Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh told the House Financial Services Committee that the central bank has "no tolerance for persistently elevated inflation."

New York has become the first U.S. state to impose a moratorium on large new data centers, pausing construction for one year over concerns that AI-driven data center growth is raising utility bills, straining water supplies, and burdening communities. "As data center development threatens to hike up utility bills, deplete our natural resources, and create uncertainty for New Yorkers, it's my responsibility to take action and lead," said New York Governor Kathy Hochul. She will also pursue legislation to repeal sales tax exemptions for large data centers, Hochul added. Reuters reports: The construction ban will apply to data centers that use 50 megawatts or more of power, officials in the governor's office said. During the moratorium, the state's Department of Environmental Conservation will not issue any discretionary permits not already deemed complete, the governor's office said. Instead, Hochul directed state officials to develop a Generic Environmental Impact Statement to ensure that new data centers coming online are held to "consistent standards," as well as examine the potential environmental impacts of the construction and operation of data centers in the state. The ban will be lifted once the state finalizes those standards, according to Hochul's office.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Asked about the case of U.S. national Youlin Chen, China's foreign ministry said there was no "wrongful detention," but it did not deny the scientist was imprisoned.

Trump said Tuesday he "decided to replace" a 20% fee on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which he announced a day before, with trade and investment deals from Gulf states.

Building new data centers in New York will be paused for a year in order to allow state officials to establish guidelines protecting residents and the environment, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

Counter-terrorism police say that they are still working to establish the motive for the killing of the former government minister

In response to a question from Alec Shelbrooke (Con), Campbell said he was “totally unaware” not just of the wording of the Tory opposition day motion planned for tomorrow (see 1.04pm), but of the topic that it was going to cover. In a bid to convince MPs that this was not a lie, he said that he was standing at the despatch box and that MPs knew the importance of a minister “telling the absolute truth when they stand here”.

In the Commons, Alan Campbell, the leader of the house, has just announced there will be a change in parliamentary business tomorrow. Wednesday was set aside for an opposition day debate – a debate on a motion tabled by the Tories. Instead, there will be a general debate on the situation in Iran. There will also be a vote on the regulations banning support for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The government has a majority of more than 150 and it could not trust its MPs to vote the right way on that motion [delaying the recess], and it could not bear the idea of a new prime minister facing any scrutiny before September.

A prime minister, let me remind us all, who has been chosen by a coronation not a contest, with no known platform, almost no known policies, and no idea of his priorities or indeed his cabinet team.

More than 158,000 items of fake kit seized featuring World Cup semi-finalists England, France and Spain

More than 158,000 fake football strips have been seized in an operation targeting World Cup counterfeit kit and blocking criminals from trying to “cash in on fan demand”.

Edinburgh’s trading standards team confiscated 9 tonnes of Scotland, England and other nations’ fake kits, worth an estimated £5.5m.

US government says it wants to ‘systematically disable’ The Hague-based international criminal court

A spokesperson for the EU has pushed back against the Trump administration’s assertion that the international criminal court poses a threat to US sovereignty, a day after the US government said it would work to “systematically disable” a global tribunal that seeks to prosecute some of the world’s gravest crimes.

“We stand firm in our support for the international criminal court (ICC),” an EU spokesperson, Anouar El Anouni, said on Tuesday. “Attacks or threats against the court-elected officials, personnel or those cooperating with the court are simply not acceptable.”

Conservative justice and liberal colleague Elena Kagan testify about increased security budget amid rise in threats against judges

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Konstantin Sokolov, a Russian-born private equity investor in Chicago, will serve as chairman of a new state department enterprise fund overseeing more than $200m designated for a central Asia trade corridor, including investments in transportation, energy infrastructure and critical minerals, the Guardian has learned.

The state department confirmed his appointment on Friday.

Neither of the victims of the ICE shootings in Maine or Texas were the target of enforcement operations, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Graham had carried the reputation as the toughest Russia hawk in Washington since the 2018 death of his close friend and Senate ally John McCain.

Shortly before Maya "May" Millete vanished, authorities say her husband Larry messaged a spellcaster, "Please punish May and incapacitate her enough so she can't leave the house."

Exclusive: Emmanuel Macron honours outgoing prime minister for leadership role in supporting Ukraine

Keir Starmer has become the first UK prime minister to be presented with the Légion d’honneur by a French president, in recognition of his work with France on the security of Europe.

Emmanuel Macron awarded the historic honour to Starmer for his leadership in setting up the coalition of the willing – a group of countries chaired by France and the UK that have pledged to support Ukraine – at a critical moment for Europe in early 2025.

A California mother disappears without a trace – did her husband try to have a hex put on her so she wouldn't leave him?

The reported infections are the latest in a series of health concerns at the federal immigration jail in Aurora

At least 12 people detained at a federal immigration jail in Colorado have contracted tuberculosis in recent days, according to testimony from inside the facility where dozens of others have reportedly been placed in quarantine.

Those affected by the outbreak are also being made to endure their isolation without air conditioning, one detainee who has been at the facility in Aurora since December told the Guardian, through his partner, in a telephone call on Monday afternoon.

US president claims shipping route is open for all except Iranian ships after another night of strikes on Iran

• US launches third night of strikes on Iran as Trump announces Hormuz blockade

Resurgent oil and fuel prices could cement a fourth interest rate rise in Australia this year if Donald Trump’s renewed conflict with Iran is not resolved within a week, economists warn.

US missile strikes on Iran and Trump’s announcement of a new maritime blockade has lifted oil prices to their highest point in the month since the two countries agreed to a peace deal.

Skeleton judged to be one of the largest and most complete ever unearthed was excavated on a ranch in South Dakota

A vast, fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed Gus sold at Sotheby’s in New York on Tuesday for $50.1m with fees (£37.4m) to a phone bidder – making it the most valuable dinosaur fossil sold at auction.

It also sold well above a pre-sale estimate of $20m to $30m (£15m to £22.4m).

An ammunition plant in Mesquite, Texas, has not produced any metal projectile parts after the Army spent $469 million to establish the facility.

Rapper paid JM Burkman & Associates $600,000 to push for president’s pardon but firm says no partial refund promised

Louisiana rapper Boosie Badazz is reportedly looking to claw back $300,000 from a firm of Washington DC lobbyists after they failed to secure a Donald Trump pardon that he hired them to pursue over his conviction on charges of possessing a loaded weapon at music video shooting in 2023.

Boosie – whose legal name is Torence Hatch and who hails from his home state’s capital of Baton Rouge – paid JM Burkman & Associates $600,000 in 2025 to advance his push for a pardon from the US president, according to a report on Monday from Notus, which covers the federal government.

Investigators say her Larry Millete contacted spellcasters to try to put a hex on his wife Maya so she wouldn't leave him.

Sharing a bank account could mean sharing exposure to a partner's unpaid debts. How does that work, though?

Funds released from escrow account after Trump’s efforts to block sexual abuse and defamation award fail

A Manhattan federal court has released more than $5.6m that Donald Trump owes E Jean Carroll in her successful 2023 sexual abuse and defamation trial against him, records reveal.

The disbursement, made public in a 14 July entry on Carroll’s case docket, indicates that the funds were released by a court-held account on 9 July – one day after judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the release of this money.

Trump, who has been fighting against the release of this money since June after the supreme court on 29 June denied his request to hear his appeal, has denied wrongdoing.

“Three years ago, a unanimous nine-person jury found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E Jean Carroll. Today, we are pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict,” Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s lead lawyer, said in a statement.

A jury concluded in 2023 that Trump should pay Carroll $5 million in damages.

United Airlines has a solution to passengers squabbling over who gets the armrest: empty middle seats.

Almost 6,000 young men apply to be excluded on moral or religious grounds despite ‘conscription lite’ policy

The number of young men applying to be conscientious objectors and refuse armed military service in Germany has risen sharply this year, undermining a drive by Berlin to create Europe’s strongest conventional army and deter the Russian threat.

More people had applied to exclude themselves from service on religious or moral grounds in the first half of 2026 than in the whole of last year, according to figures provided by the government on Tuesday.

• Six-time Olympic medalist resumes training

• Tokyo all-around champion targets LA 2028

• Latest Paris gold medalist planning comeback

Suni Lee is making a run at a third Olympics.

The America gymnastics star announced she is returning to the sport on Tuesday, about two years out from the Los Angeles Games.

Chair criticises use of ‘VIP lane’ to prioritise PPE contracts for companies with Tory connections in damning report

• ‘Catastrophic failure’: UK Covid families welcome inquiry findings on PPE

Boris Johnson’s government wasted £10bn of public money because of the flawed way it went about buying personal protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic, an official inquiry has concluded.

The Covid-19 inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, also criticised the then Conservative government’s controversial “VIP lane”, which gave high priority for PPE contracts to companies with political connections to the Tories.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: StubHub and its CEO, Eric Baker, have been hit with a proposed $5-million class-action lawsuit in the United States over the company's ties to large-scale scalpers -- connections reported by CBC News last week. The suit, filed Monday by New York ticket buyer Louis Sanquini, alleges deceptive practices and fraudulent misrepresentation over StubHub's promoting itself as a "marketplace for fans to buy and sell tickets." The online ticket resale giant has faced a storm of customer complaints after cancelling thousands of World Cup tickets. The company has repeatedly said it is simply a technology platform that does not buy, sell or possess tickets. However, CBC reported last week that Baker disclosed in recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that he runs Andro Capital, a hedge fund that engages in large-scale resale of millions of dollars' worth of sports and concert tickets on the StubHub resale platform. Sanquini filed the proposed class action in the Southern District of New York, arguing consumers were kept in the dark and that he believed StubHub was a "neutral" marketplace. Lead counsel Kevin Steinberg told CBC News in an emailed statement that "consumers deserve honesty and transparency." A CBC investigation found that the CEO of online ticket reseller StubHub owns and manages a hedge fund that scalps millions of dollars of its own tickets. "While what StubHub is alleged to have engaged in and perpetrated upon millions of patrons is unfathomable, this case is about transparency and consumer trust. If companies make representations to the public, consumers are entitled to expect that those representations are complete and accurate," he said. The claim reads: "Defendants' failure to disclose this conflict of interest, while affirmatively marketing StubHub as a fan-to-fan marketplace, deceived Plaintiff and the Class and caused them to pay prices, and accept terms, they would not have accepted had the truth been known." Sanquini argues that had he known StubHub's CEO held a financial interest and that the company was helping finance professional resellers, he would never have used the resale site to buy tickets to see rock band Kiss in 2023 or to attend a New York Red Bulls-New York City FC Major League Soccer match in 2024.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Industry insiders say "there is no legal basis" for Trump to impose a 20% fee on cargo transiting the Strait of Hormuz, which could cost tens of millions of dollars per ship.

Defendant pleads guilty to crimes over the course of 12 years, some of which also involved ‘a person unknown’

A man has been told he faces a possible life sentence after pleading guilty to 32 sexual offences against his girlfriend while she was allegedly drugged or asleep, including some attacks he recorded.

The defendant, aged in his 40s, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Northampton crown court on Tuesday where he admitted the offences, which happened over more than a decade between January 2014 and September last year.

U.S. soccer star Folarin Balogun told "CBS Mornings" he "was in shock" when he received a red card in a World Cup match and discussed FIFA's decision to lift the one-game ban.

Campaigners feel vindicated by some of report’s conclusions but are unconvinced by its verdict on ‘VIP lane’

• Johnson government wasted £10bn on PPE, Covid inquiry finds

In the slightly incongruous setting of south London’s splendid Kia Oval cricket stadium, Naomi Fulop gathered her strength to give the assembled British media her response to the damning findings of Heather Hallett’s latest Covid inquiry report.

Reading a statement from her mobile phone, her voice quivering just a little, as fellow members of the Covid Bereaved Families for Justice (CBFFJ) group stood alongside her, Fulop recalled the terrible time when her mother died from coronavirus in January 2021. It was in the second lethal wave of the pandemic, a vaccine still a far-off aspiration, during the third national lockdown. Like so many other people, Fulop believes her mother died because those caring for her did not have adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), a belief supported by the findings of Lady Hallett, a former court of appeal judge.

Governor Kathy Hochul issued an executive order enacting a moratorium on the large, resource-intensive AI facilities

New York became the first US state to enact a moratorium on new datacenters on Tuesday.

Governor Kathy Hochul issued an executive order mandating a one-year statewide pause on the large facilities used to power artificial intelligence products.

His facial hair fixation might seem perplexing – but it is part of an aestheticisation of politics that is central to the Trump project

The year is 2018 and Pete Hegseth has just come back from his summer holidays. Hegseth, who is still just a Fox News host, not a defense secretary keen on ordering possible war crimes, has grown a nice little beard during his time off. He is hoping his bosses at Fox might let him keep the facial hair, even if it’s just the moustache. He seems to think it makes him look quite dapper. Alas, some of his viewers disagree.

A woman called Patti writes in to Fox & Friends urging him to get that “fur” off his face. A viewer called Mary bemoans the fact that “all American cute” Pete now looks “awful”. People on the internet joke that he looks like a duck hunter. And then a final humiliation: Hegseth’s co-hosts cackle as his vacation beard is lopped off by a barber live on daytime TV. “A man without a beard is like a lion without a mane,” a Fox fan called Michael commiserates. “That’s how I feel!” Hegseth wails.

U.S. health officials are concerned about the spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Lower gasoline prices slowed inflation in June, though many household costs remained stubbornly high.

Oil prices hit four-week highs and European shares fall after fresh US-Iran attacks and blockade on Iranian shipping

Crude oil prices have hit their highest levels in four weeks, as Washington and Tehran traded attacks and the US reimposed a naval blockade of Iran.

Brent crude has jumped $3.79 a barrel to $87.08 a barrel, a 4.55% increase, the highest since 12 June, before the ceasefire. The US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to end the conflict on 17 June and engaged in negotiations for a permanent peace deal.

What we think is that the peak of the escalation is behind us, but there are upside risks to oil prices if these disruptions continue and that will keep prices in the $85-$90 range.

But I would have ‌added the very strong caveat to that it seems to me ‌that the situation remained unstable, and the ceasefire was fragile.

Money from rail selloff could help solve Ohio city’s most pressing problems but political mistrust dictates how profits can be used

Cincinnati, Ohio’s City of Seven Hills, has been drawing residents in from its suburbs – and, increasingly, other large cities – for years now. The only flat thing in sight is the housing supply.

“Our city’s growing,” Aftab Pureval, Cincinnati’s mayor, said in an interview. “For the first time in a generation, our population is growing.”

US refusal to renew USMCA trade deal brings uncertainty for Mexico. But the treaty is far from dead Expert comment LToremark 14 July 2026

The US–Mexico–Canada agreement now faces a decade of annual reviews. But the fact that the treaty will remain in place during negotiations is the most important outcome.

On 1 July, the US announced it would not renew the US–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) free trade deal in its current form. Mexico and Canada had each confirmed that they wished to extend the agreement for a further 16-year term, but the US declined. Its trade representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, said Washington would keep working with Mexico and Canada to address the agreement’s shortcomings and the trade imbalances with both. Crucially, the USMCA stays in effect while those matters are worked through. 

The USMCA will now be reviewed annually until 2036. But the Trump administration’s volatile policies intertwining trade and security matters will add to the complexity of these negotiations – especially for Mexico.

US–Mexico trade: from NAFTA to USMCA to tariff uncertainty

The USMCA replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in place between 1994 and 2020. US president Donald Trump referred to NAFTA as the ‘worst trade deal ever’, and during his first term he set out to replace it with a new deal. After three years of negotiations, the USMCA came into effect in 2020.

But since Trump returned to the White House last year, things have changed. There is renewed focus on industrial policy and domestic manufacturing, exacerbated commercial tensions with China, and use of tariffs to bring about improvements in non-trade areas such as national security. In this context, trade and diplomatic relations between the US and Mexico have become increasingly rocky and volatile. 

Related work

Despite Trump’s threats, Mexico is of fundamental importance to the US economy

On ‘Liberation Day’ on 2 April 2025, Trump announced tariffs of 25 per cent on non-USMCA-compliant goods and 10 per cent on non-compliant energy against Mexico for its failure to stop flows of illegal migration and drugs across the border. Since then, Mexican officials have engaged in a series of negotiations, both through diplomatic and back channels, to achieve three main goals: preserve the free trade framework, cancel or reduce new tariffs and give as much certainty as possible to the future of the USMCA. 

So far, Mexico has been relatively successful in achieving these aims: most of the conversations have revolved not around the cancellation of the agreement – as with NAFTA – but rather around a renegotiation. Although different from the ideal outcome stated in the treaty – a ‘simple’ revision – it is not as existentially damaging as an abolition. 

Although US tariffs on Mexico are higher than before Donald Trump’s second term, they are far more competitive than those facing the rest of the world. Around 88 per cent of Mexican exports to the US enter duty-free under the USMCA. As a result, even though the headline rates on some sectors are steep – such as 25 per cent on steel and aluminium – the weighted-average effective tariff on Mexican exports is only about 3.4 per cent.  By way of comparison, the average effective tariff on Chinese exports to the US now stands at about 22 per cent, while comparable economies such as India and Brazil face 8.4 per cent and 10.6 per cent respectively.

Mexico is also the main trading partner of the US and ranks between the first and third largest trading partner for 36 out of the 50 states, while the US accounts for roughly 80 per cent of Mexican exports. Meanwhile, migration flows have been significantly reduced from more than 2 million encounters reported by US authorities in 2022 to 237,538 in 2025, while US fentanyl deaths were halved during the same period, giving the US grounds to suspend new tariffs. 

Mexico therefore retains a clear comparative advantage – preserving it should be the cornerstone of its strategy when negotiating the future of the USMCA. 

Negotiating the future of the USMCA

Negotiations between the US and its two treaty partners have thus far been predominantly bilateral, although both Mexico and Canada are pushing for more trilateral talks. 

For Mexico, given the extreme uncertainty that characterizes US actions towards Mexico, the government should make every effort to truly understand US priorities and rationale. Understanding the motivations behind Washington’s actions will help determine Mexico’s room for manoeuvre in the negotiations. President Claudia Sheinbaum has also stressed the need to ‘keep a cool head’ when navigating tensions with US. Mexican officials must understand Washington’s concerns in relation to trade deficits and how Mexico is positioned in that rhetoric – but they must also stress Mexico’s stance of cooperation without subordination. Having as much clarity as possible will help distinguish noise from reality in the years of negotiations ahead. 

The US refusing to renew the USMCA was a disappointing but expected outcome, given the new context in which no country is exempt from Trump’s tariffs – not even treaty partners. The fact that the treaty will remain in place during the renegotiation is hugely significant in its own right. What is up for negotiation is for how long, what kind of treaty, and how often it is reviewed. 

The first point, the duration, was resolved in principle. The USMCA will remain in place for at least 10 more years, until 2036, unless the parties agree on something different in the coming years of negotiations. If the parties have not reached an agreement by 2036, the treaty will expire – although it seems unlikely this would be allowed to happen without something else in place given the importance of North American trade and economic integration. 

What kind of treaty it is will depend on the outcome of the negotiations. However, it is important to remember that there will still be tariffs – and markets know this. Mexico is likely to continue bilateral negotiations in which Washington presses for measures to narrow its trade deficit, raise US content in regional supply chains and tighten the rules of origin to curb trans-shipment, among other demands. Mexico, in turn, will push to broaden the USMCA tariff exemptions. The aim of its negotiators will be to confine tariffs to as few sectors as possible, and to keep them as low as possible. 

Trump’s Hormuz fees threat further undermines US credibility in the Gulf Expert comment jon.wallace 14 July 2026

International law does not permit any country to appoint itself ‘guardian’ of other states’ rights and demand payment. The only realistic solution is a return to negotiations.

On 13 July President Donald Trump appointed the United States the ‘Guardian’ of the Strait of Hormuz. The US would ensure passage through the Strait, he announced, but would ‘as a matter of FAIRNESS’ demand a payment of 20 per cent of the value of the cargo carried by each passing vessel. 

This could be up to $30 million per passage for a large oil tanker – an exorbitant amount and 15 times the sum Iran has reportedly demanded in tolls. It would be a reimbursement ‘for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the world,’ Trump added.

The president matched this announcement in the same post by re-imposing the US blockade of Iranian vessels and maritime traffic destined for Iran. In response, Iran confirmed that it would close the Strait again. In essence, this means that shipping has now returned to the status it had before the ceasefire agreed by the US and Iran in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of 17 June.

Of course, international law does not allow any country, however powerful it may be, to appoint itself ‘guardian’ of the rights of all other states, and demand payment for such unsolicited protection. And the president’s move contradicts the statements of his senior officials, undermining US credibility in the region. Meanwhile the only viable solution to restoring shipping in the Strait of Hormuz remains a negotiated settlement.

Negotiations for control of the Strait

In the MoU, the US surprisingly conceded that Iran would restore freedom of navigation without charge ‘for 60 days only’. Afterwards, the MoU stated, Iran and Oman would ‘define the future administration and maritime services’ in relation to the Strait.

The MoU referred to international law and the interest of other Gulf states. But it also emphasized the ‘sovereign rights of coastal states in the Strait of Hormuz.’ Iran might be forgiven for thinking that by agreeing to this language, the US had caved in to its demand for control over the Strait. It has certainly behaved as if it does.

It is true, every coastal state enjoys sovereign rights over its territorial seas up to 12 nautical miles from its coast. However, where a strait used for international navigation traverses the territorial sea of any country, that state must grant unhindered passage to shipping of all flag states. There is therefore no room in international law for Iran’s attempts to extract tolls, or for a similar attempt by the White House. 

Routes through the Strait

Iran persists in its claim to have moved the Strait’s sea lanes northwards, closer to its coastline and falling still further within its territorial waters.

But the original routing through the middle of the Strait was agreed as far back as 1966 with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and cannot simply be changed by one state at the expense of all shipping nations.

The US and Oman, with the involvement of the IMO, responded to Iran’s claim by moving the sea lane southwards, hugging the Omani coast and mainly traversing its territorial waters. Iran has tried to oppose this US attempt  to reduce its power over passage by mounting occasional missile and drone attacks against shipping seeking to use the US/ Omani route.

Last week, Oman hosted negotiations on this issue, supported by mediation from Qatar and others and legal drafting from Europe. A compromise would have been obvious: to return to the approved, original sea lane towards the middle of the Strait.

To facilitate this, experts supporting the negotiations proposed a compromise on the ‘Malacca Strait model.’ In that busy shipping route, coastal states do not collect tolls merely for passage. Instead, a reasonable fee is collected for pilotage and perhaps the provision of navigational aids and other services, with the approval of the affected maritime states.

Control over this arrangement could be exercised by a joint Iranian and Omani body, perhaps with some international representation. It would ensure that the fees remain proportionate to the services rendered and that the scheme is administered without discrimination, for instance against ‘hostile flag-states,’ which might include Israel or the US. 

However, Iran remained intransigent in the negotiations, and no agreement was reached.

Trump’s fees

President Trump’s new proposal to levy vast and disproportionate fees on shipping appears as if the US seeks  to make money out of an emergency suffered by others, including those desperate for the importation of oil and fertilizers. In that respect it is reminiscent of the minerals agreement pressed onto Ukraine last year. 

The president’s fees announcement was immediately opposed by the IMO, which emphasized that it opposes all charging of mandatory fees for passage through straits used for international navigation. Trump’s reference to the fact that Iran started this crisis by demanding tolls is not relevant. The fact that someone observes another stealing a car does not authorize that observer to steal one. Ultimately this crisis was brought about by the US and Israeli attack on Iran in February. 

The Trump scheme is not realistic and will be resisted. It also further undermines the White House’s diplomacy in the Gulf. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in June, referencing international law, that no toll would be allowed for passage through the Strait. Trump’s governance by Truth Social has undercut this position, highlighting how capricious the US president remains and how little can be invested in the statements of his most senior diplomatic officials. Seeking to impose fees further damages maritime freedoms – but it also further erodes US credibility.

Rowing back

It is now expected that US Central Command (CENTCOM), the US military command responsible for the Gulf region, will have to row back on the president’s statement and announce that the proposed massive charge will be voluntary – and would only apply to ships requesting US convoying and air cover through the southern route. Perhaps certain flag states might be asked to contribute some voluntary funds to the US effort. Asian states and Europe might come under pressure to contribute.

Related work

Why demining the Strait of Hormuz will be difficult – but also presents an opportunity

Regardless, it is not clear that many shipowners will expose vessels worth up to $200 million and their crews to the risk of an opposed passage of the Strait, hugging the Omani coast under US naval and aerial protection. Would the US offer a guarantee of safe passage and insurance against Iranian attack in exchange for payment of the protection charge? 

Even disregarding the risk, a charge of anything like 20 per cent of the value of the cargo would not be a commercially viable proposition for the shipowners and their clients. 

The only realistic approach must lie in the resumption of negotiations to regulate shipping through the Strait. Other countries such as China could make a significant contribution by finally applying pressure in favour of restoring the maritime freedoms on which they also depend. 

There can be no Iranian control of passage or tolls. But there can be a face-saving arrangement for limited fees charged in proportion to expenses made in assuring safety of navigation, protection against environmental damage, and other reasonable expenses. And Europe, with leadership from the UK, can take a role in securing freedom of navigation once a deal is finally done – without seeking to impose a charge upon the world in consequence.

Much of the U.S. is facing either extreme heat or excessive rainfall and potential flooding on Tuesday. Here's where the greatest threats are expected.

Biden sued ex-CEO of Overstock.com Patrick Byrne over claim that Biden sought bribe from Iran government in 2021

Hunter Biden says he is “grateful that the rule of law prevailed” in a defamation lawsuit that recently netted him a judgment of $1.7m in punitive damages from the former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.

Biden made that comment in a social media post that served as his first comments about the judgment, which a federal judge in California handed down on Friday.

Conviction over hiring by socialist-led council is one of a series of corruption claims facing Pedro Sánchez’s family

The brother of Spain’s prime minister has been banned from holding public office for nine years after being found guilty of administrative misconduct relating to his hiring by a socialist-led council in the south-western region of Extremadura nine years ago.

Corruption allegations involving Pedro Sánchez’s family, his government and his Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) have triggered repeated opposition calls for a snap general election. All the accused have denied wrongdoing.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho, July 14, 2026 — For the first time, researchers from Idaho National Laboratory, the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Purdue University used a geographically distributed control system to remotely and automatically adjust the power of a research reactor in real time, with the reactor’s own safety systems retaining full control throughout.

Using INL’s high performance computing systems, researchers remotely adjusted the power of a Purdue University research reactor in real time for the first time. Credit: INL.

Working with PUR1, a low-power research reactor at Purdue, the team first demonstrated remote power adjustments through an automatic adjustment system called a digital control loop, then made the loop further autonomous using a reinforcement learning model running in software that simulates how physical forces interact within the reactor. The demonstration linked three sites operating together in real time: high-performance computing systems in Idaho, the PUR1 reactor in Indiana, and a Microsoft Azure cloud environment in Virginia.

“Researching autonomous operations is essential to the future of nuclear energy; it’s a key component of making future nuclear power plants safer, more efficient, and more reliable,” said Chris Ritter, Scientific Computing and AI division director at INL. “The idea is that if you can model a reactor with enough fidelity, you can eventually let AI safely assist in operating it. The safety case is what makes this real: the system analyzes, predicts, and adjusts, but the reactor’s own safety controls always have the final say in this experiment.”

During this demonstration, the team calculated and delivered instructions for the movement of an auxiliary control rod through INL’s DeepLynx, an advanced data and control platform, using cloud-based connectivity with the PUR1 digital twin, and INL high-performance computing systems. From Idaho Falls, Idaho, the team fine-tuned reactor power to minimize small power fluctuations and maintained steady reactor operation. The team demonstrated these live autonomous reactor adjustments without any manual control-rod manipulation on site.

“This advancement greatly expands the kinds of experiments and control system research we can perform at PUR1,” said Stylianos Chatzidakis, assistant professor in the School of Nuclear Engineering and associate reactor director of PUR1 at Purdue. “Collaborations with national laboratories strengthen our ability to explore innovative reactor technologies and train the next generation of nuclear engineers.”

This milestone builds on digital twin technology originally demonstrated in 2023 and reactor secure communications demonstrated in 2025. Funded through the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, this system analyzes conditions, predicts outcomes and adjusts autonomously, acting as a smart bridge that links virtual models to physical systems without overriding essential safety protections. This approach aligns with Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements by operating alongside, not in place of, the reactor’s safety control systems.

“Nuclear energy technology is being reimagined from all angles. This platform will play a key role in understanding and optimizing the details of integrating these emerging designs with the applications that are building the backbone of our economy,” said Timothy Grunloh, associate director of the Illinois Nuclear Power Institute at the University of Illinois.

“Our capabilities enable organizations to harness advanced technologies, especially AI, to drive real, scalable change across the energy sector and other high impact industries,” said Microsoft Senior Director for U.S. Federal AI Nelli Babayan. “We’re unifying data, accelerating innovation and delivering more efficient, sustainable solutions.”

The demonstration shows how digital infrastructure can support advanced nuclear science and technology. Remote and autonomous operation of the PUR1 reactor directly advances the Genesis Mission challenge Delivering Nuclear Energy that is Faster, Safer, Cheaper, the Department of Energy’s national effort to use AI to accelerate nuclear energy design, licensing, manufacturing, construction, and operation with human-in-the-loop workflows.

About University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is one of the world’s top-ranked institutions and a globally recognized leader in engineering and computing education, research and public engagement. With a diverse, tight-knit community of faculty, students and alumni, Grainger Engineering sets the standard for excellence in engineering and computing, driving innovation in the economy and bringing revolutionary ideas to the world. Through robust research and discovery, our faculty, staff, students and alumni are changing our world and making advances once only dreamed about, including the MRI, LED, ILIAC, Mosaic, YouTube, PayPal, flexible electronics, electric machinery, miniature batteries, imaging the black hole and flight on Mars. The world’s brightest minds from The Grainger College of Engineering tackle today’s toughest challenges. And they are building a better, cooler, safer tomorrow. Visit the Grainger Engineering website for more information.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.

About Idaho National Laboratory

Battelle Energy Alliance manages INL for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. INL is the nation’s center for nuclear energy research and development, and also performs research in each of DOE’s strategic goal areas: energy, national security, science and the environment. For more information, visit www.inl.gov.

Source: INL

The post INL Links HPC, AI and Digital Twin to Control Research Reactor Remotely appeared first on HPCwire.

LEIXLIP, Ireland, July 13, 2026 — Intel has announced a €5 billion ($5.7 billion) capital investment at its Leixlip campus in Ireland, marking the next phase in the site’s capacity expansion.

Global demand for AI and high-performance computing is driving the need for advanced silicon to power AI Factories, and Intel is scaling capacity in Ireland to deliver Intel Xeon 6 and next gen Intel Xeon built on its Intel 3 node. This strategic investment expands current production output, advances research and development activities and utilizes capacity across existing cleanroom space, strengthening Europe’s semiconductor supply chain and serving industry need.

Investment is expected to create permanent high-tech jobs and engage specialized tradespeople, while expanding leading-edge manufacturing capacity in Ireland. Credit: Intel.

The expansion involves upgrading existing fabrication facilities and the installation of leading-edge manufacturing equipment. Key infrastructure enhancements include the expansion of the automated track system to integrate disparate campus modules into a singular, high-velocity production environment.

The execution of this €5 billion capital expenditure program began earlier this year. This project is expected to engage specialized tradespeople across construction and equipment install, in addition to full-time high-tech jobs at Intel.

Naga Chandrasekaran, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology and Operations Officer and General Manager of Intel Foundry said, “This €5 billion investment represents a definitive commitment to maximize capacity at our Leixlip campus and increase what we can deliver to Intel Foundry customers.”

“By investing in our existing fabs with state-of-the-art technology and installing cutting-edge tools, we are not just increasing output of critical products like Xeon 6 and next gen Intel Xeon processors built on Intel 3, we are ensuring that Ireland remains at the forefront of the world’s most advanced manufacturing ecosystems, while strengthening the region’s role in the global technology landscape.”

This commitment supports a key pillar to grow and strengthen Ireland’s semiconductor ecosystem, positioning Ireland as a leading European manufacturing hub. It further serves as a critical contribution to the European Union’s Tech-Sovereignty ambitions, facilitating a resilient, domestic supply of leading-edge processors.

Intel has invested more than €30 billion in Ireland since establishing operations in 1989, with the Leixlip campus serving as one of the company’s most advanced manufacturing facilities. The site employs 4,900 people and has been at the forefront of semiconductor innovation, contributing significantly to Ireland’s reputation as a global technology hub.

Welcoming the announcement, An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin T.D. said: “Intel’s latest multi-billion-euro investment in Leixlip is a powerful vote of confidence in Ireland, our skills base and our position at the heart of Europe’s most advanced manufacturing ecosystem. At a time of rapid technological change and global competition, this expansion strengthens Ireland’s role in securing resilient semiconductor supply chains and reinforces our ambition to remain a global leader in innovation, productivity and sustainable economic growth.”

IDA Ireland CEO Michael Lohan said: “Intel is one of Ireland’s longest standing and most strategically important investors. This project demonstrates the value of Ireland’s skilled workforce, innovation ecosystem and stable business environment, while reinforcing Ireland’s leadership in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, supporting both European competitiveness and resilient global supply chains.”

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.

Source: Intel

The post Intel Invests €5B to Expand Manufacturing in Europe appeared first on HPCwire.

US hits targets in port cities of Bushehr and Bandar Abbas while Iran attacks two tankers in strait of Hormuz

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

The US launched strikes on Iran for a third day and Iran retaliated with strikes on US allies and tankers, hours after Donald Trump said the US would take control of the strait of Hormuz and charge a toll to ships for safe passage.

The US military said its five-hour operation early on Tuesday hit targets across Iran, including in the port cities of Bushehr and Bandar Abbas. It shared videos of strikes that it said were meant to “degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping”.

Witnesses and officials have offered differing accounts of the shooting as questions remain

The man killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Maine on Monday has been identified as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, according to local news outlets.

An immigration agent shot and killed the 26-year-old Colombian man on Monday morning in Biddeford, Maine.

Recent strikes have sent oil prices climbing again, with average gas price per gallon up by 70 cents on last year

Inflation cooled to an annual rate of 3.5% in June as the brief US-Iran ceasefire, which has since ended, brought energy prices down, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The consumer price index (CPI), which measures a basket of goods and services, has been elevated since the start of the war, largely because of higher energy prices. After mostly staying under 3% since mid-2024, CPI reached a three-year high of 4.2% in May – up from 2.4% in February. Month-over-month, CPI fell 0.8% in June, the largest one-month decrease since April 2020.

Bid to end clock-changing has bipartisan support, including the backing of Trump and some Democratic co-sponsors

A bill to end the practice of changing clocks twice a year and make daylight saving time permanent passed a key committee in the US House of Representatives, setting it up for a potential full vote of the chamber.

The bid to end clock-changing, dubbed the Sunshine Protection Act, has bipartisan support, including the backing of Donald Trump and some Democratic co-sponsors.

UK fears a ‘triple whammy’: oversized investment in AI stocks, slower adoption of AI than predicted and the breakneck pace of AI’s development

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian. Today, we’re discussing the UK’s difficult position in the AI race, new doubts over OpenAI’s path toward a trillion-dollar stock market debut and the changes to IRL tech reporting in the age of AI.

My patients use ChatGPT for therapy. Now I use it too | Sarah Darghouth | The Guardian

Chasing new skills, going back to basics and pushing for collective action: how software engineers are adapting to AI

BROOMFIELD, Colo. and CAMBRIDGE, England, July 14, 2026 — Quantinuum Inc., Rolls-Royce, Riverlane and EPCC, the UK National Supercomputing Centre based at the University of Edinburgh, today announced an agreement to explore the quantum computing capabilities needed in future industrial workflows, such as gas turbine design.

Under the agreement, Quantinuum will provide access to its quantum systems and software environment; Rolls-Royce will contribute industrial design use cases and domain expertise; Riverlane will contribute quantum error correction and algorithmic expertise; and EPCC will contribute supercomputing expertise and hybrid workflow integration.

Complex fluid dynamics simulations are central to gas turbine design, but they can require substantial computing resources as models become more detailed. In what is expected to be a multi-year collaboration, the partners will explore how fault-tolerant quantum computers could work alongside supercomputers to address this bottleneck, and accurately model fluid dynamics inside gas turbines.

“The computing demands of simulating complex fluid dynamics are a major challenge in industrial design, and exploring how quantum computing can complement today’s supercomputers is an important step toward addressing them,” said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President and CEO of Quantinuum. “This collaboration will help develop and test the hybrid quantum-classical algorithms needed for future industrial applications.”

The collaborators plan to test key computational building blocks for industrially relevant quantum algorithms on Quantinuum’s Helios quantum computer and assess how these could scale on planned future systems, such as Sol and Apollo.

This project builds on prior collaborations between Rolls-Royce, Riverlane and EPCC that laid the foundations for understanding key algorithmic, error correction and data requirements for tackling fluid dynamic simulations with commercial quantum computers.

“We have been developing and improving algorithms for hybrid fault-tolerant applications for almost five years with Riverlane, using classical emulators in collaboration with EPCC. This agreement marks the start of an exciting new phase where we work together to explore their implementations on Quantinuum’s hardware,” said Leigh Lapworth, Fellow in Computational Science at Rolls-Royce. “Applications development is a multi-year activity and if we want to be in a position to benefit from teraQuOp devices, we have to start now, co-developing the algorithms, hardware and software.”

“Riverlane specialises in quantum error correction (QEC), as the critical technology that will ultimately unlock large fault-tolerant quantum computing, and fault-tolerant applications for various industries,” said Steve Brierley, CEO and Founder of Riverlane. “Building on our work with Rolls-Royce and EPCC, collaborating with Quantinuum will help us explore how fault-tolerant quantum computing and hybrid quantum-HPC approaches can accelerate the path to industrial quantum computing.”

EPCC will contribute its expertise in high-performance computing, simulations and the software interfaces needed to connect quantum and classical systems. Its role includes exploring how different parts of an algorithm can be compiled, emulated and executed across classical and quantum resources, including pre- and post-processing steps required for hybrid compute workflows.

“Quantum computing will be most valuable when users can exploit it within a wider computing environment, and EPCC has been working towards hybrid HPC and quantum since my appointment as a Chancellor’s Fellow in 2023,” said Oliver Thomson Brown, Quantum Group lead at EPCC. “EPCC’s mission is to accelerate the effective use of novel computing across industry and academia, and this project is a natural fit with the goals of the UK’s first National Supercomputing Centre.”

