empower program at Kingswood, which provides workforce training and personalized coaching.
“I think it’s really beautiful. I think they have a lot of resources,” she said.
A new era for Kingswood
The most emotional moment during last week’s opening celebration for Kingswood came from the Twin Poets — former Wilmington City Councilman Al Mills and state Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha (D-Wilmington) — who grew up near Kingswood and later worked there.
The Twin Poets — Al Mills and state Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha (D-Wilmington) recite a poem at the opening of the Kingswood Community Center. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
In a spoken-word piece, the twins recalled a neighborhood they said had long been neglected and young people lost to the streets and gun violence. They also celebrated the area’s progress, and called the community center “a new beginning” for Riverside’s children and seniors.
Mills remembered a young man named Buff. If the new building and its resources had existed then, he said, Buff would have been inside the gym with everyone.
“He might still be alive,” he said. “He might have never been gunned down on those basketball courts under 95.”
Meyer, who taught sixth- and seventh-grade math nearby at the now-closed Prestige Academy, said today’s kids face challenges unlike any before. He said Kingswood would “equalize opportunity” for kids in the area.
Other speakers included U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Lt. Gov. Kyle Evans Gay, Attorney General Kathy Jennings, Wilmington Mayor John Carney, and City Councilwoman Zanthia Oliver.
With the season reaching its halfway point, it’s time to see which teams and players are excelling
Josh Allen, QB, Buffalo Bills.Joe Burrow is excelling for the Bengals and is rightly a frontrunner for MVP. He’s stylish, precise and mentally rock-solid, everything a franchise needs. But is he the most thrilling quarterback in the NFL? Right now, Allen is box office each and every week. But it’s not just the entertainment factor: Allen has a weaker supporting cast than Burrow and many of the other MVP contenders – imagine what he could do with Ja’Marr Chase as a teammate – and yet the Bills top the AFC at 7-1 thanks in large part to his passing and hammering runs.
CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 2026 – The next frontier of AI infrastructure is moving beyond raw compute performance toward high-speed interconnects and seamless coordination across computing nodes. Compal Electronics will showcase its AI infrastructure solutions integrating NVIDIA’s next-generation computing and networking technologies at Supercomputing 2026 (SC26), the annual international conference for high-performance computing, taking place November 17–19. Leveraging its system engineering and integration expertise spanning silicon, server platforms, and AI network fabrics, Compal will highlight key technologies designed to support large-scale distributed AI computing at Booth #5008 at McCormick Place in Chicago.
As AI applications evolve toward agentic AI and distributed computing, effective CPU-GPU coordination, high-bandwidth data movement, and low-latency network connectivity are becoming essential to scaling AI infrastructure. The extreme codesign approach behind the NVIDIA Rubin platform reflects this architectural evolution, bringing computing and networking technologies into closer alignment to support increasingly complex AI workloads.
In response to this technological shift, Compal continues to expand its portfolio of NVIDIA-based server platforms, including the SGX30-2 air-cooled and OG430-2-L1 direct liquid-cooled servers powered by NVIDIA HGX B300, as well as the OG231-2-L1 accelerated computing server featuring NVIDIA HGX Rubin NVL8. These systems provide flexible deployment options to address varying compute density and cooling requirements. NVIDIA MGX modular architecture and NVIDIA RTX PRO acceleration technologies further extend these capabilities to enterprise AI and visual computing applications. Beyond GPU acceleration, Compal will also showcase the NVIDIA Vera CPU Compute Tray, demonstrating its system engineering expertise spanning compute modules, server platforms, and rack-scale infrastructure to support high-density AI computing and inter-node collaboration.
For multi-node AI clusters, minimizing data transfer latency, increasing network throughput, and improving resource coordination are critical to overall system performance. NVIDIA BlueField-4 DPU offloads selected networking, storage, and infrastructure management tasks to reduce the processing burden on host CPUs. NVIDIA ConnectX-9 SuperNIC delivers high-performance, low-latency connectivity to support high-volume data exchange between compute nodes, while NVIDIA Spectrum-6 Ethernet switches enhance cluster-level networking and data transfer efficiency, providing the high-speed network foundation for large-scale distributed AI computing.
By integrating these networking technologies with NVIDIA’s advanced computing platforms, Compal continues to extend its system engineering capabilities beyond individual servers toward AI network fabrics. Its system-level approach brings together CPU and GPU computing resources, network interfaces, inter-node connectivity, rack-level integration, and the power and cooling infrastructure required for high-density deployments. Through its cross-platform engineering and integration expertise, Compal helps customers build scalable AI clusters with efficient data movement and flexible expansion capabilities, supporting distributed AI, scientific computing, and large-scale high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.
To support real-world deployment of these advanced computing and networking technologies, Compal continues to strengthen its global AI server manufacturing and system delivery capabilities. The opening of its Daxi AI Server Manufacturing Center in Taiwan in August 2026 has expanded its server manufacturing and rack integration capabilities. Meanwhile, investments in its Texas manufacturing operations and Vietnam production capacity are enhancing regional manufacturing flexibility and supply chain resilience. Together, these resources enable Compal to support customers across server platform adoption, system integration, and large-scale AI infrastructure deployment.
“High-speed interconnects and integrated system architectures are essential to scaling AI infrastructure efficiently,” said Alan Chang, Vice President of the Infrastructure Solutions Business Group (ISBG) at Compal. “By combining NVIDIA’s advanced computing and networking technologies with our system engineering expertise and global manufacturing capabilities, we help customers build highly scalable AI infrastructure, accelerate system deployment, and translate technological innovation into tangible business value.”
About Compal
Established in 1984, Compal has grown into a leading global manufacturer of computers and smart devices, partnering with top-tier brands worldwide. Compal was recognized by CommonWealth Magazine as one of Taiwan’s top 7 manufacturers and has consistently ranked among the Forbes Global 2000 companies. Compal has actively expanded into new growth areas, including cloud servers, automotive electronics, smart medical and healthcare, and advanced communication solutions. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, Compal operates design and production facilities in the United States, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, and Poland. Learn more at https://www.compal.com.
Researchers use tiny drops of coolant to reduce the temperature of simulated chip hotspots by up to 17°C in just 15 seconds
Nov. 12, 2026 — Data centers at the heart of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution could be cooled more effectively and economically with a hybrid system under development at the University of Waterloo that targets hotspots on computer chips with a single drop of boiling coolant.
The novel concept combines general immersion cooling with inexpensive deionized water and targeted spot cooling of especially hot areas with drops of costly coolant.
Waterloo Engineering researchers (l-r) Arnav Banerjee, Dr. Tian-Yu Zhang and Dr. Sushanta Mitra are developing a novel system to cool AI data centres that includes targeting hotspots on computer chips with coated drops of coolant.
“It’s a division of labor,” said Dr. Sushanta Mitra, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at Waterloo. “Water is excellent at handling steady, everyday heat and the drops take care of sudden spikes.”
To deal with the enormous amount of heat generated in sprawling data centers, operators are increasingly immersing electronic components such as chips and processors in specialized coolant.
Depending on the workload, small areas in chips can get much hotter than others in a matter of seconds, causing them to slow down, age faster and undermine reliability. Coolant that simply flows by is too slow to react to the sudden hotspots.
The research team – which included Dr. Tian-Yu Zhang, a postdoctoral researcher, and PhD student Arnav Banerjee – tackled that problem by building on its previous work to encapsulate one liquid in a thin skin of another.
They selected an electronics coolant with a much lower boiling point than water. The coolant is also heavier than water, so it doesn’t mix with it and stays put when placed on a hotspot.
In laboratory testing, a single drop of coolant boiled and reduced the temperature of a simulated computer chip hotspot submerged in a tank of water by up to 17° C in 15 seconds, several times faster than conventional immersion.
“Boiling soaks up a lot of heat and the rising bubbles stir the surrounding water so it carries heat away faster,” said Mitra, executive director of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology. “We get the punch of boiling, but only where and when it’s needed.”
Researchers then used their encapsulation technique to wrap coolant drops in a thin skin of silicone oil. Adding tiny, heat-conducting ceramic particles to the coating helps control how quickly the drops boil.
Researchers envision the system ultimately working in one of two ways – either coolant drops that circulate through water and activate when they hit hotspots, or drops that are delivered directly to hotspots detected by sensors.
The hybrid cooling approach also has potential applications in technologies including electric vehicles, batteries, high-powered lasers and LED lighting.
Nvidia’s board of directors met on Wednesday to decide whether to oust Jensen Huang as CEO of the world’s most valuable chip company, according to reports, after a tumultuous week in which the executive and co-founder of the company admitted to having a romantic relationship with a woman who is alleged to be a Chinese spy.
The meeting marks a sharp shift from Sunday, when Nvidia’s board expressed confidence in Huang and his leadership team. However, Huang’s position became more tenuous late on Wednesday after it was reported by the New York Times that Huang had a separate extramarital affair with a company employee named Kimberly Powell. She was Nvidia’s president of healthcare and was reportedly captured on video being affectionate with Huang at a hotel during a company conference in March.
"ScienceAlert is reporting that researchers may have finally determined why, for many years, power grids around the world have been pulsing every 60 seconds," writes longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot. The likely culprit? Uninterruptible power supplies running routine battery checks. From the report: Every minute, some uninterruptible power supplies perform routine battery checks, creating small but measurable surges in electricity demand. And it's like clockwork. "Even benign control routines can become systemically relevant when many devices act coherently," writes a team led by physicist Dirk Witthaut of the University of Cologne, Germany, in a paper published in Nature Energy. "Unintended synchronization can generate recurrent and potentially amplified oscillatory behavior in large-scale cyber-physical energy systems."
To figure it out, Witthaut and his colleagues analyzed high-resolution electricity measurements from buildings at the Forschungszentrum Julich research campus in Germany. [... they found that] the 60-second pattern appeared in four buildings, all of which contained uninterruptible power supplies. None of the buildings they measured without these systems showed the same pattern. Following the electrical signals more closely, the researchers detected tiny bursts of current from the batteries at precisely one-minute intervals. They were able to trace the resulting fluctuations through one building's electrical system, all the way to the connection with the public high-voltage grid.
The manufacturer subsequently confirmed the culprit's identity -- routine battery self-tests, conducted automatically by the systems' management software. But why would equipment in different buildings, let alone different countries, be doing this at the same time? The answer appears to lie in the clocks. Digital devices can synchronize their internal clocks using external time signals, meaning that independently operating systems can end up performing their scheduled tasks together. Individually, these small checks are insignificant. But when enough devices act in synchrony, their combined electricity demand can produce a measurable effect across an entire power grid.
Entry-level jobs will be the first to be automated due to AI, but it could mean fewer hours and higher wages for ordinary workers – or make jobs tougher with more burnout and workplace surveillance – the government has warned employers.
While major companies like Qantas and Canva slash their workforces in restructures spurred by AI changes, workplace relations minister Amanda Rishworth said employers must give workers “a clear plan” about how automation could affect their jobs, and the opportunity to move into new roles.
When he finally arrived at his victory party, Colom walked out to T.I.’s Let ‘Em Know. The audience, still galvanized even after hours of standing, roared
About a thousand people gathered on the Woodworth Chapel Lawn at Tougaloo College, a historic black college in Jackson. A DJ played classic southern line dance tunes and much of the crowd obliged, dancing while they waited for Scott Colom, Mississippi’s new senate-elect, to arrive.
All of the Divine 9, a nickname for the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), an umbrella organization of nine historically Black Greek-letter fraternities and sororities, were represented, their members proudly wearing paraphernalia bearing their organization’s letters. Others were decked out in gear from some of the state’s colleges and universities – Tougaloo College, of course, but also Alcorn State University, Millsaps College, Jackson State University, Mississippi State University and others.
In today’s newsletter: US intelligence reportedly believes the former tech executive was recruited by Beijing, raising questions about the security of the AI industry and Trump’s close ties to Nvidia chief Jensen Huang
Good morning. Espionage is supposed to be a secretive business, and spies are supposed to be virtually invisible. That hasn’t been the case for Alice Huang, the mysterious Shanghai executive who formed a romantic relationship with Jensen Huang, the founder of Nvidia, one of America’s most powerful tech companies.
Many questions have arisen since it emerged that US intelligence believes that Huang (no relation of Jensen’s) is an asset recruited by the Chinese intelligence services to spy on behalf of Beijing. This morning’s newsletter explains what we know about the story, and what it tells us about the effectiveness of Chinese espionage. That’s after the headlines.
UK | Ministers are considering changing the law to force the entertainment industry to better protect women and children in the wake of the revelations over David Walliams and the conviction of Russell Brand.
Climate | The UK government has appointed the world’s first special representative for climate security, in the strongest sign yet of fears that climate breakdown will bring chaos to the country.
US midterms | Democrat Scott Colom has become the first Black senator in Mississippi to be elected since Reconstruction, in a stunning upset after more than a week of vote counting in one of the country’s most reliably red states.
Europe | Millions of people across Spain have joined the country’s first general strike in 14 years, setting up picket lines to protest against soaring housing prices before an election in which the far right could be catapulted into power.
Technology | Police officers risk arresting innocent people, especially from ethnic minorities, if they treat inaccurate facial recognition data as evidence, an official report has found.
The national association for Canadian dog trainers says the online school has demonstrated alignment with its National Dog Training Curriculum Standard
Substackers in love, dodgy romance scams and Jeff Bezos as the dashing lead … the film-makers behind the remake of the dial-up classic will be facing an embarrassment of pitches
Assuming you have already heard about the You’ve Got Mail reboot, you are probably in one of two states. You are either excited that the news might be a signal of a long overdue romcom resurgence, or you are embittered because it’s another sign that Hollywood has run out of original ideas.
I hold absolutely no truck with the latter view. Quite frankly, if there was ever a film in dire need of a reboot, then it’s You’ve Got Mail. The film is almost 28 years old, and it shows every single day of its age. You’ve seen it, you know how it goes. It’s about two people who use the futuristic new technology of email (email is no longer new) to communicate, despite being rival booksellers (nobody reads books any more), and eventually begin a relationship (nobody wants to be in a relationship any more). The whole thing is preposterous. Of course they should try again.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky secured the 218 signatures needed Wednesday to force House consideration of a second Epstein files transparency bill, once again bypassing Republican leadership.
All 214 House Democrats signed the discharge petition, along with Republicans Massie, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. Democratic Reps. Adam Smith and John Garamendi supplied the final two signatures.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act II would allow Jeffrey Epstein survivors, state attorneys general, local prosecutors and members of Congress to sue the Justice Department if it unlawfully withholds, delays or heavily redacts records covered by the original transparency law. It would also give victims access to unredacted records concerning themselves.
Massie says the DOJ is still withholding more than 3 million Epstein-related files despite a 2025 law requiring disclosure. The Justice Department says it has complied with that law and that unreleased material consists largely of duplicates, privileged information or records covered by legal exceptions.
Massie used the same procedural tactic last year to force the original Epstein Files Transparency Act onto the House floor. That bill ultimately passed 427-1 and was signed by President Donald Trump.
The new petition must remain on the discharge calendar for seven legislative days before a signer can formally move to bring it up. A floor vote could come in early December.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has relocated to a U.S. military base because of security concerns as the Trump administration continues an aggressive financial campaign against Iran.
A person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press that the move was prompted partly by media reports that helped identify Bessent’s home address. The New York Times first reported the relocation.
The security concerns come as U.S. intelligence indicates Iran has stepped up efforts to target American personnel in the Middle East and elsewhere. Those warnings contributed to the State Department reducing staffing at four U.S. embassies in the region last month.
Bessent has been a central figure in the administration’s effort to isolate Tehran economically. The Treasury Department announced what it called an “economic D-Day” campaign in August, pressuring countries and businesses to cut financial ties with Iran or risk U.S. retaliation.
The pressure has produced some results. Turkey and the United Arab Emirates reportedly halted transactions involving Iran’s leading commercial bank, while Iranian airlines have lost access to several important regional routes.
President Donald Trump said this week that the eight-month Iran war is “militarily effectively over,” although U.S. sanctions, a naval blockade and other economic pressure remain in place.
Bessent is not the only senior Trump official living on a military installation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also reside on military bases because of security concerns.
The 1,000-foot-long SS United States was sent to the bottom of the ocean in a controlled, explosive-free sinking that is taking place about 20 nautical miles off the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Some Democrats, out of the 11 who missed the key procedural vote on Tuesday to impeach Pete Hegseth, blamed a traffic jam in Washington DC for their inability to make it to the US Capitol in time.
By a vote of 211-204, Republicans referred the articles of impeachment to the judiciary committee – effectively killing the effort to oust Hegseth.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from PBS: The historic ocean liner SS United States will be intentionally sunk Wednesday off the coast of the Florida panhandle. Live coverage of the sinking of the SS United States is expected to start at 1 p.m. EST, with the sinking expected at 2 p.m. EST. Watch live in the video player above. In its heyday, the SS United States crushed the trans-Atlantic speed record, which it still holds. The luxury ocean liner took only three days to cross from New York to Europe on its maiden voyage in 1952. Carrying presidents and Hollywood stars, the nearly 1,000-foot vessel was a technical marvel of its time. However, the rise of air travel and high operating costs sunk its economic viability, and the ship was pulled from service in 1969. The ocean liner sat at Philadelphia's Pier 82 for nearly 30 years.
After a contentious back and forth with a pier landlord over rent and docking fees, Okaloosa County in Florida eventually stepped in to purchase the ship and bring it to the Gulf of Mexico to become the world's largest artificial reef. The multi-million dollar project is also aimed at creating an economic development opportunity as a major diving attraction. "It was our goal to make sure that she wasn't lost forever," said David Lawrence, a member of the board for the SS United States Conservancy, the group that sold the vessel to the Florida county.
Like the ship's unconventional life, it will also have an unconventional sinking. Federal environmental and explosives rules prevent the county from using explosives. Instead, tanks inside the ship have been removed and large holes were cut into the decks. Once the valves are opened, water will flood the hull, sinking the ship. Resting at 180 feet below the surface of the water, the SS United States will join more than 500 artificial reefs in Okaloosa County, which the county relies on to support the underwater ecosystem.
SS United States, which set transatlantic speed record during maiden voyage in 1952, is sunk off coast of Destin
The historic SS United States has reached the end of its journey at sea, sinking Wednesday off the coast of Destin, Florida, where it will begin a new life underwater as an artificial reef.
The nearly 1,000ft American-made vessel, once the fastest ocean liner in the world, was launched in 1952 and made history by setting a transatlantic speed record during its maiden voyage. The ship carried thousands of passengers across the Atlantic over 17 years of operation before being retired in 1969.
Since the US war on Iran began in February, there have been hundreds of oil spills, posing a ‘generational’ threat to wildlife
The vast, dark slicks in the strait of Hormuz are visible from space. Throughout October, oil tankers were struck by missiles or sea mines in the waterway and spilled crude into the sea. The pollution has spread across the Gulf, contaminating coastlines and threatening to cause lasting damage to marine ecosystems that are home to dolphins, sea turtles and countless species of fish.
Eight months into the war between the US and Iran, one of the world’s busiest oil shipping routes has become a battlefield and the centre of a growing environmental disaster.
He served nearly 36 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago and was ranked by many as second in influence only to members of the Supreme Court.
Democrat Scott Colom defeated GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Mississippi Senate race, delivering Democrats an eighth flipped Senate seat after the dramatic race had been up in the air for days.
Nvidia's board of directors is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang soon, according to two sources, amid allegations Huang had an affair with a woman U.S. intelligence agencies believe was a Chinese asset.
IBM says New Nighthawk r3 processor will be built to execute 10,000 quantum operations, enabling larger and more complex computations as company advances its roadmap toward fault tolerance
YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y., Nov. 11, 2026 — IBM today announced IBM Quantum Nighthawk r3, its next-generation processor, will be built to accurately execute 10,000 quantum operations across 520 qubits to tackle larger, more complex problems while maintaining the speed and quality demonstrated by the current generation Nighthawk available today.
Renders of IBM Quantum Nighthawk r3 (L), and IBM Quantum Nighthawk r2 (R), IBM’s most powerful processors designed to support 10,000 quantum operations in 2027. Credit: IBM.
In 2027, IBM plans to link two Nighthawk r3 processors into a single system with more than 1,000 qubits.
To be at the frontier of quantum computing, industry-relevant applications demand both computational quality and speed. Speed matters because a quantum computer delivers its answer in samples: each run of a quantum circuit returns one result. Applications increasingly require circuits executing thousands of quantum operations on approximately 100 qubits or more, generating millions to billions of samples. Scale and quality enable increasingly complex computations, but speed determines whether these demanding workloads can be completed in practical timeframes and at a reasonable cost.
“Useful quantum computing hinges on whether results can be delivered with accuracy and speed, both are fundamental,” said Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and IBM Fellow. “Nighthawk is already showing us what that looks like today. As we scale this architecture to larger and more powerful quantum computers, the capabilities of quantum computation will reach new levels as we integrate more closely with classical resources and march ahead to fault tolerance.”
Nighthawk r2: Delivering Speed for Real-World Workloads
Introduced in September, IBM Quantum Nighthawk r2 delivers up to 100,000 samples per second while supporting accurate computations with more than 7,500 quantum operations on 120 qubits. Its high-speed qubit reset technology dramatically reduces the time between circuit executions, enabling applications to collect the millions or billions of samples needed for complex computations far more efficiently.
Clients and partners including E.ON, Algorithmiq, and Q-CTRL have executed 34 billion circuits on Nighthawk r2 to date, reporting performance improvements of up to 19x while maintaining the quality needed for scientific computation.
The results are already demonstrating value across industries. E.ON reported a 15x speedup on Nighthawk r2 in quantum machine learning for energy grid optimization. IBM used Nighthawk r2 for a 12x speedup of an experiment ran earlier this year with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which simulated real magnetic materials and produced results consistent with neutron scattering experiments. Both of these speedups were achieved over previous work on IBM Quantum Heron. Quantum Elements and ParityQC are also among the partners reporting significant performance improvements on their own Nighthawk r2 workloads.
The quantum advantage experiments IBM and its partners published in July were first run on IBM Quantum Heron, with circuits and results openly available for independent testing through the community-led Quantum Advantage Tracker. An experiment with Algorithmiq to simulate a heterogeneous quantum material has now been extended to Nighthawk r2, leveraging its speed and connectivity to execute circuits 8 times faster than the original experiment on Heron. At the same time, the new circuits are significantly more challenging for classical computers to simulate, requiring an estimated 240 times more memory to achieve comparable accuracy when using leading classical tensor-network methods.
Nighthawk r3: Scaling to More Than 1,000 Qubits
Building on the performance demonstrated by Nighthawk r2, Nighthawk r3 will extend the same high-speed architecture to larger quantum computers. The new processor is designed to support 10,000 quantum operations on 520 programmable qubits, with 2,034 total physical qubits. It retains r2’s square-lattice connectivity and fast operations while introducing 10 chip-to-chip interconnects, called l-couplers, designed to connect processors into larger systems.
IBM has already demonstrated two critical technologies that enable this modular approach. This year, IBM connected Nighthawk r1 processors using four l-couplers, achieving 99.3 percent quantum state transfer fidelity and progressing toward its 99.9 percent target. IBM also connected two cryogenic modules into a single system for the first time, reaching operating temperature in under five days and cooling below 15 millikelvin.
Together, these advances demonstrate critical progress in modularity and provide confidence in IBM’s ability to scale Nighthawk to larger quantum computers. In 2027, IBM plans to connect two Nighthawk r3 processors into a single 1,040-qubit system, extending its high-performance architecture to larger and more complex computations.
Quantum Meets Classical on the IBM Quantum Platform
Advancing quantum computers requires continued progress in how they work alongside classical compute to handle errors. Industry-relevant workloads will demand layers of quantum error correction and error mitigation techniques alongside noise learning and post-processing. As quantum workloads scale, they will call for more classical resources, and the challenge now is how to best scale this integration.
To unite these paradigms, IBM Quantum Platform is bringing high-performance (HPC) classical and quantum computing together into a single managed environment. Users can now integrate quantum workflows directly with a range of classical compute – whether from their laptop or a powerful supercomputer – or with the HPC and classical resources that are newly available on the platform.
Users are seeing promising results from these integrations. For example, using the new environment, IBM and RIKEN scientists executed their original sample-based quantum diagonalization (SQD) workflow roughly 5 times faster while performing 100 times more computations than in the original study. Cleveland Clinic and RIKEN also leveraged the platform to automatically process 608 million samples for modeling biologically relevant structures, 33 times faster than without workflow automation.
Enhanced capabilities will also fuel breakthroughs in quantum error correction. IBM Quantum Platform offers pulse-level capabilities to give researchers precise control over how they can detect, understand, and better correct errors within quantum and classical architectures. This helps them better time operations, reset qubits faster, and extract more information from quantum measurements – giving researchers the visibility to improve error correction at its most fundamental levels.
IBM recently launched a new co-design platform for quantum error correction with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and AMD that physically co-locates Nighthawk with ORNL’s Umbra High-Performance Computing (HPC) system, powered by AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs and 5th Gen AMD EPYC CPUs.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider, helping clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. For more information, visit https://research.ibm.com.
SC26 showcase features CPI’s OCP Open Rack V3, previews of upcoming power and cooling solutions, and integrated liquid cooling solutions for high-density environments.
SIMI VALLEY, Calif., Nov. 11, 2026 — Chatsworth Products, Inc. (CPI), a global manufacturer of infrastructure solutions supporting AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and other demanding data center environments, has announced CPI’s OCP Open Rack V3 (ORV3), expanding its portfolio of high-density infrastructure solutions.
Chatsworth Products’ (CPI) OCP Open Rack V3 (ORV3) solutions offer customizable rack architectures designed to support OCP-standard components, high-density AI and HPC workloads, and evolving data center infrastructure requirements.
At Supercomputing 2026 (SC26), CPI will showcase its broader rack, power, and cooling capabilities. Attendees will also get an early look at upcoming eConnect PDUs with 480V Input and CoolStream Rear Door Heat Exchanger (RDHx), alongside ZutaCore HyperCool waterless direct-to-chip liquid cooling integrated into CPI’s ZetaFrame Cabinet System.
Increasing rack densities are creating more complex infrastructure decisions around equipment integration, power distribution, and thermal management. These interconnected requirements are influencing how data center operators plan and deploy infrastructure to support next-generation AI and HPC environments.
“As AI and HPC workloads drive greater demands on data center infrastructure, organizations must consider how rack architecture, power distribution, and cooling technologies work together to support performance and scalability,” said Sam Rodriguez, Senior Product Manager, Cabinets, Containment and Industrial Solutions, Chatsworth Products. “Our expanded portfolio reflects CPI’s commitment to helping customers address these challenges with flexible infrastructure solutions, backed by engineering expertise and U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities.”
Flexible Open Rack Architecture for Evolving Infrastructure Requirements
CPI’s ORV3 carries the OCP Accepted designation from the Open Compute Project Foundation, recognizing its alignment with OCP specifications and principles. Available in standard and customer-specific 44OU and 48OU ORV3 and High-Power Rack (HPR) configurations, the solution supports 21-inch Open Rack equipment, with optional support for 19-inch EIA equipment.
Optional 48V DC power shelf solutions range from 18 kW to 33 kW, while compatible busbars range from 350 A to 2500 A, providing additional options for rack-level power distribution.
Key capabilities include:
Customizable Open Rack Architecture: Standard and customer-specific 44OU and 48OU ORV3 and HPR configurations support diverse deployment requirements.
Support for OCP-Standard Components: Designed to accommodate OCP-standard 48V DC busbars, power shelves, and IT equipment for integration within Open Rack environments.
Compatible Power Distribution Solutions: Optional 48V DC power shelves and busbars support integrated rack-level power distribution, with factory-installed busbars available to streamline deployment.
U.S.-Based Manufacturing: Domestic manufacturing capabilities provide flexibility to address customer-specific requirements and support deployment planning.
Engineering Expertise and Support: CPI’s engineering and technical support teams assist customers with rack configuration, component integration, and deployment requirements.
Previewing Upcoming Power and Cooling Technologies
CPI will also offer attendees an early look at two upcoming solutions designed to address evolving power and thermal management requirements in high-density data center environments.
The upcoming eConnect PDUs with 480V Input are designed to support higher rack-level power requirements, helping organizations plan power distribution infrastructure for increasingly demanding AI and HPC workloads.
CPI will also preview its CoolStream Rear Door Heat Exchanger (RDHx), designed to bring liquid-assisted cooling to the rack level. The solution supports high-density thermal management while helping organizations address space and cooling infrastructure considerations.
Showcasing Integrated Liquid Cooling Capabilities
CPI will also showcase ZutaCore HyperCool waterless two-phase direct-to-chip liquid cooling integrated into CPI’s ZetaFrame Cabinet System.
The solution brings together ZutaCore’s advanced liquid cooling technology with CPI’s cabinet infrastructure, demonstrating how complementary technologies can help organizations address increasing heat loads, infrastructure efficiency, and thermal management requirements in high-density AI and HPC environments.
Explore CPI’s High-Density Infrastructure Solutions at SC26
CPI will exhibit at Supercomputing 2026 (SC26), taking place November 15–20, 2026, at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. During the exhibition, November 17–19, attendees can explore CPI’s ORV3, preview upcoming eConnect PDUs with 480V Input and CoolStream RDHx, and see ZutaCore’s waterless direct-to-chip liquid cooling integrated into the ZetaFrame Cabinet System.
Visit CPI at Booth #4203 to connect with the team and learn how its rack, power, and cooling solutions support evolving AI and HPC infrastructure requirements.
About Chatsworth Products
Chatsworth Products (CPI) is a global manufacturer of products and solutions that power and protect businesses’ ever-growing investment in information and communications technology for IT and industrial automation applications. As a trusted business partner, CPI is uniquely prepared to respond to requirements with global availability and rapid product customization, giving businesses a competitive advantage. With decades of experience engineering thermal, power and cable management solutions for the data center, enterprise networking and industrial enclosure markets, CPI is well positioned to provide organizations with unequaled application expertise, customer service and technical support, as well as a global network of industry-leading distributors.
Ukrainian wins 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 after eight-minute timeout
Andreeva beats Sabalenka 6-4, 6-0 to top Group B
Elina Svitolina staged a remarkable comeback to beat Karolina Muchova and remain in the hunt for the WTA Finals title.
The Ukrainian appeared to be on her way out of Indian Wells when she was a set down and required an eight-minute medical timeout. But she recovered to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 and stay in with a chance of reaching the semi-finals.
Colom takes victory by razor-thin margin in state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982
Democrat Scott Colom defeated Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent Republican senator, to become the first Black senator in Mississippi elected since Reconstruction, in a stunning upset after more than a week of vote counting in one of the country’s most reliably red states.
“All I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this,” Colom told a crowd of hundreds who on Wednesday had gathered at Tougaloo College for his victory party. “I had the courage to believe in Mississippi. I had the courage to understand that we can show the country that Mississippi matters.”
Three-story building was at the edge of a construction site where another edifice had been demolished
Firefighters dug through the rubble of a three-story building in Brooklyn on Wednesday after it collapsed at the edge of a construction site, killing at least one person and trapping others beneath the wreckage.
Firefighters were called to the scene in the borough’s Flatbush section at about 4pm. News helicopter footage showed dozens of firefighters scouring the debris, with a group homing in on one area and appearing to use a saw to cut through the wreckage.
Democrats won pivotal races in Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Michigan and elsewhere. Here are the biggest victories of the 2026 midterms.
Once thought to have been looted by Scottish tribes, the gilded limb is the centrepiece of a new exhibition on Roman Scotland in Edinburgh
A large bronze leg found in a bog in rural Scotland more than 200 years ago and then hidden away in a duke’s storeroom is helping to rewrite the history of the Roman empire.
Antiquarians argued that the so-called Mislington leg had been looted, perhaps from York, hacked off by marauding Scottish tribes and carried north over Hadrian’s Wall. “We cannot visualise the conditions which would have led to its erection anywhere north of the Great Wall,” said one scholar, James Curle, in 1932.
Inspectors find some officers acted on potential matches from retrospective searches without making enough checks
Police officers risk arresting innocent people, especially from ethnic minorities, if they treat inaccurate facial recognition data as evidence, an official report has found.
Although the technology can help fight crime, the report found it is beset by errors and biases, and operators do not always realise they must make further inquiries to verify the data.
United Airlines is banning unauthorized third-party AI agents from booking flights, checking in passengers or making account changes on travelers' behalf. CBS News reports: To make an airline booking, an AI agent requires access to a customer's personal information, including credentials like payment information. United has a problem with that, saying that "sharing account credentials with personal, third-party, AI assistants can expose sensitive information, and actions taken by these tools may result in unintended purchases, account changes, or use of MileagePlus miles."
The carrier also said that using an AI agent to, for example, check in for a flight could violate federal regulations, including rules requiring travelers to verify in person that their luggage does not contain banned substances. "As a result, United is taking steps to restrict access -- directly within our digital platforms and indirectly via travel agencies and aggregators -- to prohibit use by unauthorized, third-party personal AI agents or assistants," said the airline, which is updating its booking and ticketing policies to reflect the new rule. "United is saying they don't want to add yet another, and potentially even more powerful, intermediary than they already face in terms of Google search, price-comparison metasearch sites and online travel agencies," said Henry Harteveldt, an aviation analyst at Atmosphere Research Group. "Flight searches cost airlines money, and undoubtedly United wants to avoid the expense associated with the surge of AI bot flight searches."
A Russian internet comedy duo tricked three of OpenAI’s highest ranking military and national security staff into a candid conversation about arming Ukraine. The online pranksters posed as officials from Ukraine’s government, according to a recording of the meeting posted online.
The Russian comedy duo known as Vovan and Lexus have pulled off a long string of prank telephone calls to famous figures since 2011, with victims ranging from Elton John to John McCain. The group, whose pranks have often aligned with Russian foreign policy priorities, have been accused of working in league with its government, a charge they deny.
The latest to fall for their routine were Sasha Baker, who runs national security policy at OpenAI; the company’s lead for strategic initiatives, Caroline Zier; and Ben Crampton, who leads the company’s forays into European national security matters. All three have extensive government experience, with Baker and Zier taking high-level postings in the Department of Defense, and Crampton working in the European Union and United Nations.
“Weeks ago, we launched a thorough investigation into the call’s authenticity,” OpenAI spokesperson Nate Evans said in a statement to The Intercept. “We acted internally and with the relevant authorities to conclude that it was a prank conducted by individuals with a history of targeting officials and other companies. We took action to prevent similar situations from happening in the future.” (The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
The Russian prank duo said they arranged a high-level meeting with OpenAI by pretending to be Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service. During their 17-minute video conversation, a recording of which the Russian group uploaded to Rumble, the participants discussed OpenAI’s military support to Ukraine to aid its ongoing defense against Russia, including the possibility of providing offensive capabilities.
“There’s no question, I think, from our perspective that we want to have as deep a relationship as we possibly can with Ukraine,” Crampton said when asked about selling such offensive military AI services to the country. “But it may not be possible to get to where we want to be straight away.”
“There’s a general reluctance on the part of many people who are senior in the company to get too involved in offensive uses of our technology in a military context,” Crampton continued. “Part of our job is to explain that offense and defense are not necessarily distinguishable from each other under certain circumstances.”
“I’m afraid we probably can’t help you with Elon Musk.”
OpenAI’s ongoing $200 million contract with the U.S. Department of War says it provides artificial intelligence applications aimed at “warfighters” that will “improve military advantage, military utility, or enhance military decision making,” according to contract documents obtained by The Intercept.
In the conversation with the Russian pranksters, Baker added that the company has been in contact with the Pentagon about aiding Ukraine.
OpenAI officials also mentioned ongoing work with the Ukrainian government based around the company’s Daybreak Blue AI model, a system for fixing computer vulnerabilities, as well as a nascent “partnership” with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
“There has been some contact with the Ministry of Defense,” Crampton said. “It’s primarily through a colleague of ours based in Washington as well, who previously had worked with the Delta team in your Ministry of Defense. I think in this field we are interested to partner in as many ways as we can.”
During the video call, both Baker and Zier commented that they had met Umerov previously and were pleased to be speaking to him again. The faux-Umerov appears to have kept his camera turned off for the duration of the meeting.
Vladimir Kuznetsov, the member of the Russian comedy duo known as Vovan, told The Intercept the prank was simple to arrange.
“We initially contacted a senior Ukrainian official in San Francisco, posing as Mr. Umerov,” Kuznetsov said. “It turned out that he had been working to establish connections with OpenAI through the Ukrainian diaspora in California. He was already in touch with Sasha Baker, especially since she had maintained close ties with Ukraine during her time at the U.S. Department of Defense. Believing he was speaking with Umerov, the official offered to arrange a meeting with OpenAI.”
The conversation touched on other topics, including whether OpenAI could help protect against the influence of Elon Musk, and President Donald Trump’s sentiments on the war.
“I’m afraid we probably can’t help you with Elon Musk,” said Baker. “He’s not a fan of our CEO either, if it helps you at all. So, we’re in the same boat.”
Of Trump’s increasingly icy stance on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Baker said, “It’s unfortunate. Of course, we’ve been reading in the news the back and forth and the comments from the U.S. president. But I do want to reassure you that I think the majority of the U.S. government, the U.S. people certainly, and our researchers are very supportive of Ukraine.”
America has an insatiable appetite for computing power. But the failure of technology companies, energy providers, policymakers, and local communities to find common ground may pose a greater threat to responsible progress than the infrastructure challenges themselves.
We’re building the infrastructure of tomorrow while fighting the political battles of yesterday.
Across America, data centers have become flashpoints in an increasingly polarized debate. Supporters see opportunities for economic growth, technological innovation, and national competitiveness. Opponents worry about electricity costs, water resources, environmental consequences, and the communities they call home.
Both have legitimate concerns. Both deserve to be heard.
Yet instead of working together, we’re watching another consequential national issue deteriorate into competing political positions and confrontations over who wins and who loses.
What if the greatest obstacle to responsible technological progress isn’t the technology itself, but our inability to sit down together and make thoughtful decisions?
Perhaps it’s time to stop taking sides and return to the round table.
The future of farmland is on the table in the data center discussion (GlimHux02/Shutterstock)
A Tale of Two Washington Communities
Washington state offers a compelling illustration of both the opportunities and challenges.
In Quincy, a small agricultural community in Central Washington, data centers have become an important economic engine. Technology investment has expanded the tax base and helped finance roads, public facilities, and community services.
As stated in The Newsfeed, August 17, 2026 on Cascade PBS, Mayor Paul Worley has emphasized these improvements. Former Mayor Patty Martin, however, has expressed concerns about farmland, resource consumption, and changes to the community’s character.
Quincy illustrates that economic success doesn’t eliminate the need for responsible planning. If anything, it makes thoughtful long-term planning even more important.
