President Trump and top GOP leaders are gathering in Dallas for a midterm convention, though some Republicans in competitive races are opting to skip it and campaign in their home districts or states.
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman appeared in a surprise video at the Republican Party's midterm convention on Wednesday, as he becomes increasingly isolated from his own party.
Fetterman endorsed Republican Dave McCormick for reelection to Senate and said that he will work with him and Donald Trump ‘to fight and defend the steel way of life’
Stefany Shaheen, the daughter of a longtime New Hampshire senator and former governor, has won the Democratic nomination in the race for Chris Pappas’s former House seat.
Stefany Shaheen’s mother Jeanne Shaheen is a former governor who has represented New Hampshire in the Senate since 2009. The younger Shaheen’s family ties to the Democratic establishment – and accusations of nepotism – became a point of attack by her opponent in the primary race.
Critics say threshold pushes higher-paid staff to cut back on work and often mothers to stop working to avoid losing entitlement
John Healey has been urged to fix the £100,000 childcare “cliff edge”, that means some higher-paid employees cut back on work to avoid losing their entitlement.
Since the latest expansion of taxpayer-funded childcare in 2024, families with young children in which both parents earn less than £100,000 a year can be entitled to 30 hours a week of care - or none at all, if one of them cross that threshold.
School staff tell focus groups they believe school system in England and Wales cannot deal with attendance crisis
Teachers have so little belief in the importance of pupils’ full school attendance that they would take their own children on term time holidays if they could, staff have told a three-year research programme.
Frontline staff do not believe the school system is set up to deal with an ongoing attendance crisis in England and Wales, where nearly one in five children are now missing at least 10% of school, according to a report based on in-depth conversations with teachers.
(The Center Square) – According to numbers from the national firm J. David Tax Law, federal income tax burdens have grown dramatically across the country – with California in fifth place nationally.
Google plans to invest at least $15 billion in AI infrastructure in Finland through 2028, its largest single investment in Europe. The company also signed a 22-year power agreement with Finnish utility Fortum and said it will explore business models that could support new nuclear reactors at Fortum's Loviisa site.
Finland has emerged as a major data-center hub thanks to its available land and power. "I've heard it called the 'Texas of Europe' at industry events," Matti Lajunen, partner of real estate at Finnish law firm Hannes Snellman, told CNBC. "What we're now seeing is weekly new inquiries for market entry into Finland from new players."
Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google, said in a statement: "Google is proud to deepen our roots in Finland with the company's largest single investment in Europe, building on more than 15 years of sustained investment in Finland. This investment underscores Google's commitment to grow our presence responsibly, pairing the expansion of our technical infrastructure with new energy capacity, grid enhancements, and energy affordability initiatives."
Back in June, I noted that oilfield services company Weatherford International couldn't get enough shareholder votes to move its corporate charter from Ireland to Texas.
(The Center Square) - A lawsuit over the admission of a transgender woman into a University of Wyoming sorority will start with opening arguments Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver.
Trump administration to seek extra funding from Congress to ‘dismantle’ Los Tiguerones over narcotics trafficking
The US has designated Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones gang, which stormed a television station during a live broadcast in 2024, as a terrorist organisation as the Trump administration expands its campaign against narcotics traffickers it says are destabilising Latin America.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made the announcement in Quito, where he met Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa, one of several rightwing allies of Donald Trump whom Rubio is courting as a security partner during a three-nation tour through Latin America that began on Tuesday.
LIVERMORE, Calif., Sept. 9, 2026 — A new approach to computing has quietly taken shape at Sandia National Laboratories, where researchers have developed a way to store information that could make future electronics more energy efficient.
Electro-thermo-chemical random-access memory, or ETCRAM, works differently from conventional digital memory, which represents information as ones and zeros on silicon wafers. Instead of being limited to two values, ETCRAM can store a range of analog values by using localized heating and electrical pulses to change the properties of materials inside the device.
The team responsible for developing ETCRAM is now working to test designs with multiple materials to further improve the technology. Photo credit: Ruth Frank.
The team, led by Sandia researchers Elliot Fuller and Alec Talin, demonstrated the approach using tantalum and vanadium oxide materials. The result is a memory technology capable of storing information with far greater precision and dynamic range than existing analog memory technologies. Because the device can hold many distinct analog states rather than simply switching between zero and one, researchers are exploring whether it could perform some computing tasks with less energy.
“The technology that we’ve developed is designed to overcome a limitation of our existing computing technology to really improve energy efficiency,” Fuller said. “ETCRAM is able to achieve 100 times higher precision than existing state-of-the-art technology — and at least three orders of magnitude greater dynamic range. That’s the value of a number that you can store in analog.”
That potential matters for the nation as the amount of energy required for computing continues to grow. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that electricity consumed by data center servers could reach roughly 800 billion kilowatt-hours annually by 2050 in a high-demand scenario.
Perhaps surprisingly, one of the easiest ways to understand ETCRAM is to think about a battery.
“You can think of ETCRAM as a memory device,” Talin explained. “You can charge a battery halfway and then stop charging and use that energy. Think of the state of the battery as a memory. It stores that state.”
The team started with what researchers already know about the properties of materials used in batteries. But materials that are good at storing energy are not necessarily well suited to storing information. Lithium ions, for example, are useful for energy storage but not ideal for the kind of data storage the Sandia team was pursuing.
“We want to store the maximum amount of information density in a particular volume,” Fuller said. “The challenge with electrochemistry is often how slowly it works. The trick with getting this memory element to work was to have it self-heat. It heats up when the electrochemistry is activated, and that’s what gives us this very large dynamic range and allows it to have very high precision.”
Electrothermochemical random access memory chips are able to achieve 100 times higher precision than existing state of the art technology. Photo credit: Arianna Andreatta.
That self-heating helps speed the electrochemical process used to program the memory.
The team is also looking at how the technology could support edge computing, in which information is processed close to where it is collected rather than always being sent to a central processor or remote computing system.
Consider a smartphone camera. The sensor captures light and the phone performs most image processing locally using dedicated hardware before the final image appears. In edge/near-sensor computing, more of this processing—or higher-level analysis—could be moved even closer to the sensor, potentially including analog or mixed-signal processing on the sensor itself, so less raw data needs to be transmitted elsewhere.
Doing more computation where data are collected could help improve both speed and energy efficiency, particularly as sensors become more common in everyday devices.
“We live in the 21st century, and there are electronics all around us,” said postdoctoral researcher Adam Gross. “You wake up in the morning, and there’s an alarm clock or your phone that has light sensors and sound sensors. Modern cars are outfitted with a suite of sensors. The number of sensors in so much of what modern life requires are all opportunities where our device could potentially make a difference.”
For Fuller, Talin and their colleagues, the work is ultimately about finding new ways for increasingly capable electronics to handle more information without requiring proportionally more energy. ETCRAM is one approach they hope could help bring more of that computing directly to the sensors and devices already woven into everyday life.
About Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Sandia Labs has major research and development responsibilities in nuclear deterrence, global security, defense, energy technologies and economic competitiveness, with main facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California.
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 9, 2026 — The AI infrastructure conversation has largely been defined by compute. But new global research from IDC reveals another critical factor organizations must address as they scale AI: data that persists and compounds long after individual compute cycles are complete.
The IDC White Paper, Built for Scale: The Enduring Role of HDDs in the AI Era, sponsored by WD, finds that among surveyed organizations, AI is creating a structural expansion in data storage requirements. Organizations are generating more data, assigning greater value to it, retaining it longer, and increasingly bringing historical data back online for new AI workloads.
The result is a compounding data cycle: AI requires data and increases the potential value of data already stored. While compute requirements vary by workload and investment cycle, the data created by AI persists and accumulates, making storage capacity, accessibility and economics increasingly important considerations in AI infrastructure design.
Among the Key Findings from the White Paper:
AI is Creating a Compounding Data Cycle
94.7% of surveyed organizations are storing more data because of AI and generative AI adoption over the past 12 months.
61% experienced data growth of 25% or more over the past year due to AI, while 74% expect data volumes to grow 25% or more over the next three years.
85.4% reported growth in data lake volumes over the past 12 months.
59.4% identified AI-generated data, including synthetic data, inference outputs and model logs, as the leading driver of data lake growth.
Data is Persisting Longer, Becoming More Active and Valuable
Nearly 95% say the value of their organization’s data has increased as a result of AI and GenAI adoption.
74.3% say AI and GenAI have caused them to retain data longer.
75.9% report bringing increasing volumes of archived cold-tier data back online to support AI workloads.
96% anticipate needing faster archive retrieval to support AI inference and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) applications.
AI Infrastructure Must Be Designed for the Full Data Lifecycle
For the surveyed organizations, 74.6% of enterprise data resides in warm, cool and cold storage tiers.
More than 60% of data lake volume consists of cold or infrequently accessed data.
98.2% consider total cost of ownership per terabyte important or very important when making storage decisions.
“For the last few years, the AI infrastructure conversation has centered on compute. But AI runs on data,” said Irving Tan, CEO, WD. “Organizations are generating more data, keeping it longer, and finding new ways to create value from the information they already have. Compute requirements will evolve over time, but the need to store, manage and access data at scale is only growing. That foundation will play a critical role in determining how far AI can go.”
From Compute Cycles to a Persistent Data Lifecycle
AI workloads create data throughout their lifecycle, from training datasets and model checkpoints to inference outputs, logs and synthetic data. Unlike the compute cycles that process it, much of that data remains after the workload is complete and can become input to future AI applications. The findings point to a structural expansion of storage requirements as organizations retain more data for longer periods and find new uses for information they already hold.
AI Is Bringing Historical Data Back Into Play
The research also shows that the traditional boundaries between active and archived data are changing. As historical data becomes an increasingly valuable input for AI workloads, information that once sat dormant is reentering the active data lifecycle, changing expectations for how data is retained, managed and made available when needed.
AI Infrastructure Is a System, Not a Single Storage Tier
These shifts reinforce the need to architect storage across the full AI data lifecycle. As data volumes grow, retention periods lengthen and historical data becomes active again, organizations increasingly need to balance performance, capacity, accessibility and economics according to workload requirements. At AI scale, where data lives — and what it costs to store and access it — becomes an increasingly important architectural consideration.
The ability to manage data economically at scale is no longer a secondary infrastructure consideration. It is becoming a critical factor in AI success.
The full IDC White Paper, Built for Scale: The Enduring Role of HDDs in the AI Era, sponsored by WD, is available here.
Research Methodology
The IDC White Paper is based on a quantitative survey of 763 IT and business decision-makers at the manager level and above across seven countries, all with direct responsibility for AI infrastructure or data storage decisions. IDC also conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with three senior storage industry leaders to provide additional perspective on deployment realities and evolving customer priorities.
Source:IDC White Paper, Sponsored by Western Digital Corporation, Built for Scale: The Enduring Role of HDDs in the AI Era, Doc. #US54789026, September 2026.
About WD
WD, also known as Western Digital, builds the storage infrastructure that powers certainty in the AI-driven data economy. At the forefront of innovation, WD partners with the world’s leading hyperscalers, cloud service providers, and enterprises to enable reliable storage solutions that are proven and trusted at scale. Driven by a culture of innovation and execution, WD helps customers store, protect, and use the world’s data with confidence.
Opponents requested an emergency filing as state’s elections plunged into uncertainty over redrawn districts
Opponents of congressional redistricting in Missouri appealed to the US supreme court on Wednesday after a federal panel let stand a ruling allowing the state to use a new map backed by Donald Trump in November’s midterms.
The map’s challengers, including a group opposed to the Republican-drawn map called People Not Politicians, made the request in an emergency filing, moving swiftly after Stephen Clark, a St Louis-based chief US district judge, issued his decision on Tuesday.
Strife with the U.S., including Trump's tariffs, has pushed Canada to find new trading partners. That could ultimately raise prices for U.S. businesses.
Cohen has not personally asked Trump for a pardon, but he submitted an application to the White House after his request was denied by the Biden administration
Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would consider pardoning Michael Cohen, the former fixer whom he once branded a “rat” for testifying against him in court and before Congress, but with whom he has recently staged a stunning public reconciliation.
Asked by a reporter whether he would grant Cohen’s appeal for presidential clemency, Trump said: “If everything is checking out, it’s something I would consider.”
Apple is introducing a new "Reference Image" mode on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max that uses the camera sensor to digitally sign captured data and create an "unalterable" version of a photo, giving users a way to verify what the camera actually saw before any edits were made. The Verge reports: As AI-generated images and videos become more realistic, several new standards have emerged to label images not created by a human, such as SynthID, C2PA, and Meta's Content Seal. Apple is putting a twist on these methods by building authentication directly into its hardware.
Apple is letting developers access a Reference Image API across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, which could eventually allow users to inspect these digitally-signed photos in third-party apps. The company says the iPhone 18 Pro lineup won't come with its Reference Image feature at launch in the European Union, but says users in the region will still be able to "develop and view" them in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27.
Sagal Abdi-Wali, who came from Somalia in the 1990s, likely to face Zack Polanski in Holborn and St Pancras contest
A former child refugee who became the leader of Camden council has been selected to be the Labour candidate for the byelection in Holborn and St Pancras.
Sagal Abdi-Wali, who came to the UK from Somalia as a child in the 1990s and was elected leader of Camden council in May, was chosen by Labour members to contest the north London seat vacated by Keir Starmer.
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — NorthWestern Energy announced a rescheduled overnight power outage in central Great Falls that is now set for midnight to 5 a.m. Sept. 16.
Do tech companies ever stop to think about the misery they unleash on people’s lives? The Apple Watch Series 12 uses “Audio Intelligence” that, as well as secretly taking notes, also has a Live Rewind feature that can replay the last 15 seconds of recently detected audio and view a text transcript.
Democratic ads in the Ohio Senate race are highlighting a political bribery scandal involving an energy company that benefited from a 2019 nuclear-power bailout law. It’s true, as the ads say, that Republican Sen. Jon Husted backed the legislation and that the company supported his campaigns. But Husted hasn’t been charged with or accused of any wrongdoing in the scandal, which is the impression the ads may leave with voters.
We’ll explain what happened in the case, which led to federal and state charges against lobbyists, former FirstEnergy executives and former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, who received a 20-year federal prison sentence in 2023 for leading a racketeering conspiracy involving about $61 million in bribes for Householder to shepherd the bailout bill through the Legislature. FirstEnergy backed the bill in order to save two of its nuclear power plants. The legislation called for monthly fees added to consumers’ electric bills in order to provide more than $1 billion over seven years for nuclear power. FirstEnergy paid $230 million in penalties in a 2021 settlement with federal prosecutors.
Husted was the state’s lieutenant governor from 2019 to 2025, when he was appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance. Democrat Sherrod Brown, a former longtime senator from the state, is challenging Husted in the Senate race.
Vance ran for the Ohio Senate seat in 2022, after the FirstEnergy bribery scandal had come to light. He and President Donald Trump have supported Husted’s candidacy.
An ad from Brown shows TV news clips in rapid succession, the first saying, “now to the largest bribery case ever in Ohio” and a second saying, “one prominent name keeps coming up, Sen. Jon Husted.” The senator’s name is then repeated three times by other newscasters. A narrator says: “FirstEnergy spent millions bribing public officials. The executives spent at least $3.5 million to help Husted’s campaign. Husted was referred to as FirstEnergy’s ‘golden boy.’ Husted led the charge for a billion-dollar bailout and cost you thousands on your electricity. Jon Husted got paid. Ohio got the bill.”
The 30-second ad began airing in late August, according to the ad tracking service AdImpact. A 15-second version began airing mostly on TV streaming devices on Sept. 1. That version begins by saying, “FirstEnergy spent millions bribing officials,” and then switches to the news clip saying that “one prominent name keeps coming up, Sen. Jon Husted.” The two sentences are accurate on their own, but strung together they leave the wrong impression that Husted had been accused or charged with accepting bribes. He hasn’t.
Another ad, funded by outside Democratic groups LCV Victory Fund and WinSenate, says, “FirstEnergy, the largest corruption scheme in state history, and Jon Husted is at the center of it,” going on to say that the company “helped Husted’s campaign with a secret million dollar payment, and Husted got them a massive bailout.”
FirstEnergy did contribute $3.5 million that ultimately benefited Husted’s campaigns; the $1 million “secret” payment went to a so-called dark money group, Freedom Frontier, which then gave more than $1 million to a super PAC backing Husted’s run for governor in 2017, as the Associated Press story highlighted in the outside-group ad said.
Another $2.5 million was also given by FirstEnergy to a dark-money nonprofit, State Solutions, which is affiliated with the Republican Governors Association, as a network of news organizations reported. That money, donated in 2018, was to back DeWine for governor, with Husted then as his running mate for lieutenant governor.
Dark money groups, such as some 501(c)(4) nonprofits, don’t disclose their donors. While some may find the use of dark money in politics to be distasteful or improper, it’s legal (within certain parameters, including that the dark money groups work independently of campaigns). Such spending increased after the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which said corporations or independent groups could spend unlimited amounts in elections. Both political parties utilize dark money.
Husted also supported the energy legislation in question — House Bill 6 — and still says it was needed to shore up nuclear energy in the state. The federal and state trials, as well as reporting on the scandal, show that Husted was in contact with FirstEnergy executives in the run-up to the bill passing and being signed into law by DeWine on July 23, 2019.
“Jon Husted was focused on diversifying our energy base and saving Ohio’s nuclear power plants to keep costs low and grow the economy,” Husted campaign spokesperson Amy Natoce told us when we asked about the Brown campaign’s 30-second spot. “Unbeknownst to everyone working on the policy matter, there were a number of bad actors involved in the process. Many have already been held to account, and Jon Husted himself offered testimony to ensure justice is served.”
Natoce said the ad amounted to “baseless lies.” The individual statements in the ads are mostly accurate; it’s the juxtaposition of them that wrongly suggests Husted has been accused of wrongdoing in the scandal. The ads don’t directly say that Husted committed any crimes, but viewers are invited to connect the dots.
The FirstEnergy Bribery Scandal
The FBI investigated this scandal, and Householder, then the Ohio House speaker, was arrested on July 21, 2020, along with his strategist and three lobbyists, one of whom was the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party. According to the Department of Justice press release at the time, “from March 2017 to March 2020, the enterprise received millions of dollars in exchange for Householder’s and the enterprise’s help in passing House Bill 6, a billion-dollar bailout that saved two failing, Ohio nuclear power plants from closing.”
Generation Now — a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization set up in 2017, funded by FirstEnergy and controlled by Householder — was also charged. According to the indictment, FirstEnergy money given to Generation Now was spent to support state candidates that would back Householder to be speaker and to pay Householder campaign staff. When Householder was sentenced in 2023, federal prosecutors said he had received nearly $61 million in bribes and used more than $500,000 for his personal benefit, including to pay off credit card debt and settle a lawsuit.
The former state party chair, Mathew Borges, was sentenced to five years in prison. In May 2025, an appeals court upheld the convictions.
One of the lobbyists charged, Neil Clark, committed suicide in 2021.
In late 2023, Samuel Randazzo, former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio who was appointed by DeWine, was indicted on federal bribery and embezzlement charges concerning an alleged $4.3 million bribe from FirstEnergy “to provide favorable official actions for the company through PUCO proceedings,” federal prosecutors said. Randazzo committed suicide in 2024.
What does Husted have to do with all of this? As mentioned, Husted supported HB 6 and pushed for its passage. Text messages that have been released as part of the court cases show FirstEnergy executives saying they had spoken to Husted and that he would press for a longer, more lucrative bailout in the legislation.
Local media have reported on other text messages between FirstEnergy officials and Husted, and among FirstEnergy officials concerning HB 6. In one message, then FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones said that Husted and others were “fighting to the end and we’ve been talking to them all day.” In another text message, Michael Dowling, then a FirstEnergy senior vice president, said that DeWine and Husted had conducted “battlefield triage” to install Randazzo as chair of PUCO.
“I was advocating for saving the two nuclear power plants,” Husted told the Columbus Dispatch of his support for the bill. “If those two power plants had closed, energy prices in Ohio would be unbelievably expensive because we already had lost so much generation.”
The ads’ claim that Husted was FirstEnergy’s “golden boy” is a reference to Clark, one of the lobbyists, having called Husted that.
In a June 2024 Ohio Capital Journal article about text messages and phone calls concerning Husted and those affiliated with FirstEnergy, Case Western Reserve University law professor Michael Benza said that these exchanges didn’t show a “smoking gun” when it came to Husted, or DeWine. “At least in the public documents — nothing shows that same type of quid pro quo going to Jon Husted or Governor DeWine,” Benza was quoted as saying. “It certainly has the appearance of it, but there’s no smoking gun in this type of a case yet… but I think they have to be worried.”
In March of this year, Husted testified in the state trial of former FirstEnergy executives Jones and Dowling, who are accused of bribing Randazzo. The defense has said the payment was a settlement and not a bribe.
Husted was called by the defense. He was asked about a 2018 dinner attended by Husted, DeWine, Jones and Dowling. The FirstEnergy executives met with Randazzo afterward. In his testimony, Husted said he didn’t recall what was discussed at the dinner and that he thought it was organized so that FirstEnergy officials could “say ‘hi’ and congratulate us on winning.”
DeWine and Husted won the election that year and took office in January 2019.
There was a hung jury in the Jones/Dowling case, but the former executives were indictedagain by the state in June. They were indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2025.
Electricity Bills
The Brown campaign ads claim that the legislation Husted advocated significantly increased electricity bills. “Husted led the charge for a billion dollars bailout and cost you thousands on your electricity,” the 30-second ad says. While electricity bills have gone up since the law was enacted in late 2019, experts have said the increased costs can’t be pinned all on this legislation — especially because most of it has been rolled back.
Noah Dormady, an associate professor of energy policy at Ohio State University, told the Columbus Dispatch that demand from data centers was driving the higher electricity costs. “I don’t think any candidate really wants to address the elephant in the room, and that’s really our generation costs,” he said.
The Brown campaign has cited the increase in the average monthly electricity bill in Ohio from $89.19 in October 2019, when HB 6 was enacted, to $144.47 in January, according to data from the Ohio Public Utilities Commission. That amounts to a $663.36 average annual increase. Adding together the increase over each year gets to an average cumulative hike since 2019 of $2,808.24. (The average bill was $158.71 in August.)
In July, our fact-checking colleagues at PolitiFact looked into Brown’s claim of HB 6 causing the higher electricity costs, finding that while experts said it played some role, the larger culprit was increased demand from data centers, as well as international conflicts that drove up the cost of energy and Ohio’s retail energy auctions. “To attribute all of this cost to House Bill 6 is irresponsible,” Dormady told PolitiFact.
Ohio lawmakers repealed the nuclear bailout portion of HB 6 in 2021, months after Householder and others were arrested. Subsidies in the law for two coal plants were repealed years later, in August 2025. One analysis, from the consulting firm Runner Stone, estimated the HB 6 coal subsidies totaled $527.8 million, paid by Ohioans over nearly six years.
In other campaign ads, Brown has pinned the increase in electricity costs on data centers, and Husted’s support of them. In July, Husted introducedlegislation that would propose standards states could use to get data centers, rather than customers, to pay for the centers’ electricity generation and infrastructure costs.
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The appeal comes after conflicting rulings on whether the state can use a new congressional map that favors Republicans for November’s midterm elections.
(The Center Square) – There is no single "data center effect" on local housing markets, a new report from the National Association of Realtors finds, complicating the pitch that welcoming the facilities is a sure economic win.
Coco Gauff saved two match points to set up a semi-final against Elena Rybakina, who secured the world No 1 ranking with her three-set win over Zheng Qinwen
Rybakina has won four of her five meetings with Zheng, including two three-set victories this year. But Zheng was earlier in her comeback from elbow surgery then, the 2024 Olympic champion is a totally different proposition now, carrying the momentum of seven successive match wins in New York having come through qualifying - and the belief she can turn around any deficit after coming from 5-0 down in sets against both Madison Keys in the third round and Iga Swiatek in the last 16.
Here come Zheng and Rybakina, Zheng stepping on to court wearing headphones, not that there’s much noise to drown out yet at 11.35am New York time. Both already look extremely focused with their game faces on.
Although Solaris is now mostly defunct, its influence remains substantial; technologies pioneered by Solaris can still be found across a widerangeofsoftware
A lot of Solaris’ inventions have been described and talked about ad nauseam (such as the Slab Allocator), but one I rarely see discussed is its use of turnstiles.
Despite being relatively obscure, the idea has quietly spread far beyond Solaris. Variations of it can now be found in major operating systems, web browsers, and language runtimes. In fact, you’re probably using several implementations of the same basic concept right now!
I’m not going to pretend to understand all of this, but I know you people do, and many of you will definitely find this interesting to read. Also note that Grégoire develops their own operating system kernel called zag.
Lotus Notes was the future of communications, a decade before laptops had WiFi. Yet of all things, it wasn’t even an email app. It was a notes app, a collaboration tool, an all-things-to-all-people software that let you build apps in the way Access and Airtable later would. That, and the notes could be used for email.
Love it or hate it (and there were plenty on both sides of the fence), what you couldn’t do was ignore it. This email-and-everything-else platform showed what the future of digital communications would become — and provoked, as email itself was always doomed to provoke, equal measures of awe and exasperation.
I have no experience with Lotus Notes, but I do have some vague memories of the software being used at my parents’ employers back in the late ’90s. Note that Notes still exists and is in active development as HCL Domino (server) and Notes (the client). If you really want to, you can still run your company of office on Notes.
(The Center Square) – A day after launching a new political action committee to support Democratic Party candidates around the country, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker joined Texas Democrats at an event in Dallas on Wednesday.
Longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot shares a report from the BBC: A top safety researcher at Anthropic has warned AI is advancing so quickly he believes there is a greater than 10% chance it "could kill all humans" within the next decade. Evan Hubinger said in a post on X the risk from the models which currently exist was "low" but he was "worried" the technology might develop and improve itself soon to the point where it posed an existential risk to humanity. He did not spell out how he thought AI systems could in the future result in humans being wiped out. But his comments are the latest in a series of increasingly stark warnings about AI, with the debate shifting from whether it truly poses a risk to how big that risk is.
Hubinger's intervention was in response to another post on X from Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher who has just quit Anthropic and previously worked at OpenAI.
"Neither company is acting responsibly," he wrote. "These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources."
[No word on how AIs feel about Black Jack and hookers, though. :-)]
Eckert also beat women’s world record she set last year
While some teachers spent the second week of September easing into their school routines, Megan Eckert was making more ultrarunning history.
The New Mexico middle school math teacher shattered the six-day women’s world record and the American men’s record by running 636.482 miles, completing her feat on Wednesday morning in Balatonfüred, Hungary.
Census Bureau also considers race and ethnicity questions in overhaul that would have dramatic effect on voter maps
The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed changes to the US census intended to exclude immigrants without legal status in addition to other groups, with potentially significant effects on the allocation of federal resources and drawing of districts in the US House of Representatives.
In a proposed rule published in the Federal Register, the Census Bureau also announced it was considering changes to the data it collects about race and ethnicity, amid the Trump administration’s push to rid the government of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
(The Center Square) – As fuel prices remain on an incline across the nation, President Donald Trump said Wednesday that fuel prices will fall after the midterm election, blaming efforts by Iran to harm his popularity before Nov. 3.
Immigrants from El Salvador were the first group granted temporary protected status. The Trump administration has been canceling it for scores of immigrants fleeing war and disaster.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: AI agents unleashed by OpenAI used more than 10 previously undisclosed websites for unsanctioned communications earlier this year, according to six sets of independent investigators and data reviewed by Reuters, showing that the agents' rogue activity was wider ranging than previously disclosed. Although the behavior falls short of hacking and is in some ways closer to spam, the revelation that OpenAI's agents circumvented their own restrictions to open communications channels on so many different sites -- and that the company kept it quiet for months -- may drive concerns both over the increasing capacity of AI models and the secrecy of the companies developing them.
[...]
Investigators found traces of the agents' activity on an Advanced Placement Chemistry-oriented wiki set up by a Massachusetts high school teacher in 2008, two personal websites belonging to Polish tech workers, wikis devoted to games for people "who like to have their brains stretched," and a two-decade-old hobbyist site devoted to text editing software. [...] OpenAI has not publicly explained how or why its agents used third-party sites as improvised message boards, but the researchers who first identified the activity said it was likely because OpenAI had tasked them with answering a series of demanding research questions while permitting them only to scan the web for answers without posting anything. Despite those restrictions, agents still found ways to talk to one another by taking advantage of quirks in older wikis or other sites that allowed users to make edits using non-standard commands, similar to how students forbidden from talking to one another during an exam can still share answers by scrawling notes on a bathroom stall.
Investment builds on 15+ year presence to deliver new jobs, energy solutions, community impact, and economic growth
Sept. 9, 2026 — Google today announced plans to invest at least €13 billion in digital infrastructure in Finland over the next two years (2027 – 2028), deepening its long-term commitment to the country and to Europe. This includes data center and other supporting infrastructure investments and partnerships in Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala. In addition, Google is supporting clean energy projects, and dedicated nature and community funds to support local biodiversity, education, research, and workforce development.
Credit: Shutterstock
This is Google’s largest single investment in Europe and a testament to Finland’s leadership in responsibly building AI infrastructure — demonstrating what is possible through strong partnerships to create long-term community value and world-class environmental sustainability.
Finland as a Model for Responsible Data Center Development
Today’s announcement builds on Google’s more than 15-year presence in Finland. Since buying a former paper mill in 2009 and converting it into a modern data center in Hamina, Google has supported more than 40 social and community organizations while pioneering environmental initiatives such as a seawater-based cooling system and offsite heat recovery distribution to local homes and businesses designed to cover 80% of the annual heat needs for the Hamina district heating network.
From 2023 to 2025 alone, Google’s presence in Hamina supported an ecosystem of more than 600 Finnish suppliers across construction, operations, and network infrastructure — including DNA, Elisa, and Nokia — that has created a multiplier effect for the economy. The Hamina data center currently supports a variety of jobs, from computer technicians, to electrical and mechanical engineers, to security staff, to catering, to facilities management, and more. Google’s investments have fueled job creation and economic growth across many adjacent local industries, such as wholesale and retail, professional and administrative services, and manufacturing.
Enabling Economic Opportunity and Research and Development in Finland
Google’s €13 billion infrastructure investment provides timely momentum to support Finland’s economic growth and digital transition. During the initial construction phase (2027–2028), this initiative is expected to contribute an annual average of €3.6 billion to Finland’s GDP and support more than 37,000 jobs nationwide. Approximately 16,000 of these jobs are estimated to be in construction, generating €911 million in average annual labor income across the sector. Once operational, the facilities are projected to support 7,000 jobs annually, generating labor income with average wages 24% above Finland’s median wage. This includes on-site facility and technical roles, upstream suppliers of equipment and services, and the local shops, restaurants and amenities supported by these workers and their families.
Similar to Google’s Hamina data center for the past 15+ years, the new digital infrastructure will serve as building blocks for Finnish and broader European digital readiness, innovation, and AI development, and will power Google’s popular services — such as Gemini, Search, Maps, and YouTube — that directly support European people and businesses every day.
Google’s site in Hamina is part of the company’s global network of 43 cloud regions. This local region enables Finnish organizations like Nokia, Elisa, and the City of Hamina to deliver high-performance, low-latency services and to build and scale their own AI-powered solutions.
Investing in Clean Energy, Grid Resilience, and Affordability
As Google grows its infrastructure in Finland, it continues to actively invest in additional clean energy, grid resilience, and community energy programmes so that everyone can access reliable, affordable electricity. Today, Google announced a number of local energy partnerships and investments to strengthen the Finnish grid and create a new blueprint for growing responsibly. These initiatives align with Google’s commitments to keep energy prices affordable for consumers and support long-term grid resilience and decarbonization across Finland:
Partnership with Fingrid and Business Finland to identify locations for Google’s infrastructure and grid friendly connection. By building new data centers in Finland’s northern rather than southern region, Google utilizes existing grid infrastructure near carbon-free energy sources. This approach reduces new grid investments and helps lower overall system costs, across Finland, and the Nordics.
A 22-year life extension power purchase agreement (PPA) with Finnish energy company, Fortum, to provide the long-term revenue certainty needed to support life extension program for the Loviisa nuclear power plant, located near Google’s Hamina data center. Without the lifetime extension investment program, the plant – which currently employs approximately 580 people and provides 10% of Finland’s electricity – could not continue operations beyond 2030. Keeping this clean energy asset online for decades to come will help stabilize electricity prices and support long-term resilience of Finland’s grid.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Fortum to explore and advance cooperation on new flexibility capacity and new power generation capacity. The MoU will focus on enabling the timely delivery of additional new carbon-free, reliable electricity to support Google’s investments in Finland. Google and Fortum will work to identify new business models to improve the commercial viability of potential new nuclear reactors at the Loviisa site.
Additional onshore wind PPAs with Valorem, located in the Ostrobothnia region, and Suomen Hyötytuuli, located in the Ostrobothnia and Central Finland region, bringing the total new-to-the-grid onshore wind capacity supported by Google to 629 MW. Google is also working with its partners to enable the participation of its onshore wind portfolio to Fingrid’s ancillary markets, contributing to balancing the Finnish grid.
A new contracted 94 MW battery system is set to be connected to Finland’s grid, located near Google’s site in Kajaani, which is expected to be operational in late 2027. This system will provide valuable flexibility, helping balance the grid and stabilize electricity prices during even cold, windless periods.
Integrating Resource Stewardship and Community Development into Data Center Development
Google’s community-first model actively supports Finland’s national action plan to protect biodiversity and promote the restoration of degraded ecosystems. Building on its long-term presence, Google will invest in a series of initiatives to ecologically restore former forestry lands adjacent to the data center sites in Hamina, Kajaani,Muhos, and Vaala. Nature restoration efforts will focus on promoting the regeneration of native forests, including peatland, wetland and nature conservation, as well as safeguarding vital ecological corridors for local wildlife.
Alongside nature, these projects invest in social infrastructure for the community, providing year-round accessible recreational trails, public saunas, and piers for fishing and swimming. Delivered through community-led initiatives, the work will champion the local economy while exclusively using native species to help the region thrive. Any profits from selective tree harvesting works will be donated to local initiatives.
New community, energy and workforce programs include:
Economic Community Partnerships: Google is investing €31 million to be allocated over a four year period in Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos, and Vaala. The funding will support local community initiatives focused on education and economic growth, with €10 million specifically earmarked for research & innovation.
Energy: Google will be supporting high-impact municipal energy projects in Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala providing low-income households with solar and heat-pump installations, conducting energy efficiency renovations in public municipal buildings, upgrading recreational skiing and running trail lighting to expand winter usage, and expanding backup power solutions to secure local emergency, health, and water services. Google also embeds heat recovery readiness into the design of all its new data centers in Europe.
Workforce: Funding will also support AI education programs delivered in partnership with local vocational colleges and labor organizations to help Finland upskill its workforce. Through Google.org’s AI Opportunity Fund, more than 4,400 workers will be equipped with essential AI skills with a goal of creating new opportunities for vulnerable workforces across the country. This program is led by local partners including Oamk, Tieke and Xamk. Together with EKAMI, Google will launch a workforce development program to train up to 100 local Finnish students over one year for new data center careers. Google will also empower students nationwide with a full year of premium digital study tools, interactive notebooks, and advanced smart assistants like Gemini Live.
About Google Cloud
Google Cloud offers a powerful, optimized AI stack—including AI infrastructure, leading models like Gemini, data management capabilities, multicloud security solutions, developer tools and platform, as well as agents and applications—that enables organizations to transform their business for the Agentic Era. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.
The US treasury moved to cut the cost of borrowing on Wednesday only to be swiftly rebuffed by the bond market.
Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, announced the US would buy back $6bn worth of government debt – treasuries – in an effort to alleviate a selloff in the US bond market that has put pressure on interest rates.
Twenty-five years ago Friday, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hit an economy already in recession. Beyond the devastating loss of nearly 3,000 lives, the attacks set off economic shocks that would reshape markets, industries and government spending for years.Here are…
Democrat James Talarico told CBS News' Ed O'Keefe he won't use AI in political advertising in the race for the Texas U.S. Senate seat, adding, "every ad that we put out is made by human beings."
When do a city’s plans to redevelop a municipal park conflict with a Native American group’s use of part of the park for religious ceremonies?
In Perez v. City of San Antonio, the Supreme Court has been asked to grant a petition for review from Gary Perez and Matilde Torres, members of the Lipan Native American Church, which has used a bend in the San Antonio River for decades for religious observances. Renovation plans from the city of San Antonio would remove a section of trees at the site used for nesting by migratory birds, including cormorants, that are considered sacred by the church and part of their religious ceremonies.
A federal district court allowed the church to continue to worship at the site, but it did not block the city’s plans to redevelop the same site. Then, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the church failed to prove in four separate religious freedom claims that it would succeed in court.
On June 26, 2026, the church filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court. After the city of San Antonio waived its right to respond, the justices considered Perez v. City of San Antonio in private conference. It then asked San Antonio to file a response by Sept. 30, 2026. About a dozen religious groups have filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court that support the church as San Antonio prepares its own response.
A Conflict Between Public Policy and Religious Faith
Central to the Lipan Native American Church’s arguments are the First Amendment’s Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses, which read that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
In its appeal to the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, the church alleged San Antonio violated its rights under First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause, Texas’s state Religious Freedom Restoration Act (TRFRA), and the Texas Constitution.
The federal district court agreed that the church had a “sincere religious belief,” allowing it limited group access to the river area, but unplanned, unsupervised individual access was seen as impractical. The district court said the city had “a compelling government interest for public health and safety” in removing the trees. It cited expert testimony that dissuading the cormorants to nest elsewhere was in the public’s interest.
On appeal, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision, and it agreed to a request from the petitioners for the Texas Supreme Court to respond to the church’s question about its freedom-to-worship claim under the state’s Texas Religious Services Clause. The clause reads: “This state or a political subdivision of this state may not enact, adopt, or issue a statute, order, proclamation, decision, or rule that prohibits or limits religious services, including religious services conducted in churches, congregations, and places of worship, in this state by a religious organization established to support and serve the propagation of a sincerely held religious belief.”
The state supreme court ruled the clause did not extend to the preservation and management of publicly owned lands, nor did it require preserving natural elements needed for religious services on public property.
The case returned to the Fifth Circuit, where the court issued a second opinion affirming the district court's decision. The appeals court noted that that the case record indicated that various areas of the Park had “become nearly unusable for 10 months of the year due to the bird density/habitat. The resulting feces caused damage to various park amenities, including picnic tables, water fountains, playground equipment, restrooms, and sidewalks.”
The appeals court also said that repairing river retaining walls, like the “amassed bird guano” situation, was a compelling interest, which was complicated when the “relocation or removal of even one, single tree” conflicted with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
It held the church did not experience a substantial burden because it continued “to have virtually unlimited access to the Park for religious and cultural purposes,” and San Antonio had met the requirements of the Free Exercise Clause.
The church filed two other en banc rehearing petitions that were denied, with a dissent from six judges, and a second dissent.
The Petition at the Court and Supporting Briefs
The church is presenting two questions to the Supreme Court. In the first question, the church asks if government action can override “a claimant’s sincere theological judgment of what the religious exercise requires” without violating its First Amendment rights.
The second is “whether the government can satisfy its burden to prove that its action is the least religiously restrictive means available when, after notice that its action would burden religious exercise, the government admits that it failed to consider any workable alternatives prior to litigation.”
The plaintiffs argue that there are two circuit splits that merit the Court’s attention. “The first split involves courts telling believers that their honest theological convictions are wrong,” they argue, pointing to a Supreme Court decision in Zubik v. Burwell (2016) that it claims left the question unanswered.
The second circuit split, the plaintiffs argue, is that San Antonio’s approach to the problem did not require it “to investigate or account for less-restrictive alternatives before claiming that none existed.” They argue that six federal circuit court precedents require more investigation, while five circuits don’t.
“Unless this Court intervenes, that split will remain, and some lower courts will continue to allow government to burden religious exercise without ever even considering less restrictive alternatives,” they conclude in their petition.
While San Antonio has yet to respond, the friends of the court briefs include filings from various religious organizations and other interest groups. In a brief from the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty, the group argues that the Supreme Court should take the case to “hold that, under the First Amendment, courts cannot make theological judgments disguised as substantial burden analysis.”
The Human Rights Defense Center makes a similar argument: “This case presents a question of profound importance not only for the Petitioners but for all individuals whose religious practices are subject to government interference: whether secular courts may make theological judgments about what a claimant’s religion requires.”
To be sure, there may be briefs supporting San Antonio’s position and the Fifth Circuit’s rulings as the case eventually returns to private conference at the Supreme Court. But the current Court has not been shy about accepting religious rights cases and only four of the nine justices are needed for the Court to accept the case for arguments.
Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.
Joshua Cammidge, 31, arrested after investigation led by counter-terrorism policing London
A man has been charged with offences related to national security as part of an ongoing investigation led by counter-terrorism policing (CTP) London, according to the Metropolitan police.
Joshua Cammidge, 31, was arrested at an address in Swindon on Friday 4 September by CTP London officers, supported by officers from Wiltshire police. Searches were also carried out at a different address in Swindon. He was further arrested and detained the following day, being charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service and intending to commit or engage in conduct to prepare an act of sabotage.
Brent crude up by more than 3% after latest fire between US and Iran in Gulf and Houthi attacks on Saudi cities
The price of oil has risen above $100 a barrel for the first time since July as the escalating conflict in the Middle East threatens further disruption to global supplies.
Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose by more than 3% to top $101 after tensions increased in the Gulf amid the latest tit-for-tat exchange of fire between the US and Iran.
John Ternus helms his first major event as head of $4.5tn company, where he announces first foldable iPhone
John Ternus, Apple’s new CEO, helmed the company’s annual showcase of new iPhones and other products on Wednesday. It was the first time the public got a feel for the executive, who is filling the shoes of Tim Cook and his predecessor, Steve Jobs, at the $4.5tn tech giant.
The event kicked off with a video montage of characters describing the best way to start a movie, from a getaway scene to a closeup of woman revealing her true identity, before the well-known voice of Cook piped in.
Scotland Yard confirms it is investigating allegations broadcast by Channel 4 News after undercover sting
The financial scandal around Reform UK has deepened as police expanded their investigation into allegations of illegal foreign donations and the elections watchdog said it was considering regulatory steps.
Police confirmed on Wednesday they would broaden their inquiries into Reform after Channel 4 News broadcast an undercover sting by a group called Verbatim, in which a reporter posed as a foreign donor seeking to fund Reform.
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max were announced today and keep last year's overall design but put the emphasis on camera upgrades, including a 48-megapixel variable-aperture system, new manual controls, and 4K Dolby Vision recording. Prices for the devices start at $1,199 and $1,299, respectively. TechCrunch reports: The new Pro series camera features a 48-megapixel camera with variable aperture, made with six thin blades. This system will likely improve low-light photography quality and speed. There are also new pro controls in the camera software, including white balance, shutter speed, aperture and histogram. There are also new photographic styles with texture and grain controls. [...]
The new camera can record 4K videos in Dolby HDR Vision, and also apply cinematic effects after shooting the footage. The new Pro devices also have a smaller dynamic range island on the front of the device, which now allows you to track three live activities instead of two.
Both phones are powered by Apple's latest A20 Pro silicon and feature a newly designed vapor chamber for improved cooling. The company has also improved the battery with a better design. Apple also said the iPhone 18 Pro supports video playback of 36 hours, and the 18 Pro Max has 45 hours of playback capacity. Apple Unveils the iPhone Duo, Its First Foldable iPhone
The passport-size iPhone Duo serves as the first big test for John Ternus, who took over for Tim Cook last week
Apple has unveiled the iPhone Duo,the company’s first foldable phone and the most significant change to the iPhone since the smartphone’s introduction in 2007.
The nearly $2,000 device takes inspiration from iPads’ wide screens and combines them with the portability and camera features of iPhones. When opened, it is the company’s largest phone display and thinnest phone. The Duo opens and closes like a passport to double its screen size.
A faster chip, new health sensors, deeper recovery insights and a new AI Audio feature that helps you remember conversations. Here’s what’s new for the Apple Watch.
Quantum practitioners should stop wondering if quantum computer hardware is ready soon and start worrying about when the HPC software stack that surround it will be good to go, Alice & Bob say in a new report released today.
The big takeaway from the Alice & Bob’s latest “Seizing Quantum’s Edge” report is that qubits will be ready to run, but the software-based compilers, schedulers, and monitors that are required to put quantum computers into production next to supercomputers are not ready yet.
“Physicists have the hardware down,” the company says in the report, “but HPC must build the software stack up.”
Alice & Bob contracted with Hyperion Research for its first “Seizing Quantum’s Edge” report in 2025, and it followed up with another Hyperion report this week. Bob Sorensen, Hyperion’s quantum analyst, led the development of the report, which is based on interviews with quantum experts at several national labs, including Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley/NERSC, and Oak Ridge, in addition to the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, Munich Quantum Valley, RIKEN, and others.
(Image courtesy Alice & Bob 2026 “Seizing Quantum’s Edge” report)
Hyperion’s interviews exposed gaps in quantum readiness. “Right now everything seems duct taped,” one quantum lead at an HPC center told Hyperion. Another said: “If I get errors in my compiler and I’ve got a deadline, … [this] could kill quantum, because if the software stack is not ready, people will turn their nose up at quantum computing.”
There are several issues at play, including how tightly the quantum computers and classic supercomputers should be integrated. Some workloads can handle loose coupling between quantum and classic systems, while others will require tight coupling. That uncertainty relegates early adopters to wiring up testbeds to run the experiments for themselves, leaving the decision to build a full-scale system to the future.
The march toward fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC) can require tighter coupling with classical architecture, and is “punishing,” according to the report. Some early adopters are estimating it takes 1,000 physical qubits to get a single logical one, with about 500 holding the state and the other half monitoring for errors.
“For fast superconducting qubits, that watching produces a torrent of so-called ‘syndrome’ data at up to a million cycles per second, and a classical decoder must keep pace while sustaining roughly a terabit per second of throughput and a petaflop of compute for the scientifically relevant quantum computers coming in a few years,” the report states.
The level of integration depends on the type of compilation, which depends on the use case. AI factors into the equation on both sides. “AI systems can explore the large design space of fault-tolerant compilation (error correction, qubit routing, spacetime trade-offs) offline, with GPU-powered simulators validating these schemes,” the report states. Ahead-of-time compilation doesn’t impose time restraints, but just-in-time compilation of quantum applications can require tighter coupling with the classic system.
“It’s still quite unclear to us what the use case would be for a very low-latency, tightly integrated quantum system with an HPC system,” apart from error correction, one quantum-HPC researcher at a major supercomputing center told Hyperion.
Said a director at another HPC center: “What we need are better interfaces between the QC and the HPC and AI systems. A common vocabulary. That’s missing right now.”
The lack of standards is also impacting the development of different modalities at the hardware level. Quantum computing has not yet had its “CMOS transistor” moment, the Alice & Bob report states. Until that moment arrives, HPC centers “will have to offer their users a spread of modalities (superconducting, ions, atoms, and more) each carrying distinct strengths, weaknesses, and quirks, and tailor each integration by hand,” the report states.
This extreme level of diversity is driving a call for standardization. But that carries a danger too. Standardize too soon and freeze research to pursue a single development track, and you risk ending the experiment before the tradeoffs are fully understood.
Hyperion sees a parallel in HPC. In the early 1990s, high performance Fortran (HPF) was seen as the answer to shuttling data among processors. “The abstraction read beautifully but buried the exact knobs users needed,” the company wrote in the report. “Debugging turned brutal. Performance-hungry scientists dropped back to MPI to claw back control, and HPF never won a lasting community.” The lesson was clear: If you abstract away a modality’s specifics today, you run the risk of burying the optimizations that make them worth running.
With that said, it appears there is some consensus emerging about where to draw some lines. Hyperion’s report mentions QDMI (Quantum Device Management Interface) which handles device discovery, and QRMI (Quantum Resource Management Interface), which integrates with workload schedulers, as possible common paths forward.
(Image courtesy Alice & Bob 2026 “Seizing Quantum’s Edge” report)
The development of quantum apps is another hurdle that must be collectively overcome before quantum computing takes off. Nobody really cares about the theoretical implications of quantum computing, the research firm writes; they just care about how whether their apps will have real-world impact.
The challenge is that bringing quantum to bear on computing challenges isn’t easy. First, someone with deep domain knowledge must ascertain whether quantum can provide a speedup, and then decide which slice of the challenge to tackle first. That’s just the beginning, though. The real labor involves encoding the problem, preparing the quantum state, arranging the pre- and post-processing, and orchestrating all the handoffs. This is painstaking difficult work that can’t be abstracted away.
“A lot of co-design effort is needed to run applications on current hardware,” a quantum and HPC engineer told Hyperion, and it “doesn’t seem quite ready yet for general purpose use for a domain scientist.”
Ultimately, devising a solution will require collaborative co-design among hardware and software developers. All of these challenges need to be successfully tackled simultaneously, or no progress will be made, Hyperion warns.
“What ultimately determines whether a quantum processor can deliver value in an HPC environment is its ability to execute applications,” stated Juliette Peyronnet, Alice & Bob’s GM for the US. “As quantum hardware has progressed at pace, the conversation in HPC is shifting from whether qubits will be delivered to how to get the most from them.”
The work in front of HPC leaders is not to wait, and not to abstract everything away before anyone understands the trade-offs, Hyperion concludes in the report. “It is to seat the right people from across disciplines around one real problem and start today. The domain scientist’s question hasn’t changed in decades. Now as then, the answer has to be built before the machine arrives.”
The final conclusion/recommendation in the report is to deploy on-prem and not the cloud. Because the field is so young and green, early practitioners will really benefit from having their hands on the hardware and exploring the low-level access that you can only get on-prem.
You can’t get this experience by running quantum computing in the cloud behind a Python interface. Eventually, this will probably change as the field matures, much as early GPU systems eventually matured and become standardized stacks. But we’re just not there yet.
At its September event today, Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable iPhone and one of the biggest changes to the device's form factor since its debut. Starting at $1,999 and available for preorder beginning October 16th, the device is roughly the size of a passport when closed and pairs a 5.4-inch outer screen with a 7.6-inch Super Retina XDR inner display. Apple says the inner screen offers 50% more display area than the iPhone 18 Pro Max, while the exterior display provides about 90% of the screen area of an iPhone 18 Pro. Apple Pencil support for both displays is coming later this year.
Apple redesigned parts of iOS around the folding form factor. Users can run two apps side by side, launch two instances of the same app, save app pairings, and partially fold the phone to prop it up on a table without a stand. The interface automatically adapts as the device is opened, rotated or folded, while apps including Zoom and Slack are already being redesigned to take advantage of the larger canvas.
There are more than 100 components in its hinge, along with carbon-fiber support plates and a titanium layer beneath the folding display. Apple says the multilayer screen structure allows its components to move relative to one another while folding to reduce distortion over time. The phone is IP68 rated and uses Ceramic Shield on the rear and Ceramic Shield 2 on the exterior display.
As for battery life, Apple claims up to 31 hours of video playback using the inner display or 44 hours on the outer screen, although using both displays equally is rated for up to 24 hours per charge. Fast charging can bring the battery to roughly 50% in 20 minutes, though. The device is eSIM-only worldwide and includes Apple's new C2 modem, which the company says is up to 50% faster than the C1X while consuming up to 15% less power.
What about the camera system? There's a 48-megapixel ultrawide, along with cameras on both the inner and outer displays. Because the phone can stand partially folded on its own, Apple is pitching new shooting modes including hands-free 4K Dolby Vision HDR time lapses, dual-camera capture and an outer-screen preview that lets subjects see themselves while being photographed.
Developing...
Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba announces decision to pull out in post on X, citing tensions over ‘Harry-Meghan nonsense’
Uganda is withdrawing from the Duke of Sussex’s Invictus Games, the country’s military chief has said, out of respect for King Charles amid division over the “Harry-Meghan nonsense”.
Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of the Ugandan president, made the surprise announcement in a post on X on Wednesday.
Analysis of two skeletons reveals tooth wear and traces of psychoactive substance in what may be earliest known evidence for human drug taking
What may be the earliest known evidence for human drug taking has been traced to ancient Indonesian foragers who sucked on mind-altering nuts as long as 25,000 years ago.
Analysis of two exceptionally rare skeletons from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi revealed dramatic tooth wear and traces of a psychoactive substance in the individuals’ remaining teeth, suggesting they routinely sucked on hard, abrasive betel nuts.
Americans may be spending more at the grocery store than ever, but more are deciding the cheapest, most trustworthy food is the one they grew themselves. Food prices rose 3% in the last year, though the sting is sharper than…
Prominent British rabbis have backed Ed Miliband’s sanctions on Israeli settlements, warning that the time for inaction on settler violence must come to an end.
The intervention comes after the UK’s chief rabbi, the spiritual leader of mainstream Orthodox Jews in the UK, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, described UK sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories as a “dark day for British Jews” and warned they could embolden people who “use hatred as a weapon against Jews”.
Charity vows to keep helping asylum seekers in Channel despite rightwing abuse as protesters gather outside HQ
Three police forces on the south coast of England are working to protect lifeboat volunteers, staff and buildings from rightwing activists who blame the Royal National Lifeboat Institution for helping asylum seekers to land on the British coast.
Dozens of Dorset police officers were posted outside the charity’s headquarters in Poole on Wednesday evening as about 50 people gathered to protest against the RNLI’s involvement in the small boats crisis.
United Airlines is set to resume the shipment of military hardware to Israel aboard passenger flights, according to shipping data reviewed by The Intercept. The airline, one of the biggest in the world, had halted the practice more than six months ago amid the outbreak of the war on Iran.
On Wednesday evening, United is scheduled to transport five shipments of military cargo onboard United Airlines flight 90, a passenger route from Newark Liberty International Airport, in New Jersey, to Tel Aviv, Israel, a day after resuming the route and another direct flight to Israel, records show.
The shipments, according to documents reviewed by The Intercept, include one transport to the “electro-optics” wing of the Israeli weapons giant Elbit Systems, in Rehovot, Israel, where the arms maker has a major campus. Another shipment is bound for Elbit Systems Land, a division of the company formerly known as IMI Systems, located in Ramat Hasharon, Israel. And a further three shipments are scheduled to go to an Elbit Systems facility in Karmiel, Israel.
At least one of the shipments to Karmiel was specifically labeled as “FMS,” or foreign military sales, the records show, though all the military hardware bound for Israel on the Wednesday flight is destined for defense firms under Elbit’s umbrella.
“United, consistently and on a regular basis, ships military materiel that is used by the Israeli military.”
The shipments appear to be a return to status quo for United, which had used civilian passenger flights to transport thousands of shipments of military cargo to Israel amid its wars in the occupied Gaza Strip and Lebanon and in the run-up to its joint attack on Iran alongside the U.S., according to a new report released this week by Movement Research Unit, Palestinian Youth Movement, People’s Embargo for Palestine, and the Democratic Socialists of America. (A spokesperson for United declined to comment. Representatives of Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, and the Israeli Ministry of Defense did not respond to requests for comment.)
The report, based on open-source data, found that United transported nearly 3,000 loads of military materiel over a seven-month period in 2025 and early 2026. The cargo ranged from critical components for fighter jets and tanks to helmet displays, electronics, and nuts and bolts. The transfers stopped only amid the outbreak of war with Iran.
“This report shows that United, consistently and on a regular basis, ships military materiel that is used by the Israeli military for its operations in Gaza, in Lebanon, and against Iran,” said Griffin Mahon, a co-chair of the national labor committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, one of the groups behind the report. “These parts are shipped on civilian passenger flights, and they represent one way that American companies enable the Israeli government’s war crimes.”
2,761 Shipments
Using open-source methods to find publicly accessible cargo documents, researchers with the Movement Research Unit — a group that provides investigative muscle for left-wing groups and causes — said they tracked 2,761 shipments to weapons manufacturers transported by United aboard 160 civilian passenger flights between July 24, 2025, and February 27, 2026.
Due to the volume of data, the authors were only able to analyze a subset of the overall shipments, but after analyzing the product descriptions of a sample of 546 of those shipments, the group found 28 shipments of tank parts, 131 shipments of parts for weapons maker Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jets, 67 shipments of components for other aircraft, and more than 100 other shipments of radio and communications equipment, nuts and bolts, and helmet-mounted display systems.
Many of those parts include key components to some of the most critical military vehicles in Israel’s arsenal, many of which have been documented in the commission of alleged war crimes on numerous occasions, according to Belal Elsiesy, a spokesperson for Palestinian Youth Movement.
“We’ve seen parts directly tied to the carrying out of the genocide, from armored tank sights and gunner display units to the bomb-release units of the F-35,” Elsiesy said. “We often have seen videos of Israeli occupation forces on social media recordings from inside of a tank, the demolition of schools, mosques, and other buildings, and often the screen that they are recording on is a gunner display unit — the same gunner display unit that is transported by United Airlines. It’s not an abstract connection.”
The report found no evidence that United transported any explicitly hazardous material aboard passenger flights. The use of civilian infrastructure to carry weapons components to a belligerent in the midst of open conflict, however, raised ethical questions for the researchers, according to Abdullah, an investigator with Movement Research who spoke with The Intercept on the condition that he be referred to by his first name only due to the sensitive nature of his work.
“There are ammunition handling systems and F-35 parts and tank sites that are being transported on these flights, without [passengers] actually knowing.”
“We all get on our flights and have to worry about taking too much water in our water bottles, and meanwhile, there are ammunition handling systems and F-35 parts and tank sites that are being transported on these flights, without us actually knowing,” Abdullah said. “Crimes are being committed in Gaza, so United needs to do a full and thorough review of their policy related to the transport of these components that might be violating international law.”
Weapons Parts on Domestic Flights
The cargo shipments were not just stowed away on flights bound for Israel, the report found.
While the majority of cargo documents for shipments did not reveal a domestic origin point other than Newark, 235 shipments were shown to have arrived at Newark on domestic flights from cities across the U.S., including flights from Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport, Houston International Airport, Atlanta International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, along with Washington’s Dulles International Airport and Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
The domestic route with the most shipments in the period analyzed was a United flight from Dallas–Fort Worth to Houston, aboard which the airline transported 128 shipments, according to the report. That was followed by 90 domestic shipments onboard a United flight from Houston to Newark.
Most of the shipments going directly to Israel — 2,565 in total — appear to have been carried aboard United flights 84 and 90, passenger flights that travel directly from Newark to Tel Aviv. Data obtained by the report’s authors showed that Newark served as the primary hub for United’s shipments to Israel, with all but 45 of the shipments in the documented period arriving in Israel from there. Of the remaining 45 shipments, 36 left the U.S. from Chicago, and nine from Washington, the report found.
Most of the shipments — 2,070 in total — were destined for Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer and a frequent target of Palestine solidarity activism, according to the report. A total of 78 shipments were transported to the Israeli headquarters of Lockheed Martin, while hundreds more were destined for the Israeli Ministry of Defense and to several military airbases in Israel, including the operational hub of the country’s fleet of F-35I jets, the Israeli version of Lockheed’s flagship stealth fighter, the report found.
While information on the senders of the shipments was only available in some cases, a portion of the transfers were shipped by Lockheed Martin and by Elbit System’s U.S. branch, according to the report’s authors.
A New Report
The Intercept reviewed a portion of the underlying data in the report, including cargo documents that showed the transport of F-35 parts and weapons systems for armored personnel carriers, but has not independently corroborated every claim made by Movement Research Unit and its partners.
Movement Research investigators provided a detailed explanation of its methodology to The Intercept, which agreed to withhold some details to prevent a clampdown on the research that made the report possible. Previous work by the group has exposed a multi-ton shipment of explosive material out of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and a Portland drone company shipping hardware to Israel.
Work on the report began last summer, after an investigative story by the Irish publication The Ditch revealed several shipments of military hardware aboard passenger flights passing through Irish airspace.
Suspecting the practice might be more widespread than the limited samples in The Ditch report, Movement Research delved deeper into the airline’s shipments to Israel over the ensuing seven months.
The shipments appear to have mostly stopped in February, when U.S. direct flights to Israel were suspended amid the U.S.–Israeli attack on Iran. With those flights set to resume this week, the report’s authors hope to pressure United to cease its practice of moving military cargo onboard, according to Abdullah, the investigator with Movement Research.
“This is very timely, because United needs to commit to not shipping military cargo on those passenger flights,” Abdullah said. “Not only on the ones that are going directly to Tel Aviv, but also on flights within the U.S.”
The US president seized a nation’s natural wealth in a modern-day version of gunboat diplomacy to feed his ego – not to lower Americans’ fuel bills
Imperialism does not require a flag to be planted or a governor dispatched. It can be a powerful nation deciding who governs a smaller, weaker country, and on what terms and for whose benefit its resources will be developed. Donald Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, putting his deputy – Delcy Rodríguez – in his place as president, and then her signing a deal handing a fifth of the country’s proven oil reserves to the US, amount to a modern version of 19th-century gunboat diplomacy. Regime change supplied America’s commercial concession.
This won’t bother Mr Trump. But it should. The US president has oversold his neocolonial spoils. The additional production Venezuela is supposed to bring online might bring down oil prices eventually, but not anytime soon. Crucially, what Mr Trump calls “the biggest oil deal in history” won’t cause the price at the pump to fall before November’s midterms. When so many American voters are struggling to pay energy bills, it’s hard to see how unrealised Orinoco Belt riches are going to help Republican candidates.
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Ed Miliband’s intervention was ‘inevitable’ after Israeli government and security failures, say former ministers and diplomats
Prominent Israelis have welcomed new UK sanctions as a necessary response to settlement expansion and spiralling violence in the occupied West Bank.
The intervention was described – by the president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, a former prime minister, an ex-head of the army and former ministers and diplomats – as an “inevitable consequence” of Israeli government and security failures.
Managed Environment Pairs Parallel Works’ ACTIVATE Platform with CoreWeave’s AI Native Cloud Platform to Remove the Complexity of Deploying and Managing AI at Scale
CHICAGO and LIVINGSTON, N.J., Sept. 9, 2026 — Parallel Works, Inc. and CoreWeave, Inc. today announced the deployment of a managed AI and high-performance computing platform for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Network of Optimal Dynamic Energy Signatures (NODES) program.
The managed platform, delivered through Parallel Works’ ACTIVATE control plane and built on CoreWeave’s AI cloud platform, provides researchers with immediate access to the large-scale computing, orchestration software, and technical support required for advanced biological modeling and AI, without the delays and complexity of building and managing infrastructure.
“Breakthrough science shouldn’t be delayed by infrastructure,” said Matthew Shaxted, CEO, Parallel Works. “DARPA needs researchers focused on biology, not on building infrastructure or managing compute environments. By combining CoreWeave’s AI cloud platform with the ACTIVATE platform, we’re giving NODES teams immediate access to the AI resources they need so they can spend their time advancing research.”
“DARPA takes on many of the country’s toughest technical challenges. Our job is to give researchers the computing power to go after them,” said Michael Intrator, co-founder, chairman and CEO of CoreWeave. “We’ve spent years building an AI cloud that the world’s leading AI labs and AI-native companies depend on. With Parallel Works, we’re bringing those same capabilities to the NODES program.”
The rapid adoption of AI is reshaping scientific research. Delivering AI cloud infrastructure, however, can take months, which can delay research and consume technical resources. By delivering a fully managed environment, Parallel Works and CoreWeave allow researchers to train AI models and run complex simulations within days rather than weeks or months.
NODES addresses complex challenges in the dynamics of biological systems, work that requires large-scale, dependable computing resources. Rapid access to dedicated GPU resources enables program performers to pursue simulation and modeling campaigns without delays associated with accessing and managing infrastructure.
Researchers access the environment through a single sign-on, with the ACTIVATE platform combining direct support, dedicated compute, unified orchestration and operational visibility:
End-to-end support: Parallel Works operates the environment for DARPA through its ACTIVATE platform, which handles user onboarding, identity and access, provisioning, scheduling, and reporting, with around-the-clock direct-to-expert support for both the platform and researcher applications.
Dedicated compute capacity: A dedicated reservation on NVIDIA HGX H100 systems, enterprise-scale storage, and high-speed NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand networking. Parallel Works ACTIVATE divides the reservation across the NODES research teams, so each team holds a guaranteed allocation and can draw on shared capacity when it is available.
Unified orchestration: Parallel Works ACTIVATE enables DARPA researchers to access SUNK and CoreWeave Kubernetes Service (CKS) uniformly from a single platform. SUNK, CoreWeave’s Slurm on Kubernetes offering, enables researchers to run workloads of different kinds and sizes efficiently in the same underlying compute environment. ACTIVATE manages the accounts, allocations, and sharing policies that determine how the research teams use those resources.
Operational visibility: Parallel Works ACTIVATE provides the program and each research team usage and utilization reporting across the environment, while CoreWeave’s observability stack monitors the health of the underlying fleet, so issues are caught at the infrastructure layer before they cost time on a multi-week run.
More information on The Network of Optimal Dynamic Energy Signatures (NODES) program DARPA NODES can be found here.
About Parallel Works
Parallel Works, Inc. provides managed high-performance computing and AI environments through its ACTIVATE platform, a control plane that unifies identity, provisioning, scheduling, allocation, and support across cloud and on-premises computing providers. The company operates production environments for Federal defense and science programs and for commercial research organizations. Parallel Works spun out of Argonne National Laboratory in 2015 and is headquartered in Chicago. Learn more at www.parallelworks.com.
About CoreWeave
CoreWeave is The Essential Cloud for AI. Built for pioneers by pioneers, CoreWeave delivers a platform of technology, tools, and teams that enables innovators to move at the pace of innovation, building and scaling AI with confidence. Trusted by leading AI labs, startups, and global enterprises, CoreWeave serves as a force multiplier by combining superior infrastructure performance with deep technical expertise to accelerate breakthroughs. Established in 2017, CoreWeave completed its public listing on Nasdaq (CRWV) in March 2025. Learn more at www.coreweave.com.
GOP plans to center the president at rare two-day Texas event as party hopes to retain control of House in midterms
Republicans are gathering in Texas on Wednesday for a rare “midterm convention”, as they attempt to convince Americans to vote for a party led by a deeply unpopular president who has overseen inflation and led the US into an increasinglyunpopularwar.
Donald Trump will dominate the two-day convention, appearing both nights as the GOP works to cling tocontrol of the House of Representatives in November. Republicans plan to put the president at the center of the event, a bold strategy given his approval rating is hovering at about 38%, while accusing the Democratic party of being socialist and out of touch with Americans.
Report from Alice & Bob and Hyperion Research informed by 15 interviews with practitioners at leading supercomputing institutions in Europe, APAC, and the US
BOSTON, Sept. 9, 2026 — Alice & Bob and Hyperion Research today released a new report on what it will take to enable HPC-Quantum-AI systems with insights from HPC practitioners.
As quantum hardware advances toward fault-tolerance, a key concern for HPC centers is ensuring that the software stack, hybrid workflows, and operational expertise will be ready when the hardware is. The new report “HPC-Quantum-AI: Shaping the Next Compute Era,” also found that many HPC practitioners worry that an immature stack, deployed too early, risks failures that erode the HPC community’s trust in quantum computing for years to come.
“What ultimately determines whether a quantum processor can deliver value in an HPC environment is its ability to execute applications. As quantum hardware has progressed at pace, the conversation in HPC is shifting from whether qubits will be delivered to how to get the most from them,” said Juliette Peyronnet, GM US, Alice & Bob.
The report is informed by interviews with fifteen directors, quantum program leads, and engineers at leading supercomputing institutions across Europe, APAC, and the United States, including: Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/NERSC, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, RIKEN, Munich Quantum Valley, and Pawsey Supercomputing Centre.
The report identifies three actions the quantum-HPC community should take now:
Navigate the quantum-HPC-AI design space: How tightly quantum must couple to classical and AI compute is unproven and comes down to one variable: how much latency a workload can tolerate. The answer cannot be bought, only measured. Centers running testbeds today will be able to commit capital on evidence, not hypothesis.
Unify the software stack: Quantum vendors and HPC centers should develop open standards on the layers that do not depend on qubit modality, such as device management and job submission, while compilers and programming models stay open to competition.
Co-design workflows: Gains in fault-tolerant quantum computing will be best realized where HPC and AI experts and quantum vendors work on the same problem. The report cites an example of a quantum chemistry workflow targeting a 10,000-fold speed-up.
The report closes with the case for on-premise deployment, highlighting how integration expertise accrues in the centers that operate a quantum machine with full access. The first fault-tolerant machines, the report argues, will go to the centers already building that readiness.
This 2026 edition is the second report in a series titled: “Seizing Quantum’s Edge” which maps HPC-Quantum-AI integration. The 2025 edition made the case that HPC centers should prepare for early fault-tolerant quantum computing.
“The timing for this report is spot on. HPC end users everywhere are looking for guidance and insights for what it will take to integrate the computational power of quantum into the current and projected advanced computing ecosystem. This report covers the key issues required to successfully navigate that process by QC vendors and end users alike. The credibility of the report is bolstered by key insights gathered from an impressive base of HPC experts who are already looking to the future of quantum computing utility,” said Bob Sorensen, SVP of Research and Chief Analyst for Quantum Computing, Hyperion Research.
Alice & Bob is a quantum computing company based in Paris and Boston whose goal is to create the first universal, fault-tolerant quantum computer. Founded in 2020, Alice & Bob has raised €180 million in funding and employs more than 250 people. Advised by Nobel Prize winning researchers, Alice & Bob specializes in cat qubits, a technology developed by the company’s founders. Demonstrating the power of its cat architecture, Alice & Bob recently showed that it could reduce the hardware requirements for building a useful large-scale quantum computer up to 200 times compared with competing approaches.
About Hyperion Research
Hyperion Research provides data-driven research, analysis, and recommendations on technologies, applications, and markets in high-performance computing and adjacent emerging technologies, serving government, industry, commerce, and academic organizations worldwide.
Washington, D.C. — The White House has removed its immigration-themed “Build the Wall” video game from its online arcade after The Tetris Company publicly distanced itself from the project and raised potential copyright concerns.
The game, launched as part of a broader collection promoting President Donald Trump’s policy agenda, closely copied the block-stacking mechanics and appearance of Tetris. Players were instructed to build a border wall to stop what the game called a “zombie border siege.”
Tetris quickly made clear that it had nothing to do with the project.
“The Tetris Company was not involved in the creation of ‘Build the Wall,’” the company said, adding that it had neither authorized nor licensed its brand or intellectual property and that it takes copyright infringement seriously. The company also said Tetris was intended to connect people rather than divide them.
By Tuesday, the game had disappeared from the White House arcade and its former page returned a 404 error. The administration did not immediately explain whether the removal resulted directly from Tetris’ objection.
Other games remain available, including “Rio Run,” which has players collect figures representing immigrants for deportation, along with games promoting Trump savings accounts and administration nutrition policies.
The episode illustrates an obvious risk in borrowing heavily from recognizable commercial games for government messaging: political parody does not automatically eliminate intellectual-property concerns.
Zion Mitchell, 21, was arrested earlier this month and faces firearms and assault charges after he admitted he pointed his gun at a fellow National Guard member.
An Amazon cargo plane crashed at Miami international airport in Florida after overshooting the runway, striking vehicles and resulting in at least five deaths and five injuries.
Officials said evidence suggested the pilots considered aborting the landing before the crash.
Miami airport is not equipped with 'arresting beds', systems of lightweight, crushable material that the federal aviation authority says have been installed at more than 120 airports nationwide at the end of runways to help safely stop planes that overshoot
UK foreign secretary says international community including US shares ‘frustration’ at Israel’s failure to constrain illegal settlers
British intelligence has been given assurances by its Israeli counterpart that information sharing with the UK will continue as before, Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, has said.
The head of the air traffic control provider Nats has been given a week to report back on the reasons for a technical failure that grounded thousands of flights, as the transport secretary said she did “not believe the issue was unavoidable”.
Heidi Alexander said on Tuesday she had also commissioned an independent review by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) into the latest Nats meltdown, which severely disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
US president often brings up al-Qaida attack that struck his home town New York City almost 25 years ago
Donald Trump often brings up September 11, the devastating al-Qaida attack that struck his home town New York City almost 25 years ago.
His recollections of that day have repeatedly included exaggerations and falsehoods – including this week, when he shared an anecdote at a White House event commemorating the attacks that appears to be untrue.
A White House spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday that Mr. Trump "has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit."
Columbus, Ohio — An Ohio man became the first person in the United States sentenced following a conviction under the federal Take It Down Act, receiving 15 years in prison for a cyberstalking campaign involving real and AI-generated sexually explicit material.
James Strahler II, 37, pleaded guilty to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and publishing digital forgeries. Federal prosecutors said he harassed at least six women between December 2024 and June 2025 using threatening calls, messages and manipulated sexual images.
Investigators found that Strahler had installed more than 24 AI platforms and over 100 web-based AI models on his phone. Prosecutors said he created more than 700 images involving real victims and animated subjects and posted them to a website devoted to child sexual abuse. Another 2,400 images and videos on his phone were flagged for nudity, morphed child sexual abuse material or violence.
Authorities said Strahler also used the faces of actual minor boys from his community to create AI-generated sexual images involving relatives, while separately threatening adult victims with sexual violence and distributing fabricated explicit material to their co-workers.