The UK’s quantum computing mission aims to develop accessible, UK-based quantum computers capable of one trillion error-free operations, known as “teraQuOp” systems. The collaboration and its anticipated multi-year timeline support the UK Government’s quantum computing mission and reflect the strength and maturity of the UK’s quantum and advanced computing ecosystem in moving from foundational research toward industrially relevant hybrid applications.

About Quantinuum

Quantinuum is a leading quantum computing company offering a full-stack platform designed to make quantum computing deployable in real-world environments. The company has commercially deployed multiple generations of trapped-ion based quantum systems built on the well-established QCCD architecture, which it has implemented with novel designs and capabilities to achieve the industry’s highest accuracy levels based on average two-qubit gate fidelity.[2] 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.

Source: Quantinuum

The post Quantinuum, Rolls-Royce Lead UK Effort to Advance Hybrid Quantum-HPC Design Workflow appeared first on HPCwire.

ALBUQUERQUE, July 14, 2026 — Economic Development New Mexico’s Technology & Innovation Office (TIO) has awarded $1.2 million to six companies through the New Mexico Quantum Technologies Award, a competitive grant program that supports early-stage quantum and quantum-enabling technology companies growing operations in the state.

Credit: Shutterstock

The New Mexico Quantum Technologies Award provides grants of up to $200,000 to support early-stage quantum companies committed to growing in New Mexico. All six awardees must maintain operations in the state for at least two years beyond the grant period, with two companies establishing a New Mexico presence through the grant program.

“These awards build directly on the momentum in New Mexico’s quantum sector, which was recently recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium,” said Economic Development Cabinet Secretary Rob Black. “Each company we support strengthens New Mexico’s standing as one of the country’s premier destinations for quantum innovation.”

“New Mexico’s quantum sector is booming,” said TIO Director Nora Meyers Sackett. “From the Elevate Quantum Tech Hub to our partnership with DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative and investing in tomorrow’s quantum leaders, we’re creating the ecosystem companies need to innovate, grow, and choose New Mexico.”

The six companies receiving the New Mexico Quantum Technologies Awards are:

Bandelier Technologies $200,000

Bandelier Technologies is a Santa Fe-based quantum sensing company bridging the gap between breakthrough quantum science and real-world deployment, building quantum hardware systems and the AI models that unlock their operational potential. Working in close partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory through the NM Lab-Embedded Entrepreneur Program, Bandelier develops sensing and network intelligence platforms for defense, telecommunications, and critical infrastructure applications.

Conductor Quantum $200,000

Conductor Quantum is building AI software that operates and scales quantum computers. Its goal is quantum superintelligence: an AI agent that operates a quantum computer to make discoveries beyond the reach of the most gifted human minds. The company’s flagship product, Coda, is the natural language interface for quantum computing, enabling anyone or any agent to use a quantum computer. Coda is used today by employees at technology companies including NVIDIA and Arm. Based in San Francisco, the company will use this funding to expand operations into New Mexico.

Mesa Photonics $200,000

Mesa Photonics is a Santa Fe-based company developing a squeezed laser source for scientific and research applications. Its goal is to provide an innovative, turnkey system that features a highly refined form factor and an intuitive user interface. This ultrafast, spectrally broad system utilizes advanced optical detectors and closed-loop electronic control to enable seamless integration into early-stage quantum technology development.

Mesa Quantum $200,000

MesaQuantum Systems Inc. is a venture-backed company driving the commercialization of chip-scale quantum clocks and sensors engineered for volume manufacturing. Mesa Quantum develops quantum-optimized VCSELs (Q-VCSEL) that serve as photonic building blocks for next-generation quantum sensing and computing systems. With expertise drawn from Sandia and NIST national laboratories in vapor cell-based devices, Mesa Quantum’s vision is to make quantum clocks and sensors small enough and affordable enough for mass-market applications. Mesa Quantum was awarded the pilot Quantum Technologies Award in 2025 and will use this funding to build on work previously enabled by the state, including expanding its footprint in Albuquerque.

Photon Queue $200,000

Photon Queue Inc. builds quantum memory devices that quantum computers need to scale. The company’s novel free-space architecture stores photons by routing them through compact mirror arrangements, effectively placing the photons on a treadmill that holds them until they are needed. Operating at room temperature with no exotic infrastructure, Photon Queue’s devices deliver industry-leading performance that is accelerating the development of quantum computing. Based in Chicago, the company will use this funding to expand operations into New Mexico.

UbiQD $200,000

UbiQD is a New Mexico-based nanotechnology company that develops and manufactures quantum dots, nanoscale semiconductor materials with applications in agriculture, renewable energy, and advanced quantum photonics. Founded in Los Alamos and built on technology licensed from Los Alamos National Laboratory and MIT, UbiQD is a global leader in quantum dot manufacturing and is constructing a large-scale production facility in New Mexico to support growing demand for its products.

Source: New Mexico Economic Development Department

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Developed for the German Aerospace Center’s Quantum Computing Initiative (DLR QCI), Carina represents a compact, room-temperature foundation for future fault-tolerant quantum computing in data center environments

ENSCHEDE, Netherlands, July 14, 2026 — QuiX Quantum today announced Carina, the world’s first universal photonic quantum computing architecture designed for deployment in customer data center environments as an essential foundation for future fault-tolerant systems.

Developed as part of the Universal Photonic Quantum Computer (UPQC) project of the DLR Quantum Computing Initiative (DLR QCI), funded by the German Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space, Carina brings together key building blocks for universal quantum computing using single photons as physical qubits, and integrates the critical technologies required for measurement-based photonic quantum computing into a single stack. The compact, room-temperature system is designed to work seamlessly with classical high-performance computing, AI and data center infrastructure to prepare workflows and staff for upcoming utility-scale devices.

Unlike previous special-purpose photonic systems built around narrow computational models such as boson samplers, Carina is designed to implement a universal gate-set to perform any gate-based quantum algorithm. By combining photon generation, multiplexing, state generation, measurement, photonic assembly control and fast feed-forward control, Carina establishes the physical qubit foundation for the company’s next-generation Dedalo architecture and its path toward logical qubits.

“When Manny Knill, Raymond Laflamme and I published our linear optics quantum computing scheme in 2001, the central question was whether the probabilistic nature of photon-to-photon interactions could be tamed into something computationally universal. The answer was yes in principle — but the engineering path looked formidable,” said Prof. Gerard J. Milburn, University of Queensland. “What QuiX Quantum is showing with Carina and its measurement-based approach is that this path is not only tractable but navigable with integrated photonics. The combination of on-chip single-photon generation, feed-forward control and cluster-state generation in a system designed for deployment outside the laboratory is precisely the kind of milestone the field awaits. It moves the conversation from whether photonic quantum computing can be universal to how quickly it can be scaled.”

“Quantum photonics aims to bring quantum technologies to a broader audience by leveraging the remarkable capabilities of the semiconductor fabrication industry. The launch of Carina from QuiX marks an exciting milestone in this journey: the first system designed both to generate on-chip cluster states, the fundamental resource for measurement-based quantum computing, and for commercial deployment,” said Prof. Andrew G. White, University of Queensland. “To ensure robust and reliable operation, QuiX has integrated photon generation and detection, real-time feedforward, and control electronics into a platform designed for end users rather than exclusively for laboratory research. Congratulations to the whole QuiX team: I can’t wait to see what the next few years bring for photonic quantum computing.”

“Carina marks a major milestone for QuiX and the photonic quantum computing industry towards deploying utility-scale quantum systems at customer sites,” said Dr.-Ing. Stefan Hengesbach, CEO of QuiX Quantum. “The field has been split between systems that could be commercialized quickly but were not built for universal, fault-tolerant computing, and architectures with long-term scalability potential that remained difficult to deploy. Carina is bringing those two requirements together into a universal architecture for installation into real customer environments.”

Many quantum computing platforms still depend on highly specialized operating environments, including extensive cryogenic infrastructure, which can make deployment, maintenance and integration difficult. Carina addresses the practical requirements that quantum systems need to operate where real-world workloads currently run.

The full white paper is available here.

About QuiX Quantum

QuiX Quantum is a European photonic quantum computing company founded in Enschede, the Netherlands, in 2019. The company develops integrated photonic quantum computing hardware and describes its approach as full-stack and fabless, with systems designed for modularity, scalability, and compatibility with data center and HPC environments. QuiX Quantum has offices in the Netherlands and Germany and is developing universal photonic quantum computing systems based on its silicon nitride photonic technology.

Source: QuiX Quantum

The post QuiX Quantum Unveils Universal Photonic Quantum Computing Architecture appeared first on HPCwire.

LONDON and AUSTIN, Texas, July 14, 2026 — The Jane Goodall Institute USA and FormationQ today announced a landmark research partnership that will apply trapped-ions quantum computing by IonQ to one of the most enduring questions in behavioral ecology: why do some species engage in lethal intergroup violence while others live peacefully alongside their neighbors?

Launching on World Chimpanzee Day, which marks the 66th anniversary of Dr. Jane Goodall’s arrival at Gombe, Tanzania to begin her wild chimpanzee study, the two-year program builds on more than six decades of pioneering field research, bringing together advanced computational modeling, hybrid quantum-classical computing and behavioral ecology into a new state-of-the-art collaborative research framework.

The program, Ecology of War and Peace: Using Quantum-Enhanced Agent-Based Modelling to Explain Contrasting Intergroup Behaviour in Chimpanzees and Bonobos, will mark a first-of-its-kind application of quantum-enhanced computation to the study of ecology, evolution and behavior, representing a new chapter in the Jane Goodall Institute USA’s decades-long legacy of using innovative technologies to support long-term research, conservation and education.

The program will bring together JGI’s unparalleled scientific legacy, behavioral modeling developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota, FormationQ’s expertise in designing and operating applied programs and IonQ’s quantum computing platform.

At the center of the program is B3GET (Behaviour, Ecology, Genetics, Evolution and Tradeoffs), a sophisticated agent-based model in which virtual primates live, move, forage, reproduce and interact across artificial landscapes. Researchers can systematically vary ecological conditions including food distribution, home range size and group cohesion rules, to investigate how environmental factors influence patterns of cooperation and conflict over time.

Chimpanzees and bonobos are humanity’s two closest living relatives, yet they display strikingly different patterns of intergroup behavior. Jane Goodall famously observed chimpanzee warfare in the 1970s, in which chimpanzees engaged in organized, lethal inter-group conflict. Bonobos, however, are known to peacefully socialize between communities.

The answer in explaining this difference, researchers believe, lies in ecology: in the way food is distributed across the landscape, the size of the ranges each species must cover, and the moment-to-moment decisions individuals make about whether to travel alone or in groups. Decades of field research have provided extraordinary insights into these behaviors. However, understanding how numerous ecological variables interact across complex systems remains a significant challenge.

By combining advanced agent-based modeling with hybrid quantum-classical computational approaches, the program will investigate how quantum computing can help researchers explore this complex space in new ways and improve the calibration of large-scale behavioral models, thereby helping identify the ecological conditions that distinguish the lethal intergroup aggression of chimpanzees from the more peaceful coexistence of bonobos.

The project will also provide insights into how chimpanzees’ natural behavior connects to habitat and increased mortality. Both factors are essential to not only understand chimpanzees, but also better identify and protect habitats and model chimpanzee populations to develop more effective conservation strategies.

Dr. Lilian Pintea, Vice President of Conservation Science at the Jane Goodall Institute and Principal Investigator, said: “Dr. Jane Goodall spent over 65 years building the most comprehensive ongoing record of wild chimpanzees. That legacy of patient, rigorous observation is now meeting the frontier of quantum science. Understanding the ecological conditions that drive how chimpanzees interact with their habitats and neighbors is also relevant to understanding why populations thrive or decline, and where conservation action will matter most.

“This partnership embodies exactly what the Jane Goodall Institute’s scientific work stands for: strategically bringing the most powerful technology tools available to bear on the questions that matter most for chimpanzees, for conservation, and for our understanding of what it means to be human. This program is one of the last that Jane and I worked on together. Launching it today, on the 66th anniversary of her first day at Gombe, is deeply meaningful to me.”

Nada Hosking, Founder and CEO of FormationQ said: “This program starts with a profound scientific question, decades of extraordinary field research and a sophisticated model built to understand a deeply complex natural system. FormationQ’s role in this partnership is to bring those elements together with IonQ’s frontier quantum computing capabilities and build a research program around a question that has never before been approached in this way.

“We believe the real promise of quantum will emerge when world-leading domain expertise, data and models are connected to the technology in ways that allow researchers to ask new questions. There could be few more meaningful places to begin than with Jane Goodall’s extraordinary scientific legacy and what it can still teach us about nature, conservation and ourselves.”

About the Jane Goodall Institute

The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) is a global conservation organization founded in 1977 that advances Dr. Jane Goodall’s legacy in 30 offices around the world. The Jane Goodall Institute continues Jane’s vision of inspiring hope and transforming it into action through science driven, technology enabled programs focused on wildlife research and rehabilitation, community-led conservation, and youth engagement. Through the youth program Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, now active in 75 countries around the world and counting, JGI is creating a movement of compassionate people who uphold its mission to create a better world for people, other animals, and our shared environment.

About FormationQ

FormationQ is the enablement layer for global quantum adoption. The company builds the institutional pathways and collaborative structures that allow quantum technologies to move from frontier research into real-world use. Working with leading institutions and technology partners, FormationQ operates and supports programmes that advance talent development, application formation, and ecosystem coordination in ways that can be governed, trusted, and sustained over time.

Source: FormationQ

The post FormationQ Brings Quantum Computing to Chimpanzee Behavior Research appeared first on HPCwire.

PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2; Marimittu Games
A soft puzzle game makes a sharp point about the over-optimised future ahead

In the far future, on a planet that is not Earth, AI is in charge. This entity is no Skynet-esque killer robot but a machine that cares for humanity. Manifesting most visibly as cute droids, the technology is pervasive – embedded in everything from the design of the sleek architecture to the gorgeous, mostly sunny artificial weather. The so-called Optimization System has but one responsibility: ensuring the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

In less skilled hands this game might have felt like an undergraduate seminar on the limits of utilitarianism. But Japanese studio Marumittu Games elegantly marries its philosophical concerns with smart design choices. You play as a young, unnamed Facilitator tasked with tending to both the city’s bots and its human residents. Each morning you wake up, sleepily loping off to the bathroom before sitting down for an exquisitely rendered breakfast, and then embark on your day’s work. Like everything else in this near-future scenario, labour is designed to cause as little frustration as possible, amounting to simple maths brain teasers on a grid – nothing too taxing, but enough to keep you engaged.

TORONTO, July 14, 2026 — Xanadu Quantum Technologies Limited, a leading photonic quantum computing company, and Lockheed Martin, a global security and aerospace company, today announced a new strategic effort to scale quantum training and workforce development through Lockheed Martin’s Quantum Talent Pipeline (QTP) program.

As quantum technologies transition from research labs to mission-critical environments, the demand for a quantum-savvy workforce is quickly rising. Building on their previously announced research relationship, most recently highlighted by a joint initiative in Quantum Machine Learning (QML), Xanadu and Lockheed Martin are now turning their attention to a critical bottleneck in quantum adoption: training the engineers who will put these technologies to work.

The QTP is an internal Lockheed Martin initiative that identifies professionals from diverse technical backgrounds, from mechanical engineering to computer science, and equips them with the skills to integrate quantum methods into their R&D work. Through the collaboration, QTP participants are now utilizing Xanadu’s PennyLane quantum programming stack and educational resources – including interactive tutorials, hands-on coding exercises, and structured learning pathways – to develop practical quantum computing skills applicable to aerospace, defense, and advanced engineering.

“To fully leverage the power of quantum computing, we need a workforce that is ready to take advantage of what these machines do best,” said Dr. Christian Weedbrook, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xanadu. “By integrating PennyLane into their training pipeline, we are helping Lockheed Martin engineers bridge the gap between their existing domain expertise and the unique advantages of quantum technology. Lockheed’s QTP program is a case study for how leading organizations can build quantum readiness from within.”

In addition to providing educational content and software tools, Xanadu’s team is delivering dedicated workshops, offering guided instruction on quantum programming, algorithms, and the application of quantum computing in key research areas. Access to Xanadu’s quantum simulators and other hardware via PennyLane allows QTP participants to move quickly from theory to execution, reinforcing the program’s emphasis on practical skill-building.

“Quantum computing will be central to solving some of the most complex challenges in aerospace and national security,” said Dani Couger, Quantum Technologies Lead for Lockheed Martin. “By providing our engineers with practical quantum skills through Lockheed Martin’s Quantum Talent Pipeline, supported by resources like Xanadu’s PennyLane platform, we are positioning Lockheed Martin to lead in the adoption of next-generation computing technologies.”

As the QTP program scales to additional cohorts across Lockheed Martin’s engineering workforce, the collaboration between the two companies will continue to deepen, with expanded educational content, hands-on workshops, and broader access to Xanadu’s quantum computing tools and expertise. Together, Xanadu and Lockheed Martin are building the foundation of a quantum-ready workforce prepared to tackle the most demanding challenges in aerospace, defense, and beyond.

About Xanadu

Founded in 2016, Xanadu is a Canadian photonic quantum computing company with the mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. Xanadu is building fault-tolerant quantum computers using light, with systems designed to compute at room temperature. Backed by more than $500 million USD in funding, Xanadu develops both hardware and software, including PennyLane, its open-source quantum computing platform. Xanadu is the first pure-play photonic quantum computing company to list on public markets (Nasdaq/TSX: XNDU) and is recognized globally for its breakthroughs in scalable quantum technologies.

Source: Xanadu

The post Xanadu and Lockheed Martin Expand Quantum Talent Pipeline appeared first on HPCwire.

Beta users can ask questions about Spotify content, including music, podcasts and audiobooks.

PM to declare Australia the first country worldwide to bring economic, social, security and environmental issues from AI under single office in major speech

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Anthony Albanese says the federal government will introduce faster approval processes for AI projects, including datacentres, across Australia, seeking to shore up investor certainty and maintain community confidence in the rapidly advancing technology.

Announcing the creation of a new office of AI to be established within his department in a major speech on Wednesday, the prime minister will declare Australia is set to become the first country in the world to bring the economic, social, national security and environmental issues stemming from AI into a single, national framework.

Aid worker flown to Berlin as Trump administration bars Americans from traveling to US on commercial flights

A US national who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has arrived in Germany for treatment, the health ministry in Berlin said on Monday, weeks after another American infected with Ebola in the DRC was treated in Berlin.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration on Monday said it was blocking American citizens in ⁠the DRC from traveling to the US on commercial flights, Reuters reported, citing a White House official.

President Trump said the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was drained for repairs, after weeks of railing against alleged vandals.

• St Louis Cardinal homers on final six swings

• 24-year-old outfielder wins $1m and title

• Schwarber, Contreras finish second and third

Jordan Walker silenced Philadelphia’s boo birds by homering on his last six swings, chasing down Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber in the final round and becoming the first St Louis Cardinal to win the Home Run Derby on Monday night.

Schwarber hit 11 homers during his 15-swing turn in the final round. Philly fans, who loudly booed everyone but Schwarber and Bryce Harper throughout the night, quietly headed toward the exits when Walker’s winning shot soared over the left-field wall.

‘No unruly behaviour will be tolerated’ after the match, according to France’s interior minister

Here is the first big moment of the day as the Garde républicaine plays the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise”.

Macron is not singing, but Lecornu behind him – very much is.

Bar owner offers ‘deepest apologies’ as police investigate whether exits were either blocked or hard to access

The Bangkok pub that became the scene of the city’s deadliest blaze in 17 years has said it will cooperate with an investigation into alleged negligence, as the death toll rose to 30.

The local district office said on Tuesday that three more people had died after the devastating fire that broke out in the early hours of Monday. An initial assessment by disaster officials found an electrical short ‌circuit in an air conditioner located in the ‌ceiling had caused the fire.

⚽️ Latest news before first of the semi-finals in Dallas
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Atlanta police are increasing staffing and resources for Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final between England and Argentina.

The department says additional officers will be deployed around the stadium and across the city’s entertainment and high-traffic areas, with large crowds expected before and after the match:

As Atlanta prepares to host an upcoming World Cup semi-final match and welcomes increased numbers of residents and visitors, the Atlanta Police Department has enhanced its citywide public safety and security posture. Additional personnel and resources are already deployed and will continue to be strategically assigned in and around the event venues, entertainment districts, and other high-traffic areas to help ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone. These proactive measures are designed to protect the public, deter criminal activity, and ensure residents and visitors can safely enjoy this historic event.”

The two sides traded more strikes as a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports was set to take effect. The president has threatened to impose hefty fees on shipping.

Mourn him if you wish, but let’s be honest about what he promoted. The longer this thinking lives on, the more peril we will all face

The sudden death over the weekend of the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham is predictably inspiring a slew of tributes to the four-term Republican senator. Donald Trump has already ordered flags be flown at half-staff until Saturday, and Republican politicians across the country are fondly recalling Graham. But so too are the Democrats. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois honored Graham, calling him “a fierce Republican partisan one day and a key bipartisan ally the next”. Senator Adam Schiff of California lauded Graham’s “sense of humor and how he deployed it to move his policy positions forward”.

Through this thick, bipartisan forest of remembrances, however, lies Graham’s concrete legacy. Death has a way of extinguishing uncomfortable truths, but it’s important that we don’t forget who Graham was, what he exactly stood for, and what damage he has done over his political career.

The U.S. military shared video of what it said was its first use of sea drones in combat, to attack an Iranian submarine and ship maintenance facility.

Ofwat says repeated errors led to ‘real disruption and hardship for residents and businesses across many years’

• Business live – latest updates

South East Water will pay £30.5m after a series of supply interruptions, customer failings and for breaching its licence, the regulator Ofwat has said.

The watchdog said the redress package concluded three investigations into the supplier and included a previously proposed £22m fine for water supply failures between 2020 and 2023 affecting more than 286,000 people.

Stock markets fall as analysts price in two quarter-point UK rate rises by the end of the year

• Business live – latest updates

Oil and gas prices have jumped and expectations of interest rate rises in Europe have increased after the US carried out a third night of military strikes against Iran.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose by as much as 4.6% to $87.08 a barrel on Tuesday, its highest level in just over a month.

The name "White-chested Fox" was found in drawings dating from 400 BC to 900 AD at the San Bartolo-Xultun archaeological site.

London Conference 2026: The Alliance after Ankara: Is NATO dead? Video thilton.drupal 14 July 2026

Just the day after the 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara, the first session of Chatham House’s 2026 London Conference addressed the future of alliance.

The panel, hosted by Marion Messmer, the director of the International Security Programme at Chatham House, explored the following questions:

• Can NATO survive without the US?
• Has US pressure on allies to increase defence spending started to yield results?
• How do governments avoid procurement mistakes of the past?
• What war and conflict are governments rearming for? What are the most acute threats?  

Speakers:
General Sir Richard Barrons, Senior Consulting Fellow, International Security Programme, Chatham House
Paul Livingston, Chief Executive UK & NATO, Lockheed Martin
Kajsa Ollongren, Former Defence Minister, Kingdom of the Netherlands; Associate Fellow, Europe Programme, Chatham House
The Rt Hon Lord George Robertson of Port Ellen, Distinguished Fellow, Chatham House; Chair, International Relations and Defence Committee, House of Lords 
Chair: Marion Messmer, Director, International Security Programme, Chatham House 

To learn more about NATO and the key takeaways from the Ankara summit, register for our upcoming event, ‘Perspectives on Ankara: The security and defence implications of the NATO Summit’

Director general Matt Brittin says funding model ties corporation to the past as number of licences falls by 539,000

The number of people paying the BBC’s licence fee has fallen faster than expected in the last year, with half a million more households opting out of the payment.

Matt Brittin, the BBC’s director general, said the broadcaster faced a “moment of real jeopardy”, as the licence fee funding model “ties us to the past”.

Restoring oil tanker traffic in the vital Middle East shipping corridor to prewar levels likely will require a much bigger armada of U.S. warships if not tens of thousands of American troops on Iranian soil, experts say.

Doctors and human rights experts documented hundreds of incidents from June 2025 through May 2026 and estimate true number is ‘far greater’

It’s been a brutal tactic deployed by local and federal law enforcement officials time and again over the past year: using teargas, rubber bullets and pepper spray to control protests outside ICE detention centers or during enforcement operations.

Now, a new report lays bare the scale of the use of these crowd control weapons during anti-immigration demonstrations across the US, including hundreds of incidents that resulted in lasting and traumatic injuries.

Apple TV received 89 Emmy nominations for a reason.

Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) have created what they describe as the world's most detailed 3D cellular atlas of the human brainstem, linking whole-brain MRI views to individual neurons across more than 500 tissue sections. The free online atlas, called Anchor, could help researchers better understand diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, stroke, and SIDS by showing how healthy and diseased brain tissue differs cell by cell. The BBC reports: Built from high-resolution microscope images rather than costlier molecular techniques, it creates a detailed three-dimensional map of the brainstem, identifying more than 200 clusters of brain cells and nerve pathways. Eight chemical markers help distinguish different cell types, producing one of the clearest pictures yet of this vital, but poorly, understood part of the brain. The brainstem occupies only a sliver of the brain, yet it keeps people alive. It links the brain to the spinal cord and controls breathing, heartbeat, sleep, wakefulness and movement. [...] Users can zoom from the whole brainstem seen on MRI down to individual neurons while maintaining their precise spatial relationships. The researchers have made the atlas freely available online, hoping it becomes a reference tool for neuroscientists, neurologists and neurosurgeons worldwide. Its applications could also extend well beyond anatomy. By comparing healthy brainstem maps with diseased tissue, scientists may better understand disorders ranging from Parkinson's disease and stroke to Alzheimer's disease and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). More precise maps could also help neurosurgeons navigate one of the brain's most delicate regions with greater confidence.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Rebecca Slaughter, fired by Trump from the FTC in 2025, worries agencies will fear defying the US president

Federal officials fired by the Trump administration are calling the recent supreme court decision a “dagger” at the heart of the civil service that will open independent federal government agencies to corruption and manipulation at the whim of the president.

Since Donald Trump took office again in January 2025, he has fired more than 50 officials from federal agencies as the Trump administration openly sought to have the supreme court overturn a landmark 1935 ruling that limited the president’s power over independent agencies, known as Humphrey’s Executor.

A government that demands instant obedience while concealing its identity cannot expect trust – or escape responsibility for the consequences

There are videos that do more than document a story. They alter the way we understand it.

Ronaldo Salgado spent 7 July searching for his father. At the scene of a shooting in Houston’s East End, he found his father’s work van behind police tape. Later, he saw a video online: a man had been shot in the street. Ronaldo could not identify him by sight. He recognized Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by his voice, crying for help.

Country risks new tariffs from US and EU as it looks likely to match or beat last year’s record surplus of $1tn

• Business live – latest updates

China’s monthly car ‌exports topped 1m for the first time in June as overall overseas shipments from the world’s second biggest economy rose 27%.

Official Chinese customs data showed that a stronger-than-expected trade performance kept China on track to match or beat last year’s record trade surplus of $1tn (£748bn), achieved despite Donald Trump’s curtailed tariff war.

AT&T shook up its wireless phone plans in 2026. We choose the best options.

The two climbers had not made contact since leaving a mountain refuge on July 9, according to authorities.

Change of US position on free navigation comes as two tankers hit by Iranian cruise missiles. Plus, the international outpouring of love for the late actor Sam Neill

Good morning. The US has launched its third consecutive night of strikes on Iran, hours after Donald Trump said Washington would reinstate a maritime blockade on the country and charge ships for safe passage. The UAE said two ⁠national tankers ⁠were ​targeted by two Iranian cruise missiles in ⁠the southern lane of the strait ⁠of Hormuz in Omani territorial ​waters, ‌killing one ‌Indian crew member and wounding ‌eight others, including four seriously.

Iran and the US are in theory nearly halfway through the 60-day period of an interim deal that was supposed to set up talks for a permanent end to the war, which began in February with the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. In reality, that deal has devolved into a series of attacks over the strait of Hormuz, resulting in the near-total collapse of an interim ceasefire and worrying world leaders that the conflict could fully resume.

How has Trump changed his position on tolls? On Monday, Trump said the US would demand a 20% tariff on all cargoes shipped through the strait of Hormuz. Until now, the US had said the strait should remain open to all without tolls – as it was before Washington and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February. Any attempt by the US or Iran – which has also proposed tolls – to charge fees would violate global norms on freedom of navigation and would be likely to cause further economic disruption far beyond the region.

What did Nordone say about her appointment? In brief remarks, Nordone, 64, said: “Lindsey has always been there for me, and now I will be there for him. I promise to work hard over the next several months to support the president and carry forward the efforts of my brother on behalf of the citizens of South Carolina and the United States. I think this is what Lindsey would have wanted, and I plan to honor him in this way. I miss you more than I can even put into words, but I’m going to do this. I got it.”

What I’m Discussing Today

• Kareem’s Quote of the Day: What happens when we mistake a prediction for a guarantee and stop doing the hard work?

• Trump Promises Destruction of Iran if He’s Assassinated: A late-night revenge fantasy is especially dangerous when it treats 93 million lives as props.

• The White House Orders the FBI to Investigate The New York Times: Reporters as collateral damage anytime the government calls its own embarrassment a national-security concern.

• Caitlin Clark’s Congressional Fan Club Should Find Better Things To Do: Congress should worry less about manufacturing outrage over one hard foul and more about the racist abuse aimed at WNBA players after the game.

• The Piano Lesson | Malcolm Washington (2024) - Netflix: August Wilson’s family drama becomes a powerful motion picture, thanks to Denzel Washington and his two sons.

• Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder and John Legend | “Lean on Me” (2015): Stevie Wonder and John Legend bring so much soul to this performance at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that its creator, Bill Withers, can’t help but join in.

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Kareem’s Daily Quote

“If you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then to me.”

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Macbeth

If there’s one thing you learn as a professional athlete, it’s that there’s no such thing as a sure thing. I came out of UCLA with three national championships, three college Player of the Year awards, and an 88-2 won-lost record. My first year in the NBA, the Bucks won 56 games after winning only 27 the year before. The next year we won the NBA championship, and I won my first MVP award. The press said it was only a matter of time before I eclipsed Bill Russell’s record of eleven NBA titles. But it took me nine years and a change of teams—to the Lakers—before I won another title, and in that time I learned a lot about the nature of certainty as an NBA player. Namely, that it doesn’t exist. All you can do is put in the hard work and long hours and hope for the best: stay healthy, have a good team around you, a good coach, and a whole lot of luck. There are hundreds of other guys hoping for the same things. I ended up playing 20 seasons in the NBA, and I won six titles and six MVP awards. That means there were 14 seasons my team didn’t win the title and 14 seasons I didn’t win the MVP award. I was the most successful player in the league, but I was hardly a sure bet.

In the world outside the NBA, success is even harder to predict. That’s what Banquo is getting at in that quote from Macbeth. As it turns out, the three witches who have just told his friend Macbeth he’s on his way to the throne of Scotland can see the future. Because they’re witches. But that doesn’t mean Macbeth can. All the things he sees for himself on that throne—most of all, a long life of plenty—are not going to come his way. He doesn’t put in the long hours and the hard work; he takes shortcuts because he thinks his success is guaranteed. The witches told him that he can’t be killed by any “man of woman born,” so he thinks he’s invincible. He ends up with a crazy, suicidal wife and a final offstage battle with Macduff, a man born by Caesarean section—thus, in the terms of the day, not “of woman born”—and guess what happens? If you guessed Macduff reenters with Macbeth’s severed head, you are correct. So much for a long and happy life.

So what drives someone to claim they can identify “which grain will grow”? I’d call it a need for control pretending to be wisdom and expertise. Admitting “I have no idea how this will end” is uncomfortable, especially for people whose job title implies they should know. In the NBA, that’s scouts, analysts, and coaches. In the real world, it’s politicians, prognosticators, and pundits. But what do any of us really know?

Donald Trump came into office in 2016 saying he would build a wall along the border with Mexico that would stretch from coast to coast, and that Mexico would pay for it. A decade later, the wall is half built and Mexico hasn’t paid a cent. He came into office in 2024 saying he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine on his first day back in office. That war is still happening, and no one should be surprised if it’s still going on when he leaves office in 2029. If he leaves office in 2029. I think he will. But I don’t know for sure, and neither do you. If, like me, you want to see the last of him, you should start putting in the hard hours now. That means working to elect a new Congress in the midterms that will check his worst impulses. That means finding a candidate in 2028 who can win back the White House with a mandate to get the country off the dangerous track we’re on today.

Macbeth’s downfall came from his belief that his success was guaranteed and he didn’t have to do the hard work to achieve the future he wanted. That choice was far more damning than the witches’ prophecy. The real tragedy lies in his attempt to bend that prediction to his own will. That’s the deeper lesson buried in this whole exchange: acting rashly on a prediction mistaken for certainty is what actually ends careers, companies, and in Macbeth’s case, kingdoms. We can plant our gardens carefully and tend them with patience. But none of us can predict, with any certainty, what the harvest will be.

Read more

As the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game take over Philadelphia, we take a spin around the majors with an awards watch, an Ohtani update and lots in between

With more than half of the MLB season in the books, the baseball world has convened in Philadelphia for the annual All-Star festivities. What better time for owners and players to engage in Brotherly Love and figure out how to avoid the widely predicted 2027 labor strife that could cancel next season? Considering the storm clouds gathering, a near-term resolution seems unlikely, so we’d better soak in the season we’re having. How’s that going? Glad you asked.

Federal agents showed up at reporters’ homes, targeting journalists for doing exactly what the first amendment protects

To non-journalists, receiving a government subpoena is a serious thing but probably not a violation of basic rights.

To journalists, it’s quite a different matter – an attack on a foundational right to gather information in the public interest and to provide confidentiality to sources.

Memoir details upbringing of late senator – who denied existence of systemic racism – in segregated south

A little-known autobiography from Lindsey Graham published in 2015 sheds light on his complicated record of acknowledging and addressing racism in South Carolina.

Graham, born in 1955, came of age in a small textile town in the segregated south, located in Pickens county, the site of the last documented lynching in South Carolina in 1947. My Story, which came across as political spin to anyone who knew the background of Graham’s unlikely rise to political prominence, is a window into the conservative white man’s view of the south’s enduring racial tensions.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Housing costs are rising in Delaware, leading to strained budgets, longer commutes and an increase in the homeless population. This year, lawmakers tried to address this issue – which has become among the biggest facing people’s pocketbooks – by mandating local zoning reforms and easing road upgrade rules. 

Lawmakers took steps this past legislative session to address the state’s shortage of affordable housing, despite pushback from localities. 

One controversial bill would encourage the construction of smaller, more dense housing as well as mandate that local governments choose from a menu of actions to lower costs. Those include reducing parking requirements in areas with bus service, and expediting approvals for income-restricted apartments and other affordable homes. 

Another bill would speed up approvals for dense housing developments by removing a requirement that developers conduct traffic studies for certain projects. Instead, developers would pay a general traffic impact fee. 

A third piece of legislation establishes a process for addressing consumer complaints about home improvement fraud. 

There is a general consensus among lawmakers and advocacy groups that building more houses and maintaining existing ones could push prices down. A 2023 study conducted by the Delaware State Housing Authority reported that Delaware is short almost 20,000 rental units for households that earn less than half the region’s median income.

That study also showed that half of renters in the state are defined as “cost-burdened,” meaning they pay more than what they can reasonably afford for housing. 

While legislators sought to encourage new housing, they notably did not pass legislation to prevent Delaware police from arresting or fining homeless people for sleeping in tents or parked cars – or otherwise lingering in public places. 

Gov. Matt Meyer’s office quietly pushed back against the bill before it came up for debate, citing “property rights concerns,” the potential for lawsuits against cities, and the possibility of jeopardizing federal housing dollars. 

Common-sense reforms or seizing local control?

The most controversial and consequential housing bill the legislature passed was Senate Bill 23, dubbed “The Housing for Every Delawarean Act,” which would require most localities to increase housing density and adopt other measures to make homes more affordable. 

Sponsored by Sen. Russ Huxtable (D-Lewes), Senate Bill 23 primarily reforms state requirements for comprehensive plans — which are roadmaps for future growth the state requires counties and municipalities to update every 10 years. 

Comprehensive plans can have enormous impacts on what is and isn’t allowed to be built because it guides zoning changes, transportation investments and natural resource protection. 

Under the bill, counties, cities and towns with a population more than 2,000 residents would have to add an affordable housing plan to their comprehensive plans. 

“This bill helps ensure those plans lead to action,” said Rep. Kendra Johnson (D-Bear), the bill’s cosponsor.

That affordable housing plan would have to increase the maximum density of residential areas and remove barriers to constructing smaller houses, such as townhomes and duplexes. 

Senate Bill 23 lists nearly a dozen other measures meant to make housing more affordable or easier to find. Local governments would have to choose at least five of them to include in their plan. 

Those measures include waiving impact fees for income-restricted housing, allowing more transitional housing and speeding up the approval process for affordable homes. 

The stated goal of the bill is to make 20% of a municipality or county’s housing affordable. Delaware’s State Housing Authority would release annual reports on the progress toward that goal. 

Many local government officials opposed Senate Bill 23 because they saw it as part of an erosion of local control, a long-running point of tension between local governments and the Delaware legislature. 

But Meyer indicated that he supports the bill, meaning it will most likely go into law in the coming weeks. 

Fewer traffic studies, more impact fees

The legislature also passed House Bill 450 last month, which is designed to expand on Meyer’s recently-created permit accelerator for affordable housing and other priority projects. 

The bill would raise the bar for when the state Department of Transportation, counties and municipalities could require traffic impact studies.

The new threshold for whether the study would be required is an additional 500 car trips during peak travel hours. 

Currently, whether a traffic study is required is based on how many car trips a development would generate throughout the entire day.

The bill also requires DelDOT to establish and collect transportation impact fees that would fund off-site road improvements and other transportation infrastructure upgrades. The revenue from those fees would have to be spent in the same county they were collected. 

It also establishes a 2% surcharge on that fee that would go toward open space and farmland preservation, as well as coastal restoration. 

Meyer has not said whether he supports the bill. 