Now consider Walla Walla County, where Amazon is pursuing a proposed $4.8 billion, multiphase data center development near the Columbia River. (Washington State Standard, October 6, 2026)
The project could bring substantial investment, employment opportunities, and tax revenue. County officials point to its location within an established industrial zone as evidence that the site is appropriate.
But some residents see a different picture.
They’re questioning water consumption, electricity requirements, environmental impacts, and the transparency of decisions made before the public fully understood what was proposed.
According to the Washington State Standard, port commissioners signed a nondisclosure agreement with Amazon in March 2023, preventing them from publicly identifying the company behind the development until 2026.
Amazon held a community open house in August, 2026, and published project information.
County officials maintain they’ve made significant efforts to inform the public.
Cooling and power are required ingredients for data centers (eric1207cvb/Shutterstock)
Notably, on October 2, 2026, Amazon announced that it would stop using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies on future data center projects.
In retrospect, Amazon did conduct outreach, and there is credible evidence of that. But its first documented open house occurred roughly three and a half years after the March 2023 nondisclosure agreement and nearly two years after the original 2024 land arrangement.
That doesn’t establish that Amazon acted improperly, but it does illustrate the difference between making information available and involving residents early in consequential decisions.
Nevertheless, residents have demanded additional environmental review and a moratorium on data center development.
Government officials believe they’re pursuing legitimate economic development. A corporation sees an opportunity to invest billions. Residents believe decisions affecting their future advanced without sufficient public involvement.
The central question is no longer simply whether a data center should be built. It’s whether the decision-making process has been sufficiently transparent, whether the promised benefits and potential trade-offs have been thoroughly investigated and honestly communicated, and whether the public has been given the opportunity to weigh the outcome.
That’s fundamentally a leadership and communication challenge.
When Every Table Has Two Sides
Unfortunately, we live in an increasingly polarized political climate where confrontation is rewarded, cooperation is discouraged, and compromise is too often mistaken for weakness. Listening to an opposing viewpoint can be interpreted as surrender. Complex questions become simplistic choices between being for something or against it.
If you support technological development, you may be accused of disregarding communities and environmental concerns.
If you question a proposed development, you may be accused of opposing innovation and economic progress.
Neither characterization helps.
Once people become entrenched in opposing camps, the objective shifts from finding solutions to defending positions. But responsible leadership isn’t about winning every argument. It’s about finding solutions that serve the broader public interest.
Perhaps we need to reconsider the shape of the table itself.
A round table has no sides. No designated opponents. No privileged position from which one participant can dominate the conversation.
The author advocates bringing all sides to the data center discussion (Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock)
Everyone has a seat. Everyone has a voice. Everyone shares responsibility for what happens next.
Public Notification Is Not Public Participation
Major infrastructure projects move through complicated approval processes involving zoning, utilities, environmental reviews, and multiple government agencies.
Each step may satisfy legal requirements, but legal compliance and public confidence aren’t necessarily the same thing.
In many cases, residents may receive formal notification, an opportunity to submit comments, or a few minutes to speak at a public hearing.
Technically, the public has been consulted. But has it genuinely participated?
There’s an enormous difference between informing people about a decision and inviting them to help shape it.
Transparency isn’t achieved simply by publishing documents or holding hearings. Genuine transparency means providing understandable information, acknowledging uncertainties, and creating opportunities to influence decisions before they become effectively irreversible.
When residents believe consequential decisions have already been made behind closed doors, even worthwhile projects can become objects of suspicion.
We shouldn’t automatically assume improper motives. When I was young, my mother used to tell me, “All politicians are crooked.” That was a rather cynical view, but there’s a reality we shouldn’t ignore. Bad actors exist at every level of government and authority. Those who put self-interest above the public good have little interest in sitting around a table seeking common ground.
But I believe there are just as many good people, genuine champions of their communities and constituents, who want to do what’s right. People who understand that cooperation isn’t weakness, compromise isn’t surrender, and meaningful progress begins with a willingness to sit down, listen, and work together.
We should also recognize that economic development is a legitimate responsibility of government, and private investment is essential to a healthy economy.
But good intentions and procedural compliance aren’t substitutes for effective leadership.
Government officials must explain why decisions are being made, who benefits, and who bears the costs, both short- and long-term. Developers must communicate openly about potential consequences, including uncomfortable ones.
Communities, in turn, must participate constructively, evaluate credible information, and recognize that legitimate concerns don’t automatically make every development unacceptable.
Trust is a shared responsibility. Leadership must create the conditions in which it can grow.
Communication Is More Than Delivering Information
I’ve spent much of my professional career working with scientific, technical, corporate, and government leaders. One lesson has remained remarkably consistent.
Communication isn’t simply distributing information. It’s building understanding.
That requires listening, acknowledging uncertainty, respecting different perspectives, and sometimes accepting that someone else has identified a problem we overlooked.
(Yuganov Konstantin/Shutterstock)
Too often, organizations approach public engagement as a communications problem to be managed rather than a relationship built on mutual understanding and trust.
When the objective becomes gaining acceptance for a predetermined course of action, that’s persuasion, not collaboration.
Imagine instead that discussions about a proposed data center began around a round table.
Developers would explain technological requirements and economic opportunities. Utilities would clarify electrical capacity and potential costs to ratepayers. Environmental specialists would evaluate resource requirements and other impacts. Community residents would share their concerns, expectations, and ideas for protecting the places they call home. And together, they could explore creative solutions that might otherwise never emerge.
Would everyone agree? Certainly not.
Would some projects need to be redesigned, relocated, or rejected? Quite possibly.
But disagreement isn’t evidence of failure. In a healthy decision-making process, disagreement is often where better solutions begin.
Transparency invites people into the conversation. Communication builds understanding. Collaboration creates better decisions. Together, they provide the foundation for public trust.
Leadership Means Accepting Shared Responsibility
Responsible leadership begins with transparency, but it cannot end there.
Transparency must be accompanied by accountability, meaningful participation, and a willingness to reconsider decisions when legitimate concerns arise. Otherwise, it risks becoming little more than a public relations exercise.
Collaboration doesn’t mean everyone gets everything they want.
Responsible development requires difficult trade-offs and sometimes unpopular decisions. But those decisions should emerge from a process people can understand, scrutinize, and influence.
That means engaging communities early, making environmental and economic assessments accessible, and establishing clear expectations about infrastructure costs.
It means negotiating meaningful safeguards and community benefits rather than relying exclusively on permits and promises.
And accountability must continue long after construction ends.
The objective shouldn’t be to guarantee approval or rejection. It should be to ensure decisions are responsible, transparent, and informed by everyone affected.
The Round Table: A Model for Tackling Our Toughest Challenges
Similar tensions surround energy production, transportation, housing, water management, and countless other issues requiring cooperation among government, industry, and the public.
We cannot continue treating every disagreement as a contest in which one side must win and the other must lose.
Nor can we expect public trust to survive when people feel excluded from decisions shaping their futures.
Trust isn’t established through slogans, public relations campaigns, or promises of transparency.
It’s earned through behavior.
Through transparency when facts are uncomfortable. Honesty when answers are uncertain. Listening when criticism is difficult. Accountability when expectations aren’t met.
Progress shouldn’t be measured solely by how quickly we build, how much we invest, or how much computing power we create. It should also be measured by how responsibly we make decisions and how well we treat the people whose lives those decisions affect.
Perhaps the first step toward better outcomes isn’t another political argument or carefully crafted statement defending a position.
Perhaps it’s something far more meaningful.
Pull up a chair. Sit down at a round table. And start listening.
About the author: Mike Bernhardt is a seasoned expert in strategic communications, marketing, market relations, and stakeholder engagement, with over 30 years of experience advising organizations at the forefront of high-performance computing and emerging technologies.
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views of HPCwire.
Members of Congress seek to ‘bring sanity’ to system but decline to give details on plans to reform or abolish agency
A group of congressional Democrats on Wednesday pushed for immediate efforts to rein in the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement operation and “bring sanity” to an immigration system that Donald Trump said, after his party’s midterm drubbing, had been “too tough” in certain aspects.
Just over a week after the midterm elections in which the US president’s harsh crackdown on immigration fueled a voter backlash against Republicans, some sitting and newly elected Democrats gathered outside the US Capitol in Washington to advocate for a bipartisan approach to reforms – even as they gear up to take control of both legislative chambers next year.
Democrat chatted up people at hair salons, colleges and at Trump rallies to become Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction
The ad is simple, less than half a minute long, but many say it was the moment the nation took notice of Mississippi’s US Senate race.
In it, the incumbent Republican senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a cattle farmer, answers a reporter’s question about the rising price of beef: “You know, you have so many proteins to choose from,” she says.
(The Center Square) - Democratic candidate Scott Colom flipped Mississippi’s U.S. Senate seat, bringing the upper chamber to a 55 seat Democrat majority.
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI — Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s closely fought U.S. Senate race Wednesday, becoming the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction and expanding the Democratic Senate majority to 55 seats.
Hyde-Smith conceded after several days of counting absentee and provisional ballots. Colom led by roughly 4,600 votes, about half a percentage point, with nearly all ballots counted. The Associated Press called the race after late returns made it clear the remaining ballots were insufficient to erase his lead.
Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, becomes Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator since Blanche Bruce left office in 1881 and the state’s first Democratic senator since 1982.
His victory is especially striking in a state Donald Trump carried by nearly 23 points in 2024. Colom campaigned heavily on affordability, rising food and fuel costs, and dissatisfaction with Republican economic policies. Hyde-Smith’s widely criticized suggestion that consumers upset about beef prices should “pick another protein” became a recurring campaign issue.
In his victory speech at Tougaloo College, Colom displayed a placard reading “Picked Another Senator,” turning Hyde-Smith’s remark into a final campaign jab.
The win gives Democrats a projected 55-44 Senate advantage, with one race still unresolved, and marks one of the most significant Democratic breakthroughs in the South during the 2026 midterm wave.
Group attending Veterans Day ceremony sharply reminded by sentinel to maintain ‘silence and respect’ at sacred site
A US army sentinel guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier loudly reprimanded the embattled US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and his top staffers on Wednesday, after some in the group were heard laughing and talking near the memorial following a Veterans Day ceremony.
According to video captured by the TV network pool, Hegseth was with his wife, Jennifer, chief of staff Ricky Buria, deputy chief of staff Patrick Weaver and senior adviser and deputy assistant Tami Radabaugh walking up the steps in front of the memorial after posing for pictures. A laugh is audible, prompting the guard to yell: “All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times.” Hegseth looked over his shoulder in the direction of the soldier as he continued walking up the steps.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is facing scrutiny over an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. Now, The New York Times reports that Mr. Huang also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company's vice president of health care and a direct report, raising questions about conflicts of interest and compliance with the company's policies governing personal relationships. From the report: The relationship, which has not been previously reported, was with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care, said the people, who spoke under the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive information. Under Nvidia's code of conduct, employees are told to "avoid situations where our actions create conflict" including "personal relationships," and the company states that it "promptly investigates reports of misconduct." Many corporations have policies against managers having relationships with subordinates.
Mr. Huang, 63, and Ms. Powell, 48, were captured on video being affectionate at a San Jose, Calif., hotel during a Nvidia conference in March, according to two of the people who worked at the company. The New York Times has not seen the video. Both Mr. Huang and Ms. Powell are married to other people. [...] One bystander captured the interaction on their phone, three people briefed on the incident said. Mr. Huang's security witnessed the bystander with their phone and sequestered them, the people said. They made the person an offer to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Further reading: Nvidia and Jensen Huang Face Shareholder Lawsuit Alleging Investors Were Misled About Spy Affair
Remains believed to have belonged to Africans or Afro-Brazilians repatriated after being flown back by diplomats
Two skulls, including that of a man believed to have taken part in Brazil’s greatest slave revolt but whose remains were taken to the United States and used in racist eugenics studies at Harvard University, were repatriated on Wednesday.
The remains had been outside Brazil since the 19th century. One was taken about 190 years ago from Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia; the other, about 160 years ago, from Rio de Janeiro – and were welcomed back in moving, subdued ceremonies in both cities.
Even though Florida defied midterm trends to maintain Republican control, its incoming governor acknowledged that voters hit a breaking point over high living costs.
In a Nov. 8 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Kristen Welker played Florida Gov.-elect Byron Donalds a clip of the state’s current Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, criticizing GOP candidates who blamed high gas prices on former President Joe Biden, instead of the Iran war.
Donalds challenged that claim.
“I didn’t really hear any Republicans trying to blame gas prices today on what the Biden team was doing,” he said, pivoting to oil shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
“I actually just read an article from the Wall Street Journal about this,” he said. “The insurance costs of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have gone up substantially, even though there’s more oil going through the strait today than there was pre-war.”
That’s misleading, and omits key context about oil flow in the region.
Donalds did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for more information. But he referenced theWall Street Journal, which published an Oct. 20 story headlined, “More oil is now coming out of the Persian Gulf than before the Iran war.”
The article describes a single week in October during which more oil was transported through the Persian Gulf — which includes, but is not limited to, the Strait of Hormuz — compared with pre-war levels of about 23 million barrels per day, according to ship tracker Kpler.
It’s important to note that the region’s oil flows fluctuate, and different tracking organizations arrive at varying figures. And, as The Wall Street Journal story also notes, the average amount of oil passing through the strait itself remains below pre-war levels, refuting Donalds’ statement.
Skip York, an energy and global oil fellow at Rice University’s Center for Energy Studies, said there were several days in October when oil moving through the Gulf region reached over 20 million barrels per day, but the flow isn’t exceeding pre-conflict levels.
That traffic doesn’t mean the U.S.-Iran conflict is winding down or that operations in the strait have returned to normal, experts said. Instead, it’s driven by money: Oil traders and ship operators stand to profit massively if they are able to get oil through the strait to sell to international markets.
“What makes this remarkable is that we have seen increasing traffic through Hormuz even though the middle of the month saw a dramatic ramp-up of attempted Iranian interdictions (drone and missile attacks),” York said in an email. “In fact, about half of the vessels hit since the conflict started in March happened in the month of October.”
More oil is moving through Hormuz since war began, but below pre-war levels
During the week ending Oct. 18, The Wall Street Journal reported that overall Middle East oil flows, including shipments through Hormuz and alternative routes across the region, averaged more than 24 million barrels a day, surpassing pre-war levels of 23.3 million barrels a day, according to ship tracker Kpler.
The story sayspreliminary figures show Hormuz oil flows, including offshore transfers in the Gulf of Oman, “came to around 14 million barrels a day on average for the same period, or 82% of pre-war levels.”
Other data show that Strait of Hormuz traffic has remained below pre-war levels.
Vortexa, a data analytics company for global energy and freight markets, looked at all Middle East oil flows, which includes flows through the strait and exports from Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, the United Arab Emirates and Oman’s ports outside of the strait. For the same week ending Oct. 18, Vortexa found those flows reached 19.2 million barrels a day.That’s below the 24 million barrels that Journal cited, but marks some of the highest oil flows through the Persian Gulf since the war began.
The following week, Vortexa estimated that 15.1 million barrels of oil made it through the Gulf region per day, and 17.1 million barrels per day the week after that. In the Strait of Hormuz alone, the organization found that 9.2 million barrels of oil made it through each day in the week ending Oct. 18.
Reuters reported Nov. 3 that Gulf oil exports dipped in October from September, when exports were the highest since the war started.
Vortexa found Middle East flows of crude and refined oil products averaged around 17.1 million barrels per day in October, according to Reuters, a drop from 18.9 million barrels per day in September. The figures could be revised upward slightly as tankers have ramped up efforts to avoid detection, and could be missing from official estimates.
&&
Tanker Trackers, a maritime intelligence company that tracks oil shipments found that overall Middle East crude oil exports averaged around 18.7 million barrels per day in the week ending Nov. 5. During that time, the organization said 13.1 million barrels went through Hormuz, below pre-war levels.
Increased tanker traffic through the strait has to do with profit, not security
Heightened wartime oil traffic in the region shows charterers and boat operators are willing to take safety risks for big payouts.
“It’s the exact opposite of a success story,” said Clark Williams-Derry, an energy finance analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, who also pointed to attacks on ships traversing the strait hitting an all-time high in October. Any recovery in oil flows happened in spite of the volatile maritime environment, he said.
Some Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq, dropped the asking price for oil in order to lure back buyers who had been scared off by the war’s shipping risks in the strait or nearby waterways.
To capture profits from shipping oil from the Gulf to much higher-priced international markets, charterers (such as national oil companies that hire ships or tankers to transport oil) are paying astronomical daily freight rates of around $1 milliona day, energy experts said.
“If you can move a million barrels of oil through the Strait, you can make tens of millions of dollars on a short-ish trip to Asia. Worth it to find a vessel that’s willing to take the risk,” Williams-Derry said.
The situation remains precarious. Movement through the strait could stall if fighting resumes and the expensive operation contributes to ongoing high prices at the pump.
&&
Our ruling
Donalds said, “There’s more oil going through the Strait (of Hormuz) today than there was pre-war.”
In recent weeks, daily oil flows through the Persian Gulf region, which includes the Strait of Hormuz and alternative routes, have occasionally matched or exceeded pre-war levels, but it isn’t happening consistently.
The average amount of oil passing through the strait itself remains below pre-war levels.
Oil flows through the region, and the strait, remain lower than before the war began.
Gulf shipping routes are still dangerous, with tankers braving them for big payouts, not because of improved security.
Donalds’ statement contains an element of truth — regional oil flows have occasionally surpassed prewar levels — but it misleads in that wartime flows through the strait itself are lower than they were before the war. We rate it Mostly False. PolitiFact Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this report.
Forty years ago, on the evening of October 5, 1986, I sat conferring with members of my local Nicaragua solidarity organization. We were trying to understand the implications of the day’s events in San Carlos, a small town in southern Nicaragua. A young Sandinista soldier had fired a shoulder-launched missile, bringing down a plane in a wreck survived by one Eugene H. Hasenfus. The plane contained U.S.-supplied weapons destined for the Contras, the counter-revolutionary force illegally supported by the CIA to overthrow the Nicaraguan government.
Hasenfus was captured, tried, and convicted of terrorism, and then, in a clever PR move by the Sandinista government, pardoned and released in time to spend Christmas at home with his family in Wisconsin.
Hasenfus’s capture — along with his planeload of AK-47s, 50,000 rifle cartridges, some shoulder-mounted missiles, and grenades — provided concrete evidence of something we’d known for a while: The Reagan administration was actively defying Congress by illegally funding and supplying the Contras. In those years, the Boland amendments (addenda to laws funding U.S. intelligence agencies) prohibited the CIA from using appropriated monies to support the Contras. Hasenfus’s capture not only demonstrated that those amendments were being violated, but also eventually led to the unraveling of a much bigger plot, known today as the Iran–Contra affair.
Oliver North, Iran, and “The Enterprise”
The trail from Hasenfus led to a military aide at the National Security Council, Oliver North, who was running a project to fund the Contras — with money from congressionally outlawed missile sales to Iran. Iran needed the military hardware for a brutal war of attrition with neighboring Iraq. The Reagan administration wanted to free U.S. hostages held in Iran and by Iran’s ally Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. So the arms-for-hostages deal was cooked up. Ollie North saw a way to use that one illegal deal to enable a second one. He would funnel unappropriated funds for the Contras by charging Iran a steep markup on the weapons and stashing the difference in Swiss bank accounts, outside U.S. government control.
At the suggestion of CIA Director William Casey, North had recruited Richard V. Secord, a retired Air Force major general, to establish what they called “the Enterprise.” North would later describe the Enterprise as an “off-the-shelf, self-sustaining, stand-alone entity that could perform certain activities,” i.e., covert overseas operations. The congressional committee that eventually investigated the Iran–Contra affair reported:
The Enterprise, functioning largely at North’s direction, had its own airplanes, pilots, airfield, operatives, ship, secure communications devices, and secret Swiss bank accounts. For 16 months, it served as the secret arm of the N.S.C. staff, carrying out with private and non-appropriated money, and without the accountability or restrictions imposed by law on the CIA, a covert Contra aid program that Congress thought it had prohibited.
North became something of a comic figure in U.S. history, especially after the escapade in which he choked a government office shredder during a late-night document “shredding party.” He and the coterie of implicated officials both above and below him all received pardons from incoming President George H. W. Bush, who’d served as Reagan’s vice president.
There is no way of knowing just how large North’s Enterprise might have grown had Hasenfus’s plane not been shot down, or what other sorts of dirty money-making businesses it might have spawned. Perhaps today we’d be living in a country with a largely self-funding, and therefore (even more) unaccountable, national security apparatus.
Big, “Dirty” Business in Venezuela
I thought about the Iran–Contra affair and North’s Enterprise for the first time in years when I read that Pete Hegseth’s Defense Department is getting into the oil business in Venezuela. Under the new arrangement, the Department of Defense would receive “penny warrants” for an ownership stake in at least one company developing Venezuelan oil fields. These warrants, according to the New York Times, “would give the Pentagon the option to take up to a 35 percent stake in the parent company” of North American Blue Energy Partners.
The company, which is legally registered in Barbados, is run by Alejandro Betancourt López, a Nicolás Maduro crony, around whom corruption rumors have swirled for at least a decade. The deal would also provide the Defense Department with the right to purchase up to 20 percent of the company’s oil output “at production cost” and first refusal on the remaining 80 percent, presumably at market rates.
There are a number of issues to consider here: The U.S. invasion’s legality, the logistical difficulties of extracting and using Venezuela’s “dirty” crude, and, of course, the human folly of pouring even more oil on the climate fire. But what especially caught my attention in the Times story is that the Pentagon taking an equity stake in a private oil company looks a lot like a new edition of North’s off-the-shelf operation from the 1980s.
The Pentagon isn’t alone among federal agencies acquiring ownership stakes in a variety of companies. Perhaps most notable is the Commerce Department’s purchase of an almost 10 percent interest in the chip manufacturer Intel for $8.9 billion, a stake that’s now reportedly worth $42 billion. As the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported in February, “the Trump administration is acquiring a strategic portfolio of investments in companies directly related to national security, spanning minerals, nuclear energy, and semiconductors, among other sectors.”
The CSIS report lists several smaller — though still enormous — Defense Department equity investments, among them:
Vulcan Elements, a manufacturer of rare earth magnets: warrants to purchase equity at an undisclosed fixed price; $620 million loan against a $50 million equity stake
MP Materials, a rare earth magnet manufacturer: 15 percent stake for $400 million
Korea Zinc, a joint venture with Commerce and private investors in a Tennessee smelting installation; Defense Department to take 40 percent ownership, total cost $1.9 billion
ReElement Technologies, a rare earth magnet recycler: warrants for future stock purchase; $80 million from Defense “matched by private capital”
Trilogy Metals, a Canada-based company with Alaskan mining rights: 10 percent stake purchased for $35.6 million, with warrants to purchase another 7.5 percent
Since that report was published, DoD has continued to expand its portfolio with other equity purchases, which seem to be aimed at least in part on restocking American weapons reserves depleted by the Iran war:
“American Nuremberg,” by Rebecca Gordon. Available on Bookshop.org.
Hertha Metals: an apparent $65 million investment — for an undisclosed number of shares — in a steel manufacturer. The libertarian Cato Institute, which generally opposes federal ownership stakes in corporations, called the investment with Hertha an “apparent” deal, as only the company, not the DoD, has announced it publicly.
Beyond taking direct ownership shares in corporations, DoD continues to diversify its loan portfolio beyond traditional military materials. For example, President Donald Trump recently promised a $100 million Pentagon investment to rebuild a pharmaceutical factory in Winchester, Kentucky — but only if Republicans won the midterms in that state.
How Does Government Ownership of Corporations Work?
The federal government has taken temporary partial ownership of U.S. corporations before Trump’s current string of acquisitions. What makes this round of purchases different is that it seems the Pentagon intends to make them permanent. In the past, when the federal government acquired warrants or corporate shares, the move was part of a program to shore up failing institutions in the midst of a more general financial disaster.
This was the case with the Troubled Assets Relief Program, which formed part of the Obama administration’s response to the 2008 fiscal crisis, and more recently when airlines faced bankruptcy during the 2020-21 Covid pandemic. In neither case did the government retain permanent ownership of the entities it bailed out.
The evidence is that this time around, the Trump administration envisions permanent ownership stakes in companies it deems essential to military preparedness and national security. In the case of the Pentagon, two related offices are responsible for overseeing DoD’s equity investments.
The Office of Strategic Capital was established in 2022 during Joe Biden’s administration and funded under the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024. The OSC’s initial purpose was to facilitate Pentagon loans to industries it deems crucial to national security. Other parts of DoD use grants or purchases to get money to defense industries. Only OSC can lend those corporations money. Still, neither the NDAA for 2024 nor subsequent NDAAs permits the OSC to buy shares in companies.
The OSC received a huge funding boost under Trump’s 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act. While simultaneously meting out drastic cuts to programs that support Americans’ actual everyday security — such as Medicaid, nutritional assistance, housing, and student loans — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act awarded OSC $1.5 billion in additional funds.
The other entity tasked with overseeing Defense equity investments is the Economic Defense Unit. Established this year through an internal DoD memo, the EDU offers a hint that the Pentagon isn’t ready to give up on capital. Like the Office of Strategic Capital, the EDU is overseen by Defense Department Undersecretary Stephen Feinberg, a billionaire, major Trump donor, and co-founder of the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.
EDU’s ostensible purpose is to coordinate U.S. economic competition with adversaries such as China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. But reporting suggests another reason Feinberg established the unit. Quoting a knowledgeable inside source, The American Prospect says that the EDU “operates as a ‘venture capital firm-type entity that looks at deals, what the government’s going to do and evaluates them,’” determining what the government’s ownership stake should be.
Available information points to an investment apparatus being created within the Pentagon, staffed by financiers connected to the same private-equity world that stands to benefit from it.
It sounds like another attempt by the administration to construct a pseudo-sovereign wealth fund controlled by the executive branch.
In other words, the Economic Defense Unit looks like the beginning of a Defense Department investment bank.
As of today, no law explicitly permits the Pentagon to own pieces of corporations or to develop its own pseudo-investment bank, but the 2027 NDAA may change that.
In the meantime, what happens to any revenue derived from DoD’s investments? Such income could include interest on loans, share dividends, or proceeds from the sale of equities. Legally, any such income should be deposited to the U.S. Treasury within three days, according to the U.S. legal code section § 3302(b), perhaps in the Pentagon’s Industrial Base Fund at Treasury.
History tells us North sent the Iran–Contra money to Swiss banks, not the U.S. Treasury. Can we trust Hegseth — who just this week survived an impeachment vote — and his boss not to do something similar with the Pentagon’s earnings today? How would we even know if that trust were violated?
Just Like Egypt and Iran?
The prospect of a metastasizing U.S. Defense Department may seem far-fetched, but it’s already happened in a number of other countries. In Egypt, popular demonstrations brought down President Hosni Mubarak, the country’s effective dictator, during the 2011 Arab Spring. After a brief period under an increasingly unpopular elected president, the Egyptian military staged a coup and has ruled the country directly ever since.
But Egypt’s army is more than a military force. It’s the most powerful economic entity in the country as well. As the Carnegie Middle East Center describes the situation, the Egyptian military has its tentacles in every aspect of Egypt’s economy. Members of the military:
… deliver massive infrastructure projects, produce consumer goods ranging from food to household appliances, manufacture industrial chemicals and transport equipment, and import basic commodities for civilian markets. They have expanded into new sectors as diverse as steel production, pharmaceuticals, gold prospecting, and managing religious endowments and pilgrimage.
At the same time, “thousands of retired senior officers have benefited from the powerful political influence of the military to occupy senior positions throughout the state’s civilian apparatus and public sector companies, securing extra postretirement incomes for themselves while complementing the formal military economy in return.”
(This sounds a lot like the egregious post-service opportunities promised to the investment bankers being recruited to work in the Pentagon’s EDU. After serving on the Pentagon’s new 30-person investment team, where they would have “unmatched access to top-level government officials and privileged information flow,” the recruitment pitch goes, “if you ever want to raise your own fund, you will gain access to fund-raising channels that include royal families and foreign sovereign contacts,” according to the New York Times.)
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has emerged as Iran’s most powerful economic force, plays a similar role, according to CSIS:
The IRGC now owns businesses in the oil and gas sectors, as well as land, marine, and air transportation. The IRGC-owned company, Khatam al-Anbiya, established as the IRGC’s arm in the construction sector, currently controls 812 officially registered Iranian companies which have a total of some 1,700 governmental contracts. Another IRGC-owned company has also recently bought a 51 percent stake in the Iranian Telecommunications company that was privatized at a value of $5 billion.
Can It Happen Here?
Could the Pentagon really emerge as an economic power in its own right, one that operates in tandem with, but parallel to, the federal government? Not tomorrow, certainly, but now is the time to step on the brakes to prevent that scenario.
The prospect of an economically independent U.S. military would be frightening under any circumstances. But it becomes both more frightening and more likely with a Pentagon that Hegseth is reshaping in his own white Christian nationalist and misogynist image. He’s already removed many of the potential human guardrails by purging long-serving top military leadership. As long as DoD doesn’t threaten any of the enterprises of the Trump family and friends — including those of Don Jr. and Eric Trump, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff — we can expect little resistance from the demented relic in the White House.
Fortunately, Hegseth is not the sharpest bayonet in the armory. As with many aspects of this nightmare administration, we may yet be saved from a metastasizing Pentagon by the ineptitude of its leader. Let us work to make it so.
Exclusive: Madeleine Alessandri, chair of the joint intelligence committee, will take on the role of advising No 10 on climate-related national security risks
The UK government has appointed the world’s first special representative for climate security, in the strongest sign yet of fears that climate breakdown will bring chaos to the country.
Prime minister Andy Burnham will announce the move on Thursday at Cop31, the UN climate summit, with the new role designed to advise the government on national security risks from the climate crisis before they spell catastrophe.
Warriors star defends wife over romantic comedy role
Arenas called Ayesha ‘only blemish’ on Curry family
Four-time NBA champion condemns double standards
Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry has criticized several ex-professional athletes for questioning his wife Ayesha’s decision to appear in a romantic comedy featuring an on-screen kiss, accusing them of diminishing her accomplishments and perpetuating double standards about women.
The four-time NBA champion posted a 90-second video on Instagram on Wednesday in response to comments by former NBA players Gilbert Arenas and Nick Young, as well as former NFL players Emmanuel Acho and LeSean McCoy, following the release of Ayesha Curry’s new film, Second Chance Holiday.
SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 11, 2026 — Super Micro Computer, Inc. today announced that its H15 generation server portfolio is now shipping. Powered by the 6th Gen AMD EPYC 9006 Series processors (formerly codenamed “Venice”), the H15 portfolio is a core component of Supermicro’s DCBBS architecture. Optimized for next-generation GPUs, including AMD Instinct accelerators, these industry-leading systems deliver rack-scale performance designed for the agentic AI era and enable customers to deploy high-performance AI infrastructure more rapidly.
Supermicro’s latest H15 server portfolio—powered by 6th Gen AMD EPYC 9006 Series processors—achieved outstanding benchmark results, setting multiple SPEC CPU world records on the 2U Hyper and CloudDC servers demonstrating generational leaps in performance and speed.
“With the H15 portfolio now shipping, Supermicro and AMD are giving customers a faster, more efficient path to an agentic AI infrastructure,” said Michael McNerney, senior vice president, Marketing, Supermicro. “Built on our DCBBS architecture and powered by 6th Gen AMD EPYC 9006 processors, these servers deliver substantially higher core density, memory bandwidth, and PCIe throughput. Our close engineering collaboration with AMD provides customers the flexibility to scale AI, cloud, and enterprise workloads with confidence.”
“Shipping the latest high-performance AMD EPYC processor is essential to advancing AI on every scale. Our close collaboration with Supermicro ensures customers receive optimized platforms that combine leading CPU performance with Instinct GPUs, AMD Pensando networking, and modular designs,” said Dan McNamara, senior vice president and general manager, Compute and Enterprise AI, AMD. “These platforms help organizations deploy AI infrastructure faster, improve utilization, reduce energy use, and lower total cost of ownership while running more concurrent agents and demanding enterprise workloads.”
The ready-to-ship H15 server portfolio includes purpose-built, high-density systems optimized for cloud, HPC, and agentic AI workloads, delivering exceptional performance and multiple SPEC CPU world records on the 2U Hyper and CloudDC platforms. Supermicro’s broad range of AMD EPYC 9006 SP7 and SP8 socket servers—spanning performance workstations and edge systems to high-density multi-node and enterprise GPU servers—positions Supermicro as a single-source partner for data center CPU, GPU, and storage. In parallel, Supermicro is expanding its AMD CPU- and GPU-powered rack-scale infrastructure with the new Helios and Helion platforms, providing end-to-end options from agentic to hyperscale AI deployments.
Supermicro’s DCBBS delivers complete, modular AI infrastructure with end-to-end deployment flexibility, bringing the latest AMD-powered data center solutions to customers with fast time-to-market. Combining DCBBS designs with AMD server CPU, GPU, and networking architecture enables customers to bring next-generation AI infrastructure to market faster, with 33% more cores, 2× PCIe bandwidth, and 2.6× higher memory bandwidth. Together, this enables Supermicro and AMD to provide enterprise customers with 1.8× higher tokens per second for frontier-model host nodes compared to previous generations of AMD CPUs.
Supermicro’s comprehensive portfolio of more than 20 optimized systems includes:
Hyper: The flagship dual-socket platform engineered for enterprise applications, AI inference, virtualization, and cloud workloads, with advanced thermal design to support the highest-performance AMD EPYC processors
CloudDC: A single-socket system for cloud-scale environments, built on the Open Compute Project (OCP) Data Center Modular Hardware System (DC-MHS) specification for open data center standards
FlexTwin: A 1 OU (ORv3), two-node, liquid-cooled, high-performance, high-density dual-CPU compute system for cloud-native and hyperscale deployments
GrandTwin: A high-density 2U 2-node, single-socket architecture designed for scale-out environments, including object storage, virtualization, cloud services, and HPC
Petascale Storage: 2U high-capacity all-flash storage platforms optimized for software-defined storage-based AI data lakes, large-scale analytics, and HPC environments, supporting up to 4.8 PB per system
SuperBlade: The H15 6U SuperBlade supports both single-socket and dual-socket blade configurations, with air- and liquid-cooled versions optimized for maximum density, high performance, and efficiency
Next-Generation Rack-Scale Data Center Solutions
Supermicro and AMD are collaborating closely to bring the Helios and Helion rack-scale solutions to market, delivering complete end-to-end AI infrastructure for enterprise customers. Both solutions are optimized for large-scale and agentic AI deployments, each with a distinct focus. Helios is built for maximum GPU performance, powered by AMD Instinct MI455X GPUs to accelerate frontier model training and high-throughput inference. Helion is designed for compute performance and deployment flexibility, built on the latest 6th Gen AMD EPYC CPUs.
Both solutions integrate seamlessly with Supermicro’s DCBBS architecture, combining rack-scale system design, leading AMD AI compute, and integrated software innovations into a single cohesive platform.
Click here to learn how Supermicro DCBBS can help build and scale your next-generation AI infrastructure.
About Super Micro Computer, Inc.
Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI) is a global leader in Application-Optimized Total IT Solutions. Founded and operating in San Jose, California, Supermicro is committed to delivering first-to-market innovation for Enterprise, Cloud, AI, and 5G Telco/Edge IT Infrastructure. We are a Total IT Solutions provider with server, AI, storage, IoT, switch systems, software, and support services. Supermicro’s motherboard, power, and chassis design expertise further enables our development and production, enabling next-generation innovation from cloud to edge for our global customers. Our products are designed and manufactured in-house (in the US, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Netherlands), leveraging global operations for scale and efficiency and optimized to improve TCO and reduce environmental impact (Green Computing). The award-winning portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions allows customers to optimize for their exact workload and application by selecting from a broad family of systems built from our flexible and reusable building blocks that support a comprehensive set of form factors, processors, memory, GPUs, storage, networking, power, and cooling solutions (air-conditioned, free air cooling or liquid cooling).
(The Center Square) – Interest costs on the national debt totaled $1.4 trillion in fiscal 2026, according to an audit of Treasury's books released by the Government Accountability Office. About $1.1 trillion of that was paid out to bondholders, with…
Charlotte Web shares a report from the Associated Press: A shareholder has sued Nvidia and its CEO, Jensen Huang, accusing them of deceiving investors in their responses to media reports about Huang's affair with a purported Chinese spy that threatens national security. [...] The news reports said that the Commerce Department was investigating Alice Huang's company, Singapore-based Megaspeed, on suspicions that it was helping to sidestep U.S. export restrictions blocking Nvidia chips from being sold to China. But Nvidia said then that its compliance team checked and determined that Megaspeed wasn't doing anything illegal.
But, according to the complaint, the statements were misleading because they were made when Jensen Huang was having an affair with Alice Huang, who is "suspected of seeking to help smuggle Nvidia products into China." It accuses Nvidia and Huang of failing to disclose the affair and issuing false statements about Nvidia's relationship with Megaspeed, which posed a "material risk" to Nvidia's reputation and business prospects.
[...] "As a result of Defendants' wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Company's securities, Plaintiff and other Class members have suffered significant losses and damages," the complaint said. Had investors known the truth, they wouldn't have purchased Nvidia's shares "at the artificially inflated prices that they did, or at all," the complaint said. "Fun fact: Nvidia donated $25 million to Trump's White House ballroom fund," notes Slashdot reader Charlotte Web.
UPDATE: The New York Times reports that Huang also also had an extramarital relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company's vice president of health care and a direct report.
Move comes as chipmaker reels from reports its CEO was having an affair with an alleged Chinese spy
Nvidia has appointed a leading US law firm to conduct a “thorough and independent” investigation into the relationship between its chief executive, Jensen Huang, and an alleged Chinese spy.
The $4.1tn (£3tn) chipmaker’s board has hired New York-based Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz for the investigation, which will be led by the Wachtell partner Joon Kim. The firm’s website describes Kim, a former government prosecutor in New York, as a specialist in areas including internal investigations, white-collar criminal and regulatory defence, and crisis management.
The US men’s national team have pulled out of the Fifa U-17 World Cup, which is due to kick off in Qatar in just over a week. In a letter sent to players explaining the decision, the US Soccer Federation cited safety concerns for players and staff, referring them to the US state department’s travel advisory for Qatar, which encourages citizens to reconsider travel to the country “due to risk of armed conflict” and asks government employees to obtain special authorization to do so.
“Unfortunately, in light of current circumstances … we are no longer able to participate in the tournament,” US Soccer’s letter to players reads. “The wellbeing of our players and staff will always be our top priority.
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth and members of his team were reprimanded by a US sentinel at Arlington national cemetery after the Veterans Day commemoration that Donald Trumped attended on 11 November
The North American affairs specialist entered the diplomatic service just after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union and was appointed ambassador in March 2025.