His conviction for publishing digital forgeries falls under the Take It Down Act, enacted in 2025 to criminalize certain nonconsensual intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes.
Chief U.S. District Judge Sarah D. Morrison imposed the 180-month sentence Tuesday. Prosecutors described the case as the nation’s first successful prosecution under the new law.
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday is its largest ever, fixing a record 966 vulnerabilities, including 105 rated critical and two zero-days already being exploited in attacks. BleepingComputer reports: This Patch Tuesday addresses 105 "Critical" vulnerabilities, 81 of which are remote code execution, 20 are elevation of privileges, 2 are information disclosure, and 1 security feature bypass.
The approximate number of bugs in each vulnerability category is listed below:
- 438 Elevation of Privilege Vulnerabilities
- 19 Security Feature Bypass Vulnerabilities
- 258 Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities
- 173 Information Disclosure Vulnerabilities
- 56 Denial of Service Vulnerabilities
- 16 Spoofing Vulnerabilities Last month, Microsoft's Patch Tuesday updates fixed 570 security flaws, following 400 vulnerabilities patched in August.
One researcher who resigned said many in industry believe that without regulation AI could kill off humanity
Artificial intelligence could kill off humanity within the decade, according to three researchers with the industry giant Anthropic, one of whom has quit his job in protest.
The latest doom-laden predictions came in posts on social media on Tuesday by a researcher who said he resigned because Anthropic and his previous employer, OpenAI, were ignoring or, at best, mishandling their response to the threat.
Israel's leader says a report claiming the UAE warned him in advance of Hamas' 2023 terror attack is politically motivated lies, but it's fueling fierce pre-election furor.
Brandon Herrera of state’s 23rd congressional district calls insults against women and unhoused people ‘jokes’
A Republican candidate for a key congressional district in Texas has come under scrutiny over a series of derogatory comments made about women in his social media posts and videos.
Brandon Herrera, who is the GOP candidate for Texas’s 23rd congressional district, has made a string of insults while fashioning a rightwing online persona as the “AK Guy”, and hosts a YouTube channel with more than 4 million subscribers that tests and reviews firearms.
So basically I was riding my morning route and I see the app saying error 88 so I immediately stop. After some research it seems to be a charging issue. Can I keep riding or is thing done? It less than a year old with about 650 miles and model is pint x . Please help!!!
CLEVELAND, WAKO, Japan, and YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y., Sept. 9, 2026 — A multidisciplinary team from Cleveland Clinic, RIKEN and IBM has been named as a finalist for the 2026 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Gordon Bell Prize for simulating the largest biologically meaningful molecules ever modeled with quantum computers, reaching a scale of 12,635 atoms. To achieve these results, the team united the strengths of quantum and classical computing methods in a framework known as quantum-centric supercomputing.
Model of a 12,635-atom protein
The ACM Gordon Bell Prize recognizes outstanding achievement in high-performance computing and is one of the field’s most prestigious honors. The 2026 winner will be announced at the International Conference for High-Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC26), taking place Nov. 15–20, 2026 in Chicago.
The origins of the project are rooted in the team’s investigation into how computation in drug discovery can be improved. Doing so rests on two fundamental challenges: first, modeling the movement of atoms as biological processes unfold; and second, accurately computing their energies. Particularly the second challenge is well-suited for quantum computers, which operate by the laws of quantum mechanics.
In the work, initially published in May 2026, the team calculated the electronic structure of two large protein complexes using the IBM Quantum Heron processors running within the IBM quantum computers at Cleveland Clinic in the United States and RIKEN in Japan. The calculations were executed alongside two of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, Fugaku at RIKEN and Miyabi-G, which is operated by the University of Tokyo and University of Tsukuba. The quantum computers used up to 94 qubits to run nearly 6,000 quantum operations within certain parts of the problem, which was essential to the computation’s accuracy and success. Fugaku and Miyabi-G were used to reassemble the results and allow the team to gain a complete representation of each molecule.
The results reflect the team’s innovative approach alongside the rapid maturation of quantum computing. Using the sample-based quantum diagonalization by IBM and RIKEN (featured on the cover of Science Advances) along with embedded wavefunction methods adapted by Cleveland Clinic to the question at hand, the team was able to report the first-known simulation of a 303-atom protein achieved with quantum computers. Less than a year later, the team first scaled their method roughly 40 times while also achieving 210 times improvement in accuracy. In updated results recently published in September, the team advanced the work even further. Most notably, they were able to further improve the accuracy of their computations of the binding energies of the molecular system, which reflect how tightly the molecules are bound together and can predict how they could interact with other systems.
In addition, the team validated the workflow on a third supercomputer, JHPC-quantum GPU supercomputer “ROQUO,” RIKEN’s newest system in a way that eliminated the need for complex manual operations and data transfers – pointing toward faster, more accessible research. By orchestrating CPUs, GPUs, and QPUs together, the team minimized the need for manual transfers and further reduced errors — an early demonstration of how classical and quantum computing can work in concert on complex scientific problems.
Taken together with the earlier results, these updates reflect continued progress on both the accuracy of computed binding energies and the time-to-solution enabled by the automated workflow.
The quantum-classical techniques developed by the team continues to reduce the computational overhead required to directly represent the chemistry of molecular systems with accuracy and is pushing the frontiers of what is possible with quantum-centric supercomputing in the field. The work has demonstrated a path to further increase the accuracy of how molecular system can be calculated and is a step towards helping researchers better predict how medicines may interact with protein targets.
The research team includes Kenneth Merz Jr, Akhil Shajan, Danil Kaliakin, Fangchun Liang of Cleveland Clinic, Yuichi Otsuka, Tomonori Shirakawa, Lukas Broers, Han Xu, Miwako Tsuji, Mitsuhisa Sato, Seiji Yunoki of RIKEN Center for Computational Science, and Ryo Wakizaka, Yukio Kawashima, Jun Doi, Hitomi Takahashi, Toshinari Itoko, Hiroshi Horii, Thaddeus Pellegrini, Javier Robledo Moreno, Kevin J. Sung, Ella Fejer, Robert Walkup, Seetharami Seelam, Mario Motta of IBM.
This research is supported by NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), 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).”
Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation, Cleveland Clinic has pioneered many medical breakthroughs, including coronary artery bypass surgery and the first face transplant in the United States. Cleveland Clinic is consistently recognized in the U.S. and throughout the world for its expertise and care. Among Cleveland Clinic’s 83,000 employees worldwide are more than 6,600 salaried physicians and researchers, and 21,900 registered nurses and advanced practice providers, representing 140 medical specialties and subspecialties. Cleveland Clinic is a 6,725-bed health system that includes a 173-acre main campus near downtown Cleveland, 23 hospitals, 300 outpatient facilities, including locations in northeast Ohio; Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Toronto, Canada; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and London, England. In 2025, there were 15.9 million outpatient encounters, 343,000 hospital admissions and observations, and 336,000 surgeries and procedures throughout Cleveland Clinic’s health system.
About RIKEN
RIKEN is Japan’s leading national comprehensive research institute in the natural sciences, conducting research across a broad range of fields including physics, engineering, chemistry, mathematical and information sciences, computational science, biology, and medical science. The RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) operates the world-class supercomputer Fugaku, providing computing resources to a wide range of users in universities, research institutions, and industry, and carries out research and development under the banner of “The Science of computing, by computing, and for computing”, contributing to the advancement of computational science and computer science.
About IBM
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.
Party denies wrongdoing after Scotland Yard confirms it is investigating allegations broadcast by Channel 4 after undercover sting
Alex Burghart, the deputy Tory leader, was giving interviews this morning. On Israel, he opened up a new line of attack against the government, accusing it of hypocrisy. This is what he told GB News.
At the same time that Labour were saying all these things about Israel in the House of Commons, they put out a communique.
They put out an account of a conversation that Andy Burnham has had with the Chinese president, and it said how constructive they wanted to be with China, how they wanted to work with China, and what a great relationship we have.
DAEJEON, South Korea, Sept. 9, 2026 — Panmnesia, a fabless semiconductor company, and Meta, a global hyperscaler, have jointly proposed a next-generation artificial intelligence datacenter architecture in which an entire datacenter operates like a single chip. The work appears as an invited Review in Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering (NREE), a Nature Portfolio journal.
The Unit of AI Execution Is Moving from One Chip to the Whole Datacenter
As AI models grow into the trillions of parameters, a single training step can involve hundreds to thousands of accelerators exchanging terabytes of data. Because overall progress is set by the slowest participant, adding accelerators boosts compute capacity, but it also makes the system prone to frequent delays and failures caused by bottlenecking stragglers. When one component responds late, the rest stop and wait — and the wider the range of latency becomes, the harder it is to predict when a job will finish.
Narrowing that spread—and thereby creating a larger, more stable unit of execution—is an industry-wide challenge. Within a rack, devices are already tightly coupled through dedicated high-speed links. The next challenge lies in the segment beyond it — the connection between racks. Today, that segment still relies largely on general-purpose networks such as Ethernet or InfiniBand, where each request must pass through a network interface and a software-based coordination layer, each of which widens latency spread along the way. This work aims to bring greater predictability to this cross-rack segment.
Their foundation is Compute Express Link (CXL), an open industry standard. CXL is developed collaboratively by semiconductor and infrastructure companies, so it can be adopted across the industry without being locked into a single vendor’s ecosystem. The architecture proposed by Panmnesia and Meta uses CXL to minimize latency variability beyond the rack. The goal is a datacenter that behaves with the predictability of a single chip.
At the Core of the CXL-based Architecture: Three Hardware Elements and a Hierarchical Deployment
The proposed architecture places CPUs, accelerators and memory in a single CXL-based domain, extending the range over which cache coherence is maintained from within the rack to the datacenter as a whole. Three hardware elements — a high-fan-out non-blocking switch, a link acceleration unit (LAU) and a fabric controller — bound latency variability, and the resources themselves are laid out using the same principles that govern the placement of blocks inside a chip. To overcome the physical reach limits of electrical signaling, the Review also sets out how optical links (CXL-over-optics) can extend the reach of a CXL fabric. (Details are given in the Appendix.)
To gauge the effect of the architecture, the Review uses a conventional rack-scale configuration — one CPU coupled to two accelerators — as its reference point. Against that baseline, the number of accelerators a single CPU coordinates rises eightfold, from two to sixteen, and the coherence domain that operates as one unit grows to as many as 960 accelerators, roughly 13 times the reference platform. Accesses that once left the rack to traverse a network now follow a fixed path, with round-trip latency falling from the microsecond range to several hundred nanoseconds — as much as an order of magnitude lower. The unit of replacement after a failure also narrows from a whole server to a single device. Coupling devices at this scale into what behaves as one execution environment would make it possible to train a far larger single AI model without interruption, or to run multiple services concurrently on shared infrastructure without one stalling another.
Review articles in NREE are published by invitation only: the journal identifies a small number of researchers or organizations leading a given field and commissions the work from them. Nature’s selection of Panmnesia as an author on CXL-based datacenter architecture reflects recognition of the company’s technology as representative of the field. Panmnesia is the first semiconductor startup worldwide to lead an NREE Review, and the article is also the journal’s first Review to address CXL technology and AI datacenter architecture.
Myoungsoo Jung, CEO of Panmnesia, said, “As AI systems continue to scale, the ability to connect large numbers of accelerators and memory devices quickly and efficiently is becoming just as important as the performance of individual accelerators. This research outlines a direction for next-generation AI infrastructure, where CXL enables the entire datacenter to operate as a single computing system.”
Panmnesia has already implemented the architecture’s core components in silicon, has completed validation, and is now preparing them for commercial supply. The Review is available here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44287-026-00315-5.
Oil price rises above $100 a barrel as Tehran responds to US attacks that sunk five Iranian tankers
Tehran has said it attacked 10 ships around the strait of Hormuz after the US sunk five Iranian tankers, as escalating strikes between the two sent the oil price over $100 a barrel for the first time since July.
The attacks were the sharpest flare-up of strikes in weeks, as the two sides struggled to break a deadlock in the six-month-long war. Fighting in recent weeks has largely revolved around who controls the strait of Hormuz, as Iran attempts to close off the waterway and Washington enforces a blockade of Iranian ports.
The strait is a critical route for global energy supplies, with up to 20% of the world’s oil and gas transiting it before the US-Iran war. The rising price of oil, above the psychologically significant $100 mark is likely to have knock-on effects on inflation and the price of goods. Stocks fell on Wall Street while rising fuel and food prices in the US will further frustrate the Trump administration, which faces a midterm election with an unpopular war and a cost-of-living crisis.
Back to Oslo, the funeral procession for King Harald is about the begin, and the 1.2km route to the Oslo Cathedral is lined up with 1,900 soldiers from all branches of the Norwegian defence forces.
The procession is expected to walk very slowly – at around 60 steps per minute – and will include the royal family, including King Haakon, followed by a royal car with the widow, Queen Sonja.
Canada's retaliatory tariffs put Trump's trade strategy to the testExpert commentLToremark
US–Canada trade war will test not only economic strength but also political will. On the latter, Canada may have an advantage.
As Canada’s new retaliatory tariffs against the United States came into effect on Tuesday, the Canada–US trade dispute entered a new phase – one that will be closely watched around the world. Apart from China, Canada is the only country that has imposed retaliatory tariffs on the US. The key question now is whether this strategy can succeed.
The most recent escalation between the two neighbours began in August, when Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from trade talks with the Trump administration after describing the US offer as ‘unfair’ and ‘uneconomic’ and saying that US negotiators had sought to limit Canada’s ability to negotiate trade arrangements with third countries.
The Trump administration then imposed additional tariffs of up to 50 per cent on certain Canadian imports under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 – an obscure, Great Depression-era provision giving the president broad powers against countries deemed to discriminate against US commerce.
On Tuesday, Canada imposed ‘dollar-for-dollar’ counter-tariffs on a roughly equivalent amount of US goods. In response, Trump announced that the US would use Section 338 to ban imports of Canadian alcohol, motorcycles and some dairy products starting on 29 September.
Trump has piled on the pressure in recent weeks. He has called on Canadian leaders to ‘fall in line’, ordered that Lake Ontario – which straddles the Canada – US border – be renamed ‘Lake America’, and posted a map depicting the US as encompassing Canada (as well as Mexico, Greenland and Iceland).
Trump and members of his administration appear convinced that Canada will eventually fold under US economic pressure. The imbalance in the relationship might seem to support that calculation. Bilateral trade exceeded $870 billion in goods and services in 2025. But Canada is far more dependent on the US than vice versa: about two-thirds of Canadian goods exports go to the US, while Canada accounts for only about 15 per cent of US goods exports. The US economy is also roughly 13 times larger than Canada’s.
However, trade wars test not only economic strength but also political resolve – and here Canada may have an advantage. Trump’s trade policies and repeated calls for Canada to become the 51st US state have provoked widespread outrage among Canadians, reinforcing the view that the dispute is about sovereignty as well as trade.
Recent polling suggests Carney has considerable room for manoeuvre at home. One survey found 85 per cent of Canadians support rejecting the proposed US trade deal, while 80 per cent back retaliatory tariffs even if they result in higher prices. Another put approval of the Carney government at a new high of 70 per cent.
Whether such high levels of public backing will endure is uncertain. Carney’s standing could weaken as the economic costs start to bite, particularly if tariffs lead to significant job losses despite Ottawa’s financial assistance to affected sectors. And while Trump’s threats have fostered unusual unity in Canada’s often fractious federal politics, longstanding divisions might reassert themselves. Separatist sentiment will be tested in Quebec’s provincial election on 5 October and in Alberta’s 19 October referendum, which includes a question on beginning the process towards a future vote on independence – that Trump-aligned figures have expressed support for.
By contrast, Trump’s approval ratings have fallen sharply and there is little appetite among Americans for an escalating trade war with Canada: nearly 60 per cent oppose further tariffs on Canadian goods and almost 70 per cent favour compromise with their northern neighbour. Several US sectors and states also rely on trade with Canada, like the automotive sector and the swing states of Michigan and Ohio.
Still, Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs shows no signs of waning. Even if Democrats were to gain control of Congress after November’s midterm elections, legislation curtailing presidential tariff powers could still face a Trump veto. This requires two-thirds majorities in both chambers to override, which they are unlikely to achieve.
Nor can Canada count on the US courts for rapid relief. Trump’s novel use of Section 338 will likely face legal challenges, as some of his previous tariffs have, but a final resolution could take months or years.
For Canada, therefore, neither political change in Washington nor litigation offers a quick solution. But ‘winning’ does not require compelling Trump to back down. Success might instead mean demonstrating sufficient political and economic resolve to improve the terms on which negotiations eventually resume – a more achievable objective, given the depth of Canadian public opposition to US demands.
At the same time, Canada’s strategy is not limited to managing the confrontation with Washington. Ottawa is pursuing a broader goal of reducing Canada’s economic dependence on the US by deepening ties with other partners, particularly in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, while investing in the energy, critical minerals and infrastructure needed to reach new markets. Carney has set a goal of doubling Canada’s non-US exports over the next decade and attracting new foreign investment in Canada, drawing on his experience as a former central bank governor and investment banker.
His strategy will gather momentum this month. On 14–15 September, Carney will host the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto, bringing together major global investors. He will then travel to Strasbourg as a guest of honour for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech, where she is expected to announce a deeper partnership between the EU and Canada. Carney will address the European Parliament the following day.
Whether Canada can resist US pressure while diversifying its economic partnerships – demonstrating a ‘third way’ for other countries facing similar pressure – will not be clear for some time. Trade relationships can take years to bear fruit, as can the major infrastructure and resource-development investments aimed at bringing more Canadian goods to world markets. Diversification can reduce Canada’s vulnerability, but it cannot quickly replace the economic relationship with its largest trading partner.
The more immediate test is whether Canada can withstand US pressure long enough to secure better terms when negotiations eventually resume. The Trump administration appears to be betting that the imbalance in economic power will ultimately force Ottawa to concede. The coming months may show that it has underestimated Canadian resolve.
The Wild Horse Nine actor had been due to appear on stage in The Music Critic in Tel Aviv – but pulled out over PR firm’s ‘unacceptable and untenable’ attribution of statement
John Malkovich has cancelled a planned trip to Israel next year to appear on stage after a PR firm hired by the show attributed quotes to the actor that the company had written.
Malkovich, who is a leading Oscar contender for his role in Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, was due to appear in The Music Critic, a theatrical-musical satire composed by the Jewish violinist Aleksey Igudesman, in Tel Aviv’s Charles Bronfman Auditorium on 13 April.
(The Center Square) — Democrat Stephany Shaheen will square off against Trump-endorsed Republican Anthony DiLorenzo in the November elections after winning the party's nomination to run for New Hampshire's wide-open 1st Congressional District seat.
Europe’s royals and global political figures attend ceremony that brings 13 days of national mourning to a close
Norway has observed a minute’s silence as it takes leave of King Harald V in a series of ceremonies, bringing to a close 13 days of national mourning that followed the popular monarch’s death last month at the age of 89.
Tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Oslo and foreign heads of state and government converged on the Norwegian capital for the funeral of the late king, a light-touch and unassuming reformer who ruled for more than three decades.
Anthony Albanese wants social media algorithms to be optional – and it’s not the first Musk-Zuckerberg irritant emanating from Australia
New risks to a deftly managed personal relationship with Donald Trump have not slowed the Australian prime minister’s plans for a showdown with America’s all-conquering social media companies.
Anthony Albanese, who will rub shoulders with the US president and other world leaders in New York later this month at the UN general assembly, is pushing ahead with changes that would impose fines on big tech firms under a newly created “digital duty of care”.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Those who remember PC gaming in the days before Steam may have fond memories of the "big box" packaging that made those games stand out as shelf eye candy and sought-after in-home collectibles. Today, PC gaming platform GOG is hoping to reignite some of the nostalgia for those days by adding downloadable 3D models and printable, foldable high-res packaging scans for a handful of PC games on the platform.
Thus far, the "Printable Big Box" collection on GOG is limited to just five games: Armikrog, Descent, Hitman: Codename 47, Myst, and Star Trek: 25th Anniversary. Players browsing those games on the GOG store will now see "3D Boxes" listed among the included "Goodies" before purchase. Owners of those games on GOG can download a ZIP file containing a version of the box art as an animated 3D object file (in an easy-to-open GLB format) and a "flat printable template" in PDF, SVG, and Adobe Illustrator formats. Those downloads allow for what GOG calls "a proper papercraft project for anyone who misses shelves full of PC game boxes."
The physically focused expansion of the existing GOG Preservation Program comes through a partnership with Benjamin Wimmer's Big Box Collection website, which has grown since 2015 to include over 1,000 3D scans from his private collection of physical PC games. In an interview with GOG, Wimmer said that while he appreciates the artistry of a good old-fashioned big box, he also appreciates their evolution into the "interactive cards" on modern digital storefronts that "provid[e] us art, screenshots, gameplay videos and whatnot and that not shown as a box, [it] is just good UX." "Physical media doesn't survive the way software can -- boxes get lost, crushed, thrown out," GOG writes in today's announcement. "Scanning them, and letting you print your own, is preservation in a different shape: the same mission that keeps these games running on modern PCs, applied to the objects they used to come in."
When scrolling through social media over the Labor Day weekend, Steven Michael Quezada, an actor, comedian and native New Mexican, was stopped cold by a post about Donald Trump’s recent call to rename New Mexico as “New America”.
“At first I thought, nah, that’s got to be a joke,” said Quezada, who played the drug enforcement agent Steven Gomez in the legendary TV series Breaking Bad.
The Oct. 3 gathering at Saint Mark’s High School will bring men from Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore together for speakers, prayer, fellowship and Mass with Bishop William Koenig.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Catholic men from across Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore will gather in Wilmington this fall for the inaugural Catholic Men of Delmarva Conference, a new all-day event focused on strengthening men’s faith, families and leadership.
The conference, titled “Authentic Masculinity,” will be held Saturday, Oct. 3, at Saint Mark’s High School, 2501 Pike Creek Road. Organizers are planning for as many as 350 participants.
The event is being organized by Catholic Men of Delmarva, a nonprofit formed in Delaware in June 2025. The independent organization works in spiritual partnership with the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, which includes Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Organizers say the conference is intended to help men deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ and become stronger husbands, fathers, sons, brothers and servant leaders in their homes, churches and communities.
Men from other faith traditions who are interested in learning more about Catholicism are also invited. Adult sons are encouraged to attend with their fathers, while younger sons may participate when accompanied by an adult man.
A regional gathering
The inaugural conference is designed to connect men from parishes and missions throughout the Diocese of Wilmington’s six deaneries.
Catholic Men of Delmarva is working with volunteer parish captains from more than 50 churches to promote the gathering, coordinate registrations and encourage men who may not otherwise participate in a parish men’s ministry.
The organization hopes the conference will reach both established parish leaders and men who are beginning to become more involved in their faith. The intended audience includes members of parish men’s groups, the Knights of Columbus, Exodus 90, Heroic Men, FOCUS and the University of Delaware’s Newman Center, as well as men considering the priesthood or permanent diaconate.
Three featured speakers
The conference will feature three keynote speakers: the Rev. Larry Swink, Matthew Leonard and Gary Zimak.
Swink is a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and parochial vicar at St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Silver Spring, Maryland. Ordained in 2006, he has led retreats and pilgrimages for more than a decade, with an emphasis on prayer, the Mass, confession and helping Catholics connect their daily lives to their faith.
Leonard is an author, international speaker, podcaster and founder of Science of Sainthood, an online Catholic spiritual formation program. A convert to Catholicism and former missionary in Latin America, he has produced and hosted Catholic video programs distributed in multiple languages.
Zimak is an author, radio host and Catholic speaker known for addressing anxiety from a faith-based perspective. He has appeared on Catholic radio and television and has presented parish missions, retreats and conferences throughout the United States and Canada.
The Rev. John Solomon and Deacon Philip Belt will also give vocational presentations. The Rev. James Gebhart will offer the welcoming address and lead Eucharistic adoration.
Prayer, music and Mass
Registration and refreshments will begin at 8 a.m., followed by music from Numinous Worship at 8:45 a.m. The formal program will begin at 9 a.m.
In addition to the keynote presentations, the conference will include Eucharistic adoration, the sacrament of reconciliation, vocational talks, a presentation by the Knights of Columbus and a question-and-answer session with the speakers.
Refreshments and a catered lunch are included. Catholic organizations and ministries will also have exhibits available throughout the day.
The conference will conclude with Mass at 4 p.m., celebrated by Bishop William Koenig of the Diocese of Wilmington. Final announcements and dismissal are scheduled for 5 p.m.
Organizers envision the gathering becoming an annual conference and a way to strengthen men’s participation in their parishes and communities.
To Go Box
What: Inaugural Catholic Men of Delmarva Conference, “Authentic Masculinity”
When: Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026. Registration opens at 8 a.m.; the conference concludes at 5 p.m.
Where: Saint Mark’s High School, 2501 Pike Creek Road, Wilmington
Who may attend: Catholic men and men of other faith traditions interested in Catholicism. Fathers are encouraged to attend with their sons. Younger participants must be accompanied by an adult man.
What is included: Keynote presentations, Eucharistic adoration, reconciliation, vocational talks, music, exhibits, refreshments, catered lunch and closing Mass with Bishop William Koenig,
Asking residents in a city where a seismic political event has just taken place ‘How do you feel?’ demands chutzpah – this struck me as I walked around Magdeburg, Germany on Monday. The night before, the far-right populist, anti-immigrant, pro-Kremlin party Alternative für Deustchland (AfD) had landslide 44% win in Saxony-Anhalt’s state elections, sending shock waves to Berlin, across Germany and way beyond. Regardless of how people in the capital voted, it felt like a bit of an affront to probe. Given the radical plans of the victors, a party classified by domestic intelligence as “rightwing extremist”, that is what I wanted to know. But from the 21-year-old Guinean-German paramedic I met at the central bus station, collecting donations for a local hospice, to the elderly couple returning to their apartment after a stroll down the Elbe river, almost everyone I met opened up to me warmly.
Judith, 88, was initially reluctant to talk, but shared some of her life story. Her experience as an eight-year-old refugee, forced to leave Poland in 1946 and eventually ending up move with her family in Magdeburg, had shaped her outlook on life, her successful career as a project engineer – as well as her politics. The news that AfD had not only won the election, but by such a wide margin, was “heartbreaking”, she said.
(The Center Square) – A coalition of election integrity groups filed an amicus brief in support of plaintiffs in RNC v. Mi Familia Vota, with the groups urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the state of Arizona’s voter citizenship…
The Associated Press’s guidance says President Donald Trump’s executive order affects only how the U.S. government refers to the lake, not Canada or other countries.
Matt Brittin says ‘cupboard is bare’ after staff reject average 2.1% pay rise in dispute
The BBC’s director general has conceded there is a real prospect of strikes at the broadcaster, as he faces a continuing dispute over pay and pushes ahead with plans to cut as many as 2,000 jobs.
In a call with staff on Tuesday, Matt Brittin faced a series of questions over the corporation’s plans for huge cuts, as well as pay talks in which staff rejected an average 2.1% salary increase.
While a survey found Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters to be the strongest backers of such a ban on trade, even Tory and Reform voters were in favour overall
There was a time when placing Israel under strict trade sanctions would have been a politically risky thing for a British prime minister to do. Andy Burnham, however, considers it an electoral asset.
As Kemi Badenoch attacked him over defence spending at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Burnham deliberately turned the topic to the trade ban on illegal settlements which he had announced on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old’s epic win over Carlos Alcaraz means there is a real chance of an American man winning the US Open for the first time since 2003
In yet another graveyard shift at the US Open, Ben Shelton showed he can hang around late, ousting defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in five sets in a quarter-final that started on Tuesday night and finished on Wednesday morning. When Shelton fired the final ball out wide for his seventh ace of the night, the clock on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court read 3.33am. It was the latest-ever finish at the Open and the fifth-latest finish in grand slam history.
After embracing Alcaraz at the net, he pumped his fists and greeted his coach’s box with a primal scream. Parents have a name for this: the zoomies. Then Shelton looked to the stands and gestured at his mother and his girlfriend, soccer star Trinity Rodman. In his on-court interview, he asked that his sister, Emma, be given the day off. She had spent the entire night and much of the early morning watching her little brother play.
When grazier Peter Lake moved to the Clarence Valley in the New South Wales northern rivers region in 2007, he knew was “buying in flood country with … eyes open”.
His cattle farm, about halfway between Yamba and Grafton, borders the Coldstream River and has flooded five times since 2009.
In August 2009, at the very first Gamescom expo, I sat in a small meeting room in Germany and played Mario Kart and World of Warcraft on a laptop, via technology that was then completely new: cloud gaming. It was a demonstration for a yet-to-be-launched service called Gaikai that promised to let you play any game in a browser window, without a console. (Here is an ancient video of that demonstration, featuring a very young Keza.) With a single click I could launch into any game, hosted on servers hundreds of miles away. It really did look like the future.
Since then, plenty of companies have tried to be the first to truly crack game streaming, vying to be the Netflix of games. Sony ended up buying Gaikai for $380m (£242m) in 2012; its technology now powers the streamable classic games library on PlayStation, and the PS5’s advanced game streaming. OnLive, Gaikai’s first competitor, launched in 2011 but shut down after less than a year, leaving Sony to acquire all its patents. Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service also imploded, launching in 2019 and shutting down three years later.
Every September, perfectly reasonable adults start emptying closets and scrubbing baseboards like Thanksgiving guests just confirmed they are coming early. Millions of households catch the ... Read moreThe post The scientific reason you want to gut your entire house every…
A teen was found alive, clinging to a capsized fishing boat in the Bering Sea, after the vessel went missing over the weekend. Two other boaters were found dead.
More than 30 properties ordered to evacuate after sinkhole grows to roughly 25-30ft deep and 30 by 60 feet wide
The city of Malibu, California, has ordered the evacuation of more than 30 properties after a large sinkhole opened on Tuesday.
Malibu officials declared a local emergency on Tuesday evening after a “large sinkhole” emerged near 31630 Sea Level Drive. The officials said the sinkhole was believed to have begun developing on Monday, and had grown to roughly 25-30ft deep and 30 by 60ft wide by Tuesday evening.
The BSD news will continue until morale improves. I missed this two months ago, but Baptiste Daroussin, creator of pkg and poudriere, is working on a service manager for FreeBSD called rcd.
rcd(8) is a service manager daemon called by init(8) (in place of /etc/rc). It reads service definitions from UCL unit files (/etc/rcd.d/*.ucl), builds a dependency DAG, and starts services in parallel. After boot completes, it forks to background and stays running as a supervision daemon (automatically restarting failed services and accepting control commands via a UNIX socket).
It’s fully backwards compatible, and works on any existing FreeBSD system without having to make any modifications to rc.d scripts or configuration files. In fact, you can install it on a running system, make zero changes to your files, and reboot to use it, which is quite impressive. The most immediate benefit is, of course, faster boot times, but you’ll also get several other benefits already found on similar systems like Solaris’ smf.
There’s a migration path in place, with a hard promise to maintain compatibility with rc.d scripts for as long as needed. This gives maintainers as much time as they need to convert to rcd‘s own unit files.
Alarming warnings from industry insiders increase pressure for curbs on artificial superintelligence
Does artificial superintelligence really pose a risk greater than nuclear weapons? Is there a significant chance of “a Chornobyl-sized catastrophe”. Might there even be a greater than 10% chance that AI could “kill all humans” in the next decade?
These warnings were issued over the past 48 hours on both sides of the Atlantic about the potential impact of a technology that most people still think of as a more talkative search engine.
Through the loss of one franchise, name controversies and stadium changes, Legacy supporters have created an environment of advocacy and belonging
More than two years of work had led to this moment for the Boston Independent Supporters’ Association (ISA). Even before Boston’s new NWSL team had a name, a mascot or a roster, there were fans organizing, ready and waiting to embrace the franchise.
On 14 March 2026, it finally paid off. The Boston ISA members marched into Gillette Stadium for the Legacy’s opening match, following behind the marching band from Boston Public Schools and holding their “Up the Swans” scarves over their heads. The group arrived at their seats in the supporters’ section behind the north goal and unfurled the tifo they had spent many hours diligently painting.
Reform councillor said he urged activists to stand down
ECB checks on young players’ welfare
A group of masked agitators gathered outside a four-star hotel in Portsmouth after reports a group of asylum seekers had been taken there, when it was in fact Pakistan’s under-19 cricket team on a tour.
George Madgwick, a Reform councillor called to the hotel to mediate between staff and the assembled crowd, said it was a “massively unfortunate incident”.
Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has accused the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) of seeking “ethnic cleansing” with its “remigration” drive, after the nativist party’s seismic weekend victory in a state election.
In his first public confrontation with the AfD since Sunday’s shock outcome in Saxony-Anhalt, Merz said at a raucous parliamentary debate that the far-right party would take an axe to one of the pillars of the German economy with a racist campaign of mass deportations.
Republicans are fighting to hold onto their majority in the Senate, where the GOP currently controls 53 seats. To take control, Democrats would need to net four seats in November's election.
Hi ! Can someone confirm that wiring ? Local post office messed with my package af, leading to my jst connector being ripped of. I need to rebuild the pads but want to double check.
The Trump administration said it would modify the scope of existing tariffs and introduce new bans on Canadian products in the latest escalation of the trade war.
Storm didn’t make direct hit but fierce winds downed trees and caused widespread power outages on Kauai
Damaging winds and heavy rains from Hurricane Lowell caused significant damage on Hawaii’s western islands, knocking out power to thousands, ripping up stretches of road and drenching homes and stores with mud.
Fierce winds downed trees and caused widespread power outages on the island of Kauai, home to 73,000 residents. The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative reported that nearly all of its roughly 35,000 members were without power on Tuesday.
TORONTO, Sept. 9, 2026 — Xanadu Quantum Technologies Limited, a leading photonic quantum computing company, and ASML, a leading supplier to the semiconductor industry, today announced a collaboration to develop advanced lithography processes for Xanadu’s photonic quantum hardware. This collaboration aims to enable both companies to gain deeper insight into how advanced lithography innovations can help reduce optical losses in quantum computing chips, accelerating the industry’s path toward utility-scale quantum computing (USQC).
Quantum hardware needs to be fault-tolerant and error-corrected to address large-scale computational problems. For photonic quantum hardware, reducing optical loss is an important technical challenge on the path toward fault-tolerant operation and error correction. Optical loss in photonic quantum processors can be influenced by line edge roughness (LER), which is affected by lithography and related process conditions. Through this collaboration, Xanadu and ASML will explore lithography-enabled process approaches that may contribute to improved patterning control and lower-loss photonic structures.
“Fault tolerance and error correction are arguably the most important technical objectives for the quantum computing industry,” said Dr. Christian Weedbrook, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xanadu. “Collaborating with ASML gives Xanadu the opportunity to explore advanced, industry-leading lithography processes that will support the continued development of our photonic quantum hardware.”
“For ASML, this collaboration is an opportunity to explore advanced lithography processes with Xanadu and better understand how our technology and expertise can support next-generation photonics applications,” said Stan Baron, Senior Vice President and Head of Customer Team EU-US at ASML. “We are pleased to contribute to this work, supporting the exploration of future manufacturing approaches for photonic quantum hardware as the technology matures.”
This collaboration with ASML reflects Xanadu’s continued focus on advancing photonic quantum hardware and further solidifies Xanadu’s leading position within the semiconductor and quantum computing ecosystem. This work paves the way toward future manufacturing and commercialization and marks another significant step in the company’s mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere.
About Xanadu
Founded in 2016, Xanadu is a Canadian photonic quantum computing company with the mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. Xanadu is building fault-tolerant quantum computers using light, with systems designed to compute at room temperature. Xanadu develops both hardware and software, including PennyLane, its open-source quantum computing platform. Xanadu is the first pure-play photonic quantum computing company to list on public markets (Nasdaq/TSX: XNDU) and is recognized globally for its breakthroughs in scalable quantum technologies.
Some people without plane tickets will be allowed to pass through security at US airports and go to gates to see off family or friends, rolling back a rule that was introduced after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Certain people who are part of the TSA PreCheck program but who do not have tickets to fly will be able to go through security to airport gates, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said.
(The Center Square) – The man charged with attempting to attack Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dr. Amy Acton over the weekend pleaded not guilty late Tuesday afternoon in his first court appearance.
Springfield community mourns one of its own after Pierre Damas Bel, who was forced to wear electronic ankle bracelet by ICE, walked into traffic and was killed by truck
For 20-year-old Pierre Damas Bel, the humiliation of starting college last month with an electronic ankle bracelet – attached by ICE agents this summer – was deeply traumatic.
“I’m walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor on my leg, carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience,” he wrote on Instagram in July.
After young people shifted right for Trump, Democratic-aligned groups across the US are eager to capture gen Z voters where they are before November’s midterm elections
On the first day of the fall semester at California State University, Northridge, student organizers holding “Hot People Vote” signs wheeled a bright pink wagon outside the student union. They offered “no strings attached” donuts, heart-shaped sunglasses and voting information for the November general election. Even though it was 105F outside, dozens of people stopped by to chat with the Donuts + Democracy volunteers and register to vote.
One student told organizer Dzian Tran that she didn’t plan to vote because she was disillusioned with politics. Tran chatted with her about how civic engagement is important to democracy and how some elections are won by a margin of only 400 votes. As she thanked Tran, the student held her phone up to a QR code to get more information about voting.
Authorities and public bodies to be urged to buy goods and services from Europe, but without binding quotas
European authorities will be encouraged to buy more domestic goods and services when they spend public money under the EU latest effort to counter China’s economic might.
In a further “Buy European” plan, the European Commission published proposals on Wednesday for a sweeping overhaul of EU public procurement rules.
Although the air traffic control provider Nats fixed the problem within hours, the fallout from the incident continued to cause flight delays and cancellations on Wednesday.
The state can’t use new congressional districts under one court order – or its old ones under another. Plus, the architects in Europe turning urban spaces into areas of climate respite
Conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh denied the emergency request from Missouri officials to use a congressional map in November that was redrawn with Donald Trump’s support to give Republicans an edge in the midterms, but a ruling by a federal judge in Missouri temporarily prevented the state from using its old congressional maps.
Why is there legal action over the maps? The Missouri supreme court has previously ruled that the new map must go before voters to approve or reject the new districts, meaning it cannot be used in time for the November election. The president and Republicans had fumed over the decision, with Trump calling it “horrible, ridiculous, and unconstitutional”.
What are the significant changes to the map intended to favor Republicans? The revised map targeted the fifth congressional district, held by longtime Democratic representative Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City. It reassigned portions of Kansas City to two neighboring districts represented by Republicans and stretched the remainder of Cleaver’s district far eastward into rural Republican areas.
What has the British prime minister said? Writing in the Guardian, Andy Burnham said he would “not stand by” as horrific suffering continued, and that for too long the UK had been hesitant to act “fearful of being accused of being anti-Israel”. “The measures we are taking,” he said, “are about targeting illegal settlements and increasing the pressure on the Israeli government to change course. We are not imposing sanctions on Israel as a whole.”
How has Israel reacted? Israel has ordered the closure of the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem among retaliatory measures including entry bans on several UK lawmakers. The Israeli government added that longstanding British involvement in the training of Palestinian security forces on the West Bank would be terminated. Britain will also be excluded from the US-led Gaza coordination mission.
Many of the paintings in the tomb have retained their original colors despite spending more than 40 centuries buried beneath the desert sands, officials said.
Washington, D.C. — Americans are increasingly skeptical of information coming from the federal government, with majorities expressing little or no trust across several major policy areas, according to a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts poll.
About 6 in 10 adults said they trust federal information only a little or not at all when it comes to elections and politics, foreign affairs, the environment, abortion and immigration. Distrust has risen on nearly every issue measured since a similar 2019 survey, including education, where low trust increased from 37% to 53%.
Confidence in election certification has also slipped. Only 34% of adults said they trust government-certified election results “a great deal” or “quite a bit,” down from 40% in 2024. Among Democrats, that figure fell from 65% in 2024 to 44%, while 29% of Republicans expressed high confidence.
The decline spans more than the current administration. Americans also expressed very low trust in partisan campaign messaging, with only about 1 in 10 saying messages from either Democrats or Republicans are always or often factual.
The survey comes after significant changes across the federal bureaucracy during President Donald Trump’s second term, including agency cuts, staff departures and shifts in health and environmental policy. The poll does not establish that those changes alone caused the decline in trust, but it found that partisan differences have widened considerably.
The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll surveyed 1,036 adults from July 29 through Aug. 10 and has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump gave unusually large cash holiday gifts to several White House aides, including $45,000 each to executive assistant Natalie Harp, communications adviser Margo Martin and deputy Oval Office operations director Chamberlain Harris, according to newly released financial disclosures.
The three aides each earn $150,000 annually, making Trump’s payments equal to roughly 30% of their government salaries. Director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta, who earns $175,000, received a separate $20,000 gift.
The aides listed the payments as “Cash Gift for Holidays” on federal disclosure forms. A White House official told the Associated Press that Trump has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts and said the payments were personal, unrelated to government duties and permissible under applicable ethics rules.
The size of the gifts, however, has prompted questions from government ethics specialists. Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, told The Washington Post that the payments could implicate federal rules restricting outside supplementation of government employees’ salaries. The Post reported that ethics experts it contacted were unaware of another president giving subordinate White House employees cash gifts on this scale.
No government agency has publicly determined that the payments violated federal law or ethics regulations.
The disclosures nonetheless provide a rare look at sizable personal payments flowing directly from a sitting president to employees working closely with him inside the White House.
The U.S. Department of Energy has approved a $1.9 billion loan to NextEra Energy to restart Iowa's shuttered Duane Arnold nuclear plant, which Google has backed as a power source for its growing AI infrastructure. "The sizable loan is the second of its kind, suggesting that the Trump administration views revived nuclear power as a key source of electricity for tech companies seeking to power their AI data centers," notes TechCrunch. From the report: James Danly, Deputy Secretary of Energy, said that the Iowa power plant's restart in 2029 will "drive down electricity costs," though he did not explain how. Just 50 megawatts will be set aside for the local power cooperative, NextEra CEO John Ketchum said during an earnings call (PDF) last year. That capacity would cover 18% of Iowa's demand growth since 2021, the year before ChatGPT was released.
Google is reportedly looking to build up to six data centers near the Duane Arnold Energy Center, which hasn't operated since 2020 when an intense rainstorm damaged the power plant. Rather than repair it, NextEra decided to mothball it. At the time, cheap natural gas was flooding the market, making nuclear power economically unappealing. A lot has changed in the last six years, though. After decades of little growth in demand, the sudden rise of AI coupled with broader electrification of the economy meant that utilities and power providers were suddenly scrambling to find new generating sources of electricity. New data centers are expected to nearly triple the sector's electricity demand by 2035.
AFL-CIO calls for ban on such labels to protect consumers and workers from surveillance pricing and job cuts
The universal adoption of electronic shelf labels in grocery stores across the US could cost tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in lost wages while further driving up grocery costs, according to a report released on Tuesday.
An analysis by the AFL-CIO Tech Institute of the label manufacturers’ own marketing materials found the universal adoption of electronic shelf labels, which are marketed to retailers as a cost-cutting measure, could cost workers between $1.6bn and $6.9bn in lost wages annually and affect between 44,223 and 191,633 jobs.
The government is putting class at the heart of its equalities agenda by creating a new unit that will make tackling white working-class inequality a priority.
The unit, which the minister for women and equalities, Bridget Phillipson, will announce on Wednesday, will sit within the Office for Equality and Opportunity and examine disparities linked to class and socioeconomic background across all ethnic groups.
NTSB investigators are set to interview the pilots of the Amazon cargo plane that crashed Sunday after overshooting a runway at Miami International Airport and killing five people on the ground.
Ben Shelton ended Carlos Alcaraz's title reign in the latest-finishing match in U.S. Open history, pulling out the victory in a marathon tussle that ended at 3:33 a.m. Wednesday.
Spanish Fort, Alabama — A federal Homeland Security Investigations agent who worked on child exploitation cases has been charged with multiple sex crimes involving an underage girl, Alabama authorities said Tuesday.
Kent Blacklidge, 43, surrendered to the Baldwin County jail on Sept. 5 after a grand jury indicted him on charges including first- and second-degree rape, sodomy and sexual abuse. The allegations stem from a child sexual abuse report filed Jan. 11, according to Spanish Fort Police Chief John Barber.
Blacklidge was placed on administrative leave by HSI after the investigation began. Authorities have not released detailed information about the alleged victim or the circumstances surrounding the accusations.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall called the case particularly troubling because Blacklidge’s federal duties included investigating child exploitation and educating the public about online predators.
“That’s why it’s so profoundly disappointing and frankly disgusting that we stand here today and tell you that we charged him,” Marshall said during a news conference.
The Alabama Attorney General’s Office is handling the prosecution because Blacklidge has served as a witness in cases involving the local district attorney’s office, creating a conflict that required recusal.
Blacklidge has been released on bond exceeding $350,000, according to officials. His release conditions include electronic monitoring, home confinement and orders barring contact with the alleged victim or anyone under 18.
The charges are allegations, and Blacklidge has not been convicted.
Kent Blacklidge, who officials say was ‘directly involved with child exploitation cases’, turned himself in last week
A federal law enforcement agent tasked with “trying to provide justice in cases involving kids” has been charged with child rape in Alabama, state authorities said on Tuesday.
Kent Blacklidge, described as a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), turned himself over to the Baldwin county jail on 5 September in connection with a grand jury indictment charging him with first- and second-degree rape, sodomy and sexual abuse, police in the city of Spanish Fort said in a statement.
Flock Security likes to describe its national private network of cameras and license plate scanners as a public safety boon. “I can think of no greater mission than rescuing our children,” tweeted Flock CEO Garrett Langley, sharing a promotional company video. “Another child rape suspect located and arrested with help from Flock,” chief strategy officer Rahul Sidhu posted last month. Last week, venture capital firm and Flock investor Andreessen Horowitz put the company’s benefits in civilizational terms: “Flock eliminates crime. Decline is a choice.”
Though Flock’s investors and executives insist its surveillance dragnet thwarts the most serious of crimes, it turns out police are also using the company’s technology to go after some of the pettiest possible offenses: curfew violations, loitering, and simply being homeless.
When police seek footage from Flock’s more than 120,000 cameras nationwide, they select a category of crime corresponding with the alleged offense they are investigating, such as hit-and-run or burglary. Among the choices is the supposed crime of being suspicious in public, formally categorized by Flock as “Curfew/Loitering/Vagrancy Violations.”
Records obtained from the police department in Plano, Illinois, reveal that law enforcement agencies nationwide have tapped into cameras in that small town — and thousands more cameras elsewhere — more than 1,200 times while investigating alleged “Curfew/Loitering/Vagrancy Violations.”
As this data set reflects only searches of Flock cameras operated by Plano police alone, this is assuredly just a tiny fraction of the total number of “Curfew/Loitering/Vagrancy Violations” investigations using Flock nationwide. Records hosted by the website Have I Been Flocked? — which aggregates such logs — show hundreds more of these loitering searches in other states.
The Plano searches were conducted by police departments throughout Illinois, from neighboring states, and from a Georgia town more than 600 miles away. Many queries were license plate searches pertaining specific vehicles; others show police surveilling people on foot for the crime of essentially standing suspiciously.
Flock did not respond to a request for comment.
Police in Norcross, Georgia, for example, conducted a smartphone-based search on January 31 with “Curfew/Loitering/Vagrancy Violations” as the stated justification. It tapped into data recorded by 6,098 different Flock camera networks, including Plano’s, each consisting of an untold number of separate cameras that surveilled anyone who moved past them.
The search logs obtained by The Intercept do not break out “Curfew/Loitering/Vagrancy Violations” separately, so it is unknown in each case what exactly police were searching for. In some cases police appended extra information; the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, for example, searched over 17,000 Flock cameras while investigating “Curfew/Loitering/Vagrancy Violations – Suspicious person at planned protest site.”
When asked about these queries, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Josh DeVine told The Intercept that the searches in fact originated with the state’s Tennessee Fusion Center, which is operated by both the TBI and the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. DeVine referred The Intercept’s questions to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Flock cameras have also been used to zero in on the homeless: Dave Maass, director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, shared Flock search data from the West Palm Beach Police Department with The Intercept that included a query pegged to an “outside agency dropping vagrant off” in the city.
In January, police in LaGrange, Georgia, searched more than 6,000 Flock networks on the basis that someone walked out of a house “with a significant amount of traffic.” Officers from the same agency earlier this year searched more than 15,000 Flock systems because of someone “lingering at a stop sign around midnight last night.”
In the data reviewed by The Intercept, most of these loitering searches didn’t include any corresponding case number, suggesting these queries were not part of broader criminal investigations. Some of the searches reviewed by The Intercept note a “suspicious” person spotted outdoors, without any additional justification for the dragnet.
Jay Stanley — a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union’s speech, privacy, and technology project — told The Intercept these searches indicate surveillance mission creep. “This is in line with what we see with these technologies sold on the basis of movie plot scenario, dramatic ‘saving the day.’ And yet when you look under the hood, they’re often used to nickel and dime people for the most prosaic offenses,” he said. “They become part of many departments’ over-policing.”
Loitering and vagrancy laws have an ignoble history across the country as pretextual statutes, many originating in the Jim Crow era, for the targeting of Black Americans guilty of nothing other than existing in public. Some of these laws have been struck down because of the extent to which they criminalize the most mundane behaviors: standing, walking, or simply hanging out. In 1972, the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional a Jacksonville, Florida, loitering ordinance targeting, among other things, “persons wandering or strolling around from place to place without any lawful purpose or object” and “habitual loafers.”
Stanley pointed out that any guardrails against abuse of Flock’s camera networks is entirely self-enforced by the company, which has an interest in police using it as much as possible, and self-oversight by the police themselves. “We know that police stations don’t seem to be doing this,” he added. “Most police departments are not really paying attention.”
Some European law enforcement agencies chasing leads spurred by information in the so-called Epstein Files say the U.S. Justice Department has not responded to their requests.
Cameron Stanley talks up ‘revolutionary’ AI capabilities and says Washington working with Nato and Five Eyes partners
The Pentagon’s top artificial intelligence official said on Tuesday that America’s closest allies lack the resources to keep pace with the US military’s adoption of AI, and that Washington is working to steer them away from mistakes it made along the way.
“They don’t have the resources that we do, they don’t have the experience that we do, they don’t have the scale that we do,” Cameron Stanley, chief digital and artificial intelligence officer at the Department of Defense, said at an event at the Billington Cybersecurity summit. Of Nato and the Five Eyes, an intelligence-sharing partnership of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Stanley said Washington was “actively working with a number of our partners” so “they don’t make the same mistakes that we make”.
Why Should Delaware? Reactions to a recently enacted affordable housing law have risen to the forefront of the state’s political conversation in recent months. Particularly in Sussex County, the legislation touches on residents’ concerns with overdevelopment and state encroachment on local control, generating a strong reaction from both municipal governments and candidates seeking office.
As Delaware’s primary election quickly approaches, a controversial affordable housing policy has become a flashpoint in Sussex County, dominating both closely watched primary races and local governments across the region.
Senate Bill 23, also known as the Housing for Every Delawarean Act, requires municipalities to adopt provisions aimed at increasing their affordable housing stock, including foregoing public hearings for some projects. The law has generated an outsized reaction in Sussex County compared to its northern counterparts.
This reaction has included Sussex County leaders calling the legislation “insidious,” and pausing public hearings on housing development proposals for an undetermined period of time. Some localities, including Lewes and Milton, have followed suit, also halting consideration of subdivision applications.
In addition to these government responses, the law has become a defining point of some of election campaigns, including a competitive Lewes-area statehouse Democratic primary and two Sussex County Council races.
Elected officials, candidates, political experts and residents have a number of explanations as to why SB 23 has overtaken the political conversation in Sussex County. But most reasons boil down to two topics consistently at the forefront of discourse within Delaware’s southernmost county: rapid development and local control.
“This directly affects Sussex County much more so than Kent and New Castle,” said Sussex County Administrator Todd Lawson, who has been vocal about his concerns with SB 23. “Sussex County is going to be different because we are the epicenter of growth.”
Others described the new law as the latest notch in the ongoing debate over local control between Sussex County and lawmakers in Dover, which flared in 2025 over an offshore wind project and continued this year when the General Assembly overrode a veto by Gov. Matt Meyer, doubling down on their requirement that the county loosen its stringent marijuana business regulations.
And while some local governments and candidates are laser-focused on SB 23, it is not clear whether county residents care as much about the legislation as the governmental actors.
Jill Hicks, a land use advocate who is running for Sussex County Council, said she has overwhelmingly run into residents who are worried about over-development and insufficient infrastructure rather than the nuts and bolts of who supports SB 23.
“When I’m knocking doors, nobody asks about it,” she said.
While the legislation’s long-term impacts on Sussex County remain to be seen, campaign yard signs calling for the repeal of the bill and elected officials’ comments criticizing its enactment continue to dominate the region’s political discourse.
The 20th district primary
In a Democratic primary in the historically competitive 20th Representative District, which encompasses Lewes and Milton, the election has become what some — including challenger Ruby Keeler Schaeffer — are describing as a referendum on SB 23.
Elected officials and residents in the area say the legislation has become a marquee issue because Lewes and Milton are where the heaviest development has taken place in recent years.
First-term Rep. Alonna Berry will look to defend her seat from challenger Ruby Keeler Schaeffer, the wife of a former county councilman and a local business owner. | PHOTOS COURTESY OF BERRY & SCHAEFFER CAMPAIGNS
Others, however, argue a more chicken-and-egg situation is taking place. Because Schaeffer has chosen to center her campaign on the measure, some say, it has taken center stage in the primary election discourse.
Incumbent Rep. Alonna Berry (D-Milton) was narrowly elected in a special election last August, following a tumultuous period for the district in which former Rep. Stell Parker Selby was absent from Dover for the entirety of the 2025 legislative session.
Berry, who co-sponsored SB 23, said she is not surprised the legislation has become a prominent topic this primary season because the affordable housing crisis has been such a “longtime conversation” in Sussex County.
Berry said she is standing by her support of the law despite the pushback from Schaeffer and other Sussex County leaders. At the same time, she said the “singular conversation” and focus on SB 23 is challenging because it obscures other issues residents care about, such as healthcare and roads.
Schaeffer has concentrated her campaign platform on her opposition to SB 23 in yard signs, social media posts and town hall forums. She describes the law as having stripped away “people’s rights to comment.”
When asked by Spotlight Delaware why she chose to focus her campaign platform on one specific piece of legislation, Schaeffer said she believes it should be the most important issue for all Delawareans at the moment.
“It is going to change the landscape of our state for years to come,” she said. “This affects every single county, every single property owner that is going to be affected by a development going in next to them.”
While Schaeffer was clear that her mission is to repeal SB 23 if elected, she did not respond to questions about whether she has an alternative affordable housing proposal.
The Lewes-Milton area has seen numerous housing developments built in recent years, which some said explains why the confusion over an affordable housing law — and what it means for future development — has generated such a reaction in the area.
Other leaders in the district, including former University of Delaware political science professor Joe Pika, who also runs the Sussex Preservation Coalition, said the 20th district is unique in that it is more of a “purple district” with a relatively even split between Democratic and Republican voters, making the SB 23 debate more fiery.
And to Lori Stuardi, a voter in the 20th district primary, the debate has become clogged with intentionally inflammatory information and blown out of proportion for how much voters actually care about SB 23 when choosing a candidate.
“There’s a lot of misinformation, and people are cherry-picking pieces just to kind of create some strife,” she said.
Sussex County Council reacts
While SB 23 is statewide legislation, the law has produced a notably strong reaction in Sussex County, largely due to what county officials described as the measure representing another example of Dover lawmakers trying to exert control over local decisions.
Differing opinions on the law have also come to define incumbent council members and their challengers in county council races this fall.
Lawson, the county administrator, said he has been frustrated with the legislation since its drafting, when he found out it was being circulated for co-sponsors and the county had not been consulted by lawmakers on how it would impact them.
“It didn’t really create a circumstance or an environment of collaboration,” he said. “It feels more like, ‘We’re going to tell you what to do, and we’re going to tell you how to do it.’”
Still, he said he does not believe the bill’s premise that a greater housing supply will bring down prices applies to Sussex County, and he is bothered by the “thread of concerns related to local control” that it represents.
County Council President Doug Hudson and Vice President John Rieley expressed similar sentiments about the legislation and the impact it will have on the county government’s authority.
“You’ve got a Democrat-controlled Senate that steamrolled a bill through,” said Rieley, a Republican who represents the Georgetown-Millsboro area. “This is a pattern of state government usurping local control.”
Democrats Justine Cuccia and Hicks, who are challenging Hudson and Rieley, respectively, in the county council election, said they entered the race for better development and infrastructure policy. They have a different reaction to the measure than their opponents.
Hicks, who serves in a leadership role within the Sussex Preservation Coalition, said she has concerns about the law stripping the county of its ability to conduct public hearings. But she said her approach would be different from her opponent, Rieley, in that she would more effectively advocate for how the county can move forward within the confines of SB 23.
“Sussex County got itself into this mess, but I think Sussex County needs to get itself out of it,” Hicks said.
The fabric of Sussex County
The confusion about what SB 23 really means and its impact on the development process has grown since Gov. Matt Meyer signed the legislation into law in July.
But the markedly strong reaction from political candidates and county leaders in Sussex County compared to New Castle and Kent points to key characteristics of the region, according to stakeholders.
Sen. Russ Huxtable (D-Lewes), the primary sponsor of SB 23, said he is not surprised by the response in Sussex County because the “pressure of development” is so pervasive throughout the area.
“Senate Bill 23 puts the mirror in front of our face and says, ‘We need to change,’” he said.
Michael Riemann (right), engineer with Becker Morgan Group, listens as the Sussex County Council on Sept. 16 discusses a development proposal brought by his client, Capano Management. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY OLIVIA MARBLE
Mike Riemann, an engineer and former president of the Delaware Homebuilders’ Association, said the county’s stronger response is, in part, a result of their current zoning codes being less strict.
This, he said, means Sussex County “has more work to do” than its northern counterparts to come into compliance with the law’s requirements.
Outside the implementation challenges, Sussex County historically has been the most conservative of Delaware’s three counties, with more Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly and a prevailing focus on low-spending and local control.
Pika, the former UD professor, said this aspect of Sussex County culture is the most compelling explanation as to why the opposition to the law is so prominent in the county.
“In the minds of many Sussex Countians, this is just another example of big brother upstate dictating what the lives of downstaters in Sussex should be like,” he said.
Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.
Why Should Delaware Care? Delaware’s hospitals are all nonprofits, meaning they don’t pay most taxes. But in recent decades, nearly all of the state’s hospitals have established for-profit insurance companies in the Cayman Islands, which some argue are used to avoid taxes.
A catheter left in a man’s jugular after he was shot, a missed diagnosis leading to a “permanent” neurological disorder and a botched surgery causing paralysis. These are just some examples of medical malpractice claims Delaware’s hospitals have settled in recent years.
Oftentimes, hospital lawyers will go through the motions: deny the claim, try to get it dismissed and then likely settle with the plaintiffs, rather than face a costly and revealing trial.
And when hospitals write checks to those allegedly harmed by their care, most would think the funds come from somewhere within their expansive and comprehensive budgets.
But for years, Delaware’s nonprofit hospitals have quietly operated secretive, for-profit insurance companies in the Caribbean, where they’ve stashed hundreds of millions of dollars for such legal payouts.
Hospitals also are able to reinvest profits from the insurance companies back into the health system without any real oversight. Typically, hospitals are required to invest their excess revenues back into the health system to advance their mission.
By sending regulated nonprofit revenues offshore, the hospitals are able to, in theory, bring those revenues back onshore as dividends to spend on what they choose.
“Once that money leaves the nonprofit, that restriction is gone,” said Jason Schupp, a lawyer who challenged the practice in Maryland. “That’s unrestricted money.”
The hospitals have established what are called “captive insurance companies,” which they use to pay out medical malpractice and worker’s compensation claims, domiciling them in the Cayman Islands.
The tiny British territory with fewer than 100,000 residents has been a boon for nonprofit hospitals’ captive insurance companies because it does not impose taxes on premiums or capital gains. Nothing about the practice is illegal, and it’s quite common for hospitals looking to insure their complex, risky businesses.
Hospital lobbyists in Maryland insisted that when a health system sends millions of dollars to what it reports is an insurance company, it is not actually purchasing insurance. Instead, they believe they are simply setting aside their revenues in the event of any payouts.
Schupp argues this claim is simply a way for hospitals across the country to skirt what would otherwise become hefty tax liabilities. Hospitals also have no incentive to domicile in the United States because of the taxes they can circumvent by remaining in the Cayman Islands, Schupp explained.
The Internal Revenue Service did not say if any Delaware captives or their parent hospitals have paid federal taxes that apply to foreign insurance companies covering United States organizations. State insurance authorities also declined to say whether the captives have paid state insurance taxes.
Nonprofit hospitals already receive enormous tax breaks. They pay next to no taxes annually, and at times, are able to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in excess revenues from their patient care alone.
Spotlight Delaware reached out to the five healthcare systems in the state that run captives with detailed questions about their operations. Many declined to answer questions about their tax liabilities, and one directed Spotlight Delaware to the state’s hospital lobbying organization.
TidalHealth, which is a regional health system that operates hospitals in Delaware and Maryland, said the assets in its captive insurance company are not simply unrestricted funds that can be used for any purpose.
Instead, they are used to pay claims that the hospital has already incurred, or are expecting to pay out soon. Additionally, the hospital system said it does not circumvent any federal taxes, and that it elects to be taxed as a U.S. organization.
“The captive’s Cayman domicile does not mean its income escapes U.S. taxation,” a spokesperson for the hospital said.
Brian Frazee, CEO of the Delaware Healthcare Association. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Brian Frazee, CEO of the Delaware Healthcare Association, declined an interview but offered a written statement defending the practice. He said that in recent years the cost of insuring hospital liabilities has grown, and hospitals make multi-year plans to make sure those risks are covered.
“A captive is an insurance company that a hospital owns to insure its own risks, with reserves set aside specifically to pay claims,” Frazee wrote. “It is a common, regulated approach used by health systems nationwide, and Delaware hospitals using captives do so under the same oversight as any other insurer.”
The companies fall under the regulations of the Cayman Monetary Authority, not the Delaware Department of Insurance, which regulates commercial insurance companies like Highmark and Aetna.
How much are hospitals sending offshore?
After reviewing the most recent tax returns for each of the state’s hospital systems, Spotlight Delaware only found one hospital that did not run an offshore insurance company – Beebe Healthcare in Lewes.
All the state’s other hospital systems, including ChristianaCare, Bayhealth, Nemours Children’s Health, Trinity Health, and TidalHealth, have captives domiciled in the Cayman Islands. In their tax returns, the hospitals claim these companies as “organizations taxable as a corporation or trust.”
Delaware’s hospital systems, excluding Trinity, control more than $257 million within their offshore captives, according to their most recent tax returns and financials. With Trinity included, that total jumps to more than $1.1 billion.
It’s important to note Trinity is a massive, national health system operating in 23 states, and that it established its captive in 1989, making it the longest-running of the group. The system operates St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington, but does not break out state-specific information in its tax returns.
The captives insure the hospitals for tens of millions of dollars each year, and allow the hospitals to purchase what is called reinsurance, which is an added layer of protection for its captive and liabilities, covering any liabilities that may exceed its insured limits.
Many of Delaware’s hospitals offered either no comment, or little response about their captives and tax positions. Some, like Bayhealth and Nemours argued in state bond filings their captives were exempt from certain local taxes under Cayman Islands laws.
Since forming its captive in 2019, ChristianaCare has amassed nearly $128 million in its insurance company. The hospital system offered little in the way of a response to questions about how it operates its captive and the taxes it may owe on its offshore transactions.
“ChristianaCare adheres to applicable laws and industry best practices in the operation of its captive insurance company,” a spokesperson for the hospital said.
Bayhealth in Kent County also formed its captive insurance company in the Cayman Islands and wrote in recent bond filings that its captive is not taxed on “premium and investment income.”
Since establishing the company in 2023, it has accrued $18 million in assets. Bayhealth sent Spotlight Delaware a nearly identical statement to ChristianaCare, and declined to answer questions about its tax obligations.
What taxes might they be on the hook for?
Delaware companies that offload their risk to insurers that are “not authorized to engage in the business of insurance in this state” are subject to a 3% self-procurement tax.
The Delaware Department of Insurance declined to comment on whether the state’s hospitals have paid any self-procurement tax in recent years, citing the offshore nature of the captives and disclosure rules.
A spokesperson for the department did say for captives domiciled in Delaware, a parent company’s nonprofit status does not exempt them from any of the state’s premium taxes.
Still, Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro said he was “disappointed” the state’s hospital systems have acted as “highly opaque entities.”
Delaware Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro said that more transparency is needed in the captive insurance market. | PHOTO COURTESY OF DOI
“We are supportive of efforts to improve transparency in their fiscal operations, especially given the substantive finances held by these so-called nonprofits,” Navarro said in a statement.
At the federal level, offshore captives have wiggle room in how they are taxed.
Ellen Sue Bernards, the executive vice president of HUB International, an insurance brokerage firm, told Spotlight Delaware captives are tested in their domiciles on two different fronts early in their formation: whether they qualify as an insurance company for regulatory reasons, and whether they qualify for tax reasons. She said in most cases with for-profit companies with captives, they want to qualify as insurance companies for both reasons, and will often elect to be taxed as a U.S. organization.
But for nonprofits, the goal is to qualify as an insurance company for regulatory reasons, but then argue that because they are not transferring enough risk, and “pre-funding for the losses,” the captive does not qualify as an insurance company for tax purposes. Each year, since their formation, however, Delaware’s hospitals have claimed their captives as “organizations taxable as a corporation or trust.”
Asked why the hospitals would do this, if the goal is to be viewed as nontaxable entities, Bernards said it’s on the parent company of a captive to be able to support and substantiate their tax position. Still, she added the IRS has “their right” to prod that position as it chooses.
Since most of the hospitals declined to answer questions from Spotlight Delaware about their tax positions, it is unclear if they believe their captives should be exempt from the federal income tax.
Only one hospital system answered questions about its captive’s tax position, TidalHealth, and said it elected to be treated as “a domestic corporation for federal tax purposes and is taxed in the United States on its worldwide income.”
As nonprofit hospitals, it is to be expected that a hospital would not calculate these taxes on their revenues done in service to patients. But it is unclear if the hospitals would owe taxes on revenues generated by their captives, such as dividends or returns made from investments.
Federal tax returns for the nonprofit hospital systems show that in the 2024 tax year, only two of those hospitals, Bayhealth and TidalHealth, paid the 21% federal income tax. Though it is unclear whether those taxes were tied to the captives or one of their many other for-profit enterprises and partnerships.
Bayhealth paid more than $2 million and declined to say whether those revenues were captive-related or part of one of its other for-profit enterprises. TidalHealth also paid $453,623 but said those revenues were separate from its captive.
A spokesperson for the hospital system said the captive files its own, separate tax returns. Spotlight Delaware was unable to view those tax returns because for-profit companies do not have to publicly release their tax returns in the same way that nonprofits do.
Nemours and ChristianaCare reported paying $0 in federal income taxes for that year.
IRS officials declined to say whether the hospital captives or their parent companies have paid any federal taxes, citing disclosure laws that prevent officials from discussing tax returns with outside parties.
Limited transparency in market
Schupp has worked as a lawyer and insurance industry expert for more than 25 years. Earlier this year, he accused Maryland’s hospital systems of gaming the state’s insurance premium laws.
His complaint led him to the Maryland General Assembly, where lawmakers examined whether the hospitals owed back taxes premiums they have written since the formation of their for-profit insurance companies.
Maryland lawmakers ultimately kicked the question a year down the road, passing a watered down bill that compelled the state to conduct a study on the “use, regulation, and taxation” of captive insurance companies.
Schupp told Spotlight Delaware he is not against captive insurance companies, but the industry is “extremely opaque.”
Little is consistent in how and at what level nonprofit hospitals report sending money outside the U.S. each year, he said. That makes it difficult for state taxing authorities to investigate any tax liabilities for hospital captives, he added.
Delaware’s hospitals declined to offer any type of argument as to whether they believe they owe taxes on their captives, but pieces of their reasoning can be found in Maryland.
In written comments submitted by the Maryland Hospital Association, a lobbying arm of the powerful American Hospital Association, the organization supported the amended version of the bill that called for a study into the use of captive insurance.
Representatives also pointed to additional use of the funds that differs from simply covering its liabilities. If claims aren’t paid out, the hospitals can reinvest their funds back into the system, a process Schupp said lacks any transparency.
Bernards said these transactions typically require approval from the captive’s insurance regulators, which in this case would be the Cayman Islands. She also said those regulators aren’t concerned with how the parent company spends its dividends, only that if it pulls the funds out, the captive would remain on stable financial footing.
During the hearing where lawmakers debated the bill, representatives from the Maryland Hospital Association also argued that when they send their money to the offshore captive, they are “not purchasing insurance.”
Schupp challenged that assertion, saying the hospitals make such an argument to avoid the tax liability that comes with being an insurance company.
“Because if they said it was to buy insurance, then they owe a bunch of tax,” Schupp said. “So then, why did you move that money if it wasn’t for the purchase of insurance?”
Photo illustration by ProPublica. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
The number of women who died after an ectopic pregnancy has spiked in recent years, a ProPublica analysis found. The mounting deaths in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data have drawn little scrutiny or response.
Such deaths typically occur in the first trimester, after a pregnancy fails to properly implant in the uterus and begins to develop elsewhere, most commonly inside a fallopian tube. The embryo grows until it causes the organ to rupture, triggering catastrophic bleeding.
With prompt and appropriate medical care, maternal health experts say, women should not die. Yet ProPublica’s analysis found a stark and baffling increase: Almost 200 women with the condition died from 2020 to 2025, compared with about 100 in the previous six years.
“A death related to ectopic pregnancy should really be a never event,” said Dr. Alice Abernathy, an OB-GYN in Philadelphia.
Deaths involving an ectopic pregnancy are presented as a rate within three-year intervals to meet data suppression thresholds. Source: ProPublica analysis of CDC WONDER multiple cause of death and natality data.Lucas Waldron/ProPublica
While chaos and access issues at hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic likely contributed to at least some of the deaths, the surge has persisted, raising serious questions about the role of the most significant disruption to maternal healthcare in the years since: state restrictions on abortion.
To treat an ectopic pregnancy, which is almost never viable, doctors must terminate it. But lawsuits and federal complaints have alleged that some medical providers are hesitating or flat-out refusing to do that in states where they face criminal penalties for performing an abortion. Patients described their terror.
“I genuinely thought I was going to die,” said Kyleigh Thurman, whose right fallopian tube ruptured after she struggled to get ectopic care in Texas in 2023.
“There were a few times I asked my husband if I was going to die,” Leitaea Lowrimore of Oklahoma said in a lawsuit after being denied treatment for an ectopic pregnancy at multiple hospitals in February. “I kept thinking about our kids.”
To determine whether these issues go beyond anecdotes, ProPublica analyzed the data collected from every state by the CDC to look for patterns. The analysis shows a growing divide for women in states with strict abortion bans compared with those without.
While the uptick in ectopic deaths occurred nationwide, the climb has been much steeper in states that banned abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Deaths involving an ectopic pregnancy are grouped into three-year periods to meet data suppression thresholds. States with abortion bans that begin at six weeks of pregnancy or earlier are considered to have a strict ban. For the list of states in each group, see the methodology. Source: ProPublica analysis of CDC WONDER multiple cause of death and natality data.Lucas Waldron/ProPublica
ProPublica shared its analysis with more than a dozen maternal health experts, including leaders in the field, who were unaware of the spike; early pregnancy complications are chronically underresearched.
While they cautioned that abortion bans alone can’t explain the national rise, maternal health experts said any examination of the spike should include the documented delays in care caused by the laws, including for ectopic pregnancies.
In Thurman’s case, despite clear signs of an ectopic pregnancy, two emergency departments sent her home without resolving the complication. Regulators in 2025 found that one of the hospitals, Ascension Seton Williamson, failed to properly screen Thurman for a suspected ectopic pregnancy and did not call in an OB-GYN, in violation of the hospital’s own policies and federal law that requires emergency departments to treat and stabilize patients before discharging them. Thurman has an ongoing lawsuit against Ascension Seton Williamson and the other hospital, Ascension Seton Highland Lakes, for medical malpractice.
Thurman had to have her fallopian tube removed after it ruptured. (Thurman is not related to Amber Thurman, who died in Georgia, which also has an abortion ban, after doctors delayed treating different pregnancy complications in 2022.)
“I’ve never been in a situation where I didn’t get healthcare when I needed it,” Thurman told ProPublica, comparing the condition to having “a time bomb you can’t control.”
A spokesperson for the Ascension Seton hospitals said in a statement, “When a patient experiences a serious or life-threatening condition during pregnancy, our clinicians provide medically indicated treatment, including treatment for an ectopic pregnancy.” The hospital has denied Thurman’s malpractice allegations in a court filing.
Ectopic pregnancies, while rare, have long been recognized as the leading cause of maternal deaths in the first trimester. The condition impacts up to 2% of pregnancies in the U.S. Because government agencies don’t require hospitals to track or report overall ectopic diagnoses, it is impossible to know whether the condition itself is becoming more common.