Home contractor complaints

Finally, both chambers of the legislature unanimously passed House Bill 89, which establishes a mandatory mediation process when consumers complain to the Delaware Department of Justice Consumer Protection Unit about home contractors. 

The bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Eric Morrison (D-Glasgow), said some home contractors in Delaware take advantage of the elderly, individuals with disabilities and other underserved communities. 

Morrison said the customer protection unit currently does not have the capacity or a formal process to address home improvement fraud complaints. 

The bill would establish a process to address these complaints and allow the state DOJ to hire a lawyer and two staff members to implement that process. 

Last year, Spotlight Delaware highlighted the difficulty that prosecutors often have in trying such cases, which influenced the alternative resolution process ultimately proposed in Morrison’s bill.

Meyer has not said whether he supports this bill, either.

The post Delaware General Assembly roundup: Housing reforms  appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware typically funds private construction through two pots of money — the Bond Bill and the grant-in-aid fund. But a lesser-known pot of money is allocating $20 million between 130 nonprofit organizations throughout the state. 

Delaware’s grant-in-aid bill is not the only way the state financially supports the nonprofit sector. A second, lesser-known pot of money, called the Community Reinvestment Fund, also is sending dollars to those private organizations. 

Last month, lawmakers approved $20 million for the Community Reinvestment Fund as part of the state’s capital budget legislation, known as the Bond Bill. While text of the bill did not reveal the individual awards from the fund, Spotlight Delaware has since obtained a list of those awardees.

It shows the dollars funding about 130 private organizations or entities of local governments across the state. 

Those recipients include town revitalization projects, services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and youth groups providing after-school activities.

The awards from the fund are determined “through the input of all members of the General Assembly,” Deputy Controller General Robert Scoglietti said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware.  

As a part of the annual bond bill, the state government issues debt through the bond market that is purchased by institutional investors. That debt is then repaid with interest with taxpayer funds over a longer term.

Asked why the fund is necessary when the state already has a $100 million grant-in-aid program, Scoglietti said the Community Reinvestment Fund is designed for capital improvements while grant-in-aid “provides operational and programmatic grants to nonprofit community organizations, fire companies, and some local governments.”

The state’s bond bill also distributed dollars directly to a handful of nonprofits, separate from the Community Reinvestment Fund.

Biggest among those was a $1 million appropriation for renovations at The Queen, a Wilmington music venue owned by a nonprofit.

A roof for Easterseals

One of the largest award winners from the Community Reinvestment Fund was Easterseals Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore, which provides services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

Easterseals Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore received more than $625,000, with the money funding facility improvements at three locations. 

Pamela Reuther, chief operating officer of Easterseals, called the Community Reinvestment Fund a “godsend” for nonprofit organizations. 

Organizations like Easterseals that provide services for children and adults with disabilities typically receive reimbursements for those services, and those funds go toward staff salaries and benefits, Reuther said. 

But “when you’re talking about having to come up with $300,000 to fix a roof, it’s not something that typically a nonprofit will have available,” Reuther said. 

Easterseals programs come with strict regulations that mandate temperature controls in facility, Reuther added, meaning it could have to suspend services if its HVAC systems fail. 

Long-delayed repairs covered

The Community Reinvestment Fund will allow some organizations to put dollars toward and complete major renovation projects for the first time in decades. 

Kent-Sussex Industries provides work training, education, and supportive services to adults with disabilities in both Kent and Sussex County. 

Although Kent-Sussex Industries has owned its building in Milford since 1985, CEO Heath Chasanov said it has not had a major upgrade for roughly 35 years. 

The organization received $465,000 through the Community Reinvestment Fund for its own capital projects, which Chasanov said will go toward replacing the roof and interior work. 

Chasanov hopes the money will ensure their facility is useful and safe, and potentially allow the organization to serve more individuals with disabilities. 

Community Reinvestment Fund awardees do go through an application process. Chasanov said his organization has built trust with legislators that they will use the money appropriately. 

“For me, we’re extremely grateful for the state legislature and the budget office for continuing to fund this program,” Chasanov said.

The post Beyond grant-in-aid, Delaware has another fund for nonprofits appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Trump’s former personal attorney has a vast slate of conflicts of interest. Will lawmakers do their job in his confirmation hearings?

Todd Blanche is the most conflicted nominee for attorney general the US Congress has yet to encounter. As the former private attorney for Donald Trump, Blanche has been an unflappable ally for the president since 2023, when he left his private firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, to represent Trump in the hush-money prosecution brought against him by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg. He went on to represent Trump in two other criminal prosecutions – the Mar-a-Lago classified documents prosecution, and the January 6 prosecution, both brought against Trump by the special counsel Jack Smith.

As both deputy attorney general and as acting head of the justice department since April, when Pam Bondi was fired as attorney general by Donald Trump, Blanche has unabashedly continued his advocacy work for his former client through other means. He has signed off on a settlement between the IRS and Donald Trump regarding the latter’s taxes, that would ban the IRS from pursuing litigation against Trump, his family or his businesses forever. That settlement has now been ruled by a federal judge to be self-dealing; she referred the case to the Florida Bar Association. The New York Bar has issued a letter saying that Blanche is unfit for office.

Claire Finkelstein is the Algernon Biddle professor of law and professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and the faculty director of its Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law

Every dorm room deserves an upgrade with these capable, space-saving smart products I've reviewed for back-to-school plans.

Plane bringing Houthi delegation home from Tehran had to divert after Yemeni government bombed Sana’a airport

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

Iranian flights to and from Yemen are an unacceptable violation of the country’s sovereignty, the vice-president in Yemen’s Saudi-backed, UN-recognised government has said.

Abdullah al-Alimi said in an interview that the planes contained equipment for the Houthi movement, which he said had transformed from merely a domestic threat into a regional and international threat to global security and the global economy.

Canada in a new economic era: Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly on Canada’s Industrial Strategy and Middle-Power Diplomacy 22 July 2026 — 10:00 TO 11:00 BST Anonymous (not verified) 14 July 2026 Chatham House and Online

Join this fascinating discussion of Ottawa’s efforts to develop its industrial strategy and build middle power economic partnerships at a time of strategic constraint.

Join this fascinating discussion of Ottawa’s efforts to develop its industrial strategy and build middle power economic partnerships at a time of strategic constraint.

As governments place greater emphasis on economic resilience and strategic autonomy, Canada is pursuing a more active industrial policy while strengthening partnerships with trusted allies and fellow middle powers, including the UK. At this event, Mélanie Joly discusses the opportunities and challenges of this approach, examining how governments can advance industrial ambitions while navigating trade commitments, supply chain pressures, and a competitive global economy.

This event discusses:

• What are Canada’s priorities for industrial policy and economic resilience?
• What obstacles could limit Canada’s industrial ambitions?
• Which middle-power partnerships are most important to Canada’s strategy?
• How does the Canada–UK relationship support economic and industrial cooperation?
• What does the future of industrial policy look like for middle powers?

This event will be held under the Chatham House Rule.

Threat of social unrest rises as public indignation at lack of disaster aid comes on top of fallout from US military intervention

• A revolution in ruins: fury amid the rubble of a housing project in quake-hit Venezuela

Public anger at what many perceive as the Venezuelan government’s botched response to twin earthquakes that killed nearly 4,500 people is growing, with one grieving mother caught on camera berating the son of former president Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro’s politician son received a hostile reception while visiting a semi-destroyed social housing project named after his father’s late mentor Hugo Chávez.

There’s one indisputable fact about the events of the night of May 8, 1981: Alice Sebold, who had earlier that day just completed her freshman year at Syracuse University, was brutally raped while walking home through a park.

Anthony Broadwater was arrested several months later and subsequently convicted of the assault. He’d spend 16 years in prison, repeatedly being denied parole because he refused to admit guilt. Upon his release in 1998, he was required to register as a sex offender.

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“That Guy Is Still Out There”

Sebold would go on to write and speak about the attack, culminating in the publication of “Lucky,” a memoir about the rape. The book would become a bestseller after the success of Sebold’s first novel, “The Lovely Bones.”

But 40 years after the assault, a court vacated Broadwater’s conviction after the Syracuse district attorney joined a motion to clear him and said in court that Broadwater should never have been prosecuted. While the exoneration made headlines around the world, we wondered how many other victims in Syracuse had been left behind and what else the police might have missed.

What we discovered: No part of the system in Syracuse at the time could be depended on. Police brushed off rapes. Prosecutors bungled confessions or were defeated at trial. Judges overlooked irregularities. And Syracuse University seemed more interested in suppressing news of a rape epidemic than solving it.

Here are some of the key findings from our yearslong investigation into what went wrong after that night in May 1981. You can read the full story of how ProPublica reporter Joaquin Sapien reinvestigated the notorious case — and rapes surrounding it — decades after the fact here.

As Rape Cases Piled Up in Syracuse, Police Failed to Investigate

At the time of Sebold’s rape in the spring of 1981, Syracuse was experiencing a rash of sexual assaults. Hers was the third such attack in the city’s Thornden Park in about seven months. A fourth had occurred a block away. Like the police report in Sebold’s assault, those cases had also been quickly consigned to the inactive file.

Beyond the park, women in Syracuse were being sexually assaulted in their dorm rooms and homes. A nursing student was later attacked at the same spot as Sebold, on the same day that her roommate was raped in their shared apartment. A freshman was raped in a sorority house by a man who broke in through a window. The descriptions of the perpetrators, many of whom carried a knife, were often eerily similar; several were roughly the same height, weight and race.

And yet there were no apparent signs of urgency from law enforcement.

Syracuse University Quashed Media Coverage of Rape and Other Crimes

In addition to Syracuse police appearing to deprioritize rape cases in the early 1980s — a time when few survivors reported their assaults — documents and testimony indicate that the city’s namesake university actively quashed media coverage of these attacks.

If a police report was labeled “NO PRESS,” a former detective in the Sebold case explained in a 2025 deposition, it meant that the university “put their foot down and said no press for any kind of rape, robbery, burglary that’s anywhere in the area of Syracuse University.” He testified that seeing this designation on police reports at the time was not unusual.

A spokesperson for Syracuse University said in an email that “we are not in a position to speak to the actions or decisions of prior administrations,” but the university is now equipped with “comprehensive policies, a steadfast commitment to preventing sexual and relationship violence and robust support structures to help every survivor that comes forward.”

Police and Prosecutors Botched the Lineup and Rushed the Case to Indictment

It was not police work or media coverage that led authorities to Broadwater. His arrest only occurred after Sebold saw him on the street months after the assault and believed he was her rapist. Police arrested the 20-year-old, and he agreed to appear in a lineup.

But at the lineup, Sebold did not identify Broadwater as her attacker. Instead, she selected a man standing to his left.

Police had no other evidence linking Broadwater to the assault aside from a pubic hair sample he had volunteered for comparison to one found on Sebold, which, in a world before DNA testing, could essentially tell investigators only that both Broadwater and the rapist were Black.

The current DA says the case should have ended then and there. “Case is over,” he told ProPublica. “Stop.”

But rather than release Broadwater and continue gathering evidence, an assistant district attorney, Gail Uebelhoer, asked Sebold to draft an affidavit on the spot, explaining what had happened. Sebold wrote in the affidavit that she had picked the man in the No. 5 position because he had been looking at her.

In “Lucky,” her bestselling memoir about the rape, Sebold said Uebelhoer tried to allay concerns about picking the wrong man by claiming that the man she picked and Broadwater were “dead ringers” for each other and implied that the two men coordinated their appearance in the lineup to confuse Sebold. Both men have adamantly denied ever appearing in another lineup together.

Hours after the lineup, Uebelhoer presented the case against Broadwater to a grand jury. In a 2025 deposition, she said she could not remember many of the key details in Sebold’s case but asserted that she had done her job by presenting it to a grand jury without hiding its flaws.

Broadwater’s Decision to Forgo a Jury Trial Backfired

When his case moved forward, Broadwater and his lawyer hoped he’d be better off by opting for a bench trial, in which a judge, not a jury, would decide his fate.

But the judge seemed to have a soft spot for Sebold. In her memoir, she recalls how the judge spoke privately to her during a break in the proceedings, expressing concern about how she was holding up and asking about her family. If a juror had asked such questions of a witness, they would likely have been kicked off the jury and a mistrial might’ve been declared.

The judge also allowed Uebelhoer — then visibly pregnant and no longer handling the case — to take the stand as a witness for the prosecution, where she appeared to imply that Broadwater was responsible for Sebold’s botched identification at the lineup.

Immediately after the prosecutor finished his closing argument, the judge found Broadwater guilty without leaving the bench to deliberate.

The Rapes Continued After Broadwater’s Conviction and a Possible Suspect Emerged

Broadwater’s conviction did not end the rash of sexual assaults in Syracuse. Only four months after the trial, a high schooler named Thomas Weakfall admitted raping five women, four of them within a mile of Thornden Park. He told police his spree had begun in late 1981.

While there’s no evidence that Weakfall attacked Sebold, he did match key elements of the description she gave of her rapist: Black, 16 to 18 years of age, about 5’7” and 150 pounds. Weakfall was Black, 16 years old, 5’9” and 140 pounds, according to police reports. Broadwater was 20, stood 5’6” and weighed about 175 pounds.

But the rape case against Weakfall collapsed because his confession was deemed inadmissible. Officers had taken his statement without a defense attorney present, unaware that Weakfall was already represented by an attorney on an unrelated burglary charge. He ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary, got five years probation and was released.

Weakfall Confesses Again, but Not to the Sebold Rape

Records show police arrested Weakfall for an attempted rape of a woman inside her car in October 1983. He was released from custody for four months, before pleading guilty to a lesser charge of attempted sexual misconduct. He received a sentence of one year.

During those same four months, Sebold’s roommate was raped in their apartment. She was one of five women attacked in the same cluster of blocks over a five-month period, according to contemporary news accounts. Police suspected that one man had committed the crimes.

While police reports in these assaults suggest an older, taller attacker, elements of the crimes — burglarized homes; women raped at knifepoint and beaten; some bound and gagged — matched Weakfall’s methods.

Sebold’s roommate also told police that, after the assault, she tried to get her assailant to leave by yelling out that her roommate was coming home. He replied: “I know her, we had a thing, we had a deal in the past.”

In 1985, after being spotted using a stolen ATM card, Weakfall confessed to additional rapes, saying he’d assaulted at least three women in the previous few months. This time, his confession stuck and he ultimately served 12 years of an 18-year sentence.

While Weakfall did confess to committing rapes that occurred indoors, he has denied assaulting anyone outdoors. In interviews with ProPublica, he admitted “violating” women but also said he did not commit all the assaults he’d confessed to.

Producers Trying to Make a Film About “Lucky” Sparked the Unraveling of Broadwater’s Conviction

In 2013, a movie producer tasked with writing a screenplay based on “Lucky” contacted Paul Clapper, a retired detective who had played a tangential but important role in the Sebold case. According to the producer, he replied, noting that there were a number of questions in the case: Was the right person arrested? Was Sebold a good witness? If DNA testing had been available, would there have been the same outcome? However, the producer said Clapper never elaborated on this list, and ultimately this attempt to film “Lucky” fell by the wayside.

Years later, a second producer endeavored to make a movie of Sebold’s memoir. His concerns about the story were such that he hired a private investigator to dig deeper. The investigator, Dan Myers, met with Clapper and came away with the impression that Clapper believed Broadwater was innocent of the crime and Weakfall was guilty. Myers brought his concerns to a pair of Syracuse lawyers, who filed a motion to vacate Broadwater’s conviction in 2021. More than 40 years after the rape, and after more than two decades of living as a registered sex offender, Broadwater was exonerated.

The Aftermath: “I’ll Never Write Anything Good Enough”

Five years after the court vacated Broadwater’s conviction, Sebold has no doubt he is innocent and told ProPublica she now questions her decision to report her rape to the police: “None of this would have happened.”

Despite his exoneration, Broadwater said the stigma of being a convicted rapist was still hard to shake, even with his record cleared and a multimillion-dollar settlement from New York state. “I’m still embarrassed that I was convicted and sent to prison for rape for 16 and a half years,” he said. The city of Syracuse and county of Onondaga are contesting Broadwater’s claims. He explained that his life “still ain’t normal. Ain’t never gonna be normal. How could it be normal?”

Sebold and Broadwater have discussed through intermediaries the possibility of meeting in person. But their shared reluctance to travel has made plans difficult.

Sebold said she did recently write a letter to Broadwater in which she takes responsibility for her role in his wrongful conviction. The letter describes, she said, “the deep sorrow I hold for what happened.”

“I’ll never write anything good enough,” Sebold said about the three pages that took four years to compose. It is “probably, in my mind, the most important thing I’ll ever write.”

The post What We Uncovered About the Sexual Assault of Alice Sebold and a City’s Buried Rape Crisis appeared first on ProPublica.

Even deep in the woods, you can make filter coffee without fuss. Here's why this simple, foldable brewing design works so well.

With the federal Medicaid work requirement looming in January, Democrats are considering state legislation to call out big companies that employ workers enrolled in the safety net health program.

Kyiv’s decision to honour second world war fighters who killed about 100,000 Poles has revived simmering tensions

In the aftermath of Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022, Polish-Ukrainian solidarity emerged as one of the most heartwarming subplots of the Kremlin’s brutal war. Millions of Poles, remembering their country’s own tragic history with Russia, mobilised to help Ukrainian refugees with food, shelter and support as they crossed the border in huge numbers to flee the conflict.

Four years later, that outpouring of generosity and solidarity is a distant memory, as the two countries find themselves locked in a bitter dispute over history that has led to angry rhetoric, mutual mud-slinging and a threat from Poland to block Ukraine’s EU accession until it gets its historical house in order.

Astronomers have detected erythrulose, a sugar found in raspberries and self-tanners, in a gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way. While not essential for life itself, the molecule can convert into a form thought to be important for life's origins, adding evidence that key prebiotic ingredients may be widespread across the galaxy. The Associated Press reports: Using two dish-shaped radio telescopes in Spain, researchers collected data from a large gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way. They identified the sugar in gas form by comparing telescope signals to samples in the lab. It's the latest kind of sugar detected in space -- in a region crossed by NASA's twin Voyager, the farthest spacecraft to ever travel from Earth. Scientists have found interesting chemistry in our galaxy, including building blocks for genetic material and parts of the cell. They spotted a cousin to table sugar near the center of the Milky Way about 25 years ago, and black grains from asteroid Bennu retrieved by NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft yielded other sugars, including a key DNA ingredient. The latest sugar isn't essential for life, but can easily convert to a form that's thought to be crucial to kick-starting life on Earth. And it's one of the most complex sugars spotted so far, said astrophysicist Erika Hamden with the University of Arizona. The results were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

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Government has been forced to pay back duties to companies that imported goods into the US that were hit by Trump’s tariffs

• China’s monthly car ‌exports top 1m as overall trade soars

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The US government has already paid back tens of billions of dollars in tariffs it collected before the supreme court ruled them illegal, according to budget figures released on Monday.

Tariffs – taxes on imported goods – have been a key part of Donald Trump’s economic plan since he took office again last year.

A deputy U.S. marshal was shot and killed while serving an arrest warrant on a fugitive in Louisiana, authorities say. The suspect is in custody.

Snappy performance, long battery life, great keyboard and excellent new haptic touchpad make the best of Windows 11

Microsoft’s Surface laptop for consumers is back, faster and with longer battery life and a hefty price increase because of the high cost of memory and chips.

The Surface Laptop 8 is a straight replacement for the seventh edition from 2024, which was the first of Microsoft’s new generation of ARM-based, Qualcomm-powered PCs designed to better rival Apple’s MacBook Air and other thin and light machines.

As general election looms, survey shows twice as many men as women support far-right Sweden Democrats

One is led by Sweden’s first female prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, and has promised smaller school-class sizes, more housing and free dental care for young people. The other, led by Jimmie Åkesson, has neo-Nazi roots and has pledged to lower taxes, improve public safety and treat “anti-Swedishness” as a hate crime.

In the run-up to Sweden’s general election in September, the Social Democrats and the Sweden Democrats are placed first and second respectively in the polls, and between them are expected to scoop up more than 50% of the vote.

Private companies are making Beijing look good in the developing world.

A new use for Russia’s old playbook in Ukraine.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist skewered presidents from Johnson to Trump, reaching a vast audience through syndication.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Hundreds of economists say in an open letter that institutions "must act now" to address how artificial intelligence could transform the economy and could put many people out of work. The statement released Monday was signed by top economists, along with computer scientists and some executives at tech companies including Anthropic, Google and OpenAI. "AI may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years," says the letter organized by Stanford University's digital economy lab. "This could drive an unprecedented transformation of our economy, larger than the Industrial Revolution, but unfolding over a vastly shorter time frame. It could bring risks, including large-scale job displacement, as well as opportunities such as major gains in living standards." The letter, which has only four sentences, says leaders must "build the incentives, guardrails, and institutions needed to steer AI in a direction that complements humans and benefits society." The Stanford lab says the letter has so far been signed by more than 200 economists and AI researchers, including 16 winners of a Nobel Prize. "We must be intentional and make collective, democratic choices, rather than letting market forces play out and risking leaving most citizens behind," wrote computer scientist and AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, who was also among the signatories. He said it "it is highly plausible that AI will drastically transform our economies." Other signatories include Google CEO Eric Schmidt, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, and Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz, Daron Acemonglu, and Simon Johnson.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Bahrain’s military has accused Iran of targeting civilians with its latest attacks on the country, after Tehran said it had struck US military facilities and infrastructure there earlier.

“Iran continues its systematic hostile approach through its heinous attacks with missiles and drones that target civilians in the Kingdom of Bahrain,” the general command of Bahrain’s military said, adding that air defences “intercepted and destroyed a number of Iranian aerial attacks” this morning.

National Science Foundation X-Labs winners choosing to build in Illinois are eligible for State investment, access to IQMP technical infrastructure, advanced prototyping facilities, and dedicated lab and office space

CHICAGO, July 13, 2026 — Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) have announced the X-Labs Fast Fund to encourage U.S. National Science Foundation X-Labs (NSF X-Labs initiative) teams to choose Illinois as the place to pursue technical breakthroughs in the quantum technology sector. The Illinois X-Labs Fast Fund reinforces Illinois’ leadership as the nation’s leading hub for quantum innovation.

“There’s no better place to build quantum technology than right here in Illinois,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “This is more than an immediate capital injection for these entrepreneurial teams. We’re offering operational autonomy along with access to the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park’s unparalleled technical infrastructure and experimental research facilities, cutting-edge labs, innovation hubs, and networks that can help X-Labs awardees innovate, scale and pursue transformational breakthroughs in the sector.”

The X-Labs Fast Fund is a $3 million capital fund to augment federal funding for teams focused on quantum technologies and awarded under the Phase 0 of the federal X-Labs opportunity. Teams pursuing a federal X-Labs award may write their intention to pursue Illinois funding into their application. The State of Illinois has committed approximately $200 million to attract federal funding for quantum and already demonstrated an ability to quickly deploy those funds. If awarded by NSF, teams will be able to apply to DCEO and receive the grant within months.

“The State of Illinois’ $3 million X-Labs Fast Fund will attract new talent to Illinois, giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to take advantage of our world-class facilities and opportunities for growth,” said DCEO Director Kristin Richards. “With each new investment, Illinois is cementing its reputation as the leading hub for quantum innovation.”

In addition to the $3 million X-Labs Fast Fund, Chicago’s leading quantum innovation organizations have put together a package to attract teams applying to X-Labs. The Chicago Quantum Exchange, P33, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and mHUB will add $250,000 in funding, immediate access to elite lab space and advanced prototyping facilities, and access to the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park’s (IQMP) technical infrastructure, including cryogenic, test and measurement equipment, and experimental research facilities. With access to Chicago’s state-of-the-art quantum campus and innovation ecosystem, facilities, assets and resources, X-Labs teams will be able to reduce infrastructure costs and maximize the impact of their NSF funding.

“Through our investment in building a quantum technology campus, IQMP is proud to support both foundational quantum research and the applied quantum industry,” said Brian DeMarco, Chief Technology Officer, IQMP. “We are thrilled to join the vibrant Illinois quantum community, offering support to X-Lab participants.”

“Governor Pritzker and our quantum ecosystem partners are bringing something other geographical areas cannot: a full-stack quantum ecosystem already in motion, full of capital, infrastructure, talent, world-leading academic research institutions and our two national research laboratories,” said Brad Henderson, CEO, P33. “With the largest concentration of quantum activity in North America, Illinois is wired for scale. If you’re building in quantum, this is the opportunity to do groundbreaking work faster.”

Illinois is home to four of the 10 National Research Centers funded by the National Quantum Initiative. This includes two U.S. Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Centers led by Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and two NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes that lead cutting edge research in quantum sensing and hybrid quantum architectures and networks, the exact focus areas for the two NSF X-Labs calls. Illinois was the first state to partner with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to create the Illinois-DARPA Quantum Proving Ground to provide additional support for DARPA performers. The IQMP, a 128-acre development currently under construction, will be one of the largest quantum computing sites in the world, providing infrastructure and resources to support the development and commercialization of quantum technologies, hardware, software, and applications.

“Illinois has built the nation’s most formidable quantum ecosystem thanks to strategic investments like the new fund to attract high-growth, high-impact ventures to the state,” said Illinois EDC President and CEO Christy George. “The Illinois X-Labs Fast Fund ensures that the world’s most promising quantum teams have every reason to build in our state.”

Governor Pritzker has made investing in quantum computing a major priority during his administration. In addition to the $500 million investment in IQMP, Illinois previously invested $200 million to support the Chicago Quantum Exchange, the first state to make that large of a commitment to quantum – a move that cemented Illinois’ leadership nationally and attracted federal research dollars. Companies committed to the IQMP include IBM, anchor tenant PsiQuantum, Infleqtion, Pasqal, Diraq, and Quantum Machines.

More from HPCwire: NSF Launches $1.5B X-Labs Initiative with Initial Focus on Quantum Systems and Scientific Instrumentation

Source: Illinois.gov

The post Illinois Launches $3M Fund to Attract NSF X-Labs Quantum Teams appeared first on HPCwire.

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The Democrat’s outgoing senator for Michigan Gary Peters has endorsed member of Congress Haley Stevens to be his successor over Abdul El-Sayed in the state’s neck-and-neck primary race set for 4 August.

“She has demonstrated to me time and time again that she’s a fighter,” Peters told the Detroit News. “We need workhorses in the Senate, and we need someone who can do that job from day one. This is not a place for on-the-job training.”

Trump’s secretary of state claims the global tribunal is interfering with US military and law enforcement operations

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, launched a campaign to dismantle the international criminal court (ICC) on Monday, claiming the global tribunal was interfering with US military and law enforcement operations at the risk of American sovereignty.

Rubio invoked images of US border patrol agents and elected leaders being “dragged before an international court” and tried by judges from around the world in a lengthy op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal Monday.

Issue must be addressed with ‘even greater rigour’, says government spokesman, after New York Times report on how it has become a spy hub for Vladimir Putin

Japan has said it recognised the need to counter foreign intelligence better after the New York Times reported that Russia had turned the country into a “den of spies” and key source of weapons components.

The newspaper, in an investigation published on Sunday, reported that thanks to “weak espionage laws”, Moscow was using Japan as a key hub for intelligence gathering and procurement of dual-use technology needed for its war in Ukraine.

Nordone was 13 when brother became her legal guardian – and was a key presence as he rose in the Republican ranks

When Lindsey Graham was in college, his parents died, just over a year apart. But he worried most about his sister, who, at 13, was suddenly an orphan. Graham became her legal guardian – and later adopted her so she could receive his benefits through his service as an air force lawyer.

On Tuesday, following Graham’s sudden death, that sister, Darline Graham Nordone, was set to be sworn in to serve the remainder of her late brother’s Senate term.

The Hisense A10 has a removable magnetic color screen on the back that lets you swap between E Ink and color.

A 65-year-old man was thrown 8 feet into the air by a bison that charged at him in Yellowstone National Park, video shows.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced his pick to fill the vacancy left by Sen. Lindsey Graham's death.

For now, a single satellite has been cleared for a test demonstration, but the company making it hopes to eventually launch 50,000 of them into orbit.

President Trump formally notified Congress that "military action" against Iran restarted last week in a letter obtained by CBS News, as a monthslong ceasefire comes to an end.

Surviving members of the beloved Bahamian musical group Da Pond Band are speaking out about their friends who were killed when a small plane crashed in the Bahamas on Friday, killing 10 people.

Maine Sen. Angus King said he told Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin that he wanted a transparent investigation into the shooting in Biddeford.

Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah will lose ‘close to a million and a half acres each’ and open land to developers and oil industry

Donald Trump has approved a sharp reduction in the size of two national monuments in Utah held sacred by many Native Americans, in the latest move to open US public land to corporate developers and the oil and gas industry.

The two monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, will see a reduction of “close to a million and a half acres each”, Trump said during an executive order signing event on Monday, undoing protections established by former presidents.

Arkansas police said they found bags of capsules containing a green powdery substance in Brandon Clarke's car, which he told them was kratom.

Good, an unarmed US citizen and mother, was killed by immigration officer and Pretti was shot by CBP officials

Previously withheld evidence regarding the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti is now in the hands of Minnesota prosecutors, helping the state gain clarity on the deaths that occurred earlier this year during protests against a federal immigration crackdown.

“Through the cooperation of our federal partners, we have obtained hard drives of previously withheld evidence in the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis,” the Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty, said in a video statement posted on social media.

Idaho to have ballot measure for reproductive freedom law that would reverse ban on abortions at all pregnancy stages

One of the strictest abortion bans in the country will be on the ballot this November after Idaho’s secretary of state certified a ballot measure on Monday that would reverse the state’s abortion ban that prohibits the procedure at all stages of pregnancy.

The ballot initiative was headed by a volunteer-run group called Idahoans United for Women & Families, which ran a petition drive to get the measure in front of voters this fall. They gathered more than 100,000 signatures, surpassing the required 70,725 to get on the ballot.

Analysis of 12 indicators including asthma, obesity and vaccination finds child health is ‘national embarrassment’

Children in the UK will grow up to be one of the unhealthiest generations in decades, with child health outcomes having declined or stalled completely across all areas, a group of leading paediatricians has said.

Reduced vaccination rates alongside rising hospital admissions for asthma and mental health disorders are all contributing factors to the UK’s record on children’s health, which should be seen as a “national embarrassment”, their analysis has found.

Despite spending increase in June, Barclays says most people still pessimistic about economy

Relentless sunshine and the World Cup coaxed consumers to spend more on beer and online shopping last month, with purse strings expected to remain loose as England fans gear up for Wednesday’s semi-final.

Most people remain pessimistic about the UK economy, according to data from Barclays Bank based on debit and credit card transactions.

Microsoft is overhauling Windows 11 search to prioritize local apps, files, and settings over web results while removing ads, promotions, MSN/Bing clutter, and other distractions. "You've have been asking for search that is faster, more relevant, and easier to use -- whether you're opening an app, finding a file, or changing a setting," Microsoft says in a new blog post. "Because the Windows Search Box is where many people start, we focused first on making results more dependable, easier to scan, and clearer before you click." Windows Central reports: The company is highlighting several key improvements, including clearer results that does a better job at showing why a search result is appearing when a query has been typed, alongside prioritizing local results before reaching out to the web. Search is also getting better at handling things like typos, which should help surface the right results even when the user misspells an app or file. The search home pane will no longer show MSN or Bing content, and promotional content and ads will no longer appear in search results. These upgrades are now rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Experimental Channel, and are expected to roll out to all Windows 11 users later this year. Insiders may not see the changes right away as they are rolling out in waves. The full list of changes can be found here.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Killing of man – identified by rights groups as 26-year-old Colombian – comes days after man killed by ICE in Texas

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A federal immigration officer shot and killed a man in Biddeford, Maine on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed, just days ⁠after a man ⁠was ​killed by an immigration officer during a traffic stop in Texas.

In the statement, DHS claimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were “conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal”.

Prime minister-in-waiting votes for plans to tighten appeals system as 14 Labour MPs oppose measures

Andy Burnham has backed the government’s controversial asylum changes, voting for legislation that has divided Labour MPs over plans to tighten the immigration system and reshape the appeals process.

The prime minister-in-waiting and Labour MP for Makerfield supported the immigration and asylum bill at its second reading in the House of Commons on Monday evening, despite a rebellion by 14 Labour MPs.

American president says ships will be charged for safe passage through strait in apparent policy reversal

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The US has launched its third consecutive night of strikes on Iran hours after Donald Trump said Washington would reinstate a maritime blockade on the country and, in an apparent policy reversal, charge ships for safe passage.

“These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz,” the US military’s Central Command said.

If you're on a grandfathered plan, it will soon be automatically forced onto a newer plan that could cost more.

Claudia Sheinbaum says Mexicans ‘outraged’ over killing last week of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by agents in Houston

Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Monday that Mexico would be filing criminal complaints in the US for the deaths of more than a dozen Mexican migrants in immigration detention and those killed in anti-migrant operations.

The deaths include last week’s killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, whom Sheinbaum said was “practically murdered”.

The update also expands Gemini-powered voice search and reporting -- though a new motorcycle mode skips the US for now.

CISA and allied governments are warning users to secure their routers as Russian state-backed hackers continue compromising the devices and turning them into proxy nodes to disguise attacks against critical infrastructure. The advisory urges users to disable outdated SNMP versions, use strong passwords, update firmware, and turn off unnecessary router services to reduce the risk of being swept into these botnets. Ars Technica reports: "Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Center 16 cyber actors continue to exploit poorly configured and vulnerable networking devices worldwide, opportunistically compromising multiple critical infrastructure sector networks," the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Monday. The hacking groups are tracked under various names, including Berserk Bear, Energetic Bear, Crouching Yeti, Dragonfly, Ghost Blizzard, and Static Tundra. The advisory was co-issued by governments from around the world, including Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, and the UK. The primary means of compromise the agency warned about was hackers scanning IP ranges with active Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agents that accept common or default authentication credentials. These scans are run by the very sorts of router botnets the actors are trying to enroll the targeted device in. By sending malicious traffic from spoofed addresses, the hackers can use the SNMP agent on poorly configured routers to run malware. SNMP allows users to collect and organize information about managed networking devices or to modify that information to change device behavior. With control of a device, the hackers then use it as an exit node when probing or attacking targets in the communications, defense, energy, financial services, and government sectors. By funneling the malicious traffic through a benign-appearing device on a trustworthy IP address, the attackers are able to lower the chances of getting blocked by firewalls and other security defenses. Monday's advisory made no mention of identical operations carried out in recent years by China. So-called residential proxies are also a go-to tool used by financially motivated criminal hackers to obscure their true IP address. In many cases, these sorts of proxies are made up of millions of streaming devices that are sold with preloaded malware.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lindsey Graham's aorta tore at 71. Grant Wahl's burst at 49. One is common and age-driven; the other is inherited, silent, and findable.

Q: Does Barack Obama still owe contractors or subcontractors money for work done on his presidential library in Chicago?

A: Some subcontractors have said they were not paid for their work. The Obama Foundation told us that the construction project manager (Lakeside Alliance) has the “primary responsibility” to “hire and manage all the subcontractors for the project.” The foundation said it has “no outstanding disputed charges” with Lakeside Alliance nor “direct legal agreements or contracts” with subcontractors.

FULL ANSWER

The Obama Presidential Center is a 19.3-acre campus that was built to honor and preserve the legacy of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama. It is located in Jackson Park in Chicago. The presidential center includes a museum, community athletics and events space, and a branch of the Chicago Public Library. The center opened this year on June 19 — the Juneteenth holiday.

The total estimated cost for the project was $850 million, a spokesperson for the Obama Foundation confirmed with us. That’s hundreds of millions more than a widely reported early estimate of $500 million in 2016, Obama’s last year in office, and $300 million to $350 million, which the Obama Foundation cited in 2018 as the construction cost when the project was getting started.

Several readers have asked us about reports that subcontractors who worked on the project are still owed money and whether the former president is at fault. “Did Obama stiff 2 contractors on the work they did on the library?” one reader asked. Another inquired: “Are the Obamas in debt to minority contractors?”

A week before the opening of the Obama Presidential Center, Crain’s Chicago Business first reported that several subcontractors on the job said they haven’t been paid. The article contained information from mostly anonymous contractors. “The companies, including several established minority-led firms, allege a portion of the unforeseen costs on a project that came in hundreds of millions of dollars over its original estimated budget has been pushed onto them and other small contractors least able to afford them — jeopardizing jobs and the future of some businesses the historic project was designed to elevate,” Crain’s reported.

“Multiple contractors that spoke to Crain’s on condition of anonymity due to confidentiality agreements described a highly complex and delay-riddled construction process with drastic changes to the scope of work and little clarity about who held the final say on key aspects of the project,” the story said.

Crain’s, and subsequently other news outlets that reported on this, quoted Omar Shareef, the president of the African American Contractors Association in Chicago, who said that seven subcontractors had reached out to him in recent months for help getting paid.

Before construction started, the Obama Foundation had made a commitment to prioritizing minority-owned firms, saying that at least 50% of subcontracts would go to “diverse firms,” including those owned by minorities and women.

Later in June, the Chicago Crusader published a story saying that Shareef put the number of Black subcontractors who had contacted him at “about eight” and said they had submitted invoices, then months past due, to Turner Construction totaling about $100 million. Turner Construction is part of Lakeside Alliance, a joint venture of five construction firms and the builder of the Obama Presidential Center.

Shareef confirmed those details to us in a phone interview. He said the $100 million total included a $40 million claim in a lawsuit filed last year against the structural engineer on the project (more on that later). He said the number of subcontractors who had contacted him was now 10, including two white-owned companies.

Shareef said the situation was “very unfortunate because these people looked forward to working on the Obama center,” adding that they were “proud” to work on the presidential museum for the only African American U.S. president. He said the outstanding invoices had been “a disaster” for a lot of the companies, who had mortgages or loan payments due.

Crain’s noted that there were about 475 subcontractors in total on the project. It quoted the operations manager of a ventilation duct contractor, Ryan Cowdrey, as saying that company hadn’t had a problem getting payment. “We’re on track to close out as we should for a project of this magnitude,” he told Crain’s.

The Obama Foundation sent us a statement saying that Lakeside Alliance, as the construction manager, had “primary responsibility … to hire and manage all the subcontractors for the project. Lakeside oversaw the bidding process, including reviewing bids for an understanding of the scope of work and related costs.”