(The Center Square) - Political parties spent a record-breaking $11.8 billion in advertising for the 2026 midterm elections, with varying results across the country.
Thinking about spending Christmas somewhere different this year? Across the country, small towns are getting ready for the holidays with Christmas lights, parades, and traditions that draw visitors year after year. Here are five places worth checking out this Christmas…
Spotlight Delaware is proud to host its second annual Our Delaware Cultural Festival this Sunday, November 15, at Arsht Hall in Wilmington, celebrating the diverse communities that make up the First State. The festival returns with an expanded slate of performances and representation from 13 heritage and affinity groups, as well as award-winning food trucks and free activities for kids.
“Last year, the Our Delaware Festival was one of the great joys of our holiday season, with so many groups that have their own festivals coming together to dance and celebrate under one roof,” said Allison Taylor Levine, publisher and CEO of Spotlight Delaware. “This year, with even more groups participating, the festival will showcase the history and traditions of so much of our state.”
Groups performing at this year’s festival include:
Ballet Folklorico México Lindo
Delaware Chinese American Association
Lanetzach Tzi’irim – Folk Dance Troupe from Adas Kodesch Shel Emeth Synagogue
Nanticoke Indian Dance Troupe
Nrithyalavanyam School of Dance
Priyanka’s Nritya Academy
Rainbow Chorale
Sankofa African Drum and Dance Troupe
Terpsichorean Dance Group from the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral
YMCA Essence Legacy Performing Arts
JoAnn Balingit, former Delaware State poet laureate (providing a concluding poem)
“The performances were an audience highlight of last year’s event,” said David Stradley, director for community engagement. “So we’ve leaned into that aspect this year. Most of the groups will also offer chances for audience participation. Last year, I joined in an Israeli folk dance. I can’t wait to see what new experiences I’ll have this year, along with attendees.”
In connection to Delaware 250 celebrations honoring the country’s independence, the Our Delaware Cultural Festival will celebrate the different people who have come to call the First State home. Eleven heritage clubs, religious organizations, and affinity groups will represent their constituents and share their culture with attendees at the Heritage Fair, including:
Delaware Chinese American Association
Delaware Historical Society
Delaware Saengerbund
Hispanic American Association of Delaware
Indo-American Association of Delaware
Irish Culture Club of Delaware
Jewish Federation of Delaware
Latin American Community Center
Lenape Indian Tribe
New Sweden Alliance
St. Mary Coptic Church of Delaware
Six-time Best of Delaware Winner Mojo Loco 302 will be serving their unique take on street food, fusing global cuisines into flavorful tacos, quesadillas, grilled cheeses, and more. Mitch’s Mo’Better Chicken will also be on site, dishing out fried chicken, seafood, and sandwiches for the whole family. And if you need a pick-me-up, Tia Erika’s Cafe will be there with a full espresso bar, yerba mate, and signature lattes inspired by Latin American and Caribbean favorites.
And it wouldn’t be a festival without fun for the kids! Face painting, balloon art, and henna will be available free of charge for all attendees.
Anyone interested in volunteering at the Festival can contact David Stradley here.
Tickets are on sale now, and more information about the festival and its programming is also available. Tickets are $10 for adults and admission is free for children under 18. Food and drink is available for additional purchase.
La Red Health Center says federal support will strengthen care teams, expand transportation and improve coordination as Delaware builds out rural health services.
NEW CASTLE, Del. — Delaware will receive another $160.3 million in federal rural health funding, bringing its first two years of awards to nearly $317.7 million as the state works to expand access to care, particularly in Kent and Sussex counties.
The funding will support community health centers, medical education, technology and other initiatives. Measuring its return will require tracking whether those investments translate into more available appointments, a stronger health care workforce and more affordable care.
The Delaware Department of Health and Social Services announced the $160,294,521 second-year award Nov. 9. It is approximately $2.9 million more than Delaware’s first-year award of $157.4 million.
For Sussex County’s La Red Health Center, the support is intended to address practical barriers to receiving care, including transportation and coordination among providers.
What La Red plans for Sussex County
La Red was awarded approximately $10.1 million in first-year funding, according to the state’s September announcement of nearly $23 million for federally qualified health centers.
“This funding is an investment in the future of rural healthcare in our county,” said Rachel Hersh, president and CEO of La Red Health Center.
“It will allow us to strengthen La Red’s care teams, expand transportation support, and improve how we share information and coordinate care with hospitals and specialists,” she said. “For our patients, that means better-connected care, more support managing chronic conditions, and easier access to their own health information.”
Hersh said the funding also would strengthen prevention.
“It also means a stronger focus on prevention by helping patients get screenings, identify health problems early, and have the tools and support to take greater control of their wellness,” she said.
Along with La Red, the state announced approximately $11.3 million for Westside Family Healthcare and $1.29 million for Henrietta Johnson Medical Center. The three awards total approximately $22.7 million.
Committed dollars and completed services
As of July 31, Delaware had obligated approximately $76.9 million, or 49% of its first-year award, according to state-submitted information published by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Obligations generally represent commitments through contracts, grants or other agreements. They do not necessarily establish that money has been spent, facilities have opened or patients have received additional services.
The July figures also predate the September health center awards and November update. They cannot establish how much Delaware has committed or spent since then.
CMS describes the report as an incomplete view of state progress and says it will update the information following submission of the Nov. 30 quarterly report. RHTP Tracker
Where the first-year commitments are going
The July report listed approximately $26.4 million obligated for two Hope Centers in Kent and Sussex counties, intended to connect homeless residents with housing, primary care, behavioral health and other services.
Approximately $16.8 million was obligated for Delaware’s medical school initiative, while $6.55 million was committed to health information technology involving real-time insurance verification and prior authorization.
Those technology improvements are intended to reduce administrative barriers that can consume staff time and delay care. RHTP Tracker
In its November announcement, DHSS said Delaware had funded four new school-based health centers in Sussex County and advanced plans for medical education through Thomas Jefferson University, including clinical training in Kent and Sussex counties.
The announcement did not establish that all four school-based centers were operating.
DHSS also reported work on telehealth, remote patient monitoring, chronic disease management and workforce recruitment. Secretary Christen Linke Young described the funding as an opportunity to improve rural care while addressing the long-term drivers of rising health care spending. news.delaware.gov
Private-sector innovation tied to milestones
Delaware is also directing part of the federal funding toward health technology companies.
Delaware Prosperity Partnership and DHSS are developing the Delaware Rural Health Challenge, an accelerator expected to award up to $5 million in competitive, milestone-based grants to health technology startups.
The grants are non-dilutive, meaning companies receive funding without giving up an ownership stake.
The program will begin by identifying specific rural health care problems with providers, community organizations and other stakeholders, then recruiting companies to develop and deploy solutions.
Program materials call for selected companies to work with Delaware health care organizations and rural communities to test and measure their impact. They set a Sept. 30, 2027, deadline for disbursing all program funds.
For taxpayers, evaluating those awards will require examining both whether companies meet their milestones and whether their products deliver useful, affordable services for patients and providers.
Measuring results and sustaining services
As Delaware enters the second year of the five-year federal program, evaluating its performance will require distinguishing funding commitments from improvements in care.
Useful measures would include additional appointment capacity, providers recruited and retained, completed transportation trips, shorter waits for treatment and changes in avoidable emergency care. Cost reporting could help establish whether technology and care coordination reduce expenses or shift them elsewhere.
Long-term operating costs also warrant attention. Expanded facilities, transportation and care teams can require recurring spending on personnel, maintenance and technology after startup funding has been used.
The announcements reviewed for this story do not provide a comprehensive explanation of how every initiative will cover those continuing costs after the federal program ends, or whether additional state support will be needed.
For patients, the practical test will be whether they can obtain timely, affordable care closer to home. For taxpayers, it will also be whether those improvements can be sustained at a manageable cost.
To Go Box: Delaware Rural Health Transformation Program
What: A five-year federal program supporting rural health care access, workforce development, technology and changes in care delivery.
First-year award: Approximately $157.4 million.
Second-year award: Approximately $160.3 million.
Two-year total: Approximately $317.7 million.
First-year funding obligated by July 31: Approximately $76.9 million, or 49%. This is a dated measure of commitments, not a current spending total.
La Red award: Approximately $10.1 million, announced in September.
Primary focus: Rural communities in Kent and Sussex counties, with some statewide initiatives.
Boeing researchers leveraged the exascale power of Frontier to push the boundaries of their aerodynamic simulation technology, enabling them to design safer, more fuel-efficient aircraft
Nov. 11, 2026 — High-accuracy aerodynamic simulations are essential to designing commercial aircraft that are safer, faster, and more fuel efficient. But the physics of airflow is so complex that the aerospace industry needs more computing power to capture turbulence in its most chaotic states.
A Boeing simulation on Frontier shows turbulent airflow over an aircraft wing during landing. The close-ups show airflow along the wing’s leading edge progressing from (left) unstable flow to (center) turbulent bursts and then to (right) fully developed turbulence. Credit: Boeing, Jill Hemman/ORNL.
That’s why Boeing researchers turned to Frontier, the world’s most powerful supercomputer for open science. Located at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Frontier enabled Boeing researchers to enhance their simulation capabilities to better predict how the accumulation of ice and microturbulent airflow affect flight performance, especially during scenarios involving complex landing configurations.
The Frontier simulations are expected to help guide aerodynamic design improvements, mitigate issues found during flight testing, and support efforts to develop more fuel-efficient aircraft.
“We want to fly in the laminar regime as long as possible because that’s the most fuel-efficient way of flying, where airflow is smooth and steady,” said Adam Clark, an aerodynamics engineer at Boeing. “Reducing fuel consumption helps lower the operational costs for the airline, which could also translate to less expensive tickets for consumers.”
Boeing’s research shows that reducing the amount of drag by 1 percent while flying in cruising conditions can lower fuel consumption by about 0.75 percent on a flight, which means small changes can add up to big savings.
“Improving aerodynamic designs means we need to advance our ability to simulate airflow on grids with incredibly dense meshes,” said co-investigator and fellow Boeing aerodynamics engineer Konrad Goc. “But that’s something we really can’t do as effectively without more powerful computers.”
The Molecular Mechanics of Airflow
Turbulence is a chaotic, nonlinear system that’s constantly moving. That’s why solving turbulence, or predicting how it will behave, is such a difficult problem mathematically. In fact, turbulence is one of the few problems that traditional physics can’t fully solve.
Accurately predicting airflow requires an almost microscopic understanding of how air molecules move, but the more closely researchers look, the more complex the problems become. Their focus is on the boundary layer — the thin layer of air closest to the wing — where interactions with the surface create drag, which slows the aircraft down and increases fuel consumption.
“It’s not enough to study just the turbulence we experience when we’re on an airplane and the captain turns on the seat belt sign,” Clark said. “We need to understand it at a fundamental level.”
“Imagine a bunch of marbles on a table. If you push them slowly with two hands, they will kind of stay together, but if you move them impulsively, they will interact in a complex and chaotic way,” Goc explained. “That’s a very basic way to describe the difference between air molecules in laminar and turbulent flows, except we’re dealing with millions and billions of marbles.”
The Engineering Approach to Calculating Wind
There are three primary approaches to evaluating aircraft aerodynamics: wind tunnel experiments, flight tests, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations powered by high-performance computing. Each method provides complementary insights, iteratively validating and refining designs until they converge on a final solution.
Wind tunnels are large facilities used to replicate a wide range of aerodynamic conditions in a controlled environment, whereas flight tests provide the ultimate assessment of an airplane’s performance. Both are essential but can be resource intensive. CFD simulations offer a faster, lower-cost, and lower-risk alternative to some physical tests.
“Over the last 20 to 30 years, computer modeling has allowed us to go from having to perform 20-plus wind tunnel experiments on different wing variations to now just a couple,” Clark said. “The goal isn’t to replace wind tunnels, but oftentimes, in physical testing, we see things that we can’t explain — things that we literally have no data for, and that’s what CFD simulations can shed a light on.”
The Science Behind CFD
The team’s computational efforts center on high-lift aerodynamics, which includes the low-speed takeoff and landing phases of flight.
“That’s when the parts of the wings move forward and backward as the plane gets closer to the airport,” Goc explained. “We’re looking at how the aerodynamics of the wings change as the angle of attack, or the pitch of the airplane, increases. So we’ve really been trying to hone our engineering practices around getting better accuracy in our predictions.”
CFD simulations model airflow by overlaying a grid, or mesh, onto an aircraft or its individual components. The mesh can contain hundreds of millions of cells, or more, down to millimeters in size. The simulation calculates properties such as velocity, pressure, and temperature for each cell. These results are combined to visualize airflow over components and then integrated to provide a complete picture of the aircraft’s overall aerodynamic performance.
Turbulence simulations vary widely in complexity. Engineers have long relied on Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, which involve modeling turbulence statistically — fast and practical for full aircraft but limited in capturing complex, unsteady flows.
Higher-fidelity methods such as wall-modeled large eddy simulation resolve larger turbulent structures and finer scales near the boundary layer but at much greater computational cost. At the highest level, direct numerical simulation resolves all turbulence without modeling, thereby delivering maximum accuracy. However, the enormous computing power it requires makes it impractical for full-scale aircraft simulations.
“If we were to run a full-scale wall-modeled simulation on our in-house system, it could take several months just to get a single solution,” Clark said. “But we’re not looking for a single answer. We need ensembles of answers to understand how airflow changes throughout a process — for example, not just when an airplane is taking off but also as it gains altitude and airflow begins to stabilize. That’s what we need to be confident in the performance of our turbulence modeling code.”
The Power of Exascale Computing
Frontier is the world’s first exascale supercomputer, with a peak performance of 2 exaflops — or 2 quintillion calculations per second. Boeing gained access to Frontier through DOE’s INCITE Leadership Computing program, which provides industry, academia, and government researchers with access to the nation’s most powerful supercomputers.
To simulate turbulence, Boeing collaborated with computing experts at ORNL’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), a DOE Office of Science user facility, to optimize their tests and increase the speed and resolution of their simulations.
With higher-fidelity simulations, the team focused on two key challenges: investigating how ice accumulation affects wing performance and examining how wings respond to airflow when turbulence is modeled at full complexity. This work helped shed light on previously unexplained wind tunnel results for some high-lift wing designs.
“All of our airplanes are certified to operate safely in those conditions, and with Frontier, we were able to simulate flight through cold, icy clouds to understand how different ice shapes, sizes, and textures affect performance,” Clark said.
Because the temperature of the wings influences how air moves over the surface, the GPU-accelerated simulations also gave the team a powerful new way to evaluate their anti-icing technology — both in preventing ice buildup and in removing it once it forms.
“I would consider laminar-to-turbulent transition to be one of the central challenges in fluid mechanics, including the impact wall heating has on a turbulent boundary layer. It’s an invisible problem, something we can’t see in wind tunnels or by looking out the window during flight tests,” Goc said. “Frontier was really instrumental to that end because direct numerical simulations can be very computationally and cost intensive, limiting their use for airplane product development.”
The researchers said the accuracy of the simulations allowed them to predict the coefficient of lift — the upward force on an aircraft — to within 1 percent, which gives them the confidence they need to advance certain prototypes into production much faster than before.
“Not only did Frontier allow us to run simulations that we couldn’t do before, but we were also able to get results in a matter of days, which would have taken months using a typical industrial-scale computing system,” Goc said.
The Broader Impact for the Aerospace Industry
The team says it isn’t just Boeing that will benefit from the Frontier simulations. Because the team used a widely studied high-lift model, the findings will be easier for the broader aerospace community to build on, thereby helping advance aerodynamic designs across the industry for safer, more economical aircraft.
“As an aerospace company, we live at the intersection of aerodynamic theory, scientific computing, and physical testing,” Goc said. “This work helps translate fundamental scientific advancements into real-world engineering applications.”
Related Publication: Goc, K. A., and J. D. Crouch. “Surface heating effects on attachment-line transition and relaminarisation.” Journal of Fluid Mechanics (2026). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2026.11949
This research is supported by DOE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program.
UT-Battelle LLC manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science.
The Delaware Department of Labor’s Office of Wage & Hour announced Holiday Helper: Hiring Teen Workers 101 in a release posted Nov. 10. The 20-minute, on-demand webinar became available Nov. 1 and requires registration and the link for the on-demand options will be emailed to you. Photo courtesy of the State of Delaware, image created on 11/11 using ai
Free online session covers work permits, scheduling, pay, and safety for young workers, parents and employers
WILMINGTON, Del. — Delaware’s youngest holiday workers and the businesses hiring them have a new resource to help prepare for the first shift: a free online workshop explaining work permits, scheduling restrictions and workplace protections.
The Delaware Department of Labor’s Office of Wage & Hour announced Holiday Helper: Hiring Teen Workers 101 in a release posted Nov. 10. The 20-minute, on-demand webinar became available Nov. 1 and requires registration and the link for the on-demand options will be emailed to you.
Designed for ages 14 to 17, it also serves parents, educators and employers. The video expands access to material used in the department’s in-person HireME! Teen Job Readiness Workshop.
“Every young person deserves the opportunity to enter the workforce feeling informed, confident, and prepared,” Labor Secretary LaKresha Moultrie said in the release.
A teen presenter guides viewers through workplace scenarios involving six young workers. Topics include permits, hours, breaks, hazardous tasks, pay protections, and fraudulent job advertisements.
Start with the work permit
For jobs covered by Delaware’s child labor law, employers must keep a validated work permit on file for each employee under 18. A new permit is required when a minor changes employers.
The teen and employer complete their portions of the form before an authorized issuing officer approves it. For 14- and 15-year-olds, a parent or guardian must also sign.
Issuing officers are available through schools and the Department of Labor. The state’s form also provides instructions for submitting paperwork by email. Employers should accept only permits signed and dated by an issuing officer.
Check both state and federal scheduling rules
Employers must account for both Delaware and federal requirements. When both apply, the more protective rule controls.
That distinction matters for 14- and 15-year-olds. Delaware’s permit form lists a four-hour limit on school days, but federal law generally limits covered nonagricultural employment to three hours on a school day, including Friday.
Federal rules also generally limit those workers to 18 hours in any week when school is in session, even for only part of the week. The limits are eight hours on a nonschool day and 40 hours in a week when school is not in session.
For ordinary holiday-season scheduling, 14- and 15-year-olds may work only outside school hours, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Delaware also limits them to six workdays a week. The later summer cutoff of 9 p.m. ends on Labor Day.
Under Delaware law, 16- and 17-year-olds cannot spend more than 12 hours a day in school and work combined. They must have at least eight consecutive hours free from school and work in each 24-hour period.
Minors cannot work more than five consecutive hours without a nonworking break of at least 30 minutes.
Match the duties to the worker’s age
Scheduling is only part of the responsibility. Delaware law generally bars workers under 16 from operating meat slicers, deep-fat fryers and certain other powered equipment. Hazardous-occupation restrictions also apply to older teens.
A work permit does not authorize an employer to assign duties prohibited for that worker’s age. Employers with questions about a particular job or piece of equipment should check with the Department of Labor before assigning the task.
Republicans know that the president’s folly and excesses cost them the elections. That doesn’t mean they’re ready to challenge him
Shortly after polls closed last Tuesday, with the scale of the Republican trouncing in the midterms still becoming apparent, Donald Trump briefly adopted an oddly conciliatory tone. He declared that he was “absolutely” willing to accept the results, would look forward to working with Democrats and that deportation policies might have been “too tough”.
It was never going to last. He soon cast doubt on the elections’ legitimacy. On Friday, he replaced his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, with her deputy, Stephen Miller – a white nationalist, or “stone-cold racist”, in the words of Hakeem Jeffries, likely to be the next House speaker. Ms Wiles executed the president’s decisions faithfully, but was seen as a somewhat calming if not restraining influence, which may help explain her departure.
The Guard’s fiscal 2028 budget request includes a $7.26 million operating budget and $9.8 million in capital funding. Its priorities include an additional $500,000 for education assistance and $6.8 million for design, site preparation and construction of the Cheswold facility. Photo Courtesy of the Delaware National Guard. Created on 11/11 using ai.
Fiscal 2028 request includes $500,000 more for education assistance and $6.8 million for a new readiness center
DOVER, Del. — As Delaware honors veterans on Nov. 11, the Delaware National Guard is seeking more state money to help its members pay for college and develop a new readiness center in Cheswold.
The Guard’s fiscal 2028 budget request includes a $7.26 million operating budget and $9.8 million in capital funding. Its priorities include an additional $500,000 for education assistance and $6.8 million for design, site preparation and construction of the Cheswold facility.
The Guard presented its requests at a Nov. 4 public hearing before the Office of Management and Budget. The proposals require further review by the governor and approval by the General Assembly.
Tuition help leads operating requests
The Guard says the additional education money would “mitigate the continual budget shortfall and offset rising costs.”
The request puts a benefit used by service members at the center of the Guard’s budget priorities, alongside facilities and staffing needs.
The state tuition program is available to eligible Army and Air National Guard members in good standing who attend accredited public or private institutions in Delaware. Participants must meet program rules, including a six-year service requirement. Graduate-level reimbursement depends on funding remaining after undergraduate benefits are paid, according to the Guard’s education services office.
The operating request also includes $113,200 for a new state public affairs position. The presentation says the change would have no net effect on the number of full-time equivalent positions.
The Guard seeks another $46,588 to add two Army-side student slots to its co-op program. Approval of its full $64,676 discretionary increase would secure two existing Air Guard co-op slots previously supported with other funds.
The presentation lists an authorized force of 1,693 Army Guard soldiers and 1,128 Air Guard personnel. Those figures represent authorized positions rather than the number of members currently serving.
What a possible cut would mean
The Guard also submitted a contingency plan showing how it would absorb a 1% reduction. The proposed reductions total $64,700 against a fiscal 2027 general fund appropriation of approximately $6.47 million.
The reductions are planning proposals, not approved cuts.
They include $38,500 in contractual services and $14,000 in supplies and materials. The Guard says reduced maintenance funding would cause backlogs, facility deterioration, readiness risks and safety concerns.
Other proposed reductions include $3,200 in travel, $4,000 from the State Partnership Program and $5,000 from the unit fund supporting morale, welfare and recreation.
The Guard warns that reducing the unit fund would affect service members and their families, with consequences for morale, retention and readiness.
Cheswold leads facility requests
The largest capital item is the $6.8 million request for the Cheswold readiness center. The Guard also seeks $475,000 to replace trailers at the Bethany Beach Training Site.
Another $2.3 million would support minor capital improvements, including an HVAC replacement at the Duncan readiness center, demolition of Wing E at the Wilmington readiness center, roof replacements at the Scannell and Georgetown readiness centers, and interior and exterior work at the 1401 readiness center.
The presentation identifies approximately $5 million in federal funding associated with minor capital improvements this year. It separately requests $200,000 for maintenance and restoration.
The facilities support the Guard’s dual responsibilities: responding to emergencies and other needs in Delaware while maintaining trained, equipped forces for federal missions.
What happens next
Gov. Matt Meyer is expected to release his recommended budget in January. Legislative review follows in the spring, with final budget bills considered before the new fiscal year begins July 1, 2027.
For service members, the outcome will help determine the resources available for education benefits and the facilities where they train. For taxpayers, the process offers an opportunity to examine the state’s share of maintaining a force that serves both Delaware and the nation.
BIDDEFORD, MAINE — The ICE agent who fatally shot a 25-year-old Colombian man in Maine this summer had a documented history of anti-immigrant hostility and employment red flags before joining the agency, according to new reporting from The New York Times and the Portland Press Herald.
David Brouillette shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero during an immigration operation in Biddeford on July 13. Maine authorities said Guerrero attempted to flee in a vehicle toward an officer, but the state attorney general’s office is still investigating whether the use of deadly force was legally justified.
The Times reported that Brouillette sent racist emails in 2021 attacking his sister’s Colombian-born partner, disparaging his “bloodline” and telling him to return to his country. The Press Herald previously reported that a Hallowell official considered Brouillette to have “too many red flags” to hire as a local police officer.
New reporting also indicates Brouillette did not complete ICE’s full training program in Georgia and that his background investigation remained incomplete because of a large agency backlog. His access to some federal computer systems was reportedly restricted because he lacked full clearance.
Trump border czar Tom Homan said earlier that, if allegations about Brouillette’s background were accurate, he “should not have cleared vetting.”
The case raises additional questions about ICE’s rapid hiring expansion and whether vetting and training safeguards kept pace.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — U.S. household debt climbed to a record $19.1 trillion in the third quarter of 2026, while the share of debt falling behind on payments also increased, according to new Federal Reserve Bank of New York data.
Total household debt rose by $334 billion, or 1.8%, from the previous quarter. Mortgages accounted for most of the increase, rising $257 billion to $13.4 trillion. Credit card balances increased by $22 billion to $1.29 trillion, while auto loans reached $1.73 trillion and student loan balances rose to $1.66 trillion.
The share of outstanding debt in some stage of delinquency rose to 5%, up 0.3 percentage points from the second quarter. Mortgage and auto loan borrowers were somewhat more likely to fall newly behind, while serious delinquency rates improved slightly for credit cards and student loans.
Despite the increase, New York Fed economist Donghoon Lee said overall housing-credit quality remains strong.
Home equity borrowing also accelerated. HELOC balances increased by $23 billion to $481 billion, the largest quarterly increase since 2005.
The figures underscore a mixed picture for U.S. consumers: borrowing continues to expand and most debt remains current, but more households are showing signs of financial stress.
The New York Fed’s report is based on a nationally representative sample of anonymized Equifax credit reports.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House is warning incoming Democratic congressional leaders that some investigations into President Donald Trump and executive branch officials could potentially trigger criminal scrutiny, escalating a constitutional confrontation before Democrats take control of Congress in January.
White House Counsel Will Scharf sent a letter to incoming House Oversight Chairman Robert Garcia of California arguing that congressional subpoenas must serve a legitimate legislative purpose and warning that efforts intended solely to intimidate executive officials or deprive people of constitutional rights could “cross the line into blatant criminality.”
The letter does not identify a specific subpoena or investigation that Scharf says is already criminal. Instead, it warns that the administration will monitor what it describes as potentially abusive investigative tactics.
Congress has broad constitutional authority to conduct oversight in support of its legislative responsibilities, and courts have long recognized investigatory powers as an important part of that function. Those powers are not unlimited, however, and disputes over subpoenas and executive privilege are frequently litigated.
Garcia rejected the warning, saying Congress derives its authority from Article I of the Constitution, not the White House. He said Democrats intend to investigate alleged corruption, abuse of power and executive misconduct after taking control of the House.
The exchange comes as Democrats prepare a wide-ranging oversight agenda involving Trump’s business interests, immigration enforcement, administration spending and other executive actions.
The dispute sets up an unusually direct confrontation over whether aggressive congressional oversight is legitimate legislative activity or, in some circumstances, potentially unlawful conduct.
Ethics watchdogs question necessity of the US secretary of state flying between DC and Gainesville so often
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, has emerged as a superfan of the University of Florida’s football team, spending more than $1.2m of taxpayers’ money on frequent personal trips to watch them play, a report published on Wednesday claims.
Ethics watchdogs have questioned the necessity of the country’s top diplomat shuttling so often between Washington DC and Gainesville, where his son Anthony has a walk-on role as a running back for the team known as the Gators.
TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 11, 2026 — Classiq, a leading quantum computing software company, will showcase the value of a performance-portable software platform for hybrid quantum and HPC environments at SC26. SC26 brings together over 18,000 attendees from around the world to drive technological progress in HPC and related domains.
WHAT: Experience the application layer for quantum in HPC, where hybrid workloads benefit from powerful quantum performance for the applications that benefit most, complemented with ‘build once, deploy anywhere’ software engineering agility.
WHO: Speak with Classiq experts and view demonstrations of the company’s latest innovations for HPC, datacenter and enterprise infrastructure.
WHERE: Booth #5442 at SC26, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois.
WHY: Classiq welcomes the opportunity to engage with innovators and leaders at SC26 to show how Classiq connects HPC environments to quantum hardware with a modality-agnostic software platform. At the event, Classiq will feature live booth presentations with customers and partners.
Attendees are invited to join the AWS & Classiq Quantummania Reception, Wednesday, Nov. 18 (4:00-6:00PM) at Amazon Web Services (AWS) Booth #4819.
About Classiq
Classiq, a leading quantum computing software engineering company, provides an enterprise-grade platform that makes it practical to develop scalable, efficient and portable quantum applications. Used by dozens of global enterprises, the Classiq platform combines AI agents, a high-level quantum programming language (Qmod) and design automation to accelerate the development of optimized, hardware-ready quantum software. The platform supports hardware benchmarking, resource estimation, fault-tolerant and hybrid implementations as well as cost and performance optimization.
Residents enjoying exercise, fresh air, and each other’s company at Harmony at Hockessin
The Concept we call “Blue Zones” demonstrates that healthy aging isn’t the result of one habit but countless small choices that promote purpose, belonging, movement, and connection.
By Harmony Senior Services
HOCKESSIN, Del – Imagine a place where 100-year-olds still walk steep hills each day, gather around family tables for hours-long meals, and remain active contributors to their communities. These places are known as Blue Zones, regions of the world where people live longer and healthier lives than average. While researchers have spent decades studying these communities, the lessons they offer may be less about secret diets or longevity hacks and more about something much simpler: living with purpose, connection, and belonging.
That lesson came to life for Amber Dahle, Vice President of Memory Care and Life Engagement for Harmony Senior Services during a recent study-abroad experience in Sardinia, Italy, one of the world’s original Blue Zones. The trip provided a firsthand look at how daily habits, relationships, and community culture influence health and aging.
The term “Blue Zone” originated when researchers studying longevity marked regions with unusually high concentrations of centenarians using blue circles on a map. Today, five locations are recognized as Blue Zones: Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Ikaria, Greece; the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California.
Although separated by geography and culture, these communities share striking similarities. Residents move naturally throughout the day, maintain strong social networks, eat minimally processed foods, stay connected to a sense of purpose, and remain deeply engaged with family and community life.
In Sardinia, one of the first things Dahle noticed was that movement wasn’t treated as exercise. There were no fitness challenges or elaborate workout programs. Instead, physical activity was simply woven into daily living.
The villages are perched on steep hillsides, requiring residents to walk regularly to visit neighbors, shop, attend church, and participate in community life. Even some of the area’s oldest residents continue navigating those hills well into their 90s and beyond.
Researchers have long identified natural movement as one of the foundations of Blue Zone living. In Sardinia, that principle is built directly into the environment.
But longevity isn’t simply about living longer. For Dahle, whose work focuses on dementia care, one of the most compelling observations involved the relationship between lifestyle and cognitive health.
Historically, Blue Zone communities have experienced lower rates of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. However, Dahle observed differences between traditional villages and more modernized areas where convenience, processed foods, and fast-paced lifestyles have become more common.
As communities move away from traditional habits, some of the protective factors associated with healthy aging appear to diminish. The observation reinforced a growing body of research suggesting that environment, lifestyle, and social connection all play significant roles in maintaining health as people age.
Nowhere was the importance of connection more evident than around the dinner table.
In Sardinia, meals are far more than opportunities to eat. They are opportunities to gather. Multi-course meals often stretch for hours as families and friends share stories, conversation, and companionship. Fresh breads, cheeses, pasta, and local ingredients are prepared with care, but the true centerpiece is the time spent together.
For many Americans accustomed to hurried lunches and dinners squeezed between obligations, the experience offers a powerful reminder that social connection itself may be one of the healthiest ingredients of all.
That theme surfaced repeatedly during conversations with Sardinian centenarians. When asked about the keys to a long life, they rarely pointed to specific diets, supplements, or exercise routines. Instead, they spoke about family gatherings, friendships, neighbors, traditions, and community.
Again and again, the answer came back to people.
In village squares, churches, and neighborhood gathering places, Dahle witnessed relationships flourishing through everyday interactions. Residents spent hours sharing meals, conversations, music, and stories. Community wasn’t something scheduled into calendars. It was simply part of life.
The experience also offered valuable insights into dementia care.
During a visit to the Don Orione Dementia Day Center in Sardinia, Dahle observed an approach that emphasized identity, purpose, and contribution rather than focusing solely on diagnosis or limitations.
Residents participated in meaningful activities that supported the life of the community, from gardening and cooking to music, art, and creative projects. The goal wasn’t simply keeping residents occupied. It was ensuring each person remained valued and connected.
The lesson was clear: purpose does not retire.
In many cultures, aging is often viewed through the lens of decline. Sardinia offered a different perspective. Older adults continued contributing, participating, and remaining connected for as long as possible. Age itself was not treated as a barrier.
Those observations are helping shape conversations throughout Harmony Senior Services, including within its Delaware communities at Harmony at Kent in Dover, Harmony at Hockessin in Hockessin, and Harmony at Glasgow in Newark. The company is exploring ways to further strengthen resident engagement, meaningful contribution, social connection, and person-centered wellness programming.
Ultimately, Dahle’s biggest takeaway from Sardinia wasn’t tied to longevity statistics or nutrition research.
It was a reminder that a meaningful life is built from everyday moments: sharing meals, maintaining relationships, staying active, contributing to others, and remaining connected to a larger community.
The Blue Zones demonstrate that healthy aging isn’t the result of one habit. It is the cumulative effect of countless small choices that promote purpose, belonging, movement, and connection. And while few of us may live on the hillsides of Sardinia, the lessons from those communities may help all of us add not just years to our lives, but life to our years.
Caption: Winners of the Fall 2025 and the Spring 2026 (pictured here) Grant may work with the Pete duPont Foundation in this new collaboration. Photo Courtesy of the Delaware Division of Small Business. Image created on 11/11 using AI.
Partnership with the state pairs business assessments with funded professional services and ongoing guidance
WILMINGTON — Twenty-eight Delaware businesses participating in the state’s EDGE 2.0 program have received help identifying operational challenges and connecting with professional services through a partnership with the Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation, the foundation announced Nov. 11.
The work spans the fall 2025 and spring 2026 cohorts and extends support beyond the grant competition, helping entrepreneurs address financial management, marketing, legal and operational needs as they prepare to grow.
“Access to capital is an important part of growing a business, but entrepreneurs also need the right systems, expertise and support to turn that investment into sustainable growth,” said Stephanie Johnnie, the foundation’s executive director, in the announcement.
“Through our partnership with the Delaware Division of Small Business, we are helping entrepreneurs identify their priorities, connect with professional resources and build stronger foundations for the future.”
From assessment to implementation
The foundation’s process starts with a five-week assessment conducted with support from IA Business Advisors. It examines operations, financial practices, leadership, marketing and growth objectives.
Business owners receive individualized reports and action plans that identify priorities and recommended improvements.
Those findings guide access to the foundation’s Resource Wallet, which provides funded professional services aligned with each participating business’s needs. Services may include financial management, marketing, legal guidance, operational improvements and commercialization planning.
Client success managers provide ongoing guidance, help owners navigate challenges and connect them with service providers as the plans move forward.
The foundation said implementation support remains underway, with staff continuing to coordinate services and monitor progress.
Early feedback identifies priorities
The foundation reported that all respondents to its post-assessment survey identified one to three clear business priorities for the next six to 12 months. All also rated their reports positively for accuracy and said they would recommend the process.
Among respondents, 78% identified previously unrecognized barriers or capability gaps, while 89% developed or planned new relationships with service providers or consultants.
The announcement did not specify how many business owners answered the survey. The findings describe participants’ assessments of the process; the announcement did not report changes in revenue, hiring or profitability.
Participating companies span technology, professional services, retail, health care and hospitality, according to the foundation.
An earlier foundation update listed 14 businesses in the spring 2026 group, including Huxley and Hiro, Little Town, 3E’s Equestrian Education Program, HouseCall VR and Mother Nurture Composting Services. Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation
How EDGE works
EDGE stands for Encouraging Development, Growth and Expansion. The Division of Small Business launched the grant program in 2019 and introduced EDGE 2.0 in fall 2025, adding greater funding flexibility and support after businesses pitch their proposals. State of Delaware News
The competition has separate Entrepreneur and STEM tracks. The state’s program page lists funding pools of up to $400,000 for Entrepreneur businesses and $750,000 for STEM businesses, divided among selected recipients.
Generally, eligible businesses must be majority located in Delaware, have operated for less than seven years, employ 15 or fewer full-time employees and have less than $700,000 in assets. Grants require $1 in business matching funds for every $3 from the state.
Applications are currently closed, according to the division’s website. State of Delaware %
To Go Box
What: EDGE 2.0 business funding and support, including individualized assistance through the Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation.
Who: Qualifying Delaware businesses; foundation support described in this announcement serves participating fall 2025 and spring 2026 businesses.
Application status: EDGE applications are currently closed. Check the state’s website for future rounds and full eligibility requirements.
Milford Field Hockey celebrates after advancing to the 2026 Division One Field Hockey State Championship game. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti
The Milford Buccaneers defeated the Caesar Rodney Riders and the Cape Henlopen Vikings defeated the Smyrna Eagles to play for the 2026 DIAA Division One Field Hockey State Championship on November 13.
FREDERICA, Del. — The Milford Buccaneers and Cape Henlopen Vikings will battle it out for the 2026 Division One Field Hockey State Championship on Friday, November 13, following their semifinal wins on Tuesday, November 10.
Milford defeats Caesar Rodney, 4-0
The Buccaneers set up for a penalty corner opportunity leading the Riders, 1-0, halfway through the second quarter. Caesar Rodney defended the corner well and regained possession ready to advance the ball past midfield into its offensive zone. The Riders didn’t make it near the midfield line.
Buccaneer senior Molly Masten tipped the Riders’ initial pass which allowed sophomore Bria Leyanna to jump in front of the receiving player and take possession back. Leyanna dribbled the ball just outside the top of the circle and wound up for what appeared to be a shot attempt, but was a pass instead. Leyanna’s rocketed pass hit the stick of Masten who was sitting right in front of the cage. Masten handled the pass perfectly and without hesitation spun her stick around and fired a shot past the Rider goalkeeper to the back right of the cage.
Masten’s first goal of the game gave Milford a 2-0 lead with less than seven minutes remaining in the half and helped provide momentum for the Buccaneers’, 4-0, win Tuesday evening.
“I just liked our fast pace, our connected passes. We were working together really well and it was just really great to see,” Masten said after the game.
Milford recorded an assist on each of its four goals, starting with an assist from Masten on the Buccaneers’ first goal.
Masten’s pass came from the top of the circle and found the stick of senior attacker Katelyn Joseph waiting at the left corner of the goal. Joseph shot the ball through the legs of the Rider keeper giving Milford its first lead less than two minutes into the second quarter. Masten’s first goal followed and the Buccaneers led by two at halftime.