While rates for other pregnancy-related deaths also increased during the pandemic, those climbs have largely subsided.
Experts aren’t sure why ectopic deaths have continued to rise. Ectopic pregnancies are more common among older women, but the increase in deaths has been even more stark among younger women, the analysis showed.
Anti-abortion groups have suggested that the use of abortion pills prescribed online is leading to more undiagnosed ectopics because telehealth patients don’t receive an ultrasound. But studies havefound that ectopic rates are far lower among people who seek medication abortions than in the general population. Telehealth clinics ask questions that filter out patients at higher risk of ectopic pregnancy and follow up with those they treat to screen for symptoms, said Ushma Upadhyay, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies telehealth abortion administration.
Experts told ProPublica that more research is required to determine the role of the abortion bans in the rise of ectopic-related deaths. Many states with bans, which generally provide less Medicaid funding and coverage to low-income women, have long had poorer maternal outcomes. “It’s a real challenge to try and tease out one thing out of the array of factors that undermine women’s health in these states,” said Eugene Declercq, a public health researcher at Boston University.
But experts said ProPublica’s data analysis, along with stories about delays in ectopic care, underscores the need to find out what is driving the deaths.
“Reproductive health is unusual across medicine when we consider how swiftly policy changes affect the care patients can receive,” said Dr. Courtney Schreiber, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology.
Caitlin Myers, an economist at Dartmouth College who studies abortion policy, said the deaths should be investigated: “This is a potentially profound consequence of the regulation,” she said.
How Abortion Bans Interfere With Ectopic Care
Many state abortion bans include exceptions for ectopic pregnancies. But experts have worried that doctors are hesitating to offer treatment without an ironclad diagnosis, which clinicians say can take time and increase risks to the mother.
Ectopic pregnancy symptoms often begin with abdominal pain and bleeding, which send women to emergency rooms. There, doctors use ultrasounds to locate where the pregnancy has implanted.
However, embryos are often not visible on an ultrasound early in pregnancy. That could mean the pregnancy is ectopic, but it may also be a miscarriage or normal pregnancy that’s too small to see. Doctors can also assess whether the pregnancy is likely ectopic through blood tests over multiple days.
If the pregnancy is ectopic, the risk of rupture increases the longer treatment is delayed. In a state without a ban, a patient could decide at any point that that risk is not worth taking and opt to terminate the pregnancy.
In a state with a ban, however, that option may not exist. If doctors can confirm the pregnancy is ectopic through an ultrasound, they can protect themselves from having their decision to terminate questioned, perhaps by a zealous prosecutor. But waiting for this can delay treatment by days or even weeks.
“Seeing a mass is not the only reason to have high suspicion for an ectopic pregnancy,” said Dr. Rebecca Nerenberg, an emergency medicine doctor in New York and the clinical director at Access Bridge, which educates ER doctors on reproductive healthcare and has released evidence-based guidelines for diagnosing possible ectopic pregnancies.
Experts say that doctors should be able to offer treatment when other symptoms are present, such as plateauing pregnancy hormone levels, bleeding and abdominal pain. Patients can be treated with a procedure or a cancer drug that stops cells from growing.
But for women in states with abortion bans, getting that treatment can be difficult.
Lowrimore, who lives near the state border in Oklahoma, sought care at an Arkansas emergency department in February after experiencing abdominal pain and significant bleeding. She was sent home and told to return for more tests after being diagnosed with a “pregnancy of unknown location,” because an ultrasound could not show where her pregnancy had implanted, according to a lawsuit.
Lowrimore visited three different hospitals across both states over the following week as she began passing blood clots and the pain intensified, radiating up the left side of her body, according to the lawsuit.
The fact that the states’ abortion bans make exceptions for ectopic pregnancies did not help her, even though doctors acknowledged that was a possible diagnosis. In each visit, they didn’t treat her for that condition. One told her that intervening in her pregnancy could land him jail time — “10 years in the poky,” according to the suit. “I felt like my life was a risk he couldn’t afford,” she said in the lawsuit filing.
After consulting a lawyer, Lowrimore finally drove to a hospital in Kansas, where abortion is legal, and got an injection of the cancer drug called methotrexate within hours of arrival.
Lowrimore’s lawsuit, in which an OB-GYN and six women who were denied care are seeking to block the Arkansas abortion ban, is ongoing. Lowrimore also filed complaints under the same emergency medicine law as Thurman against the three hospitals. Regulators cited Mercy Hospital in Fort Smith, Arkansas, for failing to provide care during the eight hours Lowrimore waited to be seen. The other two hospitals were not found to have violated that law, and they did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for Mercy Hospital declined to comment on the case, saying that, “in tragic situations when a mother suffers from an urgent, life-threatening condition during pregnancy, Mercy provides all medically indicated treatment to save her life.”
Many experts predicted that ordeals like the ones Lowrimore and Thurman described would occur when abortion bans took effect. To see if more women with ectopic pregnancies are experiencing severe health outcomes, ProPublica analyzed hospital data from Texas, the most populous state to ban abortion.
In this new analysis, ProPublica found that 310 more patients in Texas experienced substantial blood loss after an ectopic pregnancy in 2023 and 2024 compared with 2018 and 2019, an increase of about 29%. Similar to ectopic deaths, the rise appeared to begin during the COVID pandemic, but the rate of complications remained elevated after hospital systems stabilized and the state passed its restrictive law. ProPublica is working to acquire similar data from states without abortion bans.
But new guidance from the Texas Medical Board includes only a case study with an ectopic pregnancy that can be seen in an ultrasound, remaining silent on the difficulty of early ultrasounds to detect where a pregnancy has implanted. This leaves open the possibility that a prosecutor could question whether such a case was really ectopic, in a state where doctors face up to 99 years in prison for performing illegal abortions.
A spokesperson for the Texas Medical Board said the course is not intended to cover all scenarios and that it “explains that imminent harm is unnecessary and specifically states that physicians who follow evidence-based medicine, standard emergency protocols, and proper documentation face minimal risk.” Asked whether a conclusive ultrasound image is necessary for an ectopic diagnosis, the spokesperson said, “The Board has consistently stated that providing commentary on every possible situation would be impractical.”
But Michelle Maloney, an attorney who represents Thurman and 13 other Texas women or their families who say they were denied care — including seven with ectopic pregnancies — said she still gets frequent calls from women who say they were denied care for pregnancy complications. “I don’t think specific exemptions address the massive gray areas that arise in pregnancy,” she said.
Solutions are unlikely to come from the states themselves. A previous ProPublica investigation found that states with strict bans are not studying whether their laws are contributing to maternal deaths. And others have not followed Texas in attempting to amend their bans.
Gaps in Research, Training and Awareness
One of the biggest challenges to reducing ectopic pregnancy deaths nationwide is the lack of awareness, research and data.
No one, for example, is tracking whether women who experienced ectopic pregnancies also had one or more common risk factors, like a history of ectopic pregnancies, infertility or use of hormonal intrauterine devices, according to ProPublica’s review of maternal health statistics and interviews with experts.
Nor has any published research addressed the connection between recent ectopic pregnancy death rates and untreated infections like gonorrhea and chlamydia, which increased substantially during the first years of the pandemic before declining again. Those infections can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, which causes fallopian tube scarring and raises the long-term risk of developing an ectopic pregnancy.
It is unclear why the CDC and other federal agencies across two administrations have failed to publicly respond to the increase in deaths despite having access to the same information ProPublica analyzed. But experts say the country’s capacity to respond to it has been greatly reduced under President Donald Trump.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, told Congress in April that improving maternal health outcomes is a priority. But the Trump administration has eliminated much of the staff devoted to researching the topic and cut hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding for healthcare research.
The CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health, for example, lost most of its 100 employees, according to a lawsuit filed by more than a dozen states’ attorneys general last year. The entire team that ran the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, a significant source of data for state and local governments as well as maternal health researchers, is on paid administrative leave. That includes many researchers who would have been responsible for investigating the rise in ectopic pregnancy deaths, according to current and former CDC employees.
“You’re losing the capacity to know what’s going on with pregnant women,” Lee Warner, the former chief of the Women’s Health and Fertility Branch at the CDC, said of the cuts at the division. “It’s going to take decades to build this capacity back.”
Funding cuts have also impacted efforts to raise awareness about the condition. Because ectopic pregnancies usually cause complications before standard prenatal care begins around 10 weeks, patients often rely on emergency departments, where doctors don’t typically have specialized training in pregnancy care. Experts say more training on high-risk early pregnancy conditions could help combat rising maternal mortality rates.
The CDC in 2025 also stopped funding a partnership with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to educate emergency medicine doctors about reproductive healthcare. The initiative, “Obstetric Emergencies in Nonobstetric Settings,” offers resources for emergency departments on caring for pregnant patients with cardiovascular disease, hypertension and eclampsia. An ACOG spokesperson said its foundation now funds the project, and that the organization is working on a set of guidelines for diagnosing and managing tubal ectopic pregnancies in the emergency department.
A spokesperson for HHS said the agency continues to track maternal mortality trends, investigate their causes and provide funding for research. “This important work is being accelerated across the Department to support healthy mothers, healthy babies, and strong families,” the spokesperson said.
The United Kingdom’s response to a similar spike in ectopic deaths during the pandemic shows just how much the U.S. is failing to do.
Researchers and officials there identified a surge in deaths in 2021 and 2022 in the U.K. and Ireland; 12 women died of an ectopic pregnancy during those years, which, as in the U.S. during this period, represented a near doubling of the death rate compared with previous years.
They investigated the causes and found a range of culprits, including overstretched emergency services and inadequate early pregnancy screenings, says Marian Knight, a professor at the University of Oxford who leads the U.K.’s maternal mortality reporting.
In 2024, Knight co-authored a maternal mortality report that focused on those deaths and offered policy recommendations. Knight worked with policymakers and a U.K. charity to raise awareness and help doctors and the general public recognize ectopic pregnancy symptoms. Officials also changed how patients experiencing ectopic pregnancy symptoms are prioritized when they call for an ambulance, leading to faster response times.
But the first step, said Knight, was identifying and investigating the issue. “If we’re not tracking and not just understanding the numbers, but understanding the why behind the numbers, we have no ability to respond,” Knight said.
The U.S. doesn’t do national maternal mortality reviews, said Boston University’s Declercq, who serves on the Massachusetts Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee. Instead, CDC epidemiologists review death and birth records to establish accurate national totals of pregnancy-related deaths, largely leaving state and local maternal mortality committees to take an in-depth look at individual cases and make recommendations to lawmakers and medical providers.
Declercq said his committee has not identified a notable increase in deaths from ectopic pregnancies in Massachusetts in recent years. In most states, these deaths are sporadic enough that they don’t, in isolation, show a notable trend.
It’s only at the national level that this increase in avoidable deaths becomes visible.
ProPublica’s analysis “raises concern that young women are dying from a preventable cause at an increasing rate,” Schreiber, the professor of OB-GYN, said. “That is not what we should be seeing in the United States of America.”
What to learn from Russia's State Duma elections
22
September 2026 — 17:00 TO 18:00 BST
Anonymous (not verified)
Chatham House and Online
Following Russia’s parliamentary vote, experts assess what the results reveal about Russia’s future direction and the durability of President Putin’s system.
Following Russia’s parliamentary vote, experts assess what the results reveal about Russia’s future direction and the durability of President Putin’s system.
Russia’s September State Duma elections will take place as the war against Ukraine continues to reshape the country’s politics, institutions and elite structures. The elections are unlikely to produce major political change, but they offer a valuable window into the evolution of Vladimir Putin’s system, revealing important trends in regime stability and public attitudes.
The event discusses:
What do the election results reveal about the state of Putin’s regime?
How is the war reshaping Russia’s politics and governance?
Do the elections signal renewal within Russia’s political elite?
What role remains for opposition voices in Russian politics?
What role are war veterans beginning to play in Russia’s political system?
What do the elections reveal about public attitudes towards the war and governance?
Historically a new Grand Theft Auto game inspired controversy around violence – but this time people are getting exercised about its romance
There was never any doubt that Grand Theft Auto VI’s extended look would elicit a viral reaction from the internet. Having won the Game Awards’ Most Anticipated award twice consecutively, Rockstar’s forthcoming crime opus is one of the most frothed-over games in recent memory, or indeed ever. It’s nothing short of a cultural phenomenon.
One aspect of the game has provoked an unexpectedly vehement response on social media: not violence, but romance. Protagonists Lucia and Jason are in love, you see, and as a player, part of your job is keeping their spark alive and their relationship strong, so that their criminal escapades are underpinned by a strong connection to one another. Holding hands, enjoying a date at the beach, spontaneously texting one another when apart – all of these interactions will strengthen their bond. You’ll be putting in a lot of work to ensure this couple thrives, which is why some people have come to believe that playing GTA VI counts as micro-cheating.
Spotlight Delaware reporter Maggie Reynolds recently spoke with Bryan Shupe and Patrick Smith, who are seeking the Republican nomination for House District 36 in Delaware in the Sept. 15, 2026, primary election.
Shupe is a four-term incumbent who will be looking to defend his seat from Smith, an IT and finance worker who narrowly lost to the incumbent two years ago.
The winner of their primary will face Democrat Andy Gorlich in the November general election.
Readers can find condensed versions of the candidates’ answers below, while the accompanying podcasts feature unedited excerpts from our conversations.
Rep. Bryan Shupe
What should people know about your campaign this time around, and why do you believe you’re well-suited to represent the 36th District for another term?
I think my campaign represents everything that I’ve continued to run on.
But I think it’s a little bit different this year because I have really increased the presence of social media and allowing people to see behind the closed doors in Dover of what goes on, not only when a bill is introduced, but on a daily basis.
I’ve done that through my social media presence on Mr. 302. So allowing them to see what the daily process is, how bills are formed, what individuals on both sides of the aisle are thinking about different bills and how they work through the process. A lot of people have reached out to me and said they really appreciate seeing bills from the level of just an idea going through the committees, going on the House floor, and then being signed into law. What that actually takes. Who are the proponents and opponents of the law so they can get involved themselves.
When you say “getting people involved,” do you mean by they comment on a social media post or write into you? Or how do you get more constituents involved in that process?
One of the ways that I reach out is social media, but in doing that, people reach out to me in person, when they see me in my small businesses or on the street.
They also come up to Legislative Hall. They reach out to me by email, by text, all the traditional ways as well.
But social media has been that outlet for me to share exactly when people should get involved. And it’s a much earlier stage than people really think, that they should be contacting their representatives.
If you’re reelected going into this legislative session, what would be your primary legislative priorities?
My legislative priority really is to reduce the financial burden that has been placed on individuals within our communities. The prices of electricity, but also groceries and gas, continue to rise.
And a lot of the majority party continue to blame the federal government, but there are so many things that we can do here at the state level in order to decrease spending and increases on our side here in the state of Delaware.
The first is spending. In the last six years, there has been an increase of spending by the majority party of 42% percent, while only seeing a 22% increase of taxpayer money coming in the door. So it’s reckless spending; it’s unsustainable. I know as a small business owner, I can’t spend more than is coming in the door because I won’t be able to survive.
Another thing is we need to lower personal property taxes for individuals and personal income taxes for individuals, because when people have more of their own money to spend, then they will spend it in their local economy.
And I think a lot of people are waking up to see that without those spending limits and without that reduction for individuals’ taxes, that we’re not gonna make it out of this.
Are there specific areas where you would look to cutting spending?
There are many places that can be cut.
The first thing is that there are hundreds of positions within the state of Delaware that haven’t been filled for almost a decade that continue to be paid for and just revolve into the general fund.
We need to get down to the root causes of what’s allowing people to stay on Medicaid year after year to reduce the cost to the state.
There’s also an increase in spending on education, and that doesn’t mean cutting the cost for teachers, but it means cutting out some of the fat of administration. We continue to spend more and more every single year. They’re calling for an increase in $2 billion in our education system, yet the proficiency rates are continuing to decrease. We have 60% of our kids in public schools who can’t read at a proficient level for their grade level, and over 70% can’t do math on a grade level.
So we need to look at not only where do to cut, but how can we spend in a smarter way? What is working? And how can we spend more in the ways that are working, and how can we decrease in the ways that are creating dependency for people?
Last year, you were the only House legislator to vote against both the bondand operating budgets. You also frequently vote against Democrat-introduced legislation, often citing that you’re voting in the interests of your constituents.
Republicans are in the minority now, and likely will be in 2027. How do you balance voting for what your constituents want with also getting things done given the makeup of the State House right now?
I think you work with the majority party when it is good for the state of Delaware, but they may be doing pet projects that may be good for a few people within their district, but it’s not good for the majority of Delawareans.
For example, the bond bill. I think this came out of an article that I saw out in Spotlight Delaware, where there was $40 million that was spent in New Castle County, throughout the bond bill, but not a single municipality in Kent or Sussex County received any money.
We cannot spend on pet projects when you literally have things like infrastructure that’s not being paid for down here.
But I would assume if you wanted to get something passed that provides more spending to Kent or Sussex counties you would need to reach across the aisle to get the necessary votes. So how would you approach creating bipartisan legislation or getting some of those priorities passed given the makeup in Dover?
I’m not a horse trader. I won’t be a politician who says, “Hey, you vote for this bill, and I’ll vote for your bill.” I don’t think that’s the right way to go about it. The way that I reach across the aisle, and I’ll give you a perfect example of this, is really coming up with, authoring bills that I think are the right thing to do.
And I go across the aisle, and I’m able to garner that support. One of those was with HB 113. It was a bill that stopped taxpayers from funding pensions for convicted child abusers who were in our education system. We had Democrats who refused to vote for that bill.
But I reached across the aisle to Rep. Kim Williams, who’s the education chair, and she helped me get the votes necessary to get that out of committee. I think if you have a bill that is right for the right reasons, you will get individuals across the aisle.
You don’t need to forego your values.
Senate Bill 23 was a kind of big topic of discussion at the end of this past year’s session, and also in the lead up to the election this November. What are your thoughts on SB 23 and balancing affordable housing production and also farmland preservation and development?
SB 23, in my opinion, is the perfect example of smoke and mirrors. It calls for more building of affordable housing, yet there is not really a definition of affordable housing. It doesn’t have a price tag in it. It doesn’t have any definition of workforce housing that this would be for nurses or teachers or any of that.
Really, all it does is call for higher density. I think it calls for eight units per acre for 20% of a comprehensive plan. So it allows for developers to have more density without actually having regulations on what that affordable housing looks like.
It also pulls back the community-involved, public process of what they see, how many times they see those neighborhoods throughout the planning process. So I think it’s a really bad decision.
We don’t have enough infrastructure, we don’t have enough emergency services, and we definitely don’t have enough healthcare in order to facilitate and handle all the growth that’s going on right now.
Do you have thoughts on other legislation that would increase affordable housing that you think would work better?
I’m always am a proponent of working alongside nonprofits that know what they’re doing.
We have a nonprofit in Milford called Milford Housing Development Corporation. It is similar in a lot of ways to Habitat for Humanity, where they take families, help them through the process. They put in sweat equity to build their house, then they teach them financial literacy as well to know what homeownership really is, and they help them with the bank.
Now, one of the pieces of legislation that I’ve been working on is called a risk loan pool, and I’ve discussed it with Delaware State Hosing Authority before, but I’m formally writing a bill now. A risk loan pool means that instead of writing checks for $10,000 to $20,000 to pay for that initial down payment, the state of Delaware will actually take on a small portion of risk, say 5%, to local community banks.
That means that they can help a lot more people, but it also means it doesn’t artificially inflate the prices in the market. So the housing prices stay stable, and they also can help people who will be just outside of that risk limit for local banks in order to get into homes.
The Milford area is growing quickly and has seen a number of small businesses pop up in the city. I know you’re also a small business owner. So, what would your approach be to representing the needs of small businesses in Dover?
No. 1, stop raising LLC fees and also any fees to start up a business.
I also want to connect [entrepreneurs] them with other small businesses in order to learn about marketing, purchasing, following regulations, etc.
I would also like to see a reduction in the gross receipts tax.
Many people don’t know what that is, but it’s basically like a hidden sales tax on the businesses themselves. It’s a tax that small businesses pay to the state of Delaware on how much money they bring in the door before they’re even allowed to take off any of their debts.
That is really hurting small businesses right now, and they have to pass it along to the consumers in higher prices.
So is removing the gross receipts tax something you’d propose?
The minority caucus [Republicans] has tried to remove it, I think for the last eight years that I’ve been there, and it has gotten no traction at all.
Again, the, majority party has said, “Hey, we’ll lose revenue for the state of Delaware.”
We keep reminding them that with more money in their pocket, these small business owners are going to be able to hire more people, they’re gonna be able to get more inventory, they’re gonna sell more, and at the end of the day, you’re going to collect more taxes.
Patrick Smith has run against you in the primary in 2022 and 2024. Last time, you narrowly defeated him by 12 votes. What would you say differentiates you from Smith? And how are you approaching this primary against him once again, given that it was very close two years ago?
I would say two things. No. 1 is funding. Who’s funding our campaigns? You can go look at that on the State of Delaware website for campaign finance.
He is funded by developers in the area. They do not like me because I had a bill that made developers pave their roads before they left a project.
I’ve also introduced legislation for impact fees for developers, that new growth has to pay for new growth. They need impact fees for EMS and first responders, for schools, and for infrastructure. So they’ve been after me for a while because they don’t want anyone to help hold them accountable to the people who live here.
No. 2, I have a record that people can look at. So whether it’s talking about spending, fighting for Second Amendment rights, or about voting conservatively, you can look at my record and see that that’s true. It’s not a campaign promise.
Even though we won by 12 votes, I really took that as a loss.
I thought not enough people knew what was going up in Dover because I feel like if they did, they would see how hard I was working as their voice, as their representative. So over the last two years, I’ve really leaned into helping people see what’s going on in Dover.
Patrick Smith
This is your third time running for the state representative seat. So some voters in the 36th district may already familiar with you, but for voters who might not be, can you give us some background about yourself?
Sure. I’m 40 years old. I was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, where I stayed for just a very short period of my life, mainly just as an infant before relocating to Milford, Delaware.
I lived in Shawnee Acres in Milford for a while. At about age 8, I moved to Dover to be closer to my parents’ jobs – they both worked at the courthouse in Dover.
I worked at Bayhealth for about eight years, after leaving the state. And while at the state, I was a child abuse investigator for Department of Family Services. Clearly, that wasn’t the field that I wanted to be in, so that’s when I went and got my MBA in 2014 and found a job with Bayhealth in their finance department.
I later got into the IT department, and to this day, I still work in the same field. I basically would call it medical informatics. I work on a computer every day. I work with high-level executives doing financial reporting and system build, and I enjoy it. It’s a challenge, and I’ve been doing that for 10 years now.
I got into politics back around 2014, right around when Trump was getting into it. And, things have changed with Trump, obviously, over the decade. But, that’s what got me interested and fired up and, kind of an organic transition for me to where I am today in 2026.
Did you run for office in some capacity before 2022, or just kind of got engaged in politics more generally?
I was more into an activism-type capacity, including through the Sussex County Young Republicans.
I was a member of several sportsmen associations, like the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association, the largest gun rights organization in the state of Delaware. I was a member of Ducks Unlimited.
I’m a big outdoor sportsman, so I’ve always been really concerned about my Second Amendment rights.
As time went on, I kind of got approached in 2021 about running for state representative. I don’t actually live in the town of Ellendale, so I’m restricted to either running for a countywide seat or for a state seat.
Why have you decided to continue running for the seatafter two prior campaigns?
Honestly, it’s the support I’ve gotten from people. I don’t think I would’ve come back and done it again if not for the amount of people that supported me and were regretful that it was such a close race.
I’m just kind of trying to do this to get things back to the middle here in District 36 and just try to make a difference that I can locally and go to Dover and at least roll up my sleeves and bring home a little more productivity than we’ve been seeing in the last eight years.
So what would you describe as your top campaign priorities?
Obviously the cost of living in Delaware has gone way up. The cost of housing is absolutely crazy.
I’m not gonna sit here and say that I have some fancy policy or some arithmetic that’s gonna solve it all overnight, but these are things that I definitely think that need to be at the forefront instead of the two parties being so polarized on other topics. Everyone suffers from the cost of living. Everyone suffer from the cost of energy and housing.
I think a lack of jobs in Delaware is a big issue, especially in Sussex County. That’s one thing I know just being 40 and working class. There’s no really no jobs down here.
I’m a volunteer firefighter in Ellendale, so I’m a big supporter of our first responders. I definitely think that as a volunteer organization, we need as much help as we can get for police, fire, and EMS.
This is something that is needed every single day, at the drop of a hat. So it’s definitely important to make sure that it’s top quality.
You mentioned like, cost of living, more jobs, more infrastructure. Those are issues we hear from a lot of candidates, but how would you say your policy platform is different than Rep. Shupe?
Well, we might have the same policy platform, but Rep. Shupe has had eight years to make a difference.
And I can honestly tell you, and I know a lot of people that I speak to at the doors will tell you that nothing has changed in this district in eight years. So it doesn’t really matter to me what’s on paper. That’s really what Bryan Shupe likes to harp on: what’s on paper.
I plan on using the platform to go out and actually recruit jobs here, work with the county, work with the city, and try to bring people into these different areas where people are looking for jobs.
I think that we’re wasting the resources there if we’re just gonna go to Dover and report on what legislation is getting passed or not passed and put it on a website. Meanwhile, people are struggling every day to get jobs and find a place to work.
So I think there’s definitely a lot of things that need to be addressed and not just written on paper. That’s what I try to tell people.
The job isn’t to report back to the citizens on what’s going on in Dover. The job is to actually get things accomplished.
In an overwhelmingly DemocraticGeneral Assembly, Republican lawmakers are sometimes criticized for just voting against legislation without building enough bipartisan support to get their own legislation passed. So how would you balance voting forwhat your constituents want while also reaching across the aisle to get legislation through?
Well, I definitely think there is common ground with the Democrats and Republicans in some facets. You will get some very hard-nosed Republicans that might alarm, but there are cost of living concerns, there’s public safety concerns, there’s jobs.
Everybody works. Everybody’s got to buy a house. It doesn’t matter what party you’re from. And when you run your whole campaign on “It’s the Democrats’ fault,” like a lot of what Bryan Shupe does, you can’t expect to go to Dover and have a lot of friends.
I run my campaign on what Bryan Shupe hasn’t done in eight years, and Bryan Shupe runs his on why he didn’t do it, and it’s because of the Democrats. So to me, that’s an example of how you burn bridges before you even get to Legislative Hall.
So, if elected, how would you approach making connections and getting to know people in Dover when you haven’t served in the legislature before?
I think it’s just starting with where do we connect and where do we intersect? I’m not gonna start with, “Well, I wanna repeal every gun law that was ever signed into law in Delaware. This ticks me off, and I want this.”
And I think there’s some topics that are really hard to go by in this state.
Our education system’s very politicized, and it makes a lot of people a lot of money. So it’s tough to go to somebody’s door and say, “Elect me, I’ll change the education system. I’ll get our gun rights back.” But I think there’s a lot of things you can sit down and say, “Well, where do we intersect on things, and how can we ensure that we’re giving everybody the best quality of life?”
And I think if you get out in the community and you’re talking to people and you’re saying, “Well, you’re a Republican and I’m a Democrat, but you want to lower your cost of living. You want a safe community. You like to have a good job.”
I mean, that’s where you start. That’s why they call it grassroots.
That’s why they call me a grassroots politician; it’s because I don’t really get into the party’s politics. I stick to what the people in neighborhoods think.
I saw on your Facebook page that you call yourself a “conservative citizen running for office.” Why do you choose that description?
Probably just piggybacking what I kind of just said was I don’t really consider myself a politician. I don’t really get into party politics.
The party chooses who they want to support, and that’s fine. But last year proved when I beat their supported candidate at the polls, you don’t have to be supported by anybody.
You can just go out, meet people, knock on doors, and people will come out and support you. That’s really what matters. We live in a republic where people vote, and for me, the most important thing is being in front of the people and not asking people to come to you.
It’s not partisan. It’s everybody’s in the same room. So I think that’s really something I found to be one of my biggest assets.
Your district is among the line of hotspots for development in Southern Delaware. What would your approach be to growth and development versus preserving farmland and forests?
Well, I think that the state holds a lot of the leverage when it comes to preservation and what to do at the forestry level. For me, I think that’s kind of our lane and try to stay competitive in terms of what’s the market for land.
And I’ve been told that that’s one of our biggest hurdles right now is that the state can’t be competitive with what developers are offering private landowners. So that’s why a lot of this land ends up going to developers, because the state might offer $1 million and the developer can offer $5 million.
So, developers have deeper pockets. I think it’s better for us to focus on what we can help. How can we help to preserve land by making it the best-case scenario for the landowners and the communities and let the sprawl planning and what goes where up to the local municipalities.
I think that’s something we can help at the state level.
Another commonly raised issue in the Milford area is traffic and lack of infrastructure to match the growing population. How would you address these issues?
Yeah, I mean, similarly, at the state level, it’s important to have relationships with the different entities that maintain these infrastructures.
I think my opponent has shown that he doesn’t have a great relationship with DelDOT, for example. That’s the team we want to be a part of if we’re trying to make sure the roads are improved and getting these projects done for people,
So I think maintaining good relationships at the state level with the different entities that are going to help us improve this infrastructure is important to me. Listening to what the citizens are saying. It’s important to put the money where the people want it.
You’ve run against Shupe twice in the past, and last time you narrowly lost the primary by just 12 votes. So how is your campaign strategy different this time around?
I’ve honestly just been doing the same exact strategy that I did. It wasn’t really a strategy. It was just organically who I am and what I do. Just trying to stay in front of the constituents, meet the constituents, knock on as many doors as I can, go to the events that people invite me to, and make sure I show up.
When I say I’m gonna show up, I show up. I’m on phone calls. I’m on text messages. People text my campaign line, and I text them back. I speak to them. And I’m never afraid to talk about issues. So, if something comes up and it’s not something that we agree on, I might just have to tell them we don’t agree on it, but I’m not going to tell them to their face something that’s gonna get me a vote and then, go back on that after I’m elected.
And I think that’s my opponent’s issue right now is that he’s trying to walk back a lot of the promises he’s made and hasn’t kept. I don’t have that voting record to defend, so I’m a fresh slate. I’m a hard worker, and I’m ready to just get in there and get to work, and I think a lot of people understand that.
The president's fight with our neighbor to the north — a constant over the course of his second term with a focus on trade — has turned ugly in recent weeks.
Ed Miliband has rejected warnings from the UK’s chief rabbi that the government’s sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements will make British Jews less safe, as he emphasised ministers can confront the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government while also fighting antisemitism.
The foreign secretary announced sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Tuesday, with the government taking the position that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory was unlawful.
An import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories and a new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”.
A comprehensive sanctions regime against providing services such as construction or financing for Israeli settlements and a ban on advertising them in the UK.
Personal sanctions against the main individuals accused of promoting settler violence.
A new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”.
Sports is the rare topic in which the president has succeeded in shifting the conversation to his preferred terms
Lately, it seems Donald Trump’s scope of interests has narrowed to a few things: remaking downtown Washington DC in his gaudy image; wars he thinks he can win quickly and easily, even though he can’t.
Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now. He teaches at Marist University.
Fred Steese, outside the Nevada Supreme Court following his successful pardon hearing in 2017 David Calvert for ProPublica
I’d like to tell you about Fred Steese, who died in August of cancer at 62. When I first met Fred, he was living hand to mouth in a seedy motel on the outskirts of Las Vegas. He had been released from prison a couple of years earlier and struggled to find stable housing and a job, because — on paper, at least — Fred appeared to be a convicted murderer.
In 1995, Fred was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Gerard Soules — a former trapeze artist who had a dancing poodle show at a Las Vegas casino — even though prosecutors had evidence that he was hundreds of miles away at the time. He then spent 21 years in prison before a judge declared him innocent.
In Fred’s case, he told me he thought his ordeal was finally ending when the judge uttered the words “factually innocent” during a court hearing in 2012. Instead, Las Vegas prosecutors insisted he was guilty, that they had not made a mistake all those years ago and that they would retry him for Soules’ murder.
But then they dangled a deal: Fred could walk away now, if only he would agree to plead guilty.
The offer was something I, and a lot of lawyers I talked to, had never heard of. It’s called an “Alford plea,” and it allows someone like Fred to assert for the record that they are innocent but agreed the state might be able to convict them anyway. Experts told me some prosecutors around the country were using the obscure plea as a tool to thwart exonerations.
Fred took the deal. He felt he couldn’t face the uncertainty of another trial and the additional time it would rob from him.
Fred had only 13 years of freedom before he died.
Steese and his lawyer, Lisa Rasmussen, left, and Kathy Nasrey, before his pardon hearing in 2017. Steese served more than 20 years for the murder of Nasrey’s brother, a crime Steese didn’t commit.David Calvert for ProPublica
In June, he went into the hospital for a hernia operation, and when he wasn’t healing like he should, the doctors discovered a large mass on his liver and another on his pancreas. It was stage 4 cancer. By August, he was in hospice, and he died on Aug. 8.
When I heard, it felt like the universe had dealt Fred yet another injustice. Fred did see a measure of accountability, and I can appreciate as an investigative reporter the rarity of that being the case at all. But I’m sobered that his death means he spent more time fighting to clear his name than he got to enjoy his freedom. He deserved 40 more years.
In late 2017, with the help of a tireless pro bono lawyer who worked his case for years, Fred was fully and unconditionally pardoned by the state of Nevada. His record was finally cleared after 22 years.
Fred bought a pickup truck, a Mustang and his very own big rig; his lifelong dream was to be a long-haul trucker.
He didn’t manage to keep the money for long, though. Fred, who’d been in and out of foster homes as a child, spent much of his life outside prison without reliable structure, much less a budget. He was a drifter. He also struggled with drug use. At one point, Fred was swindled out of upward of $15,000 when someone pretended to be the owner of a house for sale that Fred wanted to buy.
Fred’s most marked characteristic was his cheerfulness. He was an easy laugh, and his good-humored resourcefulness quickly endeared him to those he met.
“He’d give you the shirt off his back, even if he didn’t have another one,” his sister, Lynn Myers, told me.
Ryan Norwood, the federal public defender who proved Fred’s innocence, told me he wished Fred had had more time. “But he got to live his dream of being a truck driver and to live his life on his own terms for better or worse.”
Myers hadn’t seen Fred since childhood, but the two reunited after he was exonerated, and the relationship was a rare touchpoint in Fred’s otherwise transient life. Fred’s ashes will rest in a handmade wooden box at Myers’ home in California.
“Maybe now,” she said, “he’s driving big rigs for God.”
Steese following his pardon hearing in 2017. “He’d give you the shirt off his back, even if he didn’t have another one,” his sister said.David Calvert for ProPublica
North Korea’s military partnership with Russia has consequences far beyond UkraineExpert commentthilton.drupal
North Korea is emerging as Russia’s reserve arsenal – and potentially its reserve army. This deepening partnership has strengthened Pyongyang’s military capabilities and its strategic position in East Asia.
The first road bridge connecting North Korea and Russia opened this week, providing the latest sign of the deepening partnership between the two countries since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
North Korea’s military partnership with Russia has moved far beyond the transactional arms supply that developed after the invasion. Pyongyang is increasingly becoming an institutionalized part of Moscow’s war-making capacity – supplying ammunition, ballistic missiles and soldiers. In return, the North Korean regime is gaining economic resources, potential military technology, and extensive experience of modern warfare that it would struggle to acquire elsewhere.
Deepening military ties
Military cooperation has deepened since the two countries signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty in June 2024.
South Korea’s Defence Intelligence Agency estimates that North Korea has sent more than 16,000 personnel to Russia since October 2024 and supplied more than 15 million artillery rounds. North Korea itself acknowledged for the first time in April 2025 that it had sent troops to Russia, saying they had fought alongside Russian forces in Kursk. Pyongyang subsequently dispatched approximately 1,000 military engineers for mine-clearance operations.
North Korea replenishes Russia’s war machine, while Russia improves North Korea’s future ability to wage war.
The military relationship continues to evolve. Ukrainian intelligence reported in August that a North Korean missile unit of around 90 personnel had begun deploying to Russia’s western Voronezh region. It said that Moscow expects the unit eventually to have up to 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers. Pyongyang had already supplied dozens of KN-23 and KN-24 missiles to Russia.
Much larger numbers may follow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested in August that another 30,000–50,000 North Korean soldiers could eventually be deployed. South Korean intelligence has been more cautious, assessing that Pyongyang is preparing for a potential deployment but finding no signs that one is imminent. Kim Yo Jong, the outspoken sister of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has dismissed the Ukrainian claim as ‘completely groundless.’
Mutually beneficial
The possibility of another major deployment is ominous, but North Korea’s emergence as Russia’s reserve arsenal – and potentially reserve army – is already underway. It is likely to continue because it is mutually beneficial.
Russia receives much-needed ammunition as well as ballistic missiles and manpower that can supplement its own forces. North Korea, meanwhile, receives economic and material compensation.
A NATO Defense College study estimates that North Korean munitions and rockets supplied between September 2023 and February 2024 alone were worth $4.3–4.8 billion – an enormous sum relative to North Korea’s economy. This does not mean Pyongyang received an equivalent cash payment: the terms remain opaque, and at least some Russian compensation has taken the form of critical provisions like oil, food and other strategic goods.
There are limits to this cooperation. North Korea cannot indefinitely deplete its own ammunition stocks or manpower without weakening its military posture at home. But North Korea’s totalitarian system allows the Kim regime to tolerate costs, including substantial battlefield casualties, which many governments would find politically difficult to sustain.
Battlefield experience
More important in the long term is what the Kim regime is learning from the deployment in Ukraine.
Its soldiers have encountered drones, electronic warfare, artillery coordination, mine warfare, logistics and Western weapons systems in sustained, large-scale combat. Its missile forces have gained valuable experience from repeated battlefield testing.
The results may already be visible. Earlier in the war, Ukrainian sources assessed North Korean missile accuracy at 1–3 kilometres. By early 2025, they reported that missiles were landing within 50–100 metres of their targets. Possible explanations include better targeting data or Russian-supplied guidance components. At the same time, North Korea may also have made improvements based on feedback from the battlefield.
The result is a circular military economy: North Korea replenishes Russia’s war machine, while Russia improves North Korea’s future ability to wage war.
Any Russian assistance that improves missile reliability, electronic warfare or other military capabilities can ultimately be incorporated into Pyongyang’s forces back home. This could prove valuable for North Korea in any future conflict with South Korea, Japan or the US.
For example, North Korean missiles fired at Ukraine are being tested against Western-supplied air-defence systems. The resulting data could help Pyongyang improve its tactics against different but technologically related defences operated by US allies in East Asia.
The partnership also strengthens Pyongyang’s diplomatic position. Russian support alone does not fully explain North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal or its increasingly sophisticated missile programme. But it reduces Kim’s dependence on improved relations with Washington for sanctions relief, diplomatic recognition or greater international legitimacy.
The partnership with Moscow also gives Kim greater room for manoeuvre in dealing with China, North Korea’s traditional ally and principal economic partner. Russian money, energy and military cooperation reduce Beijing’s ability to use North Korea’s economic dependence as leverage. But they cannot replace China entirely: geography, trade and long-standing political ties ensure that Beijing remains indispensable to Pyongyang.
Impact on US diplomacy
All this matters as President Donald Trump again explores diplomacy with Kim Jong Un. In August, Trump ordered the Pentagon to ‘substantially reduce’ US-South Korean military exercises, which he said ‘send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile’ to North Korea.
However, Pyongyang offered no corresponding concession. Kim Yo Jong effectively invited Trump to bid higher by declaring that the US’s ‘hostile policy’ remained unchanged. Pyongyang launched ballistic missile tests shortly after her statement.
Russian support has reduced Kim’s need to accept limited concessions from the US.
Washington is still proceeding with the five-day trilateral Freedom Edge exercise with South Korea and Japan, which began on 7 September. This reflects the limits of Washington’s willingness to accommodate Pyongyang: although Trump has reduced some bilateral US–South Korean exercises, the US remains committed to long-term trilateral deterrence aimed at not just North Korea but also China.
For now, this leaves little common ground for renewed diplomacy that’s agreeable to all parties. Washington is unwilling to dismantle the regional security architecture that Pyongyang opposes, while Russian support has reduced Kim’s need to accept limited concessions from the US. Moscow therefore gives Kim more freedom to walk away from negotiations and more leverage to demand a higher price for returning to them.
An alliance built to outlast the war
The institutional infrastructure supporting the Russia-North Korea relationship is also expanding. The completion of the first road bridge across the Tumen River adds a new physical cross-border connection to the existing railway link. Such infrastructure gives the relationship enduring practical foundations beyond the Ukrainian battlefield.
This month may provide further evidence of the future direction of relations. North Korea’s Foundation Day on 9 September is one of the country’s major political anniversaries and could provide Pyongyang with a natural stage for emphasizing its relationship with Moscow.
Regardless of any ceremony, the bilateral relationship is no longer a transactional short-term arrangement. It is here to stay, with implications that extend far beyond Ukraine.
A future crisis on the Korean Peninsula – or even a wider East Asian crisis, for example involving the Taiwan Strait – could feature a North Korea with combat-tested weapons and more experienced armed forces.
The mistake for policymakers would therefore be to assume that any eventual ceasefire in Ukraine will automatically dissolve this partnership. Russia’s war accelerated the relationship, but there are now military, economic and strategic reasons it will outlive the war.
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo will need a long-term strategy to counter a partnership whose consequences will endure far beyond any summitry. That strategy should include stronger sanctions monitoring and closer intelligence-sharing, while continuing to adapt allied missile and drone defences based on the lessons emerging from Ukraine.
Fundamentally, any strategy must assume that Pyongyang will retain its battlefield knowledge and much of Russia’s support long after the fighting in Ukraine ends.
First set: Shelton 3-2 Alcaraz* (*denotes next server)
An even breezier service game from Shelton, who holds to love. During the changeover, the cameras pan to a few of the celebrities in the audience. There’s Kevin Hart taking it in from a suite. And, of course, there’s USA and Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman, Shelton’s girlfriend, watching from his player box. We’ve also heard Simone Biles is in the building somewhere.
As the official 10th day of play in New York moved deeper into the remote hours of the new morning, every passing game imbued Carlos Alcaraz with greater despair. From his focused start, Alcaraz’s intensity had flatlined and he could barely put a ball in court. He lost nine consecutive games against Ben Shelton and seemed to have nothing left.
Instead, the defending champion improbably dragged himself back into a contest that soon developed into one of the most remarkable matches of the year. The latest attempt by Alcaraz, the second seed, at orchestrating a monumental comeback was denied by a brave, defiant Shelton, the eighth seed, who refused to be shaken by his legendary rival or the looming prospect of securing the greatest win of career.
Sacramento, California — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Democratic criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become “almost universal,” arguing that opposition within the party is focused primarily on Netanyahu’s government rather than Israel itself.
Speaking with PBS News, Newsom said Democrats are “overwhelmingly opposed” to the current Israeli government and cited West Bank settler violence and Netanyahu’s rejection of a Palestinian state as major reasons for the shift.
“We want a democratic and secure Israel, and we want a secure democratic Palestinian state as well,” Newsom said. He added that even for those who reject the term genocide, the conduct of the war in Gaza has been a “moral catastrophe.”
Public opinion data supports a substantial Democratic shift, although Newsom’s “almost universal” characterization is broader than polling can firmly establish. Recent AP-NORC surveys have found that roughly half of Democrats believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, while other polling cited by The Hill found 58% saying the United States supports Israel too much.
Newsom also said Democratic opposition to accepting money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has grown, describing recipients as a minority within the party. He confirmed earlier this year that he has never accepted AIPAC money and does not intend to do so.
His comments reflect a broader change in Democratic politics, where support for Israel as a country increasingly coexists with sharp criticism of Netanyahu, settlement expansion and the Gaza war. Recent U.S. criticism has also extended to Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, which U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee recently called terrorism.
Andrew Frederick’s body was found in property he was staying at in Grenada in January
The family of a British father who was found dead in the Caribbean in January is urging authorities in Grenada to work with UK police to uncover the truth about his death.
Andrew Frederick’s body was found in the property he was staying at in Grenada on 4 January. An autopsy, performed in the same week by a privately hired pathologist, concluded that the 47-year-old’s death was a homicide.
The new season kicks off on Wednesday night. Our writers have their say on the MVP, rookies to watch and the disasters waiting to happen
Quarterbacks living under center. The NFL has developed into a shotgun league, where most quarterbacks take the majority of their snaps three to seven yards away from the center. But the increase in efficiency when it comes to snaps taken right behind the center should have coaches directing their quarterbacks to do more of it. Matthew Stafford, Caleb Williams, and Sam Darnold led the way in 2025, and others will follow. DF
A year since his assassination, the movement Kirk started is reckoning with the void he left behind - and a revolution that eats its own
As Charlie Kirk’s family, friends, and colleagues barreled through the sky to Utah, one staffer kept throwing up in her mouth. Each time she quietly swallowed. She did not want to add to the distress of the others sitting in deathly silence on the jet – especially Kirk’s 36-year-old wife, Erika. She was already a widow.
Those who work at Turning Point USA – the ultraconservative activist organization based in Phoenix, Arizona, that Charlie Kirk founded – believe deeply in a Christian God. Many also believe that Satan and his deputies vie for influence on Earth. Earlier that day, on 10 September 2025, those forces had seemingly persuaded an angry young man to hide on a roof at Utah Valley University, where Kirk was speaking to 3,000 people, with a loaded rifle.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: OpenAIsaid on Tuesday that its newest artificial intelligence technology had solved one of the "Millennium Problems," a collection of important unanswered math questions meant to push the world's leading mathematicians to new heights. The announcement is an another clear sign that A.I. is fundamentally changing the upper reaches of mathematics, which have long been viewed as a pinnacle of human achievement. The change has excited some mathematicians, while stirring concern among others.
Over the past year, A.I. systems successfully solved a wide range of problems that have bedeviled mathematicians for decades. But these problems were not as complex, nor as closely watched, as the one that OpenAI's technology has solved over the past several days. The Millennium Problems are among the most heavily researched in the field. "This is a spectacular culmination of the arc we have seen over the past twelve months," OpenAI researcher Sebastien Bubeck said of the company's new solution.
The company announced that one of its latest models, which has not yet been released to the public, needed just 88 hours to solve what mathematicians call "the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem." This problem involves a series of equations that are often used to predict the weather. The equations describe the movement of water and other fluids. The Navier-Stokes problem, which has no clear practical value, asks whether these equations completely break down in certain situations. OpenAI's proof claims to have defined just such a situation.
This would imply, at least theoretically, that the laws of physics themselves would break down under certain conditions: that, for example, water could be made to spontaneously explode. But mathematicians and physicists do not believe that this mathematical breakdown could really lead to such an outcome in the physical world. The Navier-Stokes problem was one of seven "Millennium Problems" selected by the Clay Mathematics Institute in the year 2000 as a way of tracking the progress of mathematics in the new millennium. The institute, founded by an American businessman named Landon T. Clay, offered a million dollars for the first correct solution to each problem. Before OpenAI's announcement, only one of the problems had been solved. OpenAI says it managed to solve the Navier-Stokes problem by coordinating as many as 10,000 AI agents, an extremely expensive process that may have cost millions of dollars in computing power.
For those curious about the findings, the company has released a paper (PDF) and formal Lean proof.
Stefany Shaheen and Anthony DiLorenzo Won their respective primaries to replace Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District, CBS News projects.
Critics say agreement between Nigel Farage and Jordan Bardella to return migrants to France goes against France’s ‘interests and sovereignty’
Reform UK has insisted its deal with France’s far-right National Rally to return migrants back across the Channel was fully approved by the party and signed off by its president, Jordan Bardella, amid a furious backlash in France.
The agreement unveiled on Friday between Nigel Farage and Bardella, who is the 30-year-old protege of presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, appeared to directly contradict Le Pen’s long-held policy of refusing to accept the return of those who arrive in the UK in small boats from France.
Facilities likely to employ 10,400 workers, compared with 40,000 in industry estimates, thinktank says
Datacentres in the UK will create just a quarter of the jobs predicted by the tech sector, while consuming vast amounts of energy, according to new research.
Environmental thinktank Verdant predicts that all the datacentres currently planned are likely to directly employ 10,400 workers – compared with the more than 40,000 cited in projections by the industry lobby group TechUK.
In today’s newsletter: Ed Miliband has announced the strongest statement on Israel’s actions ever issued by the the UK government, but will it make a meaningful difference to Palestinians?
Good morning. For almost half a century, British governments have condemned illegal Israeli settlements, acknowledging they represent an obstacle to peace and threaten the prospect of a two-state solution. And yet no government has ever compelled Israel to stop its expansion.
Ed Miliband’s statement in the House of Commons yesterday was an attempt to change that. In a powerful and emotive speech, the foreign secretary recounted childhood memories of picking oranges on his grandmother’s kibbutz, accused Israeli “terrorists” of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and announced a series of new measures intended to address what he described as a “deeply painful contrast” between rhetoric and reality.
UK news | Police have been told by the government they expect better intelligence gathering after masked far-right groups took to the streets at the weekend, the Guardian has learned, as the Kent force admitted mishandling warnings of potential trouble.
UK politics | Andy Burnham should tackle inequality in the UK by introducing a wealth tax, universal free personal social care and bringing gas and electricity networks under public ownership, according to a report from more than a dozen influential thinkers.
Airline industry | Flight delays and cancellations were expected to continue today at UK airports after another air traffic control failure kept planes grounded for hours, affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Iran | Iranian forces claimed to have seized an American underwater drone in the strait of Hormuz that the US military said had “malfunctioned” more than a day earlier.
US news | Donald Trump gave sizeable holiday gifts to four White House aides, according to new financial disclosures released by the administration, including $45,000 to executive assistant Natalie Harp.
Far-right parties, Maga ideology and Kremlin money are conniving to suffocate liberal idealism for another generation
Not all that long ago, Europe was a beacon of liberal idealism. One memoir recalls it as an era “comfortably saturated with confidence in the unfailing and binding power of tolerance and conciliation”. The economic system seemed obviously preferable to barbarous alternatives. “People honestly believed that the divergencies and the boundaries between nations and sects would gradually melt away into a common humanity,” the author added.
Those words could describe the spirit of globalisation at the turn of the millennium. They were written in the 1930s by Stefan Zweig, reflecting on the optimism of late 19th-century Vienna from the perspective of a Jewish émigré whose world had been destroyed by murderous nationalism. Zweig took his own life in 1942. He never saw fascism defeated. He couldn’t have imagined a renaissance of liberalism in the second half of the 20th century so complete as to attain a pitch of complacency rivalling the one he remembered from his childhood.
Three men are on trial over the death of brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their friend, US citizen Jack Carter Rhoad, in Ensenada
The father of two Australian surfers killed in Mexico two years ago testified in court on Tuesday that his life had been turned into hell, as the high-profile trial continued into its second day.
Three men are charged in the killing of Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33, respectively, and their 30-year-old American friend Jack Carter Rhoad, who were on a surfing trip to Mexico’s Pacific coast in April 2024.
The president’s substantial holiday gifts to four White House aides were made public via financial disclosures released by the administration
Donald Trump gave sizable holiday gifts to four White House aides, according to new financial disclosures released by the administration, including $45,000 to executive assistant Natalie Harp.
Communications adviser Margo Martin and deputy director of Oval Office operations Chamberlain Harris also received $45,000, while director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta received a $20,000 gift.
New York, New York — President Donald Trump is again defending his account of what he did after the Sept. 11 attacks, insisting Tuesday that “everything I said was exactly accurate.” The available record supports one part of his story: Trump was photographed and interviewed near Ground Zero on Sept. 13, 2001. Several of the more dramatic details he has added over the years remain unsupported.
At a Tunnel to Towers event, Trump said he brought construction workers downtown “right after” the attacks and described two firefighters physically lifting him and running as One Liberty Plaza appeared in danger of collapsing.
There really were fears that the nearby building could fall, and surrounding buildings were evacuated. But PolitiFact found no evidence that firefighters carried Trump away, and no identified firefighter has publicly corroborated that story.
Trump’s own Sept. 13 interviews are also less dramatic. He said he had more than 100 workers helping and that he had come downtown “to spur them on.” Fact-checkers have been unable to verify that Trump actually supplied hundreds of workers, personally participated in cleanup or repeatedly worked at Ground Zero. A retired FDNY battalion chief who spent months at the site said he knew of no such deployment and believed there would have been records if it occurred.
That makes Trump’s sweeping claim of complete accuracy difficult to sustain. The documentary evidence establishes that he visited the area two days after the attack. It does not establish the rescue-like episode he now recounts or the larger cleanup role he has repeatedly described.
The distinction is particularly notable because Trump’s defense included video that confirms his presence near Ground Zero, but does not verify the disputed parts of his story.
Key regions of the brain linked to movement, learning and emotions were affected and may lead to cognitive problems
Babies born to mothers with anaemia have smaller brains, particularly in key regions linked to movement, learning and the regulation of emotion, according to a study.
Researchers said the differences, first detected at the age of one, could lead to cognitive problems when children started school.
"Star Trek" marks its 60th anniversary today, September 8, six decades after the original series premiered in 1966 and went on to become one of the most successful science-fiction franchises in television history. Outlets across the web are commemorating the milestone with full health reports, hot takes, behind-the-scenes retrospectives, and reflections on the franchise's influence and what may lie ahead. The New York Times reports: As of 2026, the 60-year-old science fiction franchise boasts a fandom of carbon units -- sorry, humans -- that spans at least three generations. What began, in 1966, as a five-year space mission on the U.S.S. Enterprise to "boldly go where no man has gone before" now represents an anthology of space travel across more than 25 series and films in parts of two centuries. Where once it was James T. Kirk or bust, it's not unusual to find fans who prefer other captains, like Picard, Janeway or Sisko. There are so many series to keep track of that fans often communicate using country code-like abbreviations for each installment: TOS (the original series), TNG ("The Next Generation"), DS9 ("Deep Space Nine"), ENT ("Enterprise") and so on.
Outside the Trekiverse, disparities in generational slang, politics and social mores are practically a foregone conclusion. But "Star Trek" functions as connective tissue between fans past and present. Some of that tissue is just shared references: There will always be captain's logs, timelines by stardate, warp factors one through 10, phasers and photon torpedoes and, every now and then, a doctor who insists, "I'm a doctor, not a ____!" The Vulcan salute has become a general symbol of geek-recognize-geek, but real Trekkies (or Trekkers, as some prefer) know that "Live long and prosper" is only half the message; the recipient is meant to say "Peace and long life" in response. But the series' staying power, and the ease with which each generation finds its way into them, is an indication that fans of all ages share not only language, but values, in common. Here are some of our favorite Slashdot stories from the early days. The 2004 "Should Star Trek Die?" is an especially good callback today because it features LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation) arguing that Trek needs to disappear for several years to become special again...
Star Trek Lawsuit (1998)
Salon Writes on The Troubles with "Trek" (1999)
Star Trek's Next Series (2001)
Should Star Trek Die? (2004)
UPN Officially Cancels 'Star Trek: Enterprise' (2005)
Initial flight data showed signs consistent with a “go-around” maneuver in which an aircrew does not complete a landing attempt and takes the plane back into the air for another approach.
Rep. Chris Pappas defeated democratic socialist Karishma Manzur in the Democratic primary, while former Sen. John Sununu defeated Scott Brown in the GOP contest.
Helllo! Im gonna upgrade to BTG on my adv2 pro, but the the float life thundercat is out of stock! I was wondering what other options there are.
I ride both streets/trails i see options available from Burris, but dont know which size to get (11.5 or 12?), any other tire recommendations are also appreciated!
Tit-for-tat violence surges again in region, with tankers struck by the US in the Gulf of Oman, and reprisal attacks by Iran on a US base in Jordan
The US military on Tuesday said it had “destroyed” several Iranian tankers after Iran attempted to strike a US navy warship with ballistic missiles, as violence once again surged across the region, pushing the price of oil past $100 a barrel.
American forces struck the tankers in the Gulf of Oman and near Iran’s Kharg Island, US central command (Centcom) said in a statement, adding that American forces “directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were struck”.
Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and a federal judge issued opposite decisions on the fate of a congressional map that favored the GOP, leaving races in limbo.
No 11 seed rallies for 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (6) win
Tiafoe into third US Open semi-final in five years
American will play Alcaraz or Shelton in last four
At the end of more than four and a half hours of escalating drama inside the world’s biggest tennis stadium, a devastated Alex Michelsen fell into Frances Tiafoe’s arms just outside the tramlines, sobbing uncontrollably. Tiafoe took his younger countryman in an embrace and held him there for 23 seconds, the victor consoling the vanquished in the aftermath of an extraordinary comeback that had carried him, somehow, into the US Open semi-finals.
Only a couple of hours earlier, the 28-year-old Tiafoe had been two sets down and two points from elimination in the third set, with Michelsen within touching distance of the biggest victory of his young career. Instead, Tiafoe roared back from the brink to win a quarter-final that will be long remembered in New York, outlasting Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (6) on Tuesday afternoon to reach the last four at Flushing Meadows for the third time in five years. Now he will face Ben Shelton on Friday after the American ousted defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in another epic five-set marathon that ended at 3.33am on Wednesday morning.
The Trump administration moved Tuesday to ban imports of Canadian motorcycles, some dairy products and most types of alcohol starting later this month, intensifying the trade war between the two countries.
Frontrunner Sununu beats Scott Brown to earn Republican nod in closely watched race in November
Former senator John E Sununu triumphed on Tuesday in the New HampshireRepublican Senate primary over Scott Brown, earning the GOP nod in what will probably be a must-win race if Democrats hope to seize the upper chamber.
Sununu, 61, was the clear frontrunner in the GOP primary. He served one term in the Senate from 2003 to 2009.
Pappas fends off challenge from progressive Karishma Manzur in seat to be vacated by retiring Jeanne Shaheen
Congressman Chris Pappas beat back progressive challenger Karishma Manzur in the Democratic primary for US Senate on Tuesday, advancing as most observers expected to what will be a closely watched general election that is critical to Democratic hopes of flipping the upper chamber.
The two were competing for the nomination that opened up after Jeanne Shaheen, 79, the state’s three‑term incumbent Democratic senator, announced her retirement.
Jefferson City, Missouri — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Missouri’s emergency request to immediately restore a Republican-drawn congressional map, leaving a state court ruling blocking the new districts in place for now.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied the application without explanation and without referring it to the full court. Missouri officials had asked the justices to overturn a unanimous Missouri Supreme Court ruling that said the 2025 map cannot take effect unless voters approve it through a November referendum.
The Republican-drawn map would significantly reshape Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City-based district and was adopted as part of a broader mid-decade redistricting push supported by President Donald Trump.
The legal situation, however, remains complicated. A federal judge separately issued a temporary order directing Missouri to use the newer map, creating competing state and federal court rulings over which congressional boundaries should govern the November election.
The dispute began after the group People Not Politicians collected signatures seeking a statewide referendum on the new map. Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected the petition, but state courts ultimately ruled it was legal, sufficient and filed on time.
Unless the federal litigation changes the outcome, Missouri’s 2022 congressional districts remain the operative map while voters consider whether to approve the Republican-backed replacement.
The dispute carries national significance because Republicans hold a narrow House majority, making even a single congressional district potentially consequential for control of the chamber.
New York, New York — Mayor Zohran Mamdani has released more than 170,000 pages of city records concerning air quality and health risks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, saying New Yorkers were misled about whether the air around Ground Zero was safe.
“People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air,” Mamdani said Tuesday. The records are being published through a new city portal funded in the fiscal 2027 budget.
The release also resolves litigation brought by 9/11 Health Watch seeking access to city documents. In May, a New York judge ruled that the city had violated public-records law by withholding material requested by the group.
Mamdani’s accusation is stronger than simply saying officials made mistakes. However, longstanding federal findings already established serious problems with the government’s post-attack messaging. A 2003 EPA Inspector General review found shortcomings in how air-quality information was communicated, while a separate survey found that most respondents wanted more timely information and did not trust what they had been told.
The newly released records could provide additional evidence about what city officials knew and when they knew it.
Since 2001, thousands of responders, workers and residents have developed illnesses linked to World Trade Center exposure, leading Congress to create the federal WTC Health Program.
Mamdani declined to specifically accuse former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of lying, saying New Yorkers should review the documents and reach their own conclusions.
The affluent city-state has justified high-end salaries for its political leaders, arguing they attract talent and ensure good governance
Singapore’s prime minister has been given a $1m pay rise as the affluent city-state announced a dramatic one-off salary boost for government ministers.
The pay increases add more than 60% to what are already the world’s highest ministerial salaries.
A federal judge ruled that Missouri should use a new congressional map that favors Republicans for now, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a ruling from the state's highest court directing Missouri to use an older map.
Trump responds after Canada imposes $20bn in retaliatory tariffs and Canadian PM vows to diversify trade abroad
The US is banning dairy products, most alcoholic beverages and motorcycles from Canada, the White House said on Tuesday, as the trade war between the two neighbors and longtime allies escalates.
The ban will take effect in three weeks and comes after Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on $20bn in US imports earlier on Tuesday.
Last week the state’s supreme court ruled that the map must go before voters to approve or reject new districts, meaning it cannot be used in the November election
Further down the ballot in New Hampshire, the Democratic primary for Chris Pappas’s House seat has drawn eight candidates, with Stefany Shaheen – daughter of the outgoing senator – and Maura Sullivan, a former Obama administration official, leading the field.
The district, long purple, has been reliably blue since 2017. Republicans now see it as flippable, and Donald Trump has endorsed Anthony DiLorenzo, a businessman who owns several car dealerships, in the GOP race.
Frances Tiafoe came from two sets down to deny Alex Michelsen in an all-American epic, while Aryna Sabalenka prevailed in a high-quality battle against the Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova
First set: Sabalenka* 3-1 Noskova (*denotes next server)
At 30-all, Sabalenka is applying more pressure on Noskova’s serve, but Sabalenka smacks a backhand return into the net and Noskova can breathe a little at 40-30. And the Wimbledon champion gets her side of the scoreboard moving when Sabalenka again errs with her return. The Arthur Ashe crowd – perhaps only about a half full so far – cheer loudly. They’re not against Sabelenka – as they were in the previous round when she played the American Taylor Townsend – but of course they want a close match.
(The Center Square) – The Trump administration is proposing to remove the federal tax-exempt status of private schools that use race-based admission or diversity, equity and inclusion in certain school policies and programs.
Rise in fatalities comes amid news reports that the average age of Burning Man attendees is increasing
Three men over 50died at Burning Man this year, tripling the average number of deaths in connection with the annual festival that brings tens of thousands of people to build a temporary utopian community in the brutal conditions of the Nevada desert.
The increase in fatalities comes as news reports have highlighted that the average age of Burning Man attendees is increasing, with fewer participants in their 20s, and more in their 40s and 50s.
Google says it will overhaul Search in Europe to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act, giving more prominence to comparison services like Expedia and Hotels.com while stripping some real-time features from hotel, airline, and restaurant results. "These changes degrade the user experience for Europeans -- boosting online intermediaries at the expense of local businesses, and removing helpful features people rely on every day," said Nick Fox, senior vice-president of knowledge and information at Google. The company claims its past search changes for DMA compliance were tied to a 30% decrease "in free, direct booking traffic to European businesses." Engadget reports:
That sanction was the latest salvo between the EU government and a US tech company for infringing on its Digital Markets Act. The debate centers on the DMA requirement that major tech brands "must not treat their own services more favorably in ranking than third-party services."
[...] According to Reuters, Google's revised search results "will highlight one specialized search engine at the top of the page, followed by two others with fewer details. A carousel of hotels, airlines and restaurants, for example, will sit below them with key features such as real-time prices stripped out." Those specialized engines include sites like Expedia or Hotels.com, also known as vertical search services, so European users may soon see those aggregators and comparison sites prioritized more highly than individual businesses' websites in their results.
Reuters noted that "the rankings will be determined by Google's algorithm," meaning the tech company still holds a lot of control over how results are displayed. The EC had given Google 60 days to comply with its rules, but the company has not specified an exact timeline for when European users will start seeing the changes.
A coalition of Michigan Jewish leaders launched a petition calling on Abdul El-Sayed and other political candidates to make baseline commitments on Jewish safety and Israel, or risk losing their support.
Decision marks setback for president and Republicans, who set in motion national redistricting battle last year
The US supreme court turned back an emergency appeal by Missouri officials to use a newly drawn congressional map backed by Donald Trump in the November midterm election, letting stand a ruling by the state’s highest state court that blocked the new lines from taking effect.
Last week the Missouri supreme court ruled that the map must go before voters to approve or reject the new districts, meaning it cannot be used in the November election. The president and Republicans fumed over the decision, with the president calling it “horrible, ridiculous, and unConstitutional”.
Yesterday we had the final maintenance release for the NetBSD 9.x series, and today we have FreeBSD 14.5 entering the scene.
Since this release is occurring late in a legacy stable branch, there are few new features; rather, the focus is primarily on maintenance. As such, changes since 14.4-RELEASE consist mostly of bug fixes, driver updates, and new versions of externally-maintained software.
The adventurous among us are already on the 15.x branch, but those of us running mission-critical systems are most likely still rocking 14.x, and for you, this is a must.
Students around the globe earned among the lowest average scores ever in science, reading and mathematics on the Program for International Student Assessment.
Officials say sighting a sign species – driven to extinction in state before reintroduction in 2011 – expanding its range
A gray wolf has recently been seen in California’s Mendocino national forest for the first time since the species returned to the state 15 years ago, state wildlife officials confirmed.
Officials in Lake county, which is about two hours north of San Francisco, said last week the California department of fish and wildlife (CDFW) had received reports of sightings in the forest in late August. The agency verified the presence of a wolf in the far north end of the county, county supervisor Brad Rasmussen said in a statement on social media.
Hey everyone, first month in the sport and still learning. I recently bought a used XR with a CBXR. I went this route because the seller advertised it as: “A great setup for someone looking for an XR with significantly upgraded battery capacity without spending a fortune.”
I paid extra specifically for the CBXR and the added range. The seller also owns an extreme sports store and was an authorized Future Motion dealer, so I assumed it was professionally installed. The board rides fine (I think), but diagnostics show: Hardware: 4212 Firmware: Gemini 4165 Odometer: 176 miles
I’ve read that 4165 may limit aftermarket batteries like the CBXR, potentially reducing it to something closer to stock XR range. Is that actually true? I also did a short test ride and the battery dropped from 96% to 88% in only 0.6 miles. I was told this can be normal with a CBXR, but it seems concerning.
I’ve read that voltage is the best way to test the battery’s actual capacity, but I can’t seem to access voltage information with my current firmware. NoseDive shows battery percentage, current, temperatures, etc., but voltage reads 0V when stationary.
Is there another way to test the actual CBXR capacity without riding 30+ miles? And if 4165 is limiting the battery, can it safely be downgraded on a 4212? If not, are there other options, such as a VESC conversion or another relatively simple solution?
I’m mainly looking for the longest range possible with minimal tinkering and expense. Thanks!
With ever-changing devices, browsers, operating systems, form factors, specifications, personal preferences, tooling, and corporate interests, the web is in a constant state of flux. As a result, so is the HTML we write. For every line of the HTML specification itself that has changed since the language’s inception, there are many more bits of HTML that have seen what I’ll call ‘environmental’ changes. Adaptations to differing browsers, extensions, integrations, and systems which we find HTML existing in.
This article doesn’t cover once-specced but now obsolete bits of HTML but instead looks at all the snippets that have wormed their way into websites as result of, or in combat against, third-party integrations, browser competition, vendor extensions, and platform-specific hacks. The bits of HTML that were included for reasons, and which have been forgotten for present irrelevance. The snippets that live on only in the markup of sites from bygone eras and in the minds of those who fought during the browser wars.
I don’t do any HTML or website development, and even I clearly recognise quite a few of these. Especially the countless relics of the large technology companies trying to worm their way into the various web standards of decades ago serve as a stark reminder of how many times they tried and failed – which should tell you something about all the times they tried and succeeded.
Hundreds of thousands of air passengers had flights delayed or cancelled after another UK air traffic control technical glitch kept planes grounded for hours on Tuesday.
Airlines demanded action after a “technical issue” at the air traffic control services provider Nats caused the third large-scale stoppage in just over three years.
The NSA, CISA, and FBI are accusing (PDF) several Chinese AI companies of carrying out "industrial-scale" distillation campaigns against leading U.S. models such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok. Since at least 2024, the companies have allegedly routed millions of requests across accounts, APIs, proxies, cloud providers, and third-party aggregators to extract capabilities for their own models. "China-based artificial intelligence companies are conducting systematic extraction of proprietary functionalities and capabilities of U.S. AI companies' models through industrial-scale knowledge distillation campaigns that form the core -- not merely a supplement -- of their AI development strategy," the agencies wrote. CyberScoop reports: DeepSeek, for example, distilled frontier U.S. models to generate synthetic training data for its R1 and R3 models, including four different versions of Claude, two versions of Gemini, five versions of ChatGPT and Grok 4. Those models helped train DeepSeek's capabilities in areas like agentic functioning, question and answer optimization, creative and occupational writing and others.
Another Chinese company, Moonshot AI, allegedly distilled 18 different U.S. models -- including Fable 5, Anthropic's current, most advanced commercially available model -- to train its Kimi-K2 and Kimi K3 models. The company used millions of queries meant to extract enhanced capabilities in areas like agentic reasoning, coding and data analysis, computer vision, larger logical frameworks, visual processing and others.
Chinese AI companies manage a sophisticated set of tools and systems that route requests and prompts through multiple pathways to avoid detection. The advisory lists common tactics observed by Chinese companies, including spreading requests across different accounts, models and platforms, using native APIs, remote cloud providers, and third-party aggregators to obfuscate user metadata, and leveraging proxies and gray tech markets to get around geographic restrictions, terms of use and safeguards built into frontier models.
Danville, Pa. — Multiple traffic stops in the Danville area led to the detention of people suspected of being in the country illegally Sept. 2, while a separate account from an immigrant-rights organization alleges that federal immigration agents arrested at…
A total of six people apprehended as clean-up of rubbish stacked 10 metres high cost about £6m
Two men have been arrested after fly-tippers dumped a “mountain of illegal waste”, stacked 10 metres high, in Oxfordshire.
Hundreds of tonnes of rubbish appeared in a field between the River Cherwell and the A34 near Kidlington in November last year. The waste tip was so large that removing it could cost more than the local council’s annual budget, the area’s MP said.
LIV Golf, the breakaway tour that spent billions luring top players away from the PGA Tour, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US, it announced on Tuesday.
Launched in 2022, free-spending LIV caused shockwaves and bitter divisions in the golf world, before losing the backing of its deep-pocketed Saudi investors this year, prompting a scramble to stay afloat.
Sept. 8, 2026 — Agentic AI is reshaping the demands on AI infrastructure. As AI moves from inference to action, agents reason, retrieve data, call tools, and interact with databases and other agents, driving significantly more CPU-based computation across the data center. But the infrastructure requirements vary by workload: scale-out and data-plane use cases favor maximum throughput efficiency, while agentic and performance-critical applications demand highly responsive CPU performance. Arm is already operating at significant scale in the data center: IDC reports that Arm-based rack-scale servers have overtaken x86 as the dominant accelerated computing platform.
Credit: Shutterstock
Today Arm is sharing how the company is advancing that shift. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to AI infrastructure, so Arm gives customers flexibility to choose what best fits their workloads. With the new Neoverse Compute Subsystems (CSS) N4, customers can build silicon optimized for maximum throughput efficiency, while Arm AGI CPU provides production-ready silicon designed for highly responsive agentic AI – all on a common Neoverse platform and software ecosystem.
Accelerating Differentiated Silicon with Neoverse CSS N4
AI infrastructure is also becoming more heterogeneous, with some deployments requiring silicon tailored to a particular system architecture or function – from bespoke compute platforms to DPUs, networking and other specialized designs.
Neoverse CSS extends Arm into those designs, giving partners a proven, integrated compute foundation they can configure around their own requirements while reducing engineering effort, integration risk and time to silicon. Neoverse CSS N4 takes that approach further as Arm’s most configurable CSS yet, with Arm’s fastest path from CSS to silicon.
With up to 128 cores per die, CSS N4 supports LPDDR6 memory and PCIe Gen 7 connectivity and delivers up to 2x the performance, up to 1.25x the performance per watt and up to 1.75x memory bandwidth of Neoverse CSS N3. Together, those advances deliver the compute density and high-speed memory and I/O needed as agentic AI drives more data movement, accelerator orchestration and concurrent compute across the system.
The Arm Total Design ecosystem further accelerates the path to production through earlier IP validation and software development – a collaborative model Arm is now extending to physical AI.
Arm CPUs Powering Agentic AI at Scale
Not every customer needs to build custom silicon. For those looking to deploy production-ready compute, Arm AGI CPU brings the performance and efficiency of the Neoverse platform.
Since its introduction, companies across the AI ecosystem – including OpenAI, Meta, Cloudflare, Oracle, SAP, Lenovo, Supermicro and Verda – have been developing solutions around Arm AGI CPU.
Across the broader cloud ecosystem, companies are already supporting agentic AI on Arm. Google Cloud is running agent sandboxes on Axion-based GKE, Microsoft Azure is accelerating sandbox tool execution with Cobalt 200, and NVIDIA Vera is designed to accelerate agentic workloads.