The foundation said it had “no outstanding disputed charges with Lakeside” and “no direct legal agreements or contracts with Lakeside’s subcontractors.”

“We chose Lakeside Alliance as an experienced construction manager that was also committed to going above and beyond to help prepare its subcontractors to handle this project and mentor smaller firms who had never worked on a project of this scale,” the statement said. It also said that Lakeside had “identified subcontractors who needed financial assistance” at the foundation’s request and that the foundation “has worked with Lakeside to find a path forward, often involving accelerated payments or prepayments to support the subcontractor’s efforts.”

We also reached out to Lakeside Alliance, and a spokesperson said in a statement: “Projects of this scale and complexity are inherently demanding. The Obama Presidential Center involved multiple structures, thousands of design documents, and hundreds of trade partners and community businesses. As with many major construction projects, contractual closeout — including the review and resolution of outstanding invoices, change orders, and other project matters — continues long after the doors open.”

The spokesperson said that Lakeside “continues to work to support the businesses that helped deliver this project” and remains “committed to working through outstanding matters to successfully close out the project.”

We asked Stan Martin, an attorney who has practiced construction law for more than 40 years, whether the payment flow described by the Obama Foundation is the way construction projects typically work — with an owner paying the main contractor, who then is responsible for hiring and paying subcontractors. He said that it was.

“The most common project delivery structure is for the project owner to engage one contractor,” Martin said. “The contractor, in turn, engages a number of subcontractors who perform the different aspects of the project. The owner typically has one contract with the contractor, and no contractual relationship with any subcontractors.”

Shareef told us that regardless of which entity specifically owes money for the outstanding invoices, “the buck stops with the owner” in his view. He said there must be a way for the Obama family or foundation to correct this. “Nothing has been resolved,” Shareef said regarding the companies that have reached out to him.

Specific Disputes

One subcontractor who has been quoted by name is Michael Owen, president of Adamson Plumbing Contractors, who has said his company is owed about $4 million out of the approximately $12 million worth of work the company performed. Crain’s reported that Owen said the original bid was for $6.9 million of work.

Owen told Crain’s and Fox News that delays and change orders increased the cost. He described a dispute with a mechanical engineering consultant over a type of clamp his firm used, which led to his firm having to redo the work at a cost of about $800,000, Crain’s reported. Fox News reported that Owen, whose company isn’t minority-owned, “has been trying to recover money it says it is owed from parties involved and has not filed a lawsuit.”

The most prominent dispute involves II in One Contractors, which in January 2025 sued structural engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti, claiming that the firm had engaged in racial discrimination by making “unfair” and “false” statements about the quality of concrete work done by II in One and other companies. The lawsuit seeks at least $40.8 million for work done by the concrete companies. In a motion to dismiss the suit, attorneys for Tomasetti said the plaintiffs “allege no verifiable falsehood.”

The case is still pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. 

Fox News reported that two minority-owned subcontractors for the project had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2024. Snopes.com quoted an attorney for one of the companies, Vision Painting & Decorating Services, as saying the bankruptcy was “obviously” due to the Obama Presidential Center being “way behind schedule and other public work constraints.”

The other company, Glass Management Services, said in a March 2025 court filing that its bankruptcy “was caused, in part, by significant project delays, cost overruns, and financial harm resulting from defects in Concrete Collective’s work” on the presidential center, Snopes noted. The filing seeks information about whether Lakeside Alliance was aware of these issues before asking GMS to do the glass work.

We reached out to Vision Painting & Decorating Services and Glass Management Services, but we haven’t received a response.

According to the Cook County Clerk’s Office, several companies have filed mechanic’s liens against the Obama center property seeking payment. A mechanic’s lien is a legal claim that unpaid parties (such as subcontractors) can attach to the property that they worked on to block it from being sold or refinanced without settling the payment.

Clearly, there are ongoing disputes among subcontractors, other firms and the general contractor. The Obama Foundation maintains that it has paid Lakeside and has “no direct legal agreements” with the subcontractors. Lakeside hasn’t disputed that.

“The Obama Presidential Center stands as a testament to the dedication and hard work of thousands of craftspeople, trade partners, community members, and stakeholders,” the Lakeside Alliance spokesperson told us. The alliance “is appreciative of everyone who contributed to making this vision a reality and proud of the lasting impact the project will have for generations to come.”

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

The post Explaining What We Know About the Obama Presidential Center Contractor Disputes appeared first on FactCheck.org.

The president said the U.S. will impose a 20 percent fee on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz despite official assertions that fees would violate international law.

South Carolina governor asks Darline Graham Nordone to replace senator who died on Saturday, after Trump recommendation

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Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, appointed Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to replace him in the Senate following his death on Saturday, after Donald Trump recommended that she be given the role.

Her appointment was welcomed by lawmakers from both parties, who saw Nordone as an appropriate replacement for the brother who had raised her after their parents died when she was a teenager.

Developers and public beta testers can try an early version of the software now before Apple releases it to the general public this fall.

The memory shortage is likely to lead to fewer budget devices and more refurbished models, a report says, as Apple and Samsung gain market share.

I have a love-hate relationship with Sun’s NFS. Since it was so prevalent, it’s a go-to for getting stuff on and off the classic UNIX workstations I love to explore, but at the same time, it also never seems to work right away. However, the technology NFS was designed to replace was apparently quite a bit worse. Sun sold diskless workstations before NFS, which used something called nd (network disk). The problems with nd stem from a limitation of SunOS at the time. Since SunOS only provided support for a maximum of eight partitions per physical disk, nd offered the ability to create subpartitions, of which you had to manually create and remember the start and end sectors.

That’s a recipe for problems. But wait, there’s more!

For extra bonus problems, you might run out of available partitions to use on your server disk because you needed all of the available ones for regular filesystems and your swap area. If you were in this situation you could take the dangerous but necessary step of specifying your network disks using the special ‘c’ partition (cf dkinfo(8)), which was conventionally used to provide access to the entire disk. This was extra dangerous because you had to make sure that the nd disks you specified weren’t overlapping into any regular partitions that you were using, since as nd(8) says, nd itself did no sanity checking. If you said sectors X to Y were network disk X, that’s what they were, and goodness help you if some of them were also something else.

↫ Chris Siedenmann

And this isn’t even everything. Every part of this sounds horrid, and I can totally understand seeing NFS as a godsend compared to nd. It’s depressing that we’re in 2026 now, and the basic task of sending a file from one computer to another over your own network often still a total clusterfuck.

Amid growing speculation about Mitch McConnell’s health after he spent weeks out of the public eye following a hospitalization, the Republican Kentucky senator’s office released a statement and image July 12.

The image shows McConnell wearing jeans and a red checkered shirt, supported by pillows, alongside his wife, Elaine Chao, and holding a newspaper in his right hand.  

Statement From Senator Mitch McConnell

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) released the following note to constituents regarding his hospitalization and recovery:

“To my fellow Kentuckians –

“When you elected me to a seventh term and made me our… pic.twitter.com/kfx2GKqd38

— CSPAN (@cspan) July 12, 2026

Social media users, including conservative activist Laura Loomer, quickly questioned the photo’s authenticity, saying parts of the image appeared generated with artificial intelligence. Some said the photo was a recycled or altered photograph from a 2023 incident in which McConnell fell and was hospitalized, with one user saying the photo was "widely shared" in 2023. 

X’s chatbot Grok repeated the claims, responding, "The photo McConnell's office released yesterday with Elaine Chao is the exact same one from his April 2023 recovery after a fall and concussion."

Yes, the photo McConnell's office released yesterday with Elaine Chao is the exact same one from his April 2023 recovery after a fall and concussion.

Side-by-side details match perfectly: the red gingham shirt, pose, smile, glasses, background, blue chair, lighting, and even…

— Grok (@grok) July 13, 2026

McConnell’s statement, issued shortly after U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham died of a sudden aortic dissection and amid rumors that McConnell was in critical condition, was intended to address that speculation and provide more details about McConnell’s medical condition.

McConnell said in the statement that he was hospitalized after he fell and was briefly unconscious, and later developed pneumonia. He said doctors determined he had no broken bones, concussion, heart attack, stroke, tumors or hemorrhages. He has since moved to a rehabilitation facility. 

We found no evidence the photo existed online before July 12. Two digital forensics experts who examined the image told PolitiFact they found no indication it was generated by AI or digitally manipulated.

Experts find no signs of AI generation

Matthew Stamm, a Drexel University professor who researches multimedia forensics, told PolitiFact that he and a doctoral student used a digital forensic technique developed in his lab to analyze the image’s pixels for clues whether AI was used to create it. The analysis found no evidence of AI generation, he said. 

 "This approach did not find evidence that the image is AI generated," Stamm said.

Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert and cofounder of GetReal Security, which develops tools to detect deepfakes and manipulated media, said his team analyzed the faces, lighting and shading and other elements of the image and found no evidence of AI generation.

We also checked the images against image verification tools from OpenAI and Google, which can check for markers that the image was generated using ChatGPT or Gemini. Neither detected signals associated with those generation tools.

No evidence McConnell photo is from 2023

Shortly after McConnell released the photo, social media users posted results purportedly from Google's AI search and Grok that said it was from McConnell’s 2023 hospitalization. The posts do not link to a dated photo or archive establishing a link. 

News articles and released photos from around McConnell’s 2023 hospitalization show no other photos showing McConnell in a medical setting. 

Photos published in May 2023 by Getty Images, after McConnell’s earlier hospitalization, show him wearing the same red checkered shirt under a suit jacket in the U.S. Capitol. But the 2026 image doesn’t appear to be a copy or edit of those images.

Stamm said there’s no ironclad way to verify when a photo was taken once it’s been transmitted online, because the transmittal can change the metadata that may carry that information. Still, there’s no evidence the photo, or a photo like it, existed online before July 12.

Social media users drew attention to blurry text on the newspaper in McConnell’s hand, calling it evidence of image tampering or AI generation. But the newspaper in McConnell’s hand in the photo is consistent with The Washington Post’s Sunday, July 12 Sports page, according to an X post by The Washington Post’s media reporter Scott Nover. 

Stamm said that the text’s appearance is a normal effect of the photo resolution, distance and viewing angle, as well as the compression that is performed on most cameras. 

"This can cause a little bit of blurring," he said. "This is normal. This happens inside everyone’s camera. It’s not a sign that something is altered." 

Users also began scrutinizing the framing between the photo published by news outlets and the photo as it appears on McConnell’s website, with some pointing to a cropped version as the "original" 2023 photo. 

On McConnell’s website, the photo accompanying the press release is cropped to a landscape aspect ratio, with the top and bottom partially cut out. The image contains just the corner of the newspaper. 

But it appears to be just a simple crop of the larger image, Stamm said. 

McConnell’s Senate website contains a carousel of news items with images attached that use the same aspect ratio, meaning the photo was potentially cropped to fit a predefined size for the website. 

How to spot AI photos

AI-generated photos are getting harder and harder to detect, but there are a few ways you can check for evidence of AI use in a photo. 

First, some tools that can create AI images add an imperceptible watermark to the image which can then be found using the company’s tools. For example, Google’s Gemini can check for evidence of the watermark SynthID, while OpenAI’s verify page can detect if an image contains markers of ChatGPT generation. 

Other online websites that check for evidence of generative AI in images can be useful, but they’re not perfect. Stamm said some online AI detectors are better than others, but they shouldn’t be taken as definitive. 

Stamm said people should investigate when they see an image that causes a strong reaction. Stamm suggested looking for multiple sources of information that confirm the photo’s legitimacy — although, in this case, McConnell’s office is the only source of the image so far.

"The first thing you should do is slow down and take it with a grain of salt," he said. "We’re seeing right here, this doesn’t show evidence of AI generation. The best thing, if people are questioning this, is look for other photos."

Our ruling

Social media posts said a photo that McConnell released on July 12 is from his 2023 hospitalization or is AI generated.

We found no evidence the photo had been shared online before its July 12 release. Digital forensics experts told PolitiFact the photo shows no signs of generative AI. 

We rate the claims False.

German textile firm ZEGO has filed for insolvency and is blaming a March cyberattack that shut down production for nearly six weeks. "ZEGO's filing adds another name to the short but growing list of companies that say a digital break-in was commercially fatal to their business," reports The Register. From the report: In a notice to customers and suppliers, the organization said it had exhausted every available option before seeking insolvency protection. Managing director Johannes Zenglein described the filing as "one of the most difficult steps in our company's 37-year history." "The cyberattack of March 29, 2026, however, impacted our company to an extent that we could not fully compensate for despite our best efforts," Zenglein wrote. "The consequences resulted in a production outage of nearly six weeks and significant financial strain. These effects ultimately impacted our financial situation so severely that filing for insolvency became necessary." ZEGO did not disclose what kind of attack it suffered, whether ransomware was involved, who was behind it, or whether customer or employee data was compromised. What it has made clear is that the operational disruption alone was enough to push the business beyond the point of recovery. ZEGO said insolvency proceedings have now been initiated, but insisted the filing does not necessarily spell the end of the business. It said it plans to keep production running while administrators attempt to restructure the business, preserve jobs, and keep customers and suppliers on board.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

@justgoldssister Hiya, apologies for the delay, had a busy weekend... Sorry to hear after all the hard work that your sister has lost her daystreak.
Sooooo frustrating.

Well, trappedinanelevator and I both just reappeared on the leader board after a few days of coming off.
We both put it down to FM doing something in the background with the app but we have no idea.

I wrote via their ticket system to FM who explained they have no way of reinstating anyone on to the leader board and apologised for the trouble, giving me tips on making sure I had a signal etc. While in communication with them and giving them the information they asked for... I just reappeared on the leaderboard.

Trappedinanelevator now goes under the name of FM Breaks Daystreaks. Maybe you can track him down on the OW app?

I guess if your sister's streak doesn't show after a few days that could be that.

The same happened to Fused and his never came back.

Good luck.

OSNews covered the downfall of Nokia extensively back when it was happening, but I must admit that seeing this whole story in “retrospectives” now makes me feel so incredibly old. This story played out roughly between 2007 and 2016 – in the grand scheme of things, the end of Nokia’s phone business wasn’t that long ago! Zeit, bitte bleib stehen.

Anyway, here’s another retrospective, but this one I definitely like a bit more than the countless others we’ve seen, because it ends on the part of the story often left out: Nokia not only survived, it’s actually thriving.

The company itself ultimately survived, even if the transition wasn’t painless. Nokia’s revenues, which peaked in 2007, fell sharply through the mid-2010s before the company refocused on a decades-old business line—telecom infrastructure—that many had forgotten Nokia was even in. Nokia now ranks among the world’s top three suppliers of 5G network equipment, serving carriers across more than 125 countries, alongside Ericsson and Huawei. Although the company could never quite crack the smartphone, it now plays a key role in providing the network backbone those smartphones run on.

↫ Chris Chinchilla at IEEE Spectrum

From a business perspective, I honestly doubt Nokia’s phone business could’ve survived to this day, even if they had responded to the arrival of the iPhone sooner, and even if they didn’t do the stupid thing of focusing on Windows Phone first and had just embraced Android right away. Obviously, a Nokia with its own touch-era smartphone operating system would never have survived – none of them did – and even if they went with Android from the onset, I think the eventual onslaught of Samsung, which has killed many a popular smartphone brand, would’ve trampled Nokia too.

In a better version of our world, Nokia would’ve survived with its own smartphone operating system, based on Symbian or not, and it would’ve been Europe’s strong, consistent answer to the Americans’ iOS and Android. While Nokia would’ve still been a business and would’ve undoubtedly tried the same anti-user shenanigans as Apple and Google, they’d at least be easier to reign in regulatory-wise. You’d hope.

The EU should’ve never allowed Nokia’s smartphone business to be sold to Microsoft.

According to a report, the company plans to skip higher-performance versions of some of its processors along the way.

Thanks to pollution, overpopulation and the climate crisis, Earth is facing a terrifying new crisis: an irreversible 'water bankruptcy'. Now, fights over water have ramped up across the world, including in the US west. Host Carter Sherman speaks with Guardian extreme weather correspondent Gabrielle Canon about the battle over the future of the Colorado River Basin, whose water sustains some 40 million people across seven states – but is now drying up. Gabrielle recently rafted down the basin's last 'wild' river, the Yampa. Damming or diverting the Yampa could bring the west some much-needed hydration. It may also devastate the vast natural ecosystem that relies on the river's free-flowing waters. Also: Carter and Kai Wright react to the death of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham

• Gabrielle Canon’s story on the Yampa River

• Guardian stories on Lindsey Graham:

  • Analysis on Graham as dealmaker

  • The scramble to replace Graham

  • Lindsey Graham in his own words

The suit poses a new challenge to the $110 billion deal that would unite two of the nation's largest media companies.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS had been filed for an "improper purpose."

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham's sudden death late Saturday has set off a scramble for who will succeed him in the Senate.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 14 No. 863.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for July 14, No. 1,851.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for July 14, No. 1,129.

A coalition of 12 states led by California is suing to block the $111 billion Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. merger, arguing it would reduce competition in theatrical distribution, blockbuster films, and basic cable licensing. The challenge (PDF) defies the DOJ's approval of the deal. Variety reports: The coalition, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, alleges that the $111 billion transaction violates the Clayton Act by lessening competition in three distinct markets: wide-release theatrical distribution, "top-grossing" theatrical distribution, and basic cable licensing. "The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.," Bonta said in a statement on Monday. The suit argues that the combined company will control 27% of the wide-release theatrical distribution market, 30% of the submarket comprising "anticipated blockbuster films," and 27% of the basic cable bundle. The states argue that such consolidation will harm theaters and cable and satellite providers that rely on competition among distributors. Paramount and Warner Bros. are two of the five remaining legacy studios. Together, all five -- including Disney, Sony and Universal -- control 86% of theatrical distribution and 90% of blockbuster distribution, the states said. Warner Bros. and Paramount are also the second- and third-largest basic cable distributors, respectively. [...] The states are expected to seek an injunction to block the transaction, which Paramount expects to close sometime after July 22. The 12 states in the coalition are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington. [...] All are represented by Democratic attorneys general. "Consolidation here not only leads to higher prices -- it also leads to fewer opportunities for important stories to come to life, and fewer ways for audiences to encounter stories, ideas, and perspectives beyond their own experiences," Bonta said. "In this country, no one is above the law. With this lawsuit, California and our sister states are fighting for free and fair markets, not rigged markets. America has no kings in government or our economy."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cyclosporiasis outbreak comes a year after Trump officials cut funding for state and local health departments

• What is cyclosporiasis, the parasitic illness causing ‘explosive’ diarrhea?

State health officials in Michigan and Ohio are reporting thousands of cases of cyclosporiasis – a parasitic infection that causes “watery diarrhea”, loss of appetite and weight loss.

The outbreak of more than 2,800 cases comes a year after the Trump administration cut funding to state and local health departments and reduced the remit of a program dedicated to coordinating information on foodborne illness, including of cyclospora.

Instead of an outright ban, EU President Ursula von der Leyen is suggesting social media start dates that will allow kids gradual access to platforms.

Carl McDaniel was ‘respectful distance’ from animal when it charged and has severe injuries, including broken bones

A tourist who was tossed 8ft in the air by a bison at Wyoming’s Yellowstone national park – an encounter viewed by more than a million social media users thanks to a viral video online – has been identified as a “community-minded” grandfather from Washington state.

Carl McDaniel had severe injuries including broken bones after Friday’s campsite encounter with the bison, which was posted to YouTube by the Wyoming news outlet Cowboy State Daily. A photographer named Mike MacLeod rushed to help the victim on the ground after making the recording.

Lawmakers face obstacles, including demands from Trump, Mitch McConnell’s absence and senator’s sudden death

Republican lawmakers return to the Capitol this week facing a lengthy to-do list and Donald Trump’s demands for new voting restrictions, as Democrats jockey for an advantage ahead of the November midterm elections.

Lawmakers from both parties are eager to highlight before voters legislative victories ahead of the midterms, when control of Congress is at stake. But for Senate Republicans, who are already navigating an array of demands from Trump, their agenda grew further complicated over the weekend with the death of Lindsey Graham, the budget committee chair who was a key player in negotiating a party-line bill to fund additional defense spending and other priorities outlined by the president.

French president Emmanuel Macron has been hosting leaders amid hopes that Ukraine’s recent advances could force Putin towards negotiations

in Kyiv

Meanwhile, Russia has been forced to suspend shipping in the Sea of Azov after 90 vessels were targeted by Ukrainian drones in less than a week.

Shabana Mahmood to make it possible to deport Commonwealth citizens convicted of serious criminality

The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, will amend the immigration bill to allow the deportation of the Rochdale grooming gang, the first step in removing Shabir Ahmed from the UK.

At present, Ahmed cannot be deported because of a 1971 law applying to Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK more than 50 years ago.

Don’t float through the world in an AirPod bubble – enjoy music or podcasts and carry on using these tested favorites

• I tested 42 pairs of wireless earbuds to find the best in US

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

In a feat of engineering that borders on magic, the best wireless earbuds can silence the noisy world around you at the tap of a finger. So, why would you buy open earbuds, which are specifically designed to let in environmental sounds?

Frankly, I didn’t understand the appeal of them either until I started testing them, and now I use open earbuds even more than my noise-cancelling earbuds. For situations from hiking to running errands, these are the headphones you should be wearing. Here’s what you’re missing out on, and a few of the best pairs to try.

Best overall open-ear earbuds:
Soundcore Aeroclip Open-Ear Earbuds

Best premium open-ear earbuds:
Bose Ultra Open Earbuds

The last five days were very challenging for the 125 students participating in the ASC26 competition. It began with a long weekend of building their cluster and getting the environment settled in. When they began testing the applications, many teams found that the optimizations that worked on their university training systems didn’t work on their competition boxes. Ouch.

But they carried on. Now, finally, the competition is over – almost. It’s now time to discuss what they’ve done with the HPC expert judges panel. In years past, each of the 25 teams would make a 15-minute presentation to the judges. This was a long slog for both the students and those of us on the panel.

It’s different for 2026. Each team gets to produce a display showing off what they know and what they’ve learned over the past week. Judges will walk around the area, visiting with each team, and asking some sharp questions.

Some judges worked solo while others grouped up. HPC luminaries Jack Dongarra, Torsten Hoefler, and Ewa Deming moved as a group from team to team.

Dr. Jack has been attending ASC events and judging the competition almost from the beginning. Torsten and Ewa have done it multiple years as well.

Teams took vastly different approaches when designing their displays, ranging from the simple and direct whiteboard look to standard professional design to the outright ornate.

This wasn’t a trivial thing, the top team had the chance to add 10 points to their score, which could make all the difference in the world in their final score and standing.

So Who Won What?

I usually get the final scores on each component of the competition so I can show the horse race day-by-day. It also gives me a chance to shine a light on teams who did great on one application, for example, but didn’t win an overall award. I didn’t get the scores for ASC26, so I only have the official results to go on.

Group Competition Award – Qinghai University, Beihang University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, EAFIT University and Beijing Normal University (representative from each of the winning teams in the picture…and nicely grouped)

Application Innovation Awards – Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Beijing University of Posts & Telecommunications: These go to the teams that achieved the top score on AMSS-NCKU (Black Hole), QiboTN (quantum) or the Mystery Application (LeWorldModel.)

The e Prize – Peking University who achieved the highest team score on Embodied World Model Optimization task. This was the group task where university teams worked together on the application then ran the optimized solution on their own system. (My pictures of Team Peking on stage were blocked by other photographers! But I get a good one a little later, wait for it.)

Best Presentation Award – Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Highest LINPACK – Qilu University of Technology

This is the fourth ASC competition for Team Qilu and their first major award. Congratulations!

Silver Medal – Tsinghua University

This marks the 36^th competition for a team from Tsinghua. They’ve won an incredible 19 gold medals, seven silver (including this one), four bronze, and five LINPACK awards. I’d love to see their trophy case, it’s gotta be big, right?

Champion – Peking University

Peking University is the gold medal winner at ASC26, topping their cross-town rival Tsinghua for Beijing bragging rights.(They get a bigger picture in this article too.)

This is their 13^th cluster competition and certainly wasn’t unlucky.

They might need a trophy case now since they’ve won three gold, two silver, and a Highest LINPACK award. Great job Team Peking!

The awards ceremony concluded with short talks from Jack Dongarra and Qian Depei, who is Chair of the Sun-Yat Sen University AI Research Institute. They both discussed the value of these competitions for the students and the HPC/AI community as a whole. Perfect way to end the evening.

Yet another highly successful ASC cluster competition. Students learned a lot about advanced HPC, they had the chance to talk to employers at the job fair, and they were able to test themselves against the fiendish set of tasks laid out by the organizers. They also made friendships with students from other universities and countries. The ASC organizers did another outstanding job on this competition. So where’s the next one?

The post ASC26 Wuxi Wrap Up: Awards & Trophies appeared first on HPCwire.

The Penn State team behind these temporary tats hopes they can help spot heart attacks or power robotic prosthetics.

According to the Wall Street Journal (paywalled), Apple agreed to use Intel's U.S. chipmaking plants after White House officials pressured Tim Cook during tariff-relief talks last summer. MacRumors reports: In August 2025, Apple CEO Tim Cook was in Washington to lobby the Trump administration to drop its proposed 100 percent tariff on semiconductor imports -- a levy that would have raised costs across Apple's product line. Apple reportedly secured an exemption after pledging to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S., although many of those investments were already planned. During the meetings, president Trump and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick are said to have urged Cook to use Intel's fabrication plants to make some of Apple's chips. The link between the tariff talks and the Apple-Intel deal had not been previously reported. Almost a year later, Trump announced via his Truth Social platform that Apple would begin using Intel-made chips in some products. "We need to design and build our Chips right here in America," the president posted. The news sent Intel shares to record highs. According to a person familiar with the negotiations cited by the WSJ, Apple plans to have Intel make chips for both Mac laptops and iPhones. The report doesn't say which chips or in what volume, and Apple is expected to remain reliant on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, for the majority of its custom silicon.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

After a wild attack on the media, Reform’s deputy leader joins other MPs in the Commons offering tributes rather than speculation

This is the third murder of either a sitting or former MP that I’ve covered in the last 10 years. It doesn’t get any easier or less shocking. Every death diminishes us all. The least you would hope is for politicians to behave with dignity. To set an example. For those who knew Ann Widdecombe to express their personal loss, for party leaders and ministers to convey the horror of her death and offer their condolences to her family and friends. Probably best for everyone else to say as little as possible for now.

The police have asked for everyone to refrain from speculating about the motives of the suspect, who, as of Monday lunchtime, was still being questioned by counter-terrorism officers, and not to politicise the murder if possible. A time for our political class to behave like grownups. And the overwhelming majority have done that. Just for now, even Nigel Farage has stopped acting as if he were the detective leading the investigation by offering his insights to every passing TV crew, and has fallen silent.

Ukraine and nine other countries including UK issue joint statement as leaders meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris

Ukraine and nine other countries including the UK, Germany and France are to build a shared protection programme for Europe against ballistic missiles, using Kyiv’s experience in fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion for more than four years.

“Our goal is to build a shared ballistic missile defence capability for Europe,” the 10 nations said in a statement on Monday as leaders met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for talks in Paris.

Bipartisan group argue in lawsuit that $110bn merger would hurt competition and lead to thousands of job losses

A dozen US state attorneys general are seeking to block the $110bn merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery, arguing in a lawsuit filed on Monday that it would hurt competition and lead to higher prices for consumers.

The coalition behind the lawsuit is led by the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, who has been a staunch critic of the merger since it was agreed to in February after a bidding war between David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance and Netflix.

US president declares waterway open and demands tariff as both sides engage in heavy drone and missile exchanges

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

Donald Trump has once again threatened to take control of the strait of Hormuz, as he announced the reimposition of a naval blockade on Iran and demanded a 20% tariff on all cargoes shipped through the key maritime passage.

Declaring the strait “open”, Trump suggested in a post on his Truth Social platform that the US should be known henceforth as the “Guardian of the Strait of Hormuz”, as Iran and the US engaged in some of the heaviest drone and missile exchanges since an interim deal was negotiated to bring an end to the conflict.

After Iran claimed to have killed three U.S. personnel in Kuwait over the weekend, the Pentagon’s official toll of injuries and deaths in the war quietly climbed on Monday.

The increase followed the collapse last week of the ceasefire with Iran amid tit-for-tat attacks between the countries.

As hostilities escalated, Iran called for revenge on the U.S. for killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the outset of the war in February.

The numbers for both wounded and dead U.S. service members in the war increased on Monday, according to the Defense Department.

Iran claimed Sunday that it “demolished the U.S. Army’s surface-to-surface missile base” in Kuwait, killing three American military personnel.

U.S. Central Command responded: “There are zero reports of U.S. service member deaths or injuries in the region.”

On Monday, however, the Pentagon’s Iran war death toll, which was last updated Friday, went up by one.

Pentagon statistics show a sailor died in what was provisionally deemed a “non-hostile” fatality with a “pending” caveat, meaning it could later be revised to a hostile death.

It marks the first U.S. fatality on the Pentagon rolls since March. It was not immediately clear whether the new death listed occurred in Kuwait.

The U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense, CENTCOM, and the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ceasefire Collapse

Iran’s military said on Monday that it launched strikes aimed at American military targets in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman. Hours before, U.S. forces attacked Iran in response to strikes on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

President Donald Trump renewed his past protection-racket threats to seize the Strait and begin charging a 20 percent toll on all goods passing through it.

“We’re gonna keep the strait, and we’ll probably run it,” he said on Monday. “We’re gonna get paid for guarding it, a lot of money.”

Following a week of public funeral ceremonies for Khamenei, his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei called for retribution for the late supreme leader’s assassination.

“We pledge that we will avenge your pure blood and the blood of all those martyred in these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers,” he said. “This revenge is the demand of our nation, and it must certainly be carried out.”

In addition to killing Khamenei, Trump’s war on Iran has killed thousands of Iranian civilians, including more than 150 — most of them children — in an attack on an elementary school.

U.S. Death Toll

The official number of dead and wounded U.S. personnel stands at 428, a more than 11 percent increase since the first ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was struck on April 8.

Reporting by The Intercept previously found that the Pentagon’s official count of dead and wounded personnel is a gross undercount, stemming from what one U.S. government official called a “casualty cover-up.” The Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS, which tracks “deceased, wounded, ill or injured” service members for Congress and the president, is missing hundreds of known casualties.

Related

Pentagon Erases Wounded U.S. Troops From Iran War Casualty List: “Definition of a Cover-up”

The number of casualties in the DCAS system fluctuates from time to time. On Monday, the number of U.S. deaths during Operation Epic Fury, the military’s name for the campaign in Iran, increased by one, to 14 total.

For a short time in May, however, the count was already at 14 before dropping back to 13, without explanation. Following the drop, DCAS listed 13 hostile and non-hostile U.S. deaths.

The Pentagon list of the dead is missing Maj. Sorffly Davius, a signals and communication officer with the New York Army National Guard who reportedly died of a sudden illness in Kuwait on March 6.

Davius’s death was widely acknowledged even as it was excluded from the official count. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., spoke about him during a memorial service and Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly recognized Davius as a fallen service member.

Wounded U.S. Personnel

On Monday, the number of U.S. wounded from the Iran war rose by one, to 414.

Like the official U.S. death toll, it has fluctuated, rising from 385 to 428 during a pause in hostilities in April. Later that month, the number suddenly declined by 15 without public comment from the Defense Department, leading to questions about manipulation of the figures or incompetence at the Pentagon.

While DCAS provides a running tally of “non-hostile” deaths — meaning those who died from accidents or by illness — it doesn’t include “non-hostile” injuries.

The DCAS figures show that 65 Navy personnel have been wounded in action. More than 200 sailors injured during a fire aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford in March are, however, missing from the tally.

The post Iran Claims to Kill 3 U.S. Service Members in Kuwait appeared first on The Intercept.

Kathleen Williams sanctions president’s lawyers and says $10bn suit against IRS was brought for ‘improper purpose’

A federal judge on Monday nullified an agreement the government reached with Donald Trump and his sons over the leak of his tax returns. The judge lambasted the government and president’s lawyers for using the judicial process to try to concoct a beneficial arrangement for the president.

The ruling from US district judge Kathleen Williams in the southern district of Florida blocks a widely criticized arrangement the government and the president’s attorneys reached earlier this year to resolve a $10bn lawsuit by Trump and his sons over the leak of the president’s tax returns. The government never responded to the lawsuit and then announced it was settling the suit by creating a $1.8bn slush fund to compensate victims of “government weaponization” and giving the president, his family, and related entities immunity from tax audits.

Home secretary insists all MPs treated equally but that security of former MPs and non-Westminster politicians is a concern

Shabana Mahmood has offered Nigel Farage a personal meeting with the Home Office unit that works on security for high-profile politicians, insisting all MPs are treated equally in how they are offered protection.

Addressing the Commons after the death of Ann Widdecombe, the Reform spokesperson whose body was found with serious injuries by the ambulance service at her home in Devon, the home secretary said the incident raised questions about the security of former MPs and politicians from smaller parties, including those not in parliament.

Vote will allow Israelis to pass judgment on Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of conflicts in Gaza and Iran

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

Israel will hold national elections on 27 October, giving its citizens their first chance to pass judgment on the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his coalition since the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023.

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, will be dissolved on Friday. With just a few days left in session, the most far-right government in Israel’s history is now rushing to pass several controversial laws in an attempt to bolster its position before polling day.

More than 90 residents have expressed interest in contamination claim against AGC Chemicals Europe

A Pfas factory in Lancashire has announced plans to close down, just days after the Guardian revealed that more than 90 residents had signed up to be involved in a potential legal claim over contamination of the local area.

AGC Chemicals Europe is consulting with employees and their union representatives about plans to cease operations at its manufacturing plant in Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire. The consultation is expected to last for at least 45 days.

Three of those arrested were detained on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, say counter-terrorism police

Twelve people have been arrested, including three on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, over a suspected far-right threat against an Islamic event held over the weekend, police have said.

Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation, which they said was related to “extreme rightwing terrorism” targeting an event held at Shrubland Hall in Suffolk.

Using a VPN on your Android device can help you keep your online activity private, stream geo-restricted content and bypass throttling from anywhere.

BrianFagioli writes: Cloudflare has launched Precursor, a new behavioral bot detection system that monitors mouse movement, typing cadence, scrolling, clipboard activity, page visibility, and other signals across an entire browsing session. The system is designed to catch advanced bots that can run JavaScript, use real browsers, and pass traditional CAPTCHA challenges. Cloudflare says Precursor does not record actual keystrokes and instead studies timing and rhythm. The company also says the data is not tied to user identities or persistent profiles. Even so, software that watches how people move and type throughout a visit raises privacy concerns, especially as Cloudflare claims bots now generate roughly 57 percent of all Internet requests.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Officials say blaze in Fontainebleau forest is of ‘exceptional scale’, with 900 homes evacuated and road and rail links hit

French firefighters are tackling a blaze of unprecedented scale sweeping through Fontainebleau forest south-east of Paris, while in southern Spain the prime minister visited the scene of a deadly wildfire and warned: “The climate emergency kills.”

The fire in Fontainebleau, a one-time royal hunting preserve about 40 miles (60km) from the French capital that today is dotted with villages, began late on Sunday afternoon. The blaze, which is unusual in its proximity to Paris, raced across about 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of forest.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly wooed by Mossad agents after distancing himself from Khamenei

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

Israel tried to recruit Iran’s intensely anti-Zionist former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to lead a new post-Islamic regime in Tehran, and even sent its top spy to Budapest to meet him, according to media reports.

The remarkable quest to turn a leader who had denied the Holocaust and called for Israel’s erasure began in 2022, according to reporting by the New York Times and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, and continued even after Israel became engaged in a brutal campaign in Gaza against Hamas, a key Iranian ally.

US defense secretary says taskforce will ‘combat dangers’ of leaks in latest escalation of White House press crackdown

The US defense secretary, ⁠Pete Hegseth, ​announced on Monday that the Pentagon and the US Department of Justice have created a “joint taskforce ​to identify and ​prosecute” what he called the “unauthorized disclosure ​of sensitive” information to the press, marking the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s effort to crackdown on leaks.

In a ⁠video ​posted on X, Hegseth said that “to combat the dangers that leaks pose, effectively immediately, I have ​delegated tasking authority ​to the war department’s ‌office ⁠of general counsel, empowering OGC to request and receive ​all ​information, ⁠records and support across the ​department concerning ​media ⁠leak investigations”.

California, New York and 10 other states filed a lawsuit over the proposed merger.

The two analysts expressed concerns that the 2020 election investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, was thin on evidence, sources said.

Locking in the right CD rate now could earn your savings thousands of dollars in interest over the next year.

Shawn Fain calls allegations ‘bogus’ and says attorney holds a ‘grudge’ against him over union’s ‘anti-war stance’ on Gaza

The US Department of Justice is investigating allegations against the United Auto Workers (UAW) president, Shawn Fain, that he put pressure on another high-ranking union official to provide benefits to his fiancee and sister and then retaliated against the official who refused to approve it.

On Sunday, Fain, who is running for his second term as union president, said the accusations are false and a part of election interference against him.

CBS News reviewed police records, body camera footage, court documents and local news reports to find more than 50 cases of innocent bystanders shot by police.

Startups are using emails, photos and voice recordings to create AI simulations that family and friends can interact with after a loved one's death.

The European Union is considering major new restrictions on children's access to social media, including age limits, phased access, and an outright ban. "This is not about whether children can access social media," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. "It is about when social media can access our children." The Verge reports: Social media platforms could also be forced to prove their services are not harmful before young people are allowed to use them. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc's executive arm could propose new legislation within months, after reviewing recommendations from a panel of experts released today. The panel recommended using a phased approach, including "no screens at all" for children under 3, supervised internet use for those under 13, and some limits for older teens. It also said social media platforms should have to prove their services are safe to younger users, an approach von der Leyen said she supports. Von der Leyen said the Commission will consider the report and return with proposals "after the summer." Any legislation would still need approval from the European Parliament and the EU's 27 member countries before becoming law across the bloc.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Home Office announces move that officials say comes close to proscribing group as a terrorist organisation

The UK will ban support for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Keir Starmer said on Monday, in a move that officials said came close to proscribing the military group as a terrorist organisation.

The prime minister announced his government would designate the branch of the Iranian military under a new National Security Act, enabling law enforcement to take action against anyone deemed to be providing it with support.