Masten’s impact carried into the second half adding to her day with a second assist on sophomore Aiyana Atkins’ first goal of the postseason and a second goal that completed Milford’s scoring with less than six minutes remaining in the game. Masten played a part in each goal scored.
“Molly brought it today,” Milford head coach Andrea McPike said postgame. “She really set the tempo for us offensively and, you know, she contributed on both sides of the field today so we were happy, you know, that our lead dog was leading.”
This is the first time Milford field hockey is appearing in the state championship game since 1996. The Buccaneers won the 1996 state championship, 2-1, over Tower Hill.
“It feels amazing,” Masten said. “I mean that was our goal from the beginning, is just take things step-by-step and get to where we are now, so this feeling is honestly unreal.”
Cape Henlopen defeats Smyrna, 4-0
Junior Kailey McMahon set up in her position outside the shooting circle ready to run toward the cage when senior Grace Heers passed the ball into play from her position along the goal line. The Vikings and Eagles were scoreless near the end of the first quarter, but the Vikings generated momentum with six straight penalty corner attempts. Cape Henlopen’s seventh penalty corner resulted in more than momentum. It provided a lead.
McMahon settled near the front right of the cage as the action unfolded in front of her.
Heers’ entry pass found the stick of senior Atia Sabbagh and Sabbagh fired a shot toward the goal that was halted by Smyrna senior Nora O’Connell. The ricochet found the stick of senior Mairead Rishko and Rishko shot quickly, but O’Connell blocked the shot with her leg pads, sending the ball to McMahon. McMahon fielded the rebound, settled for a second while spinning away from nearby defenders and fired a low shot past the outstretched left leg of O’Connell and into the back left of the cage.
McMahon’s goal was the lone score of the first half and gave the Vikings a lead going into halftime. Cape Henlopen added to the lead with three goals in the second half beating Smyrna, 4-0, to advance to its tenth championship game in as many seasons.
“I think we deserve it completely. We worked really hard this season with our coach and everybody else here putting their all out on the field,” McMahon said about reaching the championship game.
McMahon scored Cape Henlopen’s second goal — and first of the second half — on a play similar to her first. McMahon’s score came on a penalty corner that bounced around a bit before it found her stick at the front left of the cage and she converted on the chance, placing this goal just over the arm of O’Connell.
Goals from senior Emily Wells and junior Blair Chubb in the fourth quarter completed the Vikings’ offensive output. The Vikings finished the game with 19 penalty corner opportunities with all but one of their goals coming via those chances — Wells’ goal came on a penalty stroke.
“Our goal is to execute every single corner,” McMahon said.
Cape Henlopen and Smyrna are no strangers to each other. The Vikings and Eagles have met in the championship game the past five seasons and they play each other during the regular season consistently. Smyrna defeated Cape Henlopen last season, earning the program’s second state title since 2021. The Vikings won the other three in that time.
“The environment can be crazy, I mean a semifinal game is always going to be a chaotic environment, but the rivalry between these two teams can be a bit heated so we just talked about the importance of digging in and being prepared for sixty minutes or more of hockey because that’s what we’ve seen the last few times that we’ve faced them,” Cape Henlopen head coach Kate Austin said postgame.
Cape Henlopen’s championship opponent is also a familiar foe having played them earlier this season.
The Vikings and Buccaneers will play each other for the second time on Friday at 4:00 p.m. for the state championship. The Vikings beat Milford, 3-0, back in October and will be a presumable favorite in the rematch on November 13. The sixth seeded Buccaneers will act as the underdog as they’ve done all tournament and hope to end a 30-year championship drought with a win against the Vikings.
“That’s what I want, I like that,” McPike said after being asked about being an underdog against either Cape Henlopen or Smyrna (Milford’s game concluded before the events of the Smyrna and Cape Henlopen game). “No pressure for us, you know. This is a spot we have not been in since 1996. We’re going to enjoy every step of the way. We’re not even really looking to Friday, we’re looking to tomorrow. That’s the mentality that we’ve had the past two weeks is taking it step-by-step.”
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The deputy medical examiner thought the family was being evasive. Eric Tonsfeldt had been dispatched to the pistachio-green house in Oregon City on the night of March 5, 2017. Inside he found Sarah Mitchell in bed, her dead newborn in her arms.
Mitchell is a member of the Followers of Christ, a sect known for refusing medical treatment. She had received no prenatal care. Three women without medical training guided her delivery that afternoon.
Tonsfeldt listened as the family insisted that the baby, whom they had named Ginnifer, had seemed healthy for most of the afternoon, then suddenly stopped breathing. They couldn’t explain why the baby appeared so underweight. Their answers to many of Tonsfeldt’s questions were vague. Nobody would make eye contact with him.
Later, investigators would discover that 13 minutes after Ginnifer’s birth, Followers began exchanging a series of worried texts. “Not good breathing,” one wrote in a group chat. Another requested prayers: “She’s really bad.” (One person in the chat would later advise deleting the messages.)
No one had called 911 as the gaps between each breath increased. When asked why not, Ginnifer’s father later said, “Because it’s in God’s hands.” He anointed his daughter with olive oil and wept as he prayed that she would be OK. Ginnifer died in his arms at 7 p.m., four hours after she was born.
Tonsfeldt gently collected the newborn and examined her in another room. She weighed 3½ pounds, roughly half that of an average full-term infant. He found no signs of injury or trauma.
The living room in the house where Ginnifer was born and died. Dozens of Followers of Christ members filled the home that day, but none called 911.Clackamas County District Attorney’s OfficeFollowers anoint the ailing with olive oil.Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office
The medical examiner still felt that something was awry. To play for time, he asked if someone would make him a cup of coffee and headed to the kitchen. As Tonsfeldt waited, one of the baby’s grandfathers approached him and blurted out an unexpected question: Would it make a difference if Ginnifer had a twin?
There was another baby, a girl named Evelyn. She was alive.
In the dim light of a bathroom, Tonsfeldt found women huddled over a tiny newborn, who was barely making a sound. They were feeding her from an eyedropper.
He told the family to get her to a hospital. After Evelyn’s grandfather made it clear they weren’t going anywhere, Tonsfeldt summoned the police, who delivered an ultimatum: Take Evelyn to the hospital or they’d do it themselves.
Evelyn, at 14 days old, was still so small she could fit into dolls’ clothes.Courtesy of the Phillips family
Evelyn’s family relented. A patrol car followed to make sure they got there. She was admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit in Portland with respiratory distress syndrome. With the help of a breathing machine and a feeding tube, Evelyn began to stabilize. An autopsy would later conclude the same condition, common in premature babies, had caused her sister’s death.
The Mitchells were charged with murder by neglect, as well as criminal mistreatment for failing to get Evelyn medical care. That left authorities with another challenge: Who would care for Evelyn?
Her family assumed any custody arrangement would be temporary and suggested Marshall and Jennifer Phillips, a couple born and raised in the Followers. But Marshall was no ordinary Follower. Once, when his young son became gravely ill, he brought him to a hospital. In the eyes of the state, that made Marshall and his wife suitable candidates to look after Evelyn.
Evelyn’s family didn’t know then that Marshall’s choice to save his son had set him on a yearslong journey, one that would eventually lead him away from the only life he’d ever known. And that he would take Evelyn with him.
Jennifer and Marshall Phillips
For more than a century, states have wrestled with how to address the deaths of children whose parents refuse them medical care for religious reasons. As early as 1901, a father in New York who believed in the “power of God to heal the sick through prayer” was prosecuted for failing to call a doctor for his young daughter who died from pneumonia. Since then, courts have repeatedly held — in cases where Christian Scientists refused treatment or Jehovah’s Witnesses declined blood transfusions — that adults are free to reject medical care for themselves.
Whether they can be compelled to provide medical care for their children is another matter, one that’s been left to states to decide. Courts have generally deferred to legislatures on this question.
Video: This Secretive Religious Sect Doesn’t Believe in Medical Care
Marshall Phillips was raised in the Followers of Christ, which forbids medical care. When his son fell gravely ill, he took him to the hospital. That choice set him on a yearslong journey, one that would eventually lead him away from the only life he’d ever known.
Teresa Mahoney, Noelle Crombie, Beth Nakamura and Samantha Swindler/The Oregonian
For decades, Oregon’s law gave latitude to faith healing and authorities did little to intervene. Between 1989 and 1999, 18 children of the Oregon City-based Followers died. (The sect numbered between 1,500 and 2,000 at its peak.) Most or all of those deaths were preventable, according to the state medical examiner at the time, who estimated that the child death rate in the sect was 26 times that of the general population.
The revelation of those deaths, in The Oregonian and other news outlets, prompted state lawmakers to act. In 1999, they removed spiritual treatment as a defense for second-degree manslaughter and criminal mistreatment. In 2008, prosecutors filed their first case against Followers parents after a 15-month-old died from untreated bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection. A jury convicted the girl’s father of a single count of criminal mistreatment, a misdemeanor, and acquitted her mother.
Two more children in the sect died without medical attention during this period, prompting the Legislature in 2011 to do away with the spiritual defense for any crime. Among those supporting the change: the Christian Science church, which by then had softened its stance amid a steep decline in membership. In a letter to lawmakers that year, a church official wrote: “Spiritual care should never be practiced at the expense of a child’s life.”
Evelyn in her room
Changes in Oregon law — and prosecutors’ willingness to pursue parents who watched their children die — spurred a slow but perceptible shift: Deaths of children in the Followers have become an anomaly. Ginnifer Mitchell’s death in 2017 came amid that yearslong decline. Since then, one child has died due to lack of medical care.
During this same time frame in Idaho, where the laws protect parents who rely only on faith healing, reporting by ProPublica found at least 11 babies and children of Followers died from treatable conditions.
Still, Ginnifer’s death shows how the most entrenched elements of faith-healing communities resist aggressive enforcement. Sarah Mitchell chose to give birth without doctors or nurses, even as her sister was in prison for failing to provide medical care for her premature newborn, who died in 2009. And Sarah’s lack of prenatal care was such that she realized she was carrying twins only when her labor continued after her first baby emerged.
Evelyn might not have survived if police didn’t have the law on their side, allowing them to intervene and demand that her parents take her to the hospital.
The stories of Evelyn and Marshall Phillips — still the subject of legal proceedings today — offer a rare view into the closed community and reveal both the power and the limits of the state’s efforts to compel parents to seek medical care for their children.
Women in the Followers made this baby gown and bootees for the Phillipses’ older children. They were too large for Evelyn, who was born premature.
Marshall’s ancestors were among the earliest members of the Followers, whose history dates to the late 1800s, when faith-healing sects were active in the Midwest. The faithful later migrated west, starting congregations in Idaho. In the 1930s, a charismatic Followers preacher named Walter White left Idaho for Oregon City, then a lively hub for the timber and paper industries. White’s emotional sermons earned him the moniker “the crying preacher.”
Followers believed the devout earned their place in the afterlife through good acts. They also believed that God heals. The doctrine stems from a passage in the Book of James, which proclaims “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.” Seeking medical care was viewed as an abandonment of faith. Those who visited doctors risked being shunned.
By the 1950s, White broke ties with other Followers congregations. He later said that Christ had visited him in a dream and told him the world would soon end and so would baptisms.
Walter White, left, was known as the “crying preacher” and led the Followers in Oregon City until his death in 1969.Courtesy of the Phillips family
White died in 1969 at age 67. Baptisms ended after that, effectively sealing the faithful from the outside world. The Followers never identified White’s successor. To this day, the congregation has no pastor. The lack of a spiritual leader seems only to have intensified members’ influence on one another.
The sect’s practices include other unusual elements: The Bible doesn’t figure in their services, which consist mostly of congregants singing hymns.
In many respects, Followers lead conventional lives. As a boy born in 1975, Marshall rode his bike, ate sugary treats, watched TV and listened to 1980s rock bands like Van Halen. His parents took him and his siblings camping and saved up for trips to Disneyland.
But his life was also circumscribed by his faith. Several times a week, he accompanied his parents to functions at the beige meetinghouse set back from busy Molalla Avenue in Oregon City. Starting at age 7, Followers’ children are separated by gender and age into their own pews. Marshall understood that he would grow up, and grow old, with the kids seated around him. He was instructed not to befriend kids outside the church. Followers considered them “worldly,” the sect’s derisive term for those focused on terrestrial, rather than celestial, concerns.
Jennifer and Marshall started dating when she was 14 and he was 18 and married three years later.Courtesy of the Phillips family
Like his peers, Marshall never visited a pediatrician. He was never vaccinated. His mom anointed his forehead with extra virgin olive oil when his head throbbed. He endured chicken pox and whooping cough and eventually recovered from both — proof, he believed, of God’s healing powers.
His parents, like others in the sect, made exceptions for dental care. They accepted the use of Novocain but refused the ibuprofen the dentist recommended to address lingering pain after a procedure.
Marshall knew from a young age that his future would be determined by the church. He figured he’d work for a Follower. He’d marry one, too. Marshall and Jennifer went on their first date in a courtship ritual the Followers call a carload — small groups of teens who drive together to get ice cream or coffee. She was 14 and he was 18. They married when Jennifer turned 17, the age girls in the Followers typically wed.
Jennifer’s father had died the year before, surrounded by men from the church. Members were expected to care for the dying, with men tending to men and women to women. Her father never went to the doctor, and family members think he died from heart failure. He was 37.
Women typically give birth in their parents’ homes, and Jennifer was no exception. She delivered her first child, Mary, in the living room, attended by her mother, her mother-in-law, aunts and other women. Marshall was there, too. The rest of the men waited out of sight, smoke from their cigarettes drifting into the living room. She had two more children after that, both sons.
As Jennifer watches, Evelyn prepares for a father-daughter dance she will attend with Marshall.
Today, at 50, Marshall looks like the epitome of a suburban dad. With his receding hairline, beard and broad physique, you could picture him browsing the aisles of The Home Depot. He possesses a gentle quality and doesn’t shy away from even harsh self-reflection.
The Followers abide by what they view as traditional gender roles, with men leading their households. Many male Followers work as contractors, electricians and plumbers; Marshall works as a consultant for a heating and air conditioning company. Women mostly focus on the home and their children. Jennifer cleans houses to supplement their income and homeschooled their kids for a time.
As a Follower, Marshall said he pressured his children to fit in at church. He believed the sect’s teachings about earning one’s way to salvation, and he spent many Sunday afternoons visiting the sick and caring for the dying. He and his wife never challenged the institution that shaped their lives.
Evelyn, Jennifer and Marshall at church
The couple saw no reason to visit the doctor or take their kids to one. That changed in the summer of 2013. They watched as their energetic preteen son, Nick, suddenly turned lethargic. Walking even a few feet left him out of breath, and he was soon confined to the couch.
His symptoms worsened over a matter of hours. As his extended family gathered to offer support, one relative wondered whether he had diabetes. Millions of Americans manage the condition with medication, but for a Follower, it could amount to a death sentence.
Marshall remembered that his cousin Bo had suffered from the disease more than a decade earlier. Bo Phillips developed flu-like symptoms and within days lapsed into a coma. He died in his parents’ bed at 11 — Nick’s age. A sheriff’s detective arrived to find Bo in a diaper, his body gaunt from dehydration. His fever was so high that his body registered a triple-digit temperature three hours after his death. He never went to a doctor.
As Marshall pondered what to do about Nick, he knew his relatives expected him to rely only on his faith in God. For a Follower, going to the hospital was unthinkable.
Nick Phillips at 11Courtesy of the Phillips family
He knew that Followers had been prosecuted for failing to seek medical attention. He panicked at the thought that he — or worse, his wife — could go to prison if he chose not to take Nick to the hospital. Marshall felt trapped between his faith and the law.
He could see his son was struggling to breathe. The boy lay on the couch, barely conscious.
Marshall decided to act. “I’m taking him to the hospital,” he announced. In the same breath, he apologized.
Some family members expressed disapproval as he carried Nick to the door. One urged him not to turn away from God. Another whispered the name of a hospital where he should take the boy.
Marshall and Jennifer, who agreed with his decision, sped north on Interstate 5 to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in North Portland. “Can you help my son?” he begged as he rushed into the emergency department, his unresponsive boy in his arms. Medical staff whisked him into the back, where a team quickly assessed Nick’s condition.
He had acute onset Type 1 diabetes. His blood was turning acidic, his organs shutting down. The Phillipses had arrived just in time. Without treatment, the doctors later said, he was hours from death.
That Marshall dwelled on his own fate as his son lay dying would leave him with a searing shame. “I wish I could be the great dad who jumped up and saw that his kid was sick and ran into the hospital,” he would say years later. “But I was weighing out the consequences. That’s the truth. And I’m not happy to say that.”
As a Follower, Marshall said, hymns “had no meaning for me. It was just what we did at church.” Once he joined a new church, “it was like, oh, this is what this song is about.”
Marshall quickly grasped the implications of his decision. Relatives who had poured into the house to pray for Nick as he lay near death stopped coming around as he recovered. When the Phillipses tried to make holiday plans, some relatives didn’t reply. Nick’s closest friend stopped talking to him.
Marshall descended into depression. He turned to the Bible, scouring passages for proof that God forbade medical care. He found only references that showed how doctors were held in high esteem, such as Luke, whom Scripture refers to as a “beloved physician.”
On his commute to work, Marshall started listening to sermons of preachers from other denominations. He was moved by their messages of grace, forgiveness and redemption, concepts he’d never heard much about at church.
Over time, Marshall came to believe that God did heal — and he could use doctors to do it. He also came to believe that by saving his son, he had freed himself. And eventually that choice placed him at the center of another family’s tragedy.
Nick, right, now 24, joins Jennifer, Marshall and Evelyn to celebrate her birthday at McDonald’s, after visiting the grave of Ginnifer.
When Evelyn arrived at the hospital a few hours after her birth in 2017, she was small even for a premature baby. She had been born about eight weeks early and weighed less than 4 pounds. Her glucose level was perilously low. She needed a feeding tube and a machine to help her breathe and remained in the neonatal intensive care unit for 11 days.
As criminal authorities investigated her parents, Evelyn’s fate rested with child welfare workers and a Clackamas County circuit judge. At a hearing to decide who would take care of Evelyn, lawyers for the Mitchells argued that Evelyn should come home with them while the investigation played out.
For child welfare officials and prosecutors, the proposal was out of the question. “These parents let this child’s twin die in their arms without making any effort at all to seek medical care,” one prosecutor told the judge. “And simultaneously they failed to seek medical care on behalf of this child and placed her also at extreme risk of death.” She continued: “We send parents to prison for failing to adequately undertake their duty to their children.”
On the stand, Marshall testified about his decision to take Nick to the hospital. He told the judge that his son was thriving and pledged to make sure Evelyn received medical care. (Evelyn’s grandfather had called him the night before to ask whether he’d be willing to take her in.)
Evelyn would stay with the Phillipses for now, the state decided.
Two days later, the couple drove to the hospital to meet Evelyn. She was so tiny that Jennifer’s mother bought her outfits from the doll aisle of Fred Meyer.
Sarah and Travis Mitchell pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and criminal mistreatment in 2018.
A year later, in the summer of 2018, Sarah and Travis Mitchell pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide for Ginnifer’s death and criminal mistreatment for failing to get Evelyn medical help. The agreement called for the couple to spend six years and six months in prison — the harshest sentence ever handed down to parents in the sect.
The couple’s lawyer told the judge that the Mitchells grieved the loss of Ginnifer and loved Evelyn. “Travis and Sarah are utterly sincere, decent and caring human beings,” he told the judge. (The Mitchells and their lawyer did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this article.)
As part of their plea bargain, prosecutors insisted the Mitchells sign a statement. “We should have sought adequate medical care for our children,” it read, “and everyone in the church should always seek adequate medical care for our children.”
The district attorney instructed the Followers to post the message at their Oregon City meetinghouse.
The message was torn down later that day.
The Followers of Christ church in Oregon City
The Phillipses had begun attending services at an evangelical Christian church. The couple worried Followers would find out they were drifting away, so they picked a large out-of-the-way congregation where they figured it would be easy to go unnoticed. The church, like other mainstream evangelical congregations, encouraged its members to visit doctors.
Even then, Marshall didn’t sever the family’s ties with the Followers. He couldn’t face the prospect of walking away from his parents and people he’d known his entire life.
The Phillipses weren’t the only Followers questioning their faith. Around the same time, a loose network of men had been quietly meeting to pray and discuss the Bible. Starting in 2018, an estimated 150 to 200 people left the sect, an exodus spurred mostly by a desire to engage with the Bible. Many who walked away had also become disillusioned with the Followers’ rejection of medicine.
During their days in the Followers, Jennifer and Nick, then a toddler (wearing a hat at front center), attend a church Easter egg hunt in the early 2000s.Courtesy of the Phillips family
Like generations born into the sect after White’s death, Marshall had never been baptized. Doing so would offend the Followers.
But in the fall of 2018, he decided he could no longer ignore his desire to experience the rite. He saw it as a public expression of the spiritual shift he’d undergone. Jennifer did too.
One Sunday afternoon that October, the couple joined dozens of others on the muddy banks of the Willamette River. They waded into the water as a friend held a sleeping Evelyn, then 19 months old. By this point the state had made the Phillipses’ guardianship permanent.
The baptism spelled the end of Marshall and Jennifer Phillips’ time in the Followers. Before the ceremony, Marshall had texted his family to let them know it was happening.
Soon after, his mother texted him to say goodbye.
The Willamette River, where Marshall and Jennifer were baptized
Earlier this year, Evelyn climbed into the back seat of the Phillipses’ car, a bouquet of tangerine-colored roses that she picked out resting on her lap.
It was March 5, her ninth birthday. Every year on this day, the couple drives Evelyn to the Followers cemetery to visit her twin sister’s grave.
Evelyn admired the stuffed bear she had charmed Marshall into buying. She especially liked the polka dot ribbon twirled around its neck. “I think if Ginny was here,” she said, “she would have liked this for her birthday.”
Marshall pulled up to the cemetery gate. The sect owns this land at the end of a rural two-lane road about 10 miles from downtown Oregon City. Generations of Followers are buried here. Among them: Evelyn’s great-great grandfather, Walter White, the sect’s founding pastor.
Ginnifer’s grave lies near a stand of evergreens. Evelyn knelt down. “I miss you, Ginny,” she said, placing the stuffed bear on the tombstone.
The Phillipses visit Ginnifer’s grave every year on her and Evelyn’s birthday.
Nearby lay the grave of Hayden Edwards. He died two days after his birth in 2023. His parents were convicted of criminal mistreatment for failing to seek medical care for him, the most recent faith-healing prosecution in Oregon.
Marshall walked the neat rows, passing a fresh grave, one that showed the limitations of Oregon’s laws. The state had stepped in several years ago when parents had refused to get medical treatment for their teenage son, who was experiencing renal failure. After prosecutors intervened, the parents agreed to a plea deal and made sure he got care. But when the son turned 18 this year, he declined further treatment. He died within days.
Marshall paused when he came to his own father’s headstone. It had “Dad” etched into the granite. He learned of his father’s death last year from a friend who heard the news from someone else. One of Marshall’s relatives called to let him know he wasn’t welcome at the funeral.
The day after the visit to the cemetery, guests filled the Phillipses’ home for Evelyn’s birthday party. Three-tiered display stands held homemade carrot cupcakes topped with swirls of cream cheese frosting — treats Evelyn had requested. Evelyn, ebullient, pinballed (and later roller-skated, using one birthday gift) between friends, parents and grandparents. Her long hair spilled out from under a pink helmet. The family had invited Evelyn’s birth parents, who joined them in the living room to watch her open gifts piled high on a table.
Evelyn, enjoying some of her gifts, with Marshall at the end of her ninth birthday party.
Evelyn first got to know them while they were in prison, and she knows why they were there. The couple spends time with her twice a month, taking her on adventures to the Oregon Zoo, roller skating and the park. She is their only child.
At the party, the Mitchells kept their focus on Evelyn, smiling broadly as she tore the wrapping from packages. They pulled out their phones to record her delight.
“Daddy!” Evelyn exclaimed at one point, marveling over one of her gifts.
Marshall and Travis both swiveled toward her in response.
Evelyn photographed with her biological father, Travis Mitchell, when he was incarceratedCourtesy of the Phillips family
The Phillipses’ friends filtered back into the kitchen. The Mitchells stayed behind. Their birthday card lay at one end of a table in the living room. “Not a day goes by where you aren’t missed, loved and thought of,” it read. “We thank God every day that we get to be a part of your life.” They signed it: “All our love, Dad & Mom.”
Travis ducked into the other room to look for Marshall. He thanked him for the evening. His wife had already slipped out of the house.
These days, brief exchanges with Travis are as close as Marshall comes to interacting with other Followers.
The Phillipses still live in Oregon City, home to most members of the sect. Marshall sees them, including his extended family, around town. Some ignore him. Others offer an obligatory nod. Rarely do they stop to talk. The Followers continue to gather every Thursday evening and Sunday morning without him.
Still, there are hints of change, albeit invisible ones. One former Follower told detectives in 2023 that some younger parents are quietly taking their children to the doctor.
Marshall twirls Evelyn at a father-daughter dance this spring.
For now at least, Evelyn is an outsider to the Followers. Marshall raised her that way. In June, she took a step that could further alienate her from the sect: She was baptized.
Four months after that, in October, tensions flared between Evelyn’s two sets of parents. The Mitchells filed a motion in court effectively seeking to terminate Marshall and Jennifer’s permanent guardianship — they acknowledged that Evelyn opposed the move — then withdrew the filing in November. (The Mitchells also criticized the Phillipses for allowing Evelyn to participate in this article.) The Mitchells are now seeking expanded visitation time with Evelyn.
Marshall wants Evelyn to determine her own future — to marry when she’s ready, not at 17. He talks to her about college, a possibility he wouldn’t have broached with his children as a Follower. Today he regrets how rigid he was, during his years in the sect, with his older children. Evelyn has brought out a paternal tenderness in him.
Some months ago, Jennifer took Evelyn to the pediatrician for a checkup. Evelyn swapped her school uniform for an oversized hospital gown that brushed the floor when she stood.
Evelyn was baptized this summer.Evelyn’s favorite part of going to the doctor is seeing the fish tank at the medical office.
A cheery medical assistant stepped into the room. “She’s up to date with vaccines,” the woman announced. “We do offer the HPV at age 9. Do you want to do that today?”
Jennifer and Marshall weren’t vaccinated as kids, nor were their other children. Jennifer, who visited a doctor for the first time in her mid-40s, hadn’t heard about the HPV vaccine, which can prevent most cancers caused by the human papillomavirus. But she trusted Evelyn’s pediatrician. If vaccines were recommended, she wanted Evelyn to have them.
A physician assistant looked in Evelyn’s ears and shone a light in her eyes. She tapped her knees to check her reflexes. All signs pointed to a healthy girl.
“Now,” she said, “I’m going to listen to your lungs.” She placed a stethoscope on the girl’s chest, the sound of the ventilation system humming in the quiet room. Evelyn, whose lungs once nearly failed her, took a deep breath.
Evelyn after being vaccinated during a checkup.
How We Reported This Story
Reporter Noelle Crombie relied on records from the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office and the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, including detectives’ interviews with Sarah and Travis Mitchell, their parents and other members of the Followers of Christ; photographs taken during the execution of search warrants; investigative summaries by detectives and records obtained by investigators; Oregon City Police Department reports; recordings of the March 16, 2017, circuit court hearing where Evelyn’s initial custody status was determined and the July 9, 2018, hearing in Clackamas County Circuit Court where the Mitchells were sentenced; Clackamas County Circuit Court records; Clackamas County Department of Communications 911 audio recordings; Oregon City Police Department body-worn camera footage; Evelyn’s medical records from the OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, which her legal guardian Marshall Phillips obtained at The Oregonian/OregonLive’s request; historical legislative records in the Oregon State Archives; and archival records from the Followers of Christ. Crombie observed many of the interactions she describes in the story. For others, she relied on official records and the memories of those who were directly involved.
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND — Providence voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure requiring the city to avoid investments connected to countries profiting from what the measure describes as genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing or prolonged military occupation, making Providence the second U.S. city to adopt an Israel-divestment policy by popular vote.
The measure passed with roughly 75% support, according to The Guardian. Organizers said the campaign was designed to force divestment from companies and financial instruments connected to Israel, including investments they argue contribute to the war in Gaza and the occupation of Palestinian territories.
Providence for Palestine began with about 40 volunteers and eventually built a much larger field operation. The coalition collected more than 10,000 signatures, knocked on roughly 17,000 doors, made 18,000 phone calls and said it spoke with tens of thousands of residents before Election Day. (theguardian.com)
Organizers included local chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace, Democratic Socialists of America, the American Federation of Teachers and American Muslims for Palestine.
The result follows a similar divestment vote in Somerville, Massachusetts, and comes as public opinion toward Israel’s conduct in Gaza has become more critical. An AP-NORC poll found about three in 10 U.S. adults believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians. (apnews.com)
Supporters are now openly discussing Providence as a model for campaigns elsewhere, while opponents of such measures argue municipal governments should avoid using investment policy to take sides in foreign conflicts.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump has returned to unsupported claims that the 2026 midterm elections may have been dishonest, days after acknowledging Democratic victories and saying he would accept the results.
In a Truth Social post Monday, Trump questioned whether the election was “honest,” cited large early-voting “dumps,” and again raised suspicions about voting machines. He offered no evidence that machines altered votes or that fraudulent ballots affected the outcome.
The claims contrast sharply with Trump’s initial response to the election. After Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, Trump publicly accepted the results and instead blamed Republican candidates, turnout and other factors for the losses.
Election officials and independent reporting have found no evidence of widespread fraud. The Associated Press documented several routine Election Day problems, including malfunctioning equipment in New York, but found no indication those issues changed legitimate vote totals. A false claim that the FBI discovered thousands of fraudulent Democratic ballots in Houston was also explicitly denied by the bureau.
Trump’s renewed allegations also come despite polls having broadly forecast significant Democratic gains before Election Day, even if some underestimated their scale.
The shift has drawn criticism even from former allies. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who once promoted Trump’s false 2020 election claims, accused him of recycling the same narrative rather than accepting responsibility for Republican losses.
Reuters reported that election-denial claims have otherwise struggled to gain traction after the midterms, with many defeated Republicans conceding and several prominent Trump allies acknowledging the scale of the Democratic victory.
COLUMBUS, OHIO — An Ohio bill that would completely ban marriage before age 18 remains stalled despite bipartisan sponsorship, unanimous committee approval and no reported public opposition.
Senate Bill 341 would repeal current law allowing 17-year-olds to marry someone up to four years older with juvenile-court approval. Instead, Ohio would establish 18 as the minimum marriage age with no exceptions. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the measure 7-0 in June, but the full Senate has still not taken it up.
The bill was absent from Tuesday’s lame-duck agenda even though Senate President Rob McColley, a Republican, says he personally supports it. Democratic Sen. Bill DeMora, who introduced the legislation with Republican Sen. Bill Blessing, said he plans to force the issue by offering the proposal as an amendment to other legislation.
Advocates argue that minors can enter marriages carrying adult responsibilities while lacking many adult legal rights. At a Tuesday press conference, survivors described marriages involving significant age gaps, abuse and difficulty obtaining housing or divorces before turning 18.
Ohio legislative records show the measure has advanced no further than the Senate committee stage. If lawmakers do not pass it before the current General Assembly expires, supporters would have to start over next year.
According to advocacy group Unchained At Last, more than 5,000 minors have married in Ohio since 2000.
John Falchetto was a survivor. In Vietnam, his river gunboat came under devastating rocket fire. He was the only one to make it out alive. But this February, Falchetto, who had just turned 80, began to have piercing stomach pains. He was in distress for days. Finally, Falchetto went to the VA hospital in East Orange, New Jersey.
A CT scan of Falchetto’s abdomen suggested his appendix had not only burst, but that it was gangrenous. His gut was so filled with bacteria and pus that tissue was dying. Doctors wrote that he needed surgery immediately.
But that night, the hospital’s operating room was closed. Months earlier, the ventilation system had malfunctioned, and the repair team was short-staffed. So Falchetto lay there, his life in the balance, for seven hours.
This was not normal. But nothing had been normal at East Orange since President Donald Trump returned to office last year and set his sights on the VA.
The behemoth agency, which traces its roots to the Civil War, is both the country’s largest healthcare system and one of its most effective. It provides 9 million veterans what is essentially socialized medicine, often for free, under the cover of the American flag. The doctors, nurses and other staff are employed by the government.
But in his second term, Trump has moved aggressively to upend this system, embracing a decades-long conservative campaign to effectively kneecap the VA’s government-run healthcare and shift veterans toward private doctors and hospitals.
Under Trump, the VA has increasingly acted like an insurer, paying doctors in the community for vets’ care. This, the reasoning went, would allow the government to cut thousands of needless bureaucrats while giving veterans more choices if the VA can’t provide the care.
“We love our veterans,” Trump said during an Oval Office photo op shortly after his inauguration. “We are going to take good care of them.”
Days after that pronouncement, a memo leaked showing the administration was considering sweeping job cuts at the agency. “Things need to change,” warned Doug Collins, Trump’s new VA secretary, in a video message to staff.
After pushback from vets groups and others, the administration retreated from its threat of mass layoffs. But it found another, less attention-getting way to shrink the VA.
If Trump’s appointees couldn’t lay off employees, they would make work conditions so untenable that staffers would leave on their own.
Throughout it all, the VA’s leadership said front-line medical workers would be immune from any cuts. But amid the upheaval, many left anyway.
Six months after Trump entered the White House, the VA had 3,800 fewer doctors, nurses and other “mission critical” staff than it did at the start of his term, according to the department’s own data. While the losses made up a small percentage of overall employees, the drop compounded longstanding shortages — and contrasted sharply with a hiring spree under President Joe Biden that had begun to address them. Many of the front-line workers who quit in Trump’s early days have never been replaced. Instead, the VA has eliminated thousands of open positions, including doctors, nurses and other providers.
The administration has denied that it is hurting veterans’ care. “There’s actually an excitement about what’s going on,” said Collins, a former personal lawyer for Trump, in congressional testimony this spring. A spokesperson said the eliminated jobs for healthcare providers were simply “not needed.”
That is not what we have found. Over months of reporting, ProPublica has watched the East Orange VA Medical Center — a typical agency facility — spiral downward. The hospital and its affiliated facilities in New Jersey lost nearly a tenth of the staff they had when Trump took office.
Over the past two years, a VA watchdog report shows, the number of roles with “severe shortages” in East Orange has tripled, from around 30 to roughly 90. Among them: oncologists, radiologists, surgeons, cardiologists, anesthesiologists, critical care doctors, nurses, mechanics, cleaners — nearly every job that makes a hospital run.
“It’s scary,” one East Orange administrator said in a meeting this year. “We have no one.”
It’s not just there. According to the VA’s watchdog, nearly all VA hospitals — 97% — reported having severe shortages of doctors. (The agency argues that the report — titled in part, “Staffing Shortages” — is simply about shortages of candidates and not actual staffing.)
The exodus of healthcare providers has increasingly forced veterans into the private care program — called Community Care — that the Trump administration has pushed. Amid soaring caseloads there and what a government report describes as “insufficient staffing,” many vets have been facing interminable waits.
ProPublica and other outlets have previously detailed problems with particular areas of VA care under Trump, such as mental health. But our reporting suggests far more care for veterans is being put at risk.
At East Orange, the damage wrought by the administration’s approach has cut like a scythe across nearly every area of the hospital.
Wound care is harder to get, since the nurses who specialize in it have mostly gone. The standard tests for blood clots weren’t available for most of the year, because there were no technicians. Even radiation treatment was stopped for months, after one of the key specialists left.
“Care has gotten worse for the patients,” said one doctor. “The services available. The wait times. We’re not providing the care that we wish we could.”
Another doctor, who recently quit, recalled how vets coming in with chest pains couldn’t get cardiac tests for months. “It felt dangerous practicing in a place like that,” said the physician, who, like others, declined to be named for fear of retribution. “That’s something you don’t want on your conscience.”
VA employees across the country told ProPublica they are seeing remarkably similar issues at their hospitals.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, short-staffing forced the hospital to take many of its beds offline and stopped it from operating on severe heart attacks. Surgeries — on lungs and spines — have also been suspended for months at the VA hospital near St. Petersburg, Florida. At both hospitals, government reports found, Trump’s touted private care program was also overwhelmed and understaffed, further fueling delays in care.
“Care has gotten worse for the patients. The services available. The wait times. We’re not providing the care that we wish we could.”
East Orange VA doctor
Surgeries and other critical care have also been delayed at the Minneapolis VA. A staffer there shared a friendly looking notice tacked to a bulletin board in May: “No SOD coverage” — meaning, no surgeon on duty — “until further notice.” Radiation treatment was also suspended there because one of the machine’s operators quit. A Minneapolis doctor recalled that meant having to put a vet with cancer-riddled bones on a rattling ambulance ride every day, rather than simply wheel him down the hall. The doctor said each bump on the winter roads caused the vet excruciating pain: “It was miserable.”
A longtime oncologist who works with VA hospitals around the country told me, “Care is collapsing from the inside.”
Starting in July, ProPublica repeatedly asked the VA about evidence we’d found that short-staffing is hurting veterans’ care. We asked to interview Collins and the leadership of East Orange. The VA did not make them available. Nor did it address the specifics ProPublica shared on care.
In a general statement, the VA said care has improved under Trump. “This Administration is solely focused on measuring VA’s success by how well it serves Veterans,” said agency spokesperson Quinn Slaven. He cited a record number of appointments for both direct and private care over roughly the past year. Slaven also noted that the private care program began under the first Trump administration and was also embraced by the Biden administration.
As for East Orange, Slaven said the facility is outperforming private hospitals on certain metrics, such as diabetes care and some cancer screenings. Slaven also said more appointments were completed in fiscal year 2025 — which ran from October 2024 through September last year — than in any year of the Biden administration.
Citing privacy law, the VA noted it could not address individual cases without a waiver from the patient or appropriate family member. While ProPublica spoke with veterans’ family members and loved ones, none chose to sign.
We did, however, also ask the VA about the general issues surrounding those cases — such as East Orange’s OR being closed — and the agency did not respond.
In speaking to us, family members expressed surprise about their loved ones’ care. Falchetto’s brother, Tony, knew his brother had appendicitis, but hadn’t known that the OR in East Orange was closed. “Oh my god,” Tony exclaimed when I told him that his brother didn’t get timely care.
This story is based on internal documents, emails, agency data, recordings and interviews with more than two dozen current and former VA staffers, along with veterans and their families.
Contrary to the administration’s rhetoric, what emerges is a portrait of an institution in trauma.
“It Felt Like Bullying”
As soon as Trump was reelected, healthcare providers and other staffers at East Orange could feel the barometric pressure plummeting and the storm arriving.