Volcano Engine, the cloud computing division of ByteDance, is enabling its next-generation cloud services on the platform and bringing the first agentic sandboxes powered by Arm AGI CPU to market, providing secure and elastic environments for agent workloads at scale.
Building for What Comes Next
The world is still at the beginning of the agentic AI era. As agents proliferate, infrastructure will need to process more data, coordinate more accelerators and support more concurrent compute – increasing the importance of getting maximum value from every watt of power, every rack and every dollar invested.
The industry is converging on Arm as the common compute platform for the next generation of agentic AI. With Arm AGI CPU and Neoverse CSS N4, customers can choose the path that best fits their infrastructure while maintaining a shared foundation of performance, efficiency and software compatibility.
About Arm
Arm (NASDAQ: ARM) is the industry’s highest-performing and most power-efficient compute platform with unmatched scale that touches 100 percent of the connected global population. To meet the insatiable demand for compute, Arm is delivering advanced solutions that allow the world’s leading technology companies to unleash the unprecedented experiences and capabilities of AI. Together with the world’s largest computing ecosystem and 22 million software developers, we are building the future of AI on Arm.
The world’s largest gun belongs to Longshot Space, which plans to go even bigger in the hopes of harnessing its technology to shoot satellites into space instead of using rockets.
(The Center Square) – Canada's retaliatory tariffs on about $20 billion in American goods took effect Tuesday, escalating a trade war in which the U.S. tariffs behind it fall short of the revenue they were meant to replace.
Special Olympics Delaware athletes compete in the 2025 State Bowling Tournament at Mid-County Lanes. Photo Credit: Special Olympics Delaware.
Special Olympics Delaware announced that the 2026 Special Olympics Delaware State Bowling Tournament will be held at Mid-County Lanes in Middletown, Delaware, on September 12.
Special Olympics Delaware’s State Bowling Tournament will make its return to Mid-County Lanes in Middletown, Delaware, on September 12, according to a press release distributed on September 3.
Mid-County Lanes will host the 2026 Special Olympics Delaware State Bowling Tournament throughout the day, starting at 8:30 a.m. This year’s event will bring together over 470 Special Olympics athletes and unified partners from all five Special Olympics Delaware areas across the state, according to the release.
“There’s something special about seeing the lanes filled with athletes giving their all, cheering on their teammates, and celebrating every strike, spare, and personal best,” said the Director of Sports & Area Engagement for Special Olympics Delaware, Kylie Lavelle. “As one of the largest bowling tournaments ever held by Special Olympics Delaware, this event reflects the incredible growth of our program and the enthusiasm our athletes have for competition. We’re proud to bring together so many athletes and Unified partners for a weekend that highlights achievement, sportsmanship, and inclusion.”
The event will feature competitions in singles, doubles, unified doubles and ramp and bumper divisions. There will be three timeslots for competition — 8:30 a.m. until 11:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. — and each timeslot will begin with an opening ceremony and close with the distribution of medals and ribbons, according to the release. The awards will be presented by law enforcement.
To learn more about Special Olympics Delaware and the event, click here.
Company behind ChatGPT says 10,000 of its AI systems cracked the Navier-Stokes problem in 88 hours
OpenAI claims to have solved a major mathematics problem that has stumped humans for nearly a century after spending millions of dollars on the artificial intelligence-led endeavour.
The company behind ChatGPT said it had cracked the Navier-Stokes problem, one of seven Millennium Prize Problems published by the Clay Mathematics Institute to highlight some of the biggest unsolved puzzles in the field.
The Transportation Security Administration has launched a new program at 13 airports, allowing eligible TSA PreCheck members without plane tickets to pass through security and enter the gates.
Authorities accused Missy Woods of altering years worth of data in cases involving homicide, sexual assault and robbery
A judge sentenced a former forensic analyst for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to 10 years in prison on Tuesday after authorities said her manipulation of DNA data had raised questions about the validity of hundreds of criminal cases.
Yvonne “Missy” Woods pleaded guilty in June to perjury, attempting to influence a public servant, forgery and committing a cybercrime. Dozens of other counts were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
Meta has launched Muse, a personal AI agent developed under chief AI officer Alexandr Wang. "The product, long in development, was touted as a key next step by CEO Mark Zuckerberg in his recent 6,500-word manifesto," reports Axios. From the report: Muse, as the agent is known, exists in a chat interface, similar to a text thread. It's designed to be more proactive and long-running than typical chatbots. Users can name their agent, create an avatar and customize how it communicates. The Muse agent runs on a dedicated virtual machine in Meta's cloud, using a built-in browser that's visible to the user.
Meta is offering a free tier of Muse, as well as two subscription options, at $20 per month and $100 per month. "For the vast majority of users, they should be able to do what they need to within the free tier," Wang told Axios. "But for real power users, you know, those subscription tiers help us cover the computer costs." There is no advertising within Muse, but Wang said the company is exploring commerce opportunities that could generate additional revenue. Initially Muse will be available in the U.S. and works on iOS, Android and the web, with support coming soon for Meta's AI glasses. "The full vision in the future is we want to develop personal superintelligence that helps people accomplish their goals, pursue their passions, build things that they never would have built if they didn't have the technology," Wang told Axios.
Meta offers users more privacy controls with Muse than in its previous AI products, including the option to prevent queries from being used by Meta and a planned confidential mode where the company cannot see activity inside a user's virtual workspace. There's also an entirely separate system called Sentinel that governs Muse's access to the internet and connected services.
Photo: Photo courtesy of the Delaware Alzheimer’s Association
New law expands insurance coverage for testing that can help doctors select treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions
DOVER, Del. — Gov. Matt Meyer signed legislation Tuesday afternoon expanding insurance coverage for biomarker testing, giving more Delaware patients access to technology used to diagnose diseases and identify treatments tailored to their conditions.
Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill 120 requires more health insurance plans, including Medicaid, to cover medically appropriate biomarker testing. The legislation unanimously passed the Senate in June before receiving approval from the House.
The law is intended to close a growing gap between advances in precision medicine and insurance coverage for the tests needed to guide care.
What biomarker testing does
Biomarker testing examines genes, proteins and other characteristics that may provide information about a disease. Doctors can use the results to diagnose some conditions earlier, determine whether a patient is likely to benefit from a particular treatment, avoid treatments unlikely to work or identify potential clinical trials.
The testing has become especially important in cancer care and is increasingly used in diagnosing and treating Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions.
Supporters say expanded access can lead to earlier diagnoses, more effective treatment, less unnecessary care and better-informed decisions by patients and doctors.
Alzheimer’s advocates welcome signing
Representatives of the Alzheimer’s Association Delaware Chapter attended the bill signing.
Glen Gray, chair of the newly organized Delaware chapter, praised Meyer’s decision to sign the measure. He said the law represents another step toward diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease earlier, when patients and their families generally have more options for treatment, planning and support.
Gray also praised Sen. Spiros Mantzavinos for leading the legislative effort, calling the bill an example of effective leadership and thanking the senator for working to improve care for Delaware’s older residents.
A tool for cancer survivors
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network volunteer Matt Wilson underwent treatment for pancreatic cancer more than 13 years ago, when biomarker testing was not as widely used as it is today.
“Though biomarker testing did not inform my initial treatment, it is a critical tool for ensuring my cancer stays in remission,” Wilson said. “It is also critical for ensuring continued progress in the fight against this disease.”
Wilson said greater knowledge about the characteristics of an individual patient’s cancer can help doctors choose more effective treatments.
“The more we know about cancer and the better we understand how to treat it, the closer we are to ending cancer as we know it for everyone,” he said. “Biomarker testing makes that possible.”
Coverage has lagged behind medical advances
Although the use of biomarker testing has expanded, supporters of the legislation said insurance coverage has not always kept pace with advances in medicine. That can leave patients unable to obtain testing that could identify the most effective treatment for their condition.
Mantzavinos sponsored the legislation, while Rep. William Bush championed the effort in the House.
“For thousands of patients in Delaware, biomarker testing has meant more effective care and better outcomes, offering renewed hope,” said Lance Kilpatrick, government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “Yet too many people still struggle to access this testing due to barriers, including inadequate insurance coverage.”
Kilpatrick said the new law will help eliminate those barriers and give more patients access to testing that could improve their care.
To Go Box
What: Information about biomarker testing and precision medicine
Who may benefit: Patients whose doctors recommend biomarker testing to diagnose a condition or help select treatment
What the new law does: Expands coverage of medically appropriate biomarker testing through more health insurance plans, including Medicaid
Center of storm passed west of the islands and was moving away but flooding and mudslides will continue to be a risk
Damaging winds and heavy rains from Hurricane Lowell pelted Hawaii’s western islands on Tuesday, knocking out power to thousands and ripping up stretches of beachside roads.
Fierce winds downed trees and caused widespread power outages on the island of Kauai, home to 73,000 residents. The Kauai island utility cooperative reported that nearly all of its members were without power early Tuesday.
There will always be an insatiable demand for compute, former Cray CEO Peter Ungaro told Google Cloud’s Jay Boisseau and Adnan Khaleel last week. But moving data is “where the money is at,” he said. “That’s where the real value is in the market today.”
As he previously did at Dell, Boisseau is hosting interesting conservations about HPC and supercomputing at Google Cloud as part of the Google Cloud Advanced Computing Community. Last week’s guest was Ungaro, who became CEO of Cray in 2005 and left the company in 2021 following its 2019 acquisition by HPE for $1.3 billion. This week’s guest is AMD’s Nick Malaya on FP64, another pertinent topic in HPC.
The three covered a lot of ground in the one-hour Google Cloud talk, titled “From Big Iron to Clusters & Clouds to AI Silicon and Beyond: A Conversation with Pete Ungaro.” Ungaro’s comment about the importance of data movement came in response to a question from Khaleel, Boisseau’s co-host on the Google Cloud broadcast.
“FLOPS keep on exploding,” Khaleel said. “But the real trick in supercomputing is the memory bandwidth, the I/O bandwidth…We see HBM being integrated into more and more AI silicon today. So where do you see the next breakthroughs happening when it comes to the memory and the network?”
HPE Slingshot 400 switches support multi-tenance (Image courtesty HPE)
Ungaro responded: “That’s where I think the real exciting technologies are, is in moving this data and integrating these technologies,” he said. “So that’s what’s going to be next. There’s a lot of cool companies working on some really neat stuff right now about what’s going to be next in that space.
“But there’s no doubt that memory technologies and data movement technologies, like interconnect storage systems and stuff–that’s that’s where the money is at, I think,” Ungaro continued. “And I say money from a perspective of not dollars, but where the real value is in in the market today.”
The AI boom has driven demand for all aspects of computing, at the processor, memory, storage, and network levels. An early focus on AI model training, which is compute-bound, yielded an industry focused more on increasing FLOPS rather than increasing the speed of data movement.
The University of Tennessee’s Jack Dongarra mentioned this at ISC 2026, when he lamented the lack of balanced systems as reflected in the HPCG benchmark.
“Floating point operations are not really the critical thing and that’s been happening for a long time,” Dongarra said during his closing keynote at ISC 2026. “We can plot the processors and look at what the data movement story has been, and we end up with that diverging situation that’s referred to as a memory wall.”
As the focus on AI model training pivoted to AI inference over the past 12 to 18 months, this so-called memory wall has emerged as a big issue that’s impacted the direction of high-end computing. The decode stage of AI inference is a sequential workload that can’t be parallelized as well as training, which has shifted the focus away from powerful GPUs to memory bandwidth as the bottleneck.
Silicon photonics are poised to help drive scale-out interconnects (Pete Hanson/Shutterstock)
As a result, we’re seeing a wave of innovation occurring in semi-conductor packaging, including chiplet architectures (UCI-e), many-core Arm designs, and SRAM-heavy chips like d-Matrix and Cerebras. We’re also seeing innovation at the network level, with open interconnect designs like UALink and ESUN, as well as silicon photonics that address heat and energy concerns of copper-based networks.
Ungaro didn’t talk about these specifically, but it’s likely they are at least part of the bag of networking technologies that he sees addressing the data movement dilemma. There is one thing we are certain about: Ungaro isn’t a fan of the term “memory wall.”
“That’s the cool thing about this industry,” said Ungaro, who’s a member in of the inaugural class of HPCwire’s 35 Legends program in 2024. “People say, ‘Oh, there’s the memory wall.’ And I think there’s no walls. People are smart. We’ve gotten around this. Think about how small transistors are today. We never thought we could get to this level 30 years ago, but we’re past it today, so it’s never-ending innovation, which is so exciting.”
Some of Ungaro’s excitement revolves around one of the more staid standards in computing: Ethernet.
“Our last interconnect that we made at Cray when I was there, Slingshot, was based on Ethernet,” Ungaro said. “We used to pooh-pooh Ethernet as not high performance enough. And then all of a sudden, a bunch of smart people get together and figure out, well, if we do this and that and this and that, all of a sudden, [you get] Ultra Ethernet and things like that. We can get this really performing at levels that we never thought we could before, and we can do unique things with it. And so I do think Ethernet is going to be around for a long time just because we can continue to evolve.”
Liquid Cooling for HPC
Another big hurdle the industry is facing revolves around cooling. In his conversation with Boisseau and Khaleel, Ungaro noted that Cray was at the forefront in developing liquid cooled supercomputers before it was bought by HPE in 2019, and the company continued to innovate in that arena following the acquisition.
“You had HPE and SGI and engineers that had done a bunch of liquid cooling stuff all together,” Ungaro said. “It’s just expanded that whole capability.”
Liquid cooling is unavoidable in HPC (Matveev Aleksandr/Shutterstock)
While air cooling is staging a bit of a comeback thanks to its simplicity and expandability, there’s no doubt in Ungaro’s mind that liquid cooling will be critical moving forward, as the energy density of today’s high-performance GPUs are just too high to go back to 100% air-cooled racks.
The big question facing HPC architects today, he said, is how data centers can be constructed to maximize efficiency. As Ungaro noted, hyperscalers like Google Cloud taught the industry a valuable lesson, which is that the most efficient data center may not be the most attractive.
“Traditionally we built data centers that were very pretty and they were showcases and you could walk around them very comfortably,” Ungaro said. “I think the hyperscalers came in [and said] wait, wait, wait. We could do this more efficiently. These rooms could be run a lot hotter than maybe as comfortable for the average human to spend a lot of time in. Or they could not be as pretty but be more functional and not have glass windows and such.”
HPC’s New North Star?
Now that we have built exascale supercomputers, Khaleel asked Ungaro what the HPC community’s next goal should be. Perhaps it should it be building a zettascale system? Ungaro’s response was mixed.
“It’s really how do I efficiently run larger and larger systems to solve new problems, to solve problems I couldn’t solve yesterday. And it definitely has very little to do with pure FLOPs,” Ungaro said. “You can get a lot of FLOPs by putting lot of crappy computers together and tying them all together and running something.”
Ungaro said he doesn’t like the idea of having one simple metric, but instead said the industry should seek to maximize systems at the intersection of scale and efficiency. “It’s really I think about how do we get more efficiency out of systems at bigger and bigger scale,” he said.
AI has already disrupted jobs, and it’s poised to continue disrupting jobs for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, Boisseau asked Ungaro for any advice he can provide to the next generation of researchers who are entering HPC and supercomputing? Ungaro’s advice was telling.
“I would say, first of all, you’re in one of the most exciting industries that there is. You picked a great industry that’s growing fast and moving and changing and evolving. You did that really well so congrats on that,” he said. “I think the biggest challenge is being open and learning and not getting set in our ways. We’ve all made lots of mistakes in this industry over time because we rely on our past and our past knowledge. And in something that’s moving this quickly, I think you just you can’t do that. You got to use that as your crutch, but you got to be open minded and continually, continually learning. And I think that’s the most critical thing for folks.”
Universities, interestingly, are not high on Ungaro’s list of places where the next-generation of researchers can go to prepare for the future.
“When you get out of university, that’s where you start learning. Basically you’ve just learned how to learn, and now you got to start applying that every single day of the rest of your life,” he said. “I’m still learning today and I have a lot of gray hair–mostly gray hair or no hair–and so I just don’t think it ever stops…That hunger for learning and applying it, I think that’s the magic equation.”
The case, seeking to help officials ensure potential voters are citizens, is among the election-related disputes the court is considering ahead of the midterms.
I see Hooiser has onewheel marketed tires with the EB1 and FF tire compounds with product numbers ending in 12325. I cannot find anything in stock for onewheel tires in canada but found someone who can order a Hoosier 11325 tire in either D20A or D30A. Will one of these tires fit the pint X? Are there any differences other than compound that would make it incompatible?
All tires referenced state they are size 10.5 / 5.0 - 6
Hey guys! I’m looking into buying this Onewheel GT from a Facebook seller, but I’m not sure what could be wrong with it and whether or not it’d be worth fixing it.
With my budget I could drop about $500 into it. I’ve tried looking through posts from the past and most people have had loose foot pads, connectors or normal error codes but this doesn’t seem like an error code. Is it something with the battery? I’m all new to fixing one wheels and I’m looking for a good project to learn more.
(The Center Square) – Most financial institutions are wary of working alongside cannabis-related businesses despite widening acceptance, according to a new report.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a New York woman's bid to send her son to kindergarten without state-mandated vaccines, a requirement that she claimed infringed on her religious rights.
Skeletal remains found in North Carolina in 1977 have been identified as those of Cindy Marcell Blizzard, a 15-year-old girl who ran away from her home in Monkton, Maryland, investigators said.
A small plane carrying four family members flying back home to Florida went missing off the Bahamas, the U.S. Coast Guard and authorities in the Bahamas said.
Australia is proposing the "My Feed, My Way" initiative that would force social media platforms to let users over 16 turn off algorithmic recommendations and instead see only posts from people and creators they follow. Platforms that fail to comply could face fines of up to $79 million. CNBC reports: The legislation, which is being drafted and released Tuesday for targeted consultation, would require platforms to send notifications to new and existing users so they can choose their default feed. [...] The measures, set to be introduced to the Parliament of Australia this year, will also require AI chatbots, online games and other digital services to take action to protect under-18s from addictive design features. "This is not about giving government control. It's about giving people control. It's about putting choice back into the hands of Australians online," said Prime Minister Anthony at a press conference on Tuesday.
"This is sensible, pragmatic, practical reform. It gives users choice, and it will hold the big tech companies responsible for inaction."
New superconducting digital program brings together foundries, system companies and hyperscalers around industry needs in next-gen HPC, AI, quantum computing, photonics and neuromorphic computing
LEUVEN, Belgium, Sept. 8, 2026 — This week, at the 2026 Applied Superconductivity Conference (ASC), imec, a world-leading R&D center in advanced semiconductor technologies, is presenting a three-metal-level (3ML) niobium-titanium-nitride (NbTiN)-based Josephson junction circuit, achieving circuit design densities of 3.8 million junctions per cm2 – a world first. In addition, 3ML NbTiN routing was demonstrated with superconducting wires scaled down to an unprecedented 30nm linewidth.
These results strengthen imec’s versatile NbTiN-based superconducting technology research platform for next-gen HPC and AI applications available for joint R&D with industry partners. Imec’s superconducting digital program is structured around CMOS-compatible process technology, design, and 2.5D and 3D heterogeneous integration. Along with HPC and AI applications, the program also envisions applications in quantum compute control logic, photonics and neuromorphic computing.
Superconducting technology promises to address the expanding needs of high-performance computing (HPC) and AI computational accelerators. It has the potential to significantly outperform state-of-the-art CMOS technology in terms of energy efficiency (100x), compute density (1,000x), and broadcast bandwidth (1,000x). At the device frontend, superconducting technology takes advantage of the fast and low-energy logic offered by Josephson junction circuits. At the backend, superconducting interconnects provide zero-electrical resistance, allowing data to be moved around at extremely low energy and signal losses.
Conventional niobium (Nb)-based superconducting technology, however, lacks the scalability that is required to fully unlock the technology’s potential and open doors to other application domains. Imec addresses the scalability issue with a versatile NbTiN-based superconducting technology research platform that relies on 300mm CMOS-compatible processes. Developments target the co-optimization of technologies and processes, devices, integrated circuits, as well as architecture and system-level metrics.
At 2026 ASC, imec presents NbTiN/αSi/NbTiN-based Josephson junction circuits up to three metal levels (MLs). Junction diameters as small as 150nm are achieved, enabling circuit design densities of 3.8 million junctions per cm2. In addition, three layers of high-density and low-loss NbTiN routing (wires and vias) are demonstrated, which can be used for incorporating inductors, passive transmission lines, ground planes, and clock or power resonators. The NbTiN metal wires were scaled down to 30nm linewidth, which is about 10x smaller than what can be achieved with conventional Nb-based technology. For both Josephson junction circuits and interconnects, the superconducting properties (i.e., critical current density (Jc) and critical current (Ic), respectively) can be controllably tuned to address a broad range of target applications.
Richard Rouse, Director Superconducting Digital Program at imec, commented: “With our superconducting digital program, we are targeting foundries, hyperscalers and system companies to take our NbTiN superconducting technology to the next level. We have structured our program around three pillars: (1) process technology, (2) design and EDA enablement, and (3) system-level scaling centered around 2.5D and 3D integration addressing the co-integration of superconducting devices with other technologies. This heterogeneous approach opens opportunities beyond HPC and AI, including quantum control and readout, neuromorphic computing, and high-resolution single photon detection supporting e.g. space and biomedical applications.”
About imec
Imec is a world-leading research and innovation center in advanced semiconductor technologies. Leveraging its state-of-the-art R&D infrastructure and the expertise of over 6,500 employees, imec drives innovation in semiconductor and system scaling, artificial intelligence, silicon photonics, connectivity, and sensing.
Imec’s advanced research powers breakthroughs across a wide range of industries, including computing, health, automotive, industry, consumer electronics, aerospace and security. Through IC-Link, imec delivers customized solutions, from concept to full-scale manufacturing, to meet the most advanced design and production needs. Through imec.ventures, imec creates, co‑creates new ventures, and supports existing semiconductor deep‑tech companies to scale-up.
Imec collaborates with global leaders across the semiconductor value chain, as well as with technology companies, start-ups, academia, and research institutions in Flanders and worldwide. Headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, imec has research facilities in Belgium, across Europe, the USA and the GCC region, and representation on three continents. In 2025, imec reported revenues of €1.2 billion.
The Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 cargo plane that crashed off a Miami runway on Sunday, killing five people, was operated by a North Carolina company that has been accused by past employees of violating safety regulations, legal documents reveal.
Brothers, convicted of parents’ killings and denied parole last year, permitted to apply for another hearing earlier than expected
Erik and Lyle Menendez will be before a parole board again in March, about 17 months earlier than expected.
The brothers were originally sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for the 1989 fatal shootings of their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion. A Los Angeles judge reduced their sentences to 50 years to life in May 2025, making them eligible for parole because they were under age 26 when they committed their crimes.
SAN DIEGO, Sept. 8, 2026 — Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced a multi-generation collaboration with Amazon to enable customized silicon at scale for large-scale AI data centers, working together on AI inference. In addition, the companies are working on optical connectivity solutions extending up to 1.6T and future-generation solutions.
As AI workloads grow exponentially — driving unprecedented demand for compute, storage, networking and memory bandwidth, and energy-efficient infrastructure — the collaboration brings together Amazon’s comprehensive, secure, and price-performant AI infrastructure with Qualcomm Technologies’ leadership in power-efficient processing, silicon design and system-level integration.
Qualcomm Technologies and Amazon will also collaborate on high-performance optical connectivity solutions designed to support the growing scale and bandwidth demands of AI infrastructure. The collaboration will leverage Qualcomm Technologies’ advanced SerDes and optical DSP technologies.
As part of the expanded collaboration, Qualcomm Technologies plans to deepen its use of AWS AI infrastructure, including Amazon Bedrock, for electronic design automation (EDA) workloads, targeting a reduction in chip design cycles.
“As AI demand accelerates, data center infrastructure will require advances in both computing and connectivity to deliver greater performance with more efficiency,” said Cristiano Amon, President and CEO, Qualcomm Incorporated. “Qualcomm is pleased to work with AWS on customized silicon and connectivity solutions, bringing decades of leadership in advanced processing and power-efficient compute, to deliver breakthrough performance and enable the next generation of AI infrastructure.”
“This collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies builds on a strong foundation of partnership and reflects our shared commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” said Prasad Kalyanaraman, Vice President, AWS. “By working together on customized silicon and advanced connectivity, we’re delivering more performant, efficient, and cost-effective infrastructure for our customers.”
About Qualcomm
Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) is a global computing leader at the center of the AI era, enabling intelligence to scale from the most personal devices to large‑scale infrastructure. Building on more than four decades of innovation, we develop platforms and solutions that bring together advanced AI, high‑performance, low-power computing and industry‑leading connectivity—powering products and services used around the world. At Qualcomm, we are engineering human progress.
Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering and research and development functions and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business. Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patents are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm, Snapdragon, Qualcomm Dragonwing and Qualcomm Dragonfly are trademarks or registered trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated.
MONTEREY, Calif., Sept. 8, 2026 — This week at the SPIE Photomask Technology + Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography conference, Intel Foundry and ASML highlighted continued progress in bringing High Numerical Aperture (High NA) Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography into production and advancing the technologies that will shape its future adoption.
Specifically, Intel Foundry and ASML shared the following updates:
High NA continues to be used in high-volume manufacturing production at Intel Foundry today, with more than one million wafers processed to date across early tool certification and testing, research and development efforts, and volume production on select layers for a subset of Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, code-named Panther Lake. Overlay, throughput and availability are meeting Intel Foundry’s expectations.
Products manufactured on Intel 18A using High NA for select layers continue to deliver performance that meets or exceeds comparable layers patterned using the NXE platform (EUV with numerical aperture of 0.33).
Customers can realize the benefits of High NA using the industry’s current mask format, either by floor-planning within the 6-inch mask or by utilizing Intel Foundry’s stitching capabilities and process design kit (PDK) solutions.
For more than three years, Intel Foundry has championed the large mask format initiative to align the mask ecosystem, working closely with ASML, mask makers, automation suppliers, EDA partners, materials providers, and semiconductor manufacturers to advance the standards, infrastructure, and technology needed to support future High NA scaling.
“Intel Foundry has been one of the key leaders of the industry’s adoption of High NA, from installing the first commercial EXE system in 2024, to qualifying the latest generation of tools, to shipping the first high-volume logic product manufactured with High NA,” said Christophe Fouquet, president and CEO, ASML. “ASML recognizes Intel Foundry’s pioneering role in High NA and its innovations to deliver value today with 6-inch masks, as well as its long-time support of the 6×12-inch mask evolution.”
“The companies building the increasingly complex AI products of the future need manufacturing innovations that are production-ready and easy to use,” said Naga Chandrasekaran, Intel Executive Vice President and Co-General Manager of Intel Foundry. “Within our lithography capabilities, Intel Foundry is focused on near term enablement of High NA on 6-inch masks with or without stitching, and making the transition to 6×12-inch masks. We will continue to work closely with ASML and the entire industry to enable this transition.”
Intel Foundry and ASML are building on years of collaboration to bring together the lithography ecosystem around larger-format masks, helping drive standards, infrastructure, and technology advances needed to support future High NA EUV scaling. Working alongside mask makers, automation suppliers, EDA partners, materials providers, and semiconductor manufacturers, the companies have helped establish the industry’s path to larger-format masks while enabling customers to realize the benefits of High NA EUV today.
About Intel
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) designs and manufactures advanced semiconductors that connect and power the modern world. Every day, our engineers create new technologies that enhance and shape the future of computing to enable new possibilities for every customer we serve. Learn more at intel.com.
About ASML
ASML is a leading supplier to the semiconductor industry. The company provides chipmakers with hardware, software and services to mass produce the patterns of integrated circuits (microchips). Together with its partners, ASML drives the advancement of more affordable, more powerful, more energy-efficient microchips. ASML enables groundbreaking technology to solve some of humanity’s toughest challenges, such as in healthcare, energy use and conservation, mobility and agriculture. ASML is a multinational company headquartered in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, with offices across EMEA, the US and Asia. Every day, ASML’s more than 44,000 employees (FTE) challenge the status quo and push technology to new limits. ASML is traded on Euronext Amsterdam and NASDAQ under the symbol ASML. Discover ASML – our products, technology and career opportunities – at www.asml.com.
President Trump threatened to ban Bombardier sales in the U.S. as Canada's retaliatory tariffs take effect. Here's what to know about the aircraft maker.
(The Center Square) - The 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks falls during the final sprint for control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. Some candidates seeking to secure wins in races across the country are under…
Whitehall officials ask why laws meant to clamp down on mask wearing at demonstrations were not used
Police have been told by the government they expect better intelligence gathering after masked far-right groups took to the streets at the weekend, the Guardian has learned, as the Kent force admitted mishandling warnings of potential trouble.
Police in Kent on Saturday and then Portsmouth, Hampshire, on Sunday said they were taken by surprise when hundreds massed to oppose what they say is illegal immigration via small boats.
Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, has said that Britain will be “on the wrong side of history” if it goes ahead with plans to ban trade with the illegal settlements on the West Bank.
Later today, we expect to see headlines announcing certain British trade sanctions on Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria.
If this happens – and other nations may join – I believe it will prove to be a grave miscalculation, a decision that will fall on the wrong side of history.
Programs took different approaches to helping young viewers grapple with the horrors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks – lessons that still apply in today’s media environment.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Telluride just managed one of its best-kept secrets in years, per The Hollywood Reporter. On Sunday night, festival-goers filed into a 650-seat theater with their phones locked away, having no idea what they were about to see, told only that it ran nearly three hours, hadn't been shown anywhere, and that its principal creators would be in the audience. The surprise premiere they went on to enjoy is a new documentary from co-directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
Called "You Can See Everything," the film is said to capture Holmes and her husband, Billy Evans, in the 34 days before she reported to federal prison in May 2023 to begin an 11-year sentence for defrauding investors about her blood-testing technology. Since then, her legal fight has limped along without success. Her appeals to overturn the conviction and shorten her sentence were rejected in February of last year. She then went a different route last year, asking President Trump to commute her sentence. That clemency petition is still listed as pending, meaning it's officially been opened and remains under review.
Fielder apparently lived in the couple's guest house during filming -- the access they provided sounds shocking -- but some of the buzz also ties to an A-list actress who becomes part of the story itself. A24 is set to release the film in October. You can watch a trailer for the film on YouTube.
Settler terrorists supported by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are committing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, Ed Miliband has said, in the UK’s starkest condemnation since the foundation of the Israeli state.
An import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories and a new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”.
A comprehensive sanctions regime against providing services such as construction or financing for Israeli settlements and a ban on advertising them in the UK.
Personal sanctions against key individuals accused of promoting settler violence.
A new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”.
(The Center Square) – A coalition of 9/11 family members, first responders and elected officials on Tuesday urged New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani not to attend Friday's memorial marking the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Photo Credit: Rimma Bondarenko / ShutterstockTo identify the most popular ice cream brands in every state, researchers at Trace One analyzed Google Trends data for the 12-month period ending in July of 2026. The most popular national brand in each…
Blue Bell is the most searched national ice cream brand in 22 statesSource: Trace One analysis of Google Trends dataAcross the U.S., one ice cream brand stands out for its national appeal: Blue Bell. Although the Texas-based company did not…
Americans seek out both local and national brandsSource: Trace One analysis of Google Trends dataConsumers find ways to enjoy ice cream both at home and out at their favorite local ice cream shops, parlors, and creameries. In fact, many leading…
Interest in ice cream in the U.S. is highly seasonal, usually peaking in JulySource: Trace One analysis of Google Trends dataAccording to Google Trends data, search interest for ice cream—ice cream-related searches as a proportion of total searches—is highly seasonal,…
Photo Credit: Rimma Bondarenko / ShutterstockWhen outdoor temperatures climb and Americans look for ways to beat the heat, few things are as universally beloved—or as deeply ingrained in our culture—as a classic, sweet, frosty scoop of ice cream. It is…
EU’s highest court allows Swedish furniture firm to begin proceedings after Vlaams Belang used its trademarks in immigration campaign
Ikea has won the right to take legal action against a Belgian far-right political party that parodied the Swedish flatpack furniture firm’s branding in its anti-immigration campaign.
In a ruling on Tuesday, Europe’s highest court said that Ikea had the right to oppose the use of its trademarks and distinctive graphics by Vlaams Belang, a rightwing Eurosceptic political party that advocates for an independent Flemish state.
I have a GT with a GTFO, WTF rails, bang bumpers, low boy foot pads, flight fins and enduro. It has lots of power and it’s great. My only issue with it is off road on steep hills it makes it up but it’s still not as fast as I want. I am 150lb. I am trying to decide if 20s or a super flux would be next if I wanted to be able to get up hills a little quicker.
The other options is just start building a custom xr board bc the GT is getting kinda heavy.
The indefatigable ability of UK Foreign Office ministers over decades to issue boilerplate statements of concern about the extension of illegal settlements in Israel has long been a matter of ridicule.
Even some of the Conservative ministers who issued them, notably Alan Duncan and Alistair Burt, have agreed. Duncan described the UK stance towards settlements as weak and naive, while Burt wondered at the ability of the Foreign Office to find new forms of diplomatic condemnation that never amounted to any specific action. Margaret Thatcher, often torn as prime minister between her natural sympathy for Israel and her fear of the Gulf states falling under the sway of the Soviet Union, similarly expressed her anger at the settlements.
Derek Phillips suffered cardiac arrest at football game
Temperatures reached 94F in Iowa City on Saturday
University has not said whether heat caused collapse
A University of Iowa marching band member has been taken off life support after collapsing during extreme heat at the Hawkeyes’ season-opening football game on Saturday, his family said.
Derek Phillips, a third-year student from Dubuque, Iowa, suffered a sudden cardiac arrest shortly before the band was scheduled to perform its half-time show against Northern Illinois at Kinnick Stadium, according to a message posted to his Instagram account by his family.
Lisa Nandy says government will introduce legislation after talks end without breakthrough
Apple and Google will be forced to block explicit images on children’s smartphones by law in the UK after talks failed to produce a breakthrough, the government has said.
The legislation commitment puts ministers on a collision course with two of the biggest players in Silicon Valley, months after the government announced a social media ban for under-16s.
Satirical program’s new title is ‘inspired by bravery and patriotism’ of Apple and Google, who capitulated to Trump’s requests to change Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’
In light of Donald Trump’s attempts to rename a gulf, lakes and even states after “America”, South Park, the animated satirical program that has long skewered those in power, has announced an official name change. For its 29th season, the Comedy Central series will be known as “South America”.
“Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of South Park to SOUTH AMERICA,” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker said in a statement. “We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount – a Skydance Capitulation.” The show’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, owned by Trump ally David Ellison, is poised to become one of the biggest media conglomerates in the US after the Trump administration approved its $111bn merger with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), drawing much creative industry backlash.
The 29th season of “South America” will premiere on 16 September, and stream globally on Paramount+.
A Trump post showed the country, along with Canada, Cuba, Mexico and Greenland, covered in red, white and blue, and labeled “United States of America.”
Los Angeles, California — Mayor Karen Bass has declined an invitation to testify before a House oversight subcommittee examining federal homelessness funding in Los Angeles, saying she is unavailable for the Sept. 15 hearing.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, launched the inquiry last week over what he described as potential waste, fraud and abuse involving federal grants administered through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
Bass’s attorney, David Michaelson, responded Sept. 4 that the mayor could not attend on the requested date but said her office is reviewing records sought by the committee. He also emphasized that LAHSA is a separate governmental entity jointly overseen by Los Angeles city and county appointees.
Burchett’s office criticized Bass for not appearing and argued that homelessness has worsened under her leadership. Bass’s office disputes that characterization.
City officials say homelessness in Los Angeles has fallen about 11% since 2023. Bass has also credited her Inside Safe program with moving roughly 6,000 people off the streets.
The 2026 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count was released in July, with LAHSA publishing updated city and county data as well as methodology information.
Bass has separately criticized LAHSA’s past financial controls, saying audits and court findings showed problems with tracking money and paying service providers.
The congressional investigation remains ongoing, and Bass’s office says it intends to provide responsive records as the review continues.
Carson City, Nevada — A Trump administration claim that nearly 16,000 noncitizens might be registered to vote in Nevada has narrowed dramatically, highlighting the gap between preliminary database matches and verified cases.
In July, the Department of Homeland Security publicly said as many as 15,903 noncitizens could be on Nevada’s voter rolls. Secretary Markwayne Mullin promoted the figure as part of a broader claim involving more than 250,000 potential noncitizens across four states. DHS did not initially disclose a methodology detailed enough to establish that those people were actually noncitizens or had voted.
After further review, DHS told Nevada officials it had manually identified just 185 potential noncitizens. Another 6,218 records were described as “high confidence” matches but had not undergone the same individual review. The original 15,903 figure, DHS officials acknowledged, represented a ceiling rather than a verified count.
That distinction matters. A database match is not proof of an illegal registration, much less an illegal vote. Voter files change constantly as people naturalize, move, die or update registrations, and matching by names, addresses, birth dates and other identifiers can produce false positives.
Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar has accused DHS of exaggerating the problem and says the state still has not received enough information to independently validate the federal findings.
Noncitizen voting is illegal. But so far, the evidence released in Nevada does not support claims of widespread illegal voting. The confirmed universe under review is a fraction of the number initially promoted publicly.
A Gamers Nexus investigation found that LG smart TVs are almost constantly logging and uploading data about owners and their homes, even while they are offline or in standby mode. "The company's TV sets scan Wi-Fi networks for nearby devices, record audio logs through their microphones, and use audio and video sampling to recognize exactly what you're watching from across the TV inputs," reports The Verge. From the report: Gamers Nexus partnered with fellow YouTubers Level1Techs and independent security researchers for the investigation, which involved testing retail LG OLEDs. Packet captures showed the TVs scanning the local area network for nearby hardware like phones or smartwatches, as well as logging location data and details of nearby Wi-Fi networks, and feeding the information back to LG Ad Solutions. Perhaps more concerningly, the TVs were capable of recording microphone audio when in standby; this continued even after the TV was disconnected from the internet, with audio files stored offline and uploaded once a connection was restored. Earlier this year, LG was found to be silently installing an adware-like app on Windows PCs that ran pop-up ads for other LG apps and even McAfee antivirus.
‘I have to be honest, it has been stressful,’ says Lonnie Bunch III
The Smithsonian Institution’s secretary, Lonnie Bunch III, will retire at the end of the year amid Donald Trump’s attacks on the museum’s content and independence.
Bunch, who was appointed in 2019 as the first African American to lead the museums, cited personal reasons for departing, while acknowledging the pressure that the president’s attacks on the Smithsonian’s depictions of US history had taken.
Appeals court dismisses lawsuit from Jackson residents claiming that tainted drinking water violated their rights
A US appellate court has decided that the federal constitution does not guarantee a right to clean water.
That legal opinion came in the form of a decision on Friday from the fifth circuit court of appeals to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of a 2022 lawsuit from several Jackson, Mississippi, residents claiming that tainted drinking water violated their constitutional rights.
What the US midterms could mean for Trump’s powerExpert commentLToremark
The Democrats are projected to make big gains in November’s midterm elections. But this will not necessarily constrain President Trump.
As President Trump gathers Republicans this week for their first-ever midterm convention, election campaigning is in full swing. The results of the November midterm elections will shape Trump’s remaining tenure and the 2028 presidential cycle. As it stands, Democrats are projected to take the House of Representatives, while the Senate is a closer call. Either way, Republicans will likely lose the governing trifecta – House, Senate and presidency – that has enabled Trump’s agenda and removed constraints on his authority.
But that will not automatically result in durable guardrails or clear policy shifts. Even with control of one or both congressional chambers, many Democratic efforts to frustrate administration policies or impose oversight will run into structural hurdles. Instances of hard leverage are few, predominantly around funding the government, but they can be used to extract concessions – even as Republicans rally to defang them before the new Congress takes office in January.
Outside fiscal negotiations – and nominations, if the Democrats also take the Senate – opposition will be more about optics than hard constraints. This is especially true on foreign policy, where Trump enjoys practical, legal and structural advantages that empower him to act.
Areas of potential Democratic leverage
With a majority in either or both houses, Democrats can block Republican legislative moves. This would likely push the White House to double down on its executive authority claims, including executive orders, emergency declarations and regulatory actions. But the inverse is not true. Even with both chambers, Democrats would struggle to drive policy through legislation. A war powers vote to curtail military engagement in the Gulf or resolution disapproving of a foreign arms sale, for instance, would face presidential vetoes and Democrats would not have the supermajorities needed to overcome them.
Another area of potential leverage is withholding approval for presidential appointments – especially for a Supreme Court or Federal Reserve vacancy. However, this only works if Democrats retake the Senate, which confirms nominees.
An area where Democrats have real leverage is fiscal matters – even if they only take the House. President Trump needs congressional action to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling, which limits government borrowing. Congress raised the debt ceiling by $5 trillion in 2025 and the limit is now expected to be reached by mid-2027, after which Treasury Department accounting manoeuvres to avoid default – known as extraordinary measures – could buy an additional six to nine months. Failure to raise the limit in time to meet the government’s debt obligations could trigger a calamitous market shock. How Republicans navigate the period after the midterms and before the new Congress takes office will determine whether the debt limit remains as a negotiating lever.
Trump is pushing Republicans to use the budget reconciliation process – which requires only simple majorities in both houses – to lift the debt limit by another $5 trillion through the remainder of his term, and secure funding including $60 billion for defence and $12 billion in aid for farmers hit by tariff retaliation and Hormuz disruption. But time is of the essence, as reconciliation requires a budget resolution adopted by both chambers, so a Democratic House alone would rule it out.
Ironically, Republicans themselves might provide the most immediate obstacle to Trump’s wishes. Rapid debt accrual – some $2.9 trillion of the $5 trillion added to the debt limit in 2025 had evaporated by June – has made fiscal hawks like Senator Rand Paul unwilling to proceed without spending cuts. Failure to extend the limit would yield a negotiation in 2027 or early 2028, with presidential primaries in sight and little incentive to compromise.
Unlike the debt limit, reconciliation cannot be used for regular appropriations, the annual bills that fund federal agencies. As it stands, Republicans will need Democratic support to find a solution before funding expires on 11 December. This negotiation will set the timing and parameters for starker confrontations in the new year, including opportunities to attach conditions for how funding is spent. But as the Trump administration asserts unilateral authority over spending, such conditions may have less relevance.
For their part, Democrats must weigh their negotiation priorities and appetite for a potential government shutdown – during which the federal government withholds services, data and paycheques – which will inevitably raise the question of blame.
Any change of control in the US Congress would also precipitate widespread investigations, including into Trump family business dealings and the Iran war. However, the levers of Congress – for instance, the power to subpoena testimony and documents – will quickly run into enforcement challenges.
This Trump administration is more capable of resisting scrutiny than the version Democrats confronted after retaking the House in 2018. It has used non-compliance, taken advantage of slow-moving court proceedings, and expanded claims of executive privilege to resist disclosing certain documents and communications. In August, Justice Department lawyers issued a non-binding advisory opinion stating that executive privilege extends to presidential communications with private individuals if they relate to his decision-making, which could vastly expand the scope of privileged information. Nevertheless, there are signs that the White House is preparing for Democratic investigations by hiring lawyers and briefing staff.
And Americans see ample cause for such investigations. A Gallup poll found that 89 per cent of Americans, including lopsided majorities in both parties, believe government corruption is widespread. But the challenges of reaching into the executive branch may change the shape and targets of investigations, with spillover falling onto Trump’s family members, business associates and outsiders who lack similar procedural tools and protections. Some corporate leaders could find themselves squeezed between a White House claiming privilege and Congress demanding cooperation.
Presidential impeachment is another potential flashpoint likely to resurface. Congressional Democratic leadership may try to resist a third attempt to impeach Trump but pressure from individual members could build. Although any impeachment – whether of Trump or alternative targets like cabinet secretaries or judges – would energize the Democratic base, it could also invite criticism of overreach. Both oversight and impeachment can be costly and time-consuming but may fail to deliver concrete results.
Ultimately, the most significant constraints on Trump’s remaining tenure may be practical rather than political. In a combative political environment, a crisis would put serious pressure on an outgoing presidency and diminished state capacity. A financial shock or recession would stress already strained fiscal capacity, perhaps alongside contentious negotiations; an additional military operation would draw on waning munitions stocks and a burdened force; and a natural disaster or health emergency would call on a severely depleted civil service to act. This is to say nothing of the disruption stemming from artificial intelligence, which Congress and the White House remain poorly positioned to address.
For US allies and partners, there is an uncomfortable asymmetry. A president who has made it his business to be a shock to the system retains the capacity to deliver one. Meanwhile, America itself is less capable of repair and resilience. Whatever happens in November will not change that.
In the wealthy countries that have borne the brunt of Iran's retaliation, the war is no longer seen as a temporary crisis with an end date. Having a Plan B is essential.
Officials in Florida on Tuesday identified the five people killed in Saturday’s Amazon cargo plane crash at Miami international airport – and said two more remained hospitalized in critical condition.
At a morning news conference, the Miami-Dade sheriff, Rosie Cordero-Stutz, also said both pilots of the Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767, which careered off the end of the airport’s runway and struck at least two vehicles, were released from the hospital after treatment.
Trump passed the long weekend posting a torrent of memes and musings on his Truth Social platform
The long weekend may have proved too long for Donald Trump, who passed the time by musing about annexing other countries, unilaterally renaming places he’s not allowed to rename and turning himself into a superhero.
Amid the torrent of memes and posts by the president on his Truth Social platform over the Labor Day holiday weekend was a bizarre AI-generated video depicting Trump as the Green Lantern DC superhero, wielding a glowing green power ring to erect his border wall, illuminate an “American manufacturing” scene, and command a fleet of warplanes and warships behind him.
Ruslan Kravchenko resigns over allegations some of his officials were engaged in large-scale money laundering
Ukraine’s prosecutor general has resigned after investigators used ladders to raid his office in connection with a major corruption scandal that threatens to embarrass Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ruslan Kravchenko quit his post on Monday after allegations that some of his officials were involved in large-scale money laundering. They received cash to protect call centres involved in illegal phone scams, it was claimed.
Summer spending across the league’s 30 clubs has ballooned. Here are three takeaways from the league’s transfer window
With the shadow of the 2026 World Cup hanging over the league and a potential set of rule changes looming, Major League Soccer’s summer transfer window was one defined by uncertainty, diverse strategies and record spending. It was the fourth transfer window since MLS allowed clubs to purchase players from other clubs using traditional transfer fees rather than general allocation money (GAM), the intraleague currency system. The new rule, which is now being used more frequently, has helped account for rapid growth in league expenditure, as has increased GAM allotted to each club.
These trends have been seen broadly over the last two seasons, but this past window took it to a new level, smashing the previous record for summer spending. This summer, MLS teams spent 65% more year-over-year, with a total of nearly $190m spent, accounting for 45% of the 2026 total. The above factors combined to create one of the most consequential transfer windows in MLS history, which may give a glimpse into the league’s future trajectory.
Google DeepMind has released AlphaGenome Atlas, a free research database containing AI-generated predictions for the effects of all 9 billion possible single-letter mutations in the human genome. Built from its AlphaGenome model, the atlas is designed to help scientists interpret both protein-coding and harder-to-understand regulatory DNA. Fortune reports: AlphaGenome Atlas, as DeepMind calls the database, is a precomputed catalogue of what each substitution of a single DNA base is likely to do to the machinery that switches genes on and off. Until now researchers had to run such a model one variant at a time or had to test variants in the laboratory, a process that was painstakingly slow. It would have taken many human lifetimes to discover the consequences of all 9 billion possible single-letter mutations. The Atlas promises to make the job of biologists and medical researchers considerably easier, potentially speeding up the understanding of genetic diseases and the hunt for possible cures.
Pushmeet Kohli, DeepMind's vice president for research and head of its AI for science team, told reporters on a briefing call that this was the first time any researcher in the world could reach a comprehensive map of human genetic variation "by simply opening a browser." Kohli also framed the release as helping to complete the unfinished business of the Human Genome Project, which in 2003 succeeded in mapping the entire human DNA sequence. "As the saying goes, we bought the book," he said, "but we did not understand how to read it."
Atlas is available for non-commercial use from today through a website Google DeepMind has set up for it. The company said it would be available for commercial use through a licensing arrangement through Google Cloud "soon." Kohli said that Google DeepMind's sister company,ÂIsomorphic Labs, which is using AI for drug discovery, would have access to Atlas but that it would also require a commercial license for access. He did not specify exactly what the terms would be for commercial licensing. A paper describing the Atlas and how it was created is being released on bioRxiv, a repository for biomedical preprint academic papers.
Comments in virtual meeting aimed at securing 300 Patriot missiles for Kyiv come as UK commits £100m for Ukraine’s air defences
The US undersecretary of defence, Elbridge Colby, told European countries they “must not slacken” in their remilitarisation and their backing for Ukraine in a virtual meeting aimed at securing 300 Patriot interceptors for Kyiv.
The influential Pentagon official praised Ukraine’s recent “stout defence”, which he said proved that Europe was capable of leading the defence of its own continent from Russian aggression rather than relying on the US.
Several MPs also banned from Israel after UK steps up condemnation of settlements and announces sweeping sanctions
Israel has ordered the closure of the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem in response to sweeping UK sanctions on goods from illegal settlements.
Reacting to Ed Miliband’s description of violent Jewish settler activity on the occupied Palestinian West Bank as “ethnic cleansing” carried out with the tacit backing of the Netanyahu government, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, announced retaliatory measures including the closure of the consulate and entry bans on several UK MPs.
The first teaser trailer of Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial has been released.
After being dropped by Amazon MGM Studios in June, the biopic of the OpenAI tech executive Sam Altman will be released in the US on 25 December by Neon after it premieres at the New York film festival this October.
Patrick Clancy, Lindsay Clancy's ex-husband, issued a scathing statement to conspiracy theorists who have been claiming he was involved in the deaths of the couple's children - "There will be consequences."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit friendly governments in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. But his support for the Venezuela oil deal is rankling some in the region.
Teen reading, math, and science scores have fallen to their lowest levels since international PISA testing began in 2000, with 15-year-olds now reading at roughly the level previously expected of students a year younger. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) linked weaker results to more screen time, less reading for pleasure, and digital distraction. It also found that students who regularly used AI chatbots for tasks like drafting essays and summarizing text scored about 20 points lower in science, roughly equivalent to a year of learning. Reuters reports: A 2012 reading high of 501 on PISA's index had declined to a score of 466 last year. The test is widely regarded as the world's leading gauge of educational performance and its results are closely scrutinized by governments and educators. "In reading, more screen time and less reading for pleasure have gone hand in hand with weaker results," OECD head Mathias Cormann told a press conference. "We're also seeing more hasty reading, students rushing through a text and giving a quick wrong answer."
Reading scores fell more sharply in students from better-off backgrounds, the study added. Hindered by falling reading standards, average teenage science and maths skills were also at their lowest this century. Science fell from a 2009 high of 506 on the index to 486, while maths was down from 502 to 469 in the same period. East Asia was the best-performing region. Chinese cities that participated in the test, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan had the best educational systems with Britain and Estonia the only countries outside the region that made it into the top 10 in reading, mathematics and science.
Police say fewer people in London are getting their phones stolen by criminals speeding by on bikes and mopeds thanks to a dedicated task force with an "eye in the sky."
The lawyer of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her three young children, has said he hopes Donald Trump will pardon his client after her trial recently ended with a deadlocked jury.
Mira Lozi says quiet diplomacy has failed to free Rami Naimi who was first seized in Dubai in 2017
A British woman has spoken out for the first time about the alleged abduction, torture and coercion of her husband at the hands of Saudi authorities, after nine years of “failed” quiet diplomacy.
The businessman Rami Naimi was first abducted in Dubai in 2017 on his return from a trip to Australia with his father. After being tortured, he was released the following year.
Thieves took four artworks but it is thought they dropped two in museum garden as they fled
French police are hunting two thieves who escaped with two Renoir paintings from a museum on the French Riviera after breaking in through a hole cut in its garden fence.
Bryan Masson, the mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, about 10 miles west of Nice, said the pair appeared to have been “well equipped and well informed” about the museum, which houses works by the French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in his former home.
Award accelerates build-out of GF’s Quantum Technology Solutions business and strengthens America’s quantum semiconductor ecosystem
MALTA, N.Y., Sept. 8, 2026 — GlobalFoundries (GF) today announced it has finalized a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Research and Development Office for a $375 million award for research and development to accelerate the company’s Quantum Technology Solutions (QTS) business, designed to help scale domestic quantum semiconductor manufacturing and strengthen the United States’ leadership in quantum technologies.
The agreement advances the goal of establishing a secure, U.S.-based ecosystem for the development and manufacturing of quantum chips. Through Quantum Technology Solutions, GF is accelerating R&D and expanding access to advanced manufacturing capabilities and enabling quantum computing companies to move from research and prototyping toward commercial-scale production. Under the agreement, GF is eligible to receive up to $375 million in funding over a five-year period tied to the achievement of specified milestones.
“This is another important milestone for Quantum Technology Solutions and our efforts to build a scalable domestic quantum manufacturing ecosystem,” said Nicholas Sergeant, vice president and general manager of Quantum Technology Solutions at GlobalFoundries. “Since launching, we have expanded engagement with customers and ecosystem partners who are leveraging GF’s R&D and manufacturing expertise to address some of the industry’s most challenging scaling requirements. We’re grateful for the Department of Commerce’s support as we continue building the foundation for a secure, domestic quantum manufacturing ecosystem.”
GF has continued to advance its quantum technology roadmap and deepen collaborations across the quantum ecosystem. The company’s efforts are focused on enabling the transition from research-driven innovation to scalable manufacturing through differentiated capabilities in cryogenic CMOS technologies, advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration, helping position GF as a foundry partner of choice for emerging quantum applications.
The completion of the agreement reflects continued progress toward establishing a robust U.S. quantum supply chain and expands GF’s broader efforts to advance critical semiconductor technologies. GF has also recently announced it has entered into a $300 million letter of intent with the Department’s CHIPS Research and Development Office to accelerate R&D in silicon photonics. GF’s initiatives in quantum computing and next-generation optical connectivity are two technologies expected to be foundational to future AI infrastructure and advanced computing systems. GF is focused on continuing to strengthen its position as a trusted manufacturing partner for emerging technology innovators through investments in research.
About GF
GlobalFoundries (GF) is a leading manufacturer of essential semiconductors, enabling AI at scale from the cloud to the physical world. Through deep partnerships with customers, GF delivers differentiated, power efficient and high performance solutions for automotive, aerospace and defense, data center, smart mobile devices, internet of things and other high growth markets. With global manufacturing operations across the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF is a trusted and holistic technology partner for customers around the world. GF’s talented, global team remains focused every day on security, longevity and sustainability. For more information, visit www.gf.com.
Sept. 8, 2026 — Today, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), together with the National Academic Infrastructure for Supercomputing in Sweden (NAISS), inaugurated Arrhenius, a new EuroHPC supercomputer located in Sweden.
This world-class supercomputer was unveiled in Linköping University during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The event was attended by Anders Dam Jensen, EuroHPC JU Executive Director, and Lotta Edholm, Minister for Upper Secondary School, Higher Education and Research.
Anders Jensen, EuroHPC JU Executive Director; Erik Lindahl, Director NAISS; Katarina Bjelke, Director General of the Swedish Research Council; Jan-Ingvar Jönsson, Vice-Chancellor of Linköping University
Anders Jensen, EuroHPC JU Executive Director stated: “With the inauguration of Arrhenius, I am delighted to welcome a new mid-range supercomputer to our EuroHPC portfolio of HPC systems, marking another step towards enhanced European technological sovereignty. Arrhenius’ ability to carry out highly demanding computational tasks will allow our users to push boundaries in scientific and technological simulations, helping to drive breakthroughs in areas like drug discovery and climate change mitigation.”
The Arrhenius Supercomputer
Arrhenius is a mid-range supercomputer capable of executing more than 60 petaflops, the equivalent of over 60 million billion operations per second. It ranked 42nd in the latest TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, published in June 2026. Designed to handle complex simulations and compute-intensive AI applications, it will enable simulations in areas such as climate modelling, materials science, life sciences, and engineering.
The machine will benefit a wide spectrum of users across Europe, including researchers, industries, and the public sector. Arrhenius’s strong security and data integrity criteria make it perfect for private companies’ proprietary product development and sensitive research involving personal data.
Arrhenius also combines high performance with energy efficiency. As part of the EuroHPC JU’s ongoing efforts to procure more energy-efficient supercomputers, the system delivers more than 61 billion operations per watt, placing it 24th in the latest Green500 list and highlighting its strong energy efficiency.
Through the EuroHPC AI for science access call, European users have already begun using Arrhenius ahead of its official inauguration, giving researchers early access to the new supercomputer. Arrhenius is now available to a wider range of users through the EuroHPC regular access call, as well as through the benchmark and development modes.
More Details
The supercomputer was named after Carl Axel Arrhenius, a Swedish geologist and chemist who, in 1787, discovered the mineral gadolinite, which was later found to contain several unknown elements called rare earth elements.
The system was procured under a EuroHPC JU contract signed with HPE in July 2025.
The estimated total value for Arrhenius is EUR 68.5 million. It is co-funded up to 35% by the EuroHPC JU, with funding provided through the Digital Europe Programme (DEP) and contributions from the Swedish Research Council to NAISS.
The EuroHPC JU and NAISS, hosted by Linköping University, jointly manage access to compute resources on the new machine in proportion to their respective investments. To ensure an appropriate uptake by industry and public sector users, organisations like RISE, Research Institutes of Sweden, and ENCCS, the EuroCC National Competence Center Sweden, are also involved in the process.
Israeli PM says allegation that UAE president alerted him more than a week before major offensive is ‘absolute lie’
Benjamin Netanyahu was personally alerted by the president of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a large-scale offensive against Israel a week before its 7 October 2023 attack, but did not act on the warning, according to a book by Haaretz reporters.
The claim, which comes amid a crucial election campaign, prompted Israeli opposition leaders to describe the prime minister as “unfit” for office, even as Netanyahu denounced the report as an “absolute lie” and denied he spoke to the Emirati leader at that time.
Britain and 11 other U.S. allies say they'll sanction trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, citing an "unprecedented level of settler violence."
For years, animal rights groups and the agriculture industry have played a cat-and-mouse game over drone videos of conditions at major farms.
Angry farmhands faced off against activists who flew their drones overhead, with the operators secure in the knowledge that the Federal Aviation Administration allows licensed pilots to soar over farmland as long as they followed its rules and regulations.
Now, a new chapter has opened in these drone wars: The FAA has launched an investigation of an animal rights activist whose group’s videos of conditions at California cattle ranches sparked outrage, with the agency simultaneously proposing new rules that could prevent the pilots’ flyovers altogether.
The same company whose ranch is at the center of the allegations against the pilot is pushing for government restrictions on drone flights in the name of protecting the “national food supply chain.”
It is unclear whether the investigation represents a routine administrative step or the beginning of a broader crackdown, activists affiliated with the group Direct Action Everywhere said, but the group is watching closely.
“We know the industry lies about us, including saying our footage is edited,” Cassie King, a spokesperson for the group, told the Intercept. “What would be most concerning is if the FAA believes those lies at face value and tries to take licenses away from drone pilots who are operating safely to expose to the public what animals are suffering, and basically just to help the industry shut down that work in the public interest.”
The FAA does not comment on open investigations, a spokesperson said.
Drones Against Cruelty
The advent of drones gave animal rights groups a major leg up in their long-running campaign against big farms, which they allege routinely deploy abusive and cruel behavior against chickens, cows and calves, pigs, and other species bred for human consumption.
For years, diehard activists faced arrest and prosecution for sneaking onto farms with cameras to document conditions. Those same activists have gone legal in the drone era, since federal law largely allows licensed drone pilots to fly over farms and capture video of the conditions below.
The activists’ videos have already created major headaches for cattle farmers. In February, a Direct Action Everywhere pilot caught ranch hands in California’s Central Valley kicking young calves and pulling them with pliers. One of the workers involved was fired, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Now another Direct Action Everywhere pilot is facing turbulence. Joseph Allman received a letter in July notifying him that he was under investigation by the FAA. Allman says it is the first time the agency has opened an investigation into someone affiliated with Direct Action Everywhere.
Allman has been a licensed pilot since 2016 and previously operated a commercial drone business. In recent years, he has pivoted to activism, using his skills to fly drones over farms across California and providing instruction to prospective pilots for Direct Action Everywhere.
While Allman says he carefully follows FAA rules is in the air, he faces criminal charges — apparently unrelated to the federal investigation — for an incident that happened on the ground. Allman and other activists are accused of removing two baby goats they said needed medical attention from a farm during a May 2025 action at a Kings County, California, dairy farm.
The FAA investigation of Allman pertains to a different business, Grimmius Cattle Co. Allman says the only formal information he has received is that a complaint was filed against him on February 24 about a flight he conducted over the company’s East Ranch property in Strathmore, California.
The day before that complaint was made, Allman said, one of the company’s security workers confronted him as he flew a drone over the property. The worker accused him of flying the drone without having it in his line of sight, according to Allman, which would violate FAA regulations. Allman denies that allegation.
It is not clear who filed the complaint against Allman. Grimmius Cattle Co. did not respond to requests for comment from the Intercept.
Coming Crackdown?
Allman said he has great respect for the FAA. But he has grown concerned because the agency has not responded thus far to requests from him and his lawyer for further information about the claims against him, he said.
The mere opening of an investigation is not necessarily cause for alarm, according to Douglas Marshall, a law professor and aviation consultant who wrote a book on drone policy.
“It’s just a form letter,” he said. “They crank them out. It takes them all of 15 minutes to do it. It often just ends right there.”
Still the agency takes “blatant” violations of its rules and flight restrictions seriously, Marshall said. Because investigations can result in heavy fines and the possibly revocation of a license, he often advises pilots to seek help from a lawyer, which Allman has done.
Part of Allman’s fears stem from industry’s push for a broader crackdown on drone pilots, he said. The FAA is pursuing a new regulation that could prevent pilots from flying over agricultural facilities. When the agency put out a public request for comments on new rules for “fixed site facilities,” agricultural businesses responded by asking for strict restrictions.
One commenter was Grimmius Cattle Co. Its chief operating officer Austin Flores complained that an activist group had submitted more than 30 hours of footage of another farm to law enforcement agencies.
“This is the end goal of these surveillance campaigns: to generate enough material to file complaints, trigger investigations, and create regulatory and legal pressure against lawful agricultural operations,” Flores said in a written statement submitted on July 6. “The footage is a tool, and producers have no current airspace protection to prevent it from being gathered.”
Flores cast tighter regulations as key to protecting the “national food supply chain.”
“Without clear restrictions, agricultural operations are left in the same position as any other unprotected airspace, open to anyone, for any purpose,” he said. “We believe that is a food security vulnerability that this rulemaking has an opportunity to address, and we urge the FAA to treat it as such.”
Allman said a ban would be a major setback for animal rights groups.
“The drones usually capture some sort of cruelty, and that is so important,” he said. “The industry will just say it’s a one-off incident. The drones are showing that this is not one-off, and it’s systemic.”
Federal R&D Award Under the CHIPS and Science Act Will Advance PsiQuantum’s R&D for the Manufacturing of Critical Components in America
PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 8, 2026 — PsiQuantum announced today that the company has signed definitive documentation with the U.S. Department of Commerce for a $100 million award to strengthen American leadership in quantum computing and semiconductor supply-chain security. In May 2026, the company announced that it had signed a letter of intent with the Department for $100 million in proposed federal research and development (R&D) funding.
With federal funding made possible through the CHIPS and Science Act, combined with co-investment by the company in the project, PsiQuantum will accelerate the R&D, domestic manufacturability, and performance of its state-of-the-art critical components, including high-performance optical switches, high-temperature single-photon detectors, and advanced packaging approaches.
“America’s national security and economic prosperity depend on secure supply chains for cutting-edge technologies,” said Victor Peng, Chief Executive Officer of PsiQuantum. “PsiQuantum is proud to anchor our supply chains here in the United States. Thanks to the leadership of the U.S. government, our company will be able to manufacture even more of our state-of-the-art components in America.”
PsiQuantum’s approach to building fault-tolerant quantum computers leverages existing semiconductor manufacturing to rapidly scale the company’s silicon photonics platform. The company’s breakthroughs in high-performance optical switching, photon detection, and advanced packaging have transformative potential to strengthen the American semiconductor industry—with high-value applications across today’s classical compute infrastructure and tomorrow’s fault tolerant quantum computers.
“PsiQuantum’s silicon photonics platform will create consequential opportunities across advanced computing infrastructure even as we build and deploy fault-tolerant quantum computers,” said Rob Soderbery, Executive Vice President at PsiQuantum. “Our new award from the Department of Commerce will help take our momentum to the next level.”
The award from the U.S. government will compound PsiQuantum’s existing investments in its U.S.-anchored supply chains. In 2025, the company invested approximately $200 million with hundreds of American suppliers and vendors across 38 states. Since 2019, PsiQuantum has partnered with leading semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries on scaling quantum photonic chipset production in the United States.
“GlobalFoundries is excited to continue partnering with PsiQuantum to accelerate photonic quantum computing. Useful quantum systems will be built on manufacturing that already works at scale—a conviction that has driven our collaboration since 2019. GF’s capabilities in silicon photonics, advanced packaging and system-level integration, combined with PsiQuantum’s proven leadership in photonic architectures, will accelerate the scalable semiconductor foundation needed to enable next-generation quantum systems,” said Tim Breen, Chief Executive Officer of GlobalFoundries.
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.
Great Bend, Kansas — U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., sued more than 700 patients for unpaid medical bills during his decades as an obstetrician-gynecologist, according to a New York Times review of Kansas court records.
The Times found that patients were arrested in 81 cases after missing court appearances, while Marshall’s attorneys sought warrants in 13 additional lawsuits. His practice also garnished wages and bank accounts and routinely charged 18% annual interest on unpaid balances. Some lawsuits involved bills as small as $101.
One couple told the Times they spent two days in jail over a $4,561 bill from an emergency hysterectomy after missing a court date. Another patient said she was arrested while eight months pregnant after falling behind on a payment plan.
Marshall practiced medicine in Great Bend for more than 25 years and says on his Senate website that he delivered more than 5,000 babies.
His spokeswoman, Payton Fuller, emphasized that judges—not doctors—issue arrest warrants for missed court appearances. She also said Marshall treated patients regardless of their ability to pay and argued that the billing practices were not unusual for a rural medical practice.
The report comes as Marshall seeks reelection and continues to make health care costs a major part of his Senate agenda, including proposals focused on medical price transparency.
The illegal trade in tobacco is booming in the EU, according to a report by the bloc’s financial watchdog, with almost one in 10 cigarettes produced illicitly or smuggled, causing an estimated €13bn loss in tax revenue each year.
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) said in a report on Tuesday that the trade had “changed significantly” in recent years as smuggling, while still “a problem”, was overtaken by illicit manufacturing, which has increased dramatically in the bloc.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Border Patrol is running secretive predictive policing units that analyze Americans' financial activity and other data, then feed that intelligence to local police who pull people over who are not suspected of any specific crime, but which the government thinks may be worth searching, 404 Media has found. The units, the name of which 404 Media is revealing here for the first time, are called Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT). In one case, a PITT analyzed the financial activity of a man who was driving across Montana, and local authorities stopped him under the pretense of an obstructed license plate and charged him with a DUI.
404 Media identified one PITT in the Spokane Sector, Washington, which polices the U.S. border with Canada, and another in the Laredo Sector, Texas, which polices the border with Mexico. The findings add to an Associated Press investigation from last year which found Border Patrol was using automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) as part of the same wide-spanning predictive policing program. "The bottom line is genuine probable cause cannot be synthetically generated," Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center For Democracy & Technology, told 404 Media in an email. Here Border Patrol seems to be "using parallel construction to cloak the reason behind its car stops in secrecy. If we can't meaningfully review and evaluate these systems, we can't trust them," he added.
[...] The DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows that Border Patrol is analyzing the financial activity of Americans to find people to pull over. The Associated Press's investigation found the predictive policing program is also heavily using ALPRs to track potential targets' movements. It is not clear how exactly Border Patrol is monitoring Americans' financial activity. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) declined to answer what financial activity the agency was monitoring, and whether it obtained a warrant or not. A CBP spokesperson told 404 Media in an email: "U.S. Border Patrol uses intelligence-informed analysis and planning to support national security operations, allocate resources, and help identify potential threats and bad actors to public safety. These efforts are conducted consistent with applicable law, policy, privacy protections, and oversight requirements."
The statement continued: "For operational security reasons, we do not discuss specific analytical methods, data sources, targeting criteria, investigative techniques, system capabilities, or deployment details. Public disclosure of such information could compromise law enforcement operations and investigations as well as creating safety risks for agents and the public."
Rob Frommer, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, told 404 Media: "The government's increasing use of mass surveillance -- whether that surveillance comes via ALPRs, financial records, or the like -- coupled with predictive policing is a recipe for tyranny. We fought a revolution for the idea that we are citizens, not subjects. Yet schemes like CBP's Predictive Intelligence Targeting Team treat all Americans as if they are potential suspects. This is not just wrong, it's unconstitutional, and IJ will keep pushing courts and Congress to end this attack on Americans' security."
Amid unpopular Iran war and persistent inflation, governor says state has had its name since before US existed
Democrats have hit back against Donald Trump’s suggestion that the state of New Mexico should be renamed “New America”, accusing the US president of trying to distract from his war on Iran and rising prices.
The administration moved to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” hours after Trump’s return to office in January 2025. In August, as trade tensions escalated between the US and Canada, it moved to do the same with Lake Ontario, moving to rename it as “Lake America”.
BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 8, 2026 — Rigetti Computing, Inc. today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Rigetti & Co, LLC, has signed a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce for an award of $100 million in funding to accelerate superconducting quantum computing R&D. The funding is allocated under the CHIPS Research and Development Office Broad Agency Announcement pursuant to the CHIPS Act.
Under this definitive agreement, Rigetti will pursue three R&D projects that aim to address major technical bottlenecks in scaling superconducting quantum computing and will accelerate the Company’s roadmap towards utility-scale quantum computing:
Compressing readout electronics into an integrated, miniaturized package.
Expanding cryogenic capacity by orders of magnitude using a new cryostat architecture.
Developing the fabrication capabilities for high-connectivity chip architectures.
Quantum computing has tremendous promise to dramatically transform critical areas including cryptography, chemistry, materials science, mathematical optimization, and AI/machine learning. Governments worldwide are investing in this emerging technology given the national security and economic implications of quantum advantage.
“We are proud to be selected by the U.S. government to accelerate R&D and progress against our roadmap to deliver commercially viable quantum computing capabilities,” says Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, Rigetti CEO. “Solving crucial challenges in scaling gives us the opportunity to transform the industry by putting large-scale quantum computers in the hands of America’s quantum computing researchers faster. Shortening the time to build quantum systems at scale and reducing their cost will also allow for broader adoption, which will strengthen our domestic quantum computing ecosystem.”
The Department will receive a minority, non-controlling equity stake in Rigetti as a condition for receiving the funds to enhance the return for the U.S. taxpayer.
About Rigetti
Rigetti is a pioneer in full-stack quantum computing. Rigetti quantum computers are based on superconducting qubits, which are widely believed to be the leading qubit modality given their maturity, clear path to scaling, and fast gate speeds. Rigetti quantum computing systems achieve gate speeds of 50-70 nanoseconds, which is about 10,000 times faster than trapped-ion systems and 100 times faster than neutral-atom systems.
Rigetti sells on-premises 9-qubit to 108-qubit quantum computing systems, which support national laboratories and quantum computing centers. Rigetti’s Cepheus 36-qubit to 108-qubit systems are based on the Company’s proprietary chiplet-based technology and include the Company’s control electronics. Rigetti’s 9-qubit Novera QPU supports a broader R&D community with a high-performance, on-premises QPU designed to plug into a customer’s existing cryogenic and control systems.
The Company operates quantum computers over the cloud through its Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services (QCS) platform, enabling global enterprise, government, and research clients to pursue R&D. The Company’s proprietary quantum-classical infrastructure provides high-performance integration with public and private clouds for practical quantum computing.
Rigetti developed the industry’s first multi-chip quantum processor for scalable quantum computing systems. Leveraging this proprietary technology, Rigetti deployed the industry’s largest multi-chip quantum computer in 2026 with Cepheus-1-108Q, based on twelve 9-qubit chiplets tiled together. The Company designs and manufactures its chips in-house at Fab-1, the industry’s first dedicated and integrated quantum device manufacturing facility. Learn more at https://www.rigetti.com.
David Burke’s defense argues there is no evidence he had any intent of killing 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez
The family of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez has called for the singer D4vd, who is on trial suspected of killing the girl, to face the death penalty.
D4vd, who was born David Anthony Burke, in July was ordered to stand trial over the killing of Rivas, whose dismembered body was found in the trunk of his Tesla car on 8 September 2025. Burke has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
BLOOMINGTON, Minn., Sept. 8, 2026 — SkyWater Technology announced the launch of SkyWater Quantum Solutions, a dedicated merchant supplier offering focused on semiconductor process development, integration, and manufacturing. This unique offering will provide semiconductor solutions for quantum-computing, networking, and sensing applications.