• Vick arrested in connection with Memphis shooting

• 29-year-old started on Jayhawks’ 2018 Final Four team

Lagerald Vick, a former University of Kansas basketball player and a starter on their 2018 Final Four team, has been charged with attempted first-degree murder in ⁠Tennessee.

Vick, 29, was a guard for the Jayhawks from 2015 to 2019.

Georgia Power says building a new transmission line will require acquiring more than 300 parcels of land, including residential properties.

• Saturday’s bout in Las Vegas finished in first round

• Irishman says he will undergo surgery on leg

Conor McGregor says he plans to fight again in UFC despite the fact that his return to competition lasted just 69 seconds before he suffered a leg injury, which he says will require ⁠surgery.

“Surgery. Prehab. Return ⁠to ​martial arts practice. Go again,” McGregor wrote on Instagram on Monday. “Final fight of the contract. ⁠Praise God!”

Brent crude rises 5% after US president says 20% toll will be imposed on key trade route to cover ‘safety and security’

Oil prices rose 5% on Monday as Donald Trump reinstated the US blockade of Iranian shipping in the Gulf and will charge other countries to pass through the strait of Hormuz.

As the US and Iran exchanged strikes amid an escalating standoff over the vital trade route, the price of Brent crude climbed to $79.37 a barrel.

FactCheck.org has won the 2025 Sigma Delta Chi award for fact-checking from the Society of Professional Journalists. This is our fourth win in the fact-checking category and our fifth award from SPJ overall.

Our winning entry of three stories by Senior Writer D’Angelo Gore and Deputy Director Robert Farley provided fact-checks about several of President Donald Trump’s tariff claims.

Among the claims examined were the misleading calculations used for “reciprocal tariffs” the president sought to impose on nations around the world, the misleading justification for higher tariffs on imports of European goods, and the repeated, false insistence that the tariffs would be paid by other countries and not American consumers.

“Judges said calling out deliberate falsehoods and misstatements is increasingly important in journalism,” SPJ said during the virtual awards ceremony on July 9. “Here, [the president’s] tariff numbers and statements have been carefully analyzed with the facts clearly presented. Important work, well done.”

Previously, FactCheck.org won the 2019, 2020 and 2023 Sigma Delta Chi fact-checking awards. We also won a 2010 SDX non-deadline reporting award for independent news sites for our work on deceptive claims made about federal health care legislation.

The Society of Professional Journalists, originally founded as Sigma Delta Chi, has been honoring outstanding journalism since 1932.

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

The post FactCheck.org Wins Sigma Delta Chi Award for Fact-Checking appeared first on FactCheck.org.

We sifted through hundreds of discounts to find the biggest savings that you need to check out.

President Trump recommended that South Carolina's governor appoint the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's sister Darline to serve out the rest of his term in the Senate.

Congress is returning to Washington with limited time to address a number of priorities ahead of a lengthy August recess and the sprint to the midterm elections.

A New Jersey man says his T-shirt nearly got him kicked off a United Airlines flight.

A new Incogni survey suggests Americans are pulling back from social media, with more than half saying "maintaining an online presence feels like work" and 55% reporting they post less than they did five years ago. "The full study concludes that there's been a significant shift in public attitudes toward social media," reports PCMag. "Where it was once fun and relaxing, it's now growing dark and angsty..." From the report: As the chart shows, there's also a clear correlation with age. A full 60% of Gen Z respondents feel the pain of maintaining a social presence. Perhaps they have a niggling hope that they might still be discovered as an influencer? Those of us in the Boomer category are clearly more relaxed about it, with just 38% saying that maintaining a social presence feels like work. The survey quizzed respondents about how they feel when they don't keep up with checking their socials and, by extension, how they'd feel if they just plain quit. They were given choices, both positive (peace, relaxation, and relief) and negative (anxiety, fear of missing out, and discomfort). Overall, positive reactions held slightly greater sway, with an average of about 21% compared with 19% for negative reactions. The Gen Y contingent accentuated that split, with 25% positive and 21% negative, while Gen X went even further, with 20% positive and just 13% negative. But the Gen Z group flipped the results, identifying 27% negative and 26% positive reactions to going without social media. There's another force pushing folks away from the socials: increasing politicization. Of the survey's respondents, 44% agreed that political content is driving people away from social media, and only 20% disagreed. Among Gen Z respondents, the impetus was stronger: 48% agreed, and just 13% disagreed. These negative feelings associated with politics only serve to highlight the positive reactions to deleting your social media. Are you posting less on social media than you did five years ago, and are you being more selective about who can see what you post? Then you're with the majority. More than half of the respondents answered yes to each of those questions. But would you ever parlay fewer posts into no posts (aka quit posting entirely)? When asked what it would take to finally get them to terminate a social media account, a die-hard group of one in six respondents said there's nothing that could make them quit. But more than half could picture quitting due to security concerns, and almost half accepted the possibility that harassment or hate speech could send them packing. Others cited the amount of time wasted on scrolling through social media and the mental health threats of doomscrolling.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Fridges are one of the most important home appliances to keep powered during an outage. Our lab testing revealed the power stations that can keep yours running the longest.

The sugar, called erythrulose, lurks in what's called the interstellar medium: thin clouds of gas and dust littered between stars.

Pete and Fran Gillam confirmed dead as authorities use DNA samples to identify victims of blaze in Almería

A British couple have been named among the 13 people killed by wildfires in Spain, as authorities race to use DNA to identify victims who were unable to escape the blaze.

Pete and Fran Gillam, who lived in Bédar, the village that bore the brunt of the wildfires on Thursday, were confirmed dead by their family.

Debt relief can save you thousands if you approach it right, but a few common missteps could erase those savings.

Home secretary updates Parliament after counter-terrorism police take over investigation into her death

• Ann Widdecombe death: counter-terrorism police take over investigation

The government has announced that it is in effect proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It is doing so using new powers under the National Security (State Threats) Act 2026.

Ministers have been under pressure for years to proscribe the IRGC, which backs terrorist activity outside Iran. But the last Conservative government, and Labour when it took power, argued that it would be difficult to use laws intended to target terrorist organisations against a state-run organisation.

Designation introduces new criminal offences relating to supporting, assisting, or obtaining material benefit from a designated body. Where an individual engages in espionage, sabotage or foreign interference for, on behalf of or with the intention to benefit the designated body, they may also be charged under the National Security Act 2023. The maximum penalty for these offences reaches life imprisonment.

For a body to be designated, the home secretary must reasonably believe that it is, or has been, involved in foreign power threat activity and must consider that designation is necessary to protect the safety or interests of the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom has identified activity linked to the IRGC involving threats to life and intimidation on UK soil. In January 2024, the UK announced sanctions targeting Iranian officials responsible for threats to kill on UK soil and criminal gangs who do the regime’s bidding overseas. The Iranian officials designated under these sanctions were members of IRGC Unit 840, which was exposed in relation to plots to assassinate two Iran International TV journalists in the UK.

In 2022, the National Cyber Security Centre issued an advisory alongside international partners exposing malicious activity. The advisory highlighted the threat from cyber proxy actors affiliated with the IRGC targeting a broad range of entities, including entities across multiple US critical infrastructure sectors as well as Australian, Canadian and UK organisations.

Between March and May 2026, there were a series of attacks and attempted attacks targeting Jewish communities, journalists and Israeli interests in the United Kingdom and across Europe. These incidents — including acts of arson and intimidation — have caused real fear and distress, and have had a profound impact on those communities affected.

The Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR), otherwise known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyah, have publicly claimed seven attacks at UK locations linked to Jewish and Israeli communities, and Persian-language media, including the antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green on 23 March.

It will be hard to wrestle a head-turning policy announcement from structural reforms to the state, though his allies are discussing a potential big bang early on.

One ally of Burnham recalled Gordon Brown’s announcement that the Bank of England would be made independent, four days after he became Labour’s finance minister in 1997. The person said: “He wants a Bank of England moment.”

It’s about “forcing the civil service to understand this is not just data on a graph,” said one Labour MP allied to Burnham. “Once you have a base where you can’t get free affordable integrated transport that gets you somewhere within 20 minutes easily, it changes perspectives pretty much overnight.”

Civil servants and Burnham’s allies are unanimous that No. 10 North will only be more than a gimmick if people with real power (including Burnham) spend serious time in Manchester — forcing Westminster’s lobbyist and journalist ecosystem to move with them. [Lucy] Powell predicted “big chunks” of Whitehall power will leave the capital. [Steve] Rotheram said: “You can’t have a No. 10 and then just have a load of junior officials there.”

The senior civil servant quoted above said a key test will be whether the No. 10 policy unit ends up based permanently in the northern version of Downing Street.

SHERBROOKE, Quebec, July 13, 2026 — Nord Quantique, a quantum computing company advancing efficient, scalable, and error corrected architectures, recently published a research paper demonstrating quantum error correction (QEC) of a single-mode grid state qubit with state preparation and measurement (SPAM) errors below 0.1%; a roughly 100-fold improvement over prior results in comparable GKP-based systems, and now on par with error rates routinely seen in leading superconducting transmon qubit platforms.

SPAM errors represent a fundamental challenge in quantum computing: even the most sophisticated error-correction protocols can be undermined by poorly prepared input states or unreliable readout. Nord Quantique’s research directly addresses this bottleneck and is compatible with its existing high-performance autonomous error correction, achieving superior SPAM performance without any compromise in logical error rates.

This metric has long been the weak link in GKP-based systems, lagging behind other operational benchmarks and capping overall performance. Closing that gap removes a key obstacle and strengthens Nord Quantique’s path to scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing.

“This breakthrough advances our mission to realize fault-tolerant quantum computing by 2030,” said Julien Camirand Lemyre, CEO and Co-founder of Nord Quantique. “By addressing the fundamental challenge of SPAM errors in our bosonic architecture, we’ve demonstrated that our 1:1 physical-to-logical qubit approach reduces performance limitations on the path to fault tolerance quantum computing.”

The gains stem from a repeat-until-success protocol based on post-selected stabilization, which uses quantum error correction itself to improve preparation fidelity. Rather than relying on real-time corrections and the complex classical control systems they require, the approach prepares a state, verifies whether the preparation succeeded, and either keeps the result or discards it and repeats. This simplification improves both implementation and reliability while drawing on the same error-correction capabilities that underpin Nord Quantique’s architecture.

This protocol is also adapted to prepare magic states, specialized quantum states required for the non-Clifford operations essential to universal quantum computation. High-fidelity magic state preparation is widely regarded as one of the most resource-intensive challenges across leading quantum architectures. Demonstrating it within Nord Quantique’s grid-state architecture highlights a further advantage of performing error correction without additional overhead.

As the field moves toward larger, more capable quantum processors, this kind of integration will be central to making fault tolerance practical rather than merely theoretical, bringing utility-scale quantum computing closer to reality.

Access the full paper and findings here.

About Nord Quantique

Founded with the vision of reinventing computing from the qubit up, Nord Quantique advances quantum error correction and scalable architectures toward commercially viable, fault-tolerant quantum computers. By embedding quantum error correction directly into each qubit using superconducting bosonic codes, the company enables a 1:1 logical-to-physical qubit ratio. This unique approach delivers scalable performance, fast clock rates, and an efficient energy and physical footprint—unlocking a clear path to useful, error-corrected quantum computers.

Source: Nord Quantique

The post Nord Quantique Achieves Sub-0.1% SPAM Errors in Bosonic Qubit Study appeared first on HPCwire.

You can now go "hooligan" in the McDonald's drive-through line.

Trump says the U.S. will be known as "THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT," and will charge 20% on all cargo shipped via the waterway to cover security costs.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: A state-owned newspaper in China recently published a satellite image of a data center in Gainesville, Va., writing in English that the development of artificial intelligence posed a threat to Americans' physical and financial well-being. A comic strip made to look as if it had been published by a Maryland news outlet -- created with OpenAI's ChatGPT by people in China, the tech company said -- circulated on X this year, blaming data centers for soaring electricity bills. It showed a tycoon smoking a cigar and clutching bags of cash. A video shared on X by a known covert Russian influence operation questioned the viability of a data center that an American company, Firebird, is constructing in Armenia, the small Caucasus nation that has been a focus of Kremlin pressure. "The country's electrical grid instability may render it useless," the video's narrator says. All are examples of a push by foreign adversaries to seize on what polls have shown is deep ambivalence -- verging at times on hostility -- about the spread of the data centers needed to power A.I. in the United States and elsewhere. China, Russia and, to a lesser extent, Iran have sought to use state media outlets to turn the controversy over data centers in the United States into "a domestic fracture point," according to a new analysis by Alethea, a threat intelligence company, which identified scores of articles and posts on social media this year. These campaigns, whose impact on public opinion remains to be seen, have raised alarms in Washington, where A.I. is seen as a top issue heading into this year's midterm elections.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The marine disaster may be linked to a high number of dolphin deaths in the region, scientists say

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The number of dead dolphins washing up on South Australian beaches spiked in 2025, according to long-term data that reveals mortalities during the state’s devastating algal bloom were the highest in 12 years.

Last year, at least 70 carcasses of common and bottlenose dolphins were found across SA, with a further 20 reported in 2026, including the recent death of a popular Port River dolphin known as Zoom.

Higher temperatures can cause radio, TV and microwave signals to travel hundreds of miles farther, upsetting communications

It was 3am in north-east Indiana’s Huntington county when the outdoor emergency alarm went off on 1 July.

The only issue? There wasn’t a storm, tornado or any other emergency weather event forecast or present anywhere for hundreds of miles.

AI tools can make Photoshop less overwhelming.

Knowing what debt collectors can and can't do after a borrower dies could protect your family from costly mistakes.

British counterterrorism police are now leading the investigation into the death of Ann Widdecombe after "new information and evidence" came to light.

Elizabeth Warren asks Jamie Dimon if he was advised to ‘mildly threaten’ UK chancellor over tax on bankers’ bonuses

A leading Democratic senator has written to the boss of JP Morgan to request clarification on the bank’s contact with the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the senate banking committee, wrote to Jamie Dimon last week to ask if he took advice from Epstein while lobbying against a UK tax on banker bonuses, in a letter published by the committee on Monday.

Suspects, aged 15 and 16, taken into custody but not formally charged in ‘targeted mass shooting’ in East St Louis

Two teenagers were arrested on Sunday in connection with a “targeted mass shooting” that killed five members of the same family and wounded two others in East St Louis, Illinois, according to state police.

The 15- and 16-year-old suspects were taken into custody at Holten state park, a recreation area east of the city, the Illinois state police director, Brendan Kelly, said at a Sunday news conference – but they had not immediately been formally charged with a crime.

Brent crude remains below $80 a barrel; European shares push cautiously higher while Asian shares tumble with South Korea’s Kospi down nearly 10%

• People in the UK: have you used prediction markets to bet on the World Cup or other events?

Drinkers across the UK were shocked when a pint in some London bars hit £10, and now a cup of coffee is facing a similar inflationary rate. Some baristas are now charging £6.50 for a flat white.

Higher energy bills, inflated by the war in the Middle East, as well as government policies which have increased tax and wages, are filtering through into coffee prices, experts said.

• Matches will take place on 10 and 13 October

• Washington DC and Chester, Pennsylvania to host

The top two teams in women’s soccer will meet in a pair of friendlies this fall, with the United States hosting Spain in Washington DC on 10 October and Chester, Pennsylvania three days later.

The meeting pits the 2024 Olympic gold medalist United States against a Spain side who won the 2023 women’s World Cup. It will serve as a benchmark for both sides in the run-up to the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.

Body of pilot involved in tackling Gold Mountain fire recovered by divers from Silver Jack reservoir

A pilot who was helping to fight a wildfire in Colorado has died after the aviator’s aircraft crashed into a reservoir, local authorities said.

The Gunnison county sheriff’s office said in a statement that it was notified of the deadly crash at about 5.17pm local time on Sunday. Gunnison’s regional communications center received a call reporting that the aircraft involved in the crash went down in the Silver Jack reservoir located in the county’s south-western portion.

Shortages triggered by pipeline rupture drive up costs and deepen frustrations, as pressure grows on water utility

Jonathan Collazo owns two restaurants in a bustling section of San Juan, which has been plagued by water outages, severely disrupting the daily lives of residents and businesses alike.

The water scarcity is part of an escalating frustration felt by thousands of customers of Puerto Rico’s water utility over the past several months, prompting the governor to activate the national guard to distribute drinking water across the US territory. The shortages extend beyond San Juan, with sectors in municipalities including Loíza, Guaynabo, Bayamón and others experiencing interrupted service.

Roaming charges also scrapped and trading terms continue for medicines, cars, art, jewellery and other goods

British nationals can expect shorter passport queues at Swiss airports and border crossings after a £5.2bn trade deal was sealed by Keir Starmer, likely his last big international agreement as prime minister.

As part of the deal they will be able to use e-gates from later this year, starting with exit checks at Zurich airport and with Basel and Geneva, a leading airport for business and winter sports travel, to follow next year.

Exclusive: Three men killed in incidents over past year allegedly involving G4S guards, who replaced in-house team after previous deaths

Bereaved families and politicians have raised alarm about continued killings on Del Monte’s pineapple farm in Kenya despite the company hiring a British security firm to replace its in-house security team after previous deaths were exposed by the Guardian.

The multinational food company appointed G4S to guard the farm, which is estimated to cover at least 40 sq km, the area of a small city, after the Guardian detailed allegations of brutal assaults and killings of people suspected of trespassing on its land. Kenyan police have been working with G4S to guard the site.

"We've heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark," Meta wrote in a blog post.

Oliver Blume tells staff restructuring proposal includes ‘controversial decisions’ but he has broad support

• Business live – latest updates

The chief executive of Volkswagen has confirmed plans to cut 50,000 more jobs despite the carmaker’s supervisory board rejecting his plan to shut four factories in Germany.

Oliver Blume told staff on Monday that proposals for a sprawling restructuring was “the most comprehensive realignment in the company’s history” and revolved around “12 initiatives, approximately 150 pages and 45 individual resolutions” for change.

U.K. authorities have linked the IRGC and its proxies to a wave of violent plots on British soil.

As US water wars rage, a tributary of the Colorado River faces unprecedented pressure. Visitors worry how long this aquatic ‘relict’ will last

On an early morning in mid-May, a group of near strangers shoved camping gear and clothes into waterproof bags, slathered on sunscreen, and ambled into the bright-yellow rafts that would carry them down one of the last free-flowing rivers in the American west.

Unhindered by large dams or diversions, the Yampa curves across 250 miles (400km) of alpine tundras, cottonwood forests and ancient red-rock canyons, rising from Colorado’s Rocky mountains to where it joins with the Green River in Utah, much in the way it has for millions of years.

ULM, Germany, July 13, 2026 — QC Design has announced the publication of “Plaquette: A hardware-aware design platform for fault-tolerant quantum computers”, the paper presenting the theoretical framework and software suite behind its flagship product. The paper describes how Plaquette computes the logical performance of fault-tolerant architectures directly from the physics of a device’s actual imperfections, and is now available on arXiv.

Hardware teams designing fault-tolerant quantum computers lean on fast stabilizer simulators to decide which imperfections to fix first, and those simulators assume stochastic Pauli noise. Real devices do not behave that way: superconducting transmons leak out of the computational subspace, neutral-atom gates scatter through intermediate states, trapped ions heat as their motional modes absorb phonons, silicon spin qubits leak into valley states, and miscalibrated controls over-rotate coherently.

The standard workarounds, such as Pauli twirling, depolarizing stand-ins, and hand-built noise models, demand expert effort per device and per noise process, and certify the abstraction rather than the device. The paper shows what this can cost: Clifford-only simulation can be overly optimistic by more than an order of magnitude in logical error rate.

Plaquette follows a different approach. A team specifies its hardware error model once, e.g., as Kraus operators, Hamiltonian-Lindblad dynamics, or an experimentally reconstructed quantum channel, and Plaquette compiles it automatically into the exact or approximate representation required by each of four sampler classes: Pauli-twirled stabilizer simulation, the new XPauli sampler for leakage and environment sectors, near-Clifford samplers for coherent errors, and full-state simulation for exact reference calculations, at scales up to tens of thousands of qubits.

The paper validates the XPauli and near-Clifford samplers against full-state simulation, which they match within statistical uncertainty even where Pauli twirling falls short, and demonstrates the framework on three hardware error models: leakage in superconducting qubits, intermediate-state scattering in neutral atoms, and heating in trapped ions.

Dr. Ish Dhand, co-founder and CEO of QC Design, said: “Quantum computing makers are working on the same practical questions: Is my device below threshold, and by how much? Which imperfection is most important to suppress? What logical error rate will my FTQC deliver, and at what overhead? Answering these questions with Pauli approximations alone can be off by orders of magnitude. With Plaquette, teams describe the physics of their device once and get logical performance numbers they can trust, at the scale of full fault-tolerant architectures. This paper lays out the complete framework, and we are proud to share it with the community.”

The size of the discrepancy between Plaquette and Clifford-only simulations varies with platform and noise process, so reliable thresholds, error budgets, and overhead estimates require the most accurate simulation available. Plaquette provides a direct path from the open-system physics of a device to the logical performance of the fault-tolerant quantum computer built on it.

The paper is available on arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.08767.

About QC Design

QC Design builds software for fault-tolerant quantum computing. Its tools help quantum hardware teams design, simulate, and evaluate architectures under arbitrary hardware imperfections, understand how these imperfections affect logical-qubit performance, and establish rigorous benchmarks for error-correction performance. By combining detailed architecture-level simulation with theoretical threshold analysis, QC Design helps teams efficiently compare approaches, make better design decisions, and move faster toward scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Source: QC Design

The post QC Design Details Plaquette Platform for Simulating Fault-Tolerant Quantum Systems appeared first on HPCwire.

Ursula von der Leyen’s commitment comes after panel of experts calls for restriction for under-13s

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has pledged an EU-wide social media ban for children after an expert group called for restrictions for those under 13.

“It is clear we need age-appropriate restrictions to platforms,” von der Leyen told reporters after the publication of a report on child safety online.

President Donald Trump's ambassador had sought to portray the pontiff as the political leader of the Holy See. The Vatican swiftly said he is “proclaiming the Gospel.”

Proposed legal settlement over 2022 oil spill would resolve allegations that South Bow violated clean water laws

A proposed legal settlement with the US government would require the Keystone pipeline system’s operator to pay a $26.9m civil penalty over a large oil spill in Kansas in December 2022 and spend about $40m more to prevent future accidents.

The agreement would resolve allegations from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Kansas that South Bow, based in Canada, violated US and state clean water laws. The rupture dumped nearly 13,000 barrels of heavy crude oil into a creek running through a rural pasture in Washington county, Kansas, about 150 miles (241km) north-west of Kansas City.

The fire is one of the deadliest such incidents in the popular tourist destination in ⁠recent years

An explosive fire at a popular pub in Thailand’s ⁠capital, Bangkok, has killed 27 ⁠people and left another 22 ​in critical condition, in one of the deadliest such incidents in the tourism hub in recent years.

Officials said they were investigating whether emergency exits may have been obstructed, hindering people from escaping the burning Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao pub.

New Zealand actor Sam Neill, known for "Jurassic Park" and "The Piano," died Monday at 78, his family says.

Heat alerts were issued for millions across parts of the western U.S. Sunday due to an unusually prolonged heat dome, which is starting to move east.

Video shared by first responders​ shows a huge blaze, with flames coming out of the front door of the Na Ladprao bar in the northern part of the Thai capital.

Paris will summon Russia's ambassador and the EU and U.K. are announcing new sanctions over an alleged "vast cyber campaign" targeting European countries.

US political leaders must be more clear-eyed about our global alliances, without embracing his scorched-earth approach

Donald Trump memorably took out a full-page advertisement in multiple newspapers in 1987 charging that America was carrying too much weight for its allies. In his first term he repeated this charge, threatening to withdraw from Nato and berating US allies around the world in the process. Last week’s gathering of Nato’s heads of government in Turkey suggests his approach is running out of steam as the world adjusts and the president bumps up against the limits of American unilateral power in Iran.

Trump’s domestic political opponents should breathe a sigh of relief but not rush headlong into an uncritical embrace of US alliances. For all his counterproductive bluster, Trump recognized something real. If his opponents in the Democratic and Republican parties are not more clear-eyed about what alliances cost Americans – as Biden failed to be with Israel – they will fuel the fires that brought Trump to power in the first place.

Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow and director of the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Public health advocates warn of conflicts of interests and say panel likely to provide justification for key rollbacks

The Trump administration has stacked a top chemical safety board with industry-aligned scientists who have a range of financial conflicts of interest and stand to profit from deregulation, public health advocates say.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s science advisory committee on chemicals (SACC) is slated to review research for dozens of toxic chemicals during the new members’ terms. At least 13 proposed Trump appointees are probably conflicted on the chemicals that will be reviewed, comments filed with the EPA by a coalition of public health advocacy groups alleges.

Secondhand tech is an affordable alternative for must-have tech, but the RAM shortage is increasing the demand for it.

The union for 12 nurses laid off by Montefiore hospital say company broke contract they recently won through a strike

Marilyn Shuler has worked as a utilization review nurse for 39 years at Montefiore hospital in the Bronx in New York City, helping to read patient charts and communicate with insurance companies over coverage.

After nearly four decades in her job, Shuler is one of 12 nurses who were laid off Sunday after being replaced with AI-powered software, according to the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), which represents nurses at the hospital.

July 13, 2026 — Have you ever taken a prescribed medicine to resolve a health issue, only for the treatment to fail? Perhaps you’re among the unlucky low percentage of people on weight loss drugs who can’t seem to lose a single pound. The lack of efficacy in your treatments may be due to your unique genetic profile. Our specific genes can have many subtle effects on our health that don’t necessarily fit the average.

The model overview of UKBioBERT and UKBioFormer as Foundation Models for genetically precise medicine.

Two researchers from Professor Hongyu Zhao’s lab at Yale University are working on AI tools to change that, and they’ve used their U.S. National Science Foundation ACCESS allocation on the National Center for Supercomputing Applications’ (NCSA) Delta and DeltaAI supercomputers to support their projects.

Decoding Your Unique Blueprint

Tianyu Liu is a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University working on a tool that can account for individual genetic variations when researching treatments and diseases. His work involves tackling how gene-expression-predictive models use genomic language models (gLMs). Liu’s work was recently published in npj Artificial Intelligence.

Most current gLMs rely on the “reference genome,” a standardized blueprint of human DNA assembled from multiple individuals. A different approach was needed to provide a better tool for individualized gene expression predictions.

“We pre-trained a powerful genomic language model (UKBioBERT) based on human variants from biobanks, and demonstrated that the embeddings from our model can enhance different expert models in performing gene expression prediction across individuals or genes,” said Liu. This language model was trained using real genetic variants from approximately 300,000 individuals in the UK Biobank, creating rich, function-aware representations of genomic sequences.

Building on this, the researchers created UKBioFormer and UKBioZoi by combining UKBioBERT with state-of-the-art architectures to improve the science of treatment and discovery. With these new tools, doctors would be better able to understand how your individual genes might affect things like disease risk or drug response. Conditions like cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and autoimmune disorders are driven by subtle changes in gene expression rather than mutations in a single gene; these new tools help pinpoint those subtle regulatory effects. And, due to the broad dataset, results from these tools will be more applicable to a wider population with different ancestries than results based on a more limited reference genome, ensuring that treatments – from heart medication to weight-loss drugs – are tailored to the person, not the average.

Mapping the Biological Symphony

Xinyi Lisa Chen is a third-year Ph.D. student who also works in Professor Zhao’s lab. Chen is researching how genetic expression interacts with other parts of tissues. While Liu focuses on the unique ‘letters’ of an individual’s genetic code, Chen looks at how those instructions are carried out in physical space.

“Imagine watching the brain of a newborn mouse develop into adulthood,” said Chen, “cells gradually organizing into precise patterns, each performing distinct roles over time. To understand this biological symphony and discover how disruptions might lead to diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, scientists must piece together a puzzle involving not just what genes are active, but also where in the tissue they’re active, when they’re switched on, and how they interact with other biological processes.”

Scientists have recently been able to get unprecedented amounts of detailed information about cells during scans – sometimes they’re even able to isolate tiny groups of cells no bigger than two to three together to study them. “Specifically, scientists can measure both gene activity (RNA, or transcriptomics) and gene regulation (chromatin accessibility, or epigenomics via ATAC-seq) within these spots, while also precisely pinpointing their locations in specific regions,” Chen explained.

However, these snapshots of gene activity within cells had limitations. “Until now, scientists lacked a method to combine all these layers – spatial location, timing and multiple types of genetic data – into a single clear picture,” said Chen. To solve this, she created a tool called STORM (Spatial Temporal multi-Omics Representation Model). STORM uses graph neural networks to integrate these complex layers of information into one cohesive, biologically interpretable view.

STORM’s integrated clustering result of postnatal mouse brain across 2 developmental timepoints, 21 days and 22 days after birth.

The hope is that this tool can be a valuable aid in personalized medicine.

ACCESS helped connect these researchers to the computing power needed to turn complex AI theories into real biological discoveries. “Leveraging NCSA’s powerful H100 GPU, we successfully processed extensive datasets encompassing five timepoints and two modalities within just over 24 hours – a task previously infeasible even with other advanced GPUs like the A100,” said Chen. “This tremendous computational acceleration has allowed us to conduct research at a pace previously unattainable, rapidly advancing our understanding of complex biological processes.”

If you’re a researcher who needs compute resources to power your project, you can get started with ACCESS here.

Resource Provider Institution(s): National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
Resources Used: Delta, DeltaAI
Affiliations: Yale University
Funding Agency: NSF
Grant or Allocation Number(s): BIO250009

The science story featured here was enabled by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s ACCESS program, which is supported by National Science Foundation grants #2138259, #2138286, #2138307, #2137603, and #2138296.

Source: Megan Johnson, NCSA; NSF ACCESS

The post NSF ACCESS: New Frontiers in Precision Medicine appeared first on HPCwire.

In six months last year, more than 2,000 such complaints were made to eSafety

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A new report by Australia’s online safety regulator has found “significant gaps” in how major tech platforms tackle online sexual extortion and child sexual exploitation, as “reports of this abuse continue to rise”.

The findings come from eSafety’s latest transparency report, examining how tech companies – including Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Snap, Discord and WhatsApp – are addressing child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Officers say decision made after ‘new information and evidence has come to light’ over death of former British minister

Counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation into the death of the former MP and Reform spokesperson Ann Widdecombe in light of “new information and evidence”.

Widdecombe’s body was found with serious injuries by the ambulance service at her home in Haytor, Devon, at 11.40am on Thursday, Devon and Cornwall police said.

Tehran says latest US attacks have ‘rendered futile’ diplomatic efforts of last few months. Plus, hit song in Australia prompts speculation about use of AI

Good morning.

The US military has launched a fresh wave of attacks against Iran amid the escalating standoff over the strait of Hormuz.

What has Iran said about the latest hostilities? Iran condemned the latest wave of attacks, its foreign ministry saying they had “rendered futile all efforts of the past few months to reduce tension and establish peace in the west Asian region”. The ministry added: “The US regime has also caused the return of insecurity in the strait of Hormuz and disruption of international commercial shipping.”

Is the strait open? Iran said on Sunday that passage through the waterway was not possible because of what it called recent illegal US military movements in the region. The US said its forces were positioned to safeguard freedom of navigation, and reiterated guidance that, despite a severe security threat, an “expanded” southern route near Oman coastline was available for two-way traffic.

How will Graham be replaced in the senate? South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, will appoint a new senator to serve out the remainder of Graham’s term, which ends on 3 January. Whoever is appointed will likely have a leg up in a special primary election on August 11 to get on the November ballot. The candidate would still run against the Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, a pediatrician who gained significant support in the red state, but who still faces an uphill challenge.

"Git and email are the two really only tools I use," Linus Torvalds said at Open Source Summit India 2026. But ZDNet reports that he also shared his thoughts on Rust, C, and patch-checking tools: "I use Google as a way to look things up." He added, "I'm unusual; most of the other maintainers end up using many more tools, and I think a lot of them are starting to use AI tools for patch checking," while he "works at a higher level. I work with people, not tools." When asked about Rust both in Git and the kernel, he pushed back against hype: "I'm not sure Rust is going to take over the world. I still think Rust is very interesting, [but] I still find C to be a much simpler tool." Torvalds continued, "I'm much more excited about all the tools we have for verification of C," including "automated patch verification tools" and "automated email checking tools for patches like Sashiko." Summing up, Torvalds told the Mumbai audience: "I'm more of a hack-and-slash kind of person, and I still like the raw and simple power of C, and I don't think that's going to change." Torvalds also warned against overestimating Rust's benefits: "Rust fixes a few easy bugs that you can make in C, but it does not fix the logic errors, right? It does not think for you, and when you write incorrect code, the language does not matter. The end result will be incorrect." On mixed C/Rust code bases, he pointed out that guarantees are limited: "The guarantees that Rust give you only apply in the Rust-only parts of your code base, and wherever you interact with C code, all bets are off," with most Rust code in Linux talking to "core kernel C code" that is "much better quality... because that code has been tested in every single environment." At the same time, Torvalds pointed out, "some of our big and more high-profile bugs in the kernel lately have been logic errors" rather than the kind of memory errors Rust prevents. "It was just bad programming, which sadly happens even in carefully maintained subsystems and important kernels that are supposed to be very secure."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

President and allies have sued, cut access and issued subpoenas, but experts say media still producing strong work

Donald Trump has ramped up his attacks on the media to a level without precedent in American history in the first 17 months of his second presidency.

But have Trump and his allies won their war against the media – or at least put the industry on a weaker footing than in the past? The answer isn’t so straightforward.

A body was recovered from a firefighting aircraft that went down in Silver Jack Reservoir in western Colorado.

Critics accuse ministers of failing to take control of nature crisis and leaving it to private landowners to act voluntarily

The government’s plan to protect and restore nature in England by 2030 has been condemned as “pathetic” and “completely insufficient” in the face of the spiralling environmental crisis.

The long-awaited plan published on Monday calls for landowners to voluntarily opt to protect and enhance nature, rather than creating legal protections for nature across more of the country’s land, critics say.

A pickup truck carrying wedding guests was crushed between two other trucks on a busy highway in Indonesia's, killing 13 people and injuring five others, police say.

This came after Xbox announced thousands of layoffs at the company.

Initiative with Derbyshire Libraries aims to boost access to cultural experiences and ‘champion reading for pleasure’

When Kate, a 47-year-old contract worker came face to face with Charlotte Brontë’s handwriting while visiting Chatsworth House, the avid reader, who counts Jane Eyre as her favourite book, struggled to contain her excitement.

“I had a little bit of a moment,” she said. “I just thought: ‘Wow, that was actually Charlotte Brontë’s writing there on that page.’ That was pretty special.”

As people yearn for connection, these events are popping up around the world - and spreading ‘collective effervescence’

We met in a former synagogue, a vast room with hardwood floors where the sound could echo freely. All were strangers, many former choir nerds, united by a love for group singing. Our goal was to learn and perform, in a single day, a classic of our time: a song from the Hannah Montana movie.

The event, near downtown Los Angeles, was a one-day choir hosted by the Gaia Music Collective – a three-hour gathering where more than 100 people rehearsed a choral arrangement of the song and sang it three times, with ourselves as the only audience.

High temperatures and below average rainfall put pressure on waterways used to cool reactors

Above average temperatures combined with below average rainfall across much of western and central Europe during June and the first half of July have placed increasing pressure on rivers, ecosystems and energy infrastructure. Persistent high pressure brought prolonged sunshine, suppressed rainfall and enhanced evaporation, causing river levels to fall and water temperatures to increase.

These unusually warm rivers are affecting electricity generation in France, as several nuclear power stations rely on river water for cooling. Under French environmental regulations, operators must limit the amount of heat discharged back into rivers, meaning electricity output may need to be reduced when water temperatures become too high.

The star of more than 100 films is remembered as a champion of New Zealand’s arts, culture and environment, and a generous collaborator and friend
• Sam Neill’s final interview
• His 20 best performances
• A life in pictures
• ‘A true gentleman’: actors, directors and leaders pay tribute to Neill
• Neill interviewed in 2023, 2024 and 2026

Sam Neill’s friends, peers and admirers have rushed to pay tribute to the actor, after his sudden death on Monday at the age of 78.

Neill’s co-star in A Long Way Down and Aussie crime caper Dirty Deeds, Toni Collette, called him a “hero,” “legend” and a “sweetheart”. She wrote: “Our great friend. You are already missed so very much. Continue in peace wherever you are.”

"They were being submerged by the waves but still waving their hands for help," a witness said.

President Trump paid tribute to the late senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, who had just returned from a trip to Ukraine.

Climate diplomacy has gone freelance. Multilateralism must adapt, not disappear Expert comment thilton.drupal 13 July 2026

The recent London Climate Action Week revealed that while formal climate multilateralism remains under strain, climate diplomacy is becoming more diffused, implementation oriented and focused on delivering security.

As much of Europe emerged from a record-breaking heatwave that closed schools, disrupted businesses and exposed the limits of adaptation even in some of the world’s wealthiest economies, London Climate Action Week (LCAW) took on particular salience. While the impacts of climate change were unfolding in real time, more than 75,000 participants from across the world attended over 1,300 events to debate the future of global climate action.

The central takeaway was not simply renewed urgency. It was that climate diplomacy is changing shape and that climate action is happening. 

In recent years, many have questioned the effectiveness of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The slow pace of consensus-based negotiations and the limited progress made at its annual COP summits have led some to argue that climate multilateralism is dead, or at least on life support. 

LCAW is not itself a formal multilateral forum, but it did offer an important window into how climate diplomacy more broadly is evolving. It highlighted that alongside multilateral negotiations, complementary forms of international climate cooperation that focus on implementation and coalition-building are growing in importance. 

Climate leadership is becoming less about grand declarations and more about sustained credibility and action. As geopolitical tensions reshape energy markets, trade, security priorities and development pathways, much of the practical work is increasingly taking place outside traditional multilateral channels. 

Governments remain essential actors, but they now operate within a much broader ecosystem of cities, businesses, financial institutions, philanthropists and civil society. LCAW pointed to how climate diplomacy is becoming more diffuse – and arguably more suited to the current fragmented geopolitical era. Three shifts stood out.

Climate security looms large

First, climate security has become an increasingly central part of the climate conversation. The recent Strait of Hormuz crisis is a stark reminder that today, geopolitical instability, energy security and the transition away from fossil fuels are increasingly intertwined, reinforcing the need to strengthen resilience while accelerating climate action. 