The incoming administration’s plans for federal employees had long been clear. “We want to put them in trauma,” said Russell Vought in 2023, before he became Trump’s chief of the Office of Management and Budget. “We want them to not want to go to work.”
Just days into the new administration, officials imposed a rigid return-to-office policy, even as many staffers — from schedulers to radiologists reading digital scans — had shifted to remote work in recent years. An internal agency watchdog later wrote that the edict caused a “system shock” at East Orange, whose outdated infrastructure and long-mothballed rooms couldn’t handle the influx.
“I love working with vets, and I’ve never wanted to work anywhere else,” said one medical provider at East Orange who rattled off a list of edicts. “You’re this little person, and the full weight of the federal government was on you. It felt like bullying. It was very, very stressful.”
That May, Collins appeared before Congress and promised that the administration would not cut care: “We’re going to maintain VA’s mission-essential jobs, like doctors, nurses, claims processors, while phasing out nonessential roles, like interior designers and other things — DEI.”
Two months later, the agency touted the loss of nearly 30,000 staffers. “VA is headed in the right direction,” Collins said in a statement announcing the losses. It was hard to know if the remaining staff agreed, since officials canceled the VA’s employee satisfaction survey.
Among the most essential staff at VA hospitals have long been the specialty doctors, with their years of extra training. Recognizing their importance — and their potential to earn far more in the private sector — bipartisan legislation, which Biden signed into law in January 2025, allowed the VA to pay top-notch doctors more than the standard government rate.
But under Trump, the department didn’t use that authority for more than a year — even as more and more specialty doctors were leaving.
So, amid the departmental tumult, East Orange’s doctors began to exit, and they often weren’t replaced.
Six months into the administration, East Orange was down five psychologists, two of its four general surgeons and 18 nurses, among others, according to data obtained through a public records request.
The departures weren’t limited to front-line providers. So-called support staff were leaving too. The effects could be just as devastating. In East Orange, the medical physicist calibrated radiation machines. When he quit, the hospital had to suspend radiation treatment for months.
That left a veteran named Dennis in the lurch. The 72-year-old Vietnam vet had advanced colorectal cancer, which was causing rectal bleeding. Dennis’ bleeding — and his pain — could be reduced with radiation. It might also give him more time. But suddenly, East Orange couldn’t provide the treatment.
In early August, Dennis’ case was transferred to the Community Care program, which reroutes vets to private providers. Except East Orange’s Community Care office had also been losing staff and was overwhelmed with requests. Weeks passed as Dennis waited, even as his doctors messaged at least five times that he needed to be seen, as one put it, “ASAP.”
He finally got an appointment for a consultation — the first step toward radiation — for Sept. 12. But Dennis never made it.
He died on Sept. 4.
Winter Comes to East Orange
A half dozen oncologists and surgeons told me that delaying treatment by more than a month and a half was problematic. At the least, they said, the delays almost certainly made his last weeks more painful. One told me he gives patients in Dennis’ condition radiation “within hours.” (ProPublica is withholding the veteran’s last name at the request of his family, which wants to maintain their privacy.)
Other veterans at East Orange faced the same dynamics: They were shunted to private care after their VA doctors and others left — and then they got stuck in the system since the office that handles private care — Community Care — was so overloaded. “That volume just keeps going up,” one administrator said at a meeting last November. The reason for the increased referrals to Community Care? She explained: “We just do not have the providers to provide the care.”
That winter the short-staffing and its effects spread across East Orange.
Staff were told via email that because of “urgent nurse staffing levels,” eight of the hospital’s roughly 60 general admission beds were being “taken out of service.”
“That was a big chunk of our beds,” said one of East Orange’s doctors. “I don’t recall ever having to close that many.” Without beds, the doctor explained, veterans often “stay in the emergency room, which is not ideal.” Indeed, studies have shown that leaving patients in the ER is dangerous and results in higher mortality rates.
A vet at one of East Orange’s campuses wrote to Trump complaining about short-staffing. He soon received a response signed by the president. “Every American owes our veterans an eternal debt of gratitude,” Trump said in the one-page letter, “and under my leadership, they will always have the loyalty, respect, and support they have earned and so dearly deserve.”
“You’re this little person, and the full weight of the federal government was on you. It felt like bullying. It was very, very stressful.”
VA healthcare provider
Around the same time, the hospital also had to shutter its operating room.
In December, part of the operating room’s air flow system had malfunctioned, contaminating the surgical instruments. Breakdowns like this weren’t unusual. East Orange was built 70 years ago, and its infrastructure showed it. But now the hospital mechanics who kept it all running were quitting. In interviews, they cited the same downward spiral that healthcare staffers did: As coworkers left, the staff who remained had to pick up the load, further increasing the strain of their jobs.
This put even more strain on a department that was already “severely understaffed” before Trump, said Irvin Webb, who worked as an air systems technician before he left the VA in May 2025. As a result of the departures, he said, repairs ended up taking longer. (Air conditioning equipment mechanic and air conditioning equipment operator were both among the many East Orange positions categorized as having severe shortages in this year’s VA survey.)
Medical staff felt the impact. One doctor calculated that the OR has been down nine times over the past year — compared with once the year before.
After the air flow malfunction in December, theOR was out of action for roughly three weeks. It then reopened for planned surgeries but remained closed for emergency and off-hours surgery for more than another month.
Then, on Feb. 12, Falchetto came to East Orange with a burst, gangrenous appendix.
He arrived in the early evening. Doctors noted that he had abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea, and described the results of Falchetto’s CT scan as “worrisome.” The doctors wrote that Falchetto needed surgery, but, as one physician noted, there was a “lack of OR capability.” And so, despite his life depending on quick intervention, Falchetto had to leave the hospital that was treating him.
At about midnight, East Orange arranged for Falchetto to be transferred to the VA hospital in Manhattan. It’s less than an hour away. But Falchetto ran into yet another problem: Instead of arranging an emergency transfer, the administrators scheduled him to be moved when the transport unit started its morning shift around 7.
Falchetto was finally taken to the Manhattan VA the morning of Feb. 13. About 12 hours had passed since he had arrived at East Orange’s emergency room. The Manhattan surgeons operated on him immediately, noting “perforated appendicitis with gross fecal spillage.”
They also recognized something even more ominous: sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to infection.
Falchetto never recovered. Doctors documented “worsening septic shock.” He had a catastrophic heart attack a week later. With little brain activity, Falchetto was transferred to hospice.
He died on March 7.
“Imminent Risk to Patient Care”
It’s impossible to say for certain whether short-staffing caused Falchetto’s death. He was severely ill when he arrived at East Orange and may have died even if he got proper, timely treatment. But he didn’t get that.
“If I were the family, I’d sue everyone,” one of the doctors involved in Falchetto’s case told ProPublica. “He should have been operated on immediately.”
By last spring, managers at East Orange were sending increasingly dire alarms internally. One email in March — just a few days after Falchetto died — warned that the shortages were preventing proper care.
The crises began coming in quick succession, one more desperate than the next.
Both of the hospital’s orthopedic surgeons left. And wound care became a particular problem. The East Orange VA previously had three nurses who specialized in the area. By this spring, just one remained, according to East Orange staffers. She would have to commute dozens of miles between East Orange’s hospital and its satellite clinics and nursing home.
“I’m not going to have time for anything,” the nurse told colleagues in a meeting about the changes.
A few months later, a veteran arrived at East Orange with a diabetic ulcer — essentially an open wound — on his left foot. His records state that the wound “significantly increased in size” but that he hadn’t been seen by a wound care specialist amid shortages.
“If I were the family, I’d sue everyone.”
East Orange VA doctor
It was the VA’s nearby nursing home — which the agency calls a community living center — that raised the starkest alarm. A message to the staff on April 10 warned of an “extreme shortage of CLC nursing staff with an imminent risk to patient care.”
An administrator wrote in the message that the nursing home was taking emergency action to cut the number of veterans allowed at the facility from 192 to 180. Soon the cap was reduced again, to 170.
What that meant is that vets who qualified for spots would be mostly turned away.
Typically, the East Orange hospital could function as a kind of temporary overflow facility for the nursing home. And the nursing home could do the same for East Orange, taking some patients when the hospital was full.
But now neither could handle any more. On May 20, a notice went out to staff saying the hospital couldn’t accept patients from the nursing home that day.
What’s more, 17 veterans who needed admission were instead housed in the ER. Other hospitals also sometimes do that, but at East Orange the problematic practice went from rare to “far more common,” one doctor involved recalled. They were stuck there at least a day. “They’re in bed all day,” said the doctor. “It’s essentially a cot.”
“People Are Falling Through the Cracks”
The day after the ER pileup, Collins, the VA secretary, arrived on Capitol Hill to testify again. He bristled when he was asked about how staff cuts and eliminated positions were affecting care.
Soon after, Collins quietly imposed staffing caps. What’s more, even when hospitals do have the authority to hire, the pall hanging over the agency now has impacted recruiting. As ProPublica reported last year, many doctors have turned down VA job offers amid the ongoing turmoil. Nearly 4 in 10 of the roughly 2,000 doctors offered jobs from January through March last year rejected them. That is quadruple the rate of doctors rejecting offers during the same time period in 2024.
At the time of Collins’ testimony, the VA had around 5,100 fewer doctors, nurses and other “mission critical” staff than it did at the start of the Trump administration, a 3.4% drop. Under Biden, by contrast, the VA had been staffing up.
“There is nothing they cannot hire.”
Doug Collins, VA secretary
At East Orange, staffers told me the hospital had no vascular techs for most of this year, meaning there was no one to run tests on arteries and veins. And on the oncology ward, internal records show the team assigned to help patients navigate their treatment was down to just one nurse.
The providers who have stayed have been overwhelmed by vets’ needs — a dynamic that employees say is playing out in VA hospitals across the country. “People are falling through the cracks, and now they’re not getting help,” said one primary care physician at a VA clinic in Missouri.
“I’ve been working from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.,” she said. “I’ve had to take mental health breaks because I’ve been so stressed. I’ve been near suicidal. It’s not normal.”
Coins, Not Care
On a late August morning, a smattering of black SUVs and police cars pulled up to a VA campus near East Orange. Collins and a gaggle of aides stepped out of the caravan and went inside.
The VA secretary visited two departments. One was the chaplains’ unit, which, like so many units within East Orange these days, is “severely understaffed,” according to an internal presentation. (Collins is an ordained Baptist minister and once served as a Navy chaplain.)
The other was the residential PTSD unit. Staffers had arranged for Collins to meet with veterans, messages show. The event was not open to the media, but, according to staff and a vet who were there that day, Collins sped through the visit and did not stay long to speak with the vets.
On his way out, Collins stopped for a moment to talk to a veteran without legs in a wheelchair. After Collins strolled away, I asked the veteran what they discussed. “He just thanked me for my service and gave me one of these,” said Willie Johnson, showing me a commemorative coin that says, “Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Douglas A. Collins.”
I asked Johnson whether he had noticed changes in care since Trump returned to office. “Oh yes,” he said, noting that even food has gotten worse (among the positions with severe shortages at East Orange: food service worker).
The day after Collins’ visit, an email went out to staff. A “particularly meaningful part” of the visit, the email from a top administrator said, was the opportunity to recognize the service of five employees with Collins’ coin.
Among the recipients was the head of the maintenance department — the diminished unit that’s struggled to keep the operating room open.
Last week, as we were preparing to publish this story, a doctor at East Orange told me of a development: a backup generator had failed, and the OR was closed yet again.
DENVER, COLORADO — Colorado voters approved Proposition 135, creating a statewide prohibition on certain surgeries for people under 18 when performed to alter biological sex characteristics in response to a minor’s perception of sex or gender.
The measure passed with roughly 52% support to 48% opposition, according to current election results.
Proposition 135 prohibits health professionals from knowingly performing or providing covered surgeries and bars state or federal funds, Medicaid reimbursement and private insurance coverage from paying for them. It includes exceptions for certain disorders of sex development and other specified medical conditions and does not apply to male circumcision.
The measure does not prohibit counseling, social transition or nonsurgical gender-related treatment.
Its practical effect may initially be limited because Colorado’s three largest pediatric surgical providers already did not perform gender-affirming surgeries on transgender patients under 18. However, the proposition turns that practice into a statewide legal restriction and limits insurance coverage for procedures falling within its definition.
Supporters argued minors should not undergo irreversible procedures before adulthood. Opponents said medical decisions should remain between families and health professionals and warned the measure’s language could potentially affect some procedures involving non-transgender minors.
The law is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2027. State regulatory boards will be responsible for handling complaints and determining how the prohibition is applied in individual cases.
The result is notable because Colorado voters approved the restriction while simultaneously electing Democrats to dominant control of state government.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump was reportedly briefed months ago about intelligence linking Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to a woman U.S. officials suspected of working for Chinese intelligence, undercutting Trump’s recent claim that he knew nothing about the matter.
According to reporting cited by The New York Times and later confirmed by Reuters, Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed Trump during a May trip to China, including during an Air Force One refueling stop in Alaska. The briefing reportedly concerned Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman whom U.S. intelligence officials suspected of being an intelligence asset.
Trump nevertheless said Monday that he had not previously been told about the relationship and described Jensen Huang as “a very honorable man.”
The intelligence allegation remains unproven publicly. China has called the claim “groundless,” while Nvidia says it has no reason to believe company secrets or U.S. national security were compromised. The company’s independent directors have hired outside counsel to investigate.
Jensen Huang has acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife but has not publicly confirmed that Alice Huang was the person involved or that he knew of any alleged intelligence connection.
The controversy carries added weight because Nvidia sits at the center of U.S.-China competition over advanced artificial-intelligence chips. Alice Huang’s former company, Megaspeed, has separately faced scrutiny over whether restricted Nvidia chips reached Chinese customers.
If the reported May briefing is accurate, the central issue is no longer whether Trump was informed, but why he later publicly denied knowing about the intelligence concern.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Eleven House Democrats missed Tuesday’s vote on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s impeachment, providing Republicans enough votes to derail the effort despite GOP concerns that the measure might advance.
The House voted 211-204 to refer Rep. Thomas Massie’s eight articles of impeachment to the Judiciary Committee rather than proceed with them. Massie was the only Republican voting against referral. Had all 11 absent Democrats voted with the rest of their caucus, the motion would have failed 215-211.
The absent Democrats were Julia Brownley of California, Lou Correa of California, Laura Gillen of New York, Steven Horsford of Nevada, Jonathan Jackson of Illinois, Nancy Pelosi of California, Brittany Pettersen of Colorado, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, Haley Stevens of Michigan, Marilyn Strickland of Washington, and Frederica Wilson of Florida.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove sharply criticized the no-shows, saying Democrats knew the vote was coming and “should have gotten their raggedy selves up these steps to vote.”
Several lawmakers offered explanations. Pelosi was attending a Veterans Day event in San Francisco. Correa was undergoing a medical procedure. Stansbury and Jackson said traffic and a police-escorted bus prevented them from reaching the chamber, while Strickland said a motorcade delayed her arrival. Pettersen said she was denied the opportunity to vote.
Massie’s articles accuse Hegseth of unauthorized warfare, civilian-protection violations and extrajudicial killings, among other allegations. Hegseth denies wrongdoing.
The failure is temporary: Democrats, who take control of the House in January, can revive impeachment proceedings.
Self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth narrowly avoided impeachment Tuesday night, as solidarity from House Republicans blocked a bill introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., charging Hegseth with “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Though Democrats overwhelmingly joined Massie’s effort following their midterm election landslide, the House voted 211 to 204 to refer the charges to a committee, allowing Republicans to slow the process. With 11 Democrats absent, they lacked the numbers. Massie, however, dismissed the impact of Democratic absences to The Intercept. “No, there were enough Republicans to rally to get here,” he said.
The procedural vote spared Republicans a more difficult vote on whether to impeach Hegseth on Massie’s eight charges, including waging wars without congressional authorization and undercutting measures to prevent civilian casualties. It followed a week of increasingly desperate efforts by the Pentagon chief to shore up congressional and White House support, including a campaign-style video intended to influence Trump, a social media campaign by underlings, and a rare appearance by Hegseth himself before the Pentagon press corps.
For half an hour on Tuesday morning’s news conference, Hegseth wove a web of lies designed to refute or obfuscate Massie’s eight charges. He claimed that the effort to impeach him was a stunt by just “one disgruntled congressman.” That, too, turned out to be false as 203 members of Congress voted with Massie.
On Tuesday, a coalition of more than 40 civil society organizations — including Oxfam America, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Common Defense, Demand Progress, MoveOn, and the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft — sent a letter calling on all House members to vote for every article of impeachment filed against Hegseth.
“Pete Hegseth’s time at the Pentagon has done grievous harm to the nation and to the Constitution,” said Demand Progress senior policy adviser Cavan Kharrazian. “This is a man who ignored the will of Congress to execute an illegal war in Iran, kidnapped a foreign leader for oil, restarted war on Yemen, sent missiles to kill suspected drug traffickers and weaponized the Pentagon against a political enemy.”
The House has only impeached two Cabinet secretaries: William Belknap, the secretary of war, in 1876; and Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, in 2024. In neither case did the Senate vote to convict.
“They diagnosed why they lost the election. But tonight they were paralyzed to do anything about it.”
After the vote, Massie called out the display of inaction from his Republican colleagues.
“They diagnosed why they lost the election,” Massie said of fellow Republicans, following the vote on Tuesday night. “But tonight they were paralyzed to do anything about it. And that’s the story of Congress.”
Absent from the vote were Democratic Reps. Julia Brownley, Lou Correa and Nancy Pelosi, of California; Laura Gillen of New York; Steven Horsford of Nevada; Jonathan Jackson of Illinois; Brittany Pettersen of Colorado; Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico; Haley Stevens of Michigan; Marilyn Strickland of Washington; and Frederica Wilson of Florida. The absent Republicans were Reps. Monica De La Cruz of Texas; Neal Dunn of Florida; Russell Fry of South Carolina; Julia Letlow of Louisiana; Tom Tiffany and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin; and Rudy Yakym of Indiana.
A senior congressional staffer predicted that Hegseth would face a very rough road if he survived impeachment. “Oversight is going to come crashing down on his head,” that staffer said. “Will Hegseth continue to obstruct? Yes. But wait until the subpoenas start.”
Congressional committees have broad investigative powers, including the authority to subpoena administration officials to testify under oath and compel them to turn over documents. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who will head the House Armed Services Committee in the next Congress, said Hegseth and Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg would be first on the list to testify.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., one of the leading voices for Hegseth’s impeachment, told The Intercept there were “many ways” for Democrats to hold him accountable in the next session, specifically compelling him to testify before the American people. “I would be surprised to see him last the next two years in this administration,” she told The Intercept. “I think that he is not only one of the most incompetent members of the administration, but also the most unpopular — and it’s on a bipartisan basis. So the pressure will continue to grow for there to be some change at the Pentagon.”
“I want Pete Hegseth not just impeached, I want him prosecuted.”
Rep.-elect Richard Ojeda, D-N.C., told The Intercept that the incoming Democrats have Hegseth in their sights. “I want Pete Hegseth not just impeached, I want him prosecuted. They murdered people in the Caribbean. And we killed 163 little girls in Iran,” he said. “Everybody in my class is ready for him to go. We tried it. It didn’t work. We’ll do it again.”
In a Truth Social post, President Donald Trump celebrated the outcome while expressing confusion over the vote. Trump called it the “Democrats’ attempt to impeach” Hegseth, despite the fact the effort was introduced by Massie, a Republican, who he called “a major LOSER.” He claimed it was an “EXONERATION” of Hegseth and added: “The Democrats continue to weaponize and abuse the United States of America. They must be stopped!”
In his first sit-down interview since the midterm elections that saw Democrats retake control of both the House and Senate, President Donald Trump blamed Republicans’ poor showing on “bad messaging” — essentially not properly conveying to American voters all of the accomplishments of his second term.
But in his recounting of events, Trump repeatedly twisted the facts on the economy, immigration, gasoline prices, sanctions on Russia, crime and the reasons for the dramatic rise in his net worth during his presidency.
Pressed on whether his business ventures posed a conflict of interest, Trump falsely claimed the dramatic increase in his net worth since being reelected was due to the stock market’s rise, and he made other false or misleading claims.
Trump said the stock market “lost almost 2,000 points because of the Democrats'” sweeping victories in the midterms. The stock market has been volatile in the days after the election, but the Dow Jones was a little higher at the close on Nov. 9 than it was on Election Day. The S&P 500 is down slightly, less than 0.3%.
The president said there are people on the “pretty far right that would like everybody taken out” — referring to the deportation of all immigrants in the country illegally, even if they haven’t broken the law otherwise. But deporting everyone has been Trump’s stated position for years.
Trump claimed that he “didn’t lift diesel sanctions” on Russia. But his administration issued a temporary license in October that exempted imports of Russian diesel fuel from sanctions.
Trump falsely claimed that he had brought gas below $2 per gallon in Iowa before the war with Iran.
Asked about Americans’ views on the economy, particularly concerns about inflation, Trump said that “we have historically good numbers” and pivoted to talking about the stock market. Some economic metrics are indeed historically good, such as the low unemployment rate. But inflation has gone up under Trump.
The president misrepresented the polls and final margin in the Ohio Senate race, in claiming he boosted Republican Sen. Jon Husted’s chances.
Trump appeared to inflate the decrease in total crime in Washington, D.C., and he wrongly said that “we haven’t had a murder in a long time” in the city.
The president’s interview with Ross Douthat of CBS News’ “60 Minutes” was conducted on Nov. 6, and aired two days later.
Business Ventures and Net Worth
In one lengthy exchange, Douthat pressed Trump on his net worth skyrocketing while in office and whether his business ventures represented conflicts of interest. Trump made several false or misleading statements in response.
Stock market gains: Douthat brought up a Forbes story estimating Trump’s net worth had increased by roughly $3 billion since his reelection in 2024.
“Well, so did everyone,” Trump responded, telling Douthat he “should’ve had stock” when the journalist said “my net worth did not go up by $3 billion.”
It’s true that the stock market is higher than when Trump took office in January 2025. But that’s not the main source of the increase in his net worth.
The New York Times reported in June, based on Trump’s financial disclosure forms, that he made at least $2.2 billion that year. About $1.4 billion of that came from his family’s cryptocurrency ventures, and additional revenue came from deals licensing his name and other sources.
Trump’s investments in financial markets also increased in value, the Times reported, but that wasn’t the main reason his wealth shot up.
Presidential salary: Trump falsely asserted that he’s the only American president to forego his annual salary of $400,000 and donate it instead.
“I don’t take a salary,” he said, adding that “every other president took their salary.” At one point he said that was “supposedly” the case. “I don’t know if that’s right.”
He’s made this boast before, but it’s untrue. Presidents Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy, both of whom were independently wealthy, did the same, Thomas F. Schwartz, director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, wrote in 2016.
Comparison to past presidents: Historians have said Trump’s business entanglements are unprecedented. But in the “60 Minutes” interview, he claimed his situation is no different than what past presidents did.
This came in response to Douthat pressing Trump on whether his stake in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company he co-owns with his sons, poses a conflict of interest. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that a company linked to the government of the United Arab Emirates paid $500 million for a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial in January 2025.
“Every president has not owned a cryptocurrency company,” Douthat said.
“Well, but — but they own something, whatever crypto was at the time, okay?” Trump said. “You know, there’s crypto and before that there was oil and the — and every president has had this problem.”
Presidential historians told the New York Times, however, that no other president has launched new business ventures shortly before taking office and then continued to profit from them while leading the country. They noted that other modern presidents, by contrast, had sought to minimize potential conflicts of interest by selling off stakes in businesses or placing them under independent management.
A White House spokesperson told the Times that “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public.”
Obama-Netflix deal: In claiming that his predecessors also profited from business deals while in office, Trump said Barack Obama “got $100 million from Netflix … during his presidency.”
This is false. Barack and Michelle Obama signed a content-production deal with Netflix in 2018, more than a year after leaving the White House. (The value of the deal was not publicly announced; CNN, citing anonymous sources, reported it was a “high 8-figure deal.”)
Stock Market
Trump said the stock market has plummeted due to the Democratic victories in the midterms. The stock market has been volatile in the days after the election, but the Dow Jones was a little higher at the close on Nov. 9 than it was on Election Day. The S&P 500 is down slightly, less than 0.3%.
“The market lost almost 2,000 points because of the Democrats,” Trump said. “They got in. And the world said, ‘I don’t want to invest with these people’ because they look what happened in France, they look what happened in Italy and all over the world. And they say, ‘This is the same ideology.'”
Trump is referring to a steep drop in the stock market on the Thursday after the election. But he’s ignoring the gains on the day after the election. The market has also rebounded some since that big drop, though that largely came after “60 Minutes” conducted the interview.
The stock market has been on a bit of a roller coaster since Election Day. The day after the election, when it was clear Democrats had seized control of both the House and Senate, the Dow Jones Industrial Average — which tracks 30 of the nation’s largest companies — leapt up 3%. But then the next day, all those gains were lost, and then some, with a drop of 3.4%. Since then, the Dow Jones has risen some, and at the close of the market on Nov. 9 was about 1.2% higher than it was on Election Day.
The S&P 500, which is made up of 500 large-cap companies, followed a similarly bumpy path, gaining 1.6% the day after the election before losing 4.4% the following day. It has risen a bit since then, and closed the day on Nov. 9 less than 0.3% lower than where it was on Election Day.
“The immediate post-election rally has run its course,” David Kelly, chief global strategist and head of the global market insights strategy team for J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said in a piece posted Nov. 9. “People are now focusing on the things they were concerned about beforehand, such as the financing of the AI buildout.”
“I wouldn’t make too much of the sell-off,” Kelly said. “This is a hangover from the big post-election rally.”
Trump also boasted about the stock market’s performance since taking office for a second term, and said it has outperformed past presidents.
“We’re doing numbers that have never been done before,” Trump said. “401(k)s are at their all-time high by a lot. Under other presidents, they were a disaster. 401(k)s have made people rich. And for some reason — remember during rallies I’d say, ‘Please look at your 401(k) before you go to vote.'”
The stock market has done well under Trump. The S&P, with dividends, grew 17.78% last year. It is up 11.24% with dividends reinvested this year so far. But the performance under recent past presidents has hardly been “a disaster,” as Trump said.
The average yearly S&P 500 return, with dividends, under President Joe Biden was 15.34%. It was 16.65% during Trump’s first term, and 14.7% under President Barack Obama.
Deportation Policy
Trump said his deportation policy “might be too tough” and that he was open to discussing a bipartisan immigration bill that would grant many immigrants in the country illegally a pathway to citizenship. But he said there was a group on the “pretty far right that would like everybody taken out.”
While Trump described that as a “pretty far right” faction of the White House, Trump has on numerous occasions said his aim was to deport all immigrants living in the country illegally.
That was Trump’s policy when he ran for president the first time in 2016, saying during a Feb. 25, 2016, Republican debate, “We have at least 11 million people in this country that came in illegally. They will go out.” Trump reiterated that goal in remarks to reporters on June 22, 2019: “Everybody that came into the country illegally will be brought out of the country very legally.”
On Dec. 8, 2024, around a month after winning the presidency for the second time, Trump was asked by Kristen Welker of NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he planned to deport everyone in the country illegally over the next four years.
“Well, I think you have to do it … you have rules, regulations, laws,” Trump said. “They came in illegally. You know the people that have been treated very unfairly are the people that have been on line for 10 years to come into the country.”
Trump has stuck by that plan since taking office for a second time.
“Those who are here illegally should either self deport using the CBP Home App or, ICE will find you and remove you,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on June 12, 2025.
In a November 2025 interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Norah O’Donnell asked, “Is it your intent to deport people who do not have a criminal record?”
Trump answered: “We have to start off with a policy, and the policy has to be you came into the country illegally, you’re going to go out.”
During his “60 Minutes” interview this week, Trump opined that his immigration policy had both “helped and hurt” the GOP in the midterm elections, and he repeated several inaccurate immigration statistics.
“I think I got an A+ for closing up the border because we had 25 million people come in through Biden over a four-year period,” Trump said, claiming that “many” were from prisons and mental institutions. “You had 11,888 murderers, most of whom, more than half of whom, committed more than one murder,” he said. “We’ve gotten most of them out.” Trump then said that “in the last 17 months … zero people came in through our southern border.”
The 25 million migrants Trump alleged to have come in illegally during Biden’s presidency is highly inflated. Trump has never provided evidence that countries emptied their prisons and mental institutions and sent them to the U.S. The 11,888 murderers claim refers to the number of noncitizens in the U.S. — including those with legal status — who had been convicted of murder but were not in ICE custody as of September 2024. Many were in prison, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
And as we have written, the Trump administration no longer temporarily releases immigrants caught at the border into the U.S. while they apply, for example, for asylum. But it’s not accurate that “zero people” have come through the border illegally. About 5,000 to 10,000 migrants have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents attempting to illegally cross into the U.S. every month of Trump’s second term. And CBP has acknowledged there have been thousands of so-called gotaways, immigrants who were detected via electronic surveillance crossing the border but who evaded apprehension.
Trump went on to say that what hurt the GOP in the midterms on immigration is that “we also took people that had good jobs, that — that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally.” Trump said of his deportation policy, “I think it might be too tough.”
As we have written, in addition to increased border enforcement, the Trump administration dramatically increased interior enforcement and deportations. According to publicly available Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, the average daily population of those detained by ICE during the last three months ending in July is up 272% compared with the last three months under Biden.
And despite Trump’s repeatedassurances that his administration is focused on the “worst of the worst” ICE is arresting a greater percentage of people who have neither criminal convictions nor pending criminal charges. In the last three months of the Biden administration, 6% of those arrested had neither criminal convictions nor pending charges. By contrast, over the three months ending in July, the latest data available, that figure climbed to 34%.
Lifting Diesel Sanctions
Trump denied removing fuel-related sanctions on Russia when Douthat challenged the president’s claim that “there’s been nobody that’s been tougher on Russia” than Trump.
“But just recently you lifted diesel sanctions on Russia. Like, you’ve done various things to take pressure off Russia,” Douthat said. Trump’s response was, “I didn’t lift diesel sanctions. I made it possible for Russia to give, not us, but to the world — thousands and thousands of barrels of oil, of diesel, which it needed. Didn’t do any big favor.”
But on Oct. 9, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a temporary license that exempted “all transactions … related to the sale, delivery, offloading, or importation … of diesel fuel of Russian Federation origin” that were previously prohibited by the “Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 587, or the Ukraine-/Russia-Related Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 589.” The license says the exemptions are in effect until April.
The same day the license was issued Trump announced a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin for Russia to release Russian diesel fuel to U.S. and global markets. Trump said the deal called for more than 300,000 metric tons to be released immediately, followed by 500,000 metric tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter.”
He said the goal of the deal with Russia was to lower U.S. diesel prices, which had increased because of the Iran war — although some energy experts and analysts said the amount of diesel to be released would likely have little impact on fuel markets and prices.
Trump also signed an executive order on Oct. 16 that waived sanctions and tariffs that were included in the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. The executive order says: “I am hereby waiving the application of such sanctions, restrictions, and duties provided for in the Graham Act. I have submitted to the Congress a certification that the issuance of such a waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States.”
The Graham Act, which Trump signed into law in September, targeted Russia’s economy by placing sanctions on its government and certain individuals and entities, as well as imposing new tariffs on certain countries that import Russian crude oil, other petroleum products and natural gas. Provisions in the Graham Act had been scheduled to go into effect on Oct. 18, 30 days after the legislation became law.
Scott R. Anderson, a senior editor at Lawfare and general counsel of the Lawfare Institute, noted in an Oct. 15 piece that focusing the temporary Treasury license on diesel fuel, which he said would not be included in the Graham Act’s definition of crude oil, “allows the Trump administration to argue that it is not urging countries to act contrary to the letter of those Graham act provisions it is required to implement.” He said, “Whether Trump’s actions are consistent with the spirit of that law, however, presents a much harder question.”
Gasoline Prices
In explaining the midterm result, Trump pointed to the Iran war driving gasoline prices higher. But he misrepresented how low gas prices had been before the war.
“They didn’t like the fact that gasoline went up, because I had it down at a low,” Trump said. “In Iowa, it was $1.85 a gallon, $1.85 a gallon. And when you look at $1.85 and you go up to three-and-a-half, four dollars — still lower than Biden, lower than Obama — but the war was blamed for that.”
It’s true that gas prices have spiked since the U.S. began airstrikes on Iran in late February. But they weren’t as low as Trump claimed before the war.
The average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline in the Midwest was $2.68 the week ending February 23, just before the war’s start, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which tracks gas prices by region. The lowest it has gone during Trump’s second term is $2.59, in the week ending Jan. 5.
The EIA doesn’t report data for Iowa specifically. But according to data provided to us by AAA, the cheapest average price for a gallon of gas in Iowa during Trump’s second term so far was $2.32 per gallon on Jan. 5, and it was $2.64 on Feb. 28, the day the U.S. began airstrikes on Iran. (A spokesperson for AAA noted that since gas stations set their own prices, they can’t rule out that some gas station, somewhere in Iowa, could have been selling gas for $1.85.)
Trump also claimed gas prices today are “still lower than” those under Presidents Biden and Obama. The cost per gallon nationally averaged $4 the week ending Nov. 9, and has ranged from $3.78 to $4.50 since early April, according to the EIA.
That’s still cheaper than the peak under Biden — which crested at around $5 in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — though gas prices subsequently came down, averaging $3.30 per gallon during Biden’s final year in office.
Prices under Obama ranged from a high of $3.97 per gallon in May 2011 to a low of $1.72 in February 2016, according to the EIA, and averaged $2.14 in his final year in office.
We asked the White House where the $1.85 figure comes from and didn’t get a response. Last year, Trump falsely claimed gas was below $2 a gallon, based on the price of an unfinished gasoline product that’s blended with other substances to produce finished gasoline. As we wrote at the time, that price doesn’t reflect what drivers pay at the pump.
Economic Numbers
When Douthat asked the president about polls showing that Americans are “unhappy with this economy,” specifically “cost of living, inflation,” Trump responded that “we have historically good numbers.” He added, “We have the highest stock market in history.”
Some economic metrics are good, by historical standards, such as the unemployment rate, and the stock market has performed well (see the section in this article on the stock market). But Trump sidestepped the mention of inflation. We’ll go through the numbers.
Job numbers. In the interview, Trump highlighted the October jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which showed 165,000 jobs created, “very good job numbers,” as Douthat said. The unemployment rate dipped down just 0.1 percentage points last month, to 4.1%. That’s below the median rate for all months since 1948, which is 5.4%. But it’s a touch higher than the 4.0% unemployment rate in January 2025 when Trump took office.
The job growth over Trump’s 21 months in office has been sluggish overall. October’s solid numbers came after slower growth in September, and the country has experienced a net loss of jobs in six months under Trump’s second term. The 1,025,000 jobs created so far lag behind the 2,613,000 jobs created over the prior 21 months.
Later in the interview, Trump said, “We have more jobs created than ever before in history,” a version of his talking point that “more Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country.” While the latter version is correct, the statistic is largely meaningless. The total number of people employed typically goes up as the population also grows, unless the country is in a recession.
Gross domestic product. Economists’ preferred measure for the economy is real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product, which has been steady under Trump, particularly this year. Real GDP growth was 2.3% in 2025. For the first three quarters of this year, the economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.5%, 2.2% and 3.4%, according to estimates from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. For context, dating back to the Reagan administration, real economic growth has exceeded 3% annually 17 times.
Inflation. The president didn’t talk about inflation, which has become worse under his term. In the 12 months before Trump took office, the Consumer Price Index, the most commonly cited measure of inflation, rose 3.0%, according to BLS. The 12-month increase was 3.7% in September, the most recent annualized figure.
The Federal Reserve is aiming for inflation of 2% a year, using its preferred metric, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index. That, too, shows an increase under Trump. The 12-month increase was 3.6% in September, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Ohio Senate Race
Trump misrepresented both the polls and the final margin in the Ohio Senate race to claim that he nearly helped Republican Sen. Jon Husted to an improbable comeback victory.
“I also brought a lot of people to — a lot closer to victory,” Trump said of the midterm results. “If you look at Ohio, he was, Jon Husted was a good guy, but he was 15 down. He ended up losing by a point, maybe less than a point. It was — he almost won.”
Polls did not show Husted down 15 points. Democrat Sherrod Brown consistently led in the polls in the run-up to Election Day, but his lead was much narrower. Polling averages from election-analysis sites like FiftyPlusOne, Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin and Decision Desk HQ show Brown’s lead topping out at around 5 to 8 points in the months ahead of the election, and narrowing to 2 to 3 points by Election Day.
Trump is also wrong about how close the final result was. According to the Associated Press, as of Nov. 10, Brown was leading by a comfortable 4.8 percentage points (50%-45.2%) with 98% of the vote counted.
D.C. Crime
Trump also appeared to greatly exaggerate the decrease in crime in the nation’s capital.
“The crime rate in Washington, D.C., is down 89%,” he said. “It’s the safest, and when I was here it was a killing field, three murders a week. Now we haven’t had a murder in a long time.”
We don’t know the source of Trump’s crime rate claim or the time frame he may be using. We asked the White House several questions about the president’s statements in the interview, and we haven’t received a response.
It’s true that crime overall has declined in Washington, D.C., in the past two years, mirroring a nationwide trend.
The Metropolitan Police Department publishes a “District Crime Data at a Glance” page that includes statistics on crime incidents rather than crime rates. The data as of Nov. 10 show overall crime dropping 11% in D.C. so far in 2026, compared with the same period in 2025. The decrease in violent crime in that period was 12%, and the decrease in homicides — which dropped from 119 to 88 — was 26%. Assaults with a deadly weapon, which was the only violent crime category that saw an increase, went up by 40%.
Total crime in D.C. so far in 2026 is down more than 35% when compared with all of 2024, the year prior to Trump taking office. A similar comparison shows that violent crime is down more than 29% and homicides are down almost 53%. Assaults with a deadly weapon are still higher in 2026, up more than 9% from the 2024 total.
In addition, Trump’s claim that “we haven’t had a murder in a long time” in D.C. is wrong, according to other city government data that show nine homicides in the last 30 days. The 88 homicides this year as of Nov. 10 are close to two homicides a week.
FactCheck.org Undergraduate Fellow Angela Lin contributed to this article.
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The screenings will run from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute in Newark and Wilmington Hospital. Appointments are encouraged, but walk-ins will be accepted as part of National Lung Cancer Screening Day, according to ChristianaCare. Image provided by ChristianaCare.
Nov. 14 appointments highlight how annual low-dose CT scans can help eligible current and former smokers detect cancer before symptoms appear
ChristianaCare will offer lung cancer screenings Saturday, Nov. 14, in Newark and Wilmington, encouraging eligible adults with a history of smoking to take a step that could detect the disease when treatment is more effective.