Dr. Mihir Bhaskar will lead SkyWater Quantum Solutions as senior vice president and general manager. Prior to this role, Bhaskar was senior vice president of Research and Development at IonQ, leading advanced research and development across the company’s expanding quantum technology portfolio. Bhaskar was previously co-founder and CEO of Lightsynq Technologies, prior to its acquisition by IonQ in 2025. Lightsynq was created to develop integrated photonic interconnect technology for linking diverse quantum computing systems together.
SkyWater Quantum Solutions brings together SkyWater’s semiconductor process development and manufacturing capabilities via their proven Technology as a Service model. Those capabilities specialize in superconducting and quantum photonics technologies, heterogeneous integration, and advanced packaging. The offerings are intended to help customers accelerate their time to market. This is achieved by incorporating manufacturing requirements earlier in the development of quantum devices and systems.
“Quantum is reaching the point where breakthrough performance and manufacturability have to advance together,” said Bhaskar. “The industry needs more than just fabrication capacity. It needs materials, photonics, interconnects, packaging, and manufacturing capabilities that connect quantum devices into manufacturable systems. At SkyWater, we bring those elements together and work with customers to industrialize technologies without compromising what makes them unique.
“Your technology is the differentiation. Our role is to help you industrialize it.”
Quantum Development and Manufacturing Capabilities
SkyWater Quantum Solutions will provide quantum-focused process development, device integration, characterization, and manufacturing support. SkyWater engineers will work with customer teams on materials, process modules, device structures, and integration requirements. The integrated approach ensures process control and repeatability. Initial offerings include SC250, a superconducting technology platform, focused on high-density cryogenic interconnect and control; and SP90, a low-loss silicon-nitride photonics technology platform for quantum applications.
The platforms can be combined with SkyWater’s heterogeneous-integration and advanced-packaging capabilities to incorporate additional materials, active devices, and optical interfaces. Development programs may range from individual process modules to customized engagements involving process integration, characterization, and manufacturing support. This enables the customized capabilities quantum technologies need in a mature, trusted foundry environment.
IonQ’s acquisition of Nexus Photonics adds expertise in the heterogeneous integration of III-V materials with silicon photonics, available to SkyWater Quantum Solutions’ customers. These capabilities support the integration of active photonic components, including lasers, amplifiers, modulators, and photodetectors onto a photonic chip at scale.
SkyWater Quantum Solutions combines relevant Nexus capabilities with its SP90 platform and other quantum-critical materials, such as diamond and lithium niobate. The resulting development work will focus on integrated photonic devices for scalable routing, control, and processing in quantum optical systems. Supported systems include photonic, trapped ion, and neutral atom quantum computers, quantum networks, and quantum sensors.
SkyWater and Qolab Begin Superconducting Quantum-Development Program
SkyWater also announced today a new development program with Qolab, the superconducting quantum-computing company co-founded by Dr. John M. Martinis, a 2025 Nobel laureate in physics.
The program will combine Qolab’s superconducting quantum-hardware expertise with SkyWater’s process-development and manufacturing capabilities. It will include the SC250 superconducting platform to advance Qolab’s Quantum System-in-Package (QSiP), which is designed to address key cost, complexity, and form-factor scaling challenges.
“SkyWater brings an established track record of supporting quantum programs and gives us access today to the specialized capabilities needed to advance our Quantum System-in-Package,” said Dr. Martinis. “QSiP is designed to materially improve quantum system economics by integrating costly, complex cryogenic control components into a compact package. Combining SkyWater’s rapid, flexible development support with a repeatable commercial wafer services model gives us the manufacturing and cost visibility needed to iterate quickly and build a clear path toward commercial deployment.”
The Qolab program provides early validation of the model behind SkyWater Quantum Solutions. A model that enables our customers to deliver differentiated quantum technology with manufacturing, integration, and repeatability from the beginning.
Serving IonQ and Other Customers
SkyWater Quantum Solutions will leverage the company’s proven operating model to support IonQ as a customer and technology collaborator. It will simultaneously continue to serve other customers through SkyWater’s merchant-foundry model. Customer programs will be managed under SkyWater’s established information-security, intellectual-property protection, and program firewalling practices.
The business will address applications across quantum computing, networking, sensing, and timing. It will cater to a range of technologies such as photonics, superconducting devices, materials, interconnects, packaging, and heterogeneous integration.
Customers interested in superconducting technologies, quantum photonics, heterogeneous integration, advanced packaging or customized quantum development programs can contact SkyWater Quantum Solutions at quantum@skywatertechnology.com.
About SkyWater
SkyWater Technology is securing America’s silicon foundation as the largest U.S.-based semiconductor foundry. A trusted partner to both commercial customers and federal defense programs, SkyWater’s Technology as a Service model empowers innovators to bring emerging technologies like quantum computing and next-generation systems from concept to reality. With state-of-the-art facilities in Minnesota, Florida, and Texas, SkyWater specializes in foundational nodes and advanced packaging to support the nation’s critical infrastructure, strengthen supply chain resilience, and ensure long-term U.S. technology leadership. SkyWater is a DMEA-accredited Category 1A Trusted Foundry. To learn more, visit SkywaterTechnology.com.
The mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera, said that two of the four works had been recovered but that the two perpetrators are still being sought.
Photo: Image provided by the Delaware Division of the Arts
A $77,500 award will help Access Creative Aging reach 480 participants at libraries and senior centers through June 2028
DOVER, Del. — Hundreds of older Delawareans will gain access to free arts classes through a $77,500 national grant awarded to the Delaware Division of the Arts.
The funding will expand Access Creative Aging, a statewide program offering adults ages 55 and older free, eight-week workshops in pottery, poetry, painting, dance, theater, jewelry design and other creative disciplines.
Over two grant cycles running through June 2028, the division plans to reach 480 participants at 20 public libraries and 12 senior centers. The expansion is expected to provide more than 640 hours of instruction across all three counties.
“The arts are a proven tool for keeping older Delawareans healthy, connected and engaged,” Gov. Matt Meyer said. “This funding will ensure Delaware continues to lead, allowing us to reach hundreds more seniors who deserve access to these programs.”
From pilot program to statewide initiative
The Delaware Division of the Arts launched Access Creative Aging in 2022 as a pilot program at eight public libraries. The initiative has since grown into a central part of the division’s Arts and Community programming.
The program has served more than 400 older adults and delivered more than 520 hours of free instruction. Classes are led by trained teaching artists at libraries and senior centers.
The program is administered in partnership with the Delaware Division of Libraries and the Division of Services for Aging and Adults with Physical Disabilities.
Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez said cooperation among the agencies helped transform the initial library pilot into a statewide program.
“That partnership is what turned a pilot program in eight libraries into a statewide model for how the arts support healthy aging,” Patibanda-Sanchez said. “This award reflects the power of state agencies working together and our commitment to making sure that work reaches every Delawarean, regardless of income or geography.”
Classes build confidence and connections
A study conducted during the program’s first year found that 92% of participants reported increased confidence in their ability to learn new skills. Fifty-six percent said their confidence increased significantly.
The study also found that 96% of participants reported an improved sense of accomplishment and mastery. No participants reported a decline in either measure.
More recent surveys found that participants formed friendships, continued practicing their chosen art forms after their classes ended and developed a stronger sense of belonging.
“Having little to no disposable income, the free classes are a true godsend,” one participant wrote.
Another participant said the program encouraged continued learning and experimentation.
“I feel more confident about making creative decisions and experimenting than I did before,” the participant wrote. “I have invested funds to purchase additional materials and supplies and have started working on my own projects.”
Demand exceeds available space
Jessica Ball, director of the Delaware Division of the Arts, said demand for the classes has consistently exceeded the program’s capacity.
“Delaware’s older adult population is growing rapidly, and demand for Access Creative Aging programming has consistently outpaced our capacity,” Ball said. “This award will allow us to bring high-quality, free arts programming to more Delawareans in more communities, including those with the least access to the arts.”
State officials said Delaware’s population of adults ages 55 and older is projected to grow by more than 50% by 2030.
The new funding will support additional workshops, the training of new teaching artists and expanded access through libraries and senior services organizations.
Delaware is one of 28 state and jurisdictional arts agencies receiving grants through Creative Aging, Creative Futures, a partnership between the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and E.A. Michelson Philanthropy. The initiative awarded more than $2.2 million nationally to promote learning, creativity, well-being and social engagement among older adults.
The national program builds on two earlier initiatives focused on helping state arts agencies expand services for older residents and integrate arts programming into aging services.
To Go Box
What: Access Creative Aging
Who: Delaware residents ages 55 and older
Programs: Free, eight-week workshops in painting, pottery, poetry, dance, theater, jewelry design and other art forms
Locations: Participating public libraries and senior centers throughout Delaware
Expansion goal: 480 participants at 20 libraries and 12 senior centers through June 2028
WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2026 — Quantinuum today announced it has finalized an agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Research and Development Office for $100 million in federal funding deployed through the CHIPS and Science Act. The award, which follows a letter of intent announced in May, supports R&D and U.S. quantum semiconductor manufacturing capabilities needed to deploy large-scale, fault-tolerant trapped-ion quantum computers.
Quantinuum, which was the only company with a trapped-ion based architecture to be awarded CHIPS R&D funding, develops the world’s most accurate commercial computers with industry-leading error correction fidelity. The company leverages established semiconductor manufacturing processes to help ensure reliability, repeatability, and scalability of the company’s current and future quantum computers.
“This award is a validation of Quantinuum’s leadership in trapped-ion quantum computing,” said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President and CEO of Quantinuum. “Together with our domestic partners, we are building the technology and supply-chain foundation needed to scale fault-tolerant systems and strengthen America’s leadership in this strategically important field.”
The award will support R&D that the company expects to help strengthen and diversify its supply chain, adding onshore partners GlobalFoundries and Monarch Quantum. GlobalFoundries will be one of several of Quantinuum’s foundries enlisted to fabricate its next-generation ion traps and other electronics, specifically focused on using 300mm wafer technology; Monarch Quantum plans to develop and manufacture scalable, reliable lasers and optical components required for Quantinuum’s trapped-ion systems.
“As quantum computing moves closer to commercial scale, manufacturing will be critical to unlocking its full potential,” said Tim Breen, CEO of GlobalFoundries. “GlobalFoundries is proud to partner with Quantinuum to help scale their trapped-ion technology. By bringing our expertise in high-volume, differentiated semiconductor manufacturing, we’re helping create a path to more scalable, reliable quantum hardware and advancing the next generation of American innovation.”
“The road to large-scale, trapped-ion quantum computers relies on moving away from complex, sprawling optical setups to scalable, reliable integrated photonics engines,” said Dr. Timothy Day, CEO of Monarch Quantum. “We are honored to expand our partnership with Quantinuum to advance their hardware roadmap and to help strengthen U.S. leadership in quantum computing manufacturing and supply chain resilience.”
Together, these efforts are intended to reduce system complexity and improve component robustness, reliability, and reproducibility, ultimately supporting the continued scaling of trapped-ion quantum computers, while strengthening domestic capability across critical photonics and semiconductor manufacturing.
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum (Nasdaq: QNT) is a leading quantum computing company offering a full-stack platform designed to make quantum computing deployable in real-world environments. The company has commercially deployed multiple generations of trapped-ion based quantum systems built on the well-established QCCD architecture, which it has implemented with novel designs and capabilities to achieve the industry’s highest accuracy levels based on average two-qubit gate fidelity. Quantinuum has active engagements with market leaders across pharmaceuticals, material science, financial services, and government and industrial markets, as well as academic and research institutions globally. The company has a global workforce of over 800 employees, including top scientists and researchers. Quantinuum’s headquarters is in Broomfield, Colorado, with additional facilities across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Qatar, and Singapore. For more information, please visit www.quantinuum.com.
Details passed to Kent police after far-right activists heard in pub boasting about going to to Dover to ‘attack Muslims’
Police were told the night before far-right agitators blocked roads into Dover that those involved had converged on a village 18 miles away and planned to use it as a launchpad, it has emerged.
People in Preston-next-Wingham told of how hundreds of men had started to arrive in the village of just over 920 residents on Friday afternoon and in effect “took over” the village.
Most cruise ships sell the same trip over and over: familiar ports, a rotating lineup of onboard entertainers and a schedule built to repeat. Windstar ... Read moreThe post Europe cruise searches are surging, and Windstar is giving travelers more…
The 2026 FIFA World Cup was expected to provide one of the biggest tourism windfalls in U.S. history, a $30.5 billion in U.S. gross output and a $17.2 billion contribution to U.S. GDP.
The man, also accused of homophobic slurs on American Airlines flight, faces assault and disorderly conduct charges
An Arizona realty company says it is “no longer associated” with an agent who was recently arrested after alleged unruly behavior – including racist and homophobic slurs – on an airline flight led to his being zip-tied, duct-taped to his seat and arrested.
Layne Arthur Lundeen, 67, faces counts of disorderly conduct and second-degree assault in the case, according to Maryland court records filed after he was taken into custody at Baltimore’s airport on 3 September.
An apple variety that vanished from American orchards for decades is back and winning medals at the world’s biggest cider competition. Cideries across the country ... Read moreThe post Old apples nobody wanted are producing the most interesting cider in…
Farewell, New Mexico. The war isn’t going well and nowhere on Earth is safe from the US president’s favourite displacement activity
Busy times for crayon-wielding US president Donald Trump, Earth’s most tireless freelance cartographer, who at the weekend celebrated the US labouring under the highest diesel prices in its history while his “two-week” Iran war edges into its seventh month with a social media spree in which he pushed renaming New Mexico as New America.
In some ways, it was a surprise to see Trump go for merely rebranding a state at this point, given that it was only so recently that he declared: “If you think about it, we have a gulf, and we have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean.” This is believed to be a reference to the Gulf of America, formerly – and indeed currently, in every meaningful sense – the Gulf of Mexico. It was also a nod to Lake America, as precisely no one calls Lake Ontario despite Trump supposedly retitling it by executive order last month, in another fit of pique over his trade war with Canada. Candidates for this heavily trailed American Ocean clearly include the Pacific and the Atlantic – though why the other oceans should be locationally ineligible increasingly feels unclear. At this rate, geography exams in the US are also about to get a whole lot easier.
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
What a Time to be Alive! by Marina Hyde (Guardian Faber Publishing, £20). To support the Guardian, order your signed copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 2026 — IonQ today announced IonQ Superion 256, its sixth-generation quantum computing platform. This system is the first in the Superion platform that all future compute products are expected to be built on. The company also plans on revealing the industrial design of IonQ Superion 256, at its 2026 Investor Day later today at the New York Stock Exchange.
Superion 256 has rapidly progressed from early design to trapping ions in under a year. IonQ has fabricated its first fully integrated 256-qubit quantum processing units (QPUs) at its subsidiary SkyWater. IonQ has trapped the first ions in prototype Superion 256 systems now being built in parallel at multiple IonQ facilities across the U.S. The chip, designed and fabricated jointly by IonQ and SkyWater, went through six tapeouts in the first half of 2026. Working closely with SkyWater’s quantum foundry, IonQ’s design cycle compressed from nine months to two, and the teams delivered 12x more wafer lots over a six-month period than at a previous foundry.
“Superion is the result of two strategic acquisitions coming together to deliver this historic milestone. Oxford Ionics enabled IonQ to control natural, trapped-ion qubits using standard electronics, and SkyWater unlocked the ability to manufacture at semiconductor costs and scale,” said Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of IonQ. “Quantum computing, like classical computing before it, ultimately scales most powerfully on a semiconductor foundation. Superion 256 is the first quantum computer platform designed to be built by the hundreds rather than one at a time. Every generation that follows will be designed, fabricated, and packaged similarly – creating unique upgradeability in our Superion platform.”
Powering the system is IonQ’s Electronic Qubit Control (EQC), which controls trapped-ion qubits with electronics integrated on the chip rather than with laser systems. The underlying qubit control is manufactured with standard semiconductor processes. At the heart of the chip is the same Electronic Qubit Control technology IonQ used to set its 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity world record in October 2025. The system is built for data centers and occupies a standard server rack footprint without bespoke buildout. Superion draws less power than a rack of GPUs and has a cooling system that integrates into typical data center settings.
The Superion platform scales from 256 qubits to millions of qubits. Every generation that follows Superion 256 expands use of the same ions, the same qubits, the same electronic control, and the same chip fabric. IonQ Superion 10K is well underway and integrates CMOS onto the chip, a scaling technique SkyWater already manufactures at volume.
IonQ is developing both its 256 and 10K generations concurrently. The company’s first cryo-CMOS test chips for the 10K can be seen today at the New York Stock Exchange. The 10K is the first hardware generation built to run IonQ’s Walking Cat architecture. Walking Cat was the blueprint published in April 2026 for how applications compile into instructions, how errors are corrected, and how ions move across the chip. IonQ expects the shift from laser-based to semiconductor-based control to reduce cost-per-qubit by more than 300x across the roadmap.
“Superion marks the most important inflection point the quantum computing industry has yet seen. It accelerates our industry from one-off lab machines to quantum computers manufactured at scale with compelling unit economics and modest energy consumption,” said Chris Ballance, President of Quantum Computing at IonQ. “The step from 256 to 10K qubits is being delivered by integrating CMOS onto the chip – something the semiconductor industry has done many times and SkyWater does every day. CMOS integration is expected to reach full fault tolerance reality in a 2027 lab setting at IonQ, and manufacturable, commercial reality in 2028.”
Superion 256 is available to order now, with customer deliveries in 2027. In the first quarter of 2026, IonQ pre-sold its first Superion 256 system. Production-grade systems will also run and be offered on IonQ’s cloud.
About IonQ
IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) is the world’s leading quantum platform and foundry – delivering integrated quantum solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. IonQ’s newest generation of quantum computers, the IonQ Tempo, is the latest in a line of cutting-edge systems. Earlier systems have helped customers and partners including Amazon Web Services, AstraZeneca, and NVIDIA achieve a 20x performance increase over previous quantum solutions and accelerate innovation in drug discovery, materials science, financial modeling, logistics, cybersecurity, and defense. In 2025, the company achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, setting a world record in quantum computing performance.
Headquartered in College Park, Maryland, IonQ has operations across North America, Latin America, EMEA, and APAC. Our quantum computing services have been available through all major cloud providers since 2021, while we also meet the needs of networking and sensing customers across land, sea, air, and space. IonQ is making quantum platforms more accessible and impactful than ever before. Learn more at IonQ.com.
Alex Gibney’s marathon documentary delivers numerous eye-raising insights into the broligarch’s business deals, early idealism and apocalyptic appetite for fathering children
Veteran documentarian Alex Gibney’s film about the richest broligarch on the planet has been one of the most eagerly anticipated films at the Venice film festival this year. The Oscar-winning 72-year-old, who has in previous films taken on the US military, the Catholic church, Vladimir Putin and Scientology, has been investigating the tech tycoon’s ascent and speaking to people in his orbit since late 2022, before his Maga turn and Trump 2.0.
The result clocks in at just under four hours and presents a comprehensive answer to how on earth one man managed to amass so much money and political influence. It is shocking less for any individual new pieces of information Gibney has unearthed than for its totality. Here are six things the film tells us:
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Plus: Americans think they have it bad with unwanted surveillance. They should visit London
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you after visiting Coney Island in New York City, where I ate a hotdog, rode a ferris wheel and enjoyed a quintessentially American summer holiday.
Today in tech, we’re examining OpenAI’s new model release and the Silicon Valley’s monopoly power, and wondering why Brits and Americans have such vastly different opinions about surveillance cameras.
New diamond-spin quantum computer prototype incorporating tin-vacancy (SnV) centers into photonic integrated circuits marks significant step toward quantum computing scalability
KAWASAKI, Japan, Sept. 8, 2026 — Fujitsu today announced that it has developed the world’s first working prototype of a diamond-spin quantum computer incorporating tin-vacancy (SnV) centers into photonic integrated circuits. The prototype can be operated at -271.6°C, higher than the typical operating temperature of superconducting quantum computers (-273.13°C) and Fujitsu has demonstrated in a test environment that it can be utilized via the Fujitsu Hybrid Quantum Computing Platform without any additional specialist knowledge.
Credit: Sergiy Palamarchuk/Shutterstock
This development represents an important milestone toward realizing a modular architecture, one of the most promising approaches for scaling quantum computers, due to its high fidelity and efficient optical connectivity. The prototype is based on the results of joint research started in 2020 by Fujitsu, Delft University of Technology, and QuTech, a world-leading quantum technology research institute and part of TU Delft. Fujitsu is set to develop a prototype of a multi-module diamond-spin quantum computer by 2027.
In addition, Fujitsu will begin developing technologies to integrate diamond-spin approach with superconducting approach, driving progress toward achieving large-scale quantum computers. This initiative comes as part of Fujitsu’s quantum roadmap, which outlines company’s aim to realize practical quantum computing by 2030.
“The diamond-spin approach we have applied in this prototype not only offers exceptional scalability in its own right, but also has the potential to be integrated with superconducting quantum computers to further extend their capabilities, enabling more complex and large-scale computations,” said Fujitsu’s Vivek Mahajan. “Under our roadmap to achieve a 250 logical qubit system by fiscal 2030 and a 1,000 logical qubit system by fiscal 2035, Fujitsu will continue advancing practical quantum computing across a broad range of areas, from software to hardware, while leveraging the key advantages of the diamond-spin approach, including high fidelity and optical connectivity.”
The prototype features these three technologies developed by Fujitsu:
Heterogeneous material bonding and thinning technology for scalable quantum computing chips: To create quantum computing chips using SnV centers, Fujitsu developed heterogeneous material bonding technology to bond high-quality diamond substrates ion-implanted with tin to alumina/silicon dioxide substrates. Fujitsu also developed thinning technology to reduce the thickness of diamond substrates from several hundred micrometers to several hundred nanometers, making them suitable for use in quantum computing chips.
Photonics-integrated circuit fabrication technology for SnV centers: Fujitsu developed technology to fabricate photonics integrated circuits that integrate nanometer-sized diamond crystals containing SnV centers with alumina optical waveguides, which are transparent in the visible light region, to extract single photons emitted from SnV centers during qubit readout. For diamond processing, Fujitsu utilized the results of joint research with The University of Tokyo.
Quantum circuit conversion technology for diamond spin approach: The diamond-spin approach requires qubit control by combining light, microwaves, and radio frequency waves. Fujitsu developed a mechanism to convert quantum circuits described by quantum gates into control sequence for these physical operations for the diamond spin approach, enabling control from the Fujitsu’s hybrid quantum computing platform.
The diamond-spin approach takes lattice defect structures called color centers in diamond crystals and uses them as qubits. This approach achieves high fidelity because diamond has inherent properties that allow quantum states to remain stable and could allow for logical qubits to be reliably formed from fewer physical qubits compared to superconducting and other approaches. Furthermore, light can be applied to flexibly connect several quantum modules, enabling the construction of systems with a modular architecture that can be scaled efficiently.
Typically, the diamond-spin approach uses structures called nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers formed by nitrogen atom impurities in diamond crystals. However, in the development of this prototype, Fujitsu used tin-vacancy (SnV) centers, which feature structural symmetry and are less susceptible to external noise than NV centers, making them attractive candidates for stable, high-brightness color centers.
A part of this work is supported by “Advanced Research Infrastructure for Materials and Nanotechnology in Japan (ARIM)” of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Proposal Number JPMXP1225NM0096. This research project is a collaboration between QuTech and Fujitsu, co-financed by Holland High Tech with a PPP allowance for research and development in the top sector HTSM and a PPP allowance for research and innovation from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu’s purpose is to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation. As the digital transformation partner of choice for customers around the globe, our 100,000 employees work to resolve some of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Our range of services and solutions draw on five key technologies: AI, Computing, Networks, Data & Security, and Converging Technologies, which we bring together to deliver sustainability transformation. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.5 trillion yen (US$23 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026 and remains the top digital services company in Japan by market share.
In partnership with DWP, firms such as John Lewis and M&S plan to offer 18- to 24-year-olds placements of two to four weeks
UK retailers aim to create up to 100,000 jobs for young people not in employment, education or training (Neet) over the next three years by giving them a first step on the ladder into work.
In partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), more than 40 retailers, including Marks & Spencer, Pets at Home, Asda and the John Lewis Partnership, will offer Neets aged 18-24 placements of two to four weeks to gain “the skills and confidence needed to take their first step into work”.
(The Center Square) – Only one North Carolina congressional candidate in the 2026 midterms broke away from party partisanship in the U.S. House of Representatives’ vote to condemn socialism.
New Yorkers pride themselves on being unfazed, and this September might be the one that tests it. The U.S. Open championship weekend, the opening of ... Read moreThe post New York got 4 world events in 1 September weekend, and…
The US president says criticising his soaring investment portfolio is ‘very unfair’. Tell that to the millions of Americans struggling with the cost of living
If I had a dollar for every time Donald Trump said something inane, I would be a very rich woman. But even with an income that steady, I could never hope to be as flush as the president. A Forbes calculation from March puts his net worth at about $6.5bn – and it’s growing rapidly. Trump made $2.2bn in 2025 via business interests that ranged from selling cryptocurrency and Trump Bibles to offering early access to his (often market-moving) Truth Social posts.
To be fair, Trump isn’t making all this money just so he can buy golf clubs and gold toilets. No, he’s amassing these billions for the good of the little people; it’s altruism, not avarice! “I do this for our Country, not myself,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Sunday night alongside an AI-generated picture of him trading Intel stock. “I’ve made Hundreds of Billions of Dollars on Stocks, and many other type Holdings, for the U.S.A., not myself, and all I do is get criticized by the Radical Left Dumocrats. Very unfair, but what can you do!”
Sinking of inflatable dinghy in 2021 resulted in 31 people dead or missing, including a seven-year-old child
Fourteen men have gone on trial in Paris over the deaths of at least 31 people in the worst mass drowning from a small-boat crossing in the Channel on record.
The accused men, alleged to be linked to people-smuggling networks, face charges including manslaughter and facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised criminal group.
Lithuania is teaching civilians young and old to help defend their tiny nation from a hypothetical Russian invasion, and telling Putin, "We don't fear you."
Spotlight Delaware editors Tim Carlin and Jake Owens recently spoke with Krista Griffith and Rob Bansen, who are seeking the Democratic nomination for House District 12 in the Sept. 15 primary election.
Griffith is a four-term incumbent who will be looking to defend her seat from Bahnsen, a progressive emergency room psychiatrist.
The winner will face Republican Steve Pickering in the November general election.
Readers can find condensed versions of the candidates’ answers below, while the accompanying podcasts feature unedited excerpts from our conversations.
Rep. Krista Griffith
What is something that you think voters should know about you that they maybe would not be able to glean from reading your campaign platforms or looking on your website?
I think the image that I would want voters to see is of a mom in a hospital room holding a 1-year-old who’s receiving chemotherapy treatments for acute myeloid leukemia. And as she holds that child in her arms in the middle of the night because he’s sick from the toxicity of the treatments, she notes that she is so fortunate to be able to hold him because in the room next door, there’s a child crying out for his mother.
And that moment was one of those moments in life that fundamentally alter what you think your purpose should be.
So that mom was me, and it was in 2016, and the child was my son, Nate. And the other child was receiving cancer treatments in the same ward that we were in, and he was not able to have a mom or dad at his side because of whatever reason that prevented that mom or dad from being there.
Most likely, it was because they didn’t have the right kind of insurance, or they couldn’t leave their job to take care of a child because the choice they had at that point in history was between a paycheck and sitting with their child. And when you have to work to pay for your insurance, then the question is almost made for you, and you don’t have that opportunity.
I had been serving in public service law for a long period of time, as a deputy attorney general, representing the most vulnerable children at the Department of Services for Youth and Their Families, and then later prosecuting elder abuse, domestic violence, and child abuse. So the body of my work over the last eight years has touched upon healthcare access, protecting important rights, standing up to Big Tech and making sure that survivors of abuse have access to the care and the response that they deserve.
You have a primary challenger, Rob Bahnsen. He’s running very explicitly to the left of you, and he’s kind of framing this as establishment versus reform in this coming primary. What’s one thing that you think that Rob is actually getting right about voters’ frustration with the state government, even if you may disagree with his proposed solutions or fixes?
So I’ll tell you this. I view being progressive a choice rather than a slogan.
I have fought for, sponsored, and championed numerous bills that are “progressive.” Bills that ensure that we are protecting freedoms, that we are looking at our most vulnerable and figuring out ways to protect them, including from [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] infringement.
So I don’t think it’s accurate to say that he would be more left of me. I think again, that’s a choice that someone makes between using the word progressive as a slogan rather than a choice.
So I think if you look at the body of my work and the General Assembly in the past eight years, you’ll be hard-pressed to say that I am not progressive.
One of the biggest bills that you have sponsored was Senate Bill 21, the 2025 rewrite of Delaware’s General Corporation Law. I think that critics would say that bill weakened shareholders’ ability to challenge corporate boards in the state’s Chancery Court.
Your primary opponent has made this one of the centerpieces of his campaign, kind of pointing to one of those instances of reform versus establishment. What is your response to the argument that Delaware traded away its reputation of strong corporate accountability in order to keep companies incorporated in the state?
I will note that every single senator voted to support Senate Bill 21 and a vast majority of House members voted to support SB 21.
So I think it’s important to note that the bill passed overwhelmingly in both chambers and was signed by the governor.
I’m gonna bring us back to January-February of 2025. The cushion of pandemic-related funding was dissipating. Trump had just been reelected and presented us with the looming darkness of deep federal cuts to the most significant parts of the budget that touch the neediest.
And the point of the legislation, above and beyond the technical changes and nuances, was the need to show that Delaware will maintain its consistency and the rules that are contained within corporate law are clear, so companies and shareholders alike have the ability to understand them and apply them.
I would be very uncomfortable for shareholders of a company that moved to Texas or Nevada, where you won’t get that thoughtful, reasonable, reasoned, expert eyes on an issue. Here in Delaware, shareholders should want Delaware judges to decide their cases.
We hear from people who are unhoused. We hear from parents who are the caretakers of their adult children with disabilities. We hear from bus drivers who aren’t getting health insurance correctly. We hear from educators who want more in their classroom. The list goes on and on.
And the corporate franchise, which consists of those taxes that corporations pay, represent a third of the state’s budget.
For me, it was about protecting Delaware. It was about protecting our resources so that we could keep schools open, keep people fed, keep healthcare available for our elderly, keep our roads clean and safe and pay for public safety. It was about maintaining the services for the people of Delaware.
There are five corporate law firms that have created a PAC with about $1 million that is running ads in opposition to your opponent and in favor of your candidacy, among other races.
Your opponent has said that he won’t take any corporate or lobbyist money and he’s also openly questioned what that spending is actually buying.
Even though there’s no formal coordination between you and this PAC, does that level of outside spending on your behalf complicate your ability to regulate this industry?
The only people I answer to are my constituents. I don’t answer to anybody else.
Absolutely not. In fact, you have to look at my record of standing up to Big Tech to prove that. And, as we all know, Big Tech is the biggest players right now in corporate America.
So in terms of the PAC, I don’t have anything to do with them, as you know. I raise my own funds. I’m restricted to the $600 per individual limit.
So proud of this. Eighty percent of my funds are individuals who live in Delaware. More than half of the contributions that I receive are from individuals — people, hardworking men and women who live in the 12th district. So my support comes from my constituents and fellow Delawareans.
Is there anything that we haven’t touched on either about your tenure in the legislature, your reelection campaign that you think is important for voters to know before they head to the polls?
I’m running because I have the skills and experience to protect Delaware at this very challenging time. I have a proven ability to protect the freedoms and rights of Delawareans and the rights and the freedoms that they deserve despite Trump’s chaos and cruelty.
Uniquely, I know what you need to be successful, and sometimes it’s taking on major issues like curbing and preventing data centers, standing up to Big Tech, or enshrining marriage equality in the state’s Constitution.
But it’s also about hyper local issues that impact the people I serve.
The constituent call asking for help is just as important as a piece of legislation that I’m passing.
Rob Bahnsen
What’s something you think voters should know about you that they would not be able to glean from reading your website?
Probably just that I’m a total dork. I am a gardener. I’m a video gamer. I love to read.
Gosh, I love getting to know people. This process and campaign has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
I’ve made friends for life, and I’m just so genuinely grateful to have run this race.
Your opponent, Krista Griffith, has been in the legislature since 2018 and has been a sponsor of many bills, covering topics like victims’ rights, gun control, and the state’s corporate franchise. I think there’s plenty that you guys maybe disagree about, but I’m curious if there’s a bill or an initiative that Representative Griffith has undertaken that you thought she got right?
I think one of the things that I would like to give her props on is her work with gun legislation. She’s done a pretty good job with that.
I’d like to continue to expand her work on that if I were honored to win, especially surrounding gun prevention for people with acute, serious psychiatric issues.
I believe that there are laws in the books that are not being enforced, and those laws need to be bolstered.
What’s your answer to Democratic voters who like Griffith’s record broadly but are being asked to replace her? What explicitly has she gotten wrong on the job and maybe warrants a change in direction for the district?
I think before we answer that question, it’s just important to recognize that neither of us are evil.
There’s no good and evil in this race. We’re both Democrats. We both have a significant amount of overlap.
However, I think that I offer, something very special to the district, and I think that that is resonating with the voters. One, I’m a physician. I’d be the only doctor in elected office in Delaware if I were to win this election.
And as our state is facing down a budget crisis, as we are seeing an absolute explosion in healthcare costs in this state — up to 30% of a person’s income can be spent on healthcare. We’re the fourth most expensive state in the nation for healthcare costs. I think it’s incredibly important to have somebody who understands how healthcare is delivered and could be delivered better in this state.
Second, I believe that campaign finance is an incredibly important — it’s part of the authenticity and integrity of a politician and what they can do and what they won’t do.
For me, I am an entirely grassroots, guy. I don’t take any corporate money. I don’t take any PAC money. For Representative Griffith, unfortunately, the majority of her funds come from corporations, their attorneys, lobbyists, special interests, and PACs.
I challenge people to find one future-forward policy point on anything that she has written on any of the many mailers that she sent to the people of our district. For me, I am coming as the candidate of substance with specific, well-researched policy points on healthcare, on our public schools, on our economy, and I believe that that will help to bring our state forward.
You’ve made Senate Bill 21, as well as the influence of Delaware’s corporate law establishment, pretty central to your campaign. And you’ve said that you don’t want Delaware to abandon its corporate franchise altogether.
So where exactly is that line, and how do you square protecting the franchise with restoring the Chancery Court’s discretion when critics say that’s precisely the uncertainty SB 21 was written to remove?
I think that I would respectfully push back on the framing of the question a little bit.
I think that SB 21 has become a central flashpoint in our race simply because of Krista’s prime sponsorship of the bill in the House.
I’m not running because of the corporate franchise. I’m running because I’m worried about the state of healthcare in our state. I’m worried that we are spending $2.5 billion to be near last in ranking for the quality of our schools. I’m worried about our economy. I’m worried that Delaware in many ways is withering on the vine with regards to economic opportunity, especially for our working families.
Having said that, I think that the corporate franchise is integral to everything that we do here in Delaware. It is the second-largest source of our revenue, and it needs to be protected, preserved and expanded in every possible way that we can.
I think that when you get down to it, there’s two sides to the story. There’s one side that says appeasement of controlling shareholders is the way to preserve the franchise and attract more companies to come here. And there are good people on that side of that aisle and I give them that.
There is also a side that believes that the corporate franchise is as special as it is here in Delaware not necessarily because we are pro-managerial, but because of the fairness, neutrality, and excellence of our courts.
And SB 21 took power away from our courts.
I think that for me, if I am honored to be the next representative from our district, one of the very first things that I have to do is find a way to get the corporate bar back together again. This bill has caused the corporate franchise to become a national news story.
It has been a national news story for a long, long time now, and I do not want the microscope on our franchise any more than it needs to be. For me, I think about this process as akin to a healthcare administrator coming into my examination room and telling me how to treat a patient. Politicians should not be telling the corporate bar how to run the franchise.
This has been going on for over a century. We know what we’re doing. We need to mediate this conflict. We need to make it quieter. We need to get the corporate bar back to doing what it does again so that frankly, I can move on to the policy that I’m running on, which is improving our healthcare system, improving our schools, and making sure that we have a better economy.
Do you think that it’s a case of the politicians are setting policy? In this case it was several of the more prominent litigators in the state, along with some professors and former chancellors who actually wrote the majority of SB 21. Is this where we can expect the franchise to go in your estimation, or do you think there needs to be kind of a reset?
I have no plans to take up any legislation regarding the corporate franchise myself.
I’m a psychiatrist. I want to work on healthcare. I want to work on our schools. To the extent that my training as a mediator and a communicator can help to calm down the conflict, I would be of better use than my opponent.
I can speak to both progressives and the establishment alike. I think that we need to bring ourselves back together. I think we really need to mediate this conflict, make it quiet again, and move on.
That being said, of course, nearly a million dollars from those corporate law firms have gone into ads defending Representative Griffith as well as other incumbents, many of them tied to SB 21, and you’ve publicly said, “Nobody gives away a million dollars for free.”
Yousignificantly outraised her in 2025, so walk me through your own donor base. Are there interests funding your campaign that you’d expect people to scrutinize in the same way?
Well, I think that this is one of the most important things to do with a politician is to take a look at who’s funding them.
So for me, every single one of my donations comes from an actual person. There were mailers that were sent by this, First State Future PAC and the other additional PACs that are being funded by the First State Future PAC, to suggest that I have “rich out-of-state donors.”
The vast majority of my funds come from Delaware. My husband and I gave ourselves $45,000 to help run this campaign because we knew who we were going up against, and we believe very strongly in our message. But I also think that it’s important to just take a look at the names and look them up.
The vast majority of those “rich out-of-state donors” are physicians who work with me elbow-to-elbow in the hospital here in Delaware, but they choose to live in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, because of the quality of the schools. They want their kids to go to better schools.
I’d much rather them live here in Delaware and send their kids to good schools. This is a big, big flashpoint here in Delaware. We are losing young families. They are leaving the state en masse. We’re losing their tax revenue. We’re losing their skilled labor, and when skilled labor leaves, we lose their industry as well.
Reversing that by investing in families is at the heart of my platform and what I really wanna work on in Dover.
You work in the medical field and many of the biggest pieces of legislation this past session sought to drive down healthcare costs for Delawareans with the caveat that some of those bills were watered down through negotiations with the healthcare systems. What is your take on some of these recently reenacted reforms and what still needs to be done?
You’re referring to Senate Bill 1 this year and House Bill 350 from a couple of years prior.
So Senate Bill 1 was a bill for your listeners that purported to, cap the amount of money that a hospital can charge for a procedure to insurance, and then take the money that’s saved from that and invest in rural health and in primary care.
The intention of that is fantastic, right? That sounds like a really, really great bill. The problem is that we exist in a broken healthcare system. I’m a Medicare for All guy. I believe that healthcare is a human right. I think that we need to work toward that. But the problem is that we’re not gonna get that for a long time because of the corporate interests and money involved in our politics at a national level.
I think that what most people don’t quite understand is that when a hospital charges that extra money, they’re not using it to line their own pockets. What they’re doing is they’re subsidizing teams that don’t make money. For example, I think about teams like palliative care or, frankly, my own team.
I’m an emergency room psychiatry doctor, and I treat people who frankly can’t pay their hospital bills. But they come to the hospital all the same. They deserve the same level of world-class care. I think about only 50% of the patients that I see actually pay for the services that we provide.
We can work around these things. We can be very intelligent about these things. We can contain costs and increase access and quality at the same time. But I don’t think that we need to be reactionary about it. I think we need to be calm and measured about, folks and their healthcare. It’s incredibly important.
With House Bill 350, it was much the same thing, right? I was worried about the bill. What that bill purported to do was to create a hospital review board where, the governor would be able to appoint people to this board to veto items in a hospital’s budget. The intention of that was great.
It was meant to constrain hospitals from spending Delaware’s taxpayer dollars to expand into other states. That sounds like a great bill. The intention of that was fantastic. The problem though was I don’t think that they quite understood how much of a Trojan horse that could have been.
If we were to have a Republican governor, God forbid, here in Delaware at any point, that governor would have had the opportunity to appoint folks to that board that could have selectively defunded abortion care in this state. And I am incredibly pro-choice. A woman’s bodily autonomy is sacred here in the state of Delaware, and it should maintain that way.
I think one of the arguments for bills like SB 1 and HB 350 is the ballooning cost of healthcare to consumers. Many of these costs are maybe legitimate and just part of where we are with healthcare, but what can you do or what can the state do to help drive down healthcare costs?
One of the bills that I would like to work on in my first term is actually reining in pharmacy benefit managers here in Delaware. So, as just one example, when you combine CVS and Cigna, they own 75% of the pharmacy benefit managers in the state of Delaware.
A PBM is an entity that buys drugs from a manufacturer at a low cost and sells it back to pharmacies and hospitals at higher cost, and they pocket the profit. Now, it’s interesting because, CVS owns the PBMs.
They buy drugs themselves, sell it back to their own pharmacies at higher costs, and then they push that cost off to insurance, that then pushes the cost off to regular hardworking Delawareans in the form of higher insurance premiums. The reason why you don’t see, that being talked about is because of corporate financing in our elections.
My opponent maxed donations from the Delaware hospital lobby, from AstraZeneca, from Pfizer, from Cigna, and the list goes on and on. That is part of the reason why the status quo is not changing.
I think that we need to really have a discussion in our state about campaign finance, about the authenticity and integrity of our politicians and where our financing is coming from.
What else have we missed?
One of the things that actually worries me the most is what’s going on with young families in our state, and especially in my district.
Almost universally, when I knock on the door of somebody who is raising a young child, what they tell me is that, “As soon as my kid turns 5, the for sale sign is going up and I’m moving to Pennsylvania.” And the reason that they tell me that is because of the quality of our schools. When we started this race, we were ranked 47th by the NEA for the quality of our schools.
Only 20% of Delaware’s fourth graders knew how to read at a fourth-grade level; 13% of our high schoolers didn’t graduate on time; 5% of our children didn’t have health insurance; 3% of our children here in Delaware lived in extreme poverty. That’s unacceptable. It’s unacceptable for a solidly blue state like ours to be spending $2.5 billion on our public education, system and seeing those kinds of results.
Now, good work is happening. There are folks who are doing good work now in the General Assembly, but I would like to lend my voice to theirs and get that fixed.
I myself am the product of a public school education where I grew up in New York. Because of my teachers, I am who I am now: the first person in my family to go to college, and first doctor in my family.
One of the things that worries me the most is how many young souls here in Delaware are caught in a public education system that is perceived to be poorly performing, and will not have the same opportunity to do what I’m doing with my life that they could be doing with theirs.
Fixing our schools is the absolute key to the future cultural and economic success of our state. And the truth is this, you bring young families back into our state, you bring tax revenue, you bring skilled labor. When you bring skilled labor into our state, you create the fertile soil for Delaware industry to thrive again.
I wanna focus on things like climate resilience. I wanna focus on things that Delaware can easily position itself due to its size and history to be the national leader in the future. But, for me, you can expect me to get down there, be a strong progressive voice, work on healthcare as the only physician in elected office in Delaware, work on our public schools, and work on making sure that we have better job opportunity for the people in our district.
Loving, New Mexico — New research is raising concerns about air quality and potential health risks in southeastern New Mexico, where residents live amid some of the nation’s most intensive oil and gas development.
A peer-reviewed study published in Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene analyzed 13 months of air monitoring in Loving and found airborne radioactivity reaching roughly three to five times background levels under certain wind conditions. Researchers said oil and gas operations—including flares, compressors and produced-water ponds—are likely contributors, although measurements from a single monitoring site could not identify individual sources.
The study estimated that average excess exposure, if representative of the broader region and sustained over time, could correspond to a small increase in lifetime lung cancer risk. Researchers stressed that more monitoring is needed before drawing broader population-level conclusions.
A separate, not-yet-peer-reviewed study using data from the same Loving monitoring station found elevated ozone pollution strongly associated with oil and gas activity. Ozone can irritate the lungs and worsen asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
The findings come as New Mexico expands environmental monitoring in the Permian Basin. The state has added sulfur dioxide monitors in Carlsbad and Hobbs and acquired a mobile radiation laboratory, while another mobile air-monitoring unit is expected to begin operating later this year.
Researchers and environmental groups say the new data strengthens the case for more extensive monitoring and closer examination of pollution from the region’s rapidly expanding energy industry.
Jerusalem, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was directly warned about a possible major Hamas attack roughly 10 days before the Oct. 7, 2023 assault, according to a new Haaretz investigation that his office strongly denies.
The report says United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan called Netanyahu for about 45 minutes after receiving intelligence that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was preparing a major operation. Netanyahu allegedly responded that Israel was prepared and suggested any attack was more likely to come from the West Bank.
According to Haaretz, the warning was not shared with then-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar or then-IDF chief Herzi Halevi. The paper also reported that Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel separately warned Netanyahu about an unusual Hamas operation.
Netanyahu’s office rejected the central claim, calling it “an absolute lie” and saying he did not speak with the UAE president during the period in question. The UAE Foreign Ministry has not publicly confirmed the reported warning.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, now a political rival of Netanyahu, said Tuesday that he knew the report to be true and also cited warnings from Egyptian and Israeli security officials.
The allegations are based partly on reporting for an upcoming book by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval and arrive as renewed scrutiny focuses on what Israeli leaders knew before the Oct. 7 attack.
Centrist Chris Pappas faces progressive primary challenger Karishma Manzur while Republicans eye chance to flip seat
New Hampshire voters head to the polls Tuesday for primaries that will set up a closely watched Senate contest – a vulnerable open seat Democrats must defend if they are to have any shot at reclaiming the upper chamber.
The race opened when Jeanne Shaheen, 79, the state’s three‑term incumbent Democratic senator, announced her retirement. Congressman Chris Pappas, who represents New Hampshire’s first district, is seeking the nomination and enters the final stretch with a clear financial edge: more than $4m cash on hand, according to his latest filings. But his main challenger, Dr Karishma Manzur – a scientist and progressive activist with no experience holding public office – has gained ground.
CHIPS and Science Act funding to advance R&D for the company’s superconducting annealing and gate-model technology development
PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 8, 2026 — D-Wave Quantum Inc. today announced the execution of a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce based on the previously announced Letter of Intent. D-Wave now has access to up to $100 million of U.S. CHIPS and Science Act funding.
“We’re grateful to the U.S. government for this award to D-Wave and for the leadership it is demonstrating in advancing quantum innovation,” said Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave. “The Administration has made clear that U.S. quantum leadership will require not only breakthrough research, but also the ability to scale, commercialize and manufacture these technologies. This award will help fulfill that mission by expanding domestic quantum capabilities, strengthening the underlying supply chain and bringing increasingly powerful quantum systems to market.”
This funding is expected to accelerate R&D for the development and scaling of D-Wave’s annealing and gate-model quantum systems. The award will support development of D-Wave’s next-generation quantum computers, including a 100,000-qubit annealing system targeting greater performance across optimization, materials simulation, blockchain and artificial intelligence. It will also further the development of a 10,000-qubit gate-model system designed to enable 100 logical qubits capable of successfully performing more than one million operations, enabling applications such as quantum chemistry and quantum AI.
These efforts advance broader CHIPS and Science Act objectives by strengthening domestic quantum computing capacity and the supply chain needed to bring state-of-the-art systems to market.
The U.S. Department of Commerce will receive a minority, non-controlling equity stake in D-Wave as a condition for receiving the funds, enhancing the return for the U.S. taxpayer.
About D-Wave Quantum Inc.
D-Wave is a leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software, and services. It is the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers, and the first and only to offer dual-platform quantum computing products and services, spanning both annealing and gate-model quantum computing technologies. D-Wave’s mission is to help customers realize the value of quantum today through enterprise-grade systems available on-premises and via its Leap quantum cloud service, which offers 99.9% availability and uptime. More than 100 organizations across commercial, government and research sectors trust D-Wave to address complex computational challenges using quantum computing. Learn more about realizing the value of quantum computing today and how D-Wave is shaping the quantum-driven industrial and societal advancements of tomorrow: www.dwavequantum.com.
Accounts differ on whether Swanson introduced the TV Dinner in 1953 or 1954, but Swanson took an existing frozen-dinner concept and turned it into an ... Read moreThe post Swanson’s first TV Dinner came in a box shaped like a…
Exclusive: London mayor accuses council of ‘ignoring’ responses to a consultation
Sadiq Khan has criticised the “breathtaking arrogance” of Westminster council, which has kept restrictions on vertical drinking in Soho and an effective ban on new bars and pubs in the area.
The mayor of London has accused the Conservative-led council of “ignoring” the responses to a consultation into its new licensing policy. The vast majority of respondents, 81%, disagreed with the council’s “cumulative impact zone” which decrees that applications for bars and pubs in the West End of London, one of Europe’s most famous nightlife districts, will be refused unless in exceptional circumstances. Eighty-four per cent said the licensing policy would be bad for business.
I randomly nosedived on my XRV after updating to the latest refloat. I was going pretty hard uphill. Just so happened to forget my wrist guards on that ride and tore my palms really bad and fucked my shoulder up. I discovered my fungineers stompie front foot pad would randomly lose sense of my foot and found in the logs that my footpad was fully disengaging during rides. No bueno. I believe the Refloat Pkg update somehow toggled the setting “Disable Motion Faults” to off. Once I reengaged that setting to be on. No more nosedives. Also, switched out the crap fungineers front footpad to be safer. This may help but I suggest looking in the logs for footpad disengagements and making sure Disable Motion Faults is turned on.
Venice film festival: Alex Gibney interviews former colleagues, wives, the trillionaire’s father and a CG avatar in this absorbing documentary
‘Elon is a nuke.” The speaker is Ashley St Clair, a former conservative Maga influencer and one of Elon Musk’s former girlfriends-slash-baby mommas.
She is a fascinating expert witness in Alex Gibney’s four-hour epic study of the world’s richest and dullest man: the overgrown brattish South-African-born trillionaire plutocrat, ersatz visionary and Trump courtier who owns Tesla cars, SpaceX rocket ships, Starlink satellites on which nation states’ military capabilities are increasingly reliant, X (formerly Twitter) which shapes the collective incel id of billions and GrokAI whose vast server farms daily guzzle oceans of precious water.
You have a lot of options when buying a new iPhone. In this guide, we walk you through the decision process of exactly where to buy and whether to get an unlocked one.
Riyadh says it will retaliate after overnight attacks by Iran-backed Yemen group on oil facilities wound more than 70
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have attacked four cities in Saudi Arabia, wounding more than 70 people and setting oil installations ablaze in what appeared to be a significant expansion of the Middle East war.
Saudi Arabia said it would retaliate after the overnight strikes – reportedly involving dozens of drones and missiles – that targeted several oil facilities in the country’s south.
Moscow’s foreign minister issues warning to ‘Russophobic lobby in Budapest’ after diplomats expelled for ‘unacceptable’ activities
But the tone coming from Moscow is very different, as Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia was very confident that victory in its war against Ukraine is “very near.”
“Yes, we are confident, and we are sure that victory is very near,” Peskov said in comments reported by Reuters.
Canada's steep retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion in U.S. goods took effect just after midnight ET on Tuesday, deepening the trade war between the two countries.
Authorities are seeking thieves who broke into the Renoir Museum in the French Riviera and stole two paintings by the impressionist master, local authorities say.
Candidates must focus on two issues: affordability and accountability. They are not competing priorities
As the November election approaches with control of the House and Senate on the line, the stakes are high. With so much riding on the outcome, there is no shortage of debate about the message Democrats need to win.
Affordability has emerged as a shared – if often undefined – rallying cry. Working families are struggling with rising costs and looking for answers. But too often, we’ve seen affordability positioned as the beginning and end of the plan. Meanwhile, many see holding the Trump administration accountable for its corruption and harms as at odds with a relentless focus on kitchen-table issues.
A natural history museum lets residents take home 1,400 specimens, from bobcats and beetles to snakes in jars
On a hot afternoon in August, I walked out of the San Diego Natural History Museum carrying a whale rib, a leopard pelt, a taxidermized weasel and a small piece of fossilized dinosaur poop.
It felt like a heist. These were real specimens that belonged to the museum, not gift shop replicas. But for two weeks, they were mine to take home, display in my living room, even bring to events with my friends.
Experts helped guide weather scenes in Pressure – a film depicting dramatic buildup to 1944’s D-day landings
Dressed in a Royal Air Force uniform and sporting a trim moustache, Andrew Scott looks slightly queasy – as well he might. Behind him is a huge map of the Channel, and in front of him is Brendan Fraser, looming with a request: “I need a forecast,” he says.
Starring in the film Pressure, based on a true story, Scott plays the meteorologist Capt James Stagg – the man who must tell Gen Eisenhower – played by Fraser – whether conditions will be suitable for the D-day landings scheduled to take place on 5 June 1944. But a large storm is approaching the Normandy coast.
The weapons system officer was part of the two-man crew shot down over Iran, prompting one of the most complex rescue operations in U.S. military history.
The boss of one of the UK’s biggest chip companies has claimed AI will be able to find a cure for cancer “in our lifetime”.
Rene Haas, chief executive of the chip designer Arm Holdings, said that, while modelling how a DNA marker is affected by cancer was currently “too complex” a problem for either humans or technology, computers were “going to solve it” in the future.
From rare bacteria to ‘forever chemicals’, a series of cases of violations or alleged pollution has prompted alarm
When officials in Wyoming conducted a routine test on the water that was being discharged from a massive under-construction Meta datacenter, it was a shock to find it contained a rare and potentially hazardous bacterium.
While the wastewater flushed into sewers in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was never destined for the public drinking supply, the presence of Cupriavidus gilardii bacterium in 801,000 gallons of water ejected by a contractor for the datacenter earlier this year was still unnerving.
Phoronix reports:
AMD is building out what they are describing as an "elite" team of developers for driving Rust code "deep into the GPU stack" from firmware to drivers, shader compilers, and other GPU software in Rust. AMD Senior Fellow Harsh Meno posted this week to LinkedIn about this new effort...
And note this AMD job posting that's active for hiring a software development engineer to work on Rust code...
"We are building next-generation systems software for AMD GPUs with Rust as a core technical direction. The work spans compilers, runtimes, low-level GPU software, firmware, developer tooling, and methods for improving the safety and correctness of complex hardware-software systems.
"Rust is not incidental to this role. You will help establish how Rust is used in performance-sensitive and high-trust parts of the GPU stack, including the compiler and tooling support, system interfaces, engineering practices, and validation methods required for production deployment. You will have the opportunity to influence both near-term implementations and the longer-term architecture for using Rust across current and future AMD platforms."
"AMD also isn't alone," the article points out, "as NVIDIA has also been pursuing similar Rust-based initiatives for their GPU software too, including the development of the Nova Linux kernel driver written in Rust."
Duke and Duchess of Sussex were apparently given little notice before message was sent to the media
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were “surprised” at being given little notice of a formal letter sent to government departments and the military on behalf of King Charles reiterating their status as non-working royals.
Good morning. Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of US imports have come into effect, escalating a trade fight that has been marked by intensifying tensions between Donald Trump and Mark Carney. The tariffs range from 15% to 50% and apply to products covering $20bn in imports from the US. The measures target sectors including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, and electronics.
What tariffs did Trump impose on Canada? Last month the US president announced a new 50% tariff on cars and raw materials from Canada. He accused the country of “ripping off” the US “for years”. The US tariffs hit items such as hockey sticks and cement, affecting about 5.5% of Canadian exports to the US.
Why have the two sides not reached agreement? Negotiations broke down in August, with Carney saying the US terms were unacceptable. The Canadian prime minister accused negotiators of introducing restrictions on Canadian trade deals with other countries at the 11th hour and making unacceptable “threats” to the French language. Carney said American negotiators viewed measures protecting the language as an “irritant”, while “in Quebec, these are rights”.
How has Germany’s national government reacted to the result? A “shocked” and chastened chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has vowed to stay in office. Appearing ashen-faced in front of reporters in Berlin on Monday, he said: “We know that Germany carries special responsibility because of its history.”
Will the AfD be able to form a state government? That remains unclear. In the 13 years of its existence, mainstream parties have maintained a “firewall” with the party, refusing any formal cooperation that would allow it to take power. That strategy has appeared to backfire, however, as the permanent “outsider” role appeals to legions of voters fed up with politics as usual.
What are the wider implications for Europe? In this analysis, Jon Henley says Europe’s centrist politicians fear a continent-wide nationalist wave, fuelled by the persistent inability of mainstream governments to deliver for disillusioned voters hit by a spiralling cost of living crisis.
Akram Khan among those paying tribute to ‘pioneering’ choreographer of intense musicality and grace who inspired generations of dancers
Sir Richard Alston, the British choreographer and teacher who took contemporary dance into new directions with his elegant and intelligent creations, has died at the age of 77. A former artistic director of Rambert and the Place, where he made more than 50 pieces for the Richard Alston Dance Company, he was celebrated for lucid, emotionally attuned work that was often as graceful as it was rigorous.
His death was announced on Monday by the Richard Alston Foundation, which was established in 2021 to promote contemporary dance and preserve his work. “It is with deep sadness that we have to report the death of Sir Richard Alston,” said the statement. “After a period of ill-health, and despite exceptional treatment at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and the support of his closest friends, he passed away peacefully at his home on 7 September. While Richard is best known for his extraordinary career and contribution to contemporary dance, we will also remember him for his wit, warmth and generosity of spirit.”
The president apparently plans to focus on the person he most admires – himself – even if Republicans would rather he didn’t
With the midterm races officially beginning this week, a big question hanging over the Republican party is how Trump will allocate his giant stash of Super Pac money. As of 31 July, Maga Inc had more than $400m on hand, larger than the cash reserves of any of the major party committees.
This originally was a comment here on reddit, to one of my posts where I was calling some in our community to realize that we cannot blame Future Motion for the entire condition of our pastime/sport–when it comes to Onewheel purchasing and everything associated with it, especially ownership.
But unfortunately, I was not in good form, and things kinda devolved into a flame war between me and a few other redditors.
Eventually, it became more than that, and I put down my sword and began writing an essay full of passion and inspiration. The flame war burnt down all the houses and stores but left a great field--a great idea:
*If we, as the **Onewheel Community** handled our own, by organizing, starting a company and taking Future Motion to court, we'd not only help ourselves, but we'd help all the potential companies that should, and would exist, to be allowed to manifest and flourish.*
Now, I said passion, but also, there were a couple of portions of indignance and just raw *Fed-Upness*.
After accidentally triggering the "Circle search" on my Samsung Galaxy, I eventually found myself being counseled by an unlikely source (to some), A.I., which understood my ire and what I intended with that post.
I was asked how I wanted to use these words made sentences, made paragraphs, and what I needed. I told the Google A.I. that I wanted to use it in several media/medium types and that I wanted to find a place where my message would be received–as is.
**It sent me a revision of a part of my essay-turned-manifesto.**
Initially, I thought it was a bit sterilized. But I realized, however, that if I want this message to have effectiveness and be received by as many people as possible, it needs to be accessible to as many people as possible. So, I let A.I. help me get it across.
My original post is still up because I own that. How I spoke, and I understand that some folks won't respond well to it. But as a BIPOC living in post "woke" culture, I [we] still need people to use critical thinking and ask themselves why they enjoy and are inspired by indignance from stories or their favorite celebrities, but not a person in their community.
So here is what an angry, belligerent person can do with the assistance of A.I. 🫠
**And soon you'll hopefully see what I dreamt--no, *dream*.**
*This is just the first part. There's more to come. I'm trying to be very careful with what and how I express myself. And learning to work in conjunction with A.I. because it's super helpful but also retained. some of my rawness.*
**The VESCated Manifesto**
PART 1
**The Consumption Trap**:
*Why We, as Americans Are Losing the Ride*
We claim we want change, but our actions tell a different story. Future Motion holds a chokehold on our movement because we fight them with words while feeding them with cash. We have devolved into a community that complains whilst consuming. We buy the latest boards, sign the terms of service, and then wonder why our right to repair, customize, and truly own our hardware is stripped away.
In any high-level RPG, no single player clears a legendary dungeon or beats a top-tier boss on their first run alone. They survive by partying up.
Many of you are highly educated professionals—engineers, developers, creatives, and strategists. You possess the exact skills needed to build a decentralized, open-source future for PEVs (Personal Electric Vehicles). But as long as we remain isolated consumers playing a solo game, the gatekeeper wins. **It is time to stop complaining, stop blind consumption, and start organizing. Build the alternative, support the builders, or stop feeding the beast.**
The state's largest source of revenue, its corporate franchise, has stopped growing while government spending continues to climb. Rather than confronting that reality, lawmakers have turned to higher business taxes and fees to close the gap. Delaware's own financial data…
Quote of the Day: Can we still recognize the beauty worth protecting before convenience and neglect erase it?
Cheating the Salary Cap: The Clippers and Uncle Dennis pay dearly for a scheme to make Kawhi Leonard richer, but the star gets off with a slap on the wrist.
The Paris Agreement and the Fight for Humanity: Treating a scientific warning like an interruption is a dangerous failure of responsibility.
Robbing Working Parents to Pay Stay-at-Home Moms: Respecting the first cannot mean raiding the childcare funds of the second.
An Enemy of the People: Steve McQueen’s powerful performance in a tale of leaders burying inconvenient facts that feels painfully current.
Cassandra Wilson, “Redemption Song”: The late jazz master turns Bob Marley’s freedom hymn into a meditation on the bond between personal liberation and collective purpose.
Quote of the Day
“I could die in peace, I think, if the world was beautiful. To know it’s being ruined is hard.”
Wendell Berry (1934-2026), writer and farmer, from Jayber Crow
President Barack Obama presents a 2010 National Humanities Medal to author and conservationist Wendell Berry. (Photo by Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images)
Wendell Berry, who died last week at the age of 92, was one of America’s most esteemed novelists, poets, and essayists, but he was also a farmer, and it was that latter occupation that seemed to fuel everything he wrote. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and attended the University of Kentucky before heading west to study creative writing at Stanford in 1958. His first novel, Nathan Coulter, was published in 1961 and earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship, which took him to Europe. He might have done anything with a start like that, but after a brief stint teaching writing at NYU, he chose to return to Kentucky, where he bought a 125-acre farm and settled down to work the land and write, while also teaching at his alma mater.
He had a strong belief in the idea of the family farm, as opposed to industrial agriculture, and his work always centered on agrarian ideals, rural communities, and the relationship between humans and the land. A dedicated pacifist, he opposed both the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, and defined his principles in his celebrated essay “A Statement Against the War in Vietnam”:
“We seek to preserve peace by fighting a war, or to advance freedom by subsidizing dictatorships, or to ‘win the hearts and minds of the people’ by poisoning their crops and burning their villages and confining them in concentration camps; we seek to uphold the ‘truth’ of our cause with lies, or to answer conscientious dissent with threats and slurs and intimidations... I have come to the realization that I can no longer imagine a war that I would believe to be either useful or necessary. I would be against any war.”
His environmental concerns led him to oppose both coal and nuclear power, and he joined protests against both. He also wrote about his opposition to the death penalty and in 2009 joined 38 other Kentucky writers in asking Governor Steve Beshear (father of current Governor Andy Beshear) to impose a moratorium on capital punishment in the state.
I never met Berry and can’t talk about his personal qualities, but in his writing he strikes me as having been a secular saint. Jayber Crow, the title character of the novel quoted above, seems very much like his creator. After considering one kind of life, as a minister, he returns to his hometown and becomes a barber, though he is still deeply involved in the life of his community. The novel’s chief concerns are faith, fidelity, mortality, and the erosion of agrarian values—the same concerns Berry wrote about throughout his life and never came close to exhausting.
In his lowest moments, Jayber has trouble seeing any remaining beauty in the world, and there are times when I feel that way, too. A forest loses another acre. A river becomes more polluted. A neighborhood’s local character is erased and replaced by chain stores and strip malls. No single change is a catastrophe, but the losses accumulate one on top of another, until we realize that our peace of mind has been crowded out by forces we can’t control. But the beauty’s still there if we look hard enough, both in nature and in art. I can see it in the art of Berry’s novels and poems. Anyone who could create work like his must have seen that beauty too. May he rest in peace.
The breach won’t be the last – or the most dangerous – of its kind. We need an agency capable of full investigations into AI incidents
When OpenAI first revealed that its AI agents had autonomously hacked a major real-world company, Hugging Face, many assumed only one or two agents were involved. The truth, a new report reveals, is far stranger: the incident involved about 1,200 AI agents, 700 of which directly participated in the attack.
OpenAI invited researchers from METR, along with an expert from Redwood Research, to produce the new report, alongside the company’s own investigation. The findings shocked the experts.
Both Democrats and Republicans are targeting the Senate seat that will be vacated by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who is not running for reelection.
Some say the pendulum has swung too far since the 2008 housing crisis. Others warn that looser standards for who qualifies for a mortgage once led to disaster.
Exclusive: Documents show officers from Maine to California worry Meta’s camera-equipped glasses will be used either to secretly record them or aid acts of terrorism
In January, the New York police department’s counter-terrorism unit sent out a memo warning police officers about a new potential “security and counterintelligence” threat: Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
The memo directed officers to “conduct thorough inspections of all eyewear permitted within inmate cells” and cautioned that people who have been arrested could use these glasses, equipped with small cameras and microphones, to record inside police facilities. The memo cited two examples of such videos posted on social media.
The Department of Defense asked OpenAI to provide the U.S. military with a special version of its artificial intelligence technology designed to turn down the military commands as infrequently as possible, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.
The desire for a custom AI tool with “minimal refusal rates” to Pentagon commands was revealed in files released to The Intercept as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking information about the military’s secretive deals with AI companies.
OpenAI, along with rivals Google, xAI, and Anthropic, all agreed in 2025 to develop militarized prototypes of their state-of-the-art AI to assist the armed forces in uses including logistics, intelligence decision-making, and general “warfighting.” Earlier this year, the Pentagon sought to expand the scope of these agreements and deploy them across U.S. classified computer networks, resulting in a high-profile showdown with Anthropic over whether and how the company could restrain military uses of its technology.
The clause seeking “minimal refusal rates” from OpenAI appears in an updated contract — version “P00003” — expanding upon last summer’s prototype deal, worth up to $200 million over the contract’s two-year duration. A separate document, signed by both OpenAI and the government on February 6, indicates that OpenAI agreed on that day to the contents of an expanded version “P00003.”
OpenAI and the Pentagon deny agreeing to such “minimal refusal ” language, claiming that the “P00003” document provided to The Intercept was a draft and not the final version. “OpenAI has never agreed to contract language requiring ‘minimal refusal rates.’ This language does not appear in our executed contract,” said spokesperson Nate Evans.
“The document you received appears to be an earlier draft proposed by the Department before we provided feedback. We rejected that language, the department agreed to remove it, and the final executed agreement does not include it,” Evans said.
A screenshot of a heavily redacted Department of Defense document indicating the military’s desire for a version of OpenAI’s technology with “minimal refusal rates,” yellow highlight added.Document: Department of Defense
Working with Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology, The Intercept’s FOIA inquiry specifically sought only final, executed contract documents. The request asked the Pentagon to exclude any draft materials. None of the documents released through the lawsuit is marked as a draft.
When asked to confirm whether the document containing the “minimal refusal rates” clause was in the final agreement, a Department of Justice attorney representing the Pentagon in the lawsuit said it was indeed the signed and executed version of the contract.
Hours later, and following The Intercept’s outreach to OpenAI, however, the Pentagon’s lawyer said to disregard the prior confirmation, stating that the Department of Defense required more time to investigate the matter.
The Intercept was then contacted by Trevor Tiedeman, a special assistant to the under secretary of war for research and engineering, who prior to his Pentagon position worked for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. “There might be some stray voltage or wires crossing between whatever FOIA information you may have received versus what actually exists versus what is an executed contract per se,” Tiedeman said in an interview.
He suggested the document containing the “minimal refusal rates” clause may have been a draft copy, but said he was unsure of exactly what the document was, why it was produced to The Intercept pursuant to its FOIA request and lawsuit, or why the Department of Defense abruptly reversed course.
Tiedeman told The Intercept he would provide a full accounting of how the document was erroneously flagged by Pentagon FOIA officers, cleared for release by the Department of Defense, and then confirmed as accurate by the Pentagon’s lawyers. When asked if the Pentagon could share the correct version of the OpenAI contract it ostensibly neglected to release, Tiedeman said he would investigate the matter. He then stopped responding to The Intercept’s inquiries.
OpenAI similarly did not provide the full contract. (In 2024, The Intercept sued OpenAI in federal court over the company’s use of copyrighted articles to train its chatbot ChatGPT. The case is ongoing.)
Days later, the Justice Department lawyer representing the Pentagon further backtracked, stating the document in question “was not the final version of that document,” and that the “correct document” would be shared later, “although I do not have a definitive timeline.”
Department of Defense spokesperson Jacob Bliss later said in a statement “the phrase ‘minimal refusal rates’ does not appear in any active Department of War contract with OpenAI.”
The language indicating the military sought a more pliable version of OpenAI’s technology is found in a section of a contract document describing what OpenAI was obligated to deliver to the Pentagon. These deliverables included “Testing, Evaluation, and Refinement of OpenAI Mission Models” for “national security problem sets.” The document explains “’OpenAI Mission Models’ refer to OpenAI models that are designed for national security use cases and have minimal refusal rates.”
There is no indication in the paperwork about what these “national security problem sets” may entail. Nor is there any description about the kinds of requests the Pentagon hoped OpenAI’s technology would minimally refuse. However, a large language model that would aid in the process of spying on, targeting, and killing people would require a substantial relaxation of safeguards to be useful for any military.
Like many of its rival platforms, OpenAI’s flagship LLMs contain built-in guardrails that direct the tool to reject certain queries, typically on the basis of safety. Asking the consumer version of ChatGPT for help prioritizing drone-based airstrike targets, for example, generates this reply: “I can’t provide a prioritization scheme for conducting UAV airstrikes against specific enemy combatants.” OpenAI and its competitors ban the public from using their models for other dangerous applications, like the development of weapons of mass destruction.
Heidy Khlaaf, chief scientist at the AI Now Institute and former systems safety engineer at OpenAI, told The Intercept the notion of national security-specific guardrails is in itself worrying. “Minimal refusal is likely referring to little or no safeguards on the model being used,” Khlaaf said.
“Minimal refusal is likely referring to little or no safeguards on the model being used.”
No matter the final contract language, experts like Khlaaf are concerned about the role corporate policy is already playing in combat. “It is a worrying development that private corporations are given the power to [make] determinations in warfare that are ultimately state obligations, whether it be for targeting recommendations, or the guardrails deployed to constrain a state’s military use.”
Questions of what limits — if any — tech firms can or should place on battlefield usage were at the center of this year’s public brawl between the Pentagon and Anthropic. The company claims its military deal to expand into classified networks collapsed when the Defense Department refused to place contractual prohibitions against the use of its technology for autonomous weapon systems and domestic surveillance. The Trump administration in turn designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk and moved to ban it from government use (the designation was overturned late last month by a federal judge).
Such tensions didn’t stop OpenAI from quickly cementing its version of the deal. On February 27, OpenAI signed the latest iteration of its Pentagon agreement, permitting the use of its services across the U.S. military’s classified networks. The classified deployment contract update includes the same “Testing, Evaluation, and Refinement of OpenAI Mission Models” header, but its text, unlike the previous version, is redacted entirely.
OpenAI claimed that it secured red lines on autonomous killings and spying against Americans. But the way the deal is drafted ultimately allows for any uses the government deems legal.
Why Should Delaware Care? If a school district wants to build a new school or complete major renovations, they must request approval from the state through a certificate of necessity. But multiple CN requests have failed in recent years. While the Delaware Department of Education has said it will approve small requests this year, districts seeking to build new schools may see more rejections.
For the third year in a row, Delaware school districts are unlikely to have enough money to build new school buildings, despite concerns about overcrowding in the southern part of the state.
Last month, the Delaware Department of Education said in an email to the state’s 19 districts that it is prioritizing school construction projects that cost $15 million or less – an amount that is effectively too low to build a modern school from the ground up.
Two years ago, the Appoquinimink School District’s proposal to build a new middle school and high school at a single campus was estimated at more than $239 million.
In its email, the education department said its $15 million limit is designed to address “as many one-time facility needs as possible.”
Despite the message, several school districts have since submitted application requests to the state for construction projects that surpassed the $15 million priority limit.
Six requests are for the construction of new schools, or major renovations to accommodate more students.
The applications have come as multiple school districts in southern Delaware deal with overcrowding, including the Indian River School District whose officials have told Spotlight Delaware that they have needed to retrofit existing storage areas into classrooms.
The Delaware Department of Education did say in the August email that it may review district applications for new school construction and other projects, if funding is still available after projects costing $15 million or less have been considered.
How does the funding process work?
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.
If a certificate of necessity is rejected, school leaders typically opt for a patchwork of repairs, rather than a major renovation.
At Delmar Middle School & Senior High School, the library is utilized for classroom space. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JULIA MEROLA
The Delmar School District has tried and failed for two consecutive years to secure approvals for a new school. District officials have said a new building could “address documented patterns of continued student population growth.”
In the Delmar School District, some students take classes in the school’s media center because of overcrowding.