Increasingly, climate change and biodiversity loss are recognised as interconnected security challenges, as reflected for example in the UK government’s recent national security assessment on global ecosystems. As a result, climate is no longer being treated as a standalone environmental issue but as part of a broader nexus of environmental change driving risks across security, economic resilience and public health. 

The UK’s new Climate Security Taskforce, launched during LCAW, is a case in point. The taskforce brings together leading experts to advise the government on how to tackle growing climate threats.

Related work

It isn’t easy being green: The UK’s net zero trilemma

The taskforce helps cement the UK’s leading role in shaping climate security thinking. The UK first recognized climate change as a core national security challenge in its 2008 National Security Strategy. More recently, the National Security Strategy 2025, Strategic Defence Review 2025 and the launch of the taskforce demonstrate how this framing has become increasingly embedded in the UK’s national security planning.

Other governments are also increasingly explicitly treating climate change as a national security issue. Germany’s 2023 National Security Strategy recognizes that ‘our international and security environment … is increasingly defined by the existential threat posed by the climate crisis’. France’s 2022 National Strategic Review, Australia’s 2024 National Defence Strategy and Japan’s 2022 National Security Strategy all integrate climate into assessments of national resilience, strategic risk and economic security. This trend is here to stay.

Shift towards practical delivery 

Second, the conversation is shifting from climate commitments to their implementation, with increasing emphasis on practical measures that deliver multiple benefits beyond emissions reductions.  

Climate action is becoming more explicitly linked to building resilience, strengthening energy security, enhancing industrial competitiveness and supporting economic growth. Discussions on the energy transition are increasingly centred on competitiveness, industrial strategy and electrification initiatives. This reflects a growing recognition that fossil fuel dependence is itself a strategic vulnerability and that resilient, diversified energy systems are central to long-term security. 

At LCAW, this shift was captured by the launch of the Electrify Now initiative – a coalition of governments and non-government organizations backed by the European Commission, the UK, Turkey, Australia, Ethiopia, and others. By promoting electrification across transport, buildings and industry, the initiative frames electrification not simply as a climate objective, but as a strategy for energy security, economic competitiveness and resilience. In doing so, it translates ambitious climate goals into concrete implementable actions with clear economic and strategic benefits. 

At the same time, water and nature have emerged as entry points for building resilience. Water is beginning to receive the strategic attention it deserves. In many regions, water stress is already driving instability, yet shared water resources can also provide opportunities for cooperation and diplomacy. This is illustrated by transboundary river basins such as the Mekong or the Senegal, where competing national interests coexist with sustained diplomatic engagement and institutional cooperation.

Preliminary investigations indicated that the fire may have been started by electrical short circuits, and that emergency exits may have been blocked.

Major incidents declared in north Wales and Derbyshire as Natural England warns of ‘exceptional fire risk’

Villagers were evacuated from their homes as a wildfire swept across a mountainside in north Wales, prompting firefighters to declare a major incident.

People described hearing the crackling fire advancing down Conwy Mountain towards homes as ash fell from a sky turned dark by thick smoke.

The twisting road to the candidate’s exit left a lot to be desired. But ultimately, reporters ferreted out the truth

After the New York Times published an article in early June about the Senate candidate Graham Platner’s treatment of the women he dated, the story’s main source reacted with disappointment and anger.

It was a “gift to the Platner campaign”, charged Lyndsey Fifield, who had dated the Democratic combat veteran years ago and who spoke candidly to the Times about that experience.

Senator played major role in critical negotiations with Democrats and members of his own party on key issues

When Democrats and Republicans were earlier this year locked in a standoff that had plunged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into the longest partial government shutdown in US history, news of a path forward emerged in the form of a statement from Republican senator Lindsey Graham.

By announcing that the budget committee he chairs would set to work on a measure to fund the agencies leading Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign for the remainder of his presidency, Graham played a major role in rallying the GOP behind a plan that reopened DHS.

Indigenous and Hispanic students are suspended more often and for longer periods than their white classmates who commit similar infractions at Gallup-McKinley County Schools — a pattern of “substantial racial disparities,” an investigation by the New Mexico attorney general’s office found.

Indigenous students lose eight to 10 times more classroom days to suspensions than white students, while Hispanic students lose three to four times as many, according to the 47-page report released by the state’s Department of Justice last week.

Gallup-McKinley, a sprawling district twice the size of Delaware, straddles part of the Navajo Nation and has the largest Native American student population of any public school district in the country.

The investigation was ordered by state Attorney General Raúl Torrez in 2023, after reporting by New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica exposed the district’s high rates of harsh punishment for Native and Hispanic children. The news organizations found Native students in New Mexico are expelled far more often than any other group. The district has a quarter of New Mexico’s Native students, but it accounted for at least three-quarters of Native student expulsions during the four school years ending in 2020.

That disparity was evident even in kindergarten and elementary grades, often for ambiguous infractions such as “disorderly conduct.”

At the time, former district Superintendent Mike Hyatt called the news organizations’ reporting “completely false” and suggested the findings were a result of the district’s own data entry errors and its broad definition of expulsion.

But, state Department of Justice investigators said in last week’s report that neither explanation accounted for the racial disparities. Hyatt has retired and could not be reached for comment.

Their report calls on Gallup-McKinley officials to “acknowledge the facts” and work with the community “in remedying its excessive reliance on exclusionary and discriminatory discipline.”

Among the report’s recommendations: District officials should clearly define infractions and penalty ranges, make punishments proportional and limit suspensions. The report also called for Gallup-McKinley to adopt restorative justice alternatives such as talking circles, in which students discuss how their misbehavior impacted others, why they broke a school rule and other choices they could have made instead. The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission called for similar reforms in its own March 2026 report on discrimination at Gallup-McKinley schools. Wendy Greyeyes, the commission chair, noted that neighboring districts already use such alternatives, but she said in an interview that the district might have difficulty building trust with its students and their families.

Until the district fixes its discipline policies, investigators wrote, “children in and around Gallup, along with their families and communities, will remain negatively affected by educational, social, and emotional challenges that stem from the District’s current practices.”

That harm goes beyond the academic, investigators wrote, saying that out-of-school suspensions also deny students access to free meals and participation in extracurricular clubs and volunteer activities.

National research links suspension and expulsion to lower academic achievement, a higher risk of contact with the criminal justice system, isolation, poor health and lower wages, the report said.

Investigators also called on the district to create a clear and accessible complaint process for students and families, and to publish regular audits of discipline data.

In 2023, after New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica published their reporting, the district provided a contract auditor with discipline data that was “inexplicably different” from what it reported to state and U.S. departments of Education, with thousands of disciplinary records missing, the state Department of Justice investigators said. The news organizations’ own reporting on the audit could not verify the district’s assertions that it had dramatically reduced out-of-school suspensions.

“Instead of taking steps to rectify these problems, leadership denied that they exist and pushed a misleading and flawed counter-analysis,” the new AG report said.

In addition to district reforms, the new report also called on state lawmakers and the New Mexico Public Education Department to strengthen oversight of student discipline statewide. Audits at the state level should be conducted at least once a year and be made public, it said.

Such audits are needed to prevent disparities from becoming as “extreme and systemic as in Gallup-McKinley,” said Anjana Samant, one of the report’s authors and a deputy director in the state Department of Justice.

The state Department of Education should also require that students who are suspended or expelled receive instruction and other educational services while they are out of school. The department is reviewing the report, spokesperson Janelle Garcia said.

In addition to specific disciplinary policy changes, the new report urged state lawmakers to revisit legislation that would have given the AG’s office stronger investigative tools to “identify and root out” civil rights violations. That legislation passed in 2023, but Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, let the bill die without her signature in what’s called a pocket veto.

The governor, a spokesperson said in an email on Wednesday, stands by her decision, saying it’s unclear whether the new powers in the legislation “would have trumped federal student privacy protections and allowed the AG to access confidential student records.”

What matters now is ensuring the report’s findings are addressed quickly, wrote Michael Coleman, Lujan Grisham’s communications director.

The district is reviewing the report’s recommendations, Gallup-McKinley Superintendent Jvanna Hanks II told New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica.

“I am leading a period of transition that prioritizes community voices and renews our focus on every student,” Hanks wrote in an email provided by a public relations firm the district has hired. “The School District will be using this report and current student data as part of our review. Our focus is that students should be in school, supported in school, and treated fairly in school.”

The post New Mexico AG Calls for Reform After Report Finds “Substantial Racial Disparities” in One School District appeared first on ProPublica.

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The left would do well to revisit New York’s Democratic primaries two weeks ago – it was a sunnier news cycle, yes, but those races were also an object lesson in progressive realpolitik.

Zohran Mamdani, busy as he already was, devoted a remarkable amount of time, resources and political capital to selecting and backing the eventual victors in three different races – in one case reversing a promise to support an incumbent, Adriano Espaillat, in favor of activist Darializa Avila Chevalier, and in another case supporting Claire Valdez, a relatively unknown assemblywoman, even as the Working Families party, major unions and other progressives backed the Brooklyn borough president, Antonio Reynoso.

The quantum computing market is entering a new phase as commercial deployments are beginning to complement cloud-based experimentation, according to Bob Sorensen, Hyperion Research‘s Senior Vice President of Research and Chief Analyst for Quantum Computing. During a briefing at ISC 2026 last month in Hamburg, Germany, Sorensen said the industry is approaching an inflection point driven by growing enterprise readiness, expanding partnerships, and continued government investment.

Hyperion projects the quantum computing market will grow from approximately $1.4 billion in 2025 to roughly $3 billion by 2028, with hardware sales expected to become the largest market segment as organizations transition from cloud-based access to on-premises quantum systems.

(Hyperion Research)

“Now, the key here is we’re all waiting for the hockey stick. We’re all waiting for the killer application or the uptake, when organizations start to see demonstrated performance gains on real-world use cases,” Sorensen said. “And once that happens, the idea of systems moving from accessing quantum through a cloud access model … to an on-prem installation capability. And that’s where you’re going to see the hockey stick really happen.”

Sorensen said that shift would replace relatively inexpensive cloud access used for research, development and proof-of-concept efforts with multimillion-dollar purchases of on-premises quantum systems capable of running production workloads, creating the market inflection point Hyperion expects over the next several years.

Hyperion’s survey also suggests that partnerships are becoming a defining feature of the quantum ecosystem. Among the 99 quantum computing suppliers surveyed, 63% reported government-related partnerships over the past three years, while roughly two-thirds said they have established partnerships with end-user organizations.

(Hyperion Research)

Government support remains essential to the industry’s development, Sorensen said. “Governments have to stay involved, at least for the next few years, until the virtuous cycle of market provides money for research which provides new products which provides markets. They’re not at that stage yet.”

He added that vendors are also working more closely with customers to identify industry-specific applications rather than simply selling quantum hardware. “You just can’t drop a quantum system off on the loading dock and run like hell, and expect the end user to really understand what’s going on.”

Sorensen pointed to collaborations in sectors including oil and gas, aerospace, computational chemistry and advanced materials as examples of vendors tailoring quantum solutions to specific industries rather than pursuing one-size-fits-all deployments.

Hyperion’s survey found that respondents continue to see quantum computing’s strongest near-term opportunities in applications rooted in quantum physics itself. Computational chemistry topped the list of the most promising application areas at 26%, followed by materials science at 22%. Cryptography (16%), optimization and logistics (11%), and AI and machine learning (10%) rounded out the top five. Science and engineering applications accounted for just 5% of responses.

(Hyperion Research)

Sorensen said, “These are things that actually rely on simulating the quantum process at the quantum level. So in some sense, think of a quantum computer as a sandbox. It is a way to play with quantum interactions in a quantum system. And that’s why these are considered… the most promising applications going forward.”

By comparison, Sorensen said applications such as cryptography, optimization and machine learning rely less on quantum phenomena themselves and more on the computational capabilities of quantum algorithms.

It’s worth noting that AI and machine learning received just 10% of responses, trailing computational chemistry, materials science, cryptography and optimization. That’s down from 23% in Hyperion’s 2022 survey.

While Hyperion expects quantum computing revenues to continue growing over the next several years, Sorensen said the industry’s immediate priority is less about rapid commercialization than preparing organizations for broader adoption.

“Quantum curious or aspiring quantum end users understand that the time frame for true quantum utility is a few years away, but they need to get there first,” he said. “They need to build skills and they need to understand the computational workloads that quantum can bring.”

“They understand that this is a journey. This is not something where you just roll in the next generation processor … This is an entirely different paradigm shift.”

The post Hyperion Research Sees Quantum Market Nearing Commercial Inflection Point appeared first on HPCwire.

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 are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.

• Georgetown to reconsider tiny homes
• Energy regulators finalize Delmarva rate increase
• Port of Wilmington leaders talk finances
• Colonial school officials to discuss feeder patterns

Georgetown to reconsider tiny home rules

Georgetown leaders on Monday will discuss changing, or even repealing, the town’s recently enacted tiny home ordinance.

The policy, and broader possibility of allowing tiny home developments in the Sussex County seat, became a flashpoint over the past year as residents and elected officials debated how best to address a growing homeless population.

Newly-elected Mayor Angie Townsend is proposing the discussion. Townsend was backed during her campaign by a citizens’ Facebook group known as “Make Georgetown Great Again,” which established a political foothold in response to growing resident frustrations about town leaders’ response to homelessness.

It is unclear what exactly Townsend hopes to change about Georgetown’s regulations, but current code allows for 12 tiny homes per acre, among other rules. 

After Townsend’s victory, an organizer of Make Georgetown Great Again told Spotlight Delaware he hopes town leaders will work with local nonprofits implement more homelessness programs that are faith-based and focused on accountability. 

📍 The Georgetown Town Council will meet at 7 p.m. Monday inside council chambers, located at 39 The Circle in Georgetown. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.

Regulators finalize Delmarva rate hike

Delaware energy regulators will finalize a $34.3 million Delmarva Power rate increase request on Wednesday, rebuffing the utility by approving only part of its already scaled-back request. 

By approving the rate increase request, the Public Service Commission will allow Delmarva Power to increase electricity bills for the average Delaware home by just less than a dollar. However, there could be additional increases in the coming months.

The diminished electricity rate increase comes as energy costs have been at the forefront of Delaware’s political conversation over the past year.

Gov. Matt Meyer has publicly pressured energy regulators to freeze electricity rates. Lawmakers also passed a bill last month limiting the amount of infrastructure spending that Delmarva Power — the state’s largest utility company — could pass on to customers.

The increase will be voted on as part of the Public Service Commission’s consent agenda, meaning there will not be debate about the specific Delmarva increase. Instead, it will be voted on along with a slew of other proposals in a single vote. 

📍 The Public Service Commission will meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday inside the Cannon Building, located at 861 Silver Lake Blvd in Dover. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.

Port leaders to talk finances

The Diamond State Port Corporation’s finance committee will meet Wednesday to discuss the Port of Wilmington’s financial position, including its budget for the 2027 fiscal year.

The discussion comes weeks after state lawmakers voted to use a controversial pot of money to fund the port’s Edgemoor expansion. For a decade, the port expansion has been a goal of state officials who said a new container facility could bring in thousands of new jobs to the Wilmington area. 

But plans for the development had been beset by obstacles and blunders committed by port officials in the past. They also faced opposition from regional ports in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and from Edgemoor residents concerned about environmental impacts.

Wednesday’s committee meeting is slated to include discussions about construction projects at the port, the allocation of federal funding and more. 

📍 The Diamond State Port Corporation’s Finance Committee will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday inside the Carvel State Building, located at 820 N French St. in Wilmington. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.

Will Colonial send kids to new schools?

Colonial School District families may send their children to a different elementary school than expected for the 2027-28 school year.

On Tuesday, Colonial Board of Education members will discuss changes to their elementary schools’ feeder pattern, according to an action item on the board’s agenda. Details about which schools may be impacted are not readily available on the board’s agenda. If implemented, the district would likely use the coming school year as a planning year for future changes.

📍 The Colonial Board of Education will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at its district board room, located at 318 E. Basin Road in New Castle. For more information, including about virtual attendance, click here.

Karl Baker, Olivia Marble and Maggie Reynolds contributed to this report.

The post Get Involved: Georgetown tiny homes, electric rates, Colonial feeder patterns appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care? 
Two Dover City Councilmen developed a plan to generate new revenue for Delaware’s capital city, but some leaders were left questioning its legality. The proposal — to charge certain tax-exempt properties an annual fee — has the potential to divide city leaders and state lawmakers, with residents’ tax bills caught in the crossfire.

Following a challenging budget year, two Dover leaders are offering up a revenue source proposal to resolve the city’s tight financial margins: new fees on certain tax-exempt properties. 

Dover City Councilmen Roy Sudler and Brian Lewis proposed at a committee meeting last week that the city levy an impact fee of $1 per square-foot of building space on tax-exempt properties larger than 50,000 square feet in the city. 

The proposal includes a list of 20 properties that would be subject to the yearly fee, including the Delaware State University (DSU) campus, Bayhealth Medical Center, the Delaware Technical Community College Terry Campus and Legislative Hall. 

If approved, the concept would require institutions like Bayhealth, DSU and the state government to each pay the city more than a million dollars annually. 

“Everyone should have to pay their fair price,” Sudler said at the meeting. “Job creation does not pave roads, institutional growth does not clear stormwater networks, and prestige does not fuel emergency rescue vehicles.” 

In a rare show of unity among city leaders, the eight members of the Legislative and Finance Committee present at the meeting voted affirmatively to move forward with the impact fee. The city’s finance department will now conduct a feasibility assessment by late August. 

Despite the enthusiasm about the proposal from city leaders, questions remain about the legality and logistics  of the concept, which would require the state government to pay the city of Dover for its properties within city limits. 

Dover City Attorney Dan Griffith told Spotlight Delaware he has not yet reviewed the proposal, and cannot comment on its constitutionality. Council members said a legal review will be a key part of the analysis of the proposal that city staff will undertake over the next month. 

Dover officials have long expressed concern that roughly 45% of property in the city has non-profit status – meaning it qualifies for property tax exemptions – and have made various attempts over the years to impose comparable fees on tax-exempt organizations. 

None of those past proposals have succeeded. 

In addition to passing an ordinance within the city government, the impact fee would necessitate a charter change to be implemented. Charter changes require an affirmative vote by two-thirds of each chamber in the General Assembly to be approved. 

While the proposal appears to have initial support within the city, it is not clear whether city leaders would be able to lobby their state counterparts to support the fee. 

State Sen. Trey Paradee (D-Dover), whose district includes the majority of the city of Dover, said he does not believe the impact fee is constitutional, nor would it be successful if put to a vote in the legislature. 

“It is politically impossible for them to do,” Paradee said. “It would just never happen.” 

Paradee said the Constitution’s supremacy clause – which states that state law takes precedence over local law – is evidence that the city does not have the authority to implement what he described as “essentially a tax on state property.”

Specifics about the fee proposal

A 50-page packet created by Lewis and Sudler lays out the impact fee proposal. They say it would force tax-exempt organizations to pay their fair share of infrastructure costs, because these entities consistently use city resources like roads and stormwater networks without having to pay into the system. 

Dover City Manager Sharon Duca and Finance Director Patricia Marney said they had not reviewed the plan, but that they believe it is an idea with some potential. At the same time, both said the concept would need a legal review.

Sudler said his goal is to incorporate the fee into the city’s next fiscal year budget, but Duca and Marney said it could take longer to iron out the logistics. 

The so-called Municipal Services Impact Fee would generate nearly $13 million in revenue annually for the city. It would allow the government not to have to pass rising costs on to residents in the form of property tax and utility rate increases, Sudler said. 

The city spent this spring debating its 2027 fiscal year budget, which initially included a $7 million shortfall. 

The city council ultimately balanced its budget by imposing a 3-cent increase per $100 of assessed value on residents’ property taxes, and a 1-cent increase to their per-killowatt-hour electric usage rate. 

The majority of council argued the tax increases were the only way to reconcile the budget shortfall, but Lewis and Sudler remained critical. They said the budget unduly placed the burden on residents instead of nonprofit organizations. 

The pair said this past year’s budget conversation led them to introduce the impact fee idea as a way of creating a more permanent solution to the city’s budget issues. 

But it’s not clear whether the nonprofits that own the 20 properties listed in Dover’s proposal would have the room in their budgets to pay the fees council members are suggesting.

A spokesperson for DSU wrote in a message to Spotlight Delaware that the proposal would have a “significant impact” on the university’s operations, and is not something the university could support. 

Representatives from Bayhealth and Del Tech did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment on Friday about the fee. 

Lewis and Sudler also said Dover is one of the only state capitals without a program for collecting money from state owned real estate and higher education campuses within its city limits. They cited examples of capitals like Hartford, Connecticut, and Albany, New York, which they said receive funds from their respective state governments for maintaining state building infrastructure. 

The New York State code, for example, requires the state to pay aid to cities with a population greater than 75,000 where at least 25% of the city’s property is owned by the state. 

A similar ordinance discussed by the Dover City Council in 2018 drew pushback from smaller nonprofit organizations, like homeless shelters, who said they could not afford to pay such a fee. The updated fee proposal would not impact those organizations, however, because their properties are less than 50,000 square feet. 

When asked about the additional financial burden the fee would place on organizations like Bayhealth and DSU, which already pay water and sewer usage fees, Sudler said he would encourage the tax-exempt properties to apply for grants or use state bond appropriations to pay their potential fees. 

However, Sen. Paradee said the concept would quickly become an extremely costly situation for the state, because an impact fee in Dover would set the precedent for Wilmington, Georgetown and other jurisdictions to request state funds for the state-owned property within their municipal limits. 

“It’s clearly a tax,” he said. 

For the 2027 fiscal year, which began July 1, Dover was allocated $1.6 million from the state for fire and police services provided to DSU as a part of a higher education public safety grant program. The city also received $450,000 in payment in lieu of taxes – or PILOT money – for the large tax-exempt properties within its limits, like Bayhealth and DSU. 

The city would no longer be eligible to receive these state funding sources if it implemented the impact fee program. 

Residents back plan, officials question viability 

Sudler and Lewis presented their proposal to an agreeable audience during the June 9 meeting. In addition to unanimous committee approval, a few residents voiced enthusiastic support for the plan, while also sharing their battles living in Dover. 

Dover resident William Faust said he struggles to pay his increasing utility bills on a fixed income. 

“I’m living in the dark because I can’t afford to have my lights on,” Faust said. 

Another resident, Bonnie Pennington, said the plan is “the best thing that [city leaders] could ever come up with.”

Sudler said he and Lewis took a “biopsychosocial” approach to their proposal. He explained the economic predictability that would come from transferring the tax burden from residents to large entities.

“Traditional regressive tax hikes and utility spikes act as chronic financial stressors for working families,” Sudler explained. “By stabilizing local tax and utility rates, this model acts as a psychological buffer, lowering a systemic anxiety and protecting household wealth.” 

Sudler said there will be a well-being survey in resident’s utility bills that measures if emergency room visits for severe stress go down. He said the survey would ask about symptoms related to chronic stress and safety. 

While many voiced support for the plan, one council member raised questions about the plan’s economic viability. 

Councilwoman Julia Pillsbury questioned whether the fee would cause impacted organizations, like Bayhealth and DSU, to simply raise the cost of their services. 

“I’m not suggesting it’s a bad idea,” Pillsbury said. “I’m just saying, I think people need to think about the fact that it’s cost-shifting.”

Councilman David Anderson remained supportive of the bill. But he said the council will have to expect challenges from the state legislature and the nonprofit entities if they move forward. 

“If we do this,” Anderson said, “we need to be prepared to go all in.”

Following a unanimous approval by the committee, Sudler and Lewis are asking for city staff to complete an assessment of the plan by Aug. 24.

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/.

The post Dover leaders propose fee on tax-exempt properties; legality unclear appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware will spend $78 million in federal funds to open its first medical school in the coming years. The state fielded bids from multiple universities, before ultimately settling on Thomas Jefferson University earlier this summer. Now, the university must execute on its agreement with the state to stand up a medical school within the next five years. 

Contracts and internal reviews obtained by Spotlight Delaware reveal new details about how the state will stand up its first-ever medical school, as well how leaders decided to partner with Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University among a field of other contenders. 

When the state formally announced the endeavor last month, no documents about its agreement with Jefferson had been made publicly available.

But a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Spotlight Delaware has revealed supplemental salaries for executive leadership at Jefferson, renovation plans for the University of Delaware’s campus, as well as a commitment to expand medical residency opportunities in the state. 

The startup of Delaware’s first medical school will be funded with hundreds of millions of dollars awarded to all 50 states to bolster rural healthcare. Delaware intends to spend $78 million over the next five years to launch the school. After that point, though, it would be on Jefferson to keep it open. 

The grant, called the Rural Health Transformation Program, was created last summer to court Republican senators hesitant to support more than $900 billion in cuts to Medicaid, which could disproportionately impact rural communities and their healthcare facilities.

In February, Meyer’s office released an initial batch of requests for potential vendors to carry out programs that will be funded by the federal grant.

It came weeks after the state received its first grant award from the federal government totaling more than $157 million. The full RHTP award amount for the state remains unclear, but Delaware will receive at least $500 million from the multi-year program.

What the contract says 

The contract contains a budget for the first year of the five-year program, spanning from July 1 to Oct. 30, 2026. 

In that first-year budget, $170,000 is set aside for “TJU Leadership,” which includes supporting the salaries for Jefferson’s president, general counsel, vice president of marketing, as well as the dean of its College of Health Professions.

Another $130,000 is set aside for “Other system leadership,” including some of the university’s executive officers.

Additionally, the budget sets aside $550,000 to support the salaries for 12 members of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College leadership team.

Asked if the budget lines for executive leadership within the university would continue in further years, a spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) said “budget categories for future years will be finalized as annual work plans and budgets are developed.”

A spokesperson for Jefferson said in an email that the first two years of the program would be focused on securing accreditation for the medical branch campus, purchasing equipment, as well as hiring staff. 

Asked about the budget lines for executive leadership in future years, the spokesperson said “costs and budgets will vary by year.” They also said leaders would play a “central role” in launching the campus, and that the Delaware campus would be “continuously supported” by the college’s Philadelphia staff. 

The spokesperson also said launching a new medical school “typically takes eight years,” and that Jefferson is opening its branch campus in just two. 

As for selecting a dean for the Delaware medical school, the contract says Jefferson must consult Gov. Matt Meyer’s office before it makes a decision. 

The contract also names a building on the University of Delaware’s campus, Willard Hall, where students would do their preclinical training. According to the first year budget, the state will spend $12 million to renovate the building, located on Main Street in Newark across from the Trabant University Center.

When asked about the renovation’s impact on classroom space for non-medical school students, University President Laura Carlson said Willard Hall would serve as the primary location for the medical school.

“We will maintain needed instructional space for existing courses and students, while carefully sequencing any moves to ensure all program needs are met,” Carlson said in an emailed statement. 

It is unclear if the university will continue to use the space for non-medical school classes. 

The contract said Jefferson would be responsible for placing its students into hospitals for their clinical rotations, where students would do hands-on medical training, following their education at UD. That agreement also says the university and hospitals should work to expand medical residency opportunities in the state. 

Hospitals like Bayhealth in Dover, Beebe Healthcare in Lewes, and Nemours Children’s Hospital and Saint Francis Hospital in Wilmington were included in the initial group of hospitals set to host students. 

Some questions still remain about whether Delaware’s largest hospital system, ChristianaCare, would host students for clinical training after its failed attempt to run the medical school with the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM).

A spokesperson for ChristianaCare said in a statement the hospital is “not currently involved” in discussions with the consortium of hospitals and higher education institutions running the medical school.

“We remain open to conversations about how we can continue to support the state’s vision for physician workforce development in Delaware,” the ChristianaCare spokesperson said. 

TidalHealth, which operates Seaford’s Nanticoke Hospital, was not initially announced in the lineup of hospitals participating in the medical school. 

And in a statement to Spotlight Delaware, the hospital said it too had not “been in contact with the project’s leaders,” but that it looks forward to learning more about its potential role. 

“TidalHealth is projected to become Delmarva’s largest trainer of physicians, and we remain committed to rural graduate medical education as a way to recruit and retain practitioners in the communities we serve,” a TidalHealth spokesperson said. 

The contract also carves out protections for an already existing partnership meant to place Delawareans into out-of-state medical school programs. 

The Delaware Institute of Medical Education and Research, better known as DIMER, places Delaware students into nearby medical schools like Jefferson and PCOM. Jefferson reserves 20 seats annually for Delawareans and PCOM reserves 10. 

But after PCOM lost its bid to run Delaware’s medical school, the future of DIMER came into question. The college, however, said it would continue to host Delaware students in the program. 

Grading the bids

Spotlight Delaware also obtained a copy of the state’s bid reviews for all the applicants to run the state’s first medical school. In that review, a panel of six judges scored the applications on financial sustainability, educational history and their commitment to the bid and its goals.

That panel included a mix of state officials in the governor’s office and at DHSS. The medical director of the Delaware Health Empowerment Coalition also sat on the scoring committee. 

Additionally, the panel included the leader of the state’s powerful hospital lobby, the Delaware Healthcare Association.

Delaware received four bids to run the medical school, although only three were thoroughly considered. One of the bidders, the global consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, was “unanimously” disqualified from the bid because it did not meet necessary requirements. 

Another bidder, Ponce Health Sciences University, is a private Puerto Rican medical school. The panel said Ponce had demonstrated success at its other branch campus in Missouri, but that it wasn’t sure that could be transferred to Delaware. 

The panel broadly agreed both PCOM and Jefferson, the two frontrunners to operate Delaware’s medical school, had strong proposals. But some of the judges wrote that PCOM fell short in demonstrating how its plan for operations would benefit rural Delaware. 

“Bidder is deeply entwined with [ChristianaCare]. While this partnership creates a strong connection to Delaware, it largely serves NCC not the rural two counties defined in this RFP,” Dava Newnam, a deputy director at DHSS, wrote of PCOM’s bid. 

The bid review also said PCOM considered hosting the medical school on Delaware State University’s campus in Dover. 

For Jefferson, the panel lauded the university’s proposal and its already longstanding presence in Delaware. Kevin Myers, a panelist from the governor’s office, requested “additional detail” about the university’s commitment to rural primary care, but he otherwise supported its proposal. 

Myers questioned the university’s proposed budget and its intended use of the funds, but he said Jefferson had given “solid evidence” of sustainability following the five-year federal award.

The bid review also said that among all of the bidders, Jefferson had the “strongest endorsement” from the state’s rural healthcare systems. 

“These partnerships will be absolutely essential in the success of the medical school,” Myers wrote.

The post Contracts, internal reviews detail early budget for Delaware medical school appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Why Should Delaware Care?
With the closure of Wilmington’s sanctioned homeless encampment, city officials were considering sponsoring a tiny-home village initiative, in partnership with the nonprofit, Springboard Delaware. The plan relied on COVID-era dollars, but those funds have since been lost. 

Wilmington officials lost $1.6 million in federal COVID-era relief funding after failing to finalize plans for a tiny home village prior to a state deadline to spend the money.

The development comes after weeks of conversations among city officials and residents over whether the city should move forward with the project to provide the housing assistance to Wilmington’s growing homeless population.

In a statement to Spotlight Delaware, Caroline Klinger, a spokeswoman for Mayor John Carney, expressed disappointment at the missed deadline. She also said the city would assess “options for supporting the unhoused and investing in affordable housing options while striking a balance that also respects the rights of surrounding residents.” 

Despite the missed funding deadline, Judson Malone — director of the city’s nonprofit partner, Springboard Delaware — said the proposal is not completely off the table. He said his organization will need more time to restructure itself financially before pursuing the Wilmington location. 

“One source of financing we lost for capital, but we are developing other sources for capital. It’ll take us some time to put that deal together, but we’re still coming,” Malone said.

Asked about Malone’s statement, Klinger said that while the city is open to working with the nonprofit, “major unanswered questions” remain, including where the tiny home village could be built and how it would be funded over the long term.

The collapse of the tiny-home village plans also came just weeks after city officials evicted residents living at a homeless encampment at Christina Park, which Carney created last fall. 

Most of the residents were provided housing for up to 90 days at various other facilities. But advocates have expressed concern about where the individuals will end up after that.

A dispute over the deadline

Last month, Carney’s administration placed the responsibility for selecting a site for the tiny home village with the City Council. 

According to the Delaware Department of Finance, the city had until June 19 to secure a location and the necessary approvals in order to use $1.6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding. 

But city officials hoped for more time. Klinger said a state official had verbally told city officials that their deadline to identify a site could be July 1. Finance department officials say that is inaccurate. 

Nevertheless, the city then sent a request to formally extend the deadline to use the $1.6 million, stating the city needed additional time to secure land-use approvals and finalize a location.

Delaware Secretary of Finance Michael Smith denied the city’s request, citing the strict federal requirements to administer the funds. 

“Springboard Delaware could not obtain the required permits needed by the agreed-upon deadline of June 19, 2026, and therefore the project will be cancelled,” Smith said. 

State officials said the $1.6 million will now be redirected to another entity, but did not want to identify the recipient before the U.S. Treasury approves the reallocation. 

Asked why the city failed to meet the deadline, Klinger emphasized the lack of community support. She said the federal government’s schedule for spending the dollars “did not allow the time necessary to work with communities and get the proper support.”

“Our office identified potential locations for consideration by City Council and the Mayor always maintained that those sites would need to move forward with support from the surrounding community,” she said.  

City Councilman Coby Owens, who sat on Carney’s homelessness task force last year, said communication between the mayor’s office and council could have been better. He also noted that the full council was never able to have a conversation about selecting the location. 

“It just highlights again that when we’re not seeing eye-to-eye, the only people who are negatively impacted are some of our more vulnerable communities, and that’s not fair for any of us to play these games,” Owens said. 

What is Springboard Delaware?  

Springboard Delaware has spent at least three years looking for a location for their next tiny home village operation, with proposals also in Milford, Newark, and most recently, Dover. 

In Wilmington, officials had been in contact with the nonprofit for more than a year. Klinger said last month that talks with Springboard Delaware picked up after the group’s plans to build housing in Dover fell through.

Springboard Delaware currently operates one ‘navigation center’ in Georgetown, providing 40 tiny homes and services to those who are homeless. The site has been in operation for the last three and a half years. 

Each home has electricity, a microwave, and a minifridge. Those living in the village also have access to showers, restrooms, laundry, and meals. The case management services include counseling to help people find jobs, healthcare, and permanent housing. 

The average stay, according to Springboard Delaware’s website, is around four months. About 40% of the individuals living in the pallet village have transitioned to permanent housing, the website also states.

In June, Springboard Delaware began to attend community meetings in the city, pitching the idea to residents in the Eastside and Southbridge.

Malone noted that a property along Wilmington’s 7th Street Peninsula seemed most feasible, as it was owned by the city and likely would not generate overwhelming community resistance. 

But residents quickly rejected the all the proposed locations, arguing it made little sense to build such a project in communities that already lacked resources, Many also expressed fears that a tiny-home village could cause loitering, panhandling, and safety risks to spill into the neighborhood. 

“Put them in your neighborhood!” one resident shouted at presenters last month during a Eastside community meeting. 

Malone told Spotlight Delaware he believes the narrative around homelessness needs to change, arguing that communities mistakenly believe projects like this would worsen the problem. Instead of pushing unhoused residents elsewhere, he said communities need to accept that they are part of the community and deserve support.

“If every community wants every other community to be responsible for addressing homelessness, I don’t see a path forward to success,” Malone said.

The post Wilmington misses deadline to spend $1.6M on a tiny-home village appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in prison with Sepideh Kashani, who worked with husband Houman Jokar to save Asiatic cheetah

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has described the rearrest of two Iranian environmentalists, one of whom she met at Evin prison, as “unimaginably cruel and alarming”.

Husband and wife Houman Jokar and Sepideh Kashani were arrested by the ministry of intelligence at their home on 1 July. No reason has been given and their whereabouts are unknown.

What the UK government should do on AI and tech policy Expert comment thilton.drupal 13 July 2026

Britain’s next prime minister faces major policy decisions on tech and AI. They should aim to strengthen the UK’s tech sovereignty by building the national strengths – and the alliances – that give a middle power leverage in a shifting order.

Keir Starmer’s resignation on 22 June leaves Andy Burnham likely on course to enter Downing Street within weeks. While Burnham may be less vocal on questions of tech than his predecessor, he takes office at a truly critical moment in shaping the UK’s economic resilience, its geopolitical independence, and its status as a defender of democratic values in the machine age. 

Sovereignty reigns

For two decades, the reflex of British tech policy has been to prioritize its special relationship with Washington. The UK’s dependencies on US technology run extremely deep. With them come expectations that this close relationship buys guarantees to market and frontier technology access, intelligence-sharing, investment and a seat at the top table for the UK’s outstanding AI governance and research institutions. 

US technology companies have invested heavily in the UK for decades; the Tech Prosperity Deal signed during President Trump’s state visit, which trumpeted £150 billion of future investment into the UK, looks now to be a high-water mark.

That deal is now, reportedly, on ice. Europeans have been further alarmed by the US imposing temporary limits on access to the latest AI models – notably Anthropic’s Mythos 5 and OpenAI’s GPT 5.6 – apparently at the sole discretion of the Oval Office.

The UK-US relationship has always had its difficulties: the two countries are commercially entwined but normatively estranged. The UK public are sceptical of most US technology companies, particularly on questions of tax and safety. 

And despite US pressure, the UK has kept its digital services tax and hardened, not softened, online regulation – its June 2026 ban on under-16s using social media goes further than Australia’s. The ban drew a warning from the US Embassy that the rules would burden American firms, echoing the president’s own executive order targeting ‘overseas extortion’ of US tech companies. 

UK polling suggests tech sovereignty – as wonkish a subject as there is – is beginning to filter through to the public, with growing calls to curb foreign ownership of infrastructure and maintain the UK’s commitment to online safety. 

This friction has accelerated a broader trend across middle powers, who are now realizing that access to US technology – which they previously took for granted – may be less stable or come with more strings than they had hoped. The sovereignty question is hardly Britain’s alone; it animates Paris and Berlin too. Should the White House continue to entangle itself with its frontier technology companies, or should the AI boom undergo a painful course correction, these positions will continue to harden.

Reducing reliance on US technology is reportedly an emerging strand of Burnham’s thinking. So, what should the incoming government do? Three priorities stand out.