The screenings will run from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute in Newark and Wilmington Hospital. Appointments are encouraged, but walk-ins will be accepted as part of National Lung Cancer Screening Day, according to ChristianaCare.
The effort addresses a challenge with lung cancer: People can feel healthy while the disease develops. Screening is designed to find cancer before symptoms appear, giving patients and their medical teams an opportunity to begin treatment earlier.
“Screening gives us the opportunity to detect lung cancer at an earlier stage, when treatment is often more effective and outcomes can be significantly better,” said Dr. Thomas Schwaab, the Bank of America Endowed Medical Director of the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute, in ChristianaCare’s announcement.
The screening uses low-dose computed tomography, commonly called a low-dose CT scan, to create detailed images of the lungs with a small amount of radiation. Patients lie on a table while the scanner takes images. The scan itself takes only a few minutes and does not hurt, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
ChristianaCare says the screening takes less than 15 minutes to complete, with results typically provided through the referring health care provider within one to two weeks.
Who qualifies for screening?
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual low-dose CT screening for adults ages 50 through 80 who have at least a 20 pack-year smoking history and either currently smoke or quit within the past 15 years.
A pack-year measures smoking exposure over time. Smoking one pack a day for 20 years, or two packs a day for 10 years, equals 20 pack-years.
ChristianaCare’s announcement also lists not having received a lung CT scan within the past 12 months among its screening criteria. A navigator can help residents review their smoking history and determine whether screening is appropriate.
Screening involves potential benefits and risks. The CDC notes that scans can produce false-positive findings that lead to additional testing, detect cancers that would never have caused illness and expose patients to radiation. Patients should discuss those considerations with their health care provider.
Understanding coverage and cost
Insurance coverage requirements can differ from clinical screening recommendations. Medicare Part B, for example, covers annual lung cancer screening for eligible adults ages 50 through 77 who meet its smoking-history requirements, have no signs or symptoms of lung cancer and receive a provider’s order. Patients pay nothing when the provider accepts Medicare assignment.
ChristianaCare says its lung screening navigators can help uninsured or underinsured patients explore available resources and understand their options. Residents with coverage should confirm their plan’s requirements before their appointment.
To Go Box
What: Low-dose CT lung cancer screenings for eligible adults.
When: Saturday, Nov. 14, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute in Newark and Wilmington Hospital.
Appointments: Call 302-623-0552. Walk-ins will be accepted Nov. 14.
Eligibility and assistance: Speak with a screening navigator about smoking history, insurance and affordability.
Hawaiian Warfare extended his winning streak to eight races Nov. 5 at Bally’s Dover, adding another victory to a season that has already included a sweep of his Delaware Standardbred Breeders’ Fund series at Harrington Raceway.Photo courtesy of the Bally’s Racetrack.
November stakes races, dining and casino entertainment offer reasons to make an evening of a trip to the track
DOVER, Del. — Hawaiian Warfare extended his winning streak to eight races Nov. 5 at Bally’s Dover, adding another victory to a season that has already included a sweep of his Delaware Standardbred Breeders’ Fund series at Harrington Raceway.
For fans following the 2-year-old pacer — and residents looking for a different kind of evening out — the victory comes during a November schedule featuring major stakes races and opportunities to combine a visit to the track with dinner and entertainment.
Driven by Michael Cole, Hawaiian Warfare led throughout his $20,000 breeders’ fund preliminary, finishing in a career-best 1:53.2 and defeating See Jack Run by 2¼ lengths. Erin Neilson trains the gelding for owner and breeder Forrest Bartlett.
Favorites also won the other two opening-round divisions for 2-year-old male pacers. He’s Soaring, driven by Ryder Skinner for trainer Jason Skinner, beat Earl’s Watching in 1:54.3. Aeneas, driven by Montrell Teague for trainer Jamie Sullivan, defeated Bootcamp Baby in 1:54.4.
A full November racing calendar
Bally’s Dover’s 83-day season opened Nov. 2 and runs through April 1, 2027. Live racing takes place Monday through Thursday, with the first race at 4:30 p.m. There is no live racing on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26.
Remaining November dates, beginning Nov. 10, are Nov. 10-12, Nov. 16-19, Nov. 23-25 and Nov. 30.
The month includes several significant events. The Matron Stakes for 3-year-old trotters and pacers are scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 12. Progress Pace eliminations follow Thursday, Nov. 19, ahead of the $300,000 final Wednesday, Nov. 25.
Delaware Standardbred Breeders’ Fund championship races for 2-year-olds, each carrying a $110,000 purse, are scheduled during Nov. 19-25. Those championships provide another milestone in the series featuring Hawaiian Warfare, although his next appearance will depend on published entries.
Making an evening of it
The late-afternoon start gives visitors an opportunity to watch racing and include dinner or other entertainment during their visit.
Dining choices include Italian dishes at Jerry Longo’s Meatballs & Martinis, Asian cuisine at Macau Kitchen and steak and seafood at Royal Prime Steakhouse. Restaurant schedules vary: Jerry Longo’s lists Monday and Thursday dinner service among its operating days, Macau Kitchen serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday, and Royal Prime opens Wednesday through Sunday.
Wednesday, Nov. 25, offers a particularly convenient combination. The Progress Pace program begins at 4:30 p.m., and DJ Ray Dr is scheduled at Círculo Lounge at 8 p.m. Visitors can plan around both, although the racing program may still be underway when the music begins.
Círculo, a rotating lounge overlooking the casino floor, also lists Thursday night football viewing at 8:15 p.m. Other November entertainment includes a comedy show Nov. 14 and Best Kept Soul on Nov. 28, both at 8 p.m. Those Saturday events fall outside the regular live racing schedule.
Visitors can also find free racing programs, entries, results and replay links through Bally’s Dover’s racing website. Simulcast wagering on races from other tracks continues year-round.
To Go Box
What: Live harness racing, dining and entertainment at Bally’s Dover Casino Resort.
Where: 1131 N. DuPont Highway, Dover.
Remaining November racing: Nov. 10-12, Nov. 16-19, Nov. 23-25 and Nov. 30. First race at 4:30 p.m. No live racing Thanksgiving Day.
Featured dates: Matron Stakes Nov. 12; Progress Pace eliminations Nov. 19; Progress Pace final Nov. 25.
Plan your visit: Check current race entries, restaurant hours, entertainment availability and any ticket requirements before traveling. Casino gaming is for adults 21 and older.
Family donation preserves Kent County transactions dating from 1769 through the year of American independence
DOVER, Del. — Land records signed by Caesar Rodney have joined the Delaware Public Archives, preserving a connection to the founding father’s work recording property transactions in Kent County.
Michael and Allison Richards donated the documents, dated Nov. 16, 1769, through Sept. 19, 1776. Rodney signed them in his capacity as recorder of deeds.
According to the Archives’ Oct. 27 announcement, the records were previously held by Ezekiel Cowgill and later his granddaughter, Kathleen Cowgill. They were stored in an iron strongbox that Michael Richards inherited in 1980. The Archives will preserve the documents and make them accessible for research.
Rodney is remembered for traveling to Philadelphia in 1776 to break a deadlock in Delaware’s Continental Congress delegation and support independence. He also served in the colonial assembly, commanded Delaware’s militia and served as the state’s president, the office now called governor, from 1778 to 1781.
The donated records offer a view of his local public service and the property transactions of colonial Delaware.
“These documents are a wonderful example of the historical records that can still be found in private collections,” Maegan Peterman, director and state archivist, said in the announcement.
For residents with old documents of their own, the Archives reviews potential donations under its collecting policy. Accepted materials are cataloged and stored in environmentally controlled vaults, supporting research by genealogists, educators, students and others.
To Go Box
What: Learn about researching Delaware history or donating historical documents.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Immigration-related habeas corpus filings have surged to unprecedented levels under President Donald Trump, with more than 93,000 cases filed in federal court since January 2025 as detainees challenge the legality of their detention.
According to a ProPublica tracker, 93,245 immigration-related habeas cases were filed through Nov. 3, including nearly 8,000 in October alone. That compares with only hundreds of such cases in a typical year before the current enforcement surge.
A habeas petition allows a detainee to ask a federal judge to review whether the government has legal authority to continue holding them. The petitions do not decide whether someone may ultimately be deported; they challenge the detention itself or seek a bond hearing.
The increase follows the Trump administration’s decision to broaden mandatory detention for noncitizens arrested inside the United States, including people without criminal records. That interpretation has produced conflicting appellate rulings, with nine courts ruling against the administration and two siding with it.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving a Brazilian national detained by ICE despite having no criminal record, potentially giving the justices an opportunity to clarify the government’s detention powers.
The surge is also creating additional pressure on federal courts already dealing with record immigration caseloads.
Supporters of the administration argue broad detention authority is necessary to ensure people appear for removal proceedings. Immigration attorneys counter that detention without individualized review can violate constitutional protections.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Republicans elected Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio as their next minority leader Tuesday, choosing one of the party’s most combative conservatives to lead a sharply reduced conference after Democrats’ sweeping midterm victories.
Jordan defeated current Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana 106-73 in a closed-door secret ballot. The result marked a significant setback for Scalise, who had argued that his years in leadership made him the natural choice to guide Republicans after losing the House.
Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, campaigned on a more confrontational strategy. He told colleagues Republicans needed to present clear alternatives to Democratic policies and emphasized his experience battling Democrats in oversight hearings.
Republicans also elected current Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota as minority whip, defeating Texas Rep. August Pfluger 103-36.
The leadership overhaul follows a disastrous election for House Republicans. Democrats gained more than 40 seats and will take control of the chamber in January. Speaker Mike Johnson declined to seek any leadership role in the next Congress after the defeat.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is expected to become speaker when the 120th Congress convenes Jan. 3. Democrats will hold their own leadership elections separately.
Jordan’s victory suggests House Republicans are responding to their losses not by moderating their leadership, but by elevating a longtime Trump ally known for aggressive investigations and partisan confrontation.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Immigration and Customs Enforcement hired at least 19 officers with significant misconduct, criminal or employment red flags during its rapid expansion under President Donald Trump, according to a Washington Post investigation of leaked Department of Homeland Security records.
The Post reviewed roughly 300 newly hired officers and found five tied to prior use-of-force incidents, five named in lawsuits that ended in settlements, and at least six who had been fired, decertified or resigned while facing dismissal.
Among them was a former Detroit officer involved in a fatal shooting that led to a $2.5 million settlement, a former New York detective who pleaded guilty to stealing thousands of dollars in champagne, and recruits disciplined for dishonesty or threatening conduct.
Former DHS Inspector General John Roth told the Post that some of the conduct described should disqualify recruits from carrying a federal badge and firearm.
The findings add to earlier concerns about ICE’s accelerated hiring drive. A whistleblower previously alleged the agency hired some recruits before completing basic fingerprint and identity checks, while the Post separately found that ICE cut more than 40% of its basic training program during the expansion.
DHS defended its process, saying ICE follows required vetting rules and that some recruits may begin under temporary status while background investigations remain pending.
The 19 cases represent only a small share of the roughly 12,000 officers DHS says it hired, but they raise serious questions about whether the administration’s push for speed came at the expense of adequate screening.
Chef Joseph Sakers of Delaware Tech will demonstrate how healthier food choices can help prevent chronic disease during a Nov. 16 event focused on nutrition, wellness, and practical cooking skills.
DOVER, Del. — Can the food on your dinner plate help you live a longer, healthier life?
The Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition hopes to help answer that question during its free Yes2Health Fall Retreat on Monday, Nov. 16, at Delaware Technical Community College in Dover.
The two-hour event, scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m., will feature Chef Joseph Sakers, chair of the Culinary Arts Department at Delaware Tech’s Terry Campus, demonstrating recipes built around the increasingly popular concept of “food as medicine.”
Participants will watch cooking demonstrations, sample healthier dishes and learn how everyday food choices can contribute to better health. The first 25 people to register will also receive a bag of fresh produce courtesy of the coalition.
What does ‘food as medicine’ mean?
The idea behind food as medicine is straightforward: What people eat can play a significant role in preventing illness, managing chronic conditions and improving overall health.
Rather than focusing exclusively on medications and medical treatments after a disease develops, the approach recognizes that good nutrition can be an important part of maintaining health.
The American Heart Association defines food as medicine more specifically as providing healthy foods through the health care system to help prevent, manage or treat diet-related chronic diseases. Such programs can include prescriptions for fresh produce, medically tailored groceries and meals designed for people with particular health conditions.
The concept has gained attention as medical professionals examine how nutrition can help address diabetes, heart disease, obesity and other chronic illnesses.
In June 2025, the American Heart Association released a review of 14 randomized clinical trials examining food-as-medicine programs. Researchers found improvements in participants’ diet quality and access to nutritious food, although evidence of long-term improvements in clinical outcomes remained inconsistent.
The findings suggest that nutrition-focused programs have potential, but researchers say more extensive studies are needed to determine their effectiveness in reducing disease and health care costs.
The connection to breast cancer prevention
For the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition, the relationship between nutrition and disease prevention is particularly important.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately one in five cancer cases is linked to a combination of excess body weight, physical inactivity, unhealthy diets and alcohol consumption.
The society recommends eating a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and other nutrient-rich foods while limiting processed meats, sugary beverages and highly processed foods.
These recommendations are intended to reduce cancer risk and support overall health. No particular food or diet can guarantee that a person will avoid cancer, and healthy eating is not a substitute for recommended cancer screenings or medical treatment.
The coalition’s Yes2Health program puts these principles into practice by helping Delaware residents make healthier choices through nutrition education, physical activity and community support.
The program includes free 10-week health education sessions, walking activities and interactive cooking classes that teach participants how to prepare nutritious meals.
The coalition also offers online cooking programs and a cookbook club, creating opportunities for people to develop healthier habits without requiring expensive equipment or specialized culinary training.
Making healthy eating practical and enjoyable
Sakers will bring a professional chef’s perspective to the retreat, focusing on making nutritious food flavorful, approachable and enjoyable.
A graduate of Johnson & Wales University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1997, Sakers serves as department chair and a culinary arts instructor at Delaware Tech.
His teaching emphasizes nutrition, wellness and practical cooking techniques alongside the professional skills students need for careers in the hospitality industry.
According to the event announcement, Sakers believes culinary professionals can help people make better food choices without sacrificing the enjoyment of eating.
His demonstration will give participants an opportunity to see those principles applied in the kitchen, with samples available during the event.
Small changes can make a difference
One of the challenges surrounding healthy eating is translating nutritional advice into meals that people can realistically prepare and afford.
Fresh produce, whole grains and healthier protein sources can be part of a nutritious diet, but cost, convenience, access to grocery stores and cooking knowledge can all influence what families put on their tables.
Food-as-medicine initiatives increasingly seek to address some of those barriers by connecting nutritional education with greater access to healthy foods.
For individuals, the changes do not necessarily require a complete overhaul of their diet. Choosing water instead of sugary drinks, adding vegetables to familiar meals, preparing more food at home or replacing some refined grains with whole grains can be useful starting points.
The American Cancer Society emphasizes that an overall pattern of healthy eating, maintained over time, matters more than any single ingredient or so-called superfood.
The Yes2Health Fall Retreat is designed to make that message tangible by showing participants how healthy ingredients can become appealing meals.
Through the event, the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition hopes to encourage residents to view nutrition not simply as a matter of weight management but as an important part of lifelong health and disease prevention.
To Go: Yes2Health Fall Retreat
What: Free cooking demonstration and health education event hosted by the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition.
When: Monday, Nov. 16, 2026, 5-7 p.m.
Where: Delaware Technical Community College, Terry Campus, Technology Drive, Room 723, Dover.
Featured presenter: Chef Joseph Sakers, culinary arts department chair at Delaware Tech.
Cost: Free.
What to expect: Cooking demonstrations, healthy food samples and a fresh produce bag for the first 25 registrants.
Chatham House Prize 2026 awarded to the women of AfghanistanNews releaseeoboko.drupal
Chatham House recognized the women of Afghanistan for their courage and resilience in the face of systematic gender persecution by the Taliban
The women of Afghanistan were awarded the Chatham House Prize 2026 at a ceremony on Monday 9 November.
Chatham House recognized the women of Afghanistan for their courage and resilience in the face of systematic gender persecution by the Taliban, and for their determination to defend the rights and futures of women and girls.
Speaking on a panel that brought together women from the Afghan diaspora, Zahra Joya, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Rukhshana Media, said the prize ‘sends a powerful message that the world will not forget about us. They will listen to us. They will see our strength and power’.
In a conversation with BBC Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet, who moderated the panel, former Chatham House Academy Associate Shaharzad Akbar said that for girls denied an education in Afghanistan the Chatham House Prize shows them ‘they are being remembered, that they are not forgotten’. That, she said, ‘gives them courage’.
Dr Orzala Nemat, the founder and director of Development Research Group LTD, highlighted the voices of the women humanitarian aid workers with whom she collaborates, who asked that the audience help to ‘continue to raise our voices for girls’ education, continue to raise our voices for our right to work’.
Fawzia Koofi, former Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Afghanistan and President of the Board of Women for Afghanistan, said the Taliban practised double standards in prohibiting girls from accessing secondary and higher education. ‘They have modernized themselves for their own daughters, not for our girls. Their own daughters go to school, university, probably the best universities in the world, but our daughters are confined,’ she said.
Assessing the international community’s engagement with Afghanistan, specifically the UK’s halt on issuing study visas to nationals from certain countries including Afghanistan, Dr Benafsha Yaqoobi, founder and director of The Rahyab Initiative, said the ‘world has failed us in fulfilling their responsibility towards Afghanistan’.
The Chatham House Prize is awarded to the person, persons, or organization deemed to have made the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations.
In her opening remarks, Bronwen Maddox, Director and Chief Executive of Chatham House, said of the women of Afghanistan: ‘They have forced governments to ask what recognition of the Taliban would mean and on whose terms. They remind us that how a state treats women is not a domestic matter. It is a measure of whether that state can be trusted at all.’
On behalf of the women of Afghanistan the award was accepted by Elaha Safdari, goalkeeper for the Afghanistan’s women’s national football team.
The Prize was presented to her by Chatham House’s president, The Rt Hon Baroness May of Maidenhead, who praised the women of Afghanistan for continuing to speak out. ‘This award belongs to all of them, to every single one of them. But it is also a reminder, and we have heard this from our panel today, of our collective responsibility. We cannot allow the situation facing Afghan women and girls to fade from the international attention,’ she said.
Elaha, who had to leave Afghanistan for the UK when the Taliban returned to power in 2021, thanked the UK government and the sports organisation Girl Power, for supporting her.
She told the audience: ‘Becoming a refugee was never my dream. Leaving Afghanistan meant leaving behind my home, my friends, my teammates, my family.’ She added that football and the work of Girl Power enabled women to be visible. Elaha highlighted there is much work to be done to advance the rights of women in Afghanistan. ‘There are girls who simply want to go to school, play sport, and decide what their futures will look like,’ she said.
The evening ended with a film that featured contributions from broadcaster Yalda Hakim, the UN’s Susan Ferguson and activist Onaba Payab. The interviews appeared alongside personal reflections from women living in Afghanistan whose words were read out by Dr Orzala Nemat, to ensure their safety.
A women’s activist said: ‘The international community must recognize that support for Afghan women cannot be episodic or symbolic – it requires sustained engagement, listening to local voices, and holding leaders accountable, all parties.’ A teacher and education activist said of young girls in Afghanistan facing extreme obstacles to education: ‘I hope audiences remember not only their courage, but also the urgent need to ensure that every girl has the freedom, safety and opportunity to learn’.
The Chatham House Prize 2026 is supported by Axel Hansing and the International Organization for Migration.
Watch the full video of the ceremony here, including the the panel of Afghan political and human rights activists in conversation with Lyse Doucet, Elaha Safdari’s acceptance speech on behalf of all Afghan women, Baroness May, Bronwen Maddox, and testimony from women inside Afghanistan read out by an expatriate Afghan journalist in order to preserve their safety.
The Delaware Department of Education’s draft School Performance and Support Framework establishes five levels of intervention, beginning with support for all schools and escalating to possible state receivership — the highest level of state control. Image created based in photo courtesy of the Red Clay Consolidated School District using AI on 10/11/26
Draft five-tier accountability plan could give education officials greater control over struggling schools, but some changes would require legislative approval. Public comments are being accepted through Nov. 20.
DOVER, Del. — Delaware education officials are proposing a new accountability system that could eventually allow the state to take control of persistently struggling public schools, giving the Department of Education greater authority over school leadership, staffing, curriculum and spending when repeated improvement efforts fail.
The proposal represents a potentially significant change in how Delaware holds public schools accountable for student achievement. It also raises questions about local school board authority, taxpayer costs and how much power state officials should have over schools that consistently fall short of expectations.
The Delaware Department of Education’s draft School Performance and Support Framework establishes five levels of intervention, beginning with support for all schools and escalating to possible state receivership — the highest level of state control.
But the department acknowledges that some provisions cannot take effect without additional legislative or regulatory authority.
“Enactment and implementation of some elements of this framework will require legislative or regulatory action,” the draft states.
The proposal is open for public comment through Nov. 20, with a final virtual town hall scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 17.
A new approach to school accountability
Delaware already measures school performance through its Delaware School Success Framework, which evaluates academic achievement, student growth and other indicators.
The proposed framework would establish a more structured process for what happens after a school is identified as needing improvement.
Rather than simply identifying low-performing schools, the state would establish expectations, provide support, monitor results and increase intervention when schools fail to demonstrate meaningful progress.
The proposal establishes five tiers:
Tier 1 — Universal Expectations: Establishes baseline instructional and operational expectations for all schools.
Tier 2 — Targeted Support: Provides additional coaching, assistance and monitoring to schools showing early signs of performance problems.
Tier 3 — Comprehensive Support: Introduces more intensive improvement planning, resources and oversight for schools with significant or persistent academic challenges.
Tier 4 — Directed State Intervention: Gives the Department of Education a more active role in directing improvement efforts, including state-approved turnaround strategies and increased monitoring.
Tier 5 — State Receivership: Would permit the state, subject to applicable legal authority, to assume substantial responsibility for improving a school that continues to underperform despite previous intervention.
The department emphasizes that the objective is to strengthen schools through earlier assistance and increasingly intensive support rather than automatically move them toward state control.
What defines a failing school?
Monica Moriak, president of the Christina School District Board of Education, believes Delaware must answer those questions clearly before implementing a system that could lead to state intervention.
In written responses to interview questions from Delaware LIVE, Moriak said she supports stronger accountability and earlier assistance for struggling schools but believes the state must establish transparent, measurable standards for determining when intervention is justified.
“The part I would most ask DDOE to clarify is how underperformance is defined, and relative to what,” Moriak told Delaware LIVE. “Many Delaware schools could arguably be considered underperforming right now, so the framework should say plainly what the benchmark is and why it was chosen.”
Without those definitions, she cautioned, decisions about which schools require additional oversight could appear arbitrary to families and communities.
Her concern highlights a central issue in the state’s proposal: Schools can be evaluated using several different measures, including overall proficiency, year-over-year academic growth, attendance and other indicators of student success.
A school where relatively few students meet grade-level expectations might nevertheless demonstrate substantial improvement. Conversely, a school meeting baseline performance requirements might still have groups of students falling behind.
Moriak said the framework should account for those differences and give meaningful weight to student growth, not just overall proficiency rates.
She also questioned what happens when a school satisfies the framework’s Tier 1 requirements but continues to produce disappointing academic outcomes.
That question is especially important because Delaware’s existing accountability system already measures school performance through multiple indicators, including academic achievement and student growth.
The proposed framework would build on existing school identification processes rather than automatically assign every Delaware school to one of five new categories.
What would a state takeover mean?
Under the proposed receivership provisions, Delaware could appoint a state receiver or recovery leader to oversee improvement efforts at an individual school.
Depending on the legal authority established and the terms of the intervention, responsibilities transferred to the receiver could include selecting and evaluating principals, determining staffing assignments, directing school-improvement spending, choosing curriculum and managing certain operational decisions.
Local school boards and superintendents would retain responsibilities not specifically transferred to the state.
Placing an individual school into receivership would not automatically mean the state assumes control of its entire school district.
The framework also allows the department to examine district or charter school governance, staffing, finances and leadership when those conditions appear to contribute to a school’s poor performance.
The department describes receivership as a temporary intervention designed to restore school performance and ultimately return responsibility to local leadership.
How quickly could the state intervene?
The draft establishes annual reviews intended to prevent schools from remaining indefinitely in improvement programs that are not producing results.
A proposed implementation timeline identifies three accountability cycles as the earliest possible progression from Tier 2 targeted support to Tier 5 receivership.
However, more detailed provisions describe an initial Tier 4 intervention period of up to two accountability cycles and identify two consecutive cycles without meaningful improvement as one possible reason to consider receivership.
The department has not clarified how those provisions would work together in determining the earliest possible takeover.
School placement and escalation decisions would consider multiple measures rather than relying on a single standardized test score.
Those measures could include academic achievement, student growth, chronic absenteeism, literacy screening results, graduation rates, teacher vacancies, educator retention and evidence that required improvement strategies are actually being implemented.
The distinction between overall proficiency and measurable academic growth is one issue education leaders have raised during the review process.
Monica Moriak, president of the Christina School District Board of Education, supports earlier intervention and a graduated system of assistance but believes demonstrated student improvement should play a central role in determining whether stronger state action is warranted.
“Student outcomes, and growth toward those outcomes, should be the primary evidence in any decision to move a school into, keep it in, or exit a tier,” Moriak stated to Delaware LIVE.
Her comments also emphasize that schools showing improvement should not automatically lose the support that helped them make progress.
Safeguards for school boards and communities
The proposed framework includes procedural safeguards intended to make intervention decisions more transparent.
School districts and charter schools would have opportunities to submit evidence about their performance and improvement efforts.
The department would provide written explanations for placement decisions, establish conflict-of-interest protections and create a reconsideration process.
Those safeguards remain under development and would undergo additional legal and stakeholder review before final adoption.
Parents and community members also would receive public school profiles showing why a school was placed in a particular intervention tier, what support it is receiving, whether improvement is occurring, and when the next review will take place.
The department also proposes holding itself accountable by documenting the assistance it provides and measuring whether state support commitments are fulfilled.
Local control and school board responsibilities
One of the more consequential questions is how increased state oversight would affect the authority of locally elected school boards.
The proposal recognizes that a school’s difficulties may sometimes be connected to problems at the district or charter-management level.
If state officials conclude that district governance, leadership or operations are contributing to persistent underperformance, the department could conduct a broader review.
Such a review would not automatically trigger districtwide receivership.
Moriak, whose Christina district has experienced disagreements over governance and leadership, suggests the state consider a more limited intervention before full receivership when school board conduct contributes to problems at individual schools.
Her recommendation would allow the department, based on documented evidence, to temporarily restrict a board’s decision-making authority over affected schools while leaving the superintendent responsible for operations in consultation with the state.
“If a board continues to act outside its role in ways that harm particular schools, DDOE should be able to remove the board’s decision making authority over those schools,” Moriak wrote.
She also emphasized that local boards should retain meaningful authority to respond to their communities while remaining accountable for measurable student improvement.
Her suggestion is not part of the draft framework’s established intervention process, but it illustrates one of the governance questions the department will face as it considers how much authority should shift from local boards to state officials.
Funding and implementation costs remain unanswered
Although the draft describes extensive monitoring, technical assistance, intervention teams and potential receivership arrangements, it does not provide a comprehensive estimate of the cost to implement the system.
It also does not identify which Delaware schools would be most likely to enter the highest intervention tiers.
Those omissions leave important questions for taxpayers, parents and local school boards.
How much additional state spending would the framework require? Would participating districts need to redirect existing resources? Who would have final authority over staffing and instructional spending when the state takes a more active role?
And how would schools be evaluated if they lack the resources or personnel necessary to carry out required improvements?
Funding and staffing are among the concerns raised in stakeholder feedback.
Moriak argues that accountability requirements should be coordinated with Delaware’s ongoing school funding reforms and that districts need the resources to meet new expectations.
“District budgets also need to line up with what the framework asks, or we will be asked to do more without the means to do it,” she wrote.
She also questioned whether new state reporting requirements could duplicate performance-monitoring systems that districts already operate.
These concerns highlight the challenge of creating a system that demands stronger results without diverting additional time and money from classroom instruction.
Lawmakers may have the final say
Some elements of the framework could proceed under the Department of Education’s existing authority.
Others, particularly those involving greater state control, may require legislative or regulatory changes.
The draft specifically anticipates circumstances in which additional statutory authority would be necessary before a school could enter receivership.
That could bring portions of the proposal before the Delaware General Assembly in 2027, although no specific enabling legislation or legislative timetable has been announced.
Lawmakers would face questions about the extent of state authority, protections for local governance, the conditions required before receivership and the resources needed to support struggling schools.
The department has already consulted district superintendents, charter school leaders, educators, school-improvement officials, the Delaware State Education Association, the State Board of Education, the Delaware PTA and other education stakeholders.
Additional revisions and stakeholder discussions are expected during the 2026-27 school year.
Public has until Nov. 20 to respond
The Department of Education is accepting comments from parents, educators, school board members, students and community members before developing final recommendations.
A virtual public town hall is scheduled for Nov. 17.
The department says its goal is to provide stronger support earlier and resolve performance problems through the lowest level of intervention necessary.
The proposal would establish a more defined path for state action when schools repeatedly fail to improve, while also requiring the state to document its support and justify decisions to increase intervention.
For Delaware families, the central question is whether a stronger accountability system — including the possibility of transferring authority away from local school leaders — will result in better teaching, stronger schools and improved outcomes for students.
TO GO: Delaware School Performance and Support Framework
What: Public review and comment on Delaware’s proposed five-tier school-improvement and intervention framework.
Virtual town hall: Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026, 6 to 7:30 p.m., via Zoom.
Public comment deadline: Friday, Nov. 20, 2026.
Who can participate: Parents, students, educators, school board members, charter school representatives and Delaware residents.
Nelson Mandela outside his Soweto home three days after his release from prison. (Photo by Gideon Mendel/Corbis via Getty Images)
Quote of the Day
“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.”
― Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), 1st Black President of South Africa
There are heroes in this world, and then there is Nelson Mandela. Beginning in 1962, he spent 27 years in prison, 18 of them at the notoriously harsh and isolated Robben Island Prison, for the crime of wanting his people and himself to be free and equal citizens of South Africa. This long captivity was a burden that would have broken many lesser men. Yet, despite all that time, Mandela maintained his dignity and remained the moral leader of his people by never sacrificing his principles, including choosing to stay in prison when he could have accepted a conditional release. When he was finally freed in 1990, he led the negotiations to end apartheid, and in 1994 he was elected the country’s first Black president.
One of the main things that kept him going during all those years in prison was a commitment to education, both for himself and his fellow inmates. Reading was tightly restricted on Robben Island. Prisoners were allowed only approved books, censors screened everything, and privileges could be revoked at any moment. Even so, the island’s political prisoners turned their incarceration into a kind of university, and Mandela’s reading and instruction were at the center of it.
For the prisoners, reading was a means of survival. It was a form of discipline, preparation, and resistance, a way of ensuring that those who imprisoned their bodies could not confine their minds. Prison was designed to break their spirits through monotony and humiliation, and reading kept their minds active and gave structure to their days. It was also a source of moral strength. Stories of courage, resistance, and endurance gave Mandela and his comrades a shared vocabulary for the ordeal they were living through. The most famous volume in their communal library was a copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, smuggled onto the island by fellow political prisoner Sonny Venkatrathnam’s wife. It was in the inmates’ possession for approximately five years before being confiscated.
“And one Sunday morning, a warder tells me, ‘The (Anglican) Church is here,’” Venkatrathnam recounted in the book Reading Revolution: Shakespeare on Robben Island. “I tell him I’m an Anglican, but I left my Bible in the storeroom… He takes out his keys, opens the storeroom and I pick out my book: The Complete Works of Shakespeare. The problem is how do we hide it. Providentially, it was Diwali [the Hindu Festival of Lights], and my parents sent me greeting cards. So I took those cards, cut them up and pasted them with porridge over the covers of the book. The warders would come and ask me, ‘What’s that?’ And I said, ‘It’s my Bhagavad Gita, my Bible.’ They did not touch it.”
(The Folger Library)
The book became known as the Robben Island Bible. It circulated among the political prisoners, each marking a favorite passage with his signature. Mandela chose a line from Julius Caesar: “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.”
Mandela read whatever he could get his hands on, especially fiction and classics. Tolstoy’s War and Peace made a strong impression on him, as did Dickens and Steinbeck. He studied Greek tragedy, and in a prison performance of Sophocles’ Antigone he played Creon. The play, about a woman who defies an unjust law on grounds of conscience, spoke directly to the prisoners’ own situation.
He also pursued formal study. While in prison, he worked toward a law degree through the University of London’s correspondence program, although restrictions imposed by the authorities prevented him from completing it. He finally earned an LLB (Bachelor of Laws) degree through the University of South Africa in 1989, shortly before his release. He also read everything he could find about his captors. He learned Afrikaans and immersed himself in Afrikaner history and literature. Those books helped him understand the people who held him prisoner, build relationships with his jailers, and eventually engage with the government to negotiate his release and the freedom of his people.
Throughout his time in prison, Mandela always thought of himself as a future leader, not merely a prisoner. Studying history, law, and the Afrikaner mindset prepared him for the negotiating table at which one day he planned to have a seat. That preparation paid off in the new South Africa he helped build, where the seat he finally occupied was at the very head of the table.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — The United States became the first country to fully refuse participation in the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of its human rights record on Tuesday, preventing the scheduled examination from proceeding.
The review is designed to examine the human rights practices of every U.N. member state. Since the process began in 2008, all 193 countries have undergone three rounds of review.
The Trump administration withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council last year, accusing it of anti-American and anti-Israel bias. U.S. officials said participating in the review would lend legitimacy to an institution they believe fails to uphold its own stated principles.
Without U.S. representatives, the review could not proceed as planned. Questions prepared for the session included abortion, the death penalty, immigration enforcement and racial discrimination. Nearly 200 civil-society submissions had also been filed.
Critics argue the decision creates a damaging precedent. ACLU official Jamil Dakwar said the administration was effectively signaling that it does not care whether the United States is scrutinized internationally, while human-rights experts warned that other governments could now point to Washington’s refusal as justification for avoiding their own reviews.
The UPR’s recommendations are nonbinding, but the process has relied on universal participation to maintain credibility. The immediate consequence of the U.S. boycott is procedural rather than legal, yet its broader impact could be significant if other governments follow suit.
STATE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA — The Justice Department has sued Penn State over a policy allowing some undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition, arguing that the university unlawfully gives them a benefit unavailable to U.S. citizens living outside Pennsylvania.
Penn State’s policy does not automatically grant reduced tuition based on immigration status. Undocumented students must satisfy residency requirements that include attending an accredited Pennsylvania high school for at least four years and graduating from a Pennsylvania high school or obtaining a Pennsylvania GED.
The DOJ argues that federal law prohibits states or public institutions from offering undocumented residents a postsecondary education benefit based on residency unless the same benefit is available to U.S. citizens regardless of where they live. The lawsuit seeks to block Penn State from continuing the policy.
Penn State said it is reviewing the complaint.
The case is part of a broader Trump administration campaign against in-state tuition policies for undocumented students. The Justice Department says it has now filed 27 such lawsuits and obtained orders ending similar policies in six states.
Immigrant advocacy groups argue the policies primarily benefit young people who grew up and attended school in the states where they seek tuition benefits. They contend ending them makes higher education less accessible to students who often have lived in the United States since childhood.
The court will ultimately determine whether Penn State’s residency policy conflicts with federal immigration law.
Mark Harris for ProPublica. Source images: Getty Images, RMI.
In November 2015, world leaders descended on Paris to negotiate a historic agreement to limit global warming. But on the summit’s opening day, attention turned to a private citizen slouched awkwardly in a chair on stage: Bill Gates.
Gates, with his characteristic flop of sandy hair, grinned impishly as President Barack Obama called him a “visionary” and a “driving force” behind a pair of pledges that both saw as key to the larger agreement. First the world’s largest economies would double their spending on research into clean-energy technologies. Then investors like Gates would back the startups that emerged. The Microsoft cofounder had already enlisted two dozen other billionaires to join the effort.
For Gates, who’d become increasingly consumed by this unprecedented threat to human well-being, the moment marked his arrival as a leading figure in the fight against climate change.
“If we back over 50 different breakthrough approaches, we know that several of those will give us the solution that we need,” Gates said during his own speech. He would invest at least $2 billion of his own money in companies developing geothermal wells, new kinds of nuclear reactors and machines that pull carbon from the air, to name just a few.
With much less fanfare, however, Gates has put more than double that amount into a very dirty, old-school industry. At the time of the Paris summit, he was already the dominant shareholder of America’s No. 2 landfill operator, Republic Services. He has since increased his stake to 38% of the company, a position worth $29 billion.
Bill Gates’ Stake in Republic Services, a Landfill Operator, Now Exceeds a Fifth of His Net Worth
Note: “Other” includes stakes in other publicly traded companies and accumulated dividends and investment returns. Sources: Forbes’ The World’s Billionaires, Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, SEC filings, StockAnalysis.comChris Alcantara/ProPublica
While fossil fuels get most of the attention, scientists increasingly see landfills as a crucial climate issue. They’re responsible for as much as a fifth of the country’s emissions of methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, studies show. Republic alone generates as much climate pollution as 3 million gasoline-burning cars each year, according to its own reports.
One might imagine that a landfill operator with Gates as its largest shareholder — and with three people closely linked to Gates on its board — would lead the way in tackling those emissions. Even after seemingly softening his stance on global warming in a controversial blog post last year, Gates remains one of the world’s most prominent voices on the issue. As he did in his bestselling 2021 book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” he continues to advocate for cutting emissions, and he has called on his fellow business leaders to do their part.
Gates, though, has failed to make Republic live up to his own climate principles, a ProPublica investigation has found. Federal inspectors have repeatedly found methane escaping from Republic landfills at levels above federal limits. The company has refrained from adopting the ambitious emissions-reduction goal embraced by its main competitor. Republic has even lobbied against policies that could make the wider industry cleaner, including by keeping organic waste out of landfills in the first place.
“It seems very likely that Bill Gates has the power to influence Republic’s behavior to make it more climate-friendly, even if that costs the company profits,” said Ann Lipton, a legal scholar who studies corporate governance at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
As for whether he should, in her words, “put his money where his mouth is,” Lipton said, “you can leave it to the reader to make the moral judgment.”
Gates’ Climate Awakening
Gates didn’t respond to repeated requests to discuss his landfill investments, and ProPublica couldn’t find any public comments he’s made about them. But the bet has proven wildly lucrative. Since November 1999, when he emerged as the owner of 5% of Republic’s shares — “It’s ‘Garbage In’ for Gates,” the New York Post headline read — the company’s stock price has soared thirtyfold. And Gates has personally received $2.6 billion in dividends, a ProPublica analysis of securities filings shows.