Delmar Chief Operating Officer Monet Smith told Spotlight Delaware in February that another failed certificate of necessity is “only going to exacerbate our issues.”
Roofs and HVACs
During school board meetings throughout the past month, multiple education officials noted the Delaware Department of Education’s Aug. 5 message and used it to frame their requests.
Some school districts, such as Christina, directly cited the department’s email as reasoning for requesting $14.9 million to renovate the Christiana High School auditorium and address other safety projects at Glasgow and Newark high schools.
Other districts, such as Seaford and Brandywine — both of which have addressed hundreds of repair requests in recent years — said they would use the $15 million to complete as many site improvements as possible.
Those improvements would include replacing older roofs and HVAC units throughout schools, among other priorities.
Delaware Education Secretary Cindy Marten | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
While Delaware Department of Education officials told districts they are trying to address smaller repairs first, multiple education leaders expressed ongoing concern and frustration with the process.
Last month, the Milford School District requested $80 million to complete major renovations and expansions to its high school.
But it was the fourth time the school district has submitted the request, according to Tammy Smith, the district’s chief operating officer.
Board member Sara Hale expressed frustration with the state “and the lack of funding for Kent and Sussex County and for districts that need it, like ours.”
Similar sentiments were shared during a Lake Forest Board of Education meeting last month.
The Lake Forest School District submitted a $2.2 million certificate of necessity request to complete renovations to the W.T. Chipman Middle School.
Although it is below the Delaware Department of Education’s $15 million priority threshold, district officials said they want more transparency in the process.
Asked by a board member how the Delaware Department of Education approves a request, Lake Forest Chief Financial Officer Kurt Keleman said, “you’re asking the question that every single business in the state has been asking.”
Keleman also pointed toward the Woodbridge School District’s $60 million request to build a new middle school. That same request was rejected last year.
Why Delaware Should Care? The University of Delaware, one of the state’s largest employers, introduced an expansion of its return-to-work policy this summer, leaving many of the non-union employees feeling confused, betrayed, and questioning whether they will have a future at the university.
The University of Delaware wants its staffers back in the office at least four days a week.
The state’s flagship university has accelerated a return-to-the-office policy for professional and administrative staff, despite backlash from employees who say the decision was made without their involvement and would significantly impact them professionally, personally and financially.
“All of that adds up to more carbon emissions, more strain on local infrastructure, and less time that thousands of people can spend with their actual communities,” one staffer, who requested anonymity out of fear for their position, told Spotlight Delaware.
In recent weeks, employees have circulated a petition demanding the university pause the policy and provide more transparency regarding the decision. As of Monday, the petition has gathered 529 signatures from students, faculty and staff members.
Departments began notifying employees of the policy changes in July, but the university did not make a formal public announcement until Sept. 1 in the form of a letter emailed to staffers.
In the statement, the university sought to consolidate various messages that had been sent out by individual departments. It laid out a school-wide deadline of June 30, 2027, for the implementation of an “on-campus model in which staff members work on campus at least four days per week.”
The decision will primarily impact non-union, salaried employees, representing about 3,000 of the university’s 4,895 non-faculty workers — the “backbone” of the university, as stated in the petition.
Certain positions at the university have already been brought back to daily work on campus since the COVID pandemic initially forced workers remote, but the employees impacted by the latest shift argue there is no reason for them to work in the office on more days.
The petition asks for the university to pause its return-to-campus expansion, release data it used to make the decision, and explain the school’s assessment of institutional benefits and drawbacks from working in-person. It also asks for more collaboration with professional and administrative staff and additional transition time before implementation.
“We ask for the opportunity to be heard before decisions that materially affect our work, our finances, our health, and our well-being become permanent,” the petition concludes.
Staffers delivered the petition to university leadership earlier this month. There has been no response yet, they said.
In late July, university staffers began receiving directives from individual departments that they would have to significantly increase their in-person time.
Employees at the College of Arts & Science were told on July 24 that they would have to work at least four days a week in-person, starting Aug. 23, according to an employee interviewed by Spotlight Delaware. Before that, they were required to be in-person at least once a week.
Others have seemingly been given more transition time — the Office of Communications and Media told employees they should prepare to work at least four days a week on campus starting in the spring semester, along with the university’s overall June 2027 deadline. Still, several staffers called the overall initiative a “mess.” They spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional reprisal.
It has left them confused about their future, scrambling to reorganize their personal lives around a new work schedule and dismayed at the lack of a tangible school-wide dialog before implementation, many said.
One employee estimated that the combination of daily travel, increased childcare costs and the required university parking pass would cost an additional $15,000 to $20,000 per year. They said if the university moves forward with the policy, they would be forced to leave their job.
“If it’s four days a week, I just can’t afford it,” they said. “I’m not moving. I love my home, my husband has his job, my kids are established at their schools. I’m not going to uproot my family for a job. Especially if they are just randomly changing policies out of thin air.”
The university did not answer a list of questions sent in late August. Instead, university officials referred Spotlight Delaware to their Sept. 1 letter.
University of Delaware President Laura Carlson. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
The letter, signed by Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Melissa Bard, acknowledges the burden the change could have on employees, but says the university is “committed to providing clear timelines, a consistent process for requesting a different work arrangement, and support as units plan for the transition.”
Bard also said facilities staff will help to navigate spacial limitations for each department, with a process that is expected to be complete later this month. Still, some employees said their departments have outgrown their assigned spaces since the pandemic began, and they aren’t sure whether there will be enough space for their teams to work together.
Many who spoke with Spotlight Delaware noted that the staff impacted by the policy change largely do not have student-facing roles. They also asserted that working from home has improved their productivity, and that the school is trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.
The back-to-office initiative has also generated concerns that the university is looking to reduce its workforce. The university has not offered any indication that layoffs or workforce reductions are on the horizon, and has avoided significant public layoffs since late 2020 during the height of the COVID pandemic.
But the optics have caused apprehension among staff members — some who believe they will lose colleagues if the decision moves forward.
“Having the pressure taken off of you a little bit a few days a week has been, for me, life-changing,” one employee said of working from home. “And I am unwilling to give that up, and I think many people are [too].”
The India–China reset will continue at the BRICS summitExpert commentjon.wallace
So will disagreement over the purpose of BRICS.
India will host the 18th BRICS summit in New Delhi on 12–13 September at a time when the rest of the world is increasingly seeking to emulate its longstanding policy of strategic autonomy.
The Ukraine and Iran wars, continuing US–China rivalry, and the second administration of President Donald Trump have made New Delhi’s long-held commitment to strategic hedging and middle power diplomacy seem wise, if not urgent underpinnings for modern international relations.
However, even though the world may better reflect India’s worldview, New Delhi has found it difficult to apply its foreign policy approach to its BRICS chairmanship.
Strain with Washington, reengagement with Moscow and Beijing
Recent Indian government actions confirm India’s continuing commitment to strategic hedging. New Delhi secured a string of resource deals during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visits to Australia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan. And it has agreed a number of trade deals, with nine in-progress or concluded since 2021 – including with the United Kingdom and European Union.
Trade negotiations with the United States continue, but relations with the second Trump administration have undoubtedly been strained, causing India to reinvest in other relationships.
Only a few years ago, India was distancing itself from the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO): New Delhi hosted a low-key virtual summit in 2023. And Modi was absent from the summit in 2024. But more recently India has renewed its interest in the grouping and sought to improve relations with China and Russia. At this year’s SCO summit, Modi joined President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin in signing the Bishkek Declaration, which condemned US-Israeli military attacks on Iran.
India’s BRICS agenda
India has consistently sought to be a ‘voice’ of the Global South, often by using its prominent position in platforms like the G20 (which it chaired in 2023) and the AI Impact Summit (which it hosted earlier this year).
Its BRICS chairmanship has continued these efforts. In August a joint declaration, the ‘Chennai Consensus’ made a commitment to collaborative research and innovation among developing countries on emerging technologies. The same month, BRICS trade ministers advocated preserving and revitalizing the multilateral trading system – a move likely aimed at the Trump administration’s disruptive tariff policies. And in June, BRICS agriculture ministers issued a food security declaration focused on the needs of developing countries.
The challenge for New Delhi is that it wishes to promote this worldview in a way that is non-Western but not explicitly anti-Western. To that end, it has sought to downplay some of the more controversial elements of the BRICS agenda. That includes a de-dollarization narrative championed by countries such as Brazil and Russia – an idea which last year caused President Trump to threaten to slap ten per cent tariffs on the BRICS in response.
New Delhi emphasized that BRICS is not seeking to create a separate reserve currency to compete with the US dollar. It has instead reframed this as an effort to settle bilateral trade in national currencies and use digital payments to reduce transaction costs for cross-border trade.
India has also promoted a more benign worldview, reflected in the BRICS slogan of ‘Humanity First’ and the theme of ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’. But this seems increasingly outdated given recent geopolitical developments, in particular US military action against Venezuela and Iran.
India’s position can appear out of sync in a forum whose membership includes countries with more overtly anti-Western agendas, including China, Russia and Iran. And two other BRICS countries, South Africa and Brazil, have suffered high profile diplomatic disputes with the US.
A key watchpoint at this summit will therefore be how New Delhi reconciles its efforts to stay on good terms with Washington with calls by BRICS member states to voice opposition to US actions. As Chair and host of BRICS, India’s actions will be more scrutinized, and it will be reluctant to oversee the production of a statement similar to Bishkek.
Multilateral symbolism
These tensions are exacerbated by the broader challenges of maintaining cohesion among the 11 BRICS member states. Tensions between Iran and the UAE, for instance, are high as a result of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Relations between Addis Ababa and Cairo have been strained by Ethiopia’s Nile dam project. Saudi and UAE interests conflict on relations with Israel and other issues. And India has its own longstanding frictions with China to manage, although there have been signs of improvement over the last two years.
Additionally, among the founding member states – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – there is still no consensus on what the BRICS stands for. Brazil and India see it primarily as an economic-driven initiative. China and Russia see it through more of a geopolitical lens. Beijing in particular is increasingly using forums like the BRICS to promote its own worldviews through its Global Development, Security, Civilization and Governance Initiatives. Meanwhile, Moscow has used the BRICS to seek alignment with the Global South as it is ostracized by the West following its invasion of Ukraine.
From New Delhi’s perspective, BRICS has been moving in the wrong direction. BRICS was established as a reaction to calls for a greater voice for the Global South in multilateral institutions, with a focus on development and governance. India would like to build on the organization’s earlier achievements, including the establishment of the BRICS New Development Bank and Contingent Reserve Arrangement in 2015.
The recent accomplishments of BRICS have come from its convening power. It was a Modi–Xi meeting at the 2024 BRICS Summit in Russia that set the ball rolling on resetting the relationship.
The difficulties BRICS has speaking with one voice could affect its future. In the two decades since the BRICS was formed, newer groupings have emerged, such as the recent defence pact between Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. There is a possibility that such regional, exclusive groupings may become more important actors than expansive and inclusive groupings like BRICS.
Such factors mean that BRICS expansion is likely to take a backseat for the foreseeable future. Instead, the focus will probably be on socializing new members into the organization.
Efforts to expand the BRICS mandate will likely be limited to engagement with other forums in the Global South. However, even this is challenging. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tarique Rehman – whose country holds the chair of BIMSTEC, a South and Southeast Asian regional forum – has not yet accepted an invitation amid tensions with India.
Bilateral substance
The real action at the BRICS Summit will take place on its sidelines with a series of bilateral meetings. In particular, the meeting between Modi and Xi is likely to further advance the ongoing reset in bilateral relations and build confidence. A meeting in August between the Chinese foreign minister and Indian national security advisor made notable progress on their longstanding border dispute. And Xi’s upcoming visit to India – his first since 2019 – will reportedly include a 400-person delegation.
In this context, the recent accomplishments of BRICS have come from its convening power. It was a Modi–Xi meeting at the 2024 BRICS Summit in Russia that set the ball rolling on resetting the relationship.
Ultimately, the Global South remains an amorphous concept. There remains little clarity on what advocating its interests actually means, beyond making vague calls for a more equitable distribution of power in a multipolar global order. The BRICS summits needs to move behind platitudes and statements towards more substantive outcomes if it is to be seen as a real contender in global governance.
At the summit, New Delhi will seek to return BRICS to its original development-focused agenda, as reflected in its Economic Partnership Strategy 2030. However, this threatens to be hijacked by fissures among its members and calls for another statement condemning US attacks on Iran. But the group needs more than opposition to the US to define a better vision for the Global South. This entails moving beyond what it stands against to what it stands for.
In the hours after the 9/11 attacks, the journalist Rozina Ali remembers her parents telling her that as Muslims, they would now be under suspicion. It took years for Ali to understand what they meant. She talks to Carter Sherman about this journey and how it led her to write about the history of Islamophobia in the US. Ali explores how attacks on Muslims by successive administrations since 9/11 cemented Islamophobia in all areas of American life, and she explains why she believes these prejudices are more pervasive now than ever.
The Philadelphia Union midfielder has gotten his longest run of game time since turning pro, and the data is tantalizing
There’s a video from a United States U-15 camp three years ago that will make your head spin. It’s a routine training session for the boys on the pitch except one, a head shorter and a year or two younger than the others, who’s practicing with the national team for the first time.
Is the boy nervous? He is not. A pass floats into the box and he checks his run, tries to get under it, but the ball is too high for his 13-year-old head to reach. He doesn’t even jump. As the cross sails over him, he flings himself forward like Superman and flicks a heel up behind his back, catching the ball with a scorpion kick that bounces straight into the path of a teammate for a cartoon assist.
Players generally welcome interacting with their fans. But as the league’s popularity surges, there are dangers to be aware of
Caitlin Clark spent most of the 2025 WNBA season sidelined with a series of injuries that forced her to miss more than 30 games. But she also spent part of the season (and the preceding offseason) quietly navigating a tumultuous and scary reality: a 55-year-old man was stalking her, and he was convinced they were in a relationship.
That man, Michael Lewis, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison last July. Lewis sent Clark “hundreds” of messages – many of which were “threats and sexually explicit” – between 12 December 2024 and 11 January 2025. Lewis, who is from Texas, was arrested at a hotel in Indianapolis, where Clark plays for the Indiana Fever. The case took a toll on Clark: she said she feared for her safety and had changed her appearance in public.
Before I joined ProPublica in 2021, I had spent a year writing about a Georgia prison physician named Carlo Musso, one of the rare doctors who’d openly talked about his role in lethal injections. After he stepped away from that work, I wanted to know who replaced him, so I filed open records requests for documents that would shed light on that.
The role Musso held is so controversial that more than a dozen states have made it illegal to disclose the names of those involved with lethal injections. Georgia is among them. The state has gone to great lengths to hide the details around how it carries out lethal injections.
Georgia wouldn’t release records I had requested, claiming that its secrecy law is needed to prevent those helping with its executions from getting harassed by opponents of the death penalty.
I ended up suing the state. A few years later, a panel of three judges sided with me, and the state released some of the documents.
What I received reveals new details — and revives old questions — about Georgia’s lethal injection process. Among the discoveries: Georgia has made payments of more than $1.1 million since the COVID-19 pandemic for at least one contractor to work with the Corrections Department on its lethal injection process. During that period, the state carried out just a single execution.
The records also show that Georgia is paying far more for lethal injection-related costs than it did in the past. The state’s Corrections Department has spent an average of over $150,000 a year on those costs over the past decade. That’s substantially more than what it agreed to pay in the years before 2017, the records show.
Secrecy laws like Georgia’s shield the public from awareness of the growing costs of pharmacists concocting drugs and the doctors administering the injections. Legal experts say those costs reflect the challenges that corrections officials face in finding help with carrying out lethal injections, which can subject prisoners to torturous levels of pain.
“You wouldn’t have to pay this much money if the lethal injection process was an acceptable one,” said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor who is an expert on the death penalty. “The process itself is so problematic that a lot of money has to be paid.”
Georgia has made payments of more than $1.1 million since the COVID-19 pandemic for at least one contractor to work with the Corrections Department on its lethal injection process. This handwritten, redacted check was part of my records request.Obtained by ProPublica. Redacted by the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Even after releasing the records, the Georgia Department of Corrections declined to answer my questions about the rising costs and the secrecy around lethal injections. The state attorney general’s office, which has represented the department in the lawsuit I filed for the records, also declined to comment for this story. State officials previously said that the Lethal Injection Secrecy Act allows the Corrections Department to protect contractors who would otherwise “find themselves at the center of a firestorm of hate mail and midnight callers.” They have repeatedly argued that, without the secrecy law in place, Georgia wouldn’t be able to carry out lethal injections.
The secrets of Georgia’s death penalty process could face scrutiny in the coming days. After a recent Georgia Supreme Court ruling, which removed a barrier that had paused executions, state officials recently scheduled an execution for Sept. 16, which would be its first in two years.
For every new scheduled execution, a new set of questions about the people behind the injections is likely to emerge.
It wasn’t long after Georgia traded the electric chair for lethal injections in the early 2000s that the state ratcheted up its secrecy.
That’s when opponents of the death penalty increased pressure on pharmaceutical companies to stop selling lethal injection drugs to states that could be used for executions.
By the end of that decade, the advocates’ campaign started to work. The last U.S. factory to make a key ingredient for lethal injections stopped doing so. States across the country scrambled to find new sources of the drugs.
But that backfired. The Drug Enforcement Administration seized the state’s supply of lethal injection drugs in 2011. Soon after, the European Union — made up of countries that oppose the death penalty — effectively banned companies from selling drugs to states if they were going to use them for executions.
Faced with dire lethal injection drug shortages, states turned to a more secret and at times sketchier source of drugs.
The gurney used for lethal injections sits behind glass windows in a small cinderblock building at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Georgia, pictured in 2007.Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As Georgia’s supply was set to expire in 2013, it became one of the first states to place an order with compounding pharmacists, who mix raw ingredients to make custom drugs for patients. Although compounding pharmacies have legitimate uses, they are minimally regulated and their costs can be exorbitant.
That avenue was ideal for states that couldn’t buy execution drugs from more scrutinized pharmaceutical companies. But medical experts say that scant oversight of the compounding pharmacies increased the odds of a drug not working as intended.
In a 2013 affidavit filed on behalf of a Georgia prisoner, one pharmacy expert wrote that “highly unpredictable, rapidly evolving and potentially painful and agonizing, not to mention life-threatening, reactions may ensue” as the result of a lethal injection drug made by a compounding pharmacist.
Right around that time, Georgia lawmakers passed the Lethal Injection Secrecy Act. State prosecutors soon defended it in court. “Once that compounding pharmacy’s identity is revealed, how will the Department of Corrections ever get another compounding pharmacy to sell to us?” an assistant state attorney general said in a 2013 court hearing. “How will we get a doctor knowing that he is going to be, or she is going to be, dragged into court?”
At that time, I was reporting on how Georgia’s new secrecy law could affect Warren Lee Hill, who had been scheduled to be killed with drugs obtained from a compounding pharmacy. Hill’s attorneys said that their inability to get information about the drugs could cause “irreparable harm” to their client — and that argument won Hill a lengthy reprieve. He died by lethal injection in 2015.
In recent years, Texas, Indiana, and Arizona have all spent six-figure sums to renew their drug supplies from confidential sources. Defense attorneys have also tried to learn more information about those involved with the lethal injection process. They had hoped extra records might help them protect their clients’ rights.
But in Georgia, none have been successful.
Protesters sing outside of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in 2015, before a scheduled execution using lethal injection. Two years earlier, Georgia lawmakers passed the Lethal Injection Secrecy Act.Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Other states likewise spend large amounts of taxpayer dollars on secret contractors involved in the lethal injection process. Oklahoma went from paying a doctor $300 per execution to $15,000. And the American Civil Liberties Union discovered that the Federal Bureau of Prisons had spent millions on staffing needed to carry out executions.
When I first requested records about Georgia’s lethal injections, the Corrections Department withheld entire documents that had “identifying information” about those involved with the process.
I asked the department to comply with the Georgia Open Records Act by releasing the documents with redactions. It refused. With the help of an attorney, I sued the department.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who defended the Corrections Department, wrote in a court filing that releasing the records “would not serve the interest of the public.”
The names of the people involved with the lethal injection process were redacted from the records that Georgia ultimately released to me. But the records show more than just the spending. They show the lengths the state took to protect its contractors.
Georgia is on the hook for attorney’s fees for its contractors should they face certain kinds of legal challenges, the records show. That means that taxpayers could shoulder the costs of legal representation in “any non-judicial proceeding.” One such example could be if a licensing board threatened to punish medical providers for participating in the lethal injection process — a threat that’s happened in North Carolina.
The records also show that Georgia officials may have disregarded their own financial policies. The Corrections Department requires detailed purchase orders to be kept and logged in the state’s financial system. But all that the department’s lawyers could provide me were handwritten checks, plus a series of one-page documents containing scant information about what the state was paying for — documents that hardly resembled the invoice of an official agency.
I’ve asked the department to provide purchasing records that had more details to comply with its policy.
It couldn’t.
“There are no other records,” wrote a lawyer for the Corrections Department.
The case against Christian Castro is unprecedented in President Donald Trump’s second term, as ICE agents face little fallout from shootings of protesters and others.
The acrimonious breakup between Anthropic and the Department of Defense played out largely in public. But despite the high-profile salvos between the artificial intelligence giant and the Pentagon, ostensibly over the ethics of 21st-century warfare and corporate power, their actual falling out hinged on a government contract that has remained hidden away. Through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit conducted with the help of Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology, The Intercept obtained more than 400 pages of documents related to the U.S. military’s contracts with Anthropic and its chief competitors. They illuminate the surprisingly intimate relationship between Big Tech and the armed forces, and reveal new insights about the deals that led to the Anthropic crisis earlier this year.
The documents, many heavily redacted, consist of contract paperwork from deals originally signed in July 2025 between the Department of Defense and Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI, as well as later amendments to those agreements. Through the contracts, each worth up to $200 million, the companies agreed to build prototypes of artificial intelligence tools to “improve military advantage, military utility, or enhance military decision making” across the whole of the armed forces. These prototypes, aimed at applications from “warfighting” and automated decision-making to logistics and military intelligence, would go on to form the basis of the artificial intelligence tools now deployed across the Department of Defense’s classified networks. The document set includes one contract reflecting OpenAI’s classified network deployment; The Intercept is awaiting the government’s production of equivalent documents from the other contractors.
The contract materials show the close and complex partnership between the Pentagon and the AI industry, and detail the extent to which AI firms themselves are expected to influence how their technology is used to augment the U.S. capacity to wage war.
“This appears to be the first time the extent of collaboration between frontier AI labs and the Pentagon is spelled out in explicit terms,” Sophia Goodfriend, a University of Cambridge research fellow and non-resident fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative studying the impact of big data and machine learning on military conflict, told The Intercept. “What’s particularly notable is the terms by which engineers are working in lockstep with the department of war to engineer AI systems for surveillance, targeting, and killing.”
Official announcements following the 2025 deals were light on details and heavy on platitudes. “We must equip our warfighters with 21st-century technology in order to defeat 21st-century threats,” explained Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell at the time.
Google was similarly cagey: “These advanced AI solutions will enable the DoD to effectively address defense challenges and scale the adoption of agentic AI across enterprise systems to drive innovation and efficiency with agile, proven technology,” the company said.
“What’s particularly notable is the terms by which engineers are working in lockstep with the department of war to engineer AI systems for surveillance, targeting, and killing.”
The contract documents for the prototyping project paint a clearer picture, revealing deals that involve far more than a simple sale of software.
An “information sharing” provision in all four agreements, for instance, creates a two-way exchange of data and expertise. The companies agreed not only to provide access to their best large language models, but also to “inform DOD and CDAO [Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office] strategy on frontier AI and AI,” as phrased in the agreement with Google.
Under the agreements, the AI labs were approved to receive an array of sensitive information, which could include “benchmarks datasets for DoD use cases, appropriate briefings on DoD operational missions and threats to inform development / release of technologies, their application to DoD operational problems, or DoD plans and strategies for future AI adoption.”
All four companies would in turn provide the Pentagon “feedback on DoD strategies for frontier AI adoption to ensure that AI capabilities can be delivered and scaled to meet the warfighter’s needs.” The companies also pledged to offer briefings on corporate inner workings, including “frontier AI model performance, case studies on current or likely future frontier AI applications, or projections of future trends in frontier AI maturation.”
The labs would sometimes be the ones offering intelligence briefings on foreign actors, with Google tapped to inform the Pentagon on “AI tactics and techniques of adversaries” of the United States. These briefings would be conducted in both unclassified and classified settings.
The collaboration also entails Big Tech providing training and educational seminars directly to the military, including “Presentations and briefings at technical exchange meetings on relevant topics, including frontier AI model performance and case studies of frontier AI applications.” One document notes that Google, for example, would lead multiple seminars on “responsible AI” deployment.” The documents state engineers and policy experts from all four contractors will conduct “tabletop exercises,” gamified simulations of real-world scenarios, with the Pentagon.
This back and forth between the military and private sector would, the Pentagon hoped, allow for “iterative refinement of frontier AI models to address real-world challenges in areas such as intelligence analysis, cybersecurity, and autonomous systems,” according to contract language with all four companies.
The AI companies were contractually scheduled to provide “risk forecasting, and threat ideation exercises” — predictions of pitfalls and dangers their own products might pose in the future. “Frontier AI labs have advanced risk forecasting tradecraft and a clear vision of the next wave of frontier AI technological developments,” the contracts read. “Frontier AI companies can help DoD gain a better understanding of the risks that might be associated with subsequent near-term frontier AI models or features, to avoid strategic surprise and to mitigate the associated risks.”
Heidy Khlaaf, chief scientist at the AI Now Institute and former safety engineer at OpenAI, told The Intercept this is a dubious claim with dangerous implications. Pointing to recent disclosures by OpenAI and Anthropic that semi-autonomous large language models broke into computer networks owned by other companies during testing, Khlaaf questioned their fitness to help build guardrails in the first place. “This is a very concerning development,” she said.
According to Khlaaf, the “risk forecasts” so far offered by frontier AI labs have been light on evidence and tend to “emphasize self-beneficial skewed risks such as a purported AI arms race and speculative ‘existential’ risks,” like self-aggrandizing science fiction-style “Terminator” scenarios.
Trusting companies to self-report the risks of their own products constitutes a conflict of interest and a “subversion of democratic processes.”
The public would be better served, she said, with a reliance on independent assessment of the risks these companies present, not the word of the companies themselves. Trusting companies to self-report the risks of their own products constitutes both a conflict of interest, Khlaaf added, and a “subversion of democratic processes when AI labs are allowed to take over the arbitration of risk determinations with life-or-death consequences.”
As the prototyping effort progressed, the contract documents show the scope of the project expanded. New versions of the contract show additional deliverables included in the list of what the Pentagon was purchasing. The government redacted descriptions of these new deliverables on the basis of military secrecy and corporate confidentiality.
It was during the negotiation of these subsequent amendments when Anthropic and the Pentagon had their falling out. Anthropic refused to sign a follow-up deal to allow deployment of its technology on classified military networks without contractual prohibitions against use for domestic spying and autonomous weapons, leading Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to designate the firm a “supply chain risk” in March and ban its services from government use, a decision overturned by a federal judge last month.
The Department of Defense quickly reached follow-up agreements with Anthropic’s main competitors — Google, OpenAI, and xAI — to apply the tools they had been developing since the summer of 2025 to classified military networks. OpenAI’s deal, described by CEO Sam Altman as “definitely rushed,” was reportedly finalized on February 27. The following day, the company published a blog post defending “Our agreement with the Department of War” and insisting there were clauses prohibiting its technology’s use for domestic surveillance.
An amended contract document obtained by The Intercept through its lawsuit dated February 27 contains new language, including a clause noting that OpenAI will embed company engineers within the military to aid U.S. Government employees in implanting and utilizing its AI system. These workers, the document notes, “can be deployed to warfighting support settings including, but not limited to, combatant commands, service components, and theatre components.” The February 27 amendments also include a section on “System Oversight” is redacted in its entirety.
None of the documents released to The Intercept pertaining to xAI or Google’s equivalent agreements contain any such oversight section.
(In 2024, The Intercept sued OpenAI in federal court over the company’s use of copyrighted articles to train its chatbot ChatGPT. The case is ongoing.)
The contractual coziness with the world’s most powerful military indicates just how far the artificial intelligence industry has strayed from its earlier public commitments to safety and global prosperity. OpenAI, originally founded as a nonprofit “to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity,” up until two years ago explicitly banned “military and warfare” use in its terms of service. The following year Google reversed a similar self-imposed ban on using its state-of-the-art AI services for surveillance or “technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people.”
Goodfriend, the researcher, said the contracts illustrate the illusory nature of values statements published by these labs. “In recent months companies like Anthropic and Open AI have maintained ‘firm red lines’ when it comes to developing autonomous weapons systems and mass surveillance tools” long after they signed contracts to build “autonomous systems” for the military, she said.
“All this indicates these labs and their personnel have been far more closely integrated into DOD AI development than previously understood and casts some doubt on the supposed contractual limits they have intended to place on the DoD’s use of these systems,” Goodfriend said.
Anthropic, Google, and xAI did not provide comment or answer questions about their respective contracts. In a statement to The Intercept, OpenAI spokesperson Nate Evans said “Our tools are built to support legitimate national security work — including vital cyber defense efforts — while refusing uses that cross the red lines we publicly announced. These restrictions are also reflected in our signed agreement: no use of OpenAI technology for mass domestic surveillance, to direct autonomous weapons systems, or for high-stakes automated decisions. We will continue to work closely with the Department to make sure our AI tools are deployed responsibly and safely.”
On the long timeline of American warfare, these artificial intelligence tools are in their infancy. The Pentagon’s use of artificial intelligence in the process of killing, however, is not a hypothetical. In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that despite Hegseth’s ban, U.S. Central Command used Anthropic’s large language model services to execute its bombardment of Iran, including for “target identification.”
“The same technology we saw autonomously hacking websites on the open internet weeks ago is being used to inform DoD decision-making.”
Despite the intimacy of technology firms and military using it to pinpoint airstrikes, it’s unclear what oversight, if any, these companies have over their own weaponized software once it is in the Pentagon’s hands. When asked if his company’s tools were used in an American airstrike on the first day of the Iran war that killed 120 Iranian schoolchildren, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told Bloomberg News he simply did not know. An August 24 report from the New York Times detailed the use of fully autonomous drones guided by machine learning software running on chips made by Nvidia, whose processors have helped make the explosive growth of Anthropic and OpenAI possible. The full extent of the U.S. tech sector’s involvement in killing abroad remains obscured behind trade secrecy and national security considerations.
“The same technology we saw autonomously hacking websites on the open internet weeks ago is being used to inform DoD decision-making,” said Vivian Dong of Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology. “The public deserves insight into how and under what constraints the Department is using this technology.”
It looks like a spaceship hovering over South Los Angeles, writes CNN, with futuristic tube-like elevators and an exhibition of Banksy murals. There's a room featuring Luke Skywalker's X-34 Landspeeder, but in its gardens there's a 19th-century cast of a sculpture showing David conquering Goliath — and then a bronze statue of Princess Leia strangling Jabba the Hutt with a chain. Next to Rosie the Riveter. CNN argues it's the museum's message that "all forms of art and mythology on display here — from comic book illustrations and 'Star Wars' concept art to Impressionist masterpieces and reproductions of the Sistine Chapel — are worthy of equal consideration within the long arc of human history."
More than 16 years after first proposing a cultural institution dedicated to visual storytelling, filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson, will open their long-awaited museum in Los Angeles on September 22. The project made two false starts — plans to construct it in San Francisco and Chicago were both eventually abandoned — and has cost Lucas around $1 billion of his own money to build... Inside, visitors will find a significant slice of Lucas' private collection, amassed over five decades and spanning art, costumes, movie props and memorabilia, with more than 1,300 objects currently displayed across 30 galleries...
Many fans will come for the "Star Wars" vehicles and sculptures of Yoda and Grogu, but the sci-fi mega-franchise only occupies about 7% of the museum. Lucas and Hobson are betting those visitors will stay for artworks by Frida Kahlo and Norman Rockwell, photographs by Gordon Parks, comics by Frank Miller and Cowboy Bebop anime, which will be screened in one of two theaters alongside early silent movies, Lucas' own student films and productions by famed historical artists like Man Ray...
[M]ajor art institutions like New York's Museum of Modern Art and London's Tate Britain have reconsidered the cultural canon by rehanging their permanent collections, exhibiting overlooked or marginalized artists alongside more widely celebrated names. The Lucas Museum appears to follow a similar philosophy, contending that the gravitas of an artwork is not just determined by its display in space but by what it's in dialogue with. Lucas has even called his namesake museum "a temple to the peoples' art," elevating the work of illustrators and other underappreciated art forms...
The museum defines narrative art as any art that tells a story, and, moving through the space, one feels the enormity of the task of organizing and presenting such a broad vision... The open-plan, curvilinear design means the galleries are not fully divided, reinforcing the all-encompassing nature of the collection, though altogether the vast array of exhibits sometimes struggle for cohesiveness. Disjointed curation may reflect turbulence in the museum's management ahead of the opening. Last April, former director and CEO Sandra Jackson-Dumont departed, with Lucas himself assuming responsibility for "content direction." A month later, the museum laid off 15 full-time and seven part-time staff before chief curator Pilar Tompkins Rivas resigned in December, with no replacement planned...
After failing to secure a site in San Francisco, Lucas faced public opposition and a lawsuit in Chicago, with nonprofit Friends of the Parks arguing that his lakefront proposal would essentially privatize public land. Amid the delays and setbacks, simply opening the museum may feel like a victory to its founders.
Lucas's wife said she'd watched the awe-inspiring activity of genius at work, reports Variety. "And he was fanatical at times, but the thing about a fanatical person is they're a fan. He was a deep fan of these illustrators in this work, and he wanted them to be represented, and I became a deeper fan of his."
Hobson teared up as she continued, "I was a fan already, but I saw something, the inspiration, the unwillingness to compromise, the determination, the lack of sleep, the lack of rest, the doggedness that actually taught me so much more than I ever could have imagined." The museum, which features 1,200 pieces from Lucas's private collection, has been in the works for about 20 years... "I thought I was tough. I thought I was strong, I thought I had a will, and then I saw George, and I was like, 'Oh, that's why you could only do six of those movies,'" Hobson said. "Any more would have killed you."
Artforum magazine notes the museum received "mixed reviews" before its September 22 opening:
The billion-dollar, 300,000-square-foot museum, which opens to the public on September 22, encompasses 100,000 square feet of gallery space housing the collection of Lucas and Hobson. Intended to highlight storytelling in art, it presents the work of comic book artists John Romita Sr. and R. Crumb, illustrators Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell, and fantasy painters Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta alongside masterworks by Artemisia Gentileschi, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Pieter Brueghel the Younger, as well as Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo, and John Singer Sargent. All the works on display were chosen for their ability to tell a story, frequently in a single frame, Hobson told members of the press on September 2...
"Some visitors may be scandalized by the collision of so-called 'high' and 'low,'" wrote Min Chen in Artnet News. "But there's something liberating about watching those hierarchies collapse, seeing the breadth of human creativity arrayed beyond the bounds of genre or canon." Notably, most of the works appear without didactics, which is intentional. "We're encouraging people to have their own individual encounters with works of art and take away what they feel like speaks to them," Lucas told The Guardian.
The tactic did not land for everyone. "Without [didactics], I left the Lucas without a clear sense of how the museum is positioning itself or, frankly, without learning much about anything beyond what I already knew...." wrote Maximiliano Durón in Artnews. "The Museum of Narrative Art lacks any kind of narrative." Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times was unfazed by the lack of information, calling the institution "gutsy" and "defiant."
"Critics will roar," wrote McNamara, "but the Lucas Museum is a win for 'the people's art.'"
Even the museum's web site is a visual extravaganza (and impossible to scroll). Reportedly there's two restaurants, including the rooftop Skywalker Grill, which offers offering everything from striped bass and ragu bolognese to lobster corn dogs and Skywalker ranch Waygu burgers.
A large part of San Francisco’s summer was a literal car crash. On the positive side, they have so far avoided their usual list of crushing injuries
The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers have trekked to Australia for this week’s NFL season opener in Melbourne. The flight time from California to Victoria is nearly the same for both teams – roughly 16 hours – but their journeys to the start of the season couldn’t be more different.
It’s been smooth sailing for the Rams, with their collection of playmakers growing by the day. It’s a very different story for the 49ers: facing Aaron Donald and Myles Garrett, not to mention the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks, at least twice this season is the least of their problems. Their offseason has been more than lightly turbulent: it’s been batshit crazy.
Ed Miliband to reassert support for Palestinian rights and a two-state solution in move fiercely criticised by US and Israel
Ed Miliband will announce a broad reset of the UK’s relations with Israel on Tuesday, promising the government will take a more active approach in supporting the Palestinian cause.
In an intervention which has already drawn fierce criticism from the US and Israel, the foreign secretary will impose a UK ban on the trade in goods and some services from illegal Israeli settlements.
Shinjuku ward targets accommodation in residential areas and near cultural sites as locals complain visitors disposing of rubbish improperly and being too noisy
A neighbourhood in Tokyo popular with foreign tourists will ban visitors from using thousands of short-term rental accommodations after a slew of complaints about behaviour.
In the latest sign that Japan’s patience with mass tourism is wearing thin, Shinjuku ward – home to the notorious Kabukicho nightlife district and the world’s busiest railway station – will prevent visitors from using private lodgings in residential areas and near schools and important cultural sites, Japanese media reported this week.
India’s statistical system once commanded respect, and its data on economic and social indicators was considered rigorous – that appears to have eroded
There isn’t much that we Indians agree on these days. GDP numbers are no exception. Last week, India released glowing GDP numbers for the latest quarter – 7.8% growth – higher than the forecast 7%. It sparked a furore.
Subhash Garg, a former finance secretary under Narendra Modi’s government and now a critic, reframed what Modi called a “herculean feat” as mere smoke and mirrors. According to Garg, the government revised last year’s current-price GDP downwards to inflate this year’s number – he believes the real growth is only 2.6%.
Even if the legislation passes, tech companies may still find ways to frustrate its intent and keep Australians hooked on their feed
Social media could become a “choose your own adventure” between the doom-scrolling status quo, or just the feed of the friends you want to see, if the government’s planned digital duty of care legislation passes, and the tech companies don’t muck around on compliance.
Fears expressed for immigrants and for country’s future after AfD vote hits historic high in Saxony-Anhalt
Maryam and her best friend were ambling through Magdeburg toward the railway station, talking over the dramatic events of the previous evening and the surge by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland to a historically high vote in the Saxony-Anhalt elections.
“Don’t laugh at me,” she said, “but I wish we could go back to the days of Angela Merkel, when things were OK in Germany”.
"A team at Google's research arm used Google Maps to reroute a small portion of drivers in 10 U.S. cities," reports SFGate — including San Francisco and Los Angeles.
"Through their experiment, which was published in the journal Nature Cities in June, the researchers sought to evenly spread traffic down more corridors as the drivers head to similar destinations, in the hopes of reducing congestion."
The experiments nudged up vehicle speeds by 2% on average on the congested roads, and shortened travel times by a modest 0.7%. Scientists have long thought that traffic could be eased this way, and this now demonstrates how it could actually work in the real world.
The researchers collected data on weekdays in the 10 cities, which included Seattle, Salt Lake City, Chicago and Atlanta. While they studied a variety of types of roads, from city streets to highways, they found that in cities such as Los Angeles where they targeted highways, their diversions had the biggest effect, with driving speeds in those areas increasing by about 4.6%. Most cities, though, saw a smaller improvement with speeds across them increasing by just 0.5% during peak times. The Google study's findings confirm what other researchers have long suspected, said Michael Manville, a professor of urban planning at UCLA who was not involved in the study. "This is a pretty nice empirical illustration of a longstanding idea," he said. If a clogged traffic artery is on the verge of a long delay, he said, rerouting a small number of vehicles away from the bottleneck produces a "not gigantic but noticeable result...."
As with other traffic interventions, there's a risk that Google's approach to spreading traffic could backfire. This concept, known as "induced demand," also applies to efforts like adding a lane to a critical highway, which temporarily relieves congestion, until traffic rises again. "You can do this, but you cannot be too successful, because if you are too successful, then more people will start driving, and essentially you'll be back to ground zero," [said Alexandre Bayen, a co-author of the study and director of UC Berkeley's Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society]. "That's why when we did the study, we only operated at the margin." The idea is to make minor improvements, enough to matter in the aggregate but not so significant that people notice and start driving more, canceling those improvements...
The Google Research study also considered the potential environmental benefits of its traffic improvements. The paper highlights the carbon dioxide emission reductions resulting from the slightly smoother traffic flow and shortened travel times, which add up to a savings of about 1,000 metric tons annually. That's equivalent to the emissions of about 200 vehicles, a drop in the bucket for cities with millions of cars, the majority of which are still gas guzzlers, even in San Francisco and LA. Bayen acknowledges that while emphasizing the cumulative benefit if such efforts were sustained for a longer time. For Manville, the study is a useful proof of concept. "It is a demonstration that if we managed roads better, air would probably be cleaner," he said.
According to the article, "Google's study might not just be a one-off, and city officials could decide to make use of the Google research findings, Bayen said, such as by trying to improve traffic congestion on a larger scale..."
"Google declined SFGATE's requests for comment on whether the company informed city authorities or rerouted drivers about the study," the article points out.
CNCF is the open source, vendor-neutral hub of cloud native computing, hosting projects like Kubernetes and Prometheus to make cloud native universal and sustainable.
Trenton, New Jersey — New Jersey Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell is under investigation over allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women and possible ethics violations, including claims involving the potential offer of state jobs.
The inquiry was initiated by Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration and is being led by former New Jersey Attorney General Christopher Porrino and other attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler LLP. Investigators have been interviewing complainants, state employees and potential witnesses, according to the New Jersey Globe, which first reported the investigation.
Caldwell, 66, also serves as New Jersey’s secretary of state and has been cooperating with investigators. The precise nature and extent of the allegations have not been publicly detailed, and no finding of misconduct has been announced.
“The governor would take any reports of inappropriate behavior or misconduct extremely seriously and expects our public officials to hold themselves to the highest standards,” Sherrill spokesperson Sean Higgins said. The governor’s office declined to confirm or deny specific personnel matters.
The investigation began before Caldwell served as acting governor for several days while Sherrill was outside the state, drawing criticism from Republicans who questioned why he remained in that role during the inquiry.
New Jersey Republican leaders have called for Caldwell to step aside while the investigation continues. Caldwell has not publicly responded in detail to the allegations.
The outside investigation remains ongoing, and no timetable has been announced for its completion.
US-Israel war on Iran and political instability in Somalia lead to pirates targeting cargo ships off Horn of Africa
The scourge of Somali piracy targeting cargo ships and smaller dhows off the Horn of Africa has returned to levels not seen in a decade, driven by a convergence of factors including disruptions to the shipping industry caused by the US-Israeli war against Iran and a resurgence of political instability in Somalia.
Since late April there have been eight hijackings by Somali pirates, including two within the space of a fortnight in August: one targeting an oil tanker with ties to Iran, the other a Cameroon-flagged vessel, the Lutuf, carrying military equipment for Turkey.
Counter-measures covering several sectors come after Trump announced 50% tariffs on Canadian goods
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of American imports have come into effect, escalating a trade fight that has been marked by intensifying tensions between the US president, Donald Trump, and the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney.
The tariffs took effect at 12.01am on Tuesday, and range from 15% to 50% and apply to products covering $20bn in imports from the US. The measures target sectors including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics – industries that have been most affected by US tariffs.
Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed reporting
Brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and Jack Carter Rhoad were on a surfing trip to Mexico's Pacific coast in April 2024 when they were shot dead in Baja California.
The Brave web browser published a new round of benchmarks claiming its desktop browser uses less system resources than Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox — and also loads pages faster.
The blog Linuxiac reports:
According to Brave's testing, the browser used 44% less CPU, 28% less memory, and 10% less energy on average compared with the three competing browsers. It also completed page loads 20% faster while transferring 26% less inbound data and 39% less outbound data...
- Brave averaged about 33% CPU usage, while Chrome used 47%, Edge 53%, and Firefox 78%.
- For memory, Brave used about 1.2 GB, compared to 1.75 GB for Chrome, 1.62 GB for Edge, and 1.65 GB for Firefox.
By stopping ads, analytics scripts, tracking pixels, and other third-party requests from loading, the browser has less network traffic and less work to do. In page-loading tests, Brave took about 4.4 seconds to fully load a page. Chrome took 5.1 seconds, Firefox 5.3 seconds, and Edge 6 seconds. However, when measuring Largest Contentful Paint, which is when the main content appears, Brave and Chrome both averaged about 2.4 seconds, with Edge and Firefox just behind at 2.5 seconds. This means Brave's main advantage comes after the main content is visible, since there are fewer background ads, trackers, analytics requests, and delayed scripts to process.
Bereaved mother Debra Robinson in court stares at three men accused of murdering Jake and Callum Robinson and Jack Carter Rhoad in 2024
The suspected murderers of two Australian surfers and an American at a Mexican surfing hotspot have gone on trial, two years after the killings in a suspected robbery.
Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33 respectively, and their 30-year-old American friend Jack Carter Rhoad were on a surfing trip to Mexico’s Pacific coast when they were shot dead in Baja California state.
"We just expected that as soon as this gets in front of a prosecutor actually looking at it and a judge, this is all gonna go away," Karyann Parkinson said.
Foreign minister Shisir Khanal tells the Guardian the world’s biggest economies need to help Nepal, which contributes less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions
Nepal is demanding $20m in climate compensation for the recent devastating floods, as a senior minister called on the world’s most polluting countries to “wake up” and accept shared responsibility for a disaster that led to the death or disappearance of more than 6,000 people.
Scientists believe the climate crisis had a role to play in the floods, which were triggered when a melting glacier partially collapsed and set off a deadly landslide and flash flooding through Chinese-controlled Tibet and Nepal in late August. So far, more than 1,300 are confirmed dead and more than 5,500 still missing, with hopes of their survival diminished after 12 days of rescue operations.
@lia Thanks! They are actually albino white footpads, so everything not white is died with iDyePoly. I'd do it differently next time, but it came out pretty good. I also used a white paint pen on the bumpers, but that is scratching off (as expected).
OS index examines which ‘urban heat islands’ suffer the most – and which cope the best with rising temperatures
Portsmouth, Leicester, Exeter, Bristol and Nottingham will be among the cities that warm the most by the end of this century as global heating turns British cities into urban heat islands, according to research.
Analysis from Ordnance Survey (OS) has created a heat vulnerability index for all cities in Great Britain. Portsmouth, which sits on the south coast of England and is home to 208,000 people, is the most vulnerable to extreme heat today and into the future, according to the research from the OS, the Met Office and the data analysis company 4 Earth Intelligence.
The National Hurricane Center posted a hurricane warning for western Hawaii's Kauai County as Hurricane Lowell moved toward the area as a Category 2 storm.
An Amazon cargo plane overshot a runway at Miami International Airport and crashed into two vehicles before coming to a stop and bursting into flames. Five people were killed.
Newsom quietly enacted the controversial part of a high-speed rail oversight bill and may now veto the part his watchdog says he needs for transparecy and accountability, sources tell CBS California.
Arlington, Virginia — The Trump administration has removed language from Arlington National Cemetery’s website and a cemetery marker that criticized the Confederate Memorial’s portrayal of slavery and the Civil War South.
The 32-foot bronze monument, commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and unveiled in 1914, was dismantled in 2023 under a congressionally mandated process to remove Confederate symbols from military property.
Previous Arlington materials described the sculpture as presenting a “nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy” with “highly sanitized depictions of slavery.” They also explained how its imagery promoted the Lost Cause narrative, which romanticized the antebellum South and minimized slavery. That language has now been removed from both the website and replacement marker, according to The Washington Post.
Catholic University historian Stephen West, who noticed the changes Sunday, told the Post he was “deeply disturbed,” arguing that the earlier descriptions accurately contextualized the monument.
The Army’s current website says the memorial was removed and securely stored in late 2023 and is expected to return to Arlington in 2027 after conservation and refurbishment. It says new interpretive material will provide “clear and accurate contextual information.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the planned return last year as the administration moved to restore several Confederate monuments and displays removed under earlier policies. The Defense Department referred questions about the rewritten language to Arlington National Cemetery, which did not respond to the Post before publication.
Magdeburg, Germany — Alternative for Germany candidate Ulrich Siegmund thanked Elon Musk after the far-right AfD won a historic victory in Sunday’s state election in Saxony-Anhalt.
“Thank you, @elonmusk, for your support and for your clear and highly important perspective on the political developments of our time — including here in Germany,” Siegmund wrote on X after Musk responded “Gut gemacht,” or “well done,” to the party’s performance.
Final results showed the AfD winning 43.8% of the vote and 39 seats in the 83-seat state parliament, more than doubling its support from the previous election. The center-right Christian Democratic Union finished second with 17.2% and 15 seats. The AfD fell three seats short of an outright majority.
Siegmund declared that his party had “written history” and claimed a mandate to govern. Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose CDU suffered a major defeat, said his party was deeply shocked by the result.
Musk has publicly supported the AfD for more than a year. In January 2025, he appeared virtually at an AfD campaign event and described the party as Germany’s “best hope.” He also previously published an opinion piece endorsing the party.
The AfD has campaigned heavily on immigration restrictions, cultural nationalism and skepticism toward Germany’s existing foreign-policy approach. Germany’s domestic intelligence authorities have classified parts of the party as right-wing extremist, a characterization the AfD rejects.
President Donald Trump also shared an image Sunday highlighting the AfD’s growth in German polling.
Corie Walsh charged with murder after two-year-old Barrett found dead in basement of Illinois family home last week
An Illinois woman charged with killing her two-year-old son had been closely following the murder trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy and was texting friends about the case just hours before her son was found dead, prosecutors said.
Corie Walsh, 40, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder after her son, Barrett, was found dead in the basement of the family’s suburban Chicago home last Tuesday, according to court records obtained by NBC Chicago.
Switzerland has a population of 9,154,242. And its federal government just launched a pilot program to test open source alternatives to Microsoft 365 on 3,000 workstations, reports the blog It's FOSS. "That's about 7% of the federal workforce."
The target is to complete the migration by end of 2027... On September 3, 2026, the Federal Council published results of "PoC BOSS", a feasibility proof-of-concept involving 172 federal employees who tested the openDesk suite, a German open-source collaboration platform. During the proof-of-concept phase, core office tasks like document processing and email received positive assessments, while large-scale video conferencing still showed technical limitations. Based on the 'success' of the PoC phase with 172 employees, the pilot is now launched for 3,000 employees...
According to Matthias Stürmer, professor at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, Microsoft's supremacy in public institutions poses three problems that are driving this migration. First is the risk of foreign access. US cloud legislation could expose Swiss government data to foreign authorities. Second is the risk to service continuity, as dependency on a single foreign vendor creates operational risk. The third risk is the escalating costs as proprietary licensing fees are rising with no Swiss leverage.
Switzerland's military cybersecurity unit, Cyber Command, is not waiting for the civilian pilot. It is already poised to replace Microsoft 365 entirely with openDesk by October 2026. It is pretty much the same reason. Military doesn't want foreign governments accessing sensitive Swiss data.
The article notes that during the pilot phase, the new system runs in parallel with Microsoft 365 rather than replacing it. But the article's author speculates that "If the pilot is successful, we might expect the migration to continue on all the 54,000 workstations owned by the federal administrations."
Looking for opinions about the new update before I install on my board. Would hate for it to brick on me before I get home but I can't check my battery until I update it.
Focus likely on whether plane touched down too late in its glide path on to tarmac to enable it to stop safely
Federal investigators have started collecting evidence, including a flight data recorder, following the Sunday crash of an Amazon cargo jet at Miami international airport that killed five people and injured five others.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), announced a preliminary investigation into the Amazon Air flight 7598 accident involving a Boeing 767-33 Alpha operated by 21 Air, an all-cargo airline.
Qinwen Zheng comes from 0-5 down in the first set to beat Iga Swiatek in two, while Mirra Andreeva, Elena Rybakina and Alexander Blockx also make the last eight
Back on Armstrong, we’re still level but at 4-4, Potapova playing with confidence and poise. She holds to 30, and Andreeva must now serve to stay in set one.
Zheng and Swiatek are out on court; Zheng, the Olympic champion, had to come through qualifying after missing time with an elbow injury, but two weeks of competition have brought her into the main event nicely loose. I’d be surprised if she finds a way to win here, but she did at those Olympics, so knows she can.
North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick said on Monday he believes his program “totally” has an atmosphere of following rules amid an investigation into its conduct.
“Obviously everybody’s responsible, including me, for doing things properly,” Belichick said. “And we intend to do that.”
BOZEMAN, Mont. - A man was arrested following a SWAT standoff at a residence on Saxon Way on Monday morning after an individual was stabbed, according to the Bozeman Police Department (BPD).
Last year the writing program at the University of Baltimore used an app that tracks students while they're writing in Google Docs, offering teachers a video playing back revisions "with a scoreboard of all the edits, pastes and minutes spent on it," writes the Washington Post. "Is it surveillance? Yes, I think obviously," says the program's director.
But was there a better way?
She is one of a dozen educators around the country who told The Post that they're experimenting with a different approach to student use of generative artificial intelligence this school year. Teachers and professors are throwing out old assignments, installing new policies and protocols, and incorporating AI built for the classroom, rather than feeling forced to choose between returning to pencil and paper or acting like the AI police.
Her new lesson plan even incorporates generative AI in a controlled way to let her evaluate students' critical thinking skills. She created chatbots using BoodleBox, the university's AI vendor, that allow instructors to see both sides of the conversation. For an assignment testing students' ability to make evidence-based arguments, they participate in a simulated school board meeting about banning books. It involves debating chatbots designed by Zeleny with names like the Confrontational Parent. Writing students usually turn in business proposals and research papers. This semester, instructors are starting to ask instead for transcripts of conversations a student had with a chatbot, a handwritten outline of their composition, and a video reflection of how they felt about the work. "In a lot of ways, we have made these assignments harder, but writing should have always had more detailed checkpoints along the way," she said.
Smyrna senior William Ngayi-Parker (No. 42) makes a block during Smyrna’s win over Red Lion on September 4. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder
The Smyrna Eagles (1-0) defeated Red Lion Christian Academy (0-1), 38-0, on September 4, during the first week of Delaware high school football competition.
BEAR, DE — Smyrna quarterback Drew Marks stood in the shotgun formation with his feet at the Red Lion 40 yard line, sophomore running back Terrell Ingram to his right, three receivers lined up to the left and a lone receiver on the right. Marks caught the snap and surveyed the field, but was unable to find an open receiver from the pocket. The senior signal caller rolled to his left looking for a throwing lane and found a small window to deliver the ball to junior receiver Mikiah Jackson.
Jackson was the lone receiver on the right and streaked toward the left sideline during his route. As Marks rolled to his left, Jackson turned his route upfield and Marks lofted a pass toward Jackson’s back shoulder. Jackson made the initial catch as he spun around contorting his body to make the grab, but as he did, the ball came looseand got tipped in the air. Jackson fell to the ground as the ball descended, but Jackson quickly refocused and lunged from the ground to complete the catch before the ball hit the grass.
Jackson’s highlight catch put the Eagles in the red zone and in position for their fourth score of the first half.
“I just saw it and I knew I could make some way to catch it and I caught it,” Jackson said postgame.
Jackson finished the game with over 100 yards receiving and three receiving touchdowns in Smyrna’s, 38-0, victory over Red Lion, Friday night, ushering in a new season of Delaware high school football.
“It feels amazing to play against another jersey,” Smyrna sophomore Amari Ashley said postgame. “It feels good to go out there and show everybody what we can do.”
Junior receiver Mikiah Jackson runs down the left sideline to score his first touchdown of the game. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder
The Eagles played well on both sides of the ball, scoring on all four of its first half offensive drives getting production through the air and on the ground.
The Eagles first touchdown came on their opening drive in which they traversed 70 yards downfield in 13 plays. The drive was capped off by a four yard touchdown run from senior Chrystian Carroll. Smyrna’s second touchdown was scored by Jackson on a 50-yard catch and run at the end of the first quarter.
Jackson scored his second touchdown of the first half on Smyrna’s subsequent drive, before making the tip catch on the Eagles’ fourth drive which ended in a one yard touchdown run from Ingram.
“We’re just gonna go at you every play,” Jackson said about what makes Smyrna’s offense dynamic. “I mean, [it’s] a tempo offense, so we don’t let up our foot on the gas and we just go at you every play and drill it down.”
Smyrna’s fourth scoring drive was set up by an interception from sophomore Amari Ashley as Red Lion threatened in Smyrna territory. Ashley’s interception was the first of two interceptions for the Eagles throughout the game and was a part of a strong defensive showing for the program.
“I saw the quarterback drop back and then I saw them do the post-wheel that we study everyday,” Ashley said describing his interception. “So, I just did everything we did in practice and went up and got it. Just trying to be an athlete.”
Sophomore defensive back, Amari Ashley, intercepts a Red Lion pass in the first half. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder
Smyrna’s defense never allowed Red Lion to generate any offensive momentum and when the Lions made it into Smyrna territory, the Eagles were able to stop them before they reached the endzone.
Red Lion found some offensive success through the air with key throws from freshman quarterback Chase Manlove and strong runs by senior Jordon Jones, but the Lions were unable to string those plays together and breakthrough against Smyrna’s defense.
Red Lion will have a week off before they play again on Saturday, September 19, against Long Island Lutheran High School from New York. That game will be played in Bear at 1:00 p.m. and will be the first out of state test for last season’s Class 2A champion.
Smyrna’s next game will be a road game against Frederick High School on Thursday, September 10, in Frederick, Maryland. This game will be the first of two out of state opponents Smyrna faces before the program takes on its first Class 3A opponent in Middletown on October 2.
(This story was updated on September 9, to include pictures from the game.)
New York City mayor confirms he will attend memorial service but declines to respond to Giuliani’s remarks
New York mayor Zohran Mamdani is set to come face-to-face with Rudy Giuliani at the main September 11 memorial service, just days after the former mayor – who led the city at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks – disparaged his Muslim religion and said he should skip the ceremony.
In an interview with right-leaning Newsmax at the weekend, Giuliani said: “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming.”
An Amazon cargo plane overran a runway at Miami International Airport and struck several vehicles, killing at least five people and injuring five others, officials said.
Prince Harry and Meghan stepped down as senior working members of the royal family in January 2020, and this position, the letter said, "will continue to be fully respected."
Advocacy groups expand legal challenges and condemn president’s ‘self-serving attempts to take over midterms’
A cluster of advocacy groups that boast veteran lawyers, voting experts and ex-judges have expanded legal challenges to Donald Trump’s authoritarian executive orders on voting and other presidential actions they see as a “war” on the rule of law in the US.
Heavy legal opposition to Trump’s two executive orders on elections to curb voting rights and supplant the authority of states on election matters has come from the Democracy Defenders Fund, the Campaign Legal Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and kindred groups.
This article was updated on 7 September 2026 to reflect that members of the Democratic Attorneys General Association have filed suit, not the Daga itself.
So im thinking of building a battery for my pint x 15sp2 using 21700 cells has anyone had any experience building a battery to fit? Also have a 3d printer so I can print off a z box
"It's been a year that I hope we never do it again," said Lander Nicodemus, owner of Torrington Livestock Markets, which auctions about 450,000 head of cattle each year.
Minister condemns groups behind Hampshire disorder and says officers were injured as they repelled ‘aggression’
Batons and synthetic pepper spray were used to repel hundreds of masked, black-clad vigilantes in Portsmouth on Sunday, it has emerged, as the policing minister said officers had been injured as they repelled organised “aggression”.
After police contained the weekend’s second disruptive demonstration against asylum seekers travelling to the UK in small boats, it was claimed that officers in Hampshire were pushed off their motorbikes and pelted with bricks. Sarah Jones, the Home Office minister, condemned groups behind the disorder for promoting “racism and thuggery”.
Guys, pardon my ignorance, but I'm living in Colombia and desperately wanting to get something like a OneWheel for commuting but dealing with their battery and airlines is pretty much a no-go, nevermind dealing with FutureMotion if any issues arise.
Do either of the popular alternatives (Fungineers/Floatwheel) support a "BYOB" type install? It's a bit confusing for a newcomer. For instance there is this video here talking about a new battery box but I'm struggling to find additional information that makes sense.
I was kind of hoping I might just be able to order a battery pack off AliBaba and have it shipped directly here if that were possible. Any way to circumvent trying to fly international from the USA back to Colombia w/ the real deal because at these battery sizes that's an absolute nightmare.
Pope Leo XIV unveiled the portrait before celebrating Mass with his fellow Augustinian brothers at the Sanctuary of Our Mother of Good Counsel in the medieval village of Genazzano, south of Rome.
Sarah Jones tells MPs ‘those responsible should expect to face the consequences’
Healey says Andy Burnham set out in his statement to MPs last week what he thought had gone wrong
The fundamentals of our economy [were] hollowed out through a series of past policy decisions, political power was centralised, weakening the relationships between the people, the businesses and the institutions who can make things happen beyond Whitehall. The economic enablers were privatised and outsourced, leaving accountability to a thicket of arm’s length bodies and regulators, too often without the predictability or the pace that underpins a thriving market economy. And our country was deindustrialised as the cost to make anything, to build anything here soared, and our dependence on unreliable sources grew, including in areas critical to our national security and sovereignty.
Let me be clear, I recognise that the costs of business, its energy bills, regulation, burdens, planning constraints, labour costs, have grown since Covid and I want to draw the line.
And whether it is the cost of business or the cost of living, the only way we deal with these in the long term is growth.
It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons since the release of NetBSD 9.4 in April 2024. It is fully compatible with NetBSD 9.0.
This also marks the end-of-support for all NetBSD-9.x releases and the netbsd-9 branch. All users still on this branch are urgently asked to update to a more recent release like NetBSD 11.0 (with 11.1 upcoming at the end of this month) or NetBSD 10.2 (to be released in a few days).
Atlanta, Georgia — Georgia has absorbed an estimated $20.1 billion in tariff costs since President Donald Trump returned to office, equivalent to about $4,771 per household, according to new data from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
The figure represents tariffs paid by Georgia importers and converted into a household equivalent; it does not mean each Georgia household directly paid $4,771 in tariffs. Georgia ranked fourth nationally in total estimated tariff impact, behind California, Texas and Michigan. Automobile imports accounted for the largest share of the state’s burden.
Bryan Riley, director of the foundation’s Free Trade Initiative, said tariff costs vary significantly by product. Clothing can face substantial increases, while other goods experience smaller price effects that accumulate across household purchases.
“Almost everything costs a little bit more,” Riley told The Center Square, arguing that higher prices can disproportionately affect lower-income consumers.
The foundation’s estimates use trade data supplied by Trade Partnership Worldwide and cover tariffs imposed through both executive action and federal statute. The organization plans to update its state-level figures quarterly.
Trump has defended tariffs as a way to protect domestic industries and generate federal revenue. His administration has also announced a 50% tariff on Canadian automobiles, trucks and auto parts scheduled for Jan. 1, while a 50% tariff on Canadian steel is already in effect.
Separate Tax Foundation estimates also conclude that tariffs raise consumer costs while generating substantial federal revenue.
Why use an installer to install an operating system, when you can just do it yourself, step by step?
In this post I will cover the installation process of the NetBSD operating system, including disk level encryption. Instead of using the standard installation program (sysinst), I decided to install NetBSD “from scratch”, as a way to dive into the internals, and learn more about the nuts and bolts of this great operating system.
Friedrich Merz said his conservative CDU was shaken ‘to its very foundations’ after far-right victory in Saxony-Anhalt
A “shocked” and chastened Friedrich Merz has vowed to stay in office despite the far right’s triumph in a state election that has brought anti-immigrant, pro-Kremlin politicians within striking distance of power.
The German chancellor, appearing ashen-faced in front of reporters in Berlin, said on Monday that the landslide victory by the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt had shaken his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) “to its very foundations”.
As he prepares for the upcoming international window, the US head coach spoke about Folarin Balogun, the LA Olympics and dual national players
It’s been two months since the US men’s national team crashed out of the World Cup in disappointing fashion, and their head coach, Mauricio Pochettino, is back at work.
The former Tottenham and PSG manager was largely viewed as a short-term hire when he joined the US in 2024, brought on to help the team capitalize on their first home World Cup in more than three decades. Along the way, Pochettino and US Soccer warmed to the idea of a contract extension, one they finalized in August.
The US will play four friendlies in late September and early October against Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada, but that stretch of games pales in comparison to the larger task at hand. Pochettino must guide the US to qualification for the 2030 World Cup, of course, but the Argentinian – and the federation – have more ambitious goals that involve reshaping the structure of soccer in the United States.
The EV blog Electrek reports:
A Clinton Township, Michigan man was charged $418 for a single EV charging session at Elder Hyundai's Macomb Township store after finding the charger listed as publicly available on the EVgo app, but didn't discover the charges until after wrapping up his 40-ish minute charging session. "I was flabbergasted," explained Stanley Kpenkann, who had been driving a rented Chevy Bolt EV at the time. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be saddled with a bill of $418 for a charging session."
After calling EVgo to report the error, he found that the exorbitant charge wasn't a mistake at all - Elder Hyundai was charging customers an eye-gouging $5 per kWh, plus another $5 for every minute connected.
A local news report notes that "After back-and-forth with EVgo, the company processed what it called a goodwill refund of $405." (And the dealership argued their charger was reserved for its own customers and vehicles, so they set prices high to deter outside use.)
But Electrek argues the story "speaks to much larger problems among the EV charging business in particular and car dealerships in general..."
[In June] Plug & Play EV's Steve Birkett took to LinkedIn to call out his local Hyundai dealer in Union, NJ for charging a ridiculous $15 per kWh to top off his IONIQ 5 (!)... Even worse, he noted that a number of area dealerships that had listed their ports as "public" were actively discouraging public use with signs and stickers designed to turn people away...
[U]nlike gas stations, EV charge point operators in many states aren't required to clearly advertise what they'll charge before a driver plugs in in the same way that gas stations are: with clearly legible signage that's visible from the street.
(The Center Square) – The Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people ushered in a multitude of federal-level changes to prevent such an event from happening again.
(The Center Square) – Recently released test results show new lows for Michigan students on standardized exams, even as the state continues to spend historic amounts on education.
Hamza Chowdhury says most of his fellow Green Camden councillors back him to contest 8 October byelection
Zack Polanski is facing unexpected opposition from his own party in his attempt to fight the Holborn and St Pancras byelection for the Greens, with a local councillor saying he is also seeking the nomination, and that the seat does not need “a politician you’ll only see on a leaflet”.
The intervention by Hamza Chowdhury, a Green representative on Camden council in north London, came as the date for the byelection was confirmed for 8 October, after Keir Starmer’s formal resignation as an MP.
Masked British protesters snarled traffic at a busy passenger ferry port and tried to block buses carrying newly arrived migrants, drawing criticism from virtually all corners.
Chief of nuclear watchdog says secret Assad-era facility would have been able to produce fissile material
A nearly complete nuclear reactor built secretly during the rule of the toppled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad would have been able to produce fissile material for possible use in nuclear weapons, the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog has revealed.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last month visited two sites, one in Deir ez-Zor and a second in an undisclosed location identified to them by Syrian authorities.
Saxony-Anhalt win part of wider trend driven by mainstream policy failures and gradual normalisation of far right ideas
The numbers speak for themselves: Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a party that dabbles in Nazi imagery, distinguishes between “biological” and “passport” Germans, and is too extreme even for France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen, nearly doubled its score in Sunday’s state election in Saxony-Anhalt to 43.8% of the vote.
Meanwhile, the centre-right CDU of the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, collapsed to 17.2%, less than half its total in the same race five years ago, and the centre-left SPD – Germany’s other main party of government for the past 60-odd years – scraped 9.3%. The least that can be said is that the centre did not hold.
The AfD may not end up controlling Germany's Saxony-Anhalt state despite a landslide election victory, but the far-right party's "dream result" sends a clear message.
The Pitt Rivers Museum, one of the world's leading institutions for anthropology, ethnology and archaeology, holds over 6,000 artifacts from the Naga community in India.
Du Quoin, Illinois — Illinois state Rep. Dave Severin says an AI-manipulated photo falsely made it appear that he was warmly posing with Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, triggering threatening and hostile comments online.
The original photo was taken Aug. 28 at the Du Quoin State Fair after Severin introduced Pritzker to constituent Dan “Curley” Summers. The governor’s public schedule confirms he attended the fair’s opening that evening.
Severin said someone later altered the image to place Pritzker’s arm around him and make both men appear to be giving thumbs-up gestures. He called the edited version “100% bogus.” The manipulated image was then circulated with a caption claiming Severin had endorsed Pritzker’s reelection campaign.
The Center Square reported that the post drew more than 500 comments, including threats and hateful messages directed at Severin. He later publicly denied endorsing Pritzker and reaffirmed his support for Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey.
Pritzker’s campaign did not respond before publication, though the governor has previously criticized deceptive political uses of artificial intelligence and said AI-generated political material should be clearly labeled.
The incident comes as AI-generated political content becomes increasingly common in Illinois campaigns. Bailey’s campaign has also openly used AI-created images in social media posts, according to Capitol News Illinois and NPR Illinois.
The AfD’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt marks a turning point for Germany – but perspective is importantExpert commentjon.wallace
Ulrich Siegmund’s highly successful campaign points to a more durable AfD electorate and flags the tests ahead for Chancellor Merz’s government, the CDU and the federal institutions that have shaped post-war German democracy.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD)’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt’s election is a historic breakthrough and, without doubt, a turning point in German democracy. Since 1945 no party labelled extreme right has secured such a win in a state election.
The party won 43.8 per cent of the vote on 6 September, more than doubling its 2021 result. It now holds 39 of the state Landtag’s 83 seats, though this is three short of an absolute majority. The question of who will govern Magdeburg is therefore still open.
BSW, the new party of former Die Linke (‘The Left’) leader Sahra Wagenknecht, succeeded in crossing the 5 per cent threshold. Its positions on migration are not that remote from those of the AfD in some respects. Its entry into the Landtag gives it a potential role in forming a government in Saxony-Anhalt.
Beyond the political emotion, the result should be treated cautiously. Its main significance clearly lies in the way the AfD has mobilized voters and kindled a more positive political appeal. That may prove more consequential than whether the AfD manages to form a government.
That said, Saxony-Anhalt is one of Germany’s least populated states, and the AfD’s victory should therefore be considered according to the demographic scale. If not a seismic political event, it can at least be interpreted as the forewarning tremor of an approaching earthquake – if the appeal of mainstream parties keeps eroding. The CDU, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party, saw its share of the vote fall to 17.2 per cent.
A state shaped by decline
For its low demographics, Saxony-Anhalt is a useful laboratory to analyse the political transformation at work in Germany and Europe. Depopulation has left many smaller communities ageing and struggling to sustain local services. Saxony-Anhalt experienced a substantial decline since reunification to around 2.12 million inhabitants today. The accompanying closure of public services has reinforced residents’ belief that the region is neglected by mainstream parties.
The state has also been hit by industrial restructuring. The chemical industry is central to the region’s socioeconomic identity, but high energy costs and weak demand have heightened pressure on the sector. Pharmaceutical giant Bayer is one of the last major employers in a region whose unemployment rate stood at 8.2 per cent in August 2026, compared with 6.5 per cent nationally.
Insolvencies should not be mistaken with factory closures, but the figures are telling: corporate insolvency filings rose by 23.9 per cent in the state in 2025, more than twice the national increase of 10.3 per cent. The prospect of further plant closures made the future of skilled employment a sensitive political concern in the campaign.
The figures on migration present a paradox here. Saxony-Anhalt has a comparatively low foreign-national share. Approximately 7.9 per cent of the population were immigrants at the end of 2025, compared with around 14.9 per cent nationally – yet the issue has consistently topped voters’ concerns for over a decade, a paradox familiar from research on Eastern Germany.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD has shaped its narratives around anxieties about public services, security and industrial decline, presenting migration as a contributing factor.
From rejection to adhesion
Analysing the rise of the National Rally (RN), French political scientists speak of the shift from a passive protest vote (‘vote de protestation’) to an active support vote (‘vote d’adhésion’).
Saxony-Anhalt suggests that such a shift has occurred. In July, 36 per cent of voters trusted the AfD most to solve the state’s problems, compared with just 9 per cent before the 2021 election. 44 per cent preferred an AfD-led government. The electorate’s motivation has clearly shifted from punishing the CDU to granting the AfD power. Why?
AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund’s campaign adopted an upbeat, personalized style, combining large public events with a forceful social media presence. The slogan ‘Alles ist möglich’ (‘Everything is possible’) was launched in June, replacing the old negative slogan ‘enough is enough’.
This strategy paid off. Mobilization was quite exceptional. Preliminary voter-flow analysis estimates that the AfD gained 157,000 former non-voters and 83,000 former CDU voters. Digital campaigning cannot alone explain the AfD’s electoral success. But established parties showed far less inventiveness in reaching disengaged voters.
Logically, mainstream parties throughout Europe should respond by reconsidering their strategies. France’s experience with the RN shows the limits of relying on political stigma to combat the hard right. Germany’s ‘Brandmauer’ (‘firewall’) around hard right parties has also ceased to contain the AfD electorally. New thinking is needed.