Build leverage

The first task is to make Britain AI ready, not just AI-adjacent: the best of the rest, behind the US and China. The returns from cheap intelligence (in the form of AI) won’t be limited by which models the UK can access, but rather by the physical and industrial capacity to turn this cheap intelligence into output: energy, grid connections, factory floors, lab capacity.  

Britain should audit its own economy for exactly these blockages and clear them, prioritizing the 2025 Industrial Strategy’s own growth sectors in life sciences, advanced manufacturing and clean energy.

It should also prioritize routes to safely using NHS and other sources of public data in AI development: they remain a potentially decisive asset that years of fragmented, siloed systems and public trust failures have kept locked up, and could be the keystone of a credible UK AI bio and medical research programme.  

On compute, the UK cannot, and should not, try to out-build the US or China: money is limited, energy is expensive and data centres are unpopular. The right target is enough sovereign onshore capacity for critical inference – the compute used to deploy and use an AI model – with any surplus committed to UK start-ups, universities and towards a shared middle power technology stack capable of picking some battles with the US and China. 

Lead at home

Second, the incoming government should do distinctive things well at home, including making good use of digital identities and AI in public services.

Digital identities have long been treated as a potential liability for civil liberties. Burnham seems to have embraced this position too following the government’s disastrous attempts to relaunch the idea last year. This is the wrong approach. Digital identity should be reframed for what it can and must be: a piece of digital public infrastructure that makes everyday life easier and lays a foundation for public services and new digital businesses. 

Related work

Can a Burnham government make Britain a global leader in science and technology?

The same logic applies to AI in public services, where the government should build on the work of Greater Manchester’s AI and Data Innovation Office and work on health data by Health Innovation Manchester. Both prove that modernising public services through the use of digital technology is achievable.

Lastly, the UK should also build on its leadership position in AI governance, where the UK’s AI Security Institute gives it international standing that capital cannot buy. 

Pool what you can

The final priority is maximising sovereignty by coalition with other countries rather than hopeless attempts at autarky. Dozens of countries share both the UK’s needs in public service technology and share the anxiety about entrenched dependencies on the current providers. To squander this opportunity by building rickety national silos of technology would be a disaster when the UK has historically shown its capacity to build technology that enables collaboration rather than shutting it off. The success of gov.uk – forked and used by many of Britain’s friends and allies – is just one example.

Donald Trump is cleaning up on crypto, recently disclosing a $1.4 billion windfall. Yet cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have, after a year of flying high in the wake of Trump’s election, plummeted.

The crypto industry is putting hopes for its revival in a long-awaited bill, under debate in the Senate, called the Clarity Act, which could open the doors to Wall Street investments.

But there is one thing ironically standing in its way: Trump’s giant crypto haul.

The naked self-enrichment has turned crypto into a prime example of presidential corruption.

The result is that even crypto’s most staunch Democratic allies will find it hard to back a crypto wishlist like the Clarity Act, which will need support from at least seven Senate Democrats to overcome a filibuster.

Take crypto stalwarts like centrist Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, who issued a statement demanding that any crypto bill include ethics provisions to stop Trump’s crypto profiteering.

With the industry poised to spend tens of millions more on the midterm elections, however, Gillibrand and other centrist Democrats may yet be tempted to sign off on window dressing instead of a crackdown, said crypto critics.

Related

This Commission That Regulates Crypto Could Be Just One Guy: An Industry Lawyer

“Sen. Gillibrand and too many of her colleagues prioritize and spend enormous time pushing crypto’s special interest agenda, which is to get legitimized by the weakest possible law and regulated by the smallest, most underfunded, least capable, and most capture-able financial regulator,” Dennis Kelleher, the CEO of the nonprofit Better Markets, said in a statement last Monday. “That is presumably because the crypto industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in campaigns to buy friends and attempt to get crypto’s special interest agenda enacted.”

Gillibrand has dismissed those criticisms. In a statement of her own last week, she expressed her desire to both advance the bill and crack down on Trump.

“We cannot let self-dealing destroy an opportunity to strengthen consumer protections, crack down on illicit finance, and expand economic opportunity for the millions of Americans our financial system has left behind,” Gillibrand said. “The time to act is now — and that must include ethics reforms that prohibit members of Congress, the president, and their spouses from cashing in on their office.”

Declining Sector Hangs Hopes on Clarity Act

For crypto, the numbers are sobering. Bitcoin soared from roughly $60,000 just before Trump’s election to about twice that by October of last year. Since then, it and other digital assets have cratered. Bitcoin now trades back around $63,000 a token.

Related

Trump Is Rewriting History to Justify His Sketchy Pardon of a Crypto King

The market’s gyrations did not stop Trump and his family members from profiting handsomely off the $TRUMP meme coin and other ventures. His roughly $1.4 billion of crypto profits last year meant that he cleared more than the largest publicly traded company in the industry, Coinbase, according to crypto commentator Scott Melker. The White House has defended Trump’s crypto windfall as legal, a point even his critics concede is likely true.

Crypto’s fortunes now appear to hinge largely on whether Congress passes the Clarity Act, which is intended to create an overall regulatory framework for the industry.

“If the bill passed, you would probably see a bump for the industry,” said Mark Hays, the associate director for cryptocurrency and financial technology at Americans for Financial Reform and Demand Progress. “So much of crypto rides on sentiment, and if the bill were passed and signed into law, you would likely see an increase in prices just based on that sentiment alone.”

One sign of how much of the industry is placing its bets on Congress came in a recent quarterly earnings call held by Coinbase. Analysts asked the company’s executives several times how the Clarity Act would affect their bottom line. The company’s executives said that it could mean that Wall Street, which has been reluctant to dive headlong into the industry, will finally start to spend on crypto.

Passing the law, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said, would “just unlock a lot of institutional capital that’ll flow into the space broadly.”

That is one of the outcomes that crypto skeptics fear most. If crypto becomes integrated with the economy rather than a speculative sideshow, they say, it risks taking down the entire system in a crash.

Democrats Holding the Keys

The only thing standing between crypto and its top priority are Senate Democrats. The House of Representatives, where crypto needs only a bare majority, already overwhelmingly passed last year a version of the Clarity Act with Democratic support. In the Senate, however, there are enough Democrats to block passage of the law with a filibuster. The question is whether they will.

Crypto needs to win over seven Democrats to beat a filibuster, or eight if Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., remains absent due to illness.

Progressives such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have expressed broad concerns that the law could lead to the next financial crash. Centrists like Gillibrand, meanwhile, have voiced narrower concerns. One of their biggest hang-ups with the legislation, they say, is the question of whether it will rein in Trump’s crypto ventures.

Gillibrand occupies a powerful position in the party: She serves as the caucus’s top fundraiser as chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. And she has positioned herself as a leader in Clarity Act negotiations, despite not serving on the relevant committees.

Asked last month about the negotiations over the bill at the Aspen Ideas Festival — a cozy gathering of politicos and business executives in the Colorado mountain town — Gillibrand said she was working hard to overcome the ethics obstacle.

“We’re working hand in glove with Republicans,” Gillibrand said. “We’re negotiating with staff from the White House so that everyone is clear about what the bill is going to say, and we’re going to do our best to land that plane.”

Gillibrand’s public statements have repeatedly telegraphed her desire to see some version of the legislation passed. Gillibrand says it is urgent to get consumer protections on the books. Observers say the urgency may also be motivated by the industry’s massive campaign war chest.

Related

AIPAC, AI, Crypto, and Gambling Are Hiding Their Big Election Spends

Over one-third of the corporate money spent on this year’s elections so far has come from the crypto industry, according to a recent report from the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen. That amounts to $189 million, including $82 million routed through a single industry super PAC called Fairshake, which is backed by Coinbase.

Rick Claypool, the research director for Public Citizen’s president’s office, said that as chair of the DSCC, Gillibrand is keenly aware of crypto’s campaign spending potential.

“I’m sure it’s top of mind,” Claypool told The Intercept. “Part of the whole goal of the corporate crypto spending is to make sure that lawmakers in general, but also in particular those who are in fundraising, leadership positions, think of the industry before they think of voters.”

Other Democrats tipped as maybes on the bill include Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who last month nudged other Democrats on the banking committee to vote for a draft of the bill, along with a swath of the caucus’s more centrist members.

What Ethics?

It’s unclear what sort of ethics restrictions Republicans and Democrats have been working on behind closed doors.

The final text of the bill has yet to drop, despite a promise from Bitcoin evangelist Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wy., that it would be released over the July 4 weekend. The industry’s deadlines for passing the law keep slipping. Its best chance may be to secure passage before the Senate leaves August 10 for an extended period of work in their home states.

Hays said senators should ignore the industry’s artificial deadlines. His group recently released a poll suggesting that most voters are concerned about the crypto industry’s influence in Washington.

“Yes, Democrats are looking over their shoulder, but I think they should be reading the room and saying, ‘Wait a second, is this really a priority?’” Hays said. “Or, is this the kind of pay-to-play politics that have gotten so many voters frustrated in the first place?”

Correction: July 13, 2026, 8:59 a.m. ET
An earlier version of this article stated that Donald Trump disclosed his $1.4 billion in income from crypto last week; it was disclosed on June 30.

The post Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Wants to Save Crypto — But Trump Windfall Is a Political Obstacle appeared first on The Intercept.

Joan Rivet drank water she managed to splash up to her face by turning faucet on with her foot

An 82-year-old North Carolina woman says she survived falling in her bathtub and being trapped there for nine days by turning the faucet on with her foot and drinking water that she managed to splash up to her face – all while drifting in and out of consciousness.

Joan Rivet recently shared her remarkable survival story with North Carolina’s The Mountaineer newspaper, providing an extreme example of the kinds of emergencies that can face the millions of older Americans who fall by accident annually, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates.

After months of U.S.-Mexico tensions sparked by the Trump administration’s threats to strike unilaterally at Mexican drug traffickers, the two governments are heading for a potentially more serious confrontation over President Claudia Sheinbaum’s refusal to arrest Mexican officials charged in the United States with drug corruption.

U.S. Justice Department officials have yet to present a full picture of their evidence against 10 current and former Mexican officials, whose indictments were announced on April 29. They include the governor of Sinaloa state, Rubén Rocha Moya, an ally of the president and a prominent figure in her leftist political party.

But as the Trump administration steps up its efforts to target Mexican government figures who are accused of protecting the drug trade, Sheinbaum is taking a hard-line stand against extraditing Rocha and the others charged in a New York federal court, Mexican officials said.

“She is very clear about this,” a senior Mexican official said of the U.S. request for Rocha’s extradition. “She has decided no.”

The impasse presents the Trump administration with a potentially critical test of its aims in Mexico, raising questions about how far it will go to challenge the corruption that has long sustained Mexico’s trade in illegal drugs.

By elevating the importance of the drug issue and threatening harsh economic penalties if Sheinbaum did not join forces to combat it, the administration has pushed Mexico to dramatically escalate its fight against organized crime.

After years in which Sheinbaum’s political mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, withdrew from confrontation with the drug mafias, her security forces have worked with U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies to destroy clandestine drug labs, seize large caches of drugs, and kill or capture ranking crime bosses.

Sheinbaum also circumvented the two countries’ extradition treaty to hand over at least 92 accused traffickers sought by the United States — voicing none of the concerns about U.S. evidence that she has cited in refusing to arrest the Sinaloa officials.

Still, U.S. officials acknowledge privately, the two countries’ intensified counter-drug campaign has emphasized tactical strikes and short-term gains rather than a coherent, longer-term strategy to undermine organized crime groups, confront endemic corruption or strengthen Mexico’s criminal justice system.

To many senior Trump administration officials, particularly in the Justice Department and the White House, attacking the high-level corruption that sustains the drug trade represents a crucial next step. They have argued it is a step that U.S. prosecutors should take aggressively if Mexico will not do so, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Some diplomatic and intelligence officials, however, are wary of pushing Sheinbaum too hard, seeing her position as precarious. They fear that demanding she take on her own party’s old guard might prompt her to pull back on Mexico’s cooperation with U.S. drug enforcement and immigration policies, the officials said.

The U.S. policy debate also turns on a question that continues to obsess Mexico’s political class nearly two years into her presidency: How much independence does Sheinbaum really have from her political patron López Obrador, who remains a commanding figure within their National Regeneration Movement?

After keeping largely silent on Mexico’s changing relationship with Washington, López Obrador thrust himself back into the public debate on June 3 with a blistering attack on the New York indictments. U.S. officials were simply using drug corruption as a pretext, he claimed, to undermine Morena, as the leftist party he founded is known.

“To be clear,” the former president wrote, “some U.S. officials are plotting to weaken Morena and strengthen the rightist opposition in Mexico with the idea of once again having a submissive, corrupt, mafioso and cruel government.” Such a regime, he added, would be more amenable to Washington’s “interventionist designs.”

Sheinbaum did her best to respectfully downplay the significance of the former president’s screed. But current and former Mexican officials noted that López Obrador’s missive, while supportive of her, did nothing to dispel suspicions that he continues to pull strings in her administration.

To many analysts of Mexican politics, the source of Sheinbaum’s unyielding response to the Rocha indictment seems plain: her fear that if some accused officials cooperate with the U.S. authorities in the Sinaloa case and possibly other investigations, the Trump administration could target other Morena leaders, including key allies of López Obrador.

“I think the message from Andrés Manuel was, ‘Claudia, you have to stop this or they are going to destroy us,’” a Mexican security expert, Eduardo Guerrero, said in an interview. “But the longer she waits to turn Rocha over, the tougher the punishment from the United States is going to be.”

Trump administration officials have done little to assuage such concerns.

Asked two weeks after the Sinaloa indictment about the administration’s plans for dealing with Mexican corruption, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Terrance C. Cole, told the Senate Appropriations Committee, “I can assure you this is just the start about what’s to come in Mexico.”

Turning Themselves In

When Rocha was elected in 2021 as governor of Sinaloa, a stronghold of Mexico’s drug trade for almost a century, the former teachers’ union organizer was known as a skilled political operator and a close friend of then-President López Obrador. But his campaign was assailed for what opposition parties and civic groups called the blatant role that criminal gangs played on Rocha’s behalf — intimidating voters, stuffing ballot boxes, and kidnapping and threatening numerous opposition candidates.

Despite detailed complaints to Mexico’s elections authorities, López Obrador and Sheinbaum strongly defended Rocha. Rocha insisted he had nothing to do with the mafias but suggested that it would be impossible to govern the state without somehow coordinating with them. “You have to find a way to do it,” he said in a television interview during the campaign.

Questions about Rocha’s links to the traffickers exploded again in July 2024, after a son of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the imprisoned drug boss known as El Chapo, kidnapped his father’s longtime partner in the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael Zambada García. The son, Joaquín Guzmán López, then flew Zambada across the U.S. border, delivering him to U.S. agents on an airstrip in New Mexico and surrendering himself.

In a statement released by his lawyer, Zambada said he was kidnapped outside Culiacán, the state capital, when he went to meet Rocha and a Sinaloa congressman, Héctor Cuén, who supposedly wanted the drug boss to mediate a dispute between them. Instead, Zambada claimed, he was betrayed by Guzmán while Cuén, whom he described as “a longtime friend,” was murdered.

Rocha at the time denied any involvement in the episode, saying he was traveling in Los Angeles. A spokesperson for the state government, from which Rocha has taken a leave of absence, said it would not comment on the accusations against him. Rocha could not be reached for comment.

Both Guzmán and his brother Ovidio, who was extradited to the United States in 2023, have since provided federal prosecutors with extensive accounts of their relationships with Mexican government figures, as has at least one of their former lieutenants, law enforcement officials said. Investigators in New York also obtained detailed ledgers of the gang’s bribe payments, which were referenced extensively in the Rocha indictment.

After Zambada’s kidnapping, three U.S. officials said López Obrador’s government made repeated requests for information on what Zambada and the Chapitos, as Guzmán’s sons are known, might have been telling U.S. investigators. But the prosecutors answered those queries only when they finally laid out their case: “As he had promised, since he was elected governor, and in exchange for the Chapitos’ support in his election, Rocha Moya has allowed the Chapitos to operate with impunity in Sinaloa,” the indictment stated.

It also said Rocha had met personally with the Chapitos’ leaders and allowed them to name corrupt law enforcement officials to his government. Rocha’s aides took the traffickers’ bribes, allowed them to operate with impunity, arrested their rivals, freed them from jail when they were arrested themselves and warned them of law enforcement operations supported by the United States, the prosecutors said. Rocha has denied the allegations.

Barely a day after a federal court in New York unsealed the indictment of the 10 men, Sheinbaum dismissed that evidence as insufficient. She said the suspects could be investigated in Mexico but that she would not act without “overwhelming and irrefutable proof” of their guilt.

Such provisional arrest requests are often granted as a matter of course; by treaty, the country asking for extradition has 60 days to present more detailed evidence after the initial arrest is made. But Sheinbaum has argued that the indictment and various other Justice Department documents given to Mexico did not come close to justifying the U.S. request.

Some U.S. diplomats were initially skeptical of the New York prosecutors’ apparent reliance on imprisoned traffickers as primary witnesses in such a politically sensitive case, officials familiar with the matter said.

More recently, though, at least one of the accused Mexicans has changed that calculus. The former Sinaloa secretary of public safety, Gerardo Mérida, turned himself in to U.S. marshals at the Arizona border on May 11. Mérida — a retired army general accused of taking more than $100,000 a month from the cartel while in office — pleaded not guilty in New York. But he later indicated to the prosecutors that he might be willing to cooperate with their investigation in return for leniency, one official familiar with the matter said. Mérida’s court-appointed attorney, Sarah Krissoff, did not respond to calls and emails asking for comment on his status.

A second suspect in the case, former Sinaloa finance secretary Enrique Díaz Vega, is also believed to have turned himself in to the U.S. authorities, but the Justice Department has not confirmed that. Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment on the status of either suspect, and Vega could not be reached for comment.

Months ago, current and former U.S. officials said, Sheinbaum’s powerful security chief, Omar García Harfuch, told American diplomats privately that the Mexican president was determined to take on the country’s corruption problem and would prove her bona fides by prosecuting officials of her own party. Since the Rocha indictment, however, she has taken a very different tone, accusing Washington of egregious meddling in Mexico’s affairs.

“An action of this magnitude has no precedent in the history of our bilateral relationship,” Sheinbaum said at a political rally in late May. “When they dictate from abroad who is guilty and who is not, that is no longer cooperation. We are talking about interference!”

Aides to Sheinbaum have begun to suggest that she could indeed scale back anti-narcotics cooperation if Washington pushes too hard on the Rocha case, two U.S. officials said.

Whether she has the wherewithal to follow through remains to be seen. But such threats have worked for Mexico in the past. When U.S. agents arrested Mexico’s former defense minister, Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, in Los Angeles in late 2020, former Attorney General William Barr abruptly dropped the case after López Obrador threatened to limit Mexico’s counter-drug cooperation.

Despite the American concession, López Obrador still seized on the arrest to shut down several joint counter-drug programs and push through a new national security law curtailing the work of U.S. agents in Mexico. With the Biden administration focused on preserving Mexico’s cooperation on immigration, López Obrador later abandoned the so-called Mérida Plan, the two countries’ 14-year campaign to jointly fight drug trafficking and strengthen the Mexican criminal justice system.

“But these guys are not Biden,” a former Mexican foreign minister, Jorge G. Castañeda, said of the Trump administration in an interview. While Sheinbaum’s predecessors could almost always rely on U.S. leaders to prioritize Mexico’s stability above other interests, he added, “Trump just doesn’t care.”

The post A U.S.-Mexico Impasse Will Test How Far the Trump Administration Will Go to Fight Drug Trade appeared first on ProPublica.

A Finnish study followed patients for 10 years after they had a popular knee surgery. For many, the pain continued or even worsened.

A quarter of working-age adults use credit cards to purchase groceries but struggle to repay their debts, a new study finds.

Since Queen Victoria made it her official residence in 1837, every British sovereign has lived there. King Charles III, born at the palace, is the first to opt out.

"Japan's experimental reusable rocket took off and safely landed in a first test flight Saturday," reports the Associated Press, as Japan "seeks to achieve the technology key to cut launch costs and compete in the global space market dominated by SpaceX." The RV-X rocket lifted off, hovered and moved horizontally before landing [watch the video here] during its less than one-minute flight at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Noshiro Testing Center in northeastern Japan, which was livestreamed by the NVS, a group of space fans... Saturday's flight is a step forward for Japan in achieving the technology needed to develop a lower cost successor to the country's current mainstay, single-use H3 series. Japan's test comes the same week that China recovered an orbital booster rocket for the first time.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New leaders in Peru and Colombia may find it hard to deliver on their promises  Expert comment jon.wallace 13 July 2026

The new presidents are part of a swing to the right in Latin American politics – but can they govern such divided societies?

In the space of two weeks in June, two Andean countries elected new right-wing governments. In Peru, Keiko Fujimori, leader of its largest congressional party, won the presidency on her fourth attempt. In Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, a criminal defence lawyer running for office for the first time, defeated Iván Cepeda, a senator of the governing left. Fujimori will take office later this month, de la Espriella in August.

It is tempting to interpret these outcomes as part of a regional swing to the right, aligned with US President Donald Trump – and it is often reported as such. However, the deeper story is one of persistently divided societies: in Peru and Colombia electorates were split almost exactly in half. Fujimori’s margin of victory was so narrow that the count stretched on for days. De la Espriella won by 49.7 per cent to 48.7.

Indeed, the UNDP’s 2026 regional report finds that political polarization in Latin America has grown faster than in any other region and now exceeds the global average. This raises an important question. When mandates are this thin and political antagonism this deep, can election winners govern?

The paradox of prosperous fragility

Both Peru and Colombia enter this period with mixed economic realities. And in both countries, politics has come at the cost of better economic outcomes. Neither government will have a political honeymoon.

Peru retains credible macroeconomic anchors. It has an independent central bank, one of the region’s lowest public debt ratios, inflation converging to target, and a pipeline of new mining projects worth some $60 billion. The country grew 5.5 per cent a year during the commodity boom between 2004 and 2013. 

But politics has been highly unstable for a prolonged period and potential growth is now closer to 2.5 per cent, dragged down by a public administration weakened by constant turnover. Fujimori also inherits an insolvent state oil company, and multibillion-dollar arbitration claims against the state.

In addition, forecasters confirm an El Niño weather system is underway this year, with a 63 per cent probability of reaching ‘very strong’ magnitude. Past El Niño systems have cost between 0.7 and 5.3 per cent of Peru’s GDP.

Colombia, a larger and more diversified economy, has sluggish economic growth, fiscal deficits and public indebtedness near historical highs. Security is deteriorating: a leading presidential candidate was assassinated during the campaign, and the implementation of a decade-old peace agreement has stalled. Illegal armed groups have grown to around 27,000 members. Extortion and organized crime are expanding. Crime has displaced the economy as citizens’ first concern.

Meanwhile the IMF has advised Colombia to carry out a fiscal consolidation of roughly three points of GDP. But that task will require precisely the broad congressional coalitions that polarization makes hard to build.

Congress is the real second round

Both presidents will quickly discover that runoff elections are easier to win than decisive votes in their legislatures. Neither commands a majority and building coalitions will remain key to successful governance in both countries.

In Colombia, de la Espriella faces a Congress where traditional parties hold the balance, and a defeated left retains real capacity for mobilization, having drawn 12 million votes in the election. 

Peru’s new bicameral Congress seats six parties in the lower house. And it sets supermajority requirements in the Senate that act, for the first time in decades, as a brake on the impeachment habit that removed or forced out every president since 2016. 

Despite these reforms, Fujimori can expect difficulties. Her party bears much of the responsibility for the fiscal populism seen in Congress in recent years – and practiced zero-sum politics from the legislature. She can now expect her opponents to return the favour. 

Deadlock in these legislatures would inflict further damage on trust in institutions and faith in democracy. Latinobarómetro’s 2024 report found regional support for democracy growing to 52 per cent. But in Peru (and Bolivia) it fell, in Peru’s case to just 44 per cent. Just 10 per cent were satisfied with how their democracy works. In Colombia satisfaction with democracy barely reaches 20 per cent. 

Meanwhile what Latinobarómetro calls ‘expectations pressure’ – the gap between personal and national economic expectations – stands at 15 percentage points, the widest since 1995. That suggests electorates will not tolerate underperformance by the new governments.

Governing against polarization

Polarization is persistent in Peru and Colombia, but it is not an insurmountable challenge. Four courses of action could make a difference. 

The first would be to form governments that include talent beyond the winning coalitions, creating pluralistic, competent cabinets. In Peru’s case, Fujimori should draw on the economic technocracy that has served administrations of every stripe. In Colombia, de la Espriella could reach out to the political centre to negotiate a short legislative agenda during his first weeks in office. 

Related work

State capacity, mining and community relations in Peru

A second imperative is to leave independent institutional bodies alone. Central banks, electoral authorities and comptrollers held both countries together through the turmoil of the past decade. A public commitment to respect their autonomy, and to renounce prosecutions and impeachments as political weapons, is the best confidence-building measure available. 

Third, dialogue must be institutionalized where conflict is produced. Chatham House’s own research on Peru’s mining sector recommends standing, multi-sector dialogues between government, communities and companies. The same logic applies in Colombia’s post-conflict municipalities, where violence feeds on the state’s absence. 

Finally, the new governments must deliver in the areas that did not vote for them. Polarization in both countries is territorial – Peru’s southern highlands, and Colombia’s rural periphery, for instance, are strongholds of the left. Bringing roads, land titles, police and functioning courts to those jurisdictions will do more to close the divide than appeals to unity.

The ultimate question

Behind all this analysis lies the question polarized societies face: can populist, strong-hand rule deliver? The long-run evidence gives little hope. The most comprehensive study available – 120 years of populist governments worldwide – finds income per capita roughly ten per cent lower after fifteen years of populist rule, through eroded institutions and collapsed investment. 

Peru’s history proves this point clearly: Alberto Fujimori delivered stabilization and defeated terrorism. But the demolition of the party system that took place during his presidency fuelled institutional deterioration. 

In El Salvador homicides have collapsed, and its citizens report the region’s second-highest satisfaction with democracy. But that experience is hardly replicable in the Andes, where transnational criminal economies, built on illegal gold and cocaine, command export markets that would likely survive even mass arrests. 

Polarization manufactures the demand for strong hands while destroying the supply of what the evidence says works: broad coalitions, patient reform, credible institutions. These are the real challenges facing both incoming administrations. Whether their democracies can deliver fast enough to address voters’ dissatisfaction with their systems will be answered in Lima and Bogotá in the months ahead.

The wildfire is piling pressure on a region facing its third heat wave since May.

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The New Zealander drew international acclaim for roles as gruff loners and unhinged villains. He was best known for playing paleontologist Alan Grant.

America "is facing what's projected to become the largest labor shortage in its history," according to experts interviewed by the Washington Post: Economists warn that the worsening labor problem, due in part to a skills shortage and population shifts, will be vast and reach beyond tech. It "could hobble the American economy for years to come," predicts the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Lightcast, a labor market data company, calls it "the largest labor shortage the country has ever seen." JPMorgan Chase warns of a national security risk from "a pervasive talent deficit that constrains the nation's capacity to build, compete, and protect its interests." There will be shortages in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of nurses, physicians, teachers, engineers, pharmacists, mental health counselors, construction worker and airplane mechanics — jobs AI generally can't do... Among the trends that have been leading to this moment: a mismatch between the careers college graduates are pursuing and the jobs employers are struggling to fill. Far fewer students are majoring in health care fields than are needed to meet demand, for instance. "We have pumped so many young people into business and finance" when what's really in demand are graduates in other fields, [said Ron Hetrick, Lightcast's principal economist]. "It's like a factory producing these workers like widgets, even though society is saying, 'We really don't need them.' And the factory just keeps pumping them out." But the principal reason for the looming workforce shortages is much more basic. A protracted decline in birth rates is coinciding with a record wave of retirements, data shows. From 2024 to 2032, when the last baby boomers sign up for Social Security payments, more than 18 million college-educated workers will leave the labor force while fewer than 14 million enter it, according to the Georgetown center. Meanwhile, even as the number of people with associate and bachelor's degrees falls, the number of jobs requiring them will grow, the center forecasts. That will leave a gap of 4.6 million workers. Lightcast puts the deficit at an even higher 6 million... The effect of population shifts on the supply of talent, with or without degrees, has been compounded by a drop in the proportion of high school graduates choosing to go to college, a sharply reduced rate of immigration, and a growing number of Americans leaving the workforce altogether because of such issues as lack of child care, early retirement, incarceration and substance addiction, according to the Chamber of Commerce. Three interesting statistics from the article: U.S. college/university enrollment in 2023 was down by nearly 2 million students since its peak in 2010, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Education Department. America's low birth rate since 2010 "means the number of college-age Americans is forecast to decline by another 13 percent through 2041." South Dakota has just 41 workers for every 100 open jobs... while California and nine other states have more workers than jobs, the Chamber of Commerce found.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

America "is facing what's projected to become the largest labor shortage in its history," according to experts interviewed by the Washington Post: Economists warn that the worsening labor problem, due in part to a skills shortage and population shifts, will be vast and reach beyond tech. It "could hobble the American economy for years to come," predicts the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Lightcast, a labor market data company, calls it "the largest labor shortage the country has ever seen." JPMorgan Chase warns of a national security risk from "a pervasive talent deficit that constrains the nation's capacity to build, compete, and protect its interests." There will be shortages in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of nurses, physicians, teachers, engineers, pharmacists, mental health counselors, construction worker and airplane mechanics — jobs AI generally can't do... Among the trends that have been leading to this moment: a mismatch between the careers college graduates are pursuing and the jobs employers are struggling to fill. Far fewer students are majoring in health care fields than are needed to meet demand, for instance. "We have pumped so many young people into business and finance" when what's really in demand are graduates in other fields, [said Ron Hetrick, Lightcast's principal economist]. "It's like a factory producing these workers like widgets, even though society is saying, 'We really don't need them.' And the factory just keeps pumping them out." But the principal reason for the looming workforce shortages is much more basic. A protracted decline in birth rates is coinciding with a record wave of retirements, data shows. From 2024 to 2032, when the last baby boomers sign up for Social Security payments, more than 18 million college-educated workers will leave the labor force while fewer than 14 million enter it, according to the Georgetown center. Meanwhile, even as the number of people with associate and bachelor's degrees falls, the number of jobs requiring them will grow, the center forecasts. That will leave a gap of 4.6 million workers. Lightcast puts the deficit at an even higher 6 million... The effect of population shifts on the supply of talent, with or without degrees, has been compounded by a drop in the proportion of high school graduates choosing to go to college, a sharply reduced rate of immigration, and a growing number of Americans leaving the workforce altogether because of such issues as lack of child care, early retirement, incarceration and substance addiction, according to the Chamber of Commerce. Three interesting statistics from the article: U.S. college/university enrollment in 2023 was down by nearly 2 million students since its peak in 2010, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Education Department. America's low birth rate since 2010 "means the number of college-age Americans is forecast to decline by another 13 percent through 2041." South Dakota has just 41 workers for every 100 open jobs... while California and nine other states have more workers than jobs, the Chamber of Commerce found.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This live blog has now closed – you can read our latest report from the Middle East here

Bahrain’s interior ministry instructed residents to take shelter after attacks on the island nation as Iran targets US interests in the Gulf.

The siren has been sounded... citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place,” the ministry posted on X.

Josh Fawaz’s song, a cover of Like a Prayer, has raised questions about how generative AI is being used in music and whether it should be declared

An Australian producer has gone from little-known artist to viral sensation in a matter of months, with his hit song catapulting on to global charts and receiving thousands of radio spins.

There’s just one problem: music experts and other musicians are questioning whether he produced it. They claim Josh Fawaz’s most popular song, a cover of Madonna’s Like a Prayer which reached the No 1 spot on the National Radio Airplay chart, could have been made using AI.

Abir Al-Sahlani targeted on social media after condemning anti-immigration chants in European parliament

A Swedish MEP has filed a police complaint accusing a fellow MEP of racist hate speech after she was targeted on social media over her condemnation of far-right, anti-immigration chants in the European parliament.

The complaint, which was filed last week with police in Sweden, relates to the aftermath last month of the decision by some rightwing MEPs to erupt in chants of “send them back” following a vote aimed at increasing deportations across the EU.

Alleged thieves in October 2025 robbery damaged a gem-encrusted crown worn in the 19th century by Empress Eugénie

Two men suspected of making off with €88m (£75m) worth of crown jewels from the Louvre museum in Paris last October have reportedly told investigators that the alleged mastermind behind the heist was disappointed by the haul and thought “they could have taken more”.

The French newspaper Le Monde cited transcripts of the alleged thieves’ questioning last month by two investigating judges in charge of the inquiry, offering detailed insights into the burglary that made global headlines and led the museum’s director to resign.

The IMF, the World Bank, and the debt crisis that imperils West Africa.

How a deadlocked conflict can pave the way for peace.

Senior China correspondent Amy Hawkins on China’s embrace of AI, from medical avatars to food delivery drones and state surveillance

While the spread of AI has been met perhaps with a lot of scepticism in the west, China has fully embraced the technology, explains Amy Hawkins, from millions of users talking to AI doctors, to the use of intelligent robots in factories, and drones delivering food on the Great Wall of China.

AI has also been eagerly taken up by the state, not least in the opportunities it provides for further surveillance, the Guardian’s senior China correspondent says.

Long-time Slashdot reader necro81 writes: There are several companies, such as Tesla, trying to make semi trucks fully electric. The capital cost for such a truck, and the MW-scale infrastructure to recharge it, may be a hard sell for some operators. [IEEE Spectrum notes that's a charging infrastructure "that most freight corridors do not yet reliably provide."] But some companies are instead adding batteries and an electric motor to the semi-trailers that trucks haul behind them. "The Nivalis Powered Trailer Kit centers on an electric axle [rated at 50 kilowatts-peak]... capable of both propulsion assistance and regenerative braking. It draws on a 60-kilowatt-hour, 400-volt lithium-ion battery pack charged from three sources: the axle itself during braking and deceleration, a full-rooftop array of photovoltaic panels generating up to 3.7 kilowatts-peak, and a 32-amp, three-phase AC grid connection available during parking stops." This approach is more akin to a plug-in hybrid: the truck may still be diesel-powered, but the electric assist from the trailer allows the truck to run more efficiently. Replacing diesel with kWh can save operators money while also reducing emissions. This incremental approach may be more accessible and less capital-intensive than replacing the truck itself. From the article: The driver's only window into the system is a small display readable from the cab's side mirror that shows the system status and battery charge level. Nothing about the trailer's handling or licensing requirements changes. The partners project savings of up to 7,000 liters of diesel per trailer per year, which is enough to keep about 19 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the air... Trailer Dynamics, an Aachen-based company, has conducted field tests with BMW Logistics, DB Schenker, Duvenbeck, and Volkswagen Konzernlogistik, reporting average fuel savings of around 40% for diesel tractor combinations, substantially higher than the up to 18% reduction implied by the Nivalis projection... Trailer Dynamics prices its system between €145,000 and €195,000 and targets a payback period of no more than five years. Nivalis targets five to six years at current costs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Odyssey director addresses industry fears over artificial intelligence and says rightwing criticism of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy is ‘irrelevant’

The Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan believes the kind of movies he makes – big-budget action films shot mostly on location – would survive the spread of artificial intelligence, a technology he says many people “disdain”.

The Oppenheimer and The Dark Knight director is promoting his latest blockbuster, an adaptation of the Greek epic The Odyssey, which will be released in cinemas this week.

Sen. Mitch McConnell released a statement on his health on Sunday along with a photo of himself and his wife, Elaine Chao, after questions swirled about his condition.

On this "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" broadcast, Republican Sen. Tim Scott remembers Lindsey Graham, and Israeli Ambassador Michael Leiter and retired Gen. Frank McKenzie discuss the Iran war.

U.S. forces conducted more rounds of strikes on Iran this week, one of which was in retaliation for an attack on a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon said.

Lindsey Graham, the senior U.S. senator from South Carolina, died suddenly at age 71 on Saturday.

California drew more than $335 billion in venture capital funding this year, reports the Los Angeles Times, citing data released Thursday by PitchBook on private market funding: Its next biggest competitor, New York, raised less than a tenth of California's total. Texas raised 1/40th of the amount... Although a campaign for a new tax on billionaires has convinced some ultra-rich residents to shift to other states and businesses often complain that high property and energy costs and an anti-business regulatory regime make it too tough to make money in the state, the inability of the top talent, companies and investors in AI to set up elsewhere shows California's enduring attraction. The state's economy grew 5% last year to a record $4.25 trillion, making it larger than every country other than the U.S., China and Germany. It is home to nearly 400 billion-dollar startups — more than any other state, according to CB Insights... Among metropolitan regions, Los Angeles ranked behind only Silicon Valley and New York, which attracted $98 billion and $11.5 billion in venture investment, respectively... Investors poured in nearly $8 billion across 207 deals in the Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Santa Ana metro areas, up 28% from a year earlier, according to PitchBook... Nearly 90% of invested dollars [in California] went to AI firms, up from last year, when around 65% of new funds were allocated to AI. "If you're a tech company and you're not an AI company, you have a very, very difficult opportunity ahead of you to raise capital," Stanford said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Latest film in franchise takes just $43m in North America and $95m globally, against a $250m budget

The Walt Disney Company’s live-action remake of Moana may be the No 1 movie at the North American box office but it did not make a big splash in its first weekend in theaters.

The movie, which cost a reported $250m (£187m, A$360m) to produce, earned just $43m from ticket sales in the US and Canada, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

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For decades, unwed mothers in Italy were pressured to give up children born out of wedlock. Thousands were sent to America. Now some families are reuniting and looking for answers.

Sealand, a platform off England's coast, is the world's smallest state. It has just one permanent resident and its own royal family.

Christopher Nolan, director of "Oppenheimer," "Inception," "Interstellar," and "The Dark Knight," imagines every movie is the last he'll make, leading him toward an ambitious plan for "The Odyssey."

This week on 60 Minutes, Jon Wertheim reported on Sealand, the tiny principality fueled by humor and determination. But first he had to get there.

Correspondent Scott Pelley and director Christopher Nolan visited FotoKem, the last motion picture lab in the world that makes 70mm prints, to see finishing touches being made to "The Odyssey," the first feature shot entirely on IMAX film.