In those early days, Gates hadn’t yet awakened to the threat of global warming. It was a different time. Microsoft Windows ran on more than 80% of personal computers. Gates was the world’s richest person, and his bespectacled face graced the cover of Time magazine twice that year. He was simultaneously criticized for what a federal judge determined to be Microsoft’s monopolistic practices and admired for establishing what was soon to become the world’s largest charitable foundation.
A rare clue to why Gates made his foray into landfills can be found in an interview he gave to Fortune that year. To fund his plan to give away virtually his entire fortune, he said he’d given his personal money manager, Michael Larson, a simple remit: Sell Microsoft shares, buy safe, boring assets.
Republic’s then-chairman, billionaire Wayne Huizenga, had flown Larson by helicopter to his private golf course in Florida, according to the article. It’s unclear if Huizenga pitched Republic there, but it fit the remit. America would always produce trash, ensuring a steady stream of revenue. After that initial investment, Larson progressively increased Gates’ stake in Republic over the years that followed. Larson would also acquire a small chunk of Republic’s main competitor, Waste Management — which Huizenga also once led — on behalf of the Gates Foundation.
It was only in 2006, when he asked two climate scientists to educate him, that Gates started to grasp the potentially “catastrophic” effects of greenhouse gases, he later wrote. But he also saw that the poorest people in the world needed more energy to improve their lot. The solution, he concluded, was something climate activists often underplay: innovation that could make clean energy cheap enough to naturally displace fossil fuels. That was the idea behind Breakthrough Energy, the initiative he launched in Paris in 2015.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, right, then-U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and then-French President François Hollande applaud a speech during the United Nations conference on climate change in Paris in 2015.Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Around the same time, methane began to emerge as a focus of climate action. The gas can trap 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide in the near term, and it’s responsible for one-third of the global warming we experience today, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. But it also breaks down much more quickly, turning into CO2 and water vapor in about a decade — which means that cutting methane emissions now would reduce that warming within our lifetimes. This is especially urgent, scientists say, as the climate approaches tipping points that could doom rainforests, coral reefs and ice sheets.
In speeches and interviews, Gates has sometimes warned about methane, but usually from agricultural sources (“cow farts,” in his words). He has rarely mentioned landfills, even after Larson — who still runs Gates’ investment office, Cascade Asset Management — joined Republic’s board in 2009. Gates’ stake in the company, though, was a relatively small portion of his own net worth until fairly recently. And as Larson put it to Fortune, “I’ll call Bill about something I’m buying if he needs to know, but Bill might not have any idea what Cascade owns.” (Gates’ Republic holdings are publicly disclosed in securities filings.)
Elsewhere in Gatesworld, people started to home in on the climate threat posed by landfills. The root of the issue is that landfills store buried trash — and when organic waste decomposes underground, in the absence of oxygen, it generates methane. The Gates Foundation has funded research and advocacy aimed at solving that problem, and Breakthrough has backed at least two early-stage companies developing their own solutions. One, Windfall Bio, uses microbes to digest methane into fertilizer. Its product was actually tested last year at a Republic landfill in California, where the pink liquid was sprinkled on the soil covering the top layer of trash.
On the surface, Republic has pursued a path consistent with Gates’ mission. In 2019, it became the first U.S. landfill operator to sign up for the Science Based Targets Initiative, promising to cut its emissions by 35% by 2030. Not that this was charity. Republic’s “climate leadership” became part of its pitch for garbage-collection contracts in progressive cities and counties. The company also won placements on stock indexes for businesses that meet certain environmental, social and governance criteria, attracting sustainability-minded investors.
Still, a fundamental tension remained — one at the heart of Gates’ vision. As Republic’s then-CEO Donald Slager put it on a 2017 call with investors, “You can’t have sustainability without profitability.”
A Not-So-Model Landfill
Each day, Americans throw away melon rinds, salmon skins and half-eaten drumsticks, paper towels, cheese that was too funky and eggs a day past their sell-by date. They discard greasy pizza boxes with crusts still rattling around inside and unthinkable amounts of leftover Chinese takeout. Not to mention the occasional dead pet.
Dust is kicked up by trucks and bulldozers at Republic Service’s McCarty Road Landfill in Houston.Mark Felix for ProPublica
Most of that trash — 240 million tons a year, enough to bury Manhattan under 100 feet of refuse — is hauled to one of the country’s 1,400 active landfills, where hulking vehicles with spiked wheels crush it into thin layers. At the end of each day, bulldozers typically spread soil on top, and for almost everyone who produced that trash, it will forever remain out of sight and out of mind.
People who live near landfills, though, describe smelling rotten cabbage, rotten eggs and rotten fish, as well as ammonia and skunk. Or as a neighbor to one Republic landfill put it: “I started smelling this stench like burning diapers. … It was foul.” Some describe burning throats, burning eyes, headaches and nausea.And while methane itself has no scent, those odors indicate that the gas is being released, studies show.
Still, modern landfills are an undeniable improvement over what came before. Open dumping and burning remained widespread until the 1970s. It was only in the ’90s that federal regulators started requiring operators to collect leachate (garbage juice, which can contaminate groundwater) and, at larger facilities, landfill gas (which is typically about half methane and half carbon dioxide but can also contain carcinogens like benzene).
Industry experts often compare landfills to living, breathing creatures. Underground trash inevitably shifts and settles, making it difficult to keep that gas from escaping. Managing such a beast is costly, which helps to explain why smaller operations have increasingly given way to corporations like Republic, which can turn a profit through economies of scale.
Republic declined to make executives available for interviews or to allow ProPublica to visit a landfill. But in May 2022 — around the same time Gates was lobbying for the passage of President Joe Biden’s historic climate bill — the company invited the Houston Chronicle to its local McCarty Road Landfill. Opened a half century earlier, the facility had passed through two corporate owners before being swallowed up by Republic, and now it was the site of a very Gatesian kind of project.
On the day of the visit, gulls circled hungrily as workers in neon vests gave a tour of the gas-collection system. Like at most other large landfills in the country, wells had been drilled deep into the trash below — five hundred of them in total. The top of each well sprouted from the grassy slopes in the form of a stubby black pipe fitted with a valve for adjusting the flow of underground gas. The workers also showed off large, bright blue, snail-shaped “blowers” — machines that suck that gas into a network of pipelines, then push it to the clanking, humming on-site plant that turns it into a salable product.
A Republic worker stands next to a gas well at the company’s McCarty Road Landfill in Houston in 2022.Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers
Most landfills that are required to collect gas simply burn it off. But they can also process it into “renewable natural gas,” which is functionally equivalent to the version pumped by oil companies. In part because this reuses the carbon from decomposing waste, it’s generally considered more climate-friendly. It also turns an environmental liability into a source of revenue — exactly the kind of win-win that Gates has long championed.
Yet the technology is no guarantee that the climate is being protected. In fact, it may be just the opposite.
In September 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency issued an “enforcement alert” saying that landfills across the country were “violating monitoring and maintenance requirements.” While the EPA didn’t name the operators, ProPublica obtained the corresponding spreadsheet through a public records request, and a fifth of the facilities targeted belong to Republic.
McCarty, far from being a model landfill, was among the worst offenders. It would soon earn Republic a formal “finding of violation” for allegedly failing to detect “exceedances” — methane escaping at levels above federal limits — for years on end. The EPA also noted repeated failures to address flooded wells, gullies formed by erosion and trash peeking through the surface of the landfill. Despite Republic’s economic incentive to capture methane, EPA inspectors found evidence of “poor maintenance” and “careless operation” of the gas-collection system as well.
And McCarty is hardly an outlier. Recent studies suggest that landfills with renewable natural gas facilities can actually emit more methane than those that only burn off the gas or use it to generate electricity. One possible explanation is that methane concentrations can vary across different parts of a landfill. According to researchers at Carbon Mapper, a NASA partner that measures emissions from various industries, some operators may prioritize collecting gas with higher methane content, which is cheaper to process — allowing more of the remaining methane to leak out.
Republic spokesperson Rob Litt declined to comment on whether that happened at McCarty, but said in a statement, “We employ hundreds of environmental managers and engineers. … If issues are identified, we work to resolve them.”
“Protecting the environment is part of Republic Services’ business,” he added.
The issues aren’t exclusive to landfills with natural gas facilities. Since 2020, EPA inspectors have used handheld methane detectors to sweep at least 39 of Republic’s roughly 200 landfills, according to inspection reports obtained by ProPublica. Including the issues at McCarty, they documented more than 1,400 problem spots — ranging from animal burrows to choked-off wells — spewing excessive amounts of methane.
In some cases, methane could be seen bubbling up through dark, fetid leachate pools. In others, so much methane was being released — with concentrations between 100 and 300 times the federal limit — that it was an explosion hazard.
Methane Bubbles at a Republic Services Landfill
Methane bubbles up through a pool of liquid drained from the trash at Republic’s Apex Regional Landfill in Nevada, documented by EPA inspectors in 2024.Environmental Protection Agency
What the Satellites Saw
Around the time of the Houston Chronicle visit, Republic’s CEO, a former McKinsey consultant named Jon Vander Ark, was promoting a new slogan: “Sustainability in action.” Meanwhile, though, Republic was quietly shying away from true climate leadership.
In 2021, two years after Republic signed on to the Science Based Targets Initiative, the SBTI made its minimum climate goal much more ambitious. Waste Management (where the Gates Foundation owns a small minority of the shares) would soon adopt it.
This was just months after Gates published “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” in which he exhorted private companies “to embrace the harder steps” toward solving global warming. Republic staff calculated that the new SBTI target could require more than $1 billion in additional spending on gas wells and other improvements, according to a former employee. Though that is less than half of what Republic has spent on dividends for Gates alone, it would leave less money for the company to redistribute to him and other shareholders. Republic has also spent more than $8 billion buying its own stock in the open market, ProPublica’s analysis shows, likely boosting the value of shares held by investors.
The matter was finally presented to the board around the second half of 2024, this person said. By then the board included Larson, Gates’ longtime investment manager — whose “insight into sustainability issues” is cited in company filings — and three other people with business ties to Gates (one has since left). While that is only four board members among a total of 13, Gates’ dominant shareholding means that, “as a practical matter, on any matter that gets voted on, he will almost certainly control the outcome,” said Lipton, the corporate-governance expert.
Republic never made the leap, and now it walks an awkward line. It continues to tout its affiliation with the SBTI while saying, in a note buried deep in one of its many sustainability reports, that the more ambitious target is “not an immediate strategic priority.”
Per SBTI rules, Republic has until the end of this year to submit an updated target. But when ProPublica asked if it would, the spokesperson said only, “We are reviewing our goals.” He declined to comment on the estimated cost or the board discussions.
The entrance to Republic’s McCarty Road Landfill in HoustonMark Felix for ProPublicaGarbage trucks pull in and out of the McCarty landfill.Mark Felix for ProPublica
There is, though, an even larger issue with Republic’s climate claims.
In line with its existing SBTI goal, Republic says it has already cut its landfill emissions by 20% since 2017. But that figure isn’t based on actual measurements of methane escaping from its facilities. According to the method cited in its sustainability reports, Republic instead typically measures the methane collected by its wells. Then it extrapolates how much it’s failing to collect — and how much is being emitted — based on the characteristics of each facility.
This method is based on an industry study that, as the EPA has noted, excluded data from gas-collection systems that were “not working well.” The EPA’s own reporting rules allow the same basic approach, which can cause companies collecting less gas due to a “malfunction or inefficiency” to “erroneously report decreasing emissions,” according to a 2025 study using satellite data by researchers at Harvard, NASA and Carbon Mapper. The researchers specifically examined two Republic landfills, and at one of them, the company reported declining emissions to the EPA even though satellite measurements showed they had risen over a four-year period.
The reporting gaps can be enormous. A study led by Hannah Nesser, now at Georgetown, found Republic facilities to be the No. 1 and No. 2 emitters among the roughly 70 large U.S. landfills the researchers observed over the course of 2019. The first, the National Serv-All Landfill in Indiana, was found to be releasing an astounding 13 times as much methane as what the company reported to the EPA. And that pattern repeated to varying degrees across three-quarters of the Republic landfills in the study. (McCarty wasn’t in the study, but according to measurements by Carbon Mapper, it emits more than twice what the company has reported.)
In response to questions about these studies, the Republic spokesperson said, “We stand by the sustainability results we’ve achieved.”
He also pointed to a letter from the National Waste and Recycling Association, a major trade group, questioning the accuracy of satellite measurements. It is a tactic from the playbook of another major climate polluter, the oil and gas industry, said Katherine Blauvelt of Full Circle Future, which advocates for cleaning up landfills.
“Satellites, peer-reviewed research studies and EPA inspectors on the ground all keep finding the same thing: unchecked and underreported methane emissions,” she said. “There’s a fire alarm going off and instead of getting out the extinguisher, the waste industry is blaming the smoke detector.”
Quietly Fighting Climate Policies
Last year, Gates published a blog post criticizing the “doomsday view” of global warming — a striking shift for someone who’d once warned of the failing ecosystems, mass migration and soaring mortality that could result from hotter temperatures. That led climate skeptics, including President Donald Trump, to say that Gates had admitted he was wrong. But Gates called that a “gigantic misreading.” While he believed more lives could be saved by improving global health, where he’d decided to shift his resources, he remained a “climate activist,” he told one audience.
Gates has tried to lead by example. In 2019, he sold his shares in oil and gas companies because, he later wrote, “I don’t want to profit if their stock prices go up because we don’t develop zero-carbon alternatives.” He kept flying by private jet, but he “offset” those emissions by buying credits from a company that removes carbon from the air. He has also called on other business leaders to “make sure that they’re not holding back” climate policies, even if those policies could cut into profits.
Bill Gates attends the groundbreaking for TerraPower’s nuclear power plant near Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 2024.Benjamin Rasmussen/The New York Times/Redux
Republic has actively worked against such policies — and yet Gates, according to securities filings, has never sold a share.
In the final year of the Biden administration, the EPA announced a plan to update its landfill gas rules, which have changed little since the ’90s. Among other potential changes, the agency asked for comments on the newer technologies, such as satellites and drones, that research has found to be effective in monitoring and controlling methane pollution.
Some landfill operators were already experimenting with these innovations. But they wanted almost all of it to remain voluntary, according to a joint statement from the National Waste and Recycling Association and the Solid Waste Association of North America, both of which have Republic executives on their boards.
“We do not believe that any of these technologies are sufficiently developed,” the industry groups said, adding that the various innovations were “not cost-effective,” “reliable” or “transparent.”
The Republic spokesperson declined to comment on whether that lobbying goes against its climate commitments.
“A lot of the issue comes down to the profit of the corporate landfill operators and their resistance to do things that will eat into that,” said Darin Schroeder of the Clean Air Task Force, a climate advocacy group.
Gates’ press representatives didn’t respond to questions about whether he’s aware of the issues at Republic — or whether he has independently investigated the source of a fifth of his fortune. But ProPublica interviewed multiple former employees at Breakthrough Energy, Gates’ clean-tech investment arm, who all spoke on condition of anonymity. They each said they hadn’t even heard about his landfill holdings.
“I agree there’s a bit of a conundrum there,” said one high-ranking staffer who was laid off last year. But this person added, “Based on my time with him, I think he’s very serious about climate change. This isn’t a vanity thing for him.”
“My theory is that he probably doesn’t have much involvement in those investments,” said another laid-off staffer.
Gates’ investment managers, at least, can’t claim total ignorance. Larson and Thomas Handley, a Cascade senior adviser, both participate actively in Republic’s board discussions, according to a fellow director who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of those private discussions. The board also receives regular management briefings, including “high level” reports on the company’s lobbying and litigation over “practices we could do better,” this director said. (Larson didn’t return phone messages left by ProPublica at his office, and Cascade didn’t respond to a question about his and Handley’s involvement in Republic.)
It’s unclear if Gates himself ever learned of those reports. But he appears to have an even larger blind spot on the issue. The waste industry doesn’t fit neatly into his view of climate change as a problem to be solved mainly through technological breakthroughs. Innovations can help, but the root of the problem is the inescapable fact that, when organic waste decomposes in the absence of oxygen, methane is produced.
Properly managing the waste we’ve already buried is only the first step, said Riley Duren, the former NASA engineer who founded Carbon Mapper. “In parallel,” he said, “reduce food waste. Full stop. Then divert organic waste away from landfills to prevent future emissions.”
This isn’t a utopian fantasy. Germany started phasing out the landfilling of biodegradable waste in 1993, and its landfill methane emissions have plunged by more than 90%. (That compares to a decline of 40% in the U.S. over roughly the same period.) Within the U.S., California now requires food scraps and yard trimmings to be collected for composting or other uses, and state regulators found that the economic, climate and health benefits would ultimately outweigh the costs.
In its glossy sustainability reports, Republic says that “organics recycling plays an important role in our operations.” And in California, with its mandatory collection rules, the company processed close to a million tons of organic waste last year, much of that at composting facilities.
A steady stream of garbage trucks flows through Republic’s McCarty Road Landfill in Houston on a recent weekday. Mark Felix for ProPublica. Aerial support by LightHawk.
But that remains a small fraction of its business. Speaking to a different kind of audience — investors — Republic has described landfilling, along with dumpster collection, as its most profitable segments. So when the EPA floated a federal organics-diversion policy in 2024, the company, along with the rest of the landfill industry, opposed this, too. Their response invoked an argument often used by opponents to regulation: It should be left to the states to decide.
“It’s like you’ve got a mousetrap, and it catches mice,” said Robert Bullard, a Texas Southern University professor widely seen as the father of the environmental justice movement. “You’ve got a landfill, and it makes money — big money. So why tinker with it?”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once one of Donald Trump’s loudest supporters of his false 2020 election-fraud narrative, is now openly accusing the president of recycling the same unsupported claims after Republicans’ disastrous 2026 midterms.
Trump questioned the legitimacy of last week’s election Monday, asking whether anyone really believed it was “honest,” citing supposed early-voting “dumps” and again suggesting voting machines were responsible for Republican defeats. He offered no evidence of manipulated machines, fraudulent ballots or widespread wrongdoing.
The claims also conflict with the available evidence. Polling broadly anticipated Democratic gains before Election Day, although many surveys underestimated their magnitude. Democrats subsequently won control of both chambers of Congress, including Senate victories across several Republican-leaning states.
Greene responded bluntly.
“For anyone who believes his bullshit,” she wrote, voters should ask why Trump has not produced prosecutions stemming from the massive 2020 fraud he repeatedly alleged. She accused Trump of attempting to “build the same narrative” again rather than accepting responsibility for Republicans’ losses.
The criticism is especially notable because Greene herself spent years promoting Trump’s discredited 2020 claims.
She instead blamed the 2026 defeat on millions of Republican voters staying home and argued that Trump’s own political team knew the party was heading toward significant losses.
Trump had repeatedly acknowledged the 2026 results in the days immediately following the election before returning to fraud allegations Monday.
ONTARIO, CALIFORNIA — A Southern California man shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer last year has filed a $25 million lawsuit against the federal government, alleging excessive force, false arrest and malicious prosecution.
Carlos Jimenez, a U.S. citizen and father of three, says he stopped near an ICE operation in October 2025 to warn agents that children would soon arrive at a nearby bus stop. His lawsuit alleges officer Eusebio Ortiz fired multiple times as Jimenez tried to leave, striking him in the back and shoulder.
Federal authorities gave a sharply different account, alleging Jimenez rapidly reversed his vehicle toward an officer. Prosecutors charged him with assaulting a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
Jimenez’s attorneys disputed that account and sought officers’ communications and other records. After a federal judge ordered prosecutors to produce additional material, both sides entered a diversion agreement. The assault charge was dismissed last week after Jimenez completed its conditions.
The lawsuit further alleges FBI agents interfered with Jimenez’s hospital treatment and questioned him while he still had a bullet lodged in his body. Those claims have not been proven in court.
The Justice Department says Jimenez voluntarily requested diversion rather than proceed to trial and notes that a grand jury had previously found probable cause to indict him.
The case now shifts from the dismissed criminal prosecution to a civil fight over whether federal agents used unlawful force and then improperly pursued charges against him.
Hosted by the Delaware Department of Veterans Affairs and Delaware Commission of Veterans Affairs, the ceremony is intended to recognize veterans from across Delaware and the generations of Americans whose military service has helped preserve the nation’s freedoms. created on 11/9 by using AI
Annual New Castle observance will focus on service and sacrifice, with Vietnam veteran who endured 406 days in captivity delivering keynote address
NEW CASTLE, Del. — Delawareans will gather Wednesday at the Delaware War Memorial Plaza to honor the men and women who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, with former Vietnam War prisoner of war Ralph Galati delivering the keynote address.
The annual Veterans Day ceremony begins at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 11 at the memorial plaza, 163 Cherry Lane in New Castle.
Hosted by the Delaware Department of Veterans Affairs and Delaware Commission of Veterans Affairs, the ceremony is intended to recognize veterans from across Delaware and the generations of Americans whose military service has helped preserve the nation’s freedoms.
Galati brings to the ceremony a story of combat, captivity, resilience and decades of continued service to fellow veterans.
A Philadelphia-area native and graduate of St. Joseph’s University, Galati was commissioned into the U.S. Air Force in 1970 and earned his flight wings the following year. He became a weapons systems officer aboard the F-4 Phantom and served as a laser-guided bomb lead and forward air controller while stationed at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand.
On Feb. 16, 1972, Galati and his pilot were shot down over North Vietnam. Galati was captured and taken to Hanoi, where he remained a prisoner of war for 406 days.
He was released March 28, 1973, as part of Operation Homecoming, which returned hundreds of American prisoners of war from Southeast Asia.
Galati has described captivity as long periods of uncertainty and isolation punctuated by fear. During a 2014 visit to Dover Air Force Base, he told service members that training, faith, trust and reliance on fellow prisoners helped sustain him during his imprisonment.
His military decorations include the Silver Star, two Bronze Star Medals with Valor, two Purple Hearts, multiple Air Medals and the Prisoner of War Medal. His Silver Star recognized his actions as an F-4 weapons systems officer on the mission during which he was shot down.
After returning home, Galati continued serving in the Air Force as a flight instructor, curriculum developer and member of the Secretary of the Air Force’s legislative liaison staff at the Pentagon. He completed active duty in 1978 and later served in the Air Force Reserve.
His commitment to veterans continued long after his military career ended.
Galati spent 28 years with IBM before retiring in 2007. He later served as veterans liaison for Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and founded the Office of Veterans Services at St. Joseph’s University, where programs included assistance and entrepreneurship training for veterans. He remains involved with veterans organizations, including the Delaware County Veterans Memorial Association.
His appearance in New Castle comes more than half a century after his captivity and provides a personal connection to the purpose of Veterans Day: remembering not only those who fought in America’s wars, but everyone who accepted the obligations and risks that come with military service.
Veterans Day traces its roots to the end of World War I, when fighting stopped at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Originally observed as Armistice Day, the holiday was renamed Veterans Day in 1954 to honor American veterans of all wars and all eras of service.
Unlike Memorial Day, which specifically honors those who died while serving the country, Veterans Day recognizes all who have served in the nation’s armed forces.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs describes the purpose of the day as honoring veterans for their patriotism, service and willingness to sacrifice for the common good.
Wednesday’s ceremony will include state and federal officials, but its central focus will be Delaware’s veterans and the experiences represented by Galati and other former service members in attendance.
The Delaware Department of Veterans Affairs and Delaware Commission of Veterans Affairs also work year-round to help veterans and their families obtain benefits and services, including disability compensation, employment and housing assistance.
TO GO
What: Delaware Veterans Day Ceremony
When: 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11
Where: Delaware War Memorial Plaza, 163 Cherry Lane, New Castle
Keynote speaker: Retired U.S. Air Force Capt. Ralph Galati, Vietnam War veteran and former prisoner of war
Who may attend: Veterans, military families and members of the public
Learn more: Delaware Department of Veterans Affairs
DENVER, COLORADO — Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert has lost her bid for reelection in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, with CNN projecting Democrat Eileen Laubacher will flip the traditionally Republican seat.
Laubacher, a retired Navy rear admiral who served more than three decades, led Boebert by more than 3,000 votes Monday with roughly 98% counted. Her campaign emphasized affordability, health care and government accountability.
Boebert has not conceded. Her campaign previously said it was investigating unspecified “unusual voting patterns” and expected a recount. No evidence of election fraud has been presented.
The Associated Press had not yet called the race Monday evening, noting that several thousand ballots remained outstanding. Laubacher nevertheless declared victory and traveled to Washington for congressional orientation.
Colorado automatically recounts a race only when the margin is no greater than one-half of 1% of the winning candidate’s vote total. Laubacher’s current lead is well outside that threshold, although Boebert could request and pay for a recount after counting concludes.
Boebert moved from Colorado’s competitive 3rd District to the more Republican 4th District before the 2024 election. Her defeat adds another seat to the expanded Democratic House majority following last week’s midterm sweep.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA — Sen. John Fetterman is facing his first Democratic primary challenger for 2028, as Palestinian American writer and businessman Ahmed Moor launches a campaign built around sharply different positions on Israel, economic policy and the direction of the Democratic Party.
Moor, 42, was born in Rafah in the Gaza Strip and now lives in West Philadelphia. He told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he is “not really running against Fetterman,” but instead for “good government,” constitutional rule and broader structural change.
The contrast with Fetterman is especially stark on Israel. Fetterman has become one of the Senate’s most outspoken defenders of Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks and has said an officially anti-Israel Democratic platform would be a “red line” for him. Moor supports ending U.S. military aid to Israel and imposing sanctions aimed at securing equal rights for Palestinians.
Fetterman has also frustrated many Democrats by increasingly siding with Republicans on selected issues, appearing by video at a GOP convention and occasionally praising President Donald Trump. He nevertheless insists he remains a Democrat and votes with his party the overwhelming majority of the time.
Moor is unlikely to be Fetterman’s only challenger. Pennsylvania Democrats are openly discussing other potential candidates, including Rep. Chris Deluzio, as dissatisfaction with Fetterman grows inside the party.
With Democrats now holding a larger Senate majority, Fetterman’s individual vote carries less leverage than it would have under a narrowly divided chamber.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky formally filed eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday, setting up a House vote that could come as soon as Wednesday.
Massie accuses Hegseth of violating the War Powers Resolution by continuing military operations in Iran without congressional authorization, ignoring congressional efforts to terminate hostilities, and carrying out other allegedly unlawful military actions. Additional articles accuse Hegseth of failing to minimize civilian casualties, authorizing extrajudicial killings, retaliating against critics, and suppressing protected speech.
The accusations remain allegations contained in Massie’s impeachment resolution, not judicial findings. Hegseth and the Pentagon reject them, calling the effort politically motivated and insisting the department has acted lawfully.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says he is a “hard yes” on impeachment, while several Republicans are also considering supporting the measure. Axios reported GOP leaders are preparing for enough Republican defections that the resolution could pass the narrowly divided House.
Even if impeached, Hegseth would remain in office unless two-thirds of the Senate votes to convict and remove him. That remains a substantially higher hurdle.
Massie first introduced similar charges in September, but House leaders adjourned before a vote could occur.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas is pushing back against calls from some progressives to abolish or defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arguing that most Democrats support keeping the agency while imposing tighter limits on how it operates.
Cuellar, who represents a South Texas border district, is expected to chair the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee when Democrats take control of the chamber. That position would give him significant influence over ICE funding and immigration enforcement policy.
“I don’t believe in defunding ICE, and I think the majority of the Democrats do not believe defunding ICE,” Cuellar told Fox News Digital.
At the same time, he said the agency needs “serious guardrails,” particularly when enforcement targets undocumented immigrants without violent criminal records. President Donald Trump made a similar acknowledgment Sunday, saying parts of his deportation policy had been “too tough.”
Cuellar also criticized the Biden administration’s border policies, saying Democrats should not return to an approach that allowed large numbers of asylum seekers to enter while their cases were pending.
His comments place him between two competing factions within the Democratic Party: progressives calling for major structural changes to ICE and centrists who favor continued enforcement with stronger oversight.
Cuellar won reelection last week by more than 36 points in a district Trump carried in 2024, strengthening his influence within the party’s border-policy debate.
These days, we know where almost everything comes from. Everyday items like food, clothes and pens all carry labels listing where things are grown, manufactured or even designed.
So why is it so hard to find where prescription drugs are made?
That question set off a 14-month investigation into where our medications are made, how the FDA polices drug manufacturers and what happens when inspectors report issues inside factories.
The vast majority of prescriptions filled in the United States are for generic drugs, which are often far cheaper than brand-name alternatives.
For years, Congress, doctors and watchdog groups have questioned the quality of generic drugs made overseas. India produces about half of all generics used in the U.S., but the labels on pill bottles often don’t list where a drug is manufactured. Inspection reports describe unsafe manufacturing conditions at generic drug factories, but the Food and Drug Administration redacts the names of the medications made in those factories. That means if drugs made in errant factories wind up in your medicine cabinet, you’d have no way of knowing.
To better understand how the FDA regulates the generic drug industry, Debbie Cenziper and Megan Rose interviewed current and former factory inspectors, tested medications in a lab and sued the federal government for critical documents.
Here’s what they found:
Birds defecated on boxes of sterile equipment. Inspectors reported finding dirty labs, mold and foul water at factories. Records referenced vials of medication that were “blackish” from contamination. Inspectors found what appeared to be metal shavings on equipment.
Drug manufacturers manipulated and destroyed drug-testing records. At one factory, an analyst poured acid on records stuffed in a trash bin. At another, inspectors said in a report that records were “routinely manipulated” to cover up the presence of particulate matter — which could include glass, fiber or other contaminants — in generic drugs.
A lifesaving generic drug contained a lower amount of a key ingredient. We worked with an independent lab to test generic versions of tacrolimus, used to prevent organ rejection. We found some pills contained a lower amount of the key ingredient in the drug. Doctors and experts said that underdosing can leave patients vulnerable to organ rejection.
The FDA allowed generic drug imports from banned factories — and didn’t inform the public. The agency gave some manufacturers a special pass to continue to ship drugs made in factories whose manufacturing practices were so bad they had been banned from the U.S. Over a dozen years, the FDA exempted at least 150 drugs or their ingredients from banned factories.
A transplant patient’s lungs failed after she took generic versions of tacrolimus. Hannah Goetz had a double-lung transplant as a teenager and had to take tacrolimus twice a day. Her lungs failed in 2023, and she died at 21 years old, after years of relying on the generic drug made by two manufacturers with documented problems. Lawyers told Goetz’s mother that it was impossible to draw a straight line from Hannah’s death to a generic manufacturer, but her mother said she wonders if her daughter would still be alive if she took a different brand of tacrolimus.
In a response to ProPublica, a spokesperson for the FDA said in a statement that the exemptions given to banned factories are “thoroughly evaluated through a multi-disciplinary approach” but declined to say exactly what those evaluations entailed. The agency also said it requires manufacturers to conduct additional quality checks with third-party oversight before sending drugs to the U.S. The agency did not respond to questions about how it can know that generics are safe without a more robust testing program.
In statements to ProPublica, drug companies said that they take patient safety seriously, adhere to quality standards and are committed to working with the FDA on any regulatory issues.
Use our tool to find where your prescription drugs were made.
ProPublica’s Brandon Roberts and a team of data journalists made a tool called Rx Inspector that will show you the facility that manufactured your generic prescription drugs and any inspection reports, warning letters and import bans we have from the FDA.
The data isn’t perfect; it’s possible the FDA hasn’t published everything it knows about a given facility, for example. Also, one company may have acquired another or moved the factory somewhere else. This tool also isn’t meant to provide you with medical advice: If you find something troubling, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your drug is compromised. Doctors and pharmacists advise that you not stop taking your medications. Instead, you should talk to your healthcare provider about any concerns.
Step 1: Enter the name of your prescription drug, as well as the company name found on your pill bottle or drug label.
Step 2: If there are multiple matches in our database, you can narrow your search using the markings found on a pill, for example.
Step 3: When you click on a drug, we’ll show you any manufacturing facilities we’ve been able to connect to it. Click on a facility to see any information we have from the FDA.
FDA inspections come with compliance outcomes, such as import alerts or warning letters. The best possible outcome of an inspection is “acceptable state,” which means the FDA took no compliance action and ProPublica found no issues documented by inspectors. Search your prescription here.
ProPublica described Rx Inspector and the methodology used to build it to the FDA, which did not comment. The agency previously told ProPublica that it doesn’t reveal where drugs are made on inspection reports to protect what it deemed to be confidential commercial information.
Under the terms of a new defense agreement between Greenland, Denmark and the United States, Greenland remains a self-governed territory of Denmark with the right to declare its independence in the future. The U.S. did not “get” Greenland, nor does it now “own” Greenland, as President Donald Trump has misleadingly said recently.
In January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump talked about wanting the U.S. to have “ownership” of Greenland, an Arctic island home to about 57,000 people, in order “to defend” it, and as part of a broader American national security strategy. “And all we’re asking for is to get Greenland, including right, title, and ownership, because you need the ownership to defend it. You can’t defend it on a lease,” he said.
He initially wouldn’t rule out taking Greenland over by force, as he had teased, but then said in his Davos speech: “I won’t use force.”
The new trilateral agreement doesn’t go as far as giving Greenland to the U.S. Primarily, it indefinitely allows the U.S. to expand its military presence in Greenland and prevents U.S. adversaries from doing the same. But as we’ve written, the previously existing defense framework already gave the U.S. great latitude to expand military operations in Greenland.
Greenlandic lawmakers formally approved the agreement on Nov. 3. It will go into effect if Danish lawmakers approve it after debate on the agreement later this month.
Trump talked about the pending deal at some of his midterm campaign rallies and in recent interviews, but he sometimes made it sound like something it’s not.
In a Fox News interview on Nov. 3, Trump said, “I got Greenland. We have Greenland, and nobody talks about it.” He said, “If I didn’t get it, there’d be massive fanfare, I can tell you. But we got it, and it’s permanent. It’s forever.”
In another Fox News interview earlier that day, Trump said Europe “gave the United States the greatest gift we were ever given … Greenland.”
Before that, during remarks in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 2, he said that “we also have Greenland now,” saying it was on “an unlimited basis.” When Trump brought up the military deal at an Oct. 25 campaign rally in Michigan, he said that “we own Greenland.”
He has also said the U.S. “got it for nothing” and that there was an “acquisition” of Greenland “for zero dollars.” (During his first term, Trump expressed interest in buying Greenland.)
We asked the White House about the president’s claims but have not received a response.
Update, Nov. 9: After publication, a White House spokesperson said the deal “secures permanent American security control over Greenland, ensures that Greenland will forever be a part of the strategic defense area of North America, and excludes any adversary from Greenland and the surrounding region.”
What’s in the Agreement
The agreement was originally signed on Sept. 22 by Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen. It amends and supplements a 1951 defense pact, updated in 2004, that allowed the U.S. to establish a military base in Greenland.
Greenland served as a foothold for the U.S. amid competition with the Soviet Union in the Arctic during the Cold War. American interest in the region, which lapsed during the post-Cold War period, has been renewed in recent years because of “strategic competition” with Russia and China, according to a Congressional Research Service report from July 2025.
Under the new deal, activities at the U.S. base in Greenland, renamed Pituffik Space Base in 2023, can be modernized and expanded. The base conducts space surveillance and provides missile warning and defense.
Trump, Frederiksen and Nielsen at a signing ceremony on Sept. 22, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok.
In addition, the agreement says the U.S. “shall be allowed to establish an additional Defense Area at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig in accordance with modalities and technical details to be mutually agreed” upon. It adds that the U.S. “may establish additional defense areas in Greenland and strengthen its military operations or facilities,” as long as those additional defense areas are agreed upon as well.
The new agreement also grants U.S. vessels and aircraft free movement between defense areas, including undersea access to Greenland’s territorial waters.
Unless the signatories all agree, nations that are not members of NATO will not be allowed to establish military installations in Greenland nor have “a persistent presence of military forces” in the territory. The U.S. will also get a say in whether countries that are not in NATO, a NATO partner or in the European Union, can invest in “sensitive sectors or activities” in Greenland, such as for the extraction of minerals and natural resources.
At the same time the agreement grants the U.S. more access in the region for defense purposes – including the establishment of a “Golden Dome” missile defense system that Trump has proposed – it also reiterates in its preamble that Greenland remains a part of Denmark with the right to self-determination, as was reaffirmed in a 2009 Greenland self-government law.
Should Greenland ever exercise its right to become an independent country, the agreement says the treaty will remain binding and Greenland will stay in NATO. The U.S. and Denmark are already members of the international defense alliance.
Not Much Different Than Before
While Trump has boasted about the new deal, experts in international relations have said it doesn’t grant the U.S. much more access in Greenland that it didn’t, or couldn’t, already have.
In a commentary piece published Oct. 2, Otto Svendsen, an associate fellow with the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, “The deal gives the United States greater flexibility to augment its Arctic military posture, binds Greenland to NATO even if it achieves independence, and boxes U.S. adversaries out of the island.” But he also called it “only a marginal improvement” over the previous defense agreement.
“Existing agreements already allowed the United States to expand its presence in Greenland, and Copenhagen had long kept U.S. adversaries from investing in Greenland,” Svendsen wrote.
As we wrote earlier this year, Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in January, following a meeting between U.S., Danish and Greenlandic officials, that “the U.S. has already a wide military access to Greenland,” and could ask for more under the 1951 defense pact. “We would examine any such request constructively,” he said.
For a story that same month, Mikkel Runge Olesen, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen, told the New York Times, “The U.S. has such a free hand in Greenland that it can pretty much do what it wants.”
And Svendsen wrote in his October piece, “The one genuinely new breakthrough — permanently binding a future independent Greenland to NATO and to U.S. basing — would likely have been on the table without threats to use military force against a treaty ally. Those threats have alienated one of the United States’ staunchest allies and damaged U.S. credibility across Europe.”
He said given that Trump once demanded full control of Greenland, “the deal is a considerable climb-down.”
Others have also said that the new agreement is a lot of what existed before.
Writing for the Council on Foreign Relations in a Sept. 29 piece, Diana Roy, the senior editor, and Jonathan Masters, the deputy managing editor, said, “Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s previous calls to acquire Greenland, the deal preserves the status quo, maintaining the island’s status as a semiautonomous territory of Denmark.”
Similarly, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a nonresident senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote in a Sept. 24 piece, “Substantively, the new deal entrenches the existing status quo, making it a significant accomplishment for Danish and Greenlandic diplomacy, while affording Trump just enough changes to also claim victory.”
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Sunday that his administration’s immigration crackdown was “too tough” in some cases and acknowledged that deporting undocumented immigrants without criminal records hurt Republicans in the midterm elections.