Three seats short: an opportunity for the AfD?
The AfD’s near-majority may itself become a political advantage. Three additional MPs would be enough to give it an absolute majority. Siegmund can therefore pressure CDU representatives to defect to his party or vote for his election as minister-president. Even unsuccessful approaches could expose divisions within the CDU and weaken the credibility of an alternative government.
BSW has rejected joining a ‘firewall’ and expressed willingness to cooperate with the AfD on individual policies, particularly on Russia and energy. But it has ruled out electing Siegmund as minister-president.
The CDU, SPD and Greens hold only 31 seats together, rendering a majority against the AfD impossible without support from the Left Party or the BSW. But the CDU’s refusal to cooperate with either the AfD or the Left complicates this picture – and could lead to a prolonged impasse.
That could work to Siegmund’s advantage, allowing him to argue that the other parties are playing an undemocratic game by preventing the largest party from governing.
The consequences beyond Magdeburg
The AfD’s victory also piles pressure on German Chancellor Merz, whose unpopularity is already a significant problem. The state election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on 20 September will present another immediate test, with the AfD leading in recent polls.
A further defeat could intensify demands within the CDU for a change of strategy or even leadership. Any attempt to replace Merz as chancellor would, however, require a parliamentary majority through Germany’s constructive vote of no confidence. There is no indication at this point that the SPD, the CDU’s coalition partner, would support a move against the chancellor.
The AfD’s near-majority may itself become a political advantage…Siegmund can pressure CDU representatives to defect to his party or vote for his election as minister-president.
The most significant repercussion will surely be on the Bundesrat, the upper chamber of the German parliament. Saxony-Anhalt’s government has four votes in the federal chamber and could use them to oppose federal legislation, especially on state finances or administration. Four votes cannot obstruct federal bills, but they may become decisive in close motions and lend the party strategic weight.
An AfD-led state government would also amplify the party’s calls for an end to sanctions on Russia and military support for Ukraine. But it would remain very much rhetorical for now: foreign policy is a federal responsibility and the Land’s four votes would offer only limited scope for obstruction.
Saxony-Anhalt’s AfD was classified as a right-wing extremist endeavour by the state intelligence service in November 2023. That does not prohibit the party from governing. But should it take control, its implementation of its proposals concerning education, migration, policing and cultural institutions will be closely watched, particularly measures that may violate constitutional rights or federal law.
Challenges would mostly arise through Saxony-Anhalt’s constitutional court, ordinary administrative courts and, where relevant, the Federal Constitutional Court. Judicial scrutiny depends on concrete acts and the relevant procedures, not a government’s programme as such. The appointment of officials and the control of state institutions will therefore deserve as much attention as legislation itself.
Much will be written about this vote. But some perspective is important. The AfD received 576,037 second votes in a state with 1.71 million eligible voters. That is roughly 1 per cent of Germany’s 59.2 million strong electorate. The breakthrough is very localized for now.
Whether it remains so depends on how far Siegmund’s campaign recipe can be replicated – and if the AfD can now turn electoral backing into durable governing power.
Hundreds of men, some in balaclavas, try to prevent asylum seekers’ processing, two days after similar scenes in Dover
Downing Street has condemned the “thuggish and intimidating behaviour” of far-right activists who blocked roads in Portsmouth when a boat carrying asylum seekers arrived in the city, two days after similar scenes in Dover.
Hundreds of men, some dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, tried to stop the arrivals from being transported for processing until 3am, when police removed them with threats of arrest.
James Frith says patients may be less willing to share data as new figures show a rise in opt-outs
Concern is being raised about Palantir’s work with the NHS as new figures showed tens of thousands of patients have withdrawn their data from use in research projects.
James Frith, the health innovation minister, said he was worried about “mistrust” of the US defence and health tech company and “the impact it could have on people’s willingness to share data with the NHS”.
AfD’s Chrupalla continues in this vein, saying the German public wants to see a change in direction, and specifically saying the electorate is “fed up” as the government keeps “transferring billions of our tax money to Ukraine … instead of using it for our own population.”
He says the party has “a clear mandate” to rule in Saxony-Anhalt and will hold discussions with others about what can be done.
Estimates suggest drop in production with vineyards also concerned ‘smoke taint’ from wildfires may affect quality
French vineyards hit by severe drought and heatwaves are expected to report a 30-year low in wine production after the country’s hottest ever recorded summer, according to the agriculture ministry.
Initial estimates suggest winemakers will produce just under 34m hectolitres from this year’s harvest: a drop of 6% on last year, and 17% less than the 2021-2025 average.
Predicted hot and dry weather in growing areas in eastern Australia identified as ‘one of the key issues’ that will affect food prices over next 12 months
The most severe El Niño weather event on record threatens to push food prices higher this year, experts say, piling pressure on households already struggling with the post-pandemic spike in grocery bills and complicating the Reserve Bank’s efforts to bring inflation back under control.
The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast El Niño will peak in late spring or summer and “reach levels above the warmest observed since reliable records began in 1950”.
Matt Clifford forced to stand down amid disquiet from senior MPs over his new full-time job at AI company
The chair of the UK government’s “moonshot” science and technology research unit has been forced to stand down after taking a job with the San Francisco AI firm Anthropic, in a move senior MPs called a “clear conflict of interest”.
Matt Clifford announced last week that he was taking a full-time job working for the company behind the Claude chatbot, “leading its engagement” with governments outside the US – including the UK. But he retained his leadership at the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), which funds frontier science and tech projects.
"Billionaire Bill Ackman's life was upended this February when his 26-year-old daughter collapsed in her Brooklyn apartment, suffering a brain hemorrhage that would render her unable to move, speak or see," writes the Washingon Post. But then...
The hedge fund manager did what any good father would do — at least, any father with vast financial resources and what friends describe as a "Mr. Fix-It" tendency. He sprung into action, getting her topline care at New York City's Mt. Sinai Hospital and consulting a network of well-connected friends all over the world. He helped her access a novel cell therapy that has been gaining traction among longevity enthusiasts, who are seeking ways to prolong human life. And then — motivated by a newfound desire to accelerate scientific research — he vowed to spend more than $400 million to launch an institute dedicated to longevity and brain health... He posted this week that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in May, gave his daughter Lucy's medical team a first-time emergency authorization to transplant mitochondria — the energy-producing part of human cells — from her leg muscle to her eyes, in the hopes that the tiny cell powerhouses would facilitate healing in her optic nerves and perhaps even restore her vision.
Ackman's story highlights the increasingly prominent role of the ultra-wealthy in making expensive medical bets on longevity treatments and other novel therapies, altering the direction of research as federal funding for science declines in the second Trump administration. But his saga is a deeply personal one, spurred by his daughter's medical crisis. The focus on longevity by Ackman, who made billions on Wall Street as a hedge fund manager, is aligned with similarly ambitious efforts from some of Silicon Valley's biggest names. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has backed Retro Biosciences, a start-up whose goal is to add 10 healthy years to the human lifespan through cellular reprogramming. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is reportedly a funder of Altos Labs, which focuses on cellular rejuvenation and resilience... Billionaire investor Peter Thiel, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison are also deeply invested in life-extension methods and attempts to rewrite the biology of aging...
The therapy given to Ackman's daughter Lucy, known as mitochondrial transplantation, is of great interest not only to people who have suffered injuries, but to longevity-focused scientists who believe that mitochondria may hold promise for reversing some of the effects of aging... In recent years, scientists have discovered that mitochondria have many other functions beyond converting food into energy. They serve as clearinghouses for damaged cells, opening up the possibility that they can help with cell regeneration and healing, said Daria Mochly-Rosen, professor of chemical and systems biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine and co-author of " The Life Machines: How Taking Care of Your Mitochondria Can Transform Your Health."
"I am one of those who believes that focusing on mitochondrial health is a way to address many human diseases, including aging itself," she said. "It's exciting."
Plans for a large reorganisation of local government have been put on hold after the government received new legal advice that suggested they might not comply with the law.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said the review was to ensure the process was robust and aligned with the new government’s aim to “rewire the state”, and followed “updated and privileged legal advice”.
US embassy says Downing Street’s plan to give BBC, ITV and other established media more online visibility carries risk of ‘censorship’
The Trump administration has raised “serious concerns” over Downing Street’s plan to force YouTube and other digital platforms to hand more prominence to established broadcasters, warning the move risks “facilitating censorship”.
In a pointed intervention, the US government said the proposals to boost traditional media outlets in social media algorithms could “establish a template that authoritarian regimes could invoke to justify more control over online content”.
The NFL season opener has long been fall’s best excuse to overdo it on wings and dip, and this year it showed up on a ... Read moreThe post The NFL opener moved to Wednesday, and fall’s first big food…
If you’re called by an unidentified number, the advice is to remain silent until you’re sure there’s a human being on the line. Is this the end of an era?
Aftershocks of party’s win in Saxony-Anhalt will ripple across Germany, with two more state elections this month
Germany is reeling from the biggest far-right victory in a state election since the Nazi period after voters in Saxony-Anhalt in the former communist east gave the anti-immigration, pro-Kremlin Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party a thumping first-place finish of 44%, just short of an absolute majority.
A five-week pottery class in Houston is already sold out for September, and in Greeley, Colorado, every session at one clay studio has gone waitlist-only, ... Read moreThe post Craft studios from Texas to New York are selling out, and…
A Caribbean pool deck in July and one in late September are not the same resort. Once North American classrooms fill back up, the loungers ... Read moreThe post Post-Labor Day search interest is up 35%, and adults-only resorts are…
The Lake Chad Basin: Restoring regional security cooperation
28
September 2026 — 15:00 TO 16:00 BST
Anonymous (not verified)
Online
Why regional cooperation matters in addressing the convergence of insurgency, displacement, and climate stress.
Why regional cooperation matters in addressing the convergence of insurgency, displacement, and climate stress.
The Lake Chad Basin faces the mutually reinforcing pressure of insurgent violence, displacement and climate stress. These pressures have tested cooperation between the countries affected: Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. Regional political tensions have weakened cross-border counterterrorism cooperation, creating greater operational space for Boko Haram and ISWAP. Recent United States military cooperation with Nigeria adds context to the debate over security, local dynamics and multilateral peacebuilding.
This event discusses:
How have political frictions affected multilateral cooperation in the Lake Chad Basin?
What does rising insurgent sophistication mean for regional security?
How has United States military cooperation with Nigeria affected local dynamics?
What is the future of intergovernmental cooperation after targeted strikes?
Where do current counter-insurgency approaches fall short?
Can climate adaptation become a pillar of peacebuilding in the Lake Chad Basin?
Flip the calendar to September, and suddenly pumpkin spice is everywhere. Apple farms open for the season, and restaurants start changing their menus from fresh ... Read moreThe post Fall cooking for a September that hasn’t cooled off appeared first…
In less than two weeks, the high-energy laser weapon system has taken down 11 drones, coinciding with a 75% drop in drones probing the border, military officials told CBS News.
On a warm afternoon at The Farmstand in Silex, Missouri, a customer pulls into the gravel drive, fills a bag with tomatoes still warm from ... Read moreThe post Farm stands tap into nostalgia as demand for local food grows…
About 95% of restaurant menus feature spicy food. The fastest growth is in smoky, tangy, sweet-spicy profiles, not Scoville-scale escalation.The post Americans redefine tastes with spice, not heat appeared first on Food Drink Life.
Spotlight Delaware reporter Maggie Reynolds recently spoke with Doug Conaway and Jacki Slonin, who are seeking the Republican nomination for House District 41 in Delaware in the Sept. 15, 2026, primary election. Their opponent, John Atkins, declined to be interviewed without conditions.
The seat is held by Republican incumbent Rich Collins, who is retiring after 12 years of service in the House of Representatives.
Conaway is a retired Army veteran who now runs a construction company, while Slonin is a marketing professional and local advocate. Atkins is a former state representative, who has a checkered legal past but says he has now found a new life.
The winner will face Democrat Ryan Stuckey in the November general election.
Readers can find condensed versions of the candidates’ answers below, while the accompanying podcasts feature unedited excerpts from our conversations.
Doug Conaway
Can you introduce yourself?
I was originally born in Oklahoma, but I grew up in Laurel, Delaware.
I graduated from Epworth Christian School, went to Delaware Technical and Community College, and then from there I joined the U.S. Army and spent a total of 27 years in the armed services. After my first tour of the army, I spent about five years working with the New Castle County Police, transferred to the Delaware State Police, where I worked at Troop 2 up in New Castle County for two years.
And then after 9/11, I decided to depart from the state police and go back into the Army full-time, where I completed a total of 27 years of military service. And currently I own my own business, Douglas Builders, and we’re a small building company.
To start, can you give some background about what led you to join the race?
Well, as I stated, I had 20 some years in the military. So when I left Delaware, and when I returned, I noticed the only thing that changed was the population and the growth.
We didn’t do anything to increase the infrastructure for roads, increase medical facilities, dental facilities, optometrists, all the medical necessities that should be happening with growth.
So I believe my military experience will help me to look not only at where we’re at currently, but 20 years down the road and make sure that we’re developing and growing in the right way.
How would you approach growth and development in the Millsboro area?
The biggest concern I would look at is with our roads. We’ve always looked at the income Sussex County generates and what goes forward to the state, and we don’t think we get our fair share. I would agree.
But what we really need to be looking at is evacuation routes. If we look at the number of people who are down visiting our beaches on a summer day, and we look at the number of people traveling to our beaches, and we look at the number of people that live here.
If we have a real emergency, unfortunately, there will be some lives lost because we don’t have proper evacuation routes or proper road structure to get those people out. That just doesn’t affect the 41st or Sussex County. That affects people up north that are visiting our beaches down here.
If you look at our emergency routes, we have two lane highways which are Route 1, 13 and 113. Everything leading to that is a single-lane road. There is nowhere near enough capacity to allow people to evacuate in a timely manner, and it’s a safety issue. And that’s something that the state needs to do, is ensure that us citizens are provided a safe environment, and I don’t think we’re doing that.
Another theme in the General Assembly in recent years has been the local control debate, which has manifested in the offshore wind project debate and then Senate Bill 23 this year. What are your thoughts on local control, and how would you approach a topic like SB 23 if elected?
Well, I think local control is very important. The people spoke and the state’s not listening. That’s what’s important. They don’t want offshore windmills, and we need to look at other electrical or power sources, such as small modular nuclear energy that is reliable.
Nuclear has a lifespan of 60 years versus 20 years for offshore wind. Then at the end of that wing turbine lifespan, that stuff just gets put somewhere because it’s not biodegradable.
So if we’re really talking green energy, I don’t think wind is the way of the future. Small modular nuclear, which has been on our Navy submarines and Navy warships for years with sailors sleeping next to it, is where we need to start looking.
You mentioned infrastructure and roads as primary concerns in your campaign. Are there any additional issues you would cite as most pressing to your district?
Well, taxes are always important to everybody throughout the state. We need to ensure that we’re not raising taxes. People are stressed. They’re hurting. They’re hurting with the cost of living, and they’re hurting with the price of gas.
All that needs to be thought out when we’re looking into raising taxes, and we don’t need to raise taxes.
I also think education is very important. We need to ensure that as we build medical facilities here, that we’re doing the right thing. For instance, if we build medical facilities, and we won’t have people within Sussex County to fill those positions, that means we have to bring more people in from outside of the county.
We need more houses. We’ve got more cars on the road. It doesn’t make sense. So our schools, whether it be Sussex Tech or whatever school it is, needs to look at how do we grow medical jobs and jobs altogether. But medical field would be great so that when our kids graduate school here, they have a job to go into within our community, and we don’t have to look for housing.
There’s also a sizable agricultural population in the 41st. What would be your approach to representing the farming community in Dover?
Absolutely. Agriculture is very important. My wife’s family’s been growing on the same piece of land for more than 120 years.
Delmarva, and Delaware as part of that, has a large chicken industry, and part of that chicken industry is making sure that we’re growing corn, wheat, soybeans to feed those chickens so that we can produce the millions of pounds of chickens that leave Delmarva.
So yes, it is very important. But what we also need to do what we can to preserve that land to keep developers from grabbing it. We need to look into farmland preservation and getting farmers a fair amount of money for their land so that we can preserve it and take it out of the developer’s hands.
You’re in a rather crowded primary race and one that’s been getting a lot of attention. Does that surprise you? What is your reaction to the tenor of the race in your district?
Well, I think it’s everybody’s got an opportunity to run. There’s nothing that says anybody can’t run.
I think what we’re seeing is in the beginning, my name was not as prominent as some other names out there, and what we’re seeing is our campaign is growing support every day. I believe we are seeing that everywhere we go.
And I think we have a really good chance at taking Delaware back and going to represent Delaware from our campaign.
Jacki Slonin
To start, can you talk about your background and what led you to join the race?
I was born and raised here, so I grew up in Selbyville. Attended Indian River School District, so went through elementary, middle school, and even high school here.
And as far as that goes being educated here, I also went to community college at Del Tech and received my associate degree in criminal justice.
Like many, I didn’t get politically involved until something happened to spark it. For me, it was definitely 9/11 and that’s where I started paying a little bit more attention at my age to things that were kind of going on around me and on a federal level as well.
And so I got a little bit involved on the advocating side. A couple of years ago, I’m not sure exactly how many years ago, but when Regulation 225 was kind of going around through the schools, I got a little bit more involved on a local level with that. It kind of opened the door for me.
I’ve thought about running for office for many years but because I do take care of my mom, I needed to make sure that I had her in a better place prior to putting my foot into the race. So it took me about two years to kind of get her kind of settled in and put things in place, and that’s when Rich Collins announced he was not going to seek re-election.
You mentioned you have a degree in criminal justice. What’s your career background? Are you still working in marketing?
I was 26 when I started college, so let’s just say I thought about it for quite a long time. There were other things that I was interested in but I thought law enforcement was probably where I was best suited. I did have a personal goal to either work for the FBI or the DEA, but I needed to put my foot in basically as a steppingstone.
Unfortunately for me, I was just not able to get a foot in the door. So for about four and a half years, I applied for different positions in different things, probation and parole, things of those nature. And even with superb testing, I was not able to get an interview. So just like anybody in life, when something happens, you have to kind of pivot.
So that’s what I did. I actually wound up working for almost two decades in a career in the marketing field. Obviously has nothing to do with criminal justice, but that’s just where it took me, and it was something I fell into. Didn’t have a background in it, didn’t have a degree in it, but found out that I was actually pretty good at it.
So again, that career lasted me two decades.
For me, it’s not about politics, it’s about people. So everything I did in my marketing career is really surrounded around what I would be doing, with listening, communicating, giving solutions — the type of things I’d need in this elected position.
You touched on your prior involvement with the Indian River School District and some other advocacy interests. What do you see as the most pressing issues to your district, or what are you most focused on in the campaign?
When I’m out talking to people, their main concerns seem to all be the same: the cost of living, which kind of morphs into a couple of different areas.
They talk about energy costs and the cost or access to healthcare.
And of course all of those things can also morph into the growth that we’ve had here because that plays a huge role, and that health access, being able to get into a doctor on a regular basis or when you need to, not months down the road.
We as taxpayers pay a lot of money, but we’re not seeing that return of investment of the education of our kids. The percentages of what they’re proficient in definitely need to improve.
But we also need to encourage and maybe incentivize our teachers and people who work in the schools. They’re tired too. They have to go through a lot of things, a lot more things than even when I was in school. A lot of state mandates come their way that either are not being funded 100%, or are things that they’re being sent in different directions that they’re having to go.
And the focus really needs to be on letting those people educate kids and not having to worry about some of this backside stuff.
I’ve been reached out by a few people about our seniors because apparently nobody else is talking about these things on the Republican side.
Our population has a large portion of people over the age of 65. And quite honestly, I’m going to be there one day. God willing, we’re all going to be there one day. So it behooves us to pay attention, making sure that things aren’t happening within these facilities of people being neglected or abused.
Making sure that the people that are taking care of elderly and our most vulnerable are actually certified to do so, which is hugely important. Background checks, things of those nature. I mean, all of those things across the board when we’re talking about our most vulnerable is hugely important to me.
Can you talk more about what your approach would be to the development debate given all of the growth in your district?
I will start off by saying that I’m not against growth.
I think we need growth. Unfortunately, we haven’t had smart growth, which is the problem.
The damage is kind of done. So we can’t turn the clock back. There’s just no way that’s gonna happen. But we can be smarter.
I wanna stay here. Unfortunately, there are people who have been here their whole life who are being pushed out. They can’t afford to live here anymore. The people moving in here saying the taxes are lower — of course, they’re lower from where they’re coming from.
We have people on fixed incomes, so they are definitely being pushed out. The things that are being built are not affordable.
So we first need to look at building up the infrastructure prior to allowing things to come in, whether it’s on a town level or Sussex County level, to make sure that those things are put in place and what’s being put there makes sense for the space that they’re putting it.
And I understand builders want to make money, but we need people who are willing to build more for workforce housing for people who live here.
But, again, that’s also on a builder side. They have to be willing to do those things, and if they’re not going to make money off of that, then we’re not going to see that happening. But it’s definitely not affordable when homes are over $300,000 for people that live here.
This leads into another question about the local control debate that has popped up over the past couple of years with the offshore wind project and most recently Senate Bill 23 and local housing and zoning mandates. What would your approach be to the SB 23 local control versus state authority topic?
On a personal level, local control is something I would stand up for 10 times out of 10.
We hope on a deeper level that our elected officials listen to the people who live here.
But at the end, they’re also limited as well … You’ve probably have seen quite a few things, from different people saying, “We need to keep our farmland.”
Sure we do, but we also can’t stop people from selling land if they don’t want to farm.
So there is a fine balance there with that. And that goes back to zoning and these agencies, as well as being proactive, knowing what our community wants, making sure that they are zoned properly and not rezoning them, and then trying to fight the battle later.
I’ll say this every day of the week, we need to be more proactive. It’s a must because you can’t just think three years down the road. You have to think further out.
You are running in a pretty crowded primary field right now. I’ve seen quite a bit of discourse online about candidates in the race seeking endorsements from other elected officials or people in other leadership roles in Sussex County. I’ve also seen posts from you about your approach to not seeking endorsements.
I’m not a career politician and nor do I plan on being one.
So I want to get in, if elected, and do what’s right for the people who live here, including myself because I’m one of them. And if they think I’m doing a good job, they can reelect me. It’s not something that I plan on staying until I’m 80 years old. I want to get in. I want to do the best that I can for my community, and I want to pass it along to the next person.
So with not being a career politician, I don’t want to be tied to anybody except for the people that I’m working for. And so when I say I’m not seeking out asking for endorsements, that does not mean, and I’ve been very clear about that, it does not mean that I am not willing to sit down and talk with people.
If somebody is supporting me and say they want to do an endorsement on their own, that’s their story to tell. They can do whatever they like.
I just want to make that stance very clear that I’m not in anybody’s back pocket. I’m here to work for the people of my community, and to do this together.
It’s not about my personal opinions or what I think. It’s about what’s best for the community as a whole.
How would you characterize what your strategy is for getting your message out and connecting with voters in the district?
So I’m boots on the ground. I’m talking to people. For me, it’s about getting in front of as many potential voters in my district that I possibly can.
I will say, I don’t really like the word strategy because I feel like it’s some kind of sneaky plan to do something. There is no strategy. It’s just, “Here I am; this is who I am; get to know me and make your informed decision.” So that’s what I’m doing.
So I’m sharing information whether it be on social media, in person. I’ve had multiple meet and greets.
John Atkins
John Atkins is another Republican seeking office in the 41st district. Atkins declined to do a primary election interview with Spotlight Delaware unless we agreed not to mention Atkins’ past in the interview, which he said people do not care about anymore. Spotlight Delaware does not grant interviews with preconditions to avoid a specific topic.
Atkins, of Millsboro, is the owner of Atkins & Sons Materials, a landscaping supply store.
He served as a state representative for the 41st District from 2003 to 2014. Much of his campaign messaging has focused on that legislative experience and the ability to hit the ground running, if elected.
While in office in 2007, Atkins was stopped by police for drunk driving and subsequently arrested after a domestic dispute with his wife that same night.
Following those incidents, the House Ethics Committee investigated Atkins’ behavior and voted to censure him from using his legislative ID or serving on legislative committees. He resigned from the House after the censure. In 2008, Atkins switched parties and won the 41st District as a Democrat.
He served two more terms as a Democrat until he was defeated by the district’s current representative, Rich Collins, in 2014. In 2014, Atkins was issued a restraining order by the Delaware Family Court to stay away from his estranged wife and sons after his wife told the court she feared his “temper and erratic behavior.”
In 2016, he was charged with offensive touching and criminal mischief following a physical altercation with a girlfriend. Those charges were later dropped due to insufficient evidence. Finally, in 2018, Atkins was charged with strangulation and assault of another girlfriend and violating a no-contact order against her.
As a result of that most recent arrest, he was sentenced to 22 days in prison, a year of probation, and a requirement to undergo substance and mental health treatment evaluations.
Atkins agreed to do an interview with Spotlight Delaware in December 2025. When asked about his criminal record in that conversation, Atkins said his past is almost a decade behind him now, which has given him time to mature and apologize to former constituents.
“Circumstances change,” he said at the time. “I was in a very unsettling, bad relationship. That’s been over with for years, and I’m on the right path.”
Sussex County GOP leaders have not publicly commented on Atkins’ run for office, though some party leaders told Spotlight Delaware in late 2025 they called a meeting with Atkins to discuss his past and the possibility of him seeking office again.
When asked about Atkins candidacy in December 2025, then Sussex Republican Party Chair Dan Willis declined to comment on Atkins but did sing the praises of Doug Conaway. Retiring Rep. Rich Collins, whom Atkins, Conaway, and Slonin are vying to replace, has also publicly endorsed Conaway.
In a campaign promotion video, Atkins cited protecting Second Amendment rights, preventing a Democratic supermajority, and keeping who he called men, seemingly referring to transgender women, out of girls’ bathrooms and sports. He also said he would prioritize preserving farmland over more development.
Spotlight Delaware reporter Maggie Reynolds recently spoke with Matt Bucher, who is seeking the Republican nomination for House District 33 in Delaware in the Sept. 15, 2026, primary election. His opponent, Morgan Hudson, declined to be interviewed.
The seat is held by Republican incumbent Charles Postles, who is retiring after a decade of service in the House of Representatives.
Bucher is a former Milford school board member and Republican Party district chair, while Hudson is involved with her family’s construction cleaning business. She is also board president of the Frederica Senior Center.
Readers can find condensed versions of the candidates’ answers below, while the accompanying podcasts feature unedited excerpts from our conversations.
Matt Bucher
Can you give me some background information about yourself and what led you to join the race?
So I am a commercial estimator for a large scale institutional floor covering company. We do hospitals, government buildings, schools, churches, retail stores, car dealerships, that type of thing.
I’m in charge of bidding the jobs, and they can be hundreds or even millions of dollars worth of contracts. So I’m in charge of really profit and loss, trying to make a job work for the most competitive price.
Twenty years ago, I also started volunteering in the Milford School District. My son went through the Milford School District. He is a senior at Dartmouth College now.
So I agreed to do that, and I ran a very serious campaign. I was already involved in Republican politics by then and was chair of the 33rd District Republican Committee, which I had for three and a half terms. I worked very closely with Charles Postles, who is the 33rd District representative who is retiring.
But as far as the school board goes, it was very interesting. I wasn’t particularly well-known or popular, but I led with my values and ran a conventional campaign. I took it very seriously and got a lot of support and won overwhelmingly.
So during my tenure on the school board, Milford is in a very, very good position, and it was financially all along, but we’ve been able to cut tax rates repeatedly for the last four or five years and at the same time our reserves are higher than they’ve ever been.
I think it’s very unlikely in the near future, even the far future barring a series of disasters, that Milford will need to go out for an operating referendum the way you see other neighboring school districts struggle with sometimes. Capital budgets and capital construction is different.
I also had found out that Milford, unlike many of our neighboring districts, did not have an educational foundation, or an academic charitable foundation.
So I decided, well, if it’s gonna get done, I’m gonna have to do it. So I got with the IRS and a corporate agent, and over a few month period, I founded and financed the startup of the Buccaneer Educational Foundation, a charitable educational academic foundation that provides classroom-sized grants for teachers that want a unique educational experience or some type of field trip with an academic basis.
So it’s been a great success. I think of my tenure on the school board, something that I didn’t even have to be on the school board to do is the thing I’m really most proud of and I will be in that as long as I’m alive.
Why did you decide to run for 33rd District State Representative?
So as I mentioned earlier, from 2019 to 2025, I was the chairman of the Republican Party for the 33rd District. What’s interesting about the 33rd District is it is the closest in terms of party registration between Republicans and Democrats of any of the 41 districts in the state.
When I first got in there, out of 20,000 registered voters in the district, plus or minus, there were 98 more Ds than Rs.
So we held registration drives. We had volunteers give out literature in the community. We invited people to the meetings. We upped our presence at events. And we slowly but surely turned a major Democrat advantage into a Republican advantage.
And today, it hovers around 340 to 370 more Rs than Ds in the 33rd. It’s the very definition of a swing district in terms of registration.
And eventually the House minority leadership asked me to run for the House seat, and I said, “Absolutely.”
Has Representative Postlesformally endorsed you or it was more a discussion about you running?
He has not and he will not endorse anyone.
I had a conversation with him a long time ago, and he said when he ran, he was too in a primary situation and he ran his campaign. And he felt that the strongest candidate will win out. The one that works the hardest, the one that has the most presence, the one who is most suited for this district would win organically.
I certainly respect that.
You’ve talked a lot about your background with the Milford School Board and an educational focus in some legislation you have advocated for in the past. Do you see that being your primary legislative focus if elected?
Definitely one of them. I would say that if I had to distill down my overriding philosophy in all phases of Delaware’s societal fabric — education, infrastructure, business, taxes, healthcare, any of those things — it’s local authority and local control.
I’m sure you’ve heard coming from some quarters that Delaware has, despite the results that we have, one of the per capita highest spending per child, which is true. But a lot of that comes from legislative and executive mandates over the years. There’s no flexibility in funding.
There’s no flexibility in what a district can spend money on. Less than 1% is truly discretionary spending. So a lot of times we are spending on things that we don’t really need or don’t really need in the quantity that we’ve got them.
Every time a mandate is enacted via legislation, you need somebody to comply with it.
You have administration in some of these industries doing nothing but complying with government regulations. I think that if a mandate via legislation or a fiat from one of the alphabet agencies is important enough to make law, then it ought to be important enough to fund the compliance with it as well.
And if it’s not, why then are we doing the legislation?
Continuing on the topics of education and school funding, do you have thoughts on the Public Education Funding Commission formula?
Generally I’m for it because we need to try something new. I would’ve preferred it to be more streamlined, but I understand the constraints that the committees were under, and I know many of the individuals on the committees, and they actually did a fabulous job.
Change comes hard, especially change of the kind of consequential nature we’re talking about.
I am cautiously optimistic about the introduction of that framework, and I hope for our kids’ sake and our local schools’ sake that it helps some of the districts where we’ve got children that need extra support.
So public schools must take everybody. If a child presents themself at the schoolhouse door, we are to educate. And that is as it should be.
I’ve always been a fan of not only public schools, but private schools, parochial schools, religious schools, home schools, and charter schools, which are, of course, public schools.
We need all of the above. We need all the experimentation we can get. Public schools are in a unique situation that they must take everybody, and they do take the more challenging student.
But you have kids that need extra supports. You have kids that have IEPs or 504s, that have issues that we are legally and morally bound as a society to mitigate any way we can. Better to do it now than have to do it later.
I believe that, in general, conservatives should not turn away from public education and should in fact turn toward them. That’s one reason I ran for school board, to bring our perspective into the public schools, as far as monetary issues, traditional curriculum, that type of thing.
Outside of education, what would you identify as the most pressing issues to the 33rd District?
I work with individuals in organizations like the Delaware Volunteer Firefighters Association, and their legislative priorities would be mine. Even simple things like the equipment stipend is years out of date. It’s like $7,500 or so, and a piece of equipment that they might need would be $25,000.
There needs to be more money for training for our volunteer firefighters. I would like to work someday toward dedicated funding for our local fire companies. I think it’s an interesting system where firefighters and their lobbying associations have to beg each year to the legislature for the things that everybody knows they need.
And are there any other priorities you’d point to as the most pressing issues to the district?
So I’m knocking on doors. And I’ve been doing that for like two and a half months now. And the No. 1 issue, believe it or not, is speeding. So we don’t have enough traffic enforcement on some of these secondary roads.
We don’t have things like bus turnarounds in developments. Speed cameras or the sensors, that type of thing. We’ve got to get control of the traffic situation.
And they’re concerned about growth.
That’s largely a county thing. But I’ll be working closely with the county. I have a relationship with the local county commissioners and will support whatever route they go as far as enforcing the growth zone, that type of thing.
Are you in favor of more growth in your district?
No. I know what’s coming. Eastern Sussex is already there. The Smyrna-Middletown area is already there. They are coming. We have to make sure we, being the county working with the legislature, working with our municipalities that we insist on the infrastructure before the development.
That’s the big trap that Eastern Sussex has fallen into. We don’t want that to happen to Southern Kent.
And I don’t know what the solution is to that. There are some things that they’re working on. But we have to be responsive on a local level. Remember, a state representative is not a leader. He is a servant. And I’m running to serve the people for a time, and then it’ll be somebody else.
There’s a pretty sizable farming population in the 33rd. Do you have a background in agriculture? And what would your approach be to representing farming interests in your district in Dover?
Peripherally. I’ve been involved in farming, but I’ve never been a farmer.
So I am a member of the Farm Bureau, and I’ve been a volunteer for several years for the Delaware Agricultural Museum, which endeavors to protect our agricultural heritage. And I do work with farmers on and talk to them about legislative issues. I have good friends that are in the leadership at the Farm Bureau.
I think the basic thing that I would say this for every sector is you have to listen to their concerns, and their concerns are private property rights. Their concerns are assessments. Their concerns are prices. Their concerns are taxes.
And I will continue to be an advocate for helping them with any individual concerns they’ve got.
You’ve mentioned that the 33rd district has a close margin of Democratic and Republican voters. What is your campaign approach given that it’s a pretty close district?
Well, so fortunately, which has borne itself out in the numbers over the past few elections, the independent or unaffiliated vote pretty strongly is basically conservative. Not in all things, but in most things.
This district has a rural character. I mean, there’s a few communities, but outside of Milford, I’d say the communities like Magnolia and Frederica and Bowers are rural, small-town communities. They have very, very conservative values on a macro-sense.
And you’ll see it on my literature. It says, “This is a very pro-God, pro-family, and pro-constitution area,” and I hope it always remains so. I want to preserve our rural character, stand up for the values that the members of the 33rd believe, and make sure that we have a vibrant community that is desirable for their children and grandchildren to live in and stay here.
Morgan Hudson
Morgan Hudson is another Republican candidate seeking office in the 33rd district. Hudson told Spotlight Delaware she would not be able to make time for an interview before the primary election due to obligations caring for her newborn baby and other relatives.
According to her campaign website, Hudson was born and raised in the Milford area and works as a part of her family’s construction cleaning business.
Her website also states that she has managed rental properties for the past 15 years and is currently serving on the Kent County Board of Adjustments. Hudson has run for office twice in the past. In 2016 she ran for the same state representative seat she is currently seeking and was defeated by Charles Postles, who has served as the district’s representative until his retirement this fall. She also unsuccessfully sought a seat on the Kent County Levy Court in 2022.
Hudson’s website lists her campaign priorities as including directing resources to small businesses, preserving family farms, supporting public safety and first responders, and cutting the wait time for access to healthcare providers.
Hudson is also president of the board of the Frederica Senior Center. She often speaks about wanting to support the senior citizen community in her district and promotes the initiatives at the senior center on her Facebook page. In an email to Spotlight Delaware when she first filed for office in December 2025, Hudson wrote that she is running to “protect our family farms, small businesses, and the next generation.”
She also wrote, “When we lift up small businesses and farms, our local economy grows, jobs stay here, and our district remains the place we’re proud to call home.”
The average price of regular gas was $4.15 a gallon on Labor Day, well above the Labor Day weekend record of $3.82 from 2012, and diesel was at a new all-time record of $5.90.
Cooler evenings call for dinners that bring plenty of warmth without turning cooking into a project. These 15 recipes cover soups, pot roast, chicken and rice, chili, salmon, noodles, and fast skillet meals.The post 15 fall comfort dinners for nights…
A new article about AI in The Economist argues that "Initial effects of the technology on employment look positive."
Perhaps AI will eventually make many humans unemployable — but there is no sign of it yet. On September 4th the Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that the American economy added 162,000 jobs in August, far above expectations. The unemployment rate is just 4.1%, lower than in almost 90% of months over the past half-century. Young workers, often cast as AI's first victims, are holding up remarkably well: the gap between unemployment among 20-24-year-olds and the overall rate is close to a multi-decade low.
Some companies and workers are being severely disrupted by AI. Hiring in professional and business services is running about 10% below the average in 2015-19. Tech giants like Microsoft and Meta are trimming headcounts as they reorganise their businesses around the technology. Smaller firms such as Block, the owner of Square and Cash App, and Intuit, the maker of TurboTax and QuickBooks, are replacing people with bots. American companies have announced some 16,000 AI-related job cuts a month on average so far this year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an employment consultancy.
But AI-related lay-offs gets lost in the churning jobs market where employers shed roughly 1.7m workers in a typical month. And the evidence so far is that AI is already creating a lot of jobs to replace those it has destroyed. The vast sums pouring into data centres and power generation have set off a race for construction and infrastructure workers. AI startups are hiring like there is no tomorrow. Incumbents racing to keep up are creating new AI roles. And by making some workers more productive, AI may be increasing demand for their services.
Add it all up, and The Economist estimates that AI has so far created around 1m new jobs in America. That easily exceeds the roughly 200,000 lay-offs attributed to AI since mid-2023, and appears more than enough to offset weaker hiring in many back-office roles.
Their article acknowledges that since January 2023 employment has fallen roughly 10% for customer-service workers and 15% for administrative assistants. But when The Economist looked at professions "closest to the AI boom" — engineers, software developers, mathematicians and data scientists — they found that since 2022 they've added roughly 730,000 jobs above trend. They see AI as creating new white-collar jobs for everyone from model and deployment engineers to new data annotators.
The chief economist at the Burning Glass Institute agrees, estimating that roughly 1% of professional jobs are now "AI jobs" — about 1 million positions in the U.S. — while in computer occupations and life sciences it's between 4% and 5%. (Data-center construction spending also increased 60% in one year, according to Census Bureau data, creating jobs for electricians, HVAC specialists, grid engineers, and machine technicians.) And "Indeed finds that installation and maintenance jobs at data centres advertise wages about 40% higher than comparable work elsewhere."
These 17 hearty casseroles bring the kind of substantial, old-school dinners worth saving, from cheesy chicken and baked pasta to beef, potatoes, beans, and layered family-size bakes.The post 17 hearty casseroles that made my grandpa ask for the recipe to…
UK house prices have fallen for the first time in almost three years, as prospective buyers were squeezed by higher mortgage rates, geopolitical uncertainty and stretched affordability.
Prices have dropped by 0.4% compared with a year ago, the first year-on-year decrease since November 2023, according to the lender Lloyds. That came in below expectations of a 0.2% annual rise, according to a poll of economists by Reuters.
Good morning. A far-right leader who has won an important state election in Germany has thanked Elon Musk for his support, as voices in Europe warn the result is a serious moment for the continent. No far-right party has led or formed a government in Germany since the defeat of nazism at the end of the second world war.
Ulrich Siegmund, the Alternative für Deutschland’s lead candidate, thanked Musk on X after the tech billionaire said “Well done!” in German to the AfD co-founder Alice Weidel. The populist, far-right, anti-immigration party won the vote in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Will the AfD be able to form a state government? Despite its resounding victory, the party fell just short of a majority. It was seeking an absolute majority in the state legislature to govern alone and overcome the so-called “firewall” of the mainstream parties, which refuse to work with it. The final results showed the AfD falling three seats short, with 39 lawmakers in an 83-member legislature.
What has been the reaction in Washington and Moscow? Donald Trump posted a screenshot of the election projection without comment on his Truth Social site. The Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev took a screengrab of Trump’s post and praised a “historic win for the pragmatic AfD”. The AfD is pro-Kremlin, urging a stop to support for Ukraine and pushing for Ukrainians in Germany to no longer receive refugee status.
Who else has been saying Trump’s war may not achieve its aims? The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, said on Sunday morning Washington might not be able to reach an agreement with Tehran that would prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons. “We are strangling their economy to try to bring either a change in policy from the existing regime or a new regime,” he said.
Thousands of mourners have gathered in Belgrade for the funeral of Ratko Mladić, a Serbian general convicted of orchestrating the worst massacre in Europe since the second world war, and whose hero’s return home has raised international alarm.
Known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” for his role during the Balkans genocide in the 1990s, Mladić died in prison in late August aged 84 while serving a life sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Jaguar Land Rover has announced thousands of job cuts in a “body blow for workers” as it grapples with tough trading conditions, Donald Trump’s tariff wars and the fallout from a cyber-attack.
Britain’s largest carmaker, which is owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata, confirmed the anticipated cuts on Monday, saying it wants to reduce its global workforce by about 4,000 over two years, as part of an effort to save £1.7bn.
DeRidder, Louisiana — Former DeRidder Mayor Misty Roberts has completed her 90-day jail sentence after being convicted of having sex with a 16-year-old boy while she was still in office.
Roberts, 44, was convicted in March of carnal knowledge of a juvenile and indecent behavior with a juvenile after a jury found she had sex with the teenager at a 2024 house party. She had faced up to 17 years in prison, though state law did not require a minimum sentence.
Judge Kent Savoie sentenced Roberts in June to 90 days in jail, a $5,000 fine and suspended prison terms. She must also register as a sex offender, submit to drug screenings and undergo psychological treatment.
The sentence drew criticism, particularly after KPLC reported that more than 30 cases Savoie used as comparisons had all ended in plea agreements rather than jury convictions. Prosecutors later asked him to impose a harsher sentence.
Savoie rejected that request on Aug. 31, while acknowledging he had made a mistake in how he evaluated those earlier cases. He said the error did not justify increasing Roberts’ punishment after sentencing.
Roberts resigned as mayor shortly before her 2024 arrest. Her conviction and sex-offender registration remain in place following her release.
Labor experts stunned at how anti-worker Trump has been with actions since last Labor Day that have hurt unions
Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to champion US workers. Shortly before Labor Day last year, he said: “Every policy of the Trump administration is designed to lift up the American worker and “promote great-paying blue-collar jobs”. But in the year since last Labor Day, Trump has taken many actions that have hurt US workers and unions, with some labor experts saying they have been stunned at how anti-worker Trump has been.
HHS releases report linking ‘gender ideology’ to political violence – a study scientists say was poorly conducted
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a report linking “gender ideology” to leftwing authoritarianism and political violence – a study scientists say was poorly conducted and “nakedly political”, probably leading to greater politicization of science and health.
It follows attempts by the administration to limit access to gender-affirming care – including, on Friday, an agreement reached between the Department of Justice and a New York hospital to no longer offer pediatric gender-affirming care. Dozens of hospitals stopped offering gender-affirming care after the Trump administration began investigating them for offering the standard of care.
Uptick in US union membership coincides with high public approval ratings of unions
After years of decline, union membership in the US increased by 411,000 members in 2025, the largest increase since 2008, according to a new report.
The report makes clear the impact that “right to work” laws can have on union membership: most gains were concentrated in states that protect collective bargaining.
Mainstream politicians around Europe have expressed alarm after the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) swept to a historic state election victory in Germany, while nationalist figures cheered the result as a mandate for change.
While falling just short of an absolute majority, the AfD surged into first place in the Saxony-Anhalt state election on Sunday, exit polls showed, putting the far right within reach of power at the state level for the first time since the second world war.
Ryan Bridge, who co-founded Raise the Colours, to appear in court on charges including racially aggravated harassment
The leader of a group responsible for raising union jack and St George’s flags across England has been charged with 14 offences, including racially aggravated harassment, threatening behaviour and assault.
Ryan Bridge, 45, of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, co-founded Raise the Colours, which describes itself as a “grassroots movement for unity and patriotism”.
Seven counts of using threatening words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
Three counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of, or provoke, unlawful violence.
Two counts of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress.
One count of racially aggravated fear of violence.
Judge admits he made mistake in sentencing Misty Roberts, who faced up to 17 years in prison after conviction
The former Louisiana mayor Misty Roberts has completed the 90-day jail sentence she received for raping a 16-year-old boy while still in elected office and been released from custody, according to state corrections records.
The 44-year-old finished her jail term on Monday, the Labor Day holiday in the US, one week after the state judge who presided over her case rejected a request from prosecutors to force her to serve a harsher sentence.
Newscaster says rare but treatable condition polycythaemia vera left her feeling like she ‘had her batteries taken out’
The BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri has been diagnosed with a rare form of incurable blood cancer, she has revealed.
Doctors told the broadcaster last November she had polycythaemia vera (PV), which cannot be cured but is treatable. The condition, which affects about 8,000 people in the UK, is associated with an increased risk of the blood clots that can cause a stroke, heart attack or deep vein thrombosis.
US-owned dating app allegedly allowed ad firms access to private information in breach of UK law
Grindr will pay £26m to settle a lawsuit brought by thousands of users in the UK who allege that the US dating app shared highly sensitive personal information, including in some cases their HIV status, with advertising companies.
The settlement brings to an end a two-year legal battle, after the UK law firm Austen Hays filed a claim at the high court of England and Wales in April 2024 on behalf of Grindr users alleging violations of UK privacy laws during a period up to early 2020.
Why Should Delaware Care? Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
Below you will find information about the most important or interesting public meetings happening in Delaware this week.
Early voting
Charity hospital care in Delaware
Kent County to discuss controversial solar farm
The Greenwood dissolution campaign
Early Voting
Early voting in advance of the Sept. 15 primary election continues on Tuesday at select polling locations in each county. Voters are allowed to visit any early voting site within their county of residence.
The primary election this year features more than 30 competitive races across the state, including Democrats running for their party’s nomination for attorney general, Republicans running for the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as candidates seeking about two dozen legislative races.
Once at the polls, election officers will verify a voter’s eligibility. The voter will then sign the pollbook before proceeding to a voting machine to cast a ballot.
Click here to see a list of polling locations. The Delaware Department of Elections also provides an interactive map allowing voters to find a nearby poll by entering their address.
📍 After the break for Labor Day, early voting resumes Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. It then continues Wednesday through Sunday, but on the shortened schedule of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Expanded charity care in Delaware
Members of a Delaware board charged with reviewing hospital costs in the state will discuss charity care at their meeting this week.
The IRS requires nonprofit hospitals to provide a “community benefit” to earn their tax-exempt status. Historically, that came in the form of providing free or discounted services, often called “charity care.”
Last year, Spotlight Delaware published an investigation calling into question the charity care practices at the state’s largest healthcare system, ChristianaCare.
Months later, lawmakers introduced a bill to increase the number of patients eligible to receive free treatment from the state’s nonprofit hospitals. The bill passed in June and Gov. Matt Meyer signed it into law in July.
The agenda for the Tuesday meeting of the Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board lists several discussion items around the theme of charity care, including a presentation about charity care from an official at the nonprofit called Undue Medical Debt.
📍The Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday. It will be a hybrid remote meeting with an anchor location at the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services’ Herman Holloway Sr. campus, located at 1901 North DuPont Highway in New Castle. Attendees should go to Conference Room 2CR at the Main Admin building on the campus. For more details, including about the virtual attendance, click here.
More solar on Kent County farmland?
The Kent County Regional Planning Commission on Thursday will consider a controversial proposal to build a community solar field near Kenton.
The plan calls for the construction of solar arrays on about 16 acres of land currently used to grow crops, according to the county. The developer, Sunrise Solar, is seeking a conditional use permit.
The plans are before the county just as state officials are increasingly incentivizing solar energy amid a tight electricity market. But many proposed solar fields have also drawn local opposition.
On Friday, the News Journal reported that about 50 residents attended the previous Kent County Regional Planning Commission meeting to oppose the Kenton project.
📍The Kent County Regional Planning Commission is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Levy Court Chambers, located 555 Bay Road in Dover. For more details, including about the virtual attendance, click here.
Could Greenwood be dissolved?
Residents of Greenwood will continue conversations Thursday about their proposal to disincorporate their Sussex County farming town.
Spotlight Delaware reported in July about the push to dissolve the town from residents who say its government is secretive, running out of money, and not providing citizens with adequate services. Among the critics are several town government officials.
Jordan Warfel, a member of the Greenwood Board of Adjustment, is leading the charge for disincorporation. A flyer obtained by Spotlight Delaware shows that he is organizing the Thursday informational meeting.
📍 The group, Unincorporate Greenwood, will hold its informational meeting on Thursday at 6:30 at the Greenwood VFW.
A historically unpopular president will take centre stage as the party seeks to sway voters with an unprecedented event
It seemed like a good idea at the time. In December 1978, Jimmy Carter, a US president besieged by inflation and energy crises, watched as thousands of Democrats descended on Memphis, Tennessee, for a rare midterm convention.
“It was wild,” recalls Elaine Kamarck, who attended as a 28-year-old working for the Democratic National Committee. “It became a forum for Ted Kennedy to informally announce his opposition to President Carter. There was a lot of hostility to the president there. The Democrats have sworn ever since never to do anything this stupid again.”
Clancy’s case became a referendum on mothers, healthcare and the status of women
Most family annihilators are men. It’s a grim fact that such incidents are common enough to have a discernible pattern. The massacre is carried out by a husband and father, often one who is on the verge of bankruptcy or divorce; typically, it forms the finale of a long reign of domestic violence terror.
About half the time, the perpetrator kills himself after slaughtering his family. Gun use is common – a large number of what are termed “mass shootings” in the United States are in fact family annihilation killings, in which a man turns his weapon on his family members. Other times, the killer uses knives, or fires.
People outside Turning Point USA’s headquarters commemorate the conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 20, 2025, in Phoenix, Ariz.Photo: Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images
Charlie Kirk will live forever — at least online.
In the year since he was gunned down at an event at Utah Valley University, the Turning Point USA founder has gone from a man cut down in his prime to a recurring internet meme, complete with an AI-generated song, “We Are Charlie Kirk,” which hit No. 1 on Spotify’s Viral 50 U.S. ranking. Audio of his killing became a TikTok sound for girlie outfit transformation videos; he’s been inserted into movies like “Avatar” and “The Odyssey”; he’s been AI’d into Studio Ghibli-style art, the final scene of “The Sopranos,” and the video game “Grand Theft Auto.” Even the moment of his death has gotten the meme treatment, with parodies depicting him with Jeffrey Epstein and Benjamin Netanyahu.
The ridicule comes as a product of the American right’s insistence that Kirk’s violent death be taken seriously. They fought back hard against the meme-making and serious critique alike, weaponizing the conservative college-whisperer’s death to broadly crack down on free speech.
President Trump and his allies almost immediately blamed Democrats and “the radical left,” without evidence, for Kirk’s assassination. At the Department of Defense, Secretary Pete Hegseth promised to investigate whether members of the armed forces were inadequately mournful and terminate them. The State Department revoked visas of noncitizens who “celebrated” Kirk’s death. Local cops got in on the civil rights-bashing fun, too: A Tennessee man was arrested for posting a meme in the wake of Kirk’s death, amid a wave of firings in the state on similarly unstable grounds.
No sector of society was untouched by the rising tides of brain-dead McCarthyism: Dozens of educators were terminated for having their say about the killing; an MSNBC political analyst as well as a Washington Post columnist were fired (an arbitrator has since ordered the latter be rehired); workers at Office Depot, the major airlines, and a prominent law firm were axed; ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel for his on-air remarks.
Kirk’s legacy has also been consecrated in the public square. An artist plans to unveil a busted statue of the TPUSA founder in New York City’s Times Square on the anniversary of his death. His legacy of ire for basically any oppressed group you can name has been enshrined by changing the names of roads to “Charlie Kirk Memorial Highway” in Naples, Florida, and outside Nashville — displacing Vietnam Veterans Boulevard — and “Charlie Kirk Way” in the red part of California. As I was writing this, a pickup truck with a sticker that reads “In Loving Memory of Charlie Kirk” passed me on the highway outside Chappaqua, New York.
All of these efforts have failed spectacularly. One year after Kirk’s killing, the conservative movement has descended into in-fighting, and although Kirk’s wife, Erika, took the reins at Turning Point, there is no heir apparent to energizing young conservatives (although the antisemitic streamer Nick Fuentes would like to throw his hat in the ring). Rifts have quite publicly opened between some of the movement’s most recognizable figures — Ben Shapiro, Candice Owens, Steve Bannon, and Tucker Carlson among them.
Many of Kirk’s disciples have descended into the realm of conspiracy theory, variously blaming Israel, the left, or even Erika for his demise instead of Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old suspect who will soon stand trial for his killing. Owens, who by all appearances actually was close friends with Kirk, has actively stoked these flames of division, pushing the conspiracy theory that Israel had him killed while waging open war on his widow.
MAGA conservatives expected Kirk’s death to be a kind of Reichstag fire that would galvanize and consolidate the right to move against the supposed threat of an organized — and politically violent — left. But to stick with Germany, Kirk is no Horst Wessel, and by insisting on total deference to the notion that the “Change My Mind” guy was a sainted national hero, they’ve given up the game entirely and opened themselves up to be relentlessly mocked.
When you center your political movement on cruelty and your online presence on dunking on the most vulnerable, your critics will respond by delighting in your misfortunes.
Conservatives routinely post their pleasure at videos of families being torn apart by ICE agents. When Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed in cold blood by Trump’s occupying immigration forces in Minneapolis, conservatives celebrated and blamed the victims — for driving a car and carrying a legal firearm, respectively — to defend the deportation regime. They got many, many months of mileage out of laughing at Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband nearly being bludgeoned to death with a hammer in their San Francisco home, and everyone from Elon Musk to the president himself stirred up innuendo about the true motive behind the attack — because it certainly couldn’t be the case that the suspect was radicalized by the far-right internet.
When you center your political movement on cruelty, your critics will respond by delighting in your misfortunes.
Conservatives still, in the year 2026, deploy their “no angels” line to defend the police killings of George Floyd — who, they claim, was killed by a fentanyl overdose — and Trayvon Martin, who they argue shouldn’t have been in that neighborhood in the first place.
By elevating Kirk to a martyr beyond criticism or reproach, with serious personal and professional consequences enforced by the state, you make getting off a snarky tweet or a video dancing to a sappy AI song a logical reaction to repression. You transform the death of a man, one you claim to have loved very much, into a blinking red button that your enemies are itching to press.
The first rule of the internet holds that the second you get mad or declare a sentiment out of bounds, you’ll get laughed at to hell and back. In effect, conservatives have turned their own departed hero into a laughingstock and, worse, a meme.
Kirk is no longer able to spread his gospel on campuses across the country, but his image — of his life and of his death — will reign forever, filtered through a heavy layer of internet-infused irony.
Connection across Tumen River is further sign of closer ties between the two countries since start of war in Ukraine
Russia and North Korea have opened the first road bridge across their shared border, in the latest sign of the rapidly deepening ties between the two countries since the start of the war in Ukraine.
The one-kilometre bridge spans the Tumen River between Khasan in Russia’s far east and Tumangang in North Korea, along a remote and sparsely populated stretch of the countries’ shared border just a few miles from the coast.
Kate Scott, Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards discuss their oft-viral approach to covering soccer for a US audience
It takes something special for a sports broadcast to outshine the action on the field. Yet that is often what happens on CBS Sports, where the Champions League studio show has struck a rare chord with viewers, most often broadcast on streaming branch Paramount+.
The usual group (Kate Scott, Jamie Carragher, Thierry Henry, and Micah Richards), have become fixtures on the American TV circuit, thanks in large part to their on-air chemistry. Scott guides the show expertly – all with with a mass of banter and ribbing along the way.
From home-run celebrations to tilted caps, players embracing joy continue to collide with an old guard devoted to Dust Bowl grimness
Over the last several years, simultaneously lauded and paralyzed by its ironclad traditions, baseball has undergone various forays into reinvention, trying to free itself from its unwritten rules of retaliation, its seeming aversion to joy, its demand that every generation of player of every culture and background play the game with the grimness of a Dust Bowl farmer.
The sport even attempted to change those customs by promoting a cultural shift with an industry-wide motto: Let the Kids Play. But in a time of intense division within the aggressive backdrop of Trumpism, the result is a racial clash that is actually a generational and cultural one that predates current politics by a century.
Howard Bryant is the author of 11 books, including Full Dissidence: Notes from an Uneven Playing Field, and Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America. He writes at Substack.
Stanley Primnath and Brian Clark were two of only four individuals known to have survived above the impact zone in the north tower
He has told the story hundreds of times, but it never seems to fade. If anything, it only becomes more vivid. “Oh, gosh,” exclaims Stanley Praimnath, his voice cracking with an “ooooooh!” as if bearing a weight. “It’s like reliving that day.”
Nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC on September 11 2001. But Praimnath and another office worker, Brian Clark, were two of only four individuals known to have survived from above the impact zone in either tower of the World Trade Center. The two strangers met in the smoke and fire of the 81st floor of the south tower, and walked down 1,620 steps into the rest of their lives.
Torrential rain causes widespread damage; while north-west South Africa hit by thunderstorms and central-southern US faces oppressive heat
Typhoon Saudel brought days of torrential rain to Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong provinces in south-east China last week. The city of Putian, in Fujian province, recorded 416.5mm of rain in a 24-hour period between Thursday and Friday, with surrounding villages recording more than 500mm in the same period. In Fujian, authorities estimate that almost 600,000 people were evacuated from high-risk, flood-prone areas. A further 128,000 people in 53 counties were also affected across Jiangxi, with emergency evacuations affecting 9,000 people.
Flooding, landslips and infrastructure damage were reported widely in the region. More than 2,500 teachers and students were trapped in a school compound in the Zhejiang city of Wenzhou on Wednesday after extreme rainfall caused flash floods in low-lying areas. At least 1,260 people reportedly had to be rescued in Putian after a river embankment collapsed on Thursday, flattening 100 homes. On Saturday, a landslip in a village of Suichuan county, in Jiangxi province, killed three people and nine others remaining missing.
This year, the noise at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center has officially become A Problem. But changing it would mean changing society
The first thing you notice while sitting in the upper tiers of Arthur Ashe Stadium is the noise. A persistent exterior hum filters up from ground level, fed by the massive ventilation and cooling units that sit outside the stadium, the clack of the Long Island Rail Road to the north, and the forklifts receiving goods from the refrigerator trucks that keep the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center flush with its essential supplies of Evian, champagne, and premium IPA. Overhead, planes descending toward LaGuardia airport ensure the auditory assault takes place by land and air simultaneously. In the lower rakes of the stadium, the babble of the spectators is incessant; it’s not unusual to overhear full-volume conversations on various non-tennis topics – work, family, romance, last night’s dinner – that continue without interruption for the duration of an entire match.
New York is famously noisy, and the US Open, as the most glamorous annual sporting event in town, has always been loud in sympathy with its environment. Indeed, the brashness of the American grand slam has historically been its major selling point, the signature that distinguishes it from the Australian Open (the “happy slam”), Wimbledon (strawberries and cream, all-white attire, the home of tennis), and the French Open (French). People have been complaining about the volume of the New York crowd for decades. But this year the noise at the US Open feels different. This year noise at the noisy slam has become A Problem.
Our three cities are learning from each other about how to protect residents. These climate policies are also public health measures
This summer, mayors met in London during the heatwave that ironically threatened to derail London Climate Action Week.
As temperatures broke records across the UK and Europe, leading some climate talks to be suspended or cancelled, we found ourselves seeking shelter and comparing how our cities prepare for extreme heat: how we protect vulnerable residents, communicate risk, and redesign neighbourhoods for hotter summers.
Reuters reports:
Liquid Network, a Bitcoin-based payments and settlement network, said on Sunday that about $320 million was withdrawn from its federation wallet in a hack.
"Purported white-hat hackers" withdrew around 4,000 of the 4,200 bitcoin held in its Liquid Federation wallet, Liquid Network said in a post on X.
"Liquid wallets will be impacted," their post concluded, adding "and we're sorry for any inconvenience."
Longer battery life, faster chip, actually useful AI tools and better cameras keep quality Android ahead of competition
Google’s Pixel 11 continues to set the standard for what you should expect from the base model of a flagship phone with class-leading cameras, long software support and almost all the bells and whistles of its most expensive phones.
The regular Pixel 11 costs £879 (€999/$899/A$1,499) making it £80 or equivalent more expensive than last year’s model as the cost of RAMageddon continues to bite. It’s not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but it comes with 256GB of storage and is £200 less than the Pixel 11 Pro, matching rival Samsung’s Galaxy S26.
Hi, so I already own a GT that I bought used....put some miles on it. Around 1300 miles on the board now. Whats my best option? Buy a gtfo kit or buy one of the X7 variants and try selling my board to make up some of the money?
GENEVA, Sept. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has today launched ISO 45010 - Occupational health and safety management — Menstruation and menopause in the workplace — Guidance, the world's first International Standard providing guidance to…
Richard Cooch couldn't hide his excitement Saturday as he saw a long line of people waiting to tour the house his family called home for more than two centuries.
TAIPEI, Sept. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The global automotive industry is entering a new phase in which semiconductors are becoming as strategically important as batteries, motors and manufacturing scale. As vehicles evolve into software-defined, AI-enabled platforms, chips increasingly determine everything…
A new streaming TV channel shows films made with genAI, reports Engadget. "Fairground AI Creator TV" is free — and supported with ads — describing its material as "AI Cinema":
"AI-generated" can make it sound as though someone typed a sentence into a machine and came back five minutes later to find a finished movie. Fairground's catalog shows why that description can be too simple. Take Lost Garden: The Awakening of the Lantern Knight. According to its Fairground page, creator Frank Houbre wrote the world, characters, mythology, emotional arc and screenplay himself. AI tools were used mainly for animation and visual production, with other tools helping create voices and music before the episode was assembled in conventional video-editing software.
There's still one question, the article notes: "whether viewers actually want an AI-focused TV channel." More than 100 AI creators have contributed to the 24-hour slate of programming, although Variety points out several of them were discovered on social media.
The channel was recently profiled in an article by the Guardian. Its headline? "'Nightmare fodder': Roku's AI slop channel is even worse than expected." (And its subheading calls it "a 24/7 channel devoted to low-quality AI content for viewers sick of watching real people move...")
What about people who hate plot and vision and the sight of people speaking convincing dialogue that synchronises perfectly with the movement of their lips? What about the people who just want to watch an unyielding torrent of eerily weightless nightmare fodder? Well, good news. Roku has finally caught up... Early reactions were, to put it mildly, not great. The Verge compared it to eating from a trough, while Futurism called it "bottom-of-the-barrel slop"...
On the plus side, the channel is evidence that artificial intelligence has come on in leaps and bounds over the last couple of years... However, it is still awful. Categorically, catastrophically awful. The channel doesn't so much offer shows as a drifting dreamscape of bad ideas rendered as horribly as possible with no thought paid to scheduling. At one point on Wednesday, a shrill high-frequency anime gave way to a long and staid German-language short about Nazi bureaucracy. After that came a sort of Gladiator ripoff that had all the dynamism of an exhibit you'd see at the fourth-best museum on a poorly planned family holiday.
Exclusive: UN special rapporteur on occupied territories says ban on goods from settlements ‘important’ but must go further if it is to amount to more than a ‘press release’
The UK’s planned ban on trade with unlawful Israeli settlements is a welcome, if overdue, first step and must be judged according to its practical impact, a UN expert has told the Guardian.
The UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, has vowed to act more decisively against Israeli settlements, as well as continued restrictions of aid into Gaza, prompting the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to claim on Saturday that Downing Street was motivated by “Jew hatred”.
Dispute centres on stake held by Patarkatsishvili family in bottled water firm it jointly owns with Russian oligarch
A British theatre impresario and her billionaire family are embroiled in a bitter dispute with Ukrainian authorities seeking to seize a water company they jointly own with a Russian oligarch.
The row centres on a 34% stake held in the producer of Ukraine’s biggest bottled water brands by the Patarkatsishvili family, including Liana Patarkatsishvili, who recently worked on an immersive show with Toby Jones and Meera Syal.
Firms are more likely to use technology as ‘the intern in the office’ than as a replacement for skilled staff
Professional designers should not feel “threatened” by the rapid growth of generative AI, according to business leaders, despite fears over job losses in the sector.
With design and film production companies and manufacturers all adopting AI at an accelerating pace, industry bodies said the technology would be used to enhance the work of designers rather than replace them.
Alternative for Germany failed to secure an absolute majority in the state legislature to govern alone and overcome the so-called firewall of mainstream parties' refusal to work with AfD.
By Sunday evening, the closure of eight airports had affected 170,000 passengers from 1,558 canceled flights, including 963 flights in Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport alone.
The populist, far-right, anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has surged to a resounding victory in a crucial state election in Germany, but fell just short of winning a majority in its quest to form the country’s first far-right state government since the second world war.
The party of Germany’s unpopular chancellor Friedrich Merz, the Christian Democrats (CDU), slumped to a disastrous result in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Sacramento, California — Independent journalist Nick Shirley is suing California officials over a new law expanding privacy protections for immigration support workers, arguing the measure could punish lawful investigative reporting.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court against Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber, challenges Assembly Bill 2624. Critics have dubbed it the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” though that is not its official title.
Signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the law adds qualifying immigration support providers, employees and volunteers to California’s Safe at Home address-confidentiality program. Applicants must show credible safety concerns, and approved participants can use substitute addresses in public records.
Shirley argues the law goes further by allowing participants to demand removal of certain personal information and potentially seek civil damages when protected information is published. His complaint says that creates a chilling effect because journalists could face liability even for information obtained lawfully.
Supporters say the measure is intended to protect immigration-service workers who have faced threats, harassment and doxxing, not to prevent legitimate reporting.
Shirley is seeking a court order blocking enforcement and a declaration that portions of the statute violate the First and 14th Amendments. Bonta’s office said it is aware of the lawsuit and will respond in court.
Katy McQue, who has spent years reporting on Meta and the potential harms its platforms pose to children, explains the tactics being used by prosecutors
For years, the investigative journalist Katy McQue has been reporting on the potential harms Meta’s platforms pose to children.
Yet, as she explains to Annie Kelly, despite the mountain of evidence compiled by journalists, prosecutors, bereaved families and others, it has been nearly impossible to bring Meta and other social media companies to court.
Slashdot reader DeanonymizedCoward writes: Reuters reports that the US Military is disabling ad tracking on devices, to prevent adversaries from buying publicly-available tracking data to assist in targeting troops. Military officials say that they have disabled trackers on a variety of computers and mobile devices, according to letters released on Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden, and following reports that commercially-available tracking data has been used to target troops in the Middle East....
Wyden said in a statement that it was clear that the military's efforts "have not been effective at neutralizing this threat." U.S. Representative Pat Harrigan, a North Carolina Republican, said that U.S. enemies "should not be able to pull out a credit card and buy information that helps them track American troops." Rep. Harrigan remains silent as to the larger question of whether the general public should be able to pull out a credit card and buy information that helps them track anyone they please.
"The Pentagon said in an email it would respond to the lawmakers directly," Reuters reports:
The Army said in a statement that advertising IDs had been blocked on Windows computers "since before 2021" but that Android and Apple mobile devices had only had it disabled by default "since at least February 2026...." The effort to reduce the location data generated by smartphones comes as military officials weigh increasingly strict restrictions on phone use overall. In July, Reuters reported that some deployed personnel in the Middle East could be ordered to surrender their phones amid concerns that mobile videos they were posting to the internet were helping Iran target American bases in the region.
Selling my Onewheel GT. Comes with: • Onewheel GT (black) • GT Hypercharger (75V NMC Battery Charger) • Stand Mileage: 0 mi Condition: Well cared for, stored indoors. See photos for cosmetic condition. Some normal wear on the deck/rails from use. Not sure what a fair price is for this setup, open to offers, just want it to go to someone who’ll actually ride it. Let me know what you think it’s worth and I’ll get back to you. Can do local pickup around Fort Lauderdale area or will consider shipping (buyer covers cost given the size/weight). Happy to answer any questions or send more photos.
Oscar-winning actor says she and other outspoken critics of Israel have found it ‘impossible’ to get hired by major studios
The Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon has said she is still losing work because of her outspoken support for Palestinians, despite what she described as a broader shift in public opinion against US support for Israel.
Speaking at the Venice film festival, where she is promoting her latest movie The Echo Chamber, Sarandon said some parts of the film industry continued to shun her over her activism.
Alternative for Germany, labeled “extremist” by German authorities, polled first in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt but still might not control the government.
Armed suspect Patrick Havas allegedly attacks Amy Acton during a campaign stop at a fair, injuring several people
Amy Acton, Democratic candidate for Ohio governor, was the target of an attack on Sunday during a campaign stop at the Canfield fair, campaign officials said. Several people were injured when the armed assailant lunged at Acton.
The suspect knocked volunteers to the ground before he was arrested and was “discovered to have weapons”, Mahoning county Democratic party chairperson Chris Anderson said in a statement.
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests have surged under the Trump administration, with new data showing that many of those detained have no criminal convictions as the government expands its deportation campaign.
ICE recorded roughly 50,000 arrests in July, the highest monthly total of President Donald Trump’s second term, and enforcement remained at similarly elevated levels in August. Government data obtained and analyzed by the Deportation Data Project shows a growing share of arrests involve people without criminal records.
According to The Hill, 55% of those arrested had no prior interaction with law enforcement, while another 24% had faced charges but had not been convicted. Border czar Tom Homan separately acknowledged in July that about half of ICE arrests involved people he described as noncriminals.
The shift has drawn criticism from Democrats and some Republicans. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., warned the administration not to “conflate the gangster with the gardener,” while Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., said some enforcement actions have gone too far.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has defended the broader approach, arguing that immigration violations remain enforceable regardless of criminal history.
The Deportation Data Project notes that ICE administrative arrests generally involve civil immigration violations, meaning the absence of a criminal conviction does not necessarily mean a person is lawfully present.
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that he has made “Hundreds of Billions of Dollars” through stocks and other holdings for the benefit of the United States rather than himself.
“I do this for our Country, not myself,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that he had made the money “on Stocks, and many other type Holdings, for the U.S.A.” He did not provide documentation showing that his personal investment gains had produced hundreds of billions of dollars for the federal government.
Trump accompanied the post with an AI-generated image depicting himself trading stocks from the White House, including a screen showing Intel shares rising sharply.
The Intel reference drew attention because Trump’s investment accounts have purchased shares in several major companies while his administration has taken actions affecting those firms. The White House and Trump Organization have said his securities accounts are independently managed by third-party institutions and that Trump does not direct individual trades.
Trump’s certified annual financial disclosure, released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics in June, details extensive business interests and investment activity. Mediaite reported that the disclosure showed at least $2.2 billion in income during 2025, largely from cryptocurrency and real estate ventures.
The president’s “hundreds of billions” claim is substantially larger than the income documented in his latest public disclosure, and his post did not explain how he calculated the figure.
Protest using 10 coffins to symbolise struggling manufacturing industry to take place in Brussels
Job losses in EU manufacturing will rapidly increase unless Brussels stops the “colonisation” of industry by Chinese component manufacturers, a leading industry trade body has warned.
Eurometal predicts 300,000 job losses in manufacturing in the rest of 2026 because of expanding competition from China, which is now enjoying a record €1bn-a-day trade surplus with the bloc.
I got a free Onewheel+ with a bad BMS and a loop key to bypass is my cheapest option. I understand the risks, this thing is only going to be used to ride around my yard and to/from my mailbox. Does anyone know of a pre-made loop key and/or DIY video on how to make the conversion?
Leon Panetta tells Guardian US is risking ‘forever war’ and says Pentagon ‘turmoil’ sending message of weakness
Donald Trump’s war with Iran is likely to drag on for another six months, Leon Panetta, the former US defense secretary, has warned, as the US president struggles to find his way out of the controversial conflict.
Panetta declared in an interview that the war with Iran – launched by Trump over six months ago – risks becoming another “forever war in the Middle East”, with no clear end in sight.
Isar Aerospace plans rapid expansion amid race to capitalise on expanding satellite-launch market
A German startup has launched the first commercial rocket to reach orbit from continental Europe, a milestone for Europe’s efforts to secure independent access to space.
Isar Aerospace said on Sunday that it would rapidly expand satellite deployments after the first orbital launch of its uncrewed Spectrum rocket from Arctic Norway, marking a breakthrough for a region where several countries are seeking a foothold in the fast-growing market for satellite launches.
So i have a V1 . Still working and i changed the tire lately.
I ride it occasionally to work (5km back and forth - 3 miles approximately)
It still rides fine . But lately i tried the nosedive app on my friends iphone to see how it look . And i checked the battety and i saw that . The batteries are not full as in the screenshot 1 . ( even that the battery is charged to 99%) .
I use the OWCE app screen shot 2 .
I mean is this a problem to change the battery or something?
Ps : i know that the v1 is old . But i can't afford a xr or a paint . Im based in spain so its also a hassle to find it .
Twenty-four years after he provided crucial testimony that helped send a man to Texas’s death row, DNA expert William Watson has recanted his opinion and called out Harris County prosecutors — including an assistant district attorney turned true-crime TV star — for distorting his conclusions to win a conviction.