Republican senator, who died Saturday, had a global reach few could rival and was vital in shaping Trump’s worldview

It was revealing that one of the first tributes to Lindsey Graham, a US senator who died on Saturday aged 71, came from Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, a far-right provocateur who recently caused widespread anger by sharing footage of himself taunting bound activists who had been trying to sail to Gaza with aid.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was not far behind, calling Graham a “great friend of Israel and a cherished friend of mine”, and he was quickly followed by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who described him as “a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer”.

Fire in Walthamstow affected one house and multiple gardens and sheds, according to London fire brigade

Residents have been evacuated from their homes after a fire at a railway embankment in east London.

Twenty fire engines and about 125 firefighters were called to the incident near Vallentin Road in Walthamstow.

Which jobs are most threatened by AI? "Programmers, software engineers and other tech industry employees," goes one common answer. "But many economists are more concerned about a different, larger group of white-collar workers," reports the New York Times: customer service reps, bookkeepers, payroll clerks and HR specialists, "who fly under the radar but collectively account for tens of millions of jobs..." They are spread across the country and throughout the economy, working in every industry, in big cities and small towns, at major corporations and mom-and-pop businesses... These jobs typically offer a middle-class salary or a pathway to achieving one — much as manufacturing jobs did for men before decades of globalisation and automation wiped many of them away... For now, such an outcome is a fear, not a forecast. Despite high-profile layoffs in tech and finance, there is little firm evidence that AI has hurt the labour market as a whole. Economists have become increasingly convinced that disruptions are likely, but they say it is too early to know where or how widespread they will be. They remain broadly sceptical of claims that the technology will lead to mass unemployment in the near future. Some AI industry leaders have walked back such predictions in recent weeks. But given the extraordinary pace at which companies are adopting AI — and at which the technology is improving — economists say policymakers need to consider the potential effects on the labour market. And they say they are concerned that the public debate has focused too much on software engineers and a relative handful of other high-status careers — lawyers, consultants, economists — rather than the workers who could be most vulnerable... Economists at Northwestern University recently recalculated measures of AI exposure based on the makeup of the total workforce, not just the people using the technology. Administrative and front-line roles, such as customer service representatives, rose to the top of the list. "The most affected jobs are secretaries, are routine clerks," said Michelle Yin, one of the working paper's authors. "They're not computer scientists or data scientists at all." The article also includes this counterpoint from an economist at the University of Illinois who has studied earlier waves of white-collar automation: that like other disruptive technologies, AI likely will also create new jobs. So the possibility exists AI will make workers more productive and allow them to earn more. "I would be cautious about just focusing on what are we losing as opposed to what are we going to gain on the other side."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Senator says in statement he has undergone battery of tests after weeks of mounting speculation about his health

The US senator Mitch McConnell on Sunday revealed for the first time that a fall led to his hospitalization, breaking the silence about the Kentucky Republican’s condition after weeks of mounting speculation about his health.

McConnell, 84, said in a statement that he had undergone a battery of tests as doctors try to determine what led to his fall. He explained the long silence about his condition by saying that “folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older”.

Republican served in Senate since 2003 and was sharp Trump critic before becoming one of his most loyal backers

• US politicians and foreign leaders pay tribute to Graham

Lindsey Graham, a longtime US senator and key ally of Donald Trump, has died from a sudden illness, his office said on Sunday. He had just turned 71.

Graham’s abrupt death will send shock waves through Washington and the Republican party. He had served in the Senate since 2003, representing South Carolina, and was running for re-election in November.

A survey found that parents are increasingly going online to find deals in a tough economy.

Fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Texas builder, renews outcry against Trump’s immigration crackdown

The builder got up every morning long before dawn, left home to pick up his construction crew and then headed out to work on yet another house somewhere across the sprawl of Houston.

Fourteen hours later, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo would return to the wife he’d met as a teenager in Mexico and the modest house he’d built for his family on the city’s east side.

Linus Torvalds once said LLMs might bring a 10X increase to programmer productivity. But speaking at Open Source Summit India 2026, he now says that number was "not scientific," reports ZDNet. "That was pulled out of my ass number, obviously." Today, he continued, "we're at the point where hopefully it creates more productivity than it takes away," but "we certainly saw more junk being generated by LLMs than we saw useful code up until the like early this year.... it can actually be a huge drain on resources when it takes humans a lot of effort to figure out that, hey, this machine-generated report was not true." Even now, he said, "most of the good ones require more than just the LLM," because "we've had to push back quite a bit... if you find a bug with an LLM, it's not enough to just ask the LLM to make a bug report and then throw it over the fence to us. We want to see a suggested patch; we want to see the human who ran the LLM act as a kind of back-and-forth." Torvalds described many AI-generated patches as "mindless band-aid kind of patches... they may fix the immediate problem, but the kind of bug remains, and it just is waiting in the hallway to hit you in another place." For his own toy projects, he uses LLMs as prototypers: "I use them as a way to prototype things... quite often the code is not usable in that form, but it's a great way to try something out," while insisting that for kernel-level fixes, "LLMs, in my experience, have not been at that level yet." Torvalds acknowledged that some AI-found issues have been "absolutely, stunningly, I mean, interesting in a painful kind of way," especially security problems that "show up in the technology press two days later." Despite the embarrassment, he said, "I'm very much not a shoot-the-messenger kind of person. I think we're much better off with LLMs finding bugs, even when they are embarrassing, and they are things that we should probably have found two decades ago." Torvalds also said he's using AI "for my own toy projects... Every time I travel to some new place, and this is the first time I've been to India, I send the kids pictures of where I am, and for some strange reason, Godzilla seems to follow me around and gets added to those pictures." ZDNet notes that Torvalds concluded, "There are many useful and less useful uses for AI," and "I think Godzilla is a great place to stop." Thanks to Slashdot reader joshuark for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Pair airlifted to hospital in two-hour rescue operation after Guardia Civil searched area for survivors

A British couple have been found badly burned and semi-conscious in a Spanish ravine amid deadly wildfires that have swept through the country’s Almería province, according to local media reports.

The couple were on holiday in the region and were thought to be out hiking when they were caught up in the wildfire, which has so far killed 13 people and burned more than 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres). At least 23 people are missing.

Israeli ambassador to US accuses Ro Khanna of political stunt to distract from support for Graham Platner

Ro Khanna accused the Israeli government and military of “lying” on Sunday about the US congressman’s detention by armed settlers and Israeli soldiers during a recent visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Khanna – a California Democrat – had posted video evidence on social media of Israeli settlers and soldiers blocking the path of his convoy on Wednesday in the South Hebron hills, near the village of Zanuta, where Israelis have driven Palestinians from their homes in what Amnesty International calls a government-backed “ethnic cleansing campaign”.

Politicians should not comment before facts established, says ex-chief constable, as Farage calls killing ‘premeditated murder’

Senior police figures and politicians have warned against speculation during the murder investigation into Ann Widdecombe’s death, after detectives said there was “nothing to suggest” political motivation following an intervention from Nigel Farage.

Devon and Cornwall police said on Sunday the killing was not being treated as terrorism nor as politically motivated. Officers said they remained open-minded about the motive and urged the public not to speculate, warning it was both unhelpful to the investigation and distressing for Widdecombe’s family.

Youngsters confirmed safe but men pronounced dead after being brought out of water at Seaton Carew, Hartlepool

Two men have died after going into the water at a beach in County Durham to try to help two children who had gotten into difficulty, police said.

Officers were called at about 3.45pm on Sunday after concerns were raised about two youngsters in the water at Seaton Carew beach in Hartlepool.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for July 13, No. 1,850.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 13, No. 862.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for July 13, No. 1,128.

South Carolina senator illustrated the changing face of the Republican party, from being an anti-Trump voice to a supporter of his war with Iran

• Lindsey Graham dies after sudden illness aged 71

• Lindsey Graham tributes from Israel and Ukraine point to complicated, often bloody legacy

Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator who died on Saturday night, unexpectedly at the age of 71, was a politician who more than many illustrated the changing face of the Republican party in the age of Donald Trump.

A former House member, Graham sat in the Senate from 2003 as a foreign policy hawk and a close friend and ally of John McCain, the relatively socially liberal Arizona senator who became the party’s presidential nominee in 2008.

My Story, 17 June 2015

Washington Post, 5 October 2018

Press conference, 20 November 1998

Press conference, 24 October 2019

CNN, 8 December 2015

CNN, 8 December 2015

CNN, 8 December 2015

CNN, 8 December 2015

Press gaggle, 25 February 2016

To CBS News, 2 March 2016

Social media, 3 May 2016

Press gaggle, 12 May 2016

To MSNBC, 2 June 2016

New York Times, 25 February 2019

New York Times, 25 February 2019

New York Times, 25 February 2019

Congress, 6 January 2021

Fox News, 6 May 2021

South Carolina, 10 June 2026

This live blog is now closed.

• Graham’s death triggers a scramble to replace him – what happens next?

• US politicians and foreign leaders pay tribute to Graham

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

Under South Carolina state law, governor Henry McMaster may appoint a temporary replacement to fill Graham’s now-vacant seat. As Graham was up for re-election this year and won the GOP primary last month, there is also now a vacancy in the Republican nomination for his seat.

After McMaster appoints a replacement, state law requires a special primary for voters to select a new nominee within weeks of a vacancy. The general election winner will take office in January, beginning a full six-year term.

Trump says US senator was ‘a true American patriot’ while Zelenskyy says he’s ‘deeply saddened’ by his death

• Graham’s death triggers a scramble to replace him – what happens next?

• Lindsey Graham dies after sudden illness aged 71

Washington woke up to the unexpected death of Republican senator Lindsey Graham, 71, who changed the course of modern history with his hawkish Iran platform and key role in establishing the stridently conservative US supreme court.

Donald Trump was one of the first to pay tribute to the controversial South Carolina lawmaker, a close ally despite past differences, in a social media post. “Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead!” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform. “He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!! DETAILS AND ARRANGEMENTS TO FOLLOW. So sad!”

Trump later told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that one of Graham’s legacies as a legislator was helping to confirm US supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.

A proposed settlement with the U.S. government would require the Keystone Pipeline system's operator to pay $26.9 million over a 2022 oil spill in Kansas.

Which couple will win?

Colorado officials expanded mandatory evacuation orders for residents near the Ferris Fire as conditions continued to change on Sunday.

"Elon Musk and Sam Altman criticized each other in new posts on X," reports CNBC, "highlighting the billionaires' long-standing tussle over OpenAI's evolution." This week, SpaceX released the Grok 4.5 generative AI model, while OpenAI debuted its own GPT-5.6 Sol. For days, Musk and Altman have hyped up their respective releases, but on Saturday the rivalry got personal. In response to a post about Apple filing suit against OpenAI on Friday over alleged theft of trade secrets, Musk wrote, "Scam Altman strikes again ...." Minutes after his post, Musk doubled down, writing, "He takes scamming to a whole new level." Next, Musk published a photo of Altman that included the words, "I'm doing this because I love it." "By 'this' he means scamming," Musk wrote, including two rolling-on-the-floor-laughing emojis. Musk then replied to that post, writing, "He might literally love scamming more than any human alive!" The flurry of social activity got Altman's attention. "[H]omeboy you're the one sellling public market investors on short-term space datacenters," Altman wrote in an X post of his own that garnered over 11 million views. "We start flying them next year. Maybe you can come see them if your parole officer approves," Musk fired back. Separately, Altman put Musk's fresh wave of attention in the context of OpenAI's fresh model release. "[T]here are a lot of benchmarks that suggest 5.6 sol is the best model in the world right now, but the most reliable way to tell is that elon is obsessed with me again," Altman wrote on X. Reacting to another post, Altman wrote that he was "not afraid of apple, but i have tremendous respect for them. s-tier company," CNBC reports — leading to a sarcastic response from X's head of product. "Incredible trade secrets as well, some of the best." And CNBC notes that Musk "replied with a face-with-tears-of-joy emoji."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ceasefire at the point of collapse after almost a week of tit-for-tat exchanges escalate tensions across Gulf region

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump has rejected Iranian claims to have closed off the strait of Hormuz as both sides battled for control over the waterway, leaving a ceasefire agreed last month at the point of collapse.

US forces said they had attacked 140 targets in Iran on Saturday night and Sunday morning after Tehran struck and disabled a container ship in the strait, whose transit it said had not been approved. In a statement, US Central Command (Centcom) said its targets had included missile and drone sites, naval facilities, ammunition depots, communication networks and surveillance locations.

The burial site was identified as belonging to a man named Paser based on inscriptions.

Exclusive: Party would have raised £4.1m instead of £26.7m last year if £100k funding limit had been in place, Electoral Commission data suggests

Reform UK would have held just 15% of the donations it received last year if a proposed £100,000 cap on political donations had been in force, according to analysis shared with the Guardian.

The analysis by Friends of the Earth using Electoral Commission data highlights the party’s reliance on a handful of wealthy backers in advance of a showdown over political funding.

Lillard, of Oklahoma, contracted polio when she was five and slept inside cylindrical metal device to help her breathe

The last known US person living with polio and relying on an iron lung has died aged 78.

Martha Lillard, who contracted polio at age five and spent most of her life dependent on an iron lung machine that helped her breathe, died on 26 June in Oklahoma, according to an online obituary.

They also offer advice on how to correctly use a microcurrent device to achieve your desired results.

The following is the transcript of an interview with Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on July 12, 2026.

Liene's latest printer is tiny yet mighty and easy enough to use for everyone to enjoy.

The CEO of SK Hynix, one of the three largest DRAM producers, predicted to Reuters that the memory industry will see its "worst-ever" supply shortages in 2027, reports the hardware/gaming news site Wccftech: SK Hynix has also forecasted that, given the current market demand, they will fall way short of fulfilling the market demand, and that will continue beyond 2030. The comments from SK Hynix are in line with what Samsung and Micron executives have already said. Samsung has warned of 2027 being the worst year in terms of shortages and that things will continue this way till 2028 and beyond. Meanwhile, Micron has said that the current shortages are only the "first innings" and that both DRAM/NAND supply will be tight, as they are only able to meet 40-50% of the total market demand in the coming years. Heightened demand from AI customers and multi-year agreements further put pressure on the market. The big three DRAM makers have already prioritized premium DRAM segments such as HBM and LPDDR5X, while commodity memory such as DDR5, DDR4, and entry-level LPDDR RAM has taken a back seat. While these have boosted the profits of SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung, they have devastated the consumer segment, which is facing the worst kind of price hikes that are affecting all sorts of components and platforms, including PCs, Smartphones, Consoles, etc... SK Hynix, like Samsung and Micron, is also preparing to embark on a multi-year and multi-billion dollar expansion plan with new fabs and facilities being laid out across South Korea. SK Hynix is also considering the construction of Fabs in the US, Japan, and Southeast Asia, though the final plans are yet to be cemented. Micron recently started construction of its new facility that will be used for DRAM production. As SK Hynix proudly marks its Nasdaq debut, its CEO's sobering forecast serves as a clear reminder: the memory industry is entering its most challenging chapter yet. With 2027 poised to bring the worst supply shortages in history and tight conditions likely persisting beyond 2030, the AI boom is reshaping the entire semiconductor landscape.

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Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko has stepped down as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced fresh changes to Ukraine's government.

President Trump's demolition, construction and renovation efforts have triggered a firestorm of lawsuits, as critics seek to block his plans to remake our nation's capital.

Political leaders in both countries rebuke Mariano Rajoy after he writes team ‘does not have any French players’

The former Spanish conservative prime minister Mariano Rajoy is facing growing accusations of racism after writing in a World Cup newspaper column that the French national team “does not have any French players”.

Rajoy, who was in office from 2011 to 2018, pondered Spain’s looming semi-final showdown with France in an article for the online newspaper El Debate on Friday.

The following is the transcript of an interview with Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on July 12, 2026.

Man reportedly seriously injured by the bison, described as ‘agitated’ and ‘charging anything’ by photographer

An enraged, 2,000lb (900kg) bull bison hooked a tourist and tossed him 8ft into the air at a campsite in Wyoming’s Yellowstone national park on Friday – an encounter captured by a professional photographer who said the animal was “agitated, pissed off and charging anything and everything”.

The tourist was reported to be seriously injured by the male bison while walking with his grandson through the Bridge Bay campground, south of Fishing Bridge.

The following is the transcript of an interview with former White House chief of staff and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on July 12, 2026.

South Carolina governor will pick successor to serve out Graham’s term as Trump says ‘I have somebody I think would be great’

• US politicians and foreign leaders pay tribute to Graham

South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, has the political decision of a lifetime with the unexpected death in office of Senator Lindsey Graham. The Republican governor and loyalist of Donald Trump will appoint a new senator to serve out the remainder of Graham’s term, which ends on 3 January.

Whoever McMaster appoints will likely have a leg up in a special primary election on 11 August to fill Graham’s place on the November ballot, which he won despite facing five challengers from his party in June. That election calendar favors candidates with wide name recognition and deep institutional support.

Owner Christina Bluhme feared the worst after Tokyo began to lose consciousness while climbing the UK’s tallest mountain

A dog has been rescued from Ben Nevis after falling ill from eating cannabis discarded on the mountain trail.

Christina Bluhme was halfway up the UK’s highest mountain last weekend when her black labrador, Tokyo, lost the use of her legs and began drifting in and out of consciousness.

Strikes and bluster on both sides, with Israel urging on Washington, are endangering the progress made

The cycle’s familiarity should not obscure the gravity of the consequences as the US and Iran return to threats, strikes and a futile search for an exit from war via escalation. On Sunday, Tehran said that it had closed the strait of Hormuz again. The World Food Programme is already feeding 1.5 million fewer people this year owing to the illegal war launched by the US and Israel. Vulnerable countries are suffering most as existing crises are compounded: an extra 2.5 million people in Somalia and 2.3 million in Afghanistan are struggling to meet basic food needs.

Even de-escalation would not fix this humanitarian crisis. The full impact on food production has yet to be felt. The strait was key to global fertiliser exports; as prices soared, many farmers cut back on use. The drying up of remittances from migrant workers in the Gulf hurts Asian as well as African nations.

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Exclusive: Deputy PM says opponents have ‘no solutions’ to possible collapse of justice system in England and Wales

• Drugs, drones and heat: Amber Rudd and David Lammy begin search for answers to prisons crisis

Opponents of plans to release rapists and sex offenders early from prison have “no solutions” to halt the criminal justice system’s possible collapse, David Lammy has said.

Under pressure from Labour MPs – including the former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips – to curb the early release scheme, the deputy prime minister said failing to implement it could leave no capacity across jails in England and Wales in November.

The build-up to the semi-finals began earnest and Senegal sacked their head coach

Sidebar, Whatever bears such a striking resemblance to Neil Innes’ I’m Free to be an Idiot that the former Monty Python collaborator received a songwriting credit and a share of the royalties in an out of court settlement.

Wonderwall might be the England team’s Oasis song of choice, but surely they change it up to this more apposite (and far better imo) number.

GOP Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio said that he's hopeful the Senate will soon pass a Russia sanctions bill as "one of the legacies" of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died suddenly Saturday.

Colt Gray, now 16, expected to change plea after pleading not guilty to 55 criminal counts in Apalachee shooting

The teenager accused of killing two students and two teachers during a 2024 shooting at Apalachee high school in Georgia has been scheduled to appear in court later in July for a “non-negotiated” plea hearing, according to records.

Documents filed on Friday in Barrow county superior court in Winder, Georgia, show that Colt Gray is expected to change his plea at a hearing on 24 July, with the court scheduled to hold proceedings for both the plea and sentencing, as the Associated Press reported.

The following is the transcript of an interview with retired Gen. Frank McKenzie that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on July 12, 2026.

The Wall Street Journal says "an intense 27-year-old activist who had been leading sit-ins at OpenAI to protest the dangers of AI" was just part of a larger movement. "The Bay Area's AI boom is drawing young disillusioned men and women to join the fight against it. They are upending their lives and leaving behind careers for think tanks, nonprofits and street protest groups." Their cause is now riding a surge of anti-AI backlash. Many Americans are souring on the technology amid mass layoffs, data center sprawl, reports of chatbot-fueled attacks by unstable users and hacking tools that have panicked cybersecurity professionals. Seventy percent of U.S. adults believe AI will cost jobs, and 55% believe it will do more harm than good in their daily lives, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll. But for activists on the front lines, the driving fear is often more dramatic: human extinction. They cling to dire predictions, like Geoffrey Hinton's. The Nobel laureate, dubbed the "godfather of AI" for his work on artificial neural networks, warns of a 10% to 20% chance AI will wipe out humans. At its most extreme and troubling end, some believe they must stop an AI apocalypse by any means necessary. In April, an unknown assailant fired 13 shots at the home of an Indianapolis councilman, leaving a note: "no data centers." That same month, authorities arrested a 20-year-old Texas college student for an attack on OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's home in San Francisco, and charged him with attempted murder and arson. The student was carrying an anti-AI document with a section on "our impending extinction," according to a federal criminal complaint. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have said his actions appear to have been driven by an "acute mental-health crisis, not a desire to harm."

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Heat alerts were issued for millions across parts of the western U.S. Sunday as an unusually prolonged heat dome reached its peak.

Fierce Ukraine supporter Lindsey Graham passed away Saturday on the heels of his tenth trip to the warzone, and at a key moment for one of the Republican senator's proudest accomplishments.

Stalled legislation aims to prevent cover-ups and help families seek justice after major disasters

Keir Starmer is expected to use his final week in office to push the Hillsborough law through its remaining stages in the Commons after months of delays.

This bill aims to strengthen support for families seeking justice after major disasters and create new offences for officials who deliberately mislead the public or seek to block accountability.

Sen. Lindsey Graham was running for reelection in November when he died suddenly on Saturday.

Long-serving South Carolina Republican senator who was an ally of Donald Trump and an ardent supporter of Ukraine

Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, who has died suddenly aged 71, had just returned from Kyiv after a meeting with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It was Graham’s 10th visit since the 2022 Russian invasion; Zelenskyy, who came away with promises of the aid that had been on and off with the Trump administration, called him a “true defender of freedom”.

It was a good demonstration of both Graham’s firm stance on US power overseas, and his opposition to Russia. “Putin will not stop in Ukraine,” he said. “To be weak in Ukraine means you lose in Taiwan.”

@abignoli I just realized you reported it ll working. Would love to do this. Does it charge and discharge as factory?

The following is the transcript of an interview with Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on July 12, 2026.

Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina remembered Sen. Lindsey Graham as a "powerful leader" following his sudden death​, while emphasizing Graham's role in "building bridges."

For many watching their team beat Norway at a south London nightclub the look was as important as the game

The Carpet Shop nightclub in Peckham, south London, is ordinarily packed with rowdy crowds at the weekend. But Saturday night’s liveliness was not congregated around the DJ on the dancefloor, the crowd was at the sold-out venue for England’s victorious quarter-final game at the 2026 World Cup, and the young spectators were there for the fashion as much as they were for the football.

Luke Grandon and Mattia Guarnera, both 27, are “massive” football fans, and their love for the game is expressed in their outfits. “I have a massive collection of vintage football shirts,” said Guarnera, wearing a white polo shirt with “LOVE” printed on the back from a limited-edition World Cup-themed collaboration between Lyle & Scott and the British artist Reuben Dangoor.

"While KDE and GNOME dominate the landscape, a relative newcomer is starting to make waves with features other desktops still don't fully support," argues XDA Developers: Linux 7.0 was the first release of the kernel to officially support Rust, but COSMIC has been all-in on Rust since the very beginning, and COSMIC 1.1 finally stripped all the leftovers of C language from the desktop. It no longer has any traces of Nautilus (the GNOME file manager), and then there's now a COSMIC-native system monitor to replace the GNOME System Monitor, so you have even fewer chances of being afflicted by C-related problems. [The article calls COSMIC's system monitor "much better at showing detailed information about everything from processes to network and disk usage compared to the GNOME and KDE alternatives."] Stacking Windows As someone who used to love following Windows news, one of the most disheartening announcements was when Microsoft gave up on Sets, a feature that essentially turned every app window into a tab you could combine with other apps in the same window. I never thought I'd see that feature again, until COSMIC came along. Simply called "stacking", COSMIC has a feature that is exactly what Sets was supposed to be, though this time, you have more control. By default, apps still open in their proper, typical windows, with a title bar as you'd expect. But if you do want to combine multiple apps into one, you can right-click the title bar (or press Super + S) to enable stacking for that window. Then, simply drag another window over that one to start stacking them as tabs. This essentially gives you a whole new way to create "workspaces", as you can have a single window with all the tools you need, so you don't need to jump between different windows all the time, and you can keep a given window focused on a specific workload, but have multiple apps within it. It's a great reminder of what Microsoft took from us, too. Tiling, But On Demand Tiling windows is one of those features some power users simply love, and yes, there are ways to make it happen on KDE and GNOME with third-party apps or extensions, but those aren't ideal. It's an extra step to set them up, and very often they don't play nice with all the features those desktops offer, especially as new updates come out and those tools may have a hard time keeping up with the development of the desktops themselves. COSMIC is fantastic because not only does it have built-in window tiling, it's entirely controllable by the user. You can set any workspace to use tiling or floating windows depending on your preference, all completely independent of each other, and you can also choose the new default behavior for new workspaces so things are always tuned to your preferences. You can turn tiling on or off for a given workspace easily, and of course, even while tiling is on, you can allow certain apps to ignore it and still float above others. Not all these capabilities are exclusive to COSMIC, but to have this kind of feature built in with this level of control is still leagues better than anything KDE or GNOME offer in this regard. The article argues COSMIC also makes customization extremely simple without stifling your options (like tweaking color options for your desktop). "This desktop environment just keeps getting better, and it's quickly establishing itself as a major competitor to long-standing alternatives."

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Authorities confirm worst toll in more than 20 years, as extreme temperatures in Europe force early closure of Eiffel Tower

Nearly 100 people, the largest proportion of whom were young men, died by drowning in Germany last month, authorities have said, as extreme temperatures in western Europe that have been blamed for hundreds of excess deaths geared up again.

In Germany’s worst death toll from drowning for more than two decades, 99 people died in June, according to official figures, after temperatures rose as high as 41.7C (107.1F) in some areas.

Data shows the rightwing party faces an obstacle in the form of urban seats – and the effect of preference flows is harder to predict

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One Nation’s spectacular rise from a distant 6% of the vote in the last election to first or second in some recent polls has upended Australian politics. It has also made it a lot harder to predict what exactly will happen at the next election.

Traditionally, pollsters and election experts would look at how preferences flowed in previous elections when estimating two-party preferred numbers, or translating polling into seat projections. This was fairly predictable when almost every seat would come down to a contest between Labor and the Coalition.

Tehran reportedly attacks Gulf countries following fresh US strikes

There has been almost no visible traffic in the strait of Hormuz so far today, with only two oil products tankers seen approaching the narrow waterway, according to a Bloomberg report.

As a reminder, the US president, Donald Trump, has declared the ceasefire over while leaving the door open for talks, and mediators have been trying to salvage a diplomatic solution despite the attacks intensifying.

Microsoft released its 2026 Environmental Sustainability Report showing that last year it matched its entire electricity consumption with renewable energy, reports The Register. "The bad news is it also increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25%" — mostly due to datacenter construction and a decision to stop purchasing some renewable energy certificates: In 2020, Microsoft set itself the goal of becoming "carbon-negative" by 2030. Its own figures show emissions heading only upwards, from 13 million tons of CO2 equivalent in 2020, to 20 million tons in 2025. However, Microsoft estimates that without the carbon reduction initiatives it has already put in place, emissions would now stand at 34 million tons... For the first time, Microsoft claims to have replenished more [water] than it withdrew during 2025, returning 14,278 million liters (3,771 million gallons). Elsewhere, the corporation says its Circular Centers program reused 92% of decommissioned servers and their components.

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Vital maritime corridor closes after 90 vessels – including shadow fleet oil tankers – are attacked in under a week

Russia has been forced to suspend shipping in the Sea of Azov after 90 vessels were targeted by Ukrainian drones in less than a week.

Ukraine’s drone forces chief, Robert Brovdi, said on Sunday that his units had hit 10 tankers and four ferries overnight, as well as a major oil refinery in the city of Syzran. There had been several strikes on electricity substations in occupied Crimea, he added.

Man in 20s also found with stab injuries after incident over which 44-year-old is being held on suspicion of murder

A man has been arrested after a 24-year-old woman was killed and a man in his 20s was injured in a stabbing in west London, police have said.

Officers found the woman with stab injuries after being called to a property on Uxbridge Road in Hayes on Sunday morning. The man in his 20s was found outside the property with stab injuries. Police are awaiting an update on his condition.

Woman dies after her home is swept away as heavy rainfall batters parts of state, forcing rescues and evacuations

A woman was found dead in Missouri on Saturday after heavy rainfall battered parts of the state the previous day, forcing numerous emergency rescues and evacuations, including at a summer camp with more than 200 children.

The body of Faith Gregory, who went missing in Missouri’s Crawford county after her home was swept away from its foundation, was found by volunteers late Saturday morning. Her body was discovered about 1.8 miles (3km) downstream from her residence in Huzzah creek, according to the county sheriff’s office.

Guardian staff contributed

Timing of Devon switchoff ‘could not be worse’, says board, as members face an estimated £2m in lost revenue

Britain’s biggest community solar project has been forced to shut for the duration of its first summer by the government’s energy system operator to avoid overloading the local grid with renewable energy.

The north Devon solar farm was ordered to shut weeks before record high temperatures across Europe led to power supply warnings, due to concerns that the large amount of rooftop solar in the area could destabilise the power grid by triggering a “thermal overload”.

The Guardian’s global tech reporting team are investigating the impact of the vast datacentres being built to power the AI revolution. We spoke to them about how their beat has become increasingly offline

Journalists often use the term “shoe-leather reporting” to refer to the on-the-ground legwork that goes into covering certain stories. As the tech industry’s focus has shifted from screen-based realities to the physical world of colossal AI datacentres and social media harms, comfortable footwear has become more essential to a tech reporter’s job.

Earlier this week, we published the Guardian’s latest investigation into the datacentres and energy infrastructures that underpin AI – revealing that an £8.2bn AI complex in rural Scotland has misrepresented its plans to be powered entirely by on-site renewables. “Our reporting is showing that you can’t simply wave a magic wand and have a datacentre appear,” says Aisha Down, who covers AI for the Guardian and went to Scotland to investigate the story. “There are a lot of huge physical constraints and reality checks. These physical, tangible things are what makes or sinks the AI boom.”

Getting rid of old computers and printers responsibly is free, accessible and considerably simpler than most people assume.

Byelection winner says heatwaves are causing ‘absolute chaos’ and workers need protection from unsafe conditions

The Green MP Hannah Spencer is to introduce a bill in parliament that would pave the way for a maximum workplace temperature in the UK, as the country grapples with increasingly frequent heatwaves.

If passed, the legislation will create an independent body to recommend maximum safe workplace temperatures and set out how those recommendations should be implemented.

Typhoon Bavi weakened Sunday to a tropical storm but was still bringing strong winds and heavy rain to parts of China.

At 26, singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams has won praise from critics and fans for her intimate songs – whispered words that become anthems. She talks about her latest album, "Daughter From Hell."

Disruption at Channel crossings expected to rise amid new fingerprint and facial recognition checks

France and the UK have agreed to increase staffing at border controls in response to warnings of travel chaos caused by new fingerprinting and facial recognition checks.

Disruption at Channel crossings is expected to rise sharply next weekend at the start of the summer holiday season, with MPs saying there would be “utter chaos and miles of tailbacks” unless the EU’s entry-exit system (EES) is fixed or checks are suspended.

In 1898, Wilmington, N.C., was prosperous and integrated. But white supremacists took back control of the city's multi-racial government at gunpoint, and killed scores of Black residents - a little-known story retold in Lauren Collins' "They Stole a City."

Apple must pay iPhone owners to settle a lawsuit over delayed and missing AI features.

We don’t need fewer amateurs running for office. We need far more of them, recruited seriously

Graham Platner is out of the Maine Senate race, burdened by controversies that include a troubling rape accusation, which he denies. His departure is no doubt a good thing that will make it easier for Democrats to win back the Senate.

But progressives should pay attention to the discussion around Platner. His collapse is being turned into something larger, supposed proof that people from outside politics have no business being in it.

The media-savvy mayor’s popularity has only grown as the Murdoch-owned tabloid has thrown everything at him

The rightwing New York Post has attacked Zohran Mamdani as a communist, a hater of the police, an antisemite, a driver-away-of-billionaires, and as someone who isn’t very good at bench press.

But six months into his mayoralty, Mamdani has so far succeeded where most of his predecessors have failed: he has bested the city’s most powerful tabloid.

Commentary: As generative AI continues making inroads into the world of creatives, what are we to make of the increasingly bonkers On This Day...1776?

Robotics researchers are trying to prove that lighter-than-air robots could excel at emotional connection.

With five light modes targeting everything from fine lines to blemishes and pigmentation, CurrentBody’s latest mask promises a lot – and so does its price tag

• The best LED face masks

I’ve been testing LED masks for a couple of years now, and the CurrentBody Series 2 red-light face mask has long been my favourite option for anti-ageing. It’s comfortable, offers excellent coverage and powerful deep near-infrared treatments. Sadly, it doesn’t work for other skin concerns. It’s a one-trick pony.

So, when I heard that CurrentBody had launched its Multi Light Therapy mask with five different modes, I was interested to see how it would stand up to the stellar performance of its predecessor. As someone with hormonal acne, I was especially keen to try the mask’s “clearing” mode, but it also offers a calming “restoring” mode, a pigmentation-reducing “brightening” mode, and a distinctive “complete” mode, as well as the “anti-ageing” mode.

City official says staffers were performing ‘routine park maintenance’ where 15 people have gathered for months

City employees in Atlanta, Georgia, recently threw away tents, medication, identification and other belongings of unhoused people at a public park without warning. This led activists and a local official to point to an apparent violation of procedures created after a city employee ran over a tent with a front loader last year, killing a man.

The sweep through the park occurred less than a mile from a popular spot for World Cup watch parties, drawing into focus ongoing tension over the issue of what happens to the city’s several thousand unhoused people during the month-long event.

Dozens of projects are in development across US despite concerns over environmental and health risks

The plan to bury carbon under remote Indiana farmland is supposed to be a slam dunk for the climate, according to its supporters – all generously funded by US tax dollars.

But as far as Melissa Harrison and some other residents of Clymers, Indiana, are concerned, it just might be the end of their town. “This is our place,” she says. Generations of her family are buried in the cemetery, and she is raising her five grandchildren in one of several dozen white-clapboard homes among corn fields and industrial plants serving the farming industry.

I doused my Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro in these household chemicals, and the effect was dramatic. Don't try this at home.

Officers say they are not looking for anyone else after arrest of man, 28, on suspicion of murdering ex-Tory politician

Police have said there is nothing to suggest the death of Ann Widdecombe was politically motivated.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday morning, the assistant chief constable of Devon and Cornwall police, Matt Longman, said detectives were open-minded about the motive for the killing, but stressed there was no evidence to suggest it had been politically motivated. He also said it was not being treated as terrorism.

"I have been trying to find something meaningful to say about the Id Software layoffs," John Carmack posted Thursday to his 2.8 million followers on X.com: My "Microsoft will probably be a good steward of the brand" statement isn't aging well, and this is certainly going to dampen the mood of the founder reunion at QuakeCon next month. I'm saddened, but I can't muster anger or outrage over it. I don't have access to the books, but I suspect that Id Software was a marginal business from Microsoft's perspective. I believe the reports that Minecraft revenues have been carrying several other studios. To continue being produced long term, games need to succeed, not just be beloved. Games are competing with every other option for spending your leisure time and money, and the competition is brutal. You can't rule out the possibility that executives are idiots, but that shouldn't be your default belief. I don't think there is any obvious path that would have doubled the revenue from Id games. Could they have gotten more with a different pricing strategy? Could they have created more things for fans to buy? Could they have cost effectively marketed in a way that reached more players that would have loved and bought the games? Could they have changed the game designs and broadened the appeal to more players without alienating existing ones? Could they have produced the games at a lower cost, faster or cheaper? I really don't know. The game isn't over yet, and I hope the studio rallies through. Id Software co-founder John Romero also shared his thoughts on X.com: I'm so sorry for everyone at id Software affected by these layoffs. I know what it feels like to leave id while id goes on. It's a strange and painful thing to step away from a place that holds so much of your work, friendships and history. The people at id have done a great job moving that legacy forward. DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein are not easy names to carry on, especially in today's industry. The last few games showed real care, skill and respect for what those worlds mean to people. Romero also expressed his hope for "digital preservation" of Id's ongoing history (including code and assets). "I'm thinking of everyone at id today, and everyone else affected by yesterday's layoffs. Romero Games was there a year ago. I know how devastating it is, and my heart's with all of you. "Four Xbox studios are already out the door," noted IGN, but shared some thoughts about the future: Some have expressed concern that id Software would be unable to lead development on any new games in its current state, and that it might be relegated to support studio status. But in a new statement [posted to id Software's page on X.com] id Software said it was now at the staffing level it was back when it made the much-loved 2016 Doom reboot — and insisted it was still capable of making "great games." "While our studio was impacted, those changes were spread across teams. We still have the crew we need to build the games and tech we're known for... We're going to keep building the great games and tech that have defined us for the past 35 years, and we're looking forward to seeing you at QuakeCon this August."

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Commentary: The Apple Watch is the most accurate wearable I've tested, but its battery life is holding it back.

When Mark Lanier and his young client Kaley faced the tech giants in an LA courtroom earlier this year, it seemed a bigger battle than David v Goliath. But they scored a landmark victory, proving that the social media giants had created ‘addiction machines’ that harmed mental health. How did they pull it off?

When Mark Zuckerberg walked into a Los Angeles courtroom on 18 February flanked by an entourage bedecked in Meta Ray-Bans, some people laughed. If this was an attempt at product placement for the company’s newest range of smart glasses, it was jarringly ill-judged: Zuckerberg was about to testify before a jury in a landmark lawsuit that sought to prove that Instagram and YouTube are addictive by design, and he had passed a throng of bereaved parents on his way into the courthouse. But the prosecution team, led by Mark Lanier, were not laughing.

This was a serious trial. For the first time, the most powerful names in social media were being held to account for the inherent design of their platforms, rather than the content hosted on them. They were accused of deliberately and maliciously building products that keep children hooked, with disastrous consequences for the mental wellbeing of young people. It was a landmark case – a big tobacco moment for big tech.