In a CBS 60 Minutes interview, Trump defended removing people convicted of violent crimes and drug offenses but said longtime workers in hotels, landscaping and other service industries should potentially be allowed to remain in the country.
“Get the killers out. Get the rapists out,” Trump said, before adding that people who have lived in the United States for 10 or 15 years and held steady jobs could be offered “some kind of legal status.”
Trump explicitly conceded that his deportation policy had “helped and hurt” Republicans, saying many voters believed the administration went too far by removing people whose primary offense was entering the country illegally.
The comments represent a significant rhetorical shift after nearly two years of aggressive enforcement and roughly 1 million deportations. Polling before the election had shown declining public support for the administration’s approach.
Trump first floated a bipartisan immigration agreement on election night, when Republicans lost both chambers of Congress. He said Sunday he believes some incoming Democrats, including Sens.-elect James Talarico and Annie Andrews, could be open to negotiations.
The shift comes even as Trump has elevated hardline immigration adviser Stephen Miller to White House chief of staff.
COLUMBUS, OHIO — Ohio voters delivered a sweeping rejection of large data center development in Tuesday’s election, with all 21 ballot measures tied to restricting, regulating or opposing such projects producing results unfavorable to the industry.
The measures appeared across 18 communities and included outright bans, zoning restrictions, financial safeguards and referendums on proposed development. In Wilmington, roughly 80% of voters rejected four separate rezonings that could have enabled data center projects.
In Piqua, voters approved a charter amendment prohibiting data centers by about a 2-to-1 margin and also recalled three city commissioners associated with approval of a Meta project. Upper Sandusky voters backed a data center ban with nearly 77% support, while 87% of voters in Perry approved a requirement that developers receiving tax incentives provide financial guarantees.
The results reflect growing local concern over electricity demand, water use, farmland conversion, tax incentives and whether large data center projects provide enough long-term employment or community benefit to justify their infrastructure demands.
Ohio was not alone. Ballotpedia found voters favored limiting data center development in 40 of 41 local ballot measures nationwide on Nov. 3.
Industry groups responded by promising greater transparency and community investment, while opponents are now pushing Ohio lawmakers to consider a statewide moratorium on large projects.
The Ohio results do not amount to a statewide ban, but they send a clear message that communities increasingly want more control over where and whether hyperscale data centers are built.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump said that he could move to Israel and try to become prime minister if Americans eventually “get tired” of him, while also claiming he enjoys a 99% approval rating there.
The comments came during a Fox & Friends interview in which Trump also reiterated plans to end roughly $4 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Israel after 2026, while continuing arms sales. Trump said Israel no longer needs the assistance.
Trump’s claim of near-universal support in Israel is not supported by recent polling. An August survey by the Jewish People Policy Institute found only 10% of Israelis had “a great deal of confidence” in Trump to do the right thing on U.S.-Israel relations, while 46% said they had no confidence in him.
His suggestion that he could become Israeli prime minister was also largely rhetorical. Israel’s prime minister must be a member of the Knesset, meaning Trump would first need to satisfy Israeli citizenship and electoral requirements before such a scenario could even become legally possible.
The remarks come as U.S.-Israel relations enter a more uncertain period following Democrats’ takeover of Congress and weakening bipartisan support for unrestricted military aid. Reuters reported that Democrats plan greater scrutiny of aid to Israel, although Trump retains broad authority over foreign policy.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump is showing little sign of backing away from his hardline immigration agenda despite Republicans’ sweeping midterm losses and evidence that aggressive enforcement helped drive some Latino voters back toward Democrats.
Trump defended his immigration policies over the weekend and argued that Republicans should continue emphasizing border enforcement and deportations rather than moderate their approach. The stance comes as party officials debate why Republicans lost both chambers of Congress.
Reuters found that Republican support dropped sharply across many majority-Latino counties compared with 2024. In 64 such counties with Senate races, the GOP vote share fell by about 14 percentage points. Immigration enforcement and deportations were among the issues repeatedly cited by Latino voters, alongside the economy and cost of living.
Trump’s approval on immigration has also declined. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found just 37% approved of his handling of the issue, down from 50% at the beginning of his second term.
Rather than signaling moderation, Trump has elevated Stephen Miller, one of the architects of his mass-deportation strategy, to White House chief of staff.
Republicans remain divided over whether immigration enforcement contributed substantially to the defeat or whether economic concerns and the Iran war mattered more. But the administration’s early post-election moves suggest Trump intends to stay the course.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the Democratic Socialists of America policy he believes is most acceptable to mainstream Americans, while distancing himself from several other positions associated with the organization.
During an interview with Fox News Sunday, host Shannon Bream asked Mamdani which parts of the DSA platform he believed ordinary voters would support. Mamdani pointed to abolishing ICE and “making sure we have humanity back in our immigration enforcement.”
Mamdani also rejected eliminating the Senate, the Supreme Court, national borders and jails, making clear that membership in the DSA does not mean he supports every proposal associated with the group.
His position on ICE is not new. In January, Mamdani said publicly that he supports abolishing the agency, arguing that its enforcement practices have gone far beyond what he considers legitimate immigration enforcement.
As mayor, Mamdani has also said New York City agencies will not assist ICE with civil immigration enforcement and has sought to prevent federal agents from using city property for staging operations.
The comments come after immigration enforcement became a major issue in the 2026 midterms, particularly in cities that experienced expanded federal operations.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated video Sunday depicting UFC fighters physically attacking members of the White House press corps while UFC CEO Dana White stands behind the briefing-room podium.
The animated clip, originally posted by an X account and later reposted by Trump on Truth Social, shows reporters asking White questions including whether Trump threatens democracy and about the president’s pronouns. UFC fighters then tackle, restrain or remove the animated journalists. The video ends with Trump looking into the room as several reporters lie on the floor.
The post came one day after Trump publicly offered White the vacant press secretary job and suggested that several UFC fighters join him as assistants to help “defend us against the Lunatic Left.”
White said Saturday he planned to meet with Trump Monday but noted that he already has “a lot of jobs.” He has not publicly accepted the position. Reuters reported that Trump and White have maintained a close relationship for years, with White repeatedly supporting Trump politically.
The video is fictional and AI-generated, and Trump did not explicitly direct anyone to attack journalists. Still, it portrays physical violence against members of the press from inside the White House briefing room, adding another unusual element to the administration’s ongoing search for a permanent press secretary.
Gwen Biesenbach at 11 days old Courtesy of the Biesenbach family
The emergency room was a mile from their Texas home. Stephanie and Eric Biesenbach took comfort in that when their newborn daughter, Gwen, wouldn’t stop bleeding from her belly button. They buckled Gwen into her car seat and made the drive over.
Medical records from that warm August evening in 2023 described her condition as a “generic problem” of a bleeding umbilical cord stump. The doctor on duty, Nicole Malouf, had treated plenty of those as an emergency room specialist. She covered Gwen’s oozing belly button with a special gauze to stanch the flow, and when it appeared to stop, she sent Stephanie, Eric and Gwen on their way.
They made it as far as the parking lot before they noticed Gwen had bled through her footed pajamas. Eric slid his arm under the car seat handle and lifted his 11-day-old daughter out of the car. They walked back toward the glaring lights of the Lonestar 24HR ER, a freestanding emergency department in New Braunfels next to a car wash, a McDonald’s and a deli.
Stephanie told Malouf that Gwen had been bleeding a bit after the scab that replaced her umbilical cord stump fell off. The amount of blood they saw that night worried them. She ticked through Gwen’s history. No fever. No vomiting. Exclusively breastfed. She mentioned that she and Eric had declined a vitamin K shot when Gwen was born and instead had been giving Gwen oral vitamin K drops, which they trusted would protect her.
Malouf tried another type of pretreated gauze. When that didn’t work, medical records show, she turned to silver nitrate, a chemical applied to the tip of a long matchlike stick that cauterizes blood vessels. Malouf rotated one stick after another inside Gwen’s belly button.
Since the 1960s, the vast majority of newborns in the United States have received a vitamin K shot. The injection virtually eliminated vitamin K deficiency bleeding, a rare condition that can cause catastrophic bleeding and even death.
But a shift in recent years has threatened to upend the unwavering protection that many doctors and hospitals had taken for granted. Families — mistrustful of medical interventions, misled by social media and devoted to a birth experience they deem natural — have begun to shun the vitamin K shot.
A pair of studies published last week, both of which involved millions of births, found that babies who didn’t get the vitamin K shot had an increased risk of bleeding. One of the studies found that between 2017 and 2025, the rate of vitamin K deficiency bleeding increased a staggering 347%.
Without the single, inexpensive shot — which is not a vaccine — babies are dying. Autopsies reveal how babies’ systems shut down without warning and well-meaning parents who declined the vitamin K shot were left mourning the loss of their children.
Malouf kept trying to stop the bleeding. Over the course of nearly three hours, she used seven methods. At one point, she applied so much pressure to a bandage that, Stephanie said, Gwen threw up. The remedies essentially treated the symptoms and not the cause, like putting a cover on a leaking faucet.
Malouf said she called her husband, who’s also a doctor, as well as a nurse at a local hospital, to see if she was missing something. They, too, were at a loss. The nurse’s only suggestions were the ones that Malouf had already tried.
Malouf decided to transfer Gwen to a small, local hospital, which at least had pediatric specialists and a neonatal intensive care unit. But while she waited for a call back to confirm the hospital would accept Gwen, Stephanie walked out of the room to tell her that Gwen had bled through the latest dressing. Malouf, according to the records, quickly checked to see how long it was taking her blood vessels to refill. It was slower than when she arrived.
Gwen’s condition was growing more dire, and Malouf had reached the limits of what she could do. What followed also wouldn’t be enough.
Stephanie and Eric Biesenbach took Gwen to an emergency room a mile from their house.Brenda Bazán for ProPublica
Stephanie had given birth to Gwen without complications in an inflatable tub in their living room. She was perfect, with doelike eyes and a full head of brown hair that, when the light hit it, hinted at the red of her father’s beard.
Her older brothers and sisters fussed over her like a birthday present. Her aunts from California and Louisiana came in to meet her. When the house quieted, Gwen fell asleep to the calming rhythm of Stephanie’s chest rising and falling.
Stephanie marveled at the way Gwen seemed to study the faces of everyone who carried her. She wasn’t two weeks yet, but the corners of her mouth constantly turned up to form what her parents insisted were smiles. Even when her siblings passed her around, she rarely cried in protest.
Stephanie and Eric met in 2010, when they both worked at Chili’s. Texas natives, they had just returned home after spending time in Florida, where Stephanie spent a semester interning at Walt Disney World Resort.
“I was doing lawn care work and maintenance on restaurants,” Eric said before Stephanie interjected. “He moved there for a girl,” she said as the two erupted in laughter.
He proposed to Stephanie on Christmas Eve. They married at a vineyard on Halloween. The venue capped off the night with fireworks.
Life moved quickly after that. They had a daughter and two sons, then adopted the daughter of a relative who was too young to care for the child herself. Just when they thought their family was complete, Stephanie got pregnant with Gwen.
Overjoyed, they decided to name her after Stephanie’s grandmother, Gwendolyn, who passed down her flowered baby blanket with “Gwen” embroidered in the corner.
There were no signs something could be wrong with Gwen until the day her parents took her to the ER. Stephanie had texted her midwife first.
“So sorry to bother you,” she typed into her phone, writing that Gwen’s belly button had been bleeding most of the day and they couldn’t get it to stop.
“How much blood is too much blood,” she asked.
The midwife told her to send a photo. Stephanie sent two, one of dried blood on Gwen’s stomach and the other of a pile of bloodied tissues. The midwife instructed Stephanie to tape some gauze over Gwen’s belly button. About 90 minutes later, just before going to bed, she checked on Gwen again. She snapped another picture, this one with bright red blood soaking through the gauze and diaper, and texted it to the midwife. “Are you sure this is fine?”
The midwife told her to go to the emergency room.
Stephanie texted her midwife about Gwen’s bleeding before going to the emergency room.Courtesy of the Biesenbach family
In many states, all emergency rooms are in hospitals, where patients can be transferred to other units for more care. Not so in Texas, where more than 200 ERs are freestanding, separate and distinct from a hospital. At the ER, Gwen grew increasingly pale. Her heart raced at 177 beats a minute. Around 1:40 a.m., Stephanie and Eric received their first piece of good news: Malouf was transferring Gwen. She had scrapped her plan to send Gwen to the local hospital and would instead transfer her to North Central Baptist, a larger hospital in nearby San Antonio with more specialists. North Central was only about half an hour away, and it was sending a NICU transport team to get Gwen.
Eric’s eyes fixated on the large clock hanging in the room. Ten minutes passed, then 20, then 30, then an hour. He couldn’t understand what was taking so long. He stepped into the hallway and asked if he could just drive Gwen to the hospital.
But, he said, Malouf told him he couldn’t because it would be too dangerous. Malouf, however, said she told him that if he did leave, he would have to sign paperwork acknowledging he was doing so against medical advice. The transport team, she told him, would have blood and IVs. Besides, she said, Gwen was stable. Malouf called to check on the status of the ambulance; she was told they were on their way.
Stephanie and Eric said that was the last time they spoke to Malouf that night.
By the time the ambulance arrived, it had been nearly two hours since Malouf had requested it. One of the team’s first questions was whether Gwen had received a vitamin K shot.
The ER nurse told them they didn’t have the shot on hand.
It was the first time since walking into the ER, Stephanie said, that anyone suggested that vitamin K may be the culprit — and the cure.
At 3:45 a.m., within minutes of the ambulance team’s arrival, they gave Gwen a vitamin K shot in her left thigh. They spent the next two hours at her bedside, hooking her up to an IV, drawing blood for lab tests and giving her antibiotics — all things that, the records show, hadn’t been done yet. Malouf didn’t respond to questions about why not.
Stephanie and Eric observed the ambulance team as they worked, bantering, discussing another call that had come in and, just as they were about to leave, waiting for one of them to go to the bathroom. Between what they viewed as the team’s laidback pace and Malouf’s reassurances that Gwen was stable, Stephanie and Eric were encouraged enough to split up. Eric went home to the kids, who had been with his mom all night, to get them ready for their first day of school. Stephanie stayed and planned to ride with Gwen in the ambulance.
“Grab me a change of clothes and coffee,” Stephanie called to him as he was leaving.
The team transferred Gwen to a temperature-controlled enclosed incubator. As they packed up to leave, Gwen began to whimper. With each breath, Stephanie said, she let out a weak, high-pitched sound. It was unnatural. Stephanie reached through the incubator’s opening and ran her hands back and forth across her daughter’s chest.
The team loaded Gwen onto the ambulance and flipped on the sirens and lights. At 5:55 a.m., they headed down Interstate 35. It had been seven hours since Gwen was first admitted to the ER.
GwenCourtesy of the Biesenbach familyA cutout of Gwen’s footprint held next to that of one of her sistersCourtesy of the Biesenbach family
Stephanie appreciated the importance of vitamin K. All of her other children got the vitamin K shot shortly after they were born. But over the years, she and her husband had grown wary of medical intervention. When their youngest son was nearly 2, they fell behind on his vaccines. After getting several vaccines at one appointment, they said, he developed a high fever and suddenly stopped talking for about a year. He was later diagnosed with autism.
“I think that they just gave him too much at once,” Eric said.
Research studies from numerous sources have found that multiple vaccines taken at once do not overwhelm or weaken a child’s immune system. They also do not increase the risk of serious or long-term adverse effects.
Still, seeing their son struggle to speak, Stephanie and Eric were convinced there was a connection. They stopped vaccinating their children after that.
Before Gwen’s birth, Stephanie’s midwife gave her a five-page handout on newborn vitamin K. It covered why babies need vitamin K to help their blood clot and cautioned that babies who don’t have enough of it can start to bleed without warning.
The handout compared the pros and cons of the vitamin K shot with oral vitamin K drops, noting that the drawbacks of the drops are that some babies may not be able to absorb them or may spit them up. They also don’t eliminate the risk of bleeding entirely. Stephanie initially signed the document agreeing to the shot, but as her due date neared, she and Eric changed their minds. If both are effective, they reasoned, why not go for the option that didn’t involve sticking their baby with a needle?
“We did our own research. I don’t remember feeling like there were red flags,” Stephanie said. “I felt like the information we had was sufficient.”
She doesn’t recall exactly what sources she consulted, but she read articles online and spoke to some people who worked in the medical field. No one, she said, warned her against the drops. But she didn’t ask her mother, Lauren Hoel, a longtime family nurse practitioner. Stephanie knew exactly what her mom would say.
Many medical experts consider the drops inferior for several reasons, including those mentioned in the handout. There are also concerns about harried parents of a newborn forgetting a dose and the fact that cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding have been reported even when drops are used.
Only limited data exists about vitamin K drops, and much of it is from Europe, where the drops are more common. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration does not provide oversight of the drops. Instead, parents can simply add them to their Amazon carts without any verification of what’s in them, or whether they’re safe or effective.
A single vitamin K shot acts quickly, and then the liver stores the rest of the vitamin K to slowly release into the baby’s system over months.
For decades, the recommendation from doctors, hospitals and medical organizations has been the shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization call for giving the shot to all newborns.
“While some countries outside of the U.S. sometimes administer vitamin K orally, it has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration,” the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote in May, reiterating its longstanding position, “and it is less effective than an intramuscular injection.”
Stephanie and Eric’s choice to opt for the drops reflects a broader trend. Vaccine skepticism grew after the COVID-19 pandemic, and under the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a fierce vaccine critic and champion of the Make America Healthy Again movement, the federal government has fed those doubts. Stephanie and Eric, who voted for President Donald Trump and are ardent supporters of both Kennedy and MAHA, welcomed the change.
In December, the CDC stopped recommending that all newborns get the hepatitis B vaccine. In January, the agency revised its childhood vaccination schedule, reducing the number of routinely recommended shots by six. A federal judge temporarily blocked that move in March, but the CDC’s decisions appear to have caused a ripple effect beyond vaccines.
After the January change to the vaccine schedule, an analysis of more than a million newborns found a rise in the rate of babies not receiving the vitamin K shot so sharp that it resembled a hockey stick. Between January and June of this year, the analysis found, the rate jumped from 5.2% to 8.1%. Despite being asked multiple times at a congressional hearing to assure parents that the vitamin K shot is safe, Kennedy responded by declaring that he has not said anything publicly about the shot. An HHS spokesperson did not answer ProPublica’s questions but said that the CDC recommends that parents give newborns the vitamin K shot within six hours of their birth to prevent vitamin K deficiency bleeding.
North Central Baptist Hospital in San Antonio, where Gwen was transferred after being treated at a standalone emergency roomBrenda Bazán for ProPublica
In the ambulance, Gwen’s blood pressure dropped.
“Infant looks much more lethargic,” the team wrote in their notes.
They placed a mask on Gwen to increase her oxygen and gave her an infusion of saline in hopes of improving her blood volume.
Gwen’s condition continued to deteriorate. Almost immediately after they arrived at the hospital, her heart stopped. Doctors inserted a breathing tube then began pressing down on her chest with two fingers to manually pump blood through her body. They pushed epinephrine into her IV to stimulate her heart. That appeared to work.
Stephanie couldn’t comprehend what was happening. All night, she said, no one had acted like Gwen’s life was in danger. Suddenly, her daughter was covered in tubes and doctors were performing CPR.
Stephanie said she heard someone yelling into a phone, “Where is the blood?”
She texted her family. “I need you to pray for Gwen like her life depends on it,” she wrote.
She called Eric. “You need to get here now,” she told him.
Eric pressed on the gas pedal of Stephanie’s Honda and sped to the hospital. There, he pushed through a clutch of doctors to find Stephanie crying in the corner of the room. The same wave of shock that had washed over his wife minutes earlier crashed over him. For the first time, he worried he might lose his daughter.
They prayed together, and the chaplain stopped by the room to check on them. He noted, according to records, that they were anxious but hopeful.
Less than two hours after she was admitted, Gwen crashed again. The medical team called a code blue. Doctors performed CPR for the next 34 minutes. They gave her epinephrine four more times. She had lost so much blood. Her heart was barely pumping. Doctors told Stephanie and Eric that they could keep trying to resuscitate Gwen or they could take her off the machines for her parents to hold her.
Stephanie sobbed. Eric collapsed at her knees. She told him she couldn’t make the call. Eric said they wanted to spend the final moments with their daughter. The doctors unhooked Gwen from the beeping machines and handed her to him. Stephanie and Eric told Gwen how much they loved her and how much they were going to miss her.
Shortly after 9 a.m., nearly 11 hours after they’d first brought her to the ER, Gwen took her last breath. The team ushered them to another room where families can mourn in private. They spent hours there. They gave Gwen a bath. Family stopped by. Stephanie’s sister picked up their kids from school so they could say goodbye to their baby sister. Two nurses came in to create molds of Gwen’s hands and feet.
When Eric and Stephanie finally left the hospital, Gwen’s car seat was empty. Their two youngest children slept in their bed that night. At one point, Stephanie jolted awake. She turned to Eric. The look in his eyes told her that it hadn’t been a dream. Without making a sound that could wake their kids, they cried themselves back to sleep.
Eric’s grief soon morphed into anger. His brother-in-law drove him to the Lonestar ER to ask for Gwen’s medical records. He didn’t trust himself to go in, so he asked his brother-in-law to retrieve them.
The file was just 15 pages with the payment and registration forms. They searched for any clue that could explain what happened to their daughter.
“I was constantly assured that it wasn’t that bad,” Eric said. “I can’t tell you how many times they said, ‘Don’t worry, babies are very resilient.’”
They planned Gwen’s funeral. When they couldn’t find a coffin small enough to fit her tiny 8-pound body, Eric’s brother, who makes custom cabinets, built one. They wrapped Gwen in the flowered baby blanket from Stephanie’s grandmother for the viewing.
Stephanie and Eric operated on parallel tracks those next several months: mourning their daughter and trying to understand what led to her death. The family attended a grief camp put on by a local hospice group. They painted a garden pole with things that reminded them of Gwen. When Thanksgiving approached, they escaped to Stephanie’s sister’s house in Colorado to avoid questions about how they were doing.
Eric got Gwen’s handprints tattooed on his chest, the last place he felt them before she died. Stephanie picked Gwen’s footprints, but the tattoo artist had to size them down to fit.
“She had such big feet,” Eric said. “She was gonna be a tall girl.”
“Or clown,” Stephanie said, half laughing, half crying. “One of the two.”
They also reached out to Byron Miller, a medical malpractice attorney, who sought records from Malouf, the ER, the ambulance company and the hospital. Miller investigated whether negligence in Gwen’s care resulted in her death. But the medical expert hired to review the case homed in on Stephanie and Eric’s decision to give Gwen the vitamin K drops instead of the shot. Without an expert’s supporting opinion, which Miller said was a state requirement, his office was unable to continue pursuing a case. Miller recommended that Stephanie and Eric follow up with the Texas Medical Board.
The ER, the ambulance company and the hospital did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The nurse on duty at Lonestar that night also did not respond to requests for comment.
Stephanie had several conversations with her mother, who remembers learning in the 1980s, while in nursing school, that all babies need a vitamin K shot at birth. Hoel didn’t know that Stephanie and Eric didn’t get the vitamin K shot for Gwen.
“It never occurred to me that people would refuse the vitamin K shot,” she said.
Even with that, Hoel couldn’t look past Malouf’s actions that night.
“She should have said, ‘That’s a newborn. Take it to a NICU,’” Hoel said. “And by not doing that, the fate was sealed.”
That next December, Stephanie sat down at the kitchen table and pulled out her laptop. Someone, she said, had to hold Malouf accountable. She found the website for the Texas Medical Board and followed the instructions to file a complaint.
“When Dr Malouf decided to provide medical care to our daughter, despite her lack of training in neonatal emergency care, and lack of appropriate monitoring equipment,” Stephanie wrote to the board, “Gwen was deprived of any potential life saving intervention.”
The seven hours they spent at the ER that night, she continued, could have been used to save Gwen’s life. And she stressed that the ER nurse said the facility didn’t carry the vitamin K injection.
“If Vitamin K was a vital part of the evening,” she wrote, “then we should have been pointed to another location that was fully equipped sooner.”
Malouf became the target of her anger and her anguish. She described how painful it was to drive by the Lonestar billboard with Malouf’s giant photo near her house every day. She wrote that Malouf failed to recognize that her daughter’s life was in danger. “I just don’t understand how it can go from a calm relaxed environment to all of a sudden your child is dead,” she wrote to the board. She recounted feeling intimidated when Eric asked if they could leave when Gwen’s color began to change and Malouf advised against it.
“To this date,” she wrote, “Dr Nicole Malouf does not even know that my daughter died under her care.”
A garden pole the Biesenbachs made to memorialize Gwen stands in the family’s yard.Brenda Bazán for ProPublicaA baby blanket embroidered with the name Gwen was passed down by Stephanie’s grandmother, Gwendolyn.Brenda Bazán for ProPublica
After Gwen died, Malouf said, a doctor from the hospital called. The news, she said, came as a surprise.
Sitting in her home office, her framed degrees hanging on the wall behind her, Malouf spoke to ProPublica for nearly three hours about what happened. Malouf and her husband have three daughters, for whom she is team mom for cheerleading and president of the Fine Arts Boosters. Racks of uniforms filled her home’s entryway in preparation for an upcoming sale.
She said she repeatedly relived the details of that night with her therapist. The first few sessions, she said, were just the two of them crying. She said they discussed what was in her control and what wasn’t. Every life is precious, she said, but it’s one thing to lose a 95-year-old grandmother with a long list of medical problems. It’s another to lose a baby.
“I still have my three daughters,” Malouf said, pushing back her long, dark hair, “and now she has lost hers.”
Malouf said the doctor who called said the hospital would conduct its own review. Malouf said the doctor mentioned that they had already identified some issues, including questions about the transport team.
The hospital wasn’t the only one probing the night’s events. The state Medical Board also launched an investigation. The board subpoenaed records and reviewed the medical documents.
In September 2025, the board held a virtual hearing, which was closed to the public. Stephanie and Eric appeared, as did Malouf and her attorney. The board staff attorney charged that Malouf did not meet the standard of care in her treatment of Gwen and that she failed to halt or limit Gwen’s bleeding. Her lack of timely care, the board’s attorney alleged, ultimately resulted in Gwen’s death. Citing confidentiality, the board would not release a recording or transcript of the hearing.
The next month, the board issued its decision. It found that Malouf failed to recognize that Gwen had a life-threatening vitamin K-dependent bleeding disorder. The ER did not have vitamin K shots on site, and Malouf failed to immediately transfer Gwen to a regional pediatric referral hospital better equipped to handle Gwen’s condition. Finally, the board found that Malouf had failed to quantify the amount of blood lost by Gwen.
The Texas medical board found that Dr. Nicole Malouf failed to recognize Gwen’s vitamin K-dependent bleeding disorder and failed to immediately transfer her to a pediatric hospital.Obtained and highlighted by ProPublica
The board required her to take 24 hours of continuing medical education; she said she completed her hours in courses on pediatric advanced life support, communicating with patients and vitamin K deficiency bleeding. She also had to inform her employers that she had been disciplined. Malouf neither admitted nor denied the allegations but agreed to abide by the board’s final order.
A board spokesperson would not answer specific questions about Gwen’s case but said the board expects all licensees “to provide appropriate treatment and, if the necessary supplies are not available, to make arrangements for transport to a higher level of care.”
“I felt that I had done everything that I could with the resources I had,” Malouf told ProPublica.
She said she did know that Gwen had vitamin K deficiency bleeding, even though she did not immediately give Gwen a vitamin K shot. Malouf said she thinks the board didn’t believe that she knew because she didn’t act “in a panicked manner.” It remains unclear, even to her, whether the ER carried the vitamin K shot at the time or if it was just in a spot where the nurse couldn’t find it. But she said she asked the nurse for it.
Either way, she believed that giving Gwen vitamin K at that point would just be to make her chart look good.
“It’s really not even going to take effect at that stage,” Malouf said. “As soon as you give vitamin K, the earliest it’s even going to start working is 10 to 12 hours.”
But several doctors told ProPublica that vitamin K should be given immediately if there’s even a suspicion that a baby has vitamin K deficiency bleeding. It’s so vital to stopping the bleeding that they don’t even need to wait for a confirmation. There is no downside, they said, to giving it. Vitamin K, they said, may need to be followed up by blood or blood products, such as fresh frozen plasma, which is rich in the proteins that help the blood clot.
While vitamin K can quickly help to halt the bleeding, it can’t reverse the bleeding that’s already occurred. It also has to be given in time, and some babies need more than one dose of vitamin K to recover. Gwen, as one doctor who reviewed her medical records put it, needed vitamin K, blood and blood products much sooner than she got them.
Malouf said she had learned about vitamin K deficiency bleeding in medical school and during her residency, but she doesn’t recall ever seeing it in practice. Nearly every medical student learns about the coagulation cascade, but not all doctors know or remember how to diagnose and treat an infant who shows up in an ER bleeding, often in the brain and invisible to the eye. Some completed their training at a time when vitamin K deficiency bleeding was still considered a historic condition, much like measles.
The ER staff, Malouf said, has been subsequently trained on the importance of vitamin K, and the ER keeps it in stock. All ERs, she said, should carry vitamin K.
“I still gravely regret that the outcome was still the same,” she said, “even after again assuming that, ‘Hey, I’m putting this baby in y’all’s hands. You guys are the experts. Fix her.’”
Malouf doesn’t understand how the board found that her care that night fell short. She didn’t intentionally harm her patient.
“I can state my whole case and literally one of the board members goes, ‘Well, I just don’t believe you,’” Malouf recalled. “I said, ‘Well, then I don’t know what more to tell you.’”
In addition to working at the ER, she had a part-time job doing telehealth. The telehealth company that employed her, she said, fired her once she disclosed the board’s action. As of August, she was still working some shifts at Lonestar ER; the board’s decision didn’t affect her ability to practice. Following the interview with ProPublica, she declined further comment.
“I feel like the only way to change the outcome is to go back to the beginning, that fork in the road,” Malouf said. “And go, ‘OK, well let’s give vitamin K after birth.”
Eric and Stephanie at Gwen’s grave in San AntonioBrenda Bazán for ProPublica
Stephanie and Eric also have asked themselves what they would have done differently. They wished they had left the ER that night and driven Gwen to a hospital.
“We were just trusting that the person who went to school their whole life for this would know more than us,” Eric said.
In their minds, the role of vitamin K has overshadowed the medical mistakes they believe are most responsible for their daughter’s death. By the time Gwen had arrived at the hospital, her organs were already starting to shut down. The autopsy found that she had tiny spots of bleeding in her kidneys and small intestine and a small scrape on her chest where doctors pushed down for CPR. The medical examiner noted Gwen’s precipitous decline and listed her cause of death as vitamin K deficiency bleeding.
If they could go back, both agreed they would get the vitamin K shot for Gwen.
“I don’t trust a lot of things,” Stephanie said, “but get peace of mind and get the vitamin K shot.”
A few months after Gwen’s death, Stephanie found out she was pregnant with a little girl. They were so ready to love a baby again. She gave birth to her in 2024. This summer, they welcomed another baby girl.
MADISON, WISCONSIN — A 21-year-old Wisconsin State Patrol trooper has been released from federal immigration custody after ICE detained him at Dane County Regional Airport while he was preparing to board a domestic flight.
Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, a South African national, was arrested Thursday during what the Department of Homeland Security called a “targeted enforcement operation.” His attorney says Van Der Merwe came to the United States legally as a teenager, is included in his father’s pending asylum application and has federal work authorization valid through 2030.
DHS says Van Der Merwe entered legally in March 2019 but overstayed his authorized admission in September of that year. The agency emphasized that work authorization and a pending asylum application do not themselves confer lawful immigration status.
Van Der Merwe’s attorneys said ICE agents detained him despite his explanation that he had a valid work permit and unresolved asylum case. He was later released under an order of supervision requiring regular check-ins and electronic monitoring while his removal proceedings continue.
The Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association publicly backed Van Der Merwe, calling for fair treatment and due process. He has worked for the State Patrol since July 2025 and has no known criminal record.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — UFC CEO Dana White reportedly turned down President Donald Trump’s offer to become White House press secretary just hours after Trump publicly announced the proposal.
CNN reported Saturday that a source familiar with the matter said White declined the job. Earlier reports had suggested White planned to meet with Trump at the White House to discuss the position. White has not publicly explained his decision.
Trump announced the offer on Truth Social, describing White as a longtime ally and suggesting several UFC fighters could join him as assistants to help “defend us against the Lunatic Left.” White initially appeared to play along, sharing Trump’s post and publishing an image of himself behind the White House briefing-room podium.
The announcement also revived scrutiny of a 2022 incident in which White was recorded striking his wife during an altercation at a nightclub in Mexico. White later publicly acknowledged the incident and said there was “no excuse” for his actions.
The press secretary position has been vacant following a period of unusual turnover. Karoline Leavitt left the job in August, and Katie Zacharia reportedly lasted only five days in the role.
White’s refusal means Trump will need to continue searching for a permanent spokesperson as his administration reorganizes following Republicans’ sweeping midterm losses.
White and Trump have been close for years, with White repeatedly supporting Trump politically and Trump frequently attending UFC events.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he offered UFC CEO Dana White the job of White House press secretary, continuing a post-midterm personnel shakeup that has already elevated Stephen Miller to chief of staff.
Trump announced the offer on Truth Social, calling White a “Fighter and Warrior” and suggesting he bring six current or former UFC champions as assistants, including Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes. Trump said the fighters could help “defend us against the Lunatic Left.”
White and Trump have known each other since the early 2000s, when Trump’s Atlantic City casino hosted UFC events. White later became an outspoken Trump supporter and appeared at Republican National Conventions on his behalf. Trump has also repeatedly attended UFC events, and the White House hosted a UFC card earlier this year.
The press secretary position has been vacant since Katie Zacharia left last month after serving less than a week. Karoline Leavitt had departed the role in August.
Despite Trump’s public offer, CNN reported that White declined the job, according to a source familiar with the matter. White and UFC parent company TKO had not publicly commented as of Saturday.
The offer comes one day after Trump named Miller as his new chief of staff following Republicans’ sweeping midterm losses.
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — Democrat Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign sued Alaska election officials Friday seeking immediate access to records identifying rejected absentee ballots as her race against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan remains separated by roughly 600 votes.
The campaign says it requested the records under Alaska’s Public Records Act on Oct. 27 and again after Election Day but was denied immediate access. It wants the names of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected and the reasons for rejection, arguing that without the information it cannot determine whether lawful ballots were improperly excluded.
Alaska officials say the records are preliminary and historically treated as confidential while ballot processing continues. The state argues that releasing them now could burden election workers and interfere with counting.
Importantly, the lawsuit does not establish that any ballots were wrongly rejected. It seeks information that could allow the campaign to contact affected voters or challenge individual decisions if problems are found.
The dispute comes as Alaska continues accepting absentee ballots from remote communities through Nov. 18. If neither Peltola nor Sullivan reaches 50% of first-choice votes, the state will conduct its ranked-choice tabulation that day.
The race is one of only two unresolved U.S. Senate contests, alongside Mississippi.
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — California voters have rejected Proposition 40, the closely watched measure that would have imposed a one-time 5% tax on residents worth more than $1 billion, according to a projection from Decision Desk HQ.
With roughly three-quarters of ballots counted, about 54% opposed the measure and 46% supported it. The Associated Press had not yet called the race Friday, but Proposition 40 had consistently trailed by a substantial margin.
The proposal would have applied to roughly 250 California billionaires and generated tens of billions of dollars, according to state estimates. Ninety percent of the revenue would have gone toward healthcare, with the remainder funding food assistance and education programs.
Opponents dramatically outspent supporters. Billionaires and business groups poured more than $300 million into efforts opposing Proposition 40 and promoting competing measures that could have blocked it. Google co-founder Sergey Brin alone contributed more than $100 million.
Gov. Gavin Newsom also opposed the measure, arguing it could encourage wealthy residents to leave California and destabilize state revenues. Supporters, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and the California Democratic Party, argued billionaires should contribute more toward healthcare and social programs.
The defeat does not necessarily end the wealth-tax debate. Democratic leaders nationally have already indicated that taxing extremely wealthy Americans will remain part of their agenda.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries sharply condemned President Donald Trump’s promotion of Stephen Miller to White House chief of staff, calling the longtime immigration hardliner a “dangerous xenophobe” and demanding that Trump “fire him today.”
Jeffries also described Miller as a “reckless extremist,” arguing that elevating him after Republicans’ sweeping midterm defeat showed Trump was doubling down rather than changing course.
The criticism comes against a substantial public record. Miller was a principal architect of Trump’s first-term family-separation policy and travel restrictions targeting several Muslim-majority countries. In Trump’s second term, he has helped direct the administration’s mass-deportation strategy, pushed for thousands of daily immigration arrests and advocated broader use of executive power.
Miller has also repeatedly described immigration in stark terms, including portraying migration as an “invasion” and saying the country was being “conquered.” He has defended family separation and advocated suspending habeas corpus in some immigration cases.
Other Democrats joined Jeffries. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said Miller should be investigated rather than placed in charge of the White House, while Rep. Don Beyer accused Trump of continuing a politics of “hatred, lawlessness, and failure.”
Trump has defended Miller as one of his most trusted advisers. Miller is scheduled to replace Susie Wiles as chief of staff on Nov. 9.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA — Democrats have captured both chambers of the Arizona Legislature while Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs retained the governor’s office, giving the party complete control of state government for the first time in 60 years.
The Associated Press called enough remaining legislative races Friday to confirm Democratic majorities in both the state House and Senate. Republicans had controlled the Arizona House continuously for 60 years and the Senate since the early 1990s.
The victory dramatically changes the political environment for Hobbs. During her first term, she vetoed more than 540 measures passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, covering issues including immigration, elections, taxes and education.
Hobbs has said her next-term priorities include addressing water shortages and affordability while tightening oversight of Arizona’s expansive school-voucher program.
Arizona was part of a much broader Democratic surge at the state level. Democrats also secured full control of government in Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin, while winning the Texas House and governorship.
Nationally, Democrats also captured both chambers of Congress, making the 2026 election one of the largest shifts in political control since the Republican wave of 2010.
For Arizona, however, the result is especially historic: the state will enter 2027 with unified Democratic government for the first time since Lyndon Johnson was president.
Gulfstream Aerospace’s Scientific Research and Innovation SuperComputing Center from 2005 to 2020, where power, cooling, and cloud strategy were daily decisions. He has worked with the nuclear division of Continuum Dynamics. He is founder and CEO of HEAT Holdings, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business developing patent-pending ways to finance nuclear power and AI compute together, with every source of data behind each deal rated for quality.
On Aug. 31, 2026, the justices handed down a decision from its emergency docket in 