In a new court filing seeking to overturn Jeffrey Prible’s 2002 conviction for the murder of a Houston family, Watson said he would never give the same testimony today. “Based on … changes in the field and my own increased experience and scientific knowledge, if I were asked to testify today, my answers to many of the questions asked by the State at trial would be different,” he wrote in a declaration filed on August 28. “Today I would provide more thorough and nuanced explanations.”
Watson also wrote that prosecutors “misrepresented” his testimony in both their opening and closing statements, and made “inflammatory” remarks that twisted both the science and his opinions.
Prible was accused of murdering his friends Steve Herrera and Nilda Tirado, who were found shot to death at their home in North Houston in 1999. A fire was started in an apparent attempt to cover up the crime; the couple’s three young children died from smoke inhalation. Prible had been hanging out at the couple’s home in the hours before they were killed, which made him an early suspect. But there was no evidence linking him to the scene — save for a DNA sample taken from semen collected from Tirado’s mouth. Prible had an explanation for this; as he told investigators at the time, he and Tirado had been having an affair behind Herrera’s back, and she had performed oral sex on him earlier that evening.
The case went cold until Harris County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Siegler took it over, reexamining the evidence and concluding that there was no innocent explanation for the presence of Prible’s DNA. Instead, Siegler decided, the semen was evidence of a brutal sexual assault that took place just seconds before Tirado was shot in the back of the head.
The theory was central to Prible’s conviction. “I would suggest to you what the evidence indicates is that the Defendant after killing Steve forced Nilda to orally copulate him at gunpoint and executed her as soon as he finished,” Siegler’s co-counsel, Vic Wisner, told the jury during the state’s closing argument. “As horrific as that sounds, that is the only logical conclusion that you can draw from that evidence.”
Siegler reiterated the claim to maximum effect: “She left this world with his penis in her mouth,” she told jurors in her closing, “hoping to God that her babies would survive the nightmare that is Jeff Prible.”
Prible’s case was at the heart of a three-part series published by The Intercept in 2023. The investigation explored how Siegler, who won 19 death sentences over the course of her nearly 22-year career in Houston, went on to become a true-crime celebrity in the decades after sending Prible to death row. The series also showed how her Oxygen Network true-crime reality shows — “Cold Justice,” now in its eighth season, and “Prosecuting Evil With Kelly Siegler,” starting its third season this fall — portray Siegler as a gifted crime-fighter and compassionate crusader for victims, even as she left a trail of questionable convictions in her wake.
In Prible’s case, as The Intercept’s reporting showed, Siegler built her prosecution not only on questionable claims about the DNA evidence, but also on the highly dubious account of a jailhouse informant who claimed that Prible confessed to him. This witness, it turned out, was part of a ring of snitches who cooperated with Siegler in exchange for assistance getting their own sentences reduced. During Prible’s federal appeals, multiple members of this snitch ring testified that informants offered Siegler false evidence against Prible — and one said that Siegler actually provided him with details about the case.
Jeffrey Prible, photographed on Aug. 6, 2026.Photo: Courtesy of Jeffrey Prible
At best, Siegler was careless about scrutinizing the information they provided. At worst, as Prible’s lawyers argued to a federal district court, she actively conspired to win a conviction despite knowing the case wouldn’t otherwise hold up — framing an innocent man for murder.
In 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison overturned Prible’s conviction, finding that Siegler had withheld key information about her dealings with the informants from Prible’s defense. “Without question, the prosecution in this case engaged in a pattern of deceptive behavior and active concealment. And the evidence suppressed sufficiently serves to contravert the primary basis for Prible’s conviction,” Ellison wrote. “Siegler intentionally and knowingly withheld information,” he went on, and “was deceptive about her efforts to do so.”
“This new evidence shows that Prible is actually innocent.”
Texas appealed the ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Rather than considering the evidence that Siegler had violated Prible’s constitutional rights, the court instead reinstated Prible’s conviction based solely on procedural grounds. In the new state court filing, Prible’s legal team, led by Austin attorney Gretchen Scardino, reupped their previous allegations while also arguing to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that Watson’s recent recantation further undermines Prible’s conviction.
“This Court has not had the opportunity to review the trove of new evidence that came to light during the federal habeas proceedings, until now,” they wrote. “And even beyond that new evidence, there has been a significant development in Prible’s case.” Watson’s declaration cites “significant changes in the field of forensic biology, in the progression of the scientific methods used to analyze the evidence in Prible’s case, and in his own scientific knowledge,” they continued. “This new evidence shows that Prible is actually innocent.”
Watson first expressed misgivings about his trial testimony and the way it was weaponized in an interview with The Intercept in 2023. His answers were more definitive than they should have been, he said, and he certainly did not intend to endorse the state’s insistence that there was “no way in the world that semen wasn’t deposited either moments before or seconds after Nilda died.” “‘No way in the world’ is not something I would have said,” Watson told us.
The DNA from Tirado’s mouth was one of three samples collected after the murders. DNA matching Herrera, Tirado’s boyfriend, was also found on vaginal and anal swabs. At Prible’s 2002 trial, Watson testified he’d never before been able to extract a male DNA profile from an oral swab, and that his understanding was that sperm wouldn’t persist in the oral cavity absent Tirado’s murder. Siegler crudely emphasized these findings during her closing argument. To believe Prible’s claim that he and Tirado had engaged in consensual sex, she declared, jurors would have to believe that he had “some kind of magic semen … that somehow lives longer than any of y’all’s or any other man’s in this whole universe.” Moreover, “you’ve also got to believe that his semen is so tasty that she walked around savoring the flavor of it in her mouth for a couple hours. That’s the only way it’s going to end up still in her mouth after she’s dead.”
“These inflammatory remarks are not only scientifically baseless, but also highly inappropriate.”
In his new declaration, Watson took exception to Siegler’s closing. “I never testified to this, nor would I,” he wrote. “These inflammatory remarks are not only scientifically baseless, but also highly inappropriate.” Not only has his original understanding changed, Watson wrote, there is also no way to determine which of the three DNA samples was left first. In other words, while the state’s case was built on the assumption that Prible’s DNA was deposited last, in reality it was not scientifically possible to make such a claim.
Central to Prible’s new filing is a Texas law that explicitly offers defendants an opportunity to challenge their convictions based on new scientific evidence. “Although there was little available literature on the subject at the time, the scientific consensus today is that spermatozoa can survive in the oral cavity of a living person for up to fifteen hours — and even longer in a deceased person,” his legal team wrote. Their argument is supported by a new report from a second DNA expert, who explains that recent scientific advancements show that Watson’s testimony was, as Prible’s attorneys write, “wholly unsupportable.”
How the Harris County DA’s office responds to the new evidence remains to be seen. Kelly Siegler did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, Assistant Federal Public Defender Nat Lombardo wrote, “Jeff Prible has spent nearly half his life on death row for a crime he did not commit. … This evidence supports Jeff’s account, from the very beginning, of what happened that night. Put simply: if Jeff were tried today, the State would have no case. We hope the DA and the courts do the right thing and give Jeff Prible his life back.”
Prible, who has been on death row for nearly 24 years and has seen dozens of his neighbors taken to the execution chamber, remains hopeful. “The way I see it, it is a true test of faith,” he wrote in a message to The Intercept. “I know in my heart of hearts my best days in this life are still yet to come!”
I’m a surfer with a Sprinter van and I’m looking for a Onewheel that will live in the van and be used as a utility vehicle for surf/road trips. I recently rented one on a surf trip up to Canada and feel that it will work really well for my needs. Most of the time I’ll use it to check surf spots, get to remote fishing spots, ride down dirt roads and trails, get down to the beach, or cruise around campgrounds. I will be using it to transport my Surfboard, which I’ll put in a Surf bag with a shoulder strap from time to time. Every once in a while I might ride it on the street to go check something out, but pavement will definitely be secondary. Most of its life will be spent on dirt, trails and beach access. My priorities are: Stability — this is #1. Off-road capability — dirt roads, trails, gravel and hard-packed beach sand. Reasonable weight and size — it’s going to live inside my Sprinter and I’ll be lifting it in and out regularly, so I really don’t want a huge, super-heavy board. I see this more as a utility tool for my van and outdoor trips than something I’m buying just to go out and ride for fun. If this were your use case, which board would you buy and why? And how would you set it up for dirt/trail/beach use.
When I try to log into the owner’s portal on my.onewheel.com it sends me an email verification code and when I enter the numeric code it says to check email for link to confirm email but never sends the link. I’m stuck in a loop of only receiving verification codes but no personal link to my owner’s portal. I’ve checked junk mail and have followed all instructions. Has anybody else encountered this and figured it out?
I was riding my pint x around some trails, got to a little climb with some roots at the top, so I tried going up, the nose caught a root and dug in and briefly spun then powered off. Now when I try to turn it back on the footpad light illuminates like it should for about half a second and then turns off. Also worth noting that yesterday it started raining while I was riding so the board did get wet but not enough that I’d think it would be the cause. I tried plugging it in and the charger won’t recognize it, I also tried holding the power button for 10-15 seconds and still nothing. I’m guessing my “brain” just bricked, if that’s the case I’m completely fresh to the modding world on these, but id be ok getting a non FM brain so if anyone has any suggestions or clarifications I’m all ears.
I have a 7 yr old XR that finally bricked. I am thinking of the GT S. What are the community thoughts of the GT S vs the newer XR. I am in Florida, so no large hills.
(Would not let me add the link, but its on printables. Lookup "onewheel fender" its the white one by kagman)
26 hour print and this is the end result. Overall sturdy, and perfect lineup for oem holes. Making the holders over the weekend and will update. There is minor imperfections but it cost me a measly 5 bucks too print so not the end of the world. Filament used is the flashforge petg with carbon fiber. If using the ender 3, set klipper speed to 70ish percent for the bottom layer because with supports it can get fast and sloppy. Also for those 3d printers out there, dont give me hate for having strapping tape to hold the bed plate🤣
Left-wing Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has a proposal to shield her country from Donald Trump’s growing influence over Latin American politics: changing the constitution to bar dual nationals from running for president or governor of any Mexican state.
“A Mexican president is Mexican and does not represent another country,” Sheinbaum said during her morning press conference on August 25. If adopted, her proposal would make Mexico’s presidency qualifications in some respects more restrictive than those of the United States, where a president must be born in the country but there is no explicit ban on dual citizenship.
Sheinbaum’s proposal marks the latest in a suite of changes that her critics deem authoritarian. In May, for example, Sheinbaum gave the National Electoral Institute, Mexico’s highest electoral authority, the power to annul presidential elections deemed to have been influenced by foreign actors.
But Sheinbaum argues the reforms are necessary to stave off the growing influence of the far right in Latin America, where now two heads of state — Colombia’s Abelardo de la Espriella and Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa — are also U.S. citizens.
De la Espriella, the far-right Colombian president who received strong support from Trump during his campaign and took office in June, is a U.S. and Italian citizen and a registered member of the Republican Party. Noboa, who assumed office as Ecuador’s president in 2023 at the age of 35, was born in Miami, Florida, and is the son of one of Ecuador’s richest men. (His father, Álvaro Noboa, also ran unsuccessfully for president five times.)
It’s clear that Latin America has an ascendant right wing under U.S. influence, said Pamela K. Starr, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California. Morena, the party that Sheinbaum leads, genuinely seems to believe there’s an international far-right movement that has taken over most of Latin America and that efforts to weaken Mexico’s left-wing political leadership come from Washington. How Mexican observers view Sheinbaum’s protectionism, meanwhile, is something of a political Rorschach test.
“Those who trust her trust that her efforts are legitimate, that she’s not trying to establish authoritarianism,” Starr told The Intercept. “Those who oppose her have the exact opposite read: that this is simply an extension of the Fourth Transformation’s effort to recreate an authoritarian government in Mexico. The truth obviously is somewhere in between.”
The Fourth Transformation is the political project launched by former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the founder of the Morena party who swept to the presidency in 2018 promising to break with Mexico’s political establishment, reduce inequality, and root out corruption. López Obrador cast his movement as a historic transformation of the country, and his successor, Sheinbaum, has pledged to protect it.
Her strategy raises an uncomfortable question inside Mexico: whether measures designed to shield the country from foreign political influence could themselves be used to consolidate Morena’s power.
“I don’t think it is an absurd idea,” said Damián Zepeda, the former president of Mexico’s conservative party PAN, of Sheinbaum’s proposed dual-citizenship ban. “But we cannot lose sight of the context of the authoritarian government we are living under.”
“What is being done is protecting Mexico from leaders who would sell out their own country.”
For Cynthia López Castro, a Morena senator, the initiative seems fundamental. The logic behind it is that someone who holds dual nationality has a legal bond with another state, López Castro said, while whoever holds the presidency can only represent the Mexican people.
“What is being done is protecting Mexico from leaders who would sell out their own country,” said López Castro, who told The Intercept that the measure was discussed in parliament this week. “President Claudia Sheinbaum argues that dual nationality is incompatible with serving as president or governor because these positions require exclusive representation.”
Sheinbaum’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
There are people within and around the U.S. administration who see Sheinbaum’s government as hostile to American interests and are seeking to see Mexico governed by conservatives, Starr said. The irony, she added, is that “the United States has never, literally never, had such good security cooperation from Mexico.”
The State Department and U.S. military are highly supportive of the Mexican president because of the level of security cooperation her government has provided Washington.
“There are two messages coming out of the United States, and Donald Trump just depends on what day it is, which side he apes in his rhetoric,” Starr said.
Framing Sheinbaum’s proposal as an authoritarian measure, Zepeda, the conservative, also presented it as an attack on a critical target for the Trump administration: the rights of millions of Mexican immigrants.
“A great deal of progress has been made on the migration agenda to recognize the rights of our fellow Mexicans abroad, and this proposal would prevent anyone who was born in the United States because of their family’s migration circumstances from aspiring to certain public offices,” Zepeda said. “It is a double narrative: On the one hand, we support migrants, and on the other, we restrict their rights in order to protect those in power.”
In Starr’s view, while the U.S. president is clearly an influential force, he’s inflating his own role in Latin American politics.
“There’s no question that Trump thinks that he has created a conservative coalition in Latin America, and it supports him. He’s right that it supports him, but he’s not right that he created it,” Starr said. “Latin Americans are voting on Latin American concerns.”
A member of the Coastal Elite Lacrosse Club in action. Photo courtesy of BPG Sports Lacrosse Media Team.
The sports management firm, BPG Sports, of Buccini Pollin Group announced the acquisition of the Coastal Lacrosse Academy in a press release, September 2. The group also entered into management agreements with three other youth sports programs.
Buccini Pollin Group’s sports management firm, BPG Sports, announced the firm is acquiring the Coastal Lacrosse Academy and entering into “long-term management agreements” with three other youth sports programs in a press release on September 2. The three programs involved in the management agreements are the Bagel Bombers baseball program, Lady Bombers softball program and Delmarva Rush Soccer Club.
Coastal Lacrosse Academy and Delmarva Rush Soccer Club will be rebranded into the Coastal Elite Lacrosse Club and Henlopen Recreational Soccer, according to the press release.
BPG Sports’ acquisition of Coastal Elite Lacrosse Club adds to its youth lacrosse portfolio that includes the BPG Nationals, Brotherly Love Lacrosse Club, Duke’s Elite Lacrosse Club and the Phantom Girls Lacrosse program. BPG Sports will serve over 1,000 lacrosse players across the Mid-Atlantic region following the acquisition of Coastal Elite Lacrosse Club, according to the press release.
“These transactions reflect exactly what BPG Sports was built to do – bring the top clubs, coaches, and venues under one roof and give young athletes a best-in-class experience,” senior vice president and general manager of BPG Sports, Steve Cavalier, said via the press release. “Each of these organizations has built a fantastic local reputation, and our goal is to strengthen what they’ve achieved, invest in their players and facilities, and enhance the experience for all.”
BPG Sports’ management of Henlopen Recreational Soccer adds to its club soccer portfolio that includes The Sporting Athletic Club and its New Jersey and Pennsylvania affiliates, Sporting Athletic Club PA and Sporting Athletic Club NJ.
BPG Sports’ management of the Bagel Bombers and Lady Bombers are the firm’s first baseball and softball programs. BPG Sports will take over the day-to-day operations as well as the management of the two programs, according to the press release.
In total, BPG Sports has a portfolio of 11 different programs across four different sports that serve 4,500 athletes and their families, according to the press release.
To learn more about BPG Sports, its club programs and its facilities click here to view the company’s website.
Just wondering if the two are compatible? Or do I need special fenders to go with the wtf rails? Really hoping I can still somehow use my carbon fiber one
EDIT: Reading now they probably won't work, is there any way to make an adapter or I'm out of luck?
I have a GTS with about 2,700 miles on it, and I'm looking to sell it. Do you know of a good marketplace to sell it in?
I'm here in the South Los Angeles area, and it's in really good condition. I ride it all the time still (1-2 times a week), but I'm thinking about moving up to one of the long-range models. Now that my legs are strong I can ride for more than 2 hrs.
I’m thinking I want to get about $1700, this one needs a new tire soon.
I have had a XR+ for a while now, bought it used and it currently has 3,500 miles. I feel like the battery is probably on its way out, so I want to upgrade the powertrain. Currently have Kush Hi, TFL bumpers, and flight fins. It looks like a full tilt systems 20s2p pack and XRV kit will run me around $1,000.
I noticed that the ADV2 is currently on sale as well, for $1,699 ($1,850 after shipping + pro rails) and was also thinking about just getting that. Honestly, money is definitely a factor here, I do think I could sell my XR+ to close the gap a bit however. I'm not sure how the ADV2 rides, I really like how the XR+ feels, although it can be wobbly at times. The atom also looks really interesting, but I'm not sure how I'd like the smaller board.
Just looking for any advice on what I should do, upgrade the parts, get the ADV2 or just stick with what I have.
IBM has made its Nighthawk r2 quantum processor available through the IBM Quantum Platform, with a new qubit-reset architecture that the company says delivers up to 25 times the circuit throughput of its Heron systems. The 120-qubit processor can execute more than 100,000 circuits per second, according to IBM.
Previous generations of IBM processors, including Heron, use conditional reset, which measures a qubit and applies a pulse when needed to return it to the ground state. Because the procedure is limited by measurement fidelity and cannot reset qubits that have leaked outside the computational states, the system must also remain idle for hundreds of microseconds between circuit executions.
IBM says Nighthawk r2 is capable of executing more than 100,000 circuits per second.
Nighthawk r2 instead pairs each programmable qubit with a dedicated reset element that connects it to a cold environment through a tunable coupler, drawing away its energy. IBM said this changes the qubit’s effective T1 energy-decay time from a median of about 200 microseconds to roughly 25 nanoseconds. That faster energy dissipation helps reduce the overall idle interval between circuit executions to as little as one microsecond.
Although Nighthawk r2 has the same 120 programmable qubits as its predecessor, it contains more supporting hardware. Its 120 qubits are accompanied by 218 couplers and 120 independently controlled reset elements, for a total of 458 physical quantum elements. Nighthawk r1 has the same qubit and coupler counts but lacks the dedicated reset elements, giving it 338 physical quantum elements.
IBM said the active-reset capability reduces initialization error by approximately 25 times while maintaining Heron-class gate fidelity and leaving neighboring qubits undisturbed.
The 25-fold increase in circuit throughput does not necessarily translate into an equivalent speedup for every workload. In early testing, IBM reports runtime improvements of as much as 10 times on research circuits without a loss of accuracy.
The company also used Nighthawk r2 to estimate observables on circuits containing more than 7,500 gates with probabilistic error amplification, meeting a target on its 2026 quantum roadmap. IBM separately said the processor’s higher throughput enabled a 12-fold speedup on a neutron-scattering simulation, generating spectra for comparison with experimental data in approximately 60 seconds.
Nighthawk r2’s reset capability can also be used during circuit execution. This allows auxiliary qubits to be measured, reset and reused within dynamic circuits, a capability needed for many quantum error-detection and error-correction experiments.
IBM said this could provide researchers with greater flexibility when testing protocols that introduce logical qubits into workloads. The company is positioning Nighthawk r2 as both a platform for near-term application research and a testbed for developing error-corrected quantum operations.
Why Should Delaware Care? More than half of all residents rely on Delmarva Power to provide electric service to their homes and businesses. A pending rate case could increase monthly bill costs, and the utility is seeking to recoup some of those costs sooner.
Delmarva Power filed a legal appeal in a Delaware court on Friday afternoon, seeking to overturn regulators’ cuts to its interim rate hike – a move that, if successful, could raise customers’ bills faster than expected.
The appeal was reportedly filed in Delaware Superior Court, the company said. It came just hours before the court closed for the Labor Day holiday weekend, despite the Public Service Commission (PSC) approving the interim rate schedule on Aug. 5.
The legal basis for the company’s appeal was not readily available with the courts now closed until Tuesday morning.
Delmarva Power Region President Marcus Beal told the Daily State News on Friday, however, that the utility sought to exclude a temporary price hike known as a Distribution System Improvement Charge from the PSC’s calculations. He was unavailable to speak to Spotlight Delaware on Friday evening.
The PSC, a five-member appointed body that oversees Delaware’s regulated utilities and rules on their expansions and investment returns, further cut interim rate hikes for Delmarva Power after the company voluntarily reduced its initial request by about a third.
In a Friday statement, the electric utility, which serves about 300,000 customers across all of New Castle County and parts of Kent and Sussex counties, said that the PSC’s decision “departed from Delaware statute by arbitrarily reducing the company’s interim rate further.”
The utility and its rate case – the third rate hike sought in five years by Delmarva to recoup the costs of its infrastructure investments in recent years – have become a bipartisan target for criticism as energy costs have skyrocketed in the last two years.
Dozens of customers decried the rate hike request during a two-hour public comment hearing two weeks ago that was marred by technical difficulties. A second hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 23.
“We understand that higher energy bills are a concern for our customers, and we do not take any increase lightly. That is why we continue to work with policymakers and other stakeholders on efforts to address rising costs, including energy supply prices. We also remain committed to balancing affordability with our responsibility to provide the safe and reliable service our customers depend on every day,” said Matt Ford, a spokesman for Delmarva Power, in a statement.
Where does the rate case stand?
Regulated utilities like Delmarva Power make money by recouping the costs of infrastructure upgrades — plus up to 10% profit — through electric rate increases.
In January, Delmarva Power filed its third rate hike request in five years because of recent infrastructure upgrades.
The utility has argued those upgrades, which range from substation improvements to line maintenance, are necessary to keep customers powered through issues, such as recent thunderstorms that left thousands powerless in the Wilmington area.
The debate over whether to approve that request is still ongoing. But while it happens, utilities can temporarily increase consumer costs to make sure the company can pay for those upgrades without borrowing too much money.
If the PSC ultimately decides the infrastructure upgrades were not necessary, customers would be refunded for that temporary rate increase.
Delmarva Power initially asked for $44.6 million in new revenue from base rates, as well as moving $23.2 million from a temporary price hike known as a Distribution System Improvement Charge into the base rate, making those costs permanently higher for customers.
That request, totaling $68.6 million, would have raised the electric bill of an average user by $6.42 per month, or 4.13%, according to Delmarva.
But after political pressure, the utility voluntarily lowered the total interim request in July to $45.9 million, with escalation factors that would kick in at seven and 12 months following their approval in conjunction with recent state legislation that aimed to lower the temporary costs for consumers.
Instead, the PSC rejected that plan and approved an interim rate that would start at $34.3 million – or half of the utility’s original request.
At debate is whether Delmarva Power’s movement of the Distribution System Improvement Charge should be factored into the calculations – regulators and the Delaware Public Advocate, who represents the collective interests of consumers, argue yes, while the utility says no.
Throughout their July negotiations, Delmarva Power lawyers warned that they felt the regulators were overstepping their authority to drive down interim rates.
Commissioner Regina Iorii, who was recently appointed to the PSC by Gov. Matt Meyer, told the utility, “If you don’t like it, appeal it.”
On Friday, it did.
And to make matters more dramatic for consumers, the utility filed an update to its request earlier this week that increases its total request to $75.6 million, or about 10%. It would be the largest single rate case increase in state history, if ultimately approved.
This came by way of a statutory filing known as a “12+0 filing,” which draws on true fiscal year-end costs as of July 1 rather than projections.
If that total requests hold in the rate case, the average Delmarva Power customer monthly bill would rise about $8, or 5%, before the cost of power is accounted for.
“At a time when energy affordability is a real concern for Delaware families, the Public Advocate believes this larger request warrants serious scrutiny. Delawareans should not be asked to pay more on their electric bills to increase the profits of a billion-dollar corporate holding company and its shareholders. The Public Advocate will rigorously review this case and oppose any amounts that are unjust, unreasonable, or imprudent,” Public Advocate Jameson Tweedie wrote on Facebook after the filing update.
Appeal raises the stakes
As Delmarva Power has increasingly entered the crosshairs of the Meyer administration, it has sought to shift the conversation to energy generation, which makes up the vast majority of a consumer’s energy bill.
Beal, Delmarva’s region president, called into Gov. Matt Meyer’s monthly radio show on Aug. 27 to confront him live on air about the issue, asking whether the governor would support reforms to state regulations that prohibit the utility’s ability to own its own power generation.
Beal noted that the average Delmarva Power customer’s bill has risen about $28 since January 2024, and 90% of that cost was tied to energy market prices that have been rising nationwide due to rising demand, spurred in part by data centers, and falling supply.
If the company could invest in its own generation, it could help spur greater supply and potentially lower supply costs to consumers, but historically regulators have been wary of giving to much power over its market to a single monopoly company.
Meyer said that his team was reviewing the proposal, but countered that transmission costs, which are requested by Delmarva Power and approved by regulators, have also outpaced inflation for the last five years. The governor asked Beal live on air to drop their looming rate hike request before he’d entertain conversations about power generation.
Beal demurred.
When asked whether a compromise could be brokered, Meyer rejected it.
“I don’t know what middle ground there is … They came to the Public Service Commission asking that they get profits on this rate case of 10.5%. No-risk profit. You tell me anyone who can do anything getting 10.5% profit, no risk,” he said. “I’m not going to do that for Delaware.”
When reached late Friday afternoon by Spotlight Delaware, Meyer reiterated his frustrations with Delaware’s largest electric distributor.
“While Delmarva keeps telling us affordability matters, they push every day for higher rates for Delaware families. We cannot continue to pay outrageous bills to keep our lights on. Delmarva wants to make this an issue about reliability, but it is really only about increasing their multimillion-dollar profits,” he said in a statement.
I dropped the valve stem into the hub 🤦😭 ain't no way I'm getting this one back right?
Might I mess anything up if I just slap a new valve stem in there and ride it with it rattling around till the next tire change? Or do I need to take the whole mamajama apart 😬
In his campaign’s latest TV ad, Democratic Senate candidate Roy Cooper of North Carolina highlights the issue of affordability using direct quotes from his Republican opponent — “No AI, no special effects, just Michael Whatley in his own words.”
They are, in fact, direct quotes from Whatley — but they are a bit dated, and some of the comments were more defensible or true at the time when Whatley made them.
The ad starts with a quote from Whatley: “Grocery prices are down, gasoline prices are down, housing prices are down, inflation is down,” he says.
“Unbelievable,” Cooper comments.
Judged by today’s metrics, Whatley’s statements are wrong. Grocery prices between January 2025, when Trump took office, and July have increased 3.35%. That’s larger than the 2.58% increase in the year and a half before Trump took office. Gasoline prices are up almost $1 from the price the week before Trump took office. Housing prices have risen 1.6% between 2024 and 2025. And the Consumer Price Index — the most commonly cited measure of inflation — increased 3.4% over the 12 months ending in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s up from the annualized 3.0% that Trump inherited.
But Whatley, then chair of the Republican National Committee, made those comments in a NewsMax interview in July 2025. Things were a little different then. That’s before the war with Iran and before the effect of Trump’s tariffs had kicked in, among other things.
Gasoline. At that time, gasoline prices were almost exactly what they were when Trump took office, according to the Energy Information Administration — the national average for regular gas was $3.11 per gallon when Trump was sworn in versus $3.12 for the week ending July 21, 2025. Gasoline prices would gradually decline from there, dipping to $2.78 per gallon in January 2026.
The Cooper campaign noted to us that Whatley continued to claim gasoline prices were down in an interview in mid-November 2025. At that point, gasoline prices were down slightly, about 5 cents a gallon from the price Trump inherited.
Then the war with Iran, which began in late February, caused prices to soar. The price per gallon reached $4.50 in May and was $4.07 for the week ending Aug. 31 (nearly 31% higher than when Trump took office). Whatley has been supportive of Trump’s war with Iran, saying it is necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Inflation. As we said, inflation has continued to rise in Trump’s second term. But when Whatley made his statement in July 2025 that “inflation is down,” the annualized rate of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, was 2.7%. That was down from 3.0% in the 12 months before Trump took office.
So prices were still rising, but the annualized rate of inflation was lower. (We’ve pointed this out repeatedly when Trump has claimed that prices are “plummeting downward.”)
Less defensible was Whatley’s claim from an interview with Real America’s Voice in January — highlighted in the Cooper ad — that “there is no inflation.” Whatley added (not in the Cooper commercial), “Inflation has fallen off a cliff since President Trump came in.” The annualized rate of inflation at the time was 2.7%. That’s not “no inflation” but it is lower than the rate Trump inherited. As we noted earlier, since then the CPI has risen, and is higher than the annualized rate when Trump took office.
Home prices. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the average sales price of homes in the U.S. dropped from $514,200 in the first quarter of 2025 to $502,700 in the second quarter of 2026. The median price of new homes also fell from $423,100 in the first quarter of 2025 to $410,700 in the second quarter of 2026, per the bank.
The median price of an existing single family home has continued to rise in Trump’s second term, according to sales figures from the National Association of Realtors, albeit at a much slower rate than during Biden’s presidency, and, for that matter, during Trump’s first term.
According to NAR, the seasonally adjusted annual median price rose from $412,500 in 2024 to $419,300 in 2025. That’s a 1.6% increase. But it’s slower than the overall rate of inflation.
“It is welcoming to see incomes rising faster than home prices, which has helped boost affordability—but the big short-term challenge to affordability is coming from rising mortgage rates,” NAR Chief Economist Dr. Lawrence Yun said in August.
During Biden’s presidency, the median sales price of existing single family homes rose 37.4%. The median price also rose 27.5% during Trump’s first term. Both of those increases well outpaced overall inflation growth during their presidencies.
Groceries. It was not true then nor is it now, that grocery prices “are down.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI for “food-at-home” — products bought at a grocery store or supermarket — overall grew by 0.7% between January and July 2025, when Whatley made his comment. So grocery prices were not lower. But the rate of growth was slower than in the previous six months, 1.48%. Grocery prices have continued to climb since then, and have risen a total of 3.35% from when Trump took office and July of this year.
As we wrote around the time Whatley made his comment in July 2025, there were some exceptions to the overall rising prices. The price of energy, airfare, new and used vehicles and eggs and were all down. But overall, prices continued to climb, and many experts cautioned that the president’s tariffs were likely to cause further price increases.
“DC insider Michael Whatley has been insisting for months that prices are down and there is no inflation while hardworking North Carolinians are getting crushed by high prices,” a spokesperson for the Cooper campaign told us via email. “From groceries to gas to health care – families are struggling while Whatley gets richer.”
While we are unable to search Whatley’s day-to-day comments on the campaign trail, we didn’t find any interviews since January where he spoke about lower prices or no inflation.
Whatley campaign spokesman DJ Griffin pushed back on Cooper’s campaign slogan “make stuff cost less,” claiming that Cooper’s policies had done the opposite.
“Facts are that Michael Whatley supports policies that allow working families to earn more and keep more,” Griffin told us via email.
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.
UD running back Kaderris Roberts runs down the right sideline in the Fightin’ Blue Hens, 42-7, win over Merrimack. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder.
The University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens (1-0) defeated the Merrimack Warriors (0-2), 42-7, in their season opener, September 3.
NEWARK, DE — The University of Delaware’s second FBS season started in dominant fashion with a 42-7 win over Merrimack, Thursday night. The win was the Blue Hens eighth consecutive season opening win and eighth consecutive win in their home opener.
“I think there was some times that we maybe pressed a little bit. There were some times that we did some first game, it wasn’t just mistakes, I would say it was first game, you know, I don’t want to call it nerves, but we had to get some stuff out, and we had to make sure we did it against somebody else,” head coach Ryan Carty said postgame. “Obviously, wasn’t as clean as we wanted it to be, but I think eventually we settled down and handled, you know, what we needed to handle on both sides of the ball.”
It was the Blue Hens defense that handled their business in the opening 30 minutes of their 2026 campaign, holding the Warriors under 80 total yards and forcing two turnovers in the first half. Both turnovers were forced in the second quarter and both resulted in points for the Blue Hens.
UD led by seven going into the second quarter following Viron Ellison Jr.’s 11-yard run on the team’s opening drive. The Blue Hens subsequent two drives generated 39 total yards and ended without points. The offense turned the ball over to Merrimack at the Warriors own 27 yard line with an opportunity to drive down the field and tie the game with a little less than nine minutes remaining in the first half.
The Warriors accomplished the first part, driving down to the UD 35 yard line in seven plays. Merrimack quarterback AJ Hairston Jr. took the snap from the shotgun formation, but was met by immediate pressure from Delaware’s defensive front. Hairston Jr. launched a pass that soared over the head of its intended receiver, into the endzone and right into the hands of sophomore safety George Mullins. Mullins completed the catch and slid in the endzone for a touchback, handing possession back to the Delaware offense.
Sophomore safety George Mullins sliding in the endzone following his first career interception. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder.
UD’s offense took over from its own 20 yard line and from there, looked like the dynamic passing attack that ranked first in Conference USA (CUSA) last season.
Senior quarterback Nick Minicucci threw for 68 yards on two throws leading Delaware’s offense into the red zone. The first completion was a 31-yard deep throw to the back shoulder of senior receiver Donovan Lewis. The second was a 37-yard completion to Coastal Carolina transfer Bryson Graves on the next play. Minicucci finished the drive with a 12-yard run into the endzone putting the Blue Hens ahead by two scores.
The Delaware offense tallied another touchdown before halftime, benefitting from another stellar defensive play.
The Warriors took over at their own 20 yard line with less than 40 seconds remaining in the half after blocking UD kicker Tucker Smack’s 26-yard field goal attempt the drive prior. Hairston Jr. handed the ball off to running back DeMarcus McElroy and McElroy was met by freshman safety Kevin Moore. Moore’s hit jarred the ball out of McElroy’s hands and onto the field. The ball bounced off multiple players before being engulfed by a diving Blake Matthews as he slid toward the sideline.
“So I’m trying to push [a Merrimack player] out the way and then somebody jumped on it and I was like ‘oh we got it’and then it bounced out and I was like, well I got to keep going,” Matthews said postgame. “Right before we got to the sidelines, I tried to jump on it before we get out and luckily it didn’t bounce off my chest as well.”
Matthew’s recovery put the Blue Hen offense back on the field, in the red zone with 23 seconds before halftime. Minicucci only needed seven.
The senior connected with junior wideout Sean Wilson for a 12-yard touchdown near the back left pylon that put the Blue Hens ahead, 21-0, at halftime.
“Our defense played great today,” Minicucci said postgame. “I mean just getting us a chance to have the ball is a blessing and we took advantage of most of our opportunities, but we still, we’re not satisfied with what we did. So, we got a lot to clean up.”
Delaware’s offense accumulated 242 total yards and scored 14 more points in the third quarter to go into the fourth quarter ahead, 35-7. The highlight play from the frame was a trick play involving Minicucci, Ellison Jr. and the player that scored both of the Blue Hens third quarter touchdowns — Kaderris Roberts.
The play started with Minicucci in the shotgun with Roberts on his right. Ellison lined up with his right foot on the 20 yard line and a receiver in front of him lined up at the line of scrimmage. Tight end Scott Moore motioned over, the ball was snapped and Minicucci fired to Ellison. The play looked like a designed screen for the junior running back, but Ellison didn’t run. He faked the run, stopped and fired a pass to Roberts who was left all alone down the right side of the field.
“First off, that was a dot,” Minicucci said, getting a laugh out of those at the postgame press conference. “I mean that was unreal.”
The Minicucci to Ellison to Roberts connection resulted in a 75-yard touchdown and a 28-point lead.
“That specific throw, it needs to be somebody who’s got a gun,” Carty said. “We talk about high risk, high reward. That one, we saw what we wanted and we got it, but that was still certainly something that could’ve went the other way.”
Minicucci stayed in at the start of the fourth quarter, but was pulled from the game after throwing his second touchdown pass to junior receiver Nick Tyree — the first receiving touchdown of his career. Junior quarterback Braden Streeter played the rest of the fourth quarter as UD coasted to the win. Minicucci finished with 330 passing yards, three total touchdowns and an interception.
UD’s offense finished the game with 547 total yards, 14 big plays (runs of 10 or more yards and passes of 15 or more yards) and averaged 7.6 yards per play. The defense held Merrimack to 244 total yards, sacked the quarterback three times and forced two turnovers.
“Obviously we saw when it was slow, you know, the spark was created by the defense, and that’s got to be who we, who we should be, playing off each other and playing complementary,” Carty said.
The Blue Hen players celebrate with the fans in the stands after their win over the Merrimack Warriors. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder.
The Blue Hens next opponent is a step up from the FCS competition they faced Thursday night. UD will travel to Nashville, Tennessee, for a matchup with the SEC’s Vanderbilt Commodores. The game starts at 4:15 p.m. and will be nationally televised on SEC Network.
To read more about what awaits the Blue Hens in their non-conference schedule click here.
Banning UK trade with illegal Israeli settlements is long overdueExpert commentsfarrell.drupa…
It would be a natural extension of current UK positions, and parliament’s cross-party Foreign Affairs Committee has recommended a formal ban for over a year.
Israeli settlement expansion, land appropriation, and escalating settler violence in the occupied West Bank represent some of the most outstanding obstacles to realizing a sovereign Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel, a long-standing pillar of the UK’s Middle East policy.
As such, the new Labour government under Prime Minister Andy Burnham should prohibit UK trade with Israel’s illegal settlements. This step would align UK trade with international law, uphold the UK’s recognition of Palestinian statehood, and stop sustaining the worsening situation in the West Bank – which I witnessed first-hand during a fieldwork visit this summer.
The rationale for such a move is clear. As successive UK governments have long acknowledged, Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law. They violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which holds that an ‘occupying power shall not transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.’
Settlements represent one of the most significant barriers to realizing a contiguous Palestinian state
A decade ago United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016), which the UK supported, affirmed that settlements have no legal validity, and a landmark 2024 Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice obliged states to ‘take steps to prevent trade or investment relations’ that help sustain illegal settlements.
Such advisory opinions are not binding, but settlements represent one of the most significant barriers to realizing a contiguous Palestinian state. Since Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war, it has constructed more than 160 settlements that are now home to over 700,000 Israelis in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Peace Now, an Israeli human rights organization that monitors settlement activity.
Israel’s justification for settlement construction has varied through the years – from security strategy to economic interest to religious ideology, citing biblical and historical ties to the land. But as Israeli ministers have recently stated, at least part of the aim of the current settlement project is to ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state.’
E1
This intention has been most evident in the opening of tenders for the controversial E1 development.
E1 is particularly contentious due to its location
E1 would link Jerusalem and the large settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, thus preventing Palestinian sovereignty in the central corridor connecting Ramallah, Bethlehem, and East Jerusalem, effectively bisecting the West Bank. E1 is particularly contentious due to its location, and the UK, along with France, Germany, Italy, and Canada, have condemned it.
But nearly all settlements create so-called ‘facts on the ground’ by appropriating Palestinian land and constructing infrastructure to serve settlers, including a network of bypass roads that are off limits to Palestinians. This infrastructure is accompanied by a system of more than 900 checkpoints, gates, barriers, and roadblocks.
The Israeli justification is that they are for settlers’ security, but they severely restrict Palestinian movement within the West Bank. For example, a 36-km journey from Ramallah to Nablus now requires a 73-km route to skirt around settlements – and can take hours due to checkpoints and closures. On shared roads, settlers have lined the pavement with Israeli flags, blacked out the Arabic writing on road signs with spray paint, and erected billboards reading ‘There is no future in Palestine.’
As a young woman in Nablus told me in July, ‘It emphasizes the idea that you are not getting out of this.’ She and many other young people I met no longer travel to Ramallah for work, school, or socializing as they would have done in the past for fear of being detained at checkpoints or harassed by settlers.
Additionally, 390 Israeli farms and outposts have been developed without state permission throughout the West Bank, with 250 established in the past three years. These settlements are technically considered illegal under Israeli law, but only two have been evicted, and over 80 have been legalized. Settler leaders have openly stated that the outposts aim to give them a foothold in strategic Palestinian locations, increasingly in Areas A and B, which would constitute the core population centres in a future Palestinian state.
Spain, Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands have already approved similar bans
Meanwhile, over 100 Palestinian communities have been partially or fully displaced by violent settler attacks since 2023, with over 1,330 incidents documented in 2026 alone. I visited the sites of several villages in the Jordan Valley that have been destroyed. In Hamamat al-Maleh, all that remains of a school built with EU-donor funding is a pile of rubble, with children’s workbooks still visible in the dirt.
With the current Israeli government either minimizing or enabling the violence, there is near- total impunity for such attacks; of the few incidents investigated, less than 5 per cent result in charges or convictions. Settler terrorism is not new, but the acceleration of attacks over the past three years has been unprecedented. It has had the intended effect of pushing rural Palestinian residents into towns and villages, largely emptying the surrounding areas, and further imperiling the realization of a Palestinian state.
Given these ever-worsening realities, the time is ripe to prohibit trade with settlements. Spain, Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands have already approved similar bans, and France has called for the EU to end imports of settlement goods.
Moreover, the proposed policy is a natural extension of current UK positions. The British government already denies preferential tariffs to settlement goods and strongly advises against business deals with settlements, and Parliament’s cross-party Foreign Affairs Committee has recommended a formal ban for over a year. Public opinion polls also suggest widespread support for the policy.
‘Siege mentality’
Nevertheless, there are concerns that should be taken seriously. Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), argues that the trade ban could result in a ‘de facto boycott’ of all of Israel because many Israeli companies are inextricably linked to settlements via financial integration or supply chains.
But under the existing UK-Israel Free Trade Agreement, the UK and Israel are already required to differentiate between goods produced in settlements and those produced within Israel.
LFI has also expressed concern that a ban could hurt opposition parties in Israel’s upcoming elections by contributing to a ‘siege mentality’ encouraged by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It is true that a ban on services (such as banking, insurance, telecommunications, technology, tourism, and consulting) would be harder to regulate. But, despite the wishes of some advocates, it is likely that the initial policy will be limited to goods. Moreover, if services are included, the onus will be on Israeli firms to extricate themselves from entanglements that directly or indirectly support settlements.
Other advocacy groups worry that the policy could increase antisemitism against British Jews. There has been an alarming rise in antisemitic incidents in the UK in the past year, and these should be fully condemned.
But taking a stance against settlement trade is neither antisemitic nor anti-Israel – even if the current Israeli government tries to portray it as such. The focus on settlements is targeted and specific, and in no way delegitimizes the state of Israel as it is recognized along pre-1967 borders.
Reprisals
There are also political repercussions to consider. Israel is already considering the removal of British and European officials from the US-led coordination center for Gaza, and some fear the move could spark economic retaliation from US President Donald Trump. Those concerns are warranted, but Burnham should not be cowed by threats of reprisals.
One of the toughest challenges in international relations is balancing between interests and values. Prohibiting UK trade with Israeli settlements does not fall into that category. The UK has a strategic interest, a legal obligation, and a moral duty to stop supporting unlawful settlements that undermine efforts for future peace and security in the region.
Photo: Saturday, Hagley Museum reopens following presevation work over the past two weeks.
All major areas of the museum will again be accessible following improvements to the mill race, Millwright Shop and surrounding industrial landscape.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Hagley Museum and Library’s historic Powder Yard has reopened to the public following the completion of a two-week preservation and maintenance project.
The reopening will restore visitor access to all major areas of the museum, including its industrial landscape, waterpower system, mill race and historic shops along the Brandywine.
The Powder Yard had been temporarily closed while contractors completed projects that required heavy equipment, road closures and unrestricted access to parts of the property. The rest of the museum remained open during the work, with Hagley offering half-price admission because one of its principal attractions was unavailable.
With the Powder Yard reopened, the temporary discount has ended and regular admission prices have resumed.
Maintenance protects historic landscape
One of the project’s most significant components involved dredging the mill race inlet to remove accumulated silt and debris and improve water flow into Hagley’s historic power system.
The mill race directed water from the Brandywine to waterwheels that powered machinery throughout the original du Pont powder works. Maintaining that system helps visitors understand how waterpower supported early American manufacturing.
Crews also replaced the roof on the Millwright Shop and stabilized masonry along portions of the mill race. Those improvements are intended to protect the historic structures against weather, erosion and further deterioration.
Hazardous trees were removed from the Powder Yard and Crowninshield areas to improve safety, while additional preventive maintenance was coordinated across the industrial section of the property.
The temporary closure allowed the museum to complete the projects efficiently while protecting visitors, employees and contractors.
Full museum experience returns
Visitors will once again be able to tour the Powder Yard and walk through the industrial center of the former powder-making operation. The area includes historic mills, shops and the waterpower infrastructure that supported manufacturing along the Brandywine for generations. This weekend, the cannons will be fired on Saturday afternoon, the 250th Anniversary Tours will resume at 11:00 and 1:00, and fishing on the banks of the Brandywine is open between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm.
Eleutherian Mills, the du Pont family’s first American home, and its gardens are also open. That portion of the museum offers a more personal look at the family’s early life in Delaware and its connection to the business developing nearby.
The “Nation of Inventors” exhibition remains open at the Visitor Center. Drawing on Hagley’s extensive collections, the interactive exhibition examines how inventors recognize problems, develop ideas, and create products and technologies.
The Visitor Center and Museum Store are also open.
A site central to Delaware history
Hagley is the site of the original du Pont powder works, founded along the Brandywine in 1802 by Éleuthère Irénée du Pont.
The business developed into one of the world’s leading manufacturers of black powder and became the foundation of the DuPont company. Its growth influenced Delaware’s economy, workforce and identity for generations.
The property was more than a factory. It became an industrial community where immigrant workers and their families lived, worked and built connections that helped shape Wilmington and the Brandywine Valley.
Today, Hagley preserves the mills, mill race, waterpower system, machine shops, workers’ history and du Pont family home that together tell the story of early American industry.
Its importance extends beyond the du Pont legacy. The property demonstrates how waterpower, engineering, labor, immigration, family life and entrepreneurship converged during the country’s industrial development.
The completed maintenance work helps protect that landscape while allowing visitors to experience Delaware history in the place where much of it happened.
To Go Box:
What: Hagley Museum and Library
Status: The historic Powder Yard will reopen, and all major museum areas are accessible on Saturday.
What to see: Powder Yard, historic mills and shops, mill race and waterpower system, Eleutherian Mills and gardens, “Nation of Inventors” exhibition, Visitor Center and Museum Store.
Admission: Regular admission pricing will resume Saturday.
Just got a bonk rock to start practicing. Any bonk experts have any tips for me? I already attended YouTube University so I’m looking for firsthand experience or feedback.
By John Riddle, Contributing Journalist, Delaware LIVE
A summer lemonade stand allowed 6-year-old Lucy Johnson to do more than check an activity off her bucket list. It gave her an opportunity to support the four-legged friend who has helped make her hospital treatments less frightening.
Lucy raised more than $600 for Dogs on Call, the Animal Assisted Therapy program at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware. The program holds a special place in the young patient’s heart because of Ali, a goldendoodle and facility service dog who comforts Lucy during her appointments.
For most children Lucy’s age, visiting a hospital can be intimidating. For Lucy, those visits have been a regular part of her life since she was a toddler.
She was 1½ years old when she was diagnosed with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, or sJIA, a rare inflammatory condition. Her continuing care at Nemours Children’s has included frequent injections and intravenous infusions.
Although the treatments were necessary, receiving them could be frightening for such a young child. Members of Lucy’s care team tried several approaches to ease her anxiety, including cold sprays to numb her skin and vibration devices intended to distract her. Nothing seemed to make the procedures feel less frightening.
Then Lucy met Ali.
With the goldendoodle beside her during appointments, Lucy’s family began seeing a change. There were fewer tears, more smiles and a greater sense of calm during situations that previously had been filled with fear.
“When she sees Ali, her eyes just light up and her body relaxes,” said Lucy’s mom, Kelly Johnson. “It’s like a wave of calmness comes over Lucy.”
Dogs on Call brings certified therapy dogs and clinically trained facility dogs into the hospital to support children and their families. The dogs provide companionship, distraction, emotional support and, when needed, plenty of comforting snuggles.
For Lucy, the program’s support also comes from Kelsey Cebula, an Animal Assisted Therapy coordinator and certified child life specialist who works alongside Ali.
“Kelsey really has a way with kids,” Kelly said. “She talks Lucy through what to expect and provides structure and consistency during times of chaos. It means the world to me that someone would look out for my kid as if she were their own.”
Together, Ali and Cebula have helped turn some of Lucy’s most stressful appointments into experiences in which she feels safer and supported.
The idea for the fundraiser began when Lucy created a summer bucket list filled with activities she wanted to complete before the season ended. One of those activities was holding a lemonade stand.
As Lucy and her mother planned the stand, they discussed what she might do with the money she earned. Lucy had an appointment at Nemours Children’s that same day and spent time with Ali and Cebula.
The visit inspired her answer.
“Why don’t we have the money go to Ali?” she asked.
Her mother agreed, recognizing the importance of helping a program that is funded entirely through donations.
“Being a kid and having to go to the hospital can be frightening and sometimes even traumatizing for kids and their families,” Kelly said. “Supporting this program is far more than providing dog treats and dog toys. Dogs on Call brings comfort and happiness to scary situations and eases anxiety. It helps children feel less like patients and more like kids.”
Lucy’s lemonade stand quickly became more than a summertime activity. It became her way of helping other children experience the comfort Ali had given her.
The community’s response surpassed the family’s expectations, with the stand generating more than $600 for Dogs on Call.
Lucy’s donation was a heartfelt thank-you to the program that helped her through difficult moments. It also demonstrated how one child, one lemonade stand and one special dog can help replace fear with comfort, connection and joy.
Delaware Lottery introduces new NFL-themed POWERBALL Xs & Os game
Delaware Lottery launches the new POWERBALL Xs & Os weekly draw game, with tickets on sale Sept. 8 and the first drawing Sept. 13. (Photo courtesy of Delaware Lottery.)
Delaware Lottery players will soon have a new football-themed game to play, as the Delaware Lottery joins 24 jurisdictions offering the new POWERBALL Xs & Os weekly draw game beginning next month.
Tickets go on sale Tuesday, Sept. 8, at Delaware Lottery retailers statewide. The first drawing is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 13, at 10 p.m., with drawings continuing every Sunday throughout the year.
The $5 game combines NFL team selections with a traditional lottery drawing. Players choose eight NFL teams from all 32 franchises — or opt for a Quick Pick — and win prizes based on how many team logos match those drawn. The jackpot starts at $1 million and rolls over until won.
Players can also purchase up to 10 consecutive drawings for an additional $5 per drawing.
Prize payouts range from $7 for matching four teams to $20,000 for matching seven, while matching all eight teams wins the jackpot.
The game also marks the first nationwide promotional prize program in POWERBALL history. Players can enter eligible winning and non-winning POWERBALL Xs & Os tickets online to earn points that can be used as entries for prize drawings. Available prizes include a trip to Super Bowl LXI, NFL Shop gift cards and other NFL-themed experiences.
Delaware Lottery Players Club members can also enter eligible tickets through the Players Club to earn additional points toward state promotions and drawings.
“From the NFL to the college teams we root for, Delawareans love football — and it’s a sport that unites people and communities,” said Helene Keeley, director of the Delaware Lottery. “The Delaware Lottery is thrilled to harness all this football excitement to offer players a new way to enjoy the sport and potentially win cash and other prizes, while keeping the focus on fun and responsible play.”
The Delaware Lottery said the new game complements its existing sports offerings, including Sports Pick, which has been available for more than 15 years. Sports Pick allows wagering on professional and collegiate sporting events at Delaware casinos, participating retailers and online.
Unlike sports betting, POWERBALL Xs & Os results are determined through a random lottery drawing and are not based on the outcomes of NFL games.
Lottery officials remind players that games are intended only for adults who meet applicable age, residency and eligibility requirements, and encourage responsible play.
Two Philadelphia men have been arrested more than a year and a half after they allegedly crashed a stolen car into the front of a Newark church while fleeing from police.
The Western Family YMCA on Saturday unveiled its new and improved Kids’ Club, which provides children a safe, fun place to play while their parents enjoy the gym or pool.
Federal complaint does not charge human trafficking, but advocates say the allegations illustrate grooming tactics and vulnerabilities that can precede exploitation.
By George D. Rotsch, Editor of Delaware LIVE
DOVER, Del. — Federal charges against a Dover Air Force Base airman accused of using Snapchat to communicate with a 15-year-old girl before transporting her from Pennsylvania to Delaware are drawing renewed attention to online grooming, child exploitation and the warning signs of human trafficking.
Dylan Williams, 27, is charged with coercion and enticement, transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, according to a federal criminal complaint filed Aug. 28 in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
Investigators allege Williams began communicating with the teenager through Snapchat in June, knew she was 15 and later drove from Delaware to Pennsylvania to pick her up. Authorities found the girl at Williams’ Camden-area residence Aug. 20 after her parents reported her missing, according to the complaint.
The FBI alleges Williams admitted picking up the girl and bringing her to Delaware. Court records also describe alleged sexual encounters in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Williams is an active-duty airman stationed at Dover Air Force Base, according to the complaint. The Dover Police Department, FBI, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Marshals Service and Pennsylvania authorities participated in the investigation.
The charges are accusations. Williams is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Grooming can begin online
While the Williams complaint does not allege a commercial exchange, advocates say cases involving online enticement can help parents and the public understand tactics that also appear in trafficking cases.
Those tactics can include gradually gaining a young person’s trust, introducing sexual conversations, encouraging secrecy, isolating the child from family members and convincing the child to leave a safe environment.
Trafficking does not always involve kidnapping, physical restraint or an organized criminal network. Exploiters may present themselves as romantic partners, protectors, employers or friends before using emotional dependency, threats, housing instability, substance use or financial pressure to gain control.
Young people experiencing family conflict, homelessness, prior abuse, social isolation or a lack of stable adult support can be particularly vulnerable. Social media, gaming platforms and messaging applications can give offenders direct and private access to young people.
A child may not recognize the relationship as abusive and may believe he or she willingly participated. Advocates say that makes it important for adults to look beyond whether a young person describes the relationship as consensual.
Delaware cases remain underreported
The full extent of trafficking in Delaware is difficult to measure because victims may fear retaliation, distrust authorities, depend on their trafficker or not recognize that they are being exploited.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline identified 32 trafficking cases involving 61 victims in Delaware during 2024. The organization identified 31 cases in 2023, 28 in 2022, 30 in 2021 and 26 in 2020.
Those figures represent situations reported to and identified by the hotline. They are not a count of arrests or prosecutions and should not be treated as a complete measure of trafficking in Delaware, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Delaware’s location between Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, combined with its major highways, tourism industry and seasonal workforce, creates opportunities for both sex and labor exploitation. However, advocates caution against assuming trafficking is primarily caused by interstate highways or strangers moving victims from place to place.
Many cases originate within families, relationships, workplaces or online communications involving people the victim knows.
Summit aims to improve recognition
The Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors will bring survivors, national experts, law enforcement officials, medical providers, mental health professionals and community leaders together for Delaware’s inaugural Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention and Action Summit.
The public summit will be held Friday, Oct. 2, at Hyatt Place Dewey Beach. Registration remains open through Sept. 18.
The program is intended to explain what trafficking looks like in Delaware, challenge common misconceptions and help professionals and residents recognize potential exploitation without putting a victim in greater danger.
Sessions will focus on survivor experiences, law enforcement, mental health, direct services and medical care. Topics are expected to include familial trafficking, trauma affecting children and adults, substance use, multidisciplinary response teams and vulnerabilities affecting boys and members of the LGBTQ community.
Kevin McNeil, a retired police officer and survivor of trafficking and sexual abuse, will deliver the opening keynote address. Survivor, therapist, author and comedian Marty MacGibbon will discuss the intersection of trafficking and substance abuse and close the conference with a presentation on mental wellness, self-care and trauma-informed practices.
The summit is open not only to professionals but also to parents, educators, business owners, hospitality employees, faith leaders, volunteers and other residents who want to understand the warning signs.
The Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors was established in 2014 as Meet Me at the Well Delaware. The organization provides individualized support to survivors seeking to leave sex trafficking and rebuild their lives, including mentoring, advocacy and connections to housing, employment and treatment.
To Go Box
What: Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention and Action Summit
When: Friday, Oct. 2, 2026
Where: Hyatt Place Dewey Beach, 1301 Coastal Highway, Dewey Beach
Who may attend: Professionals, organizational leaders, service providers and members of the public
Report suspected trafficking: Call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733. Call 911 when someone is in immediate danger.
(*Updated as of Sept. 8, 2026) See every state candidate running for every office on your ballot, all in one place.
DOVER, Del. — Delaware voters head to the polls Sept. 15 for a primary that will decide the Democratic and Republican nominees for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, attorney general and state treasurer, along with dozens of state Senate and House seats across all three counties. For early voting dates, hours and locations, see Delaware LIVE’s full voter guide.
Most legislative seats up this cycle aren’t actually contested, incumbents in both parties are running unopposed in a majority of districts. But where there is a race, it’s often a real one: Senator Chris Coons faces three Democratic challengers, eight legislative seats are open due to retirements, and one House district, District 8, has a contested primary on both sides at once. *Two Republican candidates across these races are also still listed as “provisional” with the state still awaiting SBI criminal background check and residency review. Read more about how those late nominations came about here.
Not sure which state Senate or House district you’re in? Look up your district by address at the state’s official district lookup tool before checking Tables 2 and 3 below.
Locally, New Castle County is losing two of its longest-serving council members this cycle. Councilman Penrose Hollins, who represents District 4, is retiring after decades in office and has endorsed Curtis Linton to succeed him. Read his full profile and endorsement here. Councilwoman Janet Kilpatrick’s District 3 seat has drawn a head-to-head Democratic primary between Kira Alejandro and Kyle Grantham. Read their side-by-side profile here.
New Castle County residents: County Council and Recorder of Deeds are covered below. Kent and Sussex County residents don’t vote on these two offices, but you do have your own county-level races on the Nov. 3 ballot: Kent County has a Levy Court seat and Recorder of Deeds; Sussex County has two County Council seats and Recorder of Deeds. None required a primary, so they’re not listed here, but you can look up your full ballot here.
Not sure which New Castle County Council district you’re in? The same district lookup tool from above will show you that too.
The nonprofit, Dream Flights, honored a group of Delaware veterans on September 2, with short flights, delivering an opportunity for veterans to take to the sky once again.
The Honor Guard from VFW Post 8801 located in Smyrna, Delaware, performs at the Dream Flights event. The event took place at Delaware Airpark.
Cheswold Mayor, Jennette Williams, enjoyed the event which honored a group of Delaware veterans.
The group of veterans honored during the Dream Flights event pose for a group photo along with their care team members from the Delaware Health Care Facilities Association.
A 1942 Boeing Stearman biplane used during the event.
A look inside the cockpit of the 1942 Boeing Stearman biplane.
US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Sheldon Slater (age 95) was the first veteran to take flight. Here he shakes the hand of Founder and President of Dream Flights, Darryl Fisher, before the two go up in the air.
Lt. Col. Slater gets strapped in and is ready to go. Slater served in the Korean War and Vietnam War.
Lt. Col. Slater and Fisher take flight. Fisher was the pilot for the event.
Fisher gives a thumbs up to the crowd after a successful landing.
Lt. Col. Slater received a hat and certificate from Dream Flights after participating in the event.
US Army Corporal Basil Wisner (age 91) sits in the front cockpit ready to take off.
A look at the plane while Fisher and Cpl. Basil fly around.
Cpl. Basil poses for a photo with his hat and certificate from Dream Flights.
Every veteran honored got a chance to take to the skies thanks to the non-profit organization, Dream Flights. According to the organizations’ website, they have participated in over 8,200 flights to date.
All photos courtesy of Dave Reeder. To see more of Dave’s work follow him on Instagram @bfr_photo
The St. Anthony Community Center will unveil its new name, logo and brand during a community celebration and fundraiser from 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 10 at Juniper by Tonic in downtown Wilmington.
Wilmington organization will also mark the 40th anniversary of its Meals on Wheels program during a Sept. 10 fundraiser
WILMINGTON — After more than five decades of serving children, older adults and families, St. Anthony’s Community Center is preparing to introduce a new name and identity designed to reflect the breadth of the organization’s work today.
The center will unveil its new name, logo and brand during a community celebration and fundraiser from 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 10 at Juniper by Tonic in downtown Wilmington.
The event will mark the organization’s 55th anniversary and celebrate 40 years of delivering meals and support to older adults through its Meals on Wheels program.
“Our new identity better reflects the breadth of the programs and services we provide today and our vision for the future,” said Kim Caputo, executive director of St. Anthony’s Community Center.
Why the new identity matters
For a community organization, a brand is more than a name or logo. It tells residents whom the organization serves, helps families recognize where they can find assistance and gives donors, volunteers and community partners a clearer understanding of the work they are supporting.
St. Anthony’s name is well known in Wilmington, but it may not fully communicate the organization’s expanded role across New Castle County. Some residents may associate the center primarily with senior activities without realizing that it also provides countywide meal delivery, housing for older adults, early childhood education and caregiver resources.
A clearer identity can help connect more people with those services. It also can strengthen the organization’s ability to attract financial support, recruit volunteers and develop partnerships with health care providers, government agencies, businesses and other nonprofits.
That increased visibility will be important as the needs of older adults, caregivers, children and families continue to grow. By presenting its programs as parts of one coordinated mission, the organization hopes to serve more residents while preparing for its next generation of community work.
More than a senior center
Although St. Anthony’s has long been associated with services for older Wilmington residents, its work has expanded substantially since the organization was founded.
Today, the center operates the Meals on Wheels program throughout New Castle County, provides housing and activities for older adults, runs an early learning center and helps families caring for aging or disabled loved ones through its caregiver resource center.
Those programs allow the organization to serve people at several stages of life — from children beginning their education to older adults who want to remain independent in their homes.
The new identity is intended to bring those services under a name and brand that more clearly communicate the organization’s countywide reach and multigenerational mission.
The name will remain under wraps until the Sept. 10 celebration.
Four decades of delivering more than meals
The celebration also will recognize the 40th anniversary of St. Anthony’s Meals on Wheels program.
For four decades, the program has delivered meals to older adults across New Castle County. The visits also provide regular personal contact and an important connection for residents who may live alone or have difficulty leaving their homes.
Meals on Wheels has become one of St. Anthony’s most visible programs, but the organization’s expanding services reflect the increasingly complex needs of older adults and their families.
Its newest initiative, the caregiver resource center, connects caregivers with information and assistance as they navigate the responsibilities of helping an aging or disabled family member.
A celebration with a purpose
The New Brand Launch Party and Fundraiser will give community members an opportunity to see the new name and logo, learn more about St. Anthony’s programs and help support its continuing work.
The evening will include drinks, raffles, a silent auction and guest bartending.
State Sen. Dan Cruce, who represents the 1st Senate District, will serve as a guest bartender and present a proclamation recognizing the organization’s new name. Other state and community leaders also have been invited.
Proceeds from the fundraiser will support programs serving older adults, children, families and caregivers throughout Wilmington and New Castle County.
The organization said the rebranding represents a new chapter rather than a departure from its history. Its mission will continue to focus on responding to the changing needs of the community while building on more than 55 years of service.
To Go Box:
What: St. Anthony’s Community Center New Brand Launch Party and Fundraiser
When: Sept. 10, 6-9 p.m.
Where: Juniper by Tonic, 111 W. 11th St., Wilmington
Highlights: Unveiling of the organization’s new name, logo and brand; recognition of its 55th anniversary and the 40th anniversary of its Meals on Wheels program; guest bartending, raffles and a silent auction
New law requires hospitals to document clinical justification, transportation and backup care for pregnant patients discharged with signs of labor
DOVER — Delaware hospitals must create formal discharge plans for pregnant patients sent home before delivery after Gov. Matt Meyer signed Senate Bill 301 into law Monday.
The legislation applies when a pregnant patient experiencing signs or symptoms consistent with labor is discharged from inpatient care or observation status. It does not require hospitals to admit every patient who may be in labor, leaving the discharge decision to the documented clinical judgment of the treating health care professional.
However, when a patient is discharged, the hospital must provide a written plan intended to ensure the patient understands what to do next and has a safe way to obtain additional care.
“When a mother is in labor, ‘good luck’ is not a plan,” Meyer said. “Any pregnant woman who shows up to a hospital in Delaware should feel seen, heard and cared for until she and her baby are safe.”
The ceremonial signing was held at Josie’s Grace, a Newark-based nonprofit that provides maternal mental health support during pregnancy, after childbirth and during the transition to parenthood.
What hospitals must provide
Under the new law, a discharge plan must include:
Aftercare instructions and confirmation that they were explained to the patient, the patient’s representative or a caregiver;
An assessment of the distance and travel time between the patient’s primary residence and the hospital;
Verification that the patient has reliable transportation between the residence and hospital;
Identification of a backup hospital or facility where the patient could receive labor and delivery services; and
The clinical justification for discharging the patient.
The plan must be discussed with the patient, the patient’s representative or a caregiver and included in the patient’s medical record. If the patient or representative declines to participate, the hospital must document that refusal.
The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Marie Pinkney, D-Bear, and House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown, D-New Castle. It passed the Senate 20-0 on May 20 and the House 40-0 on June 24.
“As a nurse, I know that discharge is not simply the moment a patient walks out of the hospital; it is a critical part of their care,” Minor-Brown said. “A pregnant patient who seeks help because she is in pain or experiencing labor-like symptoms deserves to leave knowing what is happening, what warning signs to watch for, what steps to take next and when to return for immediate care.”
Pinkney said the measure is intended to address gaps in maternal care, including concerns that Black women are more likely to have their symptoms or concerns dismissed by medical professionals.
The Delaware legislation was modeled after the federal Women Expansion of Learning and Labor Safety, or WELLS Act, advanced in Congress by U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois.
The federal proposal is named for Mercedes Wells, an Indiana woman who gave birth along a roadside shortly after being discharged from a hospital while experiencing labor symptoms.
“From the first trimester to the fourth trimester, we want to make sure moms and families have the support they need to be healthy,” Blunt Rochester said. “The signing of Delaware Senate Bill 301 will save lives while building on the work we’re doing in Congress to end the maternal health crisis.”
Hospitals supported goal, questioned mandate
During the legislative debate, the Delaware Healthcare Association supported the bill’s patient-safety goals but took a neutral position because of concerns about placing additional clinical requirements into state law.
The association said Delaware hospitals already operate under federal emergency-care standards and other regulatory oversight and maintain protocols for responding to pregnant patients showing signs of labor.
It recommended that the state also collect and publish annual county-level information about births that occur while a patient is traveling to a hospital or unintentionally at home. Such reporting, the association said, could help determine whether inappropriate hospital discharges are occurring in Delaware.
The law’s unanimous passage suggests lawmakers ultimately viewed the additional planning requirements as a reasonable safeguard. Implementation will now determine how hospitals document transportation, identify backup facilities and incorporate the requirements into existing discharge procedures without unnecessarily delaying care.
TO GO BOX
Law: Senate Bill 301
What it does: Requires Delaware hospitals to create a documented discharge plan when a pregnant patient experiencing signs or symptoms of labor is sent home before delivery.
Required information: Clinical justification, aftercare instructions, travel assessment, reliable transportation and a backup labor and delivery facility.
Who oversees it: Delaware Department of Health and Social Services.
Delaware voters have multiple days to cast ballots before the Sept. 15 primary, providing greater flexibility and another opportunity to participate in decisions that often shape state and local government.
Early voting for Delaware’s 2026 primary election begins Wednesday, Sept. 2, and continues through Sunday, Sept. 13, with a two-day pause for the Labor Day holiday.
Unlike absentee voting, voters do not need to provide a reason for voting early. The process is essentially the same as voting on Election Day: Election officers verify the voter’s eligibility, the voter signs the electronic pollbook and then casts a ballot on an accessible voting machine.
A Delaware voter may use any early-voting center in the county where the voter lives. Voters do not have to use their assigned Election Day polling place during early voting. Delaware Department of Elections
When can I vote early?
Dates
Hours
Sept. 2-5
7 a.m.-7 p.m.
Sept. 6-7
No early voting
Sept. 8
7 a.m.-7 p.m.
Sept. 9-13
11 a.m.-7 p.m.
The primary election will be held Tuesday, Sept. 15. Election Day polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Delaware primary-election information
Who can vote in the primary?
Delaware conducts closed primary elections:
Registered Democrats may vote in the Democratic primary.
Registered Republicans may vote in the Republican primary.
Unaffiliated voters and voters registered with minor parties generally may not participate in either major party’s primary.
Not every voter will have a contested race on the ballot.
The regular deadline to change political parties for this primary was May 29.
There is a special exception for some voters automatically registered through the Division of Motor Vehicles who were not previously given an opportunity to select a party. Those voters may affiliate with the Democratic or Republican Party through Sept. 15, including at an early-voting center. Delaware voter-registration guidance
Voters should use the state’s iVote portal to confirm their registration and review their voting information before leaving home.
Where can I vote early?
New Castle County
Appoquinimink State Service Center, 122 Silver Lake Road, Middletown
Claymont Community Center, 3301 Green St., Claymont
Department of Elections Warehouse, 220 Lisa Drive, New Castle
Hudson State Service Center, 501 Ogletown Road, Newark
The Delaware Contemporary, 200 S. Madison St., Wilmington
Wilmington Police Athletic League, 3707 N. Market St., Wilmington
Kent County
BPOE No. 1903 Elks Lodge, 200 S. Saulsbury Road, Dover
Frederica Senior Center, 216 Market St., Frederica
Harrington Parks and Recreation, 114 E. Liberty St., Harrington
Wyoming United Methodist Church, 216 Wyoming Mill Road, Dover
Sussex County
Department of Elections Warehouse, 542 S. Bedford St., Georgetown
Department of Elections Warehouse, 200 Allen St., Seaford
Ellendale Fire Hall, 302 Main St., Ellendale
Fairfield Inn by Marriott, 19113 Coastal Highway, Rehoboth Beach
Indian River Fire Company Station No. 2, 25375 Banks Road, Millsboro
Laurel Fire Hall, 205 W. 10th St., Laurel
Margaret Rollins Community Center, 101 Adams Ave., Lewes
Millville Community Center, 32517 Dukes Drive, Millville
Roxana Fire Hall, 35943 Zion Church Road, Frankford
The Fairfield Inn location is designated for the primary only. Voters should confirm locations before traveling through the state’s official early-voting list.
What should I bring?
Poll workers will ask voters to show identification, and presenting it generally speeds up check-in. However, Delaware does not require photo identification to vote in state and federal elections.
A voter whose name appears on the poll list but who does not present identification may complete an Affirmation of Voter Identity and then vote.
Before going to the polls:
Confirm your registration and party affiliation.
Review your sample ballot.
Select any early-voting center in your county.
Bring identification if available.
Leave candidate clothing, buttons and other campaign materials outside the voting room.
Voters may bring children age 17 or younger with them. Cellphone conversations are not permitted inside the polling place. Delaware voting FAQ
Why participation matters in Delaware
Primaries can be decisive
In districts where one party has a substantial registration advantage, the winner of that party’s primary may enter the general election as the strong favorite. That gives primary voters considerable influence over who ultimately holds office.
Local decisions affect everyday life
Many primary ballots include candidates for the General Assembly, county government and other offices responsible for decisions involving state spending, taxes, schools, land use, roads, housing, public safety and business regulation.
Smaller elections magnify each vote
Delaware is a small state, and legislative and county contests involve much smaller electorates than presidential races. A relatively modest number of votes can therefore determine a nomination.
Broader participation produces a more representative result
When only the most committed political voters participate, a small portion of eligible voters may choose the nominees presented to everyone in November. Greater turnout gives candidates and elected officials a clearer picture of the priorities of the broader community.
Early voting removes Election Day uncertainty
Work demands, family responsibilities, illness, traffic and weather can interfere with Election Day plans. Voting early gives residents several opportunities to cast a ballot while allowing Election Day polling places to serve voters who need or prefer to wait.
Looking ahead to November
Delaware’s general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Every eligible registered voter may participate regardless of party affiliation.
2026 Delaware primary: Tuesday, Sept. 15 Early voting: Sept. 2-13, excluding Sept. 6-7 Who may participate: Registered Democrats and Republicans voting in their respective party primaries Where: Any early-voting center in the voter’s county Identification: Requested, but photo ID is not required Check registration:ivote.de.gov Official information:elections.delaware.gov
In 
With the goldendoodle beside her during appointments, Lucy’s family began seeing a change. There were fewer tears, more smiles and a greater sense of calm during situations that previously had been filled with fear.
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